stir-fry rice with fresh oregon snow peas

it's not a gardening revolution if people aren't eating better! one great thing about vegetables from the garden vs. vegetables from the store is the flavor – nothing compares! the sweet, crunchy beans pulled directly from vines and eaten that night mimic the way all food is supposed to be consumed (in my humble opinion) – and that is my goal. as my garden grows, my family will be eating more meals exclusively grown from the garden, but for now each element gets to be a lovely feature in our push towards sustainability and healthy living.

my household is vegetarian (vegan for the most part) so we eat a LOT of stir fry. i am going to walk through this one step by step.

first, i sauté the vegetables a few rounds at a time. i started with red onions (the only onions my family really eats well) and both green and red bell peppers. i prefer peanut oil these days because it can get really hot without burning. i tossed in a little rice vinegar and a tad bit of Worcestershire for flavor.


next, i prepared my peas for eating. i stayed very basic with just some salty soy sauce to bring out the sugar of the peas. I cooked them for only a few minutes so they were still a little crunchy.


i threw some cabbage in – although a lot of people don’t appreciate cabbage because it seems bland, i have been enjoying it quite a bit lately. it acts as a sponge for spices, so i used it to soak up the garlic pepper sauce i used to spice up the dish and give it a different dose of sweetness. i also used a little bit of wine based teriyaki sauce.


next came the garlic & broccoli. i only use fresh garlic these days (and i can't wait to grow some!) and garlic has so many uses; i simply cant have enough of it around. i use soy sauce for the broccoli...and i will be planting broccoli after the full moon later this week :)


the scraps from each meal go to our worms, who are making amazing fertilizer for the garden. this process is called vermicomposting, and it is a popular way to foster sustainable living and waste less throughout the world. i will do an entire blog about the worm bin later...just thought i would share a picture of their meal too! i love it that our scraps can be used to feed worms that poop out dirt that can be used to grow more food that they can eat to make more dirt...yay nature!



when i mixed the rice in with the vegetables i added some rice vinegar, soy sauce and ground ginger. if i had more time, i would have chopped ginger...but i thought i was doing good as it was so i decided not to push it. this is how the stir fry looked once completed:



this big eater ate two bowls:



this picky eater ate two bowls...of plain white rice:


the price breakdown (from the small neighborhood market down the street):

stir-fry rice with fresh oregon snow peas
red pepper - $0.50 ($0.99/lb)
green pepper - $o.75 ($1.30/lb)
broccoli head - $0.50 ($1.20/lb)
red onion - $0.12 ($0.25/lb)
1/4 cabbage - $0.20 ($1.00/head)
3 cloves garlic - $0.05 ($0.20 a bulb)
2 cups of rice - $0.50 ($1.00/lb)
soy / vinegar / garlic pepper sauce / peanut oil / teriyaki / ground ginger - $1.00
6 servings
total cost = $3.62
restaurant estimated cost - $7.00 / plate = $42.00 + tip

*note - these are obviously not organically grown produce prices...i will be sure to include how much a meal from Whole Foods produce section & chains like Ralphs and Vons cost as well...but for this exercise i decided to use the actual cost of the food i used.

*i prepped the peppers & onions the night before, storing them in a container in the fridge. this cut my cooking time in half, and allowed me to take the time and energy on each portion of the cooking process.

this meal was mildly spicy, and pleasantly sweet. the oregon snow peas were amazing, as i knew they would be and were definitely the central focus of the flavor.