Menu:
7am (or upon rising): Glass of room temperature lemon water
8am: Herbal tea
10am (breakfast): Mango and Coconut Milk Smoothie (follow method for Blueberry and Almond Smoothie)
11:30am: Coconut water
1:30pm (lunch): Miso Soup with Watercress
4pm (snack): A handful of blueberries
6pm (dinner): Steamed Salmon and Greens
I stuck with the plan until the evening when I went to go watch a movie. I had a small bag of chocolate goodies and candy…well, only $1.80 worth of it. I had decided after my dinner that I was going to quit this ridiculous detox. Why? Like I mentioned before, I felt absolutely no different. Some may say that I didn’t give it enough time but I beg to differ – 4 days is more than half way through the regimen and in my mind, should have been sufficient to produce any sort of difference. In the end, this detox probably wasn’t for someone like me who tries to eat healthy on a regular basis and more for someone who eats processed foods more than twice a week. I’ve thought about doing the Master Cleanse, but I consider that the extreme and there has been some debate about the benefits of that detox. Oh well!
Now, let me tell you how I enjoyed the rest of Friday night. After the movie (saw Up In The Air which was a great movie), we went to Hue’s (korean bar) and I drank a nice tall glass of Sapporo BEEEEEER!!!! THEN, I tried out short rib taco from the Mogo BBQ truck. All of this was done late in the night, which is usually a no-no for my schedule, but I didn’t give a rat’s @$$ and it felt great. Anyways, the taco was $2 and the flavors were pretty much what I expected from a korean-mexican fusion dish. Not sure if it was worth the money as I feel I can probably make them myself. People say the Kogi truck down in LA is much better so I guess I’ll need to give that one a try.
Surprisingly, I didn’t gorge too much on bad food over the weekend. But I tried to expand my cooking repertoire and made Thai food for the first time. I made tom kha gai and pad thai. The soup came out okay, but the pad thai was subpar mostly due to uneven cooking of the noodles. I used Trader Joe’s rice sticks, which were thicker than normal noodles for pad thai. Here are the recipes I used:
Tom Kha Gai Soup
(adapted from thaifood.about.com)
Ingredients:
- 4-6 cups good-tasting chicken stock (SERVES 2-3 people) (LIES! The soup was plenty enough for 4 – 5 people)
- 1 stalk lemongrass, minced, OR 4 Tbsp. frozen prepared lemongrass (I cut into 2 inch strips and mashed them)
- 3 kaffir lime leaves (couldn’t find the damn leaves so I used the zest of one lime)
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1-2 red chilies, finely sliced, OR substitute 1/2 to 3/4 tsp. dried crushed chili
- 3 Tbsp. fish sauce (available at all Asian/Chinese food stores and some supermarket chains)
- a generous handful of fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced thinly (used 1/2 can of straw mushrooms)
- 12 medium raw shrimp, shells removed
- 1/2 can good-quality coconut milk, OR 1/2 can evaporated milk
- 1 Tbsp. freshly-squeezed lime juice
- 1/3 cup fresh coriander (cilantro), roughly chopped
- optional: 1/2 tsp. sugar (skipped this)
- optional: extra vegetables of your choice (I added sliced water chestnuts)
tom kha gai
Preparation:
Pour stock into a deep cooking pot and bring to a boil.
Add the lemongrass and boil for 1-2 minutes. If using fresh lemongrass, also add the upper stalk pieces for extra flavor.
Add garlic, chili, lime leaves, and mushrooms. Reduce heat to medium and simmer 1-2 minutes.
Add the shrimp (plus other vegetables). Simmer 3-4 minutes, or until shrimp is pink and plump.
Reduce heat to medium-low and add the coconut milk plus fish sauce and lime juice. Stir well to combine and gently simmer until hot. Test the soup for salt and spice, adding more fish sauce instead of salt (I usually add 1 more Tbsp.), or more chili as desired. If too sour, add 1/2 tsp. sugar. If too spicy for your taste or if you’d like it creamier, add more coconut milk. If too salty, add another squeeze of lime juice.
Serve in bowls with fresh coriander sprinkled over. For an extra hit of flavor, you can also add some Thai chili sauce, either store-bought or the homemade version.
Pad Thai
(adapted from sweetsavorylife)
Pad Thai sauce ingredients:
- 4 cloves of minced garlic
- ½ cup of palm sugar (I used brown sugar instead. I think I’ll use palm sugar the next time)
- 1 ½ tbl. white sugar
- 1/3 cup of fish sauce
- ½ cup of tamarind juice concentrate (I’m thinking of reducing this amount and adding soy sauce.)
Pad Thai noodle stir fry ingredients:
- Dried rice stick noodles – ¼ of the package
- 1 egg
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 6 tbl. of vegetable oil
- ¼ cup of red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cup of mung bean sprouts
- 1 cup of carrots, match sticks
- ¼ cup of green onion cut diagonal in ½ inch segments
- ¼ cup of cilantro
- 1 ½ cups of either thinly sliced chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or tofu (I used chicken breast and shrimp.)
- ¼ cup of toasted peanuts chopped.
- Lime wedge
Pad Thai
Directions:
To make pad thai sauce, heat a small pan on medium low and add fish sauce, palm and white sugar, tamarind concentrate, and garlic. Cook sauce until palm sugar has completely dissolve. At this point, you will want to taste the sauce and tweek the sweetness or hotness (be careful, the sauce will be hot). To make it more spicy add a little Thai chili powder. Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes before storing it in a jar or plastic container.
To Stir fry the noodles,
Boil noodles for 4-5 minutes and drain immediately rinsing with cold water for a few seconds. Noodles should be slightly firmer than Al dente. But don’t worry, they will continue to soften and cook later when stir frying. Using kitchen shears, cut the noodle clump in half. This will make it easier to fry and eat.
Heat 3 tbls. oil in a wok or frying pan on high and cook raw chicken, pork, beef, tofu or shrimp for 3-4 minutes. Remove meat/tofu/seafood into a small bowl. Next, heat up 3 tbls. of oil and then add garlic and red onions to the hot pan and stir fry for 1 minute stirring the garlic mixture so it will not burn. Add noodles and stir for 1 minute. Add 3-4 tbls. Of Pad Thai sauce continually stirring noodle mixture until well coated with sauce. Add cooked meat/tofu/seafood back and fry for 2-3 minutes. Move the noodle and meat mixture to one side of the pan and crack an egg on the other side. Scramble the egg with a wooden spoon and cook for 30 seconds. Add carrots, green onions, and sprouts and cook for one more minute frying everything together. Test the firmness of the noodle. If the noodle is too firm, fry for an additional minute. If your noodles need more flavor, add another tbl. of sauce and fry another half minute. Remove from heat and serve. Garnish with remaining raw carrot match sticks, spouts, cilantro, toasted peanuts, and a wedge of lime. Enjoy!
