Cucumber and Avocado Cold soup

1 Avocado, 1 jalapeno, cilantro

4 peeled, cut cucumber, lime to squeeze in soup

 

Throw all ingredients into blender to blend

Finished product

 

 Ingredients

4 cucumber peeled cut

1 jalapeno (but I like it spicy so I put two) deseed it

cilantro ( 2 or 3 sprigs, your choice)

2 stalks of green onion ( not in original recipe, I like onions so I put some in)

half a lime to squeeze in to taste

salt to your taste

Directions:

Throw everything together and blend.  You are going to have to shift the ingredients with a wooden spoon during the blending.  What I did was, pulse it in the blender, stop it then flip blender upside and put back on stand, blend it again. At first, my blender was being stubborn and it didn’t want to to blend, that’s why I had to shake it and move ingredients around.  Once it gets going it will blend well.  After it is well blended, just squeeze lime  and throw salt (1/2 tsp) into the mix and blend for a few seconds. Then it’s done.  I made steak, corn and then ate the soup for dinner one night.  Sooo good!  I know it might not look it but it’s a great summer soup.

This recipe is from Chef Joy Pierson from lastest issue of First magazine.  I wanted some soup, but since it was hot as hell outside, I decided I needed to find a cold soup recipe.  This is very tasty and healthy.  It was easy to make as well.

Lao Food

For some Americans, starting a pot of coffee signals the start of the day, but for many Laotians, it’s putting on the rice steamer.  When I was living at home, my parents would always get up early to cook the rice and that’s how we would wake up, with the fragrant smell of rice wafting through the house.  To us this meant, delicious food was not too far off.

Both my mom and dad have their speciality when it comes to meals.  One of my dad’s speciality is pork sausage which he makes from scratch.  He usually uses a hind portion of the pork to make it. He does not use a meat grinder to cut the meat.  Instead he chops it up because he likes the rough texture and chewy texture of the finished product.  He uses many seasoning, spices, and herbs such as thai pepper and lemon grass in the sausage.  The end result is a delicious sausage that you can freeze and cook and eat later like I did one afternoon.  To balance out the slightly greasy taste of the sausage, I accompanied it with brown rice.

Mom’s visit

Dessert

Stir-fry

Beef salad

A couple of weeks ago, my mom came to visit my siblings and I.  Before she came down I told her that I would like for her to cook me some of my favorites especially the desserts since I rarely eat it! When she came down she brought my dad’s famous beef meatballs which he has become an expert in making over the years. Also she brought some of delicious pork sausage that we cook in the oven and ate with rice. 

My mom made stir-fry, dessert, pho, and salads for us.  She cooked the whole week she was here. Sitting in the kitchen and eating together reminds me of my time at home as a kid and teenager. Her cooking brings back memories of friends and family coming over to eat on the weekends where we would have at lest five main dishes.  The adults would be sprawl out in the living room floor sitting on the matts and the kids would be sitting on the kitchen floor with their food.  The adults would be eating, drinking, and laughing at something somebody else would say.  After the meals were over, somebody would crank up the stereo and put on some Lao tape. Then some people would get up and start up the lum vong.  Some would dance, some would sing while others just sat back and relax and laugh at everybody else.

I along with the rest of the teenagers would help the women clean up and wash the dishes.  Then all the teenagers would go outside and visit while our parents stayed inside the house. 

My mom’s visit reminds me of how much I miss living in a Lao community where everybody knew each other, where one Lao person helped another, where we enjoy the simple things in life.

Shirataki Noodles

One of my favorite food is pho and I have discover a healthy substitute for the starchy noodle that is used in the soup. I found these Shirataki noodles at the Asian store in Phoenix, but I am pretty sure if you live in a town with a large Asian population you will be able to find it as well. If not you can also order it online even though it will be a little more expensive. Each package was about 1.25 at the Asian store. I found it among the food in the refrigerated area.

I am one of those people who always read food labels for the nutrition fact because I try to buy food that is high fiber, low fat, low sodium, low sugar, and low carb. The nutrition fact on the traditional Japanese noodles really impressed me because it is low carb, high fiber ( contains the dietary fiber glucomannan), and low calorie. However, I didn’t know if I was going to like it or how I was going to cook it, but decided to give it a try since it was healthy.

 Since I was craving Pho I went home and made it and decided to substitute the real rice noodles with the Shirataki. Note, there is a slightly pungent fishy smell when you open the package, but once you cook it the smell disappears. Just follow the instruction on the package on how to cook the noodles before you put it in the Pho soup. Personally, I love the chewey and crunchy texture of the noodles. I have added the link to the page that contains more information about this healthy noodles as well as to recipes . http://www.shiratakinoodles.net/