Totally going a different direction with this post. Not having a lot of energy, sometimes makes it difficult to eat healthy. Not being well, makes it even more important to eat healthy.
Rice paper wraps have become my go-to. They're quick, easy, delicious, and healthy.
You can put anything in them... someone recommended peanut butter and banana to me, I haven't tried that yet because I don't know how I feel about the consistency, but I will try it eventually.
You can make cold rice wraps, hot ones, pan fried, deep fried, baked. Cold and pan fried are what I usually eat.
Some of my favourite ingredients are sweet potato, onion, the veggies that are in broccoli slaw (PC is my favourite), mushrooms, tofu, eggplant, avocado, black bean noodles... I tried edamame, it was okay, but I wasn't fond of the texture of them inside. They were great on their own with a bit of sriracha though!
My spiralizer (which I bought for $25 at Superstore before Christmas, and they now have on sale for around $13) makes onions, eggplant and sweet potato easy to prep for cooking... although fat sweet potatoes are more difficult to spiralize than the thin long ones.
I choose the veggies I want, sautée or steam them, and then get the rice paper (bánh tráng) ready. I can only find square ones at Superstore, and I find them really flimsy. They don't work that great with my rice paper tray (see: http://www.cuisinivity.com/goodstuff/2012/ricepapertray.php minus the stand) either. I will stick to circular ones from Asian grocery stores in the future, but the ones Superstore sells when in a pinch (They're okay if you don't want to cook them).
You can see how much nicer the circular ones (on the left) turn out when pan fried, versus the square ones (on the right) which liked to fall apart once they hit the heat :(
My favourite dipping sauce for them is a combination of peanut butter, coconut almond milk (Almond Breeze unsweetened Almond Coconut Milk is my normal choice, because I also love it in my tea), sriracha, a splash of soy sauce and grated ginger. I'll sometimes do a splash of orange juice, or rice vinegar if I'm craving a bit of zing. It's also really good with hoisin, which is one of my guilty pleasures in life... but I can't justify the sugar in hoisin since I'm dealing with steroid induce diabetes... thanks prednisone. If you can eat it, I recommend adding it! I also once substituted tahini for the peanut butter, because I had it on hand. It was fantastic, although a pricier option.
I mix it to a creamy consistency, but add more liquid if you prefer it watery. If I'm taking the wraps with me to school or work for lunch, I'll make the sauce thicker, and put it inside the wraps instead of a dip so I don't have such a messy lunch.
When choosing ingredients for the inside, something with a crunch gives it a little bit extra something. Nuts, seeds, shredded carrot, or, I used to not cook the broccoli slaw, when I could eat raw veggies, and it was great. The mix in consistencies is lovely.
Pinterest is full of recipes for rice paper wraps.
Sometimes you need to appreciate the simple things in life. I've had a hard time doing that over the past few months, with all the bad things that have gone on. Having something delicious, affordable and easy to make, is one of the simple things I do appreciate.
