Quick Pho

Holla I am back again to post a budget friendly + super yummy pho recipe. Another good thing about this , is the ingredients you buy for it will last a long time to keep in the pantry. So if you have the sniffles and want a light yet hearty meal, this is the good stuff to cure what ails you. Pure comfort food , but also healthy! I found this in the drafts section of my blog from two months ago and thought I should post it for those of you who have a pho craving.




Ingredients:
Shaved frozen meat I.e. steak or pork (can be found in the frozen aisle in Superstore, in a clear plastic container. If you can't find it, just fry up a steak and slice it thinly and add to your pho.)
1-2 Chicken/beef stock/cubes
2 Cinnamon sticks
2 Star anise (can be found in the spices aisle)
1/2 Sweet onion
Bunch fresh basil
2 Limes
Hoisin sauce
Sriracha sauce
1 pkg vermicelli noodles





Method:

In a medium sized pot, drizzle in some olive oil and turn up to medium heat.
Add onions sauté until caramelized, add the cinnamon sticks, and star anise. Then add chicken/beef stock (if you're using cubes, sauté with onion until it is caramelized then add in about 4 cups of water).

Bring the mixture to a boil, and add the vermicelli noodles. Cook for 1-2 minutes more, then pick out the cinnamon sticks and star anise. Add in the frozen shaved steak, and transfer to a bowl.

Top with a bunch of fresh basil leaves, squeeze some lime into it, and drizzle with hoisin and sriracha sauce.

My sister gave me that book for my birthday, I've been reading it for a few days. I love it!

There you have it, the fastest pho recipe out there and just as tasty. Let me know in the comment section below what you think of it!



-Little&Simple

My day 2 experience: 3 day juice cleanse

Paddle boarding in Deep Cove yesterday.

It's day two and I'm going insane.

My alarm went off this morning probably 10 times and I shut it off every single time, thinking "5 more minutes, and I will get ready and go pick up my second days worth of grass water". Yeah I had to book it over there this morning to pick them up. 10 minutes before 8, I quickly threw on some clothes and forgot to put on any makeup to make myself look put together and decent whilst picking up my trendy juices. Sunglasses would suffice. As I was driving there I stumbled upon the Mexican radio station and blared it in my car and to be honest I had no idea what they were saying. But it was awesome and I think I found my favourite new radio station. I would rather listen to a rambling radio DJ in Spanish than in English, because either way I'm not really paying attention and Spanish sounds way better.
I got there and returned my six glass mason jars that they gave me yesterday morning, and when I arrived they had all the juices ready to go for me. It was a quick 30 second pickup, thank god because all I wanted was to crawl back into bed and sleep for the remainder of this cleanse.

So if you're wondering what will happen to your body when you do a juice cleanse, let me fill you in. Don't do it. Ever. Just eat healthy and you won't need to do the cleanse. I thought this would be a wonderful experience where I would feel energized and happy and my pimples would disappear and I would be a totally new person in 3 days. So far all I have to show is a bitchy mood, constant hunger, and I can't even string a sentence together straight. Oh and the dreams, I had such vivid dreams last night. I am going to make a list of pros and cons for any of you who are thinking of doing a cleanse, of course it probably would have helped if I prepared to do it and didn't gorge myself with jalapeno cheese bread the day before. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend doing that either.

I have also been drinking coconut water for extra potassium.

So I'm going to go with the pros first, let me think long and hard about this one...

1. It feels good to get in all the veggies + way more than you would need in a day
2. I feel very hydrated
3. I feel lighter already, I think I pooped out 3 lbs
4. I had brief moments of clarity and happiness
5. For about 10 minutes yesterday I had energy
6. While doing this cleanse it has given me extra time to plan my schedule out



Here are the cons.
1. I have to pee every 5 minutes
2. I have to do the other thing every 30 minutes, or I keep thinking I do and then nothing happens, and then EVERYTHING happens
3. I am starving all the time
4. My mind is foggy, and I day dream a lot. & I lose my train of thought when I am talking.
5. I am irritable
6. For some reason it feels like my head is pulsing, with a mild head ache
7. I almost passed out walking up a hill, which is not normal for me
8. I have to drink a juice every two hours, so it gives me little time to go out and do what I want



I am still trying to decide if this is a good thing or bad thing for my body. From doing my research on the internet, half the nutritionists support it and half of them don't. So it's a tough call. The only advice I can give is listen to your body. Some websites say that if you're feeling dizzy and faint and ill then it means your body is detoxing. I however think it is the major levels of blood sugar spikes and drops. I guess the symptoms and results are different for everybody.

I am all for healthy eating and exercising, but I don't think juicing is for me. I love food way too much. But I am not even done the cleanse yet. Who knows, maybe day 3 is the magical day where all my symptoms disappear and my body finally accepts the fact that I am not feeding it solids.

Either way, I will keep you guys posted once I finish.

Stay tuned.







Also, these two books do not go hand in hand, I discovered.