Taking It Easy, Way Too Easy?

**UPDATED 5/23/11** Enjoying Healthy Foods is giving away $10 off Applegate Farms coupon. ENTER NOW!!

Hi everyone! Hope you all are having a nice weekend. If you’ve read my blog recently, you would know that weekdays and weekends do not make any difference for me. In some ways, I do enjoy it but on the other hand back in my mind, I do feel a little guilt for taking this way too easy. More on that later.

Apparently, I’ve been in the mood of easy cooking as well.

Like this Easy Tandoori Chicken – which what I had for today’s lunch

With the Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes”

And yesterday I made a big batch of Bo Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew) – this time I used Red Boat fish sauce and TONS of lemon grass, 3 huge carrots and 1/2 cabbage head cut into chunks!

I also made a little effort to make my own tomato paste by cooking 8 tomatoes until most of the liquid evaporated.

Boy, I have Bo Kho to feed an army here 😀

I froze some so we won’t be sick eating Bo Kho for the next couple meals.

Now you know what I’ll be having for dinner later 😀

But taking it easy doesn’t apply to my morning workout. Yesterday and this morning workout left me sweaty and pumped up, in a good way.
Yesterday and today’s pre workout snack – 1 small Japanese yam

Yesterday’s post workout snack – 1 small Japanese yam and 1/2 chicken breast left over from Crazy Chicken dinner

Lunch was super yummy and easy as well. Cheater’s Shish Kabob Chicken with sliced of whole avocado, Baked Cabbage and steamed Chinese Kale (gailan)

And I had mid afternoon snack of bowl of fruity goodness: cherries, strawberries and sliced of an orange.

Which kept me full that I almost didn’t need dinner, but couldn’t resist to taste Bo Kho that I made.

Today’s post workout snack was combined as my lunch, which I already posted earlier. And I had some purple yam in the oven and by the time it was done, I couldn’t resist to have some. I only intended to eat half but then ended up consuming the whole purple yam. Gosh, I love purple yam way too much!

Now I wonder if I’ll have a dinner later.
Ok, here’s my dinner

Anyway, back to the topic I mentioned earlier on this post. It’s been a week since that day and to be honest, I haven’t really made an effort to prepare myself for job search. On one hand I’d like to take my time to do it, but on the other hand I’m a little scared that I’m getting a bit too comfortable with my situation now. I’m not saying financial won’t be an issue because eventually it will catch up! We can’t live off on our entire savings forever. I’ve been having this “guilt” at the back of my mind that I should put my act together and stop being a slacker.

Ok enough rant. I just want to write it up to make myself feel better.

Have a great day!

 

Cheater’s Shish Kabob Chicken

I’ve never had the actual Shish Kabob before but that didn’t stop me to try this seasonings when I saw it at my local supermarket. It was super simple and yummy. I didn’t have a grill and I was too lazy to fire up my oven to bake it (it takes longer and I was too starving to wait another 30 minutes) so I opted pan frying this (or should I say pan grilled?)

Cheater’s Shish Kabob Chicken
Ingredients:
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (or any protein of your choice) – slice lengthwise to speed up the cooking time
1 oz of Shish Kabob seasonings (granulated onions, salt, garlic, sumac, citric acid, black pepper, saffron)

Directions:
1. Place the meat in a gallon size zip lock bag and coat evenly with the shish kabob marinate. Let it sit for about 1-2 hour at least.

2. Heat the skillet in medium heat with 1 Tbsp coconut oil. Pan fry the chicken until cooked

3. Squeeze some lemon on top, then enjoy with any veggie dish of your choice!

 

Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes”

I was never a big fan of mashed potatoes but this Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes” surely won my heart! It’s super easy and you can put any seasonings you want. In my case, I prefer to keep the Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes’ unseasoned because I like to eat them with another dish that has lots of sauce/gravy.

Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes”
Ingredients:
1 cauliflower head – cut into chunks

Optional seasonings:
2 Tbsp melted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Coconut milk/yogurt/heavy cream

Directions:
1. Steam the cut out cauliflower for about 5 minutes – set aside and let it cool

2. Puree the cooked cauliflower in your food processor (This is the time you add the seasonings if you want to make seasoned Cauliflower “Mashed Potatoes”)

3. Done!

 

Easy Tandoori Chicken

When I’m going to bake bone-in chicken, I prefer to steam them first for about 15 minutes to make sure the inside will be at least half cooked before baking it in the oven. Besides it cut down the baking time, plus the meat will stay moist. This tandoori recipe is no exception and it turned out yummy!

Ingredients:
About 2 lbs chicken/beef – I used a whole chicken, cut up in to 4 pieces -skins removed
Juice from a whole lemon
1/3 cup yogurt (I used coconut milk)
Salt and pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp tandoori seasonings

Directions:
1. Mix all the marinate

2. Place the meat in a gallon size zip lock bag, coat evenly with the marinate. Let it sit for about 2 hour or overnight for best taste.

3. Steam the meat for about 15 minutes (If you use boneless meat, you can skip this part and head on to the next one). If you want to skip steaming, make sure to put longer time when baking in the oven.

4. Broil the meat in 400°F for about 20 minutes. If you didn’t steam the meat, bake it for 350°F then change the setting to broil. Time depends on the size of the meat that you use.

Remove from heat and enjoy with your favorite veggie dish. I ate mine with a side of Baked Cabbage.

I submitted this recipe to Primal Cave#3