Check Please! Restaurant Etiquette

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Filed Under Random Musings | 53 Comments

I’ve been seeing this topic creep up a lot lately, in magazines, web sites and in conversations with friends. What is the proper way to settle the tab at a restaurant while dining out as a group?

Restuarant Place setting(Picture from Microsoft Office Clipart Gallery)

As you all know, Siv and I love to eat out and we often eat out with others. Our normal dining companions are close friends who eat and drink as much as we do, so when the check comes it is really a no-brainer to split it equally. But sometimes when we go out with others who we don’t usually eat out with, occasionally we run into some uncomfortable situations when the check arrives. Especially when someone in the group ate just a salad or skipped the entrée or didn’t drink alcohol and got stuck with paying more than their share. While I understand it is not fair to that person to split the check evenly, I’ve noticed that it is never a pleasant experience to sort through the check and figure out who had what and how much each person owes. I feel like it really spoils the whole experience and takes the fun out of that whole evening.

Some restaurants do offer separate checks if you let them know at the beginning of the meal, but even then sometimes it is not as simple as that. What if you order appetizers and desserts family style? How awkward is it to take the calculator out and ask who all dug into the calamari?  I go out with girlfriends all the time and when I go out in a smaller group and if I ordered something more expensive than the others, or if I drank more alcohol, I always offer to pay a bit more or cover the tip. The very few times when I was on the other side being the one who ate/drank the least, I’ve never made an issue and suggested to split the check evenly. In bigger groups, it is just easier to split the checks equally. I have gone out with people who’ve made a big fuss about the check after a really fun night out and thus spoiling the whole night. Needless to say they were totally ignored on the invites for such night outs in the future. Is that fair? Probably not, but it sure was easier and more fun the next time.

I wouldn’t mind if someone ate only a salad and had a glass of water and his/her portion of the bill would come to $50 if split equally and they decided to just throw in a $20 bill. It is quite easy to tell the waiter to split the remaining check evenly between the rest of the people. But if someone ate and drank for $40, but his/her portion of the bill would come to $50 if divided equally, I think that person should just pony up the extra $10 and not make an issue.

What do you all think? How do you split a check when different people consume food and drinks of different value?

How do you split alcohol bill? Normally the drinks cost much more than the food, and a few don’t drink at all. It is not fair for them to split that bill, should we start asking for a separate check for booze and divide it evenly among those who drank and split the food part equally? What if one person just had one glass of wine and another had four?

Am I the only one who thinks it’s all so complicated and the only way to keep this fun and simple is to split the check evenly.  I consider eating out as a form of entertainment, you are not only paying for what you ate, but for the company as well, so sometimes you may end up paying more, and sometimes less. It should all even out eventually! Why would we let money get in the way of having fun? Even though this sounds good in theory, I understand that in today’s economic conditions, where everyone worries about their job security and the dwindling savings accounts, some of these additional dollars could really add up. So, here’s a few pointers on what I think as somewhat fair way to do this without making things too complex and awkward.

  • If you dine out with the same set of people often enough, and all of you pretty much eat and drink in the same ballpark, just split the check evenly. It will all even out eventually. Chances are that it was never an issue with this group of people to start with!
  • If you are eating at a cheap restaurant (typically where the bill won’t come to more than $20-$25 per person), just split the check evenly. The few extra bucks are not worth the hassle of figuring out who ate what for how much.
  • If you are dining out with a small group of people who you don’t usually dine with, and everyone is getting their own dishes, ask for separate checks at the beginning of the meal, if the restaurant allows it.
  • If you are dining out with a small group of people and decided to order bottles of wine for the table, and appetizers family style, just split the check evenly. If there is  a teetotaler or vegetarian in the group who didn’t participate in the communal activity, just guesstimate their share and ask them to pay cash. Everyone else should split the reminder of the check evenly. If the discrepancy is so large, that probably the lone person just had a small salad and water when everyone else ordered lobster and wine, don’t even ask that person to pay. Rest of the people should just divide the check.
  • If there are a few teetotalers in a group, ask for separate checks for booze and food. Divide the booze check between the drinkers and divide the food portion evenly.
  • If you go out as couples and there is one single person, divide the bill by number of people, not by the number of credit cards/families so that you won’t stick the single with a bigger amount. It will help if the single person brought cash instead of telling the waiter to put 2/5th on two cards and 1/5th on another card.
  • If there are children in the group, take it on a case by case basis. If the children ordered from the children’s menu, just ignore them while doing the tally, it is too small an amount to care. But if the children ordered adult sized entrees and generally participated in the appetizer/dessert splits, do take their numbers into consideration while dividing the food part of the check if you got separate booze and food checks.

All the above points are assuming that everyone in the group are more or less in the same economic situation. If you are extremely rich and are hanging out with less fortunate friends, do offer to pick up the whole tab at least once in a while. Similarly if you have a friend who is going through tough times, don’t let him/her pay, provided he/she won’t be offended by the gesture. Also, all the above are written assuming that everyone who you dine with are honest and fair.

So, dear reader, what do you think? Do you have any more tips to make dining out with friends a more pleasant experience?

53 Comments

Soy Braised Chicken

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Filed Under Chicken, Mains, South East Asia | 27 Comments

Braising is a cooking technique where food is first browned in oil, then cooked slowly in some flavored liquid like wine or stock or vinegar in a dish with a tight fitting lid. Cooking can be done in an oven or on the stovetop. Braising is a useful technique for tough cuts of of meat like pot roast, it works well with poultry and some vegetables as well to yield the most tender results. The main difference between braising and stewing I guess is the amount of liquid used. In stewing the meat is covered with liquid, braising calls for much less liquid, just enough to keep the meat tender and moist. A variety of cuisines employ braising as one of the basic cooking techniques, in fact most of the pressure cooking we do in Indian cuisine seem to be just another form of braising.  Braising is such an ancient cooking method, in fact it might even have had a major role in in human evolution! :)

Soy Braised Chicken

Braising is used a lot in Chinese cooking. This soy braised chicken is not really an authentic Chinese dish, it is just my attempt to recreate a dish that I had from a Chinese restaurant . Since the Chinese restaurants here are mostly Americanized, I bet even the original one is not that authentic. But as I’ve mentioned many times before, who cares about authenticity anyway, this tasted great!  Soy sauce forms the base braising liquid, and the ginger and star anise works as aromatics imparting loads of flavor to the sauce.

Soy Braised Chicken 

Ingredients

  • 2 large chicken thighs - skinless bone in, cut into medium sized pieces
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
  • 1 tbsp thinly sliced garlic
  • 2 tbsp thinly sliced ginger
  • 2 star anise
  • 4 dried red chilies
  • 1/4 cup dark soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • Oil for sauteing
  • salt to taste
  • freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F

In a large saute pan, heat the oil and when heated, add the chicken pieces, season well with salt and pepper and saute till the chicken pieces are browned on all sides. Remove from the pan and place it in a oven proof dish or casserole with a tight fitting lid.

Add the sliced shallots to the same pan, and saute till soft. Add the star anise, red chilies, garlic and ginger and saute for 2 minutes. Add the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and chicken stock to the pan and bring to a boil.  Taste and add salt, since soy sauce already has salt, you wouldn’t need much.

Pour this liquid mixture over the chicken pieces in the casserole. Cover with a tight lid and place in the oven. Cook for 50-60 minutes.

Serve warm with rice.

South Beach Diet Notes: Chicken thighs have considerably more fat than chicken breast, but I don’t recommend using chicken breasts in this recipe. Dark meat (thighs and legs) braises so much better. I just reduced the portion size per serving to compensate for the extra fat. 

Also check out my Braised Pork Belly recipe.

27 Comments

I think I have ranted enough about my breakfast issues in previous posts. For someone who lived without breakfast for more than a decade, getting used to regular breakfast was a challenge. I have 10 am meetings on most days, and the morning commute is around 30 minutes, but I wake up only at 8 am. So within that 90 minutes in which I have to spend at least 15 minutes with my coffee in front of the computer, cooking a hot breakfast is virtually impossible. That’s when I found my lifeline at Kalyn’s Kitchen in the form of Egg and Cottage Cheese Breakfast Muffins.

The best thing about these muffins is that they keep well in the refrigerator. So I just have to make a bunch of these muffins over the weekend, and every morning pop one or two in the microwave, and an instant breakfast is ready. Kalyn has posted a variety of egg and cottage cheese muffins. I followed the basic recipe from her Mushrooms and Feta Cheese muffins, but made a bunch of substitutions to use up the ingredients I had in hand. Kalyn used almond meal in hers, which I am sure will make really delicious muffins, but as I didn’t have any almond flour at home, I used Quinoa flour in mine. These muffins are so versatile, I am sure a variety of flours can be used in this recipe.

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) is a Peruvian grain which has been a staple in some South American diets for centuries. Quinoa is the most protein rich of all grains and is also a great source of vitamins and minerals, particularly potassium, the B vitamins, magnesium, zinc, and copper.  I picked up some Quinoa flour on a recent visit to the grocery store without any specific recipe in mind. On searching the Internet for Quinoa flour recipes, I learned that while Quinoa is very popular, there aren’t many published recipes using Quinoa flour. Since quinoa has a low gluten content, quinoa flour needs to be combined with wheat to make leavened baked goods. As the amount of flour in these muffins is very less, I decided to try the flour out in the muffins, and I must say it turned out delicious. Quinoa flour has a distinct nutty taste which worked well in these muffins.

QuinoaMuffin2

Based on Kalyn’s Cottage Cheese and Egg Breakfast Muffins with Mushrooms and Feta Cheese

Ingredients

(For 12 small muffins or 6 large muffins)

  • 4 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup diced lean ham
  • 2 cups diced crimini mushrooms
  • 4 cups packed spinach leaves.
  • 1/3 cup low fat cottage cheese
  • 1/4 cup low fat shredded fontina cheese (or any low fat shredded cheese)
  • 3/4 cup quinoa flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp curry powder
  • Crushed red chilies to taste
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 2 tsp sliced green onions
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil + enough to grease the muffin cups

Method

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Wash and drain the spinach leaves. Place in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 2 minutes. Place the leaves in a colander, and press with the back of a spoon to remove the moisture.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan, and saute the ham till brown. Remove and keep aside. Add the diced mushrooms and saute till soft. Add the curry powder and mix well. Cook till mushrooms starts to brown and all the moisture is gone.

In a large bowl, break the eggs and beat well till frothy. Add the cottage cheese, fontina cheese, quinoa flour,baking powder, salt and crushed red chilies and mix well to combine.

Gently fold in the sauteed mushrooms, spinach, ham, green onions and feta cheese into the batter.

Grease a silicon muffin pan with olive oil. Pour the batter into the muffin cups till the cups are nearly full. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes till the muffins are firm and slightly browned.

I used a mini muffin pan, and two of these were perfect for breakfast. These stayed fresh in the refrigerator for 5 days. I am sure these will stay fresh for a week at least. If you make more, you might want to freeze some. I used the reheat setting on my microwave to heat these up, and they turned out nice and warm. I had these with some non-fat plain yogurt, sour cream will work as well.

South Beach Diet Suggestion - These are great for South Beach Diet Phase 2 and after, these won’t work in Phase 1 since no flours are allowed.

Thanks to Kalyn for a lifesaver recipe. :)

28 Comments

Before I get into my weekend SBD update, let me just share that this this is my 300th post! I’ve been blogging for about 750 odd days now. Do the math, quick! Yep, that comes down to 1 post every 2.5 days, a fact that completely baffles me! I am sitting here going like, what?? really??? I did that??? Me??? Oh well, it is a milestone, and a big achievement considering the life span of my other hobbies. I’d like to celebrate this joyous occasion with you, my dear reader, who made it all possible! Thank you!

Now, off to the weekly SBD update. Nothing special last week, except for the fact that the amount of carb intake was more than usual. But not to worry, all good carbs. I’ve finally made my peace with brown rice, I had it three nights this week for dinner as I didn’t get time to go grocery shopping this week and I was out of salad greens and vegetables. I also had to rely on breakfast cereals this week. I am still losing weight, so I guess it’s okay. I do feel guilty after having carbs though, I have to keep reminding myself that SBD is not a low carb diet, but a low Glycemic Index carbs aka good carbs diet.

Since phase 1 gave me better results, I still like to keep it pretty low carb in phase 2 till I get to my target weight. So normally whenever I get time, I make salads or vegetables with my protein for dinner instead of rice and bread. I have already shared a couple of my favorite quick fix salad dressing ideas before. If you are not into eating raw vegetables and leaves every night, the other option is a side of steamed, sauteed or roasted vegetables. My favorite technique for cooking vegetables is to oven-roast them. Roasting vegetables really transforms the taste to a different level, it brings out the natural sweetness of the vegetables. 

 roasted asparagus

Roasted Asparagus - Preheat the oven to 400F. Wash and dry the asparagus spears. Break off the tough edges. Place the prepared spears on a foil lined baking sheet. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle salt, freshly ground black pepper and minced garlic. Toss the asparagus to coat the spears evenly with the oil and seasonings. Arrange the spears evenly on the baking sheet, making sure the spears don’t touch each other. Roast for about 10 minutes, take the pan out and toss the asparagus, and place it back in the oven. Roast for 6 more minutes or till the spears start to brown. Take out and serve warm.

Most vegetables can be roasted the same way, cooking time and temperature may vary. Mushrooms, turnips, brussel sprouts, parsnips, carrots, onions and sweet potatoes are some of the other veggies which taste great roasted.  Here a few handy tips for roasting vegetables.

  • Cut the vegetables into same size to ensure even cooking.
  • Use a good oil to coat. You can never go wrong with a high quality extra virgin olive oil/
  • Season well - I almost always use just salt and freshly ground pepper on green vegetables. Chili and cumin powder mix goes well on sweet potatoes. Whatever seasoning you use, make sure to coat the veggies evenly.
  • Garlic makes everything better. I usually mix in some cut garlic pieces along with salt and pepper for the seasoning.
  • Don’t crowd the vegetables on the baking sheet. Leave enough space between the pieces, otherwise they tend to get steam cooked and turn wet and mushy instead of a crispy roasted exterior.

Finally, the stats. Another 1lb loss this week. :)

Target Weight Loss 17.5lb
Days on Diet 46
lbs lost so far 12.5
lbs to go 5
31 Comments

I desperately need a muse! There are six different recipes in my drafts, but I can’t think of any story or introduction to go with any of those. So I am just going to serve this one up on its own, hopefully I will get over the rut in time for the next post. Sometimes I think I should’ve started an anonymous blog. If I did, I am sure there wouldn’t be any shortage of stories. There are incidents that happen almost daily that amuse or annoy me to the core and I think about what a great story those would make. Unfortunately, everyone I know or sort of know read this blog, even if not regularly, they are aware of the existence of this site. So it is risky to write about any of those, without offending someone. Oh well, it is a food blog after all, it is not mandatory to have a story with every post, right?

Today’s recipe – Chili Fish – is inspired by a classic Indo Chinese restaurant fare. The restaurant version normally comes with the fish dipped in a flour paste and deep fried and has many more ingredients. Mine is a much simpler version, okay it is not even really Indo Chinese, except for the soy sauce part. This recipe is very similar to my Chicken Chili Fry. But don’t let the simplicity fool you, it tastes really really good! I used catfish, though any thick fleshed white fish would work great in this recipe.

Chili Fish

Ingredients

  • 1 lb white fish cut into medium sized cubes
  • 1 tsp red chili powder
  • 1 tbsp light soy sauce
  • salt to taste
  • 1/2 cup thinly sliced shallots
  • 2 tbsp thinly sliced garlic
  • 5 green chilies, quartered lengthwise
  • A bunch of curry leaves
  • ~1tbsp oil.

Method

Marinate the fish pieces in a mixture of red chili powder, salt and soy sauce for 15 minutes.

In a non-stick pan, add some oil and saute the fish pieces till brown on all sides. Remove and keep aside.

Add a little more oil if the pan is too dry. When it is hot, add the shallots, garlic and green chilies to the same pan. Saute till the shallots and chilies are soft. Add the curry leaves and fish pieces and mix well, be careful not to break the fish pieces. Cook on medium high heat for 3-4 minutes stirring carefully, till everything starts to brown a little bit. Just don’t break the fish pieces. Serve warm.

36 Comments

I’ve been on the diet for 6 weeks now, if someone told me last month that I’d stick to a diet for so long, I wouldn’t have believed them! But now it has become a normal part of life. I don’t really have to remember to eat breakfast or the daily snacks now, my body tells me when it needs food, and I always have something handy.

I started missing some of my favorite foods though, not rice and potatoes, but the fatty cuts of meat! I have professed my unending love for Pork Belly many times here. It is the tastiest cut of meat out there! Last Friday was Siv’s birthday, and since out of all my recipes, this Pork Ularthiyathu is his favorite, I decided to make it for him. The plan was to cook it just for him, but I must say I make a mean Pork Ularthiyathu and it was too much to resist! So I had it, but just two pieces with a healthy salad - that was my dinner two days in a row last week! It is full of saturated fat, but by allowing myself the pleasure, and limiting the quantity, I stayed on track. I think it is important to allow yourself small treats once in a while, if you totally restrict yourself from all your favorites, the chances of falling off the wagon will be more!

South Beach Diet for Vegetarians

More than a few wondered whether Vegetarians can successfully adapt the South Beach Diet. One of my friends who gave me the motivation to go on SBD is a pure vegetarian. She said that phase 1 is tough, but doable.  Suggested protein sources for phase 1 are Soy-based meat substitutes that have 6 grams of fat or less per 2-3 ounce serving and all types of beans/legumes. Now you all know the problems associated with eating lots of beans, the embarrassing side effect of gas. I found a great article on Savvy Vegetarian about How To Eat Beans Without Gas.

Dry beans
© Elena Elisseeva - Fotolia.com

Some basic principles to keep in mind:

  • Soak the beans in water and discard the water before cooking.
  • If you can, after boiling the beans discard the water and rinse the beans again, best for recipes that ask for boiling the beans before adding other ingredients.
  • Our body needs to get adjusted to processing beans, so start with small quantities of beans and increase the quantities slowly.
  • Cook the beans till soft.
  • Choose beans which are easier to digest.

    Beans aren’t all that easy to digest, actually, but some are easier than others. Pinto beans, adzuki beans, black-eyed peas, black beans, kidney beans and chickpeas are relatively benign. Indian pulses, such as split mung beans (mung dhal), or red lentils (masoor dhal) are easy to digest. Navy beans, green or yellow split peas, brown lentils, are all harder to digest,and therefore more gaseous. Soybeans are famously indigestible, but much better in fermented versions such as tofu, tempeh, miso, and shoyu.
    (Source: http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/svreports/beans_without_gas.pdf)

  • And finally, a product my friend swears by - Beano. Beano is a natural food enzyme dietary supplement that can help prevent gas before it starts. It helps you to digest the complex carbohydrates in beans and other gas-producing foods. By taking Beano at the beginning of a meal, you can help prevent gas, bloating and other discomfort.

Update - Reader Tips

Here are some more tips to reduce gas from beans from the comments section. Thanks to Indosungod, Sra and Suganya 

  • Add a crushed piece of ginger while boiling the beans and discard the soaked water as well as the water the beans were cooked in.
  • Add ajwain (carom seed) and dry ginger to the bean dishes.
  • Dry roast the beans before cooking
  • Cook the legumes with a couple of bay leaves.

Here are some South Beach Friendly Vegetarian options. There are plenty more available online.

For those who eat eggs and diary, a lot of breakfast and snack ideas from the regular South Beach Diet meal plan can be used.

Stats

Even with the pork belly, I managed to lose 1.5lbs this week. It feels really really good!

Target Weight Loss 17.5lb
Days on Diet 40
lbs lost so far 11.5
lbs to go 6
38 Comments

When I started the South Beach Diet, I naturally assumed that coconut is a big no-no. Since coconut is very high in saturated fat content, nobody would consider it a diet food. As a typical true-blooded mallu, I use a lot of coconut in my cooking, especially coconut milk, so I was sad to lose one of the major ingredients from my pantry. Then a few days ago, I was browsing my South Beach Diet Quick and Easy recipe book and saw a couple of recipes using Coconut milk, that too in Phase 1, which got me all excited and curious.

The book says that unsweetened, light coconut milk is allowed in South Beach Diet. I did some research online and it looks like the jury is still out on whether coconut milk is actually good or bad, kind of like the eggs per week discussion we had last week. How bad can it be though, after all it is a natural plant product and it is used in abundance in many parts of Asia, including my home state, where coconut is the base for a majority of dishes. Anyway, since I am not really sure about how helpful or harmful it is as far as weight-loss is concerned, I am trying to just incorporate moderate amount of light coconut milk in my meal plan, one dish a week.  I can’t live on bland food, diet or no diet, I have to have my food with flavor, no sacrifices there. Coconut milk sure adds a lot of flavor to the dishes, and makes a great base for curries.If there are any nutrition experts out there, I’d love to hear your opinion about coconut milk.

This curry was put together as a clean the fridge out project last weekend. There were odds and ends like a red bell pepper, a couple of tomatoes and half a box of mixed greens which were not crisp enough for salad. I decided to just throw everything in together, and the end result turned out to be a delicious curry. I also had some okra in the fridge, but I decided against adding it to the chicken curry lest it turns all slimy, instead I stir fried the okra with some spices. So along with some brown rice and sauteed okra, this chicken curry made a wonderful meal.

Chicken Curry 

Ingredients

  • 1 lb chicken breast, skinless, bone-in, cut into small pieces
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 cup diced onions
  • 1 tsp red chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp coriander powder
  • 1/8 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 can (13.5oz) light, unsweetened coconut milk
  • 2 tbsp thinly sliced ginger pieces
  • 2 green chillies, split
  • 1 whole red bell pepper, sliced
  • 2 small tomatoes, quartered
  • 4 cups mixed greens or spinach
  • salt to taste

Method

In a large pan, heat the oil and add the diced onions. Saute till the onions are soft. Mix the red chili, coriander and turmeric powder with a little bit of water to make a paste. Add this spice paste to the sauteed onions and stir fry on medium heat till fragrant.

Add the chicken pieces and mix well so that the chicken pieces are well coated with the onions and spices. Saute till all the water from the chicken pieces are evaporated. Add 3/4 cup of hot water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add the coconut milk, ginger and green chilies and mix well. Bring to a boil on medium heat. Add the pepper, tomatoes, greens and salt and bring to a boil again. Cover and simmer for about 10-15 minutes till the chicken pieces are cooked through. If there is too much liquid, remove the lid and boil on high heat to reduce the gravy.

Serve warm with rice, this curry goes very well with brown rice.

33 Comments

Life is back to normal now, didn’t seem to take anybody much time to get back into the routine at work. Having a set schedule seems to be working for me diet-wise. I really stuck to the eat 5 times a day rule this week, and lost a net of 2.5lbs. My pants are way too comfy now, looks like it might be time to go down a size. I’d wait for another 2.5lbs loss before trying those out, so that I won’t be disappointed in case I am not there yet.

Rant of the Week

Today, I thought I’d rant about a particular group of people who’s been bothering me lately - the Diet Naysayers. If you’ve ever been on a diet, you’d know what I am talking about. For every person who’s supportive and encouraging of your efforts, you will find two who try to put you down and force a multitude of their unsolicited advice on you.  Yeah, we all know exercise is good for us, duh! At the same time there is nothing wrong in watching what we eat either! We all deserve to look our very best. Being thin and looking good increases my confidence level, makes me feel better about myself. If I chose to achieve it by going on a diet, instead of putting myself through months and months of vigorous gym routine, I had my reasons. Please, respect my decision! If you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything at all! And fellow dieters, please don’t let all the negativity affect you, choose your path and stick to it. At the end of the day, if you know what you are doing and you are happy with it, then you are doing the right thing!

Incredible Edible Eggs

Now, another topic I wanted to bring up today is Eggs. On my last post, Nags brought up a good question, is it okay to eat eggs every day?  I have heard so many different arguments for and against eggs, it almost feels like whichever way you want to go, you just need to choose the right study results. I am not a doctor or dietician or any kid of expert in the field, so please do your own research. But what I learned from my research is that, if you are a healthy person it is okay to eat an egg everyday. If you have a health problem - including but not limited to - heart issues, high cholesterol and diabetes, consuming eggs may cause issues.  Egg yolks do have a high amount of cholesterol, but apparently dietary cholesterol has only a very low impact on the blood cholesterol level.  That means all that cholesterol in the eggs are not passed into our blood stream, saturated and trans fats have much bigger effects on blood cholesterol levels. 

Looks like  it is okay to eat one egg a day, especially if you cut back on saturated and trans fats. Most of the issues with eggs seem to be associated with what you eat with it, the steak and bacon and whole milk and all those. If you are really worried about eating so many eggs, use egg whites, since the yolk contain all the cholesterol.

Here are some good reading materials on the topic.

http://www.enc-online.org/GoodNews.htm

https://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/egg-nutrition

As I said, I am no nutrition expert, so don’t listen to me. I love eggs, so I am still eggsperimenting with different recipes. I got some great ideas from Kalyn, she has a great collection of South Beach friendly breakfast recipes. I will post my version inspired by Kalyn next week. 

For now, here is one of my quick and easy egg recipes. On the days when you don’t have eggs for breakfast, you could have a boiled egg as a snack. I don’t like plain boiled eggs, so I spice them up whenever I can. First I sauté some chopped onions and garlic and curry leaves along with some spices like chili powder, curry powder or whatever I feel like that day. Once this mixture is browned well, I remove this mixture from the pan, and place the halved boiled eggs in the same pan, cut side down to slightly blister the eggs. Add the fried spice mixture back into the pan and mix well. A spicy, tasty snack is ready in no time. spicy eggs

Stats

Finally, here are the current stats. I am getting there, slowly and steadily.

Target Weight Loss 17.5lb
Days on Diet 33
lbs lost so far 10
lbs to go 7.5
67 Comments

As I mentioned before, breakfast is my biggest challenge on South Beach Diet. I love eggs, but it gets boring really quick. I did try oatmeal, but I am not a fan. Thanks to everyone who offered different recipes suggestions with oatmeal, I still need to try those out. For now, I am alternating between a fruit + cottage cheese combination and eggs for my breakfast.

Since I am still largely dependant on eggs, I have been doing a lot of experiments to keep it interesting. This frittata is the result of such an experiment. Remember my last post - Roasted Salmon with Piquillo Pepper - Walnut Pesto ? If you try that recipe, do make an extra salmon filet, as that would come in handy for a delicious for breakfast next day. Of course, any left over cooked salmon would work in this recipe, but I really loved the slight tinge of the piquillo-walnut pesto in it.

I was in such a hurry to eat, I didn’t get time to plate this and go through the elaborate clicking process. I didn’t want a bad picture to get in the way of sharing a great recipe, so that’s my excuse for this picture. Salmon Frittata

Ingredients

  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 tsp non-fat milk
  • 1 cooked salmon filet (preferably Roasted Salmon with Piquillo Pepper - Walnut Pesto )
  • 1/4 cup diced onions
  • 3 cups packed fresh spinach leaves (frozen would work as well)
  • 2 tbsp crumbled low fat feta cheese
  • salt to taste
  • crushed red chili or red chili powder to taste

Method

Wash the spinach leaves and drain. Place the washed leaves with just the water clinging from the washing in a microwave safe bowl with a lid. Close the bowl and microwave on high for 90 seconds. Remove and place the leaves in a colander, press with the back of a spoon to remove the excess moisture.

Tear the salmon filet to small pieces.

Beat the eggs well along with the 1 tsp milk in a large bowl.  Heat oil in an oven-proof non-stick pan, and saute the diced onions till soft.  Add the salmon and  stir well to combine. Add salt and crushed chilies and saute till salmon starts to brown. Add the spinach and mix well, saute for a few minutes to make sure that the moisture from the spinach leaves is completely gone and the mixture is dry. 

Add the sauteed onion-salmon-spinach mix into the bowl with the beaten eggs, along with the crumbled feta. Mix well to combine.

Add a little more oil to the non-stick pan if it looks too dry, and bring it to medium heat. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook for 3 minutes. Place the pan under the broiler with broil-high settings for 3 minutes to set the top side of the frittata.

Cut into wedges and serve warm.

This works for all phases of South Beach Diet.

Note: I made the sauteed salmon-spinach-eggs mixture, and just used half for the first day’s breakfast with 2 eggs. The other half was kept in the fridge and used in the same recipe next day again with 2 eggs. We don’t have a heavy breakfast, so the 2 eggs were fine for the two of us. I think frittatas turn out better with at least 4 eggs, as the 2 egg version was really thin. That’s why I gave the recipe for 4 eggs. Please note that cooking time will be less if you are just making a 2-egg frittata, 1 minute on the stove top and 2 minutes in the broiler would be fine.

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It seems like we’ve been eating a lot of salmon lately. Well, why not? Salmon is a very healthy option for the South Beach diet. It is easy to prepare since there is literally no cleaning if you buy the  filets. This fish is so versatile that I use it in breakfast, lunch and dinner recipes.  I’ve been experimenting with different salmon recipes lately, here is one that turned out great and as usual it is a quick and simple recipe.

Ever since I discovered the Piquillo Peppers, I always keep a jar handy. Piquillo Peppers aka Pimientos del Piquillo are of Spanish origin and these are available roasted and skinned and whole or sliced in a bottle. There are many Spanish Tapas using these peppers, salt cod stuffed piquillos being my favorite.  These can be used in salads, sandwiches, pizza toppings etc. I buy these from Whole Foods Market or Spanish Table, I am sure these are available in all the speciality food stores and may even be available in regular grocery stores. If you can’t find the Piquillo peppers, you can use canned roasted red bell peppers, or roast your own red bell peppers. Piquillos have a distinguished sweet flavor which is not quite the same as the bell peppers, but those will make a close enough substitute.

This pesto is very colorful and tasty, it will make a great dip for crudités and can be used as a sandwich spread as well. I think it will be good with chicken as well, I gotta try it sometime. This will stay fresh in the refrigerator for 3-4 days, you can also freeze the pesto if needed.

pepperpesto6

Roasted Piquillo Pepper - Walnut pesto

Ingredients

  • 6 whole roasted piquillo peppers from a bottle (or use 3 whole roasted and peeled red bell peppers)
  • 1/2 cup roasted walnut pieces
  • 1 tbsp crumbled feta cheese
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • red chili flakes and salt to taste
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and process to form a smooth paste.

Roasted Salmon Filets with Pepper-Walnut Pesto

I am not giving the exact measurements, use as per taste. The above amount of pesto is plenty for 6 single serving size filets.

Ingredients

  • Salmon filets
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • Oil to coat the roasting pan.
  • Pesto (Recipe above)

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 375F.

Grease an oven-proof non-stick pan that can comfortably hold the salmon filets.

Place the salmon filets skin side down in the pan. Season well with salt and pepper.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and brush generous amounts of the pesto on all three sides of the filets. Return to the oven and cook for another 10 minutes till salmon is cooked through.

Serve warm with more of the pesto on the side.

Broccoli Rabe

We had the salmon with a side of sauteed Broccoli Rabe. Broccoli rabe is an Italian green, the flowers look similar to broccoli, but taste is not the same. Broccoli Rabe has a bitter taste like Kale, I would assume that not everyone will like it. It is an acquired taste I guess, I am a big fan of all bitter greens and vegetables so I love this one as well.

From some web research, it looks like the popular Italian way is to cook the rabe with extra virgin olive oil, garlic, red chili flakes and finish up with some fresh lemon juice. This is exactly what I did, and it tasted heavenly. Lemon does take away a bit of the bitterness, but it was still quite bitter, just the way I like it!

So, there it is! A healthy, tasty meal which is perfect even if you are not dieting. BTW, do make an extra salmon filet. I will post a tasty South Beach friendly breakfast recipe with the left-over salmon.

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