September 14, 2014

Healthy, Quick & Easy Party Food Ideas! :D

September 14, 2014

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! 😀
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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,

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! 😀

July 23, 2013

Memories, Food and Love Series #2- Healthy Spinach/ Carrot/ Meat Chinese Dumplings

July 23, 2013

Hello everyone!

For today we have really Authentic Chinese Dumplings Recipe from a very dear friend from Tianjin, China. 🙂 When I first knew Aunty Zhang, my mandarin was so bad that we literally communicated through sign language and random sounds! It was really like a duck trying to talk to a chicken! But through the years, it’s gotten much better! I say “你好!” and she says “HI!” haha. Compromise/ Assimilation, aye. 😉

There is so much she has taught me as well but a particular event stands out in my mind. A mutual friend brought up a particularly gruesome topic. Apparently, some guy from China was skinning an animal alive for its fur and we were discussing how terrible it all was. I think someone brought up the question ‘why are the Chinese so terrible and disgusting?! How can they do that?!’ and Aunty Zang replied, ‘China is very big and by virtue of it’s size, it’s going to have a lot more people that would do strange stuff than other countries. It doesn’t mean that it’s representative of the whole country.’ And it has really stayed in my mind. I’ve since learned to keep an open mind about certain news and people objectively. I think sometimes we are too quick to tar every one with the same brush and often forget that there are a lot of people out there as well who are not the terrible stereotypes we’ve unjustly labelled them with. Also, I deeply admire her love for her daughter, their willingness to leave their comfort zones and survive together in a foreign land. Their tenacity, perseverance and sheer determination to succeed is really something we can all learn a little of. 🙂

Okay, enough talk 🙂 Here’s the recipe and tutorial for the Chinese Dumplings! 🙂 I love these dumplings! They are so good and they are coloured with vegetable juice and not unnatural food colouring! Aunty Zang said that when her daughter was young, she would make these dumplings in all sort of different colours and her daughter would have rainbow dumplings to eat! Awww! So cute!

Ingredients:

Filling
350gm of minced pork
3 Carrots
1 Pack Endives (or any other vegetable)
1 tsp oil
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp salt

Dumpling Skin
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2-1 cup water

[ Preparation of Ingredients]

1. Chop up/ grate carrots and endives into small little pieces.
(The smaller the better. The carrots were actually pulsed through a food processor for this recipe)
2. Pour oil into a wok
3. Fry grated carrots till fragrant
4. Remove from heat and transfer carrots into a bowl

5. Chop endives into small pieces
6. Squeeze endive juice into a bowl
7. Place dried endives into a bowl
8. Divide the meat into half and mix in with the carrots in one bowl and the endives in another bowl
(Note: If making only one type of dumpling, just mix desired fillings together)
9. Set aside.

[Kneading of dough]

10. Pour flour into a mixing bowl
11. Pour veg juice/ water and knead until dough becomes smooth and easy to manipulate

12. Roll dough into a long ‘snake’ and twist to break apart into small balls
13. Flatten small balls with palm
14. Using a rolling pin, roll ball into a flat circle
15. Fill circle with filling of choice
16. Fold skin into half and pinch to seal

[ Rolling of Dumplings]

Watch the video!

[Boiling of Dumplings]

17. Pour water into a pot till 3/4 full
18. Allow water to come to a bowl and place several dumplings to cook
19.
Allow water to come to a boil again and put in a table spoon of tap
water till water ceases bubling. Repeat x3 and dumplings are done! 🙂

Serve with slices of ginger and vinegar.

Enjoy! 🙂

May 28, 2013

Homemade Healthy Chicken Nuggets

May 28, 2013

One of the first few things I learned to make for myself when I became more aware of what was going into my mouth was Chicken Nuggets. I cannot tell you how I ADORE chicken nuggets and used to uhm.. eat 20 of them at one go from MacDonalds and still crave more.

Then I watched THIS VIDEO and it really put me off chicken nuggets made at fast food joints. I’m not saying that fast food joints in Singapore use this gunk to make nuggets but it really made me more aware of the food I was eating.

Anyway! I’ve been making my own nuggets for awhile now and I’m loving it as well! I bring them out often as a snack or in my lunchbox and they’d be great for hungry kids as well!

(Inspired by : Eat Clean Crispy Chicken Bites which unfortunately I thought was way too tasteless so I modified it. )

Ingredients:

For the coating:

1/4 cup Raw Wheatgerm

1/4 cup Brown Flaxseed meal

1/4 cup Oat Bran

1/4 cup almond meal ( I took a couple of almonds and pulsed it through the food processor)

Spices to taste e.g a dash of garlic powder, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes etc

Steps:

1. Combine all the dry ingredient in a containers and give it a good shake till it looks like the mixture above

Nugget Fillings:

Ingredients:

1/2 onion roughly chopped

250gm chicken thigh/ breast

1 cup low sodium chicken broth or water mixed with an egg

1 tablespoon oil ( I used Coconut oil)

Steps:

*preheat oven to 200 deg

1. Either slice the chicken thigh into chunks or pulse it through the food processor to make mince

2. Marinate the chicken with a black pepper (optional)

3. Add a tablespoon of oil in to a pan. (optional)

4. Saute onions till translucent

5. Pulse onions through the food processor till fine

6. Mix the onions and chicken meat together

7. Gather the chicken chunk or mince into a ball/ nugget shape

8. Dip it into the broth/egg solution and coat it with the dry mixture

Bake in oven for 10-15min or till golden brown.

Garlic Chili Aioli:

For the Garlic Chili Aioli, I blended homemade mayonaise, lemon juice, garlic, and chili powder which I happend to have in the fridge!

Enjoy!

*All ingredients were purchased at Cold Storage, Compasspoint.