My Favourite Salad

About five years ago I went on a weight loss journey. A major weight loss journey. 80 lbs later here I am a fitter, lighter, happier version of my former self. I blame good foods and no self control for all the extra weight I was carrying. The thing was, most of the foods I was eating regularly didn't even taste good to me any more.  They were satisfying my fat and salt cravings and they were really easy to make.

This salad became part of my weight loss repertoire. I made and ate this salad for days on end and never tired of it. It's salty, it has healthy fat, it's crunchy, and most importantly it's tasty! With very little prep you can have a weeks worth of lunches and sides for supper in your fridge. It takes the pain out of deciding what to eat for healthy eating.

One of the key components to this salad is the dressing. You can find the recipe here. This recipe makes a lot of dressing. Make it in a jar and keep it in the fridge. I use this dressing on everything, it's that good.

Healthy olive oil makes this recipe good for you and satisfying.

Shake it up and keep it in the fridge. Shake it gently or the oil will solidify. If that happens to you just be sure to take your dressing out 10 minutes ahead of serving to let the oil warm up to room temperature again.

This salad is usually made with cabbage but I'm using romaine this time.

Now the veggies. Use whatever you have. I like to make this to the recipe but the dressing is really what makes this. The salad is just there because drinking salad dressing is gross. Haha. One thing to be sure to get is the bean sprouts and red onions. The rest is very flexible. If you are making this salad for the week keep back the watery veggies like the bean sprouts and tomatoes. Add them just before you eat to keep your other veggies from getting soggy.

This salad is tasty, beautiful, and HEALTHY. It is surprising how good it is for you.

I would normally eat this salad as a meal or with lean protein. I served it along side Sarah's Slow Cooker Pork for a fresh hit of clean flavours. The salad dressing is even good on the rice. Seriously, you will find so many places to use the salad dressing, it really is the star of this salad.

Veggie Pancakes?

When I was staying with John and Chrystal last year, John's mom came to visit. She cooked some really great food. This dish was my attempt to recreate one of her dishes. I didn't even come close but this still tasted pretty good. I will get the real recipe and try again some day but these satisfied my itch for them for now. 

Scrumptious. Salty, savoury, soft and chewy, crispy, and fresh. This dish is a sensory overload.

When this dish was made for me it was done with shrimp.  It was so good but alas, no shrimp in my house at the moment so I went straight up vegetarian.  I'm sure you could put anything in these and they would be tasty but I wanted to keep it kind of simple.  I only used mushrooms, green onions, zucchini and bean sprouts.

Now, this is where I went awry. I could not remember what was in the batter except cornstarch so I basically altered my crepe recipe. One egg, milk, and flour.  I wanted a really loose batter so it would be thin and cook quickly.

Cornstarch gives a really good crisp crunch in batters so it was the star here. I ended up using about two Tbsp because that is what pouffed out of the container and into my bowl. It worked for me.

If I remember correctly these were served with fish sauce and soya sauce. I like heat so I set out chili flakes so I would remember to add them. The fish sauce portion of this dish might have been mixed with something else. I am really not sure. My memory is my weakness.

To test my batter I fried a bit in some hot oil. It was sure crispy. I thought it would do.

Time to get cracking. Add oil to your very hot wok, throw in your veggies. Cook stirring constantly until they start to soften.

Pour your batter right on top. Shake and tilt the wok so all the 'raw' batter from the middle goes to the edges to be cooked. It will form a big crepe looking pancake thing. Very technical.

Now the hard part, flip that whole thing before it burns without it falling apart. Cook the other side for a minute or so, checking often to be sure the bottom is not burning. Partially remove from the heat if your pancake is cooking too quickly.

Turn it out onto a plate and eat immediately. This was really fun to cook because I stopped to eat every one while it was hot. While it is still hot, splash soya sauce, fish sauce, and chilis on top then eat and enjoy. Add more sauce as required.

Because I was eating every pancake as I was cooking it, I experimented a bit to see if I could improve my technique. I tried batter in first and batter on top. Batter on top was definitely best. Plus, the veggies developed more flavour getting to cook a bit on their own first.

John's mom also made this really wicked curry soup and I still need to get the recipe. I love trying new foods, especially when they are this yummy!

Pad Thai at Home

I love food. This is something that you should know about me. I love cooking, I love baking, I love looking for new recipes and remaking my old favourites and of course EATING! I love trying new foods, especially favourites from other cultures. One of my all-time favourites is Pad Thai. My first experience with Pad Thai was from Thai Express, which I highly recommend.  But for those times you don't go to Thai Express and want to cook at home, here is a Pad Thai for you!

Looks good doesn't it?!

You will need some type of rice noodle.  This time I used the flat sticks but I like the long rice vermicelli best.

Get your pans ready. Hot water on the boil for the noodles and get your wok screaming hot.

This is where the magic comes from. If you look up Pad Thai recipes they have at least 20 ingredients. This is probably half of them!

The finishing condiments are very important for this dish. Thai Express will serve lime, Sriracha, and chopped peanuts on the side. I didn't have any peanuts but I added crushed chilies for extra heat.

Prepare your ingredients. One egg, beaten, big handful of bean sprouts, zucchini, green onion, and mushrooms. I made this vegetarian but you would usually have beef or chicken cut up very thinly.

I also added carrot, thinly sliced.

The water should be boiling, drop your noodles. These rice sticks will take a few minutes to cook so you'll want to start them first. If you are using rice vermicelli you will want to drop them closer to the end of the cooking time because they take way less time. You can also just pour boiling water over them and let them sit until you are ready to add them. The package will tell you the best cooking method.

Once the wok is hot, add oil, let it start smoking and add the egg. Using chop sticks move the egg around in the hot oil. It will form longish scrambled ribbons. As soon as the egg has started to set but is still soft (not runny though) move it back to its bowl. Don't worry if they aren't fully cooked, you will finish cooking them later.  The important thing is to not burn them.

Add more oil and then add in your longest cooking veggies.  In this case it would have been the carrots but they were sliced very thinly so I put everything in at once.  Keep back the green onion and bean sprouts.

Let the veggies cook a bit until they start to soften.

Next you'll add 6 Tbsp of the pad Thai sauce. Your noodles should be partially cooked if not mostly cooked by now. Add them now but keep their water to add to the sauce later if necessary. Add in the soft egg scramble and toss everything together. Sorry for the steamy photo here!

Oh my, look at that!  Once your noodles are completely cooked add in the bean sprouts and green onion. If your pad Thai is getting too sticky add in some of the cooking water from the noodles. The noodles will keep taking up moisture so add water as you go. I also like a bit of a saucier pad Thai so adjust to taste as well.

Time to dress the dish and eat! Add dried chilies, Sriracha, and lime. Serve with chop sticks and enjoy!

The most of the cooking time is taken up with the prep for this dish so make sure you get everything ready before you start your wok or you'll have something burn and it will not be nearly as tasty.