Dinner and food storage

In an effort to save money I've been cooking more at home...for the first time in many years. Also trying to eat more healthy foods that includes a lot of fresh vegetables (that don't keep anywhere near as well as frozen box meals btw). Although this fact is obvious, it's taking some time to get used to. 

I like a well stocked fridge and I hate throwing food out.

The two don't always exist in perfect harmony, and require a bit of planning and follow through. If I plan to make something and buy produce for it, I have to make it in a reasonable amount of time or the produce goes bad. Again this is obvious, but when you factor in daily life and planning to cook for company, plans change.  What was planned for one week, gets put off until the next, and a meal for company can become a meal for one etc.

I'm sitting here, very much enjoying my red Thai curried stir fry, but wishing the vegetables would have kept longer so I could have made it for a friend coming tomorrow. Since I'd made something else last week for company, I still had everything left over. The bok choy which I'd neglected to do anything with other than stash in the fridge was looking tired and a bit wilted but smelled fine so I used it anyway. The portobellos were starting to smell, but I couldn't remember what they were supposed to smell like fresh, and considering mushrooms are already fungus I figured I'd see how they tasted after being sautéed. Being cautious, I sautéed them separately since I really wasn't sure...they turned out to taste fine.  On top of that, I was using a pre-made sauce from Trader Joe's that had a suggested use by date of Nov 08...but it also smelled and tasted fine, so into the mix it went. 

The results were scrumptious!

But being a bit more adventerious with my stomach than most people are willing to be is probably best done alone...I've been told more than once not to eat something or a combination of something for fear of getting sick, but I usually don't listen and have yet to suffer consequences.

Lessons learned:

Red peppers can keep for an insanely long time in those seen on TV Debbie Meyer Green Bags - I used the last one up tonight (had to cut out a few bad spots) but it was in the fridge since late March/early April, so was at least a month an a half old! 

Meanwhile the broccoli was starting to look a bit tired after 2 weeks in the crisper in a normal produce bag. The remainder that still looked good went into the now empty Green Bag. (Need to get more bags)

The portobellos were also at 2 weeks and this is definitely too long for comfort, need to limit them to a week, or go back to using canned.

Trader Joe's Red Thai curry sauce is both tasty and keeps longer than suggested, but I'd not want to make a habit of seeing just how long that is, since I may have just gotten lucky.

Stir fry is a good way to use up left over rice from last week's Mexican

Recipe:

Red Thai Curry Veggie Heavy Stir Fry

1 sweet white onion

1 red pepper

3 stalks of celery

1-2 broccoli crowns (about a 1/2-3/4 lb) I used both florets and stems

1 8oz can water chestnuts 

8 oz fresh baby portobellos 

3 small bunches of bok choy

2-3 cloves of garlic

3 pre-cooked chicken asiago & spinach sausages (or 10oz -1lb tofu/chicken/other meat) 

11 oz Trader Joe's Red Thai Curry sauce

olive oil or other stir fry oil

salt

white wine

2-4oz water 

long grain brown rice (judge amount by number of people serving)

My rice was left over, but it can be done while everything else is cooking since it takes a while.

Cut up veggies, start out sautéing onions, peppers, broccoli, celery and 1 clove of garlic with some olive oil in a wok or large sauté pan. When they are nearly done, or the peppers and onions have some nice caramelized char marks add more garlic (if desired) along with mushrooms and water chestnuts (including the juice from the can). Turn heat to medium/low. In a separate pan start sautéing the sliced sausages until lightly browned. 

Note: if not using pre-cooked meat or tofu, meat should be started earlier to avoid over cooking other veggies.

Add the Thai red curry sauce.

Slice bok choy keeping leafy sections separate from the stalk sections. In a separate pan sauté bok choy stalks on high heat with a little olive oil,  salt and white wine. Shake 2-4oz water into the Thai red curry sauce bottle to get the last bit out. Add leafy portions after stalks have had a minute or so to get started. Pour this into the bok choy and cover for a few minutes. When leaves have fully hot but stalks are still crisp transfer all into wok/main pan. 

Re-heat left over brown rice, or plate fresh cooked rice and serve stir fry on top.

Serves 4-6