Homemade olive oil mayo and chicken salad

There are so many advantages for making homemade mayonnaise. Let's see:
1) taste 100 times better
2) no weird ingredients
3) you have control over the highest level of ingredients (organic free range eggs from farmers market and olive oil for instance)

Some of you may wonder what to do about storage. Since home made version doesn't have any preservative so you need to use it within a few days. Trick is to make just a little so you will not need to store it for long. It is so yummy you will eat it quickly.

To make the mayo it is so much easier if you have food processor or blender. I have this small Cuisinart since college days. I brought it used from a garage sale for 10 dollars and I have been using it almost every day. Invest in one if you don't have it. You can buy it from target for 30 dollars. It is worth it. I didn't use blender because I didn't want to clean the oily mess afterwards :)

1) separate the egg yolk and egg white and just put the egg yolk in the food processor. Add teaspoon of Dijon muster, juice of 1/2 lemon, some fresh ground pepper, 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Pulse and blend.

2) slowly drizzle 1/2 a cup or 2/3 up of olive oil into the food processor. My food processor has 2 small holes on the cover that allows the oil to come in while it is blending. If yours don't have this feature then may be just use blender. Keep the cover off and drizzle the oil slowly.

3) I use 1/2 of this mayo in chicken salad for lunch, and 1/2 later that night when i made fish tacos :)

Chicken salad:

 This is only 1/2 portion because i forgot to take photo until we all finished. (there were a tiny left over)

1) poach the chicken. This is super easy use a shallow but wide pan and fill may be 2 cup of water, add 1/2 of white wine, one celery, one carrot, a few bay leaves, 1/2 onion, some fresh theme, a few pepper corns (whole) and salt. I like it a bit salty so I put 1 table spoon. put the chicken in and turn low heat, and let it go to a boil very slowly. This will result in a very intense flavored chicken. I use 1 lb of skinless boneless chicken thighs, because I needed to use what I have in the freezer. But i would have prefered chicken breast with bone  or chicken thigh with bone. This is becuse the bones will keep the chicken from shrinking as much thus make the meat more juicy and less tight. Water should just cover the chicken

2) once the chicken is cooked you can take it out and let it cool. You can strain this broth for other applications (such as adding it to the cauliflower pure, or when you steam broccoli, replacing the salt, this broth is very flavorful but too salty to just drink it.)

3) chop the chicken or shred the chicken if you use chicken with bones. put it aside until it cools. In a bowl mixed diced 1 apple, 1/2 cup of celery, 1/4 cup of home made mayo. You can add some walnuts too but i forgot.

4) once the chicken is cool. Mix it all together and enjoy it cold. If you chicken is hot it will melt your mayo and you will end up with a mess. So a little patience is advised.

This recipe will make 4 servings with each serving to be 284 calories, 7 gram carbs, 19 g fat 22 gram of protein and 6 grams of sugar (from the apple mainly)

I paired this with some roasted cauliflower and butternut squash.

Low carb cauliflower mash with braised chicken in mushroom sauce

Last few days I had made a discovery that cauliflower is a great substitute for starch carb. It keeps me full and satisfy for many hours. It has a nice texture and is versatile. I heard since its in the same family than broccoli it is also has cancer fighting properties.

I roasted cauliflower with garlic I flushed olive oil and aged Romano cheese last couple of days and today I made it into a muck mash potato sort of thing. We all liked it. I paired with some chicken thigh that we had in the freezer (organic but from Costco, Myrna and I have reached an agreement not to buy anymore of those chicken once we finish the current stash and only buy pasture cage free level 4 chicken from wholefood or local farmers market) that I have trying to tackle as part of my pantry ninja efforts

To make the cauliflower mash
1) cut up one head of cauliflower into florets also get rid of the tough outer skin but chop the steam into similar size pieces. Cook cauliflower in the rice cooker with one cup of water outside 外鍋. If u don't have rice cooker seam it or cook it in water until soft. Steaming I think perserve more nutrients

2) pat dry the cauliflower with paper towel and put it inside food processor. Add about 1.5-2 oz of Parmesan or aged Romano cheese and 1 table spoon of cream cheese. Add some salt and pepper to season. I had some salty broth that I made while poaching chicken yesterday so I used that. Blend it until it has appearance of mash potato. Need to eat hot, if it is cool, put it in the microwave for a min or 2

To make the braised chicken

I used skinless, boneless chicken but I'm sure it will taste 100times better if I use the kind with skin and bones( but I need to use what I already have)

Pat dry the chicken and season. I use Costco's non salt seasoning plus salt

Put 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of ghee or butter in a stainless heavy button pan. When oil is hot put the chicken in it. Cover. Cook in medium high for 3 -4 min. It should be browned. Flip it and cook for another 3 minutes

Take out the chicken add 1 tablespoon of ghee or butter, put in the 1lb of mushroom and sauté for 3 minutes. Add one sliced onion and 3 sliced cloves of garlic and stir it for 3 minutes. Scrapping the button of the pan.

Out chicken back in and add about one cup of chicken broth, 2 tablespoon of tomato paste and 2 steams of fresh rosemary. After it boils turn it into simmer and simmer for 10 minutes covered. Flip chicken every so often

after 10 minutes it will look like this

Take out the the chicken and reduce the sauce but turn the heat all the way up. When it is reduced you can add 1 tablespoon of cream to finish the sauce,

with heavy cream:

Garnish with fresh parsley.

I love this new diet, food taste so much better when you can use a bit of cream and butter lol. Its great to know dietary fat even saturated is okay as long as over all calories is still in check and there is no starchy carbs. Compare this diet to low fat high carb, i think this version allows at lot more creativity for the cook because of the cut of meat i can use.

Quick American Chinese style chicken

90% of the time when I cook, I don't use any recipe and just improvise. Some of the factors that I need to consider are: what ingredients I already have in the fridge and pantry, taste and flavor, how healthy is it ( if not what can I do to make it a little bit more healthy without sacrificing the flavor too much), food group balance and how much time it take/ how simple it is. I don't mind spending a lot of time making some elaborate dish however when your stomach is hungry, it's more important to get something ready in 20 min then making a gourmet meal.

This is the reason that you will see a lot of my recipes takes only 20 minutes. I usually put the rice in the rice cooker and use that 20 minutes to prepare the main meal. You can take some of the ideas and substitute with ingredients that you have at hand and create something completely different. Here is tonight's improvised American Chinese chicken with a subtle citric note.

1) chop some green onion, garlic, and fresh ginger. Sliced and julienne 8 square of dried firm tofu. Wash 1 lb of skinless boneless chicken breast and dry it. Cut it in 1/2 inch cubes ads salt and pepper and mix it with one egg and 1 tablespoon of corn starch. Open 1 can of bamboo shoot. Peal 1/4 orange peal.

2) mix the sauce in a bowl with 5 table spoons of water, 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, 2 tablespoon of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of any kind of sugar. Also in another bowl mix a table spoon of corn starch with 2 tablespoon of cold water.

3) put 1 tablespoon of oil in the pan and when the oil is hot put the chicken in it. Cover it. After one minute turn the chicken pieces so it cook evenly on all sides. When the meat turns white, put it aside.

4) add on tablespoon of oil and stir in the garlic, onion and ginger until fragrant. Add the tofu and bamboo shoot and stir it for a minute then add the half cooked chicken and the sauce. Cover it and let it cook I'm high heat until the meat is done may be one minute. Then add the corn starch water to thicken the sauce.

5) add some green onions as garnish.

Sorry I forgot to take photo until we all finished eating.  I was hungry :) I think this sauce will work well with p tofu may be add some wood ear mushroom. I'm not too crazy for the chicken breast. I don't think I will buy them in the future. This is organic from Costco but the meat is dry. In the future for chicken I will only get them from whole food free range level 5 or from farmers market. The taste and texture is worth the extra price tag. The sauce turned out yummy though.

2/13/2013 10 min lunch

Today I made a super simple and quick lunch for Fernando and I and it took only 10 min. Here is the menu:
Rosemary lemon chicken with sauté baby spinach and quinoa with toasted almond and parsley

Here is what I did:
1) I have 1 pk (lb) chicken breast from Costco sliced in half to reduce the thickness. I marinade it in some olive oil and one small or half large fresh lemon juice and some chopped rosemary. I also add salt and ground garlic. You can add fresh garlic. We ate that yesterday so I marinade it yesterday. You can keep the marinade for up to 24 hrs. If you don't plan to eat it all its good idea to cook them and store them in containers so you don't have it out in the fridge for more than 24 hr

2) I brush a bit of olive oil in t small pan and hen the pan is hot but not smoking add the chicken and cover. then lower heat to medium and cook for 1:30 min until browned

3) turn the chicken breast and add 1/2 cup of white wine. I like this one in the photo from Italy it's a good inexpensive wine for cooking. Suitable for drinking too but I don't like white wine so I use only for cooking. Cover and cook for another 2 min

4) in the mean time heat up the quinoa with one teaspoon of chopped almonds and dry parsley in microwave for 1 min

5) take the chicken out and put it in the plate with the quinoa then fill the pan with as much spinach you can possible fit and cover. Turn the spinach once or twice so it's wilted. No need for additional water or oil. The spinach will get a nice flavor from the brown bits of the chicken and wine

6) add to the plate and serve. Drink 2 8 oz water with the meal and I guarantee its a satisfying meal.

According to myfitnesspal app the calories are 281.  This is a simple meal and its nothing fancy but quick and filling.  If you have to cook quinoa from scratch it will add another 10 min. I cook 1 cup of quinoa and that is enough for Fernando and I to eat for 2 days. To cook quinoa wash quinoa and put 1 cup of quinoa in 1 and 3/4 cup of water with a pinch of salt then boil it after boiling turn to low heat and cook covered for 20 min. Once done you can add fresh parsley or drive parsley or shredded carrots green onions or just plain is fine.

If you work you don't have to cook fresh meal every meal. Just cook all the chicken and quinoa and spinach following same process just increase quantity and put them in small plastic containers and take 2 to work. One for lunch another for 2nd lunch 3 hrs later. If you are hungry.  I always make Fernando's 3 pm snack and since I'm home I make something different then lunch but if you don't have the time eating the same beats eating sugary snacks.