good good things

First post baby meal…

June 17th, 2011

Chickpea-Almond Brown Rice Stir Fry with Tamari-Peanut Sauce

This was the very first meal I cooked for us since we brought Miles home from the hospital. Up until then we have been well taken care of food wise from friends and family. My non-cooking husband even cooked a meal for us one night. Of course when the time came for me to have to start making dinners again we pretty much had nothing in the fridge/pantry. After standing in the middle of the kitchen wondering what the hell I was going to make for dinner I all of a sudden remembered that I had a whole container of brown rice from some Veggie Heaven take out a few nights before, then I saw a can of chickpeas in the pantry and found some broccoli in the fridge. The rest of the dish just kept evolving while I was cooking.

I first sauteed some onions and garlic in oil then added the broccoli and chickpeas. While rooting around the fridge I found a bag of almonds so I chopped them up and tossed them into the pan along with the leftover take out brown rice. While this was all “stir frying” together I was trying to think of way to get Reno to eat this meal. I knew by the looks of it she wouldn’t eat it at all. I have in the past gotten her to eat similar dishes, usually with noodles instead of rice, if I put peanut sauce on it. We were running low on peanut butter, thanks to all the smoothies I’ve been making, so it was heavier on the tamari then on the peanut butter. Which is better for  a stir fry anyway.  The sauce was made with:  tamari, peanut butter, water, orange juice and ginger powder. I added it to the stir fry right towards the end of cooking it and cooked it for a minute more just till it was heated through.

By then…Reno had emerged from her bath and declared that she would NOT be eating this dinner. I informed her that she WOULD be eating it and if she didn’t want to eat it then she was welcome to go straight to bed. If I know that she’s not going to like something I’ve made I’ll always give her another option but I knew she would like this.  She complained through the whole thing. First that it was made with rice and not noodles and I always make peanut sauce with noodles. Then she was fine just eating the rice but that there was all “this stuff” in the way of her doing that…that “stuff” was the chickpeas. Oh and she also wasn’t going to be eating the broccoli which is actually a vegetable that she likes. After she had basically eaten 1/2 of her bowl she claims that her belly is full. Which was too bad because that’s when I decided to announce to Peter that there was some ice cream in the freezer for me and him when we were done with our bowls. Well wouldn’t you know it…Reno wanted some ice cream…she quickly ate the rest of her meal.

The meal was delicious and I can’t wait to make it again. I hope to have the time and mental capability to write the measurements down so I can post the recipe for you all.

Entry Filed under: Reno, beans, chinese, peanut butter, sauce, vegan