Vietnamese Bun Salad Recipe

A recent trip to Lac Viet Bistro for summer rolls and bun. 

Vietnamese restaurants are one of my favorite choices when dining out. Summer rolls are a must, and I rotate between various other dishes when I visit. One of my favorites to re-create in a more healthy way at home is the Bun. Bun is traditionally a noodle dish with lettuce and other fresh veggies plus cooked meat/tofu/veg. When I make it at home I don't cook with oil and flip the ratio of noodles to lettuce. 

The Buns of my life :)

Vietnamese Bun Salad
Serves 3

6 oz. rice noodles
1 package tofu (I prefer pre-cooked/marinated versions for this dish to make it easier, this is my favorite)
1 package of romaine lettuce hearts, chopped
1/2 english cucumber, julienned (thin strips)
2 medium carrots, julienned
1 package bean sprouts
1 bell pepper, julienned
Cilantro
Scallions
Sriracha
Peanuts or cashews

Dressing:
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp ponzu or soy or tamari
1-2 limes, juiced
1-2 Tbsp chili garlic paste
2 cloves garlic, crushed/diced
1/2 Tbsp agave
2-4 Tbsp water

Combine dressing ingredients in a cruet or container with a lid and shake to combine.

Prep your salad base by chopping romaine, cucumber, carrots, pepper, cilantro and scallions.

Cook your noodles in salted water. They should only take a few minutes, drain and set aside.

Cut your tofu into cubes or slices. Fry in a dry, non-stick pan until browned on at least one side and heated through.

Assemble:
Place romaine, cucumber, carrot, pepper and bean sprouts in your bowl. Top with 1/3 of the noodles and 1/3 of the tofu.

Garnish with cilantro, scallions, sriracha and nuts to your preference.

Drizzle dressing over top to coat.

Carrot Chickpea Salad Recipe

Carrot Chickpea Salad
1 bag shredded carrots (or about 2 cups if you DIY)
2 cans chickpeas, drained & rinsed (or about 4 cups cooked)
1 C dried apricots, chopped
¼ C sliced almonds
1-2 handfuls cilantro, chopped
1 bunch scallions, chopped

Dressing:
3 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsp cider vinegar
3 garlic cloves, pressed
½ Tbsp smoked paprika
1 Tsp cumin
salt & pepper to taste
chili paste/harissa to taste
1 Tsp sweetener of choice (optional)

Combine dressing ingredients in a bowl & whisk until combined. Combine all ingredients in the salad plus dressing in a large bowl. Let sit as long as possible for flavors to meld.

Serve on top of greens with other fresh veg of choice. I chose to add bell peppers and cucumber, Carly went with celery. The recipe makes 4-6 portions depending on appetite.

Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad

Carly and I meal plan every week, typically on Thursday night since she can go to the grocery store on Friday. We use an app called Our Groceries that lets you have multiple lists (of anything really). We keep a list called Menu and add ideas we find throughout the week. We also do our best to evaluate what we have and use up fresh ingredients and make good use of our pantry. One combination we come back to often is Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes. We have it in a variety of ways, and last night we made a great version that I wanted to share.

Shredded Brussels Sprout Salad
1-2 lbs Brussels sprouts, shredded (see below)
2 large shallots, sliced
1/2 c pecans, chopped
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 can (low sodium) kidney beans, drained & rinsed
1 Tbsp tamarind chutney (or other sauce of choice)
1 head leaf or romaine lettuce, chopped
White balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper
Garlic powder
Smoked paprika

This salad has four main components that can essentially be prepared separately. First, cook the peeled & cubed sweet potatoes however you prefer. You can roast them in the oven or fry them in a pan. Season them with salt & pepper.

Next, prep the Brussels sprouts. You can shred them in a food processor, on a mandoline or by hand. To do it by hand, chop the bottom off the sprout and discard any outer leaves that fall off when you do so. Cut the sprout in half. Lay it on the cut side and chop along the sprout from the top to bottom in slices. Also prep your sliced shallots (onions will work if you don't have them). Saute the shallots and sprouts in the oil of your choosing. We have some vegan bacon flavored grapeseed oil that we used for this. Season the sprouts with salt, pepper, garlic and smoked paprika.

In a small pan, toast the chopped pecans for a few minutes until they start to turn darker. Remove from heat and use these as a topping. The pecans are optional, but added a depth of flavor to the salad that for me was the best part.

This dish lends itself to a variety of protein sources. I happened to have a can of kidney beans and some tamarind chutney. I threw them together in a pan just to get them warm. Carly had bacon on her salad. You could essentially use any legume, tofu, tempeh, seitan or meat of choice.

Last is to cut your lettuce. Assemble the salad: lettuce, drizzle of white balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper, sprouts, sweet potatoes, protein & pecans.

Information Overload

It's interesting when things I read for personal interest intersect with my job. I read a blog post this morning about information overload, a concept discussed often in library circles, applied to researching information about health and fitness. It resonated with me because it related to work, but also because I've struggled with sorting through information during my own quest for finding the ideal plan for myself. I will often pull up two articles about fitness plans or healthy eating that have completely opposite advice. It's hard to know what's right, and there are times when I've felt totally overwhelmed by information to the point where it's almost paralyzing. I still struggle with wondering if I'm doing the right things to get myself in shape.

My schedule is going back to "normal" this week as our Fall semester classes start on Thursday. This is good because it lets me plan out my ideal workout week. Right now, I'm planning on:

Definition

It seems I've taken another short hiatus. This time was unintentional! I read a fantastic article yesterday called "Keeping up to Keep Weight Off" about how difficult it is to continue losing weight once you've started, and to maintain an ideal weight. Although the beginning of the article is slightly disheartening, the overall message is exactly how I feel. One quote I loved was "If you hate exercise, it's a multiyear process to become someone who loves it instead. If you love fast food, you need to gradually shift your attitudes (and even your work schedule) toward being someone who loves cooking healthy meals. It's the process that creates the outcome. When you eschew quick fixes and become the process so that regular exercise and healthy eating defines you as a person, then weight eventually comes (and stays) off as a happy byproduct."

I feel like this defines my personal experience. I tackled food first (and continue to tweak what I do!), and in the last year or so I've become a person defined by regular exercise as well. I still wish I could do more, and I hate that my schedule forces me to be at the gym so often rather than outdoors, but I'm proud of myself for being the type of person who is defined by healthy eating and exercise. I love when people I've met post-fat tell me that they can't imagine me being overweight, it's probably the best compliment I could get.

Super Hot Sunday

Food
I had Kashi Go Lean with soy milk and a banana for breakfast. Lunch was in the middle of errands, so I had a Subway veggie delite with avocado spread and split a bag of baked chips with Carly. Dinner was a barley salad (recipe below) on top of romaine, garden lettuce, and spinach with cucumbers, green pepper and cut up veggie burger. Snacks were a mini Luna bar, a Clif Mojo bar, watermelon & vanilla ice cream.

Our $2 watermelon from Earth Fare...yum!

Exercise
I love going to the gym for strength training on Sunday mornings. I have a certain path I like to take from machine to machine, and it's hard to do that during that 4-5PM hour during the week. I did 15 minutes on the arc trainer to start, my legs were sore from Jillian on Saturday! I spent about 40 minutes doing different strength machines and dumbbell reps. I'm still doing the slow & steady 10 reps at a heavy weight followed by 10 more reps of quicker pace for most machines. I feel good about it and think it's starting to become noticeable in my body.

Learning
I spent most of  yesterday being busy so there wasn't much time for reading or learning (even fun reading!). I was entertained by the list of celebrities nominated for PETA's Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrity. I wasn't aware that a lot of the people on the list were vegetarian/vegan. It makes me feel less weird about going in this direction myself, especially when I see athletes on the list.

Observations
Nothing fancy for Sunday. After the gym I spent about 2 hours shopping and doing errands. When we got home we had lots of typical Sunday housework to do like laundry, straightening up, organizing and cooking. Our house is poorly insulated so it got increasingly warm throughout the day. We got up to 89 degrees inside, and that's with the AC and fans running. It isn't pleasant and makes it more difficult to enjoy the weekly prep we usually do on Sunday.

Barley salad on greens with a veggie burger

Barley Salad
makes about 6 servings

1 C dry barley
3 C water (or follow directions if your barley is from a package)
8 sundried tomatoes
6 ears fresh corn, cut off cobs
3 banana peppers, diced
1 red onion, diced
3 cups kale, chopped
Spices (we used garlic powder, seasoned salt, paprika, black pepper and aleppo chili flakes)
White balsamic vinegar to taste

1. Cook barley on stove or in rice cooker with water and sundried tomatoes. Add spices of your choice to the water so that the flavors cook into the barley.

2. Saute the corn, banana peppers, and red onion for 8-10 minutes on medium heat and season veggies to your taste. (We make this salad a lot and we always add corn and onion, but add other veggies depending on what we have on hand)

3. Remove sundried tomatoes from barley once it's cooked and dice. Place cooked barley, sundried tomatoes, and corn mixture together in a large bowl. Add a generous amount of white balsamic vinegar to coat mixture.

4. Add the kale one handful at a time, taking the time to massage the kale in your hands for 1-2 minutes per handful. It will get darker in color. Once it's darkened, add it to the barley. Stir to incorporate kale. We usually let the salad sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours before serving. We typically eat it cold or let it come to room temp, but you can warm it up if you prefer.

Getting consistent

I read a lot of blogs for different purposes. Some of them are long with paragraphs, some are mostly visual, some are only recipes, and some have a combination of everything. I'm wondering the best way to go forward from here. I tend to be the type of writer who gets into a flow of writing and that makes my posts long. I wonder if anyone has actually read through them entirely or if people skim or get bored while they read. I tend to like the blogs I read that have entries similar in style each time. I know what I'll be getting out of them. I think that's what I've decided to strive for in the future. I intended this blog to be about the things I do to foster health and well-being in myself. To me this includes some key items: food, exercise, learning, and emotional well-being. Here is my first attempt at styling my blog in a more consistent manner: