RECIPES FOR WEIGHT LOSS

IKAN PAIS (BAKED SPICY FISH MALAY STYLE)

This is one of my favourite recipes. It's very easy to prepare, very healthy and delicious!

Step 1: Clean fish of your choice. Probably about 4 pieces.

Step 2 : Blend the following ingredients.

10 red chillies (deseeded)

2 tomatoes (chopped)

2 large onions

6 cloves of garlic

2 inches of ginger

3 stalks lemongrass

1 tablespoon tamarind paste

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (you may adjust the measurement to suit your taste)

1 tablespoon of molasses

Step 3: Pour the blended ingredients over the fish. Put about 2 turmeric leaves over it.

Step 4: Wrap the food up in banana leaf (or aluminium foil if you haven't got banana leaf).

Step 5: Put it in the over for about 20 minutes.

In 20 minutes, ready to eat! Served with rice (brown please!)

This is one dish you can eat without guilt. It's almost without fat and all ingredients used have health properties (we'll look at the health properties later ok). You can also actually pour a couple spoons of extra virgin olive oil over it after it has been baked to enhance the health benefits of the dish.



ONION SOUP

After being on a 'food marathon' in Singapore, I came back to KL feeling all bloated. Just two days of food bingeing there, and with the amount of seafood I had devoured, I have a feeling my cholesterol must have sky-rocketed and if I were to step on the scales, I bet the needle would shift further to the right. So, this week I must make sure I go on a healthy diet. I am not going to starve myself, as I don't believe in a 'no food' diet. But I must make sure that whatever I consume this week is low in calories, low fat and low cholesterol.

This morning I made onion soup for breakfast. The reason being, onions are low in calories, good for the heart, heightens the HDL cholesterol and helps with weight loss.

Ingredients needed are as follows (measurement given makes 2 bowls of soup).

2 onions

1 tbsp grapeseed oil

 1 1/2 tsp organic vegetable seasoning powder

 1 1/2 tbsp Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce

2 1/2 cups of water

Sea salt to taste

(If you do not have organic veg seasoning powder, you can substitute with 2 cups of homemade stock of your choice , thus do not require 2 cups of water)

And here's how to do it. Easy peasy!

Sautee chopped onions in 1 tbsp grapeseed oil and let it caramelise

Add about 2 1/2 cups of water to it.

Add 1 1/2 tsp of seasoning powder.

Add 1 1/2 tbsp of worcester sauce. Then leave to simmer about 5 minutes. Turn off the fire.

Scoop the onions out of the soup. Put them in a blender and blend coarsely.

Pour back the blended onions into the soup. Add salt to taste and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. If you like it hot, sprinkle black pepper to suit your taste.

In just about 10 minutes, your bowl of piping hot onion soup is ready. Served best with good quality wholemeal bread.