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Look no further, these delicious Asian ideas will help you get your cooking flair back and keep the carbs at bay.
Do you ever feel you are in a cooking rut, especially on a particular diet? Well, let’s get away from the word “diet” and focus on “nutritional lifestyle”. If you are reading this, you are probably adept at whipping up a few favorite meals and rotate them through the week. But you’re getting tired of the same old flavors and you are tempted to introduce tasty carbs back into your meal plan. Before you do that, perhaps it would be a better idea to add more variety to your diet with different herbs, spices, and ingredients. The South Beach Diet book offers numerous delicious recipes and meal plans, but they are hard to stick to once you tire of them. The Internet has a plethora of ideas, but they tend to involve plenty of cold salads, beans, salsa, omelettes, frittatas, grilled meat and fish type of ideas. One of the golden rules for diet success is to have alot of variety in your meals. So shake things up and cook in a completely different style — go Asian. There are plenty of traditional recipes you could put a South Beach spin on. Here are a few easy ideas that will whet your appetite and keep your eye on the low carb ball. Get WokkingHigh-heat stir-fries are typical of Chinese fare. The holy trinity of sesame oil, soy sauce, and oyster sauce, are a ubiquitous combination in non-spicy Chinese meat and vegetable stir-fry dishes. When you’re trying to cut calories, you may be hesitant to indulge in too much oil, which is good advice to take. But olive oil is a great alternative to vegetable oil and is championed in the South Beach Diet book as a good way to help keep your insulin levels stable. Ease up on the sauces and use sparingly, while load up on chopped garlic, white onions, spring onions, and ginger slices to flavor your food. Curry It UpCurries tend to get a bad rep for being too oily and full of coconut milk, but you can adjust the recipes or buy healthy pre-made ones. Choose low-fat coconut milk in Thai curries or go without any in Indian curries that typically go without. There are plenty off-the-shelf brands that have MSG and preservative-free curries that are sealed in airtight packets. Boil In A Hot PotAcross Asia, there is always some kind of hot pot on offer. From tom yum to miso to kimchi soup, this fuss-free type of cuisine is packed with flavor but is extremely nutritious. The secret lies in the broth, which makes everything you cook mouth-watering. All you need is a steamboat pot (electrical) or a clay pot (you need a small portable gas stove), where you throw in all your lean meat and vegetables and let them simmer away. It is quick to prepare and fills you up pretty quickly. Slow CookYou could use your crock-pot to make Asian stews. The beauty of this is you can throw in all your ingredients in the morning, set it on low heat, and have a cooked meal eight hours later. Another advantage is you can use tough cuts from beef or pork that have very little fat, but the prolonged time in the crock-pot allows the sinews to melt into juicy luscious chunks. Dark soy sauce, a handful of cloves and a stick of cinnamon, with your crock-pot filled half-full of water, is a simple savory Chinese recipe. If you are strictly on a no-carb phase, you can cut out carrots and radish. There are many crock-pot Asian recipes out there so tap on them for hassle-free dinner recipes. Steam AwayThis is not quite the first choice for many people as it implies a very bland outcome. But many Chinese dishes are actually steamed — namely fish, chicken, vegetables, and tofu. Again, the sauce is important to get things right. A few dollops of oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil with a generous serving of garlic, cilantro, spring onions, and ginger can do wonders for fish, while a handful of wolfberries naturally sweetens the popular combination of garlic and soy sauce with chicken breast. These are just the tip of the iceberg for Asian fare as there are so many different cultures and cuisines to choose from — just leave out the white rice.
The copyright of the article Go South Beach Asian Style in Balancing Meals is owned by Yu Ming Lui. Permission to republish Go South Beach Asian Style in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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