2 Healthy Ways To Use Lemon
I like to stock up on fruits at home because it's a great to-go food when you're in a hurry or hungry for a quick nibble. Fruits are the healthiest form of fast food!
Keep your fruits in the fridge if you buy them in bulk so it will last longer.
Charlie likes to use lemon for his Johnnie Walker cocktail. I prefer to drink lemon with just ice cold water. First thing I do every morning is drink a large glass of lemon water. It adds a zesty flavor to plain water which is not just refreshing, it helps to kickstart your digestive system and keeps your skin healthy and glowing as you stay hydrated.
Breakfast the other day: 1) Plain oats, Special K, Carman's muesli, a dash of cinnamon, a teaspoon of ground flaxseed, yogurt and fresh blueberries. 2) Maximuscle Promax Diet protein shake. 3) lemon water.
Another use for lemon is to cook! One of my New Year resolutions is to eat in and cook more often. So lately I haven't been able to stop looking at recipes online and cooking healthy dishes at home for Charlie and I. He's been a good taste tester and food critic. I sometimes would imagine he was Gordon Ramsay and I was a Hell's Kitchen chef cooking the best dish to please his appetite. Except he could never be that mean towards me even if the dish didn't come out perfect.
Here's a delicious healthy recipe that you should definitely tryout. I made it for the first time the other day and it was so easy and turned out wonderful! Charlie even said "I never expected this chicken breast could taste so flavorful."
That made my day!
Rosemary Lemon Chicken Recipe
You'll need:
Half a lemon
1 boneless chicken breast
1 sprig of fresh rosemary (chopped)
1 tablespoon of butter
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1 ziplock bag
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Cooking for one person only: Half a lemon (oops, I forgot to slice the lemon into two for the picture), 1 boneless chicken breast, 1 sprig of fresh rosemary (chopped), 1 tablespoon of butter, 2 garlic cloves (minced)
Step 1: Put the chopped rosemary (save about 1/4 of it for later), minced garlic, about 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and the chicken breast in a ziplock bag and spread out ingredients evenly. Allow to marinade for a couple of hours. (I left mine to sit for an hour before and it still tasted great).
Marinade for a 2-8 hours for the best flavor!
Step 2: Squeeze lemon juice.
While waiting for the chicken to marinade, why not roast potatoes in the oven?
Step 3: Remove the chicken from the ziplock bag and sprinkle some salt and pepper on both sides. You can skip the salt if you're conscious about salt intake.
Step 3: Bit of salt and pepper to taste.
Step 4: Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat and add a bit of olive oil. Lay the chicken breast down and let it cook for about 4 minutes on each side. Remove the chicken from the pan and set it aside. You might wanna put it on a couple sheets of kitchen paper to soak up excess oil.
Step 4: Cook the chicken for 4 minutes or until golden brown. Don’t lift the chicken up to check for at least 3 minutes!
Step 5: You're gonna have to do this step very quickly and make sure you have all the ingredients ready! Now, add the lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of water and the remaining 1/4 of chopped rosemary. Let it sizzle while constantly stirring the mixture with a spatula. Lower the heat and add the butter. Stir it in until completely melted. Mmm, your kitchen should be smelling hella good right now.
Step 5: Add the zest!
Final step (not pictured): Add chicken back to the pan, and toss to coat. Serve the chicken breast on a dinner plate and pour the remaining sauce over it.
Enjoy this simple dish with some roast potatoes, broccoli and brown rice.
Rosemary Lemon Chicken
(hat tip: no recipe required)
A Coke A Day For A Week
Found 3 of these Coca-Cola glasses in the kitchen cabinet. Figured Charles must've ordered 3 happy meals with his buddies when I wasn't around/asleep. I can't wait to show him this picture and see what he has to say.
1 coke per day for 1 week = 70 teaspoons of sugar
Would you like fries with that?
If you're bored of drinking good ol' plain water, add berries or mint leaves in your ice cube tray to make these refreshing drinks!
Berry ice-cubes
Citrus + mint ice cubes
(hat tip: blogs.babble.com & youaremyfave.com)
A Really Simple, Easy-To-Cook Salmon Recipe
Salmon is enriched with Omega 3, a "good fat" that may reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes and more. It's a good source of B12, Niacin and vitamin D and is not only good for your diet, it is also very easy to cook.
You'll need about 15 minutes to cook this simple dish.
You'll need:
Salmon Fillet
Onion
Garlic
For seasoning, mix:
Sea Salt
Ground Pepper
Garlic Powder
Paprika
To complete the dish:
Steam any 2 vegetables of your choice. (e.g. broccoli, baby French beans, spinach)
- Simple seasoning: Sea salt, ground black pepper, garlic powder & paprika.
- Sauté salmon fillet in a hot skillet with chopped onions and garlic. Use extra virgin olive oil.
Allow the salmon to cook on top of the chopped onions and garlic. To avoid overcooking the salmon, remove it from the stove when it’s just slightly underdone and allow the residual heat to finish the cooking. This will result in salmon that is cooked through but not dried out. Flaking indicates the salmon is becoming dry and overcooked.
Some people like to eat the crispy fish skin but I prefer to have it removed. The skin comes off easily while being cooked.
Squeeze a bit of lemon juice and add parsley and you're all done!
- Sautéed salmon with steamed green vegetables.
Don't forget to steam your vegetables before you start preparing the salmon dish. I like to add bits of Thai chili in my food for added spice. A
Enjoy!
Recipe: Chicken Burrito with Mango salsa
My first attempt at making burritos turned out to be an epic success. I didn't get to make guacamole as planned because the avocados I bought weren't quite ripe yet. So I had to make do without the avocados and cilantro (which I forgot to buy...) in my salsa.
The wholemeal tortilla made a good wrap. Best if heated up before adding the ingredients. So healthy, fresh and muy delicioso!
Basic ingredients: Enchilada sauce, lettuce, mango salsa, roast chicken bits and extra mango topping for mango lovers.
Charles is allergic to bell pepper and all the salsa sauces I found in the supermarket had bell pepper in their ingredients so I had to skip that and made mango salsa. It's better to make it from scratch anyway - no preservatives and FRESH!
I used 3 tomatoes (2 diced, 1 crushed), 1 mango (diced), 1 yellow onion (diced), 4 cloves of garlic (minced), 1 jalapeño, 1 red Thai chili and some salt, sugar and pepper to taste.
It turned out to be a bit spicy, but not too much 
Roast chicken. You can use whatever you want for the filling. I usually prefer either chicken, fish or shrimp. Fish tacos are so rare here!
It's a burrito party!
I'm thinking I should do stock up on the ingredients and do this more often...
This Is Me… Post-Workout
boo
Promax Diet high-protein shake. I've just started taking this on Monday after my workouts.
Brown rice + Balinese fish + mushroom tofu
Brown rice + sweet & sour fish + garlic broccoli
I try to keep the food proportions small so I don't feel stuffed after eating. That's key. The protein shake also seem to help control my eating. Not bad I must say. Wait for an update on that next week.
Herbed Pasta with Smoked Salmon
Lunch I made the other day - which was fairly simple to make.
Just steam the broccoli in the rice cooker while cooking the pasta. Drain the pasta once it's cooked and heat up the saucepan with some extra virgin olive oil. Sauté the pasta and then sprinkle the 'Herb & Garlic' seasoning with it. Serve on a plate with the smoked salmon on top and steamed broccoli on the side.
I've been drinking 2 glasses of warm lemon water every morning for over a week and it's doing wonders to my digestive system, skin and appetite! If you drink coffee every morning, try giving warm lemon water a try this week - it makes a good form of laxative too
A Simple Dinner I Made…
Just a simple dinner I made for myself yesterday... Meatballs (from IKEA) with steamed broccoli, garlic brown nice with sunny side up eggs. Fairly easy to make - just cook the brown rice and steam the broccoli with it (my rice cooker comes with a steamer). Then I fried the rice with some chopped garlic and onions. Wrapped the meatballs with aluminum foil and popped it in the oven; it was ready in 15 minutes.
I've kinda gotten used to not having a microwave although I miss the convenience of heating up leftover food. I always end up throwing away my leftover pasta because the oven 'overcooks' the pasta and it becomes too hard.
But anyway, it's better to eat fresh food than leftovers anyway!
Easy & Healthy Recipe: Garlic Spinach with Chicken & Mushroom Pasta
As always, this was my first time making this recipe (I'm no Naked Chef, yet) but it turned out great so I'm happy to share it with you guys. It's called 'Garlic Spinach with Chicken & Mushroom Pasta' - because that's pretty much most of the ingredients I used. I might need to start to get more creative with my recipe names!
This example I'm demonstrating is made for 1 so if you're cooking for 2 or more, I suggest you double up the ingredients.
Here's what you'll need:
1 serving of pasta
4-5 cloves of garlic (blended)
4 white button mushrooms
1 cup of minced chicken
extra virgin olive oil
spinach
salt + black pepper
You'll need about this much pasta if you're cooking for 1.
Ideally, it's better to blend your garlic until it becomes almost liquid/foam-like but I didn't have a smaller blender so I had to use the Garlic Zoom (from Firebox.com) and sort of mash it up a bit with a spoon (guess I really do need a mini blender - not for making protein shakes only)
I took out the stems from the spinach (here, I'm using red spinach) so I get only the leaves. You don't really want the vegetable stems in this dish. I also prefer to break my pasta into half so it's easier to cook and eat. 
Start by cooking the pasta first. Add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into a saucepan filled with water. Add a pinch of salt if you like and the pasta into the saucepan and leave to boil.
Heat up a pan with some oil and add the blended/minced garlic until it turns slightly brown. Then, put in the chicken and mushrooms, followed by the spinach. Stir well and let it cook evenly.
Quickly remove the water from the other saucepan. Using a tong, carefully add the pasta into the pan with the cooked ingredients. Stir them well. Your kitchen should start to smell pretty good by now!
Next, add some black pepper and mix the ingredients together and you're ready to serve.
Mmmm..mm!
Very simple and so easy to cook using basic ingredients. Takes about 20 minutes to prepare. Good luck and happy eating healthy!
Food For The Sick… Chicken Congee Recipe
I still needed my protein kick after the ginger mushroom soup yesterday so I decided to make chicken congee for dinner. My friend actually got Charles & I a rice cooker so I figured I might as well use it 
You'll need:
2 cups of rice + 7 cups of water
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of chicken seasoning powder (I used ikan bilis/anchovy seasoning powder instead)
1 tablespoon of thinly sliced ginger
1 cup of minced chicken
3 tablespoons of shallots
1 or ½ a cup of brocolli (optional)
Spring onion (optional)
1. Rinse the rice and add 7 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1 teaspoon of chicken seasoning powder and leave to cook in the rice cooker for about 5 minutes.
2. After 5 minutes, add the thinly sliced ginger and minced chicken.
3. Let it cook! My rice cooker also doubles as a steamer so I made steamed broccoli.
4. After 13-15 minutes, check on the congee and stir the contents to check its consistency. If it's too thick, add more water. If you added too much water, leave it to cook for a while more. Add some shallots for some fragrance!
You can serve it plain like so...
Or with extra shallots for added crunch and sprinkle some white pepper and soy sauce on top!
Best served hot! I instantly felt a whole lot better after this meal...
Easy. Good luck!
Ginger Mushroom Soup
I've been down with a common case of cough & flu for over a week now but I'm glad to be back in KL because now I can finally take it easy for a while and recover. Way too much partying in Singapore (in my defense, I only partied on Friday for NYE and Saturday for a friend's birthday but being sick didn't stop me from drinking... or what many of us to refer to as 'celebrating').
2011 is here! I'm a little pissed that I'm sick and can't start working out right away but hey, healthy people fall sick too sometimes. But anyways, I received a lot of feedback from you about what you'd like to see more on withlovefay.com and most of you asked for me to share more recipes and what to eat (or what I eat in general).
Knowing what and when to eat is definitely a crucial step towards losing/maintaining your weight. I'm more than happy to share some recipes and the places I go to for a healthy meal/snack (it's been quite a challenge to find a healthy restaurant in KL compared to Singapore to be honest!) so let's start with one.
Since I'm sick, I'll be sharing this uber simple recipe to make 'Ginger Mushroom Soup'. I really wanted to make chicken soup but the supermarket is a little far so I had to make do with what I had at home.
I'm not a huge fan of packet food but like I said, I had to make do. So here I got a packet of Maggi's Cream of Mushroom Soup, ginger (dice-sized) and 4 shitake mushrooms. Alternatively, you could use button mushrooms instead - which I think will work better.
I really wasn't sure how this was going to taste but I wanted to include ginger in the soup because I recently read that ginger is often included in many herbal decongestants and can help to minimise the symptoms of respiratory conditions, colds and allergies.
Charles got me this nifty tool to chop cloves of garlic from Firebox.com called Garlic Zoom. I used it to chop up the ginger so it's nice and finely minced.
Next, slice up the mushrooms and you'll have your ingredients ready to go.
Pour 3½ cups of water into a saucepan, as instructed on the packet, turn up the heat and pour in the mix.
Stir the contents and let it simmer for about a minute before adding in the ginger and mushrooms. You can add a pinch of thyme if you like, it's optional. I personally like it. Stir, stir, stir. Put the lid on and leave it to boil for about 5-7 minutes (depending on how thick you like your soup to be).
Toast a piece of wholegrain bread, sprinkle the crumbs and some parsley (and even black pepper too if you like) on your soup and voilà!
Best served hot!
If you're going to try this dish... Get well soon!
Chasing the sun across the globe, starting from Singapore to California, Florida, and now Kuala Lumpur.
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