We’ve all been there. Random halves of bell peppers, almost too floppy celery because let’s face it: who actually eats an entire bunch? An onion that you think might grow an arm soon, that 3/4 of a cabbage that is still left because you only needed a little bit to make another recipe… Well, my friends, the answer is always stir fry. This is honestly one of my favourite things to cook because I rarely have to worry about going to the store for ingredients and I feel good about not having to throw away unused produce. You can do this one with meat (I used two large chicken breasts) or without, if you aren’t using meat just add extra veg and almonds and obviously just skip the part where I cook the meat.

I add whole almonds to this stir fry – but if you’ve got halves, or you’ve only got peanuts in your cupboard, go for it! I love the versatility that comes with cooking! Also, in case you are curious, the veggies I used on this day were: celery (only one stalk), onion (sweet, although I totally prefer purple in a stir fry), bell peppers, cabbage and carrot (had a bag of baby carrots, so chopped them up). Other veggies I really love in stir fry are: broccoli, mushrooms and zucchini. You can also easily add frozen veggies – they are so great to keep in the freezer just in case!!

If you are trying to eat low carb or trying to stay away from them altogether (all the power to you), the veggies are really satisfying on their own, I promise. But obviously rice and noodles are always the best with a stir fry! You can easily add them to your wok or dish them out separately. If you have purple cabbage on hand, I highly recommend mixing the rice/noodles right in with your veggies.. the cabbage will turn them purple and even though I’m closer to 30 than I am to 10, I think purple rice looks pretty cool!

I used Stir Fry Sauce in this recipe, it’s basically just a thick soya sauce, so if you have soya sauce already, go for it! Just scoop all of the nice liquid onto your rice.

Serve right away and keep the leftovers for your lunch the next day! If you don’t actually mix the rice right in before serving, I recommend doing this with leftovers so you can mix it up with the sauce.