Lighter chicken parmasan

I am again trying to eat lighter and exercise more, this is almost an annual thing for me, as I have a tendency to gain weight and after all I love food, and would rather eat and cook than almost anything else. I committed to lose 8 lbs before going on my next big trip in late October, 3 weeks in and I am down 3lbs with 5 more to go in just over 4 weeks. So comes the challenge to create tasty food that is low in calories and fat.

I saw the idea for this on pinterest, but the version there was using prepackaged items and was not particularly healthy so I have changed it up a lot and came up with a dish that fits my brief of using fresh ingredients, and I will definitely make it again.

For 4

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in to quarters
• 1 bunch of fresh basil
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 cups of tomato puree or tomato sauce
• 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs (I used panko)
• 1/4 cup of grated parmasan cheese

Place the basil, garlic and olive oil in a small food processor.

Wizz up to make a nutless pesto.

Spread all this mixture on the bottom of baking dish.

Vietnamese Seared beef salad

To go along with the fried noodles with spicy peanut sate that we had on Saturday we wanted a fresh salad to complement the noodles, and we found the recipe in the same book.

I was also delicious and did have a wonderful fresh crunch. Again the recipe called for vegetable oil, but as always I substituted olive oil.

1lb of flank steak (or any steak really)
1 tablespoon of oil
1 cup of bean sprouts
1 small romaine lettuce
1 bunch each of mint basil and cilantro stalks removed
1 lime cut up to serve

Dressing
Grated rind and juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
2 tablespoons of raw cane (or brown) sugar
2 garlic cloves grated
2 lemon grass stalks finely sliced
2 red chillies seeded and finely sliced.

Combine all the dressing ingredients together.

Pan fry or barbecue the steak until it is wonderfully golden on the outside, but very rare inside. rest for 10 minutes, and then slice thinly

Fried Noodles with spicy peanut sate and prawns

I dropped my son off at Vancouver Airport to catch a flight to Bangkok this morning.  I was very excited for him and I could tell he was a little apprehensive, as well as excited.  When I was around the same age I took a similar flight on my own from London to Singapore, also to spend some time alone with my Father. I remember what an eye opening experience that was and I am glad that he is getting a similar opportunity.  So later that day when looking for inspiration for dinner Connie suggested that we cook Thai food. After checking through some books we came up with a mostly Vietnamese menu, but they are fairly close aren't they?

This recipe is adapted from a book that I own called  Vietnamese Food Cooking by Ghillie-Basan which has some wonderful authentic recipes with great step by step photographs. I used olive oil, because that is what I use for everything, but the recipe called for vegetable or peanut oil.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 1/2 lbs of large raw shrimp/prawns
8oz dried rice stick soaked in warm water for 20 minutes
1 cup of bean sprouts (we forgot to put these in)
2 tsp on nuc mam (fish sauce)
1 small bunch each of fresh basil and mint leaves

For the sate
1 serrano chili chopped
4 tablespoons of olive oil
2 garlic cloves
2 teaspoons of good curry powder
1/2 cup of roasted peanuts.

Preserving summer pesto

At this time of year when everything is so abundant, it gives me a lot of pleasure to preserve some of those wonderful fresh flavours to enjoy in the dark days of winter.  There is nothing better than pulling something out of your pantry or freezer on dark rainy January night that is redolent in the freshness of a sunny August day.  I managed last year to have a enough home canned tomato puree to not have to buy a singe can of tomatoes the entire winter.  I am starting to can again this year now that the tomatoes are in season, but I grow a lot of herbs and wanted to preserve some of those as well. Pesto seemed the best way to preserve my summer basil.

My basil is at it's height right now and often I find that before I have had a chance to do anything with the remaining leaves at the end of the summer it is gone.  So I realized this weekend that there was enough basil on my deck, that I could cut enough to make some pesto and still have plenty to use fresh.

One of my patches of basil

I froze mine without any Parmesan in it as this could be added later. So I gathered my ingredients together.