Vegetable Stir Fry and Coconut-Mango Sticky Rice

Round 3! Ding ding ding!

This third cooking lesson with Randi was Asian inspired. The vegetable stir fry was so easy and quick to make it was ready in about 15 minutes. If you have any left over vegetables in the fridge you can add them into the stir fry. I knew I wanted to teach Randi how to make mango sticky rice because she's only had it once before at a restaurant. Verdict says...Randi will be making this a lot at home!

Vegetable Stir Fry
Adapted from Shape Magazine

• 2 tablespoons Asian (toasted) sesame oil
• 1 1/2 cup (1/2 pound) mushrooms, stems removed and sliced. We used a variety pack of shiitake, button, and oyster mushrooms.
• 1 of any color bell pepper, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1 1/2 cup (1/2 pound) sugar snap peas, trimmed
• 4 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1 cup brown or white rice, prepared according to package directions

Directions

1. In a large skillet or wok, heat sesame oil over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, bell pepper slices, ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes, stirring constantly so the ingredients don't burn. (If they start to brown, pour a little vegetable broth into the skillet.) Continue to cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Add the snap peas and scallions to the skillet. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes. In a small bowl, stir cornstarch into soy sauce, then add the mixture to the pan.
3. Pour in the vegetable broth; cook for about 2 minutes, until the mixture comes to a boil and starts to thicken. Serve over brown or white rice.

Coconut-Mango Sticky Rice
Adapted from Food.com

• 1 cup jasmine rice or 1 cup other sweet Asian
• 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 mango sliced

Directions

1. Cook rice according to package directions, but substitute coconut milk for half of the water, and add 1/4 cup of sugar. What we did here was filled the pot with water to the top of the rice and put half the can of coconut milk in the pot.
2. It should be fairly dry when you finish cooking it, without any liquid visible in the pot.
3. In a medium saucepan, boil the rest of the coconut milk with the second half of the sugar.
4. Keep this at a full boil until the rice is cooked, or until it reaches a thick, syrupy consistency.
5. Arrange the cooked coconut rice in a bowl or plate with the mango slices in some kind of pretty formation and dribble a bit of the sauce over the whole thing.

Silly Rabbit, Carrot cake is for grown-ups!

So I was going through this, "I need carrot cake" phase the past weeks. Why? I have no idea. Thinking about the good ol' days and the family parties, where, for some reason, Indian people think American dessert is symbolic by carrot cake (I'd rather have apple pie... hmm, apple pie). So anyway, I started googling healthy carrot cake recipes and I found one that is was healthier, but I didn't have all the ingredients so I made some modifications with the recipe and came up with my own. It turned out pretty alright. I did not use whole wheat flour, because in all honesty, its nasty. Really, it is. I rather oat flour or soy over whole wheat. So I used enriched white as that is what my dad carries in his kitchen. The recipe wanted oat bran, which I also did not have, so I used flaxseed. They also asked for egg substitute, and I don't believe in fake foods so I used real eggs. I also used stevia because I'm sure Splenda is powdered cancer (or so says my friend Di).


So anyway, here's Lulu's Carrot Cake Recipe
1 3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup flax seed
1 cup stevia
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 eggs
1 package of shredded carrots
1/2 cup crushed pineapple 
1/4 oil


I just dumped everything in the kitchen aid and let it swirl away. Once mixed well, place in two round cake pans and bake at 350 degrees for about 32 mins (it just seemed right in my oven). Once the cakes have cooled and are removed from the pan, they are ready of assembly. To make the frosting I whipped up 4 oz of tofu (silken) with 8 oz of cream cheese and a dash of vanilla, a small carton of heavy whipping cream and a cup of stevia. The first thing is whipping the heavy cream and stevia. Then slowly add the remaining ingredients. I decorated it with raisins.