Dashi n' Rice Crackers

Trip to the store to restock basics

Black and Roasted Golden Sesame
Benito Flakes (the dashi had major MSG sadly)
Rice Seasoning (katsuo fumi furikake)
Napa Cabbage
Light Soy Sauce
Hoisin Sauce
Rice Crackers (seaweed) Don't knock the flavor till you have them :)
Beer (Belgian Wheat Ale)
Leaks
Grape Tomatoes
Chicken

and a Bamboo Rice scoop and another long handled one to replace wooden spoon.


It is a very nice store that stocks more asian than Japanese ingredients so still can not get a lot of things I would like but very handy for many things that regular stores would never carry.

Bento Attitude

http://shizuokagourmet.com/bentoboxed-lunches/

This site has a great set of pages showing the bento lunches of the author. It is not the cute factor with these but the practical approach to eating well and balanced meals while being very tasty. The various ways of enjoying rice and making so many variations works well.  Changing habits and the typical "diet" concept usually leaves you lacking variety of flavors and or feeling satisfied. The Bento as an example is a great way to approach things, western lunches tend to be one item and some chips etc. While with the Bento and other asian meals you find a great diverseness to the palate. It may be an art form at times the basic lessons we can take from it are what I am looking for.  Non processed foods, variety, vegetables over meats, multiple protein sources, balance.

Another observation to take is "dessert".. a small piece of cheese and fruit or a portion of a sweet omelet. Desert does not have to be sugar and just because it is not sugar does not mean we can not call it dessert. The psychology of making these changes is as important to the physical changes. These are ingrained habits of years or of a life time that we are talking about changing. Mental happiness is part of this process and adjusting what we think of dessert being can be a big help.

Back from a short, he ate this.

Back after a short hiatus with Char sui pulled pork over rice, long green beans and a salad.

Working on staying on track with the project :) got a little tied up and have been bad about updating.

Hey Diddle Diddle

Beef with vegetables and fried egg over rice.

Sliced carrots, Napa cabbage with a mix of soy sauce, rice wine, and a dash of rice vinegar.

Topped with chives in a new smaller bowl. The old one is great for ramen but way to
big for regular meal. You would end up eating 3 times what you meant to.

Miso Ramen made a great lunch on a cold rainy day.

A couple cups of broth, simmered, add tbsp of miso and mix. Add noodles, veggies
will become softer but have a nice crunch still by the time it cools enough to eat.

Staring down a Banana

Well, I have been sticking to the pre-portioned meats and other foods for a week now, it is has been a good start to the project. I thought it would be harder than it has been, flavor has been the savior here I believe. I try to really put a lot of thought into the recipes and the foods I purchased to start. Last night was a failed attempt at a non fermented Kim Chi but ended with being just a really nice vegetable mix with nagga cabbage. Tossed some in a skillet with a portion of the sliced beef over ramen cut noodles and deglazed the pan with some beef stock to pour over the veggies and noodles.

Today was the biscuit craving, I have been wanting them for a bit now.  After staring down a Banana that needs eaten soon, I decided that making some large drop biscuits was a good way to start a day destined to end with freezing rain after snowing last night. A large cup of coffee and a biscuit made breakfast. Only problem was that with having changed things this past week and a bit, I was full past lunch after the dense biscuit.

Early dinner or Tea filled in the gap in meals for me with a salad and some diced chicken.

Dinner is more than likely going to be Nikujyaga, Beef or pork stewed with potatoes, onion, and carrots. Beef in my case as I have a portion unfrozen. The link below is one of my favorite places for fast, easy, nutritious meals. The vegetables did their thing in the slow cooker this afternoon and 2/3 will get frozen for a bit and the other will help change up things for a few days.

http://www.japanfoodaddict.com

"Diet: Intransitive verb or Noun"

A lot of the changes have to do with our hunger and the amount of food we eat each day. I will be the first to say I love food and love to eat. Some issues come from a life time of using food as a calming experience when something is upsetting. Those days when you eat a slice of pie or cake to feel better.

My grandmother was the Queen of baking, always had a pie, cake and usually an Angel food cake around as well any day of the week. Grandma Alberta was an amazing baker, a true down home farm baker. I learned to appreciate this later in life but also found I had learned to feel better by eating. In no way was this my Grandma's problem but it was something that really made me think about life. We lost both my Grandparents too early and I have those same genes. It has been time to wake up, take a hard look and be honest with myself. What is it that is making this simple thing of eating a problem?

I needed to make eating simple...


But what can you do, what can a person do to change and be healthy. I realized that a few simple changes could have a huge impact. I do not give anything up, I still have my chocolate (dark chocolate MM's a few at a time not a package of them). I have my Cola, I only drink from the mini bottles or a can. Something that I sip from rather than gulping down a glass. Keeps the amount I drink down to a few ounces rather than a glass. I intend to reclaim my Diet as it was meant to be, a noun, not an intransitive verb. (no, it has been way too long for me to even try and remember what the heck an intransitive verb is, if they even has them when I was in school.)

Watching an actor on a show buying beef at a market in Korea was a defining moment in my plan. It is how we are eating not always what that is the issue. I paid more attention when I was watching shows about how things were sold, how the preparation of the food was done then compared it to western ways. Meats are sliced or prepped in a way that they are available to be made into anything but portioned out. Everything I have prepped can all be mixed in various ways for more variety but keeping the cost and the storage to a minimum.


Now lest we all forget we do need fats and some sugars. It is the kinds of fats and how we are eating them that becomes a concern. "hara huchi bu" made me rethink things again. Was it really necessary to go on some diet. I know people that did the Cabbage diet and others to keep their metabolisms working to make the change and succeeded. I can not eat cabbage alone for a week or more, it just makes me want to go eat a chocolate cake thinking about it. So, I went and found my chopsticks and started making plans. Finish everything that was in the pantry and have a fresh start.


Today: Chicken w/Green Beans
about 1 Tbsp of light soy sauce with a dash of sesame oil and a gluhb of Rice Cooking Wine.
Cook in a pan on high for a minute or so and pour over rice with the liquid from the pan.

Not sure about dinner yet

K-Drama with a side of Green Beans

If your a fan of K-Dramas, or shows like No Reservations you will have had some experience seeing the food I am talking about.

 There are a few things that popped the light bulb on over my head. Meat is almost always thinly sliced while being packaged in small amounts. The ratio of meat to vegetable is almost 1 to 4 (unlike Americanized versions of the food).  Meals are often a variety of items and not one dish. Flavor is king, the flavors of the food are diverse but filling to eat even when in smaller portions. If you know me well you know my disdain  for veggies, God made the animals to eat them so we could eat the animals.  

Who would have guessed that when you don't boil the crap out of them and turn them into green puddings of putrid odors they taste good. (I reserve the right to continue to call Brussels Sprouts the evil satanic balls of death).

The plain repetition of the same basic vegetable items in everyday cooking has bored my taste buds for too many years. The corn starch gloopy sauces we find on American Chinese foods do not compare to the flavor punch of the basic sauces and seasoning of the real deal.

Today was Beef w/Green beans

-4 slices of thin beef

-Long green beans,  about a handful

-about 1.5Tbsp light soy sauce, a pinch of cane sugar, small shallot, ginger.

-cup or so of cooked rice

Sauté on high heat for just a couple minutes and done, now drool and eat.

Oven Roasted Chicken w/pesto

-about 4oz of chicken sliced about 1/4 in to 1/2 in thick

-wheat sub roll cut to 4 inches long

-1 teaspoon of pesto

Hara hachi bu

The Japanese have a great way of expressing views on habits we take for granted about eating. The one that has gotten my attention is Hara hachi bu; which means "eat until 80% full" (or literally, stomach 80%).

This is the spark that has led me to re-evaluating a lot of ways we approach things. Hara hachi bu will be my start to a new way of eating well and being healthy. "A Boy who found his chopsticks" will be my way of documenting the experience and helping it work for change.

After facing a long time on the job hunting front and gaining way too much weight along the way, I needed a way to start fresh. Diets; lets face it they just tend to give us short term habits that will slide to the way side and you will yo-yo'ing you back and beyond your original starting point. So.. here is my plan, I am going to follow the Hara hachi bu path to eating.

The basic steps: slowing down, eating regular, eat well and cook smarter. Slowing down, hence the chopsticks, will help get to that 80% without eating fast and not feeling full. Eating well, not skimping on yum factor, taste and variety. To eat regular and cook smarter, prep as much as possible after grocery shopping to make cooking as well as portioning easy. While I do not plan to eat exclusively Asian recipes, there are a lot of aspects of the food culture that will be of benefit to me. 

If your a fan of Anime, K-Dramas, or shows like No Reservations you will have had some experience seeing the food I am talking about in future posts.