Food Adventures!

Ham & Cheese Croissant. The Ham slice is thicker than usual.

Chocolate Chip Croissant

Blueberry Cheese Tart

Charcoal bun

One fine Saturday morning, we decided to make our way to Little India for some lovely croissants. Mirabelle makes one of the best croissants I have ever eaten in my entire life. Unless I have a better one, I think I would go all the way for their croissants. First time we had a plain one, second time we had a chocolate chip one, and third time we finally had the ham and cheese. Votes for ham and cheese and the plain ones. The charcoal bun with custard and the blueberry cheese tart is ok.

Had a hot steaming bowl of an ordinary looking prawn noodles. After sipping the hot soup, I proceeded to eat the kway tiao. Excellent. It tastes much better than it looks. Peppery and robust, we sipped the life out of the bowl until it is dry. *snigger*

Prawn noodle

Had an onion masala thosai at Sri Kamala's with some teh tarik before heading down to Crys' place for some cheesecake baking and try her lovely Indian dishes.

Thosai

Teh Tarik!

My first attempt at blueberry cheesecake baking

The dishes were ready. So was my tummy!

Pumpkin Prawn

Lady's Finger

Masala Chicken

Beehoon with salmon and egg

My mom cooks awesome tze char style beehoons and I was lucky to have them for dinner! It had over easy eggs, vegetables and salmon fillets that was so tender that I suspected it was a salmon belly. I think I had 2 servings of beehoon minus the egg and salmon :o(

Pulut Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice Dessert)

I'd like to think of this as a Chinese styled rice pudding. My mom cooked this gorgeous dessert and let me bring it to work. The most common way of eating this is drizzling thick coconut milk which has a little salt added to it. It brings out the contrast of the sweetness in the dessert and hence makes it very palatable. My mom's version has fresh milk and condensed milk added to it. Very satisfying. ;oP

Foods that I eat at work

Portobello, tomatoes, french beans and couscous

Asparagus, button mushrooms, tomatoes, couscous

Pumpkins, asparagus, mushrooms, tomatoes and bread rolls

Oatmeal with cashews and maple syrup

Varieties for my lunches at work and no I am not really a vegetarian. :o)

I have been eating...

...mostly mushrooms. Swiss brown, white buttons, portobello and even canned ones. I bought asparagus, broccoli, eggplant and tried to make my packed lunches as healthy and interesting as possible. Next week I'm going to get more avocadoes, lettuce and make more sandwiches as I just bought a can of herring in brine.

Brunch

I wanna make pancakes, because they are so very tasty...

It has been a while since I made brunch and on this day I had a competent assistant that actually made most of the food whereas I merely gave out instructions and made creamy scrambled eggs and pancakes. Because they are so very tasty. Lol.

Brunch menu:
Boiled asparagus
Bacon
Mushrooms
English sausages
Pancakes
Creamy scrambles

It doesn't sound much but its actually loads of work if its all done by one. Like I said, the competent assistant had done most of the work. Asparagus are being boiled in water. Sausages, bacon and mushrooms are being cooked in the same pan in order respectively.

I have adapted another pancake recipe from here today. This tastes pretty nice. Maybe I could make it with buttermilk next time.

The scrambles were too creamy for some so I'll make some sunny side ups in future or I can make the scrambles less creamy. I added pure cream and butter to the scrambles.

I couldn't do an artistic shot or pour maple syrup over with loads of butter or pepper the scrambles because I was hot and flustered with all the cooking. My hands were greasy. Stomachs were growling. So I just did an obligatory shot but I'll make sure next time I'll do a better shot.

Couscous lunches

Greek yogurt is optional but I prefer it with yogurt.

For a few weeks I have been sticking to the couscous lunches because they are easy to prepare. This is one of my favourite combi: Couscous with seaweed furikake, some tuna in olive oil, tomatoes and Greek yogurt {optional}.

Fried Rice

This time, it is all mine! Mom cooked fried rice with preserved meat for me with a side of egg with runny yolk. Every mouth was filled with chunks of juicy lup cheong. The egg yolk just made this whole dish heavenly.

What I had for lunches...

Aloha! It has been sometime for a real post for what I had eaten for lunch. I forgot to take pictures for some of them and I promise to do a real documentation of what I am eating in future. These are quite random pictures.

What you didn't see:

• coffee and sugarless soybean milk (Unisoy)
• instant oatmeal porridge
• things like miso soup from those miso paste sachets I got from Isetan Scotts.
• tofu with french beans and tomato miso soup
• salmon belly sashimi with scallions, lemon juice and XO sauce
• baked fat free Koka instant noodles with XO sauce (thanks a lot Alice!) and squeeze of lemon
• hard boiled egg with tomato sandwiches
• Fruits like apples, papaya, watermelon

Mini portobellos with scallions and XO sauce.

These were excellent. The XO sauce has lots of scallops which helped in the flavouring and olive oil as the healthy fat in my diet did help in making the salad tasty. This warm mushroom salad is light on the palate and will definitely make you want to eat more.

Tuna salad with Couscous and sides of tomato with scallions and XO sauce

For the tuna, I had chopped up some red onions and mixed some pepper. The tomatoes were firm and juicy. Paired with couscous and tuna salad...mmm...my mouth waters...

Tuna, yogurt & chives with couscous

After you mix them up...

Yes...repeated ingredients are being used here but this was the best that I could manage. I used Greek yogurt here. A note to myself: next time use less chives. You can top this up with cashew nuts and it will be a filling and healthy lunch.

Cashew nuts and lemon for my water

These are my afternoon snacks. Do you know that a cut up lemon is a natural way of deodorising your space? Yes...my office space smells divine...

Until next time....

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