Chicken Veggie Stir-fry

Stir-fry is one of the easiest and healthiest ways to make dinner. The only thing that really takes any time would be the prep with the veggies. That is a must do before you start cooking any stir-fry, veggies and meat must be ready! Although most stir-frys have them, there isn't a need for rice or noodles. As you can see my family and I like having them :).
This stir-fry itself is composed of slices of chicken breast, snow peas, red bell pepper, mushrooms, red onion, green onion, cilantro, fresh ginger and garlic.

The chicken is what was prepped first, sliced thinly, put in a bowl with sesame oil (enough to put a thin coating) and sesame seeds and set aside to let it marinate. Mince about 4 cloves of garlic and a piece of fresh ginger (about the size of your thumb) and set aside. Chop up 1 red onion and put in with the garlic and ginger. Slice the red bell pepper and mushrooms, making them all approx. the same thickness so when you put each in they will cook evenly. Snow peas need to be cleaned and make sure the ends don't have stems and off to the side they go. Green onions are up next to be chopped, leaving out some of the green tops for garnish if you'd like. Cilantro roughly chopped and off to the side.

I tend to put each thing in its own little bowl, this is because you want to put things into the wok/pan in stages. Sesame oil in the pan (needs to be fairly hot, because the point of a stir-fry is to cook everything quickly), add in red onion, garlic and ginger. Chicken goes in next, make sure it's cooked before adding in the rest of the veggies. Bell pepper next, soon after the snow peas.

At this point I put in the ingredients for the sauce. About 3 teaspoons of corn starch in about 6 tablespoons of cold water (mixed up well) and add in soy sauce mixed in a separate bowl then added to the stir fry mixture. When it cooks in with the chicken and veggies it will make the juices from the other ingredients thicken and look shiny and smooth in texture (if you've had oriental food, you will recognize it). After this is all good and done, add in the mushrooms, cilantro and green onions and within a minute or two you should be able to put it in a bowl to the side.

Noodles, I have to tell you the noodles. Whole wheat linguine noodles were used in this particular stir-fry. I know, not exactly Asian, but it is a great substitute if you can't get your hands on any authentic noodles :). I cooked mine, drained and rinsed, first thing before I started cooking the chicken and veggies. After the stir fry was done, I coated the noodles with soy sauce and sesame oil, then took the hot stir fry pan and quickly fried the noodles in it, making sure to keep the noodles moving so they wouldn't stick to the bottom. After you plate the noodles and add the stir-fry mixture on top, it's ready to eat. Enjoy!