Going to Taiwan in a week to get some grub

I know I haven't uploaded anything in a while. Too busy at work to chart down my diet though I have been keeping to it....more... or less. Either way, after starving and slimming for the past 2 months, I'm now ready to regain all that weightloss during the coming vacation. Hopefully, I'll still be able to do some calorie counting and come back with a sizeable stash of tasty Taiwan treats to share. Can't wait to go off on a long vacate next week. Yay for a week of absolute gluttony... weeee!!!!

Savoury Herb Pancakes with Stir Fried Chicken in Red Wine Vinegar

The name's long but I had no idea what else to call it. Earlier today I had no more than a 350 calorie lunch and by the time I was on my way home, my mind was filled with nothing but food. At first nothing really struck my fancy until I started thinking of pancakes. Then, the idea of having savoury pancakes popped into my head and stuck till I reached my front door. By then I had a severe mouth-watering craving for them and I decided to go at it. 

I didn't have much left in my fridge, except for the usual carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes - long-lasting vegetables that are must haves for people who work and are unsure when the next home-cooked meal will be. That's why I think the recipe below has much room for improvement but I was definitely satisfied. I just need to master the art of making the pancakes rounder and fluffier and maybe change the meat from chicken to something else.

Savoury Herb Pancakes with Stir Fried Chicken in Red Wine Vinegar

Serves 2

Pancakes
2 cups flour - 900 calories
3/4 cup milk - 90 calories
1 tbsp Mix dried herbs (Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary, Parsley, Basil) - 30 calories
1 tsp baking powder - 20 calories
1 tsp salt
2 medium eggs - 120 calories
Pepper to taste
Butter for frying - 101 calories
Total of 1,261 calories

Stir Fried Chicken in Red Wine Vinegar
300g Chicken meat - 513 calories
Half a large white onion - 60 calories
1 tomato - 30 calories
1 cucumber - 40 calories
Half a fairly large carrot - 30 calories
1 tsp soy sauce to marinate chicken meat
2-3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
Total of 673 calories

Method:

A) Pancake Batter
Step 1: Sieve flour into a bowl.
Step 2: Then add baking powder.
Step 3: Stir the flour together till evenly mixed.
Step 4: Add eggs and mix
Step 5: Add milk and whisk till smooth and all lumps have gone
Step 6: Add herbs, salt and pepper
Step 7: Melt butter in a pan and fry

If you want even sized pancakes, use a measuring cup to ladel out batter. Gets you the same amount everytime.

 

 

I know, right? Like what is wrong with my pan??? Don't buy Greenpan. That brand sucks. In any case, make sure to fry over low flame. That way the underside won't get burnt before you're ready to flip.

 

 

B) Stir Fry Chicken

Step1: Put olive oil in pan. Then fry garlic cloves and chopped onions until fragrant.

On hindsight it might have been a better idea to fry the carrots first.

Step 2: Put cucumber, carrots and chicken in.

Remember to marinate chicken in soy sauce first.

 

 

Step 3: Add red wine vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Step 4: Serve. I love ketchup with everything so I just added a touch. But you're welcome to do without. It was still just as tasty.

 

The total calorie count on this dish was 1,934 calories. But I had about a third so that leaves me with 650 calories. The hubby usually eats more as he burns calories off easily by being very active. Now that I'm done with that its time for a restock!

How to: Basic Dashi Stock & Simple noodles

During this long Malaysia Day weekend, I have had a calorie binge. So it was definitely back to healthy options today. Knowing that I had a long work-week ahead, I decided to prepare a batch of Dashi stock (Japanese seaweed stock), that I could freeze and reuse in the dishes during the week. This stock is super simple to make, has almost no calories and best of all, is super tasty. Here's what you'll need.

Dashi Stock

Step 1: The ingredients.
2.5 litres of water
2 pieces of Kombu or kelp
A fistful of bonito flakes

Step 2: Put them all in a pot and boil

Set the flames to high until the water starts boiling. After that switch to a smaller flame and let it slowly simmer for 30 minutes or until the aroma starts wafting from the pot.

Step 3: Remove from flame and strain
After straining, leave until completely cooled before transfering to a covered container to be frozen for future use.

Simple rice noodles in dashi broth
Step 1: Put 4 to 5 ladels of broth in the pot (Depends on how much broth you prefer)
Put in rice noodles (Or your preferred noodle choice)

 

Step 2: When noodles are soft, add 1 tbsp mirin (Japanese glutinous rice wine)

 Step 3: Add 1tbsp Goma shabu (Sesame sauce for shabu shabu)

Step 4: Soy sauce to taste

Step 5: Crack an egg and add dried seaweed in a bowl. Pour hot noodle soup on top of egg and seaweed. (I prefer my eggs a little undercooked but if you're worried about eating partially raw eggs you can cook them in the pot first)

Step 6: Eat

Total calories for Soup Noodles - 320 calories (mainly from rice noodles)

There are a tonne of things that you can do with Dashi broth. For example, it can be used as a base for a hot pot, to sweeten sauces for tofu dishes or as the basic in stews. If you're the type that has a busy lifestyle to maintain, this is definitely one to keep in stock.

Oh So Yummy Bak Kut Teh... But is it healthy?

You never really think about what goes into Bak Kut Teh. Especially not when the fragrant soup puts most people into a trance. Spoonful after spoonful of that delicious herbal broth goes down your throat and for the fatty pork lover, its a heavenly combination of flavours. For some, its the best way to mask that rather unpleasant odour of pork innards that you would otherwise not eat. But here's the real debate, can such a fatty dish be healthy?

Some sources say that Bak Kut Teh's herbal qualities can neutralize the fat contained in pork belly meat and that it was a herbal concoction created to boost health. But I'm rather skeptical that a dish of such high calorie content can be anywhere near healthy or have any positive impacts to one's health. But we'll never know unless we dig deeper into the pot. So here goes.

Bak Kut Teh

Broth
Chinese Angelica (Tong Kui)
Chinese ginseng
Polygonatum Odoratum (it’s a flower, dried out)
Licorice root (Tonifying the heart and spleen, moistening the lung to arrest cough, purging fire to remove toxins, relieving spasm to alleviate pain, and moderating other herbs.)
Wolfberries
Rhizoma Ligustici (part of ginger family, great against cold + flu)
Star Aanise
Radix Rahmaniae (great for cleansing liver/kidneys; cooling effect – not in most pre-made packs but essential for the nice colour)
Cassia bark
White pepper
Black pepper
Radix Codomopsitis (Poor man's ginseng)

Now, at this point, the broth looks pretty good especially since most of the herbs have medicinal properties that help stimulate your internal organs, which in turn benefits overall health. But of course you can't have a wholesome soup without the meat or bone component. So let's look at what's contained in a typical pot of bak kut teh.

Pork - 620 calories (Not belly meat)
Tau Pok (Dried tofu) - 520 calories
Mushrooms - 50 calories
Intestines or innards - 280 calories
Total calories contained = 1,470

If you're sharing the bowl with say 3 people, it would be around 490 calories each (the above count serves around 3 to 4). But you'll have to add in your individual rice portions which is around 200 calories for normal rice and up to 300 calories for oily rice. So your one Bak Kut Teh meal, could cost you about 2 hours in the gym and I haven't even included the calorie count for the broth, which is around 50 to 100 calories. So why do people say Bak Kut Teh is healthy? 

Well if you look through the history again, this dish was created for hard labourers. Unfortunately in the present day, we don't do enough hard labour to burn off the amount of calories this dish contains. So unless you workout enough, weekly consumptions of Bak Kut Teh will definitely set you back in your weight watch. Having said that, we can still enjoy the healthy properties of this dish. Just stick to the lean meat, don't eat too much tau pok or fried bread sticks (yau char guay) and don't order the oily rice.

Calories in Beer

Like why would you even want to go there? I know. I don't really want to either. But after I started my habit of finding out what's in everything I consume, I took a look at the beer cans and realized, there are no calorie numbers on a can of beer. Well of course its not something that's nutritious so calorie listing for a can of beer isn't needed. But I think it would be useful for some to know exactly where that ever-growing beer belly is coming from. I got this calorie count from various sources on the internet and based on what it takes to make a can of beer, I think the numbers are fairly accurate. So the next time you consumer a can of beer, you might want to think twice about the hours you need to put into gym later.

(I just happen to be drinking one now)

- Tiger Lager: 160
- Guinness: 153
- Heineken: 150
- Corona: 148
- Stella Artois: 140
- Bud Light: 110
- Anchor Steam - 153
- Bass Ale - 160
- Budweiser - 140
- Corona Light - 105
- Guinness Draught - 126
- Guinness Stout - 153

In the future, I think I might even start counting calories for various cocktails. So stay tuned for those :)

Cooking With Dog.... Not literally

Since I've not been eating much except for leftovers, I've decided to post and introduce a cooking channel on Youtube that I'm pretty fond of, "Cookingwithdog". Ok, its not what you think. This is a Japanese lady cooking delicious Japanese food. She also provides very simple and quick cooking techniques that you can use for other recipes. I find that her food is healthy and often involves very little oil. I've posted a few of my favourite videos and I recommend that you try out her recipes. Her custard puddings were delicious. The total calories contained in each dish have been listed for reference and if you're keen to try the recipes, just look under their respective Youtube information tabs. Enjoy :)

 (1,092.26 for 6 pieces)

(769.88 calories, which serves 4)

 (1,229 calories for 25 dumplings)

Sao Nam Vietnamese, Chocolate Buttermilk Mascarpone Cake and Salsa

I admit. Not very disciplined when it comes to making daily uploads over the weekend, so sorry about that. Hence, I've decided that the best may be to compile it all under one post for easier reference. 

It was my mom's birthday last Saturday so we took her out for a nice dinner at Sao Nam's along Tengkat Tong Shin and then I served her with a delicious cake after. Needless to say, all the calories I burnt at the gym yesterday became wasted effort. But someone once told me that I was allowed a break once in a while as a reward.... or maybe I just made that rule on my own.

Anyway, here goes. As usual, I won't post the restaurant's full calorie value or recipes unless someone asks me in detail, so please let me know if you need a proper ingredient listing and count, it will require time. My apologies in advanced for the weidest restaurant pictures ever. But I only had my phone camera and was too lazy to get off my fat ass to move around the table :P

Sao Nam Vietnamese Restaurant - Tengkat Tong Shin

Chiken on sugar cane skewers - 600 calories

Broiled and then roasted beef - 374 calories

Special crispy pancake - 343 calories

Rice paper spring rolls - 262 calories

Eggplant fried with garlic and chilli - 329 calories

Chicken Stey - 1241 calories (Never order this if you want to be healthy, observe the oil)

Boiled Okra with tomato garlic sauce - 175.6 calories

Prawn Curry - 382 calories (prawns are healthy at about 10 to 15 calories each)

Total from that meal was 3706.6 calories. But I only had my share of about 529.5 calories. I enjoyed the meal very much but on the whole I felt it was a little too expensive in some areas. I think the chicken stew was the worst of the lot, since it came at a hefty price of RM25 for a few pieces of chicken and loads of oil. Not a good price to pay, especially not with your health. So will we go back? Only if we feel like expensive Vietnamese food..... so maybe not.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Mascarpone Filling 

  

Ingredients 

1 and 3/4 cups cake flour (light flour and not all purpose or self-raising) - 796.25 calories

1 teaspoon baking powder - 2.44 calories

1 teaspoon baking soda - No calories

1/2 teaspoon salt - No calories

3 tablespoons of cocoa powder - 36 calories (Ah hah! Its not chocolate that makes you fat afterall!)

1 cup sugar - 774 calories

1 stick unsalted butter - 1627.6 calories

1 teaspoon vanilla essence - 18 calories

2 large eggs (In our parts it should be 3 eggs) - 195 calories

1 cup buttermilk - 98 calories

Berries soaked in hot sugar and honey syrup - 122 calories

500 grams of mascarpone cheese - 1920 calories

1 cup heavy or whipping cream (or low fat cream if on diet watch) - 300 calories

I had a lot of fun making this and then eating this. But.....You ready for it? The total calories in this cake that serves 12 was.......5859.29 calories!!! Not to worry if you stick to only one slice since its only 488 calories, which is well within daily limits. Though I wouldn't recommend eating slices of cakes everyday and I suspect this is exactly where all those added pounds are coming from. Unfortunately, I can't help it. Two things work against my favour, a) I love to bake and b) I love eating sweets. So if anyone wants to know the cooking method for the above, do let me know. I'll be glad to share.

So after that whole Saturday of indulgence, it was back to basics with a nice bowl of fresh salsa. I simply chopped up tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and a few cloves of garlic. You could even add parsley or spring onions too but I didn't have any in my fridge. Next, I drizzled some olive oil, some dried basil, pepper, salt and sherry vinegar. Since my stomach doesn't take chilli too well, I left that out. But if you prefer a little spice then just add a single chilli and you're good to go. Me and the hubby had this with a few slices of Iranian or flat bread. The whole bowl was only about 250 calories, but it filled me up fast and was simply yummy. I'd recommend that you try it... but err, get those mints ready. You will have onion breath.

My half-eaten bowl of tomato, cucumber and onion salsa

No escape today, those calories had to go - Baked beans and eggs

I didn't actually realize I had two servings of the same things today until I recorded down my intake. I had them for lunch and then I had them for dinner. I don't think baked beans and eggs are for all but I absolutely love the stuff. I could eat a can of baked beans or fried eggs and nothing else, which is what I did for dinner. For lunch, it seemed that my only cheap and healthy option was to pick and choose my food from the nearby mixed rice stall. Since this one let you determine how much rice you wanted, it was easy to control my carb intake and I chose the following dishes to accompany:

Rice with dishes
Steam egg - 74 calories
Fried spinach with garlic - 65 calories
Rice - 102 calories
Baked beans - 57.5
Total 298.5 calories

Baked beans with egg, again, and toast
2 slices of white bread toast - 128 calories (carbs really are the devil)
1 egg - 74 calories
1 small can of baked beans - 115 calories (as per the product's label)
Total 317 calories

I consumed only 615.5, which is half of what my body needed. This isn't something I actually recommend doing and having only half isn't what I usually do. However, I am trying to lose about 7kgs of weight and I didn't manage to clock the burn I wanted in gym today. Plus, knowing what's in store for the weekend with heavy dinners and parties lined up, some extra control was needed. It'll be hard not to indulge this weekend but there should be some interesting meals that I intend to calculate. This is going to be fun :)

Tasty Pan Mee and dinner at Gao Ren Guan, Jaya One

Took a break from counting yesterday and decided to focus on today's meal. It was really hard trying to control dinner portions and I'm realizing that trying to find cheap healthy options for lunch at work is tough. Most quick food out there are not very healthy and if they are, they usually come with bigger price tags.

Chilli 'Pan Mee' at Face to Face 
Not entirely sure what went into this. But we can safely assume that the main ingredients include the following:
Thick egg noodles - 310 calories
One egg - 65 calories
Fried dried shrimp and chilli - 36 calories
Minced pork sauce - 140 calories
Oil - 123 calories
Total 674 calories

Oh dear, the meal was really tasty but that number doesn't look good at all. The damage during dinner may be even worse and I don't think I'm going to like this tabulation. Let's see how much my picky eating helped.

Dinner comprised of 7 small dishes at Gao Ren Guan

My family, especially my mom, love coming to this place. It serves up food that is similar to what we have at home, is near my mom's house and has reasonable prices. Of course it is more expensive to eat out, afterall, you have to pay the person doing all the cooking and cleaning on your behalf. The only inconvenient thing was me staring at delicious food and having to think twice whether I would be able to burn it during the next gym session.

Fried Threadfin with soya sauch - 518 calories

Fried tofu - 924 calories (I'm surprised as well)

Fried long beans and roast pork - 403 calories

Pork stomach in rice wine soup - 260 calories

Pork rib curry - 603 calories

There were two other dishes that we ordered. Unfortunately, I must apologize for forgetting to take pictures of them. I wasn't able to specifically state down ingredients for each food, as I am short of time. However, if anyone wants to know, just send me a message and I'll break it down. The total calories contained in the above is approximatekly 2,708. But it was split between 6 family members. My portion was about 451 calories and if I add the other two dishes, my meal would hover round the 600 calorie mark.

I didn't manage to eat under my BMR today. But at least I didn't burst the cap and I enjoyed my meals.

How do I stay away from delicious Wan Tan Meeeeeeee??

Whenever I walk to my favourite Wan Tan Mee stall, I tell myself, today I'll order the small. I repeat that until I get to the stall, see the juicy "char siu" or roast pork marinating in the sauce and immediately request for a medium order instead. I am pretty hopeless with temptation. So lets see what damage its done.

Dry Wan Tan Mee based on my assumed ingredients
Egg noodles - 300.2 calories
Char Siu - 73.2 calories
Oil - 122.63 calories
Wan Tan - 110.53 calories
Soup - 40 calories
Total 646.56 calories

That looks like a painfully large amount and I don't event want to start digesting what went into the sauce, especially since each tablespoon of soy sauce has about 10 calories. Now on to dinner. Feeling as if I've committed a sin, I decided to get creative and make a healthier option for dinner. I went to the local grocer, picked up a juicy fat red capsicum and some medium sized tomatoes. Then headed upstairs to see what was left in my fridge. The final ensemble, a baked pie that had no crust. 

 Here's what went into the concoction.

Baked Crustless Pie (I really have no idea what else to call it)
One large capsicum - 41 calories
3 Medium sized tomatoes - 108 calories
250g chicken - 325 calories
1 whole garlic bulb - 104 calories
1 1/2 medium sized white onions - 60.8 calories
Olive oil - 496.68 calories
Mixed herbs (dried) - oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil - 50 calories
Black pepper - 16.32 calories
3 small tofu blocks - 188 calories
Total 1,389.8 calories in the dish

My consumption was a third of the above serving or 463 calories and the rest was devoured by my dear hubby. I was fuller after eating my own home cooked dish as compared to the wan tan mee, which shows that I should seriously consider cooking more meals. The total damage today was approximately 1,109.82 calories and since my basal metabolic rate needs a consumption of about 1,200 calories per day, I suppose I am on my way to losing those kilos - add in the gym and exercise and I should be all set. I wonder if that means I can bake a juicy goodie this weekend... hmmm... scones, pavlova, chocolate cake, cheese cake...

Takeaway Stir Fry Yau Mak and Marmite chicken

Seeing how I had a migraine today and with the fridge rather empty, I decided to get my dear hubby to buy takeaway from a nearby Chinese restaurant. He brought home the following:

With some crazy internet search, I manage to come up with an estimated calorie count for my portion of the dishes based on very basic knowledge of chinese cooking and what I assume might be contained in the stir fry. Here goes:

Garlic stir-fry 'yau mak' or big head rommaine
Big-head rommaine lettuce - 25 calories
Chicken stock - 5 calories
Oil - 80 calories
Garlic - 13 calories
Total 123 calories

Stir-fry chicken in Marmite sauce
Chicken cubes - 130 calories
Garlic - 13 calories
Sugar - 12 calories
Marmite - 18 calories
Oil - 120 calories
Total 293 calories

I consumed a total of 416 calories for dinner. Although these numbers are not entirely accurate, I think the numbers are pretty close considering that the average stir-fry chicken is around 250 calories per cup and about 130 calories per cup for the stir-fry vegetables.

Judging from the above, I think my road down the careful eating path is going to be VERY long and hard.

My first attempt at eating healthy

After experiencing another migraine today, I finally decided, I've had enough! My bowels are screwed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), I've put on 7kgs since my wedding (which was only last year), I have severe gastritis from practicing cruel crash diets and missing meals, I've been plagued by constant colds and flus, I've spent a crapper-load of money on medical bills this year and I think my kidneys are going to shut down soon from all the abuse. 

The doctors can't really find too much that's wrong with me, except that my immune system may be a little low and my gastritis and IBS is probably what's weakened my digestive system. All-in-all, each sick episode is a cause for missing work and constant fatigue, which makes me feel inferior. It is a rough rat race after all and survival of the fittest still largely applies to the world of suits and briefcases.
 

While considering my health, I've discovered that my constant bout of sickness, disease, low energy and sometimes irratic mood swings are a result of a few things. 

A) Work stress

B) Lack of sleep

C) Very unhealthy eating

D) Little or no exercise

E) Late night binges on weekends

While I can't really help A) and sometimes B) is a cause of A), I can definitely do something about C) and D). As for E) I could turn that into a reward for doing well in C) and D). It'll be tough trying to stick to 100% healthy eating. I do live in the land of live to eat. But at least I can start by tracking what I eat, so that I can learn what my body can manage and what it simply can't. Because I love to eat, I'm also hoping that keeping track of my calories will allow me to continue eating that delicious chocolate cake, that scrumptious pavlova or the occasional hearty steak in the later stages of my life.

Additionally, I hope that whatever knowledge I discover here can be imparted to others struggling with their health as well. On that note, wish me luck and here's hoping I'll have a healthier life in a year's time.