Random Meals – 2/7 – 3/11/22

March 13, 2022December 9, 2022 sirisvayLeave a comment

There have been some good recipe finds in the last couple of weeks’ meal plans! That’s always exciting (: I’m really bad about eating enough vegetables, so I’m glad I stumbled upon these recipes. What did I have? Find out below!

A bowl of Green Goddess Soup garnished with drizzled coconut milk and fresh dill on top. — Green Goddess Soup

A bowl of Cucumber Feta Salad, with chopped cucumbers, cubed avocado, chopped shallot, and sprinkled feta cheese and fresh dill. — Green Goddess Soup

Green Goddess Soup
- This was one of the great finds for my meal plan! Green goddess dip was delicious, so I was excited to try it out in soup form! It’s a great source of vegetables (90% of the dish), and you wouldn’t even know it tasting it, especially after you add coconut milk – that’s all I could taste as I took each bite. To be completely honest, this is best served hot right away versus saving it in the fridge and eating later. That all said, I would have halved the ingredients so it’s half the portion so I can finish it all.
Cucumber Feta Salad
- THIS was my favorite meal that I ate. Usually I’m not the biggest fan of fresh salads, but this was tasty and light enough for me to make multiple times and for my family as well! It’s super simple to prepare and make and delicious to eat.
Roasted Red Pepper Salmon
- Another great find in my meal plan! It was a new way to eat salmon than my usual with avocado and rice, but boy I need to portion out the red pepper marinade better! The honey burnt so bad it smoked my kitchen! Luckily it didn’t turn into a bad situation, and it didn’t set off any alarms. Anyway, it was delicious and filling! I also sent a picture to my family because I was proud of making it, and my dad, who is a stellar chef, said it looked professional like a restaurant made it. That compliment made my day!
Honey Garlic Pork
- So, this recipe is supposed to be chicken, but I did not check my inventory and found out that I didn’t have any. Luckily, this recipe also works with pork, so I substituted it! Another substitute I made was using potato starch instead of corn starch. This is a simple dish, but it is packed with good flavors.
Kimchi Udon Noodles
- These are the kimchi udon noodles I wanted to make last meal plan when I ran out of kimchi and then bought a fresh container containing mold. And boy howdy it. is. GOOD. I’m definitely going to make this more often because it’s easy to make and yummy. I love the texture of udon and the flavor is packing!
Bang Bang “Stir Fry” Shrimp
- You may remember this Bang Bang Shrimp recipe from a few meal plans ago, but I brought it back again because I love the flavor and I need a meatless one-dish wonder for Fridays during Lent! However, last time I made the recipe by frying the shrimp with panko in vegetable oil, I got a physical done later that week and the doctor found high levels of triglycerides in my blood and advised me to avoid fast food, greasy and oily foods. So, this time, I tried to pseudo stir fry the shrimp with potato starch and add the sauce in the pan to coat it – almost like a honey glaze for the Honey Garlic Pork I made.

Okay, real talk, ALL of these recipes have been extremely delicious, and I will be the biggest repeat offender of them all. I can’t wait to eat them again plus add more to the meal plan repertoire!

What are some new recipes you’ve found lately? Share them in the comments below!

xo
Siri

Random Meals – 2/14 – 2/26/22

March 3, 2022December 9, 2022 sirisvay2 Comments

Here it is! The Kimchi Challenge I gave myself! It was an interesting experience, and I’ll go into detail why. If you recall from my previous weekly meals post, I wanted to challenge myself to have kimchi in my dinner and lunch meals. How did that turn out? See below!

A tortilla with kimchi, tempeh, avocado, cilantro and sauce for a kimchi tempeh taco.

Kimchi tempeh taco bowl with kimchi, tempeh, avocado, sauce and cilantro

A bowl with kimchi, beef brisket, broccoli, avocado, cucumber and brown rice.

A bowl of fried rice with kimchi, chicken and over-easy egg.

A bowl of kimchi soondubu jigae and a bowl of white jasmine rice.

A bowl of veggie spaghetti with pork and plant-based mozzarella cheese.

Two plant-based flatbread pizzas with plant-based cheese, pepperoni and vegan sauce.

Kimchi Tempeh Taco (and taco bowl)
- This was probably my favorite kimchi-based dish I made! It never occurred to me to put kimchi in a taco, but it was DELICIOUS! And for the “taco meat,” I tried a new plant-based meat substitute – tempeh – which is a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. I would definitely make this again because the flavors all worked well together for a tasty experience.
Kimchi Brisket Bowl
- Another gem dish to be honest. There’s no specific recipe for it because it’s more of a put all these things together and see how the different flavors complement each other. I already eat thinly sliced beef brisk with kimchi and rice for my normal “homemade” Korean BBQ, so adding more veggies to the plate with a sriracha/vegan sour cream/mayo sauce was -chef’s kiss! The first time I made it, I marinated the meat, but I think it tastes better un-marinated because there are already strong flavor profiles competing against each other.
Kimchi Fried Rice
Kimchi Soondubu Jigae
- I’ve shared Kimchi Soondubu Jigae before, but I’m bringing it back because it was a great dish to eat during the cold-cold weather we’ve had recently in Texas!
Carbonara-inspired Veggie Pasta
- So, this is where things got … interesting. I ran out of kimchi before the week was over, so I did a quick trip to the grocery store to get a new container. Well, that evening I wanted to make kimchi pasta, but there was mold in my new container!!! I was immediately turned off and returned it. Instead, I just made a carbonara-inspired spaghetti dish, which was pretty good for thinking on the fly!
Plant-based Flatbread Pizza
- This was supposed to be a kimchi pizza, but see above not having any kimchi and was turned off for a bit. Nevertheless, I did enjoy making and eating this, but what’s tricky is the plant-based shredded mozzarella takes FOREVER to melt.

All in all, it was a good two weeks with a focused theme meal plan. I learned some new recipes that I will definitely incorporate into my everyday lifestyle. As far as “weight loss,” I already had a feeling it wouldn’t make a dent, especially because other items were on my plate. I don’t know if I could fully commit to ONLY kimchi and rice, but I honestly don’t need to anyway.

Do y’all like kimchi? If so, what are some of your favorite dishes with kimchi?

xo
Siri

food · health

Random Meals – 1/16 – 1/28/22

February 2, 2022 sirisvay1 Comment

To be perfectly honest, I’m struggling to share new food photos with y’all! I’m a creature of habit, and when I like something, I stick with it. Essentially I’m eating repeated meals, which are no fun to share over and over again. But here are six more!

a homemade Chipotle bowl with a spoon, chicken, pico de gallo, corn, avocado, vegan sour cream, and brown rice — Chipotle Chicken Bowl

a bowl with a spoon, crispy tofu and brown rice — Chipotle Chicken Bowl

Homemade Chipotle Chicken Bowl
- This was very delicious, but oh my goodness it is A LOT of work. It’s mostly prepping all the sides and toppings on top of the marinating and cooking the protein. My favorite part of the dish, though, was making vegan sour cream (which I think consisted of mixing coconut yogurt, lemon juice and tapioca flour).
Crispy Tofu and Brown Rice
Salmon Crisp Chips
- The salmon is supposed to be sushi-grade fresh salmon, however, I have not been able to make it to the Asian market. What I did instead was cook regular salmon fillet to medium rare!
Shrimp Spring Rolls
Bang Bang Shrimp
- Fried shrimp is SO delicious, and I will never turn it down. This dish was also yummy, however, it’d probably be better cooking it the way it’s instructed in the recipe – with an air fryer. I fried the shrimp in vegetable oil, so it’s not the best healthy way to do it.
8g Carb (Egg White Crust) Pizza
- I wanted to like this recipe more than I did, but it’s honestly probably chef maker error because I didn’t cook the crust correctly. Trying to multitask by letting it sit on heat while I wash dishes was my mistake. The eggs got too fluffy versus thin and crispy for thin crust pizza. I’m down to try it again because of its appeal of being low carb!

Aside from these dishes, I’ve tried to bring even more plant-based and low-carb recipes onto my plate. That’s always been a focus for my diet regimen, but after all the doctors, surgeries and procedures in the last couple of years, I’ve stepped this up a notch to take care of my body even more. It’s no fun to hear bad news at all your medical appointments LOL

What are some plant-based and low-carb gems you enjoy? I’m slowly discovering there’s more and more in the food world than I ever knew!

xo
Siri

food · health

Weekly Meals – Oct. 24 – 29, 2021

November 9, 2021 sirisvayLeave a comment

Ahhhh, I’m behind on my weekly meal posts… I had to deal with prepping for a medical procedure last week, so I failed to carve out time to write this. But here are the meals from the week of Halloween – still continuing down the path of increased fiber intake. Here’s what I made and ate! And now I’m including recipe links in case y’all wanna try anything here (:

a plate with chicken, brown rice, broccoli and Green Goddess sauce

an overhead photo of a burrito-making station with tomatoes, red onion, lettuce, cheese, tortillas, guacamole and chicken

a Green Goddess grilled cheese chopped in half sitting on a cutting board

Chicken, broccoli and brown rice with Green Goddess sauce
- I’ve had Green Goddess sauce once at my sister’s house, and it was DELICIOUS. However, when I tried making it, I made some substitutions that I probably shouldn’t do ‘cause it changes and tastes more like a pesto sauce. Next time!
Chicken burrito wraps
Green Goddess grilled cheese
- Oh my goodness… who knew a sandwich could be so rich with flavor. This was relatively easy to make, but I didn’t use a brioche bread, like the recipe said to use. My grocery list is made with the idea of using all the items in overlapping recipes versus one-time use and wasting food. I don’t know if I would make this again only because I don’t think I made it well enough. This is something I would entrust a restaurant chef to make more decadently.
Baked chicken with kale caesar salad (made by my mom)
- So, this is a recipe I can’t share ‘cause I’ve never made it myself, but my mom makes this so well. Everything is in synergy and tastes amazing. She used to make the Caesar salad with romaine lettuce, but one random day she tried it with kale and now it’s what I request all the time. YUM!

I’m pretty proud of myself that I made healthier meals than I usually do and embraced brown rice instead of white jasmine rice. It’s definitely an adjustment, but at the end of the day it is better for me.

What are y’all eating?! Give me more ideas!

xoxo
Siri