Healthy Filipino Bistek "Beefsteak" and Quinoa

Nope, not a typo.  And no, you’re not seeing things. It really does say, HEALTHY FILIPINO BISTEK! We figured it out folks!

As we were explaining to my brother about our real food project and how our plan was to recreate meals, such as hamburger and fries, he simply asked, “What about Filipino food?”  Well, that certainly stopped us in our tracks. 

Took a bit of researching, but we finally did it!  And we chose to recreate Bistek, which is a marinated meat dish topped with caramelized onion rings and served with white rice.  Typically, ingredients used are: soy sauce, calamansi, sugar, garlic, onions.  Swap the soy sauce with tamari, the sugar with honey, and use organic veggies. 

Why tamari? It's made with 100% soy, versus soy sauce, which contains 30-40% wheat. Pretty weird considering the words "soy sauce" should only be...well, soy, right? Calamansi, also known as calamondin, is a Filipino lemon that almost tastes like a lemon with a touch of orange.  If you don’t have access to a store that sells this, or a Filipino person who has a tree in their backyard (like us!), then use lemon. 

Disclaimer!! We were so excited to make this, we forgot to measure quite a few things! When cooking Filipino dishes, we tend to “eyeball” everything. 

Good news is that we will definitely make this again, and when we do, we’re going to measure and update this post.

Healthy Filipino Bistek and Quinoa

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 lb flank steak or flap meat, cut into 2 inch strips

1 whole white onion, sliced into rings (do not separate the rings)

Tamari

4 calamansi

1 head garlic, coarsely chopped

Honey

Filtered water

Olive oil

Cook quinoa according to package directions.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, add tamari and calamansi and meat.  Toss to make sure all of the meat is coated.  Set aside to marinate.

In a skillet, heat olive oil and cook onion rings a few minutes each side, so they’re slightly caramelized.  You don’t want this fully caramelized; that slight crunch makes it fun.  Since not all rings will fit at one time, make in batches, and then set aside. 

In the same skillet, add a little bit of olive oil and cook the marinated beef.  DO NOT DISCARD the marinade because this is key for Bistek.

When the beef is done, set aside.  Again, using the same skillet, pour in the marinade, along with the garlic, and let it boil for a few minutes to soften the garlic.  Add the cooked beef and lower the heat to simmer.  Add water and honey to offset the saltiness of the marinade.  When you’ve reached your desired taste, add the onions on top, cover and simmer for another few minutes…and that’s it!  Serve with quinoa and eat Filipino Bistek, guilt-free.

So Far So Good!

What began as a mission to look awesome for a weekend with friends in Palm Springs, turned instead into a project to reintroduce ourselves to the food and health industry.  It’s been a little over a month now and we’ve opened our minds, eyes and taste buds to so many things.

People we’ve met along the way have given us insight, information, and motivation to keep moving forward.  Healthy restaurants helped us compare real versus fake food; needless to say, our taste buds yearn for the real thing. We can’t get over the fact how much tastier and filling food is without the scary scientific ingredients! 

We are by no means chefs! And my family tends to laugh at the thought of me in the kitchen.  But guess what? We’re beyond boiling water now!  We’re learning to cut, chop, dice, cook, and plate. 

Thanks to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and our families, we got super cool kitchen appliances. 

We initially got spice rack for decoration purposes, but now we’re actually using it! 

What used to be brown sugar, refined white sugar, white flour, and regular table salt, has been replaced with cacao nibs, raw cashews, chia seeds, and quinoa.

Is this a diet? No way! Diets eliminate and or cut down either protein, fat, or carbs. We’re not about that, because our bodies need all three. We’re just replacing the bad with the good.  Replacing the fake with the real. Replacing the processed with natural. Plus, we’re adding! Adding more of the good stuff.  It’s about lifestyle: working out and eat real food.

It’s been a wild ride, but so far so good! 

Quinoa and Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers

Stuffed bell peppers are always fun.  And now they’re even more fun because we’re using quinoa in place of rice.  The store ran out of ground turkey, so we figured we try ground chicken.  Here ya go!

Easy Quinoa and Chicken Stuffed Bell Peppers

1 cup cooked quinoa
1 lb ground chicken
6 bell peppers, any colors (cut top of peppers and remove seeds)
2 cloves minced garlic (we love garlic by the way)
½ red onion, chopped
1 cup chopped mushrooms
1 can organic diced tomatoes, do not drain
Cumin
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat over to 350 degrees

In a large skillet over medium heat, add garlic and onions until onions are soft.  Then add in the ground chicken and season with cumin salt and pepper to your liking.  When chicken is about finished, stir in diced tomatoes.  Finally, add the cooked quinoa and mix everything together. 

Stuff the bell peppers, place in 9x13 casserole dish, cover with foil, and bake for about 30 minutes. If you think the peppers need more time, go for it!

Next time, we’re going to use ground turkey and add more veggies.  We’re still learning our spices, but we’ll be sure to add in more of those too. Not bad for our first try! 

Quinoa to the Rescue!

Asians with no rice is like Bert with no Ernie, Jack with no Jill, and the earth with no sun. Well I think you get the picture!  Trust me, we grew up eating rice with everything! It’s a sin to eat Filipino main dishes with no rice.  It’s just not right.

So what’s our substitute? Quinoa! It’s a seed that’s gluten-free, cholesterol-free, and has the highest protein content.  It’s a win-win situation!

We realized that eating healthy doesn’t mean starving ourselves or denying ourselves taste.  In fact, it’s been the complete opposite.  First, real food tastes so much better.  And second, we end up consuming less because the amount of nutrients we take in is more filling.

Not only does quinoa taste great, but can be used it so many recipes.  I’ve recently made quinoa and chicken stuffed bell peppers, which will be shared soon.  And my best friend, Mary, will soon share her special quinoa salad recipe.  And later on, I’ll actually attempt to make quinoa sushi! Wish me luck!

Banana French Toast

Father’s Day was nearing and the family decided we’d have brunch at our place.  My sister-in-law and I planned out the menu.  She was to make her hearty breakfast casserole and we were in charge of French toast.  Her silly husband (my brother) wanted white, fluffy bread. Ha! Not a chance!

This recipe is inspired from the Simple Veganista.  We had quite a few mouths to feed, so we doubled the ingredients.

Banana French Toast

2 ripe bananas

1 ½ cups Almond milk
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Organic butter from grass fed cow (we found a local farmer who made their own butter; she even had pictures of her cows)
Udi’s whole grain gluten-free sliced bread
Organic maple syrup

In a large bowl, mash the bananas until creamy. Mix in the Almond milk, cinnamon, and vanilla extract. 

Heat the griddle and melt the organic butter.  Take each slice of bread, dip both sides in the banana batter and place in griddle for a few minutes (or when ready) each side.

Make them look pretty on a serving dish and drizzle maple syrup.

My brother tried the French toast and loved it!  Success!

Bagel and Lox

Such a classic breakfast meal and so far, the easiest to make.  We have yet to discover a cream cheese substitute, but it’s ok because the raw cheeze did not disappoint.

Bagel and Lox (serves 4)

4 toasted gluten-free bagels – Udi’s brand
Lox
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
Raw cheeze

Stack ‘em up! Too easy!

Cheezeburger

Now that we have “cheese” in place, the possibilities seem endless!  But one night, we were craving cheeseburgers.  Off we went to our favorite grocery store, Sprouts Farmers Market.  We even replaced the regular grocery chain with a healthy grocery store.  Each time we’re at Sprouts, we feel like a kid in a candy store or an ant on top of a mound of sugar!
Cheezeburger (serves 4)

4 gluten-free hamburger buns - we recommend Udi’s brand

1 lb grass fed ground beef
1 tomato, sliced

1 organic lettuce
1/2 onion, sliced

Salt and pepper to taste 
Raw cheeze – spread as much as you like on the bun

Season the ground beef with salt and pepper and form 4 patties.  Heat your griddle or pan to medium high and cook each side 3-4 minutes or until juices run clear. We like to toast the buns; so after the patties are finished, we placed it on the griddle for a minute to take in some of the flavor. Assemble that cheeseburger and you're good to go!

Raw Cheeze

Our mission is to substitute stuff we love.  And my weakness is cheese…cheddar, American, Jack, mozzarella, brie, etc. You name it, I’ll eat it!  But for health reasons, we decided to rid ourselves of cheese. I may have shed a tear that day.

So off to Google we went!  We discovered that vegans use raw cashews to make “cheese.” We looked at many different recipes, and even tried it at our favorite farmer’s market so we know what to expect when it comes to taste and texture.  Wow!  It was delicious and motivated us to dive in and make it.  It’s almost the best thing since sliced bread.

Raw Cheeze 

1 cup raw cashews (soak for at least 2 hours)

½ cup filtered water
1-2 cloves minced garlic
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Pure sea salt and pepper to taste
Juice of half a lemon

Drain the cashews.  Place all ingredients in a food processor and process for at least 2 minutes, depending on your desired texture.  Our poor mini food processor isn’t the strongest as it kept violently shaking and needed more time.

 
Have fun exploring the ingredients to your taste – enjoy!

Juicing for health

Thanks to a documentary called, Hungry for Change, we realized we've been eating "food-like" products our whole lives! It's a little disturbing knowing we've been stuffing our faces with fake food. Ever read the ingredients list on the back of food products? It's like discovering an alien language from outer space. They're mostly man-made ingredients that create an addiction in order to support the thriving food industry. Yikes!

So we decided to set our project in motion to eat real food. The plan is simple: replace the weird scientific stuff with good ol' ingredients from mother nature.

But first things first... detox!

Inspired by another documentary called, Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, we were able to get some direction and motivation to juice.  We decided to juice for a month because on weekends, we generally have dinner or events with friends and family.  The following recipes have been adapted from www.rebootwithjoe.com and they’re delicious!

Green Juice (makes about 32 – 40 ounces)

1 bunch kale
1 bunch celery
1 bag spinach
1 large or 2 medium cucumber
4 apples (Fuji, Gala, or Pink Lady)
Small chunk of ginger (the flavor can be strong; adjust to your liking)
Squeeze juice from 1 lemon

“Orange” Juice

4 oranges
Small chunk ginger (adjust to your liking)
Carrots – because it varies in sizes, we put as many needed to fill 32 ounces

Cheers!