Breaking The Fast

Last week, I started intermittent Fasting again. I did it before but stress made me resort to anxiety eating. Until I saw the weight gain was out of control and my body is already complaining. 

I officially started last January 12, and with the help of a fasting app called Fastic, I am having a ball at this program. Through it I can monitor my progress, learn while I am doing it, stay connected with individuals with similar goals, and best of all, watch what I eat and stay focussed for the goal I have set for myself. 

Here are some of the meals I had when I broke my fast, today and the previous days.

I had Fried Chicken and Mushrooms earlier today.

Fried Chicken and Chicken and vegetables stir-fry yesterday.

And the last meal I ate was Baked Green Tomatoes with Chicken and Flaxseed topped with Parmesan and Cheddar cheeses.

Roasted Chicken, Boiled Eggs and sautéed vegetables with a thousand years beans the other day. 

You get the picture now of what I eat. Hahaha.. No rice. Rice and other carbs are always the culprit to weight gain. 

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Snacking on Something Healthy

Yesterday, I broke my fast a few minutes after my scheduled end. And I thought I should prepare the ingredients for Monday's meal. I actually bought Chicken breasts for the entire week, some fish and Chicken feet for natural source of collagen. No pork and beef for maybe 3 months or so. And vegetables of course. That should always be present in my meals. 

So while I was prepping and placing them in containers for the fridge, I boiled 2 of the Chicken breasts, just to have some Chicken stock and I was actually planning something to do with the boiled Chicken until I had a spur of the moment idea for a healthy snack. 

That's 2 Chicken breast, 2 medium-sized Onions, a head of Garlic, 1/2 cup Garlic Confit including some Olive oil, Himalayan Salt, White Pepper powder, Thyme, Mint and Basil, 4 eggs and 1 1/3 cup of Flaxseed, all mixed together in my food processor.

And then this brilliant idea of baking instead of frying Green Tomatoes, which, by the way, had been in my mind since last week. 

I cut each tomato in 4 slices and placed them on a baking sheet.

Then placed my Chicken and Flaxseed on top. Now, the tricky part is to make the dish yummy, so I thought of CHEESE. Nothing escapes us when there is cheese on it, even when we are on a diet. Hahaha.. 

In a saucer, I mixed Parmesan and Cheddar and dipped (literally) each one on the mix.

It was almost heaven.. See????

I baked at 250 C for 30 minutes. With heat on both top and bottom of my tabletop oven.

And... Tadaaah..

It's surprisingly good. And a healthy snack too. 

Placed the remaining pieces in the fridge, and anytime we, Tr. Grace and I, can snack on them within our eating window. There is also leftover Chicken and flaxseed mix that I am going to also do something with, but I want to do something different with it. That will be posted soon. 

Happy Sunday everyone. Enjoy your day..

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Happy Kayin (Karen) New Year

Today is the new year for the Karen (Kayin) people of Myanmar so we don't have classes today. But, because we need to get ready for classes tomorrow, we still need to prepare a lot of things today. However, a break is necessary, and these are the food we prepared to relax a little bit.. Cooking, baking or preparing food is our way of relaxing.

I made this Strawberry Refrigerator Cake from the Strawberries I saved on the freezer since we could not really eat all of them together with the other fruits.

That's a layer of goodness from ground-up cookies, Strawberry Jam, Strawberries blended with whipped cream topped with another batch of Strawberries blended with whipped cream.

See the four layers of yummies in one luscious dessert. 

Second, this Mocha Bread Pudding topped with Strawberries blended with whipped cream and garnishes with Walnuts.

It's super creamy and rich in flavour. 

Teacher Grace made this Banana Bread from the Bananas we saved from our Christmas present from Tr Yadanar. 

We had a healthy lunch today too, made special with the Roasted Chicken ordered from SweetD's Mandalay.

It's oh so good. Well, happy new year indeed.. 

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Pandesal

In the Philippines, waking up to the smell of coffee and pandesal is heaven. 

You can actually pair pandesal with different dishes like fried or scrambled eggs, omelette or even with sausages or ham, and many others.

That's scrambled eggs with tomatoes and potatoes.

This one is sautéed minced beef with 2 kinds of cabbage. 

But the best thing we did to our pandesal is put cheese in between, and bake it for 10 minutes in the oven toaster. You can feel the crunch and the melted cheese slide through your mouth.. Haha. As I am doing now..

Enjoy Pandesal warm and it'll be bliss... 

Here in Mandalay, we get our Pandesal from SweetD's Pagkaing Pinoy, which is owned by a Burmese and Filipino couple. I will feature them in one of my posts soon.

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Nilagang Baboy Saturday

We've been craving for Nilaga and today's trip to the grocery we found what we've been longing for. So not wasting any minute, we cooked Nilaga, or in my dialect we call this Lauya. Lauyang Baboy to be exact.

To cook this here is the procedure:

Rub the meat thoroughly with salt, then wash with running water, and boil to remove all the scum in every boil.

After three boils, remove the meat from the broth, then, wash the meat again and transfer to a slow cooker.

Add boiled water, garlic, onions, ginger slices, and salt. You can also add pepper if you like.

Add potato slices and cook until meat is tender. Add Cabbage slices, and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add fish sauce or Patis for added flavour.

Serve warm to enjoy a hearty Nilaga.

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New Year Salubong Preparations and Medya Noche

Happy New Year everyone. I am beginning the year with this first blog for 2021. Of course it will be about the preparations last night and what we had for Medya Noche.

So I started slaving myself in the kitchen in the morning. I prepared my Butter based Goat Kaldereta, my family's recipe minus some of the ingredients that I couldn't find at the supermarket. 

I also thawed the ribeye steak pieces for the Ribeye Steak in Thyme, Rosemary and Butter. 

And for desert, I  baked the cake in the morning, and finished in the afternoon after we arrived. Here are the Monster Chocolate Cake... 

Two different layers, both with rich custard filling and covered with Chocolate ganache.

I will share the recipe and procedure for each dish in separate posts. These are just the food I prepared. Teacher Grace and Teacher Gil also prepared their Medya Noche offerings that the three of us had so much food to enjoy. Plus the school gave each of us a New Year cake.

We were thinking our Medya Noche would turn into a cake party with 3 similar layers plus the ones I made.

I gave mine to our TukTuk driver to take for his family, while Tr. Grace cake, because of some accident, was turned into cake balls covered in melted chocolate.

Here are the rest of our food for Medya Noche:

First table, we had Teacher Gil's Charcuterie and the wines and sparkling drinks.

Second table, Kakanin Bilao 

composed of Palitao, Kutsinta, Pluto Flan and Cheese Puto - all Filipino treats we love, plus they are round, so timely for Filipino New Year salubong. And of course the remaining cake given by the school.

Third table, we have Tr Grace Maja Blanca, with toasted latik on top

Cake balls, and Banana Cake with Chocolate chips, 

some bread slices I made days before, and my Monster Chocolate Cake.

Fourth table (ironing board turned table he he he), our fruit, money, candle and plant offerings for New Year salubong palihi.

On our dining table, plated ribeye steak with Asparagus and Cherry Tomatoes all cooked with butter, my Goat Kaldereta, Tr. Grace's Carbonara 

and Tr. Gil's Beef Mechado.

It was quite too much food but Pinoy Salubong pamahiin dictates that we must prepare a lot to represent abundance in the coming year.

We lighted the candle and allowed it to burn until only a little remains. Light represents light in our journey all through the coming year, while money and ginger root represents growth of fortune in the coming year.

And this Rosemary Plant, aside from being one of the best herbs to use in the kitchen, represents life and growth, healing and spirituality. It was really nice to have it part of our new year salubong palihi.

I also have my separate table inside my room, on my table of offerings for my altar.

Well, there you have it. How was your new year salubong celebrated? What did you prepare, and what Pinoy salubong palihi did you do?

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