orange ginger un-fried stir fry

it is the middle of my (last) spring break as a grad student!  and while the rest of the campus is off to sunnier lands, bronzing themselves under tropical sunlight, i have been content to stay home trying to get some balance back into my life.  i haven't really kept up much with blogging since the semester started off with a bang, so now i finally get a chance to catch my breath.  but enough about school!  this is a blog about food, not about the pitiable existence of a miserable graduate student.

and speaking of balance, i feel extremely topsy turvy, as most of my time this semester has been spent in the library instead of in the kitchen.  so last night jordan and i made a pact to cook a delicious meal together, so this is what we came up with:

lovingly adapted from vegetarian times, behold: orange ginger un-fried stir fry

disclaimer: you all should know by now that i am not an exact-measurements kind of girl.  except when it comes to the delicate art and science that is baking, i say experiment all you want!  the amounts i give are just guidelines, because honestly, i really don't have any idea how much of everything i used. the same goes for the ingredients themselves.  the recipe we used as a guide just included tofu and baby bok choy, but we added some other things we had in our fridge that we didn't want to go to waste.  cooking is about being creative and adapting to your own tastes, after all!

ingredients:
4 head of baby bok choy, chopped, rinsed, and drained
baby carrots, julienned
1 small piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 package extra-firm tofu (i use the pre-cubed kind, as i find it to be a time and prep-space saver)
handful bean sprouts
~1 tbsp coconut oil (or your favorite mild cooking oil)
orange marmalade (we used St. Dalfour Orange Ginger marmalade...it was perfect for this dish!)
soy sauce
water
1 pkg. thin rice noodles


method:
in a small bowl, whisk together marmalade and soy sauce.  cut it with a little sprinkle of water.  adjust proportions to taste.

bring a large pot of water to a boil.

in a wok, heat the coconut oil over high heat (but watch the pan carefully, as coconut oil tends to burn quickly).  add ginger and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes.  add the tofu and saute until brown.  add the carrots and stir well.  saute until carrots begin to soften.

add the bok choy and stir well to integrate.  once the bok choy begins to wilt, add almost all of the soy sauce and marmalade mixture.  continue to stir, over low heat.  add bean sprouts (if using) last.

add the rice noodles to the boiling water.  cook for 1-2 minutes, quickly drain and rinse, then return noodles to the pot.  pour remaining sauce over the noodles and stir well.

serve immediately, plating the noodles first then the tofu and vegetables on top. garnish with sesame seeds.

enjoy!
-molly.