Merry Christmas 2014

Ho ho ho ! Merry Christmas y'all. I am listening to Christmas carols as I am typing and it feels so festive. *jingle bell, jingle bell* I hope you are all having a wonderful and delicious Christmas. I can say I am.

Here is the photo of my DIY Christmas tree I mentioned in my previous post, which is 95% recycled. Click here if you want to see how I made it.

I cooked salmon for lunch and pasta for dinner. Two meals I really like to cook and enjoy eating.

 

Here is a round of some sweet treats- chocolate, that is. Unfortunately, I did not bake a Christmas log this year.

 

I baked these mini chocolate cupcakes and lemon crinkle cookies for the Church's Christmas party earlier.

 

Well, I guess this is this year's Christmas round. I also take this opportunity to remind what we are primarily celebrating: the birth of baby Jesus- the light and salt of the world. I feel so grateful to God for sending His son on earth. Praise to the Lord.

Enjoy !

PS: I will try my best to catch up on some late posts before the year end.

First week of Advent

It seems like ages since I posted something and I thought it's about time. Can you believe we're going into December, like tomorrow. Where did the time go? How did we even reach to now?
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means 'waiting to come' and you know December is the season of joy. I remember making that paper Christmas tree last year and I plan to make another one, but different. Hopefully, I'll get it done soon, so I can post some pictures. I have already decorate two mini Christmas trees (gold and red- I like that colour combination).

I have been quite busy lately. What does 'busy' mean in this current world. No I have not been busy. I just did not find the time to post (or had other things to do). I have been cooking and trying new recipes though:some success and some failures. I will definitely try and sort all the pictures and then publish some. We try the best we can I guess, in all situations.

In the meantime, I wish you all my warmest season's greetings.

Birthday

Alright I have officially grown up by 1 year. My birthday was on Monday and it was public holiday (ironically for Queen's birthday) over here in Perth.
I spend half the day in a camp ( I spent the weekend at a camp- PACE Camp 'Run to Jesus') and the remaining relaxing - to recover from my tiredness -and preparing a last minute birthday cake.

So you guess that this post is actually about my birthday cake. Correct! Instead of buying a cake (which will be yummy, but rich in butter, sugar and flour), I decided to go for a raw version of a 'cheesecake'. This cake is absolutely delicious and I cannot believe it takes less than 30 minutes to put up (no baking), and it looks so amazing.

I forgot to mention, the cake is a cranberry 'cheesecake'. The recipe I used is adapted from here.

I made some changes because I did not have all the ingredients from the original recipe on hand, but I did not alter great things. I switched the almond meal for LSA meal, and the coconut meat for raw sesame seeds. Anyway I was extremely impressed by the result - both by the look and taste.

I really love how the photos turned out - so bright and colourful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Food update

 First September post. I can officially declare that September is my favourite month of the year- not because it's the month I was born, but because of the new season. Spring is definitely the most welcoming season. It's like the beginning of something new. It's the period of the year when everything comes back to life (mostly nature but I feel it's even more than that, if you know what I mean).

I know I have not posted recently. This is partly due to the many changes happening right now- unpredictable and uncontrollable (if only you knew). Things happen so fast now and sometimes you find yourself in a situation without even realising it. Anyway, we never know what the future holds, so.
Alright, to start off, I have been meaning to post on raw recipes that I have accidentally come across and absolutely love. The idea of raw/ vegan/ no-bake sweets, in my opinion, is that you take all natural/ unprocessed food and mix them and transform into a something so tasty, delicious, healthy and guilt-free.

I first dubiously tried making some chocolate brownies which consist only of nuts (walnuts and almond), cocoa powder and dates. I was amazed how they taste so good. To be honest, there is absolutely no taste difference between the traditional brownie (baked with sugar, flour, egg and butter). The only difference is the amount of calories you will get from one slice of the usual brownie. This is such a healthy treat with nuts, cocoa powder and dates. It's like a super-brownie (the recipe is linked below). After which, I fell completely ecstatic about finding more raw recipes. I have stumbled across many and it is hard to believe that this is probably what I have been looking for my whole life (without knowing- alright, maybe a few years ago): homemade healthy treat made in no time (with affordable ingredients).

Alright, the basic ingredients are nuts and dates. Both are convenient and you can just add in different flavours by mixing in different varieties of dried fruits, nuts etc.
I have already posted some recipes on recipeyum.

Raw chocolate matcha ball

Raw chocolate cookie

No-bake chocolate brownie

Well I can only say that I am completely amazed by how simple things can be turned into something that taste wonderful.

Sweet bean cake

I realised that the mooncake festival  or most commonly known as the mid-autumn festival is nearing. I just checked now- it's the 8th of September. It is normally celebrated by eating mooncakes which are sweet cakes made for the occasion, eating peanuts and drinking tea. Well, at least, this is my family's tradition. I simply likes eating these sweet delicacies.

I have come across these sweet bean cakes from the Asian store and they taste so good. It has a lightly crunchy texture and I love how the pastry is beautifully layered. The filling is just amazing (reminded me of mooncake fillings) and the best thing is that as a whole, the cake is not overly sugary. It was a melt-in the mouth kind of moment.

 

 

 

Throwback lunch

Here are a few snaps of my lunches since last week.

'Homemade' pizza with bacon, mushroom, capsicum, black olives and sundried tomatoes. Note the inverted commas because I used store-bought crust.

 

 

Fish cakes, fish fillets and sweet potato chips, all baked in the oven.

 

 Lebanese bread with tuna cooked in tomato sauce, pumpkin and avo. YUM.

 

 

I'll finish on a light note: Avo and tomato on toast.

Teriyaki Beef Crunchy Roll from Woolies

There is a new 'pop-up' sushi stand at some Woolworths stores. It goes by the name Sushi Izu. So far I have seen them in Perth City stores, Carousel, Riverton, and Livingston Shopping Centres. I have tried their sushi twice and they are pretty nice.

Last week I saw they have a new range, providing more 'fancy' sushi rolls. I decided to try their teriyaki beef roll. The filling was a teriyaki beef (obviously), thinly sliced cucumber and avocado. The roll was coated with spicy mayo and crispy fried onions. I was pleased with the combination. I was quite apprehensive on the spicy mayo because I cannot eat spicy food, but it contrasted well with the sweetness from the teriyaki sauce. The teriyaki sauce was very sweet indeed. It is quite pricey ($11), but all Japanese food seems to. Anyway, I would personally not buy this combination again, but I am willing to try other rolls next time.

 

 

 

Dinner

I have combined various photo of dishes I have cooked for dinner over the last few weeks or so. When I cook I try my best to produce a balanced meal, which consist of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.This will, in most cases, ensure a good absorption of food in the body and help with digestion. Besides, it will bring more colour, flavours and texture to the dishes, which is definitely a plus.

Note that I do not take pictures all the time because either (a) I was too hungry (and you know how one cannot especially think clearly when starving) , (b) I forgot (which goes back to possibility a), (c) I simply did not have the time to get a good picture or (d) the dish was not very appealing (which fortunately has nothing to do with the taste aha). I take pictures randomly since I am not a pro or anything. My key point is to successfully catch a good visual photo of my dish. Then, I can eat happily and heartily.

Veal steak with sweet potato, portobello mushrooms, salad mix and some tomatoes

Tofu, chicken, mushroom and pak choy served with rice

Brocoli, mushroom and carrot stir fry with rice and red lentil soup on the side

This is some marinated drumsticks

My broccoli stir fry

Chicken stir fry with mixed veggies, shiitake mushrooms and cashews

Salted fish with zucchini and lentil soup, served with rice

Pan fried tofu with a honey soy glaze

Broccoli and carrot with lentil soup

White sweet potato baked in the oven

Steak with some potato mash,white sweet potato chips and spinach leaves

Beef with potato and mushroom curry

Pasta with beef and capsicum and pumpkin

Dhal curry, with salted fish and cabbage- carrot stir fry