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Green Journal: Time & Energy Saving Meal
July 16, 2007

Over the weekend, we had dinner with some of my husband’s family. It was a nice get together with casual but plentiful home cooked meal. As I am a cook by necessity, I was more than happy to sit back observe and enjoy the fruits of another’s labor. What struck me about this meal was the amount of time and energy it consumed, both environmental and human. Our hostess spent a couple of hours prepping and cooking and then we all spent another ½ hour clearing the table. During that time, the stove and oven were constantly on; with all the salad, dinner, dessert and service plates, glasses, coffee cups and of course utensils, it took two dishwasher loads to clean up just the tableware. All this time and energy for 6 people!

This observation got me thinking about our eating habits. One of my green actions is to eat organic and local whenever possible, for our health and in effort to reduce our carbon footprint. True, it is rare for us to have such a complete dinner, especially since I am not an accomplished chef. However, I still serve several dishes in order to provide a balanced meal, which requires prep bowls, several pots, serving platters and plates to eat on. So if my friend and personal chef Jess can make entertaining easy, why can’t I make routine dinner meals simpler? Looking through my recipes, I realize that I had somehow forgotten one of the easiest methods of cooking and my roots – stir fry. Proper stir-fry requires little oil and cooking time as vegetables should be crisp and full of flavor. Most vegetarian stir fry need only about 10 minutes in the wok, meats may take 15 minutes. All the ingredients can be chopped on a single chopping board (vegetables first and then meats), cooked in a single wok and all served in one bowl or plate.

Let’s do a quick time and energy comparison. If I were to cook meal of chicken, steamed broccoli with a salad, it would take me about 35-40 minutes to cook the chicken and broccoli - with 2 burner running for at least half of the timenot to mention the 2 pots and chopping boards I need. To cook a stir fry with chicken, broccoli, carrots and snow peas, I would need only about 15-20 minutes of stove time, and I can add or interchange for seasonal vegetables. To make a complete meal, I can also throw in some fresh chow mein .

Here’s one of my family’s favorite recipes.

Chicken Stir Fry (with chow mein)

One word of caution, stir fry is best done with a gas stove as responsive temperature control keeps the food crisp.

Ingredients
• 2 chicken breasts, cubed
• 1 head of broccoli, cut into small pieces
• 1 lb of snow peas
• 1 small yellow onion, sliced
• 1 cup of baby carrots
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• Diced green onions (optional but adds flavor)
• 1 small package of chow mein (wet/soft kind – dry kind will need to be cooked separately)
• 3 tablespoon of canola, olive or sesame oil
• ¼ cup of soy sauce mixed with 1 teaspoon of sugar
• Salt and white pepper

To Cook

• Heat 1 tbsp of oil in wok over high heat.
• Sautee garlic and green onion for 30 seconds and add chicken and ½ of soy sauce mix. Cook until chicken is no longer pink (~5 or 6 minutes on high heat). The smaller the pieces, the faster they cook. Remove chicken, garlic and green onion.
• Add remaining oil in wok and heat for a couple of minutes.
• Put in onions and sautee for a few minutes. Then add in rest of vegetables and chow mein to cook for 5 minutes.
• Stir back in chicken, garlic and green onion for another couple of minutes. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water, cover and cook for another minute. Add salt and white pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and dinner is ready to serve with less than 20 minutes of cooking. The additional benefit is that only one plate or bowl is need (per person), which cuts down on the dishwashing.

CindyC at Organicpicks

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Previous Green Journal Entries:
Rest Your Computer and Save Energy
Less Lint, More Energy Savings
Seal,Mail and Recycle Cell Phones

Pump Up Fuel Efficiency
Wife’s Test on CFLs
Eat Local and Organic
BYOC: Bring Your Own Cup
BYOB: Bring Your Own Bag

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