Homemade cooking at its best!

Or its quickest. Grandma’s the best! She whipped this up in less than an hour!

Vegetable curry full of brinjals, tofu, ladies fingers and beans. One pot wonder, which is best eaten with toast!

 

scone?

Hi there!

I was PLANNING to wakeup a bit early to go to the park, but sleepiness overruled.

Thus, breakfast was heated up.

Had a peanut puff from Puff garden at Uptown Damansara. Full of ground peanuts! I burnt it abit though, still good. I have to refrain myself from overbuying pastries for breakfast now since I have some cereal to finish at home!

I invested in some Starbucks coffee! This bag cost me RM33. I love nuts, so I guessed I would love this flavour. I requested that the grind half the bag for me so that I can use it for my french press. I’ve been using it over the few days, but forgot to feature it. It’s nice, nutty-ish. Not too strong though. I prefer stronger beans.

I did a run at home since I missed going to the park. While watching Criminal Minds 3 – I get nightmares after watching it, but I still love this series, even more than CSI!

Lunch proceeded with a salad, a scone and an intended yoghurt.

Salada was some butterhead, cherry tomatoes and baby carrots. Butterhead lasts well, thus I prefer it to romaine. Had me salad with some ketchup and homemade dressing. Ketchup is the way to go if you’re lazy like me.

I omitted the yoghurt when I started chomping on my scone. Figured since it’s a cheddar vegetable scone, it had some form of protein, and it was pretty filling. I got it from the Loaf!

I reheated it in the microwave, then the oven, it was a bit soft. I’m not sure if it’s my fault fr reheating it, or the Loaf because it was soft inside, which I don’t think that’s what a scone is supposed to be. I think it’s supposed to be almost biscuit like and crumbly. Instead, it was cake meets bread texture. The texture was a real let down, but taste-wise, it was good. Cheese and vegetable!

And now, I shall proceed to some blog-reading, and maybe clean my room? We’ll see.

Blondies

This afternoon, I decided to do some baking! I saw on Chef at Home, Michael smith whipping up a batch of blondies with whole wheat flour- I knew I had to make some.

Here’s the original recipe from Food Network Canada:

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons vanilla
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup pine nuts
• 1 cup caramel chips

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Lightly oil an 8×8-inch baking pan.
2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan. Continue heating, swirling gently as it begins to foam and steam, releasing moisture. Continue swirling as the milky bits begin to brown forming a golden residue under the butter fat. When they are rich golden brown, pour it into a heatproof mixing bowl. Add the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla and blend well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to the wet and stir the batter until smooth. Stir in the nuts and candy bits and pour into the prepared baking pan. Bake 45 minutes. Cool for a few minutes before cutting into squares.

But for me, I changed the caramel chips to white and regular choc chips – I can’t find any caramel chips here. And instead of pine nuts, I used cashews which I had. I’m not sure if that change had made it a tad too hard or whether 45 mins is too long in a fan-forced oven. Any who, it turned out like so:

It was abit too brown. I guess I should’ve taken that as a sign. But the recipe said 45 mins..

I like it though. But I’m not sure if the rest of the fam will like it as much as the flourless chocolate cake.

Dinner’s ready, but the BF is on his way back, so I shall be patient…

No, I stole a couple of bites already, but merely enough to make me full!

Brocs and carrots. I think I made it a bit too hard for the gramps! sorry!

Grandma cooked some “Meen See” fish. It’s taucu paste. It’s my fav! And the BF better come back soon before this disappears!

Dim Sum Kitchen @ Damansara Uptown

I got the job! I’m super duper happy. I’m starting in May (which grandma’s not so happy about) but at least, I have a job. But the unfortunate thing is that a company that I REALLY REALLY wanted, and submitted my CV for, called today for an interview. But the branch is too far for me. Plus, a bird in hand, is better than none!

We had lunch at Dim Sum Kitchen at Uptown Damansara (it’s the same row as HSBC)

I have to say, their Cantonese style mee hoon (RM5.80) is one of the best. Unfortunately, we forgot to mention fish only, but still, i loved it!

My fav is the bihun which is super crispy. Also, they don’t drench it with the gravy, so it takes a while before it becomes soggy. Thus, I can enjoy the crispiness. The gravy is a tad thick, but still tasty.

This shop also serves up economy rice during lunch time and it gets sold out pretty quick. We were there about 1-ish, alot of the dishes were gone. I had to have some veggies, so this is what i had for RM2.50

Curry potato (with chicken, but I didn’t take any – lent), spinach – slightly too old, and fried egg!

a happy lunch because of the good news!

Tropics

I couldn’t get back to bed after the BF left for work, so I decided to get done with my workout, which means it won’t be on my mind for the rest of my day! I ran, but forgot to stretch. Not that I remember half the time.

While running, I saw Samantha Brown on TLC visiting Hawaii! I sooooo want to live there. I’m actually going online now to see if there are any jobs there!

I had a tropical bar for breakfast. I got it from the loaf. It’s very different than “the rock” i had yesterday. The bottom biscuit had a bit of a “crunch” then it had a jam like thing in the middle of tha cake and the bottom, which made it chewy, and the cake. Plus the crunchy slivered almonds on top!

I loved the blend of the flavours as the cake was sweet, but the chewy part was jam-like.

The coffee tools! My very precious bodum french press and an IKEA milk frother. The milk frother was a steal at RM9.90! But I saw one the other day at “Livin’ it up” at 1 Utama, it was in a mug, almost like a french press design, where when you push down the lever (I’m not sure what you call it), the thing will spin and froth the milk! But it was over RM50.. Out of budget compared to the one I have.

No, I didn’t use the 3 in 1. 3 in 1 was for grampa, and the coffee on the right is mine. See the difference in our thinking! I says it’s convenient, I say mine is delish and healthier!

“spesial”

After a nap, the bf, me & gramps were planning to attend daily mass before dinner. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any due to some CDD anniversary. So we went for dinner @ Murni at Aman Suria.

By the way, I found out that Murni’s Cafe @ Kepong belongs to them as well.

Anywho, since we were super early, there wasn’t any nasi campur yet, so I had myself an omelette special.

Yum. It could’ve been a tad saltier, but fine with me. It had ham and mushroom inside with a side of fries. Fries weren’t hot though. Was cold by the time it got to my table. RM5. It was cheaper when they first started off ,and the portion was much bigger. But oh well. I’ll still come back here for the good teh tarik.

Murni Discovery,

Aman Suria

The Loaf

Since me and the BF were headed to Subang Andaman area to have a look see around, I requested that we stopped by Empire Gallery @ Subang so that I could try out some things.

First off, Crispy Popiah Egg Roll with prawn.

This tiny roll cost me RM5.20. The regular popiah skin roll would be RM3, so since it’s egg roll (+RM 0.20) and prawn ( + RM2), it was RM5.20. It tasted good. I think the crispy stuff inside changed, but it’s still nice. Unfortunately, the prawns were tiny. So I think the next time around, I’d rather pay RM3.20 for the normal egg roll, which is still not cheap though.

I insisted that we drop by the loaf! It looks so pretty..Sort of a boutique bakery. I got a few pastries there and signed up for their membership.

This is called “the rock” which I decided to have for lunch. It’s sweet, and crispy on the top, chewy at the bottom. I think it’s made out of croissants or something. It’s belgian, and yummy!

This will be tried over the next day or so. The top is a vegetable scone of some sort and the bottom was a tropical square.

Membership is RM10 for a lifetime. Though there isn’t any nearby for me now, but who nows right? 5% rebate every RM1. And other member-only promos. It is my dream to open up a bakery like this, but as for now, it’s office work with a steady income first.

2 course breakfast

Yesterday was a long day. The assessment was fun, but long, and mentally tiring. I did my best, and I leave the rest to God.

Lunch was a buffet! That was really good because I didn’t expect that.

This morning, I had a good run before breakfast. (What!) Yes, I read in a health mag that it was ok to do so, and it saves me SOOO much time. I didn’t break down or anything, but I guess my brain was “Telling” me I’m tired, but when I’m not.

Breakfast was a 2 course thing. First:

While waiting for by toast to toast and coffee to press, I had me a good source of protein – 2 eggs, scrambled,  topped with salt.

Coming up was the prepared coffee, with my toast, and a good helping of kaya. Unfortunately, I finished the lemon tree one so I’m stuck with this kaya from Little Cravings at 1 Utama.

I’m off to run a few errands during lunch!

Out

All my meals were out of home today. Kind of disappointing, because I do like to have a home cooked meal sometimes, but it didn’t mean the food wasn’t good!

Breakkie was at McDoodles – blame the BF (and the voucher!)

All this for RM5.25? Where can you get that? I had the eggs, a muffin and of course, the hash brown (one thing good about blogging, i know realise I have an uneaten apple pie in the fridge)

Lots of banking issues tackled between breakfast and lunch. Meaning lots of headaches. Which led to a healthy lunch at Be Lohas. I really have been wanting to try, and the only person willing to do so with me is the BF. I got a set lunch while the BF got Hailam Rice.

My Nasi Lemak set came with an enzyme drink and vege soup. the drik tasted like apple cider to me.

The BF’s Hailam Rice

I think that’s pumpkin tofu. To me, his dish didn’t look that appetising..

I liked my nasi lemak though. I love the rice. Red rice I think. The taste.. it’s so… nutty, i guess. I love it, even more than brown rice. I’m definitely getting red rice the next time around! the cabbage salad was way too healthily bland for me. Some sort of dressing would’ve been nice. But I found that mixing it with the rice, made a good bland of crunch and taste. The sambal was good. Of course, to me anyhing with onions = good. Sweet and teeny but spicy. The “chicken” was really good. Not too fibrous. Plus, there is no coconut milk / santan in this dish!

Be Lohas,

Uptown Damansara (same row as Tong Kee)

Came home and had a quick nap. We went to the night market to get some fruits and:

Nonya One sambal! Gosh, it’s been an uber while since I had this. So difficult to look for it, and now that I found it (RM12 now compared to previous RM10) I’m gonna be having this in everything!!!!!! Sweet, spicy, crispy and NOT OILY!

I had to have this at dinner @ Yook Tho Yin @ Uptown Damansara. Shared a Cantonese Yee Mee with gramps.

The noodles were quite crispy, but a bit thick for me. The sauce was good. Plus, we had lots of fish since we asked sliced fish only! Yum!

Tomorrow is D-day! Make it or break it at the interview. God help me.

 

Sunday blues

After a good workout, I had lunch with gramps @ SS2 Hong Lim Teochew porridge shop.

Grandma was daring to order the fish, which thankfully cost RM5.50 only. Once, we ordered one which burned a RM15 hole in grandma’s wallet!

Brinjals – This time around, it wasn’t too salty = good.

Choy poh (preserved vegetable) – yummy especially when eaten with rice. Not salty actually, rather sweet.

Choy Koek (another type of preserved veg – too sour for my liking

Tofu and Salted vegetables.

Total came up to RM22, I guess we expect these kinda prices for teochew porridge. At least I had my brinjals to enjoy!

We went to Giant to check out the good deals they had – Shower foam refills for a dollar and toothpaste for a dollar! But they were gone by the time we were there. And it was only afternoon. Giant should make sure they have sufficient stock when they want to have such promos!

Anyways, I went to Borders @ Curve to wait for the BF to get off work. Sadly, he missed the 4.30 bus, and I waited for another hour for him. Magazines and lattes make great company!

When he finally arrived, we went to KRR – Kenny Roger’s Roasters. I wanted to use a RM 5 voucher I go from the new “B” Card.

I had me a Quarter meal with Corn & Carrot, Garlic Parsley Potato and Garden Pasta salad. it didn’t really meet my expectations, as the chicken didn’t taste that good. The meat itself, I would say, wasn’t well marinated. The corn and carrot was good. But the other two sides disappointed me. The potato I felt would have been SO MUCH better if it was more caramelized. I saw brocs in the pic of the Garden Pasta Salad, but none in mine!

Dear had the same but different sides. Banana muffin and vanilla muffin which we took home.

The best best best part of the night was:

Lecka-lecka! I had Orero’s flavour, but I miss the Famous Amos flavour. Sadly, I thought the Mystyle promo was still on, but I bought the voucher, and turned out that Lecka-lecka had cancelled it, but Mystyle didn’t take any action.

But ice-cream makes anyone happy! Especially eating with the one you love.