Noodles With Cuttlefish Balls, Octopus Balls And Fish Paste

Dinner on one of the busy weekdays last week was vermicelli with homemade fish paste and cuttlefish balls and octopus balls from Nikudo Seafood.





This pack of Nikudo Seafood cuttlefish balls cost RM18 and came with a small pack of premium octopus ball as free gift, while stock lasts. A pack has about 40+ cuttlefish balls.






Nikudo seafood balls boast of being free from preservative and coloring.




Check out the list of ingredients on the packet of the cuttlefish balls.  I don't see the word MSG printed on the packet but I did feel thirsty after this meal.  But I ain't sure where the culprit was - the balls, the anchovies or the soy sauce and dark sauce that I used to make my kon loh noodles.  I used organic soy sauce and regular dark sauce.




Yummy and springy seafood balls... yup they are really addictive.





Soup base was sauteed anchovies with garlic, with lots of green veggies, tomatoes and carrots for the natural sweetness.





Kon lo maifun and ching thong maifun with fish paste, sotong balls and octopus balls.  Everyone loved it!    Since there was a portion of vermicelli and seafood balls left, I made a new batch of soup with pork, carrots, onions and tomatoes the next day for Drama Queen and Cass' lunch.

Health Freak Mommy's Breakfast

My mid-morning breakfast for today composed of a wedge of avocado, toasted coconut bread (from my favorite cafe, Red Kettle) with light cream cheese and chia seeds, toasted sunflower seeds and toasted pecans.






Yesterday's breakkie was overnight oats (I use organic old fashion rolled oats) with organic dried cranberries, almonds, chia seeds, a spoonful of Pic's sugar-free peanut butter and a drizzle of maple syrup.  The oats were soaked overnight with skimmed milk and almonds.  The other ingredients were added just before eating.





This morning I boiled a pot of garbanzo beans (chick peas) with curry powder*.  This will be my wholesome, low-carb, high-protein and nutrient-dense power snack to curb hunger pangs throughout the day. Great for salads too.  Depending on my mood later, I may even get Drama Queen to help me make avocado hummus dip from these garbanzo beans. I have in mind an avocado + garlic + garbanzo beans hummus dip.  Sounds really yummy eh?

Garbanzo beans provide you with a vegetarian-friendly source of protein and has a rich source of dietary fiber. The high fiber, potassium, vitamin C and vitamin B-6 content, coupled with the lack of cholesterol found in chickpeas, all support heart health too. Garbanzo beans also contain folate, which plays a role in DNA synthesis and repair, thus preventing the formation of cancer cells from mutation in the DNA.

Enough said on the health benefits, I love garbanzo beans coz they give me a guilt-free yummy snack treat and most importantly, they are inexpensive. This pot of garbanzo beans only costs RM3.60, the curry powder costs a few sen and with sea salt, filtered water and gas, my entire pot of goodie costs no more than RM5!





* I used Baba's fish curry powder which is very yummy and only costs 60 sen a packet! I added 2 teaspoons into the pot of beans.

Healthy Yoghurt For Breakfast - 5 August 2016

My mid morning breakfast this morning...




Sugar-free skinny yoghurt with toasted pecans, toasted silvered almonds, organic chia seeds, dried cranberries, Pic's sugar-free peanut butter and a swirl of palm sugar. So refreshing, so yummy and it filled me up until lunch.

My pre-dawn breakfast this morning before my 26 laps in the pool was a glass of apple cider vinegar with grapefruit juice and psyllium husk, half an hour later I ate an orange, a golden kiwi, a handful of almonds (eating nuts with fruits will slow down insulin spikes) and a glass of UCC coffee with skimmed milk.

Try this low-carb combo that's also high in calcium and nutrients and I'll bet you'll love it too! :)

Get the Body that You Want

Losing weight is a hard mountain to climb. No matter how many times you start working your way to the top, you can find yourself sliding down that slippery slope right back to the bottom. It can seem impossible to make any progress. Even worse, you may lose the weight only to see more pounds come back to haunt you. Body contouring los angeles could be the answer for you and it all comes down to getting professional help.

Finding a Support System to Help You Reach Your Goals 
When you try to lose weight by yourself, it's a lonely place to be. You're facing that scale every day and temptations surround you. It's all too easy to slip up. Make one mistake and you could give up before you even began. Getting help from a medical team like the one you will find at Dr. Bryan MD can give you a shoulder to lean on. You'll hae a helping hand as medical professionals evaluate you, give you an effective plan for losing weight, and monitor your progress along the way. If something isn't working, they will help you to tweak your program. As you experience success, you'll have a cheering committee that is with you every step of the way.

Have a Weight Loss Plan that is Tailored for You 
Weight loss is not one-size-fits-all. When you tried to trim off those excess pounds by yourself, you probably chose commercial products, including supplements and exercise videos to reach your ideal weight. However, these products are not customized to meet your needs nor do they take your situation into account. When you opt for medical weight loss, you'll be given all of the tools you need to make it to the finish line. You'll learn how many calories you should consume in a day, what kind of foods are best for you, and types of exercises that you can do on a daily basis. Your medical team will evaluate you to find out if there is an underlying condition that is contributing to your difficulty at losing weight. Adjustments in hormone levels and specialized hormones could make a world of difference for you.

Sculpt Your Body Along the Way 
As you lose weight with the help of medical experts, you will tone your body at the same time. You'll see the results you have always wanted when you look at your new figure in the mirror. With help from your weight loss team, you can finally get the body you ahve always wanted.

Koka Signature Instant Noodles From Singapore

Our girls go gaga over instant noodles and that's because I hardly buy them. It's their daddy who occasionally buys them. He loves to indulge in those extra spicy Korean instant noodles on home movie nights. Whenever he cooks his instant noodles, he'll chuck in 4-5 eggs into the pot. He'll then gladly distributes them to his 3 princesses. I think he is happy that he doesn't have to whack the entire bowl of crap carbs and can share his crap carbs with his princesses :D

Since instant noodles are an occasional guilty pleasure, the girls crave for them and treat them like some precious commodity that's hard to come by. Every single strand of noodle and drop of soup will be polished off clean from their bowls! Their bowls don't even need proper washing!

While grocery shopping the other day, I came across Koka Signature instant noodles.  Koka is a Singaporean brand, manufactured by Tat Hui Foods Pte. Ltd. - a company founded in Singapore in 1986.  Manufacturing and packaging are done at Tat Hui's factory in Jurong, Singapore. They are sold within Singapore, and since 1987 have been exported to markets in Europe, America and Australia.  Koka are pretty focused on making their noodles not just as a delight but as a guilt-free treat to noodles lovers to indulge in instant noodles.

Koka Signature instant noodles boast of  being free from: MSG, preservatives and additives while high in fibre content. The noodles are steam-cooked and air-dried as opposed to deep fried.  In this Signature series, you'll find other mouth-watering flavors with noodles made from purple wheat.

The Koka Signature series costs about 4 times more than the average Maggi or Mamee instant noodles. Sorry, I can't recall how much I paid for a pack.  I love the springy texture of Koka's noodles. I can even eat them on their own, like a dry snack!




The noodles taste very much like the snack, Mamee and cook pretty instantly (less than a minute in boiling water).  I think they are free from wax as they are not slimy like other brands of instant noodles and the water that I used to blanch the noodles did not look murky.




To make my less than healthy meal a little healthier, I used lots of green veggies (2 varieties), a punnet of fresh portobello mushrooms, 3 plump tomatoes, carrots and 5 eggs. Also sliced up 2 red bell peppers to be eaten raw.





I cooked 4 packets of noodles and only used 1.5 packets of seasoning. I discarded the coconut powder (dehydrated santan) as we don't like the taste of santan in our noodles.  The soup was pretty sweet and tasty, with flavors and natural sweetness imparted from the veggies and mushrooms.




Much as the girls and I love Koka noodles, they are still categorized as  processed food.  But they are a healthier alternative to other instant noodles. If you crave for instant noodles, go ahead and grab a pack of Koka to try!

Getting the Right Diagnosis When Dealing with an Illness

When you are sick, the last thing that you want to fool around with is not getting the right diagnosis. You already feel terrible, and you are likely experiencing a lot of uncomfortable symptoms. You want to go to the doctor, get diagnosed, receive treatment or medicine, and then continue on with life. You do not want to miss multiple days of work, and you do not want to lose out on time with your family.

Part of getting the right diagnosis when dealing with any illness is using the different tests that are available to doctors and other medical professionals. These tests have been designed in order to detect problems that you may be experiencing. Some individuals get frustrated when their doctor orders a bunch of tests. However, this is an essential part of diagnosing a health problem. The doctor will be able to look at the results of the tests and then come up with a treatment plan that will help you get over your illness.

There are a wide variety of tests that are available for doctors to use nowadays in order to help their patients. Some of these tests include a complete blood count and a urine test. Other tests are more invasive and some require ffpe samples. Doctors can learn a lot about you and the health issue you may be experiencing by means of these tests. When they look at your complete blood count, they will be able to determine if you have an infection, if you have anemia, or if you are dealing with a serious health problem. The results of your complete blood count can lead the doctors to use other more specific tests in order to help you get the diagnosis right.

Most doctors are able to diagnose your health problem after doing just a couple of tests and asking questions about your health history. If you are uncomfortable with the results they give, it may be necessary for you to get a second opinion. Individuals sometimes feel a little bit uncomfortable doing this. However, it is essential for you to take your health into your own hands and be sure that you are getting the right diagnosis. There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting the opinion of more than one doctor. In addition to giving you the right diagnosis, you will also be able to get multiple opinions on different treatment options that are available.

The Advantages of Non-Traditional Braces

Having your smile looking great is a wonderful goal to have, but many don't want to suffer through the months of having metal glues to their teeth. And for some, minor corrections wouldn't even be worth the hassle, especially if they already had braces once as a child. With today's non-traditional options such as Invisalign, you can get that perfect smile without all the unnecessary hardware. Here are some of the benefits of these options.

The Look
Braces can be cumbersome to wear, but it is the look of metal in your mouth that turns many people away from correcting their teeth. With an Invisalign option, you will be able to correct your teeth without anyone even noticing what's going on. That is because the aligners are clear and fit snug against your teeth to help with alignment. And with these aligners, you don't have to worry about getting food caught in your braces--you can eat whatever you want while still wearing them. Traditional braces, however, have many food restrictions that have to be followed for the duration of the treatment.

Cleaning 
Clear plastic aligners are much easier to clean than traditional braces. With braces, you have to brush after every meal to make sure that you don't have food stuck somewhere that could cause damage to your teeth over time. With aligners you can take them off, thoroughly clean them, and put them back in without worry.

Comfort 
Traditional braces are typically made of plastic and metal pieces that can be uncomfortable for some patients. With all of the intricate work, metal pieces can potentially move, making the wire poke at certain points inside your mouth. The braces can also push out your lips, making you look like you're wearing a mouth guard all the time. Aligners will fit snug to your teeth, changing the shape and position gradually, and feels much more comfortable than any traditional type of braces.

If you are considering correcting your smile, you can find a range of Invisalign Brentwood professionals that can help you with your orthodontic needs.

Compilation Of Home-Cooked Dishes (25 - 29 July 2016)

As you already know by now, I only cook easy and fuss-free dishes, with minimal oil splatters and cleaning up to do. For a one-leg-kick at home with no live-in helper, I cannot afford to do anything more than 3 square meals a day.  I envy mummies who  bake cakes and breads with passion and whip up fanciful bento boxes and restaurant-style dishes everyday.  Perhaps they have a live-in helper at home to help them to clean up.  Or perhaps they don't have to work-from-home.  Or maybe they don't mind having  greasy kitchen tops and floor.  I am OCD when it comes to grease in my kitchen.  Moreover, my girls are pretty persnickety and not adventurous when it comes to food. They do not like fanciful dishes. There were times when I had spent the entire evening sweating and fussing to create new dishes, only to be greeted with a sulky face, especially from the big princess, who is really hard to satisfy, duh!

I hardly cook certain meat like beef, mutton, prawns and squids as they are high in cholesterol.  Plus the finicky girls do not really fancy mutton and beef.  So I am always stuck with chicken, pork and fish, cooked in a variety of styles.  Even for vegetables, the picky girls only like a handful like cabbage, broccoli, mustard green and spinach.   If I try to be adventurous and venture out to dish out  courgette/zucchini, kale, kailan or hairy gourds, just to name a few, I can be assured of a stressful dinner where I will be coercing and even forcing them to eat these 'extraordinary' veggies, SIGH!

These are the dishes that I cooked last week, which the girls enjoyed.

Below:
1. Sauteed organic cabbage with julienned carrots.
2. Steamed fish with chopped garlic, ginger, taucheong (fermented soy beans) and soy sauce.  The girls, who don't really fancy steamed fish polished off the entire plate of fish, including the ginger and scallions!  This recipe is for keeps. The next time I have a steamed fish on my menu, I'll stick to this style.








Cass wrote this note for me after dinner.  This makes me feel so much appreciated. My stinky oil-fumed stained clothes, hair and face is all worth it :D




Below :
1.  Braised chicken fillet with potatoes and tomatoes.
2.  Steamed organic tofu with sauteed minced pork
3.  Blanched yau mak veggie.






One portion of chicken for dinner and the other to the freezer, to be reheated for dinner on a busy week day.





Extra portion of minced pork to be frozen, to be used on other days - can be for noodles or rice.

Sunday Meals - 31 July 2016

Lunch today was Japanese...






We were still pretty stuffed from a heavy lunch, thus dropped our plan of having dinner at our favorite Chinese 'tai chow' restaurant and opted to have sandwiches at home instead.  Drama Queen volunteered to prepare dinner... how lucky can I be!!  She helped to make scrambled eggs and sliced cucumbers, capsicum and tomatoes. She even washed the dishes after dinner!!  Though our wires often get crossed, inside the kitchen, I think she hangs the moon and the stars for me!

After Drama Queen was done preparing dinner and laying all the items needed for sandwich on the dining table, she announced maternally: "I'm done. Help yourself to these everyone!"   then proceeded to the wet kitchen to wash the wok and all.




I was still feeling cloy after stuffing myself with Musang King durian and only had salad and oats.

Dishes Cooked With Khind Stir-Fryer

Exactly a week ago, I got a new Khind stir-fryer.  My  new kitchen toy came just about the right time as the mil has just left for Hong Kong for a few months and this kitchen toy is a pretty efficient helper.   Khind stir-fryer is an automated electric cooker that can really help you to save time in the kitchen while keeping the kitchen free from grease and oily fumes.  It has stir-fry, pan-fry, braise and toast functions.

These are some of the dishes that I whipped up over the past one week using the Khind stir-fryer:

1) Mushroom sauce for my honey grilled chicken.  Chicken was grilled using the oven.





2) Braised brinjal with minced garlic, tomatoes and tau cheong.

3) Sauteed homegrown (organic) sweet potato leaves with garlic.





3) Pan-fried fish. For this type of small fish that I used (it looks similar to mullet fish), the outcome of the fish was ultra crispy.  Even the small bones were crispy and can even be swallowed (good source of calcium eh?)







Very little oil is needed to pan-fry the fish.





4) Blanched veggie
5) Fried rice




Fried rice just completed in the stir-fryer.





You can read more on the Khind stir-fryer and how you can get discount from my earlier post in my other blog.

My Weekend (23 - 24 July 2016)

My typical Saturday morning would be to have breakfast with Cass after dropping  Drama Queen at the tuition center at 9am. Alycia has to attend school on Saturdays.  If the hubs does not have to be at his office, the kitchen or the client's place, he will join us at the coffee shop.

Our favorite food on a Saturday morning is bitter gourd vermicelli with minced pork and poached egg at our favorite coffee shop.  Cass only eats bitter gourd when cooked this way and from only this stall.  I have tried cooking the exact bitter gourd + minced pork noodles for her but she  didn't even want to try the bitter gourd and commented that it would be too bitter.  Huh, preconceived notion!





After breakfast, we would normally walk to the supermarket to shop for fruits, milk and other stuff.  Cass has now mastered the art of selecting fruits and loves to help me with this whenever we are at the supermarket.





On Sunday, Alycia's friends came in the afternoon to work on a Biology project together. When the bunch of thirteen year olds went to the gym, I quickly went into her room and took this picture, he he he!  Both Drama Queen and Alycia hate having their photos taken and posted on mummy's Facebook and blogs. To think that they were once so cooperative and eager camera posers for me when they were cute little girls breaks my heart that they no longer wish to do it anymore.  My girls have grown. Hopefully they will pass this phase too and will soon be eager camera posers for me again.






After her friends left, Alycia had to have a thorough clean up of her room as she allowed her friends to eat chips, chocolate and other junk in her bedroom!!  Bits of chips were scattered everywhere on the room floor. I went berserk and told her that this would be the first and last time that she and her friends ever get to eat in the room as I am terrified of a roach-infested room!

Sekinchan Famous Yu Tao Mui Restaurant & Mooi Mooi Siew Yoke, Happy Garden, Old Klang Road, KL

When my parents were in KL last Sunday, we had lunch at Sekinchan Famous Yu Tao Mui Restaurant at Happy Garden. We were first timers at this restaurant. We were a tad apprehensive when we arrived at the restaurant as we were the only patrons there.  We were skeptical about the quality and price of the food as the restaurant was empty, except for their staff.  Since it was already late in the afternoon and my parents were rushing to return to Ipoh, we sat down and ordered food anyway.

We downed our skepticism and prejudice along with the food the moment we tasted the delish dishes! All the dishes that we ordered were very tasty.

The first dish that arrived was curry fish head.





The deep fried octopus (on the foreground) and fried homemade fish paste were superb.   The deep fried octopus was achingly crispy, full of texture and flavors.  The fried fish paste was genuinely homemade as you can feel and taste the flesh of the fish in every wholesome bite.





Braised tofu with mushrooms and assortment of seafood.





The fried vermicelli has generous amounts of prawns, squids, bean sprouts, pork slices and onions.  The fried rice was equally good flavored generously with baby shrimps.




Steamed egg with minced pork - the girls' favorite.




While waiting for the dishes to arrive, the foodie hubs walked a few shops away to Restaurant Mooi Mooi to take away the best siew yoke (roast pork) in the whole wide world!  The siew yoke with crackling skin literally melts in your mouth.  Restaurant Mooi Mooi, a corner coffee shop which is semi worn down carries a certain rustic charm, if you don't mind the less-than-perfect tables, chairs, cutlery and interior.  The operator also sells char siu and roast chicken but the claim to fame, crowd-puller is the top notch melt-in-the-mouth crackling skin siew yoke.

Treating Vertigo Naturally

A few weeks ago, my 70-year old mum suddenly had a bout of dizzy spell while doing marketing at the wet market in Ipoh. She was with my dad. She informed my dad to cut short the marketing and to head home straight as she could not even walk unassisted by my dad.  Once home, she immediately popped 2 capsules of Super Lutein with a packet of Izumio hydrogen water.  To her amazement, the dizziness disappeared within less than an hour!   She was then fit enough to bake bread and even cooked lunch.

Mum was so excited that she immediately messaged me to share the good news with me on how Izumio and Super Lutein had saved her again from a trip to the doctor's office. She hates the side effects of drowsiness and nauseousness caused by the anti-giddiness drugs. Plus a visit to a private doctor on a Sunday would have cost her a bomb too.

Vertigo is a specific type of dizziness that is characterized by the sudden sensation that you are spinning or that the world around you is spinning. The feeling can come and go or it can last for hours or days. Along with the dizziness, people may also experience nausea or vomiting, headaches, double vision or a racing heartbeat.

A few days ago, the mil suddenly felt dizzy in the morning. She skipped swimming and just lay listless on the bed. I was hesitant to offer her Izumio and Super Lutein as she's not one who trusts MLM products. In the evening, she told me that she would like to try the products as she, like my mum hates the side-effects of the drugs. After 2 days on the products, she was well enough to cook and bake again.  Today is the forth day and she's feeling better than ever. She just whipped up a sumptuous dinner and baked 2 batches of Madeleines for the girls' lunch boxes tomorrow. Yesterday she baked scones for us.  Awesome grandma she is!





Each carton has 30 packets of 200ml izumio hydrogenated water







Each bottle has 100 capsules



To throw my modesty into the wind, Izumio and Super Lutein are life-saving products!   If you or anyone that you know of are suffering from vertigo, do give these products a try. There is no harm in consuming something natural with no fillers, binders and additives. These products do not add load to your kidneys and liver. In fact, we have kidney patients who have been doing very well after consuming the products.

To find out more about the products, you can visit this Facebook page.  A lot of information can be found there. If you are interested to buy the products or interested to do this business, you can email me at shireenyong@gmail.com

You can also read more about the products by clicking on the label 'Izumio Hydrogen Water and Super Lutein' at the end of this post or on the right hand side of the side bar.


Disclaimer:

The information on this site is provided as an information resource only and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. Not every remedy will work on everyone. So is conventional medical treatment. It very much depends on the constituents of the person and the conditions peculiar to that person. Whatever the reasons, this article does not claim the information provided is totally accurate and reliable and will cure everyone. The purpose of this article is merely to inform visitors that there are alternative cures for all ailments. You are therefore advised to consult your registered medical physicians as a matter of due diligence.

Mr Poker Coffee @ Sri Petaling

During a one-day public holiday some time last month, the foodie hubster brought us to a new cafe for his weekly indulgence in gourmet coffee and cakes.

This hip cafe is a poker fan's dream place to be in. Mr Poker Coffee is bedecked with everything from playing cards to rocking horses, circa-1970s TV sets to Bruce Lee  memorabilia, Hello Kitty playing cards to a portrait of the Mona Lisa sipping coffee.

Cakes are served on plates resembling a playing card and the card symbols on each plate are powdered chocolate.




Coffee and tea are served with home-made dried pineapple slices.








A collection of playing cards dating back to the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s are framed up and decked up to the top of the wall.














Mr Poker Coffee 3-1,
First Floor, Jalan Radin Bagus 6,
Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur.
 Mon-Thurs, 11am-10pm;
Fri-Sun, 11am-12am.
Tel: 03-7497-1777

Self-Pampering Session On A Thursday - 14 July 2016

About 3 weeks ago, I went for my first ever foot spa. However, I had to cut short the session and omit the nail filing and painting to rush home to wait for Drama Queen and Cass after the transporter dropped them off.  The pedicurist spent a frigging 2 hours just to clean my feet that were severely beaten-up, dry with cracks and consequently had paint and calligraphy ink imbedded in between the cracks, no thanks to the three monkeys at home. She wanted to proceed with the nails but I told her that I'd go back to continue with the pedicure.

After just a week, my feet (that go through lots of 'rough conditions' everyday) turned unsightly again. No wonder the pedicurist advised me to have a foot spa once a week.  I will most likely settle for a bi-monthly treatment to keep my feet well maintained. It's an instant self gratification that gives me so much satisfaction just looking at how good my feet look now 😁😍

Today I had another foot spa and pedicure session. I slept through almost the entire 2 hours session. HAHA! See how chronically sleep deprived I am!  Sofia had to wake me up several times to ask me questions.




For the nail art, I chose Hello Kitty, my favorite childhood Sanrio character and pink - my favorite color :)




Foot make-over  and I am loving my feet now 😍





Next up, I will be doing a make-over of my waist-length hair. I have made inquires on the prices just now and will try to squeeze out a couple of hours after the girls' exam to have a hair make-over :D