Christmas and New Year are always full of joy, celebrations and feasting. To prepare for all the feasting, I’ve some some healthy dishes to share. They are low in carbs, fat and fast to prepare.

Suitable for LUNCH/ DINNER

Grilled turmeric salmon with broccoli
30min
150 – 200g salmon
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
Sat & pepper to taste
Olive oil spray
6 – 8 heads of Broccoli/ cauliflower

Direction –
1. Marinate salmon with turmeric powder, salt and pepper
2. Coat the dish for grilling salmon with olive oil (I used an olive oil spray to lightly coat the pan)
3. Grill salmon for 15min (or more if bigger piece)
4. While grilling salmon, cook broccoli in boiling water for 4min and strain well
5. Serve salmon and broccoli

Tuna, rucola, baby spinach, miso bonito pickled/ marinated garlic salad
A handful each of rucola and spinach
1 can of healthy tuna in olive oil – we have this version in supermarkets without much oil, it’s like a mixture of brine and olive oil
6 – 8 pieces/ cloves of marinated garlic from Japanese section in supermarkets

Directions –
1. Rinse the vegetables, use a salad spinner to strain off any water
2. Cut the garlic pieces into your preferred size (I cut 1 clove into 3 pieces) even not cutting is fine as they are quite small
3. Mix all ingredients everything together.
If you like some dressing, Japanese sesame dressing is good. I had mine without dressing, just the oil from the canned tuna.

Fishcake with capsicum and Thai green spicy dressing
Any type of fish cake from supermarket
1 capsicum
1/4 head of lettuce
Thai green spicy sauce for seafood available at supermarkets

Direction –
1. Rinse and dry lettuce with salad spinner, cut into strips
2. Remove seeds of capsicum, cut into cubes
3. Cut fish cake into cubes
4. Mix everything together with about 3 tablespoons of Thai green spicy sauce. More if desired

Yong tau foo
In most wet markets we can find these raw items stuffed with fish paste. They are tasty, easy to prepare and affordable! Each piece ranges from 30 cents to 50 cents. At hawker centers or food courts, they are about 70 to 80 cents per piece (as they are cooked and prepared for us). It’s never more than a dollar each. I usually go for the non fried items as they are healthier. However, I love and cannot resist stuffed tau pok (deep fried beancurd with airy insides used in local dishes like laksa, Rojak, kway chup, etc) so I’d always pick tau pok items.

Yong tau foo is easy to prepare. Sometimes I just cook them in chicken/ vegetable stock with vegetables for a simple meal. Once in awhile I braise them in spicy black bean sauce to go with rice. At foodcourts or hawkers, I may have them in soup or laksa gravy, and with noodles if I’m really hungry.

Snacks/ dessert
Fruits and a refreshing fruity drink (like water with 1 or 2 slices of lemon) works for me. Sometimes I’d have a treat of steamed milk custard (made with just milk and egg and goes very well with pandan sugar syrup – recipe to be posted later).