Low Fat Chicken Omelette Salad

What's my craze with low fat recipes these days? First we have some ultra low fat high fibre healthy applesauce oatmeal muffins, and next we are eating salad! Maybe that's why I'm feeling depressed lately. Due to the lack of fats. Fats make you happy? Hmmm..

I know where my "depression" stems from. I get my "depression" from working life. My "depression" is in inverted commas because I'm not actually depressed. I'm just feeling depressed. But I am not depressed. Get it? No? Doesn't matter. There are tons of people from working life who will frustrate the hell out of you, such as

• Mr Dumb-But-Act-Smart-And-Makes-A-Mess-Out-Of-Everything

• Mr Stupid-But-Dunno-He-Is-Stupid-And-Makes-A-Mess-Out-Of-Everything

• Mr Smart-But-Pretends-To-Be-Dumb-And-Makes-A-Mess-Out-Of-Everthing

• Mr I-Know-It-All-But-All-Talk-And-No-Action

• Mr Boss-Who-Knows-Nothing-And-Gets-Himself-(Or-Me)-In-Trouble-All-The-Time

• Miss Drop-Me-An-Email-Cos-I-Need-To-Cover-My-Ass

• Mr Drop-Me-An-Email-For-Your-Request-And-Copy-My-Boss-So-That-He-Knows-I'm-Working

• Miss I-Like-Your-Bag-And-I-Buy-An-Imitation-A-Week-Later

• Madam I-Have-Been-Here-The-Last-20-Years-And-This-Is-How-This-Has-Been-Done-The-Last-20-Years-So-We-Have-To-Do-This-Like-How-We-Have-Been-Doing-It-The-Last-20-Years.

Madam is most likely to be single, by the way. And I noticed I have more "Mr"s in the list. I, on the other hand, am Miss Efficiency (yes!) and Miss Intelligence (definitely!) when it comes to work. So just how much longer do I have to put with with those... those... nevermind.

Disclaimer: Any resemblence of the above characters to anyone you know is purely coincidental. And I must stress again, it's purely coincidental.

Now, what has this got to do with my salad? Nothing. Hmm. It's okay, let's come back to making our salad. You can make this if you've been eating too much lately during Chinese New Year, or have too many egg whites left over from baking pineapple tarts. Or when you're feeling a tad depressed, tomatoes are anti-depressants I think! At least their bright red colour cheers you up!

Low Fat Salad Recipe - serves 2

1 Iceberg Lettuce, peeled and cut into small pieces - keep refrigerated until use

2 Red Tomatoes, sliced - keep refrigerated until use

Raisins, Handful

2 Chicken Breast Fillets

Teriyaki Sauce (or any of your favourite marinades)

4 Egg Whites, lightly salt and pepper

2 Teaspoon Olive Oil

Dressing - combine the following ingredients:

Juice and Zest of 1 Lemon

1 Teaspoon Honey

Method:

Marinate and bake chicken (wrap in foil) in oven at 200 deg Celcius for 20 mins. Slice the chicken when cooked. Keep the marinate juice in the foil.

Heat olive oil in a small pan. Pour 2 egg whites to fill the pan and let it cook over low heat slowly. You should have a round, thin layer of lightly browned fried egg whites. Remove from pan and set aside. Repeat with remaining 2 eggs.

In a salad bowl, fill 2 bowls with cut lettuce. Spread sliced tomatoes on top. Pour in salad dressing and sprinkle raisins. Place one of the fried egg whites on top of the tomatoes, spread some sliced chicken on the egg, and pour the marinate juice from the foil over the chicken. Then, wrap the egg to complete the chicken omelette. Serve.

See other recipes!

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

I used the successful oatmeal muffin recipe that I used 2 days back, but replaced half the oil with applesauce instead to make the muffins healthier. Comparing my experience with the two recipes, the recipe using applesauce resulted in the following:

• Batter was more moist
• Muffins rose more (likely the applesauce provided extra acid for the baking soda to react)
• No difference to muffin taste

The reasons for using applesauce lie in its low calorie and fat content. I compared the labels of my bottle of canola oil vs the can of applesauce and realised that applesauce has about 8 times lesser calories than canola oil, and waaaaaaay lesser fats than oil.

Lowfat Oatmeal Muffin Recipe (makes 12)

• 1 Cup Quaker Instant Oats
• 1 Cup Buttermilk (Substitute: 1 Tablespoon White Vinegar + Lowfat milk to make 1 Cup)
• 2 Egg Whites
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 35ml Canola Oil
• 1/4 Cup Apple Sauce
• 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Wholemeal Flour
• 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Essence
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1/2 Cup Raisins

Method:

Combine instant oats to warm buttermilk and let it stand for about 20mins. Soak raisins in water. Preheat oven to 400 deg F. Line muffin tins with muffin cups or oil & flour. Add egg white, sugar, oil, applesauce and vanilla essence to oat/buttermilk mixture, stirring until just combined. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir until just combined. Mix in raisins (drained). Divide batter into muffin tins and bake until golden, about 15-20 mins.

See other recipes!

Oatmeal Wholemeal Muffins

I came across a recipe for Oatmeal Muffins in Epicurious which had garnered pretty good reviews. I had to test it!

Like most of the reviewers, I think this is a fantastic recipe. I made some modifications to make the muffins healthier. The muffins were extremely easy to make but they did not rise as much as regular muffins, probably because I used some wholemeal flour. They tasted good - the muffins were very soft and hubby thinks the sweetness is just nice (but I felt it can be sweeter). I'm sure I'll bake this again.

A Very Wholesome Muffin Recipe (makes 12)
1 Cup Quaker Instant Oats
1 Cup Buttermilk (Substitute: 1 Tablespoon White Vinegar + Lowfat milk to make 1 Cup)
2 Egg Whites
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
75ml Canola Oil
1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Wholemeal Flour
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Essence
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Cup Raisins

Method:
Combine instant oats to warm buttermilk and let it stand for about 20mins.
Soak raisins in water.
Preheat oven to 400 deg F. Line muffin tins with muffin cups or oil & flour.
Add egg white, sugar, oil and vanilla essence to oat/buttermilk mixture, stirring until just combined.
Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir until just combined.
Mix in raisins (drained).
Divide batter into muffin tins and bake until golden, about 15-20 mins.

See other recipes!

Pineapple Tarts

I modified the pastry recipe from my previous pineapple tart baking session as I felt a harder crust was more appropriate for the open-type pineapple tarts. The result was a slightly crunchy crust. Taste-wise, I actually prefer the original melt-in-the-mouth version better.

Pastry Recipe (makes approx 120 tarts)

250g soft butter

450g flour (my note: use 400g-430g in future?)

50g icing sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 Egg

Method:

Sift flour, icing sugar and baking powder together. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add in egg and vanilla essence and knead mixture into a dough. Roll a portion of the dough on a floured surface until about 0.5cm thick. Cut out with pineapple tart cutter (or cookie cutter). Roll pineapple jam into balls and place on top of each cut-out dough. Place tarts on baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degree celcius until light brown, about 15-20mins.

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Who Needs a High End Camera?

I discovered PhotoPlus 6.0 a few days ago.

It's free to download. Free of Charge!

My blog used to feature photos taken straight off my Nokia N73

Just 3.2 Megapixels and a Carl Zeisis lens

A zap here and a zap there with PhotoPlus

And my photos are never the same again.

Now the photos on my blog

Have all (well, almost) been updated.

They're starting to look (as I choose to believe)

Like they're torn off a gourmet magazine!