Have you ever had one of those moments, when you’ve looked in the mirror and just thought “Oh my goodness….”? It may have been that time you realised you had something stuck in between your two front teeth for the whole job interview, or worse – black seeds stuck in several teeth. It could be that you realise your mascara has run or you have something hanging out of your nose. Arguably the worst experience is when you look in the mirror, and suddenly realise how much weight you’ve put on. It suddenly is clear that you have become a whale, and you can’t understand how you didn’t see it before.
I had one such moment a few days ago. My worst fears were confirmed in Perth when I tried on the bridesmaid dress that I have forked out $500 for (not my choice, or desire) and I could not do the zip up. In five months, I have gone from the dress being a perfect fit (even slightly loose) to being skin pinching, zip splitting tight. I looked like I was busting out of the boob tube like some kind of porn star gone wrong.
Two things have become clear to me. (1) You burn a lot of calories chasing after kids all day. Sitting at a desk in the office all day does not compare. (2) You should not play social netball if you are prone to clumsiness and bad luck. I broke my ankle doing so, and it is only now getting to a stage where I can start to do exercise on it again.
So, the diet has begun. There’s nothing like an already ugly $500 dress to motivate me, I refuse to be any more embarrassed than necessary wearing it. Consequently, I am hungry (all the time), grumpy (most of the time) and craving sugar (almost all of the time). But hey, it has to be done.
In the spirit of healthy (and easy) cooking, I will share the super dooper easiest stir fry recipe ever. It is a staple meal in these parts, and it’s cheap, SIMPLE and tasty. Gourmet foodies beware; you are likely to be affronted by my inadequacy in the kitchen.
Super Dooper Easy Stirfry Recipe
Ingredients:
-Frozen mixed veggies. Choose an Asian stir fry mix if you want to be a little bit fancy. Of course you can buy Asian veggies and chop them all up, even carve some flowers out of fruits for the serving, but you'd probably be cooking a more elaborate recipe to start with if you had the time (or desire) to do such things.
-Chicken breasts, chopped into bite sized pieces. Use thigh or whatever else you have on hand, I just prefer breast.
-Sweet chilli sauce
-Hoisin sauce. I prefer Aldi's version, but they often don't have it in stock. I think it's specific to when they do 'Asia' catalogue sales.
-Soy sauce
-Rice or noodles (I use udon mostly)
(1) Add 3 tablespoons of hoisin sauce, 3 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce to the wok.
(2) Once the sauces are bubbling, throw in the chicken.
(3) When the chicken is mostly cooked, throw in the frozen veg. I usually just let them thaw in the wok (If I’m poisoning myself and others by doing this, please let me know. We’ve been fine so far…)
(4) If you’re serving with rice, you’re all done with the stir fry. If you want noodles, mix them in at this point (the precooked variety) and serve once the noodles are warm.
Voila – simple, tasty and healthy. Super lazy, but it beats takeaways.
And it's a damn sight easier than this, which is what any slightly complicated recipe might as well involve for someone as useless in the kitchen as I:
Source: Carved Creations
