Stir Fries Are Healthy - Don't Take the Bait!

I get conned every time I line up at the grocery check out where the few stragglers of magazines still hold out and asides from the same Kardashians morphing in to new Kardashians there is always the promise of Healthy Week-Day Recipes Inside...Lose 102 pounds by Christmas, Sandra did it just by eating "this" for Breakfast etc etc. So I pick up the magazine and while I'm waiting I immediately flip to the recipe section to see some yummy photo. Due to good training I now check the nutritional value of the recipe and inevitably I get shocked by the caloric content! Even more so when I see that the serving size for the 450-600 calories of a stir-fry without the RICE is about 1.5 cups.... Yikes - Hold Up I thought these were Healthy recipes. But healthy doesn't mean low calorie or vice versa and by definition who or what determines its healthiness?? if that's even a word.

Let's pick on stir-fries for the moment. If you go for the garden variety restaurant style version in North America you are looking at copious amounts of unhealthy oils, high sodium and sugar, MSG etc. I know they are delicious and our taste buds go in hyper-stimulation mode but unfortunately at the expense of our health and waist lines. However, there are ways to circumvent the take out menu or better yet make it from scratch where you have complete control over the ingredients. It may not be as easy as ordering in and it won't taste the same either... but we are here to make a difference, right? Therefore changes must be made and blah blah blah...WE CAN DO THIS!

Back to stir fries, traditionally they're a food that is cooked quickly in hot oil, typically in a wok and lots of tossing is involved and you want to cook it fast to ensure nothing turns mushy and therefore it's best if everything is chopped and ready to go before you start to cook, and this includes making a sauce before you begin. Back-tracking a wee bit, if you do make one at home you do not need to stir fry in lots of oil...you have options here. You can use a non-stick wok, or a little cooking spray or you can lightly coat your hot pan with a brush of oil. You can also use vegetable broth or very diluted soy sauce, just keep an eye on your pans temperature..don't have it up too high that you burn your base before you start. Once you start "frying" ingredients, start with protein first, and then remove it once cooked, then add veggies and start with the ones that take longer to cook first and work back. I usually do my protein first, scoop it out, then things like carrots and celery, scoop them out. Then garlic, snow peas, Bok Choy, broccoli, red pepper, SCOOP out. Then I do spices like garlic, coriander, ginger, lemongrass, chili flakes...then I toss in all the stuff I just cooked, and then I put in the sprouts (those I want super crunchy) and then my sauce ... stir it around a bit and DONE...serve over rice or any other grain I decided to cook up in bulk that week or maybe some soybean or brown rice spaghetti that I pre-boiled - Voila'.

Okay - in my recipe section I will be adding in a few of my stir fry recipes including some meat and meatless versions, feel free to substitute chicken for turkey or tofu, tempeh or beef depending on your preferences. Just go lean and clean, your body will thank you. Veggie it up and be colourful, if you go with some bottled sauces that's great but check the labels for high salt/sodium content and sugar as well. It's okay to cook with these sauces just be aware of what you are adding and how much.

As for Take Out Menu - firstly ask your favourite spot for "sauce on the side" whenever you place your order this way you can gauge just how sticky sweet or salty you want your food and if you have some left over you bonus because you can add it to your stir fry another day. Kung Pao Chicken is not fried chicken like its' Sesame Chicken, Sweet-and-Sour Chicken or General Tso's Chicken relatives so the dish is relatively light in comparison and comes with lots of vegetables. Moo Goo Gai Pan is another veggie packed dish with chicken and mushrooms and not overly sweet or high in fat. If it is a group of people ordering then it is always helpful because you can add a few extra dishes like steamed rice and steamed vegetables that way after having a small soup, a scoop of rice and loading up on vegetables, - having a portion of your favourite sweet/salty dish won't be so decadent as having a plateful.!

I know I digressed a bit and Stir Fries took one for the team but my intent when I started this post was really to state, that what I believed to be healthy foods really shocked me when I started to look at their nutritional values. Also, for me, it's a bang for your buck scenario because a lot of these recipes or nutritional labels want us to buy or buy in to what they are selling and after taking a closer look at the portion size of what I was getting for 400 calories, I realized it was only 1/8 of the frozen pizza or 1 small slice of the slightly stale marble cake. Those items are more easily identified as high calorie because it's pizza and cake but take some healthy foods like fat-free cottage cheese for example. That food has ZERO flavour but is also 200 calories per cup. So in order to make it tastier I need to add fruit or something sweet or maybe granola...and granola can be the calorie Devil. Next thing you know the so-called innocent fat free, cottage cheese is 400+ calories. That's practically a meal and I am having it as a 'healthy' snack and not even liking it that much - on the flavour satisfaction scale it is ranking about ONE, maybe!

I guess my point here is that our favourite tasty foods and recipes with lots of calories can be revamped to be healthier and scaled back on calories and like-wise "healthy" options can be caloric bombs in disguise, so BE aware and BE vigilant with your choices - before you Take A Wok on the Wild Side! - sorry these bad puns just write themselves.