Hmm…something to do this weekend…
Link 1 : Tips on removing tomato skin
Link 2 : Making the tasty sauce.
Monthly Archives: February 2009
: : Busy weekend : :
Yeah, it’s been busy as I tried making carrot soup from scratch since I couldn’t find a pumpkin to make pumpkin soup instead. Now I understand why these soups are so hard to make fresh i.e. not using ingredients from the can.
I took the recipe from a book titled “Just 5 Things” from a Singapore Publishing Company named Page One. I modified the recipe abit :
2 Mandarin Oranges
1/2 kilo of Carrots (grated)
1 large onion (sliced)
Few stalks of fresh coriader
Some Thyme & Oregano (a wee bit)
1 teaspoon of Curry Powder
1/2 teaspon of vegetable stock (postnote : probably added in too much)
First the oranges. I should just have juiced them next time rather than try to peel the skin off. The thing about Mandarin Oranges is that there’s so much fibre in them, unlike Clementines or Satsumas. Anyway, I removed most of the segment skins and seeds and blended the sacs together. Then poured it together with the grated carrots and onions and the rest of the ingredients and boiled them for awhile until they soften. Then blended everything together and reboiled. I’m amazed that there was literally complete 4 servings as mentioned in the book.
Now the curry powder, because I forgot to ask Granny where she put her Chicken Curry Mix, I used her Fish Curry spices instead. Oh well. Still though, the hint of curry is just nice but it would have been better with pumpkin soup.
Now this is really the lazy men fare. Fettucine tuna but I got very lazy because the carrot grating just irritated me to bits.
1 large tomato
1 can of “No Salt” Tuna by Ayam Brand
1 medium onion
Oregano
Olive Oil
Boiled Fettucine
1 tsp of capers (rinsed to removed the salt in them)
Lightly fried the onion in olive until soft. Then added in the chopped tomato as well as the tuna and oregano. Then because it didn’t seem that tasty, I added in some rinsed capers. >.> Ok, the capers were salty so I guess the label was misleading.
: : Making Carrot Soup : :
1/2 kilo of carrots grated. HALF KILO!!!
I now have more respect towards those chefs in the kitchen who has to do so much grating and cutting just to do a blended/cream type of soup.
At the moment, the soup is being cooled down so that I can zap it into the blender and see how it taste like in the end. Keeping my fingers crossed that it turns out alrite >.>
Oh, and surprisingly, it came out pretty sweet considering that I haven’t added any sugar inside. I did juice up 2 Mandarin Oranges so it could be coming from that too.
: : Alternate salt mix : :
And apparently, it’s from Reader’s Digest and reposted in Allrecipes.com.
10. Replace salt in the saltshaker with a salt-free mixture. This way you can still use the shaker, but hold off on the salt, says Jennifer Leslie, R.D., a clinical dietitian at the Clarian Heart Failure Clinic in Indianapolis. Mix garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, and oregano together. Grind the mix fine enough for it to come out the shaker’s holes, or buy a Parmesan cheese shaker from a kitchen supply store. Another fun mixture is garlic, onion and chili powder, cumin, dried oregano, and a touch of red pepper flakes.
Sounds yummy. Ok, going to
: : Post Meal pack : :
A few lessons learnt about the food I’ve packed for today.
Apple + Mandarin Oranges + Yogurt
Bad. Too much fibre in the drink and I think I had some seeds floating around. Going to put in more effort in removing the skin and all. Plus, do a more thorough check of the seeds as well. I thought I took everything out but guess looks are deceiving. Also, use only one orange and not two, else the taste is overwhelming.
Salad
Surprisingly, it came out very sweet after settling for a day. Raisins and balsamic vinegar had soak in really well overnight. For a moment though, I thought it was going to be very bland and tasteless like the ones I made before (I didn’t cut the grapes up).
Chicken Sandwich
Again, another suprise. The ginger gave the chicken as really really nice taste and the onions that had caramelized, gave it a bit of a sweetish flavour. And, because it was lightly pan-fried, tasted pretty good, considering that I didn’t add in any other filling in.
Tomorrow to-do list :
Morning – Goto an Organic Food Shop and see what unsweetened dried fruits that they have (and hopefully doesn’t cost a bomb)
Afternoon – Head on down to Boulevard Hypermarket with Granny to have a looksee there.
Need to make a shopping list…
: : Making Food Pack III : :
I shouldn’t be calling the past few posts “Making Lunches” when I’m also making my breakfast.
The last of Grannie’s dragonfruit drink. That’s the purple one
Dragonfruit Smoothie
1 dragonfruit
2 Mandarin Oranges (leftovers from CNY)
6 small ice cubes
This was my desert treat for today for being so good. I should really watch out the sugar level. But at the moment, it’s really very very nice eating all these fruits this way.
Orange, Apple Smoothie
1 Fuji Apple
2 Mandarin Oranges (we just had too many of them leftover after CNY)
1 small pack Nestle Fat-Free Yogurt
My breakfast for tomorrow is that yellow thing on the right. Ok, last time I’ll make an Orange + Apply combination in a long long while. Going to start hunting for bananas, mangos and other fruits that I will put through the blender just to see what will pop up and all.
Chicken Sandwich
1/4 chicken breast
Small slices of ginger
Small slices of onion
White bread from UNACO Supermarket
Actually, the chicken would have been my dinner meal but decided to eat the fried egg instead. The chicken looks brown because I think the onion was cook until it slightly caramelized and gave the chicken that brown color. Believe it or not, there wasn’t any salt in it but the natural sweetness of the onion and the zesty flavour of ginger did help. But I must admit that this kind of fare is not for me for the longterm, so I’ll be looking for ways and means to have a nicer lunch.
Now, one thing that is very good is the white bread from UNACO Supermarket. This is better tasting than the usual bakery bread that is found in standalone bakeries. Now the thing I’m not sure is what makes it so nice, other than the fact than it’s cut very thick. It’s extremely light and fluffy and not at all salty like other bread around. However, I have to start eating wholemeal soon and I’m only just finishing up the leftover white bread.
Weekend coming soon and so I’ll have more time to study what on earth I want to eat for my breakfast and lunch next week. I have a lot of leftover food to think of how to eat. Maybe something with pasta or egg just to finish the bacon but not to overdo it.
Postnote :
Attempt at salad #2. Urgh. I think I’m going to avoid lettuce for awhile and just get the other stuff. Gets extremely boring after awhile.
Anyway, this time, I’ve sliced the salad into smaller pieces. The new ingredients are carrots, yellow bell pepper and raisins. No grapes this time but the celery, cucumber and slice lettuce are there. Oh yeah, this time, I’ve removed the center of the cucumber. I put some balsamic vinegar but I still need something in there. On shopping list : more herbs and spices!!!
2 more days till week #1 of low sodium diet is over. Sina’ was right. Take it easy. Next week, I’m going to bring some soup to work and see if I can last through a lunch like that.