Ivy Larson of HotandHealthyLiving Says: Before I was conscious of what I ate I absolutely loved ordering Chinese takeout. Piling a sweet syrupy vegetable stir fry on top of a mound of sticky white rice, I’d be good to go. Then I got into eating a healthy whole foods diet.

The more I learned about nutrition the more I realized my tasty takeout meal was a nutritional disaster. It had all sorts of ingredients I specifically wanted to avoid including pro-inflammatory empty calorie vegetable oils, corn starch, monosodium glutamate, etc (ignorance was bliss!).

As healthy eating became a top priority, I started to order my takeout stir fries “Sally style” (from When Harry Met Sally), steamed, sauce on the side, and brown rice not white rice. This was a great order move from a health standpoint, but my new takeout strategy did nothing for my taste buds. Let’s face it, steamed vegetables over brown rice just isn’t all that good. So I pretty much stopped ordering takeout and stopped eating stir-fries.

I’m not sure why I stopped eating stir-fries though since they are incredibly easy to do right in your own kitchen. The two most important things to making the best stir-fries at home is to make sure you have all of your ingredients prepped and ready in advance and then you want to make sure to get your wok (or pan) super hot before you add a thing.  

Not only is a home-spun stir fry far healthier than takeout, I guarantee it will be much tastier too. My easy whole foods stir fry recipe adds curry for a Thai twist and uses salmon instead of chicken. It’s a dish that bursts with nutrition and flavor, but it’s also one my nine-year old son absolutely loves. I feel pretty confident saying this is a family-friendly stir fry everyone will eat. Best of all, it takes about 15-minutes to prepare…faster than delivery. For a complete meal serve it over steamed brown rice or, for something new, try it over steamed millet.

Whole Foods Recipe: Curried Salmon Stir-Fry

Serves 4

1 pound wild salmon filet, skin removed, cut into 1-inch cubes

1 tablespoon curry powder

sea salt, to taste

1 tablespoon extra virgin coconut oil (such as Barlean’s brand)

 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

 a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger, finely chopped

1 fresh red chile or jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped

2 big handfuls of snow peas

1 orange bell pepper, deseeded and sliced into thin strips

1 red bell pepper, deseeded and sliced into thin strips

1 handful thin asparagus, ends trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

1/4 can coconut milk

A handful of cilantro, chopped

Juice from 1 lime

Toss the salmon cubes in the curry powder to coat all sides. If the curry powder you are using does not contain salt, season salmon with salt.

Heat the extra virgin coconut oil in a large wok over high heat; add the garlic, ginger and chile or jalapeno. Stir fry for 30 seconds. Add the salmon to the wok and cook for a minute or so. Add the snow peas, bell pepper strips, asparagus and coconut milk; cook, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt to taste.

Mix in the cilantro and lime juice. Cook for an additional minute. Serve warm.

**Ivy Larson became interested in following a whole foods diet after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998. She is the author of the Amazon.com #1 best-selling health and wellness book, The Gold Coast Cure, the follow-up Gold Coast Cure’s Fitter, Firmer, Faster Program and the recently launched Whole Foods Diet Cookbook. She has a fourth cookbook scheduled for release next year. Ivy currently runs the HotandHealthyLiving website.

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