A Spoon for Your Salad?

You know you got a good salad when you have to eat it with a spoon...

The selection of ingredients in this salad below is the result of trying to use up all my left-over produce from the top of this week's grocery shopping run (I do not tolerate food-wasting).
Nevertheless, the finished product was still superb!

 The Left-Over Produce Sesame Spinach Salad

ingredients:
baby spinach
broccoli florets
tomatoes
sliced mushrooms
thinly sliced red onion
fried minced garlic
shredded mozzarella cheese
Asian sesame dressing

Don't be discouraged by the simplicity or 'boring' (if you will) facade of this recipe.
I must confess that the salad was a little bland before I added the shredded mozzarella and fried minced garlic components to it. The cheese I luckily had as left-overs from my pizza-making dinner party with Amber on Halloween. And the garlic- well, the garlic factor is because I am Filipino and that's what we do. We add garlic to everything.

Before combining ingredients into a bowl, mince the garlic and deep fry in a pan on medium to low heat. The key here is patience. You want the garlic to fry crispy, not stale and hard.
Fry until golden brown.
Combine and toss spinach, mushrooms, red onion, broccoli, tomatoes, and sesame dressing in a bowl.

Top with fried minced garlic and shredded mozzarella.

There.

A guilt-free (and cost-free) meal.

Eat well.

Miss Sabado

Iron (Wo)Man

Tonight I came home beat to a pulp from the infamous 9-5 and ravenous from 2-hr bootcamp at the gym immediately following. Needless to say I was tired. Tired and hungry, which is never a good combination.

Yes, I could have copped out and done the drive-thru drive-by, but processed foods are just not my style. Matter of fact, I seldom eat out. Matter of fact, I prefer to make most of my meals, mainly so that I can monitor exactly what goes into my body (I'm a virgo, neurosis runs through my system).

So I dashed home and quickly whipped up this culinary confection:

Asian Stir-Fry Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

-french beans

-extra firm tofu chopped into squares

-baby spinach leaves

-a bottle of Soy Vay Original Hoisin Garlic Asian Glaze Marinade

This dish is not only simple and quick to make, but also full of the proper nutrients to combat fatigue and replenish achy muscles from post-workout syndrome.

Raw spinach is fortified with iron and tofu typically has 10g of soy protein per serving, perfect for healing torn muscles.

Ready... Set... Cook!

In a large wok, add just enough water to boil/steam the french beans.

Once you get the water to a good solid boil, cover wok to retain moisture.

Do not overcook your beans! Vegetables lose their nutrients if you cook them too long. 2 minutes is enough boil/steam time.

Pour out excess water from wok.

Throw tofu squares into wok and drizzle a small amount of Soy Vay sauce (a little goes a long way).

Stir.

Uncovered, allow the the tofu squares to cook in the marinade.

(Do not neglect your tofu; flipping the squares will assure a flavorful fu.)

Once it's done- trust me, you'll know when it's done- turn the burner off completely.

Top with baby spinach and stir.

The important part here is to try not to cook the spinach at all.

You want to keep the spinach somewhat raw but flavorful by flash cooking it with the heat from the beans and fu.

Quickly transfer it out of the wok and into a bowl and voila! 

Dinner in 5 minutes!

*Note that you can do many variations of this salad...

One night when I'm not so bloody tired we'll go through the steps together.

Eat well.

Miss Sabado