Freezer full

Well, the day has come and the lamb has arrived. Was the freezer empty enough? Just.

We live on a farm and got to witness the magic and madness of lambing in April this year. One of my friends even came up for Sunday lunch and delivered her first lamb just before sitting down to eat. Not bad for a vegetarian from the town! Anyway, we now have half a lamb in our freezer that has been running around the fields nearby since April, and although some might not like the thought, I sincerely look forward to eating the meat. I know that these are lambs that have been well looked after and have had a fabulous start in life, but similarly we can't all afford to buy the organic or free range meat that we like. I will savour every piece of lamb that we eat knowing that this is a luxury.

Sermon aside, it's been a busy week and my stock of freezer meals have been invaluable in making sure we are eating good food with minimum work. However, Wednesday I finished early enough to make a meal from scratch and we enjoyed a stir fry. If, like me, you watch the programs on television that show someone trying to change their eating lifestyle, stir fries are often mentioned as being a good family meal to adopt. The reality can be a little daunting. I've been lucky, when I was a teenager my dad had to make changes to his diet and one of the meals that my mum introduced to our diet was stir fries, so I was able to watch her prepare them. Since meeting my husband our stir fries have changed to reflect his tastes, he doesn't like the ready-made sauces you can buy in the supermarket, so the recipe below is our version of a stir fry. The list of ingredients may look long but it's quick and easy to put together.

Pork stir fry (feeds two adults and a toddler)

Large frying pan with lid

2 pork steaks

Drizzle olive oil

1 carrot

1 onion

2 handfuls broccoli

2 handfuls sprouts

1 red pepper

1 lemon

Flavourings: chopped chilli, chopped garlic, chopped ginger (all freezer standbys bought from supermarket), soy sauce, honey

1. Chop pork into small strips. Chop vegetables into small strips, try to keep them small but more importantly the same sort of size. Zest the lemon and cut the lemon into quarters. I try to take the pips out as I wouldn't like to chomp on one whilst eating my dinner.
   
2. Fry pork on high heat – you will need a splatter guard or lid at this point. Once pork is starting to look cooked through add all of the vegetables, lemon zest, lemon quarters and half a glass of water and put the lid on the frying pan. It's important to have the frying pan hot as this will help create steam. You have a choice of when to add the chilli, garlic or ginger, either at this stage, or a little later when the vegetables are more steamed through.
   
3. Once vegetables are nearly cooked – about 5 – 10 minutes depending on how small you chopped them – add a drizzle of honey and a decent slosh of soy sauce. Allow to cook for a few minutes.
   

This is another meal that you can enjoy with a variety of contents, and I also use it as an opportunity to clear the fridge out of left over vegetables. If you don't like pork, this recipe works just as well with other meats, we like chicken, or add another vegetable to make it vegetarian. We served ours with some cooked noodles which our son loved trying to get into his mouth.