TBK cooks Low Fat Delicious food

The other week when Kit was staying I asked him to get some recipe books off the shelf for me and this is the first one he found. I did not know low fat food could be delicious! I bought this little recipe book in Australia in 2012 when I spent Christmas visiting friends there.

You can read more about one of my earlier trips to Australia here:

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2022/01/tbk-travels-going-down-under-to.html

The last time I used the recipe book was in 2016 so as my weight crept up to 121 kg and my blood sugar is 78 I thought it was time to eat some low fat food again! I walked 40,000 steps in 4 days in Lio so now if I eat less/ more healthily, my weight should fall. I selected 6 recipes that I liked the look of- a mix of chicken, pork and beef. I am also on a mission to reduce my food costs to the end of the year as I have overspent my budget every month so far! My brother has kindly agreed to rescue me ( again) by withdrawing some of my investments in the UK so I can transfer the money to the Philippines in September with my pension to pay off my bills.

The problem with recipes from Australia is that some of the ingredients are not available here ( or are hard to find) like rice vermicelli, mint, bean sprouts, and basil leaves. However Kit and I searched the shops to see what we could find. We went to Puerto Deli, Deli mart, Robinsons and the Sari Sari store spending 15,000 pesos ( about £208) for a weeks shopping and still did not get all the ingredients!

First up was SHREDDED CHICKEN SALAD- Low fat yes, delicious no!

The photo from the recipe book above, and my version below

Here is the recipe if you want to try...

Next up was Thai Basil Chicken Stir fry

It was only when I started making this that I saw the two words I dread in a recipe- Marinade overnight! Luckily I do not need this until later in the week so I left the chicken to marinade and went on to make the next dish. I have highlighted it in the recipe book to remind me next time!

This one I marinaded overnight but forgot to cook! It was only when I was finishing this blog I did not have photos of this dish! So here you go:

It tasted delicious!

The next day we had Nam Jim Chicken:- this was delicious too!

This was very easy to make- just combine the chicken thighs with the cumin, coriander ( Cilantro for my Pinoy friends) and palm sugar and then fry. You then put the sauce ingredients in the Blender and once blended pour it over the chicken. We could not find the bean sprouts or coriander leaves for this dish.

The browned chicken thighs

After that we had Sumac and Paprika-spiced chicken with herb salad:

My version did not have any Sumac as neither Puerto Deli or Deli Mart had it. I had also run out of wooden skewers without realising . I cut the chicken a bit big and it was pretty tasteless, although I am sure it was low fat. I turned down dinner at my neighbours to eat this- that's how dedicated I am to losing weight!

To make a change from Chicken we had spicy chargrilled beef and citrus salad ( I am not supposed to eat much red meat however it looks delicious in the photo.). This one was really expensive using 3 steaks, which although I got 10% off each, were around 600 pesos each! However the recipe says it serves 4- I will have to restrain myself in not giving too big a portions so it lasts 4 days!

Here is my version:

As I prepared it after the overnight marinade I realised you are supposed to marinade the steaks whole and then after cooking slice thinly. I sliced it before I marinaded it. Once again I made the pieces of beef too big and it was not particularly tasty. I think steak is best served whole and with fresh mushrooms and Béarnaise sauce!

By now I had run out of lime juice and basil and I have no idea what witlof is and could not find any cherry tomatoes or shallots so it is minus a few ingredients!

Finally we ended the week with the Philippine's favourite meat- Pork ( Baboy) with a low fat delicious Pork, Lime and Peanut salad. Once again those words "refrigerate overnight" were hidden in line 2 of the method ( or procedure as the Pinoys cause it). However after making 5 dishes from the same recipe book of which 3 said "Marinade /refrigerate) overnight I was prepared and made it on Sunday ready for use later in the week. By the time I put it together on Monday I had run out of some ingredients like Lime juice ( I used lemon juice) and coriander and Basil leaves .

The Pork fillet marinading overnight in the refrigerator

It was quite easy to assemble frying the marinated Pork and then making a salad of carrots cut into matchsticks, spring onions sliced and a dressing made of sweet chilli sauce, one red thai chilli and lemon juice . Then you just mix it all together and top with peanuts. Again this tasted delicious. I had it mid week to make a change from all the chicken.

So that was our healthy eating week, did I loose any weight?

I started the week at 121 kg and ended at 121 kg!

Did it cost less than my favourite imported foods like Lamb and Salmon?

Maybe 5000 peso less and it was certainly more healthy with only one dish containing red meat.

What did they taste like?

The shredded chicken had no real taste to it . Even Chester did not try and steal any which is very rare! The Nam Jim chicken was very tasty but full of bones. The pork, marinaded in ginger was tasty . The beef was a bit tough.

Were they low fat and Delicious?

I answered these questions as I went through the week before I published the blog.

The good news is we did the shopping on Friday, made the food on Saturday and Sunday , when the boys washed up. Everything was ready in the fridge by Monday morning: