It’s been a most peculiar few months.
From burnt out apathy to chasing a new dream and facing a new big hill of hope; from sailing on still, slightly sentimental waters to hitting hysterically emotional rapids with submerged rocks and from waking up smiling and on a high to staying in bed, curled up under the covers, trying to hide my tears even from myself.
Internally, there is hope yet doubt, optimism yet uncertainty, confidence yet fear. Externally, on some days, when reading the news, I feel a near breakdown of faith in humanity and the state of the country and I think screw evolution, let’s aim for revolution.
What the hell is going on? PMS? Peri-menopausal stress? Is it biological? Physiological? Psychological? Mental? Emotional? Am I finally really losing it?
Time passes fast, I’m rushing to pick up supplies, driving from Kuala Lumpur to Klang and back again. I’m cooking for mother, filling backlogged orders for clients, trying to keep up with paperwork and, late at night, staring at a blank screen, willing myself to vomit out clogged up decades-old emotions putrefying inside. Self-therapy seriously sucks sometimes.
I realise I’m neglecting myself a little, then more than a little. No time, no inclination to eat full meals. I eat on the run or not at all. This cannot go on. If this roller coaster is to continue, I have to have real sustenance.
What’s fast, easy to whip up, won’t go bad in the fridge too fast? What vegetables will stand the test of time yet remain tasty?
The answer was easy.
Tomatoes: always tasty, extremely versatile, a good source of vitamins, and energy, a super food.
Cucumber: High water content, vitamins and provides that essential crunch needed in a good salad.
Corn: Raw, of course, complex carbs, check. Another super food, practically.
The base ingredients for Trinity Salad
- Half a punnet of red cherry tomatoes
- Half a punnet of yellow cherry tomatoes (optional)
- One Japanese cucumber
- Baby corn, can be substituted with raw sweet corn
Vinaigrette:
- One teaspoonful of Straits Heritage Foods (SHF) Sambal Belacan
- Juice from half a lime or lemon or whatever citrus you have on hand
- Splash of olive oil
Chop up all the vegetables, whip the vinaigrette ingredients together, toss everything into a bowl.
Time check: 5 Minutes.
Ingredients for Trinity Chicken Salad
- About 150gms of chicken fillet. Always good to have in the freezer. After buying, split it up into singleton portions of about 150gms into separate freezer/Ziplock bags and freeze. Make sure the chicken pieces are dry when you pop them in. Freezer-burnt chicken, no matter how much you cook it, tastes awful.
- Marinate chunks of chicken fillet in teaspoonful of SHF sambal belacan with a splash of oil. Toss into hot pan. Stir fry until cooked. Toss contents of pan, chicken, oil and all into salad trio. Mix.
- Stuff the tossed Trinity Chicken salad into pita bread, or any flat bread. Or just bread. Or eat it like that. Whatever.
Ingredients for Trinity Tuna Salad
- One can of tuna in olive oil.
- Open can, drain half of the oil, plop tuna into bowl, add teaspoonful of sambal belacan. Smash everything together with a fork. If you’re feeling fancy, squeeze in a splash of lime.
- Plop smooshed up sambal belacan tuna onto trio of vegetables. Mix. Eat as is or use as sandwich filling.
- Optional, if one is craving protein: Boil an egg or fry up a sausage or if really hungry, do both. Arrange nicely in bowl. Then smoosh everything together. Also therapeutic, if one is repressing some level of aggression.
Experiment with other vegetables or proteins, canned, fresh or otherwise. The key here is fast, fast, fast, 10 minutes or under.
Beats ordering in fast food again.
Joyce
Straits Heritage Foods 