Day 22 ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjvQ7T01tLo

This is the video we viewed as a rough guidance. 

Very simple to understand and easy to implement.

Day 21 ... Lebanese Bread with Potato Curry & Coleslaw

 

Lebanese Bread with Potato Curry & Coleslaw

Wednesday, July 21, 2010
7:30pm @ Home

Was driving Justine from one place to another. Like her personal driver. Bryan said he'd prepare dinner while I join the traffic jam hour. So anyway, here's how Bryan says he cooked his delicious potato curry.

1. Stir-fried some garlic and shallots in butter. We ran out of oil. When fragrant, added 3 tablespoons of curry powder. Added half a mug of water to turn into paste. Added ginger-garlic-shallot-chilly paste (previously made and stored). Added potatoes and carrots, cut into bite size. Poured milk in till it covered the potatoes. Added seasalt. A dash of shoyu. And lemon grass stalks. Allowed to simmer until the curry thickened and the potatoes softened.

2. In a separate small pot, boiled 2 eggs. Should be hard boiled in like 10 minutes.

3. Toasted the Lebanese bread for a crispier texture.

4. Meanwhile, I came back and made the coleslaw. Yup, the difficult one, we leave to Bryan. :D We stick to what we can do. :D So, cut cabbage up in thin slices. Carrots too. Rinsed and put them into a large mixing bowl. Easier to toss without spilling out the contents. Added a generous amount of flaxseed oil and some mayonaisse. Shook a bit of black pepper in. Tossed them well.

5. Arranged on the plate as desired.

This is one easy dish to do, Bryan says. His yummy curry went very well with the bread. Liked the cool coleslaw taste after the hot spicy dish. After not taking curry for some time, even mild is kinda hot for me. :D

To Sum Up : One shaker of The Green Drink in the morning. Tuna sandwich for lunch. And dinner. One drink & 2 meals.

Today is gonna be fun, I should think. We're going to try to make Chicken Briyani. Youtube instructions all ready. 3 friends are coming over at 3pm, and we shall start at 4pm. Dinner will be early (6pm or so) as tomorrow is a school day. And 2 of the friends are staying in Country Heights in Rawang, so quite a distance to go back at night by cab. Keep your fingers crossed.

Time of Posting : Thursday, July 22 ... 8:46am

Day 20 ... Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore with Vermicelli Pasta

Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore with Vermicelli Pasta

Tuesday, July 20, 2010
9:30pm @ Home

This morning, decided to prepared dinner in the crock pot. Was going out at 3pm to send Justine to class, meet up with a Singaporean couple here on a short break at 4pm, pick Justine up at 7:40pm, and go straight to the train station to get Bryan at 8:30pm. By the time, we came back, it would be too late to cook dinner and I really didn't want to break the "eat dinner at home" rule that I've imposed on myself. So checked YouTube and came across a really simple crock pot recipe : Chicken Cacciatore.  It's okay if we're not sure how to pronounce the second word, who minds right, as long as the name sounds exotic. :D

Ingredients required as per recipe:

onions (got),
carrots (got),
celery (don't have - Justine's happy),
half chicken (cut) (only had one-third chicken),
can tomatoes (used one fresh tomato chopped roughly and half a can of tomato puree),
parmesan cheese (don't have, only cheddar),
garlic (got),
basil (got),
thyme (got),
oregano (don't have but used sage instead),
parsley (yes got),
salt (seasalt),
mozzarela cheese (nope, don't have, only cheddar).

Added to that : One table spoon of blended chilly ginger garlic shallot paste. Potatoes.

1. Put everything (except the cheese) into the crock pot. My favourite part. Set the timer on low heat for slow cooking. Should be ready in 6 hours or so. I only turned it on when we left the house at 3pm.

Actually, the chicken cacciatore was supposed to go with rice. But by the time we got home, it was 9 pm. It was too late to cook rice. So pasta to the rescue. The back-up plan. The crock pot dish was ready - 6 hours, just nice.

2. Took out vermicelli pasta that cooked in only 6 minutes. Added seasalt.

3. Meanwhile, prepare serving dish. Drizzled some extra virgin olive oil on the dish. When pasta was ready, drained and poured on the pyrex. Tossed well.

4. The crock pot chicken looks promising. Added the 2 squares of cheddar cheese and allowed it to melt. Poured the contents over the pasta.

5. Garnished with coriander, fresh carrots and small slices of lemon. And sprinkled black sesame seeds on top for a bit of uh, contrast.

Couldn't believe the dish was so very easy to do. Felt the chicken could have been better a little bit more moist though. Invited the Singaporean couple over to the house on Thursday. We're going to cook Chicken Briyani for dinner. :D Stay tuned for that. Hayley will be joining us too. The couple, inspired by our 10 day detox program, have decided that they will also adopt and follow the regime when they get back to Singapore.

To Sum Up : Had one shaker of The Green Drink for breakfast, 2 slices of bread with mayo and cheese for lunch, had one bungkus nasi lemak, steamed ubi, taufu bakar during tea time at Chawan, Bangsar with our Singaporean friends and Hayley. And Dinner.

So, 1 shaker of The Green Drink and 3 (?) meals.

THREE??? Yikes!

Time of Posting : 11:32pm

Day 19 ... Spaghetti with Clams in Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti With Clams In Tomato Sauce

Monday, July 19, 2010
6pm @ Home

Bryan's up north today, so dinner's just for Justine and myself. Would have to be pasta. Less fuss. No hassle. Checked the freezer and found some clams (mussels) so decided to make spaghetti with clams in tomato sauce.

1. Stir-fried onions and garlic in sesame seed oil. Added a spoonful of blended chilly, shallots, garlic, ginger that was kept aside when Bryan prepared it for his chicken curry on Friday. Added a tomato (roughly chopped) and half a small tin of tomato puree. Added seasalt, pepper, basil herbs and tomato ketchup. Added 3 coffee mugs of filtered water.

2. In another pot, boiled the spaghetti. Added seasalt and drizzled olive oil. Drained when it was HALF-done.

3. Poured the half-done spaghetti into the tomato sauce. As the spaghetti was slowly cooking in medium heat and soaking in the sauce (Bryan taught me this, said he got the tip from AFC), added the clams and 2 slices of cheddar cheese. Justine loves the sauce cheesy. Pulled a bunch of coriander leaves, gave a quick rinse, and added that in too. Covered the pot and allowed to simmer on low heat.

4. The spaghetti was ready to be served within a few minutes.

5. Garnished with fresh coriander. The cooked coriander was beneath it - did not stand out in the photo, hence the fresh one. The back-up Plan. Unfortunately, forgot the lemon slice. Would have looked better with that. Oh well, just imagine a bright thin slice of lemon in the middle, nestling on top of the coriander. :D

For lunch, I had 2 pieces of homemade bread (home made but not in our home) with left over chicken curry which was kept in the freezer. And a banana.

To Sum Up : One shaker of The Green Drink (breakfast) and 2 meals. Plenty of water. Ran out of fruits, so no juicing today.

On the side, bloggin' about my dinner is really helping me to continue preparing simple no-fuss meals at home and am getting into the habit now. I really cannot believe that I have been eating home cooked meals for the last 19 days. It has been tapau and fast food and home deliveries for the last 6 months. It truly is getting easier each day (the cooking).

And very therapeutic.

Time of Posting : 9:43pm

Day 18 ... Spanish Chicken Paella

SPANISH CHICKEN PAELLA 

Sunday, July 18, 2010
7:30pm @ Home

Straight from the frying pan. Bryan's spanish dish called Paella (rice dish cooked with a combinations of meat or vegetables). It turned out really awesome! Bryan says it's easy too. Here's how he did it :-

1. First, he seasoned several pieces of chicken with seasalt, pepper and olive oil.

2. Then, he lightly fried on low heat, garlic, shallots, tomatoes (chunks), 3 red chilles (deseeded) in olive oil until fragrant. Added half a cube of no msg chicken stock. 2 cups of water. Blended the mixture until fine. Put aside.

3. Using the same pan, he drizzled olive oil, fried some garlic and added the chicken pieces and chopped coriander on low heat. Added some shitakii mushrooms (sliced) and carrots (diced). Poured the blended mixture in. Added 3 teaspoons of tomato puree. Added seasalt. Simmered for a few minutes. Then added one and a half cup of rice. Simmered for another 15 minutes or until rice cooks.

4. Before serving, he turned the fire on high flame for a minute to seal in the flavour and to have a nice crusty texture on the sides of the saucepan.

That was some feast. Absolutely tantalising. :D

Today, I had my green drink for breakfast. Afternoon time, went to Midvalley with Justine. We had lunch at Little Penang Kafe. That was my FIRST time eating out since I started the program. I am now on maintenance. Ordered char keow teow and could only take half a plate. Good thing I didn't take much because I got to help myself to 2nd and 3rd helping of Paella. Took 4 lil small clumps of popcorn at the movies and found it too sweet. Normally, I can finish a large caramel popcorn by myself. :D

To Sum Up : 1 shaker of The Green Drink & 2 meals.

Time of Posting : 10:09 pm

masterpiece ...

Bryan serving his spanish masterpiece. 

The rice was absolutely fluffy and very very tasty

and the chicken was super tender. 

Yummy!!! :D

spanish food ...

We had the most delicious spanish dinner tonight. Bryan saw the dish being cooked on AFC this morning, and decided to surprise us.

Day 17 ... Rice Soup with Fish & Scallops

Rice Soup with Fish and Scallops

Saturday, July 17, 2010
7pm @ Home

We had quite a bit of rice leftover from the night before. So decided to make porridge for dinner. At about 4pm, prepared the crock pot stuff. Emptied the tupperware of rice onto the pot. Added the required amount of water. Added some carrots and scallops. One cube of no msg chicken stock, seasalt, sesame seed oil and pepper. Closed lid and set on high.

Meanwhile, marinated a fish fillet cut into bite pieces, with seasalt, lemon juice, shoyu and pepper. Let that sit in the fridge till later.

The porridge was ready by 7pm. Added the marinated fish pieces. Let them cook for a brief few minutes. When ready, served myself in a small soup bowl, with a teaspoon of flexseed oil on top, a dash of black pepper and a generous scrape of marmite. Justine too. Bryan was out for an appointment at that time.

Actually, I was going to prepare some sweet fried shallots as well, but while they were frying, the phone rang. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I smelt a burnt smell coming from the stove. Black onions. Didn't bother to re-do. :(

To Sum Up : I had breakfast (egg, baked beans and 2 slices of freshly baked bread) and dinner. 2 meals and 1 shaker of The Green Drink. No juice today. Plenty of water.

Bryan offered me some chocolates and nougat (gift from a friend) when he got back later. I took 2 bites and I found that I couldn't take them anymore. The sugar taste actually made the back of my throat felt raw and tender. It has been 17 days today since I stopped taking refined sugar. Tony Robbins would be proud. :D

Day 16 ... Brown Rice with Chicken Curry & Potatoes

Brown Rice with Chicken Curry and Potatoes

Friday, July 16, 2010
7pm in the car

Bryan cooked chicken curry for dinner this evening. He's really good with curries, so I did all the chopping and slicing and cutting and dicing and what have you and left the cooking to Bryan.

Blended shallots, garlic, ginger, chillies and lemon grass together. Stir fried in sesame seed oil till fragrant. Added curry powder. Seasalt. Shoyu. Chicken pieces. Potatoes. Poured one third of a carton of fresh milk. That's all, Bryan says. "Amount all agak-agak..."

We had the curry with brown rice. Chicken was tender and the potatoes were soft and ready to melt in your mouth. Justine finished everything in her tupperware. :D

Today is the first day I had LUNCH (apart from dinner)  since I started, and later extended, the detox program 16 days ago. Bryan says I've lost enough weight. Yeah, I think so too. So had only ONE green drink today. Had a small bowl of penne pasta for lunch, with cheese (sorry Tony - I did after all abstained from all dairy products during the program) and sauce left over from dinner the night before. Slurp!

To Sum Up : 1 shaker of The Green Drink & 2 meals. Fruit. Water.

Time of Posting : 11:23pm

dinner set ...

7pm in the car

Prepared a packed dinner for Justine to eat in the car before she goes for her next class. Bryan normally doesn't like us to eat in the car for obvious reasons. So had to be extra careful, used an extra plastic container as a tray and windows all wound half way down while she was eating.