Ask the produce man at the store to open a package for you and give you just one pepper or whatever. Sometimes they can do that, and that would be a policy that would attract me as a customer.

I agree with you. I have not done it in a while because of the prep time and chopping which I can't do myself now. We love it but there's always a ton left over, but we have it for the next night. It's good heated up. I have not tried freezing it before.

I agree with satine. I often use the salad bar at the grocery store a few counties over. In my little town we don't have such a nice grocery but I do take advantage when I get to the BIG city. :)

Is there an independent fruit/vegetable store near you? We have a couple near us and everything is sold separately. The one near my mom's even has the vegetables precut and packaged for stir-fry which they have done themselves as opposed to something done where ever.

I can buy one green pepper at the market downtown, but because it's a small market produce is costly. I got the ingredients for my stir fry at Aldis this afternoon. I walked out with all I mentioned, except carrots which I had and the rice, for $22. I also had a box of Prianno's froz. eggplant Parmesan and a big bag of trail mix and a bag of grapes. Down at my small town market the cost would have been double that. Unfortunately Aldis packages produce in twos and threes. I wanted a red pepper but you had to buy a bag of six(?), yellow, orange, and red together. Only $2.49, but I didn't need or want all that.

blfenton, there are groceries near here that do the pre-packaged stir fry too. I've tried it before, not bad; but I end up buying a couple more ingredients to add to it. One market stopped doing that because it wasn't selling fast enough and the contents of the packages would spoil.

I might try the salad bar next time.

I stopped doing a variety of vegetables. I do either broccoli, asparagus, Chinese pea pods, or baby bok choy, depending on the meat that I'm using.

I also sometimes just buy broccoli and peapods and just do broccoli and chicken or beef stir fry.

I buy the microwave brown rice at Costco, six containers per box. Each container makes two servings. Trader Joe's sells most of their produce by the piece and instead of cabbage, I buy the broccoli slaw. It's good in stir-fry, but it's also great raw on a salad.

Frozen veggies are as good as fresh, so you might try those. I'm single and eat a lot of stir fry. I also shop at Aldis so I know what you mean about the packaging. Aldi does have some big bags of frozen mixed veggies that are a real bargain. I have no problem bagging my extra stir fry and warming it up the next day.

My stir fry is usually: cabbage, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, green pepper, and sometimes water chestnuts, and chicken if I want meat. Yellow squash or zuchini is good too.

Broccoli slaw? great idea. I use Chinese cabbage or boc choy sometimes too.

I love leftover stir fry, and even the cooked portions that I freeze and reheat in the microwave taste great to me. Now the frozen raw veggies that I take from the freezer straight into the wok are ok, can become a little soggy, not my favorite, but it taste alright.

Our local store has started carrying 1 lb bags of small orange and red sweet peppers and has had bulk white mushrooms for quite some time.. The most recent stir fry I made had 4 mini peppers, 2 white mushrooms, a third of a head of broccoli, a small yellow onion and 1/2 lb of chicken breast. I actually used 1 1/2 packages of ramen noodles rather than rice

The small peppers work well because the unused peppers keep for much longer than a half of a full-sized pepper would.

I've often looked at the broccoli slaw and wondered what it would be like in a stir-fry. I will have to give it a try.

I buy a bag of prepared stir fry from Sam's Club. There's enough in the bag to fill a large skillet twice and there are 2 packets of sauce. I put on a little olive oil, dump in a half bag of stir fry veggies, and if I want a bit more, I might dice up some luncheon meat and toss in. Heat for the recommended time. Near the end of the fry time, add the sauce and stir. If you want to add a bit of zing, add a little of your favorite pepper sauce. If you use Tabasco, go easy with that stuff until you experiment to find out your likeable level.

Yes, there is such a thing as a "little bit of stir-fry" and you can make enough for one or two by following a simple ratio of ingredients. I have a meal plan where I place stir-fry on Wednesday's menu. I use vegetables (and often leftover meat) from the previous two or three days of meal preparation (if I'm chopping vegetables for Monday's meal - I'll just do enough for subsequent meals at the same time), occasionally I'll add something from the freezer, and I also use rehydrated freeze-dried veggies in stir fry - but any and all of those choices will work.

I figure 2-3 ounces of meat per serving along with 3/4 to 1 cup of vegetables per serving, and 1/2 a cup of rice on the side. Use a ratio of ingredients that fits your serving size requirements. I sprinkle it with lemon pepper if I want to skip the sauce, or adapt a favorite sauce to this small amount.

have you tried freezing your own veggies for stir fry? Onions and peppers freeze well for cooking. Cooked rice freezes well too. I usually cook extra rice when I make it, then freeze the extra, because it takes forever to cook here in Colorado Springs. I like grainlady's ideas too. Chop a little extra of the vegies you have during the week, then cook them in your stir fry.

Yes, I do. Like I said, I freeze all leftover raw veggies including the cabbage, in one big bag. Always freeze any leftover rice from meals if I don't eat it the next day.

Also if I find a deal on green peppers, like for instance 5 for $2, at of all places Drug Mart(!), I use what I need right away, then clean and dice all the remaining peppers and put into a freezer bag. They are great for when you need them in recipes. Same with onions if I think I'm not going to use them before they go bad. And celery - that is great to dice up and freeze later for soups, etc.

Chicken is my favorite in stir fry, but I also do shrimp.

Reading schoolhouse's initial post makes me realize how fortunate some of are in the grocery stores that we have. I am quite spoiled by the expansive produce section at Kroger, for example, where I can purchase mushrooms and almost everything else by as little or as much as I wish.

Regarding stir fry, which I concoct often, the remaining portions of any fresh vegetables I use will soon disappear in the form of omelettes, fritattas, soups, stews, or salads. No speck of vegetable matter goes to waste in my kitchen, lol.

Schoolhouse, I typically write the meals I'm planning to fix on my grocery list, rather than every single ingredient. That one big head of cabbage will be used for the stir fry, slaw, and soup that I'll make that week.

Find friends.

Invite 'em over to share the meal - a lot more fun.

ole joyfuelled ... not often fuelled also by stir-fry