So, the title is either genius or simply frustratingly confusing.
In welcoming my after PRP life and the revival of Crack Culture - we are living healthier!
I love to cook. However, cooking for one is such a big hassle and it is just not the kind of hassle I need during PRP. Now that I have finished my PRP, we can put more effort into cooking.
Most importantly cooking and eating
healthier.
So, my big problem with eating is that
1. I tend to eat more rice
2. I snack a lot. Like a lot, lot
Living stressfully have also been very conducive to make me eat more.
Now, I'm not doing this to lose weight but I'm doing this because I want to re-program my eating pattern. What I'm doing is that I got this new project where I planned my grocery shopping to last for a few days (most ideally to last a week) and try to cook simple-no-rice meals. I'm doing only lunches at the moment because I'm afraid I'll get bored easily and then turn back to eat like I used too.
It has happened before guys so we are taking this slowly.
Before we start to talk about what to cook - we have to get the technicalities prepared first. You will at least need a (1) stove (if you don't have one, maybe try to invest on those portables ones). A (2) non-stick pan, medium sized is more than good. Since we are cooking for one, you don't really need ladle and stuff. Spoons will work (I only use spoon since the portion is small). A (3) knife (a medium-sized and sturdy knife, not that cute thin ones). (4) Chopping board is also important. I know some might get that thrifty idea to just cut stuff on a table but please get one. A small one is good enough.
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i'm having such a big problem at how seokjin loves to cook and looks so comfortable in the kitchen.
this screams relationship material for god sake! |
Now, let's talk groceries!
Firstly I bought two pieces of chickens breast. If you know groceries, you know how a chicken is sold according to parts. I chose chicken breast since it has the least fat plus easier to work with. Keeping a tray of eggs is good too. Actually, I should have bought one piece of chicken breast and a medium sized mackerel tuna. I got bored rather quickly with the chicken breast and mackerel tuna is the only fish I like to eat not fresh.
I have a weird palate.
I can't eat a not-freshly caught fish.
I swear I'm not being picky.
I'm just programmed this way.
Actually, if we got more choices here, I would just buy tuna blocks. It's much more fulfilling and can be cooked easily but still tasted good. Plus, if I actually got the time to go to the wet market, I would have bought squids too.
Now come the fun part, vegetables! Since I'm not eating rice, vegetables are needed to make me feel full. The trick is to have different kinds of vegetables. At least one leafy ones (the lettuce) and one crunchy one (the capsicum). For this time, I also got myself mushrooms and tomatoes. It is a good choice due to the structure and thus the variability of taste which is important so that I'll not get bored easily. The sweet potato is also important because I still need some sort of carbohydrate and plus, it tasted good too! But these are actually more than I need for a week. The broccoli and half of the capsicum gone bad actually. I also bought a small loaf of Gardenia's wholemeal bread.
Now comes the important part - getting that good flavor. First of all, you have to buy onions. At least buy a few cloves of garlic and a handful of onions. Next are those fellas in the pictures above. I know I'll need to at least stir-fry the vegetables and maybe grill the chicken. These four ingredients (plum sauce, oyster sauce, roughly grinded black peppers and dried rosemary leaves) are good enough to marinate your chicken and to be made into a simple sauce. Saute some onions and put oyster sauce is good enough to stir-fry vegetables. These will last you more than a month actually.
So what did i cook?
I don't want to spend a lot of time cooking so it must be simple menus but at the same time, it needs to have good flavors and some sort of variety. Mind you, I have a very simple palate, so if you guys need stronger flavors, I can suggest some things but it may or may not meet your satisfaction. Plus, the use of more colors (different vegetables) will work wonder to make foods look more appetizing.
1. Fried noodles
Onions, chicken, mushrooms and some oyster sauce. I put oyster sauce instead because I don't one to use the instant noodles seasoning. This is an experiment of some sort. So the vegetables and chicken gives out flavor to the noodle too. I don't want to use the seasoning because I want to buy the instant noodles only, not the ones with seasoning and stuff. this way I can choose healthier noodles. But if this is too bland for you, try adding some chili paste and some soy sauce. You can try buying actual noodle but this is once a week plan so dried noodles is my best choice. there are plenty of choice, just looks for the ones with lesser calories
2. A simple stir-fry
Just stir fry some vegetables and to make it more fulfilling - add some carbs and proteins. I used scrambled eggs but eggs tasted so bland, I should use chicken instead. I put some crouton-ish into this too. I simply did some oil-less fry of one slice of wholemeal bread and cuts it into smaller pieces. You can try to put potatoes instead but I decided it was too much work. For the flavoring, I put oyster sauce and black pepper. This is a very simple dish so I'm not quite sure what you can do more to make it more appetizing.
3. Proteins and funs with vegetables
I also did a mix of things and plate it this way. Since the ikan tongkol is fried and thus is flavorful enough, I just toss some freash lettuce and cherry tomatoes. The sweet potato slices were fried with no oil. I thought I cut the sweet potatoes too thin but these end up being so filling.
The chicken was supposed to be made into a sandwich since I keep some of my grilled chicken for that purpose but I didn't feel like eating a sandwich and made this instead. Then green leaves are actually spinach. A friend of mine gave it to me. I did a quick fry of the spinach and the tomatoes with plum sauce. Totally loving it.
Kinda a grilled chicken but I did on my nonstick pan. I just turn it into slow heat and put the lid on. I marinated it overnight first with some black pepper, dried thyme, oyster sauce, and plum sauce. I also put some onions which are actually optional. I just wanted more taste with the use of onions. When I finished cooking the chicken, I use the same pan and fry the mushrooms and sweet potatoes. I add some more oyster sauce and plum sauce so that I have a bit of sauce to go with the chicken.
4. Sandwich
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| wholemeal bread just give better taste profile and I did way too much filling~ |
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| I fry the ingredient a bit while cooking the chicken (I didn't make the grilled chicken yet) because I don't feel like wanting to eat everything so fresh. |
I still cook but I didn't actually go for one-week grocery shopping since I currently keep on taking few days off from work. I have lots of time off to be used so I didn't need to buy much groceries to cook for one week. I still cook though. If I got enough menus, I'll write another post. And probably takes a good landscape sized photo instead.
