Simple Dinner: Tofu & Couscous

I have started taking this whole clean eating thing seriously however when the weekend comes around, I fall off track by eating out, having some wine and skipping the gym. I am going to try to do better on the weekends though because that is the only way for my clean eating to fully be effective. So the other night I decided to try making tofu for the first and I loved it! To be honest, it may have only been my second or third time trying tofu. It is now going to be a staple of mine as it is a great alternative to meat. I don’t think that I will ever become vegetarian but I would love to be able to go perhaps a whole week from time to time without needing meat. Anyway, I thought I would share my tofu recipe as this is a great quick dinner for one of those lazy or busy days.

Tofu

I bought my tofu from Walmart. In terms of preparation, all I did is clean is a bit with some water then dried it with paper towel. I then cut it into small pieces. I think that the smaller the pieces, the better as tofu absorbs whatever you cook it with and so smaller pieces will absorb more of whatever spices you are mixing it with. Next, in a pan, heat up some olive oil then throw the tofu in. Cook it on medium heat. Cook/fry the tofu until it’s brown or caramel. Put the tofu aside. In the same pan, fry some onions and yellow bell peppers. Add some garlic if you like. Add some black pepper, and whatever spice you like. Throw the tofu into the pan and mix together. Add a little bit of soy sauce and let it sautee together for another few minutes and it’s ready!

Couscous

I have also recently just started enjoying couscous and it is a great alternative to rice as I am trying to only eat rice once a week. Cooking couscous is simple. I honestly just follow the directions on the box and add a little bit of olive oil. You can also season it or add extra things to your liking. I kept it plain but will soon start spicing it up with different things.

Salad

We all know how to make salad so the only thing I will talk about in this section is my homemade vinaigrette dressing which I absolutely love. It is so delicious! What I use is olive oil, vinegar, salt, dry basil and a little bit of sugar. So start with putting 5 tablespoons of olive oil into a cup, add 3 tablespoons of vinegar, add half a teaspoon of sugar or maybe even less; add half a teaspoon of salt or maybe a little more. You basically add the salt to your liking. Add some of the dry basil to your liking and mix everything together until you get a bit of a thick consistency and voila! Add it to your salad and enjoy!

See this is a very quick and simple dinner. Try it and let me know how you liked it and if you have suggestions on other ways to make tofu, please comment so that I can try making it differently next time! Thanks for stopping by

xoxo Monet!

 

Gardening, Why Not?

Ever thought about gardening and growing your own fruits and vegetables? I have! Maybe some of you already grow your own produce and if so, I would love to hear from you for some tips. I have always wanted to have my own little garden for quite some time now. It all started with me wanting to eat “Nkhwani” whenever I wanted without having to wait years to travel to Malawi to get some. So now you may be asking yourself “but what is nkhwani”?. Well, basically it is pumpkin leaves. In Malawi (where I am from) this is a great vegetable and a delicacy. I tend to miss it from time to time and many times I have thought about growing some in my home. I mean why not right? All I would need are the pumpkin seeds, some good soil, maybe fertilizer and constant watering?.

Having my own garden would encourage this healthy living journey that I  have begun. The thing is, everyone wants to encourage healthy eating but the healthy foods are more expensive than the “bad” foods. I love walking into Publix stores and admire the fresh produce section and all those vegetables look beautiful, nicely green and yummy! But when I check the price, I almost just want to walk out of the store and get canned veggies instead (I do end up buying from Publix though). If I were to have my own garden, it would be cheaper for me and healthier (as I would not put any pesticides or whatever extras are put into our food). I also feel like it would be therapeutic. I imagine myself waking up in the morning to check on my garden, water it when needed as i enjoy some zen music in the background and also enjoy the harvesting season *sigh*. As soon as I move into a house as opposed to the apartment, I will highly consider gardening and see how it goes.

What do you think about having your own garden? Do you already have one? And if so, how do you like it? Share your story, tips and/or opinion. Till next time lovlies.

xoxo Monet!

Green Smoothie: Strawberry Kale

On my so called journey to healthy eating and healthy living, I discovered the goodness and deliciousness of green smoothies. I wrote “so called journey” because I am not 100% there yet. I can eat healthy foods 3 or 4 days out of the week and then mess it up with a juicy burger or some fatty bacon. I am still working on that and before you know it, I will be a clean eating junkie. So I made my first proper green smoothie the other day and thought I would share the recipe. I like to call it “Strawberry Kale” flavor. I had made a green juice sometime last year as I was going through my 7 day juice diet (I lasted 2.5 days) but it was strictly veggies and no fruits. This time around, I realized that adding fruits makes the smoothie not only tolerable but quite delicious.

Ingredients:

- Spinach  -  Kale  -  Cucumber  – Strawberries  -  Water  -  Ice Cubes

For best results, replace the orange with strawberries. The first serving was with the orange but when I replaced it with strawberries in my second serving, it was a lot richer and sweeter.

So, in your blender/juicer or whichever, throw in some fresh spinach (amount is all up to you), kale (I used 2 leaves), Half a cucumber, some strawberries and 3 ice cubes. Throw in some water. Again the amount is to your liking. Once you have all these goodies in there, go ahead and blend! Below is a picture of my final product.

Simple, wasn’t it? Now it’s your turn! Tag me when you have made your green smoothie so that I can see the goodness you made. Juicing is great and I am loving it! Till next time lovlies

Monet!

Urban Hibachi Orlando

I have decided that I am going to start doing restaurant reviews once a week (or more often depending on how lazy I get). I unfortunately eat out quite often and so I realized why not do reviews as this may help someone out there if you are visiting Orlando and trying to find a good restaurant.

So my first review is going to be on Urban Hibachi in Orlando and this is the one on Sand Lake Road. If you love Japanese Cuisine, then this is a place to NOT miss out on. First off, the ambience is great. It has a casual yet almost elegant feel to it. It is a great place to bring coworkers or family and the service is good. They offer a sushi menu, lunch menu as well as a dinner menu and not to forget the HAPPY HOUR menu. This is the best one. I went there and paid full price once but since I discovered their happy hour, that is all I go for. Not to say that full price is not worth it but I am just a girl on a budget!

The food is amazingly delicious and I like to believe that they have the best fried rice in town (yes perhaps a little biased but until proven wrong, I will stick to that statement). The sushi is of great quality and each roll contains a good amount of pieces. They are very generous with this.

Should you decide to order sushi, I recommend trying the Mexican roll! I am obsessed with this and it is a must have of mine along with good old philly roll. And of course, do not forget to try their fried rice. I give this restaurant a 5 out 5 for food quality, service and overall ambience!

The restaurant website is: http://www.urbanhibachi.com/#/HOME-01-00/

xoxo Monet!

Rice Bowl Recipe

Lately, I have been trying to refrain from eating out because not only does it kill my budget, but also because it is not a healthy choice. So the other day I was craving Chipotle (I am obsessed with that place) and decided to try making my own rice bowl and save some money. I must say, it was a success! Below is the recipe for anyone looking to make this simple delicious meal. I am still working on making my guacamole perfect. This was the first time making it.

What You Will Need (add and/or remove ingredients according to your preference)

** Rice; 1 Can of Black Beans; 1 Can of Corn; 1 Avocado; Chicken Breast; 1 Tomato; 1 Onion; 1/2 Lime; Your Choice of Chicken Seasoning; Salt; Fresh Cilantro

The Process

1. Cook your Rice and and your black beans (separately) and set aside. When I made the beans, I just fried some onions then threw the can of beans in the pot till cooked. Set Aside

2. After washing your chicken breast, cut in small pieces and season to your preference

3. Heat up some oil in a frying pan and fry chicken breast pieces until cooked and golden brown. Set aside

4. In a bowl, throw the canned corn and place in the microwave for 1 minute

5. Dice your tomato and some onion then place both in the bowl of corn and mix

6. Take half of your lime and squeeze the juice in the corn/tomato mixture, add some fresh cilantro and mix

7. In your plate/bowl, put some rice, black beans, chicken and the corn/tomato mixture and voila!

For The Guacamole

1. Peel your avocado and scoop with a spoon into a bowl

2. Add some fresh cilantro, onions and salt

3. Mash it all together to your preferred consistency and voila!

Put aside your preferred amount of guacamole in your rice bowl and you are ready to eat! Simple meal

Curry Chicken Recipe

Today I will be sharing my curry chicken recipe with you all. Just like most recipes, there are many different ways to make curry chicken and this is how I personally prefer to make it. This is another simple dinner that can be made in an hour or less.

What I used (you don’t have to use the exact ingredients of course):

That’s garlic powder; meat seasoning; curry powder; onions; bell peppers; carrots; olive oil; black pepper powder

Now for the chicken, I think its best to use a combination of chicken breast and thighs however I didn’t have any chicken breast so I used thighs and legs. Also I like to add some potatoes in the chicken but I did not have any at hand.

First thing you will do is wash and clean the chicken. Once you have done so, you want to cut it into small pieces. One thing about curry chicken, it’s best in small pieces as opposed to a full leg/thigh in my opinion. You can either cut off the meat from the bones and throw away the bone but I am a true believer of “the best meat is that closest to the bone” and so I keep the bones *shrugs*

Once your chicken has been cut up in small pieces, you will go ahead and season it with the garlic powder, meat seasoning, black pepper, curry powder and salt. It should look something like this:

Not so appetizing, is it?

Next, you heat up some olive oil (or the oil of your choice) in a cooking pan/pot.

Once heated, go ahead and throw in your chicken and let if cook/fry until golden brown.

After that, you will remove the chicken from the pan, set aside and using the same oil, go ahead and throw your onions, bell peppers and carrots into the pan. Stir until cooked

At this time, you can go ahead and throw the chicken back into the pot and mix everything together. Let it cook for about 3mins then add in some water. This will make up your sauce.

Cover pot with lid, reduce the heat and let it cook to your liking. Curry chicken is best with white rice in my opinion but you can also serve it with flatbread aka chapati aka naan bread aka roti. You get the idea.

Dinner is served!

Live.Love.Life

Quick Tilapia Recipe

Recently I have been finding different ways to cook my meals in a shorter amount of time. I am the type of person that spends more than an hour in the kitchen making a meal. I am not sure what it is but I just spend that much time in the kitchen. I always used to admire my mother who could cook an amazing meal in less than an hour. So lately, as I don’t have too much patience for being in the kitchen, I have been finding new ways to prepare my meals in less than an hour. Cooking is not quite the highlight of my day anymore even though the eating part is *shrugs*.

So here is a quick tilapia dinner I made yesterday in about 45minutes. Fish is easy to prepare so I have to find quick ways with chicken and other meats as well.

Ingredients used:

That’s Adobo All purpose seasoning; Badia Cajun seasoning to add some spice; Paprika (mostly used just to add color) and Garlic powder. I must ALWAYS use some form of garlic when I cook.

Steps:

I used 3 Tilapia fillets. Wash them and season with your preferred ingredients. Also add salt at this time but very little as some of the seasoning already has salt added.Now you can either cook them as they are but what I did is cut them up into smaller pieces. Something about cutting them into smaller pieces makes them taste better to me *shrugs*

Set aside in a plate. Cut up some onions, tomatoes and bell peppers.

Heat up some oil. Once heated, go ahead and throw in your onions and bell peppers. Once the onions are somewhat caramel brown, go ahead and add your tomatoes.

At this stage, I will add just a few more sprinkles of the cajun and garlic powder seasoning. Add some salt if needed.

Once the tomatoes are well done, add the fish and cover with the lid to steam.

Allow about 5mins or so to pass then turn the fish and allow to steam again.

Tilapia does not take long to cook therefore you must be careful not to overcook it. Add a little tiny bit of water and allow it to cook to your liking.

I like to have my Tilapia with either potatoes or pasta and tonight was Pasta. You can do whatever works for you.

Dinner is Served!

Live.Love.Life