The answer was Chicken Breast! My mom and I watched TV, of course about health. In order to lose weight, we need to eat more good protein. The TV host asked some questions to the TV guests including actors and actresses. “Which meat has the best quality of protein? A. Beef, B. Pork, C. Chicken Breast.” They answered beef or pork. Nobody picked chicken breast. They were all wrong!
I visited my mom in Tokyo in May. Oh, I was spoiled with so many wonderful things! May is supposed to be the best season to visit Japan. First, the weather is comfortably warm. Second, you will enjoy new growth on leaves. Third, you get to see so many different beautiful flowers. Forth, if you travel North, for example to Hokkaido, you can catch famous cherry blossoms. Fifth, you get to enjoy summer produce from Kyushu in Southwest Japan. I enjoyed sweet tomato, crisp cucumbers, bitter but tasty bitter melon, and juicy watermelon.
After the TV show talked about the health benefits of Chicken breast they ran out of chicken breasts in stores. This happens a lot. When a TV show talks about healthy food to eat, the ingredient disappears from the shelfs at the store. So many people live in Tokyo! Besides, chicken breast is the cheapest meat in Japan. I decided to cook chicken breast when I get back in the U.S.
Chicken breast is the healthiest meat you can get. It contains 75% water, 23% protein, and 2% fat. It has only little over 100 calories per 100 grams! When protein is broken down, it forms peptide. It works as antioxidants to prevent cancer and promote anti-aging. Wow! Chicken breast is not just for diet. We should cook and eat more often.
Chicken breast contains glutamic acid and inosinate that is the component of Umami (good taste). If you cook right, you will be rewarded. I am excited to cook this wonderful ingredient! My mission is to cook moist and tender chicken breast. Let’s cook Chicken Breast with Salted Lemon Sauce!
500 Calories Set Meal: Moist Chicken Breast with Salted Lemon Sauce
Main: Moist Chicken Breast with Salted Lemon Sauce
Side 1: Chunky Potato Tuna Salad
Side 2: Green Salad with Seaweed Dressing
Soup: Harusame Soup
All recipes are made for 2 servings. This printable recipe box will allow you to change the serving size to adjust the recipe.
Main: Moist Chicken Breast Salted Lemon Sauce 168 calories
Many recipes out there use salted lemon to marinate meat. I marinated chicken breast, but it didn’t turn into tender moist chicken. Also fresh lemon flavor disappeared by cooking meat. So I came up with the idea using salted lemon as sauce. Just follow 4 easy steps. #1 Marinate chicken breast in sake with pinch of salt for 10 to 15 minutes. Use 1 teaspoon of sake for 100 grams meat. I highly recommend to mix with hand like massaging meat. #2 Coat meat with potato starch. Sprinkle potato starch over meat and mix well. #3 Cook Chicken on both sides. Do not overcook, cook up to about 90%. #4 Add sauce and mix well. Cook the rest of the way with sauce. In this way, meat is moist and tender and has fresh lemon taste.
Read more Grilled Lemon Chicken to learn how to make salted lemon.
- 200 g chicken breast
- 120 g cabbage
- 2 teaspoon sake
- salt & pepper
- 2 teaspoon potato starch
- 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
- 6 g butter
- 1 tablespoon salted lemon
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- Slice chicken against grain. Marinate in mixture of salt and sake for 15 minutes.
- Cut cabbage into large chunks.
- Coat the chicken with potato starch.
- Place 1/4 tsp. of oil and chicken in pan. Cook both sides.
- Remove the chicken from pan.
- Place 1/4 tsp. of oil and cabbage with pinch of salt. Cook until cabbage becomes tender for about 2 minutes.
- Add chicken back in the pan.
- Add butter, salted lemon and soy sauce. Stir fry for one minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
Side 1: Chunky Potato Tuna Salad 94 calories
This is a recipe from Tanita’s cooking book. But the method is mine. I do not peel potato skin with a knife nor boil potato. How do I do? It’s simpler. I steam potato. I place a steamer basket in pot and cook on stove. Occasionally, I cook potato in microwave. Read more Potato Salad to learn how to cook in microwave. Steaming is the beast cooking method not to lose nutrients because vegetables are cooked with a lower temperature. The bonus is that you can easily peel potato skin with fingers!
If you don’t like onion taste. Cut onion and soak in water for a few minutes to remove the strong onion taste. Do not soak too long because it loses some nutrients into water.
- 90 g potato
- 50 g carrot
- 20 g onion
- 20 g canned tuna
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
- salt & pepper
- dried parsley
- Steam potato and carrot. If steam together, remove carrot as it gets cooked quicker.
- Cut onion into small chunks. Peal potato skin and cut into bite sizes. Cut carrot into bite sizes.
- Make sauce by mixing onion, tuna and mayonnaise. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Place potato and carrot and spread the sauce over top. Sprinkle parsley to complete.
Side 2: Green Salad with Seaweed Dressing 36 calories
We harvested cherry tomatoes from our garden that we seeded last spring! Yes, our weather is mild enough to produce cherry tomatoes at least twice a year from the same plant. They are so sweet just like the ones I had in Japan. I noticed cucumbers were sold with flowers attached in regular grocery stores in Japan. They had pointy thorn when I grabbed them. Their vegetables are so fresh and tasty. I miss it!
Lettuce does not want to be cut with a sharp knife. Lettuce will look fresh when hand trimmed. If you cut lettuce with knife, it will get brown. You can think about precut lettuce that is browned along the edge. Just you know, you can buy a dull knife designed to cut lettuce. Who wants to buy a separate knife just to cut lettuce?
- 60 g lettuce
- 70 g tomato
- 50 g cucum
- 1 g dried seaweed half sheet
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- Cut tomato and slice cucumber. Hand trim lettuce.
- Mix soy sauce and sesame oil.
- Place lettuce, cucumber and tomato in plate.
- Tear dried seaweed into small pieces. Sprinkle seaweed and dressing over salad when you serve.
Soup: Harusame Soup 37 calories
We know we can add any kind of vegetables to soup. How about other than vegetables to soup? You learned that adding mushrooms is great because they are low in calories and nutritious. If calories are not a concern, tofu including freeze dried tofu and fried tofu can be added. How about adding something fun? Harusame is a good candidate. They are slippery and chewy. Harusame soup will fill you up!
Read more Harusame Salad to learn about Harusame.
Read more Daikon Shitake Soup to learn how to use dried shitake.
- 15 g dried Harusame
- 1 dried shitake mushroom soaked in water overnight
- 20 g cabbage
- 250 ml Chinese soup stock or chicken broth
- salt & pepper
- Boil water in pot. Add harusame and cook for 2 minutes or per instruction. Drain and rinse with running water in colander. Drain again.
- Cut cabbage into large chunks. Cut shitake into thin strips. Cut harusame in half lengthwise.
- Boil soup stock in pot. Add harusame, shitake and cabbage.
- Cook for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Steamed Mix Grain Rice 160 calories
I met quinoa about 5 years ago when my former co-worker took me to a deli where they serve quinoa salad as a daily special. Cooked quinoa was mixed with baby spinach, shredded carrot, sliced almond and dried cranberry. I do not remember if it tasted good, but I do remember it was difficult to eat as quinoa didn’t stick to vegetables. She told me that this salad was much better than the one sold in Costco. Since then I spotted quinoa here and there, but I never thought that I was going to cook at that time.
Quinoa earned spot light when NASA approved and named it “21st century’s staple food”. Quinoa established the fame as super healthy food. Quinoa is high in protein and vitamin B. It contains all nine amino acids and folic acid like dark green vegetables. If compared to white rice…
2 times more Protein
5 times more High Quality Lipids
8 times more Dietary Fiber
6 times more Potassium
10 times more Calcium
7 times more Magnesium
7 times more Phosphorus
8 times more Iron
Wow! Very impressive! If you still are not convinced to eat quinoa, look at Beyonce. She lost 26 kg by eating quinoa for three months. We all want to lose weight and look great!
Just add one or two spoons of quinoa when you cook white rice. My favorite blend is rolled oat, amaranth, barley, kamut, millet, and quinoa. I add one tablespoon EACH per one cup of white rice. Wash before cooking unless instructed that no washing required. Place white rice and grains in colander and rinse with running water. Add the same amount of water as you cook with regular white rice. Read more How to Cook and Store White Rice. For example, I cook 2 cups of white rice and 2/3 cup of grains with 3 & 1/2 cups of water. If you didn’t care for grain rice, add one teaspoon of salt. It will make grains sweeter.