Always a winner and makes for one of the easiest of meals to prepare, this San choi bao recipe from karenmartini.com was passed on by a JS-PT client and was immediately a big hit. Try this for your next home cooked meal, or adjust to suit your own tastes.
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Ingredients
1 iceberg lettuce (choose a nice heavy one)
2 medium carrots, peeled
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
10cm ginger, julienned
4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
350 grams fatty, finely ground pork mince
1/2 red onion, sliced
3 stalks celery, finely diced
10 fresh shitake mushrooms, finely sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons light soy
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons Shao Hsing rice wine
2 teaspoons cornflour mixed with 2 teaspoons water
2 cups bean sprouts
10 snowpeas, julienned
6 spring onions, finely sliced on the angle
2 large red chillies, cut on the angle
2 generous handfuls coriander sprigs
hoisin sauce, to serve
Method
Before you do anything else, trim the lettuce to create cups and soak the lettuce cups in cold water in the fridge to ensure the crispest leaves.
Next, follow my tip for perfect julienne carrots. Peel them with a vegetable peeler into long strips then cut the strips in half lengthways and finely slice. Set aside.
Heat wok over high heat. Add oil, ginger and garlic, cook for 20 seconds, then add the mince.
Break it up as it fries for 1minute, then add onion and celery.
Cook for 30 seconds then add the carrots and mushroom, then the sugar, soy, oyster sauce, sesame oil and rice wine.
Cook for 30 seconds, then add the cornflour mixture, cook for another 30 seconds, then add the sprouts, snowpeas, half the spring onion, half the chilli and half the coriander.
Pile it into a bowl and garnish with the rest of the spring onion, chilli and coriander.
Serve with the well-drained lettuce cups and serve immediately with hoisin sauce.
With the many diets and portion controlled meal options presented to us in this day and age, too often people are trying to sustain a diet eating far less than what is optimal for their lifestyles.
With the above point in mind, this month we share an article written by Coach Calorie which explains what can happen when you consume too little, and how much you should be eating. Without further ado:
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The majority of the time when you’re having a problem losing weight, it’s not because you aren’t making good food choices. The reason why your weight loss has stagnated is because you’re not eating enough calories to lose weight.
What Happens When You’re Not Eating Enough Calories?
When most people start dieting, they slash their calories and add a large amount of exercise to their daily routine. That’s fine, but they usually cut their calories way too low. Add in the extra exercise, and all of a sudden you have an extreme calorie deficit that is working against you.
Not eating enough calories causes many metabolic changes. Your body is a smart machine and senses a large decrease in dietary energy. Your large calorie deficit might work for a few days or even weeks, but eventually your body will wake up and sound alarms that it needs to conserve energy.
It doesn’t want to just waste away. It needs that energy (fat) to survive. So, what does your body do when it senses prolonged energy restriction? Not eating enough calories…
Slows down thyroid production – Your thyroid is responsible for fat, carbohydrate, and protein metabolism, among other things. Your body has the ability to slow down thyroid output in an effort to maintain energy balance [1].
1. Decreases muscle mass – Muscle is highly calorie intensive to maintain. In a prolonged extreme calorie deficit, it is one of the first things that your body looks to get rid of, especially if you’re not providing a stimulus to keep it. Your body needs the fat, wants the fat, and the muscle can be spared. It breaks down the muscle tissue and uses it for energy.
2. Lowers testosterone levels – An important hormone for both men and women, testosterone is just one of many hormones that are affected with severe calorie restriction [2]. Testosterone is anabolic to muscle tissue. Without it, it becomes that much harder to maintain, let alone put on muscle mass.
3. Decreases leptin levels – Leptin is one of many energy regulating hormones. More importantly, it’s a “hunger” hormone that tells you whether to eat or not. High leptin levels signal that it’s OK to stop eating, while low leptin levels are a signal to eat more energy. Because of this, leptin levels decrease in calorie restricted environments [3].
4. Decreases energy levels – There are many physical actions your body takes when you’re not eating enough calories, but there are also some mental ones. Neurotransmitter production is limited, which can lead to a lack of motivation. It’s your body’s way of telling you to “slow down” – conserve your energy.
http://www.coachcalorie.com/not-eating-enough-calories-to-lose-weight/
