Alternative Diet

(The best) Piquant Prawn Salad

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I love this salad! It’s full of protein, fresh veggies and delicious Asian flavors. This is another recipe from the previously mentioned Thai cook book. I normally leave a few ingredients out but I’ve italicized the adjustments I made so you can see all of the options! (Update: If you are following the Trim Healthy Mama plan, Shirataki noodles would be the perfect replacement for the rice noodles!)

Piquant Prawn Salad

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: intermediate
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Ingredients

  • 7 oz rice vermicelli noddles or Shirataki noodles (follow the first 5 instructions in this recipe if using Shirataki noodles)
  • 8 baby corn cobs – halved
  • 5 oz snow peas
  • 1 T coconut oil (or vegetable oil)
  • 2 garlic cloves – minced
  • 1 inch piece of fresh ginger – peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 fresh red or green chili – seeded and finely chopped
  • 1 lb raw peeled jumbo shrimp
  • 4 green onions – thinly sliced
  • 1 T toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 lemon grass stalk – thinly shredded

For the dressing

  • 1 T fresh chives – chopped
  • 1 T Thai fish sauce
  • 1 tsp soy sauce or Braggs Aminos
  • 3 T peanut oil (or if you love sesame oil as much as I do, use it instead of peanut oil!)
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 2 T rice vinegar

Instructions

  1. Put the rice noodles in a heat proof bowl, cover with boiling water and let sit for 10 minutes.
  2. Drain rice noodles, refresh with cold water, drain again and set aside.
  3. The dressing can be made ahead of time by combining ingredients and either shaking or whisking all of the dressing ingredients together and then setting aside.
  4. Saute, or steam, the snow peas and baby corn and set aside.
  5. Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan (or wok). Add the garlic, ginger and chili and cook for one minute.
  6. Add the shrimp and cook until just pink.
  7. Stir in the green onions, snow peas, baby corn and sesame seeds. Toss lightly to mix.
  8. Add the contents of the pan to the rice noodles.
  9. Pour the dressing on top and toss well.
  10. Sprinkle with lemon grass and chill for one hour before serving.

Enjoy this light flavorful salad!

 

Super Easy Hot-and-Sour Soup

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In the mood for a delicious way to warm up this winter? Try this spicy warming Hot-and-Sour Soup that can easily be made with just a few special ingredients!

The original recipe for this soup calls for prawns – I made it with chicken… I’m sure either would taste wonderful.

I believe this recipe is a fuel pull if you are following the Trim Healthy Mama plan and use lean chicken or shrimp and a reduced fat stock.

Original recipe from “Thai – the essence of Asian cooking” from Hermes House

Easy Hot-and-Sour Soup

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 1 lb raw chicken (or jumbo prawns)
  • 4 c chicken or fish stock
  • 3 stalks lemon grass
  • 10 kaffir lime leaves – torn in half
  • 8 oz can straw mushrooms – drained
  • 3 T fish sauce
  • 4 T lime juice
  • 2 T green onions – thinly sliced
  • 1 T fresh cilantro leaves
  • 4 fresh red chilies – seeded and thinly sliced
  • salt – to taste
  • ground black pepper – to taste

Instructions

  1. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces (or if using prawns – peel and save the shells, then devein and set the prawns aside).
  2. In a large soup pot bring the stock to a boil (if using prawns, rinse the shells and add to the stock).
  3. Slightly crush the lemon grass stalks and add them to the stock along with half of the lime leaves.
  4. Simmer gently for 5-6 minutes, until the stock is fragrant.
  5. Strain the stock, return it to the clean pot and reheat.
  6. Add the drained mushrooms and the chicken (or prawns), then cook until the chicken is cooked through (or the prawns turn pink).
  7. Add the fish sauce, lime juice, green onion, cilantro, chilies, and remaining lime leaves into the soup. Stir to combine.
  8. Add salt and pepper to taste. The soup should be sour, savory, spicy and hot.

This is a great soup to make ahead of time and keep hot in a crock pot or on the back of the stove until time to serve.

Enjoy!

Moving Frustrations…and cookies!

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I was going to write a post about how frustrated I am with the way our new land lords have been handling this whole moving situation… or about the fact that our move in date keeps getting pushed back because they are still painting… and then I decided that it isn’t great to dwell on the negative…

Instead I am going to expound upon the virtues of these – Flour-less Peanut Butter Cookies – created by the Gluten-Free Girl.

After having my mom and roommate continually forget that I wasn’t eating wheat or dairy during the last two weeks – it was a joy to discover one of my favorite cookies in a wheat and dairy free form! Plus – anything from Gluten-Free Girl is bound to be wonderful, including her writing and photography. I highly recommend her blog and book to anyone who enjoys food – whether or not you are trying to go gluten-free. They are both a joy and an inspiration to read! Check out her blog here.

The search continues…

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I received another call today from Great Harvest – informing me that they decided to go with someone else. Not totally sure why I haven’t been able to get a job so far – but I guess I’ll just have to keep looking! Maybe the perfect job will jump out at me once I’m living in Lynden and am a bit more familiar with the town. I would love to find a job that I can walk or ride a bike to!
Oh – my move into the new place has been postponed a day (they need to paint and stuff) so I will be able to get in on Monday!

I added wheat back into my diet yesterday! Had a French Dip sandwich from Billy McHales. Also at a bunch of garlic bread today 🙂 So far haven’t noticed any adverse reactions. The garlic bread had some melted cheese on it so dairy was re-introduced today. No reactions from that either – although I wouldn’t really expect any from that little amount. I’m pretty sure I just need to reduce the amount of wheat and dairy in my diet because I will probably have an easier time with the whole staying in shape thing! Very happy to be eating bread again!

Going wheat and dairy free…

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I’m experimenting… no wheat or dairy for two weeks. So far so good – Friday is when I can add some back into my diet.

What is the reason for this madness you might ask??? Why torture yourself and cut out some of the best things in life???

Well… I’m pretty sure I have allergies or intolerance’s to both wheat and dairy – so I thought cutting it out and then slowly adding some back in might give me an idea of how sever the allergy, etc. really is. I haven’t really noticed a difference in how I feel these last weeks – but it’ll be interesting to see if I have a strong reaction after Friday! Also – I just wanted to see if I could do it… how difficult it would be to cut these two out. You know me… very interested in alternative diets 🙂 It’s been hard – and I’ve really missed both wheat and dairy (mostly bread and cheese), but I think it’s mostly been made difficult by not having a kitchen I can really use. Being in limbo in Bellingham really puts a limit on the variety of food you can eat 🙂

I have had fun rediscovering a few things that I CAN eat – that I’d kind of forgotten about! Such as lovely ripe tomatoes with mayo, or just salt and pepper. REAL tacos (the corn tortilla, chopped chicken, onion, cilantro, lime type) thankfully there are a number of option for those around here! Lots of fresh fresh berries (blue berries and raspberries right now). Oh the summer options!

My sister Hannah was super sweet and made me no-bake cookies, with almond milk instead of regular. The perfect chocolate peanut butter taste 🙂

Oh – did I mention that I’m cheating just the tiniest bit and still eating things like butter and soy sauce? If you really HAD to totally cut dairy and wheat out – those two would be gone too.

So, long story short – it’s been an interesting experience… but it’s not quite over – I’ll keep you posted!