Another break

Well I will be away for a few weeks until I get all my stuff sorted and things done. Lot to do, not much time unfortunately. Life is life.
Anyway I will keep you guys posted. Until later, K.

Healthy tips

• Drink plenty of water daily (2 litres +) to keep you hydrated, and so your body can drain out all the impurities out of your body properly.

•  Eat lot of fruits and veggies (I can't stop focusing on their benefits)- they help improve your immune system and keep you away from lot of diseases.

•  Limit saturated fats (in potato chips, fast foods....)

•  Eat cereals, preferably whole grain because they are low in fat, rich in fibre and slower food absorption which keep you full without eating a lot and good for weight control

•  Moderate your sugar intake (to protect against diabetes of course)

•  Eat nuts (almond, brazil nuts, walnuts, pecan, and macademia)- all contains good cholesterol and fats.

• Be active (Do a lot of movement daily, either walking, running, dancing, do something which will help you move)

Now I believe that if you follow those tips, it will be the start of a new heatlthy lifestyle. Sometimes, you might  not feel like it and go pass the rules. It's okay to give up once but so long it does not become a habit, it's  alright. Everything has to be taken slowly.

I saw this from a page: 'Your happiness is the reflection of your health' To bear in mind ;)

Wanna make your own Subway® at home

Okay, so why spending how many $ on buying when you can have your own healthy version at home. Yesterday, for lunch we had bread (baguette) with turkey ham, cranberry sauce (did I mentioned that cranberry sauce goes so well with turkey yumm), cucumber, spinach leaves, grape tomatoes, and carrots. As desserts, we had white and red grapes. A healthy and nourishing lunch.
I didn't take any pictures because I was obviously too hungry aye. Until next time xx

Steamboat

My brothers and I usually do steamboat at home. It's one of my favourite meals. I like soups in general and this is yummy. Alright, I'm unusually lack of words today, but like the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words. So I'll be generous with the photos.

These are definitely cute stars

I like the mushroom balls, their shape is like mushroom and they have mushroom filling. Okay it's official now, I feel hungry, despite having dinner just recently :O

I love the tofu and the 'enokitake' or 'golden needle mushroom' as well -->the long one
So delicious

With green veggies of course :p

Ooooh mushroom fish ball, one of the best fish balls everrrrrr

Guacamole

Okay like I mentioned, avocado is my revelation of last year. This fruit (I actually just google whether it is a fruit or veggie haha) just taste amazingly good and is so rich in goodness. It is good for your skin, health, blood circulation. Well see for yourself ;) So like I was saying this is a gorgeous fruit.

Now the dish that I like the most is guacamole. I mean this is just perfect. It's so healthy. It is one of the most healthy meal ever. It's creamy, delicious, I could go on like that actually. More praise for this dish hehe.

My guacamole is simple, so avocado, tomato, and lemon juice. Well if you have a lil more time, add a clove of crushed garlic. Some of the recipe I saw ask to add salt and pepper- I think it's not necessary as the flavours are already amazing and in my opinion it will just affect the taste. I'm not a great salt lover anyway- I try to avoid them the most if possible. Well, this is simply a perfect dip or meal to eat like that.

The other day, I did not have tomato with me, but cherry tomatoes. Oh my goodness, it was way better than normal tomatoes; the sweetness that came from the mix was a delight to the mouth. I want more!

This one is the first time I made it:

Being deceived

I have to admit that sometimes when a dish doesn't turn out to be great (oh yes it does happen to me), it is not only frustrating but leave you with a sad feeling. I feel for the waste of time and ingredients. So basically you feel disappointed and it is a bad feeling.
What I can say to lift up your mood is trying to think everything you do is a way of learning. Even failures are new discoveries. So don't feel sad and instead try again.

Chicken with mushrooms and zucchini

Dinner time. I had a few sliced chicken breast in the fridge and decided to go for this easy dish. You know I like simple. I absolutely like eating mushrooms, especially shiitake mushroom. I absolutely love the taste and even better, it helps to fight against cancer. I'm starting to like zucchini now. It actually is a nice veggie. The dish tastes divine (or is it that I was starving and like the saying goes everything tastes good when you are hungry...well well well).

Just cooked

Can't wait to try

To be served with rice

Some leftovers---> in the fridge you go

 Recipe: (Okay you'll have to be nice to me, I don't usually write recipes, so forgive me if I don't follow any rules)

Ingredients:

1 breast fillet, sliced (or more to your liking)
1 zucchini, sliced in julienne
8 shiitake mushrooms (I had the dried one, so put them in hot water and leave for abt 5 min-to soften them- and then sliced them)
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
 Oyster sauce
Cornstarch
Cooking oil

Marinade for the chicken (to be mixed with the chicken and leave aside  for about 10-15 min)
White pepper
Rice wine
Sesame oil
Dark soy sauce
Cornstarch



For the sauce:
I'm simple so I usually mix some oyster sauce with cornstarch...as per taste.

Instructions:

Stir fry chicken. Remove from the wok.
Stir fry garlic and onion, then add mushroom. Let stir fry for about 1-3 min.
Add back the chicken and mix well.
Remove all from the wok.
Cook the zucchini for about 2 minutes.
Add back the chicken mix.
Let cook and then add the sauce.
Let it to boil and dish is ready to be served.

Okay so I hope you like the dish. As you see, it is a really easy and fast dish to cook. Enjoy :)

Cookie and cream cheesecake cupcake

Today I made cookie and cream cheesecake cupcakes. I longed to make those since I saw this recipe. I cut the ingredients by half though because 30 is way too much to eat haha. Anyway my cupcakes turn out nice. Oh forgot to mention that it was my first time making cheesecake and I loved it. You have to admit that you like that feeling when you put some effort in doing something and it pays off.
Okay, so I played a lot with my camera today to take nice pics of the cupcakes even though I forgot to take pre-oven pictures.


Have a look:

Just out from the oven yay

Cooling down on wire rack...I specifically choose colourful cupcake liners to add some variation to the pic

Can see the oreo from the paper yayy... way too excited ;)

Still cooling down....//

Finally ready to be put in the fridge hehe

Trying to fit all in the tray...not a good idea

Okay....in the fridge

After 4 hours wait...finally the end result

Hmmmmm :g

Looking good cupcake, aren't you?

In the mouth yummyyy

Practice makes perfect

I realise that doing things more than once/ frequently really help improve your skills. Now I don't feel the pain before cutting veggies amongst others. I like it when you do something instinctively, like it comes instantly without thinking too hard. You don't realise it. It just leaves a great feeling after. So don't worry if you are not expert at the first throw. Everything comes with practice. Another very important thing is to do thing with pleasure and joy. Nothing can be done unless you want it. Appreciation and willingness are two powerful mind tools. Last but not least, take things slowly. Do not try to rush things or drop too quickly. Everything should be done on its own pace (Now I'm not saying to take your time like foreverrr but at a good pace...I know you know what I'm trying to say so I won't add more ;) ).

So my point is practice, practice and practice and you'll be rewarded for your efforts by being happy and feeling fulfilled. That is just a great sensation. Plus, you learn one thing once in your lifetime so better do it nice and properly :)

As a side note- even though the title says practice makes perfect, I guess you all know that perfect is unachievable. It simply conveys the meaning that practice will help you improve to near perfect.So if you cannot be perfect, it's alright, at least your are on that path- better than nothing ;) #beforwardlooking

Burger with ham, lettuce and carrots

Another easy dish that I made myself the other day. It's so simple to prepare, healthy and delicious.

I just mixed some shredded lettuce with grated carrots and diced ham. You can mixed in butter if you want. I prefer to go without. It's refreshing. Don't you feel good after eating healthy. I do ;)

The other day I had tomato in my burger. Tomato is another veggie that I like a lot. It has that sweet side that I appreciate a lot. Tomato are healthy as well, they are good to eat during hot weather as it soothes your body. They contain lycopene which is the red pigment which fight against cancer.

Dark chocolate

You know how I write about everything that I like to eat, so here you go: Dark chocolate. I know I will repeat myself by saying how much I couldn't eat that, in preference to milk chocolate before. I think that it's the simple fact that my eating habits and pattern have changed to a much healthier one. I now eat in respect to the nutriments and what is good for my health and my mind. I try having a balanced meal and try to balance everything that I eat, not overeating, treating myself quite often. The thing is to find an equilibrium.

So recently, I tried dark chocolate and grew a liking to the taste. It leaves a bitter taste when you finish eating it but it's really nice. Who doesn't feel good after eating chocolate anyway. Now another reason to feel even better is that chocolate, especially dark one, contains cacao, which contains lot of magnesium and is good to overcome stress and keep you in good mood. Also, research has proven that eating a tablet every week can help reduce the risk of cancer by 25% if I'm not mistaken. It's a nice treat, easy to eat. More reasons to eat and try them.

I like the lindt excellence range. They have it mixed with other stuff like coconut, strawberry, mint. So nice. Recently I purchase this one. They had it dark 70 and 85%. I purchased the 70% one for a start haha- going slowly aren't we.  I like it.

Sushi time

Oh my gosh, what a hectic week it has been. I scarcely had free time, was tired as hell, and had few hours of sleep; missed two brekkie like first time everrrrrr. Well, it shows how life brings us lot of challenges, and I'm glad I was able to go through them. Thank God.

Anyway, I had time to make sushi this week and I'm really grateful, because it is handy to bring at work. Man I so don't want to talk about work, my roster this week was so sh**.

Back to topic, I absolutely love avocado. Like almost everything else, I was quite suspicious about avocado, but it turns out a delightful amazing fruit. I had it in my sushi. I adore making guacamole as well- it's so simple and delicious.I'm so thrilled about avocado now!

So I made tuna sushi with avocado. I loved salmon but not in my budget at the moment (unfortunately *sad face*).

Here you go:

Well since we're on  topic, why not to kill two birds with one stone. These are pictures of my first time making sushi. To be honest, I had to throw away my first batch rice because it was too watery, despite following the recipe to the point. What a waste I know!

My second time was a lil better. I understood which way to put the seaweed. I kept wondering which side is the 'mat' one haha. Picturesss here you go:

Anyway, I have to add as a side note how much I felt disgusted about eating sushi before, wondering how people could eat that!! Well this feeling is over now, believe me. I mean I can't believe it!
I love eating sushi now. I cannot even remember how I got used to eat it *questioning face* Plus, eating seaweed is good for health, and when you put good things in it, it's even healthier.

I'll tell you my measurement for the rice:

2 cups of rice, cooked with 3 cups of water (or follow the instructions on the packaging, very important)

To be mixed with the cooked rice: 
5 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
5 cl of water, or more -depending on whether you feel it's too watery
2 teaspoons salt

Pour the above ingredients in a pan and heat up until everything is dissolved. Then add to the rice, let the mixture cool down and your sushi rice is ready to be used hehe.