Weekday Meal Preparation and How To Stay Active

Hey everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Either I wasn’t inspired enough to post anything (other than a recipe that I posted couple days ago) or I was just plain lazy

Anyway, apparently my weekend meal preparations only enough for today’s dinner, so today after I got back home, I quickly threw the Chicken drumsticks (marinated similarly to Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Shallots) into the oven. Before I started making another dish, I did a quick upper body strength training.

After that, I made some burger patties (seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute, chopped 3 strips of Applegate bacons and 1 egg). First I pan seared the patties to brown the outside then threw them in the oven, baked for about 15 minutes (together with the chicken drumsticks).

While all the proteins were in cooking in the oven, I made some mixed veggie (carrots, tomatoes and asparagus) soup cooked in beef broth.

Dinner served! (Hubby K cooked the Chinese greens btw)

Oh btw, yesterday I finally I made Bo Bo Cha Cha, loosely based off Fit Daffy’s recipe. Ever since I saw it, I’ve been wanting to make it. Sadly, I didn’t have any coconut water so I just had to use regular water. Basically I made this dish because my opened coconut milk has been sitting in the fridge for a while and I don’t want it to get spoiled. Then why don’t you just drink that coconut milk? – you might ask. Let me tell you, for some reason, I can’t drink straight coconut milk- it gives me indigestion. I’m fine consuming it as long it’s part of some dish.

My Bo Bo Cha Cha version had: 1 orange colored sweet potato (cube cut), 1 purple yam (cube cut) and about 1-2 cup coconut milk mixed with about 1/2 cup of water – didn’t measure any. I just added some water to thin it out a bit. Pretty much just bring the coconut milk to boil, then reduce the heat to medium low, dump the sweet potatoes and boil until tender.

I had these for my late morning snack- SUPER GOOD even when it’s cold. The coconut milk thicken when it’s cold, but it doesn’t bother me. Got me super full that I didn’t even eat my lunch until around 2pm.

And before that, I had 4 hard boiled eggs seasoned with TJ 21 Seasoning Salute (can you tell I am really digging this seasonings??) as my breakfast around 8:00am.

****
Recently, I’ve been thinking of my overall physical activities beyond the workouts that I do in the morning (or evening). You see, overall I only spend about 15-20 minutes exercising each day, some even less than that (10-12 minutes) for 5-6 days a week. And yet I spend about 40 hours a week during weekday, sitting on my ass in the office or could be even more if I stuck myself in front of computer during the weekends.

Well okay, I don’t ACTUALLY sit for the entire 8 hour a day in the office. Every late afternoon (like around 3-4pm) I’ll get up and walk around the office parking lot for a good 15-20 minutes just to stretch myself. Sometimes I do it twice a day (one in late morning and one in late afternoon).

Anyway roughly I still spend more time being inactive and an idea came across in my mind. On Monday, I started to ditch my regular chair and use my stability ball instead.

Every time I needed to sit down to eat or in front of my computer, I sat on the stability ball. The longest I’ve done was yesterday (40 minutes) when I was watching Desperate Housewives newest episode on abc.com. The day before, I sat on it about 30 minutes when i was checking my email/read blogs. The result? Just from 30 minutes I could feel my abs muscles being sore, and yesterday I had to give up after sitting on it for 40 minutes straight. When sitting on the stability ball, your core muscles are constantly working to keep you in balance. If your posture gone bad, then you’ll feel uncomfortable.

Yes, as I am typing this, my core, oblique, and back feel sore, but in the GOOD way though (Truth: as I am typing this post, I am sitting on my regular chair again to give myself a little break). I just wish I could bring the ball to the office and ditch my office chair. Sadly, I can’t do that or the HR department will make me sign a release form for not suing them if anything goes wrong…(ha!)

What do you do to keep yourself active other than doing an actual exercise?

Our So Cal weather has been gloomy since Monday (overcast and cold). It was raining last night too! I feel bad for Hubby K washing our cars on Sunday and might have to wash them again because of this stupid light rain.

Have a great night!

 

A Day Off from the Routine

Hey all! Yesterday, I took “a day off” from my usual routine (except for my full time job): cooking and exercising (yea skipped it again, but I have a very good reason for this, more on that later)! But unfortunately, I still had to be in the kitchen, washed dishes, and turned on my stove to finalize my overdue b-nut squash soup. (these chunks have been sitting in my fridge for days already!)

And I didn’t even need to heat up my dinner because basically I just ate my “breakfast food” as my dinner instead (plus fruits).

Something I wanna share a bit (hint: male readers might want to skip it)

I was pretty sluggish yesterday due to my lack of sleep the night before, thanks to my bloating stomach from my whacked period Typically I’d have heavier flow for the first 3 days and lighten up and everything will be done within a week. However, last month my cycle was a bit “off” – I had very light spotting which was very unusual and no painful cramps either! At first I was happy that maybe my diet change caused this. But then the light flow (spotting) lasted for the entire month and I began to worry so I went to the gyno. She mentioned that the cycle went whacked because my body didn’t ovulate (released the egg) the month before so it’s missing the hormon signal and I had a small cyst inside my uterus as a result. It’s not life threatening but they’ll have to re-check it again a month later to make sure the cyst won’t grow bigger. But then they mentioned if I feel a sever pelvic pain, I need to go to the doctor right away.

Anyway, seems like my cycle is back to normal, cause I get the usual heavy flow…again….although it kept me awake almost the entire night yesterday. One big note: I didn’t have a very painful cramp that I used to have prior switching my diet to Primal. Could it be this is one of the good sign? I’ll keep an eye on this.

Ok, enough period talk..sorry for non-female readers…

Moving on…

After a full day of rest, I busted today’s workout in the morning (note: I was this close to sleep in….but I kicked that temptation away).

Refueled with more sweet potatoes (ate the purple one only)

Packed the orange one with Fage full fat greek yogurt, sprinkled with Pumpkin Pie spice powder = Pumpkin Pie Yogurt

Topped with crunchy coconut flakes = Pumpkin Pie Coconut Yogurt! Double YUM!

Finally got to taste my 5 spice & star anise beef stew for my lunch!

Guess what? Hubby K packed these fruits for me…how sweet of him!

On the way home, it was cloudy and very windy (so cold!). By the time I got home, it was raining and sunny at the same time.

The rain only lasted for about 10 minutes, then I ran outside and to take a picture of the rainbow!

Again dinner, no cooking involved – 2 days in a row of no cooking = LOVE IT!

Weekend is almost here and I’m really looking forward to it. Hubby K and I are planning to go out on Saturday and it’ll be something different for us. More on that tomorrow if I get a chance to blog a bit about it.

Have a wonderful TGIF eve!

 

Packing lunch to the doctor’s office

I don’t have to go to work tomorrow but I still have to pack lunch.

Tomorrow is my 3 doctor’s appointments.
First will be at 9:30am, second at 11:15 am and last one will be at 2:00pm.

Since I”ll be having a blood test at 9:30am, I can’t eat any breakfast before nor exercise. Oh well, I guess I can get extra sleep.

Anyway today I finally made Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Shallots ever Nom Nom Paleo posted the recipe a while back. Since I didn’t have all the ingredients, I had to modify it a bit, but still Primal/Paleo approved.

Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Shallots (modified from Nom Nom Paleo)
Ingredients:
8 pieces of chicken thighs (bone in and skin on)
4 large shallots – minced
Couple pinches of salt and pepper
4 Tbsp coconut aminos
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
Dash of dried thyme
Dash of ground coriander
3-4 stalks of green onions-minced

Directions:
1. Mix all the seasonings on the baking pan (I had to divide the chicken thighs into 2 baking dishes since my convection oven is small)
2. Rub the chicken thighs with the seasoning until everything coated evenly.

3. Marinate about overnight or 1 hour if you’re in a pinch (make sure to take the chicken out from the fridge an hour before start cooking so they’ll come up to room temperature)
4. Pre heat oven 450°F
5. Bake the chicken skin side up (reduce the heat to 425°F)
6. After 25 minutes, turn over the chicken – make sure to spoon some of the shallots over it.
7. After another 20 minutes, turn the chicken back (skin side up), topped with chopped green onions – bake for an extra 5 minutes.

Serve!

The aroma of caramelized shallots are HEAVENLY! The chicken was so moist, a bit tangy, salty and a bit sweet. Perfect!
Thanks Nom Nom Paleo for sharing this wonderful Paleo recipe!

While the chicken baking, I also modify the typical Chinese Steamed Fish to meet Primal/Paleo standard. It’s actually super easy!

Primal Style Steamed Fish
Ingredients:
1 medium fresh tilapia (make sure it’s fresh, not frozen! It’s very important! When buying a fresh fish, always check the gill’s color. If it’s bright red then it’s still fresh. If it looks dull, brownish, or pale then the fish is not fresh anymore)
1 inch of ginger – julienne
1-2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp coconut amino
1 Tbsp avocado oil
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
1-2 green onion stalks – julienne

Directions:
1. Rub the fish with salt – set aside for 20 minutes or longer
2. Pour in coconut amino, apple cider vinegar and avocado oil.
3. Topped with julienne ginger and green onions (white part only)
4. Line a pair of disposable chopsticks underneath the fish (so the fish is elevated a bit from the plate) – This to speed up the cooking time.
5. Steam at high heat about 15 minutes
6. Turn off the heat, uncover the fish and topped with the green part of the green onions

Serve!

A fresh fish will taste good with very minimal ingredients and sauces. Usually people use oyster sauce, sugar and commercial fish sauce like Lee Kum Kee which is loaded with MSG and other chemical stuff.

Lee Kum Kee Oyster sauce

Lee Kum Kee Seafood Sauce

Images are taken from here and here.

 

My breakfast however has been pretty boring lately (mainly romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes with tea eggs and dressed with Fage Greek yogurt or coconut milk dressing) and a glass of almond milk.

banana wasn't consumed in the end

But I got to eat this Bloody Orange from Fresh and Easy as my b-fast today!

woooo bloody!

Taste just like regular orange, a little sweet and tangy.

I love my Avocado Oil which I got yesterday and finally I can have a healthy high smoke point cooking oil in my pantry! No more canola, vegetable, soybean, peanut oil!

Yes indeed they’re pricey (I got these for $20 at Amazon.com) but for my health, it’s worth it.

Have you had Bloody Orange before?

Weekend is almost here!!

 

Cocomania Primal Dishes

After I received my iHerb order, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer to start cooking with them!

Just like the title, I used Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil and Coconut Secret Raw Coconut Aminos.

Minced Meat & Mixed Veggie Quiche (inspired from Nom Nom Paleo)

Ingredients:
1.5 lb ground pork (or any other meat)
1/2 onion – minced
1.5 cup shredded cloud ear fungus (you can find this in Asian market -usually they’re dried – has to be soaked in water before use)
1 shallot – minced
Broccoli slaw (I made my own using my food processor – shredded broccoli stems with carrots – the amount is up to you – I like mine with lots of veggies
1/2 fresh jicama – minced
1-2 Tbsp raw coconut amino (or tamari soy sauce or regular soy sauce if you’re not into Primal/Paleo)
6 small eggs (or less if you use large eggs – lightly beaten season with some salt – not too much)
1/2″ ginger – peeled and minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

Directions:
1. Heat up non stick skillet in medium heat – put in the coconut oil -it was solid in this cool temperature.
2. Once the oil melted, saute the onions, shallot, ginger, and jicama until onions are translucent.
3. Mixed in the ground meat, stir
4. When the meat is half cooked, pour in the broccoli slaw and the shredded cloud ear fungus
5. Season with salt and pepper accordingly (don’t go too overboard with the salt)
6. Pour in the coconut amino acids/soy sauce
7. Remove from the heat and pour in the meat mixture into a baking pan (already lightly greased with oil or butter)
8. Preheat oven to 350F
9. Pour in the beaten egg and bake for about 30 minutes.

Easy Seaweed Medley Stir Fry (Vegan)

Ingredients:
1/2 onion – minced
1.5 cup shredded cloud ear fungus (you can find this in Asian market -usually they’re dried – has to be soaked in water before use)
1 shallot – minced
Broccoli slaw (I made my own using my food processor – shredded broccoli stems with carrots – the amount is up to you
1/2 fresh jicama – julienne
1-2 Tbsp raw coconut amino (or tamari soy sauce or regular soy sauce if you’re not into Primal/Paleo)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
2 cups of soaked seaweed

Directions:
1. Heat up non stick skillet in medium heat – put in the coconut oil -it was solid in this cool temperature.
2. Once the oil melted, saute everything
3. Season with salt and pepper accordingly (don’t go too overboard with the salt)
4. Pour in the coconut amino acids/soy sauce

Easy peasy healthy quick fix meal

Tropical Citrus Chicken

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breasts (boneless & skinless) – cube cut
3 ripe tomatoes – diced
1/2 onion – minced
1/2 ginger – julienne
3 garlic cloves -minced
1 shallot – minced
1 cup fresh pineapple chunks
1 cup of fresh orange juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Marinate the chicken meat with salt – set aside for 15 minutes
2. Heat up the non stick skillet to medium heat, add 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
3. Lightly pan fry the chicken meat until light brown – set aside
4. Heat up 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
5. Sautee the garlic, onions, shallots and ginger until the onions translucent.
6. Mix in the tomatoes and the pineapple chunks, stir until everything incorporates together
7. Pour in the orange juice and cover the skillet for 2 minutes
8. Season with salt and pepper to taste
9. Mix in the chicken meat, mix until everything incorporates together
10. Increase the heat to medium high to thicken the sauce a bit
11. Remove from the stove and serve!

This taste ahmazing! With a slight hint of coconut oil mix and the citrus juice it gave that fresh taste. Not to mention the citrus juice tenderized the chicken meats.

I love coconut oil and I love how much healthier it is. It got bad reputation because of the saturated fat and cholesterol but those are NOT TRUE! This article and this explain it well.

So does the chart below (source)

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of blogs that talk about this Primal/Paleo. The more I know, the more interested I am into this.

One quote I like:
“Primal is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.”

The main thing about being Primal is you eat whole foods (veggies, meat, fruits and nuts) and avoid grains/gluten/starch and sugar as much as possible.

I saw this post about being vegetarian can be primal as well.

Since last week, I’ve been totally primal (finally I cut out grains/wheat from my diet) and I’ve been feeling great! Before I usually had wheat toast for b-fast and always got super hungry before lunch time, or there was time I ate a bowl of oats and I felt way too stuffed (not in a good way).

Ever since I changed my breakfast menu to more primal (protein, fat, fiber and some fruit occasionally) I notice I could last all the way until lunch time. I feel full in a satisfying way, not overstuffed.

I know I’m not a strict Paleo/Primal as I still enjoy my dairy (greek Yogurt, cheese) and there might be time that I have to dine with friends and relative, which not quite Primal/Paleo approved. The point is if 90% of the time I stick to Primal/Paleo, 10% won’t hurt. Afterall we gotta enjoy our life to the fullest, right?

More info about Primal/Paleo can be found here and here.

Whatever your diet/lifestyle choices are, do you consider yourself to be strict on it or you can be flexible?

 

A visitor, Prana Bar review and long term goal

I had a super bad stomach cramps last night after I finished my post and again now I am feeling it. The closest description I could come up is having your guts being squeezed and twisted…ouch..not to mention I’ve been feeling bloated and cramps for the whole afternoon, partly because of the “monthly thing”. Don’t you “love” your loyal monthly visitor, ladies?

Anyway, my P90X workout this morning was like blah…scoring from 1-10 (1 being the worst, 10 being the best) I’d give it 4. I even skipped the other abs workout that I usually do after the main one done, but today that just didn’t happen. This got me into thinking about all my workout routine for the past 6 months. More on this later. Now onto my munchies of the day:

For post workout/first breakfast, I had this super creamy oats in homemade plain almond milk with Prana Bar Apricot Goji

That bar by itself was at least 220 calories, plus the almond milk and oats roughly about 300 something calories? I’m not trying to count calories here, just want to give rough estimate. I was so wasted after the workout, really had not much energy and I felt I just had to load my oats with something a bit more dense. But this didn’t sustain that long either.

About 1 hour later, after I got to the office, I toasted 2 slices of Rudi’s Organic Bakery Honey Sweet Whole Wheat Bread, topped with super chunk pb.

I love this honey whole wheat ones. It tasted pretty fluffy though not as fluffy as white bread but still good. It had a hint of honey taste but not overpowering. I even ate this bread plain before, no pb, no butter, no jam, not toasted. Just plain and still good! But for today, I need some solid (second) breakfast, so I topped the slices generously with chunky pb. Yumm…so delicious.

Late morning snack: yogurt with mixture of Kashi Go Lean Crunch, Kashi Go Lean Cereal and some Cheerios.

this was already half eaten

Lunch: whatever left over from last night dinner: edamame, broccoli, yams (no pic) and first fruit serving (similar as yesterday’s fruit combos).

Afternoon snack: second fruit combo – strawberries and Prana Bar Apple Pie.


This bar was pretty good, not as dense and gummy as the other ones that I tried before. It had a slight cinnamon taste, and some bits of dried apples here and there and of course the nuts. It tasted pretty sweet, after I had it I drank at least 1-2 12 oz water. It was ok, not quite my favorite but good enough to sustain my hunger. Seriously, the strawberries weren’t enough.

So you think that bar will hold my hunger until dinner? Not really. Even though my brother was kind enough to boil bok choy and made steamed whole fish, I still had to wait for my brown rice to cook. Can’t eat steamed fish without rice!

bok choy

steamed whole fish

roasted duck - didn't have any

Some almonds afterwards and those are pretty much what I had for today.

As I am writing this post, I am still having some kind of “hunger” feeling that I still want to eat something, but dunno what. I don’t really feel quite hungry, just a feel want to munch something. My stomach isn’t cramping anymore, thanks to warm water + honey that I drank earlier, but still kind of bloated. I feel I ate quite a lot today, but don’t get me wrong, I am not feeling guilty or things like that. It’s just today I just constantly feeling hungry or wanting to munch something. Good thing I wasn’t craving for bad stuff like fries or anything like that.
But given to my not so good workout performance this morning, I was a bit confused. On the days I was so in my best performance, I didn’t have this kind of thing.

I am thinking of gaining some weight and I’m talking about muscle weight. I am not trying to bulk up or anything like that, but more lean muscles.

round 1 p90X

this is the most recent picture of me - day 30 of second round p90x

day 30 round 2 p90X- flexed

As you can see, I didn’t see much difference from round 1 and round 2, except perhaps maybe around my midsection area? But my arms and shoulders are SO THIN! However, I do have my problem area = lower belly. Though my upper part was flat (hell I am super flat chested- kinda embarrassing). I am thinking to increase my calorie intake. How exactly am I going to do it? I’ll eat more complex carbohydrates (brown rice, whole wheat bread, some noodles and pasta here and there in moderation) , more protein intake (fish, chicken, yogurt and maybe some red meat once in a while), healthy fat (nuts?) and as usual tons of fruits! It won’t be much different from what I’ve been having so far, but I’ll increase the portion size. One problem is, when I gain weight, usually ALWAYS show up at my lower belly area!! My plan for that? I’ll add more intensity of my ab workout, plus cardio and weight lifting. This will be my long term goal, even I’m done with my second round of P90X, which is by the end of this month.

Sorry for the super long post, but this is what I’ve been thinking for the whole day today.
Question of the day for ladies: Does your “loyal monthly visitor” affect your workout performance? As you can see, it does to me.

PS: I had a slice of another honey whole wheat toast with chunky pb and my “hunger” feel slowly disappeared!

Good nite!