Thursday, June 24, 2010

Stir “Fried” Salad?


Dinner tonight started as one thing and ended up being something else when I saw how few calories it had. My initial thought was to make lettuce wraps filled with the mushrooms, bell pepper and onions, but since I wasn’t in the mood to make two dishes I added some things to it and ended up with a salad. Rice was included for calories and bulk. Nori was included because I don’t think there is such a thing as too many sea vegetables. We can all use the trace minerals they contain. Edamame added calories and protein. Here is what I did:

Stir “Fried” Salad
Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 cup shitakes, stems removed caps sliced
1 bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and thinly sliced
¼ cup yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 tablespoons liquid aminos
1 cup japonica rice
2 cups water
2 heads romaine hearts, shredded
2 tablespoons mirin
1 cup edamame, shelled
1 sheet nori, thinly sliced

Directions:

Marinate veggies buy combining the shitake caps, red bell pepper and onions with the liquid aminos. Toss to coat and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Now spread the veggies on a single layer using two teflex sheets and dehydrate for approximately 2 hours at 105 degrees to soften the vegetables.

Make rice by combining rice and water and bringing to a boil. Now cover and reduce to a simmer and cook until the water is absorbed. I use an enamel cast iron pan and the rice was ready in 35 minutes though the package indicated 50 minutes cooking time. The pan seems to make a big difference in the time required.

Toss the shredded romaine with mirin and top with rice, veggies, edamame and nori strips.

Nutritional information:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 316.31
Calories From Fat (12%) - 36.88

Total Fat - 4.56g
Saturated Fat - 0.67g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 518.28mg
Potassium - 1333.91mg
Total Carbohydrates - 61.17g
Fiber - 13.28g
Sugar - 8.36g
Protein - 13.82g

Comments:

This was a great late night dinner. Dan was late again last night because he is swamped at work. When he got home we watched a movie together while we had this salad. We both enjoyed the salad and thought it was very clean and tasty. I liked the salty bits of dehydrated veggies and the acidity from the mirin. This will definitely be something that I will make again. As usual I made leftovers so that Dan and I had lunch for today.

Each serving of this salad contains approximately 19,000IU of vitamin A, 120mg of vitamin C, 150mg of calcium, 5mg of iron, 590mcg of folate, 330mcg of vitamin K, 380mg of phosphorus, 150mg of magnesium, and 13mcg of selenium.

Unrelated note:

Last night Dan and I watched video from Netflix called “Food Matters”. It was an interesting documentary that discussed the benefits of eating real food in terms of health. There were a few items that made me wince, like when it was mentioned that cooked food is toxic. *shakes head* But overall it was a good video and one worth watching if you are interested in nutrition.

Yesterday I made a batch of large lima beans since we finished the chili we had been using for taco salad. Cooked beans are something that I keep on hand. Since I don’t buy canned beans it means I end up cooking beans every few days. Now I have 6 cups of cooked beans in the refrigerator. As soon as I figure out what I am going to do with them I will share that with you.

Today is going to be another scorcher for us. According to the weather channel we may reach 100 today. When we got up this morning it was already 83 degrees so Dan exercised inside this morning while I made his lunch, fresh juice and breakfast. Apparently I didn’t sleep well last night which meant my exercise didn’t happen until almost 10am. On a related exercise note Dan ordered us some adjusted dumbbells. I am very excited for those to arrive. The ones he ordered can be adjusted from 2.5 to 52.5 pounds. I love new exercise clothes and equipment so this feels like Christmas to me. Once they arrive and we have a chance to use them I will let you know how easy they are to adjust.

For now I want to finish reading a nutrition book, catch up on my on-line nutrition reading, do a little cleaning and spend some time in the kitchen. After that I will be back.

16 comments:

  1. The salad looks so good. I never think to buy and use nori sheets like that. I need to remember that one. I love getting new exercise "stuff" too!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Heather,

    I just started adding nori to salads earlier this year. I really like the taste of it in my Asian salads.

    I thought of you when Dan said he had finally ordered the dumbbells. He has been "shopping" for a while now as you know. Fingers crossed that we will like them. ;-)

    talk to you later,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  3. The salad looks colorful and sounds really yummy and satisfying. Can't ever get too much salad!

    Stay cool in all that hear today :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mmm! Looks tasty. I used your thai-style recipe the other night and it was amazingly good! Also last night, we had baked potatoes with your "queso cheese" (I used almonds) recipe and your sour cream recipe. We've been enjoying your recipes and variations of them very much :)
    (I was trying to embed the links, but I cannot in the comment box lol)
    What I was wondering is your thoughts about cooked food. I have heard a lot of negative comments about cooked food, but from my research, there are many foods that actually require some cooking to make them more digestible. I would love to hear your thoughts on the issue especially since you mentioned it in this post. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rose,

    I am with you, there really is no such thing as too much salad. In the summer we eat a lot of salad. ;-)

    This girl is staying inside today. The heat is just too much for me. At to think it wasn't but 6 months ago I was fussing about 2 feet of snow, LOL.

    talk to you later,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  6. Possum,

    Glad you are enjoying some of the recipes. :-) I have no idea how people embed links in the comments either. Clearly they are more computer savy than I am, LOL.

    I had done some investigation on raw food, which I assume you anticipated. In general I think it is important to eat a mix of cooked and raw food. Some foods are more healthful cooked and others are more healthful raw. Instead of memorizing things I simply eat foods both ways. Some foods shouldn't be eaten raw due to naturally occuring toxins (some beans, pinto I think but I am not certain now). However I do eat a lot of raw food and definitely drink raw veggie and fruit juice. If you want me to write something more comprehensive let me know. I will add it to the list of posts to write.

    I hope you are enjoying your summer,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  7. Just noticing the question about links in comments...it's the same as putting them into any page of html.

    Just type the following:

    text you want to appear as a hyperlink

    So, if I type http://veganepicurean.blogspot.com in for the web address and Alicia in for the hyperlink text, you get this:

    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  8. Rose,

    Thanks for trying to help. That probably makes sense to others but not me. I don't know HTML. I will send you an email so you can try to explain to me. ;-)

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bother...it actually turned into a hyperlink...so you can't see the html I typed in...should have known it would do that

    ...sorry...yes I'll follow up in email...you'll see how easy it is in plain text.

    ReplyDelete
  10. That salad looks good! I've been wanting to buy nori sheets to experiment with them a bit; I haven't had them outside of sushi. I'm also very interested in viewing that documentary.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Krystina,

    I like the nori on Asian salads and it is much faster than making sushi, LOL.

    For what this is worth I watched the documentary twice. Once before Dan got home and again with him. I wanted him to see it too. It definitely gave me a few things to investigate further.

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  12. Your salad looks yummy. Do you ever use dulse in salads? I like to crumble it over my salads--yum! I never thought of using nori in salads...I usually save that for wraps and sushi, but I will have to give it a try soon!

    Courtney

    ReplyDelete
  13. Courtney,

    Thanks! :-) I do use dulse too. It depends on my mood. Dan prefers nori to dulse though so that seems to happen more often. ;-) Anything I can do to get more sea vegetables into him I will do.

    Ali

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ali,
    I would love a post on the subject if you have time/you want to - no pressure though!
    Thank you Rose for the HTML hint! I did not realize it would work here ;)
    I will try it next time!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Possum,

    I will add that to my list of posts to be written. It will take me a while to write so it may be a few weeks to get all my facts in order. ;-)

    enjoy your weekend,
    Ali

    ReplyDelete

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