What's on your plate?

[lylysa]

Hello there, ladies and gents!

Keeping in line with all the fun and interactive threads asking about your most recent halls, items you have your eyes on, what you're currently wearing, what's your hair routine, and more, I've decide to branch out and ask:

"What's on your plate?"

The beauty world doesn't just stop at skin care and cosmetics, it also goes hand in hand with your overall health and well-being, so with that, I'm curious to see what we're all chowing down and snacking on be it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, or inbetween!

For those with apps that help count calories or to those who just want to keep a log, here's a place to share, possibly find and share some recipes, and even tips on maintaining a balanced diet.

Don't just share food items, but even drinks! I'm a huge fan of tea and at least have a cup of green tea a day (anti-oxidants) and drink plenty of water.

For lunch today, I had:

-Brown rice

-Steamed egg

-Steamed red snapper with green onion, sesame oil, and black pepper

-Gai lan (it's a type of Chinese vegetable/greens)

Now, tell me, Beauty Talk world, what do you have? 😄

[jisub89]

I'm looking forward to more food posts from you -- I'm still salivating from your crab post! Seafood is easily my favorite category with lobster taking the crown 🙂

[EvangelineDamon]

Today was a good day..

We had crab for dinner and now I'm watching Gilda...plus, I didn't even have to use my AK.

Today was a good day.

My dad has a friend that goes crabbing and fishing (same guy that gave us that huge chunk of salmon meat.) and he is a wonderful man! (He also kills them and cleans them for us!)

I discovered the easiest way to cook them.

Crab Recipe

Spoiler

After they're cleaned & boiled, rinse them off and start breaking off legs.

I use a pelon (a mortar and pestle? the baton part) and I crack the shells along the edges, removing any smaller shards of shell.

In a large pan (med. heat), I put about 3 to 4 Tbs. of butter and let it out turn golden brown.

Next comes the seasoning. Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning (ingredients are under the Salmon recipe below) goes into the pan, then the crab.

After the crab comes more seasonings like ground ginger powder, ground garlic powder, dried and minced onions, and pepper.

Flip everybody around, making sure to coat everything and turn up the hit a little and add a few Tbs. of water to steam; cover with foil, reduce heat and let steam/simmer for about 10 minutes.

Serve and add the butter/juice/water from the pan to the plates..dip bread in that and be happy.

[vegchililover78]

Haha! Ok Ice Cube! lol

[lylysa]

Is that friend of your dad's made of magic?!?!?????!!!!!!

That looks so good! I want seafood now!!! A big ol' boilin' pot o' seafood!

[DiVWA]

I had fried "rice" except I substitute quinoa for the rice.

[lylysa]

OOOOooo, recipe????? What all did you put/add with it?

[DiVWA]

It's a recipe that I've been making forever--is adapted from the fried rice recipe in an old recipe book called Complete Encyclopedia of Chinese Cooking. I've cut back on all my grains considerably so I substitute quinoa (which isn't technically a grain) for the rice in the recipe. The quinoa holds its shape well so is a great substitute.

There's no accuracy required in this dish at all. It serves about 4 people, depending on how much stuff you put into it. We save leftovers for lunches--the leftovers microwave nicely.

1 cup quinoa, cooked to make about 3-4 cups

3 tablespoons oil (I use red palm oil but any oil will do)

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 to 3/4 cup diced cooked ham

1-3 tablespoons chopped scallion

2-3 chopped cooked carrots

soy sauce or coconut amino acids, a splash

chopped parsley or cilantro, optional

The recipe is easy in the sense that you pre-cook most of the ingredients (at least, that's the way I make it) and then set things aside until the end. So I cook separately 1 cup of quinoa in 1 1/2 to 2 cups of broth or water (cook covered for 12 minutes; then keep covered for 5 minutes; drain if there's any broth/water remaining). At same time, steam 2-3 carrots, chopped ahead of time or steam whole and then chop after cooked. I sometimes pre-scramble 2 eggs separately, but you can also cook the eggs directly in the pan when you first heat the oil.

So heat the oil in a pan over high heat. Pour in the beaten eggs (if you didn't already cook them ahead of time) and stir fry for about 20 seconds. (If you pre-cooked the eggs, add them later with everything else.) Add the chopped scallions and continue to stir fry for another minute or so. Add the cooked quinoa, ham and carrots and mix well together and stir fry until everything is warmed up. Splash some soy sauce or coconut amino acids over everything. Garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro, if using.

[lylysa]

Thank you so much for sharing, DiVWA! I've got a huge bag of red quinoa in the pantry and tend to use it mixed in with brown rice but I haven't incorporated it into fried rice or as it's own "fried quinoa" yet, this looks yummy!

[DiVWA]

I prefer red quinoa to white and it tastes great in this recipe. The red quinoa is stronger tasting, but everything else in the recipe works well with it. I sometimes mix the red with white quinoa too. I hope you like my recipe!

[EvangelineDamon]

How was it?

[DiVWA]

It was yummy. 🙂

[vegchililover78]

Tomato, fresh mozzarella and spinach pizza. It was so great!

[EvangelineDamon]

Mmmmmmmm....

Now I want pizza, however, I have something that might be a little better than pizza tonight (not by much though..)

[lylysa]

I'm just going to go ahead and fall face first into that plate if you don't mind.

*no self control*

[knuevekm]

Yes to this! Looks yummy!

[lylysa]

Tonight I have salmon to work with...not sure what exactly I'm planning to do. More than often it either gets baked or blackened on the stove. My job's Thanksgiving pot luck is coming up so I'm going to be grabbing ingredients for some cake-like cornbread tonight. 

[EvangelineDamon]

I wish I saw this earlier...

I could have given you a very simply pan-fried recipe...with pan fried potatoes.

Pan-Fried Potato Recipe

Spoiler

Pre-heat a large pan and add olive oil, then the butter. Let the butter bubble and turn gold.

Add some caraway seeds, lower the heat, and let them sizzle and smell, then add some dried rosemary, ground sea salt, peppercorns, coriander, onion, garlic, paprika and chili pepper, (I use this fabulous mix from Trader Joe's called Everyday Seasoning with Grinder; product of South Africa).

Make sure the potatoes are dried off (after you sliced them to your desired thickness, of course) and add them to the pan. I usually keep it on medium heat and let them cook on each  side for about 10-1`5 minutes minutes.

Flip them and add some dried thyme or whatever you want...I'm not eating it. (ha ha ha. Has anybody seen B.i.t.c.h.in' Kitchen?) 

Let them cook for about 5-15 minutes more, depending on size, amount, et cetera...

 Pan-Fried Salmon Recipe

Spoiler

In a hot pan (med. high heat) add olive oil and....butter until it bubbles and sizzles and starts to turn golden brown.

Add some of the Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning (or anything else) and ground thyme.

After drying off any excess wetness with a paper towel, then, Pow! throw that fish on the pan, skin side up.

Depending on the size cook for about 4 minutes on each side. 

I had to cut this sucker down and still had to cook it for about 6 minutes on one side, then I flipped it, placed a piece of foil paper over it and "steamed" it for about 4-5 more minutes.

[lylysa]

I ended up just seasoning them a tad and baking them (lazzzzzzzyyyy night), but I'll for sure have to go with these recipes soon! I'm always looking for yummy tater recipes too! Thanks for sharing!

[knuevekm]

Thanks for this recipe! I think I will be having some pan-fried salmon soon! 🙂

[EvangelineDamon]

Speaking of salmon, I was wondering when I should release this picture...

It was from a few weeks ago and it was caught fresh that day...

Eeeekkk!!! It was HUGE. The picture does not even do it justice..

[lylysa]

Please slap me with that salmon...I'll catch bites of it, I promise! 

O_O