Shrimp and Avocado Salad

My FBS this morning was 126, higher by 16 points but it is ok, at least it is still in the low 100s plus yesterday was lunch with the family.

I plan to to stick to the no wheat food today.

Dr. Davis said to eat vegetables... so I made Shrimp and Avocado Salad for lunch.

Shrimp and Avocado Salad



200 g. shrimps, boiled and peeled
1/2 avocado, cut into cubes
lettuce leaves

Dressing:

1 shallot, minced
1 t. Honey vinegar (any vinegar will do)
1 T. olive oil
salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing then add the cubed avocado.

Put the shrimps on top of the leaves and arrange the avocado cubes on top of the leaves around the shrimps.

I was also thinking of a healthy snack and made my own .....

Oven Roasted Peanuts



500 g. raw shelled peanuts
1 t. salt
pinch of sugar

Pre-heat oven at 350F.  Arrange the peanuts on the baking tray, single layer only.  Bake for 15 minutes, stirring the peanuts halfway and rotating the pan.

As soon as you remove from the oven, season with salt and sugar and let it rest for 5 more minutes.

My experiment for tonight was Spareribs with Black Beans.  I got the recipe from one of the blogs.

Steamed Spareribs with Black Beans

700 g. pork spareribs, cut into small cubes
2 T. black bean sauce
1 T. Chinese rice wine
2 t. cornstarch (but I omitted this ingredient)
1/2 t. grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 t. ground black pepper
1 t. cooking oil
1 t. sesame oil
1 t. sugar

*I would suggest add about half to a teaspoon of salt.  It was too  bland for me, I had to add light soy sauce while eating.  I do have a salty-sweet palette.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and marinate for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Transfer into a heatproof shallow pan and steam on medium heat for 18 - 20 minutes or until the ribs are no longer pink and the meat is tender.

*I steamed it for 45 minutes and the meat was so tender.  Since I did not add cornstarch, I had to transfer the spareribs into a shallow frying pan and let the sauce reduce.

Food Diary:

Breakfast:

2 soft-boiled eggs with a pat of butter, salt and pepper

Lunch:

Avocado and Shrimp Salad

Snack:

oven roasted nuts
2 pcs. DECs sharksfin sio mai (Not wheat free)
half an avocado

Dinner:

Steamed spareribs with tausi
3 pcs. DECs sharsfin sio mai, I removed the wonton wrapper as best as I could.

As usual, I cannot wait to check my FBS tomorrow!

Happier at 110!

I am happier now at 110!  My FBS this morning was only 110!!!  I am very near my goal, which is 100!

And..... to think I even ate Peking Duck yesterday to my heart's content!  To top it all.... I lost 6 lbs. since Monday!

What's not to be happy about?  So, now do you believe my new doctor, Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly?

My family and I had our usual Saturday lunch.  I bought the McCormick Korean Fried Chicken  - Soy Garlic Recipe Mix..



It actually tastes better than Bon Chon Chicken.



So easy to cook, just follow the instructions.





I was able to buy several packs from Landmark.

Bulalo soup of Gilly



I did not use Magic Sarap nor  MSG nor any other artificial flavoring except for rock salt and patis. It was not that flavorful of course but I wanted to use natural ingredients only.

I also cooked Ginataang Langka!

I loved it!!! Sooooooo delicious in my opinion and soooo easy to make!  I have a basic ginataan recipe which is the Bicol Express and just use any vegetable I like.

Ginataang Langka



1/2 K. unripe jackfruit
120 g. pork liempo, cut into small cubes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, sliced
2 T. raw bagoong
2 C. coconut milk, 2nd extraction
salt to taste
Shrimps or crabs
coconut cream, 1st extraction
chili peppers

Boil the coconut milk (2nd extraction), garlic, onions, bagoong and pork in a pot for 30 minutes.

Add the jackfruit and cook until tender.

Season with salt.

You may now add the shrimps or crabs.  When cooked, add the chili peppers and coconut cream. Let it boil until the sauce thickens, about 2-3 minutes.

Hermie cooked Minatamis na Kamote, the favorite dessert of Butch and PD.



I really hope that  my FBS gets lower everyday.  My doctor ... hahahaha... my real doctor... will be amazed for sure!!!! If this Wheat Belly diet works for me, I think I will be able to sustain it.

Food diary:

Breakfast:

Leftover minced duck with lettuce

Lunch:

2 T. rice
vegetables and meat from the Bulalo Soup
Ginataang Langka

Snack:

4 halves (smaller part) of Korean Fried Chicken in Soy Garlic Sauce  (BAD - because of the coating mix and the chicken was deep-fried)

Dinner:

2 pcs. DECs sharkfins sio mai
leftover ginataang langka
balut
filling of 1 fresh vegetable lumpia

Dear God... I hope I get a good FBS reading tomorrow.

Happy at 125

125!  I wish I was talking about my weight but this morning my FBS was only 125!  Hooray!!!  I am really very happy because my "hard work" has paid off.  What hard work???  Maybe, I meant my self control and new lifestyle du jour which is, Wheat Free.

Tita Tess Colayco invited PD and I for lunch at Peking Garden, Greenbelt 5 and we had Peking Duck cooked 2-ways.

 



Jing asked me, I thought you are on a diet?!?!?!  I am!!!  I am allowed to eat Peking Duck!





But not the pancake because it contains wheat, but since I am on my 1st week, weaning and all, I allowed myself to eat just 2 pieces of the pancake and ate the "2nd way" with lettuce.

I forgot to take a picture of the minced duck with water chestnuts and mushrooms!!!!  I just copied a few pictures from one of my postings.







We had our dessert at Ti Amo...

Affogato for PD



Green Tea Latte for Tita Tess and Ghirardeli Hot Chocolate for me.



We had a fun afternoon with lots of stories and we were so full from lunch!

Thank you, Tita Tess!

I am now curious to know if the duck will affect my FBS tomorrow.

My breakfast was just fried egg and a very thin slice of grilled pork chop and probably just 2 T. of rice.

I cooked Pinakbet for dinner.....



and Hermie braised my kitong (samaral) with kalamansi, tomatoes and onions. 



She forgot, I do not like onions in my pinangat.

I am excited again to wake up and check my blood sugar!!!!


Food Diary:

Breakfast:

1 thinly sliced grilled pork chop
1 fried egg
2 T. fried rice

Lunch:

2 pancake wrapped Peking duck
minced duck in lettuce cups
half a cup of Ghirardeli hot chocolate

Dinner:

1 C. Pinakbet
half  braised fish

Stir-fried Broccoli, Carrots and Mushrooms with Beef

I was surprised to see that my weight went down by 4 lbs. since I started the wheat free diet last Monday.  Although my FBS (fasting blood sugar) went up by 16 points today.  I hope tomorrow I get better results.

I normally just eat 2 eggs for breakfast, scrambled (Monday), soft-boiled (Tuesday), omelette (Wednesday) and hard-boiled this morning.

I bought broccoli in the supermarket and had Stir-fried Broccoli, Carrots and Mushrooms with Beef for dinner.  I did not use any thickener anymore.  It turned out ok.

Stir-fried Broccoli, Carrots and Mushrooms with Beef



140 gr. beef sirloin, sliced into strips across the grain
1 T. soy sauce
1 t. sugar
1 t. cooking oil
few dashes of sesame oil
pepper

Marinate the beef in soy sauce, sugar, cooking and sesame oil for 30 minutes.  Heat a frying pan, then tip in the beef and marinade.  Cook until the beef is not pink anymore and set aside.

broccoli, cut into florets
1 carrot, roll cut ( how to )
mushrooms, cut into half
1 t. oil
1 clove garlic, minced
4 thin slices of ginger

Dissolve 1/4 t. rock salt and 1 t. sugar in 1/4 C. water

1 t. sesame oil

Heat the oil in a wok, saute the ginger and garlic, add the broccoli, carrots and mushrooms.  Keep tossing the vegetables for about 30 seconds. 

Add the water with salt and sugar, cover the wok for 1 minute. 

Uncover, then add the beef with its cooking liquid. 

Drizzle the sesame oil before serving.

My food yesterday was Beef Shortribs Sinigang without using Knorr Sinigang Mix, just fresh tamarind pods. 

Beef Shortribs Sinigang



1/2 K. beef shortribs
200 gr. fresh tamarind pods boiled in 1 cup water until pulpy
2 pcs. tomatoes, sliced
1 onion, sliced
rock salt
patis
radish
eggplant
kangkong leaves
jalapeno peppers
1/2 t. sugar in lieu of MSG

Boil beef in the pressure cooker with 3 C. water for an hour.  Add the tomatoes and onion.  When the tomatoes are soft, mash with the back of the spoon then add the strained pulpy tamarind.  You may add a bit more water if desired.

Add the radish, when half cooked, add the eggplant slices.

When the vegetables are cooked, season with patis, rock salt and sugar. 

Add the kangkong leaves, cover and cook for exactly 1 minute. 

Serve with kalamansi, patis and crushed jalapeno peppers from the sinigang.

I thought to myself, when we were younger, we ate food without those instant mixes and seasonings.  I had to add a little sugar in lieu of MSG which I WAS a fan of but not at the moment.  MSG contains wheat according to the Wheat Belly book.

Last Tuesday, I made Ginataang Chicken Soup.  Well, it was just like your regular Chicken Tinola but used coconut milk instead of water.

I am not  very happy lately because I cannot eat what I like, which are junk foods like Cheetos Jalapeno and Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar with ice-cold Coke Light but ..... I also do not feel hungry!!! 

Amazing that my hunger pangs were gone. 

As I mentioned, I only had 2 hard-boiled eggs with a little butter, salt and pepper this morning and just about 100 grams of Lechon with no rice for lunch.  Normally by 2 or 3 pm I would go out of my head already with imagined hunger but not today.

I do have a little confession .... I should have eaten it before I started last Monday but I gave in to a moment of weakness today, not because I was hungry, but because I could not get it out of my mind!  Lisa has been telling me how she loves the Domino's Thin Crust Cheese Pizza! 



I ordered the 7 inch pizza!!!  (That was my Kuya's 12 inch pizza, I got my own personal size.)

The crust was really thin and crispy like crackers.



To compound the problem, I also viewed Tita Jit's video of the Shakey's Grand Slam Pizza!!!

Did it make me happy? NO!  I do not even like pizza but I just had to eat it.  I actually hate myself right now.  If I can just barf it all out, I would gladly do it.

I hope my numbers do not get worse tomorrow and if they do, I know it was my fault.

P.S. Dr. Davis was right.  He said if I eat any food with wheat, after not indulging for  while, I will suffer the consequences.  I already made several trips to the bathroom that is why I am still up at 3:00 a.m.

Wheat Belly

I recently bought a book upon the recommendation of my other sister.  She wants to remain nameless and location less but she has been living overseas for the past 12 years.  She told me to get a copy of Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis.

I went to Fullybooked, Rockwell and bought the book.  I already read it once and going through it again.  I normally make mistakes in understanding new diets.

One time, I thought I was allowed to eat the allowable food portions per meal, but after a few weeks, I was gaining weight and when I read the instructions again, I was suppose to consume the allotted portions for the whole day and not per meal!!!  LOL

I am more careful now.  I am looking at this book at a diabetic's point of view. From what I understood from Dr. Davis, a cardiologist, he said that WHEAT in the diet will make blood sugar spike.    He said that eating two slices of whole wheat bread can increase blood sugar more than 2 tablespoons of pure sugar can.



And the lifesaver you are carrying around your waist? The visceral fat that you have been trying to remove by thousands and thousands of crunches???  Well, he said, if you go on a wheat free diet, your belly will become FLAT!!!!

Dr. Davis also said that wheat free diet has been associated with significant benefits including:

• Weight loss of 20, 30, and even 50 pounds in the first few months
• Alleviation of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes
• Recovery from intestinal woes, like ulcerative colitis and celiac disease
• Marked improvement in overall cholesterol and LDL counts
• Improvement in bone density and reversal of osteopenia
• Cessation of skin conditions from psoriasis to oral ulcers and hair loss
• Reduction of inflammation and rheumatoid arthritis pain

I have a lot of points I want to share but then I do not want this to a very long book report so I highlighted the most important things, such as.... What CAN I eat and What can I NOT eat?

The Wheat Belly Nutritional Approach for Optimal Health by Dr. William Davis.

Consume in unlimited quantities.  That means no weighing nor counting!!!!

Vegetables - except potatoes and corn, including mushrooms, herbs, squash

Raw nuts - almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, cashews, macadamias; peanuts (boiled or dry roasted); sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, nut meals.

Oils   - extra-virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, cocoa butter, flax seed, macadamia, sesame

Meats and eggs - Saturated fat was never the problem .  Carbohydrates in combination with saturated fat will cause LDL particles to skyrocket.  (Fish, beef, poultry, turkey, pork, shellfish, wild game and eggs.)

Dairy products  - Enjoy cheese but make sure and check the label if it does not contain wheat, most processed cheese are.  Best choices are mozzarella, Parmesan, Swiss or cheddar.  Other kinds of cheese such as blue, Gorgonzola, Roquefort are fermented using a mold from bread so this cannot be consumed.

Non-sugary condiments - mustards, horseradish, tapenades, salsa, mayonnaise, vinegars, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, chili and pepper sauces

Others - flax seed (ground), avocados, olives, coconut, spices, cocoa (unsweetened) or cacao

Eat in limited quantities

Fruits - berries are the best: blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, cranberries and cherries.
Be careful of the most sugary fruits including pineapple, papaya, mango and banana. 

Non-cheese dairy  - milk, cottage cheese, yogurt, butter

Whole corn - (not to be confused with cornmeal or cornstarch, which should be avoided).

Fruit juices

Non-wheat, non gluten grains  - quinoa, millet, sorghum, teff, amaranth, buckwheat, rice (white and brown), oats, wild rice

Legumes (beans)

Soy products  - tofu, tempeh, miso, natto; edamame, soybeans

Consume rarely or never.

Wheat products - wheat based breads, pasta, noodles, cookies, cakes, pies, cupcakes, breakfast cereals, pancakes, waffles, pita, couscous; rye, bulgur, triticale, kamut, barley

*Includes the Communion wafer

Unhealthy oils - fried, hydrogenated, polyunsaturated (especially corn, sunflower, safflower, grape seed, cottonseed, soybean)

Gluten-free foods - specifically those made with cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch or tapioca starch

Dried fruits - figs, dates, prunes, raisins, cranberries

Fried Foods

Sugary snacks - candies, ice cream, sherbet, fruit roll-ups, craisins, energy bars

Sugary fructose-rich sweeteners - agave syrup or nectar, honey, maple syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, sucrose

Sugary condiments - jellies, jams, preserves, ketchup (if contains sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup), chutney

Last Saturday, Jing and Mariger were in my house and I was reading to them what they should not eat if they want to have a flat abdomen, which they were complaining about for ages!  

Hahahahaha... Then Jing, who is always as cool as a cucumber and epitome of calmness suddenly became hysterical and said... well ... rather screamed: WHAT?!?!?!?!  You will not allow me to eat PIZZA?!?!?!?!

So, I answered back: JING!!!!  I am just reading a page from my book! I did NOT say, you cannot have pizza anymore!!

Hahahahahahaha!  Then when it was Mariger's turn to be outraged, she said: WHAT?!?!?! I CANNOT eat prunes anymore??!?!?!?     Hahahahaha  PRUNES???? 

I never realized that reading a page from my book will trigger such violent reactions.

Incidentally, my Fasting Blood Sugar average for the past 14 days is 160!!!!!  I never had that results in years!  Still, I do not know how that happened but I am grateful it is happening to me.

Today is my 2nd day of the wheat-free diet.  So far so good.  I hope this will help me lower my blood sugar even more.

There is more to this Wheat Bellly book ... I hope to share more as I embark on this journey.

Hong Kong ... pre - Liasfoodjourney

I did not go to Hong Kong recently, but a few years ago, before I discovered Boracay, I used to go to Hong Kong just to eat!  I cannot shop because the clothes were too small for me but I ate to my heart's delight.

Would like to share a few of my 2009 dining experiences in HK.  I found my old pictures while I was organizing my files and thought to write a post on this topic, pre - Lia'sfoodjourney.

I remember when my friends and I used to go to HK, we would always eat at dim sum places and the Suckling Pig at Jade Garden.

After Cebu Lechon and the Tagalog kind of Lechon, the Roast Suckling Pig is my 3rd favorite.

An order of Suckling Pig at Jade Garden, Star House



and Yang Chow Fried Rice.



I love ice cream so I tried a couple of brands...

XTC All Natural Ice Cream at Star Ferry Pier.



I Scream Gelato, IFC Mall.



Xiao Long Bao at Kingsburg Seafood Restaurant



and Spicy and Hot Soup.

The world famous Roast Goose at Yung Kee Restaurant which was awarded 1 Michelin Star in the Michelin guide HK/Macau 2009.

I ordered roast goose leg,



rice and preserved egg. I even bought a box to take home, the yolk was so smooth and creamy!

Canton Deli, Harbour City.

Hot and Sour Soup



Sio Mai and Hakao



Radish Cake



Baked Barbecue Puff



Tasty Congee and Noodle Wantun Shop, IFC Mall has been awarded the Best of the Best Culinary Award - Gold with distinction award from the HK Tourism Board.

Wantun Noodle soup and Steamed BBQ buns.



I was not able to take pictures but I also ate at Lin Heung Tea House, Wellington St.  It was an old fashioned place which looked like circa 1940's.  There were no English speaking people and you had to point to the cart server what you wanted to eat.

I also ate at Luk Yu Tea House on Stanley St.  Another dim sum institution in Central.

In December of that same year, I went with my Ate and Tita Portia.  They were more concerned with shopping than dining.  When they got hungry, wherever we were, we would just eat where it was convenient.

Unlike me, I would go all the way to the places where I wanted to eat.

Jade Garden.... again.



Hot and Sour Soup



I was feeling so frustrated already that I told them that I was going on my own to Maxim's, City Hall while they shopped at Central.

Finally!!!!



I had to line up for over an hour and a half but worth the wait.  I was already in HK so, why not eat my favorite yum cha?

Dumpling with Soup

Barbecued Pork Bun



Shau Mai



Hargao



Taro Puff





and something .... Stuffed Beancurd perhaps?

I am sure there are lots of new places to dine in Hong Kong now.   But the restaurants I have been to were institutions so, you would probably still find them there.

I would rather go to Boracay though several times a year than go to HK.

But..... the time I was there?????  I really enjoyed all the food I ate!  There were still a few more restaurants I have tried but due to poor memory .... cannot remember them anymore.

One can eat his way around  Hong Kong!

PS... I still did not know how to take better pictures back then.