I call this an all-in-one meal – Pulses, Veggies and Meat. In one big pot.

Used the last packet of lentils that mum gave me

And made a hearty Chicken & Lentils Stew, with an unintentional slightly burnt flavor. Well, it still tastes great, trust me :)

In the pot: Carrots, half a cauliflower, two chicken breasts (boiled and then shredded), a cup of lentils, shitake mushrooms, ground cumin, curry powder, diced tomatoes,  lots of red chilli powder, chicken stock and water.

Earlier today we went out for brunch at the food court.

Kaya Toast Set

Duck Noodle

Chinese Dim Sum

And we came back home with these: Dragon fruits, bananas, blueberries, broccoli, spinach, chicken breast, chicken fillets, salmon, canned tuna and cauliflower (used in the stew).

It’s been a while since I took pictures of my groceries!

I won’t be at work tomorrow (Saturday)

Enjoy your long weekend :) The husband wants us to catch a scary midnight show later tonight!

Me getting ready

With the hubby

Live band performances

With our friend, Roger

***

Anyway, how is your Sunday going? We had brunch cum newspaper-reading-time at the coffee shop this morning.  I was craving for a bowl of laksa, so I bought one.

Yesterday (Saturday) I made a microwaved cinnamon raisin apple in the morning to kick-start the day. It does look like a bloody apple eh, like your could make that for Halloween. He thought this apple looked like a rotten apple O.o It is good, trust me :)

Cinnamon + raisin + apple. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Serve warm!

Did you know

You can toast nuts inside the microwave: Use 1 teaspoon of butter for every 1/2 cup of nuts. Cook on high 2 1/2 to 5 minutes. Stir every 30 seconds. This can be done without the butter. Even granola can be made in the microwave! If you give it a try let me know :)

***

I also made a cake in the microwave (the traditional one)  real quick. It was a 5 minute chocolate mug cake. What a nice and a fun way to make a small cake! Plus you don’t have to worry about over indulging :)

Can you tell how light and moist the cake is?

Couldn’t wait to dig in!

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake.

The recipe is adapted from Not Quite Nigella and this is my modified version.

Ingredients (Makes 2)

• 4 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp oil (I used canola)
• Splash of vanilla extract
• 2 microwave safe coffee mugs or ramekins

Method: Mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl. Add in the milk, oil, vanilla extract, egg and mix well. Pour mixture into mugs (at the halfway mark) and place the mug on a plate in . Microwave one mug at a time. Cook for 1 minute on medium heat. It will bubble and rise as it cooks, so make sure you provide ample room for that. Leave it for a few seconds, then microwave for another 30 seconds on medium again. The mixture will solidify, but still look a little molten. That is fine because it will continue cooking on residual heat. Overcook it and you get a chocolate rubber ball.

Yeah, none other than our cat, Mikey!

If you haven’t seen how he wakes us up, check out the video below which I taped about two years ago at my previous place. This video has received around 166,703 views and the comments keep coming in.

How he wakes us up:

• Purposely steps on (or scratches) my long hair. It hurts! Remember, it’s like 7-8 kg load on your hair.
• Stands on the head board and jumps onto me! Like someone slapping you! Again, it’s like a 7-8 kg load suddenly falling onto you. But I must admit sometimes I like him to step on me as it’s like being given a massage haha :)
• keeps meowing (my mum once told me that my grandmother used to say that cats are very whiny … because”meoooowww sounds like whiiinnneeee”
• Scratch the bed — I will immediately wake up upon hearing this because he’s damaging the bed!
• Bites (but not swallow) whatever plastic he can find in our bedroom — this noise is definitely very irritating!!!
• Scratches the door – again more noise!
• Runs and jumps onto us.

I think all cats would do these to wake their owners eh! :) As I am typing this, my cat is sleeping beside me. Maybe it’s time for revenge! I should disturb him :)

So …

The husband woke up first. I continued to sleep till around 8 AM. Of course I wanted to sleep more but I couldn’t. I wasn’t tired. It was still early and the weather looked great. I suggested we go get some fresh air outside and do a run-cycle i.e I run while he cycles.

It was a short 6 km run and I enjoyed every step. We used to do this last time when I do my 2-hr long run — he  was my water man and my motivation to keep going hehe.

Brunch was at Ah Mei Cafe.

I had Kaya Toast and he had  egg & onion roti prata (not pictured).

Kaya is is a local jam made from eggs, sugar and coconut milk, and is flavoured by pandan leaves, and later sweetened with sugar. Kaya toast is made after the cook slices a single piece of toast into half, and spreading a generous amount of kaya followed by a slab of butter.  It is then covered up together and served hot.  The slab of butter and the taste of the jam is what made this toast popular.”

I always request for no butter and sometimes less kaya in my kaya toasts. It’s just too buttery and sweet for my taste.

I wanted to have the egg whites but they were too uncooked. I forgot to request for fully cooked eggs.

We did some groceries after brunch. Bought chinese baby spinach, baby carrots, peanuts, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and lettuce

Red grapes, longan, litchies (not pictured), sandwich bread, milk and condensed milk

Crackers, fried mixed nuts, char siu sauce for marinates, sweet & sour sauce and beef steak (not pictured)

And some king prawns too – $18 for 9 prawns, much cheaper than eating these outside. We are having them for dinner tonight. Love those huge prawns :)

I had carrots, pumpkin and celery that I needed to use before they start to deteriorate. So I made a soup! A very healthy one, without any oil or dairies added. Two weeks ago it was a healthy vegetable chowder.

I didn’t follow any recipe as this soup is straightforward to make. Just  dice the celery, carrot and pumpkin into big chunks. Then boil them until tender. Once they are tender place them all in a blender or food processor. Then add the seasonings – salt, pepper and curry powder. You can add other stuffs too. And the taste? Simply delicious! I’m happy when I see him eat all these hidden vegetables :)

Guess what I made next?

Waffles! I used the recipe from the  link that Angele sent me but changed it a little bit. I also added some semi-sweet chocolate chips to my waffle batter. Oh my … it was lovely. The chocolate filling oozes out when you bite! The waffles were very light and fluffy too because I’ve separated the whites from the yolks.

With all those carbs in my blood (including yesterday’s rice), I was definitely ready for my 23 km run this afternoon! Burn baby burn! I made sure that I drank plenty of water prior to my run as I didn’t want to feel dehydrated like last week.

Although the sun was hiding behind the clouds most of the time, the weather was still warm when I started to run at 3.50  pm. The run was good. Every steps that I took felt great! After my run I cleaned the house as I didn’t have time to do it yesterday. Well I only vacuumed, mopped and threw away stuffs that have accumulated over the past week.  The husband is working out at the back of our place right now.

I had a turkey breast sandwich just now. This will be tomorrow’s lunch too! Bought this smoked turkey breast from Carrefoure the other day. For only 25 kcals per slice, it tastes great!

Here’s the recipe for the waffle and a couple of more pics.

Ingredients (Makes about 6 waffles)

• 1 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 2 tsp baking powder + 1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
• 2-3  tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 beaten egg yolks
• 1 and 3/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 egg whites – beaten stiffly
• Vanilla essence

Photo above: I was initially planning to make lemon waffles. That’s why there’s a lemon in the picture. I also had only 1 egg left when I took this picture.

Method

Mix all dry ingredients (except the sugar).

Combine yolks, milk and vanilla.

Stir into dry ingredients. Do not over mix.

Stir in oil and mix.

Beat the egg whites with the sugar until stiff.

GENTLY fold in beaten egg whites, do not over mix.

Adding some semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter.