Healthy Living in Singapore

Memories, Food and Love Series #1- Nasi Briyani

I’ve been wanting to do this for some time. Love and food are inexorably linked with each other and I’ve been so blessed by my interactions with the people around me, most of the time through food. It’s a strange thing in Asian culture. I think we are by nature shy with words and tend to express ourselves better through food.

I’ve been wanting to carve out a space where I can preserve all these wonderful food I’ve had the privilege of someone taking the time and effort to make for me. I didn’t just want to sit down with pen and paper and ask for the recipe. I wanted to be there when the cooking was taking place. To ask about the different ingredients, to help wash, to watch the water boiling and knowing just when to place that slice of ginger. More than anything, I wanted to preserve the memories of my (and other’s) culture and heritage- my mother’s cooking, my grandmother’s cooking, my malay neighbour’s cooking, my foreign friends who have stepped onto Singapore soil and taken the time to bless me with the tales of their land and the food they have made with their own hands. I wanted to share in the pride so evident in their voice as they showed me the food unique to their countries. These people have taught me so much (both of food and of life) and all I want to do now is keep these memories near and close to me so that one day when I’m feeling nostalgic and want to taste something of the past, I wouldn’t just be tasting something from a random recipe book but the taste of much love and memories from people I’ve been so richly blessed with.

I have been incredibly fortunate. Every request I have made of their time has been met with nothing but enthusiasm and sheer generosity.  I made no special restriction on the recipes. I told them it’s for this space which they knew to be something about vegetables but insisted they kept the recipe as true to what they usually prepare as possible. As always, they have gone ahead and surprised me. The recipes they have offered are all ones I have delightedly enjoyed in the past yet they have gone out of their way to make healthier tweaks to it to indulge me. Same taste, just slightly healthier. I’m a very lucky girl.

So first up in the series, I present to you a hot Singaporean (okay, mine!) favourite- Nasi Briyani! This was made by a woman who is matriarch of a family that I have had a privilege of knowing for only a little more than a year but I absolutely adore and love already.  The head of the household is non other than the very brilliant Yusnof Ef who really, can be considered the ‘grandfather’ of Malay songs in SEA and is definitely a pioneer in the Malay cultural scene here. I love hearing him share because his passion for the arts, heritage and community is so evident. This nasi briyani was made by his wife who is an amazing woman in her own right and I’ve often been so inspired by her patience and her sharings as well. We made this just before puasa started so I learnt (as I’ve been learning through the year) a lot on malay culture and of Islam. ( I must admit, I find the dedication and discipline wonderfully admirable and can only aspire to be as such!)

Anyway, enough talk! On to the food! 🙂
Mutton Briyani lovingly prepared by Jamilah Jaan (otherwise affectionately known as “aunty”).

Recipe:

Ingredients for the Mutton Briyani: 
1 large bunch of coriander
Handful of mint leaves
2 large onions
2 bulbs garlic
2 large old ginger
3 large red chilis
3 large green chilis
2 tomatoes
1/4 cup chilli powder
1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup Sunflower oil

Steps for the Mutton Briyani:

1. Blend the red and green chili into a paste
2. Blend the ginger into a paste
3. Blend the garlic into a paste
4. Set aside.
5. Cut meat into cubes and remove visible fat and skin

6. Sweat onions in a pressure cooker or normal pot
7. Pour ginger/garlic/ chili paste into the pot
8. Stir.
9. Add oil and stir
10. Add meat of choice and stir. Here we used mutton.
11. Add coriander and meat
12. Add briyani powder (Aunty told me she mixes the powder herself! but you can buy from mustafa)
13. Add chili powder and quartered tomatoes
14. Mix well

15. Cover with pressure cooker lid till indicator shows that it is done. Alternatively, if you are using a normal pot, simmer till meat is fork tender.

While the meat is cooking, you are prepare the rice.

 Ingredients for the Briyani Rice:
6 cups Basmati Rice
(Aunty was so sweet! She saw this brown basmati rice at mustafa and thought of me so although she has NEVER cooked this before, she decided to try for my sake! *touched* A healthier twist on traditional comfort food? I LIKE!)
12 cups water
Large spoonful of ghee
4 pandan leaves knotted
1 star anise
7 cardamons
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp cloves
2 bulbs of shallots sliced thinly

Colouring (optional)
1/2 tsp yellow powder colouring
mixed with
1 cup rose water till desired tone.

Steps:

1. Soak rice in water for 30 min
2. Drain rice and place in rice cooker
3. In a wok (big enough for the water needed for the rice), heat a generous pat of ghee (this is for 6 cups of rice so adjust accordingly)
4. Wait for ghee to melt and stirfry shallots in them till fragrant
5. Add all the spices and mix well till fragrant
6. Bring to a boil
7. When boiling, turn off heat and pour into rice cooker
8. Wait for rice to cook

While waiting for rice to cook, check on meat. When the indicator on the pressure cooker has gone off, add in tomato paste, extra chilies, half a large handful of fried shallots. Stir, bring to a boil and remove from heat. And you are done with the meat!

Back to the rice 🙂

Ta-dah! The smell when it is cooked is just AMAZING, seriously. I wish you could smell it!
If
you are going for the healthier choice, I would just stop at this step
but if you are going to impress your friends, why not just go all the
way?

9. Poke holes in rice with a chopstick when done
10. Mix a little food colouring with rose water and pour into the rice.
11. Wait 30 sec and mix rice gently. Not all the rice has to be coated with the colouring

(Auntie did ask whether I wanted to learn how to make it the ‘dum’ briyani way where the rice is cooked with the chicken in a single pot and absorbs all the flavours but I opted for this method instead because it’s easier to modify and make healthier since I would be able to control the amount of gravy to go with my rice and omitting the colour should I make this myself 🙂 )

12. Plate and serve!

And there you have it, amazingly yummy (healthier?) brown rice mutton briyani! Don’t be afraid of ghee because it’s all natural! Better than magarine but this is not something I recommend on a daily basis! It’s so so good though that when I brought it home it was gone in a few hours :/

Go try it today! Share the love with the people around you as well!

It’s the weekend! Have fun everyone! 🙂 Hope it’s a weekend filled with love for you!

Enjoy! 🙂

P.s To not over indulge, Have a few pieces of meat with just a little gravy and a fistful amount of rice. It’s really good though so some restraint is needed to try and not inhale the pot! 😉

Next up on the love series- Authentic dumplings from a dear friend from Tianjin, China! 😀

Healthy Homemade Chickpea/ Garbanzo bean Burger with Avocado creamsauce, caramelized onions and baked kale chips

Mhmm! Amazing chickpea burger that is dry and crispy paired with a lusciously creamy avocado- yoghurt sauce with just a hint of tangy. Topped with caramelized onions and served with crunchy kale chips, this sweet, savory, crunchy, creamy creation is a party in the mouth! Best part? Absolutely no additives, preservatives or chemicals. Just plain wholesome delicious food like how it should be! 

For the chickpea burger:

1 can garbanzo beans/ chickpeas in water
1.5 tsp cumin
1 tsp each of desired spices – for this recipe I used paprika, black pepper, chili flakes
1 cup all purpose flour/ panko crumbs. 
(For this recipe I used a blend of oat bran, wheat germ and flax meal in a ratio 3:2:1- still 1 cup) 
1tsp Dijon mustard (omitted because I couldn’t find Dijon mustard that wasn’t full of corn syrup or preservatives 🙁 ) 
1 tbsp coconut oil (I omitted this as well because I wanted to pair it with a wet sauce. Add this if you want your patty more moist) 
2 eggs 
Whizz everything in food processor. Shape mixture into flat patties. Place in containers, cover and refrigerate overnight. It might be a little wet at first but will be okay in a few hours.
Place patties on parchment lined oven tray and bake for 10-15 min or till brown and crisp on the outside. 

For the avocado sauce
1 ripe avocado 
1 marigold no sugar added natural yoghurt
1 tsp lemon juice
Whizz in food processor
Place in container and refrigerate till use. 
For the caramelized onions: 
1 large onion cut into rings
1 tsp coconut oil 
Spray pot with a tsp coconut oil. Place onions in pot and stir on medium heat for 2 min. Lower fire to smallest setting and stir every 5 min for about 45min or till onions are dark and sticky. 
Try not to eat it all while its cooking. The smell was so good I kept eating the onions that were stuck to my stirring spoon 😀
For the baked kale chips:
1 bunch kale
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 stp coconut oil 
Preheat oven to 180 deg for 5 min. Shred kale into bite sized pieces. Discard stem. Place kale evenly on oven tray. Spritz/ brush oil on leaves. Crack black pepper and salt to taste. Turn down heat to 60 deg and bake in oven for 2 min. Check to see kale is crisp but not burnt. 
Plate and serve. ENJOY!! 

3 Ingredient Fibre Packed Nutella (Refined sugar free and vegan!)

Nothing makes me happier than a REALLY good breakfast. I can’t think of anything better than waking up to The Works. Even better if it comes with copious amounts of chocolate.

Today I’m sharing a recipe that I used extensively when I was trying to stop binge eating. The trick to really stopping is giving your body plenty of fibre and water to balance the crazy blood sugar fluctuations caused by extended periods of binging and restriction. 

This nutella is power packed with lots of good fibre and good fats from the hazelnuts to slow the release into the bloodstream.

Also did I mention that it has only 3 main ingredients? Hazelnuts, dates and unsweetened cocoa powder! Take that store bought sugar filled Nutella!

As a way of comparison, let’s look at what’s in the a usual nutella bottle:

Ingredients are placed on a label in order of their quantity used in the product. And in store bought nutella, the first two ingredients are sugar AND palm oil then hazelnuts! All store bought producs have copious amounts of refined sugar and unhealthy fat in them because sugar and fat together act as addictive agents to compel you to eat more of the product. When companies have got you hooked, you buy more!

Here’s how to make a healthier alternative at home:

You’ll need:



1 cup of hazelnuts (I bought it from a shop at Kovan heartland mall on Level 1 near the escalators. You can also find it at Phoon Huat or shops selling nuts and dried goods along Bugis street. Hazelnuts are extremely expensive so I suggest buying them only when they are on discount- like now! )
5- 10 pitted dates  (use more if you have a sweet tooth)
1/2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder ( I used Hershey’s)
1/2 cup + Water or unsweetened milk ( I used almond milk)

Optional:
1 tablespoon coconut oil ( I highly recommend Cocos Extra virgin cold pressed coconut oil- support local!)
3 drops of vanilla extract
Other kinds of sweeteners if you need; such as honey etc.

Steps:

If you have time, you can roast the hazelnuts first. It doesn’t really do much actually. I’ve tried both non roasted and roasted versions and I feel that the roasted one just has a nicer ‘roasted’ smell. So when I make a portion for myself, I can’t be bothered to roast. But when I’m making for friends and family as gifts, I roast them. Haha

Leave to cool after roasting. By this time it would smell amazing and be a beautiful golden brown. Try not to eat all of it now. We need them for the Nutella!

Over here I’m using 7 honey dates I bought from the same store. If you buy them fat like that, there is no need to soak them. But if you are using the dried out ones you’ll have to.
 
I use a smaller, more powerful blender like my darling shimono to blend the dates with a tablespoon of water first. If you have a powerful blender, you can skip this step. My food processor is really small and previously when I tried this recipe, there were bits of dates in the nutella (fibre!)because my food processor couldn’t handle both dates and hazelnuts at the same time. If you have a vitamix or equivalent, I’m sure it would not be a problem at all. 

Next, place the hazelnuts, date paste, cocoa powder into the blender. I did my hazelnuts first because that was all that could fit. Haha.

 
Once you start blending, the nuts will go from powdery to smooth and buttery. Exactly like how normal nut butters are made.

I used vanilla essence and a tablespoon of coconut oil in this recipe because it makes it smoother. But entirely optional of course.

     

When you see that most of it has been incorporated, it will look like that texture above. Now is the time to pour in your liquid of choice. The smoother and creamier you want it, the more liquid you put in. Start with 1/4 cup and then work your way up. I ended up using about 3/4 cup for this batch. Constantly taste your nutella to see if it needs more dates to sweeten. If you want a darker colour, it’ll need more cocoa powder and consequently, more dates to sweeten because the cocoa is bitter.

Blend till you are happy with the texture! I love it when it turns gloriously creamy and fudgy!

This recipe makes 1 mason jar full. I like to add additional hazelnuts on top for that added crunch. It can store in the fridge for a month. Unfortunately it always disappears in my household within a week. Even though this recipe is made from whole foods, it’s still a treat though so don’t think you can whack it all in in one sitting! Two tablespoons is a decent amount to have in a day 😀

I’ve served it to my friends with breadsticks ( they said it’s like a less sweet version of nutella!) but my favourite is to dip my fruits in it and indulge! Such breakfasts always make me so excited to wake up to!

 Try it yourself today! 😀

 P.s- now you can save the recipe cards below in a folder on your computer for easier reference! 😀

Healthy, Quick & Easy Party Food Ideas! :D

As we enter into the last quarter of the year, I’m sure everyone must be revving (their tummies) up for end year festivities and feasting! Did you know that in Singpore, the largest percentage of babies are born in the last quarter of the year? That means that not only will there be a crazzzzy amount of weddings and Christmas parties and corporate D&Ds to attend, there will lots of birthday parties as well! I totally advocate going all out and surrounding yourself with the love of family and friends any chance you get but parties don’t mean you have to stress about the food. I honestly feel that the food should compliment the party. Most parties have food that’s way too rich and ‘jelat’- inducing and instead of having a good time, you feel awfully bloated and greasy and lethargic. That’s not what parties should be like! Food at parties should invigorate you and allow you to have a great time with your family and friends!

So before you pick up the phone to call for pizza to settle your next party, here are some alternatives to hosting a healthy, colourful and totally delicious party! 😀
_______________________________________________________________________________

Backstory: I have cellgroup most weeks and you know when a group of young adults get together, we want to FEAST and we want to FEAST well. But I realised that after yet another pizza takeout, everyone would get so bloated and lethargic and when my cellgroup leader talks I uhm.. feel a little bit like snoozing :/! So when it was my turn to host dinner and cell at my place, I happily told everyone we would be having “pizza” at my house! 😀 Hehheh.

Everyone works of course and nobody has any time to cook so this is the fastest, most fuss free way to throw a nutrition filled party ever.

The first thing I did was to order a bunch of salads from Dressing Room Salad Bar which is an online salad delivery service in Singapore selling a whole range of delicious salads! Fiona, the girl who runs it, started it out because she’d seen for herself how her mother, who is a cancer survivor, managed and improved her condition through nutritious, natural means! I love it when people believe so much in the importance of nutrition!

For quick and easy reference, here’s my timeline for the party:

3 days before: Confirm with Fiona the salads I want (Try to let her know as early as possible because sometimes certain fruits are are out of season and she would ask if you want to replace it with something else)
1 day before: buy fruits and disposable tablecloth / thaw the crabmeat

On the day itself: 
6:30pm: Fiona arrives with the salads! Ask my brother to open the door and collect it coz I’m not home from work yet -.- They are wonderfully packed and so fresh and not soggy at all!
6:45pm: Get home from work and cut the fruits
7:00pm: Blend tofu and cream cheese/ crabmeat. Top with mozzarella and shove it into the oven together with broken florets of cauliflower
7:02pm: Blend avocados, banana and cocoa powder into a creamy sauce
7:15pm: Lay out the tables
7:25: Remove crabmeat creamcheese dip from oven
7:30: The gathering begins!

Have you ever seen anything so lovely and green and nutritious for a party? I ordered 10 salads for my group. Dressing Room Salad Bar does 8 standard salads and everything else is customizable so I got all 8 standard ones and 2 customizable. My friends had a hard time deciding what they wanted so I took the liberty to choose for them. Hurhur.


So gorgeous! And vibrant! 😀 Totally livens up the gathering up SO MUCH. Usually party food is all.. brown :/

Anyway, here are the salads we got!


1. Greek Salad- greens, tomatoes, pepper, olives, feta, herb infused olive oil

2. Chicken Caeser Salad- greens, bacon bits, onion, parmesan, cheese, croutons, chicken

 
3. Tuna Pesto Salad- greens, tomatoes, cucumber, pine nuts, tuna flakes & pesto dressing

4. Oriental Miso Salad- greens, carrots, mandarin orange, egg, baked tofu, soba, chicken & Japanese miso dressing.

5. Fruitte Spinach Salad- spinach, strawberry, orange, apple, walnuts & yoghurt mint sauce

 

6. Japanese Sesame Shrimp Salad- greens, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, corn, soba, shrimp & Japanese sesame dressing

7. Thai Fish Salad- greens, carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, peanuts, brown rice, dory fish, coriander & thai sweet chili dressing

8. Waldorf Pasta Salad- greens, apples, seedless grapes, celery, raisins, pasta, walnut & mayonaise dressing

9. Customized salad- greens, fish, roasted mushrooms, pumpkin, strawberry


10. Customized Salad 2- greens, chicken, brown rice, corn, parmesan, honey mustard dressing

Check out the party table! Isn’t it goreous and just a riot of colour? 😀

On the menu we have:

1)  TEN nutritious salads,

2) a crab and cream cheese dip
(that
my awesomest friend Zining made once and I fell in love with it. Just
that it’s really rich so I replace half the creamcheese with silken tofu
to lighten it– nobody could tell there was tofu! 😉 )

3) Roasted Cauliflower
(even hard core veggie haters loved it though I didn’t put any salt on seasoning on it)

4) A watermelon “pizza” with “sauce” and “toppings”
This was my pièce de résistance since I’d promised pizza. Heheh, I just didn’t say what kind!

5) Crispy, crunchy delectable toasted “chips” for the dip made from chia seed mountain bread
(Mountain
bread is sad and untasty straight out the of the packet and is a
miserable excuse for a wrap but toast it lightly on a non stick pan for 2
min and it can rival the world’s best chips.

 

Simply cut a large watermelon into rounds ( I asked the uncle at the fruit stall to do it for me. He thought I was doing a science project -.-) then I cut it into triangles myself. Blend 1 banana, 1 avocado and 1 tsp cocoa powder together for the “sauce”. Spread the sauce on top, and top with creamy, delicious mango, bluberries, strawberries and nuts and seeds of your choice 🙂 DIY and customizable!

And let the FEASTING begin! 😀

My cell leader loves the salads haha.

“we want some too! “
Presenting to you a bunch of the most hardcore “unhealthy” eaters who always eye me suspiciously when I serve “brownies” or “drinks”. (The previous time I had a “healthy” party, they brought their own KFC because they were afraid I would starve them with my new fangled creations haha) So if they give their thumbs up,  I’m very sure you will love it too 😀 You’ve got to give them credit though. They test taste the food here for you before I actually publish the recipe!

I had such a good time and I’m sure my friends did to! Best of all, everybody felt really good after that! Nobody felt like they were dying in a puddle of grease and I’m sure they all met their fruit and veg intake for the week. Haha.

So the next time you have a gathering or want to throw a party, serve healthier choices! I’m sure everyone wants to leave the party feeling good about the time spent together and what they ate! 😀 
 
Here’s to healthy, happy gatherings!! 😀
/ on a sidenote, I honestly think if you are clueless about meal prepping, hate to step into the kitchen/ no time, you should just order 5 different salads from Dressing Room Salad Bar or any salad place every Sunday night and just refrigerate it and bring one to work each day. They all taste great at room temperature/ cold and the dressings are amazing. I suppose there wouldn’t be much loss of nutrients etc coz the concept is kinda like my Rainbow Salad in A Jar just that you don’t have to do all the hard prep work yourself. Best part is, it’s only $6.90 for a salad! No queuing, no mess in the kitchen and she delivers it TO YOUR DOORSTEP. Just a suggestion for those looking to eat more nutritiously! Haha

Till next time,

xx

p.s SPECIAL THANKS to Fiona for being so accommodating and acceding to my requests and salad customizations at such short notice! 😀 You’re the best, babe! Keep doing what you are doing! 😀

Guest Article for Runsociety

Hello everybody!

It’s always exciting to meet new people and share experiences/knowledge so when Jonathan from RunSociety asked if I would like to contribute a post on Easy Breakfast Ideas for Runners, I was delighted to! 😀

I researched a bit before coming up with the easy no cook, no bake breakfast parfaits to make them runner specific (i.e. coconut for hydration, a blend of complex and quick digesting carbohydrates and heart healthy fats etc) but because they are so nutrient dense, they shouldn’t be limited to runners alone! In fact, they’d be great for breakfast for anyone, anyday! 😀

I also decided to try my hand at editing recipe videos this time. What do you guys think? Head to the article on Run Society to read the recipes and the full write up or watch my videos here! I know they are kinda like a primary school project but I had a lot of fun doing it!

 

 


😀 Hope they help give you more ideas for fuss free breakfasts! 😀

Meal Prep #2- Rainbow Salad in a Jar!

 

Hello everybody! Yay to pretty rainbows in a jar!!!For this week’s mealprep I’m trying to include more raw fruits and veggies in my diet! Raw fruits and veggies have the highest concentration of nutrients and my diet has had a dearth of nutrition recently (been eating out a lot the past few weeks) So I decided to make supplementary nutrient packed salad jars to go along with whatever else I might find for lunch! 🙂

Here’s my grocery haul for this week- it’s cost me about $30 and it’s for 20 meals and 5 snacks! 🙂

Baby spinach leaves, romaine lettuce, granola (gift from a friend- thank you Connie! 🙂 ), lemons, apples, purple cabbage, mangoes, carrots, broccoli, avocado, papaya and unsweetened almond milk!

This, together with leftover meat (salmon, chicken & thin slices of beef (for last week’s shabu shabu dinner) ) will form the basis of my meals for this week! I also have leftover rice and curry veggies etc courtesy of my dear mother and her fabulous cooking. Haha. (Free food!)

Anyway! I’m really excited as well because I purchased 6 of these mason jars from Howard’s Storage World! It cost $24.95 iirc and they are 500ml each!

I’ve been wanting to explore the world of canning and making my own jams etc but for this week, I thought they were perfect for salads in a jar!

Meal prep time! I took a picture at 8:55pm because I wanted to se how much time I took to prep food in a week!

Shredding/ dicing 1kg of carrots!

Drying the romaine lettuce so they don’t get soggy when you store them. I really should invest in a salad spinner!

Cutting and soaking ALL my veggies for the week.

AND HERE WE GO!!!

___________________________________________________________________________________

I use cocos coconut oil to cook. It’s a Singapore based company and uses the cold pressed method to extract the oils.  I highly recommend coconut oil to cook because it has one of the highest smoke points of most oils and therefore doesn’t turn carcinogenic so fast. However, oil is oil so just because it’s ‘healthier’ doesn’t mean you can pour half a bottle into your food and call it a day! Everything in moderation!

For this week, I’m freezing broccoli and carrot soups to use as a base for the week ahead. So whenthe weekday rolls around, I merely reheat the soup base and add in chicken or fish or toufu etc, pack it into my thermal jar and bring it to work!

While the soup is boiling away I wash and dry the new mason jar!

NOTE: if you are disinfecting the mason jars for the first time, I highly recommend not using extremely hot water. I poured very hot water (close to boiling) into a glass jar to disinfect it and the glass base TOTALLY shattered through. I washed all of the in 1 part cold water, 2 parts hot water and dishwashing soap.

Yeah, so now I only have 5 -.- #storyofmylife

Making hummus! 🙂 I adapted the recipe from here!

This was the only canned chickpeas I could find at cold storage that was just stored in water. Everything else had a lot of preservatives or salt so please check carefully before you buy!

Cypressa tahini (roasted sesame paste) is one of my favourite brands! It has nothing at all inside except roasted white sesame seeds ground into a paste! 🙂

Do you remember my garlic grinder from my Tokyo shopping haul?? Used it for the first time today and it’s so cute! Like a toy in the kitchen! I like! Haha

No more chopping garlic!!!

Look how smoothhhhh and gorgeous the hummus is ! 🙂

I forgot to buy corn (wanted to roast them) so had to make do with this that I found in the cupboard. This packaged corn is actually brined in a sugar and salt solution (see ingredients list) so be careful with eating too much! Always try to choose unpackaged food as much as possible!

Just layer everything in the jar. Isn’t it gorgeous? 🙂 ALWAYS place your liquids at the bottom and your hard veggies over and the lightest veggies like lettuce right on top to prevent them from getting soggy!

From the bottom:

layer 1: hummus
layer 2: purple cabbage (hard veggie to soak up liquid)
layer 3: chickpeas and corn (for crunchy texture!)
layer 4: super sweet ripe mango chunks! (I love fruit in my salads)/ grapes
layer 5: more purple cabbge to soak up moisture from the mango
layer 6: romaine lettuce
layer 7: assorted nuts for added crunch!

here’s a really helpful infographic on how to layer and store your salads!

I made 5 for the week ahead!

_________________________________________________________________________________

And to end off with some not so pretty pictures- This is how they look stored in my fridge with my soup jar all ready to go for tmr 🙂

Cutting washing, cooking and CLEANING UP (I think cleaning up takes up half the time because I mop the kitchen floor and every thing as well) takes about 2 hours! 2 hours in exchange for highly nutritious breakfast and lunch and snacks for the week ahead sounds like a pretty good deal to me! 🙂

and here’s how part of my freezer section looks like! Soup for the week, frozen precut veggies/ veggies for my morning smoothies etc!

Have a great week ahead everyone! Stay healthy and happy! For any questions, leave a comment below or email me at vegsmoothiebunny@gmail.com! 🙂

Easy Carrot Soup Recipe

 

 Ingredients:
1 tsp olive oil
1 packet of carrots (around 400g)
1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly diced
Low sodium chicken broth / stock cube
Water
Coriander powder or fresh coriander (I don’t have it)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
– Skin carrots and cut into small rounds
– Heat olive oil on low fire and saute onions and garlic for 5 min till soft
– Pour chicken broth till covering onions and garlic
– Pour cold water till 3/4 of the soup pot (depends on how thick you want the soup to be)
– Dump carrots into the pot
– Add 1tsp coriander powder or fresh coriander
– Wait for water to boil
– When it boils, place pot lid on, lower the fire and let it simmer for 20 min
– Once done, transfer to a blender (do not exceed half of the blender limit!!!)
– Cover with a damp cloth to prevent hot scalding soup from flying at your face and blend from low to high till pureed.
– Leave to cool then transfer into a container to freeze if used for meal prep. If not, add salt and pepper till its suitable for tastebuds. I skipped the salt because I love the subtle sweetness of the carrots but my friend said there was no taste till I added salt -.- So till your tastebuds change, feel free to adjust the salt levels according. 🙂

Enjoy! 🙂

Introducing the Veg Smoothie!

Yes, those are vegetables you see in my jug 🙂

Allow me a moment here where I pause and bask in the joy that is a green smoothie.

I absolutely love green smoothies because they are quick, easy and FUSS FREE.

but firstly! What’s the difference between a smoothie and a juice?

Picture taken from google images

Basically, juice is when you remove all the fibre, skin and seeds etc from the fruit and veg, leaving behind only the juice. It is a great way of taking in a high level of nutrients without having to munch your way through a dozen fruits.

However, I’m not a very big fan of juices especially pure fruit juices as I find their sugar levels way too high to tolerate. I would rather consume the whole fruit rather than the juice but juicing is still a great way to hydrate and nourish the body. It’s also great for giving the digestive system a break so the body can redirect its energy to self healing. Check out Joe Cross’ film ‘Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead’ for his amazing story of healing and transformation with just juicing!

Blending, on the other hand, is my absolute favourite because it leaves the fibre and slows the sugar release into the body. This is especially important to me because (pardon me, I don’t know the proper medical term for this) I’m extremely sensitive to sugar and fast release carbs which spike my insulin levels and crash, causing me to crave and go food-crazy-gimmegimmegimme.

ALSO– WASHING A BLENDER IS THE EASIEST THING ON EARTH.

Anyone who’s ever tried washing a juicer will know just how difficult it is to dig out the bits of pulp.

Yes, I know, I’m just lazy like that. 🙂

Anyway! On to the veg smoothie! It’s really simple! For beginners, i recommend using neutral tasting veg like spinach and blending it together with a banana or mango. Throw in a couple of ice cubes and you wouldn’t even know you’ve got any veg in there.

In the meantime, here’s a quick infographic on how to make a green smoothie:

I wouldn’t recommend using the sweeteners shown at the end of the infographic because the fruits will be really sweet already and I really don’t recommend eating artificial sweeteners! Also as you drink more of it and your body gets all the nutrients it needs, it will stop craving and your tastebuds will change! Soon, having more than one kind of fruit in your veg smoothie might be too much for you! Hurray!

Do have fun making them! Be creative and share your creations with everybody. Upload your creations on instagram/ fb and hashtag #vegsmoothiebunny and tell us what your smoothie is made up of!

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Avocado- Chocolate Frosting

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cupcakes with Avocado- Chocolate Frosting
Carb/ Sugar/ Gluten Free. Vegan optional. Paleo
30 minutes

Recipe:
Makes 24 mini muffins/cupcakes (using wilton’s mini muffin pan)

Preheat oven to 180degc.

For the cake:
Ingredients (dry):
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cacao powder
1/2 tsp baking powder 
Pinch of salt

Ingredients (wet):
3 eggs/ flax eggs
1/8 cup honey/ maple syrup
1/8 cup coconut oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Combine all dry ingredients together. Whisk eggs then combine all wet ingredients. Whisk together till cake batter is formed. Coconut flour is very fibrous and absorbs A LOT of water so if after machine whisking the batter looks like cake crumbs, add in 1/2 cup water and whisk again still smooth.

Spoon/ pipe into mini muffin tin. Place in oven for 10 min or till bamboo skewer comes out clean.
Remove from tin and leave to cool.

For the frosting:
1 avocado
6 pitted dates
1/4 cup unsweetened cacao powder.

Blend together till a smooth paste forms. Fill piping bag and to decorate muffins/ cupcakes.

*Note: I use coconut flour/oil because it is more nutritious than normal flour/ oil. It also does not act like a carb so it’s great for people who are gluten/ sugar sensitive or on a low carb diet. Because of the high fibre content of coconut flour, you can taste the bits of fibre in the cupcake 🙂 I like it though, makes me happy thinking of all the added fibre I’m getting . And fibre is vitally important to me to stabilize my blood sugar levels to prevent binges. Also uhm, if you are suffering from constipation, the combination of coconut flour and coconut oil would soon set things in uhm, motion for you again. 😉

Today was one of those days. Too much work and too little time Everybody laying their demands on you and insisting that you get things done because their arms were being twisted too by somebody higher up. I’ve learnt that I cannot lie life dictate my mood. That just because life is tough, does not mean that my mood has to sour. That just because I’m going through a rough patch, does not mean I have to go through it unhappily. No matter how tough life gets, no matter how much work there is to be done, there will always be something beautiful- people and things worth being grateful for and cherishing.

So it took me by surprise when last night I was besieged (no other word for the moment) by a terrible urge to binge. And it wasn’t just a usual binge. I was craving cupcakes. Nutella, chocolate cupcakes. In the middle of the night, I lay in bed mentally sashaying down the mall’s corridor at Bugis to lay my hands on ALL TWELVE of Twelve Cupcakes. Did I even like cupcakes? Not really. But last night I couldn’t stop thinking of them. I wanted to chomp down on not one, but all twelve different flavours. I am ashamed to say I almost planned to hurry down the next day when the shop opened to buy a large box and hurry home to devour them, maybe together with a McDonalds meal. I envisioned the first bite- soft cupcake meeting lusciously creamy frosting. Chocolate. It had to be chocolate and I wanted nothing else. I didn’t even want to stop the urge. I knew the influx of refined sugar would be too much for me to handle and it would cause me to binge after but I just wanted it so badly, so irrationally.

Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning, the urge had not in the least bit subsided. I wanted chocolate. And I wanted it now. And it couldn’t just be any chocolate. I wanted it with a cake like texture drowned in the fudgiest, creamiest, thickest chocolate ever. I wanted to drown in sugar, health be damned.

But I have come far enough in my journey to know that that one irrational action would scar me and it would take too long to heal. Everything I had worked so hard for would be for nought if I gave in to that urge. I had to compartmentalize and work through the urge. Craving chocolate or anything wasn’t the issue per se. Were there healthier ways to do it? I knew from experience that when a binge urge arises, it’s usually from boredom or stress or my body crying out for nutrition. I knew that I had to give myself fibre and nutrition. (It always works, trust me) Usually I eat an apple. But today, I wanted chocolate and nothing else would do. So I ran into the kitchen, opened doors and slammed drawers and dumped a concoction of things into a bowl and mixed it all together in a mindless frenzy I am not proud of.

But 15 min later and the smell of chocolate wafted into the air and I cautiously peeked into the oven and there they were. Gorgeous, moist and so small, perfectly sized. I gingerly poked a bamboo skewer into one. It came out dry, ready. I blended, frosted and there it was, ready to be eaten. I devoured the first one still hot from the oven, and another, my mind easing at the fact that I could eat ALL of them and it wouldn’t be a problem because all of these were perfectly healthy and actually good for me.

But the strange thing was, I was satisfied after just 3 mini ones (they were no bigger than a 50cent coin).(The fibre and lack of refined sugar + nutrients really help curb binges, trust me!!)

I smiled to myself. Happy. Happy that I’ve come far enough to deal with my urges, happy that I now know to not let circumstances affect my mood and could keep my mind on what’s important- my health. But mostly happy that there I was, licking the last of the creamy luscious chocolate frosting from my fingers and experiencing no more urge to binge after, no self hate. 🙂

The next time you are craving something horribly sugary and unhealthy, I hope these little babies – totally sugar free, vegan, carb free, paleo coconut flour chocolate muffins/ cupcakes with an lusciously creamy avocado-chocolate frosting packed with loads of nutrition save you as well.

No. I hope you know that you have the power to save yourself as well and you can have your cake and eat it too.

Enjoy 🙂

In health and happiness
xoxo.

Mini Broccoli- coconut flour burgers!

I have lots of (instagram, haha) friends who are gluten intolerant or on a wheat/sugar free diet either out of choice or because their bodies cannot handle it. So here’s a recipe for all of you out there looking to eat a little healthier and swap plain nutrientless flour out of your diets!

Made from broccoli, chia seeds and coconut flour, this burger is low GI, contains no added sugar and is packed with fibre and protein. Coconut flour is a great substitute for people who can’t/ choose not to eat carbs because it’s gluten free, virtually carb free and really high in fibre (coconut flour has the highest fibre count of all flours) and even protein! Also I love mini food because they are just cute and so easy to eat! I love packing them in my bento boxes! 🙂

Recipe:
(this makes 8-10 mini burgers)

For the burgers: 
5 broccoli florets
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1 teaspoon chia seeds soaked in 2 tablespoons of water
1 egg
2 tablespoons no sugar added yoghurt
Herbs/ salt
(optional. I omitted them for this recipe but on hindsight, I think a pinch of some would have been nice)

Method:
– Preheat oven at 180 deg 
1. Wash and rinse broccoli head and cut into florets.
2. Pulse 5 large florets in a food processor till it becomes flour-like with no large bits
3. Squeeze excess water out using paper towels/ cheesecloth/ tea towel
4. Place broccoli in a bowl/ blender cup
5. Add coconut flour, a tablespoon of the soaked chia seeds, egg, yoghurt,herbs and spices
6. Blend mixture till smooth (about 15 seconds)
7. Spoon batter into a mini muffin tin
8. Place in oven for 6-8 min or until the batter solidifies/ toothpick comes out clean
9. Pop out from muffin tray and leave to cool.

For the ingredients:
Caramelized onions:
1. Slice onions into large rings
2. Saute in a pan/ pot over low fire till dark and sticky, stirring frequently.

Salmon:
1. Place salmon on skin side on a hot pan.
2. Let it sizzle away till 80% cooked then remove from fire and leave to rest.

(Just realised I’m hopeless at writing recipes. Either that or the kind of food I make is so idiot-proof there’s nothing much to say about it haha)

When the ‘burgers’ have cooled, sliced each into half and place brie cheese and salmon on the base. Top it off with black pepper/ chili flakes and caramelized onions. Poke toothpick through to keep everything in place.

Enjoy! 🙂

P.s Oh, I know lots of you have been asking me to provide calorie counts/ nutritional information of all the recipes I post. That it’s extra work aside, I REALLY DON’T encourage looking at your food as a number or being too nitpicky about a DIET or whatnot. My general rule is that if it’s whole and natural, it’s going to be good for you, SO JUST EAT. 🙂 However, I do know that the carb/ protein/ fat counts are important for some looking for balance and counting macros so I’m including the breakdown for this recipe to see how it goes. 🙂

I use the nutritional calculator from myfitnesspal.com. Please just take each as an estimate as you never really know about such things. Also I try to find the item closest to what I used but sometimes it goes really out of whack. Like an egg has only about 70mg of sodium but I don’t know why I couldn’t find ‘egg’ on mfp ( I usually can) . So i used ‘poached egg’ which i suppose, the person added salt to.

I think it’s really funny that it ‘serves 8’ when it actually served one- me 🙂

In health and happiness 🙂

<3