Food Diary Journey

So I've started with a personal trainer recently to get back into shape before my friend's wedding and also my trip back to Hongkers later this year, so I can do some (more) damages to my credit card.
The trainer asked me to record my meals for a week and show her what I eat. I thought I was doing fairly well as I tend to cook pretty healthy stuff and don't snack that much.

But alas! That is not the case, after reviewing my week of eating, she told me I needed to cut out all carbs, dairy, soya and sweets. I was devastated! And I was to be on this diet for 21 days. *sigh* I really wanted to cry after that session. Though I will be strong and creative and come up with interesting and tasty meals. Here's a few of what I've made

Vegetable fritatta and salad

Garlic Prawns with Zuchinni and Pommegrante, goats cheese and celery salad

Falafel Wraps

Mr Shy Guy had this packet of falafel mix in the pantry for a while and I've always wanted to try make them, so with the Gumbo dinner cancelled. I guess tonight was the night.

I've made tabouli and the wraps before in my previous life working in the cafe on campus, but have never tried making the little balls of delicious crunchy bites.

Mr Shy Guy added his own twist to the wraps with shredded carrots and fetta cheese and these were some welcome additional flavours :)

Ingredients:

• Parsley
• Spring Onion
• Cous Cous (instead of cracked wheat)
• Tomato
• Olives
• Lemon Juice
• Salt &  Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Falafel mix
• Fetta
• Hommus
• Carrots
• Pita Bread
• Chili Sauce

Directions

• Add water to falafel mix in a bowl, let it sit for 10 mins while prepare the tabouli
• Chop up all the fresh ingredients, prepare cous cous as directed (Add hot water to them in a bowl) and mix everything together :)
• Form little patties of falafel balls and pan fry them in hot oil
• Spread hommus on pita bread, add tabouli, carrots, feta cheese, cooked falafel and chili sauce and roll into wrap
• Optional to grill them under sandwich press, tada!

Salmon Night

Had a massive lunch today - found this cute little Jap place behind my work called Dontoo and they had such a good value curry, only $6.90! It was pretty good too, I always like Japanese curry, especially on a Not-so-hot day like today :)

So by the time I was nearing the end work and I usually daydream about dinner, I still wasn't very hungry. My bosslady (SeeTouPor) suggest I cook some salmon and salad.

And remembering how easy it was to slap that piece of salmon in my sandwich press - used it like a George Foreman, I knew this was a winner.

Grab a sweet potato for a mash (Inspired by GrumpyOldMan when we were at his place yesterday) while I was there and a zucchini or courgette. Basically my 3 fav vegetables. Dinner was ready and eaten in no time, even managed to go for a walk and checked out the neighbourhood doggies.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Had a lovely surprise this morning, Mr Shy Guy got up early and made me breakfast -he's on holidays at the moment and I usually nudge him a bit when I wake up just coz it's so not fair he gets to sleep in!

Breakfast was great, I'm usually pressing the snooze button half a dozen times in the morning before finally rolling out of bed which leaves me with exactly 20 mins to shower and get out of the house. Never really have time for a cup of coffee even, much less breakfast.

But this was great! Maybe I should get more earlier more......if breakfast was being made for me everyday.

I contemplated on going out for dinner, but seeing signs on the restaurants around time advertising Vday dinner, usually $99 per person. *eeks* I don't think so....

So for tonight, I decided to try a Lemon

& Dill Butter Seared Scallops dish I saw

on my new Epicurious app. It even added a shopping list for me.

Alongside I made a variation of Ms G's Corn on the cob with parmesean and lime (totally forgot about the mayo) but it was great regardless. I could do with another cob.

Just to make it appear healthy and colourful, needed some greens. so there was a pear and walnut salad.

Last but not least, fresh bread with Alio's 25 year old Balsamic Vinegar and olive oil. I could just driiink that vinegar, the dark glossy thick syrup that coats my bread is definitely the star of the show.

All in all a lovely Vday with Mr Shy Guy :)

Vegetarian Risotto

So Mr Shy Guy is still sticking to his "vegetarianism"...*exasperated sigh*, just making life a tad bit annoying really. I've only cooked meat once so far in my 3 weeks here.

So I decided to make Risotto for dinner and trying to figure out a good recipe, I remember reading about Leek and Zucchini Risotto somewhere and thought I'll give it a go. Only thing is when I went to look for the recipe again, I couldn't find one I like so I decided to wing it. Here's what I ended up with:

Vegetarian Risotto

- Arborio rice

- Onion

- Zucchini

- Leek

- Red Pepper

- Grated Parmesan Cheese

- Salt and Pepper

- White Wine

- Vegetable Stock

Directions

Cook vegetables in pan with some butter, add rice and slowly add in liquid.

Continue to stir until all the liquid's been absorbed

Season to taste and serve with cheese

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New Year!!

OMG Can't believe I have been so slack that it's nearly been 5 months since I last posted. But I had a reeeally good reason, in preparation for my move down South (to Mexico as some ppl call it) all my kitchen stuff was packed off and sent down in Sept (around the time my post stopped) and then it's been a bit hectic organising the rest of the move. Finding a new job etc. But I've finally settled down and now to catch up with some post.

I was so excited to find my favourite fruit in the supermarket the other day - Achacha, it's a Brazilian (Amazonian to be exact) fruit that's grown in QLD, and tastes just about the same as a Mangosteen, which is a South East Asian fruit that I love but usually cost an arm and a leg.

I heard you can even make a drink with the skin of the fruit so I decided to give it a go. Waste not, plus the skin has this delicate fragrance that I loved. So I washed the fruit peel and soaked them in some water over night(s) since I forgot about them, and then added some sugar syrup to sweeten. It had a slightly tangy taste that was nicely balanced by the sugar. Plus I decided to add some (21 yr old Appleton) rum to it just to give it that tropical blend. Perfect summer Quencher