Oh where did the long weekend go....

It's almost midnight and am mentally trying to prepare myself for work tomorrow. Have been looking forward to the CNY weekend for a looooong time and now it's over!!! Will be quite a well before we have another nice long break I think *sighs* Very sad. Didn't get much done over the weekend except for what HAD to be done. Didn't help that many of the shops were closed too on Monday and today except for the supermarkets. Was hoping to do some window shopping but this is something that happens ONCE a year in Singapore when everything shuts down. Do feel sorry for the tourists here especially when they are here for a few days only and not able to do any shopping.

One nice thing that I did do over the weekend was figure out how to make chicken schnitzel cohen style of course. Am surprised how nicely it turned out and thought it would be perfect if I had a nice fruity sauce to go with it...something sourish like peach or apricot or mango sauce. Did google for sauces but all of them were not 'cohen legit' so that was a real bummer.

Quite lecih to do this but I think it's worth it. Used half of my crushed Meiji cracker protions to cover the chicken breast with crumbs (after I gave it a good whack to tenderise it). The left it in the fridge for 20 minutes. Sealed the flavour for 2 minutes on each side over the pan. Use the rest of the crumbs to coat the chicken before popping it into the oven for another ten minutes. And it turned out well, cooked inside, and nice and cripsy on the outside. For veggies, I simply grilled mushrooms and tomatoes with some seasoning. Am getting bored with my veggies done like that so need ideas!!

Saw some yummy sausages at the supermarket and had a craving for some. Can't have the usual ones so had to use my portion of minced beef to make my own sausages. Cuz my portions are too small and I can't use egg, I wasn't able to make them longer. These turn out rather like kebabs actually. So might actually combine the tomatoes and mushrooms and other stuff and make some kebabs! Chilli sauce would make this oh so perfect. That's another thing to figure out, how to make my own chilli sauce and don't tell me just blend them in a food processor. It ain't that easy. I know cuz I tried *laughs*

Proud to be Malay!

This website has been going around via email and I find the cartoons truly hilarious, especially as a Malay, I could appreciate the web cartoon Enjet Enjet Semut. If you're at the main page, just choose to go to CARTOONS. Am just amazed how the creator did it and when watching it, we may not appreciate the hard work, blood and sweat that goes into it but after watching it several times, I was just amazed. Am glad for such talented people!

I have linked the picture below which I borrowed from the site as part of publicity to the website to the Enjet Enjet Semut cartoon so hopefully you can click on that and it'll take you straight.

There's also a great CNY web cartoon so please go take a look at that one too. Am so looking forward to seeing many of more them cartoons.

Update: Looks like the site has remove this but found it on youtube so head there instead to enjoy this:

Happy Lunar New Year to one and all!

Alrighty, a bit early but have been in that mood since this morning! Even wore a top with an oriental design today to work to get into the festive mood. So what if I don't celebrate CNY but I love the long weekend that we're having. Yay!!!

We had some fun time at work today where we could sign up for different things to do. And I signed up for a scrapbooking session where we were taught to make a card. It was kinda 'stressful' cuz I had to make sure that I was tearing straight eventhough the instructor told me there was no such thing as having to tear straight but rather JUST TEAR! But I did managed to keep the tearing as straight as I could and am rather pleased with how it turned out. Next question is, when am I going to 'scrapbook' my next card? I have no idea.

But I realised that you can tell alot about a person just from that activity. A person's likes and dislikes (from the colours/patterns), from how they go about doing things such as tearing them papers, where you put your scraps (in the bin or just chuck it somewhere on the table to clear later) etc. Was good fun.

What am I going to do this weekend? Saturday I am going to do nothing work related. Am going to buy some veggies and maybe catch a show before that. Just do nothing important basically. Cuz Sunday and Monday, will have to do some work from home. Anyways, am not going to think about that for now.

Am very happy with the dinner I had. Cooked prawns with dried chilli and garlic and a dash of salt and squeezed lemon juice. Kept the shells on (so had to estimate the weigh) but it tasted so much better cuz the shells help keep the sweetness in. Yummy!

I also made some other stuff this week that I captured on my camera. I used tofu which I can't have too often thanks to my gout. But since I can't deep fry it, am not missing very much I think cuz it's pretty bland tasting. Either that or me just not doing it right. Anyways, I cooked it in a soup with lots of other kind of veggies and made the soup sourish so that wasn't too bad. These are tofu (without egg) so anyone has any idea how else I can cook it other than just steaming it? :o(
I also made mushrooms almost like how they serve at Friends. Trick is this. When you have a piece of steak, seal the flavour on a heated saucepan on both sides and then pop them into the oven. Keep draining the juices from the meat and keep it. Cuz it's to be used for the mushrooms. Cook until meat done how you like it.

For the sauce, brown some slices onions and then put in the cut mushrooms. I prefer using button or field mushrooms but portabello might be too hard for this. After onions nicely browned, me threw in the mushrooms and cook them with the juices. Also added salt and pepper. I also added a little lemon juice or you can use balsamic vinegar for a kick. And chopped some tomatoes and scatter them with the mushroom for some colour *laughs*

I also fried some kangkong on another night together with garlic mushrooms and it wasn't too bad. The kangkong was cooked by using chopped garlic, onions and chillies. Also chopping prawns into small pieces and fried them all together before putting in the kangkong. Salt to taste. Boleh lah :o)

What's my next 'experiment'? To make chilli crab dip like how they serve it at Hard Rock Cafe. I have my crab meat and now just have to figure out the recipe. That's the only way to 'survive' on Cohen, to try and modify the things that I enjoy eating from before! Wish me luck!

Food Obsession.

If you notice, the last few posts have been around the theme of FOOD *laughs* Yes, it all started when I went on meal plan with Cohen Lifestyle Clinic and tomorrow will be my first month of eating to lose weight. As I was explaining to people, I am going through a grief and loss process cuz am 'deprieving' myself of food that I absolutely love, in exchange for small portions three meals a day (plus fruits and crackers) and a much healthier way of preparing my food. Made a list of top ten dishes I am missing the most right now and they are not in any order of preference. I could do top 50 dishes but let's just stick to ten for now :o)

1. Prata / Murtabak Daging (Mutton with no onions)

2. Hjh Maimunah's Nasi Padang especially the siput, paru goreng and sambal sotong.

3. Tulang Masak Merah

4. Chilli Crabs

5. Japanese food especially from Don Sushi which has lovely handrolls

6. Durians

7. Fast Food like KFC and MacDonald's meals

8. Nasi Ayam / Chicken Rice

9. Pondok Jawa Timur's Nasi Campur and Tahu Telur

10. Satay especially Satay Babat (tripes) at East Coast Food Village

Yes, if you look at the list I have, not healthy but they are damn tasty. And reason why I listed these food is part of my 'acceptance stage' where I know I cannot have them for the next 8 months. And Slawek brought up an interesting idea. In 8 months time, let's see if I still crave for these ten things. My bet is that I will definitely want to eat them all. Maybe not all in one sitting but definitely would want to have them *laughs* Might not eat them as often, but u cannot take these food away from a true blue Singaporean girl!

I love my weekends cuz it's alot more relaxing especially in the morning. Started the day by making myself a nice breakfast and took my time to enjoy it. Trick is to prepare a few portions at a time so that I don't have to rush on weekdays. So prepared two portions and kept on in the fridge for tomorrow morning. Very simple breakfast. Hard boiled egg, mashed up with salt, pepper, dried dill and added a tiny bit of low fat mayonaise. Layer the cracker with tomato slices and egg and bit into it. Yummy. At the bottom right corner, it's vitamins that I take each day - part of this eating plan.

Will be doing a weigh-in tomorrow so let's see how it goes. Am going to head out now and try and get some errands done. Not going to think about starting work for tomorrow cuz I have some work that I need to do for tomorrow. Thankfully, it's a late start for me tomorrow so will be able to have a nice breakfast before going to work.

TGIF!

Yay, am just so glad that it's finally Friday!!! Weekend here again and have been looking forward to the weekend so that I can *drum roll* do nothing!!! Well, at least that's the plan for now :o)

Mag and I just finished Back to Basics I and after CNY, we will be doing the B2B II. This is definitely an improvement for us cuz we are starting our BB dancing again after stopping for a while. We are still rusty but got to start somewhere ya after such a long break. Thanks Az for volunteering to do them sessions for us.

As for Cohen-wise, we're almost going into our first month. Managed to experiment some and took pictures for some of the meals I had this week.

I purchased this mini steamboat from Isetan and it's like playing masak-masak I swear. If it came with a hot plate then it would be perfect! Am looking for a small hot plate that I can use to grill my food as I eat. Anyways back to the steamboat, I still have problems with making the soup. Used onions, garlic, salt and pepper but the taste is just not right. Mom revealed that she usually add some kind of stock to add to the flavour. And thus the problem cuz I am not allowed that. I put the prawns in hoping that it will help sweeten the soup but my prawn portions are way too small to make any difference. Many dashes of pepper later, I managed to have my meal but didn't finish up the soup. This easily can be used for two people or maybe even three (if everyone's on Cohen *laughs*). It was kinda fun and once I solve the soup problem, will do this again. Any ideas anyone?

Had a surprise when I made this one. It's basically ground beef fried with garlic that I had placed in the freezer some time back. And thought it was about time I ate it. But I needed some taste so added curry paste that I made, threw in chopped tomatoes and mushroom and let it simmer. And threw in some left over crush crackers that I had. And surprisingly, it taste rather nice, rather like kheema. This is something that I can see myself eating with chapati. Not now at least but in nine months...possible!!

And another meal that I did using mushrooms and tomatoes. Am just amazed how many types of mushrooms there are and I am happily trying them out but my favourite still has to be portobello cuz they are just so meaty tasting. I bought some turkey meat that was prepared but it's such a big mistake cuz it's super salty. Had a headache after that. Eventhough I used it with tomatoes and mushrooms with lots of seasoning, it didn't take away the salty taste. Will try this with fresh turkey/chicken meat next time. Wish I could top it with some cheese and then toast it but alas, not allowed to have cheese with them other proteins :o(

Dinner time so am going to fix myself some portobello mushroom and cheese...grilled. Yum yum!! Have a great weekend everyone!

Three weeks soon...

Work has been a little crazy. Have not had time to do any craft work over the weekends. Usually home and tired in the evenings and weekends just come and go real fast. Usually end up just stoning over the weekends and that's my definition of relaxing :o) But it's also over weekend that I try out some recipes. I've tried making chicken curry and the curry wasn't too bad actually. Just got to go slow with the onions cuz I had like heaps left and me usually don't even eat them onions...don't like the actual taste, just like to use it for flavour. Dunno how that works *laughs*

Didn't take a picture of the curry cuz was too hungry and just wanted to eat. But today's breakfast I managed to take a picture of. Very simple meal that takes a few minutes to do. And me am easily bored so yes, I try to make it a bit more presentable for myself. On weekdays, I have no time for such things. It's just put things in the toaster oven, shower while it's cooking, change and quickly eat and rush out of the house.



Update in terms of weight loss, only loss 1kg for my second week. Got told off for weighing myself so often but I can't help it!!! Next challenge would be for me to not weight myself for a whole month. Hmm....tuff. Anyways, this Monday will be three weeks and we're going to celebrate by eating at Friends, a nice place at Serangoon Gardens (new branch at Jelita) that can prepare Cohen approved meals. Thank god for such places!!!