Thai Stir Fry

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This is an easy meal to do with different veggie combos or any veggies you have left in the fridge after the week. I have done the one above with Green beans, squash, peppers, and strips of carrots. But below I have a picture with red onion, eggplant, peppers, mushrooms, and pineapple. To me pineapple is a must in this dish and blends wonderfully with the spices.
Star by sauteing vegetables in order of how long they take to cook. Onions, then eggplant mushrooms and peppers.
Once vegetable are softened add garlic and lemon grass to mixture and cook lightly.
Add soy sauce, ginger and a little brown sugar or you can use Trader Joe's Soyaki which has all of these ingredients.
Add Saricha sauce based on how hot you like it.
Then add green beans or pea pods so they cook but stay crunchy (bamboo shoots are good too).
Add fresh pineapple chunks and a TBS or so of their juice.
Once sauce is cooked down and veggies tender, add chopped Thai basil and mint and grate some lime zest over the top.
Serve with brown rice and any sides you would like. I served the above one with pan fried tofu and peanut sauce for wrapping in lettuce leaves.

Italian Stuffed Tomatoes

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WARNING: you will not like this post if you like cooking with a recipe. I promise when I do more formal meals I will write a recipe but during the week I just don't cook like that. I don't shop with a list either just an idea of what I want to cook that week, so sorry guys you're out of luck.

So obviously this week I was feeling inspired by the idea of stuffing things because I bought some crazy big tomatoes at the farm stand this weekend with an intention of stuffing them and some peppers this week. You've seen the peppers now here are the tomatoes:

I cut the very bottom of the tomatoes off (just a little) so they would not roll around and cut the top off in the same way and proceeded to scoop out the inner cell walls and seeds. I set them into a baking dish with a little EVOO at the bottom. I made the filling by sauteing onions and garlic and putting in semi-cooked (pre-al dente) brown rice. I added everything in my fridge that I thought had some Italian flavors (I'm Italian so I'm allowed to make those kinds of decisions): Eggplant tapenade, capers, some of that olive salad, and crushed red pepper flakes. Basil would be good, too, but I didn't have any. I stuffed the tomatoes and baked them at 350 for 30min. I also stuffed an extra pepper I had cause I'm a rebel like that!

I think the stuffing here would be a really good side dish. It was salty spicy and pretty good for a rice dish which I think are often bland. The tomato kind of exploded in the baking process but was really sweet and yummy. I served this to Tom in a vegetable bisque soup from Trader Joe's. Would also be good in their red pepper tomato soup or squash soup or just plain with a salad.

Prep Time: 20min
Cook time: 30min