Why we crave Fried Food

It is because our body wants more nutrients than just vegetables and fruits.
It wants beans and nuts and seeds. (Organic & Raw if possible)
It also wants the live enzyme from fresh Vegetables (Organic & Raw)
Vegan or no Vegan... we all need to eat a balanced diet packed with nutrients.
and If we're missing out on some essential nutrients, we crave for something, and sometimes we don't know what we crave, so we turn to comfort food, sometimes sugary dessert, ice cream, and in this case, fried food.
So instead of giving in to our cravings, we better start eating right.
We better start eating a healthier, wider variety of nutrient packed food :)

Here's why :

These past 2 weeks, I've been craving fried food everyday,
Some days, I'd even just fry a simple flour+water+olive oil batter on a non stick pan and eat it with my salad/vegan food.
I know that is totally nutrition-less, but I so want that crunch in my food.

I think I know why
when I started being Vegan almost 4 months ago.
I was really good.. no fried food, no sugar, no simple carbs (rice, potato, flour, etc).
and most importantly, no cravings of those "bad" food.
I ate lots of vegetables (raw and lightly steamed) and fruits.
and....
I also ate nuts (almond, pistachio, cashew, etc) and seeds (sesame seeds, flax seed)
and I also eat some beans (red beans, green beans, etc) and soy (tofu, tempeh, beancurd sheets)

Lately, I rarely eat nuts, seeds, and beans and raw Vegetables.
why ?
After a while, I've gotten a bit lazy to prepare food in the kitchen.
So, I've only been eating vegetable dish that the housekeeper made for me (vegs mostly sauteed or lightly steamed, with olive oil and salt.)
I haven't been eating Fresh Raw Vegetables because I usually prepare Raw Salads myself.
I think that's why I crave fried food....
I actually crave the crunch, the texture, the taste of nuts, seeds, beans and raw vegetables.

Of course, I can't ignore the fact that fried food taste good !!
But the downside of Fried Food is :
1. Fried Food always make my throat a bit uncomfortable afterwards.
2. I'd feel uncomfortable if I eat too much fried food, because my stomach would definitely notice all the oils absorbed in those fried food.
3. and Yep... Fried food is bad for you.
It's bad when you're trying to lose weight, It's bad when you're trying to cleanse, It's just bad for you.
4. Do you also get this or is it just me ? When I eat too much crunchy food, I hurt my gum a bit, the one near the lower wisdom tooth at the back of your mouth, that's where I chew my crunch crunch and the friction probably irritates my gum a little.

Plus... it's kinda like "When you start again, you can't stop"
I know that's how it is, after I had my first fried food after a while, I kinda crave it and eat more and more the next time.
So I better start eating healthier food and start adding more nuts, seed, beans and raw vegs in my food, instead of eating fried stuff.

Plus.... Motivation is Important.
Knowing that you want to have a healthy long life surrounded with your loved ones, helps you focus on staying healthy and choosing the right food to eat.

:)

Panbis - Pancake Biscuit, Almost ;p

After that late night supper, I was still hungry.
I'm actually craving cisbuits
huh ?
I meant biscuits.....
huhuhuh.... I don't have any Vegan biscuits, I don't bake, I don't own a dehydrator and I don't know how that works actually hohohho..... and I don't have much ingredients at home.

So.... I try making things up...
I made Panbis !!
huh ? well... it's kinda like pancake and biscuit
So it's Panbis ;p



It's pancake-y with crunchy bits.
or it could be thin biscuit-y with crunchy bits.
:)

Recipe :
- 2 table spoons of flour (I didn't have organic whole wheat or anything healthier)
- a pinch of baking soda (honestly I don't know whether adding this make any difference)
- a pinch of salt
- a dash of cinnamon powder
- enough liquid palm sugar
- enough water and stir with spoon, should be like a smoothie consistency.
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil, mix well.
- I then add lots of black sesame seed and flax seed.
basically that's the only kinds of seeds I have right now.



Take out your non stick pan.
Low heat.
pour a spoonful of the batter on the pan so it makes little pancake.
Flip after a while, then it's done....
Donee.... it's that simple ;)

The seeds makes it crunchy.... They're like tiny pancakes with crunchy bits inside.
They look like chocolate pancakes ;)
They also look like thin chocolate chip cookies ;D

Leave longer if you want them crunchier.
mmm... this was actually quite good for a non cook like me ;)

I might have to try putting this in the oven and see what happens.
hohoho....

But then... I went to this site and I'm now drooling...
It's raw biscuit made from nut pulp and other sweet goodness.
It's ten hundred times healthier than my oh-I-just-made-it-up Panbis and I think that was exactly what I was craving for in the first place.....:)
http://greenandcrunchy.blogspot.com/2009/07/making-raw-dehydrator-cookies-from.html
Ohh.. they're so lucky I'm full right now.... otherwise I'm going to have to..... beg for some ;D

but my Panbis is easy and quick and I might make it again sometimes.
I should really just eat fresh fruits :)

PS.
Go here for the updated Recipe of the Panbis cookie :)
I added almond meal
http://healthyrainbow.blogspot.com/2009/08/panbis-cookie-super-easy-to-make-cookie.html

Late nite supper today

This is potato.... pan fried.... with just a little olive oil , with garlic and large chilli.
I always take the chili seed out so it's not too hot.



Done....

with Raw napa cabbage, they're crunchy and nice :)

I don't really eat potato.
But these days I'm always so hungry at night.
I should really start sleeping early.

Late night supper 24 july 09

This is sautee rice ( with olive oil, garlic, ginger, large chilli, salt )
plus Raw napa cabbage and Raw string beans.



It's warm, with a hint of spicyness from the large chilli and garlic.... yum.
I don't really eat rice... but this was good ;)
besides, there's more vegetables than the rice ;D

Mango Ice Cream - Vegan - Almost Raw ;)

I made that.... ;D *gloating*

So.......... everyone was eating ice cream at home...green bean ice cream, sweet corn ice cream, red bean ice cream, taro ice cream....
They were eating the traditional coconut based ice cream, which's called Es Puter, translated to "Stirred Ice cream"
well, because it's ice cream, and because you have to keep stirring to make ice cream,
just like any kinds of ice cream ;)
but this one still has added sweet condensed milk.
So I'm looking for alternatives.
Why ?? because they made me want ice cream ;p
Yes there are quite a lot of traditional Vegan ice cream, coconut based, but in most case, milk are added, because people seems to like it more now.

So..........
I'm making Mango Ice Cream.
It's Vegan, it's Almost Raw (everything is Raw, except for the Palm Sugar)

Recipe
wow... another Recipe.......
After reading here and there about Coconut based Vegan ice cream recipe, I've decided not to use any recipes, but there are some preparations though.

How to make Vegan Mango Ice Cream
actually,
just make a mango smoothie (mango pure + coconut milk)
then freeze and eat while almost all frozen
(you can add the liquid palm sugar in the smoothie (lots of sugar and will darken the orange smoothie color) or drizzle the liquid palm sugar later.)
but hey... if you want to spend lots of time in the kitchen....
Here goes :
1. Puree Mango (cut up fresh mango and puree it)
2. Coconut Milk (I prefer raw)
3. Liquid palm sugar or white sugar (or no sugar at all, will explain later)
yes that's that.... that's the recipe !!!
How much of each ?
Just think when you're making a fruit smoothie.
Everything is according to your taste.
It's that simple !!
I like to add more mango, because I want to really taste the intense mango flavor ;)
If you add sugar, make sure you add more, because when the ice cream is frozen, your tastebuds probably got a bit numb, so it needs more sugar to taste sweet.
But you can actually not add sugar and drizzled some of the liquid palm sugar on the ice cream, and it'll make it sweet and you don't have to take in a lot of sugar, which is healthier.

So... here we go :)

I'm using Fresh Raw coconut milk,
So this is also How you make Raw Coconut milk the almost traditional way.
If you manually grate the coconut instead of using a blender, then you are doing it the traditional way all the way ;p
skip the first 3 photos if you're using instant coconut milk.



To make coconut milk, you need to get the old tough coconut meat.
I bought 2 coconuts, scrape the dark outer skin and cut it up with a scissor, yes a scissor ;p
and put it in the blender, add some water, ready to go.



I have more than enough coconut pieces and I put them in plastic bags, and was going to put them in the freezer for later use. and thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of this before?"
So I turned on the blender, and started blending.
But the sound was louder than when you're blending ice cubes, phew... luckily I didn't wreck my blender. Now How can stash those coconut pieces leftovers in the freezer for them to get rock hard and put it on the blender ? That's why no-one ever thought of stashing old coconut pieces in the freezer, well, unless they have a super powerful blender, then, it's OK.
So next time, I don't think I'll use my blender for the old coconuts again ;p
I was thinking of using my juicer, but I don't want to risk it.
I should've just done it the traditional way, that is to not cut up the coconut and grate it manually and add a lil bit of water and start squeezing to extract the coconut milk.
Oh well, you learn something new everyday ;p hohoho



So... even with technology, I still have to manually squeeze the blended coconut and strain it to get the coconut milk.
So that's done...

Next I cut up one big mango, I use Mangga Harum Manis, it's one of the traditional Indonesian Mango variety, which is sweet and juicy and succulent and bright orange.
If you've ever eaten a mango dessert in a Thai Restaurant, you know the one ;)
I almost couldn't stop eating the mango while cutting it, they're so fresh and sweet and slightly sour, just perfect... mmmm I can eat this all day .... need to focus....ice cream... mmmm

Put the mango in the blender.
I didn't add water when blending, instead, I added the coconut milk. this way the mix stays thick. Blend.


So this the mango puree, straight from the blender.
Now you can add white sugar or liquid palm sugar.
Or you can choose NOT to add sugar at all, and you can drizzle the ready ice cream with liquid palm sugar. It's healthier and seriously, the sweetness, tastes about the same.


Liquid palm sugar added.
Remember, that using the liquid palm sugar will cause the bright fresh orange color to turn brownish.
So next time, I'll choose not to add any sugar at all, but will drizzle the liquid palm sugar on the ice cream.That way the ice cream color stays fresh and bright and appetizing and I end up eating less sugar, which is good ;) They taste the same anyway.

And Remember, Make the mix according to your taste,
if you think you need more coconut milk/sugar/mango, add some more.


Mix done. Put in the fridge.
I read that you should stir if every few hours, or put it in a mixer /blender to soften it and put it back in the kitchen.
So I kept going back and forth stiring. The ice cream was kinda flake-y because of the thin ice crystals, so I thought stirring it every hour would eliminate it, but it didn't haha.
This is what I should do.
I should've just left it for around 3 hours, and since it won't freeze rock hard like water would, after around 3-4 hours I can easily put it into a food processer or a spice blender (so you won't need to add water like you would in a normal blender) and blend till smooth and put it back in the freezer, and that's it.


Everytime I stirred, I ate some.... and that whole bowl, turns into just 1 mug.

Thaw a little bit before serving, it melts quickly and you can shape it with a spoon into this :


mmm yummmmm ;)
I can still feel the lil bit of ice crystals, but it's mostly soft and creamy


Add the Liquid palm sugar for decorations


Or just drizzle it like crazy.....
oh boy they melt quickly
yummmm ;D

It may not be the perfect Vegan Mango Ice Cream, but that was good for me :)
It even has my mum's approval, she doesn't even like Mango desserts in general.

Next time it's gonna be avocado+pandan ice cream.
All green.... yummmmmmmmmmm

Never Leave your Food Boiling in the Kitchen

I was boiling some barley the other day.
Since the barley would took quite a bit to cook, then I left it on low heat, added more than enough water and told myself to check on it in 10 minutes.
I wouldn't forget.... I said to myself.
Then I went to my room, started working, I was in front of my computer when I smelt something kinda burning.
so I went
*sniff sniff*
"What could this be?"
*sniff sniff again*
*still in my room*
then "Oh shoot, the Barley !!!! "
I ran to the kitchen.... where it smelt all burnt and smokey,
the water in the pan has all dried up.
a little smoke was coming out of the pan....
I quickly turned off the stove.
the inside-bottom of the pan was all black, which means all the barley down there was all black also.
Oh man !!!
I will never ever leave kitchen unattended again....
Sure I say to myself, "Oh I won't forget"
but the truth is, people tend to forget !!
So no more leaving boiling food unattended.

What about the pan ??? and the barley ??
I threw the whole thing out...Luckily I was only cooking small amount.
Then I tried to scrape the black crusts on the bottom of the pan, but it was still kinda too hard.
So I filled it with water, boil it so it might help soften the crust.
*yes I stood there waiting till it boils this time*
after it boiled, I turned off the heat and left it there.
I'll scrape it off later ;)

So.... moral of the story,
The ready to eat barley dessert in the street food stall is really a good idea ;D

but the hidden moral of the story is,
It'd be great to have an "timed-automatic-turn off" function in your stove.

and the untold secret message is,
Get your love-to-cook-n-bake sister to cook things for you ;)

So... never ever leave food cooking in the Kitchen unattended.

Bakwan - Fried Corn & Shrimp Batter

Just wanna say that this is the best Bakwan I've ever tasted.
Bakwan is actually fried batter.
and this one consisted of Corn and Shrimp.
I don't know the recipe, but it's just the best fried Bakwan everrrr...........
yes it might look simple and street-food like, but don't let the look deceive you.
It has a lethal yummy effect. You just can't stop nibbling it.
Yes it's dinner and snack at the same time ;p



I only took a picture of it, and didn't eat it hohohoho....
But I sniffed and sniffed... it smelled great.
I just don't eat it anymore....
Do I crave it ? well.... I know how it totally taste , I remember every bite ;p
But I've made a commitment to go Vegan for now and I'm sticking with it.
and I'm totally fine.... so I don't crave it, not really ;)