My Turn To Be Head Chef

Last night. Oh what a night it was for the tum tum. Where shall I start? Let’s begin with dinner.

I cooked dinner for my family last night. My dad usually prefers to do the cooking but because he was working at the new house ’til late, I decided as Sous Chef of Peter’s Kitchen to take over. There were a few bumps in the road (i.e. defrosting frozen tuna steaks) but all in all everything turned out okay…for the most part.

Seared tuna with homemade sesame ginger sauce, served with seaweed salad and edamame

For the Sesame Ginger Sauce I combined

• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• cilantro
• ginger
• sesame oil
• soy sauce
• rice wine vinegar
• black pepper
• green onions
• agave nectar

…all ingredients we had stocked in the kitchen.

I seasoned the tuna with salt and pepper before searing. I added about 1/3 of the sauce to the pan near the end and then left the rest for garnishing and dipping.

I usually prefer my seared tuna to be rare but I knew my family wanted it more on the cooked side. Also, I didn’t get the tuna 100% defrosted before cooking so I left it on the pan just a tad longer.

For some extra veggies, I stir-fried a head of broccoli, mushrooms and a Roma tomato. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

As per usual, I ate everything on a bed of lettuce while my family had rice.

Seaweed salad is simply superb.

For dessert, I had some Butter Almond Ice Cream, courtesy of my dad. The first thing I asked him was ‘not butter PECAN?!’ To which he replied, ‘butter almond is better.’

I beg to differ.

Don’t get me wrong, ’twas still buttery, creamy, and delicious but you know pecans are my favorite nut!

Regular ice cream may be higher in fat than the fat-free/low-fat/no sugar added varieties but the fact that I can actually recognize and pronounce it’s short ingredients label makes it healthier, in my opinion. Not to mention it tastes so much better.

I also split a mango with my Momma. Turtle shell-style.

After dinner, my stomach hurt a little. Just a little. Thankfully the pain subsided on our walk to Harris Teeter. When I got back, I ate some yogurt and strawberries….and then…it really really started to hurt.

A couple agonizing hours later, the dinner I worked so hard to make came right back up. I have no idea why! Perhaps it was all the tuna handling? My family had no problems whatsoever though (thank goodness).

This seems to happen to me from time to time. Last time it was a nut allergy though. I know it wasn’t the butter almonds’ fault since I ate some of the ice cream the  night before and had no problems. Oh well. I’m still alive.

***

Moving on to this morning. I knew I needed something to get me going!

No no sillies, that’s guar gum .

My body needed vitamins ASAP in the form of a smoothie. I added some guar gum (that my brother gave me) along with xanthan gum because I’ve heard that the combination of the two is magic.

In the mix:

• 1/3 frozen banana
• 4 strawberries
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 1/2 cup 1% plain yogurt
• 1/4 tsp guar gum; 1/4 tsp xanthan gum
• 1 scoop wheatgrass
• crushed ice

Wheatgrass does the body good.

I could feel the nutrients running through my bloodstream . All is well with the tum tum now.

Have a great weekend!!

Tagged as: Almond Milk, Banana, Broccoli, Dressing, Guar Gum, Ice Cream, Mango, Mushrooms, Salad, Seaweed Salad, Smoothies, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Tuna, Wheatgrass, Xanthan Gum, Yogurt