Je suis Paris

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I haven’t been moved by anything worthwhile to write about.  Until yesterday.  It is 4:58 AM and as I write this, I am heartbroken about Parisians and the recent turn of events that has once again reminded us of the fragility and sanctity of life.  It is 4:58 AM and today, I am joining the countless broken hearts who cry and pray for Paris and her people.  Today, I am a Parisian.

I was lucky enough to visit Paris with Pru 7 years ago and I still remember slowly enjoying a buttery, flaky croissant the likes of which I’ve never had before nor since–and watching Pru take pictures along one of the many foot bridges we walked along the Seine during our trip.  I was sitting on a bench with my journal and my croissant, silently wondering  what it would be like to live here one day.

I found an email I wrote to friends in 2008 back when the only social media option was Friendster.  It dawns on me as I write this that FitBit, Facebook and Instagram were not around then.  I was more aware of my surroundings rather than my steps, what I saw and not what I wanted to share and the flavors I tasted, not what filters would look best on Instagram.  This email captures that awareness that sometimes escapes me today in the midst of the world we live in.

Hi Peeps,

We’re on Day 4 in Paris and I have to say that this is the first time I’ve gone on vacation where I haven’t missed home at all.  Sure our hotel room is only slightly bigger than a thimble, but who stays in their hotel room in Paris?  Here are some learnings and observations:
  • The first day we got here, I collapsed–and a nap that I intended to be 2 hours turned into 7.  One of my most favorite things about Paris is how nocturnal the city is—at midnight, locals and jetlagged tourists alike are walking around, eating 3-course meals, and having coffee while they linger over dinner!
  • Two weeks here is minimal, a month is better.  We’re not going to be able to fit everything in the 8 days we’re here, so we’re mixing planning with a good amount of spontaneity.
  • Get lost.  Pru and I have been going off the beaten path for food and drink.  We’ve found really good croque monsieur, fondue made of beer and Roquefort cheese and quite possibly the best crème brulee I’ve ever had (not too sweet, not too runny).  Restaurants away from the main drag are cheaper and perhaps better because it’s more about the food and not so much the people watching.
  • Paris is a city of juxtapositions. Where else can you find a place of worship like Sacre Coeur near a bunch of sex shops and the Musée de l’Art Erotique, all of which are located in Montmartre.  I guess Vegas, but I digress.
  • It’s also no accident that  the best hot chocolate in Paris (Angelina) is located down the street from a cigar shop (A la Civette) that houses an extensive selection of Cubans.
  • It pays to travel with a boyscout who suffers from OCD (read: compulsively prepared).  Pru packed–not one but two–umbrellas.  It’s rained everyday we’ve been here and hailed once.  Pru even managed to pun “Oh hail no”.
  • The French are undeserving of their reputation as being rude to tourists.  I went to the restroom on top of the Eiffel Tower (yes, there is one) and I had TP stuck to the bottom of my shoe.  The restroom attendant politely pointed it out to me right before she scolded me and told me to go throw it away instead of leaving it on the floor waiting to stick to the bottom of the shoe of another hapless tourist.  She said all that in French so I’m not really sure what she meant, but I got the gist.  Seriously though, we’ve encountered nothing but friendly Parisians.
-We ate at a Moroccan restaurant tonight (great couscous!) and seated at the table behind us were two dogs–one wearing a scarf and the other an olive colored hoodie with “Paris” embroidered on it.  Pru mused  “That’s how stupid Taiko must look.”
Tomorrow, we’re off to Giverny and Versailles.  See you guys soon.

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Je t’aime, Paris

Ube Wan Kenobi

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Ube, a dessert made of purple yam, makes a frequent appearance at Filipino family parties.  I would see my aunts and mom scoop heaps of it into the corners of plates after mounds of rice and adobo and lumpia, as if it were an afterthought. It often winds up atop some rice or near the chocolate meat (not ever gonna post a recipe for that here, sorry).  It’s so easy to make, I’m not sure how it made its way into this blog.  But not one to ever resist an opportunity to pun, this recipe proves you don’t need to be a jedi knight to make ube.

You need three ingredients:

1 lb purple yam, grated and mashed which you can buy frozen in Asian grocery stores

1 can condensed milk

1/4 c. melted butter

You mix all three over medium heat until the whole liquidy things turns into a solid purple jammy consistency.

That’s it.  It’s almost as easy as converting oxygen into carbon dioxide.  But then you can make amazing things like:

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Tortang ‘Talong for the Ride’

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My mom was and still is a very resourceful woman.  We lived in the Philippines before coming here and back then, we didn’t have much.  The running joke was that Mom can make a dinner out of two chicken legs that can feed 4 people.  Over two meals.  That’s a slight exaggeration but I do distinctly recall being told on more than one occasion that it was rude to reach across the table in an attempt to grab the bigger piece of chicken before my Dad got to it.  I was 7 at the time.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit that.

Tortang talong or eggplant omelet is a meal that’s hearty, healthy and inexpensive, so my mom made this often.  Chinese or Filipino eggplant (the skinny variety) and eggs are all you need; ground meat is optional.  You can’t use the regular fat eggplant for this dish and you’ll see why in a minute.

  1.  Char the eggplant on all sides by grilling until its skin turns black.  Peel the skin off when the eggplant is cool enough to handle.

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2.  Use your fork to flatten the eggplant to a wide, oval shape.  This helps increase the surface area to house your ground meat.  If you had used the obese by comparison eggplant, your tortang talong would be the size of manholes.

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3.  Dip the now flattened eggplant into your egg batter, making sure to coat both sides.  Coat the ground meat with the egg batter as well.  This makes the meat moist, sticky and allows it to adhere to the eggplant which is critical during the flipping phase.

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One bit of cautionary tale on the flipping of the tortang talong: it took me multiple tries and 24 eggplant, to flip it just right so that the ground meat filling doesn’t collapse into a shapeless mess like this.

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The best way is to hold the eggplant by its stem and flip vertically from top to bottom and not side to side.  This is the best YouTube tutorial I’ve found on how to accomplish this.  Girlfriend’s voice is annoyingly high pitched and painfully nasal but skip to 4:06 and you’re all good.  It’s also all in Tagalog.

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Ingredients

      • 1 lb ground pork
      • 1 c salsa
      • 5-6 cloves garlic, minced
      • 1 medium onion, minced
      • 4 eggplants
      • 4 large eggs
      • salt to taste
      • ground black pepper to taste
      • vegetable oil

Procedure

    1. Grill eggplant until skin turns black; peel off the charred skin. Keep the crown and stem. Flatten the flesh and set aside.
    2. Saute garlic and onion until tender about 5 minutes.  Mix in ground pork and brown until cooked.  *Combine salsa with cooked ground pork and heat through, another 5 minutes.
    3. Season with salt and ground black pepper to taste.
    4. Remove from pan, transfer to a bowl and cool.
    5. Once the mixture has cooled down, add the beaten egg and mix well.
    6. Dip flattened eggplant in beaten egg and coat both sides.  Cook the eggplant omelet in a well oiled, heated pan.
    7. Spoon 3-4 tbsp of ground pork and egg mixture spread it all over top of eggplant.
    8. Cook for about 3 minutes until eggplant can be easily lifted and without sticking on the pan.
    9. Carefully flip to other side by holding the stem on one hand and a spatula on the other and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

*Salsa is a twist on the traditional tortang talong.  It adds flavor, depth and an unexpected yet welcome kick to your tortang talong.  You can use any jarred kind, my favorite is Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic Chipotle Salsa.

Tortang Talong

Kalua Pork and Lomi Lomi Salmon

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Hawaii is a favorite vacation destination for our family. Little guy loves the water and during this trip he has proclaimed himself a world class swimmer. On the first day of vacation, he declared that he was going to swim 100 miles.  When he ‘swam’ the width of said pool twice, he calculated that he swam 120 miles, thus exceeding his original goal.  “Tomorrow, I will swim 1 million miles.”

I think this would be a good time to mention that his swimming prowess was aided by a pair of arm floaties and the pool was at most 3 feet deep. I hope he never loses that unbridled confidence.

 

jhulagirlJJ: Can I kiss your belly?
Hula girl: No, but we can take a picture together.
JJ: But I’m shy.

 

Because of our penchant for the islands and all island foods, we’ve made kalua pork many, many times.  Since Pru and I have neither the patience nor the yard space to dig up an imu, the traditional underground pit oven in which Hawaiians bake a whole pig, we settled for perfecting our recipe in the crockpot.

Ingredients

*pork butt or pork shoulder, 3-5 pounds
3-4T Ono Hawaiian seasoning (can be found at Whole Foods, Cost Plus or my favorite Takahashi Market)
2T liquid smoke

Procedure

Pierce pork butt all over with the tines of a fork. This is to ensure that the spice and liquid smoke are absorbed throughout the meat. Spoon liquid smoke first and then Hawaiian seasoning all over meat and rub throughout. Cook in crock pot for 8 hours on low setting. About 7 hours into cooking, check on meat which should be tender and falling apart. Take 2 forks and shred, leaving for another hour to cook in its own juices. Serve with white rice and lomi lomi salmon.

*Do not try to low fat this recipe like I once did by using a lean cut like pork loin. The healthy version unfortunately tasted like a dry, salty dishrag. A fatty cut like pork butt or shoulder is the only way to go. The long cooking time means it will render its own fat and juices which makes it moist and delicious and extremely unhealthy. But like my son who thinks he is the next Michael Phelps, I believe that all the fat released from the long cooking time means it won’t be as unhealthy or fatty.

Lomi Lomi Salmon

I’ve found that eating kalua pork without lomi lomi salmon is less than an authentic luau experience. It’s like having a hula girl dance in heels and denim cutoffs. If you’re gonna try and recreate that island experience you might as well go big, right?

Recipe
2 tomatoes, diced
1 white onion, diced
1 stalk green onion, diced
salmon fillet, 8 oz

Procedure
To get the salty briny flavor of lomi lomi salmon, you need to cure it. Layer a bed of salt on a glass Pyrex baking dish; set the salmon on top of this bed of salt. Sprinkle enough salt to cover entire salmon filet. Cover the whole dish with Saran Wrap and place in refrigerator for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. Once salted, rinse excess salt off the salmon filet. Cut into small cubes and combine with diced tomatoes, onions and green onion. Serve alongside white rice and kalua pork.

And another cautionary tale: don’t do a short cut by using diced smoked salmon filets. Lomi lomi salmon is supposed to taste like the ocean, not bagels and lox.

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Baked Macaroni with Tomato Cream Sauce

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Baked macaroni is one of those dishes that originates from my Pinay roots, specifically my aunt and grandmas who were all about carbs and cheese and rich, savory sauces.  Their versions have cut up hot dogs mixed throughout, sweetened with sugar and topped with grated Kraft cheese that came in a blue can.  By the way, when I was a kid I thought it was ‘crap’ cheese–the Filipinos, we don’t have the letter ‘f’ in our alphabet.  I’m not entirely sure of the reason for my people’s fascination with sweet spaghetti sauce and canned cheese but the baked macaroni was a staple in every family party I’d ever gone to.

So imagine my delight when I made it for a family party this weekend and was asked for the recipe from my cousin Melisa whom I love and will happily make baked macaroni for anytime, minus the crap cheese.

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced
2 bell peppers–green or red–grilled or roasted for 15 minutes, diced
1 head of garlic, minced
1 jar Alfredo sauce, TJ’s is my fave
1 can San Marzano tomatoes, 28 oz
1 lb ground beef
1 lb shrimp
Spices to taste: Italian seasoning, salt, pepper

Procedure
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Saute onions, bell peppers and garlic in 2T of olive oil until all vegetables are tender and onions translucent about fifteen minutes. Brown ground beef with the vegetable mixture and add salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Add whole can of San Marzano tomatoes to sauteed vegetables and browned ground beef in large dutch oven and cover for another 30 minutes. Cook over low heat. This allows all the flavors to come together and the whole tomatoes to break apart. Add jar of Alfredo sauce and combine so both red and white sauces are thoroughly combined and cook covered for another 15 minutes over low heat. Add shrimp to tomato cream sauce mixture and cook for a final 15-20 minutes. Take care in not overcooking the shrimp, just cook long enough so that it’s heated through and no longer pink. Season to your desire. I even added a teaspoon (ok, two) of sugar in homage to my aforementioned Lola Chedeng, Lola Emilia and Tita Baby.

In a large baking dish, spread pasta along the bottom of the baking dish, top with tomato cream sauce and sprinkle with your favorite grated cheese. My favorite is sharp cheddar. Repeat with each layer. Bake for 20 minutes until cheese is melted. Enjoy! And it makes great leftovers for lunch the next day.

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Spicy Chickpeas with Harissa and Sundried Tomatoes

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We came back from Disneyland yesterday and it will go down as one of the most memorable vacations ever.  Why?  Because this happened:

imageimageHe was wearing a “Just Graduated” pin–because you know, they give you a pin for every occasion and accomplishment at Disneyland.  I was wearing one that says “Still able to walk upright after 9 hours at Disneyland.”  I digress.  The captain took notice of his pin, JJ said he graduated from kinder and was going to first grade, which I guess was the minimum requirement for steering the Mark Twain Riverboat.  Next thing you know, he was handling that wheel like Pat Sajak.

The other reason it was memorable of course involved a meal, which we enjoyed at Carthay Circle, a restaurant inside California Adventure–yes, inside an amusement park. Carthay Circle was an oasis of calm and elegance amidst corn dogs, cheese pizzas and turkey legs. I had the harissa marinated lamb porterhouse with a side of chickpeas. I’ve never had chickpeas that wasn’t in hummus form so off I went in search of (read: Pinterest) a chickpea recipe.  I didn’t find any to my liking so I made up my own.

Ingredients

2 T sundried tomatoes packed in oil (include the oil)
1 T grated parmigiano reggiano
1 cup frozen spinach, thawed
2 T harissa paste* (if spicy, adjust amount to suit your taste)
salt and pepper to taste

*Harissa is the sriracha of Middle Eastern cooking.  It’s a spicy, garlicky red pepper paste that you can use on almost anything from enhancing stews and soups to a marinade for chicken or pork.  They’re usually sold in jars in Middle Eastern stores or you can make your own.  I procured mine at a local restaurant that specializes in Moroccan and North African dishes, Cafe Grillades.  Might as well leave it to the experts, right?

Saute chickpeas in oil, using the oil in the sundried tomatoes. Add the rest of the ingredients along with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until all ingredients are heated through.  Serve as a side to your favorite protein.  I swear to you, the hardest part about it is finding the can opener to open the can of chickpeas.  The whole thing takes about 10 minutes to make, incredibly easy and such a small investment in time with big payoffs in flavor.

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The holy trinity: sundried tomatoes, parmeggiano reggiano, harissa paste

 

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Harley Goat Farm and Swanton Berry Farms

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Let’s just get right to it. Mother’s day should be a national holiday. There, I got it out of my system.

My boys treated me to a beautiful day at Pescadero Farms, which by the way, is a great daytrip destination.  This sleepy coastside community is home to my new favorite, Harley Goat Farms and just 15 miles south, Swanton Berry Farms.  Red Tricycle, this cool website that basically curates fun and entertaining activities for parents and kids alike, gave us this idea to do lunch and a tour of Harley Goat Farms.  We feasted on pulled pork sandwiches, lavender lemonade, locally baked sourdough breads and of course goat cheeses.

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This guy didn’t even buy Pru dinner

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My favorite picture of the day

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Lunch is served at the nearby ollalieberry farms, across the road from Harley Goat Farms

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Swanton Berry Farms–JJ was heard saying “That’s my jam!” as we drove up

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These two are just pure joy

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This honor till just restores your faith in humanity. Seriously, don’t steal from them. Otherwise your little black heart will shrivel up and die.

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Just go visit Harley Farms already

 

Bowl Me Over: Sisig Tuna Bowl

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The alternate title was going to be Eating Healthy Doesn’t Have to Suck: Sisig Tuna Bowl. Mostly because I’ve been trying to tell myself this as of late.

March and April have been eventful months, hence my absence from this blog.  The chronicle of events is as follows: The mom of one of JJs classmates died of a brain aneursym.  Shortly after, my aunt had a really bad infection, became septic and was in the ICU for weeks.  JJ turned 6.  He turned 6 the same day Pru passed a kidney stone.

The first of these aforementioned events had a profound effect on Pru and me.  Exactly two weeks before she died, this mom and Pru were sitting on the bleachers watching JJ and his classmate run around the basketball court.  She and Pru talked of summer plans, our families going to each others houses to barbecue and smoke cigars while the kids played or watched movies together. Two weeks later, at the age of 41 this woman who ran marathons and was the picture of health died, leaving her husband and two daughters–one seven and the other, JJs age.  It’s been more than a month since her passing and I can write about it now but the weeks after were hard ones; we were suddenly reminded of our own mortality and tried to explain to JJ what this all meant since we were attended the services. I don’t think we did a very good job.

I know this because the day Pru passed a kidney stone and we were en route to the hospital at 6:45AM on JJs birthday, he asked me, “Mom, I won’t have a daddy anymore like Y__ doesn’t have a mommy anymore?”

Had I not been driving I would’ve dissolved into a puddle of tears.

So as a result of all this, Pru and I got religious about our health and started sporting a FitBit (him) and a Jawbone (me).  I admit that when I first started wearing the Jawbone, I wasn’t reaping its full benefits.  It was getting a lot of compliments and so I kept wearing it.  The barrista at Peet’s said, “I like your bracelet.  Looks edgy.  What does it do?”  I responded sheepishly, “It’s supposed to get my ass off the couch.  So far, it just gets me random compliments from barristas.”

Since then, we’ve been consistent about getting our steps in even though we look like a couple of loons walking in circles around the house and logging all the food we eat.  While keeping a food journal appeals to my innate OCD tendencies, a meal at The Cheesecake Factory becomes a very interesting exercise.  I either log the 1,383 calories from the Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp and the 1,079 calories from the Dulce de Leche cheesecake, or I just suspend disbelief for the duration of the meal.

I usually opt for the latter.  When the choice is denial or misery/denial or guilt,  I almost always choose denial.

So on to the Sisig Tuna Bowl:

1 1/2 to 2 lbs of frozen ahi tuna
1/2 onion, diced
olive oil
1 T lemon juice
1/2 t lemon pepper
1/2 t Old Bay
1 Mama Sita’s *sisig packet

Combine olive oil, lemon juice, lemon pepper and salt. Brush both sides of tuna steaks with the marinade and refrigerate for an hour.  Using a stove top grill pan, grill tuna over medium heat for 5 minutes on each side. Remove from heat and cool. After cooling for 10 minutes, cut the tuna in a small dice. Follow instructions on sisig packet which is essentially add 1/2 c. of water to the seasoning packet. Saute diced onions along with the tuna.   Pour sisig mixture over tuna and onions, making sure all are coated in the marinade. Cook over medium heat until tuna and onions are sizzling in the pan and all the liquid is dissolved.

You can get creative with your bowl.  I usually assemble mine with brown rice, sliced avocado, queso fresco and Trader Joe’s frozen roasted corn. Sprinkle the whole thing with a dash of *Tajin and a splash of lime or lemon juice.

*Notes:
Sisig is…hard to explain if you aren’t Filipino or don’t know Filipinos. It is probably the We are a sisig loving people. It basically means anything–and by anything I mean pig parts you don’t often eat like cheeks and ears–cooked in a citrus and chili pepper mixture. Here’s the Wiki link that is remarkably accurate (must have been written by a Filipino or someone who knows a Filipino). What DID we do before Google and Wikipedia?

Tajin is a lemon, salt, chili powder seasoning that makes everything you put it on taste salty, spicy, magical. Again, here is the Wiki link for your reference on the Tajin.

 

IMG_2089This nifty gadget saves me time and tears when dicing onions.  The sisig packet is pictured above.

IMG_2097After grilling your tuna, saute the diced pieces with onions

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Exercise and Greek Yogurt (that isn’t 8$ a bowl)

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March has been a month of epiphanies about exercise and yogurt.

First, I used to have the wrong idea about exercise. It used to be all about vanity. The lat pull downs were to keep my arm fat from swaying in the wind. I once joked that I can put babies and small children to sleep if I just swung them from the fat folds of my arms. Actually, that isn’t really so much of a joke as it is an observation. Long stretches on the elliptical that rendered me a panting asthmatic were to keep the belly fat in check–belly fat that if I hunched over just right made my torso look like the rice terraces of Bali, with its layers and layers of billowing belly richness.

Here we are, in my 40s and I’ve had a paradigm shift on exercise. Now, it’s 11 miles of sweating and thighs burning and handling the stationary bike and elliptical as if we were settling a decades old score. I’ve stopped weighing myself but my clothes feel better. Yes, my arm fat still sways long after I’ve waved goodbye. But my legs feel stronger and my posture straighter.

I’m walking away a winner.

My 2nd epiphany is about the Jougert Bar in Burlingame. The Jougert Bar had the nerve to charge me 8$ for something called The Black Diamond which is a concoction of Greek yogurt, blackberries, mint, dark chocolate, agave syrup and sea salt. I was decidedly underwhelmed. Though it was healthy and refreshing, this little bowl of yogurt with some fruit and stuff on top of it did not merit the price tag, though in the midst of Burlingame Avenue, I suppose it was apropos.

So in homage to my March epiphanies about health and wellness–both physical and financial–here’s my own ‘keeping my finances in the black diamond’.

A recipe hardly seems necessary so I won’t bother. But I do prefer Fage yogurt because it’s creamy and tangy without being too tart. Top it with your favorite fruits, and while sea salt seems weird to add to yogurt, it gives it a savory depth that’s unexpected yet refreshing to the palate. Fresh mint, agave syrup and dark chocolate round out this healthy dessert that doubles as a protein rich breakfast.

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Thai One On Salad

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I remember watching Oprah during one of the episodes she was debriefing with her audience about the recent diet she was on. Those who watched her faithfully know that Oprah being on a diet is about as frequent as Sarah Palin having a stream of consciousness rant/verbal diarrhea, which by the way, is frequent and AWESOME! I digress. Anyway, Oprah said once after a brief stint with a low carb diet that she was ready to slap someone for an apple. I bring all this up because I have restarted the one and only diet that has ever worked for me and has resulted in a 60-pound weight loss about 10 years ago, 45 of which I’ve managed to keep off.  I am officially ready to slap someone for a bag of Fritos.  Fortunately, recipes like this help make this more bearable.

Ingredients

Salad

1 bag Trader Joe’s shredded lettuce
12 oz 1 bag trader Joe’s julienned brocolli slaw
12 oz 2 lbs shredded carrots
1 red bell pepper, julienned
3 oz Trader Joe’s Thai chili lime cashews, chopped

Ginger Soy Dressing

4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 T grated cinger
4 tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
4 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1/4 cup toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons honey or agave
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

To make the vinaigrette, place all ingredients in a jar, close tightly and shake vigorously to combine and emulsify.

Basil Chicken

2 tablespoons oil
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 oz grated ginger
10 oz ground chicken
1 1/4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon sugar to taste
1 tablespoon kecap manis or sweet soy sauce
1 big bunch Thai basil leaves
pepper to taste

Add oil into heated saute pan, followed by garlic, onions and ginger until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes.  Mix in remaining ingredients and cook chicken until crumbly and all seasonings are well incorporated.  Ground chicken when raw has a soft, paste like consistency and looks like wet, overcooked white rice.  Stir it constantly to break it up into crumbly bits.

To assemble the salad:

Toss salad ingredients with vinaigrette and cooked chicken.

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