Vegetarian Mapo Tofu

I loved mapo tofu!  The usual mapo tofu is cooked with ground pork and since I stop buying pork and too lazy to mince some chicken breast, I created a vegetarian version.  I substituted the ground pork with fresh shiitake mushroom, of course you can use the meaty portabello mushroom too (or crimini or button mushroom).  Since mushroom is good for us, I try to cook more mushroom dishes. 

Slow Cooker Spiced Cauliflower

My second dish using a slow cooker (not counting soup and dessert).  While typing this post, I realize that I can actually add garbanzo beans.  Oh well, will sure to remember it the next time I make this.  Just add 1 can of garbanzo beans (drain) into the mixture if you like (to make it a one dish meal).  Since the day I made this was Monday, so it was a meatless Monday dish for us.  I am trying to cook more meatless meal again (need to lose some extra weight!) since I have not been too discipline lately.  We really enjoy this easy vegetarian dish and hope you like it too!

Spinach Mushroom Soup

Spinach is so delicious in soup.  If you haven't tried cooking it this way, make sure you give it a try!  This soup is nutrients packed as I have spinach, beech mushroom, eggs and shrimps, all are healthy for us.  Just add another side dish and a little brown rice and you can call it a meal.  You are welcome to use vegetarian broth and omit the shrimps to make this soup vegetarian.  Happy trying!

Lotus Root Cold Dish

Root vegetables are really good for us, so make sure your diet consists of some root vegetables.  I bought a small lotus root recently but instead of making soup with it, I wanted to try something else.  I saw a Chinese cooking show before and they used lotus root to make a cold dish.  I never tried that before and really interested in giving it a go.  There are few recipes in my blog containing lotus root, such as in soup, stir-frying, simmering and even deep-frying, but not a cold dish.  The minced ginger, green onion and toasted sesame seeds gave this dish a great flavor and it was really fragrant with crunchy lotus root.  I loved this way of enjoying the lotus root too.  Give it a try if you haven't tried it this way!

Spicy Eggplant with Chicken

Eggplant or aubergine is from a nightshade family of vegetables such as potato, tomato and sweet peppers.  It is a good source of vitamins and minerals and has phytonutrients which have antioxidant activities.  However, it is not suitable for people with kidney and gallbladder problems.

I do like to buy eggplant occasionally because I try to eat variety of vegetables with different colors.  I can't buy it often because my hubby and my girls are not a fan of this vegetable, so whenever I cook this, they only eat the chicken.

Are you someone who tries to buy different fruits and vegetables every time you go grocery shopping?  Since we shop at the Asian supermarkets, our selections are wider and there are lots of different green vegetables, root vegetables that we can buy.  Next time, try to vary your choice of vegetables instead of sticking to the few that you like.

Easy Stir-fried Leeks with Beef

Cooking doesn't have to be difficult, this super easy stir-fried leeks with beef is an example.  Minimal ingredients used yet super delicious.  I used leftover beef here but you can use a small piece of beef and thinly slice it and marinate it to make this a quick stir-fry.

Leek is in the Allium family, together with onion and garlic.  Not only it is low in calories, anti-oxidant but it also provides lots of health benefits and vitamins and minerals.  I don't buy leek all the times because lots of veggies that we eat are also very nutritious but I certainly include leeks occasionally into our diet.  I am thriving for a variety of vegetables that have different health benefits and try to mix and match them every week.

Green Cabbage Kimchi

This green cabbage kimchi came about because I haven't been to the Asian market for a while and I was so out of napa cabbage or any Asian greens for that matter.  I am not even a Korean but I just had to have a big jar of kimchi in my refrigerator these days.  I used to dislike kimchi because of its pungent smell and taste, but while reading about the benefits of probiotic and kimchi, slowly I became to like kimchi especially the homemade ones as I can adjust the taste according to my liking (mostly towards a sweeter taste).

After it is fermented, it doesn't taste much different from the napa cabbage kimchi, except perhaps crisper.  Loved it in the instant ramen and the soup was just sourish delicious!  Read that there is a lot of probiotic in the juice of the kimchi so don't throw it away. Besides the beneficial bacteria for your gut, kimchi is also a great source of beta-carotene, calcium, iron and Vitamins A, C, B1 and B2.

Vegetarian Delights

Mixed vegetables symbolizes family harmony for the Chinese New Year celebration.  So, this dish is often served during the CNY.  I have no idea since when that I have also started cooking the vegetarian delights during the CNY.  I used to add bean paste into this dish but this year I omitted it.  I think I prefer it without the bean paste and strangely I didn't hear any complaint from my daughters.  Even, the picky eater Evy didn't complaint of the mushroom and weird looking stuff in this dish and finished everything I gave her on her plate of rice.  Yeah that was strange as she would always be the first to complain.  Not many American born Chinese little girls can stomach this dish okay, so I am really proud of her and Edda.

Asian Peanut Sesame Salad Dressing

Evy's school has a "Healthy Salad" cooking contest and I needed to help her to create a healthy salad with a healthy salad dressing.  Hence, this recipe was created.  Her salad mix presented to school would be more colorful with fruit, seeds, nut, cherry tomatoes, carrots, mixed baby salad greens and hard boiled eggs.  We needed to do a taste test before submitting the recipe so I mixed up a quick and simple salad to try out the peanut sesame dressing.  We all loved it and I hope the judges would as well.

This peanut sesame dressing only has 1 tsp. of oil and it is sesame oil which is good for our health.  I think the rest of the ingredients are healthy too, if you try it, feedback and link back to me ya!

My simple quick salad mix above is cut organic romaine lettuce heart, cilantro (great to detox our body from mercury, aluminum and lead) and unsalted toasted sunflower seeds (you can add pine nuts too if you have).  It was so good when paired with my peanut sesame dressing that Edda and I couldn't stop eating.  Edda loved this salad very much and she would finish the bowl clean.  I would probably add a packet of pouch albacore tuna and walnuts next time.

Chai Hsin with Shiitake Mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms, a symbol for longevity in Asia, and also for sizing opportunities in the new year.  Green vegetable symbolizes close family ties, so this is an auspicious dish to serve in the Chinese New Year.  Another easy way of serving delicious greens for your CNY menu.  Of course if you can't find the fresh Shiitake mushroom, you can also use the dried one (might have to adjust the cooking time).

* I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover*

Baby Bok Choy with Minced Chicken

I made this for a potluck dinner the other day.  I just want to show you a picture of how I plated the baby bok choy.  In the middle, I stir-fried some minced chicken with chopped fresh shiitake mushrooms and garnished with chopped scallion and crispy fried shallots.  You can also make it vegetarian by omitting the ground chicken and use an assortment of mushrooms.

You can serve this during a Chinese New Year dinner.  I think it's beautiful!

* I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover*

Veggies with Wood Ear Fungus

Wood ear fungus, Clouds Ear, Tree Ear or Black fungus are the same thing.  It is used widely in Chinese cuisine and recently had been known to provide lots of health benefits.  It is high in vitamins and minerals, improve blood circulation, lower cholesterol, anti-viral, etc.  Its texture is crunchy even after stir-frying and take the flavor of the sauce, as it is tasteless by itself.  Usually sold in dried form in the Asian supermarket.  Again, very affordable and I would suggest to eat this often, at least once a week would be nice. I even made this into a very healthy veggie dish with color super food from celery, carrot, garlic and red bell pepper.
 

Minced Chicken with Bottle Gourd (Lauki)

Frankly, I hardly buy any Asian gourd or melon.  But since I am trying to eat healthier, I also want to explore into unfamiliar Asian vegetable.  Asian melon and gourd are one of them.   For me, stir-frying it with eggs or make soup with it should be a very safe approach because my mom did that.  But I was out of drumsticks and we had eggs for lunch, so I needed to think of another approach.  Hence, this was created.  Later, when I did a search on this, I found out that it was actually very common in Indian cuisine.  Perhaps next time I can try cooking it with Indian spices and recipe.  Indian version is more mushy while this stir-fried version has a bite to it.

Bottle gourd has lots of benefits, one of them is low in fat and calories while high in dietary fiber.  Also said to treat urinary tract infection, balancing liver function, treatment for blood pressure and heart disease and more.  You can read more about the benefits here.

Stir-Fried Baby Bok Choy

This is another easy stir-fried baby bok choy recipe.  Instead of par-boil it in water, I sometimes stir-fry it because I think it's easier and faster this way.  I just learned that this veggie is good for the eyes just like carrot.  So, for picky eater kids who don't like carrot, you can use this as a substitute.  And because it is like carrot, it is also better to stir-fry it in a little oil to bring out the nutrients.  How interesting eh!

Stir-Fried Woodear Fungus

Just like my easy stir-fried carrot dish, wood ear fungus has always been a side ingredient in a dish, hardly ever as a star in a dish.  So for this dish, I wanted to make wood ear fungus a star and used carrot and scallion as side ingredients.  I have told you about the benefits of wood ear in my previous post so I am not repeating myself again.  Both black and white wood fungus are good for our body but the black one has more nutrients.  The white one has also been known to keep one skin looking young and beautiful and people has called it a poor people bird nest.  Because bird nest is expensive and no many people can eat it everyday or few times a week for the benefit of looking young.  So the poor people use white wood ear fungus or snow fungus as a substitute as it is so much cheaper.

Stir-Fried Chili Sweet Potatoes

While shopping at my Asian market recently, I spotted a white flesh sweet potatoes.  It interested me because frankly I don't think I have eaten this before.  So, I bought 4 to try.  I used one to cook with my brown rice but I didn't really like it as it was not as sweet as the orange and purple ones.  So, I had to find another way of cooking it.  Since it's white, it resembled potato a lot, so I julienned it thinly and cooked it like people would do with potatoes.

Not bad I would say but a bit spicy with the dried chili pepper as I was suffering from sore throat so the chili pepper was a bad idea.  If not, it would be good with rice.  It's a bit crunchy.

White flesh sweet potatoes

Fast Kimchi

I admitted lots of time that I don't fancy kimchi.  I guess the kimchi that I tasted before were aged kimchi and too sourish or pungent for me.  However recently I tried a kimchi that was not too sourish and it was okay for me, in fact I quite liked it.  I have been reading a lot about the benefits of eating kimchi and since finding that there was a kimchi that I liked, I really wanted to make it myself because I could adjust the seasonings.

Kimchi is fermented vegetable that said to promote intestinal health by feeding the friendly bacterias that live in your intestines.  It nourishes them so that they can out number the bad bacteria that find their way into the gut.  Thus promotes gut health and increase your overall immune system.  It is also anti-oxidant and rich in Vitamin C and carotene.  You can do a search on the Internet to read more about the benefits of eating kimchi if you are interested in learning more.

This is a fast kimchi because I don't fancy aged kimchi.  I added sugar because I liked it sweet.  I also don't want to make too much because I am the only one that consume this in my household and also I don't like to keep it for too long in the refrigerator, even though kimchi should be able to keep for a very long time.  It turned out well for me and I couldn't resist to eat a little bit during lunch and dinner times.  I guess it won't last long in my fridge.

Meatless Meal

Another picture of my meatless meal.  I have stir-fried wood ear fungus/ black fungus, stir-fry white sweet potatoes with dried chili peppers and stir-fry baby bok choy.  Recipes of each dish will be coming up in an individual post later.

If you have any meatless meal picture, please do share it in my Facebook page as I would love to see yours as well. :) 

Stir Fried Pea Sprouts

I loved pea sprouts!!  This veggie is not cheap if we were to order it in a Chinese restaurant.  It costs about $12 per plate.  Other veggie is about $8.  It is more expensive then other vegetable.  I paid $3 to $4 for a box and it served one plate like the above picture.  So, instead of ordering this veggie in the restaurant, I usually cook it at home for less than $5.

I usually cut the sprouts in half with a scissor as I found it to be easier to cook and eat.  It also need quite a bit of oil to stir-fry this veggie, or else it will leave you with the unpleasant raw taste.  If you master cooking this veggie at home, it can save you some money.  :-P

Stir-Fried Tofu with Chayote

I fell in love with chayote once I tried it.  So, I have been buying it quite frequently because chayote is a nutritious veggie.  I mentioned about the nutrition in my previous or first post about chayote, please refer back to my old post (under vegetable) to read about it if you are interested.

The above dish is easy and super delicious.  I just substituted the chicken breast with tofu for my meatless meal.  All you need for this dish is a bottle of Lee Kum Kee's Chu Hou Sauce.  I just ran out of this sauce and I have been to two Asian supermarkets and couldn't find it.  *cry*  I guess I had to make another trip to a different Asian supermarket up in Denver to search for it.  I dislike how the Asian market here is not quick in restocking their products or sometimes they just stop ordering it.  *sigh*