A snack of the healthy kind – Asian vegetable broth

Got hunger pains and don’t want to cure them with a piece of chocolate, biscuit or some other naughty treat?

Well, I have been using vegies to pad out my meals. They are totally guilt free and really delicious. So I thought, why not make them into a really yummy snack or light lunch? This dish has no guilt – but is full of delicious Thai flavours like fish sauce, soy and lime. It also takes less than 10 minutes to make. What could be better?

I think this is also a lovely entrée to have before heading out to a restaurant. It fills you up enough where you won’t go and order the biggest steak on the menu and then eat a whole dessert to yourself – but you’ll still want to eat – and hopefully make good choices.

Asian Vegetable Broth

• 4 brocoli flowerets
• a handful of green beans
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• half a red chilli, finely chopped
• 1 tbs of chopped, fresh coriander
• the green leaves of 1 head of pak choy, sliced
• 1 tbs of soy sauce
• 1tsp of fish sauce
• the juice of half a lime
• 1/2 a tsp of brown sugar

Method

In a small frypan add the brocoli, beans, stock, soy, fish sauce and sugar. Bring stock to the boil and simmer everything for one minute. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until pak choy is wilted – this should only take 20 or 30 seconds.

Serve garnished with some chopped pieces of red chilli, if desired.

This dish really is fantastic. Feel free to substitute any of the vegies with whatever you like – and leave the chilli out, if it’s not to your liking.

In other weight loss news – I had my first personal training session this morning. I had to get up at 6.20am, was training by 7pm and it went for an hour – well, 55 minutes until I started feeling nauseous! That’s right, I worked so hard I felt sick – but my trainer was on to it, got me to lie down and put my legs in the air. Apparently it’s all due to a build up of lactic acid. I know it sounds a bit dramatic – but I actually really enjoyed the session and have booked in the again for next week. My trainer, let’s call him Mr C – was really nice to me and he didn’t yell at me or make me feel bad. Woo hoo! He was there every step of the way. We did interval training and also boxing, which I really enjoyed.

Anyway, tomorrow is my first weight in at Weight Watchers. Wish me luck!!

As for a song, I think this one is fitting, considering how much of be “workin’ it” …