I love this fruit...

One of favorite fruits is pomegranate. I’ve bought this one at Tesco for RM1.99. Although the seed was not so red, it was so sweeeeeetttt.. and I finish one whole fruit in one go 

When I was small, life was tough. When mom bought this fruit, we have to share and I normally get smallest portion because I am the eldest. Due to this, I always say to myself that when I have my own money I’ll buy my own pomegranate.. not one, but many of them.

From Drop Box

It feels so joyful to be able to share something that I really like with others. When my sisters asked why always I splurge on this fruit, I’ll normally just smile. To me, it make me happy and the more I share my happiness with others, the more I will get back. I believe that kindness always come back to me, they are abundance and come from everywhere. Sometimes, it comes to me from strangers….

From Drop Box

I love my food...

Last Friday’s dinner was awful. A plate of ‘fried rice’ and ‘daging masak merah’ from the food court in Tesco Extra really make me feel sad. The so called ‘fried rice’ looks pretty much like plain rice fried in ketchup with only two pieces of peas. No other veggies or even onion in sight! Can you believe it? The ‘daging masak merah’ doesn’t really have taste and the sauce was really runny.. and both of them costed me RM4.90. I still finished them, because it I’d feel very bad if I throw it. Think about others that do not have food, and here I am complaining about meal. Anyway, I just sulk and eat it.



You see, I really love my food. I cannot stand substandard food. I strongly believe that it food is a gift and they are abundance. Food is something that should be respected and enjoyed. That’s why I feel miserable when my meal was not up to the standard. The stall claims that they are selling “Hot Thai Food”. The cooks are Bangladeshi men which I doubt the owner trained properly in cooking Thai food. I have nothing against them but I feel cheated. In my opinion, they should at least know how to cook fried rice. Higher raw material price is not an excuse to reduce the status of ‘fried rice’ to just ‘rice fried in ketchup with two peas’. At least do your customer a favor and put some onion and garlic and some veggies. Do you think I will go back to this stall? No way!


What do you think I’d do the next day? You bet it! I went to Tesco and bought some meat, kailan, some beef lung and fish. I rarely came across kailan and fresh fish in Tesco. I believed my desire to have them was so strong that God answer it and there they were.. I was so happy and bought some for next week stock as well. I treated myself to a hearty lunch to compensate for what my previous dinner was lacking.


I made ‘kailan ikan masin’, my own version of ‘daging masak merah’ with lots of red onion, fried fish, and crispy beef lung with some mean ‘sambal belacan’. I compliment it with ice lemon tea… Ohmmmppppphhh.. What a great lunch.

Quick Fix: White Tagliatelle

After a long and stressful day at work, the last thing that you want to do is to slog for another hour in the kitchen trying to fix dinner. Well, this simple recipe is based on common ingredients in your pantry. It will take you about 20 minutes to prepare and can be further modified by adding leftover chicken or meat.

What you need:

70g of tagliatelle (This is enough for one person. You can also use other type of pasta if you prefer) Some water to cook the pasta A packet of mushroom chicken soup powder (~16g per packet. It can be of any brand that you like)
150ml boiling water for making the soup
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
Lemon wedges Flat parsley or other fresh herbs (chopped finely)
Knob of butter to fry the garlic
3 cherry tomatoes (halved)
2 bird eyes chilies (you can deseed it if you can't tolerate the heat. Chop the chilies nicely)
Black pepper, a dash of salt to taste, sprinkled of cheddar cheese

To cook it:

1) Cook the pasta according to packet instruction – typically it will take about 10-12 minutes depending on the make. Just cook until al-dente and drain it

2) Meanwhile, prepare the mushroom chicken soup by adding the hot water into the powder and stir it (you can use cups or small bowl to hold the soup). You need to work quickly once you mix them as the soup will thicken as it get colder. This mixture will be your white sauce

3) Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the chicken/meat leftover if using. If not, just add

in the pasta and mix it

4) Stir in the mushroom soup, black pepper, salt and continue to heat until the sauce thickens. You may add in the cheese at this time

5) Add in chopped herbs, chilies, cherry tomatoes and squeeze the lemon juice into the pasta. You can add more if you prefer

6) Once the pasta sauce thickens slightly, you can turn of the heat. Serve immediately

Hugs...

A hug is used to show comfort and to show that you’ll always be there. It can sooth pain and bring cheer when you are in the blue.

Why do we hug each other? Do we need hug? Of course, we do. Even my cats and kitties love hugs and they crave it. They purr approvingly…

Hugging your love one can help you avoid stress. It is part of pleasure as human being. Studies also show that hugging extends the level of hormone which releases depression and reduce the feeling of loneliness.

A hug is perfect way of showing the love that we are feeling and it is a wonderful to gift to share. It’s meant for everyone that you care….


Funny Videos

Tinkering with Google gadgets.

After so many years, I finally take the opportunity to update my blog template. This is to enable me to add some gadgets to it. I'd added in the Picasa slideshows and the feeds. I know I'm a bit left behind in this blogosphere but I want to try it out.

Recently I'm checking out the Wordpress.org. Interesting source for those that want to go pro but I it comes at a price. There are multiple functionalities that are worth exploring and I'm really tempted to do it. The question now is whether it is really what I need at the moment… J

Honeyed Five Spice Chicken Pocket

One of my favourite pastime is trying out new recipes. Last weekend, I'd made "honeyed five spice chicken pocket" for my brunch. The recipes is from the book Healthy One Dish Cooking that I bought from Reader's Digest few months ago. The basic recipe is simple and I have modify it slightly based on the stuffs that readily available in my pantry :)

This simple meal take about 40 minutes preparation time, including the marinating of the chicken. I think the chicken will taste much better if I allow it to marinate longer but my tummy is hungry. So, I just marinate it for half and hour. Cooking time take about 20 minutes and the stuffs I prepared is enough for 3-4 people. You can always reduced the amount if your are cooking for fewer people.

What do you need?

1/4 cup (60ml) lemon juice
2 tbsp honey (or more if you like it sweeter)
1/2 tsp five spice powder
3 skinless chicken breast fillets
4 large pita bread (use wholemeal pita bread if you are a health conscious)
3 lettuce leaves, shredded
16 cherry tomatoes, halved (If you don't have cherry tomatoes, you can use normal tomatoes but it will be less sweeter)
1 carrot, peeled and coarsely grated ( I do not really have a grater, so I try to julienned it)

To make the lemon and herb yogurt dressing, you'd need:

1/2 cup (130g) natural yogurt (use low fat if you are health conscious)
1/2 lemon, zest grated and juiced (you can get about 2 tsp of juice)
2 tbsp of chopped fresh flat parsley (get it from the herb section in your supermarket. You can also use other herbs such as dill or chives.. whichever you prefer.. just don't use oregano or other strong smelling herbs please.. )

How to make it?

1) Combine lemon + honey + five spice powder in a shallow dish that is large enough to hold the chicken breast in single layer. Mix together until well blended. Make some deep slashes in each chicken breast and put it into the dish. Rub the marinade all over the chicken, ensuring that it get into the slashes. Cover with plastic wrap and marinate it in the fridge for 30 minutes

2) To make the dressing, blend/mix the yogurt + lemon zest + juice + parsley and season to taste. Cover and chill until you need it

3) Bring the chicken to room temperature and grill the chicken for about 20 minutes (or until cook). Occasionally, baste the chicken with the marinate and turn in to the other side halfway into cooking. Once the chicken is done, thinly sliced it diagonally and set aside to cool

4) Sprinkle the pita bread with little water and warm it under grill for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, toss the lettuce, tomatoes and carrot with the dressing. Slice open one side of each pita bread and make a pocket. Stuff the chicken and the salad into the pocket and serve immediately

How does it taste?

The five spice powder adds some Asian flavour to the pita bread sandwich. I would prefer to add in more seasoning to the chicken so that it has more bodied taste. I'd add in some garlic and ginger if I were to do it again. The dressing has a refreshing taste and taste much better with normal yogurt (as compared to low fat). Adding lemon juice to the yogurt make it thinner and it also make the dressing too sour for my liking. The dressing taste a bit bland, so I spiced it up with sprinkling of chopped bird eye chilies and some salt. A dash of Tabasco sauce can also add colour to it. Instead of tossing the lettuce, tomatoes and carrot with the dressing I just spoon the dressing over the assembled pita.

It is simple dish and the chicken and dressing can be made in advance and we can have this as cold sandwich instead. Using pita instead of sandwich bread really make you feel full afterwards. I prefer to dip the chicken directly into the dressing while it still hot rather than having it with pita or any other type of bread. The mild sweetness of the chicken complement the the dressing very well.

I'd give this recipes 3 out of 5 stars.

Alpha Brainwave Music

I went for a workshop on Saturday and was introduced to this alpha music to help sooth the mind. It is a calming music .. sort of like Kitaro's music.

Alpha is a brainwave and the alpha music helps the brain to drift into this slower brainwave. If your mind in alpha, it becomes relaxed , free of stress and is automatically using more of the right side of the brain.

I search the net and found that there are four types of brainwaves.

1. The Beta Wave has a frequency of 14 to 21 cycles per second.
- We use in our ordinary waking state. At this level, we reason, rationalize, and execute whatever chores we need to do.
However, it will increase with stress, as faster it goes as more stress and nervous you will get.

2. The Alpha Wave which has the frequency is from 7 to 14 cycles per second.
- This is the State of Mind where you are in a "relaxed alertness". You are calm and peaceful, with clear creative thinking, ideas, solutions and intuitive breakthroughs. This is the State of Mind, where you can reach your full potential.
3. The Theta Wave aka deep sleep state (between 4 and 7 cycles per second)
- All our emotional experiences are recorded here.

4.The Delta Wave is the deepest sleep with frequencies less than 4 cycles per second.
Typically encountered in total unconsciousness

According to the instructor, we can actually drift into the alpha brain wave by listening to alpha or meditative music, relaxation and meditation exercise. Painting can also drift you this state as you lost the sense of time when you doing your paint. People have been using this music as background to presentation to calm the audience.

What he's trying to say is, we can influence our personal space, our living space or our working space, by playing certain type of music...Interesting, I do feel relaxed when listening to it. But to what extent, I'm not sure yet :)