Friday, February 22, 2013

Never never give up!!!

I found this amazing inspiration video on youtube and wanted to share with you all. I'm so touched by his story. It has a beautiful message I hope you enjoy it.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Lamb kafta with cucumber salad, hummus wrapped in lettuce

Tonight I was really craving for Sarah's Mediterranean grill. There is one dish there that I always get and that is kafta beef. I go there so often that the owner sees me coming in, automatically put the kabob on the grill before I even order. Fernando and Jose also love this dish.

Like I said, I was craving the kafta beef, but Fernando says he is particularly busy today with testing and can't take time out to go to the restaurant. So after I finish my running (I run around Costco and whole food south) I stop by whole foods and brought 1 and half lb of ground lamb and a cucumber and try to reproduce it. I must say it came out even better then what I expect. Jose says is better than the one sold in Sarah's. Jose served with rice but Fernando and I just wrapped in lettuce paired with hummus and cucumber yogurt salad.

Kafta lamb
This recipe needs a lot of spices luckily we have pretty well stocked pantry, having the right tools, like mini food processor and kitchen aid mixer also makes cooking so much easier and enjoyable. I can't imagine without them. This recipe makes 6 portions. 1/4 lb kabob each.
1) blend one small onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic in the food processor.
2) put 1&1/2 lb of ground lamb in the mixer bowl then add the garlic, onion mix. To it add 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of salt,1&1/2 tablespoon of coriander, 2 teaspoon of cumin, 1&1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of all spice, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. Add a big bunch of chopped parsley
3) mix it with mixer for 3 minutes or so at medium speed.
4) separate the content into 6 equal size balls and use our hands to form a long patty along the metal skewer.
5) cook them in the hot grill for 4 min each side

Israel rice:
This rice was inspired by an Israel man who I met in a hostel in bariloche, Argentina. Mom and I met him and another Australian doctor at the hostel and really enjoyed each others company so we decided to rented a car to tour the many lake around the area. He (can't remember his name now) showed me how he made this rice with limited ingredients
1) wash basmati or jasmin rice I use 1&1/2 cup
2) add some butter to a heavy pot like le cuset. Add 1/2 onion and a garlic to brown. Add dry dill, oregano, dry chive, and fresh mint (he only use oregano, but I had lots of other spice so I decided to go for it, I think dill in particular adds a nice flavor, but oregano would do if that is all u have) add a handful of raisins and sliced almond.
3) add the rice and stir it until its coated with oil. Add 1&1/2 cup of boiling water. Cover and simmer for 20 min.

Cucumber yogurt salad
1) dice 1 cucumber (I think skin has a lot of nutrients so I just wash organic cucumber well and dice it with the skin on )
2) add cucumber to 1 cup of yogurt. Add some fresh mint if you have it. Add a pinch of salt



Ninja pantry items used:























A few personal observations of my low carb experience


After watching the video "Why we get fat" I immediately started a 2 week personal experiment to rid all pasta, rice, bread, sugar, beans, legumes from my diet. I started on Sunday Feb 17, and thanks to the meticulous food log i have been keeping I can look back and write this review.

This list below is my personal experience. I'm not sure if its correct, but it is how food makes me feel this week:

1) before I started watching for the carbs i was eating between 1250 and 1560 calories and about 150-170 grams of carbs. After I implement the low carb, except for the first day Sunday I had 104 g of carb the rest has been lower than 60 grams. The last 2 days has been below 50 grams and calorie wise i have been less than 1250 every day.

2) I always eat something when I'm hungry. I believe that hunger is our body's way to tell us a message. I never starve myself or miss a meal. the first 2 days on low carb I ate 104 g and 74 gram respectively and like I said i felt really tired and hungry by 4/5 pm. I was so tired i had to lay down and take a nap. I think my body was used to use the carb in the food, but since i was eating less carb, and the body hasn't gotten used to use stored fat as energy, its nagging for me to feed it more carbs. I notice that if I feed my body cheese or protein or nuts, the hunger will not go away until i give in and feed it a bit of starchy carb. The second day i had to eat some whole wheat pasta (1/4 of cup) because of this same reason. However once my body readjusted to this diet for the past 2 days I was able to eat less total calories and feel full all the time. I think my body is burning stored fat and absolutely no carb craving.

3)I have to get rid of milk and yogurt. I have switched from low fat to whole fat yogurt and milk for a while. I usually drink a milk after work out. I have been doing this for more than a month, but I have to stop. I'm never too crazy for milk any ways and it has a lot of sugar even the whole milk. I cut back on dairy and now I feel much better.

4) I'm enjoying a new found freedom with this new food paradym. Like most of you I'm sure, I have been brainwashed in thinking that low fat is better. Now i think moderated fat (fattier cut of meat, cream, butter, avocado, coconut oil, coconut milk and nuts) are all good for us and I feel no guilt eating one of the home made grapefruit panacotta, or home made coconut chocolate both without using sugar or honey, just al natural.

5) I eat a lot of colorful veggies now that I'm low carb then when i was eating balance. colorful veggies such as kale, broccoli, cauliflower, butternut squash, spaghetti squash all have low carbs compared to fruits and super low glycimic index. Fernando says our bodies have evolved to eat this kind of veggies as opposed to fruits. Because fruits are only available in certain seasons, and climates and they weren't as abundant or as sweet as now.

6) over all i feel better with low carb diet and i feel it is more healthy for me. I think carb (rice, pasta, bread) are addictive. Once you have a little it is impossible to stop. So my strategies is not to eat them during the week and only eat them on the weekend. This way, I can satisfy my cravings for say Chinese food and ramen, but still during the weekday i don't have any temptation of over eating, because no rice is available lol. I will implement this lifestyle once the two weeks are up. I may extend it to 1 month. I'm planning on getting blood work done after 30 days.

7) I'm very happy that this diet is good for Jose, my diabetic father in law. He doesn't cook at all, so he has to eat whatever I prepare lol. He has replaced his old breakfast of 2 or 3 thick slices of whole wheat bread with 1 banana and blue cheese to a nopales omelet and an apple or pear. His portions have reduced for all meals. He is eating lunch with us now where before he was so stuff with the bread he would skip lunch and not eat anything until dinner. Myrna also likes all this new foods I've been preparing. I think the rice with arsenic article really got to her.

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.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Spaghetti squash and meatballs for lunch

Lunch was simple today, it required 1 min reheating in the microwave of leftover but it tasted good! I was supper hungry when I got home from the gym (I'm doing my work out later today at 6 pm with a group) not because I worked out but from the walking and grocery shopping. So it's really nice to keep some left over so that you can prepare an effortless meal before your hungry lead you to worse temptations.

What I made yesterday which I didn't eat was some spaghetti squash. They looked dubious when I took them out from the oven and I wasn't sure if I wanted to eat them. But they turned out great!

To bake them I cut them in half length wise and removed the seeds and put them face down in a deep baking mold and put about 1/4 cup of water. I covered with foil and backed at 375 for 40 minutes then I turn them face up and covered again with aluminum for another 20 minutes or so.

Then when they are cool to handle I scrapped the squash softly trying to avoid squashing the delicate fibers which were thin like angel air.

One cup of this spaghetti squash has only 40 calories and 10 grams of carb. I paired it with 4 meatballs. And yummy lunch was ready. I would probably add a serving of broccoli next time to add something green. This was super low cal food only like 210 calories. Pretty filling too



Amazing results in my 2nd 90 day challenge weight-in

Today is the second weight in since I started the 90 day challenge at lifetime fitness. When I first signed up for the gym back in the beginning of January I weighted 136 lbs and had a body fat index of 32.7.

Last Tuesday when I started the 90 day challenge my official weight in was 134 lb and body fat was 31.8

Today's official weight in was 132.1 lbs and body fat of 29.8 %! I lost more weight and body fat in the last week then the previous 6 weeks combine! I'm very excited about the result. My goal is to reach 20% body fat and 120 lbs (which was my weight in college). Fernando also promised me to take me to eat at French laundry when I accomplish this goal

Like I have said, my workouts has been pretty much the same since jan 3rd. May be last week I workout just slightly harder and didn't miss any day ( but even before I started the challenge I was working out 5-6 days a week)

I do think this significant progress is due to my diet and directly related from cutting out pasta, rice, starchy veggies. Another change I started was I added cla supplement from Costco last week. I take two capsules with meal 3 times a day.

Before i start on low carb i was already not eating any sugar product and nothing processed, but i was eating moderate amount of rice, pasta and carb with each meal because that is what a balanced meal should be. The first day on low carb I felt pretty sleepy and moody. The second day which was yesterday was equally miserable around 4-7 pm. I had to eat a small amount of whole wheat pasta. But today it's going well so far.

Cla has shown in studies that combined with exercise it help body release fat from fat cells and utilize them. It also shown that it can reduced the size of over stretch fat cells thus reduce belly fat. One literature I read says that it may increase triglyceride in blood so I'm getting my blood work done after I finish my 30 day supply before I repurchased.

It's week I'm going to implements a few changes to my routines
1) 15 min slow pace walk around the house immediately after each meal
2) do not snack before going to bed. Try to go to bed no later then 11 pm (at 12 is when I really star getting hungry) if I'm hungry I will have a small piece of cheese or half a cup of warm almond milk.

I have been reading the " why are we fat" book and it is really eye opening. I will write a book review when I'm done with it.