Dukan Stir Fried Shirataki Noodles

Stir Fried Shirataki Noodles

We loved this recipe!

We didn't use the Shirataki Tofu noodles, we just used regular shirataki noodles which to us are still Dukan friendly and low carb.  This was a nice light side dish to go with our beef hekka...the male half who doesn't care of Shirataki Tofu noodles used as a substitute for pasta actually liked this!

The great thing about shirataki noodles -- we both never feel bloated after we eat it -- we usually feel bloated after eating regular pasta.  Shirataki noodles are Dukan friendly and we found a Paleo - ish recipe for Fried Shirataki noodles -- although it does state that some wouldn't agree on shirataki being allowed.

Another, light and healthy dish to start of the new year!

Slice up cabbage, regular cabbage works too.  Bean Sprouts can
be added or substituted as well as other veggies.

In a dry, hot wok or pan, stir fry your noodles to remove moisture

Remove noodles from pan and add veggies, stir fry until soft, but not
too soft!

Add meat (optional) and stir fry, we would slice the meat thinner than
this.  Your meat will heat faster and less chance for it to dry out.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4 (if we had this on its own, we probably could have finished the entire wok of noodles)

Prep Time: 10-20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes or so

2 - 13 oz bags of shirataki noodles (I'm sure the Shirataki Tofu noodles would work too)
1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
6 pieces of won bok (Napa cabbage), sliced
a handful of sliced shiitake mushrooms, soak them in water first if yours are dried
2 slices of left over Rump Roast (optional, but if you do use the leftovers, it may be dry, try to cut the leftover roast into thin slices so you don't have to cook it long to heat it)
1 - 2  t. sesame oil
2 T. Gluten Free Tamari, low sodium soy sauce or Bragg's Amino Liquid - depending on which diet you are on

Rinse and drain noodles.  Over high heat and in a dry wok or pan, stir fry your noodles to dry out your noodles out.  We fried ours in two batches.  Place the dried, fried noodles in a dry colander.  Spray your wok with a little non-stick spray or olive oil if you're on the Paleo diet, stir fry garlic until fragrant.  Add veggies and stir fry until soft.  Add meat and stir fry until heated through.  Add noodles back to pan and stir everything up.  Add tamari (or soy sauce or Bragg's) and 1 t. of the sesame oil.  Stir and taste.  If you need more tamari/soy sauce or sesame oil, add a little more.  Be careful not to add too much sesame oil, a little goes a long way and too much can be overpowering...not to mention, it's oil!

We added a handful mizuna (another green) but it's optional.  Bean sprouts would have been great with these noodles also!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Rump Roast (it's Paleo - ish too!)

Juicy Rump Roast

We loved this recipe!

The male half doesn't like to eat much meat these days, but he really enjoyed this rump roast.  As we combed the internet for Paleo recipes, we saved the Domestic Man's Perfect Eye of Round Roast recipe.  Wow, lean, inexpensive meat can be tender?  Yes, it can -- but the leftovers weren't as tender as the first meal we had from the roast.

We actually ended up with a Rump Roast -- couldn't find Eye of Round at any of the markets near us, only round steak but it was only about a pound.  We made two mistakes -- the first being we opened the oven because our roast fell over in the pan and the second being we took the roast out 10 minutes early -- so, our roast was a little underdone.  We bought a meat thermometer...but a cheap one and it's going in the trash since it didn't work :-(  The other issue with our oven is, it's our landlady's oven and it's probably as old as me or older -- it cooks unevenly, it's hard to bakes cakes or anything in that oven.  We turned the oven back on after realizing it was undercooked and followed the Domestic Man's instructions of 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes and cooked it to a medium rare (which is what I like).

We'll probably try this again.  It wasn't fatty, it was tender and juicy...but as mentioned earlier, the leftovers ended up well done and tough.  So, if we do try this recipe again, we'll make it when we have company over.    It was a nice comfort type food to have without it being super fatty.  We made a gravy with the pan drippings, cornstarch and water because we were worried the roast would be dry - but in our opinions, it really didn't need it.  The seasoning on this roast and the juiciness was just perfect.

We're classifying this recipe as a Dukan and Paleo - ish recipe since we didn't use grass-fed beef.

We ate about half of the roast.  The male half had his with mashed potatoes and I had it as a pure protein meal.  The other half we used in a frittata and a stir fried shirataki noodle dish -- recipes to come.  Next time we'll try adding some carrots to the pan.

RECIPE:
Serves 4-6
Prep Time: 35 minutes
Cook Time: 7 minutes per pound plus 2.5 hours with the oven off

2-8 lbs. rump roast or eye of round roast (we used 2.5 lbs)
1 t. kosher salt
1 t. black pepper
1/2 t. dried thyme
6 cloves garlic, minced

Mix together your seasonings then rub all over your cleaned roast (rinse and pat dry).  Leave your roast sit out for 30 minutes to allow it to come to room temperature before cooking.  Preheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.  We don't have a roaster or a dutch oven, so we put our roast in a 9x13 baking pan lined with foil.  Place your roast in the oven and bake for 7 minutes per pound -- ours came out to 17.5 minutes.  Then turn the oven off and do NOT open the door.  Leave your roast in the oven for 2 1/2 hours -- if you follow instructions (not like us), your Eye of Round or Rump Roast should be perfectly cooked.

Take the roast out of the oven and use a meat thermometer to check the temperature, it should read between 130 and 150 degrees.  If it doesn't, do what the Domestic Man recommends and put it back in the oven at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes and check it every 10 minutes until it reaches 130-150 degrees.  Place your finished roast on a cutting board or plate and cover with foil and let it rest about 10 minutes before carving.

The Domestic Man says you can also roast the meat at 170 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.  Just remember, like our old, falling apart oven, results will most likely vary.

We had enough pan drippings to make some gravy with cornstarch but it wasn't necessary.  I had this by itself since I'm in the Cruise Phase of the Dukan Diet and it was my PP day.  The male half had his with broccoli since he's not trying to lose weight and he can do a PV day everyday.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Chopped Steak

Chopped Steak

We loved this recipe...and it's easy to adjust to your own taste!

For some reason, we craved an old time Hawaii favorite -- Chopped Steak.  Everyone had their version of it...this one is close to our grandma's except we thickened the sauce a little too much.  Next time we probably won't thicken the sauce this much.  Sunday was a PP day for me, so we made our Chopped Steak the "classic" way -- beef and onions.

Grandma sometimes added bean sprouts or celery and carrots.  The sauce is basically a teriyaki sauce.  It's quick, easy and you can change the beef out for chicken or even tofu.  The thickened sauce worked for me because I had it plain....the male half of this couple had his Chopped Steak with a scoop of red rice, so a runnier sauce would have been fine for him.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2-4 (we got three servings out of ours)
Prep Time: 10 minutes, plus 20 minutes to marinate steak
Cook Time: less than 10 minutes

1 lb. beef, thinly sliced (we used a NY Steak and removed the excess fat, not our favorite cut, but it was reasonably priced)
1 yellow onion, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 t. cornstarch mixed with 1 t. water (optional or you can use less if you want a runnier sauce)

Marinade:
1/4 c. low sodium soy sauce (we used almost a 1/4 c. and filled the rest of the cup with water -- high blood pressure)
2 to 3 t. natural sweetener (we used 2 t., start with 1 t. and taste as you add your sweetener to find a taste you like)
1 t. vinegar
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced or grated

Combine marinade ingredients.  Add beef and marinate for 20 minutes.

Heat pan over high heat, spray lightly with non stick spray; add onions and cook until soft.  Remove onions and set aside.  Place beef in pan with marinade.  Stir fry until cooked through (ours took 3-4 minutes).  If you want to thicken your sauce, remove beef leaving sauce in pan, if you want to leave your sauce as is, skip this step.  Add your cornstarch/water mixture, stir constantly and lower heat.  Simmer until sauce thickens.

Return beef and onions to pan and stir to coat.  Serve as is or over a bed of brown or red rice.

If you're adding vegetables like bean sprouts, we would toss the veggies in after you remove the onions, cook until veggies are tender, remove veggies and continue with cooking your beef, etc.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Mongolian Beef

Mongolian Beef

This is a schedule post...we are on the road again!  It may take us a while to respond to comments...thank you!

We loved this recipe!

We'll probably try it with chicken since the beef was a bit dry and we're trying not to eat beef.  This is another recipe from our archives...just didn't have the energy to post it.

We love cooking Chinese stir fry type of dishes...they are flavorful and cook up pretty quickly.   We had this during Cruise even though it has a small amount of oyster sauce and sesame oil....it's up to you.  We didn't experience any weight gain from eating it.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (he had red rice with his and I had mine plain)
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes, plus 30 minutes marinating time
Cook Time: Just a few minutes

1 lb. lean beef, sliced into small pieces
2 stalks of green onion, chopped (or sliced)
1 inch ginger, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced

Marinade:
1 t. cornstarch
1 t. soy sauce
1 T. water
1 t. Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing)

Sauce:
2 t. oyster sauce
2 T. low sodium soy sauce (we used 1 1/2 T. plus 1/2 T. water)
2 dashes pepper
1/4 t. sesame oil
1 T. natural sweetener or to taste (we used Xylitol)

Marinate beef for 30 minutes.  Heat up wok with a small amount of olive oil.  Stir fry beef until halfway done.  Remove beef from wok and set aside.  Add more olive oil if needed, saute garlic and ginger until fragrant (a minute or two).  Add beef back to wok, then sauce and stir fry until beef is almost done, then add green onions.  Stir a couple more times and serve.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Vietnamese Beef Salad

Vietnamese Beef Salad

We loved this recipe...but we're using chicken thighs next time.

We made this back in July...it was a perfect addition to our salad on a humid summer day.

We haven't mastered the art of cooking lean beef...it usually comes out on the drier side...not beef jerky dry though.  We try not to eat beef, but the female half was in a beef mood!

This recipe comes from one of our other favorite recipe sites, Noble Pig.  Noble Pig has a great looking site and of course, everything looks yummy.  Everything we've tried from this site has been delicious.  Their recipe isn't a salad recipe, but we had it over a bed of romaine and didn't need dressing.

RECIPE:
Serves 2-4 (4 if you serve it with rice or quinoa)
Prep time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 6 minutes or so

1 lb. lean beef, sliced into small pieces, fat removed
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 T. olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper
1 small red onion cut into 1/4" wedges
2 green onion stalks, chopped (we forgot to add ours in!)

For Sauce:
2 T. soy sauce
2 T. lime juice, freshly squeezed
1 1/2 T. splenda brown sugar
1 T. fish sauce

In a small bowl, combine sauce ingredients.  In a separate bowl, combine the garlic, oil and pepper.

Season the beef with salt and pepper.  We cooked ours in a wok over medium high heat using some non-stick spray.  When wok is hot, add 1/2 the beef in a single layer.  Cook without turning until browned, 1-2 minutes.  Using tongs, turn beef and brown the other side, 1-2 minutes.  Transfer to a boil or plate and cook the other half of the beef using the same method.

Spray wok or add a small amount of olive oil and heat until shimmering hot.  Stir fry onions until tender, a couple of minutes.  Add garlic mixture, stir constantly until fragrant, about 30 seconds.  Return beef with juices to wok and stir to combine.  Add soy sauce mixture.  Stir until sauce thickens.  Remove from heat and serve with quinoa, brown rice, over a salad or by itself.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Flamidwyfe's Cuban Steak (It's a Dukan Recipe!)

Flamidwyfe's Cuban Steak

We loved this!

Thank you, Flamidwfye!  We love Cuban food.  There's really only one Cuban restaurant here in Honolulu.  The food is tasty, but pricey so we don't go there very often.  Which is why we love trying Cuban recipes at home!


Decided to try Flamidwyfe's Cuban Flank Streak recipe without the onions and mushrooms since it's a Pure Protein Day for the female half of this couple.  We used her marinade recipe exactly as she posted but only had time to marinade our meat for about 4 hours.  It was still fabulous.  We went ahead and used all the oil the recipe called for!  (Oh, we used one pound of meat since we were feeding two people, so the recipe below is Flamidwyfe's recipe doubled.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (male half at rice and look funn with his, if he didn't have starches, we would have needed 1 1/2 lbs of beef)
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: approximately 7-8 minutes for medium rare, 1" thick steaks

1 lb. beef, top round steak (fat trimmed, we tenderized using the salting method, use the 1 tsp of salt for each side and be sure to rinse your steaks well, if you are using this method, be prepared to salt for an hour or so)

Marinade ingredients:
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 c. olive oil
2 tsp. cumin
2 tsp. Italian Seasoning
2 t. garlic powder
1 1/2 T. soy sauce, plus 1/2 T. water (if you're not watching your sodium intake, ok to use 2 T.)
1 t. favorite hot sauce (we used Frank's RedHot)

Put marinate ingredients in a large ziploc bag.  Mix marinade well.  Add steaks.  Shake up.  Refrigerate for 8 hours or more (we only had time for 4, but it was still tasty).  Turn bag occasionally.  Before grilling steak, let steaks sit at room temperature (we usually let it sit for 10-15 minutes).  Heat a grill pan or frying pan over high heat, spray with a little bit of non-stick spray and place steaks in pan.  Cook for 4-5 minutes, turn steaks over and cook another 3 minutes or so for medium rare 1 inch steaks.

The white rolled up things in the photos are look funn, a Chinese flat rice noodle that's rolled.  The look funn factory in Chinatown here sells them plain, with char siu (pork) or shrimp but we've seen them with scallops too.  You can eat them as is or fry them up like we did.  It was a special treat for the male half of this couple.  He's not Asian, but he sure loves Asian foods!

Enjoy...we sure did...and thanks again to Flamidwyfe for the 'ono (delicious) recipe.  We'll definitely try this with chicken next time!

Dukan Style Loco Moco

Dukan Loco Moco

Hmmm...we were torn on this one.  There were some things about this we both loved and some we were just okay with.  First, the male half did NOT like that we used so much mustard.  He doesn't care for mustard, probably for the same reason he doesn't care for much vinegar in his food.  He did like that it was something different and in Hawaii, who doesn't love an over-easy egg over your food ;-)  The female half loves mustard, so the sauce was delicious, but it could have use more spice.  We both didn't care for the not so tender beef, should have tenderized it first with a mallet.  The male half would have preferred chicken over beef because it's less fatty but we already had 3 chicken dishes planned for the weekend, so beef it was!

A Loco Moco is a very popular dish in Hawaii.  It was created decades ago...as far as we can remember, at least 30 years ago.  The original version consisted of white rice topped with a hamburger patty, then one or two over-easy eggs and smothered with gravy.  The male half likes to call it a "heart-attack on a plate".  Over the years many restaurants have offered variations of the dish including fish instead of a hamburger patty, chili instead of gravy, all kinds of meats and some even offer you a choice on how you want your egg cooked.  

The female half has had her share of loco mocos growing up in Hawaii...her favorites are the original (but only with a homemade hamburger patty), the fish moco and the chili moco...with an over-easy egg of course.  Since Dukan, we've given up loco mocos but still love to "bust" the egg yolk over our food...so we decided to add an egg to this beef dish and call it our Dukan Loco Moco or Dukan Moco!

RECIPE:

Serves 2 (during Attack, if we both ate brown rice, this would have served 3 or 4)

Prep time: 5-10 minutes

Cook Time: approximately 8 minutes, but it depends on how you like your beef cooked

1 lb. beef top round (we picked up a tray of pre-sliced beef strips)

1 serving of Skinnytaste's Garlic Dijon Herb Sauce (see recipe below)

2 T. Dijon mustard (if you don't want a strong mustard taste, omit this)

1/2 jalapeno with most of the seeds removed (we should have use the whole thing and left more seeds in)

1 T. fresh cilantro, chopped fine

1 egg per person

Skinnytaste's Sauce - mash together with a mortar and pestle or a mini food processor

3-4 cloves garlic

1 t. herbs de Provence

1 t. red wine vinegar

2 T. Dijon mustard

1 t. olive oil (if you are using it, we left it out)

Mix Skinnytaste's sauce and set aside.  As mentioned above, the mustard was too strong for the male half..the female half loved it.  If you want a lot of sauce, make double the amount of sauce instead.  Heat a grill pan over medium high heat, spray with some nonstick spray and place meat in pan.  Cook until a little over 50% cooked.  Flip meat over and quickly add half the garlic sauce on the meat.  Cook to your preference.  We are medium rare people, so our cooking time wasn't long at all.  Turn meat over again and add the rest of the sauce to the meat.  We turned it over one last time and serve with or without an over-easy egg over the beef.  

We cooked our eggs just before the beef was done cooking.

Enjoy...we both did...sort of :-)

Low Fat Filipino Bistek Quesadillas (Citrus Steak and Onions)

Low Fat Filipino Bistek Quesadilla

A few weeks ago we tried a recipe called Filino Bistek from the Burnt Lumpia blog.  We didn't have kalamansi or calamansi so we decided to use lemons.  It was very tart and we wished we took the bloggers recommendation of adding water to the recipe.  If you can find kalamansi, please do use it, it makes a difference.  If you cannot find kalamansi, try using Meyer Lemons or regular lemon with the suggested amount of water from Burnt Lumpia's blog.  OR you can substitute the kalamansi and soy sauce with a ponzu sauce if you are able to find some..it tastes very similar to our sugar free yuzu ponzu sauce.   Where ever you are in the world, using the equivalent of a lemon/orange tasting fruit would most likely work.

Kalamansi

The first time we made this, the male half of this couple had his serving with rice and the female half had hers plain.  This version is Dukan and can be eaten during Consolidation and probably Cruise since kalamansi is like a lemon.  It's yummy...if you like citrusy things.

A week or so ago, the female half's co-worker offered up some kalamansi!  Wow!  Didn't even realize those were sold here...thought we could only get them in the Phillippines (the male half tried one in the Phillippines).  Our second batch of kalamansi we used for some Filipino Bistek Quesadillas.  We both loved it!  The recipe below is for our quesadillas, but you can use the steak filling over brown rice or with quinoa.

We didn't count this as a Celebration meal even though the fat free tortillas were not whole wheat.  If you have fat free whole wheat tortillas, that would be best.

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep time: 15-20 minutes, plus 30 minutes marinating time
Cook time: 10-20 minutes

1 lb. lean steak, sliced thinly
1/4 c. kalamansi juice (or lemon juice) - if using ponzu sauce as a substitute, omit soy sauce, we used approximately 8 kalamansi, but it really depends on how much juice your fruit has.
1/2 c. soy sauce, low sodium
3 cloves garlic, minced or smashed
1/2 lg. red onion, sliced into thin rings (you can use up to 1 lg. onion)
freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 fat-free tortillas
1 c. fat free cheddar cheese, shredded
Cilantro, chopped for garnish (we didn't use this, see note below)

Place the beef, kalamansi juice, soy sauce and garlic in a large zip lock bag and marinate for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Heat pan and spray lightly with non-stick spray, heat pan over medium-high heat.  Remove meat from the marinade (reserve marinade) and sear the meat on all sides, approximately 3-4 minutes total.  Remove meat from pan and set aside.  If the pan is dry, spray a little more non-stick spray and add onion rings to the pan.  Saute for about 3 minutes.

Pour half the reserved marinade into the pan with the onions, be sure to scrape up all the goodies in the pan and mix into the marinade.  (NOTE: if you are serving this over rice and would like sauce with your steak, use all the reserved marinade) Bring the liquid to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add pepper to taste.  If the sauce is too salty or too tart, add a little bit of water making sure you do not make your filling too wet for the quesadilla.

Dukan Filipino Bistek - served with quinoa

Add the meat back to the pan and cook for approximately 2 minutes.  While this is cooking, heat another pan (we used a grill pan), spray with non-stick spray and start toasting your tortilla, approximately 2 minutes on each side.  Sprinkle some cheese on half of the tortilla, spoon on half of your Filipino Bistek mixture (draining excess sauce) and spread evenly over half the tortilla.  Sprinkle more cheese over the steak mixture.  Fold over the tortilla so it looks like a large taco, turn your tortilla over.  After the cheese is melted, removed from pan, cut into desired pieces and serve!

NOTE: Originally we were going to have the second batch over quinoa, but a friend gave us the fat free tortillas so we decided at the last minute to make quesadillas...didn't have cilantro on hand, but it would have been a great addition!

Enjoy....we sure did!  We'll also be posting a Korean Quesadilla recipe soon!

Dukan Lomo Saltado (Peruvian Beef Stir Fry)

Lomo Saltado

We loved this recipe.

Well, it was love at first taste with lomo saltado some 12 years or so ago.  There is a great Peruvian restaurant in Torrance, California called El Pollo Inka and in our opinion, they have the best saltado.  We've had it with beef and chicken.  It is so tasty, mmm.  It also has french fries...bad.   Several years ago we tried to cut out most carbs which led us to making this dish at home (also because there are no Peruvian restaurants here in Hawaii) without the french fries.  We can't get the taste exactly the same as El Pollo Inka, but it's still a great tasting dish, even without the fries.

For the past few weeks we've enjoyed following Flamidwyfe's blog and she's mentioned several times "beef with cilantro".  Mmm..that made "lomo saltado" pop into our minds.  We knew after the holidays and our vacation we just had to make it.  We usually make pollo or chicken saltado because we try not to eat a whole lot of beef, but eye of round was on sale at our local market and honestly, we were too lazy/tired to stand in the kitchen cutting off fat from boneless/skinless chicken thighs.  The eye of round on sale were very thin slices of meat, we probably won't go with these super thin slices again.  Cooks too fast and dries out easily.  Most recipes have you cut the meat into 1/4" thick pieces which works much better.

We always forget how tasty and EASY this dish is to make.  So, thank you to flamidwyfe for jogging our memory!

Notes:  We usually make this dish once or twice a year and each time we try a new recipe in hopes to come as close as possible to El Pollo Inka's recipe.  This dish is usually made with tomatoes, but as mentioned in previous posts, the male half of this couple doesn't care for tomatoes, so we left them out. If you want the tomatoes, cut your tomatoes into thinnish wedges and removes the seeds before cooking.

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes

1 lb. lean beef, cut into 1/4" thick, 2" long pieces
1/2 red onion, cut into thin slices (or wedges - whichever you prefer)
4 T. cilantro, rinsed and chopped (leaves only)
a few drops of red wine vinegar
1 t. ground cumin
a pinch of cinnamon
1/2 t. black pepper
1/2 T. garlic, minced
1 aji amarillo (peruvian hot pepper or your choice of pepper, the peruvian one is about the size of a medium sized jalapeno), deseeded and sliced into thin slices
3 T. soy sauce, low sodium

In a bowl, toss sliced meat with 1/2 T. soy sauce, ground cumin and cinnamon.  Chop onions and peruvian pepper.  Over medium high heat, spray a wok with nonstick spray.  Saute garlic and half of your peruvian peppers for a minute or two.  Raise the heat to high and add beef slices.  Stir fry until meat is about 70% cooked.  Remove everything from wok and set aside (juice included).   Spray your wok with a little more nonstick spray and stir fry onions until barely soft.  Sprinkle between 4-8 drops of red wine vinegar (depending on your taste).  Continue to stir fry until vinegar evaporates (should only take a minute or less).  If you are adding tomatoes, remove the onions and repeat the onion process with the tomatoes.  If you are not adding tomatoes, add back the beef with all the juices, the rest of your Peruvian peppers and the remainder of soy sauce.  Stir fry for 30 seconds.  Add 2 1/2 T. cilantro.  Mix well and serve.  Garnish with remainder of cilantro.

His was served over white rice.  If you are making rice with this, add in a few drops of olive oil and a few dashes of garlic powder to your uncooked rice.

If making this with chicken, we usually cut our thighs into bite sized pieces, not strips.  We've also seen this dish made with shrimp.

Enjoy...we always do!