Recipe Time Again

Who is this person? I don't cook! I swear I don't! But something about the marinade I used on my grilled vegetables stuck in my brain, and so I set out to create a stir-fry using the same sauce for my weekday dinners.

Now I'm a fan of cooking rarely and having dinner ready to be microwaved as soon as I come home. There is absolutely nothing worse than coming home from work, tired and hungry and maybe even a little bit hangry and having nothing ready to eat. That leads to (A LOT OF) mindless snacking and other unfortunate occurrences. Such as late-evening cookie and brownie runs. Just ... bad.

And I have to say, this stirfry is AMAZING! It's quick and easy and I think the portions that I used should be enough to last me a week. Perfect!

Veritably Amazing Vegetable Stir-Fry:
- 2 bunches of broccoli
- 3 green peppers
- 2 whole portobello mushrooms (or you can just use the tops)
- 2 cups of white mushrooms
- 3 cups (or more) white sprouts

For the sauce:
- 0.5 cups olive oil
- 0.25 cups balsamic vinegar
- 0.25 cups soy sauce
- 3 cloves of garlic crushed (or chopped)

Basically - cut your peppers into long thin strips, separate the broccoli into the little heads, cut up the portobellos into thin slices, cut the white mushrooms into quarters, and pile on the sprouts all in a big bowl (or two - it takes up a lot of space!)

Mix the ingredients for the sauce and whisk them a little bit to make sure the oil and the vinegar mix together.

Pour over the prepared vegetables and use your hands to really mix the veggies in with the sauce. Let stand for 10-15 minutes, periodically using your hands to mix all the veggie bits with the sauce.

Get your giant wok out and dump it all in there (I found it works best if you only put in enough vegetables to fill the wok halfway, so you might have to do two portions separately). Cook for 15 minutes, until the peppers are soft (time depends on your stovetop). Make sure to use a spatula to stir and flip your veggies - you want it all nice and juicy!

For some extra fun, I chopped up an apple-chicken sausage (actually 4 of them) and cooked them separately on a frying pan before adding them to the wok in the last 5 minutes of cooking.

In any case, this stir fry becomes EVEN BETTER after a day or two in the fridge, because the tangi-ness of the balsamic really comes out and you end up having a party in your mouth!

The Most Amazing Vegetables EVER

I am SO excited about my dinner today, you have NO idea. I mean, everybody who knows me, knows that I HATE to cook. As in, I'm perfectly fine eating the exact same thing every.single.day. (Which is what happened last year. I would switch up my menu every 3 months or something, and that's it).

But yesterday, I had orientation and I was STARVING during break, so I ran next door to Milano's Market (on Broadway and 112th).

Source

I got their Grilled Marinated Vegetables and I literally wanted to lick the container they came in (and I was eating in the full-to-the-seams auditorium. So you can see how much I loved them. And this was all happening while some lady was droning on and on about academic integrity. I mean, we. get. it. Don't cheat, don't plagiarize, blah, blah, blah. You'd think that since we've already completed one degree, apparently without any academic felonies, that we kind of know what's going on. Anyways, that's beside the point).

These vegetables were SO delicious that I, proclaimed non-cook and hater of innovation, had to try making them IMMEDIATELY.

Recipe:
- 1 eggplant
- 2 red bell peppers
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1 green bell pepper
- 0.5 onion

For the marinade:
- 0.5 cups olive oil
- 0.25 cups balsamic vinegar
- 3 tsp soy sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 0.25 cups onion

Cut up the vegetables into medium sized pieces. I love me a nice long piece of eggplant and pepper, so I sliced peppers lengthwise only, and the eggplant as well (although I cut it into two parts first).

(Note, with the eggplant, I rinse the pieces, then layer them in a saucepan, putting salt onto the pieces in between the layers; I let it rest for 15 minutes and then rinse the pieces thoroughly. This takes out the bitterness that cooked eggplant can sometimes have).

Combine everything for the marinade, and whisk it up a little bit (to make sure the vinegar and the oil mix).

Then pour the marinade all over the vegetables and really dig in with your hands to mix it up together. I left mine in a bowl; some recipes suggest ziplock bags. Mind you, you'll need a giant ass bag for all of these delicious veggies.


Leave to marinade for 1-2 hours. (You can even leave it longer, I'm sure that'll make them even more delicious. Not that it's possible).

Note: I don't own a grill, so these instructions are for a frying pan. I'm sure actual grilling would be even more amazing.

Fry the veggies up in a frying pan on medium heat (cover with a lid to make sure the veggies get soft enough). Make sure to put only 1 layer of vegetables onto the pan at a time. Cook for 10 minutes.

Put in tupperware and let chill for a couple of hours.

YOU'RE DONE.

These veggies taste amazeballs when cold, you don't even need to heat them up.

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE.

Well, what are you waiting for? You need these in your life RIGHT NOW.