Omu "Brown" Rice

Omurice is Omelet + Rice...

and here I have..Omu "Brown" Rice...

With a bright smiley face!

Don't be mistaken...

this meal is not catered for kids. 

HAHA..it's for my man and myself!

My man saw this and laughed

I think it's a good way to put a smile on your love ones,

with all this little ideas.

Additional fiber for the meal~!

An impromptu decoration...

Cut the omelet up, and this is what you get...

the fried rice! =)

Mine doesn't have any meat though...

but the sweetness of the vegetables make it taste yummy!

I'm very determined this time to improve my health for a better future.

I realised that controlling diet alone is not enough to correct the situation.

I've just jogged for 25 minutes, and hope that the timing can be increased gradually.

In addition, aim to exercise for at least 3 times a week!

I want to be healthy!

Bad health go away! Shoo!

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Omu "  Brown"   Rice

Serves 2
 

Fried Rice

1 1/2 Cups Cooked Brown Rice

1 Tbsp Oil

4 Cloves Garlic, Minced

1 Medium Yellow Onion, Diced

1/4 Cabbage, Shredded

2 Baby Carrot, Diced

2 Tbsp Okonomiyaki Sauce

A Pinch of Salt and Pepper

1. Sauteed onions in preheated oil until soft and translucent.

2. Add garlic and keep stirring til fragrant.

3. Now, add cabbage, carrot, and cooked brown rice, mix well.

4. Season with okonomiyaki sauce, salt and pepper.

5. Remove from heat and set aside.

Omelet 

 1 Tbsp Oil

3 eggs, beaten

(Divide into 2 Portions)

Watch how to pan fry the egg and wrap the rice with omelet HERE

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我们的家常菜 Hokkien Mee

This is one of our 家常菜 (Home cooked food)

The Hokkien Mee..

My mummy is a Hokkien, and she passed this recipe down to me  =)

I used to prepare ingredients for her and stand beside while she's cooking.

After many years of observation, I started to cook this when I was like 20.

Wanna thank my mummy for passing this precious skill to me.

Normally we will include prawns, fishcakes, pork and fish,

but to make it a little bit healthier, I omitted pork and added lots of vegetables.

It still tasted the same..and after one serving, it's not enough...same for my man.. =)

The dark noodles glistening with oil...

It's heavenly, but for me, it can only be eaten once in a while,

There's lots of oil and colouring in there  =p

although my mum cooks it like once every 2 weeks.

I used this Best Dark Soya Sauce.

It's really thick and better!

Especially when it comes to cooking Hokkien Mee..

So what's your family's 家常菜 (home cooked food)?

Come share with me!   =D

Japanese Style Salad with Homemade Dressing

A few days ago, I suddenly remembered about this Japaneses style salad dressing 

which I've tried in a restaurant a very long time ago.

So I tried to make my own dressing this time round by trial and error.

Was very amazed by the taste of the end product!!! 

 There's butterhead lettuce, japanese cucumber and cherry tomatoes.

I would highly recommend this recipe weight-watchers~

You can eat tonnes of that and still keep within your calorie intake range!

I can't think of anything which can be healthier and taste equally yummy as this!

Please try it! =)

I just made some for my family...
I'm eating it now!

Update :
It's important to use sweet and fresh onion.
Onions from Meidi-ya are really nice.
I tried making with other onions and it tasted really different!

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Japanese Style Salad with Homemade Dressing

3 Tbsp Japanese Rice Vinegar

6 Honey Cherry Tomatoes

1/2 Medium Onion

1. Combine all ingredients and puree.

2. Refrigerate it till cold and drizzle over your vegetables.

3. Enjoy your salad! 

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Almost 30% Wholemeal Apple Bread

I'm hooked onto Pink Martini's songs these days.
And my blog songs will be Pink Martini's for a long long time..I guess...

Their inspiration was drawn from music from all over the world, 

crossing genres of classical, jazz and old fashioned pop.

If you love jazz, you will definitely love their soothing vocals and music. Fantastic!  

one song of their lyrics in "Splendor in the Grass" goes like this...

"Life is moving oh so fast
I think we should take it slow
rest our heads upon the grass
and listen to it grow"

Isn't it so true?

we should slow down our pace at times and admire the wonderful stuffs around us =)

After listening to them, I feel like baking so much!

But knowing that I gotta go out soon,
I goggled around for recipes and found one which doesn't need much time

apple bread!

My apple bread  =)

I modified the recipe as I've ran out of all purpose flour...

and the mixture was really dry after mixing wet and dry ingredients together, 

so I added freshly squeezed orange juice!

Luckily it turned out fine!

Surprisingly it's a soft and moist bread, more like an apple cake =D

and it's the still the same even on the next day.. 

look at the apple chunks..
it gives a slight crunchy bite...
Yummy!
Next time I will add more apple and reduce the orange juice.

 

 The crust of the bread is a little bit crispy when it's served warm...

nothing beats freshly baked goods! Am I right?

I'm submitting this to Jess from Bakericious again!

For the Aspiring Bakers #5 (Fruity March)!

HEHE..my third time..!

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 Apple Bread

(A) Dry Ingredients
120 All Purpose Flour
65g Wholemeal Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt

(B) Wet Ingredients
60g Vegetable Oil
1 Egg, Beaten
5 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 Freshly Squeezed Juice of Medium Sized Orange (approximately 60ml)
1 Large Apple Skinned, Cored, Coarsely Chopped
20g Raisins/Sultanas (Soaked in water for 10 minutes and roughly cut with scissors)

1. Combine (A) dry ingredients together in a large bowl, mix well.
2. Combine (B) wet ingredients in another bowl and mix well.
3. Pour (B) wet ingredients into (B) dry ingredients and mix till just well. Do not overmix.
4. Pour mixture into lined baking pan and bake in preheated oven of 180 degrees for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and let it sit in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer it to cooling rack.
Let it cool completely before storing.

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Wobbly Soy Beancurd (No Gypsum Powder Used)

Soy products? 

My favourite!

Just started to love them about 3 years ago...

when my healthier diet started...

My past diet was extremely high in meat content
and I will pick out any vegetables on my plate.

Plus, my rice will be piled up like a mountain.

Imagine how bad is that? Really harmed my health..

When I realised that there's something wrong with me,

I started to make a change.

Things got a lot better, but now after all the indulgence,

it started to deteriorate again!

So I got to start to be health conscious once again and keep it as a habit!

Keep my fingers crossed =p

And so here's my Wobbly Soy Beancurd...

I made it with Kanten...

so it's really healthier..

For normal beancurd, they use gypsum powder to let the curd set.

With Kanten, it's all natural and 0 in calorie!

Oops..seems like I'm always promoting Kanten..

I have no commission for doing that =)

just wanna share good stuffs with my readers and friends...

Look at the beancurd!

I hope you can see that it's really soft and wobbly...

After sending into my mouth, it just kind of melts on it's own...

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Wobbly Soy Beancurd

(Serves 2)

300ml Unsweetened Soy Milk

100ml Water

1.5g Kanten

1. Combine soy milk and water in a pot and bring it to boil.

2. Add kanten and stir till kanten has dissolved completely. Boil for 2- 3minutes.

3. Sieve into a bowl and remove any floating bubbles.

4. Let it set until cool. gently scrape the layer of dried beancurd skin. 

(Please pop the beancurd skin into your mouth =D )

5. Scoop beancurd into your bowl gently and drizzle with syrup.

here's the syrup's recipe

2 Tbsp Wolfberries

20ml Water

1 Tbsp Honey 

 2 Tbsp Sugar

Combine all together and boil until sugar has dissolved.

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Salmon Makizushi 巻寿司

Talking about sushi(s) and maki(s), 

the first thing which comes into my mind is....

Wasabi!!

It's a must for me!

I will top the rice with a pile of wasabi,

I love the kind of thrill so much...

I do not eat with shoyu at all,

I think it totally covers the original taste of the food!

My Salmon Makizushi...

They are quite large in size!

I made them into gunkan(s) too...

The salmon's really fresh..very soft and filled with fish oil...

Omega 3~!
Did I mention before that salmon belly is my favourite? =)

And made these 2 cuties with the left over rice and salmon!

I know they look kind of weird~~please don't laugh at me =p

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 Salmon Makizushi 巻寿司

Rice

2 Cups Short Grain Rice

2 3/4 Cup Water

2/3 Cup Rice Vinegar

1. Cook rice in rice cooker and mix rice vinegar while rice is very hot.

2. Fan the rice while mixing.

3.  Mix rice from time to time until it has cooled down completely.

4. Set aside.

Fillings

300g Fresh Salmon

1 Medium Japanese Cucumber (Cut into long stripes, 1/2cm in diameter)

Wrapping

2 Sheets of Nori

1. Steam salmon using medium heat for 8 minutes.

2. Remove from heat, let cool and pick bones out.

3. Use fork to separate meat.

4. Mix rice with salmon and mix well.

5. Lay some salmon rice on the nori sheet and place cucumber in the middle.

(Watch how to wrap a maki HERE, I used a mould instead)

6. For cutting, dip knife into water to avoid sticking and cut it into 6 pieces.

7. Serve with wasabi.

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Low Calorie Soy Milk Strawberry Jelly

Korean strawberries are on sale in supermarkets again!

Look at these cuties..

they are really sweet to the max!

I love them!

Don't you??  =)

Look at this measuring spoon,

I received it as a wedding favour last year...

It's definitely a useful gift for a cooking/baking person like me!

A heap of love!

What a romantic way to describe A Tablespoon...

The teaspoon's words were not clear,

so here it is...it's written as 'a spoonful of affection'

lovely!

And yeah..here's my Soy Milk Strawberry Jelly!

I know it's weird to use parsley for decoration *laughs*

but that's the only 1 i have in my fridge.

I bought one big packet and only used very little, such a waste!

Cut it open and you can see the fresh red strawberries!

We ate this in the morning and it's amazing!

Made us feel fresh and alert instantly!

Moreover, it's low in calorie and sugar!
Nothing will go bad with Kanten.... =)
Click here for the benefits of Kanten...

Isn't it a great dessert/snack?

I'm gonna submit this to Jess from Bakericious again!

For the Aspiring Bakers #5 (Fruity March)!

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Low Calorie Soy Milk Strawberry Jelly

200g Reduced Sugar Soy Milk

200 g Water

1 Tbsp Sugar

4g Kanten

1. Heat soy milk and water with sugar on medium heat till it comes to a small boil.

2. Add kanten and turn to high heat. Let it boil for 2 minutes. It must thicken.

3. Place strawberries in heatproof containers and pour liquid into the containers through sieve.

4. Let it sit at room temperature till it has set.

5. Place in refrigerator till cold and serve with more fruits.

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Healthy Bi-Colour Corn Vegetable Soup

Have you ever used Bi-colour corn in your cooking?

It has 80% yellow and 20% white kernels. 

 It's not anything new but after searching for the health benefits of corn, 

it's known that cooking the corn will retain it's antioxidant activity
despite the loss of Vitamin C.

Plus, cooked corn has significant antioxidant activity 

which has been suggested to reduce the chance of heart disease and cancer. (Wikipedia)

I hope it's true =)

The healthy oil-less vegetarian soup!

I love the colour combination!

We ate it with rice alone without seasoning, 

to taste the original sweetness of the combined vegetables.

My man is down with fever, flu and cough,

I hope this nutritious soup will help him to recover real soon!

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Healthy Bi-Colour Corn Vegetable Soup

(Serves 2 )

1 Bi-colour Corn

3 Stalks Celery

3 Baby Carrots

1000ml Water

3 Tbsp Wolfberries

Seasoning to taste

1. Clean all vegetables thoroughly. 

2. Cut corn into half, carrots and celery into 1 inch pieces.

3. Combine vegetables with water and boil over high heat for 8 minutes.

4. Turn to low heat and let it simmer for 1 hour. (or let it cook in your thermal cooker)

5. Wash wolfberries and add into the soup, bring to a boil once again.

6. Season as desired with salt/soy sauce and serve.

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Cream Cheese Raisin Bread

Anyone tried the cream cheese raisin bread from barcook bakery?

I heard all the ravings about this bakery store, 

but in the end the most convenient place for me to get the bread is from breadtalk..

It's pretty nice, but I think the ones from barcook may be even nicer!

I will try one of these days!

and now I'm here trying to make it my own way..hahahaha

I love the plumped raisins!

If they are not soaked in water,

it will be quite dry....

I did not add any butter in this recipe as cream cheese is already a very big load of dairy intake for me...

and it should be oily enough...
 Oh by the way, while i was kneading the dough,
I accidentally flung the glass measuring cup onto the floor..
I was stunned..and just stood there *blur*
it was smashed into pieces before I can save it.
R.I.P my one and only measuring cup.

 Look at the torn into half bread...
Now I know that I was naive enough to think that the cream cheese fillings are actually pure cream cheese.

They must have added some other stuffs to enhance the flavour and texture! HAHA!

But still, my man loves it!

He ate most of them and kept repeating "it's good! it's good!" 

*glad*

Don't we bakers always need supporters to keep us going!?  =)

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                          Cream Cheese Raisin Bread

 250g Bread Flour

2 Tbsp Honey

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/4 tsp Yeast

140ml Water/Fresh Cold Milk or lesser

50g Cream Cheese

3 Tbsp Raisin 

More Cream Cheese For Fillings

1. Mix flour, honey, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle.

2.  Pour water/milk in the well slowly and mix while adding, until it becomes a wet dough. You may need more or less liquid.

3. Knead with mixer(dough hook) or with hands for 5 minutes, add 50gcream cheese and knead further until dough is smooth and elastic.

4. Cover the dough and let it proof for 1 hour or when it has doubled in size.

5. Soak raisin in water for 10 minutes, drain and pat with kitchen towel.

5. Punch down the dough shape divide into 8 equal pieces. Add some raisins into each dough and shape into round balls. Let them proof for 10 minutes.

6. Flatten each dough and fill them with additional cream cheese. Press them down lightly with your palm. Place on baking tray.

7. Send them for last proofing for 30 minutes and bake in preheated 180 degrees oven for 25 minutes.

8. Let cool on wire rack completely before storing. ( You can eat it when it's warm too!)

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A Healtheir Diet

I'm going meatless nearly everyday now.

Sometimes I will just add fish in my meals..and avoid all other meats.

I want my health to improve by diet and not by medications.

 still trying hard~and hope things will get better...

And guess what's for dinner tonight?

A plain vegetarian dish...

traditional chinese mixed vegetables...

we had this with rice only. 

And amazingly, I still feel full now!

Although it's vegetarian, 

it provides lots of nutrients, in a healthier way too!

There's cabbage, black fungus, enoki mushrooms, carrot, kuzukiri (Japanese arrowroot starch noodles)

and since I'm the one cooking, will not want it to be salty, 

only added 1 tsp soy sauce, sesame oil and a pinch of salt for such a big portion. 

For me, taste comes after health! HAHA!

Meatless Thursday : Meatless "Meatballs" Spaghetti

These XL tomatoes are beautiful!

This is my first time stopping for a moment to admire the beauty of tomatoes...

I wanna use them to make my tomato spaghetti sauce..

Slices of tomatoes are really pretty too!

I wanted to make my own sauce with pure tomatoes instead of canned ones, 

because canned ones are high in salt content...

You can find my homemade tomato sauce recipe HERE

I made the sauce before going out to work....

and when I'm back, started to make the meatballs.

I used tubular spaghetti,

it's hollow in the middle and it's just like a super long straw! 

This is the meatless "meatball"...

frankly speaking, I did not eat it,

after cooking the meal, I don't feel like eating anymore.

very weird.

I was very excited about eating this intially 

 and don't know why it became this way. Haha...

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Meatless "  Meatballs"     Spaghetti

2 Servings Spaghetti

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

3 Cloves Garlic, Minced

1 Medium Yellow Onion, Finely Chopped

1 Medium Carrot, Grated

250g White Button Mushrooms, Finely Chopped

1 Green Pepper, Finely Chopped

2 tsp Dried Basil

1 Tbsp Grounded Black Pepper

600g Pressed Tofu

1 Large Egg

1 1/2 Cups Breadcrumbs (I used panko)

2 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp Sesame Oil

Salt and black pepper to taste

1. Sauteed carrot, green pepper, garlic, onion, basil and black pepper in oil for 10 minutes.

2. Drain the juice from the cooked vegetables.

3. Crumble tofu with hands and mix with vegetables.

4. Add egg, breadcrumbs, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and black pepper, mix very well.

5. Form into 1 1/2 inches ball and lay on baking sheet.

6. Bake them in preheated 180 degrees oven for 20-30 minutes.

7. When done, transfer "meatballs" into spaghetti tomato sauce.

8. Serve with spaghetti.

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Recipe Source from : Improbable Farmer

Fruity Lemon Ice

The weather in Singapore is rather unpredictable nowadays.

It can be bright sunny this moment and the next cloudy, then rainy!

What's happening to our mother earth? 

I really hope that "she's" ok!

I need to travel daily, so I dislike scorching hot sun and rainy days.

Anything in the middle is fine =)

But it seldom happen! 

So I made this Fruity Lemon Ice to be kept in my freezer,

whenever the weather is warm,

I will just scrape a few spoonfuls to eat.

It's tangy and sweet~~

some sweetness from the fruits, and just a bit from the sugar.

I altered the recipe because the original one calls for 1 1/2 cups of sugar! 

That's quite a lot!

I only added 4 tablespoons and it already made the ice so sweet..!

Can anyone resist this icy & sourish dessert?

Oh..by the way, I would recommend everyone to make these into ice pops instead!

I had a hard time scraping! Haha!

Before ending this post, 

let me announce that I will be submitting this post to Jess from Bakericious, 

she's hosting Aspiring Bakers #5 (Fruity March)!

This is my first time, and hope that there will be more chances in future! =)

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Fruity Lemon Ice

2 Oranges

3 Lemons

800ml Water

4 Tbsp Sugar

1. Squeeze juice from oranges and lemons, combine in a pot with water.

(Sieve the mixture if you want.)

2. Cook on low heat and when bubbles start to appear at the side of the pot, 

add sugar and mix till dissolved.

3. Remove from heat, let mixture cool down thoroughly.

4. Pour into a plastic container or ice pop containers. 

Cover and store in the freezer for a few hours or until hard.

5. Scrape the ice with a large metal spoon.

6. You may serve plain or with orange pulps.

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Recipe Source from : Samantha's Cooking Studio

Meatless Thursday : Kimchi Sujebi (Kimchi Hand-torn Noodles Soup)

One week has passed...

My 2nd week of meatless Thursday..

Today is not really a good day for me...

I am having multiple injuries on my legs, so every step that I take is painful.

But..this Kimchi hand-torn Noodles Soup really calmed me down..

before that, I felt so frustrated...

The spicy thick soup!

I cooked this with my homemade kimchi,

and was surprised by the taste! 

 I didn't follow Maangchi's recipe exactly,

made some changes...
as I know all kimchi have different level of saltiness and sweetness.
It really depends..
I really love to watch her videos..very informative about Korean food!

It's like chinese mee hoon kway...

It's soft yet a bit chewy. 

A recipe worth for a try~ especially if you love spicy food!
And I have to make some kimchi again! It's all gone now!

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Kimchi Sujebi 

(Kimchi Hand-torn Noodles Soup)

Noodles Dough :

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Oil

3/4 Water or Lesser

1. Place all ingredients into the food processor and process for 1 minute.

(For me, I knead by alternating with hand and mixer)

2. Knead for another 1 minute and wrap dough with plastic bag,

let it rest in refrigerator.

Soup :

1200ml Water

10 Large Anchovies (Head & Gut Removed)

1 Cup Kimchi

1 Cup Kimchi Juice

1 Large Potato, Cut into Eight Pieces

5 Cloves Garlic, Minced

1 Medium Yellow Onion, Diced

1 Box Silken Tofu, Cut into 10 Pieces

1 Tbsp Hot Pepper Paste

1 Stalk Spring Onion, Cut into 1/2 Inch Pieces

1 tsp Sesame Oil

1. Cook stock, by boiling anchovies with water.

(I put anchovies in a metal casing to make it convenient to remove)

2. Add kimchi, kimchi juice, potato, garlic and onion, let it boil for 15 minutes.

3. Let it simmer on low heat, mix hot pepper paste in and stir well.

Remove anchovies.

3. Take dough out from refrigerator, stretch a small piece by hand, as thin as possible.

Lay each piece flat in the soup.

4. Add tofu and spring onion,  let it boil for another 3 minutes.

5. Drizzle sesame oil over soup and mix well before serving.

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Recipe Source from : Maangchi