Sunday 29 March 2015

"Can't Be Bothered" Only One Time

Everyone knows it's better to make your own dinner from scratch rather than 
buying processed food. But sometimes it can get so tedious making food every night from scratch, especially when your day is busy and you don't have time.


Here's a little trick to prepare ready-to-make foods for the rest of the week, or even month by just making the meal ONCE.  Take nut cutlets, for example. Very nutritious and filling. If you make 20 nut cutlets all in one go and freeze them, you only have to get through the "I can't be bothered to do this, cooking is so long" hump just once! This is a very simple recipe on how to make home-made nut cutlets.


Boil potatoes and beans 

Cut the nuts quite big so you can feel the crunch

Mix with salt and peper, spinach, sweetcorns, salmon flakes
 or whatever you fancy
Wrarp individually and freeze them

 
Coat with flour and fry them with olive oil or butter


If you make 30 frozen cutlet, the life will be easy









Thursday 26 March 2015

70% of Japanese people's body are made of soybeans


Japanese people eat lots of soybeans from miso soup, soy sauce to tofu.
They are called meat from the field and a good protein is included.

This is a must-have item at home.
I usually buy long-life firm tofu in a box of 12.




Here is a recipe for Avocado Tofu, which makes a perfect starter dish.


1 Avocado
 1 tofu
   Single cream 4 table spoons
Milk 3 table spoons
Sugar  2 tabel spoons
Vegetable gelatine 10g
and lemon


Mix everything and put them into a blender/liquidiser
and put it in the container and cool it.

Serve with wasabi soy sauce or vinegar soy sauce




Inspired by my friend, KOT 






Monday 23 March 2015

The Number of Plates Shows a Suspicion of a Love Affair


The basics of a Japanese meal consists of a bowl of soup, three side dishes and rice.

The soup is usually made of soybeans with vegetables and it's the most delicious when it's piping hot. 

The main dish usually consists of fish or meat. The three side dishes are usually root or leaf vegetables, soy bean products, seaweed or eggs. Please bear in mind this is the absolutely minimum. The person will add more on as they please. It's all about the variety of food for Japanese people. 

The more plates on the table, the happier they are..

When you're expecting a visitor, the number of plates express a service from the heart.  The whole of the table is covered with many kinds of meals and this shows that you are much welcomed.

However, this isn't just a happy occasion. Sometimes the way a meal is set up can lead to a domestic dispute with a suspicion of a love affair! Yes, you heard right...

When the husband comes home after hard working day, he'll usually come home to at least 3 small dishes, a beer or sake prepared by his wife and a few other dishes and the main course.
However, if husband finds only one plate sitting on the table with sake, then he knows something is up. He starts to panic. He knows his wife is mad about something, so he starts to search his memory for everything he may have done wrong recently.  The wife would never tell him,  she just shows her feeling by the number of plates lined up. Basically, one plate means "I saw that lipstick stain on your shirt, buddy...."




Friday 20 March 2015

Green Tea under British Weather


If you drink English tea in Japan, the taste is not the same. 
The water and milk are different.  
And of course English tea must be accompanied with English weather.


How about drinking green tea in Britain?  

I have noticed the colour of green tea does not go proper green.
Using soft mineral water might help. 

What about the weather?
We have four seasons in a day, so we can handle it in any cases.


Green tea is famous for having many healthy benefits, including fat burning, 
but more importantly,
have a look at their relationship with green tea.

They drink green tea after every meal. 
Green tea is something to finish a meal for them.
So they do not need deserts after meal, just occasional fruits. 

That is the important bit rather than the content of green tea!




Hojicha (roasted green tea) never fails on British people





Thursday 19 March 2015

You are eating just mummies


British people tend to boil the vegetables too long. 
Most of the nourishment will be gone;

you are eating just mummies.

Besides you are not enjoying the texture of the food.

Can your teeth feel the difference between broccoli and cauliflowers?
I will post "how to  look for the degree boiled exquisite" sometime.





Use the top of cauliflower.  
Eat it raw




 Sprinkle them on the top of the salad, with walnuts vinegar, 
olive oil, garlic salt and whatever you usually like to add




Enjoy the texture


Tuesday 17 March 2015

Carbohydrate is always a sub character

Yes, even in Sushi.

 Today's post is sushi for very beginners.

Here is sticky rice:

When you make sushi, the rice must be vineger rice, but I will leave it to the intermediate course.
Boil the rice. You can mix with sesame seed, poppy seed, sunflower seed or pine seed, when it is boiled.




Well, have you seen this in UK? This is the seaweed for sushi. You can buy them at the Japanese, Chinese or Korean food shops.


Cut them into four:



And the excitement starts from here. You can prepare anything you want. Avocado, Asparagus, seafood stick, cucumber, scrambled eggs, lettuce, smoked salmon, tuna,  smoked mackerel or prawns, anything you want! 



Place the rice on the seaweed as little as possible  ( otherwise you will be full after eating only a couple of rolls) And put them in any items, any combination.






This is a conventional one (Carlifornia roll? ) with avocado and smoke salmon



And you roll it 


Just with  a little dip of say sauce (only a good quality one!)




You make it as you eat.The point of the diet is to place the rice as little as possible, as you are eating vegetables together with rice.



Friday 13 March 2015

Scale Magic

Make it a habit to weigh yourself every morning. Just place the scale under your sink so that you'll have to step on every time you go to wash your face. The first time you step on the scale you'll probably look at the numbers and never want to step on the scales again, but don't give up. Just step on it again the next day, and the next, and the next...

Most people will start to see a decrease in numbers on the scale, even if they're not on a diet. It's because your subconscious kicks into a healthy mode and in turn controls your eating habits without you even knowing. You start to swap the crisps for an apple, you may ditch the extra shot of caramel in your latte.. anything that won't make the number of the scale shoot back up again.

Don't get obsessive though! Just blend it into your daily routine and see how it goes.

I
My first scale was only £5


My Latest fancyone.It displays not just your weight, but your muscle mass, fat mass, bone mass...
Great for fitness fanatics.



I feel the lightest after the bath

the cartoon is from google image




Sunday 8 March 2015

Are Japanese fanatics about healthy food?


Well,  they are traditionally eat mainly vegetables and fish. 
So they do not really feel the need to go through a dramatic change in diet.

And of course, when it comes to white rice, it's a staple in their country.
They can't ever let that go.
Sushi would not go with brown rice!
However, it has become trendy to mix it in with other grains.

Here is a recipe of delicious mixed grains with white rice.

1.) Prepare your white rice into the portion size you want.



2.) Mix with barley, lentils green peas, even brown rice (from a packet of barley mix)
I prefer the grains to be slightly hard, but soak them beforehand if you would like softer ones!




3.) Boil them. I find the rice cooker to work is easy.
Worth investing in too!




4.) Prepare tinned sardines (spring water or brine)
It is good to eat small fish as you can eat the whole including bones
and they are less toxic than bigger fish as smaller ones are at the beginning of the food chain
The bigger the fish is the more toxic...

Microbiotically speaking, it's better not to eat fish or animals that are bigger than you.
In other words, what you cannot hunt by yourself is not for you.

5.) Warm them up in a frying pan just for a couple of minutes.

Important thing here is to use (as I will always carry on saying in this blog)
 Use only good quality oil, such as 100% pure sesame oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, or Good Oil

Add lemon, lime and a little bit of soy sauce.



6.) Place the fish on top of the rice and add spring onions or maybe some radish, like so...
(I sprinkled ground brown sesame, but ground peanuts or whole peanuts would be just as delicious) *


And there it is! You've just converted an average dish into something very healthy and nutritious and not to mention, absolutely delicious.








No worries. It is always ways around if you do not fancy brown food


* please be advised, the recent EU Law states that peanuts and sesames are part of the 14 allergens, so check you are not allergic!

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Brown or White?


You know the answer.
It’s better for your health. It takes longer to chew and that stimulates saliva. It’s great for your bowl movement and is packed with minerals and vitamins. 
Then why can’t you switch over?  Too soggy, comparing with bleeched pasta?

Stop seeing  ‘brown' as an alternative. Think they are another nice things.
For example,
Cut the spagetti in three


 
Brown food tastes better when it's not too soft so I boil the past/rice to a hard-ish texture and mix it with beans, broccoli, garlic, kale, tomatoes, mushrooms, whatever you like (but do not boil them too long) with some soy sauce, olive oil, lemon, and chees on top on it.  




The secret is not to count it as the main ingredient, but just another ingredient. So the amount of pasta is not huge.


And yogurt, honey and sunflower seeds, goji berries, lemons, pineapples, blueberries, cranberries (from a packet) as a desert.


Easy to take 30 pieces!
 

Sunday 1 March 2015

You don't throw away the stem of a broccoli, do you?


Some people throw away the stem of a broccoli?  Oh no, there is a plenty of nourishment in it.





You can use the soft bit (white part)






Thin slices

Why don't you add carrots or celery?





Remember? Relax rule!



Fry them with garlic just for a few minutes 
(Do not cook too long. You need to taste the texture)

Saysauce and Sesami oil is Japanese style
Olive oil and Salt is Western style


Topping with nuts, seeds radish anything





Appetiser?