Spicy Thai Eggplant Stir Fry! Spice up your midweek meals with this simple dish made even quicker by using a Trader Joe's freezer item! Turn one little package into a hearty meal by adding just a few extra ingredients.

Happy Trader Joe's Tuesday! {I'm making it a thing, although I can totally hear Regina George saying, "Stop trying to make 'fetch' happen."} Last week, I shared my first recipe of the series, and showed how I often take a few simple ingredients from TJ's and turn them into a full-fledged meal for the family.

Today, I'm sharing a recipe that has become part of the weekly menu rotation -- Spicy Thai Eggplant Stir Fry. Using Trader Joe's Spicy Thai Eggplant with Thai Basil frozen meal as a foundation, I'm able to toss together a simple and fairly nutritious stir fry in minutes on even the longest of days.

You might be wondering why one would bother to add anything to one of the items that is sold as a stand-alone meal and not just zap that sucker in the microwave and call it a day. For us, it all boils down to serving size and nutritional value.

Spicy Thai Eggplant Stir Fry

If you're not familiar with Trader Joe's Spicy Thai Eggplant frozen meal, let me tell you about this piquant powerhouse; it's a fairly simple dish made of green eggplant, Thai basil, soy sauce, and red chili peppers. Though the description on the package insinuates that it's mildly spicy, Steve and I have both agreed that it packs a fiery punch. {Meanwhile, I find that their "spicy, spicy" Zhoug Sauce lacks in the heat department, so I'm not sure who is in charge of rating the spiciness of their products!}

One thing that is doesn't pack, however, is heft. While there are supposedly 2 servings per package, I've found that unless you plan on adding on a side dish, it isn't enough to fill one hungry man... let alone a man and his {also hungry} wife. After buying it several times, I finally came up with a way to transform this dish into a meal for two that keeps everyone satisfied and also adds flavor and extra nutrition to the mix.

Ingredients to Help Stretch A Frozen Meal

As I mentioned, the portion size of this meal is minimal, in our opinion, so here's what I add to bulk it up:

Broccoli. It's our go-to vegetable and something we always have on hand! Since Trader Joe's has such decent pricing, I even spring for the pre-chopped broccoli to shave down prep time when I'm making weekly meals.
Zucchini. Even though the main event in this frozen meal is eggplant, zucchini actually imitates the texture and gives the illusion that there's more than just a few small pieces to go around. It also does a great job of absorbing the spicy sauce.
Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce or TJ's Coconut Aminos Seasoning Sauce. This dish includes a light sauce, but I found that I prefer adding a little more, especially since I'm tossing in other ingredients that will soak it up. Since I'm usually trying to find ways to make our meals gluten-free for my husband, I often use tamari in place of soy sauce. I have, however, used coconut aminos in its place as well, and found it to be a decent substitute, although the flavor is more sweet than salty to me. In this case, the meal already included soy sauce among the ingredient list, so it's not going to be 100% gluten free regardless of what you use. {My husband avoids gluten due to a sensitivity to it, but doesn't have celiac or any serious symptoms from eating gluten, so he's usually ok with me making this even though it's not truly GF.} It's also a bit high in sodium, so if you're sensitive to salt, you may want to add some low sodium veggie broth instead.
TJ's Brown Rice Spaghetti. Since Trader Joe's doesn't carry brown rice pad thai-style noodles, I use their Organic Brown Rice Spaghetti Pasta and it works just fine. If you don't have any gluten issues, feel free to substitute this with regular spaghetti. Alternatively, you can serve this dish with quinoa or rice if you're not feeling like noodles.
Cashews. I love adding nuts to the top of a rice noodle recipe like this one. It gives the otherwise soft dish a little extra texture and crunch and adds healthy fats, too. Not to mention, they're just delicious! If you don't like them or have allergies, just omit.
Basil. Fresh herbs really brighten up dishes, especially ones like this that have a component that was once frozen. While this dish already has Thai basil in the ingredient list that I think is noticeable in the flavor, it is wilted, so I like adding a bit of fresh basil to help the basil flavor & color "pop."

Ingredients for Spicy Thai Eggplant Stir Fry

As far as alternatives go for those of you who don't have a TJ's close by, I'm not quite sure what to recommend in place of the Spicy Thai Eggplant. I'm sure you could cook up some fresh eggplant and toss in some chili peppers and it wouldn't be terribly difficult, but I can't say I've ever personally tried it. If you happen to give it whirl, please report back!

How to Prepare Spicy Thai Eggplant Stir Fry

Admittedly, "semi-homemade cooking" is not exactly "on brand" for me, BUT, I know that many of us -- even those of us who strive to put home-cooked dinners on the table every night -- can use a helping hand from time to time {or all the time} when we're in a time crunch or are just plain exhausted. One of the reasons this particular frozen meal caught my eye was because the ingredients don't include a bajillion chemicals and weird things, which I appreciate.

The method I use to cook this is quite simple: I put the frozen block in a skillet with a few tablespoons of water, and let it thaw out. I then add the soy sauce to create a bit more sauciness, and then toss in the fresh veggies and let them simmer/steam until they're fork tender. Meanwhile, I make the brown rice pasta or rice noodles if I'm using those. {Pad thai noodles take just a few minutes to cook, which is nice if you're dealing with a hangry crowd.} Once they're cooked, I stir them into the eggplant and vegetable mixture. The starch from either type of noodles actually helps to thicken the sauce a bit, which I like. If it remains too watery, I crank up the heat and let it reduce until the right sauciness is achieved.

Right before serving, I add some chopped cashews and fresh basil and voila dinner is served. Doesn't get much easier. {Unless you don't add anything to the frozen meal and zap it in the microwave. Ha.}

Feel like you need some protein on your plate? This happens to go great with cooked shrimp {you can actually toss frozen or fresh shrimp in at the same time as the vegetables and cook them all together}, grilled chicken or pork, or even tofu.

For next Trader Joe's Tuesday, I think I might do a completely "from scratch" recipe using their ingredients, but don't worry: I promise not to stray too far from the two words that keep you coming back for more of these -- quick and easy!