Health & Nutrition - Quinoa, the wonderful Supergrain

I am going to share the recipe that you have all been waiting for!!

Quinoa with pan-fried chicken and asparagus

Ingredients:
- 30g asparagus
-  whole chicken breast
- Cajun seasoning (you may use your favorite seasoning)
- 1 cup of Organic quinoa (serves approx. 6)
- 2 cups of water
- 1 chilli padi

*I do not have photos of the entire process so bear with me with whatever I have :)

1. Prep the quinoa, make sure the ratio is 2:1 (2 portions of water: 1 portion of quinoa)

2. Wash the quinoa thoroughly with water, squeezing the quinoa while washing and the rinse the quinoa.

3. Pour the quinoa into a pot, drizzle a little olive oil and stir until quinoa is almost evaporated. Be careful not to burn the quinoa, keep the heat low.

4. After which, add the 2 cups of water into the pot and stir for a few rounds, then leave it to boil.

5. Once the water is brought to a boil, lower the heat to the lowest you can and leave it for 15 minutes (using a timer is advised).

6. While waiting, prepare the whole chicken breast, remove the skin (if there is) and chop them up to as little or as big as you like.

7. Add your favourite seasoning and mix the chicken with it. I use cajun seasoning because it's so yummy and goes with anything.

8. Wash the asparagus and chilli padi and then chop them up as many pieces as you like (as usual).

9. Pre-heat a saucepan/frying pan and drizzle abit of olive oil. Put in some garlic and onions if you like, (I used homemade pre-blended ones) and fry till slightly brown. Then put in chicken and fry for about 2-3 mins before adding the asparagus to fry together. By this time, your quinoa should be ready!

So, VOILA! You get healthy yet yummy food!

Why did I use quinoa (pronounced as 'keenwah') and what are the benefits?

• Quinoa is rich in protein as it contains all nine essential amino acids
• Quinoa has a lot of Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) - help create proper energy production in cells
• Quinoa contains twice the amount of fiber as compared to many other grains
• Quinoa is rich in iron 
• Quinoa is rich in manganese - an antioxidant that help protect red blood cells and other cells from injury by free radicals
• Quinoa is high in lysine - essential for tissue growth and repair
• Quinoa is rich in magnesium

I had ICECREAM during the weekend ZOMG! But it tasted heavenly because I haven't had it for ages. Spent the weekend working out as usual, and then spent some time with JasonJJ, since he just booked out on his first weekend and an advanced birthday celebration for the boy too.

The awesome company at The Daily Scoop!

Happy Birthday JasonJJ

Hope your weekend had been great and that your Monday is treating you well so far! Have a good week ahead! Feel free to ask me if you have any doubts in the recipe and do follow me on IG if you haven't, @limaranagustina. Till the next!

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Health and Fitness - The harsh reality hits you

Whether you like to hear/see this or not, I know there are many people (both male and female) who are still living in denial, thinking that they are satisfied with their bodies, they make do with what they have or blame it on genetics. Somehow they envy people who works out, somehow they believe that no matter how ugly, how flabby they become, somebody will still love them (duh, of course!), somehow somewhere out there deep buried in their minds, there is a portrait of a dream body. The problem is, where is the determination, where is the dedication and where is the discipline? They're all in self-delusions. Well, I don't know about you, but I have a dream physique in mind and I'll not give up till I get there, no matter how long it takes, whether family-planning comes into the picture or not.

Yesterday, I went for a body analysis at my gym and since the last I did mine, right after we came back from our honeymoon (June 2013), my bodyfat percentage has dropped by 2%, my weight remained unchanged, muscle mass has increased (not sure where the last body analysis slip was). Well, you may think 18.2% isn't very low but this had shown me how much my hard work is paying off and I'll continue to work hard (even though BMR is still slightly on the lower side though).

As mentioned in my last post, I would like to share briefly about bodyfat percentage and here are some images you can refer to if you do not have access to get your body analysis checked.

For men:

For women:

So, what do you think your bodyfat percentage range is? which one can best describe your physique right now? And which is your ideal physique? 

Remember I said weight is not a good indication of your fitness level and how toned you are? By having more lean muscles in your body, your weight may maintain or even increase because muscles are denser than fats and therefore weigh heavier than fats. The images above are also just rough guides, different body types may produce different results on bodyfat percentage too.

Why do I say muscles weigh heavier then?

The same weight of fats and muscles look very different because muscles are very dense and compact as compared to fats. Would you then, rather have 5lbs of fats or 5lbs of muscles?

Some examples that I found (credits to photo-owners):

This lady has obviously worked out, looking at the slightly rounder shoulders, flatter and more defined abs and you can spot that her butt is perkier and legs slimmer, but she actually weighs heavier than before. Oh, and her posture had also improved (back to that in future posts).

This guy, similarly, has worked out (HARD) and achieved good lean muscles, yet still weigh the same.

So guys, stop obsessing over that little weight gain here and there if you are working out fine. Instead, the mirror is the best judge and of course if you can and want to, get a proper body analysis done.

I will be attempting to perfect my oat tomorrow morning and will post a proper recipe after that. HAHA. Please bear with me while I attempt the best recipes I can to share with all of you. 

What I had been up to during the week so far.

Went for a last tan before I start work next week! On that faithful bloated day..

Thinking that watching this in broad daylight will be less scary, but no, I did not finish the movie. HUR

My beyond-presentable oatmeal

My beloved company for the past 2 days <3

TGIF everyone! Have a great and restful weekend filled with love, health and fitness! Till the next.

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Health & Nutrition - Taco-tomato beef minced

I would love to take this opportunity to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for your support, I am extremely honoured to be an inspiration and I will try my best to share as much as I can too. These comments always make my day and keep me motivated, thank you guys!

As mentioned last week, I have one last recipe from the ingredients that I had bought to share. I would like to make the point across that eating-as-clean-as-you-can and calorie-counting do not mean that your food cannot be yummy and delicious. What you can do to make your food "cleaner" is to add or prepare your seasoning (which I will be attempting soon), use no salt no sugar, and little oil. Healthy/clean food, to me, is a form of indulgence too.

Have fun with your cooking and do share with me your favourite recipes! 

Here's how I prepared my Taco-tomato beef minced. 

Ingredients used:

Always note that everything must be consumed in moderation, no matter how nutritious that food is!

- Olive oil (as usual)
- 3 mini peppers
- 1 medium-sized tomato
- 100g of lean minced beef
- 60g of asparagus
- 3 fresh mushrooms
- 1 tablespoon of taco sauce
- 1 teaspoon of homemade ground garlic
- 1 teaspoon of homemade ground onions

1. Chop the ingredients to your desired sizes - this time round I chopped the asparagus too, leaving the tips as they are.

2. Instead of cooking the beef first, I added the chopped tomatoes first and pan-fried them with the garlic and onions - I wanted the tomatoes to soften and become gravy-like. Then, I added the peppers for the same reason.

3. I added the mushrooms after.

4. Only after all the ingredients are slightly soft, I added the beef in to slowly let the flavour seep into the meat as they get cooked - not sure if this is the best way to let the beef absorb the flavours from the tomatoes and peppers though.

5. The only ingredient I like slightly crunchier, I added the asparagus last.

6. VOILA! Here you go, craving satisfied with the tomato-gravy and I cleared all the ingredients I bought.

Hope you guys like this version too. I welcome feedback so do leave a comment or email me if you wanna share anything. I'm in the midst of preparing my next post on body fat percentage and how weight is not the best indication of your fitness level. Do stay tuned!

Here's what I had been up to:

Never seen myself having so many veins

Under good lighting

Had fun taking photos of my ootd which happens every sunday :)

This smoothie is a mixture of 2 strawberries, 1 kiwi and a banana, very very yummy!

What I had last evening

In case you are not following me on IG, this was part of my legs workout yesterday

Do follow me on IG if you haven't okay? @limaranagustina

Have a great week ahead everyone! Remember to stay tuned for the next post! :)

 

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