snacks – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Thai Desserts

During my recent trip to Bangkok, my sweet tooth was thoroughly satisfied. Thanks to Alycia’s research and guidance, we embarked on a whirlwind tour of Thai street food bazaars found in different shopping malls, sampling a plethora of mouthwatering desserts that showcased the vibrant flavors of Thailand’s culinary heritage.

Our adventure began at some of Bangkok’s bustling shopping malls, where we stumbled upon Thai street food bazaars held in conjunction with the Songkran festival. As we navigated through the maze of vibrant stalls, we were greeted by a tantalizing array of not only delicious Thai food but also sweet treats that beckoned to be savored.

Despite having already indulged in brunch and dinner most of the time, we couldn’t resist the temptation to sample some of the most iconic Thai desserts. From creamy coconut-based delicacies to aromatic Thai pancakes, each dessert offered a unique blend of flavors and textures.

One of the highlights of our dessert escapade was sampling the king of all Thai desserts – the famous mango sticky rice—a beloved Thai delicacy that combines sweet, fragrant mangoes with sticky rice drizzled in coconut cream. The creamy texture of the rice, paired with the juicy sweetness of the mangoes, was a match made in dessert heaven. Other desserts that I am still craving now are the assorted Thai pudding with creamy coconut milk and crispy Thai pancakes with grated coconut.

One thing is for sure—Thai cuisine never fails to tantalize my taste buds and leave a lasting impression on the palate.

I was ecstatic when I saw this Thai kuih stall outside the BTS station, connecting to the Terminal 21 shopping mall. I wanted to try all the desserts but was still full after our buffet breakfast at the hotel.

Luk Chup (made from mung bean paste), which is quite similar to our Malaysian Angku kuih. My older brother told me to try this dessert.

Rich and creamy Thai pudding dessert with coconut milk.

More sinful and mouthwatering desserts from the same stall.

I bought a punnet of Luk Chup to try. Not bad.

We found a bench at the Terminal 21 food court and sat there to eat our desserts before we walked to EmSphere mall for more shopping and then for lunch.

Secret Recipe, a Malaysian cake brand is found at the Terminal 21 shopping mall. And they have so many variety of cakes and cup cakes, which our Malaysian Secret Receipt outlets don’t have.

Spoilt for choices at the Bangkok’s Secret Receipt outpost.

But nope, we didn’t try them as we were saving the space in our tummies for real Thai food 😀

Waiting for our BTS skytrain that takes us to Terminal 21 mall.

Alycia got excited when she saw Hokkaido Ice Cream at Emsphere mall and bugged me to get her a matcha flavor on cone.

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Souvenirs and Snacks From Bangkok

I hadn’t intended to buy too many snacks from Bangkok because Thai snacks are not the healthiest of snacks – they are mostly deep-fried, very salty or sweet, or contain a lot of food additives. But I succumbed to the allure of Thailand’s culinary delights, resulting in a delightful collection of savory snacks and sweet treats that served as mementos of my time in the Land of Smiles.

One of the highlights of my snack haul was the irresistible dried mangoes that I discovered at Big C supermarket. Tempted by the tantalizing aroma and delectable taste given out as free sampling, I bought several packets. The dried mango snack was a hit among tourists as I saw many of them stacking up their shopping carts with this snack. Unlike their Filipino counterparts, Thai dried mangoes boast a unique mango aroma and a perfect balance of sweetness and texture (not too hard), making them a must-have for any snack enthusiast.

In addition to dried mangoes, I couldn’t resist indulging in some crispy seaweed—a well-known Thai snack renowned for its flavorful crunch and irresistible taste. I also stumbled upon a worker cutting freshly made coconut candies at Big C and I tried the sample. Thai coconut candy is a unique twist on the traditional dodol found in Malaysia. Wrapped in a mysterious plant casing, these delightful coconut candies offer a tantalizing blend of sweetness and texture that left me craving more, thus bought a packet to bring home.

On our second last day in Bangkok, during our shopping mall hopping adventure, we were greeted by food fests, held in conjunction with the Songkran water festival. Alycia and I were blown away by the different types of Thai snacks and street food. We wanted to try everything as every dish and snack looked alluring and delicious. The free sampling was the final straw and I ended up with more snacks. Some snacks are so fragile that I would have to hand-carry them back to Malaysia!

On our final day in Bangkok, I seized the opportunity to stock up on last-minute souvenirs and snacks at the airport, just to make the most of my remaining Thai Baht notes and coins. From crispy coconut chips to Thai peppermint inhalers and soothing hand lotion from Boots, each item served as a tangible reminder of my journey and a cherished memento of my time spent exploring Bangkok with my eldest daughter.

Delicious puffed rice crackers, pandan egg rolls, sweet potato chips and banana chips.

Young coconut chips, bought from the airport on our last day.

Crispy flavored seaweed snack. I find some of them overly sweet.

Thai peppermint inhaler. These are so popular in Thailand that they are sold in every pharmacy, supermarket, 7-11 convenience store, and even in the airport. I saw many foreign tourists sniffing it and out of curiosity bought two sticks to try (one for Alycia, one for me). We both liked it and then on our final day in Bangkok, bought two strips (8 sticks in each strip) from the airport to be given away as souvenir. The inhaler smells quite similar to our Malaysia ‘minyak angin’ but it has peppermint essential oil in it.

Snake brand prickly heat cooling powder is another popular item sold in Bangkok. It’s sold everywhere and even in the airport. I bought a can to try. It’s perfect for cooling down in our current heatwave.

You can read about our Chao Phraya river cruise on board the Royal Galaxy Cruise here.

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Monday, 29 November 2021 ~ Random Updates

This week Sherilyn is staying home for remote learning. She went to school last week. Next week will be the last week that Sherilyn attends physical classes in school before the year end school holidays begin.

I’ve been clocking in only 5-6 hours of shut-eye for the last two weeks, including Saturdays and Sundays. I was up early on both weekends as Alycia had to leave the house by 7 a.m. for the van driver from the driving school to fetch her to the driving academy in Puchong. She’s been attending driving lessons on Saturdays and Sundays the past two weeks. After 16 hours of lessons on the road (4 hours for each session), she’s now scheduled to sit for a trial exam this Thursday. Honestly, I’m not sure if 16 hours is sufficient. I’ve not sat in with her in my car for practice lessons as it’s technically not legal for her to be driving around without a driver’s license. I can only 🙏 that Alycia will pass the test in just one sitting. If she flunks, more money will fly out of my wallet for extra driving lessons. And losing more sleep as well 🥱

Just a little update on Alycia’s foundation program at Sunway College. Life in college is much more hectic than life in a Chinese independent high school. Chinese-style education is said to be one of the toughest institutions to be in and students from Chinese schools are always under pressure to be the best of the best. I’m somewhat thankful that she attended Chinese schools for 11 years and thus, has been conditioned for heavy load in homework and regular tests.

There are lots of projects, assignments, presentations and tests in college. Alycia sat for her first exam two months into the course. On some days when it’s her turn to be in college, she would only reach home after 7pm.

Alycia takes Grab to college on some days and on other days, her former classmate who stays in our hood who also goes to the same college, gives her a ride to and fro.

With the school holidays around the corner, Sherilyn is already planning to sell her best seller items to earn some money. Today she made strawberry milk for us and her friends to try. Next, she will work out the cost and price tag for the strawberry milk. She also intends to sell kimchi, tarts and other signature items. This girl has big plans for herself.

Refreshing strawberry milk made using frozen strawberries, Lakanto sugar and Australia fresh milk.

Chef Sherilyn’s new dish – sesame crusted pan fried salmon served with mayo wasabi dipping sauce.

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Nancy Chong’s Butter Icing Butter Cake

A good friend of hubs went to Ipoh and got him the much raved about Nancy Chong butter icing butter cake as Christmas gift. I’ve heard and read so much about Nancy Chong’s cake but never had the chance to try it until today. And it’s really delicious, although we find the icing too sweet.

The cake is made of pure butter and elegantly laced with melt-in-mouth icing that’s buttery with a fine sandy texture coming from the icing sugar. The taste and texture of Nancy Chong’s cake reminds me of the first time I tried butter cake with butter icing at a classmate’s 8th birthday party in Ipoh. I got hooked on the cake and told my mum about it. I asked mum to find the bakery that sold the butter icing cake but she didn’t really understood what her 8-year old daughter was describing to her. Now that I’ve finally tasted Nancy’s cake, the cake that I ate at my friend’s birthday party 39 years ago could have been Nancy Chong’s butter icing butter cake as it tastes very similar, with the traditional piped flower icing. Nancy Chong’s cakes have been around since 1958.

So happy that after 39 years, I finally tasted the cake that still makes me think about it all the time. The closest that I’ve tasted is Wondermilk butter icing cup cakes. I’m now already thinking of getting a Nancy Chong’s butter icing cake to celebrate my homecoming and reunion with my parents in Ipoh when we have the chance to go back to Ipoh. Currently, we dare not go back to Ipoh as my parents are high risk folks with high blood pressure and mum has weak lungs and asthma. Well, the agreement with the various vax firms have been inked and would be enough to cover about 80% of our country’s population (but children are not included yet). Hopefully the pandemic will be controlled by the first half of 2021! 🙏

No. of times viewed = 985

Our Talented Teenage Chef

Alycia and I realized that our dear in-house chef has a special preference when it comes to cooking. She seems to really enjoy making sushi/Gimbap and egg rolls. And everything Korean and Japanese! With whatever she can find in the fridge, she has the Midas touch to transform all the ingredients into some very appetizing and aesthetically pleasing sushi, Gimbap and egg rolls in a jiffy, like a professional chef. Her grandma and I can already hang up our aprons as we have such a talented and earnest chef at home to take over this chore. And my very persnickety and critical MIL is starting to love what her talented grand daughter could dish out 😊

But we can only enjoy her cooking and bakes during the CMCO and holidays. Once school resumes when the CMCO is lifted, she’ll be back to her hectic life again.

Yesterday Sherilyn dished out these yummy egg rolls for lunch, as there was still quite a bit of leftover egg whites in the fridge after she used the yolks to make Frangipane tart and orange curd.

Fried spam and carrots in the middle, followed by seaweed, pan fried egg whites and lastly pan fried whole eggs. These keto egg rolls not only look alluring, they are really scrumptious. I wonder where she learned to make all these from!

Lovely craftsmanship of artisanal food!

In the evening she prepped these Gimbap/Kimbap in a jiffy again because everyone else had Yomei’s purple rice yoghurt and this fussy girl finds it yucky to be chewing and gulping down rice with cold yoghurt 😬

Such a LOT of work goes into her Gimbap – the julienned carrots were sauteed, the sweet potato leaves were blanched, then seasoned the Korean style with sesame seed oil and soy sauce, egg strips and SPAM were pan fried before these were rolled with rice in a bamboo sushi mat. But for someone who loves cooking, the entire preparation is a joy, though very tedious.

Alycia and I thoroughly enjoyed our Yomie’s purple rice yoghurt for dinner and Cass had melon yoghurt. I think it’s quite a well balanced drink with protein from the yoghurt, and carbs and fiber from the chewy and addictive flavorful purple rice. The fresh yoghurt and purple rice blend give the beverage a viscous and creamy consistency, while not being overly sweet. These drinks are filled with beneficial probiotics and many people consume this drink as a meal replacement or diet drink. Even the mil approved this drink as a meal for dinner! 😆

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Philips Pressure Cooker Nian Gao (Kuih Bakul)

Mum had her first try making Nian Gao using the Philips Pressure Cooker (PPC) last Chinese New Year. It was a big success and her Gula Melaka Nian Gao are the best in the world. The girls and I heart them to bits. The Nian Gao were often polished off in a jiffy and often not enough to satiate everyone.

Yesterday we finished off the last Nian Gao that’s been in sitting in our freezer for months. I was too lazy to prep it but I had to finish off that year-old Nian Goa to make space for another batch, which mum just made yesterday (in Ipoh). I can’t wait to dig into them!

How to Prep Steamed Nian Gao The Easy Way!

Actually prepping the Nian Gao ain’t too messy and difficult. I discovered a super easy way of prepping it.

When the Nian Gao is half thawed (thus not sticky), cut it into bite size pieces. Line baking paper on the steaming plate for easy cleaning as the aftermath on the plate can be very messy and sticky without the baking paper. Place the bite size Nian Gao on the lined plate and once the water starts to boil, put it on the steaming rack and steam for 5-8 minutes. Be careful not to over-steam the Nian Gao or it will melt and turn into a messy pile of sticky goo which is hard to pull out from the plate, not to mention looks disgusting 🤭.

Below – just out from the wok. As you can see, the Nian Gao pieces are still intact but they are already very soft. Poke through the Nian Gao with a toothpick to check the doneness. Coat the pieces of sticky cake with freshly grated young coconut and sprinkle a little salt (optional).

Steamed Nian Kao / Lin Ko / Kuih Bakul is my top favorite CNY snack, besides meat jerky. I do like the CNY cookies, bee hives and muruku too but now that I’m eating clean, I’ve stopped indulging excessively in these snacks. I still do give myself a treat in small quantities. After all, what’s CNY without indulging yourself in these once-a-year treats, right?

Mum’s freshly made Nian Gao, using the PPC:

What’s your favorite CNY snacks?

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HFM’s Breakfast

The clock is ticking away to the day that Maria, my beloved part-time helper of 7 years goes on a 3-month maternity leave ~ only two more days with us 😭

Though Maria can’t do much strenuous work lately, we still love having her around in the evening to help us wash the dishes and do other light chores. We treat her like she’s one of the family members and our 3 girls adore her… more than they adore me! But that’s OK and I don’t get jealous. Maria gives me a sense of comfort whenever she’s around. I can just leave the house to her to clean up and go out and I will surely come home to a spic and span and clean house, every single time. I hope she’ll keep her promise and return to work for us in October 🙏

My breakfast for the last few days ☺️

Sherilyn’s homemade pie crust with papa’s homemade pandan kaya. So yummeh!!

Tucker’s gourmet caramelized onion crackers with papa’s homemade pandan kaya and a wedge of Mozarella cheese. I always eat some protein with my carbs to slow down the release of insulin / spike in blood sugar.

Tucker’s gourmet crackers are made from non-GMO ingredients and yeast-free. They’re pretty low in carbs too. Goes well with Western soups, curries, jams and even good on its own.

And my mid-morning breakkie with the hubs yesterday:

One of the best pork noodles in KL can be found at Sun Sea kopitiam at OUG, where the morning market is. The coffee shop is kind of unkempt and run down. It’s very stuffy and hot to sit inside, so we sat outside and still had to sweat it out to enjoy our bowl of piping hot pork noodles.

What’s so special about the pork noodles is the broth – it’s infused with the umami sweetness of seafood. We heard that the seller adds seafood into the broth, to add depth and flavors into it. Outside the coffee shop, you’ll see foreign workers peeling tons of prawns and squids.

Restoran Sun Sea OUG Pork Noodles
(Beside OUG morning wet market)
Jalan Hujan Rahmat,
Taman Overseas Union Garden (OUG),
58200 Kuala Lumpur.

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Durian For Breakfast

Here’s what I had for my mid-morning breakfast today.

Two seeds of Durian ‘kampung’

And four slices of Meiji oat crackers slathered with papa’s delicious homemade pandan kaya.

Lately, I can only tolerate durian ‘kampung’ well without the adverse side effects that I get whenever I eat Musang King. With Musang King, I am sure to get a burning throat within minutes of eating, thrown in with stomach discomfort and diarrhea as quick as several hours later. The burning throat sensation would persist for a few days and I would feel sickly and heaty. I can’t recall suffering from these side effects when I ate Musang King years ago.

Last week Sherilyn suffered from diarrhea and tummy ache for several days after feasting on a few seeds of Musang King. And the hubs is now nursing a sore throat after indulging in some premium Musang King early this week.

Creepy right?

Fans of Musang King, please don’t shoot me for being a party pooper!

See the trend? I’m pretty sure it’s the side effects of the chemicals and insecticide that these premium durians have been tainted with. A few fruit sellers whom I am very chummy with confirmed this recently. So no thanks. I am so done and over with Musang King and all the premium species.

I’m sticking with durian ‘kampung’ from my regular organic vegetables seller and from trusted fruit sellers who are upfront with me on which durians have high levels of insecticide. With durian ‘kampung’, I don’t suffer from any side effects, except feeling a tad heaty when I overdo it.

Do you get similar side effects from Musang King too?

No. of times viewed = 36

Breakfast

My breakfast today consists of a small bowl of Amazin’ Graze salted Gula Melaka granola with Yoplait vanilla yoghurt, a banana, half an avocado, an orange and a small cup of coffee. Also popped 3 caps of Super Lutein, my most trusted antioxidant and vitamins for my eyes.

This is my typical breakfast on most days.

Once in a blue moon, I get to indulge in my favorite childhood Indian dessert ~ Putu Mayam, if I happen to catch the Putu Mayam seller when I buy the newspapers at 7 in the morning. The seller will give me extra freshly grated young coconut and palm sugar at no extra cost. You must be wondering why Health Freak Mommy is tucking into such empty calories but how can I resist it?! Putu Mayam is a combo of my favorite things (coconut, meehoon and palm sugar) packaged into one! This definitely won’t hurt! Plus point ~ Putu Mayam is one of the most magical and economical foods in the whole world. It’s a no-frill, no chi- chi delicacy. Two pieces only cost RM1.20!! Can you believe it? I wonder how much the poor seller makes in a day selling Putu Mayam and Vade. Now bring on the old strap bag and dig into a stack of Putu Mayam babe. Any time of the day!!

On some mornings, I hang out at the kopitiam with the hubs, mil and Drama Queen to feast on Malaysian hawkers fare. I normally enjoy a bowl of keto minced pork noodles or pan mee with vegetables and eggs, minus the noodles. Sometimes I have tomyam noodles, without the noodles. When I crave for some carbo, I take a pinch of vermicelli from the stall and tell the seller that I only want this much of noodles, which is just a forkful of vermicelli. My milk tea is sans sugar too and sometimes less sugar.

On some cheat days, after a good workout, I pop some of these Royce maccha almond chocolates into my mouth after my breakfast! *swoon*

The sil from Hong Kong got this box of Royce chocolates for me when she visited last month. Best chocolate in the world, after Whittakers! In my world 😋

No. of times viewed = 31

Distraction

I am in trouble. Serious trouble.

No, I don’t have 1 trillion Ringgit in debts. But I have sleep debts, backlog of work and yet, I can’t keep my eyes away from the news. I try hard not to go to Facebook but my phone is beeping away from my Whatsapp notification on incoming messages. The stream of news trickling in every minute of the day since 9 May 2018 on our very juicy Malaysian politics is SO hard to resist not to read! I was never interested in politics but this time, I am hooked on it! The current Malaysian politics is as thrilling as TVB drama series. Who gets in the Cabinet and who gets kicked out finally (good riddance!) is so exciting!

The entire Malaysia is anxiously waiting for more skeletons to be dug out from the closet, for explanation on how the 1 trillion Ringgit debts came about, on the truth behind Altantuya’s and Kevin Morais’ gruesome murder and much, much more! We can’t wait to see that kleptocrat and his rapacious other half suffer behind bars for all the wrongs and hardship they had inflicted on the Rakyat.

Thankfully the mil is around to cook, else I would be buying takeout dinners or have sandwiches or toasts for dinner everyday as I am too busy to even cook 😆

Nope this is not our lunch or dinner. It’s my breakfast – 2 slices of wholemeal bread slathered with pure butter and papa’s homemade strawberry jam and almond jam, washed down with a packet of antioxidant packed and eye-loving Ningxia Red.

Cass’ breakfast was a Portugese egg tart and a packet of Ningxia Red. This girl who seems to have zilch appetite at 5:30 in the morning (but transforms into a ravenous piranha later in the day) was moaning about how heavy her breakfast was and how she felt like puking after forcing the egg tart down 🙄

But I strongly believe in having a good breakfast to fuel the body and mind for the day and satiate unhealthy cravings throughout the day. Once, I agreed to let her go to school without any food in her stomach and what do I know? She came home and told me that she had fleeting blackout moments just before recess. She thought that she was going to faint and quickly bent down, something which I had taught her. There you go girl, told you breakfast is important!! After that incident, no matter how ‘full’ she feels in the morning, I always make sure that she has food in her stomach, even if it’s some unhealthy sweet biscuits. But I always put food that she likes on the table ~ quail eggs, chicken eggs, boiled fish paste, siew mai, cold green tea noodles and savoury bites.

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My Monday Morning

For the past few mornings, I’ve been bumping into a putu mayam seller at the news stand. Each time I see him on his bike, I’d have the urge to get a few pieces of putu mayam from him. It’s been coon’s age since I last ate putu mayam and I miss it. It’s one of my favorite Malaysian desserts. But it’s a high caloric and high carb food. Wolfing down one piece of putu mayam would mean dumping back all the calories that I had burnt in my morning’s 40-minute exercise. But what the heck! Life is short and treat this as a cheat day treat, hey? 😉

Today I finally bought 3 pieces at 60 sen a piece. I wonder how this seller earns a living selling putu mayam at 60 sen a piece. Even if he earns a 50% profit, it’s only 30 sen profit per piece. He can’t even earn a Ringgit of profit from my purchase of 3 pieces. How can he possibly survive in KL with his meager earnings? I think I’m going to buy 10 pieces from him the next time and give them away as treat to the friendly guards at our condo.

Good ‘ol putu mayam wrapped with plastic and newspapers. It’s a dessert made up of all my favorite things ~ fresh and aromatic grated young coconut (I could live on this alone!), gula Melaka (palm sugar) and rice flour noodles (very similar to mee hoon). This is such an awesome combo albeit it looks plain and eaten cold. Another yummy version of this dessert is ‘Putu Piring’, which is composed of the same ingredients but steamed in bamboo cups or a stainless steel steamer.

After my breakkie of a piece of putu mayam, I dropped Drama Queen at the tuition center, then brought Alycia to the clinic. She’s down with food poisoning (possibly from an overdose of some wrinkled month-old mini Mandarin oranges) and had been purging and vomiting since 2 a.m. I could have just self treated her at home with charcoal pills and Izumio. But at the high school that she goes to, absence from school without an MC would mean 0.2 points deducted from each subject. And a few points lost may render her being kicked to lower ranking classes, something that petrifies her.

After Drama Queen’s class ended, we went for a short retail therapy at Mid Valley Megamall! 😆 We had lunch at Nana’s Green Tea, which is the girl’s favorite restaurant just because of the macha latte, which is her absolute favorite drink. Nana’s Green Tea serves one of the best macha latte, much more better than Star Bucks *in our opinion* and according to Drama Queen, better than the ones she tried in Hong Kong.

Drama Queen giving me the Dab to avoid being photographed rolleyes

Despite a short retail therapy at the mall in the rush hours of the morning, I managed to drop off Drama Queen pretty early in school. I then went to the bakery to get some buns for the girls before going home, got some work done on the computer before Cass returned from school. Thank God Alycia got better by noon and needn’t have to pop the pills that the doctor prescribed her with. My approach is always to wait and see if it’s not life threatening and where there’s no fever.

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My Breakfast – 10 October 2017

On a rare school day morning, I skipped exercising today. For those who know me well will know that I hardly ever skip my morning exercise, unless I am feeling really debilitated like a chicken with the pip. My morning exercise is my jam, a time where I do my soul-searching and meditation. It wasn’t because I was lazy or demotivated. Blame it on the rain and a slight headache I got since yesterday. My body must be working hard to fight off the bugs that Drama Queen had picked up from school. And because of the rain, I found a very valid reason to crawl back onto bed after sending off Cass and Drama Queen to the transporter and took an hour nap thereafter, complete with dreams, hehe!

After I got up from my nap, I did some house chores, then had my main breakfast. My first breakfast of the day has always been apple cider vinegar with honey and psyllium musk, some fruits and a glass of decaff coffee with skim milk.

My main breakfast today consists of bitter gourd omelette with a squeeze of Zoosh 1000 Island Zingy Tomato Cocktail dressing, a mug of Marmite soup, a packet of Izumio hydrogen water and half a wedge of Musang King durian snowskin mooncake from Dureeca.

Pocotee & friends Musang King durian frosty mooncake from Dureeca – sweetness is just right, snowskin is super soft with melt-in-your-mouth texture and the Musang King durian filling is generous. The second you sink your teeth into this luxurious mooncake, the durian filling made from real Musang King durian flesh and tastes 99% like fresh durian will ooze out from the snowskin *swoon*

The box of Dureeca Durian King mooncakes are packaged beautifully in a classy box that comes with a limited edition gold cooling bag. Click here to find out where you can purchase this indulgent Frosty Musang King Mooncake

And my confession of the day: I wolfed down the entire durian mooncake yesterday.

Dear skies, you better not rain in my parade tomorrow morning for I am hell-bent on running 40 minutes to melt away those Musang King durian swooshing in my tummy.

No. of times viewed = 10

The Ultimate Popcorn

Of all the brands of popcorns that I have tasted, the ultimate luxurious popcorn goes to Garrett. No other brands come close to it. I love them to bits and this means inches creeping up my waist. Garrett’s popcorns are my ultimate kryptonite. But we don’t splurge on them often as they are the Rolls Royce of popcorns. A medium sized bag of our favorite Macadamia CaramelCrisp costs RM34 while those in tins range from RM48 to RM232.

The hubs surprised us with a bag of Garrett’s Macadamia CaramelCrisp when he went to KLCC for a F&B exhibition last week. I was pleased as punch! I haven’t indulged in them for aeons.

When Cass saw me popping these macadamia popcorns into my mouth over breakfast, she crept up to me and said this to me disapprovingly, “mummy, YOU are eating popcorn for breakfast? You the Health Freak Mommy are eating popcorn? How can you?!”

No. of times viewed = 5

Our Saturday Morning – 3 June 2017

My parents, hubster and MIL left the house at 6:30 a.m. today for the Taman Midah, Cheras wet market. My aunt (my papa’s sister) runs a vegetarian food stall at the said wet market. Today, their mission is to try my aunt’s homemade vegetarian food. My aunt has been making her own vegetarian food and selling them at a stall at the Taman Midah, Cheras wet market for over 20 years.

Our brunch today is a kaleidoscope of colour. I love all things colorful.

Mock meat rendang, which tastes as good as, if not even better than real meat. Yums, tastes like a million dollars!

Vegetarian ‘Suen Poon Chi’ or Hakka Yam Balls made by my aunt, who is a Hakka.

The chewy ‘Suen Poon Chi’ is another must-try dish at my aunt’s vegetarian stall; she doesn’t make this dish everyday though.

Vegetarian ‘Mee Siam’ and ‘Char Siew’.

‘Ka Heong Jai’, braised super smooth mushrooms with mock meat and deep fried mock goose.

Vegetarian cheong fun (with turnip and carrot strips), ‘choy po ko’ and ‘mei tau’ (black eye peas) cake. My aunt makes all the dishes herself in her humble home.

Since they were already in Cheras, at my request, the hubster used Waze to find his way to the Cute Cute Angku shop to get me more cutesy handcrafted angku 😋

Yummy pork balls noodles soup

A big portion of pork ball noodles for lunch later

My parents will be with us for another day before they return to Ipoh. I’ll definitely miss them a lot. 💔 I’m feeling disappointed that this mid-term school holidays, we are unable to make a trip back to my lovely hometown of Ipoh 😓

No. of times viewed = 14

Breakfast

My breakfast for the past 2 days…

Day 1 – homemade banana cupcake – made with almond flour, wholewheat flour, cake flour and reduced sugar (organic fine raw sugar). A slice of crispy sprouted wheat toast with homemade nutty jam (almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts and olive oil) and palm sugar (Gula Melaka) syrup.

Day 2 – a slice of crispy sprouted wheat bread with dad’s homemade pandan kaya. Notice that on day 1, I ate 1 slice of toast and 1 cup cake and on day 2 only 1 slice of toast? That’s because I worked out 15 minutes lesser in the gym on day 2, thus input of calories should also be lesser – then you won’t give the extra calories the chance to attack your waistline. Common sense 😀

And ahem… the dessert… I know it’s fattening and heaty but the durian season only comes several times in a year. So chow while they are in season! haha!

Musang King liu lian 😀

So how do we manage to keep ‘heatiness’ at bay from all these crazy durian binging? With Izumio hydrogen water of course and I swear by it – for my kids and me! During each durian season in the past, getting a sore throat is not uncommon for us. Thankfully this time, we have Izumio to bring down the heatiness from the durians and crazy heatwave. And we have Super Lutein to strengthen our immune system guards too 😀

Give me a buzz via email @ shireenyong@gmail.com if you want to find out more on Izumio and Super Lutein.

No. of times viewed = 5

Mommy’s Simply Whack Pizza

This is my simply whack homemade pizza for lunch today…

I used Mission wholegrain wraps as the crust and it turned out to be very crrrrrrispy!

Sauce base is tomato paste for Alycia and homemade pesto sauce for Cass.

Toppings are fresh button mushrooms, sweet corn kernels, juicy sweet cherry tomatoes and Emborg Natural Cheddar Cheese Slices.

Preparation time = 15 minutes

Baking time in oven at 160 degrees Celsius = 15 minutes

Alycia and Cass loved this simply whack, cincai pizza. I think this is anytime better than store-bought pizzas! 😛

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