Friday 28 January 2011

Friday lunch. After a yummilicious dinner of won ton noodle soup, I thought that the easiest thing would be to pack the leftover won tons for lunch.

Have I mentioned my awesome new lunchbox?

It's be the Nude Food Movers - and I love it! I think it's a great tool for packing a healthy lunch. In my effort not to go hungry, I am determined to follow the "rules" and graze all day, which means to eat about five to six small meals a day.

So, what did I pack for lunch? I guess the question is - what was leftover? I had leftover dumplings, half an orange, a cup of chicken broth and 3 chinese mushrooms. So I packed them all! I put the chicken broth into a microwaveable cup and popped the chinese mushrooms in it. And in my lovely lunchbox (which I will now name Lou-Anne), I packed the dumplings, chili sauce (which was also leftover), the orange, some cherries and a container of custard and peaches. Easy easy lunch. And it kept me well fed through out the day!

Did I mention that I LOVED my lunch box? :) I think I might actually name it Larry, as opposed to Lou-Anne, I think Larry has a nicer ring to it and growing up, I LOVED Robert Downey Jr's character in Ally McBeal who was called Larry too.

Speaking of celebrity crushes - I have never met any woman who hated Colin Firth. I love love love Colin Firth and even more so after I went to watch the King's Speech. Luke and I usually have date night on Thursday night, but this week, we decided to have date night on Friday night. We also decided to use Christie's very generous present (a $100 gift voucher to Gold Class) to enjoy an evening of Colin (that's for me - Luke was there for the story line) and a late dinner afterward (which I should mention - it was very hard to find in Hobart!)

I'm not a movie critic, but by golly, that was an awesome movie! I thought that Colin Firth's potrayal of a monarch was absolutely superb. His stammers were conpletely convincing and it kinda opened my eyes to the fact that not everyone wants to be king. I thought that Geoffrey Rush was brilliant too, but I don't think he was better than Colin Firth. For starters, he was playing someone eccentric - he didn't have to potray someone tortured with a speech impediment. Plus, he was also playing an Australian. Not to take anything away from his performance, because I thought that he was BRILLIANT, but I thought that Colin was better.

Anyway, after the movie ended, Luke and I raced to Blue Eye, a new seafood place where Tacos used to be. I think it is owned by the same owners of Flathead in South Hobart, so our expectations were high. I forgot to bring my phone, so no photos on this meal.

When Luke booked the table, he was informed that the kitchen would be closing at 9pm, so we needed to be there just beforehand. We arrived just before and managed to get seated. The wait staff were terrific - I mentioned that we would just order the mains because we were aware that the kitchen was closing, but she assured us that it would be fine to order a starter if we wanted to (and yes, we wanted to). So Luke and I shared a serving of chili salt squid, which was served with warm chorizo, artichoke and rocket salad, with a saffron aioli. It was delish! The squid was so tender, I barely used any effort in slicing it in half with a knife.

For mains, upon recommendation, I ordered the pan-fried blue eye. I was considering the steak (because I was having a conversation with my colleagues that morning about steak) but then Luke suggested that I should have seafood, considering we were at a seafood place. So I did. And I didn't regret it! I had the pan-fried blue eye, with sauteed potatoes, mussels and saffron and mushroom tapanade. It was so delicious! My only criticism was that I didn't have a spoon to eat all the delicious saffron broth at the bottom of my plate. Now why didn't I ask for a spoon? Oh that's right, I was busy stuffing my face! :) The blue eye was cooked perfectly - it was tender and juicy. Initially I thought that the potatoes were under-seasoned, but the fish was seasoned so well, it didn't matter!

You can check out the menu here. I highly recommend blue eye!

KANG KUNG!!! (I never thought that it would be something I would be interested in...)

Well, has anyone guessed what those veggies were? They are kangkung also known here in Australia as water spinach. I have always liked them, but never really thought about them until Claudia was visiting and she was talking about how she was astounded that a plate of kangkung cost $12. Which kinda made me think - I have not eaten kangkung for a good 11 years. Could that be right?

As luck would have it, I was in Wing and Co, and was looking for some bok choy, but instead, they had the kangkung for about $2.70 a bunch. A BIG bunch. Bargain. So I got a bunch and brought it home, and cooked it in some vegetarian sambal. It's not how we would usually have it at home, but it was yummilicious anyway!

Ingredients

a bunch of kang kung (my bunch was so big that I halved it)
3 cloves of garlic (I love my garlic!)
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
2 shakes of sugar
1 tsp of the vegetarian sambal (because that is what I had in the fridge)
1 tbs of oil (in this case I used canola oil)

So I heated the oil up in the frying pan (I really need to get a proper wok - I don't feel quite Asian enough with the pseudo-wok Luke has got) and chucked the garlic in. Then the kangkung and a little (and I stress, a little) bit of water for that sizzle! Once the kangkung starts wilting I added the oyster sauce and the sugar. Mix it well, and finally add the vegetarian sambal.

An interesting note about kangkung...

I read this on Wikipedia the other night as well:

There is a belief in traditional Chinese culture that discourages extensive consumption of Ipomoea aquatica as a staple food (in contrast to rice) with the explanation that the hollow stem makes the person weak and hollow like the plant, although this belief does not advocate refraining from eating the plant entirely. But the elderly, for example, are discouraged from consuming it. This belief probably derived from ancient observations following attempts to replace consumption of rice with the relatively resilient Ipomoea aquatica during times of food shortages and war and noting loss of muscle strength, probably due to the fact that Ipomoea aquatica contains less food energy than rice. There is also a belief in Chinese culture that extensive consumption may result in muscle cramps. Despite this, it is a common vegetable in Asian cuisine.

Which I thought was interesting. Don't eat too much kangkung - otherwise you will be weak and hollow!!! :)

Coming back to the reason why I'm writing this blog in the first place. I want to lose weight, but I refuse to try those fad diets, or go hungry. I am willing to put in the hard work of exercising and controlling my portion sizes, but we all know that when we go on "a diet" or try to eat healthy, it is often that we get to a stage where we are too hungry to even care. So another trick I have up my sleeve is to incorporate more vegetables into my diet. I'm not a vegetable lover, but I remember the veggies that Mom used to cook at home and have often thought to myself, if I can cook veggies like that, I would eat them more often. Recently, I have been thinking that if Asian greens are more readily available and less expensive, I would eat more of them!

Which brings me to gardening. I found this youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bEoDIm8Nm8) by this dude called the Garden Guru and needless to say, it's pretty encouraging! I still have some of my kangkung (I may have gotten more when I wandered into Island Markets - oops!) so I will attempt to grow some kangkung. Will keep you updated on the progress!

Just lookd at my post - who knew that I would have that much to say about kang kung!

New dumplings...

So I know that I said that I was not interested in participating in the starvation diet, but unfortunately today I inadvertently did! I was meant to meet a friend for lunch, and we said that we were going to this Thai place in Salamanca who has got pad thai to DIE for ( before you judge, I was only intending on eating a half serving!) but instead, for some reason, she brought lunch and has decided to go to the park and eat it. Why would you organise to eat lunch with someone and bring your own lunch??? Oh well, I conveniently had a meeting at that time, so I ended up staying in the office, which also meant that I could either walk across the road and get a burger, or just go hungry. I went with the latter. 

So to curb my hunger (not that I was really hungry), I ate a Whatchamacallit. It was divine! Peanut flavoured crisp and caramel in a  coating of chocolate! 260 calories later… what was my maximum?

Ok – so I thought that the maximum amount of calories I need to take was 1200 calories, but I just looked on this website (http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm) and it tells me that in order to maintain my weight (which I obviously do NOT want), I would have to consume 1761 calories a day. For weight loss purposes, I would need to consume either 1409 calories or 1408 for extreme weight loss. So there you have it, I have another 1148 calories to eat for the day.

A note about calories - I'm not too diligent about keeping tabs on how many calories I consume. It takes too much trouble, and for someone as impatient as me, I really can't be bothered. I'm just interested in knowing how many calories there are in something so that I can make healthy choices. For example in ice-creams: Magnums, about 270 calories (thanks Calorie King!), but chocolate Paddle Pops are about 100 calories. So to curb my ice-cream craving (and believe me, I have heaps of them!) I eat a Paddle pop ice-cream instead.

For dinner tonight I think I'm going to have some wonton noodle soup. I have leftover broth from making chicken rice and it seems to be a bit of a waste to throw out the broth. Of course, I've already frozen some, but my freezer is not big enough for another container, so won ton noodles it is. Luke loves them and it is something simple and easy for me to cook when I get home after work.

Sometimes I make the dry won ton noodles, but I think tonight it will not be necessary. I'm thinking of also doing some sort of different won tons. My usual won tons were classified as "god awful" by my mother (she doesn't like the taste of pork), but Luke absolutely adores them. Tonight however, I feel like something different. I have been absolutely craving dumplings and I can thank the Big Bang Theory for that. They talk about dumplings all the time and that is all I can think about. And what I can say is that no where in Hobart have I found dumplings which can satisfy my dumpling cravings.

So I'm going to try to make my own. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

3 diced chinese mushrooms (more if you like the taste - but Luke doesn't like it so much, so I used less)

1 grated carrot ( I cut my finger while doing it btw, so be careful!)

Minced pork (I forgot how much I used - like half a packet, so if I had to guess, it would be about 200g)

3 prawns (diced)

Gow Gee skins

Oyster Sauce (about two tablespoons**)

**To be honest, I don't know the measurements exactly, I'm just guessing.

How to make it? Just combine all the ingredients (except the gow gee skins) and mix well. Take a teaspoon of the mixture, put it in the middle of the gow gee skin and fold in half. Wet the edge of the gow gee skin, fold the skin over and seal it. I haven't got any photos at the moment, but will upload some later.

After making the dumplings I just pop them into the boiling broth and add the fish balls and boil for a little bit I then add the two minute noodles (yes, I didn't bother getting the eggy won ton noodles) and cook for about two minutes and served. Voila!! Easy easy dinner.

Whatever was leftover, I just steamed them in a bamboo steamer for about 10 minutes. It is important that these dumplings are steamed before freezing, because it you don't, then the gow gee pastry will get soggy and split. I learnt that the hard way in second year Uni! I had just learnt to make won tons, so I made some and popped them in the fridge, quite looking forward to coming home to eat them. But alas! The stuffing made the won ton skin soggy, so what I was left with was some won ton stuffing with some soggy goo surrounding it. I was quite upset. I wondered why the restaurant I worked at managed to freeze their won tons to use whenever they liked, and I noticed,, they steamed the little buggers first! So there you have it - STEAM YOUR WON TONS BEFORE FREEZING!!!

Ok, I think I've carried on for a while about won tons. I'll end here. Did these won tons satisfy my dumpling cravings? They sure as hell did! Unfortunately, that I all I want to eat now! :) And in case any of you are wondering "Gee, where were the veggies?" - I did make veggies to eat with my noodles! I usually add bok choy in with the noodles, but in this case, I found one of my favourite Asian green and stir-fried it anyway! Can anyone guess what it is?

How did I get here?

I know what I'm like. I like making things I like using my hands and creating something. Everything I know, I have learnt from this awesome thing called the World Wide Web. Google is my best friend. While I am not creative, I like to think that I'm a good mimic.

But I love love love cooking. Reason? I love eating! :) Ever since I got to Tasmania, I have been picking up cooking tips along the way and from someone who used to consistently fail Home Economics, I think I'm doing ok.

This blog, is basically about me, what I'm up to and my interests. It will include all my projects, past, present and mostly, unfinished. From cooking, to sewing, to cake decorating, to photography, to travel, to wedding preparations, to weight loss, to design, to home decor - I hope you like it all!

xoxo