How to live out your fantasies in an hour

That is, if your fantasies are mainly adrenaline-charged activities like riding a motorbike off road, speeding in a manual car with no fear of dying, shooting without killing, or scoring high points in hockey without breaking a sweat.

Welcome to arcade games of the 80s and 90s.

Air hockey in air-con.

Shoot legally.

Take your speedy looking machine off the beaten track.

Hop on a motorbike at 8 years old and take it off road, baby!

Speed without fear of dying or speeding ticket.

Everyday is Food Revolution Day

Since I'm such a huge fan of Jamie Oliver and his causes, it seems appropriate for me to be involved in Food Revolution Day (hashtag "frd2013" on Instagram). The best thing is that I don't need to get out of the house for it. In celebration of FRD2013 in our little way, and to just make everyday cooking just a tad special today, we added a little lemon twist to our usual roast chicken recipe. I didn't feel like attempting a new recipe on a Friday evening when cooking tones down for the week, so making our old favourite is more sensible.

To make home cooking an everyday affair without pulling your hair out, here are five tips on how we do it in our family.

1. Simple recipes 

Don't overwhelm yourself with complicated recipes. Find simple recipes to follow that require only 2 to 3 steps. One-dish meals are the best, because they just tend to "throw together" to make a healthy meal.

2. Plan and Prepare

Be it meal planning or preparation of ingredients, try to organise them in advance (weekends?). Much of the time is spent in preparation, not the actual cooking. So if that's out of the way, more than half the battle is done.

3. Stock up

Spend a day (and some money) to stock up your kitchen pantry with herbs, flour, sauces and anything that can help you make your meal delicious. Choose whole food, of course. When your pantry is well-stocked, you will feel more motivated to cook.

4. Kitchen Gadgets

Make full use of kitchen gadgets - blender, food processor, electric chopper, oven, induction stove. Anything that can make your life easier. You don't need all of these appliances, just the one or two you may need the most often in your recipes. That's why meal planning is important (not just so you save time from "I don't know what to cook" moments), so your appliances may not become white elephant.

5. Believe in yourself

Last, but not least, change your mindset. Don't think you can't cook. Surely you can. Just look at the recipes below. SURELY YOU CAN TOO.

This day is essentially to encourage everyone to cook, share real food. One of the reasons why most people don't cook is the lack of time. So in the spirit of FRD2013, I decided to share these very simple and healthy dishes that will take only two, at most three steps to make. Everyone, anyone can make these. Really!

Rosemary Thyme Roast Chicken with Meyer Lemons

Ingredients
Chicken drumsticks (hormone and antibiotic-free!)
Thyme
Rosemary
Sea salt
Pepper
Meyer Lemons, or usual lemons (sliced)

Step 1: Marinate chicken with the above ingredients.
Step 2: Squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken and place the lemons in with the meat.
Step 3: Roast/Grill at 200C for 20 minutes.

Steamed Mixed Vegetables

Only one step for this: Steam!

Organic Sweet Potato Mash with a stick of butter

Ingredients

Sweet potatoes

A little knob of butter

Step 1: Steam whole sweet potatoes with skin on for 20 minutes.

Step 2: Remove skin from the potatoes and mash with fork or masher.

Step 3: Add a knob of butter and stir in well. 

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Lemon Chia Seeds Muffins

About a lifetime ago, my friend baked the most delicious Lemon Poppy Muffins for me and ever since, I've been meaning to make some too. I'm not sure if Singapore sells poppy seeds. They seem illegal to me, but I didn't get a high from those muffins, so maybe the opium comes from the leaves, not seeds?

Anyway, no poppy seeds, no poppy muffins. I had an eureka moment when I was making muesli with Chia seeds. Have you heard of Chia seeds? Supposed to be a superfood. I like it because it shares the same name as me, so luckily it's supposed to be healthy. I decided then that Chia seeds look like poppy seeds, so they should substitute each other. Yes, I'm "brilliant" and "scientific" like this.

I didn't really grow from a seed, no.

A week ago, I bought a packet of Meyer lemons from the supermarket. Meyer lemons are kind of a cross between lemons and mandarin oranges, named after an American guy called Meyer although grown natively in China (China gotta work on their marketing skills. Didn't they invent gunpowder too? But I don't think they took the credit?). Meyer lemons are sweeter than lemons (I supposed it's because of its orange genes), and have much more subtle flavour and aroma than lemons. They are a little bit smaller too, but still as juicy and refreshing.

Meyer lemons in gorgeous yellow and tinge of orange

So armed with these lemons-cross-oranges specie and Chia seeds, I suddenly felt very creative. These Lemon Chia Muffins resulted.

Lemon Chia Seeds Muffin

While I really enjoyed the final product this time, I'm going to tweak the recipe a bit to make it more moist. Why? The muffins were not hard, but they were a tad dry and might benefit from a tablespoon more of lemon juice and milk. I just forgot that Chia seeds absorb water like sponge! You can make a Chia seed pudding by adding water to it, faster than making jelly.

So here's the tweaked recipe for next time.

Ingredients
3 cups almond meal
6 tbs Chia seeds (I don't think you actually need to type "Chia" with a capital "C", but I'm used to it being my name)
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbs lemon zest (about 2 Meyer lemons)
6-8 tbs lemon juice
8 tbs milk
1 tbs vanilla extract
5 tbs coconut oil
1/2 cup raw honey

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl.

Mix wet ingredients in another bowl.

Blend the wet and dry ingredients together thoroughly.

Scoop the batter into lined muffin tray. This batch made about 12 to 16 muffins, depending on the size of your muffin liners. I used cupcake liners, which are smaller.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170C for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.

The raw batter which K and T love. They eat the raw batter as it is!

Stir-fry Lemon Grass Chicken

Chicken breast is one of my least favourite meat to cook, because I simply can't cook it very well. It usually comes out too dry, hard or tasteless, or all three. However, I usually have some frozen ones in the freezer as back-up.

After our Knorr Cook-Out demonstration, we picked up a few tips on how to handle chicken breast so we get tender meat instead. EJ and I put it to practice one weekend. It got to do with slicing the meat sideways, instead of just cutting it straight down. Also, marinate then coat with a bit of corn flour (I'm trying to find a better alternative to corn flour).

EJ watched a cooking show on stir-frying chicken with lemon grass stems, so we got creative and bought a few stems to create our own dish.

Ingredients
1kg chicken breast (we cook for a large family of 7-8)
Minced garlic
3 stems of lemon grass, chopped finely
Ginger
Mushrooms (we used fresh white and canned champignons)
A red deseeded chilli
Lots of fresh coriander
Red Boat fish sauce

Marinate
Sesame oil
White pepper
Corn flour

Marinate the sliced chicken breast with sesame oil and pepper.

Sprinkle a dash or two tsp of corn flour onto the marinated chicken and mix well.

In a hot wok, saute the garlic till fragrant.

Add in ginger and lemon grass. Saute till fragrant.

In goes the meat. Add a bit of water when necessary (like when you see the meat beginning to stick onto the wok).

When meat is about 3/4-cooked, add mushrooms.

Add the chilli last if you don't want the dish to be too spicy.

Turn off the heat.

Season with fish sauce.

Add in coriander - as a garnish, or if you are like my family who adores coriander, add lots and stir through the dish.

Serve!

We served with a side of sauteed kale with garlic.

Just at the right time

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born

And a time to die;

A time to plant,

And a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill,

And a time to heal;

A time to break down,

And a time to build up;

A time to weep,

And a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

And a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones,

And a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace,

And a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain,

And a time to lose;

A time to keep,

And a time to throw away;

A time to tear,

And a time to sew;

A time to keep silence,

And a time to speak;

A time to love,

And a time to hate;

A time of war,

And a time of peace.

~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ~

source

I've never been good in planting or growing anything green. I have what most people refer to of those who can't keep plants alive - black thumb. Growing up in an urban city, I have even less of an opportunity to turn the black thumb green. The only green plant I've ever grown are mung beans on a wet cotton wool, which died after sprouting for a few days. I simply have no idea when to water, sun, transfer the seedlings to soil, etc. I either care for it too much and drown the poor plant in water, or lose my patience in nurturing it.

Wow, I sound like a plant murderer. If parenting is liken to planting or farming, am I doing the same thing to my child? I shudder at the thought!

Thankfully, my child responds to me much more than a seed or a plant. That leaves much of the guessing work in planting out of the picture. I mean, when I plant a handful of mung beans, I don't even know if they are all alive. So I had to take chances and just guess.

With my child, the telltale signs are much more obvious. If she's thirsty, she asks for a drink. If she's bored, she looks for toys to play with. If she's tired, she whines and falls asleep. If she's not getting enough attention, she seeks it from me. All these in her own time, own target.

These "keeping the child alive" bits are actually the easiest part of parenting. The difficult bit is their emotional, mental and spiritual development. From learning to crawl to scoring their first A in their studies, we panick when ours do not match up with our friend's child who's born in the same year, but months apart. This sort of behaviour is stifling and pressurising. It makes parenting such an unhappy job. We may inevitably resent our children for not measuring up and causing us grief that we actually brought upon ourselves, because we didn't wait for the right time.

This article puts this "early harvesting" in an apt analogy. Two farmers - an orange farmer and a sugarcane farmer - each has different planting and harvesting season.

"If the orange farmer didn't know HIS crop and HIS season, he could have wasted time and energy either being jealous of the sugarcane farmer or he could have worked in vain to try to make his crops yield fruit out of season.

"... it doesn't matter what season anyone else is in. It doesn't matter if they are having the harvest of their lives..."

"We need to know our season. There is such freedom in yielding to God's timing. If we listen to HIS timing, we won't run ourselves ragged trying to harvest the wrong things in the wrong season..."

There is a sense of liberation in waiting, a sense of peace when we patiently accept God's timing. If we put our trust in Him, we won't harvest before the right time and destroy the crop. Neither should we be lazy and delay harvesting, or the weeds will take over and strangle the good fruit.

Eat your vegetables!

After I found my awesome butchery, I went on another quest to find the best value organic vegetables. Well, actually, I wanted to get my hands on kale. At the same time, I was looking for a reliable grocery delivery service. I've been using Cold Storage Online for years, but they are only reliable for canned products and frozen vegetable packs. I needed someone that stocks a variety of fresh vegetables and deliver as well. Google, my best online friend, found SG Organic for me.

I've always thought those weekly fruit and vegetable boxes that my Aussie friends get from their farmers are great. The surprise and variety in each weekly box is so inspiring. After months of contemplating whether it was sustainable for our pockets to do it this way, I decided to click "Check Out" and got my first box of Fruit & Veg, simply because I won't know till I see how much produce is actually in a box.

What goodies are in this week's box?

A huge bunch of dark green kale, and mushrooms

Pears, kiwi, green apples, broccoli, corn, carrots, baby spinach

For assurance

The variety in a box

A sweet spicy freebie for a personal friendly touch

This was actually my second box. My first box included a whole butternut squash, sweet potatoes, beetroot, parsley, bananas, red apples and red plums, all organic, of course. Every single item in the box was very fresh and tasty. I don't normally like raw broccoli, but I thought it would be a waste to cook an organic one to death, so I made a fresh raw salad with it.

"Oh yum!" is all I can say.

Value for money and flexible
The Fruit & Veg box was very value-for-money for us. I enjoyed the different fruits and variety of vegetables, which are inspiring for those ordinary cooking days. I saved time by not having to soak the vegetables to get rid of pesticides, but just a simple rinse. I also like SG Organic's flexibility in exchanging a few vegetables with others that I can't have or would like more of. So far, I've exchanged potatoes with sweet potatoes, parsley with coriander, and requested for additional baby spinach. All you need to do is put in the request in the comments page upon check-out. No question asked, just efficiency.

Personal and friendly
Although it's an online shop, I've corresponded a few times with Bonnie, whom I assumed is the owner. The very friendly and helpful lady has a superb memory. Even after our first correspondence by email without any order, she remembered my enquiry of their stock of almond meal. Subsequently, when she wrote to ask if I enjoyed my first order, she said they will be bringing in almond meal next month! As almond meal is a staple in my pantry, I buy it in bulk. I am looking forward to getting it delivered with my vegetables once it comes in!

Bonnie also very kindly shared a few ways of eating kale when I mentioned my love of the kale in the box.

It has been my second box already with SG Organic. I see more of them to come as we continue our journey of healthy wholesome food.

Check out SG Organic on their Facebook page!

Disclaimer: This is purely a personal review.

Simple is best (and more delicious!)

Ever since we started on gluten-free, sugar-free and mostly dairy-free cooking, I've been struggling to find healthy, simple and delicious recipes. Most recipes have a long list of strange ingredients, which are gluten-free, but not necessarily healthy. I think it has to do with trying to create gluten-free food to taste like its original gluten version.

To embark on this gluten-free journey, I think it is important to reconcile with the fact that gluten-free food will taste different from its gluten version. One cannot expect a chewy white gluten-free bread. It's the gluten that makes it chewy and the bleached flour that makes it white, so in essence, it's impossible to create an exact gluten-free version.

That doesn't mean that gluten-free foods have to be tasteless, dry, bland and unappetising. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I've stopped labeling my food as a gluten-free version of this and that. Instead, I embrace my new cooking challenge and make delicious meals with K based on all the healthy ingredients we should eat. I don't even tell people that it is gluten-free. Perhaps only when they exclaim how delicious it is, then I may reveal that it's healthy. Most of the time, people are surprised that it's sugar-free, flourless, and no weird seasoning of any kind, but just simple wholesome food.

My first foray into gluten-free baking and cooking was based on recipes by Elana Amsterdam on Elana's Pantry. Elana is a popular food blogger who tried and tested (sometimes up to more than ten times on one recipe) gluten-free recipes, mainly with almond flour as the chief ingredient. Her website is a rich resource for starters. I like how dynamic and evolving her cooking style and recipes are as her experiments and research develops.

As vast information is already available on her blog, I was hesitant at first to purchase the first book that she published - The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook. What more could I gain out of her book if her website is constantly updated anyway, right?

I've a weakness in pretty pictures in cookbooks though, and there were quite a few recipes in the book that were not available on her website. So after searching near and far in several bookshops (before I discovered Bookdepository and Fishpond), I finally got my hands on a copy of her first book, which is also incidentally, my first gluten-free cookbook.

The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook by Elana Amsterdam

This cookbook covers breakfasts, entrees, main meals and desserts. At 136 pages, it is a very manageable size for a cookbook that I need to constantly flip, tag and dogear. I appreciate Elana's introduction of almond flour and its health benefits, as well as a section on stocking up a Almond Flour Pantry with basic items you may need to work with this flour.

Benefits of almond flour versus others, P4

Other complementary ingredients, P11

My absolute favourite of this book is the heart of it - the recipes. The signature of Elana's recipes is the short list of ingredients. Most of them require less than ten ingredients, averaging about 7 to 8. There are no strange ingredients that are difficult to get, but all just simple whole foods most likely already in your pantry today. That itself scores high points in my review.

Savory Vegetable Quiche, one of my favourite recipes.
P61

Another plus point of Elana's recipes is her method of cooking. She uses very simple methods, mostly, combine in a bowl, bake/cook. That's it! No complicated processing or handling of any one ingredient. That means you can whip up a delicious healthy meal very quickly. No more cook's fatigue*! That's important to all of us, whether you are a FTWM, WAHM, PTWM, SAHM, or just someone who wants to eat well without too much hassle.

I like the sweetness index under the baked goods section. That helps me to choose a recipe that's for a special treat or one that we can afford to eat more often. The only issue is that Elana uses agave nectar, which I'm not a fan of. This becomes a non-issue when I just simply substitute with honey by 1:1.

The photos in the book are beautifully taken. The only downside is the lack of photos for every recipe, so sometimes I don't know if what I've made turned out right. Then again, as long as it tastes good, eh?

Pancakes made with almond flour, P23

So, whether you're starting on a healthy cooking journey, or looking to experiment with alternative ingredients, The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook is a good place to start.

*Cook's Fatigue - a syndrome, whereby the cook usually loses his/her appetite after spending hours cooking in the kitchen.

Disclaimer: This is purely a personal review.

Dare to dream

Childhood is the period in life when we could dream big with abandon and have absolutely no regard for the consequences of our dreams.

We play pretences of real life jobs which are down-to-earth like the old man with the big straw hat that sweeps our void deck every morning, or the vegetable seller auntie at the wet market who does Maths at lightning speed.

Some days, we decide to dream of more far-fetched jobs like being an astronaut and spin ourselves dizzy and then stop suddenly to feel like we are floating in zero gravity. Or perhaps not realising how many years a person needs to invest in education before becoming a doctor, we simply pick up our plastic stethoscope toy and mechanical pencil and start giving "injections" to our siblings while loudly proclaiming that we are the doctors amidst the loud wails of the baby bro or sis.

Fairy tales take over sometimes and we transform into princesses and warriors fighting a bolster dressed up as a fire-spitting dragon. We then move on beyond the medieval times and teleport to the future by becoming Superman, tying a red towel on our back as the cape. Reality strikes when we "fly" off the couch with the cape and hit the head, resulting in a big blue-black bump.

When we became adults, life experiences shaped (or deformed??) our dreams. We weigh the pros and cons and realised our own capabilities. Suddenly, our dreams shrank. Instead of the child-like faith of "When I grow up, I want to be....", we become less confident, or some say "more realistic", and the phrase change to "I don't know what I want to be".

Parental expectations and social pressures cause us to reshape our dreams. Parents want us to be like them, or better, so we are pushed to study very hard in the hope of earning big bucks. But big bucks is not enough. It must be a sustainable career that gives us a reputable social standing, in the likes of doctors and lawyers.

Society puts a stigma on certain jobs like cleaner or sweeper. Although these jobs play very important roles in the sustainability of our society, no one thinks they should be the one doing it. Even with "new age" parenting these days where we teach that the people holding such jobs are important and should be respected, deep down in our hearts, we secretly don't wish that upon our own children.

So, our childhood dreams shrank. We forgot what we wanted to be. We become lost adults, as compared to our child-like determination back then when we were just wee ones. We dare not dream big, because we "need to be practical and realistic". Indeed, that's closer to the success of survival in our current civilisation than just childish dreams.

Yet, dreams are what give us courage to pursue. Dreams help us to stay positive. Dreams make us happy. Dreams give us hope.

Those were memories of my childhood dreams. At that point of pretence, whether or not I consider the possibility (or impossibility) of realising any of them when we reach adulthood isn't important. The important thing was I imagined wildly, thought beyond the boundaries, and dreamt freely.

Maybe not the "Superman" dream.

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Motherhood is...

... them, without whom I wouldn't have the privilege to be a mum.

Upper Pierce Reservoir, Singapore,  January 2013