Ink black is not an appealing color for rice. At least that’s what I thought when I saw this dish but upon taking a smell on the rice, I instantly fell in love with it. This fried rice was infused with squid ink to make it pitch black. The squid ink gave ‘sea tang’ aroma to the dish and instantly turned the boring fried rice into intriguing dish.

I’ve been digging around the net to find the recipe, but only managed to find the Italian style rice (risotto) instead of the Asian wok fried rice. My fellow diners refused to taste my black rice, apparently they said they have no idea whether squid ink is safe or not. Squid ink is definitely edible and it has been used for coloring in pasta and rice in Spain and Italy. It was their loss since the rice was completely wonderful. It’s quite salty even though the chef admitted that he only added a few pinches of salt.

Squid ink is sold in the fish market and if you don’t have it there, try buying the ink for $0.72 in Amazon. I’d love to get my hand on squid ink fetuccini or spaghetti.

Sashimi (fresh raw seafood sliced thin) definitely falls within the healthy category of a food. Regular consumption of sashimi topped with healthy living style has been long touted as Japanese’s secret of longevity. The most common seafood which is used for sashimi is salmon.

Raw salmon has a fine orange-ish color which enthralls eye and can even urge the ‘raw food despiser’ to try it. That was also the case with me. In fact my early encounter with raw fish was in form of salad!


When the orange raw salmon is combined with leafy green, dripping wet fresh salad, the result is a healthy mouth watering colorful salad. I tried to make the same salad on my own and to my delight, it only took a while to prepare and the result was great, here’s the recipe:

The trick here is to get the fresh fishes. If the fish isn’t fresh then the dish will be ruined. Try contacting your favorite grocery to find out when they usually receive the fish from the port. The beauty of this dish is, you can experiment with various fresh vegetables and the result will usually turn out to be ok as long as you have the fresh fish. In my trial, I even added cheese, carrot and Japanese ginger (gari). Make sure you cool most of the ingredients first, it tastes better when it’s chilled.

Ingredients:
-150 gram of Fresh raw salmon (thinly sliced)
-150 gram of Fresh raw tuna (thinly sliced)
- 100 gram of Salad green (chopped)
- 50 gram of Cabbage (chopped)
- Various add-on (you can use tomato, boiled broccoli, cucumber, radish etc, in my case I use carrot, chunk of cheese, Japanese ginger and Japanese mushroom)

Dressing:
- 3 tablespoon of Virgin Olive oil
- 3 tablespoon of Salmon or flying fish roe
- 1/2 tablespoon of Sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Serving: 2

Instruction:
I don’t marinade the raw fish since personally I prefer eating them raw and bland.
1. Mix the olive and sesame oil in a bowl and mix all the vegetables and add on in the serving bowl
2. Put the raw fish on top of the vegetables, arrange neatly
3. Sprinkle the salad with the oil, mix well and splash it with lemon juice
4. Top the salad with the roe (put it neatly)

And that’s it. It takes a couple of minutes and the result is an elegant, healthy and colorful dish. You can serve this to your guest and few will think that it only take such a short time to prepare. Feel free to modify this salad to your preference.

I have managed to enthrall a lot of my guests by serving them this healthy mushroom soup on edible bread bowl. This dish looks magnificent and is utterly easy to prepare. The idea is to use bread as a bowl, it can serve a lot of dishes such as chili, dipping sauce and soup. Although the general idea is to eat the bread after you finish the soup, I don't consume the bread to limit my carbohydrate intake. It looks so beautiful that I am already satisfied by seeing the piping hot soup served in such round bread.


The most important thing is to use the right type of bread. You should use a round shape bread (Italian, French or sourdough) and carefully carve the bread to make a bowl. First you need to cut around 0.5 inch - 1.5 inch from the top depending on how big the bread is. Then use the knife to take out the main part of the bread to form a bowl, ensure that the bread is still one inch thick on the inside.

Preheat the oven to 350 F or 180 Celsius and butter the inside with butter or if you are on a diet like me then lightly cover the inside with olive oil inside. Put the bread on the oven for only five minutes. Then serve the soup, on the bread bowl. Make sure that the soup is not boiling hot or it may leak through the bowl. This recipe is a good healthy appetizer (well it depends on what you put inside the bowl) and make a good quick breakfast. Just prepare the soup and the bowl overnight, heat them in the morning and grab a few bites of the bread. Of course you can always serve anything in this bread bowl and give your dish an elegant look.

Technorati Tags: diet soup, bread bowl soup

Blender is a God sent device for students, singles or anyone who are too busy to create proper meal in the morning. As you might have noticed, I was buried in immense workload that sometimes even going out to grab a drink was out of question.

Blender was my savior whenever I was feeling a little hungry. With blender I could quickly whip up some easy recipes to satisfy my hungry stomach and my sweet teeth. How can we live without it? The high temperature here (35 - 40 Celsius) makes me crave for refreshing meals. Here are three recipes which are easy enough to whip with blender and taste wonderfully delicious in summer.

The three easiest blender recipes which I often make are tofu pudding, Gazpacho soup, green tea smoothie and oatmeal yogurt drink. As you perhaps notice, they are fit into the summer camp menu. All of them are made to be served cold. Tofu pudding is a tender soft pudding made from tofu which is utterly easy to make, Gazpacho is a Spanish soup which is served cold, while the green tea smoothie explain for themselves.


1. Tofu Pudding

Ingredients:
12 ounces of silken tofu
3 tablespoons of fruit syrup
Fresh Fruit

You can just mix all the ingredient in a blender before refrigerating it. Make sure you use the right type of tofu which is silken tofu.

2. Gazpacho

This is my favorite meal during summer and busy times since it's utterly easy to prepare. Of course this is just basic Gazpacho since I usually spend just a few minutes to prepare this delicious refreshing soup.

Ingredients:
2 RIPE tomatoes
1.5 pound of cantaloupe
2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 cup of tomato juice
2 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of oregano
1 cup of icy water
Tabasco, salt and pepper to taste

My friend actually recommended me to use avocado. However I can't really bear eating Gazpacho if it has avocado so I resort to Melon instead.

Instructions:
Peel and cut the tomatoes and melon into rough chunk. Seed them and wash them properly. Sprinkle very lightly with salt and pepper. Then warm the olive oil in two separate stoves, then fry the tomatoes and the melon in separate skillets quickly. Just two minutes will do.

After that insert the tomatoes, melon, tomato juice, water, oregano and the breadcrumbs in a blender. Add salt, pepper and tabasco to your preference before blending. Then puree the Gazpacho until it's smooth, add the lemon juice when it's ready. After that just chill the Gazpacho in refrigerator.

3. Green Tea Smoothie

This is my favorite drink and it's very easy to make. Green tea smoothie is fresh and promotes several health benefit.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of green tea
1/4 cup of low fat plain yogurt
1/4 cup of low fat milk
1/4 cup of cranberry juice

Instructions:
Just pour and mix all of the ingredients in a blender and blend it until it's smooth. Add ice cubes or chill until it's cool.

Those are my favorite healthy recipes to make with blender. They are easy and fit nicely to be consumed in summer. Do you have any easy and healthy recipes with blender? Please do share!

Technorati Tags: Green Tea, Summer Recipes, gazpacho

After finally having a proper 8-hour sleep for the first time this month, I feel better although my body still feels a little bit peaky. What I need, aside from a refreshing drink, is a refreshing meal which is low in calorie but still taste wonderfully refreshing in this summer. Low calorie meal is of course the most common guideline of all weight loss diet. My choice today would be a refreshing Cold Soba.

Soba is a noodle made from buckwheat. Soba is considered as one of Japan signature dishes beside sushi. Because it is hard to produce high quality Soba in my home, I won't be posting in detail about the process of making Soba. But I will focus on the health benefit as well as the sauce recipe. My favorite is the cold green colored Soba which is called cold Green Tea Soba Noodle.

The next time you stop by Japanese or Asian Food Restaurant, make sure you rummage around the menu until you find the cold green noodle picture. Unlike most noodle which is served hot or stir fried, Soba can be served hot or cold. My preference of course is the Zaru Soba or the cold Soba. It is more refreshing for me, especially when I am a little bit unfit.

Soba is made from buckwheat and very soft in texture. Just like other Japanese food, Soba promotes great health benefits. Soba fits perfectly for dieter since Soba is low in calorie but high in protein. As a comparison, the amount of protein in Soba is more than one and a half of the protein in white rice.

Buckwheat, which is the main ingredient of Soba is also good for reducing fat accumulation and contain better health promoting attributes compared to other vegetables and fruit.

Approximately, 114 gram (a cup) of Soba contains around 113 calories based on Calorie Counter.

Thanks to internet, I can easily find my Soba ingredients online. One of the shop that I always use to buy all my Asian food ingredients is Asian Food Grocer. They have a large selections of Asian food ingredients at rock bottom price.

The recipe for making Soba is similar to cooking a noodle. However there are several procedures which you need to undertake in order to have great Soba.

Ingredients for a basic Soba:
Instant Soba (Green Tea Soba or White Soba)
Instant Soba Sauce
Bamboo Mat (not compulsory)

Instructions:
Boil the water and put the Soba in the boiling water
Reduce the heat so that the water is simmering instead of boiling
Cook until 5 - 6 minutes depending on the instruction on your noodle package
Drain well and prepare a pot of cold water
Put the noodle in the cold water and then drain well
Cool for a while in refrigerator, serve cold


Restaurants use special plate which has hole in the bottom so they can insert ice below the noodle however just refrigerating will do. For the sauce just prepare according to the the instruction listed in the sauce bottle, as every sauce has different instruction.

You can find the ingredients in the Asian Food Grocer. They have a wide range of Japanese and Asian products at competitive price.

Technorati Tags: soba, cold soba,Japanese Food

















Other Japanese Food Entries:
Chawan Mushi Recipe
Easy Temaki Recipe at home
Japanese Guide to Eating
Sushi for the Calories Nerd
Green Tea Passion Fruit Recipe

I got tagged by Shern's Mom to share my favorite food. This all around the world food tag was started in hope that many of the participants will share their favorite foods all around the world.

However it turned out to be Food All Around Southeast Asia since all of the participants love Asian foods (including me). I will try to tag people who probably love non Asian foods in order to prevent this tag renamed to "Food All Around Asia".

My piece of favorite is the famous Asian food, Peking Duck. Although obviously, the one which I usually eat is not as great as the real Peking Duck in Beijing. Peking duck is also not a good choice for my waist and my cholesterol if it's consumed too often. But since Peking Duck is expensive here, people only eat it to celebrate a special occasion. It's not meant to be everyday dish but as a special dish.


Peking duck is high in fat and sodium but also incredibly delicious. Although it resembles turkey, it's served in a completely different demeanor. Turkey is served in its whole state and then being cut into pieces in the table while Peking duck is served as three completely different dishes which can be customized before it's served.

First the chef would serve the skin, onion and a little fat wrapped in tortilla. This is the most delicious part of the Peking duck which I usually save for the last. The second part is the meat which can be served in many choices according to our preferences.

It can be cooked with garlic and butter or kung pao style (sweet sauce) or many other forms depending on the chef's ability. My own favorite style is the curry style which is healthy and tasty since the chef usually includes tons of vegetables in the curry. The last part is the soup which is made from the bone. It is served as dessert instead of appetizer.

Peking duck is a delicate dish which is not possible to cook at home since it requires a long and complicated process. First the duck skins must be dried and then cooked in a brick stove. The duck must be dried and hanged for long period of time before it's ready to be cooked in a brick stove.

Although it's high in fat and definitely unhealthy if consumed too often, I don't at it very often. It's like once in four months and I also drink a lot of green tea while eating Peking Duck. I can drink more than 10 glasses of green tea while consuming Peking duck which is beneficial to my body to offset the bad effect of Peking duck.

I believe I have done a pretty detailed job to explain my own favorite food. I would like to tag Scott, Fasy, Sean, Janet,Foodette and Lady Rose. I am curious to see more foods all around the world and if any of you who are not tagged want to participate in this tag just inform me and I will add your links to here.

Latest Tag's Trails:
BBQ Stingray
Chicken and Beef Pie
HK Zhong and La Premiere Yogurt
Katong Laksa

Cream and non skimmed milk are two of dieter's biggest sins. However just like all sinners, I could not resist having another piece of occasional cream based dish. As some of you might have observed, I have a fetish of Japanese food. While temaki is practically easy to make, it can't satisfy my cream craving! Chicken and salmon doria had never failed to satisfy my appetite.

Both of them are not Japanese dish, however they are highly popular in Japan. Most likely doria dish are originated from Italy judging from the heavy cream usage and its resemblance to pizza.

Basically doria dish is rice with fried(or baked) meat(seafood or chicken or both) covered with thick "pizza like" sauce (bechamel sauce). Although doria dish is creamy and heavy in calories, I have modified the doria recipe so that it becomes "less sinful".



There are three crucial elements in making doria dish which are rice, topping and sauce. The rice should not be overcooked and stick to each other. If the rice is too sticky, the rice will resemble half porridge by the time you take it out from the oven. For the topping, there are a lot of choices from chicken to shrimp.

I prefer to use salmon and chicken breast, since both of them are high in good fat. Salmon does not add any carbohydrate which is good since doria dish use rice which is high in carbohydrate. And chicken breast just fits perfectly into this dish.

I also use vegetables and fruits such as tomatoes, parsley, and onions. Alternatively you can use shrimp, mushroom, squid and other meat. Think of what you can put as a topping in pizza, the amount of choices are endless!

The third part is the sauce which is known as bechamel sauce. Bechamel sauce is the common ingredient of lasagna. I have tried with skimmed milk and the taste was awful, so there's no getting around in this. You will need to use non skimmed milk for this part.

How do I make this dish less sinful? By using brown rice and sticking with salmon and chicken breast I have reduced the amount of carbohydrate significantly without disrupting the taste.

Ingredients (2 servings):

200 gram of cooked brown rice.
100 gram of salmon fillet
100 gram of chicken fillet
30 gram of cottage cheese/gruyere/cheddar
20 gram of margarine
30 gram of onion
Salt, pepper, tomato and parsley to your preference
Olive oil to fry

Sauce (2 servings):

250 ml of milk
28 gram of butter
two tablespoons of all purpose flour
a teaspoon of salt and black pepper

Or just use instant bechamel sauce to save the hassle of cooking the sauce.

Instructions:

1. Preheat the milk but don't let it boils. Keep it ready nearby
2. Cut the fillet into random pieces which are small enough to be eaten
3. Heat the olive oil and margarine and fry the fillet
4. Put the fillet neatly over the cooked brown rice
5. In separate saucepan, heat the butter and onions on medium heat until the butter is melted and add the flour
6. Stir the mixture continuously for 6 minutes and add the hot milk slowly

7. Keep stirring until the mixture becomes smooth and pour it to the rice slowly
8. Don't soak the rice but make sure a great deal of the surface has been covered with the sauce.
9. Put the cheese on top of the rice then sprinkle with salt and pepper
10. Bake it in the oven at 180 Celsius until the surface is brown
11. Ready to be served! Sprinkle with chopped tomato as illustrated in my photo.

I spent around 50 minutes preparing this dish and I did not regret it at all. The taste was so savory and creamy enough as sinful dish. It's kind of eating pizza but with rice instead of bread.

The big chunks of salmon and chicken also taste wonderfully tender. With the brown rice and the correct choice of meat we can reduce the carbohydrate significantly as displayed by this Salmon and Chicken doria. It's not as sinful as fast food anyway :).

As it's my habit to write about crazy products in the weight loss industry on weekend, I name this product review session: Freaky Friday. Although I did not write the past wacky products reviews exactly on Friday, that does not stop me for being cool and include them in Freaky Friday session :D. The past editions of freaky friday were:
-Hula Chair
-Pet Fat
-Caffeine Pantyhose
-Cheese Burger Vacuum
-Sauna Sweat Suit

This edition of freaky friday highlights this wacky diet water which is supposed to help you lose weight. At first I thought that this was just an idea from one mad scientist, however it turned out that I found some diet water brands were sold in the market. So this could means that this product line is a money maker for several companies. Let's dig deeper into this diet water.



This magical substance is claimed to contain CitriMax according to this seller. Citrimax is the acid which is commonly used in diet pill, so naturally its purpose is for weight loss. However the hype did not just stop right there, they claimed that their diet water contains an enhanced form of CitriMax called super CitriMax.

What does it do? Aside from burning a hole in our pocket by charging $49 for 24 bottles of 0.5 litre of water this magical drink is supposed to curb our appetite, reduce our body mass index and makes us healthy!

24 bottles of 0.5 litre are equal to 12 litre of water, which is just enough for 5 days if we drink 5 bottles a day. So for a month supply we will need $200 to acquire this potion.

Perhaps this diet water brand is not doing so well, so here's another diet water with fancier design. Well, I must agree that this line looks better and has higher chance to get grabbed in supermarket compared to the above diet water.

However this diet water goes further by saying that their water can also supply you with lasting energy in addition of better metabolism and weight loss!

Of course they don't forget to say the condition: "If paired with a healthy diet and exercise". Isn't that what normal water does anyway? They sell this diet drink for $29 (12 of 20 ounce bottles) which is just as costly, but hey if it's making money then why not charge a premium.

The next company does a creative twist by adding flavor to their diet drink! Woohoo, Skinny water releases their enhanced diet water with Lemon and Raspberry flavor.

Of course they don't forget to give both products a matching themed package. This means they also use artificial flavoring to their diet drink. Wonderful package, fresh enticing colour (yellow and raspberry red), great flavor are the ingredients of successful product.

I do not think (and I think most people also) these products worth the price. The companies surely wanna grab a slice of pie in the obesity era, and they will surely make good money if they charge such high premium for just a hyped drink. In fact most diet pills won't cost as much as these drinks. Anybody want to buy these products? Send me a complimentary diet drink to try.

PS: I love raspberry!

When we are dieting for weight loss, it seems that our snacks choices are limited. It's salad, sandwich or instant meals bar. And although sushi is indeed one of the best choices for diet snack, it is too much hassle to make sushi by our own. And sushi never comes cheap! Chawan mushi might be a great appetizer but preparing chawan mushi can be a tedious job.

But there's actually a variation of sushi which is easy to make at home. In fact, it's easier to make this sushi variation compared to grilled salmon. And best of all, there's no fancy ingredients required. Although you will need Japanese rice, but that one is also easy to get.

In order to make it "low carbs" you can use brown rice instead of Japanese rice. I have seen a lot of restaurants swap Japanese rice with brown rice and the taste is still great although slightly different. This sushi variation dish is called temaki. Temaki comes from Japanese word which means "hand roll". That's why it's easy to make, we don't have to use any tools beside our hands. Here's the temaki recipe:



Don't let the beautiful appearance of Temaki deceives you. Temaki is actually a very simple dish. There are three main parts which are important in making Temaki. The first part is rice. Japanese rice (japonica rice) is the essential ingredient of Temaki. Although some people do not mind eating Temaki made from other rice but I prefer to use Japanese sushi rice. We will cover more about how to cook the rice for the best result.

Temaki is rich in protein because of the nori. Nori is an excellent protein source and since Temaki just use a few spoons of rice the carbs are not much also. If you use fish as fillings, then you will get the omega 3 fatty acid bonus. Temaki is a complete low carb, high protein, good fat diet snack which is easy to make.

The second part is the filling. There are tons of varieties here. You can use scrambled egg, caviar, avocado, crab stick, raw fish, cucumber, beet, shrimp, cuttle fish, smoked fish and many more. My favorite filler is raw salmon fillet.

The third part is the wrapper. Temaki uses nori (seaweed) as the wrapper and you should make sure you buy the large paper size nori instead of small nori.

Ingredients:
4 cups of Sushi rice
4 sheets of nori seaweed
Fillings of your choices
1 cup of Sushi vinegar
Dashi soup stock

Instructions:

1. Use the instant ichiban dashi powder to make your dashi soup stock. Just mix the powder with boiling water and then let it cool.

2. Then soak the rice with water and rinse the water repeatedly until the water becomes almost clear.

3. Drain the rice and let it dry for a while before putting it in your rice cooker. Soak the rice (but don't over soak it)with your cooled dashi soup stock and turn on the rice cooker.

4. While the rice cooker is working, prepare the sushi vinegar. It would simplify things if you can get instant sushi vinegar, but if you don't, it's not hard to make either. Mix 1/4 cup of cider vinegar with 1 teaspoon of mirin (Japanese rice wine), 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Mix them on light fire until the the salt and sugar have been dissolved.

5. After the rice has been cooked, quickly plough the hot rice while moving them to small bowl. Then mix the vinegar to the rice while you are ploughing the rice. This ploughing will make the rice cool faster. Plough until the rice is not dazzling hot.

6. Then it's time to make the temaki. Cut the paper size nori into half and put some tablespoons of rice and the fillings in the middle of nori. I used raw salmon and tuna fillet with cucumber as fillings but it's up to you what to use. Avocado and smoked fish will taste wonderful too. Even scrambled egg and cucumber can make a tasty filling.

7. Wrap the nori around the rice and the fillers. And voila, it's done! If you don't want to consume your temaki immediately, make sure you separate the nori from the rice as the nori will become damp.

You can also make a buffet style party by providing various fillings and the rice in the table so that your guests can make their own temaki. This makes a good party snack and the best of all, you don't need chopsticks. Just eat them by hand! Don't forget to eat this dish with soy sauce!

Most of the ingredients can be found in this extensive Asian Food Grocer.

Technorati Tags: sushi, sashimi, Japanese Food, temaki


Other related recipes:

Tuna Pita Bread
Tuna Salad
Morning Bruschetta
Easy Temaki
Silky Tofu Pudding
Chawan Mushi
Vegetarian Saffron Rice

When we are talking about dessert, we have some images of chocolate pudding or ice cream floating in our mind. In my country (and the whole east Asia) tofu is one of the most popular food which can be made into dessert. And although I am not quite fond of tofu as much as maccha ice cream, I find that tofu is VERY EASY to prepare for dessert. As an added bonus, tofu pudding is also a great dessert to have for you who are in phase one of South Beach Diet.

The best of all tofu is loaded with tons of health benefits. In fact tofu is a GREAT source of protein for vegetarian. Tofu belongs to the soy families which contain a great amount of fatty acids while having no saturated fat and cholesterol.


One of my favorite recipes is tofu fruit pudding. I agree that a piece of tofu does not look mouth watering at all. In fact it looks boring! While tofu is quite flavorless, it can be made easily into a tasty pudding with several additions of fruits and syrup. I am quite fond of this dish since it's silky smooth and can be easily garnished.



Tofu pudding is incredibly easy to prepare. Whenever I am lazy, I will just whip this recipe and voila, a fresh tofu pudding appears ready to be served to my guests.

For the best result you need to use silken tofu instead of regular tofu. Silken tofu is different than the regular tofu. Some groceries put silken tofu in different shelf than regular tofu. Silken tofu is just like its name. It's soft and easier to crumble rather than regular tofu. Don't forget to handle your silken tofu carefully or you might make it falls apart. Unlike regular tofu which is packaged in water, silken tofu sometimes is packaged in aseptic container.

Ingredients:

12 ounces of silken tofu
3 tablespoons of maple syrup (or other fruit syrup to your taste)
Fresh fruits (I use Kiwi, peach and lychee)

Instructions:

Just puree all the ingredients in food processor until smooth. Then chill them in refrigerator for a couple of hours. Top with chopped fresh fruits (or chopped almond).

There you go, your excellent protein source in a tasty dessert. It's silky smooth and it's glossy too. Tofu is also high in calcium while low in fat and sodium which makes it a wonderful ingredient to include in your diet.

As it's an excellent source of protein, vegetarians often consume tofu as their protein source. Well, even meat eaters like me still consume in regular basis, especially this tofu pudding. Unlike green tea ice cream, tofu pudding is easier to get and prepare by my own.

Negative Calories Sandwich
Tuna Pita Bread
Tuna Salad
Morning Bruschetta
Easy Temaki
Silky Tofu Pudding
Chawan Mushi
Vegetarian Saffron Rice
Doria chicken recipe


Tofu pudding makes a great dessert in phase one of South Beach diet.

Technorati Tags: tofu, tofu pudding

As I have written countless times already, sushi is one of my favorite foods. Although I am not inclined to enjoy other Japanese dishes as much as Sushi, but chawan mushi turns to be one of my favorite appetizer also. It's usually served in a small cute "chawan" (means small cup). What I like about this dish is the serving size which is very small. Heck, this is even smaller than any salad appetizer. This can be a great variation to the countless salad that I used to eat as appetizer.

The process of making chawan mushi can be tricky. It's not easy at all, and honestly I still could not make a great, smooth chawan mushi. Although I got the recipe right, I still messed up when beating the eggs. I took that picture while I was eating at a Japanese restaurant, any good chawan mushi should has smooth surface without any bubble at all. The filling can be varied according to your preferences. This is the chawan mushi recipe which is taught by Sherry. Thanks girl!



Chawan mushi is Japanese egg custard. This is a popular appetizer in Japan. Unlike other Japanese dishes which require either "fresh" or "hard to get" ingredients, chawan mushi does not require complicated ingredients. Basically what you need are egg and filler. The easiest filler to use is chicken breast and some cilantro leaves. If you can easily buy Japanese Shitake mushroom, then try to use the mushroom.

Ingredients:

Three eggs
Three cups of Japanese fish stock or ichiban dashi
Four slices of shitake mushroom or boiled chicken breast. (you can use one or all of them)
Four cilantro leaves
Four small shrimps (peeled and boiled)
Salt and soy sauce

This makes four servings

Instant ichiban dashi powder is available in Amazon. I regard my instant ichiban dashi stock purchase as my profitable investment. First I can use the ichiban dashi left over to make other soup. Second, ichiban dashi gives such strong flavor to a lot of dishes that I don't need to use as much salt as I would normally use.

To use the instant ichiban dashi, just add one cup of boiling water to one table spoon of ichiban dashi stock. For chawan mushi make sure the ichiban dashi is not blazing hot. Cool it until it's warm but not hot.

Instructions:

Clean and boil all the fillers. Remember this is supposed to be served in small chawan or cup so avoid using too much fillers. Clean and cut the head and tail from the shrimps. Sprinkle them lightly with salt and soy sauce. My favorite Japanese soy sauce is Kikkoman.

Make sure you have the necessary cups for chawan mushi first! I disastrously wrecked my first attempt by realizing that I have no such cups at all! The cups should be small and should be able to be closed by lids or covered using aluminium foil.

Then pour all the eggs into one bowl. Use chopsticks to carefully dissolve the eggs mixture. Do not let the eggs mixture have bubble at all. This is not easy for me, this is where I messed up also. Slowly mix all the eggs and then pour the dashi slowly while stirring with chopsticks.

Prepare four cups and fill each of them with shitake, shrimps and chicken breasts. Slowly pour the egg mixture into each glass.

Boil water in steamer and put the cups in the steamer. Use the strong fire for one minute then reduce to medium fire for another 10 - 13 minutes. This part is also hard since there's no exact duration when steaming the chawan mushi. In my first attempt I overcook it by mistakenly steaming it for 15 minutes under medium fire. So don't leave the kitchen, its best when it's not overcooked.

Chawan mushi should be ready after 10 - 13 minutes, then place the cilantro leaves on the top. It's very hot so be careful when serving the chawan mushi to your guests. The least thing you want to happen is for them to grab the cup hastily then dropping it.

The ingredients listing at Amazon:


Technorati Tags: chawan mushi, appetizer,Japanese food

Negative Calories Sandwich
Tuna Pita Bread
Tuna Salad
Morning Bruschetta
Easy Temaki
Silky Tofu Pudding
Chawan Mushi
Vegetarian Saffron Rice

Over three times already I talked about my favoritism toward negative calories foods. I listed the negative calories foods as well as promoting melon as wonder juice for weight loss in summer.

Most of the time, I happily mix all my negative calories foods into a bruschetta salad with low fat dressing. But now I am trying a new twist with negative calories foods, something more filling than salad, yet still contains low calories.

So I would be trying to make for chicken based sandwich with tons of negative calories foods and a delicious sauce! Fit enough for a filling supper at work.



Ingredients:

100 grams of cooked chicken fillet. Cut it so that it can be fitted into sandwiches.
2 slices of whole wheat bread. Slice it diagonally.
Four slices of tomatoes. Cut the tomatoes vertically, each cut is around 0.5cm in thickness
1 teaspoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
4 tablespoons of low fat mayonnaise
2 slices of cucumber. Peel the cucumber and remove both end. Then slice it.
1 teaspoon of chopped celery
1 teaspoon of olive oil
3 tablespoons of plain low fat yogurt
Salt, pepper and tomato ketchup to taste

Instructions:

Sprinkle the cooked chicken fillet with salt and pepper. Then mix the yogurt, mayonnaise and lemon juice in a bowl. Dip each chicken pieces into the dressing mix before putting it on the bread. Then arrange the cucumber, tomatoes and celery on the bread neatly. Last, sprinkle it with the olive oil and the remaining of the dressing.

The dressing that is used here tastes so delicious. And I would gladly use that dressing for salad, however I would need a larger quantity of mayonnaise which would threaten my waist.

This makes one sandwich serving. I would say that this meal is filling enough and if it's not for you then you'll need to do portion control. Adjust your portion and practice proper stomach management.

Technorati Tags: diet sandwich, negative calories

Lunch is the energy main source throughout the day. A good lunch can either boost your energy and mood while a lousy lunch will set a negative mood for the entire work hours. However the vending machine in the office proves to be a great temptation for me. The number of snacks, soda and “healthy” sandwiches that they offer always look so inviting. Unless I take the Cheetos diet seriously, I won't be consuming those snacks as my main staples.

As I have posted in my previous post, a negative calories sandwich is a good lunch for me. It burns calories and tastes good with the dressing. What about utilizing apple cider vinegar for lunch meals. Here are my recipes incorporating the apple vinegar in pita bread and another sandwich. Both are very easy to pack for lunch.




For me, no matter how much I want to skip lunch, I just can’t do it. Skipping lunch will really affect my mood. When I am starving I can get really rude, even to my boss . So a healthy lunch which does not make me fat, like negative calories lunch is a must for me, so that I can still work well. It’s getting harder with the low carbs lifestyle that I am living. Meaning I have to really pack something from home so that I can ensure that I do not over eat calories. Luckily I find these meals alongside with my negative calories sandwich and bruschetta salad aren’t boring.


Apple cider vinegar is a very good ingredient for us, the dieters. When we eat animal proteins and fat, those proteins and fat will thicken our blood and disrupt its circulation process. Fast food tend to accumulate those fat in our body fast. However natural acids which are found in apple cider vinegar help to keep our blood circulation smooth. Of course you need to consume more apple cider vinegar than a few table spoons used in my recipes in order to reap the full benefit.

You can prepare this lunch meal the night before and they will still taste good. This contains apple cider vinegar, negative calories ingredients, a little carbohydrate, omega-3 fat(benefit of Omega-3) and a little protein.

Green Tuna Pita Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 can of tuna in water. Drain it well.
Two tablespoons of chopped celeries
Three slices of tomatoes
One pita bread (6 inches).
3 slices of cucumber
One teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
Two tablespoon of fat free Italian dressing
One green lettuce leaf (chop it well)
A pinch of chopped bell peppers
Salt, pepper and ketchup according to your preferences

Instructions:
Blend the tuna, bell peppers, dressing, apple vinegar and celeries in a bowl. Refrigerate overnight and keep the cucumber, lettuce and tomatoes separated from the tuna mix.

When serving just wrap the tuna mix in pita bread securely while inserting the lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes as well. You can add salt, pepper and ketchup to enhance the taste. This makes one serving.

Technorati Tags: sandwich, negative calories,
low fat dressing,apple vinegar

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Being featured as main source of protein in the 3 day diet, Tuna itself is a fish rich in benefit. Tuna is rich in nutrients including selenium, magnesium, potassium, B Vitamins and contain the holy omega-3 fat acids. Omega 3 Acids are found in a large amount in fatty fish like tuna. As stated in my writing about Grilled Salmon Recipe and benefit of Sushi in Diet, Omega 3 acids actually help lower the probability of heart disease while still being an excellent source of protein for us, the dieters.

Americans enjoy eating canned Tuna, but according to Stacey Viera, from National Fisheries Institute, only 20% of Americans eat enough seafood to significantly feel any benefit. And while canned Tuna itself is still rich in protein, there's few better than fresh Tuna.

Tuna is also a good choice both for dieters and for body builder. Since Tuna provides a lot of protein to be formed into muscle, Tuna itself is low on fat. Protein is crucial in forming lean muscle mass and providing your body with energy needed for daily activities. And that makes Tuna is wonderful for your daily consumption. Let's try this easy recipe combining Tuna and negative calories ingredients.



100 grams of Tuna contain approximately 60% of our body protein need. And thankfully this fish is low in fat unlike other high protein foods.

Since it's so wonderful, let's make things even better for dieters by combining tuna into negative calories salad. Negative calories foods are foods that contain so little calories that our body will need more calories to digest the foods. So by eating them naturally our body will burn calories faster.

Negative Tuna Salad

1 tablespoon of chopped green onions
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
4 ounces of tuna
1/4 cup of chopped celeries
1/2 honeydew melon
1/4 cup of low-fat mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 cup of low fat yoghurt
Lettuce

Instructions:

First peel the honey dew melon and cut it to form a large block, about 1 inch thick.
Then mix all the ingredients, except the celeries and the pepper, including the melon, and pour the yoghurt.
Then sprinkle with celeries and black pepper, serve it on shredded lettuce.

There you go, negative calories ingredients served with protein rich fish. Your two in one diet meal.

Serving: 3 people.

Image source: Seafood

Technorati Tags: tuna, negative calories, salad

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We all know that breakfast is the most important meal in a day but breakfast tend to be the most forgettable meal in a day. Yet having a good breakfast is essential in our weight loss journey.

Somehow it seems that there are a lot of days where we will wake up in a hurry and run to the bathroom. We take a 3 minutes bath and can't even say a proper good bye to our families.


But on the way to office we realize that our body needs something to eat, so we drop by at nearest hot dog stall and buy one hot dog to eat on the way.

Notice the effects of such days in our weight loss journey ? That may be the reason why we can't seem to lose significant weight.

It's neccesary to stick to regulated meal plan in order to accomplish our weight loss goal.

If you are working in the office hour also, then a filling breakfast is essential. Otherwise the office vending snack machine will tempt us.

I often choose bread as my choice for quick breakfast, but somehow it's hard to buy bread that fits our weight loss mission (except wholegrain bread). And I am sick of eating those same plain bread everyday.

So I begin rummaging my archive to see what meal I can make in the night before and still taste delicious in the morning ?



The answer is salad, and by combining it with bread you can have a tasty, filling breakfast that you can prepare overnight.

Ingredients:

100 grams of cucumber, peel the skin and cut off the edge, slice it thinly
50 grams of lettuce, chop it and clean it
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
1 clove of garlic, clean it and chop it
salt and pepper to season
half of tomatoes, diced
a leaf of wholegrain bread

Dressings:

1/4 cup of low fat plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon of oregano powder
2 tablespoons of cider oil vinegar
1/2 cup of light mayonnaise

Instructions:

Mix all the dressing ingredients and chill it. Also mix the salad ingredients and chill it in the refrigerator. You can prepare these in the night before.

Now when you are in a rush, just quickly toast a bread before you go to bathroom. And after it's done, just put the chilled salad in the warm bread. You can make this a sandwich or a toast.

There you go, your quick diet breakfast that you can eat when you are late. It's handy to keep a stock of the salad in the refrigerator. Don't keep the salad more than 1 night though.


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Technorati Tags: diet salad, negative calories, diet breakfast