***

What is Mikey starring?

At Toto! Looks like Toto is also starring back eh :)

* Eyes are different colours because of the flash*

Well I am cat sitting Toto, my friend’s munchkin, for 1.5 weeks. He is sleeping in the gym room. Mikey and Toto have previously met.

Does Mikey and Toto get along? Hell NOOOOO …. They don’t fight. Toto is very sweet and timid. Mikey is just super jealous that there’s another cat at home. In this video, he doesn’t  even want to look at me  … He makes this funny sound whenever I say “Toto”.

Here, you will find another video taken last year.

***

So happy it’s the weekend! It’s been a busy craazy week! Self-note: Do not be too nice!

We have a house guest! Tomorrow I will tell you who is staying with us for the next two weeks  :) He is a little shy at the moment hehe.

***

When my parents visited last year, they brought us canned tuna from Mauritius.

These canned tuna have definitely been useful. I’ve used them in Cheesy Tuna Zucchini Spinach Pasta, salads, sandwiches, stir-fries etc. Even the cat had some! He LOVES tuna!

Yesterday I prepared a simple stir-fried tuna & corn pasta dish

I also added some frozen homemade basil pesto cubes

[Repeat photo]

How do I make frozen pesto cubes?

Simple. Place the pesto sauce in a mini ice-cube tray and pop the tray into the freezer. Once frozen, remove each pesto cube (do it quickly before they all melt) from the tray and store in an air-tight container inside the freezer.

***

He’s a BIG fan of corn! So I added a LOT.

I don’t measure when I cook but I think this is roughly how much I used

Ingredients

• 2-3 cup pasta of your choice — Could be more. Can’t remember.
• 1.5  cup corn kernels
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 2-3 frozen basil pesto sauce cubes or fresh pesto sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp oil – I love EVOO

Method

1. Prepare your pasta according to the direction on the package
2. While pasta is boiling  stir fry the corn, tomatoes and basil pesto sauce
3. When the pasta is ready, drain it
4. Mix pasta to the corn mixture and cook for few more minutes
5. Serve immediately

I bought this organic and gluten free SoyCream yesterday. It was on sale (from $4.95 to $1.90) and I wanted to try something new. But now I don’t know how to use it. I believe it should be like a pouring cream. Well we shall see …

***

Watching American Idol now … Goodnight!

I had a very hard time getting out of bed this morning…  I almost wanted to stay in bed and continue to sleep!! However, after a nice warm bath I was more awake. My morning routine is more or less the same day after day: Wake up > bath > get dressed > feed Mikey > take multi-vitamins > pack lunch (optional) > have a quick bite > quick goodbye kiss  > leave home and walk to the train station ….

I grabbed this healthy blueberry muffin (baked yesterday. More on that later …) just before leaving the house.

Work was  … work. Just a normal day.

Part of dinner was this yummy protein-packed minestrone soup (made on Sunday for the week). I added some TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) to the soup.

TVP has a similar texture to ground meat when cooked. It is pretty good.

I also made simple veggie spring rolls – FINALLY!! The filling was prepared last night.

I’m not good at rolling spring rolls! It was a tedious process :D  Oh by the way, these are BAKED spring rolls! Despite the uncooked look, they tasted pretty good. The skin was quite crispy! You can’t tell by this picture but they were.

***

Now on to the Healthier Blueberry Muffins! I found the recipe via ActiveGal and since I had a handful of blueberries on hand, I decided to give it a try.

My Preparation corner

The recipe uses “mix wet and dry ingredients” method – I like this method because it is faster and neater. And less dish washing afterwards too :) Let the pictures do the talking …

They are dense muffins, not too sweet and they keep you satisfied.  I’m not freezing any because I halved the recipe and got 6 muffins which are enough for breakfast this week!

Love the purple cracks :)

Neither too big or too small. Just the right size …

Recipe follows. Goodnight everyone!

Healthier Blueberry Muffins via ActiveGal

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup fat free milk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp butter (I used canola oil)
• 2/3 cups natural apple sauce
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Combining all the wet ingredients into a small bowl. Whisk until smooth.
3. Combine all of the dry ingredients together including.
4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix. DO NOT over-mix.
5. Slowly fold in the blueberries.
6. Put the muffins in the oven and bake for around 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 5-10 minutes before serving.

Makes 12 small muffins

I’m sad to say that the whole watermelon perished. I kept it somewhere on the kitchen counter and thought of cutting it during the weekend but alas … it didn’t last till weekend. I didn’t  even taste one bite. It was too yucky to cut.

Mikey woke us up around 7am. I slept in a bit more till 8.30am. Then went out for a morning run (4km). I wanted to bring along my small camera but for some unknown reasons, it wasn’t working (!!).  After the run I did some upper body and abs exercises at home.

Last week’s workout:

• Monday: 8km Run
• Tuesday: Strength
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Strength Endurance
• Friday: Intervals (600m x 8 sets)
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: 4km run + 20 min abs & upper body

Sadly, I will not be able to workout regularly  in the coming weeks.

Side note: Speaking of last week …  I just realised that I ate homemade food six out of seven days. Yes I managed to pack lunch to work and prepare dinner everyday. Wow. I am impressed with myself.

***

After the morning workout my appetite was big. Petit dej was French toast (my version) using the multi-grain bread.

French Toast t0pped with some blueberries and kiwiberries

Closer look

And this one is topped with some strawberry jam, blueberries and kiwiberries

I also dipped some plain bread in hummus :) Yum!

Yesterday the husband bought this jackfruit. I think it was $5.

The skin of the jackfruit is sticky and gloves are very useful!

I actually struggled to open it.

Finally I managed to rip this big baby apart!! And voila, the end result haha. I am pretty sure there is a faster way to do that!

I kind of damaged the inner fruits while tearing open the skin.

Have a great Sunday everyone!! I am home alone again. In case you are wondering, the husband is busy with the weekend’s SPH Schools Relay. Two of his schools got medals. Maybe more today!

Next weekend is our day — our 2nd wedding anniversary :)

– Me eating a kiwiBerry … more on that later –

After 3 hrs at the office, I headed down to the city. Dropped by ThreeSixty Marketplace at Ion Orchard and spent over an hour browsing the aisles and exploring new items on the shelves. I don’t like clothes shopping  but I LOVE grocery shopping! I could have spent a b0mb at ThreeSixty but thank goodness I have enough self control!

Guess how much I spent there?

Only 10 bucks! Of course the $30 ++ truffle oil 100ml bottle was tempting but I don’t see myself using it that often, thus gave it a pass. I only bought Hummus dip ($3.95 on sale) and something new to me — TVP for Textured Vegetable Protein ($5.75). I have absolutely no idea how this will taste.  Shall give it a try soon!

Texture vegetable protein, TVP for short, is a high-fiber, high-protein meat substitute made from soy flour and available in a variety of flavored and unflavored varieties, as well as different sizes, from large chunks to small flakes.

It’s definitely packed with loads of protein.

***

After ThreeSixty, I ran more errands at  Carrefour @ Plaza Singapura. I prefer the one at Suntec mall because they have more varieties of stuffs.

I bought …

• Dried apricots ($1.99)
• Sweet potatoes (sweet potato fries! Yum) ($3.30)
• Aubergine ($2.35)
• Multi-grain bread ($2.50 on sale)
• Spicy honey mustard (first time trying this)($5.30)
• Extra-light whipping cream (planning to whip something) ($2.95)
• NZ KiwiBerries ($3.65 on sale)

NZ KiwiBerries?

I didn’t know this fruit even existed! It is as small as cherry tomatoes and as sweet as the yellow kiwis. This small punnet costs $3.65 and it was on sale. The skin can be eaten.

See how small they are?

KiwiBerry are small – in the 5 – 20 gram range, with smooth hairless edible skins, and shapes varying from round to elongated. One of the attractions of KiwiBerry is that they, like grapes, are a single mouthful and to increase the size above say 20 grams eliminates this desirable characteristic.

I have no idea what to eat for dinner … Maybe just bake sweet potato fries!

XOXOXO

I had nine good hours of undisturbed sleep last night (well he had more as he slept earlier and woke up later than me!). SO good! I definitely needed that. I feel great today.

***

Yesterday was my rest day, thus dinner was earlier – 7.30 pm instead of 8.45  / 9 pm.

Cajun spiced aubergine topped with garlic tiger prawns. What else can I say other than Yum-O!!

Method

• Slice the aubergine into 1 inch thick slices,  season with cajun chicken spices and pepper, then bake it. There’s no need to add salt because the cajun spice is already salty.
• While they are being baked, prepare the garlic prawns.
• Do not, I say do not overcook the prawns! If not, they will not be juicy anymore.

***

What do I do with all my baked goods?

Simple. I keep or give away a few and freeze the rest.  I still have mini apple muffin cake, chocolate granola bars, sweet couscous fruit salad, ready-to-bake peanut butter cookie dough balls and couple of double chocolate brownie squares inside my freezer!

The ready-to-bake cookie dough balls have been frozen since December (oops!) … Gotta bake them soon! I shaped the dough in uniform little balls (using my ice-cream scoop) and placed them very close together on a plate. Then I placed the plate in a ziplog freezer bag with date on.

Have you tried eating frozen cookies or frozen muffins? When I am too lazy to re-heat them,  they are eaten frozen! They are actually not too bad! Kind of melts in your mouth. This big flat piece of chocolate chip cookie was baked in December and it still tastes good to me — taste is subjective right.

Weekend’s agenda: Tonight go for a 8km run interval run and maybe bake something?! I would like to drop by ThreeSixty Marketplace at Ion Orchard too but can’t confirm that yet.

Have a nice day!

PS: The watermelon has not been cut yet!

I bought this 3.5 kg seedless watermelon on my way back home. It costs me only $2.50.

Expect to see much of this juicy fruit  in future posts.

Yesterday’s fruit platter – Thai mangoes, Fuji apples and Korea strawberries. The strawberries weren’t that sweet. I think  Korea strawberries were sweeter last year.

On Sunday night, I made minestrone soup for the week. Delish.

Tonight we had simple omelette - 2 eggs + salt + pepper + spring onions

And some of this pasta which was added to the minestrone – bought it in Malaysia last year at an Iranian mini mart

***

Did ya think I’ve forgotten about the Double Chocolate Brownie??

– If you’ve missed my Bittersweet Cocoa Brownie, you can find it here. –

A different recipe was used for the double chocolate brownies. They are cakey and light. I like them better than the bittersweet ones. I think I prefer cakey brownies over fudgy & dense ones!

Some chocolate oozing out …

Recipe follows … Have a great day or evening!

Double Chocolate Brownies adapted from one of my Baking books.

Ingredients (make 12 brownie squares)

• 80g (2 2/3 oz) butter
• 40g (1/3 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 72g (1/3 cup) caster (superfine) sugar – original recipe calls for 2/3 cup which would be pretty sweet!
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 60g (1/2 cup) plain all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 100g (1/2 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat oven 180 Celcius (350 F).
2. grease a 20cm x 30cm(8″ x 12″) shallow baking tin and line with baking paper
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, then stir in the cocoa and sugar. Remove from heat. Add the eggs, stirring to combine
4. Sift the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt into the saucepan, then stir to combine
5. Add the chocolate chips and stir to combine
6. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30 min or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remember though, the chocolate chips may have melted and if your skewer hits one of those, it might look as if the mixture is still wet
7. Allow to cool in the tin, then remove and cut into brownie pieces

Nutritional Data: Per brownie square - 150 kcal, 8g fats, 9g sugars and 2.5g proteins.

I hope you had a nice weekend! We spent quite some time in front of the TV during the weekend!  We watched  Jennifer’s Body, Surrogates and The Final Destination.

Last week’s workout:

• Monday: 45 min Strength Endurance
• Tuesday: 10 km run
• Wednesday: 7 km run
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: 8 km run
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: 4 km run + 20 min strength

I’m lacking on long runs (> 15 km) and intervals …

***

Today’s late lunch was stir fried scallop cake and ham omelette.

We ate in the bedroom in front of the TV while watching  Surrogates. Nice movie. This big plate was shared between the two of us.

A closer look.

***

Have you ever eaten sweet couscous?

I had some couscous in the fridge (1/2 cup left). I wanted to make chicken couscous salad but I didn’t have most of the ingredients. On the other hand, I had plenty of apples and mangoes. So I came up with a couscous fruit salad!

Milk and vanilla essence were also used.

To be honest it tasted a little weird. It was my first time ever having sweet couscous.  The husband kept asking what it was and I kept telling him that it was just a fruity milky pudding :)  He isn’t really a fan of couscous ha ha. We didn’t finish the bowl. I froze the remaining … maybe frozen ones would taste better? We shall see!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup instant couscous
• Low-Fat milk (can’t remember how much I used but it must be at least 1 cup)
• 1 tbsp jam
• 1 apple, diced
• 1 mango, diced
• Vanilla essence

Method

1. In a saucepan, bring milk, vanilla and jam to a boil. Add couscous, cover, and immediately remove from heat. Let stand for about 10 min.
2. Mix the fruits and the couscous together.

There’s a recipe on Oprah’s website for Couscous Fruit Salad. Better follow hers  :)

***

Ran some errands in the evening.

What he bought

What I bought

See the difference? He doesn’t snack that much but he does have a sweet tooth, especially for KitKat!

Bought this cheese Pretzels snack at Daiso.

Time to sleep … Goodnight!!

We brought Mikey to the vet at Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital (Springleaf) this afternoon. He always gets stressed and meows very loud when we bring him outside and put him in the pet carrier.  He knows where he is being brought to.

We got him vaccinated, dewormed (they gave me the deworming pill)  and checked. As I said in my last post, I don’t vaccinate my indoor cat every year. His last booster shot was over 3 years ago when he was still a kitten. The vet briefly examined him. Aside from his bald patch at the thigh area (due to his on and off excessive licking), everything else was fine. She gave me some pills that are to be given to my cat only when he licks himself excessively. Excessive licking is usually due to itchiness.

I also asked for an Elizabethan collar. I’ve never used this on him before, so decided to test it. Mikey was super irritated!!!  — If I were him, I would have been too!  He does look cute in it though, doesn’t he? :)  Cute but very unhappy!

* Excuse the vacuum stick and the pile of clothes :D I was in the midst of my cleaning session hehe. *

Poor him … he was knocking against everything in order to get rid of the collar …  It was on him for just 5 minutes. I hope I won’t need to use this collar in the future!

***

Yesterday night: Mikey grooming himself after a nice bath (which happens once in a blue moon). He will lick himself a million times so that he can be in the dry state again. Cats hate water. Mine does, not sure about other cats.

• See the vet
• See the dentist
• See the doctor

*Breathe in — Breathe out*

[Source]

I am bringing my cat to the vet tomorrow for a check up and to get him his yearly vaccination. I don’t vaccinate him every year because he’s a pure indoor cat. His last vaccination was over 3 years ago, so it’s time for another round.

* Old picture *