Popular posts from this blog

Derailed December

Image
This month has been a very relaxing month for me. I travelled to Melbourne for International Congress of Behavioural Medicine conference, click here to read more about my wonderful trip.  I did very little cooking this month as I have been away for most of this month. I have been trying to rest as much as possible, and not think about the work I need to do when I get back. I told myself I would not be hard on myself for the things I couldn't do this year and enjoy the break, for now. To be honest, I feel like I have gotten out of track and but it does feel nice to be letting my brain go.   Here are my December eats :) Prawn, spinach and cauliflower spaghetti Bean sprouts, snow pea and chicken with rice vermicelli Stacked Moroccan chicken, roasted tomatoes with greens Mango and chicken salad Filo pastry rolls with red cabbage and beef, topped with sesame seeds Pumpkin and asparagus curry Pan fried chicken and...
Read more

Black Star Pastry (Strawberry Watermelon Cake)

Image
Some of you might know about the desperate attempt I made last year for the Strawberry Watermelon Cake (see previous post at  Black Star Pastry ).  Yesterday I had the privilege of tasting this cake at a party. I got super excited as I’ve been wanting to try this for almost a year now. I was so tempted to just skip the mains but I patiently waited for dessert time and made sure I left space for the cake :P In the meantime, I went to take a close look at the cake (could not resist, for obvious reasons) and I was amazed at how magical it looked. It was constructed beautifully starting with a layer of almond  dacquoise followed by cream, then a slice of watermelon with cream,   almond  dacquoise and cream again. Finally, it was topped with strawberries, pistachios and dried rose petals. It was a quite a delicious cake but unfortunately, it did not meet the expectations I had. I liked certain elements, such as the lightness of the cream layers, f...
Read more

Nettlesome November

Image
This month has been a range of feelings. I've finished up with my linear regression model I was working on, which means I'm done with the statistics (for now). My aim was to have this paper completed before the end of the year but I've realised that's not going to happen.   I decided to focus on a simpler task that would be easier to finish before Christmas.  So I’ve gone back to  working on one of my old papers. It was really difficult to get myself into that mindset again, after not having worked on it for so long.   It was really daunting at the beginning, but safe to say, it did get easier after having a few go's. I really wanted to be done with this paper but I just couldn't do it due to time constraints. I managed to get close but it wasn’t enough. I really wish I had an extra week at least to finish up what I needed to do. At one point, a part of me wished I didn’t have the conference to attend in December, so I could just keep on working to fini...
Read more

Bodhi Restaurant/Bar (vegan) + Le Pain Quotidien

Image
I had a reunion with some of my old uni friends. The perks of meeting up with old friends is, it feels like time hasn't moved at all when you meet them! I can't believe it's been almost two years since I saw them properly. It's crazy how quick time flies! We have been trying to meet up for sometime now, but everyone is busy with either work or study so it's really difficult to fix on a date. We set this date back in early July and we all kept our word :D We chose this place so we could accommodate for a friend who is vegan. This was my second time eating a full vegan meal so I was quite excited to see what vegan dumplings would be like! The staff were very friendly and organised. We were served with water and sauce soon after we sat down. Bodhi works just like any other yum cha place, the food keeps coming around and you pick what you like. However, the downside is you can't say yes to everything so you have to turn down some. I started off with satay...
Read more

Australia's Healthy Weight Week

Image
This week is all about encouraging people to eat healthy, home cooked meals and making small changes towards a healthy lifestyle. It is also about telling people what we do as dietitians (hence I am writing) The pictures are from the morning tea we hosted (colleagues and myself) for staff on our floor at work.  As you can tell from the photos, we tried to include something from all the food groups. We wanted to make it colourful and include healthier options, where possible.  Fruits: apples, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, figs, passionfruit, nectarines and peaches Vegetables: carrots, snow peas, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and beetroot dip Dairy: low fat yoghurt and low fat ricotta (fritatata) Lean meat, fish, poultry, nuts and legumes: variety of nuts, hommus Cereals: wholemeal pita bread If you'd like to read more information on the AHWW, head over to http://healthyweightweek.com.au/ :) Zucchini, ...
Read more

DAA conference | Melbourne

Image
Being a tourist :) Day 1: Reunited with the bestie at the airport. *Incessant chattering* Next stop was food.    First sunset photo We chose an Italian restaurant called ‘Vapiano’, based on another friend's recommendation. It was quite busy; we had to wait to get a table. We decided to order both pizza and pasta. Ordering pizza was pretty straightforward. However, the pasta line took forever. It took so long that we received our pizzas but still hadn't been able to order the pasta. We tried garlic and one zucchini and eggplant pizza. I liked the latter but the garlic one was a bit hard, it got a bit cold by the time we started eating.  The pasta was quite nice and flavoursome but nothing extraordinary and not worth an hour wait!   Vapiano Spotted a cute florist, on our way to dessert For dessert, we wanted to go Om Nom but unfortunately they had no space so ended up going to ...
Read more

Wholemeal date and walnut loaf

Image
Happy Monday everyone! It has been a while since I baked a loaf so thought I'd make one :) Recipe adapted from http://daa.asn.au/recipes/wholemeal-date-and-walnut-loaf/ Ingredients 2 eggs, lightly beaten 100 g pitted dates, chopped 45 g margarine 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 cup water 40 g walnuts, chopped 1 cup self-raising flour 1 cup wholemeal flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 2 tablespoon LSA oil to spray Method 1) Preheat oven to 180 °C. 2) Combine dates, margarine, sugar and water in a saucepan. Stir and boil gently. Set aside to cool. 3) Sift flour, baking powder, LSA. 4) Add in walnuts and eggs  5) Add in date mixture and mix well. 6) Lightly spray a loaf tin pan. Line with baking paper. 7) Pour mixture into pan 8) Bake for 45-50 mins. Skewer should come out clean.  9) Remove from oven and cool for 10 mins 10) Turn out on a cooling rack. Slice and serve with yoghurt, if desired.
Read more

Trattoria La Vigna

Image
Today was my first time at Camden which is in South West of Sydney (past Campbelltown), we saw some farms and country scenic views on our way. The atmosphere of this restaurant was lovely. The restaurant has an overlooking vineyard. I knew it was going to be a special, memorable lunch already :) I haven’t made pasta in the last few weeks, so I was pretty excited to try some authentic Italian food. We were welcomed by a friendly staff with a very strong Italian accent, almost made us feel like we were in Italy! The garlic prawns we tried for entrée were delicious, and prawns were cooked well. It was nice to have some tomatoes in there (the only vegetable in our meal). The olive oil was great for dipping the bread. Gamberi all ‘aglio- Garlic Prawns ($20) However, I was slightly disappointed with the mains. The gnocchi I tried was swimming in a plate of creamy pesto. Don’t get me wrong; I love basil pesto. But there was just too much of it. It kind of makes reminded m...
Read more

The Emporium

Image
This cafe has a great welcoming atmosphere with options to dine in or outside. We went on a weekday so it wasn't that busy. I wasn't that hungry so I ordered a side. It was filled with Dutch, purple and orange carrots with Harissa dressing. It was great in the beginning but after a while, it got boring. It would've been better if they had one or two other veggies (rather than just carrots). Roasted Dutch carrots, cashew dukkah, harissa dressing $9 Chocolate cremeux, honeycomb ice cream, chocolate soil, dulce de leche, espresso gel $16 The dessert however, was delicious. It had lots of crunch, texture and flavour. There was lots of bits and pieces like bread, chocolate, ice cream etc. The amount was good in terms of portion control. Yes, I know the photo doesn't look as appealing as the lighting was poor but it looked way much better in person.
Read more