20 Minute Thai Chicken Whatchamacallit

There's this guy named Gal Josefsberg who writes a blog about healthy eating and how he's lost nearly a hundred pounds by experimenting with various diets and following some simple rules. His 5 Rules of Eating Healthy make a lot of sense:

#1 Variety Counts
#2 The 100 Year Test
#3 Think 1/2, 1/4, 1/4
#4 The 20 Minute Rule

According to Josefsberg, the 20 Minute Rule is based on research that shows ...

"eating fast is one of the worst mistakes you can make. It’s right up there with not getting enough sleep or not eating a healthy breakfast. So now I follow a different rule. I try to eat a bit of food and make it last at least 20 minutes. If it didn’t last 20 minutes then I make myself wait until the whole 20 minutes are up before I even think about taking seconds. I also eat slower, trying to savor the sensation and the flavors a bit more."

Of course this all sounds familiar, right? It's one of the tenets of the Slow Food movement. Slow Food is an international non-profit founded ...

"to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world."

It's a philosophy we embrace. But let's face it. There are days it just doesn't work in our life!

Today was cuh-RAZY! Started with the alarm clock at 6 a.m., dropping kids at school by 7:45, to work by 8:15 with then too many deadlines and too little time. Left work at 2:50. Pick up first kid from school at 3:25 and second kid at 3:35 (Hannah's still home sick).

Had to run a quick errand and knew we wouldn't be home till 4:15. Faced with the knowledge that we'd have to leave the house by 5:00 to get the theatre, there were two choices: more fast food (ugh!) or Fast Family Food. The latter, it is:

01:00 -- fill pot with water, add rice and boil
02:00 -- take Publix Greenwise chicken cutlets out of package and put in pan w/a bit of olive oil

05:00 -- slice red pepper, onions, mushrooms. Add to pan.

07:00 -- add Whole Foods Spicy Thai marinade (free when we bought that pound of fish for Tilapia Pitas earlier in the week)

09:00 -- reduce temperature and simmer the stir fry.

20:00 -- plate the "20 Minute Thai Chicken Whatchamacallit"

Scarf, Scarf, Scarf. Yes, we had to down the dinner in 10 minutes. But, hey... it was better for us and better tasting than this!

Reviews:

Chef Tanya -- (see above)

Jason -- It was a little greasy, but serviceable.

Olivia -- I thought it was really good!

Hannah -- Is this is same rice as in the bucket in the pantry? Because this rice is a different color. Why does the sauce have to get all over everything?!?


By the way, you might be saying 'bout now, "Wait! Gal's 5 Rules of Eating Healthy must have five rules. What's number 5?"

It's a simple, but good one: "Am I Hungry?" Are we eating because we're hungry or because we're stressed? Tired? Bored? Often (for us, at least) it's yes... yes... yes...

An important thing to remember in our Adventure in Mindful Living.