I’m working on a paper tonight, so I don’t have much time for dinner but I want something that will keep me full while I slave away at the library! Still living the student life where Thursdays are supposed to be the weekend, so I’m not overly excited that tonight is a study night. What I am excited for is this dinner—my classic meal for these kind of nights! It’s easy to prepare, pretty quick to make, and still healthy & filling!

Ingredients:

Tofu [I use extra firm]

Brown rice [much healthier than white rice, and I love the slight crunch of the shell!]

Broccoli

Carrot

Mushrooms

Onion

Soy sauce [Or any kind of stir fry sauce]

Sriracha Sauce

Pineapple! [Scroll down to hear my explanation]

Steps:

1) Measure out your rice and pop it in the rice cooker [If you don’t have a rice cooker I highly recommend you get one, mine was the best $10 I ever spent—and yes it was only $10!!]

2) Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan. 

3) Slice the tofu into small squares, and place in the oil. I usually use about three thin slices of tofu per person [that’s a brick of tofu sliced vertically].

4) Cut the broccoli and carrot. My rice cooker came with a handy little basket for steaming veggies, otherwise you can use a steamer basket [is that what it’s called?] and a pot filled with about 1 inch of water. Put the broccoli and carrot on to steam. 

5) Cut up the rest of your veggies—in my case the onion and mushrooms [red/green pepper is also a great choice]. Throw them into the same frying pan as the tofu. Keep the pan on medium heat until the veggies are done cooking and then turn to low.

6) Let everything fry as the rice cooks. I find the rice usually takes about 20 minutes, so I like to put it on to cook as soon as I get home and then prepare everything else while its cooking. 

7) I added a little paprika to my veggies + tofu in the frying pan, it’s one of my favorite spices to add to stir fry [another good one is chili].

8) When the rice is done, spoon a serving into the frying pan. My advice—use a small serving of rice and lots of veggies! Rice is great for you, but like all carbs you want to stick to a reasonable portion. I find if I have a lot of veggies you’ll still feel full! 

9) Add a drizzle of soy sauce—again not too much as it’s really high in sodium! [Even without soy sauce this stir fry tastes delicious I promise!]

10) And if you love spicy like me, you’ll want to add a drizzle of Sriracha Sauce [Start small if you’ve never had it because it’s pretty spicy!]. If you are looking for it at the grocery store, check the Asian foods aisle—the bottle has a green cap and a drawing of a rooster on it!

11) You may have heard of this, and I was definitely skeptical before I first tried it, but adding pineapple to stir fry is amazing! You can roast it a bit in the frying pan first, or like I did, add it on after cooking everything. The juicy sweet taste actually goes perfectly with the spicy stir fry! Try it I know you’ll like it!

12) Mix everything up in the pan, and then serve!

Enjoy!