Warm spinach salad with shrimp

This is a quick improvised salad that I made yesterday. This is inspired by the traditional bacon spinach salad. I didn't have bacon but did have about a pound of shrimp in the refrigerator so I just improvised. The result is not bad :-)

First I marinate the shrimp with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, some parsley and chopped some garlic

Then I put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and heat it at low heat. Cook the garlic until fragrant, then add the shrimps,  you may need to do this in two batches. turn the heat to high and cook it for 2 minutes. These are small shrimps so it doesn't take long. Don't over cook the shrimp. You can undertook a bit since even after you remove it from the pan the residual heat will continue the cooking process.

Put about 8 oz of spinach in a big mixing ball, then add 8 sliced mushrooms, some sliced black olive. Add 2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of vinegar (I use my passion fruit sauce that I made the other day), some muster and mix a dressing. Toss the salad with the shrimp and serve. The warm shrimp will wilt the spinach a little. I served with some avocado.

PS. After cooking the shrimp there is quite a bit of liquid in the pan. I save it to make shrimp rice. 1 lb was too much shrimp for Fernando so I use half of the shrimp for the rice. To make the rice, I put 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the same pan, then I add about 1 once of chopped prosciutto, or any cured ham (Sometimes Central Market sell ends of prosciutto for at half of the price, we I see them, i buy a few and use them for cooking) then I add 2 tablespoon of sofrito and 1 cup of rice. Then I add the liquid from cooking the shrimp and complete the rest with chicken broth so I had 1 and 3/4 cup of liquid. I add the liquid to the rice, let it boil, covered and cooked for 10 minute at medium low heat, then mix the rice, turn the heat to the lowest setting for another 10 minutes. When the rice is done. I add in the shrimps and mix it well.

Short 20 min Interval cardio workout plan

This week I'm doing an experiment on the effectiveness of short interval cardio. I know a lot of us rather workout less if we can still get the same result. I mean why spend one hour on the treadmill if you can get the same result by working out say 20 minute.

But the question is, can you get the same result by working out less? Well this is the point I try to find out this week. So far for the last 8 weeks I have been under the assumption that more is better. So I have been consistently doing cardio for 60 minutes 6-7 days a week and on top of that I have been trying to do strength training 3 times a week. However that needs serious time commitment and I wonder if why I get busy I find myself an excuse that I don't really have the time to go to the gym. Another downside of long workouts is the possibility of injury and wear an tear of our joins.

My new cardio consist of the following formula which I learned when I was doing body for life 10 years ago. I will give this combo 2 weeks to test the result. I'm still doing cardio 6 days a week in the morning and weights 3 times at night because I tried to do the cardio after weights and it just doesn't work. It is too intense of a work out and my body just didn't have the energy.

Effort 5 should be easy get your heart rate going but you should be able to be at this difficulty for extended period of time. When I started body for life level 5 is like 3 mph speed on treadmill. I'm at 4 mph now

On treadmill
Minute 1    level 5.   4mph
Minute 2.   Level 5.  4mpr
Minute 3.  Level 6.   4.5mpr
Minute 4.   Level7.   5mpr
Minute 5.   Level 8.  5.5mpr
Minute 6.   Level 9.  6mpr
Minute 7.   Level 6.  4.5mpr
Minute 8.   Level 7.  5mpr
Minute 9.   Level 8.   5.5mpr
Minute 10.  Level 9.  6 mpr
Minute 11.  Level 6.  4.5mpr
Minute 12.  Level 7.  5mpr
Minute 13.  Level 8.  5.5mpr
Minute 14.  Level 9.   6mpr
Minute 15.  Level 6.   4.5mpr
Minute 16.  Level 7.   5mpr
Minute 17.  Level 8.   5.5mpr
Minute 18.  Level 9.   6mpr
Minute 19.  Level 10 6.5mpr all out( you should be in heart zone 5 now really super intense for me was like 175-180 hr)
Minute 20. Level 5 cool down

Around minute 15 is really tempting to give up but resist the temptation and you will feel greate at the end.

You should adjust your levels according to your own body. You can start at level 5 be equivalent to 2mpr and increase say .2. Notice your work out if you feel you can do more then add a little higher intensity next time. If its too hard reduce it (start slowly you can always slowly add more)it may take a few try to get it just right and from that point on you will need to increase it periodically (once a week would be good) because you will get stronger. If the pace gets too fast you can increase the difficulty from increasing the incline setting.

I find it useful to write down ahead what I'm doing in my notebook and have that in front of me when I workout so I don't get confused. My average hr from this 20 minute workout is 155 as oppose to one hr on treadmill I'm usually at average of 130-140hr range

Pork chop with port and fig sauce and butternut squash with sage,walnut and sage

The inspiration for this dish came from the ravioli dish in enoteca, an Austin Italian bistro. It's homemade ravioli with butternut squash in a sage butter sauce garnished with candid walnuts and browned pancetta bits. I have made this same dish at home with my Italian pasta maker, but since we are not eating pasta now, I though why not change the form but still keep to flavor profile since they go so well together. It worked out great!

Butternut squash mash

1) I had to feed 6 people at dinner so I used 2 packets of the precut organic butternut squash from Costco. I really like this product because cutting butternut squash or any winter squash is not an easy task. If you must do it make sure you wear gloves because it can make your hands really sticky. I roasted two trays of butternut @ 400 degree convection for 30 - 45 minutes. Brush them with some olive oil and salt and pepper? I  think 1 pack is plenty for 4 people

2) the butternut squash is very watery so even after roasting if you mash all of it, it will be soggy. I recommend only mashing 1/2 of the butternut and let the other half be in its cube format. It will give the dish more texture.

3)in a dry pan at medium heat toast 1/2 cup of walnuts for 5 min. Shaking the pan occasionally and make sure it doesn't burm the walnuts. Take out the walnut and let it cool the, chop it.

3)  wash the sage leaves, and dry the, well between paper towels. Heat up about 3 tablespoons of butter at low heat in the same pan you toasted the walnuts. When the butter start bubbling carefully put in the sage. Flip them carefully so they are toasted but not burnt. Take out the sage and turned off the heat immediately. Make sure butter is not burned. Add the butter to the butternut and fold it in gentle and evenly.

4) to serve, add a cup of the butternut and garnish with 2 sage leaves, 1-2 tablespoons of walnut, a teaspoon or 1/2 teaspoon of maple syrup. This is a dynamite combination of flavor.

Pork chop with port and fig reduction

This recipe will yield about 2 and 1/4 cup of sauce. Obviously you don't need that much, you can freeze each 1/2 a cup or 3/4 cup  in plastic sandwich ziplock and defrost it next time you cook any kind of pork. I think it should go well with turkey as well.

1) put in a sauce pan 2&1/2 cup of port wine(a sweet desser wine) and 1&1/4 cup of low sodium organic chicken broth. Add to it, 8 dry figs roughly chopped, 2 springs of rosemary, 2 stick of cinnamon 1 tablespoon of honey. Bring to boil and keep in medium high heat for 30 minutes until it reduces by half. Take out the rosemary and cinnamon and blend it in the blender adding 2 tablespoon of butter to it.

Celebration meal Puerto Rican serenata de bacalao

I have been strategically waiting for today after the weight in to make this delicious Puerto Rican dish :). Since I got such surprisingly good result last week, I felt no guilt to eat my portion of Serenata. This salad full of tropical root veggies dried cod is either low carb nor low calorie but its damn good.

Dry cod should be soaked in plenty of water over night changing the water 2 or 3 times to drain out the salt so its not overly salty. This salad could serve 5 -6 as part of the meal, or 4 for large entree. You will need:
1 lb of bacalao or salted cod (buy the one from Canada or USA if you can, not the ones from China)
1 small yuca root
1 lb of taro (4 small taros)
2 medium green plantain
1/2 onion
1 avocado
2 eggs,
1 tomato
8 green stuffed olives
4 Tablespoons of olive oil
Salt pepper

Peel the plantin, taro and yuca. You must use gloves for this endeavour. or else you will end up with itchy hands.

Yuca, plantain and taro each has different cooking time. So it is best to cook them separately or add them to the same pot at different times. Boil water in another pot for the bacalao. That pot should not have added salt. Once the water boils, add the bacalao and simmer for 4 minutes. Take it out and let it cool.
Add a pinch of salt in a pot with water for boiling the veggies.. Plantain takes the longest about 20 minutes (even if you cut it in 1 inch disks as shown above), Yuca takes 17 minutes, and taro (don't need to cut, just the whole thing) takes 15 minutes. At the last 5 minutes of cooking time add 2 eggs. Once time is up promptly remove the veggies and put the egg in a ice bath. Then peel. It should give you a semi running egg yolk.

While the veggies are boiling you can prepare the salad. I had some left over iceberg lettuce from last time (when I made lamb kafta) so i slice it and put it in the salad. Slice the avocado and tomatoes.

Add the egg, yuca, diced taro, and plantains. Add the bacalao and olive oil. You can add a little of vinegar and adjust salt and pepper. I served myself 65 grams of yuca, 65 grams of taro, 65 gram of plantain, 1/4 avocado, 1/4 tomato, 2 olive, 3 oz of bacalao and 1/2 a egg. The nutritional breakdown is:
592 calories,67 g carb, 25 g of fat, 29 g of protein and 11 g of sugar.

Jose says Serenata de Bacaloa is one of his favorite puerto rican food.

PS: 10 minutes after I finished I feel really sleepy :P i think my body is not used to such carb overdose. I have to watch out tonight. This is not something we can eat regularly for sure. lol

Even better than expected 3rd weight in results (week #2)

I woke up early to go to the gym to get my measurements as part of the 90 day challenge. It has been exactly 2 weeks since I started the challenge and here is my latest results! Drum roll please...

Weight: this week is 128.5, last week was 132.1 that's 3.6 lbs! 2 weeks ago my weight was 134. That is 5.5 lbs in 2 weeks! When I started in January 3rd i weighted 136

Body fat percentage: this week is 28.8 %;last week was 27.8 % and two weeks ago was 31.7. Since the challenge I have lost 2% body fat January 3rd my body fat was 32.8%

Body Measurement wise since January 3 rd
I lost 2.5 inches in my waist, 2 inches in my hip, 2 inches at lower waist (around belly button) I can't wait to try on the black dress I brought from Zara last year that was too tight and see how it fit now

This is also second week of my low carb journey. Except the very first two days, I really feel good and ate delicious nutritious meals that didn't make me feel deprived. Even my old favorite thing rice, has lost it's attraction ;)

Here are some of my observations:

1) dietary fat doesn't translate to body fat. During these last two weeks I tracked meticulously everything that enters my mouth and I can say with certainty that my fat intake (both saturated and unsaturated from plant say coconut oil, or animal say fat on ribeye and butter) did not cause me to gain fat rather I lost fat. Our daily calories from fat is about 55-60, calories from carb is around 17-25 %and protein is 20-28%

2) the meat we eat is exact same amount than before usually 3-4 oz per meal. The difference is the leanness. We now eat fattier meats then before, like thighs, lambs, ribeyes occasionally.

3) I slacked off big time in work out this last week. I only did weights on time as oppose to 3 and my cardio was more lay back like walking or elliptical at easy setting. I totally didn't do any pushups either. That may explain why I lost some weight that wasn't fat... I'm hopping it is water and not muscle, but this week I will refocus on workout. I don't want to loose my precious muscle that I work so hard to get. I'm surprised that despite all I lost 2.6 lbs and 1% body fat. Nutrition and what one eats is really important.

What I will change to my routine and do different this week

Last week I wrote that I want to walk after meals for 15 min and not eat anything before bedtime ( if I'm really hungry I will drink half a cup of warm almond milk, but I hadn't have to all week) the result is I didn't do the walks consistently but I was able to stop snacking before bed.

This week I will continue to not snack before bed or even 3 hr before bedtime and I will also do push-ups on tue, thu and Saturdays so they don't conflict with weight lifting days.

After weight lifting instead of doing one hr regular low heart rate cardio I will do 20 min interval cardio.

I will continue on the low carb diet since I can't see going back to the old way of eating. I do budget for 2 cheat meals per week but so far I have been using just one a week because I don't have any strong cravings.

Lets see if those changes will improve next week numbers!

Teriyaki chicken and salmon with sesame snap peas and miso soup

This is a very simple teriyaki recipe that you can use with steak, chicken or salmon. I love this kind of simple fast recipes for weekdays because you can put the rice in the rice cooker and by the time the rice is done, the meal is ready.

1) first make the sauce. For one pound of skinless, boneless chicken thighs, mix 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine sold in any Asian grocery store) 1/2 cup of sake and 1 table spoon of honey. Put this sauce in the microwave and heat it for 1 minute. This will help the honey to dissolve. Set the sauce aside

2) wash the chicken and pat it dry. Make some diamond pattern cuts if you are using chicken thighs so it will lay in the pan more flat (like a filet) and absorb better the sauce. Heat the pan with some olive oil then place the chicken in the hot pan. Cook it undisturbed for 3 minutes. This will allow the chicken to brown. Then turn it to the other side and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the sauce into the pan slowly. Use a spoon and spoon some sauce over the chicken basting it. You can also flip it so the sauce adhere evenly. When the sauce thickens turn off the fire

Salmon with passion fruit sauce and kale salad with passion fruitdressing

Myrna read somewhere that passion fruit is good for reducing blood pressure, and since Jose is taking 3 medication to control his blood pressure we decided to see if this natural remedy would help.

I brought a bunch of passion fruit pulps from Fiesta. It is brand Goya and is from Colombia. Passion fruit is known as maracuya or parcha. I remember growing up in Ecuador, Maria used to prepare fresh fruit juice to go with lunch and sometimes she would make passion fruit juice. It has been a long time since i tasted passion fruit. I'm surprised the tartness of this fruit. it is so sour that i think it rivals vinegar. it does have a really intoxicating aroma though. I made way too much sauce so i used some in the kale salad instead of vinegar. It gives the salad a nice twist. I can see a little of this will go a long way ( just like lemon or lime). The flavor of passion fruit reminded me of another tropical fruit that we often consumed in Ecuador call naranjilla. This fruit is more sour then pineapple but less sour then maracuya. We use it to make juice or Quaker (a refreshing drink made of Quaker oatmeal and cinnamon it is like juice but thicker) or we also make a traditional dish call seco de chivo (goat meat stew). May be next time I will try to make seco de chivo with maracuya, I'm sure it will go well :)

Salmon with passion fruit sauce

1) put the salmon skin up in a tray. Add about 1/3 cup of dry white wine and let it soak until the oven is heated 400 degree

2) dry each salmon filet well with paper tower. Brush a thin coat of olive oil and place it in baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake it at 400 for 10 minute. Poke w thickest part of the fish and if it flakes easily its done. It's easy to over cook salmon, try watching it carefully. Take the baking sheet and cover with foil

3) while the fish is baking you can make the sauce. Melt one tablespoon of butter and sauté 1 shallot and 1 clove of garlic for 3 min. Add 1 cup of passion fruit pulp and simmer for 10 minutes. Add 2 tablespoon of honey and remove it from the fire. Add some cilantro. (You can blend it in the blender at this point, it will give a nicer presentation but I omitted this step.)

Beet and grapefruit salad

There is nothing more refreshing then a fresh beet/grapefruit salad in the winter. Beets are plentiful in the winter so is e grapefruit. They go together very well, the sweetness in the beets is balanced with the tangyness of the grapefruit I got 3 kinds of beets (purple, golden and a white one with pretty red swirls pattern inside) and a bunch of radish from the local farmers market on Saturday. I was able to assemble the salad in 20 minutes because I had roasted them the day before. To roast them just wrap them in parchment paper and them wrap that in aluminum foil (don't wrap any food directly with aluminum foil because aluminum is linked to risk of Alzheimer's disease.) put it in a 400 degree oven. If the beets are small they should cook in 25 min. If its medium size it may take 40 minutes. Try not to over cook them, it should be soft with slight bite to it and not mushy. Remove the skin after the beets are cooked and cooled. Then store. You can roasted all of the beets and you will have them for salad through out the week. Beet salad looks really pretty with rainbow colors and can be great serve to guests. I think it could be an elegant first course for Sunday brunch

1) put some spinach or spring mix in the plates ( this will make 5-6 servings)

2) slice about 6 small beets 1/4 inch thickness of different colors (today I only had purple and white left because we ate all the golden ones yesterday) evenly distribute it to the plates

3) slice one avocado and evenly distribute to all the plates

4) slice 4 or 5 radishes and distribute to all the plates

5)peel the 2 grapefruit and cut out the flesh and distribute the, to the plates. Squeeze all the remaining juice out of the grapefruit for the dressing. You should end up with about 1/3 cup of juice

6) add to the grapefruit juice 2 table of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of mustard and 1 tablespoon of shallots, salt and pepper. Spoon 1 tablespoon of dressing in each plate.

This recipe will serve 6 people for appetizer size salad. It has 128 calories, 12 g of carbs, 9 g of fat, 2 g of protein, 8 g of sugar.

Shrimp chile relleno with zucchini and mushrooms

Today dinner I made beet salad (recipe in separate post) and shrimp chile relleno with mushroom and zucchini. This dish does that some time to prepare but if you like Mexican food, this is a lighter version that you can make at home without deep frying.

Here are the steps:
1) preheat oven at broiler setting. Put the rack at 6 inches away from the top of the oven. While the oven heats up we can prepare the filling

2) tup 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a big pan. Add 1/2 diced onion and 4 cloves sliced garlic to the pan and cook for a few minute until translucent. Add 1 lb of the cleaned sliced mushroom and a pinch of salt and cook for a few minutes until mushroom browns and some water comes out, add 2 cups of chopped zucchini to the pan . Cook at high heat so the liquid in the pan reduces without burning.



3) at this time the oven should reached the broiler 550 degrees. Use a long tongs and mittens to protect your arm from the heat carefully place the 10 poblano peppers on the rack. Cook it in disturbed for 4 minutes then flip them and cook another 4 minutes. The skin should blister and blacken. Then them out after 8 minutes and put them in a pan. Cover it will foil or plastic wrap. Leave in ere for 5-10 min until it cools down a bit so you can handle them without burning your hand

4) add the shrimp into the pan and stir it for one minute. Turn off the heat. It's ok if shrimp is still half raw because it will cook some more in the oven. Do not over cook now or your shrimp will shrink so much you will need magnify glasses to find them in the end product.

5) pour 2 cup of any kind of tomato sauce in a conning ware that will fit all the peppers snugly. when the peppers have cooled down remove the skim, make a lengthwise incision and remove the seed. Then grab a handful of filling and stuff the peppers and put it in the conning ware.

6) sprinkle and cover the dish with cheese. I use quest fresco, but it didn't melt well, I think next time I will use Monterey Jack cheese. You need about 8 oz to cover the whole dish

7) bake at 350 covered with foil for about 40 minutes. The sauce should bubble and the cheese should be melted

At this time you can cook some rice to go with it, if you want. I use 1 and 1/2 cup jasmine rice with 2 tablespoons of homemade sofrito (i will post this recipe another time) and 2 tablespoon of the tomato sauce, a dash of olive oil, salt and about 1 cup of water and cook it in the rice cooker. This way when your shrimp relleno is ready,the rice will be ready too.

8) after 40 min take it out, let it rest covered for 5 minutes before serving. Fernando and I each ate 2 peppers without the rice, but everyone else had the rice and liked it.

This recipe serves 5 people. (2 chiles per person) and the nutritional value are as follows: 380 calories, 19 g of carb, 20 g of fat, 34 g of protein, 5 g of sugar.

Kale salad with figs and goat cheese and steak with Gorgonzola

Today lunch I made kale salad with dry figs and goat cheese. Some people like to use cranberry for this salad, I personally don't like cranberry because inevitably they are always sweetened to balance it's natural tartness. However if you don't have figs you can replace it with cranberry, raisin, or dry cherry.

You can also add an chopped apple or pear to the salad, i think it will taste good. This an easy salad that takes 10-20 minutes to prepare.

Kale salad

1) remove the hard steam of the kale and discard. Measure 4 cups tightly packed (8oz) Wash the kale carefully and dry. Add a small pinch of salt and massage the kale until it wilt a bit. The color will darken just a bit. Set aside

2) chop about 50 grams of figs (1/2 cup) toast 1/2 cult of walnut in oven at 350 or low heat on the stove. After it cool, chop it. Chop the apple. Thinly sliced a few radish if you have them. Add all ingredients to the kale.



3) make the dressing. Mix 3 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or any kind of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 1 &1/2 teaspoon of raw honey, black pepper

4) mix the dressing with the salad and add 2 oz of goat cheese. Serves 4-5

When serving 5 people, each serving has the following nutritional value: 242 calories, 16 g of carb, 19 g of fat, 6 g of protein 7 g of sugar.

Gorgonzola sauce for steak

1) sauté one shallot in a tablespoon of butter

2) add 1 cup of heavy cream and let it boil and reduce by 1/3 or even half. After the cream is reduced and 1/4 lb of Gorgonzola or blue cheese and let it melt. Serving size is 1 tablespoon. If you have leftover keep it covered in the refrigerator and when you need for your veggies like broccoli or steak take out the amount you need and heat it in the microwave for 30 sec at 80% power. It is delicious.