recipes

Yummy Sunday…

melanie

It’s a beautiful Sunday for outdoor but I am at home, working. Here I am taking a short break to update my blog with a back-dated photo of a sweet corn pudding that I’ve made during the CNY.

sweet corn pudding

What?
1 packet of soya fruit pudding powder
2500ml of water
100 gram of sugar
1 can (400ml) of evaporated milk
Sweet corn kernels
Nata de coco

How?
Pour 2500ml of water, sugar and 400ml of evaporated milk into a saucepan. Stir mixture to boil.
Turn off flame and stir for 5 minutes.
Pour in soya fruit pudding powder and stir well.
Pour the mixture into molds or ramekins.
Sprinkle some sweet corns kernels and add nata de coco on each pudding.
Set aside to cool and refrigerate before serve.

Have a yummy Sunday !!

Lurving it…

melanie

pumpkin oatmeal

I am a fan of oatmeal ever since I tried it back in Kluang. Here’s one of my favourite breakfasts that I often cook.

Ingredients:
• Quaker Oatmeal – 1 cup
• Water – 2 1/2 cups
• Pumpkin – about 3 slices – 1 inch thick each
• Carrot – 1/4
• Egg – 1
• Salt to taste – 1/4 teaspoon
• Optional – Chicken breast

Prep:
• Pumpkin – cut into cubes
• Carrot – cut into cubes
• Chicken breast – mince

Cook – Serving for 2:
• Bring the 2 1/2 cups of water, carrot and pumpkin cubes, minced chicken breast to boil in a medium sized saucepan.
• Add the oatmeal over the boiling water, stirring constantly to keep oatmeal from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan.
• Cook until thickness is to your liking.
• Add salt and lower the heat.
• Beat the egg on the oatmeal, stir, simmer for few seconds and it’s ready to serve.

I ♥ this healthy breakfast. Hope you’ll lurve it too. – Melle

Blueberry

melanie

blueberry yogurt

Benefits of Blueberries

1. High in antioxidant (Rank number 1)
2. Improve eyesight
3. Aid in reducing belly fat
4. Helps promote urinary tract health
5. Brain health
6. Fight heart disease
7. Constipation & digestion
8. Cancer
9. Anti-aging and anti-inflammatory

Get yourself a natural yogurt. Add blueberries or any fruits as you love. And here’s my blueberry yogurt for breakfast. 🙂

Whoops… I can feel that my bowel is doing some work now. Ahem ~ Please do excuse me…

By the way, Yogurt or Yoghurt? Happy 2nd Day of Lunar New Year !! – Melle

Smart Snacks

melanie

mixed nuts

Admittedly, I love to snack. I try and try kicking this habit but hmm… it’s really hard. Thank God, I found these little guys and they are now my new snacks. They are nutritional wonder. Walnut, Raisin and Macadamia. The benefit of walnut and raisin is that they are antioxidant while macadamia helps reduce cholesterol. I also read from an article saying that walnuts may help prevent breast cancer and sharpen memory. Yes ~ I need it. 😀

Try this speedy method to prepare some mixed nuts.

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a sauté pan, then stir in a cup or two of walnuts and macadamia nuts, mixing constantly over medium-high heat for a minute. Transfer to baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes at 230°C until the nuts turn brown lightly and smell toasted. Remove the nuts and set aside to cool. Mix some raisins and it’s now perfect to go.

You may need to take note on the nuts from time to time and shake the pan in the oven once or twice to avoid it from getting burnt. This is what have happened when i turn my back away to wash the pan. They are so dunzo. Aww…

burnt mixed nuts

A Night Home Alone

melanie

healthy tofu cake

7:30pm. No one’s home. Walking in and out, up and down, I could hear my stomach growling from the silence in the house. Thinking to have something light and healthy, I opt for this tofu cake. I simplified this recipe from the one I got from SUNRISE. It’s very simple and I like it.

All I need is;

TOFU CAKES
• 1 hard tofu
• 1 egg
• breadcrumbs – about 4 to 5 tablespoon
• soy sauce – 1 teaspoon
• oyster sauce – 1 teaspoon
• pepper – 1/4 teaspoon
• olive oil – 1 1/2 tablespoon

STEAMED VEGGIES
• broccolli
• carrot
• a pinch of salt
• few drops of olive oil

What I need to do is;

TOFU CAKES
• mash the tofu in a bowl and put aside.
• lightly beat the egg in another bowl, add soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper and breadcrumbs – mix well.
• add in the mashed tofu to the mixture above and mix well.
• heat olive oil in frying pan over low heat.
• use a spoon to get the portion of the tofu mixture into pan and gentle flatten out the mixture. fry for 5 minutes or till it turns golden brown. turn to another side and fry for another 5 minutes or till it turns golden brown.
• remove tofu cakes from pan and it’s ready to serve.

STEAMED VEGGIES
• cut broccoli and carrots – wash
• sprinkle some salt and add a few drop of olive oil on the veggies
• steam for 3 minutes

Yay, done. Simple, healthy, happy.

Rojak Story

melanie

Again, CNY is getting closer. Weekend is getting busier. And guess what? We had a pre-CNY-family-reunion about 5 hours ago. I never expect it to happened that early and yeah, I got freaked out. Seriously.

If you wonder if I managed to do any handcraft or painting, nope. Not done yet. Not even sewing anything and shamefully not dropping a single kilo yet. I wonder when will I be able to lose the extra weight (people call it ‘love weight’ haha) so that I could wear my favourite jeans back. 😀 I feel bad and guilty that I did not make the time to get things done and strike out a few from my to-do-list for 2010 where I already have new entries for 2011. The list is indeed getting longer, which goes something like this:

10. Handcraft for charity
11. Meditation
12. Read more GOOD books

Aha ~ I am finally back to yoga with enthusiasm. At least I have got one to strike out from the list. Soon a 2 months vegetarian programme will be commencing, most prolly after CNY. And as promise, more sewing to come. Yes, yes I gotta catch the time.

On a difference story, have you tried using enzyme cleaner? Aunty Pat gave me the formula from my visit to Kluang 3 months back. And now my very first batch of homemade enzyme cleaner is ready to use. It might take some time to get it fermented but it works so impressively well. It helps save your hassles of rubbing and scrubbing the stubborn oil and grease off easily.

enzyme

Try it. It’s MAGIC !! 😀

Oh ~~ My juggling skills have improved !! Hehehe …

Gaw Dung

melanie

And so I have wrapped up some work for the festive seasons to come. Gaw Dung, Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year~~~ hmmm.

Anyways, I just got to know that Gaw Dung is also known as Winter Solstice Festival. *shrug* And so we had family reunion dinner as usual but a bittttt different this year. It is because the dinner was served by mom and myself. Yeap !! I cooked !! Sweet & spicy prawns and Tangyuan (Glutinous Rice Dumpling Ball) but I prefer calling it Tong Yuen in Cantonese. I have to admit that the prawns tasted good. Har~ har~

It’s happy to see my family enjoying the foodie and guess what? It’s finger licking good !! =D

Would you like to try cooking this scrumptious dish?
No? It’s ok. Yes? Here goes the recipe.

holiday

Sweet & spicy prawns

Ingredient A
1 bulb of garlic
1 bulb of onion
1 inch thick of ginger
5 red chilies

Ingredient B
1/2 a bottle of ketchup
5 tablespoon of chili sauce
4 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar

Ingredient C
Prawns or clams. Wash and clean.
Egg (last)

Ingredient D. Optional.
Coriander to garnish.

1. Chop ingredient A and put aside.
2. Heat the pan with enough of oil to deep fry the prawns and put aside.
3. Reduce the oil from the pan, stir fry ingredient A till it turns golden brown and smells fragrant.
4. Add in ingredient B and stir well.
5. Add in the fried prawns and stir well.
For clams, you do not have to fry it. Just add in clams and stir until it’s cooked.
6. Lastly lower the fire, beat the egg, stir well for just 5 second and off the fire immediately.
7. Serve the dish into a serving plate. Garnish with coriander. And voila ~

Good luck and have fun cooking !!