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!!

 

Christmas and More Recipes

Heyyy, Merry Christmas everyone! It’s already 11 pm when I was writing this post.

Anyway, we got another rain in LA again (heesh, hopefully it’ll clear out by Monday. I hate driving in the rain. Enough with 6 days of rain in LA).

Let’s start a bit from a day before Christmas Eve. I’ll post up most pics and less words. Too lazy to type.

PRE CHRISTMAS EVE
I decided to give a little “gifts” for my colleague: Chinese Tea Infused Eggs and Healthy Chicken Fingers.

Chinese Tea Infused Eggs (Adapted from: Tiny Urban Kitchen)

boil eggs until done

When they're done, crack the shells a bit (don't break them) - discard the water earlier and pour in fresh water

Prepare 2 Lipton tea bags and one Star Anise

Mix in the tea bags and the star anise along with the hard boiled eggs. Simmer for 1 hour - leave the eggs in the tea overnight. Oh also add some salt as well.

Chinese Infused Tea Eggs - ready!

Healthy Chicken Fingers (adapted from Zuzana’s Chicken Fingers)

Cut chicken breasts into strips - marinate with salt, curry powder and a bit of coconut milk

Prepare for the almond flour - Ground 2 cups of almonds in your food processor

2 cups of almond yield more than 2 cups of almond flour apparently

Add equal amount of shredded coconut flakes. Scoop up 1 cup of almond flour and add 1 cup of shredded coconut flakes to another container

Crack 1 egg and add a bit of coconut milk (no exact measurement, maybe about 3 tablespoons?)

Next- Dip the chicken strip into the egg mixture then the almond flour/coconut flakes mixture before align them on the greased baking sheet

Ready to be bake - pre heat oven 350F

Bake for about 25 minutes in 350 F - depends on your oven.

Or if you're impatient like me who doesn't have big oven to fit all the chicken strips - light pan fry them on non stick skillet

Healthy Chicken Fingers- Done!

Serve with steamed veggies - DELISH!

Wrap everything, wrote the card- DONE!

To my surprise, she also gave me something as well - and her wrapping looks MUCH NICER than mine..LOL

Homemade Christmas sweets - Portuguese/Indian style

Even my dentist gave me "Xmas Gift" as well - my retainers...gotta wear these fellas as often as possible..meaning I have to brush my teeth more often after every single meal.

CHRISTMAS EVE

Carby breakfast! - WW Pita Bread, Naan bread!

Some of the sweets from my colleague's gift- fruit cake slice and some deep fried sweets? Fruit cake taste good, not so much on the deep fried stuff

Vegan stir fry!: Eggplant, colorful bell peppers, shrooms

Steamed Chinese Kale (gailan) - yummy!

And off to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1!

I know I just watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow despite it’s been out for about a month already. I like the book and the story but I am not keen to be in the crowd to watch it when it just came out. In fact the theater was empty yesterday so finding the seats was a breeze. Hm, for some reason I just wasn’t keen on some of the semi nude scene. Why did they have to do that? Totally unnecessary.

And we also watched Black Swan. I’d say: WOW, that movie was pretty intense. Not a scary movie but more like psycho and thriller at the same time.

Starving after the movie- In N Out for to the rescue!

buns for him, bunless for her (forgot to ask them no mayo..argh!)

Unfortunately, that wasn't enough. Got home, cut myself 2 apples and 2 oranges. yummy!

Ate 1/4 of this chocolate that I made couple days ago..not bad..bitter sweet!

CHRISTMAS / TODAY
We did NOTHING! In fact, we were cleaning and did house work and went to in laws for dinner. Got some grocery on the way back when it started to rain.

How’s everyone’s Christmas???
K and I stopped exchanging gifts on Christmas/Birthdays etc. Even when we were still dating, we didn’t do gift exchange that much either. In fact, I already got myself a Christmas present, my new camera!