cooking

Easy Spring Stir-Fry Recipes for Healthy Meals

April 22, 2025katejerome2020gmail.comLeave a comment

Happy Earth Day, everyone! At this time of year, the soothing green of plants and the soft spring days override the memories of a cold winter. It’s a time to be contemplative and appreciative of our earth and gardens. It’s the perfect time to recalibrate. clean out those closets, and clean up our food priorities.

It’s so much easier to pull off a healthy meal when the stress of planning and cooking is eased. So let’s put our energy into clean, simple meals that let us focus on our health. Put the heavier soups and stews away for next fall.

Let’s Stir-Fry!

One of the freshest and easiest meals to make quickly is a stir-fry. Serve a chopped salad alongside, and you have a power-packed meal. Varying the vegetables and sauce flavors i the stir-fry can make it different each time.

Do you use all of the head of broccoli? My family isn’t fond of the stems, so I roast the florets for a meal and then peel the stems (quick and easy with a carrot peeler) and grate them. Add to shredded carrot and cabbage for a delicious slaw. I like to make my dressing, but I keep commercial slaw dressing on hand to make things easier.

Best of all, the slaw mix makes a great salad and but can also make quick stir-fry if you use it before adding dressing. Simply add a bit of spinach or whatever greens you have on hand. Even a handful of frozen vegetables will add extra nutrition. Scramble an egg right in the pan for added protein, or add roasted tofu or leftover roasted chicken. Use a bottled stir-fry sauce of your choice, and serve over leftover rice or noodles.

You can certainly make stir-fry sauces yourself, but don’t be hesitant to buy bottled sauces as long as you check the ingredients carefully. Having peanut sauce, barbecue, or any flavor of Asian sauces will make pulling off a quick meal even quicker.

Classic Stir-Fry sauce

2 T. brown sugar
3 T. soy sauce
1 t. grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
¾ water or broth
4 T. cornstarch

Mix and let sit for half an hour. Add to vegetables when almost done.

Spicy slaw dressing

1/2 c. mayonnaise
1/4 c. fresh cilantro leaves packed
1-2 green onions
1 garlic clove
1 lime zested and juiced
1 jalapeño or serrano chile, stem removed
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

Blend

Or try one of these on your chopped salad:

Creamy Avocado Dressing

1 ripe avocado, halved, seeded, and peeled
4 ounces plain low-fat yogurt
2 tablespoons snipped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon olive oil

Blend

Tahini Dressing

1/2 cup tahini
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 lemon juiced, to taste
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp garlic salt
pepper to taste
water as needed

Blend

For the Love of Chiles

September 16, 2024September 16, 2024katejerome2020gmail.comLeave a comment

The garden is bursting with ripe chile peppers, so it’s time to make salsas, hot sauces, chili pepper powders, and other chile goodies.

I grow a few favorites every year, but I’m a sucker for new varieties as well. I’m not a fan of extremely hot peppers, especially when they are so hot that the burn takes away all flavor. But there are some mildly hot peppers that are not on that extreme scale, and the flavors you get from them is unmatchable.

I always grow Aleppo and Espelette peppers for chili powder and Jalapenos for salsa. I grow Anaheims and Poblanos for roasting for the freezer for soups and stews in winter, and this year my new pepper is Sugar Rush Peach, an heirloom that has just appeared to be readily available.

Sugar Rush Peach peppers

Dehydrating

I had only one plant of Sugar Rush but it was heavily laden with lovely peach-colored peppers as they ripened. So, I had baskets of these peppers and needed to figure out what to do with them. I tried grilling them and they were a little too hot to eat plain so I diced them into some salsa which toned down the heat a bit. I dried the rest for chili powder and the tropical sweetness behind the heat is delicious. My best discovery was to stuff halves with cream cheese mixed with pepper jelly and broil them. They are not quite so hot when cooked, and these “poppers” are absolutely delicious.

Two extraordinary ways to eat some of the sweeter chile peppers:

Grilled Stuffed Sweet Heat Peppers

20 Sweet Heat peppers, sliced lengthwise into halves, seeds and membranes removed (they look best if the stems are left on)
2 slices bacon
1 c. cream cheese, softened (or ½ c. cream cheese and ½ c. goat cheese)
¼ c. shredded cheddar cheese
¼ minced chives
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 T. chopped fresh thyme

Preheat grill to medium-high heat. Cook bacon until crisp and drain. Crumble bacon and add to rest of ingredients. Stuff pepper halves and place on grilling rack coated with cooking spray. Grill covered about ten minutes, until peppers are charred. Remove to serving platter and sprinkle with chopped, seeded fresh tomatoes.

Stuffed Sugar Rush Peach Peppers
Ten Sugar Rush Peach peppers, sliced lengthwise into halves, seeds and membranes removed (they look best if the stems are left on)
½ c. softened cream cheese
¼ c. pepper jelly (or any favorite jelly)

Mix the cream cheese and jelly and stuff the pepper halves. Slide under the broiler just until the cream cheese gets soft and begins to brown.
Remove and enjoy!

Simplicity

January 3, 2020katejerome2020gmail.comLeave a comment

I don’t do resolutions. But I do love the idea of a fresh start for some things in my life. So, here is my resolve for all of us. Just start.

I’ve been reading so many gardeners’ and cooks’ resolutions that my head is spinning. But the one thing that seems a common thread through all of these is the desire for simplicity.

I’ve touted this for years, that simple gardening and simple cooking will bring us back to the garden and kitchen in a restful, pleasant way. And if it becomes meaningful or artistic, all the better. But mostly, we just need to start. Start small, start easy and most of all, don’t pressure yourself to create a masterpiece.

Gardening

For gardening, perhaps it means getting two pots, filling them with soil and planting lettuce. When the lettuce is done, plant carrots. Or a pepper or a tomato. If you are successful (meaning you get something on the table, even a simple salad), then ask yourself if you want to go further with your garden.

For cooking, try this:
Chop a sweet pepper, a sweet onion and a small zucchini or a couple of leaves of chard. Saute them in olive oil until tender, season to your liking, and serve over cooked rice or pasta. Simple! And delicious. Cooking doesn’t have to be hard. And, you can always embellish as your heart leads you.

For a bigger challenge:

Saucy Greens

1 small bunch of Swiss chard or other greens

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ c. onion, sliced

1 T. olive oil

1 T. balsamic vinegar

1 t. Sugar

Salt and pepper to taste

½ c. chopped tomatoes

2 T. sour cream or plain yogurt

1 T. sriracha sauce if desired

2 large eggs if desired

Rinse the greens liberally and remove tough stems. Stack the leaves and roll them into a “cigar” and slice thinly. Add garlic and onion to olive oil in heavy pan and saute until tender. Fry eggs in separate pan if you intend to use them. Add greens, vinegar and sugar and saute about 5 minutes until greens are tender. Turn off the heat and stir in tomatoes and sour cream or yogurt. Salt and pepper to taste.

Most of all, have a wonderful 2020 and don’t be afraid to play!