Thursday, March 3, 2011

Simple vegetarian lunch



Tired of eating out, I made myself a very simple, complete and healthy vegetarian meal lunch on my off day today – Fong’s pasta.

These were the things I added to my spaghetti:

2 tablespoons of light olive oil (not sure if I chose the right olive oil but seems to taste ok, haha!)
A pinch of salt
Rosemary herb
Basil herb
Sliced black olives (ready to consume from bottle)
Chopped up Italian sun dried tomatoes
Blanched organic sawi (mustard leaves) - blanch with the boiling water before boiling the spaghetti.

Although it looked simple, I thoroughly enjoyed the flavour from the black olives, sun dried tomatoes and organic sawi. Whenever I buy sawi, it has to be organic because the ordinary sawi can be bitter while the organic ones has a sweetish taste, crunchy and easily eaten raw. Yes, I sometimes get slightly bitter organic sawi and wonder whether it is actually organic. I prefer to get it from a trusted organic shop but it’s such a hassle to travel to the nearest one, so I usually buy them in a hypermarket nearby.

Since I am not getting protein from meat, I have the spaghetti meal with my favourite soy based shake. I decide to blend the cappuccino flavoured shake with celery since celery is known to lower cholesterol and has a bitter taste that may go with coffee flavour. I also add a small green apple. I thought I will pengsan (faint) drinking it since the combination sounds repulsive, but it turns out to be all right. The flavour is not repulsive but not spectacular either, but it is decent, so anyone can try it. I prefer the Cappuccino shake blended with celery on its own or Cappuccino shake with a green apple on its own.

Here is the recipe I use for my shake meal:

Blend celery or green apple with some ice water 
Add ice water up to about 400ml in measurement
Add 2 heaping scoops of Herbalife F1 Cappuccino (It is rich in protein and has lots of nutrients)
Blend again and serve.

The shake helps me to cut down on nonsensical food outside which more often than not, hurt my joints. So for someone with a medical condition like mine, I am discovering that kosher food, organically produced food and eating food according to one’s blood type is helpful for everyone. I wish that the nation’s policy can encourage such a policy on food since Malaysians eat out a lot. This will help a long way in encouraging a healthier, and not more obese, nation. It’s very difficult for me to adhere to these guidelines but it’s always good to seek out these foods as much as we can.