I made delicious cauliflower curry rice from my base recipe of fried cauliflower rice. It’s pretty much the same thing except with curry and no proteins. I just added curry with the browning garlic so that it would enhance the fragrance of the spices.

Ingredients
1 lb, or 4 cups, raw cauliflower
1/2 cup or 6 sprigs of parsley
4 cloves garlic
1/2 Tbsp curry
2 Tbsp cooking fat
2 eggs (optional)
salt and pepper to taste (I used about 1/8 tsp each)

Directions
1. Rice the cauliflower via grater, food processor, blender, or manual chopping method. Set aside.
2. Dice garlic and set aside. Roughly chop parsley and/or other vegetables and set aside.
3. Heat butter on high heat. When hot, add in garlic and curry powder and cook until the garlic browns, about 2 minutes. Add cauliflower and stir for several minutes, until also slightly browned. Turn down heat to medium and add parsley. Stir to combine. Add salt and pepper. Stir to combine.
4. (optional) In another bowl, beat 2 eggs together. Pour over the fried rice and stir to incorporate evenly. Cook for a few more minutes until the egg is almost no longer raw.
5. Turn off heat and let sit for a few more minutes. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Dai Dai

Anyway, I ended up buying a 90% Lindt bar, since I haven’t tried this cacao percentage yet. It was nothing short of delicious.

For those of you who are addicted to Nutella and are trying to cut down on sugar, this is a good chocolate bar to end up having. There are a lot of hazelnut hints with a slight buttery taste on the end of coconut and vanilla. There wasn’t much acidity; just warmth and nuttiness. Appreciation of low-sugar chocolate bars is a must, though.

This bar contains chocolate, cocoa butter, cocoa powder pressed with alkali, sugar, and bourbon vanilla beans (probably how I got the vanilla feel in the taste). The nutritional info for the entire bar was: 600 calories, 55g fat, 30g carbs, 12g fiber, and 10g protein. Calcium content at 10% and iron at 37%.

Oh, so delicious. But I now have to start my no-chocolate month over again…

Dai Dai

Since my last post on the roast lamb, I’ve been hoarding up all the meat in the fridge, and worried that it would go bad. So earlier this week, I decided to make a large batch of lamb curry with some of the leftover meat. With the edges laced with rosemary chopped off, of course.

I’m usually not a fan of Indian food, and I am pretty sure that this is not specifically an Indian-type curry, as normal Indian recipes usually include garam masala, and my generic curry powder was a blend of only turmeric, cumin, garlic, onion, black pepper, and chili. It still made the house smell strongly of an Indian restaurant when I was finished cooking, though.

I basically guesstimated the amount of the ingredients I put in, and it tasted fine to me in the end. I served it atop some steamed cauliflower rice. Courtesy of the microwave.

Ingredients
1/2 lb cooked lamb (can be raw, just sear it for a bit before making curry)
1 Tbsp coconut oil (or other cooking oil if preferred)
1/4 cup coconut cream (I used 1/2 cup coconut milk works too)
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp grated ginger
4 cloves garlic
1/2 large onion
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp lime juice

Directions
1. Heat up coconut oil in pan and add garlic, onion, ginger, curry powder, and cinnamon. Saute until garlic and onion are slightly browned.
2. Add the lamb meat and saute until thoroughly browned.
3. Add coconut cream/milk and simmer over low to medium-low heat for 30 minutes, adding water if necessary. The sauce should be thick and pasty.
4. Incorporate lime juice into the mixture prior to serving curry. Spoon atop starchy food.

Enjoy!

Dai Dai

It came wrapped in red netting, which is useful if I planned on stuffing the inside of the lamb with herbs and spices. I chose not to because 1) I am lazy, and 2) I love rare meat, and more slits would mean more surface area to cook. I left that alone and just slathered my meat with lime juice, salt, pepper, chopped garlic, and rosemary.

The saddest part for me was the wait. I had to wait a little more than an hour for my lamb to cook, and an extra 10 minutes for it to rest outside of the oven for easy cutting. My pieces were cut pretty thickly because of the dullness of my Chinese butcher knife. If my knife were sharper, I would have been able to cut it into even thinner pieces.

This rare baby (literally?) tasted absolutely wonderful. I ate it for 3 days straight for all my meals, and I did not get tired of it. I used some of it as ingredients in other recipes, while the rest was laid atop a bed of cooked spinach to be consumed after a quick reheat in the microwave or stove. I highly believe this was a great investment of time and money. Time to scope my area for cheaper and entirely grass-fed cuts.

Ingredients
1 lamb leg, about 5 pounds
1 large lime
1 bulb of garlic
1/4 cup fresh or dried rosemary
1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp black pepper

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Juice the lime, chop the garlic, and portion out the spices and set aside.
3. Place the lamb leg in a shallow baking dish, and rub with lime juice. Pack on the garlic and rosemary as best as possible, and finish by patting on the salt and pepper.
4. Place the lamb in the oven and roast for 30 minutes.
5. Reduce baking temperature to 350 degrees and roast for an extra 45 minutes for rare, and 60 minutes for medium-rare for a 5lb leg. Add 10 minutes for every pound over 5 pounds, or subtract 10 minutes for every pound under 5 pounds.
6. After roasting, take lamb out of oven and rest for at least 10 minutes.
7. Slice into pieces and serve.

Enjoy!

Dai Dai

The entire jar has 280 calories: 7g fat, 56g carbs, 14g fiber, and 7g protein, with 70% Vitamin A, 105% Vitamin C, 14% calcium, and 28% iron. Not bad considering they weren’t using fresh tomatoes. And the sauce was tasty to boot.

Of course, I still had plenty of spaghetti squash left over from one of my previous local grocery shopping sprees a month ago, with about four or five of them sitting in my box, in line to be cooked. So it was perfect that I had these huge jars of marinara to accommodate all the squashes.

I threw the marinara on top of some sauteed garlic and ground beef, and the chunks of beef turned out to be more like small meatballs swimming in the sauce, which I liked a lot better than trying to break them into smaller pieces and disperse them around the sauce. But to each his own.

Ingredients
1 3-4lb spaghetti squash
1 lb ground beef
1 bulb of garlic
1 32oz jar of marinara sauce (or less, if desired)
any cooking fat, if needed for leaner cuts of beef
ground pepper, to taste

1. Prepare spaghetti squash by microwave or oven. Set aside to slightly cool.
2. Coarsely chop the garlic and set aside.
3. Heat cooking fat on high, if using, and brown the ground beef until almost fully done. Both large chunks of ground beef or small bits of ground beef would work, depending on personal preference of meat marinara sauce. Add the chopped garlic and continue to brown meat until no longer pink.
4. Add the marinara sauce and cover. This prevents the fat from splattering all over the stove once heated strongly. Keep stove on medium-high until marinara begins to boil, then reduce to medium or low, depending on cooking time. Partially uncover if a thicker sauce is desired. Cook for at least 15 minutes if on medium, and at least 30 minutes on low. The longer the wait, the better, up to several hours.
5. Meanwhile, chop the spaghetti squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Using a fork, create strands by running the prongs from the top stem part to the bottom part of each squash half. Set aside in a large container, or several plates. Keep warm if the marinara sauce will still be simmering for over half an hour.
6. After the marinara sauce is finished cooking, ladle on top of the spaghetti squash if on plates, or mix with the spaghetti squash in the large container. Serve warm.

Buon Appetito!

Dai Dai

This was a great preparation for high protein needs. The beef added so much flavor to the “noodles” that I didn’t even have to sautee it in butter for added flavor. At the same time, my meat has about 15% fat, so leaner cuts of beef or ground beef may require some cooking fat anyway.

Ingredients
1 3-4lb spaghetti squash
1 lb ground beef (the less lean, the better)
1 bulb garlic
1 small handful of fresh parsley, about 8 individual sprigs
any cooking fat, if desired
salt and pepper to taste (about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper)

Directions
1. Prepare spaghetti squash by microwave or oven. Set aside to slightly cool.
2. Coarsely chop the garlic and set aside. Chop the parsley finely and set aside.
3. Chop the spaghetti squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Using a fork, create strands by running the prongs from the top stem part to the bottom part of each squash half.
4. Set aside half the total amount of strands in one container and half in another, unless your pan is huge enough to contain all of the squash.
5. Heat cooking fat on high if using. Add half (or all) of the ground beef to the pan and cook until browned, about 5 minutes. Add half (or all) of the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes.
6. Add one container of the spaghetti squash (or all if you cooking all at once). Saute until parts of the noodles are lightly browned, then add half (or all) the parsley. Saute for another 2-3 minutes, and then add salt and pepper to taste.
7. If not all of the squash has been cooked, repeat step 5-7 with the other half of the ingredients until everything has been cooked.
9. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

Dai Dai

To be honest, I don’t remember the taste of the bar very well. I just remember that the flavor was pretty boring, and that the bar seemed pretty average. The overall flavor didn’t lean much towards acidity, fruitiness, earthiness, woodiness, etc., which ultimately resulted in a blend of South American and African cacao at a middle ground that was just boring.

On top of the not very impressive taste, the bar itself was difficult to separate into the square parts. It could be my fault for the frigid cold of my winter room temperature, but at the same time, I could easily separate Ghirardelli baking bar squares at the same temperature.

Nutritionals for the entire bar includes 510 calories: 39g fat, 33g carbs, 9g fiber, 9g protein, 3% Vitamin A, 3% Vitamin C, 9% calcium, and 30% iron. Ingredients were nicely simple, with cocoa liquor, sugar, cocoa butter, and soy lecithin.

Didn’t think this bar was worth it, even at the $2 sale price. But that is just my personal preference.

I am announcing now that I will be taking a break from all chocolate reviews until further notice. I am testing to see if I have high sensitivities to chocolate in terms of toxin storage/digestion of phytic acid, theobromine addictions, and sugar dependence, so I will be avoiding anything containing chocolate or cacao. May the test begin…

Dai Dai

Enter the roasted carrot recipe from Ina Garten. I roughly followed the recipe, since exact measurements are just troublesome for dish-washing and a huge time suck, but for the most part adhered to the recipe.

To hasten the cooking process, I increased the surface area of all the chopped carrot pieces by cutting as diagonal as I could for each of the carrots. This involved placing my knife blade almost vertical down the length of the carrot versus cutting horizontally to make the carrots into inch-and-a-half blocky cylinders. My knife skills need refining and my blade some sharpening, but somehow my mom has always been able to cut them more thinly, leading to a faster cooking time. Time to experiment around!

I tossed the carrots with extra virgin olive oil, chopped fresh organic parsley, and salt and pepper. My pan sheet was pretty tiny, so I could only accommodate about three carrots worth into the oven at a time per baking apparatus (I used a cake baking pan to make a similar batch).

This recipe effectively helped me consume more than three carrots a day, increasing my vegetable consumption, as well as reducing the amount of limp carrots I would potentially have in the fridge later on. Especially since these tasted almost like sweet potatoes, I had this for almost a week for each meal. That’s how good this recipe was.

Ingredients
3 whole carrots
4 sprigs of fresh parsley (or 2 T dried parsley)
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil.
2. Slice carrots diagonally and chop parsley.
3. Add both to a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss to incorporate.
4. Empty everything inside the bowl onto the baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the carrots begin to brown.
5. Cool before serving.

Enjoy!

Dai Dai

This recipe uses the strong taste of freshly chopped raw garlic and the sourness of lemons to cut the taste of the chicken liver. I thought that was really smart, so I followed the recipe with my own edit of adding vinegar instead of lemon, as I didn’t have any, and thought it was still delicious and tender. I would definitely make liver using this recipe again. The dry fry really helps to cook the center and not brown the outside too fast, which is what normal frying does.

Ingredients
1 lb chicken livers
1 Tbsp cooking fat (I used coconut oil)
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt
1/2 bulb garlic

Directions
1. Chop up garlic and set aside in a bowl.
2. Heat up pan until surface seems hot enough for a drop of water to immediately evaporate. Add chicken livers and dry fry for 3-4 minutes per side, until browned on the outside.
3. Add oil, vinegar, and salt. Stir to incorporate.
4. Once the livers are entirely cooked through, add to the bowl of chopped garlic, and toss to mix.
5. Serve hot, while livers are still tender.

Enjoy!

Dai Dai

Ingredients
1 3-4lb spaghetti squash
1 14.75oz can salmon
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 medium onion
1 small handful of fresh parsley, about 8 individual sprigs
salt and pepper to taste (about 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper)

Directions
1. Prepare spaghetti squash by microwave or oven. Set aside to slightly cool.
2. Chop the onion and set aside. Chop the parsley finely and set aside.
3. Chop the spaghetti squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Using a fork, create strands by running the prongs from the top stem part to the bottom part of each squash half.
4. Set aside half the total amount of strands in one container and half in another, unless your pan is HUGE enough to contain all of the squash.
5. Open the can of salmon and set aside half (if cooking in half-batches). Flake with fork.
6. Heat 1 Tbsp of the butter on high (2 Tbsp if you can fit all the squash). Saute half the chopped onions with the salmon (all if you are doing the entire squash) until the salmon is lightly browned.
7. Add one container of the spaghetti squash (or all if you cooking all at once). Saute until parts of the noodles are lightly browned, then add half (or all) the parsley. Saute for another 2-3 minutes, and then add salt and pepper to taste.
8. If not all of the squash has been cooked, repeat step 5-7 with the other half of the ingredients until everything has been cooked.
9. Serve warm, which will enhance the taste of the salmon, butter, and naturally nutty flavor of the spaghetti squash.

Bon apetit!

Dai Dai