Swai Fish Recipe - Pan Fried Swai Fillet

Pan fried swai fillet is one of our family's recent favorite fish.

Fish are a great source of protein. They contain healthy fats that will reduce your cholesterol and improve your health. Fish also contain omega-3 fatty acids that help keep your heart healthy and may even improve your mood. Fish have been shown to be an important diet of many long-lived peoples around the world.

As a way to eat less red meat, we have tried different kinds of fish to pan fry, grill, or bake. Salmon, Tilapia, Perch, Mahi Mahi, Flounder, etc. Their tastes are less satisfactory, we eat them just for the sake of healthy foods, and they are pricey. Finally we settle down to Swai, a white-flesh fish with a sweet mild taste and light flaky texture. Surprisingly, swai is a river-farmed catfish produced in southeastern Asia, particularly Vietnam. It is available at our local Chinese grocery stores, $5.99 for a 2 lbs package.

The way I prepare fish to cook is all the same: marinate the fish fillets with cooking wine, salt and pepper, and ginger powder. It is easy and quick to cook: preheat frying pan with a coat of olive oil, lay the marinated swai fillets, cook three minutes with cover until it is turning golden brown; flip the fillets and cook another 2 to 3 minutes, and it is done! A bit of butter can be added at the beginning or at the end for flavor. What end up on our plate every time is super tasty fish, moist and flaky, no disappointment at all.

Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

A pinch here, a pour there, and you'll smell goodness in the air. That is what I just did: I am baking my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Here are the ingredients:

1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped walnuts
40 semisweet chocolate chips

Step 1
In large bowl, mix brown sugar and butter until blended. Beat in vanilla and egg until light and fluffy. Mix in oats, flour and baking soda; stir in chopped walnuts.

Step 2
Roll tablespoonfuls of dough and press it flat, add one chocolate chip in the center, lay onto ungreased cookie sheet in 4 x 5.

Step 3
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Repeat step 2, have another 20 cookie doughs.

Step 4
Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly and remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Once cookies are cooled, store in an air tight container.

Notes: Some changes I made from the original recipe.

1. I cut brown sugar from 1-1/2 to one cup.
2. I choose walnut as the main add-in instead of chocolate.
3. I add only one chocolate chip per cookie instead of one cup semisweet chocolate chips.
4. I preheat oven to 350ºF until I am ready to drop second batch of cookie dough, so to speak of being green in the kitchen.
5. It takes my oven 20 minutes to bake the cookies in the glass pan instead of suggested 9 - 11 minutes.

My thoughts on further experiments:

1. I use microwave 2 minutes 50% power to soften two sticks of butter.
2. I would like to cut butter to one and half sticks.
3. The 20 minute baking time is just right for glass bakeware, but it is overbaked for the metal cooking sheet. Next time I will try 15 to 18 minutes for the metallic pan, and continue bake for the glass pan. Perhaps, I need to invest for another metallic cooking sheet or glass pan just to be consistent.

Just got back the results of my physical exam in April. Borderline anemia and high cholesterol.

Top five foods to lower your numbers suggested by Mayo Clinic are: oatmeal and high-fiber foods; fish and omega-3 fatty acids; walnuts, almonds and other nuts; olive oil; and foods with added plant sterols or stanols.

Except for the last food which I don't have clue on sterols, what I eat is just as fine as it suggests, and the oatmeal walnut chocolate chip cookies sound like perfect fit except for the chocolate part.

P.S. Today there is this royal wedding of Prince William and Princess Kate on the other side of Atlantic Ocean. Not big deal for me, and I warn my daughter already: there is no such thing of "live happily ever after".

How You Can Transition to Vegetarian

Eating right is not only good for your waistline, but also beneficial for your mind, body and soul. As it turns out, when you eat certain food, such as natural grains instead of processed food; vegetables instead of meat; soymilk instead of cow's milk, it can especially boost Mother Nature.

After more than a year of eating less meat, I feel the next step naturally would go vegetarian (or vegan, sounding sort of like cult), though at a gradual slow pace, and for myself only, considering I have two young growing kids to feed.

Here are some tips for making the transition, shared by Actress Alicia Silverstone in her book, The Kind Diet.

Start slow. Try going four weeks without beef, chicken or pork and replacing them with "new meats" like tofu or fish. Fish leaves the body feeling lighter than beef, pork or poultry, and you will get a sense of what going veggie is like.

Make a substitute. If you find you're not satisfied, create something close to what you're craving using all-natural ingredients. Try toast with soy margarine or brown rice syrup and cinnamon for a delicious cinnamon toast. You'll get your fix while still sticking to the plan.

Give yourself a reminder. Whatever your reason for trying the plant-based diet, make sure to constantly remind yourself of your commitment; it will help kill the cravings.

My own experience: We eat more fish (swai fillets in particular, produced in Vietnam) than beef or pork. I substitute ground pork with lean ground turkey for our favorite dumplings and wontons. I bake oatmeal chocolate nuts cookies to satisfy my cravings.

Earth Day 2011 April 22nd

One year went by and today, April 22nd, 2011 is Earth Day again!

I thought to do and write something related to Green today. In the end, I just read some pages of the book The Difference by Jean Chatzky; did some bookkeeping; and practiced some piano fingering exercise - the very first one in The Virtuoso Pianist by Charles-Louis Hanon.

Feel good listening to Daniel Domb's Cello classical music. Hope the coming year is a peaceful one.

Tip to Clean Kitchen Pipes

To clear your kitchen pipes, put three Alka-Seltzer tablets down the kitchen sink, followed by a cup of vinegar. Leave for a few minutes, then run hot water. It sure does the magic work to your kitchen, the center of a home, sweet home!

Chinese Solar Companies: STP TSL YGE LDK

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (NYSE:STP)
Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE:TSL)
Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (NYSE:YGE)
LDK Solar Co. Inc. (NYSE:LDK)

What STP, TSL, YGE, and LDK have in common is the deep pockets of the Chinese government. Since the beginning of 2010, these four companies have received a total of nearly $26 billion in loans from their government. All four sport market caps lower than $2 billion, but all four are among the top five global manufacturers of solar cells.

The reason these companies ship more solar PV cells than any competitor except First Solar is their focus on low-cost – SunPower is not a low-cost provider. The top five low-cost providers are currently selling contracted cells for less than the spot price. This will hurt margins somewhat now. However, because they have already lowered their pricing, the impact on margins next year will not be as great. Competitors, especially from Europe, that are now seeing premium pricing are less well-prepared for the drop in shipments that is forecast for the first quarter of 2011.

The Chinese companies plan to use a substantial amount of their government loans to build more manufacturing capacity. Some of that new capacity will meet demand inside China, which is expected to double its new solar installations in 2011.

Of the four Chinese companies, it is impossible to pick a winner at this point. All four are well set-up to prosper and all four could be technology leaders as well as cost and shipment leaders in five years or less. National governments are almost certain to provide more policy support for solar power, consumer costs for rooftop systems will fall, and there is likely to be a trend toward consumer leasing as well. Now is a good time to be one of the leading solar companies in the world.

I have two positions with STP and YGE.

Crocheted Squares - Mosaic Rag Rug

Crocheted Squares: main color (MC)



Nine-Square Mosaic: four colors -- blue, maroon, pink, and white



Mosaic Rag Rug: half finished