30: Getting Your Whole Food Plant-Based Dinner On The Table Fast

0:00 It's been another crazy busy day. And somehow it's already dinnertime again. Now you're faced with the choice of what in the world you're going to cook for dinner. You need something quick and easy to get on the dinner table fast. You're not gonna want to miss today's episode. You're listening to the smarter Healthy Living podcast where we firmly believe that getting healthy should never feel like torture. We're your host, Jarrod and Anita Roussel were college sweethearts, and health professionals who help you redefine what getting healthy looks like using a whole food plant based lifestyle. It's time to hear from the experts and learn the best tips and tricks that helped others get beyond the overwhelm, to create a vibrant life they love. If you're sick and tired of being sick, and tired, you're in the right place. So pull up a virtual chair, grab your matcha latte, and let's get started.

0:54 All right, it is the eternal question. What's for dinner? This question comes around approximately every 24 hours. You know, every dinner time. kids want to eat Go figure. Yeah, they're hungry, although they're really hungry. all day, every day. Yeah, it's really not just a dinner question, right? I mean, that's true. Yeah, happens for lunch breakfast. What's for breakfast? What's for lunch? You hear that as well? Yeah. And what so what that boils down to is no matter how you eat, but particularly when you start eating healthy plant base, you need to know things that are simple and easy, right, we've got to have things that are easy to prepare. And so today, we're talking about one of the simplest things besides the chili that we always mentioned, right? We always talk about how to do that how to make chili. And what you want to do when you start living this way is take what you already eat, the things that are easy to just put in. Yeah, to modify. So you just put in different ingredients, or you take out some ingredients, right that are very simple to take out. So a chili that's easy to do, right, because you can take out the main and add in more beans and more vege. Same thing with stir fry that we're talking about today.

2:09 And that is today's topic, stir fry. Very well, you love it. Everybody's always excited when they find that we're having stir fry for dinner because it's never the same twice, really. I mean, we do have some things that we like to have over and over again. But it's always a variety because you can change up what veggies you use. And really one of the main things about making it tastes great and there are a lot of things we're going to share with you today about that. But one of the main things is always think about variety, variety of color, make it beautiful if you're if you're prepped, veggies don't look beautiful. If you don't have just a rainbow of color switch up what you're using. You don't have to have all green or all what orange or just wakes it up.

2:56 And you know a lot of people don't get enough purple. And that's something that everybody needs to be aware. I've said the ones the veggies that are called Red like red cabbage, red onions, get those in there and get your purples because there are a lot of great anthocyanins and different things in the purple veggies that you don't get as much and some of the others. Yes. Think of a healthy version of Skittles. You're tasting the rainbow. Yep, yeah. But but these are healthy plant based friendly. Yeah, those are not plant based fruit. Although we do enjoy our sweets. Yes, we do. All right, back to stir fry. All right. What do you think Jarrod is your favorite ingredient and stir fry?

3:41 I don't know if I have one. I mean, honestly, I could take the easy answer out and say just whatever's on my plate. But I enjoy all the different varieties we come up with. I know that what average is a constant. Well, not constant, but a frequent Yeah, we use it frequently. But we like to cut up in smaller pieces. Well, we had stir fry tonight for dinner. So what do you think it was your favorite part of the one we had tonight? Oh, I'm always getting put on the spot here. I'll tell you what mine was. And it's something that a lot of people probably don't use. And let me just say if you don't buy it, start buying it.

4:22 It's delicious. It's bok choy. And it adds kind of like that water chestnut crunch, especially if you just toss it in right at the end of your Starfire you don't want to leave it in there and cook a lot. It's like that with any of the cabbage type cruciferous except for maybe the broccoli and cauliflower, they're harder so one of the big tips is when you're cooking stir fry, get all your stuff prepped ahead of time have the pans screaming hot. You do not need oil. Forget the oil. Just don't do that yourself. It's 120 calories per tablespoon if you're trying to lose weight. That is one of the easiest ways to cut down on calories without counting calories. And it also helps clean up your arteries and clean up your life in general it can, if you're hurting, leaving the oil off is going to stop a lot of the inflammation. Take it from me, I was pretty maimed from oil. And now I don't have that. So you just don't need it.

5:14 You don't need it. So get the pan hot, throw the veggies in there, put the harder veggies in first because they'll take them a few minutes extra to cook but it will really take you probably about five to six minutes max to kick a stir fry. And it moves so quickly. So the most important thing is to have all your ingredients chopped and ready. Now if you're running late, one good thing to do is keep a medley of frozen veggies in your freezer, right? Because you can just grab those out and toss them in there. And it's done. I prefer to put them in frozen or would you throw them for now put them in frozen. And just quick start round those because really a lot of them I think some of those are pre steamed. But anyway, when I do mine, I'll whoop had a huge bags of the vegetables at Costco, and then I just chopped them up fresh and freeze them right away. And for some reason, they just seem to not get as tender and as kind of soggy, they stay more crisp that way. I don't know why. So maybe they parboil some of them. But we really really love having the colorful bell peppers and their bok choy I love Like I said, Love the red cabbages. The red onions give it a beautiful color. We usually do carrots, they're just a lot of different things.

6:33 You hear it said a lot of sweetness, parsnips, broccoli, and when you're cooking your broccoli, don't waste the stems, peel the stems and get those in there, you can slice those diagonally, but one thing you don't want is a steamed stir fry. So if your pants not really hot, or if you put way too much in the pants, I was gonna say that if you put a ton then you're just steaming it or almost even boiling it if enough of the liquid cooks out of the vegetables, and they're sitting down on the bottom. And this is why you don't need oil and you think you need to go and add water in there because maybe you've seen people where they just Pan sautes and we tell people this you know if you're doing a pan saute, you can add a little water. That doesn't mean you need to always add water because with the stir fry a lot of these vegetables will quiet immediately after they sizzle for a minute they start releasing a ton of liquid.

7:20 So you're gonna end up with a lot of liquid at the end of the stir fry anyway, most likely. And you can add a little bit of something like organic area powder or maybe cornstarch, if it's organic, obviously non GMO and things like that to just thicken it up a little bit toward the end. But you don't want to overcook it because it's going to be a soggy mess. You don't want that texture. Yeah, crispy stir fry. And you know what i like that we didn't have tonight. If you'd like a little crunch, I really like to add a few cashews to the top not a lot. But if you catch us a few almonds, things like that. They're so good on top of star four. I love that and get your sauces and your flavors Do not forget your flavors when you're making your vegetables. This is why a lot of people start eating veggies and they say it just doesn't taste good. Well you flavored your meat you know you're not going to just eat a plain bowl chicken breast odds are when When's the last time you ever did that right when you're on a nasty diet and nasty diet where you can have anything yeah, anything remotely that tastes good because obviously to get healthy you have to punish yourself and live for cheat days broccoli and boiled chicken that's it. I'm so sarcastic I'm being sarcastic.

8:36 But there's no reason to be miserable, right you can live a life that you love and have the foods that you enjoy and one way you're going to start developing your your palate and your taste is getting all of those different nutrients in there that your body's craving and it will crave them even more when you get used to them. And like I've said many times you know when we're eating pasta I'll want just the sauce well tonight we had storefront What did I say? You wish we hadn't put the rice noodles in there or very little we use noodles tonight the brown rice noodles. So there that's a whole grain noodle it is slightly processed but we do use that sometimes instead of the rice usually it's rice like a wild rice or whole grain rice, black metal so it cooks very quickly. So that's another thing if you're in a hurry fast they cook quickly but I ate it and I found that found that I wasn't enjoying it as much because just the noodle I just was sitting there thinking I just wanted a big bowl bowl of veggies. Well why not just eat the big bowl of veggies you know we think about eating stir fry and we just in our mind, it's like this little bitty amount of vegetables on top of this big bowl of rice with this big bowl of grains.

9:43 And one way you can easily easily start dropping pounds without even trying it start reducing the amount of the pastas and just the huge balls of grain with very little vege and start switching that up and doing a little less than that. The grains a little less of the vegetable of the the noodles right and more of the vegetable. And I'm at the point now where I just want just very little of the other things and just huge plates of veggies because that's what my body's telling me. And you've got to learn to listen to your body and eat what you know that it's telling you it means and you develop the ability to do that. Yeah, you'll get a sense of what Anita is talking about as you do this. It there's really no way to explain it just once it happens. You just you can feel it and that's about the best way.

10:32 Exactly. So how do you season your star fry? What are some of the favorite flavorings that we put in there we like Chinese five spice that gives a really nice flavor. Yeah, but want to exalt an authentic oriental flavor and I usually put a lot of it it can be a little overpowering but the main things that you have to have in your certify that it won't it won't taste like the restaurants are like what you're used to if you don't is garlic and ginger, fresh garlic and fresh ginger. I'm telling you there aren't many savory dishes I cook that don't have garlic in it. It's just no the thing is is so good for you though. And even ginger. I'm just going to give you a little insider secret by ginger read and get yourself a little greater. I'll put a link below of my favorite microplane grater, pay a little bit, get yourself one, it is the easiest, most wonderful thing she can make ginger tea, which is excellent for inflammation. And if you feel a cold coming on, it'll knock it out like that.

11:31 It's amazing what it will do. But get one of those and buy some gingerbread and cut a bit of it off. Do not peel it. Do not waste your time wash it off and just start grading it. Why don't why don't we add all these extra steps we spend time teaching our clients how to do these things and speed it up? Well, one of the things you can do is why are you killing your ginger, just grate it in there and don't just buy the powder, it does not have the same flavor. It doesn't have the same pungency the same. Just like your mouth comes alive with these flavors when you're getting these fresh root vegetables that you don't usually get. So ginger is super inexpensive in the supermarket.

12:14 Almost all supermarkets have it now it's not like you have to hand up an asian supermarket. And we find that for even with an organic I think around eight maybe $9 a pound. But I mean, she can get for a pound how much ginger that is well yes, and it doesn't take necessarily a lot to put into a dish like that. Or like what we're talking about today to get a lot of flavor in there either. Well, that can go a long way. Even cooking enough for us. I mean, I might put anywhere between a half inch and an intro gingerol like quite a bit because we've gotten used to spice and we just like it. Speaking of spice, another thing that you can do and your stir fries, add some kind of hot sauce, one of your favorite hot sauces. That's a really great thing to do or Chili's, like the red chilies. Those are good for that as well. What else first seasonings love. What more do you want to give it more of a Thai flavor you love to put lime in it? Oh, I do like to use it or will not orbit and put the zest in it.

13:13 And back to the microplane grater. Yes, yeah, you use that for your lime or your lemon zest because this has a lot of nutrients. And every time you use the lime or limiting you throw that zest away, you're throwing away a wonderful bonus of flavor that you could get in there not to mention all the nutrients that you're losing. So wash your, your citrus, well, we always recommend organic em for citrus is possible. Yeah, because they're the ones they get sprayed quite a bit citrus does. So we recommend that but if you can't get it or you live in an area where there's not a lot of organic, just get your fruits and vegetables and don't worry organic, non organic. Yes, we're firm believers in buying organic whenever possible. But if you can't get it, get your fruits and vegetables. That's super, super important. All right, so those are some of our flavor secrets. Let's talk about the difference between a grain bowl and a stir fry because you'll hear a lot of people on this journey talking about I love bowls, I need to eat bowls, and they'll call them grain bowls or bowls or rice bowls or noodle bowls. But basically, it's some sort of grain down in the bowl with a lot of different toppings on it. What do you think are the main differences between grain bowls and start four I generally think of the stir fries being more of a one pot one skill at dinner, whereas with the grain bowls, they're prepared separately. So you boil your rice you make whatever like we like sweet potato, we'll bake those separately. We may have garbanzo beans are just whatever we put in it. Those are each prepared separately and then added together

14:52 and then we'll start five veggie to go on that as well. Well, that's true, right? Whereas with the stir fry, you throw it all together, Jim Generally throw it all together and is cooked at the same time. Now you might put in the different veggies at different times, but it's kind of like a one hot meal. I see what you're saying. And that's, that's great because I think that really is the main difference because both have sauces. And you can vary the sauces in each and grain bowl, there are different options for grains were stir fried, generally you think of some kind of rice or a noodle noodle. Yeah, yeah. So you don't think of qinhuai millet some of those other great Far, far feeling daring. You just want to go out for some adventure, culinary adventure, try it. And then let us know how it turns out.

15:36 Yeah, so they're all kinds of different options for the base and the grain. But generally, they're the same thing. I think stir fries are a little faster because like Jared said, they're all in one pot, and he doesn't like a one pot meal. And if you can get a one pot meal on the table quick. And this is the other thing if you have children, or a spouse that are at home, get the whole family in the kitchen and cook together make some great memories turn on some good music. It's a fantastic way to build memories, but it also gets you out of the kitchen a whole lot faster. And it makes the whole thing more enjoyable. So stir fry is very quick by nature, the thing that takes the longest is chopping the vegetables. And that's what I was about to say is that if you have the prep time, I've heard a stat that about 80% of it is the prep time. So if you have a few people one person's chopping broccoli and other person's chopping carrots and about Washington's Washington carrots or peeling carrots if you want to peel them, right so one chalk could be peeling carrots, if you have another child, they could be washing the produce for you to get have one child just run your errands for you like, Hey, get mommy out the onion or the garlic or Oh, thanks, buddy, you're doing such a great job and give them it'll make them feel great. And they've been apart and they can help serve it. And it's a great way to get kids involved. Absolutely. And there's so much beneficial fiber that you're going to get from this meal because you're getting veggies are packed with fiber, right. And that feeds our gut bacteria, but also the grains as well. So it's a great healing meal. It's very nutritious, you're getting a lot of different very filling. Yeah, very filling and just delicious.

17:12 And one other tip. And one wonderful thing we like to do is have some type of lazy susan or something on the table that has a lot of different herbs and spices and let people season up their meals more than you do in the pot. It's good to get some of the basic seasonings like we've already talked about. But if you know certain family members like hot sauces, maybe have some different types of sauces available. Maybe you have a Thai sauce, or maybe you serve lemon or lime wedges with it, there's a lot of different things you can do to bump up the nutrition at the table and let everybody sees in it to their tastes. Maybe everybody doesn't have the same taste perception. So you have an example in our house is that one of our children does not like cilantro. Whereas the rest of us like it so so it's more of a Thai flavor. And we want that fresh flavor of the cilantro.

18:03 We'll serve it on the side. And she has other things that she likes. And so she'll put those on there as well. I think we have touched on a lot about Star fries or anything else you can think of that you want to add. Not really just talk about Star five for a lot. We could go on for quite a while but just to the basics. Yeah. And some other examples of things you could use would be garbanzo. We did that tonight. At a mommy at a mommy. Yes, that's another one. We love at a mommy sometimes we'll cook that by itself and put a little soy sauce or tomorrow on it. And that's so good. This isn't traditional, but why not do something like Hickman throw that in toward the end it gives kind of a water Chesney crunch to I think that's a great way to add it's not a super strong flavor that would overpower the rest of the dish.

18:50 One of the main things I would say is just when you go shopping, at least try to choose one new produce per week, one year new type of produce, and find a way to use that produce, get in a group set with some people who are on the same journey of eating more whole plant foods. You're welcome to join us and smarter healthy living. It's our free group. We're in there quite often. And there are a lot of people in there that just have experience. And there are some that are just getting started and if you can get in conversations with them about hey, here's a picture of this new piece of produce. I'm trying parsnips. What would you suggest? What's your favorite way? It's a great way to learn from each other and share what you're learning as you go. And again, that sounds smarter healthy living on Facebook. But really, there's just you can't go wrong. Just don't ever cook it don't add oil, a lot of or even water to the pan. Don't overstep your pan. Get a lot of good seasonings in there. Go for the rainbow donate Skittles but also be sure that your skillet is hot when you first put it in ice cream and hot yeah because otherwise it may have Heating up, it may start to kind of steam the veggies instead of whenever they go in hot, the water that comes out instantly goes to steam and it gives you almost that pseudo fry right without the oil and just keep the food moving. You don't want it to just sit there and steam, it's on Jesus, you want to keep it moving around the pan. Otherwise it'll burn really, it'll be ready within just a couple of minutes. So keep your eye on it and put all your chop veggies right there by your skillet. And you'll have a fantastic meal on the on the table and no time

20:30 for that as long as it took for you to listen to this podcast, or quicker or quicker. Alright, so that about wraps it up for today. We hope all is going well with you. We look forward to getting to know you better get inside the Facebook group. And be sure to leave a review and comment below. We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what episode you'd like to hear what questions you have. shoot us an email at podcast at the crunchy couple.com and we'll look forward to hearing from you. Have a great week and we'll talk to you soon.