For Those Who Cook at Home — Some Must-Have Ingredients

Whoo-hoo! Thanksgiving is coming in two weeks. Many people including myself weight gain problems during the winter time especially holidays. If you want to eat tasty but also health, you need to keep eyes on the ingredients you use.

I’v been cooking for 5 years. At the beginning, I thought delicious food are high-calories and unhealthy, so I used limited ingredients and barely ate any dessert. But having a strict diet made me crave junk food more and get bad moods frequently. After studying and practicing nutrition, I found some food can keep you fit but also let you enjoy cooking and eating. Now, let’s take a look at 4 essential healthy-cooking ingredients that I always have on hand.

1. Cauliflower Rice If you are a rice lover like me, you must try caulirice. It’s made of chopped cauliflower roots. It tastes exactly as same as rice but only contains 25 calories per 100g. You can use it as alternative of rice in salads, or use it to cook fried rice or risotto. You can get cauliflower rice at any grocery store’s frozen zone. Check my recipe with Cauliflower Rice!

2. Peanut butter powder Do you have a sweet tooth and can’t live without peanut butter? Use peanut butter powder instead. Mix the same amount of powder with water, and you will get the perfect peanut butter with only 1/4 amount of calories in the regular one. You can also add it directly to your smoothie or put on your desserts. I got mine from amazon.

3. Purple sweet potato. Purple sweet potatoes are great choice for Thanksgiving side dish. They have plenty of iron, vitamin C, and 4 times as many antioxidants as regular potatoes. Antioxidants, which helps regulate blood pressure and prevent skin aging, are really good for females. Also, purple sweet potatoes are fat-free and can provide you satiety though out the day! You can make purple latte, bread spread, cake, and salad with them.

4. Acai Bowl Frozen Packets You must have heard of acai berries, the “super food” that are nutrient-dense, loaded with antioxidants, and good for brain function. Don’t struggle with finding fresh acai berries anymore. You can simply run the packet under hot water for 5 seconds and throw it in your blender with bananas to get a freshly-made acai bowl dessert, which tastes even better than ice cream! I got mine at Trader Joe’s.

Hope you enjoy your holiday meals with those ingredients above!

Foodgraphy Gallery And Useful Tips

Are you the type of person who enjoys taking pictures of food? I am! below are some of my foodgraphy taken this year. Keep reading to see my tips for taking food photography that is good to be posted on Instagram.

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Tips

1. Use good natural lights

2. Pick the flitter color that best fits the mood when the picture is taken

3. Try different angles to capture the scene

4. Focus details of the food texture

5. Decoration is important

6. The colorful the better

Do you like taking pictures of your food? Share with me your tips and experiences!

A Bento That Everyone Loves

October has been my busiest month in the whole semester. In the middle of a stressful day, people often want to eat fast food to save time and feel energetic. Let’s not do that. It’s unhealthy and gonna make you hungry soon. If you are a busy person like me, you are in the right place to learn about bento.

Bento is a take-out style meal originated from Japan. Japanese housewives prepare bento in the morning for their children to eat at school. It’s a single-portion meal that is well-balanced, easy to make, and easy to eat at work —you can either use microwave to warm it up or eat it cold. Nowadays in many counties, people can even buy bentos at convinces stores.

When I was in middle school, I went to tutoring class every weekend. The one thing I liked about cram school was that my mother often gave me a bento box in the morning, and I didn’t know what’s in there until lunch time. Opening the lid of my bento, I always felt happiness, and become ready for the rest of day.

Although you can’t get a bento from 7-11 in America, today I’ll give you my favorite bento recipe from my mother.

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Teriyaki Chicken Thighs Bento (30 minutes to make)

Ingredients

• 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce

• 1.5 tablespoons sake

• 1.5 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons water

• 2 chicken thighs (bone out)

• salt

• 2 eggs

• any vegetables you like.

• rice

The Chicken

1. Mix soy sauce, sake, water and sugar in a bowl for sauce.

2. Sprinkle both sides of the chicken with salt. Use paper towels dry the chicken.

3. Place the chicken skin-side down in a hot non-stick pan.

4. Fry the chicken until the skin is crispy and browned. Flip the chicken and continue frying until the chicken is almost cooked through.

5. Add the sauce and turn up the heat. Continually flip the chicken to let both sides covered with sauce.

6. the chicken is done when there is almost no liquid in the pan.

Side Dish and Decoration

1. Use 2/3 space for rice. Place the chicken on top. Put some sesames on the chicken.

2. Mix the eggs. Pour the liquid into a hot pan to make some thin crepes. Roll them up and cut into small pieces.

3. Put any vegetables you like on the side. I chose boiled spinach and buttered roasted corns.

4. For decoration, you can put some flower-shaped carrot slices on the rice.

Tips

1. Use baking paper to separate bento box from food to make cleaning job easier.

2. You can have side dishes always ready in your refrigerator by simply making them every week. It saves time.

Comment to let me know if you enjoy this recipe!