Healthy Food of the Month

It's time to keep track of the food I have been eating in July! I wanted to share some of frequently cooked meals during my long semester break. Usually the meals are simple to make using only basic ingredients you can get in any market. The rest of my daily meals that are not shared are just normal grilled chicken breast/salmon block or sometimes I would just bake them in my oven.

Flourless Green Onion Pancake. I love green onion pancakes so I decided to make a healthier version of it without the flour! The batter consists of 1 cup of quick oats (blended into fine powder and flour-like),  1 egg and some milk to for the consistency. Chop the green onion and put them on a heated round pan with some oil. Pour the batter all over the green onion. Flip the pancake when the edge becomes brown and there you have it!

 Flourless Pizza recipe by blogilates. The crust is made of cauliflower, egg and mild Mozarella cheese.

Lots of green bell pepper and button mushroom for the pizza toppings! This is totally a legit pizza!

 Sandwiches using flourless wholegrain bread. You can find the flourless bread at Opika Organic Market, One Utama Shopping Mall. The price is around RM6. 

It tastes just like ordinary whole grain bread, if not, more delicious!

 I toasted the bread in the oven with the cheese to make the bread crunchier.

 Fruit and Veggie Salad with lemon and orange juice dressing. My current healthy food obsession.

 Same but this time I added some protein with the extra hard boiled egg.

 Sometimes I would make English Breakfast set when I crave for it. Bacon and sausages aren't exactly healthy but it's okay to eat with moderation.

So satisfying! I love bright yellow scrambled eggs! I have been using this partition plate since I was a kid! 

That's all!

by

CSY

How to Make Extra Healthy Banana Pancakes with Sandwich Maker!

My sandwich maker has been left almost untouched in my kitchen for ages as I'm no longer making sandwiches. It's occupying the kitchen counter space and I was contemplating whether to hide it in the cabinet forever. Then it hit me out of the blue that I can actually make my favourite banana pancakes with this sandwich maker! So I decided to give my sandwich maker a second chance and it's a huge success! This is a really quick and easy method to make pancakes as there is barely any oil needed which saves extra calories. Find out the calories in these banana pancakes at the end of this post.

First, you will need a sandwich maker. Preheat the sandwich maker by turning on the switch. Lightly grease the surface using few drops of olive oil or a tiny bit of butter. 

 Cut one banana in slices and add two eggs into the bowl.

 Whisk everything altogether and make sure the banana slices are mashed thoroughly so they can blend well with the beaten egg. This is to prevent it from becoming an omelette with banana chunks so you really want to make sure you whisk hard before pouring the mixture into the sandwich maker. You can also add a teaspoon of baking powder to make fluffy, puffed up pancakes.

 Next pour the mixture into the sandwich maker and fill it almost to the brim but not too full. Close the cover and leave it for about 4 minutes. The indicator light on my sandwich maker will automatically turn off after 4 minutes. This indicates that the pancakes are cooked and ready.

 Open the cover and flip the pancakes to the other side. The other sides of the pancakes will turn brown with the remaining heat so there's no need to close the cover again.

 And the pancakes are done! In just less than 15 minutes! What a quick and easy way to make pancakes! Mmmmm I just can't wait to eat them all up!

 Serve the pancakes with a dash of honey to give that extra sweetness. These pancakes taste as good as the pancakes that come right out of the greasy pan but are super healthy because the oil has been omitted in the first place. Absolutely my favourite afternoon dessert / snack between meals.

So the question is how many calories are there for this whole plate of healthy banana pancakes (8 pieces of triangle pancakes)?
 250 calories. 
(100 kcal for an average sized banana and 140 kcal for two large eggs)

which means it's about 30 kcal for one piece of banana pancake shown above. How amazing is that?

Next I will be blogging about how to make healthy Korean green onion pancakes (pajeon) without using any flour!

by

CSY

How to Make Healthy Peanut Butter

Yay! Another healthy foodie post! Healthy food recipes are my favourite things to blog about besides Korean food and outings! It makes me feel happy and alive. Today I'm going to healthify peanut butter! I love peanut butter (who doesn't? =D) but I try to avoid eating commercial peanut butter because it contains high amount of additives, sodium, sugar, flavourings etc. Basically it's just unhealthy. But now I don't have to avoid peanut butter forever because I'm going to make a healthy version of peanut butter by just using peanuts and olive oil (and with a teaspoon of salt and brown sugar/honey). At the end of this post, I'm also going to show you my way of eating healthy homemade peanut butter! Wait for it!

A small packet which contains 200g of ground nuts is enough to make a small-sized jar of peanut butter. I bought organic gluten-free ground nuts from Cold Storage for RM5.49.

Roast the peanuts on low heat until you hear the cracking sounds. Make sure to stir the peanuts occasionally to heat them evenly.

Oops, mine is slightly burnt so be careful not to over-roast the peanuts or else your peanut butter might taste bitter. 15-20 minutes of roasting will do. Now wait for the peanuts to cool. It's important to wait for the roasted peanuts to cool entirely because it will be easier to remove the shells. Gently press and rub the peanuts in between your palms to remove the shells. This part might be a little bit messy so it's better to prepare a newspaper to prevent the shells from scattering all over the kitchen table and once you are done, just wrap the newspaper and discard it.

This is optional but you can use 3 cloves of garlic to add a more flavourful taste to the oil that you are going to mix with the ground peanuts. Just saute the garlic in olive oil (or any oil of your choice) and remove the garlic cloves afterwards.

Next, grind the peanuts in a food processor into coarse or fine powder depending on your preference. As you can see, I grind it into fine peanuts powder.

This is my favourite part! Mix the peanuts powder in olive oil and you can immediately see your peanut butter forming! It should be a glossy and creamy texture. Otherwise, add more oil to it and continue mixing thoroughly. Add in a teaspoon of salt and brown sugar/honey to taste.

Fill a clean jar with the peanut and oil mixture and there you have it! You now have your very own homemade healthified peanut butter! Store the freshly-made peanut butter in the fridge and consume within a month. Do watch your daily intake of peanut butter because even though it contains healthy oil and fats, over-indulging can still make you grow fat!

The basic way to eat peanut butter! Spread it on a slice of bread and there you go! This is mummy's breakfast and she loves it!

*Drumrolls*

 Tadaa! This gotta be my favourite pancake for now! I love banana pancakes so much already and the additional peanut butter just makes it even more delicious! It's also a nutritious, healthy snack option when I have food cravings. It is incredibly filling too. I wouldn't be able to finish the whole thing if the portion was any bigger.

Yumsss~~

That's all for today's recipe! Cheers to eating clean!

by

CSY

Healthy, Low-Carb Meals Compilation

It's getting easier for me to follow a healthy diet plan because I have explored various healthy meal recipes which eventually makes cooking healthy food something that I enjoy doing besides working out. My diet plan involves no simple carbs and consists of mostly protein, complex carbs and fibre. So when I go to the market for grocery shopping, the food items I would normally grab are farm eggs, chicken breast, minced chicken, salmon, mackerel, fresh lettuce, brocolli, strawberries, blueberries, banana, other vegetables and fruits I feel like buying.

So here are my healthy meals for the week!

 Korean egg roll.

Grilled chicken meat ball.

 Chicken meat loaf.

Mustard crumbed grilled chicken breast.

 Roast chicken.

Guacamole (Avocado salad).

Banana and blueberry vanilla protein pancake with cottage cheese.

Banana protein pancake with cottage cheese.

Tuna and cottage cheese salad.

I love cottage cheese recently because it has high content of casein which is a longer lasting protein and it is low in fat. However, one cup of cottage cheese costs me RM12.90. Sigh.

So which one of the above is your favourite? Protein pancake is my favourite because you can never go wrong with pancake. 

I guess that's all for today's health conscious post!

P/S: Happy Birthday to my bestie, Hui Ming!

by

CSY

Healthy and Natural Banana Cookies and Pancakes

Food blogging time! Since I'm on a loooong holiday right now, I've set myself a new fitness goal which is to get nice and defined abs! I watched Iron Man 3 twice and I would never forget that scene when Gwyneth Paltrow walks out from a fire and flaunts her abs in her sports bra. It made me go 'wowww' because I never thought she would have such nice abs with her age. If you are also feeling the same, you might want to start browsing abs workout videos on youtube and start working out! Btw Casey Ho is one of the famous fitness instructors on youtube right now and her squat challenge is awesome. Try it to feel the intense burn on your thigh and butt! =D

It's important to lose fat and train those muscles but the golden rule to have a nice fit body is to eat CLEAN if you want to see your abs coming out.

Eat clean means eat natural, whole food that you can get from fresh food market like veggies, lean meat (chicken breast is my fav), salmon, fruits, complex carbs including brown rice, whole grain cereal etc. No unhealthy processed food such as sausage, ham and refined carbs such as white rice, noodles etc.

Eating clean doesn't mean you can't eat yummy food. You just need to start appreciating the natural flavour of healthy food such as this Banana cookies and pancakes recipe that I'm going to talk about. This is inspired by Casey Ho and I made this almost everyday because it's just so delicious and nutritious at the same time. Love this recipe so much so I might as well share this with everyone.

Banana cookies are literally the easiest cookie to make in the world. You can even make these cookies using microwave or oven if you have one. Steps are simple. Mash a banana with rolled oats until they blend well together. Then gather a small round ball and flatten it on a tray or plate and microwave the cookies until they become hard. It took me about 3 minutes.

Seriously taste so good. I love Casey Ho. She's amazing!

Casey Ho's tutorial video on how to make Banana Cookies here.

Next will be Banana Pancakes! Super easy too! Cut a banana into slices. Add two whole eggs in. Beat all of them together until they blend well and you will get a nice fluffy pancake mixture. Heat oil on frying pan and start frying the pancakes piece by piece!

I'm salivating already! I can't choose between Banana cookies and pancakes, they are both equally yummy!

Tutorial video here.

I understand that it's a difficult task for Malaysians to eat clean because most Malaysian food is either salty/oily food, fried stuff and more fried stuff.  Besides, refined carbs is a main staple in asian diets so it's hard to change your diet completely all of a sudden. However, I believe that you can slowly achieve this by eating clean in one of your daily meals and gradually proceed to two clean meals per day. Then eventually eat clean meals for 5 days a week and you will be almost there. Reward yourself by eating cheat meal on weekends to satisfy your cravings for pizza or fried chicken.

It's not a difficult thing to be lean and healthy but a change has to be made. So change to see the difference =). That's all for today's fitness post. Will share more about my experience next time!

by
CSY

CSY's Hainanese Chicken Chop

Finally, a Hainanese learning how to cook Hainanese Chicken Chop! Hainanese chicken chop is such a sentimental dish for the local Hainanese. I was told by my parents and grandparents that many Hainanese worked for the English people during the British colonisation era and they invented this yummy dish with a unique touch of western and eastern influence. Being a Hainanese myself, I felt like I really need to learn how to cook it. So once again I kept my afternoon busy by doing my stuff in the kitchen.

 Tadaa! The CSY's version of Hainanese Chicken Chop. My attempt in recreating this famous dish turned out to be quite successful! Here are the simple steps of making this delicious dish.

1. Lightly season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper (I used thin chicken breasts for the chicken chop but you can always use chicken thigh).
2. Lightly flour the chicken breasts.
3. Toss the chicken breasts in beaten egg mixture.
4. Toss the chicken breasts in breadcrumbs. The breadcrumbs I used is Ottogi brand breadcrumbs available in most supermarkets.
5. Deep fry the breadcrumbed chicken breasts. Make sure your oil is hot enough.
6. Now prepare the sauce. I used 3 tbsp of tomato ketchup, 2 tbsp of Worchestire sauce, 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of brown sugar and some water.
7. Add in the mixed veges, diced tomatoes and onions in the sauce and cook till the tomatoes are soft.
8. Pour the sauce over the crispy chicken chop and you're done!

 Another close up shot. Look at the crispy deep fried chicken chop. I was very pleased with my own work this time as I had experienced several failures at frying chicken chop in the past.

And it's important to eat it while it's hot! If you leave it for too long, the chicken chop will get soggy right away. So it's better to eat it right after you finished cooking!

Of course there are many different versions of Hainanese chicken chop you can get out there. I tried the Kluang Station's version once and it doesn't appeal to me. I personally feel that those Hainanese Chicken Chops served at modern style kopitiams are simply too soggy for my liking.

Magenta's version was definitely one of the most authentic ones you can get. It's served while the chicken chop is still crispy on the outside.

You can get it at Magenta @ Publika! (stole this picture from an online blog. I had Magenta chicken chop many times but I always forgot to snap a picture of it)

That's all for today!

by

CSY

Pack-And-Go Healthy Lunch Boxes

Quote of the day: Eating fresh, local, healthy foods is the age old secret to a long and disease-free life. It may sound old but it's 100% true. That is also why I insisted on packing my lunch daily for work during my clinical placement (Glad it's over now! *throws confetti*). To be honest, packing lunch does take a little time (and sweat) but I enjoy cooking so why not =P.

Here are some of the lunch boxes that I made and enjoy eating.

 Kimchi fried rice! Brown rice fried with kimchi and korean chilli paste. Sometimes I would serve it with a sunny-side-up egg.

Green vegetables such as brocolli is also a must!

 Grilled chicken with herbs! Easy to make as you only have to marinate the chicken breast with herbs before grilling it on a hot pan!

 Again served with brocolli and pasta salad.

 Just a simple salad with spiral pasta, mayonnaise and pepper.

 Love love brocolli. It has so much good properties and taste good too!

 If I'm able to get cheap salmon from the market, it would be in my menu of the day.

The day when I crave for more greens. Frozen vege, tomato, cucumber and baby romaine leaves are the side salad for the day. 

 Pasta with homemade tomato paste from hubby's mother! Thank you aunty for making me this lovely tomato paste! Taste really good!

Salmon, bacon strips and stir-fry burdock with carrot and sesame oil! 

P/S: My current favourite youtube cooking guru is ochikeron! She's a Japanese and her videos show you how to cook Japanese home cooked meals. I manage to get a lot of cooking inspirations from her and the below afternoon tea sandwiches are inspired by ochikeron as well. Looks good isn't it? =)

 Chicken egg and BLT sandwiches. Video link here. I made this for hubby and he absolutely love it! <3

Would be better if you use wholemeal bread. I like the thick crunchy texture of whole meal bread.

Served with my home made mashed potatoes. My secret recipe ; )

That's all!

by

CSY