Turkey Asparagus Stir Fry

Ryan's longest deployment — eight months to the Western Pacific. Rachel is alone with Caleb (8), Hazel (5), and newly pregnant with their third child. She does not tell Ryan about the pregnancy until he's back. Donna flies out for a month to help.

I sat at the kitchen table Tuesday night writing in the journal. Volume 11 now. The handwriting has not gotten neater. The journals are a record of the life I am living, in the moment, in tiny script that I will look back on someday and not be able to read. That is okay. The writing was the thing.

Wednesday morning meal prep — Sunday afternoon, hours of containers. The freezer is full. The future-me thanks present-me. Donna taught me this routine. Donna's freezer was always full. Donna saved her sanity with quart bags labeled in Sharpie.

I went to the commissary Saturday morning. Got the grocery haul under sixty bucks for the week, which is a small victory. The cashier knows me. We talked about her grandkids while she scanned the chicken thighs and the family-size box of pasta. Small-town energy on a Marine base in California.

Ryan came home tired Wednesday. He showered, ate, sat on the couch, was asleep by eight. Standard for a Marine who has been up since four-thirty for PT and stayed late for a brief. The schedule is the schedule. The body adapts because it has to.

I went for a walk Sunday morning before the kids got up. Half an hour. The fog was burning off. I needed it. Some weeks I get the walk in. Some weeks I don't. The week tells me which.

Ryan's friends came over Friday for a beer. I made wings and chips. They demolished both. Standard Marine appetite — they eat like they are still on rations. The kitchen looked like a battlefield by the end. They cleaned up. Marines clean up. Donna would have been impressed.

Hazel and I had a hard moment Tuesday at homework time. She is in a season of testing limits. We worked through it. We always do. She is mine.

Caleb's school had a fundraiser this week. I baked cookies because I always bake cookies. The cookies were the standard chocolate chip. They sold out in twenty minutes. I am the cookie mom of this PTO and I have stopped fighting it.

Ryan went to his counselor Wednesday. He always comes home calmer. I am calm too, just from him being calm. The man Torres was killed with — Ryan calls his wife twice a year on Torres's birthday and the anniversary. The military widows are their own community.

Reading another military memoir at night. They make Ryan tense. They steady me. We negotiate. He doesn't ask what I'm reading. I don't tell him. The arrangement works.

My therapy session was Tuesday. We talked about the deployment cycle and the way the body holds dread and the ways the body holds it. The hour passed. The work continues. I have been doing this work for years. The work pays.

The PCS rumors are starting again. The official orders will come in a few months. We could move. We could stay. The waiting is the worst part. Three years here and I have learned to not put down deep roots in any military town. Nineteen-year-old me would not have believed how good I have gotten at packing.

Base housing is base housing. Beige walls, beige carpet, beige expectations. The dryer venting is in a stupid place. The kitchen has no dishwasher. We make it work.

I read the blog comments at the kitchen table with my coffee. A young spouse in Lejeune emailed me about deployment cooking. I wrote her back at length. I told her about the freezer. I told her about Donna. I told her she would survive. I sent her three of Donna's recipes.

Donna’s freezer philosophy lives in me every Sunday when I’m stacking containers and labeling bags with a Sharpie — and this Turkey Asparagus Stir Fry is one of the recipes I come back to again and again because it doubles beautifully and reheats without complaint. The week I had this on the menu, Ryan came home wrecked on a Wednesday and was asleep by eight, and the kids and I sat down to this in twenty minutes flat. Practical is its own kind of love in this house. This one’s for the young spouse in Lejeune, too — it’s in the batch of recipes I almost sent her.

Prep Time: 10 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 25 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey (or thinly sliced turkey breast)
1 bunch asparagus (about 1 lb), tough ends trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated (or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger)
3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons neutral oil (canola or vegetable), divided
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
Cooked rice or noodles, for serving
Sesame seeds and sliced green onions, for garnish

Instructions

Make the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and the cornstarch slurry. Set aside.
Cook the turkey. Heat 1 tablespoon of neutral oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the ground turkey and cook, breaking it up, until browned and cooked through, about 6–7 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Stir fry the vegetables. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil to the same pan. Add the asparagus and bell pepper and stir fry over high heat for 3–4 minutes, until the asparagus is bright green and just tender but still has a bite. Add the garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes and cook for another 30 seconds until fragrant.
Combine and sauce. Return the cooked turkey to the pan. Pour the sauce over everything and toss to coat. Cook for 1–2 minutes, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens and everything is glazed.
Serve. Spoon over rice or noodles. Garnish with sesame seeds and green onions. Serve immediately, or let cool and portion into containers for the week.

Nutrition (per serving)

Turkey Asparagus Stir Fry — The Weeknight Meal That Keeps This Family Fed