Zucchini pasta with chicken

Some time back we started a diet program called the Fast Diet.  It was based on research that indicated that intermittent fasting was good for the body and helped it to lose weight.  Under this plan, you restrict your calorie intake two nonconsecutive days each week.  During those two days males get 600 calories and females get 500.  I get all 600 of my calories at supper and a bit of popcorn later.  My wife eats about 50 calories worth for breakfast and the rest at supper.  You can watch the documentary about the Fast Diet here http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xvdbtt_eat-fast-live-longer-hd_shortfilms and decide for yourself.



The beauty of this diet is that it is far more flexible and sustainable in the long run than most other diets.  Does a special occasion fall on a fast day, change days for that week.  Doing this diet and being more attentive to portion size on the other days I dropped 30 pounds in about 6 months.  I did gain about 5 pounds back because we got silly while on a vacation to celebrate our  30th anniversary.  I supposed if I did more consistent exercise I'd probably drop more weight.



The main challenge with this diet, to me anyway, is variety and eating well.  Which brings us to the object of this post.  I mean to show that you can eat well on a fast day and the technique can be used to increase the variety.



This recipe will be for one serving but it is easy enough to increase to serve as many as you want.



Ingredients:

4 oz boneless skinless chicken breast
3 oz mushrooms, sliced
2 mini sweet peppers, julienned
1 medium zucchini, julienned or spiralized
1 1/2 Tbs onion, finely diced
1/2 tsp sesame oil x2
1Tbs corn starch
1/4 cup chicken broth
salt
pepper
Worcestershire sauce

Slice the chicken breast into bite size pieces.  Put 1/2 tsp of sesame oil in a skillet and get it hot.  Put the chicken, sweet peppers, and onions in the skillet and cook till the chicken is just done.  Remove from skillet.

Put the mushrooms in the skillet and season with salt, pepper, and Worcestershire sauce.   There should be sufficient sesame oil and chicken juices remaining in the skillet but if not add a bit of sesame oil.  Cook till the mushrooms are just starting to brown.   Remove the mushrooms from the skillet.

Combine the corn starch and the chicken broth and set aside.

Add 1/2 tsp sesame oil to the skillet and get hot.  Add the zucchini to the skillet and stir around to start warming up.  After a minute add the chicken mixture and mushrooms, including any juices that seeped onto the dish, to the skillet and stir to combine.  Once the juices have started sizzling add the corn starch/chicken broth mixture and stir.  The broth should start to thicken quickly.  Stir the everything around to make sure it is well coated with the thickened broth.  Remove everything from the skillet and enjoy.

Uncle T

Who is Uncle T?

Welcome to Uncle T's Kitchen.

I've been cooking and experimenting in the kitchen for several years now.  Usually what I prepare is well received and garners requests for the recipe.  After much dithering on my part and other people saying I should write a cook book or open a restaurant I decided to open my kitchen.  I will be talking about my recipes and changes I make to other's recipes and the reason for those changes.  I may also talk about tools and gadgets that make life easier in the kitchen.  Be warned, we do eat things that are outside the usual American culinary comfort zone.

Why does what I say matter?  I don't know that it does very much but I will say I do know food quality.  I spent 21 years as an Army Food Inspector and as such I know product characteristics for meats, seafood, as well as fruits and vegetables.  This enables me to find the best tasting and best quality for what I want to cook at any store.  Something to keep in mind, the best looking produce may not be the best to eat.

I got my start cooking while I was in 5th grade.  My father was attending graduate school and my mother was working so at times it fell to me to start preparations for supper.  While staying with my grandparents I would hang out in the kitchen while my grandmothers cooked.  I probably learned the most from my maternal grandmother as I lived with them for two years while at college.  As a small town Southern woman most of her cooking was done by the "put in what looks right" style of cooking and I do most of my cooking that way as well.  Thanks to my grandmothers I can cook some serious old school Southern food.  However, to this day I still can't match my grandmother's fried chicken.

Throughout our marriage, my wife and I would both work on supper, though most of my contribution was outside with the grill.  I started cooking more at home after redeploying from Iraq in 2004.  I was able to cook in Iraq and found it relaxing to get creative with limited options.  Now I do almost all the cooking.

If you've stayed with me this long, bless you.  I hope you find some inspiration to experiment in your kitchen. 

The kitchen is a wonderful play ground.

Uncle T