Let's Do Lunch

For lunch a lot of people will go out for some sort of fast food, grab a microwave pizza, or skip it altogether. To me, as a Mom, lunch is the most important meal of my day most days, and the one I have the least time for. And I'll admit it, some days I am guilty of just grabbing whatever is handy ( a handful of chips, or the last brownie- I know- sooooo bad!) But I am trying to be a lot more healthy in my eating, so I can be a better example for my girls. ( I am against the "Do as I say, not as I do" method of parenting and more into leading by example, even though sometimes that is so hard to do- especially when it comes to eating.)
One of the tastiest, and easiest lunchtime meals I have discovered is stir fry. I always have a ton of veggies on hand, along with Asian seasonings and sauces so this is pretty simple to come up make up as I go along. I always opt to keep it meat-free just because I don't think we need meat at EVERY meal, although my husband would disagree with me:-)

Here's how I made today's lunch:
Time- 15-20 minutes total (I usually make mine while the kids are all sitting together eating their lunch.)

Ingredients:
1/2 bag Trader Joe's Broccoli Slaw
1/2 small onion diced or sliced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced. You can also use powdered if you have some in your spice cabinet
4 baby portobello mushrooms
Soy Sauce
toasted sesame oil
rice sticks, or any other Asian noodle you prefer.
1 lime
1/4 block extra firm tofu**
Hot sesame oil**

**If Desired




Directions:
1. Prepare noodles of your choice according to directions on the package- I use about a 1/3 of the pack of noodles today.
2. Spray pan with non-stick cooking spray. Add 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil to the pan and heat on medium heat. Add minced onion and ginger. Cook for about 2 minutes, until onions are translucent.


3. Add Broccoli slaw, mushrooms, and any other veggies you choose to include.
4. Add soy sauce to taste to veggie in pan. Let cook on med. low heat.


5. While veggies cook, cut off about 1/4 of the tofu from the block, and squeeze the extra water out with a paper towel.


Slice and sprinkle with soy sauce and lime juice. Let sit until you are ready to add to the veggies. (If you want a stronger flavor to the tofu, do this step first and set aside.)


6. Add Tofu to the veggies. Let all of this cook together for a few minutes.
7. If you want a little bit of spice to this, add hot sesame oil at this point.


8. Add the noodles to the veggies, squeeze lime juice over the veggies and noodles, and toss together.


9. Eat and enjoy:-) Usually I will have leftovers for the next day.