Back from the Dead?

This place has been dead for ten awful months! I've been busy and busier with uni work and life and uni work. Believe me, how I survived the last few months, it is still incredible. I've got my dear friends and family to thank for the support. 

I'm BACK! I think. I sure do hope so, before work engulfs me and this blog once more. Since I'm here, here's an ass-kicking recipe for some awesome Kung Pao Chicken that'll leave your lips throbbing from the heat but your chopsticks going back for more fiery goodness. 

Try it and you'll be sporting Angelina Jolie-isque goldfish pouts in no time.

Spicy baked beans

What's a big breakfast without baked beans? I've always loved the canned grub from the stores but since I've started scrutinizing food labels, none of the commercial baked means made the cut. This recipe was originally from one of my Foodskills classes a few weeks ago but I made some modifications in terms of sugar and alcohol. All in all, it was quite delicious and I'd never buy baked beans in a can again!

Spicy Baked Beans


1 Cup Spicy Baked Beans = 3 Carbohydrate exchanges*


Ingredients:
1 can (220g) white beans (navy, butter, kidney etc)/ if dry beans, soak overnight and boiled until cooked
1 can (200g) crushed tomatoes
2tsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped finely
3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1/2 tsp ground pepper
Tobasco sauce to taste
1 tbs tomato paste
Herbs to taste
Water/Salt-reduced stock

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Drain canned/cooked beans. In a saucepan, heat olive oil. Add onion, garlic, pepper and cook until soft with medium heat, about 15 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add 100ml water/salt-reduced stock and reduce by half. If beans become too dry, add a bit of water/stock.Add tomatoes, herbs, beans and Tobasco. Bring to boil and transfer to baking dish. Cover and bake for around 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

* 1 Carbohydrate exchange = 15g Carbohydrates
Note that beans are a high-starch vegetable (along with potatoes, peas, radishes, sweetcorn, lentils and more). Diabetics have to be careful of their carbohydrate content and if you choose to have them, you have to cut down on your other carbohydrate sources in the same meal.

Vegetarian Chap Chae

A couple of weeks ago, I headed down to the city to satisfy my chap chae craving (and boy it was a major one to satisfy). I must be out of luck as even the best chap chae in town did not even come close to hitting the spot. It was much too oily, slightly soggy and ten miles past my threshold of sweetness in a supposedly savoury dish. Disappointing much. I set out to make my own chap chae a few days ago because, hey -  reduced sugar, fresh ingredients, no-no greasiness? - sounds terrific to me.


Ever since I first heard of Chap Chae, I have this inkling suspicion that it actually means 杂菜 ('mixed vegetables' in Mandarin). Sure enough, Wiki confirmed that. Or so history claims that Chap Chae was created in the 17th century for a huge banquet in the palace. The king actually loved this dish so much that he presented the creator (and his WHOLE LINEAGE) with a title equivalent to 'Secretary of Treasury'. It's a bit mental what they do in the olden days huh?


Traditional Chap Chae was made with cellophane - sounds like I'm eating tape - noodles made from potato starch and a variety of vegetables like shiitake mushrooms, cucumber and daikon radish. Inspired by David Chang's recipe, here's my take on one of my favourite Korean dishes.


Vegetarian Chap Chae


Makes 2 meals


Ingredients:
100g uncooked sweet potato cellophane noodles, cooked as per instructions
1 tbs oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 medium cucumber, julienned
3 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and thinly sliced
3 medium pieces dried black fungus, soaked and thinly sliced
2 handfuls mung bean sprouts, washed
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
1 tsp artificial sweetener (I used Splenda)
Pepper to taste
Toasted sesame seeds for garnish


Preparation:
Heat oil in large saucepan, sauté onion, ginger and garlic until fragrant and onions are soft. Lower flame. Add carrot, black fungus and mushrooms and cook for about 5-8 minutes. Add mung bean sprouts and cook for 1 minute (I like them crisp). In a large bowl, add the noodles and mix in the cooked vegetables. Toss in the cucumbers and the Splenda (dissolved in soy sauce), sesame oil and some seasame seeds. Mix thoroughly and add pepper to taste. 


The beauty of Chap Chae is that it is so easy to make, requires cheap ingredients and can be served either hot or cold! One thing though, I had some leftovers the next day and it became soggy and mushy. Not very nice. So it's a good idea to finish it within the day - not a hard thing to do since it's so yummy anyway! :) 

Beef rolls

I was craving for a lean, mean steak the other day but I've only got some measly slices of sizzling beef in the freezer. They were half a centimetre thin and definitely could not pass as steaks. So I came up with this idea to spice up my poor meat:

Beef rolls 

Makes 2 rolls (appetizer-sized)

Ingredients:

2 thin slices of lean beef (I used sizzling beef)

spring onion

capsicum

leek

1 teaspoon olive oil

Preparation:

Julienne spring onion, capsicum and leek, making sure all ingredients are about the same length. Assemble onto beef slice, roll tightly and cut off excess vegetables at the sides. Heat oil in pan. Place beef roll, 'seam-down' onto pan to seal. Reduce heat and cook all sides of roll and ensure that it is cooked long enough so that the vegetables are cooked.

I used those ingredients because that's all I had in my fridge. Cheese, carrots and long beans could work well too.

Mushroom and cauliflower soup

Remember the mushroom soup recipe I posted up previously? Here's an even better version with cauliflower! I do realize that I'm flooding Sugarless with cauliflower. It's just that I'm in love with cauli now and I'm a student eating on a tight budget so I always buy what's on special. Caulies are in at the moment.

Mushroom and Cauliflower Soup


Ingredients:

180ml low fat/semi-skim milk

1/2 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

300g fresh mushrooms, sliced/chopped

1/2 head cauliflower, roughly chopped

65ml (1/4 cup) fat-reduced cream

salt, pepper and herbs, to taste

Preparation:

Bring milk, cauliflower, onions, salt, pepper and herbs to boil in a pan. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often. Add mushrooms and cook for a further 15 minutes. Stir in cream. Transfer 1/2 of the soup into a blender and puree until desired consistency. Repeat for remaining soup. 

Crunchy baked caulies

I must say I am NOT fond of cauliflowers. Whenever we had Chinese stir-fried vegies, I'd pick them out and chomp them down hastily and then enjoy the rest of the food on the plate. I don't know, I find them rather bland and pretty unremarkable. Decided to give them another shot after catching a whiff of baked cauliflowers somewhere.

My my, I would definitely eat them in a regular basis now!

 Crunchy cauliflowers

Serves 2 meals with staples

Ingredients:

1/2 head cauliflower, chopped.

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 150 degrees. In a roasting pan (or a cake tin) sprinkle cauliflower with salt and pepper. Drizzle olive oil. Chuck the pan into the oven and bake for around 30 minutes or until cooked. Remember to shake the pan every 10 minutes or so to avoid burnt caulies.

*Serving size according to 1500kJ/day diet.

Bake 'em, love 'em

I have reconciled with myself that I am so not an awesome photographer. I'll just have to make do with sub-par quality pictures. Sigh. Anyway, I was being lazy and whipped up this as a meal:

Baked Vegetable Market

Note that I did not include the sundried tomatoes in the recipe. They got burnt. Haha.

Baked vegetables

Serves 2 meals with staples

Ingredients:

1/2 head cauliflower, hacked to nice pieces

1 large tomato, with top sliced off

1 medium carrot, sliced 1cm thick

1 medium zucchini, sliced 1cm thick

1 large fresh button mushroom

1 bulb garlic

Salt and pepper, to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

Preparation:

Dump cauliflower, tomato, carrot and zucchini onto roasting/baking pan, making sure of minimal overlapping. Chop 1/4 off of garlic bulb, sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon olive oil, season and wrap in olive oil. Season the other vegetables, drizzle with remaining olive oil. Pop into oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until cooked. Remember to remove the mushroom after about 10 minutes or they will burn.

Bubble and squeak

I do realize that this is not the best picture ever but I just have got to share this recipe with you. Apparently, eggplants (otherwise known as aubergine or brinjals) are loaded with fibre (if unpeeled) and are found low in the glycaemic index, which makes it great for diabetes control. They are also low in fat, WHOOPIE!

Oh and eggplant is a member of the 'nightshade' family. Which is a cool family name. 

Anyway, the trouble is I've never been a great fan of eggplant and if they're not cooked properly, they become a sticky slimy gooey mess. Ugh. Came up with this bright idea of an eggplant lasagna and my my it was divine.

Eggplant Lagsana

Serves 4 meals with staples

Ingredients:

1 medium eggplant, sliced 1cm thick

1 large tomato, sliced thinly

4 medium fresh mushrooms, sliced thinly

1/2 medium onion, sliced 

Salt and pepper, to taste

Pizza cheese, low fat, enough to cover top layer

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 120 degrees. Arrange eggplant slices at the bottom of a baking tray, season lightly. Remember to have a light hand when seasoning with salt. Arrange tomato, repeat with another layer of eggplant. On subsequent layers, use onion, tomato and mushrooms until you run out. Cover the top layer of lasagna with cheese. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes or until eggplant is squeaky bubbly cooked.

Mushroom soup

 

 I've been having an inkling for nice, creamy mushroom soup ever since ages ago and all the canned ones in supermarkets contain sugar. After trolling the Internet for a recipe that doesn't add starch/flour, I've found this. I've got to tell you, it's Y-U-M! 

Delicious Mushroom Soup

Serves 3 meals with staples

 Ingredients: 

 250ml (2 cups) low fat/semi-skim milk

1/2 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

300g fresh mushrooms, sliced/chopped

65ml (1/4 cup) fat-reduced cream

salt, pepper and herbs, to taste

Ingredients:

Bring milk, onions, salt, pepper and herbs to boil in a pan. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often. Add mushrooms and cook for a further 15 minutes. Stir in cream. Transfer 1/2 of the soup into a blender and puree until desired consistency. Repeat for remaining soup. 

Tip:

To get chunky bits of mushroom, only puree half of the soup.

*Serving size according to 1500kJ/day diet.