Healthy Living in Singapore

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! 😀
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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,

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! 😀

Lunchbox Meal Prep- Prep Once, Eat All Week!- Week 1, Day 2

Hola! It’s me again! And today I’m in a massive rush. I also don’t have time to fix the pictures (don’t know why they are so grainy?!) It’s a 8am day for me today so I have to pack breakfast, mid morning snack, lunch all at once before I run out of the house.

NIGHT PREP: Last night, I stuffed my shimon blender cup with some romaine lettuce, shredded carrots and baby tomatoes (is that what they are called? The small ones? Mini tomatoes?) from the prepacked lettuce pack I bought from cold storage the other day. I also dumped in a frozen banana, added some almond milk and chia seeds. I also took out the prawns from the freezer and left them in the fridge to thaw overnight. I also took out a portion of carrot soup and dumped it into a pot in ice block form to thaw overnight as well. (Be sure to put it on a cloth in the fridge to absorb the condensation. )

This morning, I walked calmly into the kitchen (that’s a lie. I almost flew in and ripped the fridge door open and contemplated eating macdonalds for breakfast this morning) THE GREATEST LIE ON EARTH is to tell yourself the previous night that you will wake up early to finish some undone work. It NEVER HAPPENS. I don’t know why I always delude myself like that. Haha.

Anyway, I grabbed the blender cup out from the fridge and stuck it into the blender for 45sec. Then I put the soup pot on the stove. Couldn’t find the pot lid all of a sudden WHERE DID IT GO?! It was JUST THERE 2 sec ago- didn’t have time to search for it so used the pan’s instead -.-

While it was blending and the soup was reheating,  I whipped out a pan and dumped a bunch of stuff from my veggie box into the pan, added the marinated prawns and gave it a quick stir. Prawns take no time to cook at all. I also added an egg coz it looked like a long day 🙁 While it was cooking, I grabbed the wrap, turned off the blender, changed the lid and scooped up my soup into my flask. Then I placed the egg mushroom veg and prawns onto my wrap, topped it with spices and left it to cool for a bit. While it was cooling, I washed the pot and pan. Since they were both empty they only need a quick swirlw ith soap and water (please don’t’ tell my mother I washed the pan immediately without letting it cool. I WAS IN A RUSH. Hahah shh, shhh)

Once I was done, I packed the wraps and tadah! Everything was ready
to go. All in 10 min and I even had time to eat a prawn and lettuce wrap
coz it looked too yummy. AND THE MARINADE. LIME AND CHILI- amazing
combi! YUM!

And enough of wraps, I’m looking forward to tmr’s rice, dishes and soup combo! 🙂

P.s I also ran out of soup today coz my mother wanted some so I gleefully gave her some. It means so much to me when my mom expresses interest or is supportive. Mothers really can be your best or worst ally in healthy eating. It was SO tough at first but now things are a lot better! And it always helps when someone as good in cooking as my mother is interested in healthy eating. The quality of food I lunchbox to work increases TENFOLD when she cooks me my dinners. HAHA. (Sorry, I’m still super lousy so everyday I cross my fingers and hope mom cooks something. 🙂 )

Alright! That’s day 2!

See you guys tmr! 🙂

Healthy Mealprep FAQ: Precut Vegetables and Nutrient Loss

Hi guys!

There have been some concerns regarding nutrient loss in pre cut vegetables especially for my veggie box featured in the Tips&Tricks section of my meal prep. Don’t worry, that was my first question as well when I first started mealprepping! Very happy that people are asking such questions because it shows that everyone is very concerned about getting maximum nutrition! 🙂

I’ve updated the FAQ section but I’ll post it up here as well for your convenience! 🙂

Question: If you cut your vegetables before hand, wouldn’t most of the nutrients be gone?

According to the US Food and Drug Administration on food safety, cutting vegetables and storing them in airtight containers in the refrigerator does not make them lose much of their nutrients. Vegetables can be cut and stored raw for easy meal prepping up to a period of 4-5 days. Even after 5 days, the nutrient loss is less than 10%. After this time, they will start to go bad anyway before all their nutrition is gone. I store all my vegetables RAW so I don’t know about cooked but I do feel that the moisture in cooked vegetables encourages bacterial growth and also makes vegetables soggy and taste disgusting. Never ever store wet leaves in the fridge. (I’m telling you from painful horrified experience haha) I pre cut harder veggies like zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers and broccoli. I find it much better to break the broccoli into smaller florets, pre-proportion it out and cook it in the morning fresh. When blanching vegetables, water soluble vitamins like B and C do leech into the water but it’s not a cause of concern because you do have many other sources of vitamin C and B in your modern day diet. (e.g having an orange or eating some meat will meet all your B&C vitamin requirements) If you notice prepacked salads in the supermarket, they are also cut and prewashed and packed raw for easy consumption so don’t worry too much about nutrient loss 🙂 Even if 50% of the veg nutrients are lost, that is 50% more nutrients you are eating from your cheaply homecooked, easy prepped meal than whatever you can find in a public area. 🙂

As for fruits, they lose their nutrients MUCH faster. An easy way to tell is when they start bruising or changing colour. Like vegetables, the smaller you cut them, the faster they lose nutrients that’s why juices have to be drunk fresh. From experience, I can’t store precut apples in the fridge but grapes, pre cut melons, watermelons, honeydew, mango can all be cut and stored for a easy handy snack.


There is also a really interesting article here on how storing your fruits and veg in proper conditions can actually make it release more anti cancer antioxidants and the like based on its circadian rhythms. I’ll make some time to read it this weekend 🙂




Question: Doesn’t reheating your soup/food make it lose it’s nutrients?

Nutrients are lost directly from the food itself once it’s cooked. All food cooked would definitely lose nutrients that’s why most people recommend eating plants raw. However, I can’t do it. I really hate the taste of raw veg. :/ So for me, having 60% nutrients is better than none at all because I simply wouldn’t eat just raw veg everyday. I also don’t think reheating it makes it lose anymore nutrients than it already did. (Can anybody specializing in this tell me more?) After that, it simply changes in structure and breakdowns from more reheating or decay. I especially like making chinese soups because I’ve been brought up to believe that all the goodness is boiled and reboiled and boiled again and leeches into the water which I drink up. In fact, chinese soups are my favourite because the longer you boil them the tastier they get. On monday when I taste it, it’s often just good but by wednesday, (my soups normally don’t last more than 2-3 days 🙁 ) the soup is thick and delicious and you can really taste the subtle sweetness of goji berries etc. I don’t eat the meat that is used to boil the soup coz it gets hard and tough after. Haha. Anyway, I figured that if the nutrients leech into the water- I’m still getting it in anyway by drinking the water? Haha.

**I’m really interested in what you think about this subject. Leave me a comment on how you feel or any knowledge you can share and we can all benefit from it! I’m still new at healthy eating and while it has worked for me so far, I’m definitely open to learning more and eating better! 🙂 My main thoughts on this subject is that even if I’m losing a dearth of nutrition from my pre cut veggies (which I now know I’m not) I’m definitely taking in 500% more than I used to last time by choosing fish soup everyday. Come to think of it, the yong tau foo stall’s veg are pre cut too right? haha

Sources:
http://www.healthcentral.com/diet-exercise/fitness-survival-guides-81077-137.html
http://www.livestrong.com/article/505377-how-reheating-food-destroys-much-of-its-nutritional-content/
http://www.thesweetbeet.com/vegetables-nutrients/
http://nutrition.about.com/od/askyournutritionist/f/cutveg.htm
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Food_processing_and_nutrition
http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=345

Lunchbox Meal Prep- Prep Once, Eat All Week: Week 1, Day 1

Alright everyone! So today is Monday! (well it was when I made this haha) and this was how I prepped my lunchbox when I woke up!

Once I get into the kitchen, I boiled some water in a pot and putmy pre-portioned, pre cut broccoli into a pot. You would notice my soup pot containing my premade carrot soup also reheating merrily away behind the broccoli. While the broccoli is boiling, I lay out a piece of parchment paper and take the rye wrap I bought the day before. (I bought a packet which had torn wraps T.T)

The broccoli would have boiled by now (3min) so I drained all the water away and chopped the broccoli smaller because not that the wraps are torn they would be too big to fit but you can skip this step if you wraps aren’t torn >:( . Leave the fire on still while draining the water and with the broccoli inside, add in some pasta sauce (alce nero is my favourite, no junk pasta brand) add in heaping spoonfuls from your veggie box, stir together, switch off fire and TADA! a super rainbow coloured nutritious lunch for later. (< 10min) (you can add in chicken breast — it keeps well in the fridge– or any kind of meat into the wrap as well)

I lay my wraps on the table and top them with mozzarella and black pepper. While they are cooling off slightly, I scoop my soup into my thermal flask.

Then I pack everything into my lunchbag and I’m good to go! All I have to wash is that one pot I used to make the broccoli.

What’s for lunch today? Mixed veg mushroom and cheese on rye wrap with comforting thick hot carrot soup. How much would it have cost at a cafe? At least $10 + . How much did it cost me? THe carrots were :1.30 a pack so I would say this whole meal was less than $4. It is almost impossible to find this kind of fibre packed nutrition at this price in Singapore!Yummy, cheap, nutritious! I LIKE and I hope you do too! 🙂

Remember to bring a large bottle of plain water as well! 🙂 What do you think of a lunch like this? 🙂

Lunchbox Meal Prep- Prep Once, Eat All Week!- Week 1: Tips to get started

Hi Everyone! I uploaded a grocery haul photo on my instagram recently and I received a lot of questions on how to cook once and bring lunch daily without all the fuss and hassle of cooking everyday so I thought I’d share how I do it every week! To start off, here are some tips to get you started:

1. Plan, Plan, Plan.

 
The most important step for me is the planning stage. I take out my organizer and look through what my week ahead looks like. Then I use a really basic food planner to write down meals that I wouldn’t be having alone such as parties or gatherings etc.  (I’ve made my basic food planner that you see above in the picture available here so you can download it if you want!) This helps me to see how many meals I need to plan for and how much I’ve to pick up at the store. It also helps to see what kind of nutrition I might be missing out on. So for example, since this is my birthday week- HOLA late twenties!– I have huge indulgent dinners 4 out of the 7 nights. Eating out means a huge amount of salt, oil and lack of fibre. Therefore I make sure to down the salt and up the nutrition in all my other meals.
I then insert my meals in according to whatever I feel like eating and the nutrition I may be lacking. For example, the week before, I may have eaten a whole bag of spinach over the previous week so for the following week I’ll try to use another vegetable instead. I try to rotate my vegetables as much as possible to get a variety. Most health and nutrition books will advise that you eat a rainbow every single day and the glossy pictures in their book are always some amazing concoction with 10 veggies or something. This is way too expensive for me so I try to get different veggies week by week rather than daily. Nutrition aside, planning also helps make sure that I stay on budget. Every week I spend less than $50 for around 15 meals a week. If you are just starting out however, your first few weekly food bills will be rather steep but don’t despair! Things like spices are one time purchases that you can use for a long long time. After awhile, you’ll realise you are just buying produce and other perishables. Once you are done planning, off we go to the supermarket! (FAVOURITE TIME OF THE WEEK!) 
2. Pick a day to do your grocery shopping/ meal prep
For me, this is Sunday. I end the day usually around 9 and would pick up the groceries then. By the time I get home it’s usually around 10 and I would meal prep till about 11, wash up and head to bed at 12. Feel free to take ownership of your meal plan and find any day that you can fork out an hour or two. (Or in the beginning like me.. 3 or 4 hours as I pondered if it was an onion or a garlic I was holding :/)
3. Invest in fruit and veg and real food at the supermarket. Shop the AISLES not the middle of the supermarket where all the processed, chemical food are.
I cannot emphasize this enough. Whether you want to be vegan, vegetarian, paleo etc etc etc, PLANTS and the only things that can provide you vitamins and minerals so you MUST have at least 50% of your intake from veggies & fruits. It doesn’t matter which diet you follow from whichever source. Every healthy diet will be centered around fruits and veggies. Whether or not you add meat after is then up to you. I’ve seen people take the ‘healthy’ route and want to go vegetarian for a week and order from the vegetarian store beehoon, fried hashbrowns and mock meat. (I’ll write another post soon on how to identify the basic components of your food but if you examine it, you’ll realise this is all processed carbs and maybe some salt and gluten from the mock meat). THIS IS NOT HEALTHY AT ALL especially if you eat from the vegetarian store 3 times a day. (Hello oil and salt!) Also, oreos are vegan and biscuits/ cakes are vegetarian. This does NOT make them healthy nor should they comprise more than 20% of your diet. Eat your fruit and veggies like your momma told ya, kids. 😉
Also, packaged ‘health’ food like soyabean milk, tofu, wholemeal biscuits etc etc etc are ‘healthier’ substitutes ONLY. They cannot form the basis of a real food diet. Ideally, your meal plate should look like this:
Fruits and veg should take up half your plate (that’s where all your vitamins and nutrients are going to come from!) Proteins and carbs the other half depending on what your day looks like. If I’m going to have a crazzzzzzzzyyy day I’ll eat more carbs in their wholegrain versions or if I want quick energy, I’ll eat them in their simple form like white rice. I will rather eat white rice than wholemeal biscuits if given a choice because white rice is JUST white rice. If you check out the nutrition label on the wholegrain biscuits box, you would realise that it’s just full of sugar and additives and what not. If you are trying to balance blood sugar levels and control your insulin so that it doesn’t encourage fat storage then you can SWOP (NOT OMIT!) with carbs in the form of vegetables and up your protein whether in the form of meat or other vegetarian sources. Vegetables like broccoli are also a GREAT source of protein 🙂 I honestly believe that you could be a plant based vegetarian and be totally healthy. Being vegan needs a bit more work and planning to make sure you are getting protein and B12 however if you are just starting out meat is definitely your easiest source of complete protein. So don’t judge people! All diets can be healthy and suitable for a person (just take care of YOURSELF!) as long as it emphasizes real nutrient-giving food and doesn’t include high amounts of packaged food.
P.s there was an incident once when a friend lamented that she was deeply envious of another girlfriend who seemed to eat ‘all the meat in the world’ but still stayed so skinny. And there she was eating wholegrain biscuits, wholegrain bread, brown rice etc and couldn’t shake off the pounds she wanted to. Sounds like you? My only advice is, what’s you’ve been eating so far is all FLOUR. Up the veggies and try to get in your protein and you’ll be fine 🙂 Your body will release the fat cells it’s been using to hold all the toxins from the packaged food you’ve been eating! 
  
Anyway, here was my grocery haul for that week.  🙂 Came up to a total of about 38+ dollars. I like to buy the premixed salad when it’s on sale because it saves so much time. I HATE raw vegetables btw but it’s all yummy blended with fruit so I’ll use that on days when I’m in a rush 🙂
The wrap yoou see in the top rght hand corner is Rye MOUNTAIN BREAD. it has the least ingredient of all the wraps available in the super market and comes in rice, rye, oat, barley, wholemeal etc. If you are new to it, I suggest eating it like this : 
heat up a pan and switch to a low fire. When the surface of the pan is heated, place the mountain bread on the surface from 15 sec on each side or till crackly and crispy. Serve it with a side of mashed avocados or egg mayo or any other dip. Much better, tastier and healthier alternative to potato chips but has the same crunch! It tastes EXACTLY like skinny pizza’s thin crust (ooh! Idea for next meal! Shall try making it into pizza haha)

4. Have a veggie box all ready to go in your fridge!
So now we all know veggies are the main things that can give us lots of vitamins and minerals all at once and we are all on fire to INCLUDE! MORE! VEGGIES! INTO! OUR DIETS! *Strong arm emoji*
But vegetables not soaked in oil and salt are insanely hard to find in Singapore. Unless you want to spend 10+ dollar on a pitiful salad. When I wrote about he hawker centre post, I had a lot of people accusing me of HATING ON hawker centres, of being TOO ELITE to eat there. PISH TOSH I say. I love hawker food and I want nothing more than to preserve it but why is it so hard to find veggies in there? Hawker food is TASTY but it’s just not as nutritious as an everyday meal can and should be. The healthiest fish soup is 4 slices of protein floating in a bunch oil and msg laden liquid. Do you not see why we need a food revolution in Singapore?! I’m not saying DOWN WITH THE HAWKER CENTRES. I’m saying UP WITH THE NUTRITION!
Anyway, sorry about that outburst let’s go back to mealprepping. Haha. 
The key to succes is to cut all your vegetables when you buy them and store them in the fridge so when you need a quick nutrient boost, you wouldn’t be put off by the fact that you have to cut a million veggies. Every sunday, I chop up veggies for a ‘veggie box’.
 
This veggie box is great because it can be used to add nutrition to ANYTHING. Say you normally have an omelette for breakfast? Throw in a large spoonful of veggies for a fibre punch. No washing up in the morning. No cutting or chopping or anything. Just easy, ready nutrition anytime you need it. Anything can go into your veggie box (except vegetables with wet leaves). I normally put in sliced mushrooms as well so at night when I have the munchies I can make pasta with loads of veggies, mushrooms and topped with a generous handful of mozarella in under 5 min. YUM!
5. Make a hot stew/ soup/ curry for the week.
I ALWAYS make a soup/curry or stew on sunday nights because packing food to work can be cold and boring especially when you don’t have food heating facilities at work ( I don’t). I don’t mind rice and veggies being cold but if the whole meal is cold it makes me want to roll over, clutch my stomach and whine about life. Honestly, after half a day of hair pulling at work, do you want to settle for a sad, limpy, cold lunch?! (Salads and sandwiches are the exception) Meals should be nourishing and invigorating!! It should be yummy and make you feel ALIVEEE!!!
So for this week, I prepped a Carrot Soup base which I would switch up during the week. Maybe monday I’ll have it plain and Tuesday I’ll add some curry powder and it’ll become curry carrot soup or if I’m feeling a need for a boost, I might add ginger or chicken slices, or tofu or whatever to the base. One base, different soups for the whole week! (It normally runs out by wednesday 🙁 haha)
Basic Carrot Soup Recipe: (20min)

Click here on how to make it 🙂


6. Marinade your meats before hand
For this week, I’m making a Chilli-lime shrimp wrap on thursday so I’m storing the marinade in the container and refrigerating it. Come Wednesday night, before I sleep, I will place some prawns into the marinade and when I wake up the next morning, they will be ready to saute and dumped into a wrap with a few lettuce leaves. The marinade really gives it some kick. 🙂
  
(Just had to put that picture of the cocoa mix up there because my dear friend gave it to me for christmas and the mini whisk is jus tthe cutest thing EVER. I have a soft spot for kitchenware and CUTE KITCHENWARE???! TAKE MY MONEY PLEASE. Haha.
 

So there you have it! Once a week meal prep and eating for the rest of the week! I’ll take pictures and show you what meals you can create from that grocery haul and the veggie box! If you are new to health, this may seem VERY overwhelming! Please remember that I’ve been doing this for awhile so it’s a lot easier for me now. Also my tastebuds have changed A LOT and I find it physically tedious to have too many heavy meals out so bringing my meals out is as important to me as anyone with food allergies etc. If you are new to this, I suggest just taking it one step at a time. Why don’t you replace all soda with water first? When you’ve done that, don’t eat breakfast at the kopitiam, have a homemade sandwich instead. Buy a head of brccoli and boil it today. Eat it with some store bought chicken leg. When you get more confident in the kitchen, try the veggie box. Soon, you can come up with your own ways to mealprep to suit your specific needs and nutrition 🙂

Don’t give up okay!

I wish nothing but health and happiness for all of you 🙂

Sneak Video Preview + Collab with FreshfromKenneth

Hi guys! Today’s a really exciting day for me because I’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and just upload the videos I talked about in my previous post! (y’know, the one where I panicked a bit because all the feedback I got was ‘why you so chapalang!’, ‘why never do your hair!’, ‘you should put on a bit of makeup!’, ‘isn’t that your home clothes?’ BUT NO NO NO. I’ve decided that if I want to break the cycle I’ve to stop being part of it. 🙂

ANYWAY, here’s a sneak preview of what I’ve been working on —

we set a timer to how fast I can meal prep my food in the morning and even I got a shocked! 4 min 8 sec?! Totally easy to bring your lunch to work! For lunch that day, I had chicken curry, broccoli and brown rice! All washed down with yummy, revitalising old cucumber pork ribs soup kept warm in my thermal flask! 😀

If you think it’s very professionally done, it’s because it is! I’m super honoured to have the great and mighty Kenneth from FreshfromKenneth to be doing the videos for me. Of course I know nothing about photography or videography (most of the photos on this blog are erm, hastily taken with the iphone 5) so watching him do it up was like magic!

This is not an advertorial nor was any money discussed or exchanged between us in presenting these (this) videos. Kenneth just emailed me out of the blue and asked if I wanted to do something and to be honest, I had 2 other people who wanted to do photography/videos as well but they were both really brash and had all these ideas that were just not me. It also felt a lot like they didn’t really care about health and just wanted to monetize EVERYTHING and build an EMPIRE. :/ So I just continued to use instagram to upload videos (HAHA)

What really struck me was that he has never once asked to be advertised for or anything like that. In fact, I had to bring up the question and ask him how I should acknowledge him in my videos. He looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights and mumbled something incoherent. HAHA. As you can see the video he sent me didn’t even include a link to him -.- now I feel bad!

I know there may be people thinking then why in the world would he want to do this?! Well, I guess it’s time to believe in the possibility that life can be made up of magical moments where people honestly and genuinely want to come together to create something with no expectation of reward or whatsoever. (Although to be honest, I bet it’s because he saw my instagram videos on my mealprep and was practically frothing at the mouth and dying from my apparent lack of videotaking capability. His artistic talent must have motivated him to gently try and remove such horror from the world wide web haha)

Oh! I just realised I rambled on and on and said nothing about who Kenneth is– he is a super mega dedicated WEDDING videographer/ photographer (and now he’s filming my lunchboxes HAHAHA. oh life, you amuse me).

He does mainly wedding videography which you can check out here ( I have a huge love for watching wedding videos my favourite one has got to be Andy and Sonia’s (Jayeslee) Wedding)
and he does photography as well! Here are some shots I got off his facebook page

He shoots babies and kids and music videos and pre wedding and AD and proposal and food and parties and.. (is there anything this guy doesn’t shoot?!)

  
(Just realised his food photgraphy also not bad. Maybe I should make him
take all my pictures for me instead. HAHA. Sorry, sorry, I know I am
supposed to show you wedding photos)
  

Oh, oh, he was also the official videographer for FIDé Fashion Week in Singapore last year!
(Talk about skill :/)

Okay, so that’s an intro to him! He never asked me to do this and he has never asked anything from me either but I just thought I’d do this as a little thank you to him for being so nice! So thank you Kenneth!

And actually when we come together we are just like ehmmm so what do you want to do and we just sit and he listens and hashes out ideas and he never ever asks me to do anything that I’m uncomfortable with or to sideline my personality and quirky craziness. He comes up with all the creative concepts after listening to me and what I stand for. In fact, when I asked him if the videos were a bad idea because of the cold feet issue I had after filming, he said that he would totally reshoot it if I wanted (T.T talk about touched and overwhelmed. Remember he is doing this for no personal gain) but that he thought it was more ‘me’ to be real. SO YES, if you are looking for a professional wedding videographer/ photographer who really knows his stuff and who takes the time to really understand you and encourage your personality (isn’t your wedding all about you?), then I’d say Kenneth is the guy for you. You can also find him on Wedding Scoop to read reviews on him (and hehheh, check out other videographers in comparison as well –hey, all’s fair in love war and videography— may the best man win!)

Anyway, enough about Kenneth HAHA. I think I’ve never written so much about another guy before. What would be the boyfriend say eep! (hehhheh, probably ‘I’m hungry’ -.-) Go check him out for yourself if you are interested or leave a comment if you have questions!

LOTS OF LOVE and HAVE A BRILLIANT DAY EVRYONE! BE EXCITED ABOUT LIFE! 🙂

Grace 🙂

p.s sorry my updates and random and not consistent at all but blogging is my hobby and life beckons! Promise I’ll keep coming back to this space though. I love each and every one of you wonderful people!

Despicable Me – Minions Bento Tutorial

Hi everyone! So I’ve been really excited about the new Despicable Me 2 Movie that is coming out and I decided to do a Despicable Me Minions Bento today! This was inspired by Tian Min Lim who is a fellow member over at Culinary Kitchenette which is an Fb group filled with the most loving, kind and AMAZING homebakers and cooks ever. Seriously, if you enjoy cooking/ baking or if you are like me and a total noob, you should check out the fb page because you can ask them things like HOW TO CHOP AN ONION and they wouldn’t laugh at you. Instead they would reply with so much love and patience (which side should I turn the onion?) that it’ll evoke more tears than the onion. (hehheh) Also, their bakes are seriously fantastic and most of them are full time working moms etc and yet them manage to churn out all these scrumptious creations. Absolutely inspiring, I say!( If you just want the recipes/ pictures, you can also just check out culinarykitchenette.blogspot.sg)

Ingredients:
1 cup rice
2 hard boiled eggs
Seaweed sheets
1/2 head of broccoli
1 carrot
Ham (optional)
Fillings for the rice balls (optional)

 Directions:

1. Cook eggs till hardboiled. Peel and separate yolks from whites.
2. In a bowl, mash yolk and rice until incorporated and rice has turned yellow.
3. On a piece of cling wrap, scoop a handful of rice and press down on the cling wrap
4. Add fillings of choice or leave plain. Over here, I placed a piece of fried chicken and several eggwhites but it made a fat and ugly minion so I took out the eggwhite. Other suggestions include mixed eggs, mushrooms, vegetables, fish, minced meat or half a nugget/ karaage.
5. Place another layer of rice over the fillings and mold the rice into an oval.
6. Make 2. I know one of the minions is supposed to be skinnier but I couldn’t fit my karaage inside so both my minions are short and fat. haha
7. Cut seaweed into an ‘I’ shape.
8. ‘Diaper’ the minion like how you would diaper a baby. Stick the seaweed down with a dab of water. Don’t worry if you cut your seaweed too small or it starts to crack, wherever it cracks, you can patch it up with little pieces of wet seaweed- not noticeable at all!
9. Make two!

10. On a piece of ham, use a small bottle cap to make eyes or draw freehand with a toothpick
11. Place on ‘minion’
12. Using a smaller bottle cap, poke out another eye using the leftover eggwhites
13. Cut/ punch out round circles from your seaweed for eyes
14. Cut/ punch out little strips for mouth


15. Place in lunchbox and fill with your favourite vegetables.

And there you have it- Your minion bento! 🙂

Enjoy!:)