A belated Happy Deevali to all my friends who celebrated it. I miss eating gato ladoo, gato rasgoola, gato di lait!!!

Since it was a public holiday yesterday, I went to Daiso $2 shop

Bought a big cup for my green teas or smoothies

For lunch, we headed to this Japanese place

We ordered some sushi, terriyaki beef hamburg (If I had seen the word “hamburg” behind, I wouldn’t have ordered it. I wanted pure beef), chicken wings, some fried oyster tempura, mushrooms and sashimi

Dinner Time

I made stir fry beef with cauliflower

And a veggie with some dried shrimps

After they finish painting the doors, I’m off to work

Have a great Thursday!

Mum baked a buttermilk cake (texture of a pudding) in the morning too. The cracks look pretty don’t they ;)

For lunch, we prepared some vegetarian dishes

On the plate: Stir fried veggies, Mauritian Brinjal dish (steamed brinjal, garlic, tomatoes, chilli flakes and salt) and red cargo rice

In the late afternoon, we headed to Carrefour after mum saw a salmon promo on the newspaper

And we bought a whole salmon! The fishmonger scaled the fish and we told him to cut it into fillets. We got about 12 (averaging 140g) fillets plus the carcass. The whole fish was $27.50 weighing almost 2.4 kg

So far, I’ve already baked some salmon fillets

And made salmon pie which I froze (make-ahead meals)

We spent 2 hours at Carrefour that day! The husb was patiently waiting for us :P

Lunch on Sunday

Sis bought these pizzas from IKEA

Have a great week ahead!!

In the mornings, I would check my emails (or my YouTube subscription). I ain’t gonna miss this room, now that mum is discharged.

Yeah we are back home now! And it was time to de-clutter this guest room. Yikes.

So for the first Project Get Organized activity, I started with something simple. Mum is staying here tonight.

This was my last oil painting … I saw so many nice abstract floral oil paintings at the hospital and now I feel like painting something again.

***

For lunch I made a healthy quinoa tuna salad. I replaced the mayonnaise with yoghurt and trust me, you won’t know that it’s yoghurt. Here’s the recipe.

Healthy Quinoa Tuna Salad

Ingredients (4 to 5 servings)

• 1/2 cup natural plain nonfat yogurt (without sugar)
• 2 tbsp dijon mustard
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 can tuna, packed in water, drained
• 1 cup diced cucumber
• 1 cup corn kernels
• 1/2 to 1 cup cooked quinoa

Method: Mix everything together. Simple as that!

There were so many nice refrigerators to choose from. We particularly liked those 2-door type but none would fit in our kitch — our width is limited to 180 mm –  and suppose width wasn’t an issue, we wouldn’t want to spend that kind of money (2K – 3k) on a fridge.

We finally chose this one (with black tempered glass), which matches our current kitchen cabinets (and was on sale). It’s looking pretty empty at the moment

Now that I have a fridge again, I want to give the weekly make-ahead meal a try!

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What I’m currently loving at the moment is this breakfast-in-a-hurry cake aka 5-minute microwave mug breakfast cake. I’m using a secret ingredient which is making this cake so fluffy and light!

Secret ingredient = smoothie powder (only those with skim milk, vanilin and stabilizer as ingredients) from Phoon Huat (which I recently purchased). I just use a teaspoon of this powder. A little goes a long way.

[Microwave on high for about 2 - 3 minutes]

Yum!

This is my breakfast-in-a-hurry or sometimes a snack-on-the-go :P

Lunch? It has been simple

Monday Lunch – Lentils, hard boiled eggs and greens. I think I want to make curry chicken (edited to add: I made Assam Fish instead) for tonight’s dinner and enough for tomorrow’s lunch.

Say hello to my cat :) He  has done more damage to the carpet (which used to be this new) than I did. He loves to scratch it.

We have this kettlebell at home which we seldom use … Kettlebell exercises are pretty popular these days especially in CrossFit workouts <– I’ve never tried CrossFit btw.

The treadmill is still in our bedroom! Haven’t moved it back into this room yet …

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No time to train? Try this 10 minute cardio workout by Tony Horton. 10 is better than 0.

* Enjoy while it’s still available on YouTube :) — not uploaded by me.

We are having dinner at my brother’s place tonight. I’ve been a busy bee in my kitch …

Guess what I’m making!

Simmering something on the gas stove

Preparing a flourless cake

Using these ingredients for my appetizer

And now I am gonna prep my main dish

Anyway … our Christmas Tree is up!

Real gifts — I received mine (from siblings) already. Since we will be away during Christmas  time this year, we had an early family dinner at my brother’s place yesterday (more on that next time).

Yesterday I baked and brought over a banana cranberry bread to my brother’s place. The cake was very dense (not sure if it was supposed to be this way) and not sweet enough (I modified the recipe by reducing the amount of sugar).

So I unhealthy-fied it by spreading melted Hershey’s semi sweet chocolate on top and half way through!

Recipe to come another day.

Some time last week we were in the city having dinner at New York New York

Baked Fish

Enjoy your Sunday! I”m on a Fruit Detox today (after a weekend of indulgence)! Fruits like green apples, prunes, dragon fruits ans oranges.

I prepared:

• Tender & Crisp Chicken Leg
• Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Potatoes
• Salad Bowl
• Tuna May Dip with crackers
• Cheesy Corn
• Giant Peanut Cookies

Jamie Oliver’s Tender & Crisp Chicken legs with sweet tomatoes takes literally minutes to put together. It requires slow, gentle cooking of at least 1hr 30 minutes, which is great because I can do other things while waiting.

Recipes stored in my netbook

The ingredients for the Tender & Crisp Chicken dish.  Only 5 main ingredients needed. Not pictured was salt and pepper (and some last minute carrots).

I then season the chicken and throw everything in a big baking dish.

Then pop  into the oven. Or if you don’t intend to bake it immediately (like what I did), cover with a cling wrap and keep in the fridge. About 1 hr 45 minutes before your guests are due to arrive, take out from the fridge and bake in the pre-heated oven (180 C). Bake the chicken for at least 1 hr 30 minutes.

In went the potatoes too. Kill two birds with one stone. Note: The potatoes were pre-boiled on the eve.

Meanwhile, I prepared the salad – Corn Kernels, Pepper, Butter head lettuce, cherry tomatoes and mixed nuts

The tuna mayo dip

As well as the cheesy corn

I threw some homemade trail mix into small bowls and placed one on the coffee table in front of the TV.

At that point, I was basically done with all the cooking. So I had time  to relax and watch recorded MTVs while waiting for the guests, who were late. Well, you can’t blame Mauritians for being late :)

The table spread

Guests arrived and we ate

The chicken dish BEFORE

And AFTER

Looks similar to the picture on Jamie Oliver’s website eh.

More pictures

I baked giant peanut oat cookies the day before. They are bigger than the palm of my hands.

And made a K cookie for the (late) birthday boy

A final picture

Recipe for Jamie Oliver’s Tender & Crisp Chicken legs with sweet tomatoes

Ingredients (serves 5)

• 12 chicken legs (skin on)
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 packets of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
• 2 packets of cherry tomatoes, halved, and ripe plum tomatoes, quartered
• 2 to 3 whole bulb of garlic, broken up into cloves
• 3 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
• 3 medium carrots, chopped into chunks
• olive oil

Method

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Season your chicken pieces all over and put them into a snug-fitting pan in one layer. Throw in all the basil leaves and stalks, then chuck in your tomatoes. Scatter the garlic cloves  into the pan with the chopped chilli and carrots and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix around a bit, pushing the tomatoes underneath. Place in the oven for 1½ hours, turning the tomatoes halfway through, until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat falls off the bone.

If you fancy, you can add some drained cannellini beans or some sliced new potatoes to the pan and cook them with the chicken. Or you can serve the chicken with some simple mashed potato. Squeeze the garlic out of the skins before serving. You could even make it part of a pasta dish – remove the chicken meat from the bone and shred it, then toss into a bowl of linguini or spaghetti and serve at once.

All shiny now

Then it was time for lunch. I used this Sharkfin melon to make spaghetti squash.

Oh yeah, sharkfin melon = spaghetti squash. You can find sharkfin squash at any supermarket.

Cook the sharfkin melon in preheated 375 F oven approximately 45 minutes or until flesh is tender.

Top with spaghetti sauce. Yum.

Me after last Friday’s visit to the hairdresser. Shorter hair, shorter bangs and more layers at the back. I like messy and non-straight hair.

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Yesterday lunch was kept very light as I wasn’t feeling too well. I only grabbed a smoked chicken salad from a nearby cafe. Thank goodness my flu-like symptoms went away later that day!

Very light lunch = growling stomach by mid-afternoon. I had some homemade baked banana oatmeal cakes.

These banana oatmeal cakes were made using only 5 ingredients (excluding baking powder and baking soda). I enjoy very simple and easy-to-make food.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oat
• 1/2 cup cornmeal (for crunchiness) – or 1/4 cup cornmeal + 1/4 cup dried quinoa
• 3 medium ripe bananas
• 3 tbsp peanut butter
• 2 tbsp raisins or cranberries
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Method: Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Shape into balls and place onto a baking tray. Flatten lightly. Bake until brown and crispy on the outside.

These and there will be some more

I made a trip to IKEA yesterday with the intention of buying a few things for our living room.  Sadly, what I was looking for ran out of stock. Or probably ceased production (!!!). Bleah …

So guess what I bought instead?

Things for my. little. space.

And that is none other than my so-called gym room. I consider it mine because I use it the most!  Besides, The office corner (which is in a messy state as we speak) is his … so this is mine hehe…

My little space has undergone several transformation in the past 2 ++ years.

Gym Room in 2008

Gym Room in 2009 – After adding some colours (you can read my blog post on this here)

Gym Room in 2010 – Now it looks like this! The husband got rid of the sofa while I was in Mauritius. So glad he did because I didn’t like that sofa!

I do a lot in this small room … from working out to watching DVD concerts to blog surfing to chillaxing & enjoying a cuppa hot tea … I heart my little space :)

I only bought three things for this room.

1. Floor Lamp – I should have probably chosen a larger shade … Current one is green to add colours to the room.
2. KOMISK Triple Cushion (cover +cushion) – They had black, green and red. I chose the latter for a more cheerful and colourful feel.
3. HELLUM Carpet (140 x 200cm) which was on sale – I replaced our old one. I chose a dark colour (brown) again because of my cat’s fur. I <3 carpets!

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I’m off to chillaxing and enjoying the rest of my Sunday. Enjoy yours too. And the World Cup finale as well!!! I’m not following the World Cup at all and I’m not even sure that I’m gonna watch it tonight.

This morning I finally downloaded the pictures that I took when we set up the christmas tree and after looking at the photos, the excitement came back! The Santa Snowman cushion is reminding me to smile :)

Now, I want to go to IKEA soon, search for Christmas recipes etc. I’m not sure if I’m gonna bake Turkey this year. Maybe I will try something different. Roast beef? Ham? How about you? Any special food this Christmas?

This is the Santa Snowman cushion that I bought from “Barang Barang“. It was on sale. $15 I think?

I will post pictures of our Christmas tree another day. At the moment it’s looking a little bit weird. Something is missing. The gifts maybe lol. What’s in your wishlist?

I had the chocolate orange muffin for breakfast. I wasn’t so hungry after the BK burger that we had late last night (around midnight).

We watched G.I Joe last night!! AWESOME movie! I loved it :) Channing Tatum is one of my favorite actors.

That’s about my Saturday so far … I’m heading to Cold Storage in a bit for some grocery shopping. We are having guests for dinner tonight.

A closer look

It looked like this before! Green and perky leaves! I think if I keep my plants indoor, somewhere visible, I won’t forget to water them.

The bedroom is where I spend most of my time. Next is the kitchen… I love to maintain our small kitchen. It must always remain tidy and neat (if you want to know why, scroll down to the end of the post). I think I maintain it way more than our bedroom! The counter top near the hob always  remains clear and uncluttered. After I cook something I will always clean the hob immediately.

Before when we were still doing the kitchen …

And after … photos taken today. A little dark because I didn’t switch on the top lights. Natural light is the best right :)

This is the other side of our kitchen. I wish our kitchen was bigger. I would have loved an island kitchen! Guess where the dishwasher holder is hiding? Well it’s inside that cabinet on top :) I wanted to have the dishwasher holder directly above the sink, but with a window right above and in front of the sink, this wasn’t possible. I like to keep things behind closed doors. Again I try not to keep so many things on the counter top. Less is best.I like a minimalist look.

Can you spot my “Nigella Feast” book? hehe :) I have more cooking books but they are still in boxes.

If I could turn back time, I would have changed a couple of things to our current kitchen:

1. Get a granite or marble counter top instead of a solid surface counter top. I didn’t really know much about granite vs solid surface counter top a year ago but now I can tell that it’s important to get a granite one if you cook regularly!
2. There’s more to cabinetry than just good looks. A functional storage is very important. Get some pull outs — easy to reach for spices  or other cooking items. Make a customised pantry too.
3. Don’t get a white counter top if you plan to keep a lot of stuffs on the counter top. Despite not keeping a lot of things on mine, I still ended up with some yellow marks (thanks to a mango!!) which can’t be removed even with “Cif” cream! But it’s not very visible, so it’s still okay. If anyone knows how I can remove that stubborn yellow mark, please let me know :)
4. Don’t get glossy black cabinets if you can’t maintain them. Well I haven’t had any problems with mine so far. You just need to know how to open the doors without leaving fingerprints hehe.
5. Get cabinet downlights (below the top cabinets). The kitchen will look warmer  :)

I think that’s all I would have changed :) We moved in only a year ago, so maybe in a couple of more years the list will become longer! I will save that for my next kitchen hehe.

I use the “Oven Power” to clean the oven and to remove grease from sticky surfaces. The “Cif” really removes a lot of stubborn stains trust me. The “glass cleaner” is obviously for glass surfaces like my black glass backing, kitchen door and windows.

The reason why my kitchen must always remain tidy and neat …

Before we moved into our current house, I was renting an apartment which was vacant for more than 5 years and was already housing a LOT of cockroaches (especially the kitchen) prior to moving in. I had called the pest control but their sprays didn’t help as there were cockroach eggs hidden somewhere. Everyday for one year I would see one or two (and even more) dead cockroaches in the kitchen. It was very traumatizing! I never dared to keep anything inside the cabinets and the fridge was empty most of the time. Needless to say I was not cooking at all except for a few smoothies or some simple things using my portable electric cooker. If you have been following my old blog (which is not available anymore),  you must have seen couple of photos of those cockroaches! Click here to see one of those photos and another one when the pest control people came.