Fancy fast food

Being a busy foodie means you're constantly tempted to look for something delicious and tasty to eat, yet you want as little hassle as possible when it comes to deciding on meals. For the past few nights I've been desperate, and turned to ordering Indian takeaways and binging on instant noodles - Korean, Malaysian and Thai - I've tried them all. I've always thought of these as comfort food, but didn't realise how horrible their effects were on me until I've had them for several consecutive meals. I felt bloated and uncomfortable, thirsty despite constantly drinking water, and to the extent of getting minor headaches. My conclusion? No short-cuts.

Some meals take a longer time to prepare, but I've decided that smoothies and salads are my absolute go-to. They are fast, colourful, and much healthier than takeaways and instant food. I always sneak in one of two strips of bacon in my salads, because they add so much flavour to the meal. 

I also can't wait for this week to end because I'm itching to try a new recipe, perhaps red velvet cupcakes. Baking is fun, but on a side note I recently discovered the beauty of raw desserts, although it does take some effort if you don't have a proper food processor. All my ingredients were mixed in a normal blender and it didn't turn out as smooth as it should be. Anyway the taste was still as yummy as ever and I had a slice of citrus "cheesecake" for breakfast each morning for a whole week. The cake was made of Medjool dates, walnuts, cashew nuts, blood orange, lime, lemon, beet and coconut oil. No flour, no butter, and no oven needed.

Praying for a good week. Go Joyce, go.

Lately, very lately

I've been really busy (or at least, supposed to be) recently with writing my dissertation and catching up with tutorials, but I decided to take my time off today to update this space. It's been quite awhile since my last post, and looking back at old photos made me realise how much I did in this period - most of the time playing with (and eating) food, as you can see below.

Haven't been travelling much - going home for christmas holidays, Singapore, and visiting Yong Xuan in Dublin don't count here... what I mean is that I haven't been exploring places ever since I got back from America. I definitely want to go to new places, but I'll reserve those plans for summer. 

Brown french loaf with pandan kaya (from home) with berries

Left: Blended broccoli and leek, with balsamic vinegar and walnuts; Right: "Cream" of carrots with sesame oil

Left: Kaya and goats' butter on seeded toast; Right: First attempt at goats' cheese, spinach and sweet potato tart

Second attempt at gluten-free goats' cheese and spinach tart, and leftover dough turned to people biscuits by Ying Hui 

Left: Salmon, grapefruit and avocado salad & chocolate marble cake (note-to-self: you'll always need a hand mixer for baking...); Right: Pancakes with bacon and salted caramel sauce

CNY potluck with the housemates, and I made rice spring rolls with cervettes, basil, mint and corriander (prawns are so expensive here - bought 5 of these at £8! CNY the season to be jolly indeed)
Wendy prepared yee sang with raw sashimi-grade salmon
Our soup stock was the bomb 'cos we used salmon fish head and bones with ginger - yums!

Pasta, spinach and cheese for potluck at Alyssa's

Plum tomatoes, cheddar and dill pizza topped with walnuts and fresh kale

Left: Mung beans and sago hot dessert; Right: Raisins pancake with apple cooked in sugar, and salted caramel sauce

Potluck brunch at Raghavi's; I made red bean, longan and sago hot dessert
Raghavi made cous cous salad
Nishi made cooked oats with bananas and blueberries
San made pasta with bacon and cheese sauce

Chocolate muffins with salted caramel centres and sea salt flakes

Muffins sank in the middle 'cos I took them out of the oven too quickly (hee, impatient me), so I topped it up with more caramel sauce and sprinkled toasted almond slices to fix the look

If you're wondering why I'd used salted caramel in most of my food recently, it's 'cos I bought 2 jars meant for friends, when I planned to visit them in Ireland. Only later did I realise that I couldn't bring them on board with me as I didn't purchase any checked-luggage allowance. Silly me!

Going further back in time... I received the best present for my 22nd birthday (I still can't believe I'm already in my twenties), ever! I was struggling with my courseworks then, but it was very comforting to have my most favourite person in the world, by my side. Physically! Literally, by. my. side. HEE. Thank you, you.

Also I noticed myself wearing my blue, long-sleeved, light cotton top and the aztec dress a lot. But these are very comfy, so I can see why! It's soooo hard to find reasonably-priced tops that aren't t-shirts, or formal wear, so I can see why I dig this piece. Besides, I love wearing sleeves. Protects me from the sun, the cold, and- arms. Haha! As for the dress, I love how it can pull off the casual look, yet works fine for a dinner event.

Gotta love your guy when he happily agrees to have tea with you,

-cooks for you (just kidding), or even gets food for you!

And brings you out for brunches 'cos he knows how much you love having them!
BOTTOM LINE IS THAT HE HAS TO CONSTANTLY FEED YOU. YES.

We went to the zoo! My dress makes me look like a zebra! Rui Ling did my makeup (love it 'cos it's so natural)! 

Home is DEFINITELY comfort zone. If you have a mom like my mom, you'd hardly be tempted to dine out... unless you have cravings for roti canai. My mom is a classic home-maker, and I'd say that most of my meals are inspired by her. 

Homemade fried dumplings, even the dim sums. Stir-fried pumpkins, steamed fish, broth, veggies, and chocolate cake!

Being home for a month felt great - I got to catch up with Jasmine and Katherine, then Abi, Michelle and Shu Yee, and le papoy! I can't believe I'm a few months away from leaving this place, and I won't be seeing most of my friends I met here after this...

A date with piepoy

Till next time!

Can't go wrong with Chinese cooking

Minced pork with leek, served with sliced cucumbers

Was just clearing my fridge today before leaving for the States next week, and the one thing I really want to get rid of is the frozen minced meat passed down by a senior before he left Notts for good. Basically at the end of every term, seniors clear out their stuff and juniors tend to get showered with either (used) gifts or well - junk.

I got both, haha.

Speaking of frozen food, I don't ever freeze my meat longer than the 'best before' date! I don't like the idea of what's going inside of me not being in its 'best' state, and yes I'm an advocate of eating fresh food! 

However, another thing that I'm an advocate of is not wasting edible food. It must have been training since a kid - my parents always made sure that I finish all the food on my plate, and that means every grain of rice. Of course, I don't force myself to finish up anything beyond what I think is suitable for my appetite. It was a problem at boarding school, where the dining hall auntie would scoop a standard portion onto your plate and I'll go "oh auntie/uncle, enough enough enough- or, oh thanks- not so much!!!", haha! Then again, I'm no saint. Before the time when I took the initiative to request for smaller portions, I do remember throwing away quite some leftovers, OR eat everything up and get too full. WHICH IS BAD. You guys should never do that. Over eating is totally unhealthy! I've changed my mindset and told myself nowadays that I'll have to be reasonable and evaluate the situation myself.

Whenever I go out now, I make sure I order something light (it's always better to be just not hungry than to be too full), or, if when I'm with my friends, I'll ask them if they'd like to share the meals with me (Seow Wei you didn't wanna share my chips :'( hehe).

Anyway, this dish above is really simple: 

I used coconut oil to sauté ginger strips and red onions. 

Add minced pork and fry till slightly golden.

Throw in the chopped leek and stir-fry somemore, then add boiled water and allow it to simmer -

this is to make sure that my pork is very properly cooked!  

I added shaoxing wine too, and let it simmer until all the moisture is evaporated.

Add grounded black pepper, salt, sugar and some white pepper - voila! 

Garnished with fresh coriander and served with slices of cucumber.

Happy Tuesday! 

more than just dough and cheese

Remember I mentioned that there were lots of pizza dough left from the week #1 challenge? I tried making different kinds of pizza (and buns) and I'm glad with the results! I used anchovies as fillings for my pizza buns and had them with seaweed and sambal. Yeap, Malaysian tastebuds ftw!

Well, enough of pizza for now, I'm moving on to week #2. This week's challenge... is to go for a detox! I've not tried any sort of dieting before, but my family is going for it and I should too. It only lasts for one week and I've also got to keep up with my workout regime, so wish me luck and hopefully I don't get lazy.

Project 52 is on again!

The last time I made myself do a 52-week project, I failed miserably after week... 3? (previously it was an attempt to do conceptual self-portraits)

I came up with something more feasible now, that is to make/ bake/ cook/ read/ do something new once a week. I think it's important to learn how to never be afraid of making mistakes and that it's okay to fail at things sometimes, so I intend to document my experience in this little space. Hopefully I'll keep up to it!

Here's week 1, and it's Pizza Wednesday.

Getting the dough consistency right was difficult for me - I used too much water for my yeast and ended up having to top up more flour until the mixture is just about right. And this baby grows twice its size after sitting in the bowl for an hour. Yeah, you can imagine the amount of leftover dough I have in my fridge. Guess what's for dinner tonight, and lunch tomorrow, and dinner too? Hur hur. 

The second mistake was to use greaseproof paper! DO NOT use greaseproof paper to line your pan/tin! (or maybe I used them wrongly) The paper was stuck to my pizza base, so I ended up scraping the pizza off with a knife and the meal turned out to look quite unglam, haha!

Pizza was rather bread-like too, I was hoping that it would turn out crusty but it didn't. Better try next time (or tonight).

Overall I thought today turned out okay - messed around in the kitchen, and the best part is that I don't have any classes today. Double yay!

Got tips or ideas to share, anyone? Join me in this project, google a new recipe and make something today! :)