Thai Broccoli Bowl

Many of us are still reeling from the amount of holiday eating and drinking we did this past week. Hop on the Meatless Monday band wagon and make a bowl of veggie and tempeh awesomeness to get you and your family back on tract. Today's recipe is a remake of a restaurant favorite of mine, Thai Peanut Tofu, from Sunrise Cafe   . This is one of my "go to's" that I make at least once a week. I change the veggies to incorporate whatever I have on hand. To ensure that quick meals have tons of flavor using fresh garlic and ginger are key. To keep ginger root fresh store it in the freezer and pull it out whenever you need it! 

1 cup short grain brown rice

2 tbs olive oil

3 garlic cloves chopped

2 tsp fresh chopped ginger root

Place rice and other ingredients into a medium sized sauce pan. Toast rice for 2-3 minutes on medium to high heat. Add 2 cups water to rice. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes until rice is tender. 

2 cups fresh broccoli florets

Add broccoli to the pot of cooking rice when there is around 5 minutes left of cooking. 

1 package tempeh sliced into small chunks

Saute tempeh in a bit of olive oil to brown

Combine the rice with broccoli and tempeh in a bowl. Top with liquid aminos    , has a similar flavor to soy sauce, and 1 Tbs of Mrs. Chuns Thai Peanut Sauce  . It's easy to go overboard with sauces, with this specific one I like to add 1 Tbs of the peanut sauce to 1 Tbs rice wine vinegar. This makes it seem like I'm getting more with the same calorie amount!

Pomegranates!

Pomegranates are a fall staple and nutrition powerhouse! Check out how to remove the arils easily!  

Chicken Stock

It is the perfect time of year for soup! Stock is the flavor starting point for many soups, and making your own is actually very very easy. Having chicken/beef/vegetable stock on hand will make any soup taste like its been boiling away all day. Taking a little bit of time to make this ahead will save tons of time later. To make this a beef stock use the same amount of bone in beef, or to make it vegetable stock double the amount of all vegetables. Stock freezes very well!

-1, 4-5 pound whole chicken (all insides removed) some skin removed. Removing some skin helps to reduce the amount of grease your left over with at the end.

-3 stalks celery

-1 head garlic cut in half

-2 dried bay leaves

-1 lemon cut in half

-3 large carrots

-1 large onion cut into quarters

-1 sprig rosemary

-2 tsp salt (add more or less depending on what you prefer)

-1 Tbs ground pepper

-Enough water to cover the bird and to come up to the top of the pasta pot

Boil all ingredients together for 45 minutes; once slightly cooled remove chicken very carefully and place in a bowl. You can then take the chicken meat and pull it off the bone and use for recipes all throughout the week, or you can even freeze the meat to use at a later time. Strain the stock to remove the vegetables, and ladle into freezer safe containers or freezer bags. I like to portion it into 2 cup servings. When you want to use the stock pull it out and place in a bowl of warm water to help thaw.