soy ginger chicken and cauliflower fried "rice"

I planned on making a massive meal that would last me several days since A is gone for the week. I decided on cauliflower fried rice which is from Pinterest. It's fried rice made from shredded cauliflower rather than rice. Since it was close enough to Chinese Food for me, I decided to stick to the theme and found soy ginger chicken in one of my cookbooks.

I was pleasantly surprised that the fried "rice" actually tasted like fried rice. The chicken was very good as well and I'm glad that I went with boneless thighs rather than thighs and drumsticks.

Both recipes are keepers, they are relatively healthy and full of vegetables as well as being something both A and I would enjoy. I'll be making this again in the near future when A returns.

soy ginger chicken recipe
From Everyday Food Light, from the "kitchens of Martha Stewart Living", page 59.

1/3 cup soy sauce (reduced sodium)
2 tablespoons dark-brown sugar
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2/3 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped, plus whole leaves for garnish
1 piece fresh ginger ( about 2 inches), peeled and cut into thin strips
2-3 scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal (1/2 cup packed)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
4 chicken drumsticks and 4 thighs (2 1/2 pounds total)' skin removed ( I used boneless thighs, no drumsticks)
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced crosswise
1 cup water

Thickening Sauce
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350*F. In a 5-quart Dutch oven or other heavy pot, stir together the soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, cilantro, ginger, scallions, vinegar, coriander and pepper. Add chicken and carrots, toss to coat, then stir in the cup of water. Cover pot and transfer to oven. Cook until chicken is tender, about 1 1/2 hour. Using a large spoon, skim off any fat from surface of cooking liquid.

In a 2-cup glass measuring cup or small bowl, whisk cornstarch with the tablespoon of water. Ladle 1 cup of cooking liquid into measuring cup; whisk to combine. Pour into a small saucepan and bring to a boil; cook until thickened, about 1 minute. Sir mixture into Dutch oven to combine.

Serve with rice (or "rice"), if desired, garnish with cilantro leaves.

cauliflower fried "rice" - original recipe found here

- 3 cups of grated raw cauliflower (about 3/4 of a head) 

- 1/2 cup frozen peas

- 1/2 cup carrots, thinly sliced 

- 4-6 sticks of celery

- 1 red pepper

- about 1/8 of a head of red cabbage

- 3-4 garlic cloves, minced

- 1/2 cup shallots, diced

- 1/2 tbsp olive oil

- 3 eggs scrambled (seperately)

- 6 tbsp soy sauce

In a large pan, saute garlic and shallots in olive oil on a medium/high heat (about 2-3 minutes). While doing this, toss the cauliflower thought the food processor on "shred". Empty the "rice" in a bowl.  Turn the blade around to "slice", slice the carrots, red pepper, celery and cabbage  (I prefer my red pepper chopped smaller so I chopped it after slicing it in the food processor.) Empty all three into another bowl.

Next add in peas, carrots, celery, red pepper, and cabbage and cook until veggies begin to soften and peas are heated through, about 4-5 minutes

Next stir in scrambled eggs , cauliflower and soy sauce. Cook stirring frequently for about 5-7 more minutes. 

This recipe is super versatile and you can toss in just about any veggies you have on hand, such as broccoli, water chestnuts, baby corn, green onions. You can also add proteins such as tofu, chicken, beef or seafood. 

our favourite breakfast juice

This is the juice we have every morning of the work week and sometimes on the weekend.

It's sweet and less veggie intense than other juices so it's a lot easier to drink.

2 apples
2 Asian pears
2 oranges
2 to 4 carrots
Ginger (optional)
Spirulina

We juice everything and mix in 2 teaspoons of spirulina with the help of a frother.

Makes two good servings.

naan pizza

One thing that I miss and have not had much of for about two years, is pizza, my all time favourite was the Canadian Classic from Xtreme pizza in Halifax. The crust was was brushed with garlic butter, there was bacon, sausages, onions and mushrooms - my favourites! The pizza choices in south east Calgary are slim and we haven't found anything just right - from my picky-ness over the cheese (it can't have too much) and my partner's sensitivity to greasy food (lack of gall-bladder) - we have started just making our own.

We call it naan pizza, for obvious reasons. It's ridiculously easy when you don't bother making your own dough, and with full time jobs, we don't have time to bother nor do we want to.

Topping selections are much healthier than those chosen when in university:
Ham (I ask the deli counter to cut it about half a centimetre thick)
Shallot
Spinach
Cherry tomatoes
Artichokes
Bacon (for reminiscing)
Nice mozzarella

Others toppings that we use but didn't have on hand
Avocado
Mushrooms
Peppers
Etc, the sky is the limit

It always turns out really nice and only needs maybe five to ten minutes in the oven to melt the cheese and warm everything up.

a pick me up

After yesterday, which included junk food and I cannot confirm or deny whether I also had burger, onion rings and a diet coke, my stomach is thinking "what are you doing to me?"  Sluggish, tired and blah, I woke up and decided to start the day with an energizing juice.

4 Oranges

2 Apples

4 Carrots

1 small Beet (I used half of the one below)

2 small handfulls of Parsley

Juice everything - add in two teaspoons of Spirulina powder with the help of the frother.

This made two servings such as the one below.

Caprese eggs bennie

It's Saturday morning and I actually have time to make breakfast. I've been meaning to try this Caprese eggs benedict recipe that I saw on Pinterest for weeks.

Mind you this recipe isn't as low cal as I'd like but I simply love eggs Bennie. I only did 2/3 of the hollondaise sauce, 1/3 would have done for two eggs.

Turned out quite nice

prequel

Here is how this all started.

Rewind a few months into fall 2012, in Canada, specifically in Alberta, there was an enormous beef recall, said to be the most expensive recall in Canadian history, over the course of several months, at least 16 were confirmed to have been ill with E. coli 0157:H7. Over the course of these few months, more and more was made public as to how meat is processed and how it gets from the field to our plates essentially.  Most if not all of this information was already publicly available information however, seeing as I like meat and really enjoy a good medium rare steak, I never had any interest in seek this information out and learning more about it.  By about November, I had learnt enough through only reading headlines that I was interested in reducing the amount of meat that I consume.  I had and still have no interest in becoming vegetarian or vegan but made the conscious decision to try to decrease our meat consumption about 50%. 

After the holidays, - because who wants to make major changes in their diet prior to a holiday that revolves so intensely around food, or is that just my family? - we started incorporating more vegetarian meals into our weekly menus, from veggie chilli to sweet and sour tofu stir fry, we made the switch.  Surprisingly, it was quite effortless, non meat meals tend to take less time to prepare and are cheaper - win win.  We bought the Meatless Mondays cookbook and started adding a bit more diversity.  Over the course of a few months, we've tried some good recipes (Spinach Tart from Meatless Mondays is a favourite of my partner - who was a strict meat and veg English lad) and some bad ones  (Happy Cow Burgers from Jamie Oliver's 15 Minute Cookbook, edible but the consistency was just off), but most importantly, we've learnt that we don't miss have meat at every supper.  

At the end of February, after wondering what to watch on Netflix for over ten minutes we stumbled on a food documentary, Hungry for Change and decided what the heck. I won't go in into details regarding the movie however it is quite eye opening, not in the sense that the information is new and mind boggling but in the sense that although the information was already out there, they wrapped it up into one nice package that was quite well explained though sometimes too simply explain.  Most individuals on the film had quite compelling stories, one individual stood out the most, Joe Cross.  He was actually the subject of another documentary, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead that we watched right after Hungry for Change. Joe Cross' story is not unlike many stories out there, like the title suggests, he was fat, sick and nearly dead.  Joe Cross decided to do a medical juice fast for 60 days and as you do, make a documentary out of it. 

The next day, we decided that juicing one or two meals per day would likely benefit it us greatly so we picked up a new fancy juicer and bought about $80 worth of fruits and veggies.

The point of the blog is essentially to chronicle the trials and tribulations that are occurring on our quest to gain health and lose weight by living fresh, healthy and active lives.