Saturday Chores

Hey everyone how’s your Mother’s Day weekend going?

Hubby K and I will go to his parents place tomorrow for a dinner get together. I have some confession though..I haven’t gone to my in-laws place for a dinner gathering for a while. Yeah guilty…but sometimes I just can’t help it. I rather stay home and get as much things done as possible. Oh well maybe I’m just making an excuse….because basically if I go there, I pretty much can’t stay Paleo. Everything is cooked with vegetable oil, wheat contained soy sauce, sugar etc. But you can always bring some dish to share so at least you can have too, right – you asked.

Yes, totally true! That’s why today I made Bo Kho and also I already marinated pork butt to make Primal Chinese BBQ Pork (Char Siew) to bring tomorrow.

So wanna know what I had yesterday and today?

Yesterday:
Breakfast
Another chicken sausage with pan fried sliced zucchini. Hubby K got the same thing as well.

Which I didn’t have until 10 am because my post workout snack of 2 small yams kept me full that long! So I wasn’t even that hungry when I had my lunch, which was very very similar to dinner from the day before. And so was my dinner. Yesterday’s meal was deja vu!

Today:
Breakfast was another 2 small sweet potatoes (orange colored ones) before we went off to get groceries at Superking Market (usual veggies and meat), 99 Ranch Market (coconut milk and pork butt for Char Siew), Walmart (can’t resist 50 cents avocado) and Farmer’s Market (more strawberries, some oranges).

My lunch was super sad today.
Half Japanese sweet potato, steamed Chinese Kale (gailan) and 2 egg omelet topped with left over sauce from Braised-to-Oven Fried Chicken.

And I proceeded to cook Bo Kho and marinated my pork butt for Char siew to bring to the dinner tomorrow. Finally I also managed to clean the entire house (well not really entire, just the living room, kitchen area -will continue the bedrooms tomorrow)

My dinner looked much better!

No workout for me today. After 5 days of working out, I need a break!

Good night and Happy Mother’s Day everyone! 🙂

Aren’t they cute? Saw them at the parking lot out of nowhere and I couldn’t resist not taking the picture!

 

Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bo Kho)

I love cooking stew because it’s simple, easy and it tastes even better after the next day. When I saw Nom Nom Paleo posted her Paleo version, I was super intrigued to try it this weekend. And I also saw Wandering Chopsticks posted her own version of Bo Kho as well. One Two things I don’t have in my pantry as those ladies were the fish sauce and Vietnamese Madras Curry Powder (bummer!) But that didn’t stop me for not making it and it still turned out yummy!

Vietnamese Beef Stew (Bo Kho) (Adapted from Nom Nom Paleo and Wandering Chopsticks)
Ingredients:
3 lbs beef stew meat
4 tomatoes – seeded and peeled
1 white onion -chopped
1/2 jicama – cut into chunks
1 inch of ginger root – peeled
4 stalks of lemon grass – discard leafy part and cut into 3 parts and bruised
4 star anise
2 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tsp curry powder
2 tsp five spice powder
salt
1 lb of small carrots – cut diagonally
3 bay leaves
1 tsp paprika powder
2 Tbsp coconut flour

Directions:
1. Peel, seeded and cut the tomatoes into chunks (I saved the seeds for other use but Hubby K decided to consume it instead)

2. Cut the rest of the ingredients. Please note I cut mine into big chunks because I am using a pressure cooker. If you use a regular pot, cut them a little smaller than mine 🙂

3. Wash and pat dry the beef stew meat. I had to cut mine into smaller pieces because they were big!

4. Drizzle 2 Tbsp coconut flour to the meat and mix until they are all coated evenly.

5. Heat 2 Tbsp avocado oil on the pot in medium heat – pan fry the coated meat until brownish. You might need to do this in batches. Set aside.

6. Heat another 2 Tbsp avocado oi, saute garlic, onion, tomatoes, lemon grass, bay leaves, star anise, ginger in medium high heat

7. Mix in the beef stew meat and jicama. Add all the seasonings. Pour in the water about 3/4 full.

8a. Pressure cooker: Cover and turn the heat up to high to bring up the pressure. Once you hear the hissing sound, turn down the heat to medium – cook for about 25 minutes then turn off the heat. Wait for about 15-20 minutes before opening the pot.

Open the pressure cooker, adjust the seasoning accordingly, then pour in the chopped carrots into the pot, cover the pressure cooker and cook for about 5 minutes then turn off the heat.

8b. Regular pot: Cook in medium low heat -let it simmer for about 1 hour. Adjust seasonings accordingly. Towards the end, mix in the chopped carrots.

9. Discard the lemon grass, star anise, jicama and bay leaves. Then you’re done!