Easy High-Protein Stir Fry You Can Make in 12 Minutes

One of the most commonly cited excuses for not eating healthier is lack of time. People claim that they don’t have the time to cook, so they buy a frozen meal to microwave or purchase some takeout instead. The problem is that a lot of the articles that argue against this, often say “hey you DO have time to cook, why not try this high protein meal here? It only takes 60 minutes.” This is not helpful. We get it. First, it’s patronizing as hell, and second 60 minutes is a long time to cook. Sure, you could batch cook your food, therefore creating 5 meals in 60 minutes rather than 1 meal (bringing down the average cooking time per meal to just 12 minutes), but it still involves a lot of planning and effort.That is why we are going to create a high protein, healthy meal, that can actually be completed in 5 minutes. Be warned though, if you’re not a lazy person, then this might not be for you. This recipe was created by the laziest person in the world and is intended to help their fellow lazy brethren. If the idea of pre-chopped meat and veggies disgusts you then look away now (or alternatively chop your own damn food, you slacker).

Ingredients

• 500g turkey/chicken breast pre-chopped.
• 1 pack of stir fry vegetables pre-prepared
• 1 cube frozen ginger
• Soy Sauce (use as much as you need)
• 2 Packs Pre Prepared Noodles
• Cooking Spray

Serves: 2 meals for 2 people, or 2 meals for one greedy person!

Method

You will need a wok or very large frying pan to cook everything in. Woks are better because they are thinner which means they heat up much faster (saving you precious seconds), and they are also designed to hold a lot of food without everything spilling out whenever you stir it.Place your wok or frying pan on your stove top after spraying with cooking spray (alternatively you can use cooking oil, but remember that 1tbsp contains 120 calories). Add the cube of frozen ginger in the wok and then toss in the pre-chopped chicken. Brown off the chicken and add in the stir-fry vegetables, stirring constantly. Add in the pre-prepared noodles and then cover everything in Soy Sauce. Stir like crazy and then leave it for a couple of minutes until everything has cooked. Serve immediately.

Calories and Macros

Everyone is different, so they will all have different calorie requirements. As we mentioned in the ingredients section, this meal can feed 2 people twice, but it could also feed one person twice depending on their calorie needs. But we’ll go with the average serving size here, which means that the entire recipe is 4 servings. Our calories and macros will reflect this. We won’t include the values for the Soy Sauce, ginger, or cooking spray because they are so low in calories it wouldn’t be worth it.

Total: (calories 406, 42.1g protein, 5.4g fat, 46.1g carbs)

• 125g Chicken Breast (132 calories, 30g protein, 1.4g fat, 0g carbs)
• 100g Stir Fry Veg (53 calories, 2.5g protein, 1.9g fat, 5.1g carbs)
• 150g Straight to Wok Noodles (221 calories, 9.6g protein, 2.1g fat, 41g carbs)

Substitutions

Obviously, this meal is all about time and health, and it probably doesn’t do much justice to the proud history of Chinese cuisine. There are many ways that you could immediately upgrade it (using fresh chilies, ginger, garlic, spring onions, and properly prepared noodles would all help).

You could find a better sauce than the Soy Sauce that this recipe uses and you could use different types of meat. That’s what is so great about the stir-fry, you can find endless variations and they’re all nice and quick and healthy. Bottomline: This is one versatile high protein stir-fry that you won’t get bored with and will fit into any healthy diet.