and counting down...

...to a cleaner diet for the next 3 months. Good luck to me! I must stay committed because it is only 3 months. Come August, I shall probably resume my normal eating ways...Feel free to give me "warnings". Lol...Universe...give me the strength to resist hamburgers and fries!!!!! And others!!!!

PS: Crys, I shall try my best ok?

Healthy Pasta Lunch

I think I spent a total of 20mins cooking lunch. This is a simple and easy lunch that I came up with. The truth is, I just want to throw everything in the pot so that I do not have to wash extras. I can proudly say that this is one of my tastier creations. It is worth every effort shopping for the ingredients. Bon appetit!

Chicken Mushroom Avocado Angel Hair Pasta (serves 3)
Chicken Fillets (About 15 fillets in a pack)
1 pack of Swiss brown button mushroom
1 Pack of Thai asparagus
1 Avocado
1 Lemon
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove of garlic
4 heaped tablespoons of Greek yogurt (I used Farmer's Union)
3 tablespoons of soy sauce (or less)
1 teaspoon of raw sugar (or sugar)
Angel Hair Pasta enough for 3 servings

• Set a pot of water to boil.
• While waiting, marinate the chicken fillets with the yogurt. Set aside for later use.

You have to work at a slightly faster speed now.

• Chop up the garlic and mix it with the olive oil and soy sauce in a bowl.
  
• Squeeze half a lemon into the garlic mixture.
• Cut the asparagus into sections. Cut the mushrooms in quarters.
  
• When the water is boiling, place the pasta into the pot.
• Slice the avocado into half and remove the pit and skin.
  
• Cut avocado into cubes. Put aside for later use.
  
• Just before the pasta is cooked, put in the asparagus and when ready, drain them.

For the Sauce:

• In the same pot, make sure it is dry, then pour in the garlic mixture.
  
• Put in the mushrooms immediately.
• Place the chicken fillet on top together with all the yogurt and let it simmer.
  
• Stir it occasionally and simmer till the chicken is cooked.
• Pour the sauce on top of the pasta.
  
• Add in avocado and mix well.
  
• You could squeeze the other half of the lemon into the pasta before serving.

Notes:

You may panic a bit because I did. I nearly cut my thumb off while removing the avocado pit. So do not worry if u have to take a longer time to prepare and cook this. This recipe has a lot of ingredients so you can cut down on the ingredients if you want. It is also quite appetising so depending on your liking, you may wish to cut down on the lemon and soy sauce. I did not cut up the fillets because I like my meat chunky. So do the guys. Happy cooking! ;oP

Bella Pizza at Robertson Quay

What a pleasant discovery! I gave myself a pat on the back after having dinner here and I thought to myself that I will be back. I will not order the dessert here though.

The starter of mozzarella wrapped with parma ham was a decent put together dish although I hoped that the cheese could be more chilled. It tasted like how it looked. Salty, slightly creamy tasting with refreshing tomatoes.

The star of the dinner was the pasta. Fettucine with Italian sausage and truffles and a touch of cream. It definitely was not a touch of cream here but I do not mind the sauce at all. The sausage was awesome. The black truffles provided a slight nuttish texture and taste to the pasta. One can only hope for more sausages and truffles.

I could not remember which pizza did we order but I think it was suppose to have gorgonzola in it. Although the lack of it made me a little disappointed, the pizza was sufficiently well spread with the other cheese and ham. The crust itself was easy to the bite and I felt that a beer would be great now.

Dessert: Crepes with marscarpone, nutella and bananas did not impress me at all as the crepes had a greasy after taste.

Hamburger Bed

He sure looks comfortable being part of the Hamburger. Lol...I find this funny rather than freaky. Maybe they should 'upsize' this burger and double the patty.

Clodhoppers

This is a dark chocolate fudge flavour which I thought was not too bad because the graham wafer clusters tasted like butterscotch. I had this for lunch, tea break and almost for dinner. This stuff is highly addictive so I would suggest you either get a small pack, or share it with like 10 people at a go. I thought the white chocolate ones are pretty good too.

Pork Rib Noodles & My Genie Mini Soon Kuehs

Quiet dinner at Whampoa Market. The prawn noodle stall is just next to Uncle Sim's. I ordered the pork ribs kway tiao because it looked good. Robust broth with garlic and pork rib flavour. For $4.50 a bowl, I had 4 meaty ribs which were pretty enjoyable because of the garlicky and braised flavour. Excuse me for the lack of vocabulary to describe this. It was decent but I just wished that the flavour was made stronger.

It comes in 5s.

This mini soon kuehs were a disappointment. The unusual shape of this soon kueh had a knot of skin which was dry and chewy. The fillings does not taste like the usual soon kuehs that I have. I have tasted enough soon kuehs to differentiate the better ones from the lousy ones.

This belonged to the latter.

Aesthetically pleasing but disappointing on the whole. I probably will not buy them again.

Burmese Sweets

This semolina pudding was firm to the bite but it is highly addictive because of this. I like the texture of semolina and this particular sweet has got me interested because of three main reasons.

1. It is made of semolina.
2. It has a coconut flavour which reminds me of nonya kuehs.
3. The topping of poppy seeds has upped the interesting texture factor.

Salmon Bak Kwa

I saw them at NTUC last night. It was round and reddish in colour and vacuumed pack. I wonder if it tastes nice. Or maybe it is like beef jerky? If you have tried it before, maybe you can let me know what it tastes like. Sweet fish? Hmmm.....

Salmon Belly Fried Rice

Take 1

Take 2

Final take before all is gone!

My mom is a good cook. Its true. I love any of her fried rice dishes. This is one of the rare occasions where she asked me to take a photo of her fried rice. It looks good. It smelt great. Most importantly, it tasted delicious! Just wished that it was mine.

Back at Zac's

Camwhoring begins! My Laziza!!

Oxtail Stew

Mixed Sausage Platter - Can be better

Mixed grill platter - Was my favourite!

Look at the meats!!!

Hummus

Hummus closeup

Little did I know that the revisit would be so soon. It was a very hot day. So hot that we had 4 Lazizas. I like this sparkling fruity malt drink. It did quench some of the thirst. I think.

I think of all the dishes, I like that lone piece of lamb the best! It was well done however, the meat was tender with enough fats to make you feel greasy but I was not in the mood to be too conscious about it. I think it just made me want to come back again for their lamb dishes!

Dinner at Borders Cafe

I remembered a few year back when I came here with Gab and she was recommending the mushroom pappardelle and I loved it! So a while back I was back at Borders so I decided to give it another shot. After a good sprinkling of chilli flakes, this was good to eat. So good that I feel like having another serving. This was shared between 2 so it was not that heavy. Love the cheesy, creamy mushrooms. We tried the Waldorf salad and I must say that the ones at Cedele taste better.

Laphet Thot (Pickled Tea leaves Salad)

This is an interesting salad and an acquired tastebud is required as I feel it may not appeal to the more conservative(boring) ones. I like this.

A little crispy, a little nuttish in taste and texture, a little sourish and saltish. I think it has crispy chickpeas, tomatoes, tea leaves and some other stuff that I can't be really bothered to identify. This makes a good appetizer or TV snack as you can nibble all you want and still feel like you can eat a cow later. This is true for me.

I forgot how many servings did I have. I only know the accompanying floral tea makes this more appetising. More! More!!

Laphet (Pickled Tea leaves) Thot (Salad)

Ohn No Kaung Swe (Burmese Laksa)

My first taste of this wonderful dish was last year at the wedding. Although it was a hot day, this was so addictive that I had 3 servings of it. I was sweating through my makeup and pretty blouse but I didn't care.

Crystal's version of this wonderful Burmese laksa has prompted me to drink more of the soup. She used a low fat version of the coconut milk and I added all the condiments provided to up the hotness of this dish. I liked the fish sauce and the chilli flakes a lot.

Thanks for cooking again!!