Healthy Eating…Eat Smart…Lemongrass Salad…

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Good morning…I hope all of you who celebrate Easter have had a great one…I hope you have enjoyed the Easter goodies, Hot Cross Buns and Easter eggs…I don’t think now there are any official holidays and celebrations before Christmas where copious amounts of Chocolate are on sale …Are there???

Then let’s begin our healthy eating in earnest… But before we do let’s just take a minute to remember all those poor souls who lost their lives, limbs or a loved one(s) in the Easter bombings…Pray for universal Peace…

Lighted candles

Photo credit: abitarroza on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Nelson Mandela…No One is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, background or religion. People learn to hate and if they can learn to hate they can learn to love…

Eat Smart…Now to the way forward… Luckily (as) I really did fancy an easter egg…There are not any for sale here…My weight loss so far so good…It was the 5th February that I stopped drinking alcohol and the soda which went with it also the biscuits with my morning tea which I changed to green tea as biscuits are not the same dunked in Green Tea…Are they? I also stopped the haribos and any processed food although I didn’t eat much-processed food as I cook from scratch…

The results so far...It is 11 weeks without a drop of alcohol…Do I miss it actually honestly …No!…I have had a visit from my son and we went out and about and I didn’t waver…

Total weight loss is 6.6 kg ( 14.5 lb) approx just over a lb a week…Which I am happy with it is a steady loss and I feel much better…I am walking more although the heat is a killer I have to go earlier in the day than normal as it gets too hot…I am also sleeping much I am not waking up with those palpitations I was getting…I do believe if we listen to our bodies they do tell us when we need to take action and I feel far more awake and lively…

Thai Lemon grass Salad…Yum Takrai

Thai Lemongrass Salad with tamarind dip

I personally love this salad it is so fresh and vibrant, you could leave out the dried shrimp if you really eat no meat or fish products, slightly different taste but still good as if I don’t have any to hand then I leave them out.

Yum Takrai (Spicy Lemongrass Salad)

  • 15 stalks fresh lemongrass.
  • 1⁄4 cup finely chopped ginger
  • 2 tbsp. toasted cashews
  • 2 tbsp. whole dried shrimp
  • 1 1⁄2 tbsp. fish sauce
  • 1 1⁄2 tbsp. fresh lime juice
  • 1/2-1 1⁄2 tbsp. sugar
  • 1 tbsp. whole dried shrimp, finely ground
  • 4-6 red Thai chillies stemmed and thinly sliced
  • 2 shallots, very thinly sliced lengthwise
  • 3 raw stemmed long beans, cut into 4″ pieces for garnish.

Let’s Cook!

Trim and slice lemon grass very finely. Transfer lemongrass slices to a medium bowl, separate rings with your fingers. Add ginger, cashews, shrimp, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, ground shrimp, Thai chiles, and shallots, and toss well. Garnish with long beans. Serve on Banana Leaf or Betel Leaf as in my picture.
Serve with steamed jasmine rice or cauliflower rice if eating Gluten free.
We also serve with a tamarind sauce made by combing 3 tbsp tamarind pulp with cup water in a small pan, bring to boil and simmer 5 mins.
Remove from heat and stand 15 mins you can help break tamarind down with a spoon, strain through sieve extracting as much liquid as possible.
Add 2cm peeled finely chopped ginger and 2 cloves finely chopped garlic, 11/2 tbsp palm sugar,2 tsp fish sauce,1 tbsp chilli/garlic sauce and 1 tsp soy sauce to tamarind liquid. Bring to boil, simmer 5 mins.
Whisk 1 tbsp cornflour with little water whisk into sauce cook 1 min or until thickens.
Taste and adjust seasoning add more sugar if required.
Keeps in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.
I hope you enjoy this little salad, if you love Thai food then please have a look around my blog for more authentic Thai Recipes.
Smartwatch Corner.
smart phone and watch
My morning message today was “You slept for 7 hrs 40 mins last night. Your sleep quality was good”
I don’t get that message every day but it is amazing how much your sleep actually varies…But I am getting more similar type messages when I get a good night’s proper sleep and I am getting to know why and how my lifestyle and eating habits reflect on my sleep. and the quality
The  benefits of a good nights sleep are:
1. Lower risk of diabetes…people who get enough sleep (seven to eight hours) per night have the lowest risk of diabetes.
2. Lower risk of heart disease…seven to eight hours lowers your risk…It does seem to be the magic figure as less as well as higher increases that risk.
3. Your mood improves …I think we all know that one when we are deprived of sleep we get a little grouchy don’t we?
4. Improved focus and concentration…No surprises here is there?
5. Lower Blood Pressure…Other factors like food and salt come into play but so does sleep…
6. Fewer stress hormones… Cortisol levels out of sync can cause health problems like headaches and heart disease…Stress is one of the biggest causes…A study in the journal Sleep showed lack of sleep increased cortisol the following evening…Getting a good nights sleep showed no such increase.
7. Improved memory… While asleep your body performs miracles and the body and brain heal and restores themselves…I find the science behind all this fascinating.
8. Better muscle repair…Doctors induce sleep in patients with certain injuries to help them heal faster particularly with brain injuries also bodybuilders know the benefits of sleep
9. Improved creativity…REM Sleep is when we dream…After REM sleep our creativity improves…
Sleep and its benefits now hold a fascination for me…Personally, I am feeling much better for being aware of how long I sleep and the stages

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then I bid you welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/ 

MeWe is a new social media and one which many of us are turning to mainly migrating over to as FB has banned many of my friends and for what seems no good reason that we can see I hope you will join us there.

MeWe: mewe.com/i/caroltaylor3

Last chance to vote if you want to vote for me and your other favourite blogs the Bloggers Bash annual award voting is live but only just... until the 24th April which is tomorrow so please if you haven’t already voted for your favourites then please do as there are some great blogs who writers have been nominated…

bloggers-bash-logo

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all are having a great Easter holiday xx

10 thoughts on “Healthy Eating…Eat Smart…Lemongrass Salad…”

    1. CarolCooks2 Post author

      Thank you, Debby I am definitely in the zone…haha…Yes all these atrocities are beginning to really get to me and saddens me that we cannot be kinder to each other and more understanding of different beliefs and cultures…Thank you for popping in and commenting 🙂 xxx

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  2. marianbeaman

    Chocolate? Yes!
    The next “chocolate” holiday before Christmas might be Mother’s Day.

    The salad looks a bit complicated for me, but I’m sure it’s tasty. I used to enjoy the Lemongrass Restaurant close by, but it closed, and I’m sorry. It served healthy food mellowed with herbs.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  3. Smorgasbord - Variety is the Spice of Life.

    Reblogged this on Smorgasbord Blog Magazine and commented:
    Carol Taylor is celebrating her loss of 14lbs.. and shares her strategies.. like giving up alcohol for the last 11 weeks, biscuits and haribos sweets. She is also walking more, sleeps better and feels great.. Making sweeping changes might sound effective but it is the small tweaks that can make a difference.. head over and read the entire post.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

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