Recipe: Asian Mango Cabbage Slaw

This is one of my favourite summer salads. Refreshingly sweet, sour, and savoury.

Gluten-free, low-carb, dairy-free, vegan and egg-free.

Asian Cabbage Mango Slaw
Original recipe from Skinnytaste.com, but with a few modifications in red below.

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups shredded cabbage
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1/2 bunch chopped kale
• 1 mango, not fully ripe
• 3 medium scallions, chopped (or 2 green onions, chopped)
• 1 tsp black and white sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped
• 3 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1/2 lime, juiced (approx 1 tbsp)
• 1 tbsp low sodium soy sauce (or tamari for gluten free)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp fresh miso paste

Directions:

1. Julienne the mango (cut into strips). Combine with the cabbage, carrots, scallions and toss together in a large bowl.
2. Prepare the dressing by whisking together the rice vinegar, soy sauce, and lime juice; slowly whisk in the oil.
3. Pour the dressing over the cabbage mixture and toss to coat. Let it sit at least 15-20 minutes to let the dressing soak in.
4. Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Whole30 Day 26 – Uh oh, day off…

Brunch (@ Cafe Zen)

TC took me out to brunch on my lovely day off!

Supposedly the best eggs benedict in Vancouver. It was pretty darn good, but I can’t say if it was truly the best. My heart still goes out to Lola in Seattle and Vendome Cafe in Calgary (which I know aren’t in Vancouver, but “the best” should still be of comparable epicness!!).

• 2 eggs benedicts – 1 shrimp and avocado, 1 crab and avocado. Side of hash browns. TOTALLY NOT PALEO. THE WHOLE THING.

Snack (@ Tealips)

Another mega cheat today, but this time in the sugar category. First time trying this place, since my local favourite, Pearl Drops Teahouse, closed unexpectedly. They were the only ones I knew who brewed loose leaf tea for every cup of bubble tea, but I received a recommendation to try Ninja Bubble Tea, so that will be my next adventure 🙂

• 1 strawberry lemon green tea – Half sweet, extra lemon, with 1/2 pearls, 1/2 mango stars, and 1/2 grass jelly. 1/2 orders that is. Because 3 x 1/2 doesn’t = 1. Bahaha. It was still too sweet…why do people like their sweets SO sweet?!

Snack (@ home)

• A small spoon of chocolate truffle.

Dinner (@ home)

• Asian mango cabbage slaw – One of my favourite summer salads when mangos are in season. Fresh and nutritious. Homemade dressing. Recipe here.
• “Butter chicken” – Chicken, onions, and cauliflower in a butter chicken style sauce. This sauce comes in a jar from Costco, so it isn’t actually from scratch. But I ate it over zuccini instead of rice or bread! 😀

      

Exercise

Bootcamp. Tough one today. Loved it.

Wins

I don’t even deserve to put anything here. The cheating was out of control today.

Challenges

Today was Memorial Day (in the US, but since I’m on a US project, I get the day off too). On top of that, in Canada, everyone else is working. Which makes it a perfect time to be out and about. Other than the awesome weather and lots of walking around time, we did indeed eat/snack naughty things 😦

Thoughts?

I’m allowing more and more cheats lately, and of bigger significance. Gotta cut back…just a few days to stick through!

Whole30 Day 25 – WTF happened today?!

Thoughts?

I honestly have no idea WTF happened today or what I ate. And no, it’s not a selective memory food binge amnesia…I literally don’t have any photos in my phone from this day. Probably some leftovers of some sort? Don’t worry, if I cheated severely, I definitely would’ve remembered (even without the photos) and would’ve reported it.

Whole30 Day 24 – The morning after.

Breakfast (@ home)

• 2 scrambled eggs
• 1 homemade pork breakfast patty – Yes, that’s a slice of cheese on it.
• 1 slice of proscuitto
• A few slices of tomato
• Some leftover caramelized onions

 

Snack (on the go!)

• 1 medium banana
• A handful of yam chips
• A handful of dried fruit

Lunch (@ Tora Sushi)

• Tuna tataki salad – Yums! But it came with some of these fried noodle thingies on top that were delicious but definitely not Paleo-friendly 😛
• A few pieces of sushi 🙂

Snack (@ home)

• A small spoon of chocolate truffle.

Dinner (@ TC’s parents’ place)

Chinese food. Homecooked but still a challenge to stick to only Paleo-friendly items.

Exercise

None.

Wins

Nothing notable.

Challenges

Saying no to things that come on a restaurant dish but weren’t described on a menu so you could ask for it to be excluded. Fried crispy noodle things on top of a tuna tataki salad are nearly impossible to resist…

Thoughts?

How do people give up drinking on the Paleo diet? 😛

Whole30 Day 23 – Uh oh, BBQ season.

Breakfast (@ home)

• 2 scrambled eggs
• 1 homemade pork breakfast patty
• 1 slice of proscuitto
• 1 slice of smoked salmon
• 1/2 an avocado

No snack! 😀

Lunch (@ home)

• Leftover green curry –  Chicken, eggplant, and zucchini on squash.
• Leftover takeout salads from Tractor Foods

     

Snack (@ home)

• A small spoon of chocolate truffle.

Yep, I made a new batch of truffles in preparation for tonight’s BBQ. This batch was even smoother than the last, and was easier to scoop and roll, so I went ahead and made them all pretty and presentable 🙂

Dinner (@ home)

Hosted a BBQ tonight to celebrate TC finishing his final exam and successfully passing his course! There were a lot of Paleo-naughty things, and you can bet there was a lot of drinking :S But if it counts for anything, I had my burger with a lettuce wrap instead of a bun? 😀

ANYWAY, no picture of this BBQ spread, because that’s just masochistic and cruel.

Exercise

None.

Wins

Fun discovery – curry on squash is actually pretty delicious. It doesn’t exactly give the starch foundation texture you’re probably looking for (like rice or noodles), but it does make the meal feel more substantial and interestingly thickens up the sauce in a nice way. I liked it 🙂

Challenges

Hosting parties. Can’t force Paleo-eating on other people (and expect them to enjoy it), so I had all sorts of Paleo-naughty things out – crackers, cheese, chips, cheese, cupcakes, cheese…

Thoughts?

I rather enjoy burgers with a lettuce wrap instead of a bun. I had been doing it for some time already even before Whole30, and will continue to do it after Whole30 is done.

Whole30 Day 22 – My first homemade steamed fish

Breakfast (@ home)

• 2 scrambled eggs
• 2 slices of proscuitto
• 2 slices of tomato

No snack! 😀

Lunch (@ home)

• Leftover meatballs – On zoodles and squash.

Snack (@ home)

• A small spoon of chocolate truffle.
• A few coconut chips.

Dinner (@ home)

• Steamed fish (thanks to my parents’ fishing! :D) – My first time steaming my own fish, Chinese style. It was a great success!
• Takeout salad from Tractor Foods yesterday – Yes, I liked it so much I got a takeout order of it to go home…

     

Exercise

Bootcamp! Week 2 is over – today’s workout wasn’t really as challenging as some of the other ones, but it was still really good.

Wins

No major cheats today…feelin pretty good about that!

Challenges

Nothing notable today.

Thoughts?

Should my breakfast have a bit more variety? It looks almost the exact same every single morning…but I like it! Honestly, I used to not really enjoy breakfast, but it has now become my favourite meal of the day!

Whole30 Day 21 – Eating out for Chinese food is a bad Paleo idea.

Breakfast (@ home)

• 2 scrambled eggs
• 1 homemade pork breakfast patty
• 1 slice of proscuitto
• 3 slices of tomato

No snack! 😀

Lunch (@ Tractor Foods)

A fantastic fast food / cafeteria-style restaurant in the heart of Kitsilano, as suggested by the friend I was meeting for lunch today.

• Broccoli asparagus butternut squash salad – THIS WAS SO YUM!!
• Seared ahi tuna

Lunch #2 (@ home)

I must not have had enough protein in my lunch…

• Meatballs in spaghetti sauce – On zoodles and squash.

Snack (@ home)

• A small spoon of chocolate truffle.
• A few coconut chips.

Dinner (@ Wah Lun Chinese Restaurant)

This is one of our favourite local Chinese restaurants. Don’t let the Yelp reviews fool you – the food is good and my family comes here frequently for dim sum and dinner. My parents went fishing recently and brought back a bunch of fresh fish, and this place cooks them for us! We had a big family dinner, but all I gotta say is it’s nearly impossibly to eat out Chinese food without being Paleo-naughty. Oh well.

Exercise

None.

Wins

Really pleased with my friend’s recommendation of Tractor Foods – I will DEFINITELY be back! Probably soon lol 😉

Challenges

Eating Chinese food out. Just don’t do it.

Thoughts?

Tractor Foods is the bomb. Sounding like a broken record here, but seriously obsessing over their fresh, local eats.

Homemade Almond/Coconut Milk & Flour – You won’t believe how easy it is!

I really like this blog where I learned how to make my own Almond Milk / Almond Flour and Coconut Milk / Coconut Flour. If you’ve never made this before, you’ll be shocked at how incredibly easy (and affordable) it is!!

First, soak your almonds in water. I usually do this overnight, just so I don’t have to think about it 🙂 Pictured below is 1 cup. I get my almonds in bulk from Costco (Kirkland brand). I know there’s a bunch of controversy these days about gassing nuts, etc. etc. etc. but I have always liked Costco nuts – good quality and very good price.

Wash and rinse your almonds, then put them in a blender with water. The recipe calls for 8-10 cups of water for 1 cup of almonds, but I found this ratio to be too watery – so I doubled up on almonds. 1 cup almonds for 4 cups of water. Then blend away!

Pour your milk into a container through a nut bag. I use carebags made by the Vancouver-based company Cool Earth Products. These are actually supposed to be reuseable produce bags for when you go grocery shopping, but they are GREAT as nut bags too!

If you don’t have a nut bag, you could try a couple layers of cheese cloth or a fine mesh strainer.

Now, PLEASE-UH SQUEEZE-UH!

And there you have your homemade almond milk. Yes, seriously. It was THAT easy.

But wait! Save your pulp! Bake it in your oven at the lowest setting (170 Celsius for me) until the pulp is dried out. You may need to go in and move it around a bit halfway through…

Throw it in a blender and pulse a few times until you get a powder. I don’t make it super fine, because I err on the side of under-blending for fear of creating almond butter instead of almond powder (although there are many worse things in life other than making almond butter by accident :D)

Voila! Homemade almond flour, instead of that super expensive stuff in the stores!!

    

My belly (and my wallet) thank you for these wonderful homemade DIY almond products 😀

Whole30 Day 20 – Yay, yay! 2/3 of the way!

Breakfast (@ home)

• 2 scrambled eggs
• 2 slices of reduced salt bacon
• 1 slice of proscuitto
• 1/2 avocado

No snack! 😀

Lunch (@ home)

Leftovers again 🙂

• Beef stirfry – With a sunny side-up egg on cauliflower “rice”

Snack (@ home)

• A small spoon of chocolate truffle.
• A few coconut chips.

Dinner (@ home)

• Taiwanese Meat Sauce – Normally on noodles, but I had mine on some eggplant!
• Stirfried cabbage
• Homemade chicken feet soup – My first time attempting to make Chinese soup from scratch. Chicken feet, carrots, onions, celery, and a bit of soy sauce 🙂

          

Exercise

Bootcamp today! It was “fun” 😀

Wins

Less cheats today, woohoo!

Challenges

Haven’t really been able to test much of my “eating out” Paleo discipline lately (other than takeout), since I’ve been working and eating from home so much (which isn’t really that bad of a thing!)

Thoughts?

Looking less trim in the mirror than I was maybe about a week ago. It’s a bit discouraging, but it’s probably just normal fluctuation.

Whole30 Day 19 – Getting back onto the wagon

Breakfast (@ home)

• 2 scrambled eggs
• 2 slices of proscuitto
• 1/2 avocado
• 1/4 large papaya

No snack! 😀

Lunch (@ home)

Leftovers from dinner last night 🙂

• Beef stirfry – With a sunny side-up egg on cauliflower “rice”

Snack (@ home)

• A couple small spoons of chocolate truffle.
• A few homemade yam chips.
• A few coconut chips.
• 1/2 slice SOO brand pork jerky.

Dinner (@ home)

• Green curry – With chicken, eggplant, and zucchini. Served on cauliflower “rice”. First time using this green curry paste and I made it way too spicy – TC and I were DYING! So I threw it back in the wok with some extra coconut milk, and that saved our tongues for the rest of the meal 😛

Exercise

None.

Wins

I am lovin this cauliflower “rice” substitute!!

Challenges

Condiments. Still a challenge. Not stressed over it though…it’s such a minor thing!

Thoughts?

Nothing too particular today…happy Monday! 🙂