TLS kitchen: Turkey breast veggie salad and more!

Tired of the festive meaty, oily meals? It is time to get back to detox and let your digestive system clear up a bit of the mess. 🙂

Ingredients in hand:
Turkey breast meat in slices
Broccoli
Pumpkin
Cooked quinoa
Purple onion
Eggs

I created a salad and fried onion egg roll out of these. What I did was to cook broccoli and pumpkin separately. Crushed the cooked broccoli and mixed with cooked quinoa. Cut pumpkin into small slices and put into salad bowl. Mixed these with the broccoli-quinoa, added Turkey breast slices, mixed them all. Today’s dressing was avocado & garlic dressing. It matched just perfect with the veggie and turkey salad!

Next, chopped the purple onion and fried with eggs. You may do that as scramble egg but I like egg rolls more.

TLS kitchen: warm the festive season by drinking apples & pears

It is not just about keeping in budget but the concept of not wasting food. There are fruit baskets at office and to my surprise not many colleagues would enjoy these “free” fruits even though the company has been offering these for the health of the employees. Alright I know the “trick” here, everybody grabs the bananas cuz they are just too easy and convenient to eat, leaving behind the poor friends apples, oranges and pears.

Don’t wanna let yourself dry out under chilly breezes of the season? While hesitating the hassle of peeling off skins of apples and pears, cut them all into pieces and make fantastic soup out of that. These fruits rich in fibres if you eat in raw actually function to dehydration, soothing your stomach and intestines, and easier for digestion and absorption. Consider adding dried figs (common figs) or fresh ones, corn, dates, or carrots to enhance the taste of the soup. Cooking time: put ingredients into hot boiling water for about 10 mins and change to small-middle level gas fire to cook for 30-45mins.

Prepare yourself (and perhaps with your hubby?) a relaxing brunch for the weekend, serve together bread with cheese and mushroom omelette. Spotlight of the week here is bear almond Christmas cookies from buddy! Yeah!!! 😊

weekend TLS kitchen: quinoa & couscous

As mentioned before, couscous matches with a lot of ingredients and can be served both hot and cold. It just sooooo matched with grill chicken this week.

Mixing it with quinoa and vegetable and doing the mixture the way of fried rice on a frying pan for a while. Add black pepper, sesame oil, Maggi or other “my favorite” sauce. Serve hot.

The japanese fermented beans seaweed salad is another “my favorite”. I know not many people like the taste and texture but they are just fantastic to me, and nutritious. ^^ This week the fermented black beans (said to be especially good for ladies) were mixed with japanese hotspring egg (half-boiled egg)** and seaweed, creating a bowl full of protein and minerals~~

**my way of making japanese hotspring egg:
– egg better be in room temperature. Otherwise, leave it for a while under room temperature after taken out from the fridge.
– boil water with a saucepan. Water level should reach about 3/4 egg. Do not boil the egg in hot water together.
– turn off the gas when water boils. Put the egg into the hot water and leave it there for about 9 minutes.
– after 9 minutes, take it out and rinse with running cold tap water.
– break shell and serve the way you like.

Depending on eggs with different country of origin and the weather, sometimes it takes 10 minutes for the egg to stay in hot water. Try and you’ll see the trick by experience~ ^^

weekend TLS kitchen: quinoa + couscous

 

Something out of the hottest items in my fridge these days: quinoa and couscous.

I don’t have an oven or even microwave home, which I insist out of health concern. But yes I agree at least a small oven will be a good choice or “must-have” in order to expand the variety of my weekend dishes. 🙂

Thanks to the online recipes, which I appreciate so much that they actually help inspiring ideas of cooking. Here are the babies this week:

Herb couscous stuffed tomatoes

– Slice top of tomatoes, remove the inside contents.
– Place cooked couscous in a bowl. Stir and mix with vegetables or herbs, with olive oil. This time I used quinoa and some herbs. Add salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
– Divide couscous mixture between tomato shells, Replace tops or leave it open and serve.

Spinach-quinoa-couscous salad

Slice spinach. Mix with cooked quinoa and stir together with couscous in a bowl. Add salt and pepper. If you like, add a bit of Japanese mayonnaise. Stir to combine and serve.

Quinoa omelet

– Break two eggs and stir to mix them. Add little salt and Pepper, or a shake of Maggi.
– Place cooked quinoa in a bowl. Stir and mix with spinach or herbs, with olive oil. Add salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
– Heat the Japanese square-sized saucepan (special saucepan for frying egg rolls). Add oil. Pour egg liquid into saucepan.
– When you see the bottom layer of egg becoming solid, start putting quinoa mixture on top. Remember don’t be too greedy, or else it will be difficult to do the wrapping and rolling of the egg sheet.
– Slowly roll one side up from the bottom and wrap the quinoa mixture. You can either make it like egg rolls or simply an omelet. In order to keep soft texture of the eggs, do not stay heating it for too long.
– Turn off the heat. Lift it to a nice plate. Add mayonnaise on top. Serve.

You have the right to be lazy but at the same time have quick and nutritious meal. 🙂

Weekend TLS kitchen: grill chicken with couscous

Happened to come across couscous veggie salad at the M&S today and decided to give a try. I can’t remember if i have seen this before though i think this should have appeared at the salad bar at the buffet dinner.

This is what wiki says: (^^) Couscous is a traditional Maghrebian dish of semolina (granules of durum wheat) which is cooked by steaming. It is traditionally served with meat or vegetables stew spooned over it. It is a staple food throughout the North African cuisines.  I would say, it is easy to cook, rich in protein and carbohydrates, and thus, become one of my recent favorites. If you do not feel like having rice or pasta but need something quick and easy, couscous is a good choice.

Let’s forget about the potato onion salad which i chose to encore this weekend. ^^

 

My box of couscous is the instant one, meaning they have once been cooked/steamed and then dried for packaging. Proportion of cooking with boiling water or broth can be 1 cup of couscous:0.7  cup of water/broth to 1:1, depending on how you like the texture. For salad, 1:0.7 or less will be better.

There were some chicken leftover from the party with my lovely colleagues. Put to the oven to grill for a while and they are alive again and juicy enough to make them a perfect match with the couscous. Fluff couscous and mix with sliced or chopped veggie. Add mayonnaise to grilled chicken.  Serve both on one dish and the whole thing just tastes perfect!

weekend TLS kitchen: potato salad with quinoa

For the last two weeks, i’ve been thinking of making potato salad for the weekend.

My weekend is often precious and busy, with schedule easily filled by gym, friends’ tea gathering, shopping, movies, dinners… Sometimes it is not easy to squeeze time for weekly food shopping especially when you just want to get fresh veggie for weekend detoxing.

I mentioned the potato salad again on friday night after the hair cut, and buddy Sandy immediately sent over a highly recommended recipe from youtube which is taught by japanese. Just more than thankful to have good friends like this!! (feeling loved^^)

The japanese recipe for potato salad is indeed attractive and impressive in the way that there are quite a bit of extra effort you need to put in dealing with every single type of ingredients before mixing them together. A potato salad is not just about potatoes. No pain no gain. I always admire japanese on their patience and passion in pursue of perfection. Yet I am only a half-way perfectionist, i would say. XD

Quinoa is another thing i wanted to try. It has become so popular in town following people’s awareness of health and beauty. It is a grain that is used in many South American dishes, is high in protein, high fibre, and is cholesterol and gluten-free. Its mild taste and rich texture make it perfect for different kinds of dishes. There are three types of quinoa: white, red and black. Black is said to be most nutritious though it is harder for chewing, red is in-between while white is softer. Quinoa serves good in both hot and cold dishes, even in drinks! Be brave and creative! It is not really difficult to eat healthy. ^^

Time to share my weekend brunch menu here: ^^

Left upper corner: my C drink (Isotonix multivitamins, vitamin C and joint support mix) – i need better knees and joints for muscle building as well as the upcoming team building sports activities! ^0^

Left lower corner: Kyushu ramen with seaweed (well i felt extremely hungry today after the workout yesterday… body desperates for some carbohydrates.)

Right: Theme potato onion salad with quinoa (I didn’t follow the youtube japanese menu at the end cuz i didn’t have a lot of ingredients in the fridge this weekend. But still i put into practise a bit of the techniques from the video when making this salad. ^^Y)

weekend TLS kitchen: veggie detoxing

TLS (transitional lifestyle) program consists of a variety of nutritional, sports programs and corresponding recipes helping people on achieving self-set health and/or lifestyle targets, including but not limited to weight-losing/gaining, detoxing and establishing healthy daily life, both mentally and physically. If you do according to the rules and be strict to yourself, you will definitely achieve your target. This whole program takes about 12 weeks. For those who do not have the time and courage yet, you are strongly suggested to at least do something over the weekend and holidays and you will feel the difference.

I try not to eat too heavy and “complicated” on weekdays but still… it’s complicated. I don’t feel like eating much or have meat over the weekend but i need some anyway cuz i have been exercising at the same time aiming at gaining some muscles from zero.

To detox doesn’t mean having salad all the time. There’re a hundred ways of cooking and meals with veggie are no longer anything bored.

Weekend signature drink: oatmeals, black sesame, black beans, chia seeds, blueberries, leatherwood honey, mixed with soya milk (note: use blender, and put ingredients you like. it’s fun to “invent” your own signature drink!)

Rice nigiri (rice mixed with tiny slices of veggie) with green & papaya salad.

Japanese seaweed natto(soybeans) mixed with onsen(hotspring) egg. (I sometimes add mushrooms and okra.)

Veggie soup (tomatoes, onion & potato). I did not put more than three cuz the soup tastes sweet enough with these. Feel free to put carrots, pumpkin and other vegetables if you like. How about blending them altogether and create a creamy texture?

Stay creative.
Eat healthy!

weekend TLS kitchen: apple & beetroot salad

Beetroot has become a popular ingredient these days cuz of people’s awareness of the pros of it to human health. There was a big can of it bought sometime ago and was forgotten in the cupboard. Today it was found and i was shock to see it actually expired a few days. Well, canned food should be okay but i would say i was lucky (or it was lucky) or else something good would have been wasted.

So on the day it was found, two apples were again fortunate enough to be accidentally discovered in the fridge and that’s the idea: apple & beetroot salad, without dressing as i normally try to avoid that cuz i love tasting original, simple and healthy.

Feel like detoxing, as i usually call and try to do that to myself, on weekends. 🙂

爸爸的住家菜

媽需要住院檢查的第二天晚上，爸瞄準機會成功搶灘佔據御膳房。

自上班地點搬離巿區，通勤路上除了吃了快活過神仙的速食店和連鎖葯房，就只有地道茶餐廳、地道麵包店和富有街坊味道的店舖。跟逛過十年的鬧市比較，這裡是距離極樂不遠，卻日漸有點憂鬱。慣看了的沒有，吃至生厭其實已經算好吃而從前總嫌不夠好的再沒有，要買各樣東西垂手可得的便利也沒有。上下班來回沒了兩小時，單要從路途上的人海突圍已夠你他媽的碎碎唸千百次。得想回家煮飯做菜已累垮了。

回到家時，平常的大爺化身後備御廚，兩三度菜已做好放著，鍋還在蒸，香氣已急不及待從蓋子四方八面的邊縫蜂湧大嚷“這是雞~~“。爸說他中午及傍晚到過醫院，傍晚探訪後趕回來已經七時，再去買菜燒飯。我著他別趕，下次還是在外面吃免他辛苦。他說在外面要經常苦惱去哪裡、吃甚麼，不及隨心隨意的例牌家常菜。老人家還是最愛有益身心的中式住家飯。

我閱兵般看每度菜，每度也得來不易，菜的顏色有些許欠油，魚的火候過了丁點，蒸雞很好很香，梅菜肉餅以及飯桌靈魂的白飯也不錯。驚喜中帶點愧疚地細意品嘗，嘗到一口口溫馨、感動。

quesadilla toasts

“quesadilla” toasts – inspired by quesadilla.

i did not have proper ingredients at home but desperately wanted something with avocado spread. i thought of the delicious quesadilla once we had at a restaurant in dallas. inspired by quesadilla, these toasts were created out of bread, cheese, spam and my favorite avocado spread, without an oven.

1/ cut the sandwich bread slices in half (two triangles)

2/ heat the frying pan and fry the bread a bit. switch off the stove. place cheese on top of bread to melt the cheese a bit.

3/ place a sheet of aluminium foil inside the bottom of a saucepan. heat the saucepan with lid on for one minute. switch of the stove. this is to create similar effect as an oven.

4/ put slices of spam on top of the cheesed toast. place all toasts into the heated saucepan. lid on. you may switch the stove on and heat a bit more the saucepan like heating an oven.

5/ take out the toasts after 5-10 minutes and  spread the avocado spread on top of each of the toasts. served.

lazy but yummy. that’s the best i could do without a real oven~ ^^;;