Transcript: Stir Fry

Budget Health Nut
Episode “Stir Fry”

Joe Dias: Hi and welcome to Budget Health Nut, I am your host Joe Dias the focus of our program is preparing meals for you under $25 while serving anywhere between 2 to 8 people, depending on our dish. In other word I am bringing you 5 star flavors on a 2 star budget.
Now here at Budget Health Nut we like to offer some smart choices for some tasty cooking while also reducing calories compared to eating out at restraints all the time. Now keep in mind, moderation is the key here and focusing on your portion sizes.
Now today’s dish is going to be an Asian shrimp stir-fry with the side of fruit and some honey. And it should be really tasty. So come join me in the kitchen, we will wok it up for you. Fry up shrimp and it should be really tasty. I really can't wait I'll see you their.
All right here we are in the kitchen today we're going to do some Asian shrimp stir-fry. And the greatest thing about Chinese food or some stir-fry is you can mix and match so many different things really. Today what we are going to do is we are going to do a Bok Choy, a baby bok choy some snow peas, onions of course, and carrots.
What I did with this dish was the shrimp was the most expensive piece, really coming in at about 6.99 a pound. So I bought all bunch of it, a whole pound 6.99. Versus what you might get out of one dish at a Chinese restaurant, or maybe even the bigger ones that you have heard of. You are getting 6.99 for maybe like five pieces of shrimp. While with the pound of shrimp that I have I will tell you that it is no less than 15 or 18 pieces of shrimp.
So let's go heat up the walk I'll show you how to do it, maybe even add some spice, some soy sauce and some marinated chili peppers and really spice it up. Make it may be a four or five on the chili scale. I will see you over there.
Smoke is coming up from that pan oil, and we will go ahead and bring in the garlic and the onions first. The biggest thing is that most Chinese food it is all in the sauce. So I also have some of those fresh chili peppers. That are going ahead and marinating in the soy sauce, and a little bit of sugar. And that is going to go ahead and marinate down real nice, and we will add that in last.
Now the best thing to do is to use your hardy vegetables first, because they are going to take the longest to cook. So I'm going to go ahead and go with the carrots. Now the bok choy and the bean sprouts are going to be in last Ok? And the other than that it is looking really good. Let me go ahead and let it reduced down for a little bit.
That is really cooking up nice there, let me go ahead and grab these snow peas. Pour those in, it is looking good. All right we have the fresh shrimp here; we had them on ice so that way they stayed crisp. And what happens is it really firms up the skin on that shrimp and as soon as you put it in there. It cooks and it turns orange, you know they're ready to go ahead and add all your wilted stuff down, like you're bok choy and your bean sprouts because they are going to be the most water-based vegetable.
Looking like, let me stir that around here real quick, it is very versatile and is very healthy. As a matter of fact I think this whole dish is coming in under 1000 cal and maybe even 800 because I'm going to introduce some fruit on this dish, some nice apples and some oranges of course. And sprinkle that was a little bit of honey and you got a winner.
And other than that I think the last thing to do here is to put in the spice. Now with these red chili peppers, if you want to keep them spicy keep the seeds in. If you don't then go ahead and slice them right down the middle and just deseed them. Put the seeds in the sink and you'll get a little lighter flavor but it depends on how spicy you want it, do you want four-star five-star. You can add up to eight by taking the seeds and out of them and then adding those in to the sauce too, instead of having them inside the pepper itself.
So depending on your tastes go ahead and do whatever you want, I like it really spicy and I think it's really good for the circulation too, so. Now one way to let it reduced really good and makes it like gravy if you will. Like your stand brown sauce is first of all to get some cornstarch, and make it up into a little bit of a ramekin and add some water. And just let that kind of milk together. And you add that in and it's going to really become a creamier sauce all right.
Bok choy and bean sprouts, bok choy really turns a nice bright green and it is really good for you. And this is going to be done right now. Let's go ahead and turn it off the heat. And pour it on a plate and get some rice and the rest is history. See you at the table.
All right we woked it up for you today, and I want to thank Andra Millian to come here, again our registered licenses herbalist and a doctor of Chinese traditional medicine. Thank you for coming I really appreciate you showing up here for the Chinese special.
Andra Millian: So this is a really nice to balanced meal. I love the fruit on the plate these are nice digestive fruits that you can actually have after the meal. The peel will help you digest food.
Joe Dias: Really you can eat the peels?
Andra Millian: You can eat the peels as long as they are clean. Well the sweetness kind of offsets the bitterness. And it is an acquired taste, while the shrimp is wonderful. The shrimp actually in Chinese medicine they say the shrimp helps male fertility. And I think just because of the shape of them I am not sure why.
Joe Dias: I will eat a lot of shrimp.
Andra Millian: They are very good for you; they are a very concentrated protein. You have to make sure not to eat too much because they are quite high in cholesterol for seafood. The snow peas are really good they say for mother's milk.
Joe Dias: Oh for lactating.
Andra Millian: Yeah to just kind of help it, so it is good for moms, onions and garlic very detoxifying too, Chinese food to seafood. And of course we have the brown rice which is a whole grain. And again that's going to break down very slowly as opposed to white rice. It is going to give you a very sustained energy. Lots of veggies here it looks really good.
Joe Dias: Well as far as calorically goes I think I did really well on this one compared to some of the other dishes that maybe I have done. Because this one really came in right around 700 cal. and I am very happy about that. Pricewise not too bad to eating out, again the shrimp is the most expensive thing really. That is what it comes down to, and it can get pricey especially if it is out of season.
So the whole dish as it is presented here is right around four dollars per plate. But then again you get a shrimp stir-fry at a Chinese restaurant especially the chain ones. And you are looking at about $8-$10 per plate. I would say at least the seafood ones. The chicken ones are a little cheaper though when you do seafood it really racks up the price.
Well I'm going to try one of the shrimp here; hopefully it is not too spicy and if you like it let me know.
Andra Millian: Um, it is very good I'm going to try a little bit of the sauce.
Joe Dias: I am going to get some rice in here.
Andra Millian: Mmm, it is good.
Joe Dias: Is it good? Well that is about it for this dish come back again and I'll surprise you with some cheap dishes that are always good for your heart and healthy. Thanks again. Ooh a little spicy.