Look Ma, I turned Breakfast into Lunch!

Today was another great day where I woke up naturally 3 minutes before my alarm would have gone off haha. So I got out of bed and went to my fridge, which is quite empty right now. I realized I still had a little bit of egg whites left in a carton (equivalent to 1 egg really), so I decided to have an omelette. Since I like my omelette (and most meals) with lots of veggies, I stir fried some broccoli with garlic and sliced an avocado to eat fresh (I didn't cook the avocado). I took out the broccoli, added some oil the the pan and cooked the egg. The best part is that the egg picked up all the flavour from the broccoli, garlic, and chicken broth brown bits at the bottom of the pan :D

Since I ate half the avocado waiting for things to cook (that's only the other half you see in the picture), I was feeling kinda full after eating the egg and some broccoli. My appetite for breakfast has never been huge. So, I decided to use the leftovers as my sides for lunch. I cleaned the same pan and cooked up a salmon fillet (after microwave defrosting).

The salmon's got a hole in the middle because I cut it in half to check if it was done (and as always, it wasn't). I added two slices of olive bread and now I'm set for my noon time lunch with a friend :D

Thanks for reading!

Grand Re-Opening

And we're back! After an extended summer vacation from the blog, I'll be starting up again and hopefully I'll be posting a few meals each week.

I feel like coming back from my home home and cooking for myself now will take a little bit of time to adjust. After all, almost every meal during my summer break was prepared and planned out for me. However, I'm trying a new system where I buy lots of veggies and chop half of them up to store in plastic baggies. That way, I can just grab a bag to snack on or use as part of a meal.

So, the first meal I just made was a simple salad with some shredded Sobey's roast chicken. I've got the layers as follows: baby arugula, cilantro, cucumbers, tomatoes, red peppers, cottage cheese, onions, chicken, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

In terms of carbs, I try to eat them only at breakfast and after exercise. So that includes bread, rice, pasta, all the grain-y stuff. I must admit I do sneak in several crackers if I'm really hungry at night (but I handle carbs well anyways). I'm trying to fill up at the non-carb meals with veggies mainly. It's been kinda hard but it's definitely good for me.

Now, to share some of the great food I had over the summer break:

My mom stuffed salmon with parsley and cilantro and then wrapped it with prosciutto and threw them in the oven. Delicious.

My brother and I experimented with salsa recipes several times. Not bad to snack on during family mahjong games haha.

BBQ chicken wings on the barbecue made by yours truly :P

And finally, this is in memory of the Western glass I bought as a gift for my brother, which I ended up using more at home. It shattered, but it was a great colour match for my blueberry smoothie. Goodbye old friend.

Stay tuned for more!

The New Nutrition Program

During a long absence out of town and watching the World Cup, I picked up a nutrition program that I'm semi-following right now. It's basically the 5 meals a day, protein every meal, 2 servings of veggies every meal, carbs for breakfast and after exercise only, etc, etc. I've become even more health conscious now that I've been doing this exercise training course. I also bought protein powder! But, it tastes kinda like fish so it might not the best one out there.

So this morning, I had Vector cereal with milk before my workout, and made myself a smoothie (with my new protein powder) for a meal. Cooked up salmon and deglazed it with balsamic vinegar, which is it looks so dark in the picture below.

It was kinda underdone but I don't actually mind it (thank you Japan). Threw some spinach and cucumbers underneath and ate it at work (which is why its in a handy box).

For dinner, I stir-fried some bok choy with a smashed garlic clove and ginger, deglazed with chicken broth and a little salt. Boiled some pork dumplings and voila!

The dumpling that's open was my tester. I like to know I'm eating something fully cooked...and since no one's marking me on presentation I frequently do it. But if you think about it, good chefs always taste their food before serving it to their clients, and since I'm my own chef and client, this would be justified :)

Grabbag Lunch

Just came back from a 1.5 hr midterm, followed by a 1.5 hr workout, so I was STARVING (though nothing compared to the 30 Hour Famine I did earlier this year :P it actually wasn't that bad). Didn't have any particular meal in mind so I just opened my freezer to see what was there.

Grabbed a bag of ribs, mushrooms, corn, and beets. Defrosted ribs in microwave and marinated with sweet soya sauce and cooking wine (sherry) before pan frying it. Let it go for a while and poured in some water with the veggies.

That's when I decided I would clean some dishes while it cooks. Lucky me, the meat got overcooked but protein is protein. Served it in a bowl on top of a pita (just for kicks..plus it looks cooler).

Yesterday for lunch I packed the dumplings and cabbage I made the other day, but ended up buying a Harvey's original hamburger with onion rings :S Karma kicked me in the face by getting spicy chipotle sauce on my white shirt.

                                    

(not quite what I had, but putting the rings in the burger would've been a good idea....if you're reading you need to slap yourself NOW so you're not tempted to get one of these. O what have I done...)

I think I may cook an omelette after this to make up for the fact these ribs are overcooked. Tonight I may go to Aroma's since I won a Buy One (meal) Get One Free coupon at Relay for Life haha (it expires at the end of June). Until next time!

PS. Make sure you slapped yourself. 

So Much Food, So Little Time...

So it's really hard to keep up a blog, especially one about food (which you eat EVERYDAY - hand down again anorexic guy). Since blogger.com has a new, annoying way to upload pictures, and the fact that it takes forever to upload them, I'll try my best to fight the urge to yell at Rogers (which would take me 2 hrs just to get in touch with a real human being). That being said, here we go:

Just cooked dinner, pulled the dumplings from the freezer and they took quite a long time to boil before being done. After cutting open the first tester, I found it was still cold inside...and pinky. Had to test a few more before I could tell they were cooked (better safe than sorry!). It was still delicious, with Taiwanese cabbage stir-fried in garlic and chicken broth underneath.

                               

Hmm so I guess this blogger won't center portrait-style pictures either...wait I can use the space bar to push it over....haha silly me, anyways, I woke up super early today (7am...after sleeping at 10:30pm) and went to the gym (I had some Vector cereal with milk and a banana). When I came back I made an omelette with peas and corn that turned into a scrambled egg...because I couldn't flip it all in one go. Better safe to have it cooked through though, runny eggs gross me out. Added an orange, plum, and apple juice to finish it off.

                      

Watching Toy Story 3 is a pretty good way to kill time as pictures load :P
I always wanted an excuse to use balsamic vinegar in a savoury dish and I got my chance. Made a salad yesterday for lunch, using arugula, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers. Topped it off with a pan-seared salmon to which I added balsamic vinegar to the pan at the end, and a little on top of the salad as well. Delicious.

Toy Story 3 cut out on me, time to study for a midterm this Saturday :S I had a pita with the salmon salad to fill me up, and used some good 'ol salsa. I was chowing down on a tub of hummus every week and I felt it was a bit unhealthy, so I switched over to a healthier option (although I think it does have more sodium...)

Alright time to backtrack a bit. Went home for the weekend, my brother made ribs using a dry spice rub, apple wood to smoke it, indirect heat, probably 3 hours in the barbecue, and this picture does NOT give the size of this dish justice. It was piled a good foot above the dinner table (there are 3 racks in there). Good stuff bro.

                     

Alright last one for now. The day after the barbecue we went to 168 Sushi Japan Buffet on Dundas St., west of Erin Mills. I was SO stuffed afterwards. But then again I worked out once we got home, to my surprise. Their food is pretty good for a buffet. Try it out! (It will put you back about $23.00 with tax and tip on top for dinner).

Kay gotta study now, thanks for reading if you got this far! I would like to do shorter blogs so that my labels don't become super long (so I can reference what I ate/build ideas of what to cook in the future). Ciao!