My Vegetarian Repertoire...

Okay so it's still kinda not very existent and I have been too lazy/busy to look up recipes(plus I hate being limited by having to follow instructions)...but on the upside these two veggie snacks I'm liking lately are also vegan!

So yeah no1 is Nori rolls with any kind of vegetable or not even...but filling them with cooked mixed rice! So ie white rice, brown rice mix with fun inclusions like a few jobs tears barley, chia seeds, aduki beans and mung beans.

no2 is oat sourdough toast with shredded carrot that has been mixed with flaxseed oil, lemon juice and finely chopped garlic with some kind of protein either ground flaxseeds or chia seeds I guess...

Okay I guess that is sad to the seasoned vegetarian/vegan/person with diet limitations, but I like them, they are SUPER HEALTHY and tasty, easy and quick...

So anyway I'm tired now...goodnight ;) I think yesterday is going to take a few days of recovery...my liver's still working off all that amazing CHOCOLATE! haha so much happened I didn't even remember until I FELT IT...today!

Different Time, Different Place, Different Circumstance

I seem to meet a lot of random people transiently. Probably cos I'm a solitary one and don't hang around in groups. In any case I often meet a lot of offbeat people this way, ie they are guaranteed interesting :) I also meet a lot of super cool people this way. And often I find myself thinking if only...

Different Place, Different Time, Different Circumstance they'd be so meaningful to me. Actually I have heard this one a lot lately "If only I'd met you earlier!"

Eh it kinda sucks.

Some people are cynical but I really do believe in "instant clicking" with people. I think for me this is the way it works...relationships don't always have to be such CONSCIOUS EFFORT...(except for Marriage, LOL)...Sometimes it really is about who you just "get along" with! And just between you and me I can pretty much guarantee 100% of these clicks can be explained by Astrological Compatibility ;) Seriously. I'd make an educated guess that Astrologers don't even bother making effort with people unless they have checked their chart...I know one who surfed the net saw a pretty face checked her birthday and then wrote to a complete random. She is now his wife- happily married...easy easy...cos of COMPATIBILITY. People who aren't compatible, sure you may LEARN a lot but it's always pain and kind of a waste of time in the whole scheme of Life is Short so why waste your time? (Unless of course you're needing Growth, pain in the ass that growth business is but makes us all the more wiser :)

Oh wow that was a serious aside and tangent- a first for me for a while LOL!

In any case just in case you needed a healthy lunch idea this is what I did yesterday in my 5 min simple healthy minimal ingredients meal challenge...and as usual it was tasty :) (p.s all the vegetables I use are 100% organic picked off a farm kinda thing....FRESH^^)

I didn't have a rice paper wrap or similar so I had to use an oat wrap which was a bit of a messy operation cos the juices just decimated it...I'd recommend a rice paper wrap a la Vietnamese rice paper roll type :)

Half a can of tuna in extra virgin olive oil, strained(the olive oil just preserves the tuna flavour better)
finely chopped garlic
pinch of italian herbs
half a tomato chopped.
a small zucchini chopped into thin short strips
a small teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil

Sautee half of the garlic in the hot oil, dump in the herbs, zucchinis stirfry briefly. Mix in the tuna along with the other half of your garlic(yes this is raw). You then "bung" (can you tell I'm in Austraaalia?) this into the rice paper wrap along with your fresh chopped tomato...Yummy. Kid's Play. Well here's looking at just one big kid here ;) My alter Ego is the very old essence that mixes it with all the senior citizens. (I've learnt to manage what seems like having 2 personalities in one to many people...WHO says you can't be a child with wisdom or an old person with a youthful personality ALL IN ONE!?? Not everything is has to be discrete Black and White!!! hehe...)

5 mins in the Kitchen with Z...

Cos let's face it Life's too Short to spend ages slaving away like I used to.

So since my health took the dive I've gotten really good at devising super healthy very quick meals with am emphasis on finest quality produce and EASE.

So this is what I came up with today which if I had to name it, it'd be

Z's SUPER ANTI-RADIATION OMEGA BLAST
And all the quantities are approximate - it really is "a bit of this and a bit of that" in quantities to your taste.

*a handful of good quality cooked soba noodles
*some fresh seaweed strands cut into shorter strands you get in the vacuum packs (if it's salted make sure you rinse and soak well so you don't salt yourself to death)
*quarter to half of a lightly panfried (Tasmanian) Salmon cutlet(this cut seems like it has less bones) make sure it's well mashed with a fork so you can extract any stray bones esp if you're feeding the kids)
*1t-1T high quality Flaxseed oil(the bottles packed in dark glass or steel that are in the refrigerator)
*1t of crushed or finely ground flaxseeds (for texture) or for a flavour twist I think organic pinenuts would be great (but these are often rancid)

Swirl it all around...Voila! So simple even Mark who can't fry an Egg *^^* can look like a gourmet chef ;)

Okay maybe it took you more than 5 mins- the key is I always have the ground flaxseeds and panfried Tasmanian salmon in my fridge so I don't have to prepare those specially.

The key advantage of simple meals especially if you haven't the strongest digestive system is that there are less ingredients to conflict and ferment and stagnate in those intestines...you'll feel better for it! Cheers to Good Health :)

This Steam Machine is A Dream!

What's wrong with eating dessert for breakfast? Nothing! Since getting a steam machine this week, My Eating and Cooking Life has been completely revolutionised- suddenly, it's all such a pleasurable BREEZE! It's awesome! Last night I made pork, cabbage and shitaake dumplings...in literally half the time I would usually spend...and they were literally cooked to perfection not like when you manually steam where it cooks unevenly or is dry or mushy in parts.

In any case, inspired by my (fellow quirky Malaysian Chinese) muse - the artist Poh on Masterchef...I've decided to get more ambitious...so my next project is to master the exotic Malaysian Kueh as a breakfast food which has plenty of scope for creative inspiration...you can buy nice enough ones in Chinatown except that they have preservatives so I'd prefer to make my own especially when my steam machine makes life so easy- all I do is turn a knob and it *rings* when it's done! Who said I didn't love technology...

p.s my favourite music to cook by right now...the lively rhythms and dulcet voice of Cesaria Evora...

"Cooking" for big lazy cheats!

As the chilly almost Winter winds set in here, I've been devoting a lot of time to keeping my belly happy cos Mr Brain refuses to cooperate if Comrade Tummy is kicking up a fuss!

This weekend I had two small boon discoveries which will no doubt ease some of my slaving over meals this week...MSG and chemical free frozen pork and cabbage dumplings...and frozen hand made empanadas...of course you need to know where to get these things too ;)

Having always grown up with a superwoman mother who cooked every meal meticulously from scratch, it's taken me a while to master the art of cooking "quick"...when I first moved out, cooking meals would range anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours as I followed my mother's meticulous style free of time saving cheats. I'm glad to say due to necessity I've now got the cooking process down to 15-30 minutes Max...

Cos of the chilly cold I was in the mood for some asian soup noodles with particular craving for the taste of fresh coriander...which I have to admit my tastebuds are really maturing into lately.

So this was what I had...

Soup stock with boiling water, some chicken stock from a box, some vegetable stock from a box(first time I've ever been such a cheat!!), some sprigs of coriander roots and leaves torn up, some enoki mushrooms, some torn up shitaake mushrooms, some very finely sliced pork (need to get this from asian butcher - you can get pork or beef), some ripped up baby spinach, some ripped up bak choy...and some Japanese somen noodles. All up cooking time and preparation was close to 15 minutes....not bad, and healthy too! To the soup I added a few drops of sesame oil, you can also add some salt, white pepper and soy to taste if you like but I just wanted a very clear and cleansing soup. The best part is that I'm pretty sure if I had served it to someone like M I could have convinced him I spent an hour in the kitchen slaving over it-hehe ;)

A Berry Indulgent Day

It's been so hot lately, I've been neglecting proper diet the past couple of days primarily surviving on my addiction to Red Rock's Honey Mustard Kettle Chips and fruit.

I'm pretty ashamed of myself actually for being so lazy and unhealthy. So today when I went grocery shopping I went all out at the greengrocer's...buying an assortment of fresh vegetables, fruits and berries as above. The little red ones are actually "blackcurrant grapes" I have never seen them and didn't know if they were actually fresh blackcurrants or not which is why I thought I'd get them to try- eh, in the end they just tasted like little red grapes but cost about 3X more!

I didn't get out of the grocer's unscathed of junk though...feeling in a food indulgent mood, I ended up spending $10 on 300g of chocolate which on retrospect is quite a bit for one's everyday eating! (Especially since I still have Cote D'or and Lindt sitting around untouched...) I guess I'm still "researching" European chocolate to find out which one I like best with a view to being able to buy and consume only small quantities of high quality chocolate in the future...

Here we have German Ritter with whole hazelnuts, Dutch Droste orange and Madagascan cocoa pastilles. The only normal one left I need to "research" is the Swedish Marabou.

I'm actually going to cook properly tonight to make amends for all the junk eating...I'm feeling like ASIAN food and RICE so this is what I'm toying with in my head...Clay Pot Rice with pork mince, snake beans, black bean sauce, ginger, Chinese wine, swiss brown mushrooms and maybe a few ground dried shrimp....Mmmmm sounds good to me!

On another note sure enough I had another "triple number" moment today...but in relation to someone else(by accident)...I really think being attuned to reiki must open some kind of "psychic door" to an alternate consciousness...this last year or so has just been way too interesting!

Spoilt :-)

I've been sitting here the past 10 minutes deliberating whether I should brave the cold and go to yoga...I'm erring on the negative cos my stomach is feeling a little...too full to be hanging upside down!

It's great...for someone who hates to cook, the last few days have been heavenly...I haven't actually needed to cook since Thursday!!!

Today - it being the luxury of a weekday, one of my uni friends had a lunch and made...the Korean version of Vietnamese spring rolls...(sorry forgot the name).

It was quite exotic- we sat on some kind of modern tatami(which had a really nifty heated surface underneath it). All the ingredients were laid in a large platter on a low table and there was a gas burner with a pot full of simmering water- we dipped rice paper rounds into this water.

Then we laid an interesting assortment of veggies: shredded lettuce, finely sliced mushrooms, tomatoes, mung bean sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, spanish onion, avocado, Vietnamese mint and coriander leaves. We then dipped shabu shabu style(thinly sliced) beef into the simmering water and added this before forming rolls- the dipping sauce was very simple but interesting compared to the usual Vietnamese one. It consisted of canned pineapple blended into a paste with fish sauce. Finely sliced chilli in this sauce is optional.

After you've satiated on 10+ rolls you throw all the left over filling into the beef stock and add noodles....

Hence this Korean dish is something like Vietnamese rice rolls X Steam Boat(what the Japanese call Sukiyaki I think).

This meal is well suited to those days where time is of no concern and you want to have a good long catch up & conversation with several friends....we also had a really delicious tea I've never seen before from Taiwan- it was brown and looked like rice but on the packet it literally translated to ginseng oolong tea(!?) - unfortunately I don't think you can get it here...We then ate savoury Korean rice cake desserts and fruit- again I have no idea what this dessert is called in Korean but it looked like Chocolate flakes on glutinous rice cake squares...the 'chocolate flakes' were some kind of red bean...

Happy Tummy! I'm really loving this week...Wednesday the food festival continues with E cooking - looking forward :-)!

p.s The only thing with all my friends cooking for me is I'm starting to feel it's only fair that I repay the favour so I'm already racking my brains over what would be suitable and minimal fuss... It's so cold I'm personally feeling like a nice PIE I think...

I love this eating other people's cooking - it refreshes and inspires so that I want to at least try cooking new things. Too bad we all live so far apart and generally have pretty busy and different schedules- how awesome would it be to have a daily "cooking pool" so we get to eat something different everyday and don't have to cook everyday?! Hmmm...maybe I should start a monthly cooking circle??

Please Lord, Can I end up with a chef...

LOL.

No seriously, a chef (or someone that can cook) would be great...I hate cooking! It's sooooooo draining! But because I have to eat healthy, vaguely following a TCM diet, have grown up with good cooks and hence intolerant of bad tasting food, but I can't use any quick cheat preprepared sauces etc because they have chemical crap-preservatives in them which I'm allergic to...therefore I have to cook and totally from scratch which is incredibly time consuming and exhausting!

It's quite amusing...while the majority of my fellow gender aspire to marrying investment bankers, something with a bit of money, prestige, repute etc, all I really want in utility terms is that the guy can cook! I don't worry about the money bit- I figure I can bring in reasonable bacon haha...so as long as my stomach is kept happy, then I'll be happy then I can bring in happy bacon LOL

In any case the dinner went well...despite hating cooking, I can do it if pressed...if I feel like it ;)

And the good thing about people who eat everything is that you can choose to cook what you like to eat :) So we had:

pumpkin and cream corn soup
tomato chicken and lentil risoni paella with green olives
sangria with green apple using a shiraz cabernet
chocolate mud cake

unfortunately it all went before I remembered to take photos...actually the cutest part was not the food rather the invitation- I made it like a red double door which I think in Chinese feng shui is good luck...lol somehow being in such an artsy fartsy region and having had a bit of decent rest my creative ability came back a little...

Anyway to curtail the ramble t'was YUM! Happy Tummy Indeed. And it wasn't too rich so I don't feel really sick like I would have if we'd done one of those bourgeoisie too many course and weird ingredients degustation events.

Toodooloo...off to the beach for the weekend! :-)

Cooking Experimentation with Z: Chicken Risoni Paella :)

So...with a mini reprieve until the BIG REPRIEVE I decided to cook myself a proper nutritious healthy meal...well aware of the fact that I need to clear out my fridge before my impending trip :)

So...I had 4 large organic tomatoes I needed to use up.

No method to the madness-pure creative inspiration took hold...

I fried a bit of garlic in good quality extra virgin olive oil, dumped in the chopped tomatoes, seasalt, sugar, a can of organic lentils (important: rinse out bubbles!) and a big squish of basil from a tube.

Then in went a handful of green olives, once it started to simmer I added some chunks of organic chicken, then a splash of balsamic vinegar and the finishing touch...my favourite staple right now...RISONI!

And I ended up with this.

Verdict? YUM!!!

I think I'll call this dish "Z's Serendipitous Accident" LOL ;)