Tasty Tuesday – Veggie & Tempeh Fried Rice

Happy Tuesday!

Today is my second installment of my Tasty Tuesday series. This week I’ll be sharing a vegetarian recipe.  A few years ago Mike and I watched the documentary “Forks Over Knives” and were so convinced by what we saw that we decided that we’d try a vegan diet, or more accurately a “plant based diet”. After a month or so we quickly realized that a more flexible nutrition plan worked better for us, but I cooked nearly exclusively vegan and vegetarian for at least two years and picked up a lot of new recipes, including this one.

Over the years, we slowly added in more and more fish, lean meat, and dairy, especially when I got pregnant and craved it, and now I cook fish or meat (usually ground turkey or pork) at least 2-3 times a week. I’d say I still eat vegetarian about 40-50% of the time. I never considered myself vegan, but I wanted to follow a plant-based lifestyle and eat as few processed foods as possible. I continue to eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, grains, and legumes and I definitely think that attempting a fully plant-based lifestyle had a positive impact on our health. I felt a little bit conflicted when we decided to start eating meat more frequently as I’d made such  big commitment to it previously, but a blogger recently reminded me that something doesn’t have to be bad for you to stop doing it. It wasn’t bad – but we have moved on a bit from it. It doesn’t mean that anything is wrong with it or me for changing, it just is something that happened. Life is about change, and our diet is one of those things that evolves.

Anyway, here’s the recipe! I adapted it from this quinoa fried rice recipe I found on Pinterest – I prefer the brown rice and I added tempeh for more protein/substance. If you’ve’ never had tempeh – please try it! It doesn’t have the same type of soy as tofu, so you can eat more of it safely, and it tastes TOTALLY different. I personally do not really like or cook with tofu but I use tempeh frequently. You could also add chicken or beef instead of the tempeh if you’d like. To make it vegan, drop the egg. Speaking of Pinterest, follow me and please pin any of these Tasty Tuesday recipes if you enjoy them or just want to refer back to them later.

Veggie & Tempeh Fried Rice 

Ingredients: 

• 1 TBS olive oil
• 2 large fried eggs, chopped (pre-cook these)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 8 ounces mushrooms, chopped
• 1 head broccoli or 10oz frozen broccoli, chopped
• 1 zucchini, chopped
• 1 package organic tempeh (I use Trader Joe’s organic multi-grain tempeh) or meat of your choice
• 1 tsp coconut oil
• 1/2 cup frozen corn
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup grated carrots
• 4 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 TBS ginger, grated
• 4 TBS soy sauce

Directions: 

1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium. Sauté the garlic, ginger and onion for a few minutes, until tender.
2. Add the veggies except the corn and peas and sauté until tender over medium-high.
3. Meanwhile, use heat the coconut oil in a smaller frying pan over medium. Add the tempeh and heat until crispy. Add a few squirts of soy sauce and let it caramelize. (Or cook meat of your choice.)

   

4. Once the veggies are tender in the larger pan, add the corn, peas and the cooked brown rice. Throw in the tempeh and cover in soy sauce (use more or less, to taste).
5. Use the small frying pan to fry the two eggs until they’re cooked to your desired doneness. I like to place one egg on each plate of rice, or you can chop the fried egg when they are cooked and mix them into the rice. Up to you!

I like to serve with my favorite hot sauce. Enjoy!

21 Day Fix Containers: 

Sometimes it’s pretty tough to figure out containers when you make things like this. My advice would be to use your yellow container and scoop out a portion, then use your red container and scoop another portion onto the same plate. Count that as 1.5 yellow, 1 green, 1 red and 1 tsp. If you add the whole egg, add 1/2 more red container to the total. Container counts don’t have to be exact in my opinion!

Do you like to cook things like fried rice and stir frys? Do you have one to share with me?  How has your diet evolved? Have you ever been/are you still vegetarian or vegan?