Spring Cleanse: Day 2

- On rising: 1 large glass of water, followed by a cup of Fenugreek water. This is just Fenugreek seeds soaked overnight and you drink that water the next day. It's an Ayurvedic practice I picked up on a previous detox... it apparently lowers blood-sugar levels, but I really don't know enough about whether its got other cleansing properties. It didn't do any harm on the last detox I did, so I figured why not. 

Google says it's great for milk flow/ lactation. Great! Super handy right now. Bahahaha. But then Google also says it tastes like maple syrup. ?!? Bollocks. It's got a very herbal taste... Tastes like I walked into a Chinese medical hall. This is what it looks like soaking in water: 

And then I chugged another glass of hot water and lemon with a Triphala supplement after that. 

And voila!! "Elimination time"! Sorry, you don't need to hear about my bowel movements but I've got to reiterate how IMPORTANT it is to have a dump when you're on any kind of cleanse. Toxins leave your body 3 ways: through your skin, pee and poo. A large percentage of toxins gets dumped out in your large intestine, which is why it's CRUCIAL you have regular dumps, to get rid of those toxins before your body reabsorbs them again. Which would be a pointless detox. Apologies... It seems I can't talk about food without also talking about poo... But hey, the two go hand in hand! :p  

** Sidetrack: this is why it's important to drink loads of water too - to eliminate through your pee, and also to help keep stuff flowing in your gut. Another great thing to do is keep exercising or sit in the steam room so you get your pores open and sweating out all those toxins. And now back to regular programming **

- 8am: Breakfast green smoothie.

Ingredients: 

Spinach

Cucumber

Apple

Ginger

Sprouted hemp seeds

Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

The breakfast of Incredible-Hulk champions...

Then I went to Paul Dallaghan's Pranayama and Ashtanga workshop... and of course within the first hour, I was running to pee about 10 times, all throughout the quiet meditation introduction. Arrrggghhhhh!! And then the same thing happened in the second hour. I'm not joking... people must've thought I had the bladder of a squirrel... But... Did you see how much fluid I'd downed in the first hour on waking up?! 

On a side note, this is the gorgeous space we were practicing in today: 

So then of course I couldn't juice anything for lunch while on the workshop. But I went prepared with my little bag of tricks that contained:

Pineapple and cucumber slices (odd flavour combo, I wasn't thinking this morning!)

Raw cashews and almonds (nuts probably aren't so great on a cleanse, especially unsprouted, but I figured "screw it", I needed something convenient and there are worse things than nuts to snack on so these would do.) 

Chia seeds

Yogi Tea Detox Tea

Cayenne Pepper

Turmeric

...Turns out I only ate the pineapple and cucumber slices at lunch, along with some of the cashews. Even Paul commented "you're on a cleanse and you're eating nuts?!" Hehe. DEAL WITH IT.

- 5.30pm: Post-workshop late lunch smoothie. Also took a Vitamin B-complex supplement along with this coz... Oops, forgot to take it in the morning... 

Ingredients: 

Carrots

Celery

Parsley

Ginger

Chia seeds

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Turmeric

Cayenne Pepper (the amount on that teaspoon was waaaaaaay spicy, even though I can handle "Asian level" spiciness)   
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

- 8.30pm: Yogi Tea Detox Tea with a Triphala supplement. (should've done Triphala before bedtime. Dunno why I decided to do it now. Probably coz I read the label and it said "take before food". So I did. Hahaha.)

- 8.45pm: Dinner smoothie

Ingredients: 

Sprouted cashews (raw cashews soaked for 8-10hrs)

Virgin cold-pressed coconut oil

Cardamom

Cinnamon

Vanilla bean

Maple syrup (just a dash. It's still good without this but I couldn't help myself)
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

It's the same ingredients as last night's dinner smoothie, except I added Cardamom and ooooooweeeee, YES!!!! This one is so good I will make cashew milks with this recipe even when I'm not detoxing. It is soooooo good (can you hear me patting myself on my back now). 

- Nightcap: A glass of Fenugreek water. The same seeds from this morning can be re-used once, so that's what I used to re-soak again. 

How I feel today: Pretty normal. No mood swings. When I woke up, it felt like my tongue had a coating over it. And at the start of the workshop, it felt like I had the coating again over it... Maybe it's psychosomatic coz when I looked in the mirror, there was no white stuff or "ama" on my tongue at all. 

Otherwise, I'm feeling good! The funny thing on these cleanses is - I almost always end up feeling ultra-bloated anyway coz of all the fluid intake... Ugh. 

...Also, I might end up not juicing at all at my last meal tomorrow night as I'm going to catch up with Paul over dinner. How can I say "No" to a meal with one of my fave teachers? :) Let's see how we go though... Didn't think I'd manage to stay as raw and juiced as I have today, so never say never! 

Spring Cleanse: Day 1

- On rising: 1 large glass of water, followed by a cup of hot water and lemon. 

(this is my usual daily ritual anyway, usually I add chia seeds to my lemon-water, but not today as I'm planning on having some chia-lemon-water later in the day, if and when I start to get hungry). 

- 8am: Breakfast green smoothie. (I call this a smoothie only coz I use a blender and leave all the pulp in, adding as much water as I want so that it's not chunky/ gloopy but more like a pulpy juice. That's a smoothie to me. Bam.) 

Ingredients: 

Basil (growing by my window)

Cucumber

Celery

Sprouted hemp seeds (unhulled and soaked overnight. No idea if soaking unhulled hemp seeds actually has any real benefit, so gotta look into this a little more.) 

Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency
(All pre-chopped the night before so I'd have less to do in the AM). 

- 10.45am: Pineapple snack. Multi-vitamin and algae oil (for Omega-3, EPA+DHA) supplements. 

- Fresh mint tea (hot water with fresh mint leaves) and then more lemon-water. This combo is chugged throughout the day. 

- 1.30pm: Lunch smoothie. 

Ingredients:
Apple
Carrot
Ginger
Cayenne Pepper
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

I was sipping on this pretty much between 1.30-3.30pm and didn't finish it one go.

- 4.30pm: Hot lemon-water with 1 tablespoon of chia seeds as I was getting hungry. Chia's also good for more Omega-3 (ALA) essential fatty acids, while adding bulk to your gut! (If you're good with psyllium husk, you could do that instead. Me and psyllium just don't get along - gives me the massive bloat and even 1/2 a teaspoon makes my gut feel like it'll explode). 

- 5.30pm: Pineapple snack with a cup of Yogi Tea Detox Tea. Containing burdock, dandelion, juniper berry. 

- 8pm: Dinner smoothie. 

Ingredients: 
Sprouted cashews (raw cashews soaked when I left for work this morning)
Virgin cold-pressed coconut oil
Cinnamon
Vanilla bean
Maple syrup (just a small dash for flavour)
Water - so the smoothie gets to your preferred consistency

I'm a sucker for sweets and dessert, can you tell? Saved the best for last... Figured I'd have a slightly heavier smoothie to last me through the night. 

- 10pm: Night cap of Yogi Tea Detox Tea, with Triphala supplement (Ayurvedic supplement that aids digestive health, also acts as a very mild laxative to help keep things moving). I mean... c'mon. It's a detox. The majority of toxins are gonna get dumped in my colon from tomorrow onwards. And er... I usually have to "go" twice a day or I'd feel gross, so this is super important!! ;p

Of course all of the above was interspersed with lots of water, lemon-water, or fresh mint tea (or fresh mint-water, really) throughout the day... 

How do I feel today? ...Perfectly fine, normal, nothing out of the ordinary... until around 6.30pm at work when I started getting grouchy and irritable. Maybe it was the crappy conference call I was on that dragged on so I couldn't get to a yoga class, but I definitely got snappier at the people around me. Glad to be home and away from non-stop chatting of people. And now I'm properly tired. 

Forgot to mention that it's been non-stop partying from a week ago when we had a big office party, then Queens Day on Tuesday this week with an all-night dance-a-thon the night before, then I flew to Madrid on the same day to watch the UEFA semi-finals, and we continued dancing till 5am and flirting with hot Spanish boys, only to fly back the next day on 2 hours sleep. That was 2 days ago now, but I'm definitely still recovering from that and this cleanse is definitely part of the grounding I need! 

Oh well, tomorrow will be a new day. And a pranayama/ ashtanga workshop with Paul! ...haven't decided yet how I'll continue this cleanse while on the workshop, but there'll probably be less smoothies involved. 

Stay tuned! :) 

3-Day Spring Cleanse

Hola Guapas!

It has been a super looooooong time, innit. Loads of things have happened since my last post 1.5 years ago... Suffice it to say: I'm still in Amsterdam, I'm still loving life and my current job... On the love front, boys have come and gone, but I think my heart is still somewhat intact... I've taken breaks from asana, gone on more retreats involving Pranayama and detoxes and more Ashtanga yoga... And look, I'm still living to tell this tale (maybe not to you and not on this blog. Haha.) 

Life is actually pretty sweet right now. :)

In October last year, I also added one more thing on my list of "to do's" in life: I'm currently studying Naturopathic Nutrition part-time and hopefully in 3 years, I'll qualify as a Nutritional Therapist. And if I can hack it out for a 4th year, I'll be qualify as a Naturopath. Oh, this course is also in London, so I've also been spending more time in one of my favourite big cities. If you've followed this blog from ages ago, you're probably familiar with my interest in food and how I keep mixing things up and experimenting with what goes in (and er... what comes out. Heh.)

"Why are you doing this course?" is what my oh-so-very-Asian parents keep asking me, as I'm not even sure if I want to practice as a Nutritional Therapist eventually. Hahaha. I don't know. All I know is: I'm starting with an interest. I want to know more and in even greater detail than what I'm already reading up on my fave blogs and books about food, its healing properties, and how much one is a measure of "you are what you eat". So I figured if I'm gonna delve into this and spend the time reading up and studying more about this, I might as well do it through a good program where I'll get certified too. Yes, how over-achieving Asian of me. And yes, I believe that down the road, my path will eventually lead me more into the world of health and wellness, so this course is simply an extension of my interest and exploration into this world. Dipping my toes into it, so to speak. 

I started this post as I've been feeling like I need to do a Spring cleanse. Should've started one at the new moon 2 weeks ago, or maybe during the official start of Spring when everyone else was doing some kind of cleanse about a month ago... But... I guess life got in the way and with all the travel I've been doing, the only real down time I've got will be in the next 3 days. And since I'll be doing a Pranayama workshop all of this weekend with one of my all-time favourite Ashtanga and Pranayama teachers who'll be in town, Paul Dallaghan, I figured "Feck it. Now's as good a time as any other." 

So I'm making this mini-detox up as I'm going along... Basing it off some of the other cleanses I've done in the past... I figure my system just needs to hit the reset button, albeit in a gentle fashion. I'm going to do a mix of green smoothies, fruit and raw veggies. My shopping has landed me with a basket full of spinach, kale, celery, lemons, apples, pineapple, ginger and I'll add some sprouted hemp seeds and chia seeds into the various combos I'll make up. Think I need to run out and get some kale and chard too. Maybe at night I'll finish off with some sprouted cashew smoothies. I'll attempt to document each "meal" I'll have as I go along. 

And this is all probably because I couldn't find any iPhone app that would help me document some kind of detox journal... Then I remembered that once upon a time, I had a blog that helped me do that. So here I am. Hahaha. 

Warning: this might turn out to be a total failure as on days 2 and 3, I'll be at a yoga/ pranayama workshop. No idea how I'm going to juice anything, so I might just end up chugging a load of chia seeds and lemon water. And maybe just eating fruit and veggie sticks. Gulp. 

I've been more active on Facebook and Instagram, so follow my picture updates there, and I'll give the day's round up in pictures in summary on the blog here. How's that for total social media engagement. 

Wish me luck! 

Lemon Pancake Total Failure

I woke up this morning feeling like lemon pancakes. I'm also not a natural cook. Together, this had DISASTER written all over it.

Once again, it was Google to the rescue and I found this delicious-looking recipe off the net.
(Email subscribers click on the download link to view the video)


I'd found it yonks ago when I was trying to figure out how to "fold egg whites" and saved the link coz his pancakes looked so yummy. Plus, he made it look so easy. Since I also had some super-ripe bananas, I figured I'd add them to the pancakes too, for added sugar and flavour. I substituted brown rice flour for regular flour, and xylitol for sugar.

I think the first mistake was that my batter didn't quite look as smooth as his.


Coz I was in a hurry to get to stiffening my egg whites, I forgot about the texture of the batter. Oops. Good thing is, because of all this yoga and adjusting I've been giving, I've built up pretty strong arm muscles and was able to finally get stiff egg whites in about 5 minutes by HAND BEATING them.

It was only when I got to slopping the batter onto the frying pan that I realized "eh? isn't pancake batter supposed to be kinda runny?!"

(The yellow bits are the bananas I'd placed in the middle of the pancakes. Which is why it turned out quite thick too)

No bubbles appeared, like how Chef Mitzewich explained above. So I just flipped the pancake when it seemed long enough on the one side. It didn't turn out too badly.


The trouble started after I flipped it. Firstly, it didn't rise as beautifully as Chef Mitzewich's pancake. In fact, it didn't rise AT ALL. Then secondly, the banana bits that were sticking out of the pancake on the underside started sizzling. I started to smell them burning a bit, then decided to flip the pancake around again to check... and the whole underside disintegrated coz it hadn't been cooked properly yet and was still sticking to the pan.

On top of this, the banana bits were BLACK and BURNT, so I quickly dug them out of the pancake in an attempt to salvage whatever was left.


This is what the underside looked like with the bananas dug out... the first pot-holed pancake I made:


So then I decided "OK, don't put the bananas in the pancakes. Just grill them on the side" (I was trying to copy Bill's Cafe in Sydney - they've got bananas in their ricotta hotcakes and the entire thing is just heavenly).

And the second pancake turned out kinda thick as well, but at least wasn't pot-holed and didn't quite burn like the first one. By this time, the frying pan was sooooo hot that the bananas just sizzled and immediately started browning.


That doesn't look too bad. But the taste was a whole different story. Kelly dug in hungrily since it had been about an hour since I started my pancake attempt... but for some reason, the super-sweet, super ripe bananas ended up SUPER BITTER, and the whole thing was just unappetizing altogether.

I'm still trying to figure out where the heck the bitter aftertaste came from... my theory is the frying pan was just too hot from being on the fire for so long after so many attempts, and you're not supposed to be cooking in a non-stick pan on high heat coz it gets noxious and carcinogenic. Maybe it was the teflon? (Sic!)

We spat everything out, trashed the rest of the batter and ended up going out for breakfast.

My delicious Yup Wrap from Buzz with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon was waaaaaay better than the failed lemon-banana pancakes.

Vegan Brownies

A colleague who's allergic to everything under the sun shared this vegan brownie recipe with me. Egg-free, wheat-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, yeast-free. And still pretty tasty!

I used Carob instead of cocoa, xylitol instead of sugar, and brown rice flour instead of all-purpose flour.

The final brownie loaf looked like this:



But then I thought I'd try and do another icing on the top - and found a recipe for vegan ganache. Warning: this ganache was CRAP. Maybe it's coz I couldn't find bittersweet chocolate and used Nestle's Milk Chocolate for Moulding & Baking (OK, this was the only thing in the brownie that's not sugar-free and vegan friendly, but it's only in the ganache!)


Boiling the soy milk for the ganache:


Firstly, the ganache was a really runny texture:


And secondly, it came out very runny and tasting kinda crap (but this could be because Nestle Moulding chocolate is probably crap quality.)
It also wouldn't harden again, even after cooling down:


It's a pretty tasty brownie block, but next time I'm gonna use 100% cocoa instead of carob. I'm sick of the taste of carob already.




VEGAN CHOCOLATE BROWNIES:
* 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used brown rice flour)
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar (I used 1 cup xylitol since carob powder is sweeter than cocoa)
* 1/2 cup + 1Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (I used 1 cup carob powder)
* 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 3/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 cup water
* 1/4 cup plain unsweetened almond milk or soy milk (I used 1/2 cup soy milk since I used more carob powder)
* 3/4 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350F or 175C.
2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
3. In another bowl, pour in water, vegetable oil and vanilla. Mix dry & wet together until well blended.
4. Spread evenly in a 9x13 inch baking pan.
5. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until the top is no longer shiny. Let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting into squares.
-----------------------------------------------------------

CHOCOLATE GANACHE:
* 1/3 cup soymilk
* 4 oz (or 114gm) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
* 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Directions:
In a small sauce pan, bring the soy milk to a light boil.

Remove from heat and add the chocolate and syrup.

Mix with a rubber spatula, continue stirring until the chocolate is fully melted and the icing is smooth.

Lemon Cake Supreme

I'm pretty proud of this cake I made this weekend. The fact that I took 14 photos of it probably says it all.

It started off pretty wobbly when I had to separate the yolks from the whites. Halfway into it, I was zoning out and completely forgot I was separating yolks from whites. One full egg went into the whites and BROKE! Scooped out as much yolk as I could but there was still some left. I almost started giving up since it was ruined before it even began...

But then I got over it and figured "there's still more whites than yolks. It will stiffen."

Beating whites by hand is HARD. It partially stiffened at the top, but still had runny liquid at the bottom. My arms were so tired by then I couldn't keep going. I had visions of another solid, dense non-rising cake, but kept folding the semi-solid egg whites into the rest of the dough. I figured at least I'm getting more air into it by folding again and again. And it kinda worked. This is what the cake looked like fresh out the oven:

Good thing the recipe's got icing too, so those ugly splits at the top could be covered up.

I didn't use clarified butter like the recipe says, just melted the butter (so it's fulla saturated fat!) Next time, I won't use as much butter for the icing as the recipe calls for. I had about 1/2 the amount of icing left over eventually. And this is how much butter went into the icing:



Also, I'll make clarified butter next time too (also known as ghee), coz the next day, the icing hardened into a murky looking paste and looked like plastic. Not very appetizing-looking.


Another thing I'll do next time as well is flour the bottom of the loaf pan - I figured it's a non-stick pan, plus I'd greased it already so there'd be no point to also flour it... but it took me 5 minutes trying to turn the cake out coz the bottom got stuck.


This is what the final cake looked like, with icing and all:




It's a really yummy cake. Well actually, all the flavour was in the icing. The cake itself was a bit tasteless - maybe coz I'd run out of Brown Rice Flour and substituted 3/4 Cup with Rye flour instead, so it gave it quite a strong un-lemon flavour. It was more rye than lemon. But the icing was kick-ass.


Kelly's friends had come round on Saturday night and finished most of it, this is what was left the next day:


LEMON CAKE SUPREME:
1 1/2 cups Brown Rice Flour (I used 3/4 Cup Brown Rice Flour, 3/4 Cup Rye Flour)
2 TBSP arrowroot powder (I used 3Tbsp corn starch since arrowroot:cornstarch = 2:3)
1 TBSP baking powder
6 large eggs
1/2 cup clarified *butter (I used melted butter and didn't clarify)
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 TBSP lemon flavoring
5 TBSP vegetable *glycerine (couldn't find this so used Fructose Syrup instead. Some people say you shouldn't use this on a Candida Cleanse, but my Kineasiologist says it's OK in limited quantities)

Preheat oven to 180C/ 350F. Mix flour, arrowroot powder, and baking powder in a large bowl. Separate eggs; beat yolks in another bowl with electric mixer until light (in my case, I mixed by hand). Add butter, lemon juice, flavoring, and glycerine to yolks, mix well and add to flour mixture. Beat until smooth. Beat egg whites until stiff; fold into flour mixture. Pour batter into a greased and lightly floured bundt or angel food cake pan. Bake 35-40 minutes. Test for doneness with a toothpick. When cool, may spread with icing, or cake is delicious plain.
*29 carbohydrates per serving without icing and 30 with icing


Almond and Butter Cream Icing
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP clarified butter, melted
5 TBSP vegetable glycerine
1 egg yolk
2 TBSP fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup sliced or ground almonds

Cream butter with glycerine. Beat in egg yolk and lemon juice; mix until thick. Fold almonds into icing or wait until cake is frosted and sprinkle over top.

Since I found this recipe off an internet forum, I noticed some people had problems with getting the icing to harden with the above method, so I used an alternative method suggested by another reader: Add all the ingredients except the yolk and start it on low heat, after everything is melted together, add the yolk and whisk it fast. Then slowly turn up the heat to medium, stirring all the time. It thickens up really nicely, with no raw eggs to worry about.

Meat Loaf & Cauliflower "Mashed Potatoes"

I haven't had red meat in probably about a year. And even in the year before that, I hadn't really been eating much red meat at all since my friend, Chris, and I had been on a 7 day detox fast and colon cleanse in Koh Samui.

So when I started craving beef in the past week, and specifically minced beef, I thought I should just do it and researched Meat Loaf recipes.

This is a really delicious recipe, and I added some bits and pieces of what else I wanted to throw into it. Instead of making the obligatory mashed potatoes that MUST go with meat loaf, I found another recipe trick off the net: mashed cauliflower (especially helpful if you're trying to keep low on the carbs). It is absolutely delicious! ...it tastes like mashed potatoes "Lite" - not quite the same heavy, starchy feel, but a very similar texture.


The recipe calls for pureeing the cauliflower, but since I don't have a food processor, I just boiled the cauliflower till it was falling apart, drained it, then mashed it with a potato masher (a recent acquisition - I'm getting closer to a proper food processor!) There were still little stringy cauliflower bits every now and again, but for the most part, it really was Cauliflower "Mashed Potato". Added butter, garlic powder and thyme to it too.



Kelly had never had meat loaf in his life, and thought it would be disgusting. Every time Marge makes meat loaf on The Simpsons, everyone groans, and that was his impression of this Great American Dish. (I'd had it one too many times while at university in Boston and never had it again since graduation).

It was delicious, and Kelly agreed! The dripping also made a good (thin) gravy for the mash.
(I suppose you could put flour or starch in the dripping to make it a thicker gravy)



The only problem I've got now is this morning, my tummy is in spasms. I don't think it's used to having red meat, for one, and secondly, I'd had chicken the night before as well (Thank you, Food Diary). So I think that's just too much meat in too short a space of time. I woke up this morning and felt nauseous, with my tummy churning in protest with indigestion. But that's just me and my digestive problems, Kelly's feeling perfectly fine. Still, it doesn't negate that this is a delicious recipe.

MEAT LOAF:
2lbs. ground beef (I used 500gm)
1 cup chopped celery
1 beaten egg
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 cup water (I used soy milk)
1 tsp sea salt (I used Tamari)

Additional ingredients I added:
1 cup Shredded Carrots
3 Crumbled Ryvita biscuits
1 tsp Chilli Flakes

Combine all ingredients. Shape into a loaf and bake in a 9x5 pan at 180C/ 350F for about an hour.
The beef should be browned all the way through the middle.
---------------------------------------------------------
CAULIFLOWER "MASHED POTATOES":
Cauliflower is a most versatile vegetable and can masquerade very well as various limit vegetables on a Candida Cleanse. Depending on how finely you chop/grate/puree it, you can get something very similar to potatoes, rice, couscous, or potato salad. You can also just make it as itself, of course.

Mashed “potatoes”
Steam lightly salted cauliflower florets until quite soft. Drain well. Puree in a food processor or blender until smooth. Add any of the following:
Butter
Mashed roasted garlic or garlic powder
*Sheep or goat cheese (if tolerated)
Caraway seeds

Adjust seasonings and serve.

Ryvita & Almond-crusted Chicken Nuggets

What's a girl to do when the wind wreaks havoc?

COOK!

Haha, I was naughty yesterday, I didn't practice yoga and my excuse is it's coz of the wind. It was too noisy and distracting and too many things were making too much noise I just couldn't concentrate (it was Full Moon too anyway). Instead, I decided to spend some time on dinner.

The recipe called for brown rice crumbs, but I decided to crush up some Ryvita crackers instead... they're starting to go a little bit soft and I don't like crackers that are not 100% crunchy. Since I wouldn't have finished them anyway, might as well grind them up to make into Chicken Nugget coating!


Close Up shot of the mixed dry ingredients:


The recipe calls for grilling in the oven, but I pan-fried them:

(This took too long though, next time I'll definitely put them on a baking tray like the recipe says. Except this time around I was roasting vegetables in the oven too and I didn't have an extra baking tray for the nuggets)

First batch of nuggets:

(I had to pan fry about 5 batches. Boring!)

Before serving, with roasted veggies:


Kelly says they're my best dish ever (but he hasn't tried the Chickpea Almond Veggie Burgers yet since he was away last week when I made them. Those are still the best yet I reckon). These nuggets are pretty tasty too, even without any salt in the recipe. Amazing! (of course I found it off the internet again.) Don't you just love the worldwideweb?

RYVITA & ALMOND-CRUSTED CHICKEN NUGGETS:
2 Boneless Chicken Breasts (4 halves)
1 cup of Brown Rice Breadcrumbs or Brown Rice Flour (I used crushed Ryvita Crackers)
1 cup of coarsely chopped Almonds
2 T of Dry Oregano
2 T of Garlic Powder (I used Garlic Paste, mixed together with the egg)
2 T of Dry Basil
1 stick of Unsalted melted Ghee (I used 1 egg instead)

Heat oven to 400F/ 200C and line two cookie sheets with aluminum foil.

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a shallow bowl. I ground the almonds to course pepper size by placing the almonds in a Ziploc bag and using the edge of my square casserole dish to pound them up (I really need a food processor or even a hand mixer!) Keep turning the bag and grinding. (It also counts as an aerobic workout.) Using this method stops them from just turning to powder like they would in a processor.

Place the melted butter or egg into another shallow bowl.

Cut the chicken into 1 inch chunks. Coat the chicken bites in butter or egg then roll in dry ingredients till coated.

Place them on the cookie sheets about 1 inch apart. Cook for 12 minutes - check doneness by cutting one of these babies in half and eating it. Enjoy!