The bread ‘hardened’ the next day as it was kept in the fridge. so it’s best to re-heat it before eating

Dad flew to Singapore in the morning and we (mum, dad and I) straight away headed to a cancer seminar which was organised by Parkway Health and Channel News Asia. They talked about breast cancer, blood cancer and colon cancer and how an early diagnosis can lead to successful treatments of various types of cancers. Overall, it was pretty interesting and worth the $11 that we each paid. The next health seminar will be about Liver health.

About colon cancer: Limit your red meat intake to 500g per week. As a guideline, the two beef patties in a big mac are 100g (each 50g).

About breast cancer: Women 40 years and older must have a mammogram every 1-2 year. I hope you already knew that :) A woman’s chance of developing breast cancer increases if her mother, sister, and/or daughter have been diagnosed with the disease, especially if they were diagnosed before age 50. Oh, and men also DO get breast cancer but of course it’s very rare.

Food and refreshment were provided during the tea break and at the end of the seminar we each received a 1L carton of Magnolia Oat milk. I tried the milk this morning for the first time and it’s pretty tasty.

Mum also bought a recipe book there

Afterwards we headed to my bro’s place for dinner with la famille <3  So glad to have both my mum and dad with us! I have not seen them for a year — skyping doesn’t count — Gonna spend as much as with them while they are here.

Food ..  there were about 8 different dishes. Delish!  I really enjoyed the curry fish head (not pictured).

This is a lotus root dish — pretty tasty .. there’s something in the middle and I think the whole thing is deep fried.

Some other pix

Niece

After I came back home, I made myself a green monster <– they are back on my breakfast menu. I had this Braun blender for about 5 years and it has been pretty useful!

In the mix: 1 scoop Sun Warrior protein powder, 3/4 cup milk, 1 cup ice cubes, 1 medium banana, vanilla extract and frozen spinach (3 balls). Sometimes I will add a tablespoon of rolled oats (depending on how heavy and creamy I want my smoothie to be),  flax seed and frozen coconut cubes (for healthy fats) but this time I didn’t.

I usually eat breakfast while checking emails

I also made a quick omelet with laughing cow cheese and packed it for lunch along with some leftover (soupy) lentils and (hidden red cargo rice) and cucumber salad. I wanted a meatless lunch today.

After work I ran some errands as I was running low on some produce

-Halloween section-

Saw Gluten Free White Rice Loaf at the supermarket — I’ve never seen this brand (Ener-G) before. They cost about $11 (!) a packet and nope I didn’t buy one. Some local bakeries should come up with Gluten free (wheat free) bread too.

Organic free range eggs were reduced in price  by half because of nearness to selling date

Anyway here’s what I got – Cucumber, carrot and lettuce (will bring a salad for tomorrow’s dinner at sis’ place), cauliflower, green pepper, frozen spinach (for my green smoothies), eggs and milk

I thought of buying white eggs this time :P

What’s in my  fridge at the moment

And tonight for dinner, I made  minced pork and eggplant stew — sis made it the other time and I liked it A LOT. The additional things that I added are green peppers and cauliflower. I had it with leftover lentils.

I’m just relaxing and having some ME Time right now …

My stuffed rolled chicken is in the oven right now

And curry crab is ready. The husband was supposed to cook that but in the end, guess who did most of it :D

I’m just waiting for the family to arrive.

Cya later …

But a free package from iHerb! Looks like it came at a nice time — my birthday is tomorrow! More on the package soon!

***

So after I left you yesterday, I went out to buy groceries and came back to cook this.

Asam Fish. Asam is  tamarind and is a popular spice used in Asian cuisines. It was not 100% made my me though :P I used an asam fish paste (bought in Malaysia some time ago — similar to that one on this website). So I just added the fish and veggies hehe.  That was our dinner.

I made enough for today’s lunch (and there’s one more serving left — will probably have it tomorrow)

I added fish, squid, tomatoes, lady fingers and cauliflowers and had it with red cargo rice

Breakfast this morning was a little different (no 5-minute breakfast cakes)

Overnight oats (with a scoop of sun warrior) topped with banana and peanut butter.

Overnight oat is basically just oats soaked overnight in the liquid you put them in (e.g milk). To make the base, use equal parts rolled oats and milk. Put in the fridge overnight. The next day, top with whatever you like e.g banana, peanut butter, frozen fruits, nuts etc.

***

Tonight’s dinner …

I made us curry chicken (enough for 2 more meals)

So I’m turning a year older tomorrow. We are attending a Charity Gala Dinner … so I guess that’s how we are celebrating :D

200m x 10 sets (1 : 1)

I’m not a fast runner. Those 200m were done in the 40 sec – 45 sec range, good enough to shoot up my heart rate. Right now I am liking short distances and can’t imagine myself running a marathon. Next month we will up our intervals to 300m, then 400m and so on. That is, if he sticks to the plan!

After our run, I made us dinner and we ate while watching “I am Number Four” on DVD <– I enjoyed the movie!

Pek Chye with shrimp in oyster sauce (2 servings) – 2 packets pek chye, 16 small shrimps, 10 Chinese red dates (optional), 2 garlic cloves (chopped) 1 tbsp cornflour, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, salt, some water.

Honey glazed chicken – Some honey, some black soy sauce (I prefer the black one for the color), salt, pepper, ground ginger (optional), red chilli powder (optional).

Flashback Saturday. Birthday dinner for my brother.

In the kitch. I was preparing hummus dip then

For dinner we had Tender chicken, a yummy beef noodle dish prepared by sis, green salad, crackers, fruits and cakes. I was stuffed!

My dinner plate. I went for seconds.

The birthday cake: A very rich and creamy chocolate cake.

My sweet little niece who can walk a little

A short video of her walking

To end this post, here’s me and my brother hahah. He won of course hehehe. But thanks to Insanity, I am stronger now hhehe.

Food. Good company. Skyping. Soccer. This basically summarizes Saturday night. I will just let the pictures do the talking.

Pre dinner time

Usual group picture before attacking the food

I used to prefer red wine to white wine but it is the other way round now

Now on to the foodies … we had fried bee hoon prepared by bro

Scallop Broccoli

Curry Puffs

Otak Otak (Fish-based thingy)

Rougaille (a tomato based sauce) Pumpkin prepared by sis

Napolitan (shortbread-style biscuit filled with jam) from Mauritius

After dinner we talked with mum and dad in Mauritius over skype

Have a good week everyone!

Half topped with nutella and the other half with peanut butter. I regret buying a reduced fat peanut butter. They are so sweet!

After work I ran some errands … bought some meat and couple of other stuffs.

Our dinner

Off to relaxing now! Face booking, watching TV etc. etc.

Anyhoo … tonight I baked Honey Mustard salmon wrapped with shortcrust pastry.

Side dish:  Brussels sprouts and ginger baked tofu

This is my second time cooking brussels sprouts. I am actually not a big fan.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 sheet shortcrust pastry
• 1 fillet salmon
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp Honey
• Salt & Pepper
• Lime juice
• 1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees and lightly grease cookie sheet
2. Brush puff pastry sheet generously with mustard and honey, leaving a small border.
3. Place salmon on top of mustard. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper and squirt with lime juice.
4. Beat egg and brush it along the outer border of the puff pastry.
5. Fold top and bottom edge of puff pastry across salmon. Then fold the left and right edges inward, to create a package.
6. Make small holes in pastry with fork to allow air to escape. Brush with egg and bake until crust is golden brown.

And then we had fresh oranges

I have a couple of stuffs to do before I call it a night. See ya soon.

Can you see that big fat apple chunk :)

They are moist and light too. Thanks to the wheat germ, ground almond, apples and yoghurt mixture maybe?

Before

After

I made a mini muffin cake too :)

Recipe is at the end of this post.

***

I packed my lunch to work today. It’s been a while since I did that! It was a chapati wrap with ham, lettuce, tomatoes and mustard sauce.

And for dinner I made  creamy ham and spinach pasta.

I love oregano and nutmeg spices in my creamy spinach! Gives it a nice flavour.

***

Recipe for Super moist and light apple muffins

Ingredients (Makes 12 muffins)

• 1 cup (4 ounces) whole wheat flour — I used 1/2 cup wheat germ and 1/2 cup ground almond
• 1 cup (4 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, 113 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar — I used 1/4 cup
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packet (For the topping)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup buttermilk or yoghurt — I used fat free mango flavoured yoghurt as I didn’t have any other
• 2 large apples, peeled, cored, and coarsely chopped — I used fuji apples

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F. Grease and flour 12 muffin cups and set aside.
2. Mix together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and add the granulated sugar and 1/4 cup of the brown sugar. Beat until fluffy. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the buttermilk or yoghurt very gently.  Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the apple chunks.
4. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, sprinkling the remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar on top. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the heat down to 400°F, and bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

I made a balsamic salad that consisted of lettuce, wild rockets, cherry tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, apples, mixed nuts (almond, nuts, cashews), dried raisins, dried cranberries, oranges and mint. Lovely combination. I learnt this from my brother. I went to Cold Storage just to get wild rockets and I forgot to add it to my salad!!! Booo. I was pretty disappointed!

Then we had sausages (sundried tomato chicken, spicy chicken and beef) and fried chicken wings.

The main dish was pasta with vegetarian sauce prepared by Calvin. I forgot to take photo of it. Here’s a pic of my plate instead. I know, this doesn’t look like it’s a lot. I ate more after this. A lot more!

Has anyone watched “The Party“? It’s a comedy filmed in 1968 I think. It’s similar to Mr Bean and it’s as funny as Mr Bean. We were watching the movie this afternoon.

And finally, a group photo

Gosh I hate applying for visas  — gotta submit this and that… Thank God our tourist visas are all settled! We will be in Western Australia next month :)  Just for a week.

We celebrated sis’ birthday last Sunday, the day that Singapore celebrated its 44th Birthday. We had a late dinner because we were all watching the National Day Parade live on TV.  I only managed to catch the last part as I was busy in the kitchen :)  For dinner, mum made  homemade briyani and I prepared some cucumber salad and “chatini pomme d’amour” (tomato chutney) to go along with it. I also baked a chocolate birthday cake with cream cheese frosting and mum prepared apricot pudding. There were fruits and tarts too. We were all so so stuffed!!

To keep things simple I used paper plates. I know … not environmentally friendly … but no dish washing after dinner :P

Apricot Bread Pudding

Birthday cake – a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting

Watching the National day parade live on TV

Yesterday I baked some king prawns and served them with mashed potato (I bought those instant ones since months ago), broccoli (boiled them for 1 min), carrots (I baked them but I should have just boiled them instead as it would have been faster) and gherkins (the ones that I bought almost a month ago!) with a dap of homemade sauce. Awww the prawns were delicious and so were the rest.

My homemade dipping sauce consisted of sour cream + ketchup + tabasco …

For $18, we got 9 king prawns. I removed their shells before popping them into the oven. It’s much less messy to eat!

Dessert was frozen yogurt, my first time buying this brand. Actually I don’t see the need to buy frozen yogurts. We can always place the normal yogurt into the freezer, something that I do sometimes. Anyway, this one was not too bad. The husband doesn’t like yogurt, all it’s all mine!

Tonight I’m making creamed spinach! And pan fry some beef steaks. We also have some left over mashed potatoes.

PS: We watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallers on Saturday. It was nice but a little too long maybe? … some unnecessary parts could have been removed.

So, dinner consisted of peanut soup, fried fish, broccoli & abalone in oyster sauce, steamed egg tofu & minced meat and a mixed veggie with cashew nuts. Yummy! I’m cooking Chinese next week for dinner!

Dessert was fruits (watermelon, mangosteen and litchis) and my flourless orange and almond cake! They liked it :)

Did I tell you that I can’t wait to be an auntie! :)  Yeah, in a couple of more weeks!! My sis’ baby was kicking but after I placed my hand on my sis’ stomach, she stopped haha. Maybe she’s not used to my hands! :) Pregnant bellies are beautiful eh. I know 6 lady friends who are expecting this year!! Wow. A lot of babies!

If you tap your belly when your baby is active in the womb, you’ll often get a response from the baby to the touch. You can try responding in kind to the baby – when he or she kicks, tap in the same place – or initiating your own pattern of tapping in different places on your belly – Source

Your whole day depends on how you greet the morning. As long as you welcome it with energy and high spirits, everything will go okay. So start the day with cheers and smiles :)

A 30 minutes run or other form of exercises also do  wonders. At least  for me, provided that I have had enough rest at night. Do you know that you need to do at least 30 minutes of aerobic activities everyday? This can be in the form of walking, climbing the stairs instead of taking the lift, running, swimming, cycling etc. This is really good for your health.

You should  incorporate some weight bearing activities to increase your bone density because as we age,  osteoclasts, which is the breaking down of old bone, gradually takes the upper hand, and we lose more bone than we gain. When you exercise, you stresses your bones and more osteoblasts (building of new bones) are formed.  So your body increases the pace of osteoblast production when you lift weights or go for a jog.

Whenever we talk on the phone, I will ask my parents whether they have been going to the mountains and I also remind mum to do some resistance exercises.  Do some half squats, push ups etc.  Use your own body weight to create some resistance and if you can’t get a dumbbell, you could always fill a bottle with water or sand :)  Mum have you been doing? hehehe

So to all couch potatoes out there, be active and stay active!

Anyway ….

Milk + Weis’ Mango & Cream ice cream + 1 fresh mango +2 ice cubes = A delicious mango smoothie this morning :) Skip the ice cream for a healthier version hehe.

I took the picture above this morning :) Singapore Circle Line (CCL) officially opens today — only five stations (Marymount, Bartley, Serangoon and Lorong Chuan) begin operations for the public today.  CCL is Singapore’s 4th Mass Rapid Transit line. More on Wiki and take a look at Singapore MRT map if you are interested. CCL is the yellow line.

I couldn’t wait for the CCL to be opened, as this meant avoiding the terrible jam along one particular road everyday during the peak hours (evening especially)! So this morning I took the yellow CCL. The train was rather empty (good thing isn’t it). The journey to office was faster. From one of the CCL stations, I can either opt to walk for 15-20 minutes or take a bus to office. I might walk in the morning and take a bus in the evening. If I decide to walk everyday, that would be a total of 54 minutes of daily walk for me! 7 + 20 + 20 + 7 = 54 minutes. What a good way to get some daily exercise eh :)

Last night …

Dinner was a baked rosemary chicken with baked asparagus and  baked beans. The asparagus was over-baked and had lost it’s nice greenish colour.

We had a fruit platter after dinner. Here’s the mangosteen that I bought during the weekend.

Mangosteen is a tropical fruit that is grown primarily in hot, humid climates of southeast Asia such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

The fruit platter that we shared consisted of Sunkist oranges, mangosteen, Red Globe grapes and honey mangoes. I’m pretty much into grapes nowadays. Kinda sick of apples and pears. I like big grapes (unlike the ones in the picture) with seeds because I like to eat them slowly.