Spicy Basil Leaves (Food Friday)

My dish of week choice  is chosen from what I have tried that week; from my blog http://benear-in-chicagoland.blogspot.com/ I write these to add a healthier, more nutrient packed meal. I post every Friday at 5:00 pm Central time, 6:00 pm Eastern time, and  3:00 pm Western time.

The dish that was prepared is called Spicy Basil leaves; at least that was what I ordered on the restaurant menu. What was in the food was probably just standard ingredients provided by US foods or a local market. Because they were probably grown on a factory farm the ingredients are not as nutrient dense as the should be. The pesticides and other growing chemicals are not what I would prescribe for a healthy diet either. So what I did was replaced the rice with quinoa, used grass raised beef, and organic produce (peppers, herbs, and onions). Why I did this was to get extra amino acids from the quinoa, extra iron and other minerals from beef, and the produce was more nutrient dense.

I started with breaking everything out and getting basil leaves and garlic ready. I opened up the meat and started seasoning with Chinese five spice and Himalayan salt. Mmmmmm Himalayan salt...  Next after I seasoned the ground beef I got the pan ready by turning the heat on high and dropping in some coconut oil. As it started to heat up I dropped in the garlic and basil; then proceeded with the meat by peeling off small chunks and tossing them into the pan.

With that I started to slice up the peppers and got the onion ready. After everything was sliced up I tossed it with the meat and herbs as well. Once everything was in the pan simmering away I grabbed small bottle of fish sauce and dashed a few drops every few minutes for three rounds. After all of that I dumped the contents of the pan into a small bowl. 

 I started the next step just before I finished the meat and peppers; by starting an electric kettle with 2 cups of water. After I transferred the meat and peppers to a small bowl; I poured the now hot water into the pan and brought it to a very quick boil. I added in some quinoa and quickly made some grains for my spicy basil leaves and ground beef. I think I learned this very cool trick from Jaime Oliver's 15 minute meals or the Food Network Snapchat channel; can't remember which.

The end result was added to the bowl; along with some spinach mmmmmm........




























The end result was a very simple meal with some super grains, grass raised beef, organic produce and some added greens. With the extra greens I got some magnesium, zinc, and various things in the leafy greens; along with vitamin K and E. The dish was flavorful; although I wish it had a stronger herby flavor like the one I ordered earlier in the week but I just need to fine tune it. So all around a bowl full of vitamins, nutrients, minerals and packed full of extra amino acids.



















Cost $25 cost per bowl $6.5? You can make around 4 bowls if you use just the right amount of ingredients so it's super close in cost to most places. But you are getting organic ingredients and instead of rice, you have quinoa which is so much better in flavor and nutrient content.




I'm also testing some methods of human optimization personally and on selected individuals. If you are interested in joining my health plan study group you can email yourhealthkits@gmail.com

The blog I'm getting the food ideas from will be from another personal blog of mine. That blog is http://benear-in-chicagoland.blogspot.com/ the subject of the blog is to explore various neighborhoods in the Chicagoland area. With that exploration comes food inspiration for the rest of the week. So please follow if you would like to see some food to try out and my experience with it.


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