Archive for August 12, 2012

International Meals

Posted: August 12, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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For Sahoor I went international and made a Mexican dish. For Iftar I decided to continue on the international road and traveled to Zanzibar to make something from there. This dish is usually made with chicken thighs or drumsticks. If you haven’t noticed by now, I’m not a fan of bone-in chicken. I will go out of my way if I have to get boneless chicken. Call me lazy but I like to just eat my food with a fork and not have to worry about picking meat off a bone. Although, that probably is more Cave Man style. Oh well. Tonight’s dish was Zanzibar Chicken:

    • 3/4 lb chicken thigh (boneless chunks for me)
    • 1/2 tsp sea salt
    • 1/4 tsp chili powder
    • 2 Tbsp of olive oil
    • 1/4 onion, chopped
    • 1 garlic clove, minced
    • 1/2 cup of 100% orange juice
    • 2 Tbs raisins
    • 1/4 cup of slivered almonds

Season the chicken with the salt and chili powder. Heat up a pan with the olive oil and add in the chicken. Cook the chicken until it’s brown. Take the chicken out of the pan and set it aside for now. Add the onions to the pan and saute them until they become soft (2-3 minutes). Add in the garlic and mix it up. Drop the chicken back into the pan and mix it around. Now add the orange juice and raisins. Mix everything up for a few minutes. Reduce the heat, cover the pan, and let it simmer until the chicken is tender. Sprinkle the almonds on top and serve.

I’ve never had raisins and orange juice with chicken before so this was unique. I would be lying if I said that I didn’t hesitate while taking that first bite, but it was realllly good. Perfect balance of sweet vs spicy. I treated it like pho while eating it, fork for the meat and spoon for the “curry”. Even though the quantity of raisins is so low, they do their job of changing the flavor of the orange juice so it doesn’t taste purely like orange juice. This didn’t take very long to make either, just 15 minutes or so. I will make this again for sure if I am short on time.

Workout

Gym’s closed? No problem. Body weight workout time!

10 rounds for time
10 walking lunges
10 push-ups

Return on Investment

Posted: August 12, 2012 in Challenge, Food
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Before I get into today’s topic, I want to share something that I’ve been laughing to myself about all day. In my last post I talked about not giving in to peer pressure or those food temptations you would regret later. I think I could have used this yesterday at the froyo place:

Lol anyhow, return on investment, ROI. I could go on for pages about the ROI you can get from this month so I will just target what this blog is intended for. I’ve talked to a few people about their eating habits during Ramadan and I hear one answer pretty often. “Oh it’s Ramadan, so it’s my month off from watching my diet.” Sigh. I think we need to alter our thinking when it comes to this. If Ramadan was only one day like Eid or Thanksgiving, then sure, by all means do what you want. However, we are talking about 30 days of when we should be striving for perfection in all aspects of life. By cultural habit, these 30 days consist of some of the worst food your body will ever consume throughout the year and since our brains tell us we are starving, we indulge in gluttony. Why do everything else good this month but neglect our body? Ramadan is usually a month for change in a lot of our daily habits. We strive to be nicer, more charitable, more pious. Why not add “Healthy Lifestyle” to the list of habits you want to make a positive change on during this month. By binding yourself to those intentions for these 30 days, you could come out a changed person with a whole new lifestyle. Investing in yourself for these 30 days could return a lifetime of benefits like decreased medical bills and disease prevention.

I noticed my ROI decrease in recent days when I stopped putting in much effort for Sahoor. I was stuck in a cycle of waking up late and just throwing together an omelette. I got bored with this and started eating less, resulting in decreased energy throughout the day. I’ve decided that for the rest of Ramadan, I will be waking up much earlier to ensure I make something enticing for Sahoor. This will involve doing some preparations the night before too so I’m excited to wake up and get ready for Sahoor.

Sahoor – This morning I made a mexican breakfast dish, Huevos Rancheros. It’s essentially an egg omelette with salsa.

    • 1 tomato, chopped
    • 1 jalepeno pepper, chopped
    • 1 garlic clove, minced
    • 1/4 small onion, chopped
    • sea salt
    • 2 eggs and 3 egg whites
    • 2 Tbs of olive oil

Puree the tomato, jalepeno, garlic, and onions in a blender. Put 1 Tbs of oil on a hot pan and then add the salsa to it. Cook it until it starts getting thick. Move it to the side but keep it warm. Make the omelette to your desire. Add the salsa to the omelette and you have your self Huevos Rancheros.

Look, it’s a happy meal. Hahha…ha…ha. Anyways, it was a good breakfast. I had a couple of spoon fulls of almond butter as well. I drank 1.5 liters of water.

So I’ve told you what changes I will be making. Are there some that you are looking to make too?