Operation Moderation 1 (Thai inspired)

I'd like to reiterate that the weekend in nor cal was absolutely wonderful! I especially enjoyed spending time with my favorite whities, Elise and Kyle. They are getting married at the end of the summer and I am so honored to be a part of their ceremony. We met up Friday afternoon and carried on conversing for over 8hrs! Impressed? Well, we're pretty bomb like that.

Anywho, E and I were exchanging stories about foods, diet, exercise (or lack there of). And like the Sale girls, Elise shares her passion for food and sometimes lack of moderation and self control. So we devised a plan to power through this problema. We made a bet. Yup, that's right, we have a bet going to see who can be more toned and fit come her bridal shower at the end of May. This is a very friendly competition, purely for motivational reasons and also the prize is a pretty sweet one. The winner gets to be taken to dinner at Tom Colicchio's restaurant Craft.

Upon my return, I decided to whip up a little something from this Thai cookbook I took from my sister, technically it was Ate Pammy's, so it's ok. There was this egg noodle dish with shrimp that looked simple enough, but I didn't bring the list of ingredients with me, so I improvised.

I scrapped the shrimp cuz it would've taken forever to peel and devein. I utilized these frozen scallops instead.














The Asian market I went to had such thrifty finds that I may have gone overboard and basically purchased items the dish didn't really require. This prepared meal was not really the dish in the cookbook.

Here's what I came up with:

• a clove of crushed garlic
• a handful of chopped cilantro
• scallops
• egg noodles
• snow peas
• shredded carrots
• sides of Indian eggplant and Delicata squash
• fish sauce to taste
  

Rando? A little. I placed the garlic with the cilantro in a heated wok with olive oil. Then I placed the scallops and tossed for a bit. I put the snow peas in and then thought, this needs more color, so I started shredding half a carrot over the wok.














I stirred this for a bit and added some fish sauce until my egg noodles were done boiling in the next burner. Here's where I thought I practiced moderation. The egg noodles I purchased came in these 10 individual balls of noodles. The package also said that this was for a serving size of 10. So, since I was making this for my dinner and then lunch the next day, I naturally placed 2 of the noodle balls in the boiling water. But as they were boiling, it looked like it wouldn't be enough to hold me over, so in went an additional noodle ball. Fail? How about we call it a good starting point?














This is what I plated for myself which totally contained 1.5 servings of the noodles. I think that's pretty good for me. Then since I was craving more veggies, I actually cut a piece off my baked delicata squash (1/4 to be exact) and only ONE of my baked Indian eggplants.














Operation Moderation is going to be a slow and steady process. This was pretty good considering the only things I got right from the recipe were the egg noodles, garlic and cilantro. Whatever, it's a work in progress. Also, according to Elise's latest post about being healthy, I could win a fabulous giveaway. A healthy heart, portion control eating and exercise are in my immediate future. Well technically starting now.

Oh and for my leftovers for lunch, I added an extra eggplant cuz the one did not suffice for dinner. I may have gone to bed a bit hungry, but I powered through with an episode of Modern Family on Hulu.

p.s. I rationalized my 1.5 serving of noodles because I actually did one session of a P90X routine that night. Proud? It'll be a while before one can be proud. Day one. =)