By Jacob Mathias

Hello fellow eaters.  We at the City Times hope you had a very happy New Year with good friends, good food and good drink. We did and now we’re back for second helpings.

As I said last week, some of us…ahem…cough cough…me…have to go on a diet this New Year. That means eating slightly healthier, reducing my soda intake and not ordering pizza at 1:00 AM. A bonus for me is that I love vegetables which can make the challenge a lot easier. Vegetables are a great way to bulk up your recipes without adding a ton of carbs, calories or fats.

My wife on the other hand hates vegetables- at least in their precooked state- so we have to come up with other ways to cook them beyond steaming them and pouring on butter.

Enter the stir-fry.

What a wonderful way to use up bits of vegetables, leftover chicken, beef or pork and that bottle of sauce that’s in the back of your fridge that you never use.  It’s also just a two pot meal, so cleanup is a breeze.

When stir-frying, all your vegetables are going to have to different cooking times so you’ll have to add vegetables to your pan in stages in order to make sure everything is cooked properly without turning to mush or being to crunch to enjoy. Just begin by cooking the hardest vegetables such as carrots first and moving on to more fragile vegetables.

Feel free to improvise on the ingredients below, this is just a sample based on ingredients I normally have around. You can also use lo mein or ramen noodles instead.

You will need:
1 lbs. diced cooked chicken breast
3 carrots cut into ¼ inch coins
1 small head of broccoli cut into ½ inch pieces
6 green onions  sliced into 1 inch pieces
6 garlic  cloves chopped and divided in half
1 cup white rice
2 tbsp butter
Salt and Pepper to taste
2 tsp chili paste
¼ cup stir fry sauce
2 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Prepare rice as directed and add in the butter and 3 cloves garlic while it cooks.

In a wok or large sauté pan, sauté the garlic over medium high heat until it becomes fragrant. Add in the chicken cook for a 3 minutes stirring occasionally.  Follow with the carrots then broccoli and then the onions cooking each for 3 minutes. Reduce to medium heat and continue to cook.

Add in 2 tbsp. water, chili paste, and stir fry sauce. Toss to coat with sauce and heat until bubbling.

Serve over rice and sprinkle with sesame seeds for a delightful nutty crunch.

And remember, live to eat.