A New Year with Protein Burgers

It's a new year! Happy belated new year to you all and hope you all had a wonderful holiday! :) I'm hoping for great things in 2014, one of them being able to blog more and continue this fascinating adventure I've taken in 2013 in search of a better and healthier lifestyle. I'm quite proud to say that I've lost tremendous weight being relatively average in size through making smarter choices in picking what I eat. Now that the holidays are over it's back to better eating healthier again! I've been feeling the full force of holiday dinners and parties for the last 31 days and they are not pretty. But it's back on track from here. :)

There are certain things I've learned in the last five months in taking control of what I ate and I have to say that eating healthy is really tough in this society. The fact that we have so much fast food chains every few steps it's tempting not to go in and order a large hamburger with fries and a soda, plus it's convenient for most consumers. People! There are great alternatives to eating such high calorie foods by swapping some of the ingredients out for something else. For me, since I love burgers I have them protein styled. Making them at home is so simple and easy with just a few ingredients it makes for a great meal.

Protein Burger
Ingredients:
90% and above lean ground beef is most desirable
Worchester Sauce
Salt & Pepper
Onion Powder
Romain Lettuce
Tomatoes
Onions

Many places that offer protein burgers usually wraps the burgers in Iceberg Lettuces. In all honesty, that is a big no-no in my book. Iceberg lettuce while shape works great in a lot of situations lacks flavor and texture, nutritional value, and overall sustainability in your fridge. Compared to iceberg, romaine has five times more vitamin C and a hundred times more beta carotene. I take the large leaves of romaine, wash them and cut them in half and use those as my buns.

As for the meat we use ground beef, before shaping them we drizzle Worchester sauce, I don't use a spoon, we eyeball when we cook. About three to four seconds of drizzling of the sauce should work for a medium sized bowl of ground meat. After we put in the salt and pepper and onion powder. We use grinder salt and pepper from Costco and we use about four turns when making our protein burgers. Then we shape them into balls the size of an average fist as the patty shrinks when cooked. The tomatoes and onions can be cut however you like them to be. Once the patty is cooked, place them on the lettuce, dab on the vegetables and voila! A hearty hamburger! I normally also eat them with yam fries on the side from time to time. :)

Eat smarter. Healthier life. Happy eating!
~Kitty

Sugary Goodness!

Wasn't feeling too well last night, so we decided to stay in for the night. :) After a light chicken noodle soup with rice for dinner we decided to bake some desserts. We scoured the web to look for something I would want to eat and we fell upon a recipe for Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread. It looked delicious and we had all the simple ingredients at home already. So off to the kitchen to try it out!

We started out with all purpose flour and, sugar, yeast, whisked eggs, melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract. Later made the filling with nutmeg, cinnamon, and more sugar.

Whisked it all together, waited for the dough to rise before rolling it out and putting the cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar mix. We then cut the dough into equal strips vertically and horizontally.

We then stacked it together and placed it in a PAMed glass loaf pan and let sit for another 10 minutes for it to rise.

We preheated the oven to 350 degrees, wrapped the two loaves to let it rise some more for another 10 minutes. We then set the timer for 35 minutes and placed them into the oven after.

35 Minutes Later...

Warm, delicious and yummy Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread! :)

Here's the link to the recipe that we used: https://sites.google.com/site/foodsnotsprintablerecipes/cinnamon-and-sugar-pull-apart-bread. It only took us about two hours because of all the rising/waiting that needed to be done. But I had so much fun making this and I hope sharing this recipe gives you guys the same feeling. ^__^

Quick Bruncheon in the Sun!

So I just woke a few hours ago (yes, noon...) and I was pretty hungry, went to the kitchen but was feeling groggy from sleep to make anything for myself. Di, being the awesome person that he is suggested that he'd make some Birds in a Nest for me to try as I've never tried it before and I was lurking on the web late last night looking at different versions of birds in the nest. Do they look ever so delicious... So he strolls to the stove and starts pulling bread and eggs out of the fridge. It's a rather simple recipe and I think it's a great dish for kids in the morning! And I felt this deserved a blog post~

Add a bit of black pepper I think would give it a nice kick! Maybe even draw a cute ketchup heart for your significant other, wouldn't that be cute? ;)

Another one of my favorites for brunch is Eggs with Hotdog Pasta, it's also a pretty simple dish to make. I usually buy regular hotdogs cut them into little pieces with a few chops of green onion and two eggs. Which pasta you use if really up to you, I like the shape of pasta shells, so that was the one I choose to use.

I use chicken broth sometimes for a lighter brunch dish. Boil the pasta, about 7 minutes in when their al dente, throw in the hot dog, green onion then the eggs to make a pasta soup. :) But when I'm feeling more a spaghetti type of pasta I would fry the hot dogs, put in tomato sauce under a medium fire then let it simmer for a bit before mixing the boiled pasta in it.

Ramen has always been a quick fix when one is hungry but too lazy to actually make anything. To make it more homey for myself, I literally just take an extra 5 minutes out of my time crack an egg on the fryer, add a dash of green onion for flavor and voila! A better tasting ramen!

Lastly, when I have more time on my hands, Di and I make something more fancy. Something like green onion (I love green onion on almost everything ;D) buttered corn, homemade lemon iced tea, and strawberry nutella bread.

All can be bought at your nearest supermarket! Have fun with these ideas next time and have a safe Labor Day weekend! Until next time!

Ciao~
Kitty!

Dinner For Two~

Eating out is a great way to expand your taste palette in terms of getting to know the delicious textures of Spanish cuisines or the exotic flavors of Asia. But nowadays it seems like people are such a hurry to get to places that they don't spend enough time in the kitchen to really experience the joy of cooking for yourself or for you and your family. The past few months, being the college kid that I am (and my ever so short budget) I've found a joy in making food at home when expenses are low. It's especially fun when you have someone to cook with. I spend most of my time switching off kitchens with my significant other when we do cook at home. He's quite crafty with the knife and the seasoning, somehow, someway, he always end up making dinner for two. ;)

Sometimes when we're feeling something easy, we always go to our childhood favorite: HK styled teatime spam and egg sandwich paired with french fries on the side with corn. Basic white bread with a fried egg, two slices of tomatoes, a few pieces of romaine lettuce, and spam. The fries can be bought from any of the supermarket for about $3.00 a pack, bake it rather than fry it, it's healthier. :)

When I don't feel up for heavy food, the boyfriend would always just throw some of that romaine lettuce with a few slices of honey chicken and strawberries for a light dinner.

We also get those times when we feel like we should indulge, because... C'mon. One needs to spoil themselves once in a while. ;) We throw together a steak dinner lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, garlic mashed potatoes, homemade bruschetta, and a plum ginger sesame salad.

Take some time out of your busy life and try making dinner at home, I'll guarantee you you'll have loads of fun. Until next time!

Ciao~!

Kitty