A fundamental requirement to taking your life back from the system that wants to enslave you is to start cooking for yourself.  Back in the day I used to eat a lot of takeout foods.  I never really got into the frozen TV dinners that you see throughout every grocery store freezer aisle.  My disposable income was being wasted on takeout food or fast food.  I lived in Playa Del Rey by myself for a couple years and used to get a Gorgonzola New York Strip Steak on top of garlic mashed potatoes with extra Gorgonzola sauce for the garlic knots that Berri’s Playa Cafe (defunct) used to serve.  I ate it too often, in fact, and was doing a number to my immune system, for certain.  Then again, I didn’t actually have a kitchen at that tiny illegal unit that afforded me L.A. Beach community lifestyle on the cheap, but I digress.  But when you start cooking for yourself on a regular basis, you’re eating cleaner than you would be if you continue eating takeout.  We all love delicious foods and all, but our health is of the utmost importance and I cannot stress that enough.  But rather than further digress into the whole story about how I cam to this, I’m just going to give you a quick little cheat code for you to be able to whip up something good and healthy on the quick.

Kim Chi Chicken Cheater

• Chopped chicken breast
• 1 stalk of kale
• 1 carrot
• red pepper
• Kim-chi – no MSG
• brown rice

When I don’t know what to cook, I’ll just chop up 1 chicken breast tender, strip 1 stalk of kale and chop it up, skin a carrot and chop that too.  I don’t get too carried away chopping and start cooking the chicken first to cook the rawness out before adding any vegetables.  I don’t go buckwild on the seasoning, just grind a little sea salt and pepper before adding the kale and carrot.  But I like spice, sometimes I just don’t want to think too much.  That’s how I got the idea to just cheat by adding some Kim-chi.

I never really went for the whole anti-carbs movement, whatever that was.  But at the same time, I don’t like to overdo it either.  So as you can see by the picture that I’ve only got a small dollop of brown rice.  For the most part, white rice doesn’t get consumed at our home.  I hope you found this post somewhat useful.

MORE TO COME…

Having lived with multiple sclerosis for the better part of 10 years, I had to completely change the way I ate.  Somehow, I always thought that cooking was more of a complicated issue than what it actually was.  But in reality, most of us are just lazy when it comes to cooking  But it doesn’t have to be a lot of work if you stick that that famous Navy slogan to “keep it simple, stupid.”  Sure, at first I would take a long time to cobble up a meal, but now I can whip up just about anything in 20 minutes or less.  When I first got diagnosed, the simplistic extremist in me adapted a mantra – “if it tastes good, spit it out.”  I had quit just about everything you can think of, dairy, wheat/gluten, processed foods, red meat, sugar, fruits (except lemons, limes, and blueberries), and kept my shopping to the meat & produce aisles and avoided the entire middle of the grocery store altogether.  Sure, I lost a lot of weight and was looking pretty lean.  Food wasn’t something to be enjoyed, it was just business, just nutritional sustenance.  But at the same time, that’s not living either.  So I decided to take on a different simple mantra – “moderation in all things.”   I’m eating for my mitochondria, for cellular reproduction, and for balanced nutrition so that I can get a good night’s sleep and my cells can reproduce themselves.  I seek lots of vitamin B12 for energy, healthy nerves and blood cells, and if you’ll let me.  I would like to share a recipe of my own that’s not only packed with B12, but a good source of Thiamin, Zinc, Copper and Manganese, as well as an extraordinarily strong source of Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Pantothenic Acid, Iron, Allicin, Beta Carotene, Phosphorus and Selenium as well, not to mention that it tastes great.

KISS Simple Chicken Livers

• 1 package of chicken livers
• 1 bunch of Nira (Chinese chives) – cut about 2″ or so
  
  • big city folks can find them in a Japanese/Asian grocery, otherwise just plain old chives will do just fine
• 1 handful of bean sprouts
• 1-2 clove(s) of garlic (pressed)
• 1″ cut of ginger (shaved)
• 1 tablespoon cooking sake
• 1 tablespoon Mirin (sweet cooking sake)
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

*** For those with no local access to a Japanese or Asian grocery store, you can find easily mirin and cooking sake on Amazon.com

Having learned from a fellow MS Warrior, Dr Terry Wahls, I try to consume an organ meat at least once a month.  Start by slicing your package of chicken livers in half, each one, and place them all into a mixing bowl.  If you don’t have a ginger shaver, any cheese grater will do.  Just remove the skin and shave your ginger right onto your chicken livers.  Personally, since we have a ginger shaver with receptacle cup, I like to squeeze the juice of the ginger all over it before dropping the shavings into it, because it permeates that spicy flavor all over it.  Press your garlic on top of that and add your tablespoons of cooking sake, mirin, and soy sauce.  Mix all that up by hand so that it gets all over your chicken livers and heat up some olive oil on a pan.  Personally, I like a ceramic coated cooking pan between medium and high, but not too hot.  But that’s just me, I don’t like that non-stick stuff all that much.  Once you’ve got the chicken livers beginning to change color, add your nira (Chinese chives) and your bean sprouts and stir fry all that together.

Naturally, I don’t eat something like this all by itself.  I’m not a big eater of white rice, as our home is a brown rice home.  I don’t recommend eating too much white rice anyway, as it’s lacking in in the bran and fiber that make up the nutritional need for rice in the first place.  Do yourself a solid and start eating brown rice instead of white rice, your digestive system will thank you in the end.  Bon appétit!

MORE TO COME…

Since coming to Japan to help Mrs S with the caregiving of her mother in her last days on Planet Earth, naturally I’ve been eating a lot of Japanese food.  I love Japanese food, and really can’t get enough.  I’ll more likely than not be blogging about a whole lot of different foods, snacks, and delicacies in the near future.  However, I also love my food that I cook.  I have my own style of cooking that I adapted since one of my closest friends stood witness to our wedding almost 16 years ago.  Because my friend is of Jamaican American descent and his wife is Ethiopian American, he taught me how to make some fantastic grilled meats that I’ve adapted into my typical cooking routine.  However, because I’ve learned to make some good foods  here in Japan, I’d like to share an easy two-stepper with you here today.

Step 1 is a traditional Japanese dish, Tsukimi Udon. ** serves 2 **

• Udon うどん noodles (the fat noodles) – 2 frozen blocks
• Mentsuyu, I prefer Yamaki brand (ヤマキめんつゆ) – 1 cup
• Water – 3 cups
• 2 eggs
• Kamaboko (fish paste)
• Scallions

1. Boil the udon according to the package directions, strain, and transfer evenly to 2 bowls.  Make a small dent in the center for the egg, then crack the egg into the bowl. 
2. Heat the mentsuyu and water together until it’s boiling.  Gently add your boiling broth to the bowls so as not to break the yolks.
3. Garnish with chopped scallions and kamaboko. 

Step 2 is my own addition that gives it a special little some-something.

** you might actually want to do 1/2 of this first **

• Thinly sliced pork – 8 – 12 oz
• Black (Lacinato) kale 2-3 leaves
• Small yellow onion – 1/2 is enough
• Jamaican jerk sauce – 1 tablespoon
• Ethiopian mitmita powder – 1 teaspoon
• Garlic – 2 cloves (chopped)

1. Chop your onion (thin and long), your garlic (finely), and your kale (not too long, not too short)
2. In a mixing bowl, add pork, jerk, and mitmita power with a tablespoon of olive oil and knead it all up together with your hands. 
3. Heat up your garlic in some olive oil and add your pork.  Cover it up, a minute and a half before turning it over. 
4. Cover it again another minute and a half before adding your onions and kale.  
5. Cover it up again another minute and a half before mixing it up good.
6. When the onions are translucent, turn off the heat and cover it up.  

Step 3, add to the top of your Tsukimi Udon and serve.

I has been said that I am a fussy eater, which is something George Carlin once said is just a nice way of saying a big pain in the ass.  Mrs S could easily tell you that I didn’t exactly warm up to most Japanese food right away.  Unless you live in a major metropolitan area such as Los Angeles, where I’d lived for close to 25 years before having to move to Japan, most Americans’ exposure to Japanese food remains limited to sushi, teppanyaki (think Benihana), table DIY yakiniku charcoal grill restaurants like Gyu Kaku, or ramen noodles.  Some folks may be familiar with shabu-shabu, and others possibly even Japanese curry.  But it wasn’t until my wife took me to a food park in Osaka where I discovered Okonomiyaki.  If you’re not familiar with the concept of a food-park, it’s quite an experience.  Basically you’re issued a swipe card, and it’s filled with numerous individual food vendors in which you can just swipe your card at each of them and chow down here and there as you go around, then you pay at the end.  They’re not all the same, but it’s a popular venue and the one I recommend in Osaka is Naniwa Kuishinbo Yokocho, which is located at. 

〒 552-0022 Tempozan Market Place
1-1-10 Kaigandori, Minato-ku, Osaka

However, if you’re not in Japan and want to know how to make something fantastic that you won’t find much of in the United States, try this.

Okonomiyaki made easy (serves 2)

• Cabbage – 1/2 of a spherical one (shredded)
• Flour – 1 cup
• Nagaimo (type of yam, smaller than a fist) – ground to slime
• Bonito soup stock (1 cup)
• 2 eggs
• Bonito flakes (1 small pack)
• Thinly sliced pork
• Okonomiyaki Sauce
• Kewpie mayonnaise

1. Shred your cabbage and place into a large mixing bowl, and add your cup of flour, your ground slimy nagaimo, your cup of bonito soup stock, and your 2 eggs.
2. Mix the hell out of it, then once mixed you put into a pan with some olive oil, place the thinly sliced pork on the top.
3. Flip it when it’s ready to flip, then flip it again when it’s ready. (If you know how to cook at all you’ll know when it’s ready.)
4. Put on a plate, add the okonomiyaki sauce and Kewpie mayonnaise as pictured below.
5. Top with your bonito flakes, and it’s ready to serve.

Bon appétit!

For a little extra wow, chop up a few green onions to mix in with the cabbage.  You’ll be absolutely delighted, believe me!

It doesn’t take too much effort to take good care of yourself if you make a habit out of eating at home.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to go to a nice restaurant and eat rich foods just like anyone else.  But you can save more than just your life by eating at home, you can save a lot of money.  Living in Los Angeles, it’s well know that it is an absurdly expensive city to reside.  Having multiple sclerosis isn’t cheap either, because you cannot get away with not having health insurance.  So it’s a good idea to remain thrifty with your cash.  We limit ourselves to a $300 monthly budget that we used strictly through our Simple Card, and we stick to this budget.  This $300 budget also includes a few instances of take-out foods such as a visit to an In n Out, maybe a taco truck, or even something more expensive.  Yet, our food budget remains on point and we still have a few bucks at the end of the month.  We also tend to shop at multiple stores.  Some foods we get at Trader Joe’s (asparagus, broccoli, onions), some occasionally from Whole Foods (brisket), some from our local Japanese grocery store (brown rice, meats, vegetables, Japanese food staples), and some from the weekly farmer’s market (mainly certain fruits). It’s about shopping smarter, and since we don’t usually eat processed foods we don’t waste a lot of money.  I also don’t like to waste a lot of time, so I taught myself how to prep and cook quickly. 

Broccoli Pork with Spinach

• Thinly sliced pork – 8 – 12 oz
• Broccoli – 1 decent sized crown (chopped)
• Spinach – 1 handful (cleaned and chopped)
• Yellow onion – 1 thinly sliced
• Ginger – 1 inch piece
• Carrot – 1/2 (skinned, and sliced thin)
• Soy sauce – 1 tablespoon
• Garlic – 1 clove, chopped finely.
• Black pepper.

1. Shave your ginger really nicely and squeeze all the juice onto your thinly sliced pork in a mixing bowl before tossing the ginger scribbits in there with it. 
2. Heat up your chopped garlic in some olive oil on a skillet over medium-high heat before adding your ginger gingered up pork. 
3. Grind some black pepper onto your pork and allow it to heat until it begins to change color, making sure to get both it colored on both sides before adding your onions. 
4. When the onions begin to become translucent, mix in your carrots with your broccoli and spinach. 
5. Add your soy sauce, mixing it up so that it gets itself nicely into your mixture. 
6. Cover, lower your heat and allow to simmer about a minute and a half before serving.

As you can see by the picture below, I often serve my dishes with a small cup of spiced brown rice.

Bon appétit!