Cooking with less of the meat but more of the flavor: Something simple and healthy for lunch

Cooking with less meat: My original recipes for  chicken and fish cake with burdock root and a tofu side dish

My son's recent favorite is this chicken meal with a combination of fish cake with slices of burdock root (gobou in Japanese) plus carrots and bell peppers.  To make it is so easy; if you have slices of raw bite-sized chicken, just add soy sauce to suit your taste. Let the chicken slices absorb the soy sauce for a few minutes  There's one twist here, though.  I added 2 teaspoonfuls of orange marmalade for that tangy and sweet taste plus three to four red dates (I got from a Chinese store). After a few minutes, I cooked the chicken by boiling under moderate fire.  Then I added the pre-boiled slices of burdock root and carrots.   I put the green pepper and the slices of fish cakes a little later. The fish cakes can vary depending on what is available in your place.  In my case, I added the cheese-flavored ones because I love the cheesy flavor in my dish. I added boiled water to soften the ingredients a bit more at the same time provide some sauce into the dish.  My son loved this; he asked for additional serving of rice.

The other dish is, again, too comfortable to prepare.  It has tofu, red beans, minced chicken and green leafy veggies from sprouts of soybeans.  I just boiled the chicken meat in Japanese sake (cooking alcohol), then the rest of the ingredients were added.  The red beans have been pre-boiled so it takes no time to soften them.  I flavored it with oyster sauce.  You may want to add a pinch of salt.

The two viands go very well with a hot bowl of rice; however, for breakfast, it also tastes good with a slice of plain bread.

That's it.  It's good for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Top left: Very fresh tofu with red beans and minced chicken with green sprouts
Top right: Chicken with burdock, carrots, red dates, and bell pepper. A bowl of rice is also presented.