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Last day of uni (Black Star Pastry + Grill'd)

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Last Friday was our last day back at uni, it was kinda sad but more exciting at the same time! We had made plans to celebrate afterwards at Newtown.  I've seen so many people raving about the Strawberry Watermelon cake at Black Star Pastry so that's we decided to settle for dessert. We finished uni at 4, got a little speech from our lovely coordinator, took a year group photo and set off on the walk to Newtown. It was kind of early for dinner so we decided to have dessert first. We got to Black Star Pastry at 5:01 and were devastated to see it had already closed! We were late by a minute (they close at 5). Despite our efforts of knocking on the door, the staff inside did not open up to apologize. But while looking at the door we realised there was another pop-up store at Town Hall. We had to decide whether we would chase it or leave it, and we chose to do the former, for obvious reasons! We desperately wanted that cake! We went to Town Hall and took a while to f
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Oatmeal omelette

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Easiest brekkie ever! I learnt this while I was on holidays :)  Ingredients * 2 eggs  * 2 tablespoon oatmeal * 3 tablespoon powder milk * 1.5 tablespoon water * Spices (black pepper, cumin)  * Any herbs you like (coriander/ parsley) * Tiny amount of butter (1/2 teaspoon) Method 1. First combine oatmeal and powder milk together 2.  Add water so the mixture binds  3.  Add in the eggs, plus all herbs and spices you wish to add 4. Combine well 5. Heat a frypan, spread the butter and cook in pan for 10-15mins
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Australia's Healthy Weight Week

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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, pea a
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Daddy's birthday 2016 | Sultana, almond and spiced crystallised ginger cake

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As usual, I asked my dad what kind of cake he’d like. He initially said “plain cake.” After further pressing, he gave me three ingredients he would like on the cake sultan as (they are his favourite), almonds and crystalli s ed ginger.  Recipe adapted from: https://www.sanitarium.com.au/recipes/a-z/almond-and-sultana-spice-cake   Ingredients 125 g butter 100 g sultanas 125 g self-raising wholemeal flour 125 g self-raising plain flour ½ tsp ground cardamom ½ tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp nutmeg ½ tsp vanilla esssence 125 g brown sugar 2 eggs 1 cup skim milk ¼ cup flaked almonds 40 g crystallised ginger 1 TB flour   Method 1)       Preheat oven to 180 C 2)       Grease springform pan with baking paper 3)       Melt butter in a saucepan, add sultanas and cook for 10 mins or until sultanas have softened 4)       In a bowl, sift flour, spices and sugar 5)       Add crystallised ginger, tossed with 1 TB of plain flour 6)       Mix eg
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Black Star Pastry (Strawberry Watermelon Cake)

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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, fresh watermelon and the
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Joyful June

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I had one of the most adventurous months, ever. As some of you would already know, I was away for most of June. I flew to Canada to present my first ever oral at an international conference. I had been to an international conference in Melbourne last year; however, it didn’t quite feel as international for me (flying there from Sydney). But I knew this conference was going to be an entirely different experience. One of the biggest challenges I faced before leaving was having to pack for a range of weather conditions and ticking off the tasks I urgently needed to finish before I left. As usual, I ended up leaving my packing until the very last day (this always happens). It felt a little strange to be leaving home for almost three weeks which is a long time for me because I rarely go anywhere without family. Nonetheless, I was also super excited for the adventure that awaited on the other side of the world. The International Society of Nutrition and Physical Activity (ISBNPA) c
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International Congress of Behavioural Medicine | Melbourne

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My flight faced major delays due to severe thunderstorms in Sydney. We had to wait for over two hours, most of which were on the plane so it was incredibly exhausting. Thankfully, the weather in Melbourne was much better. It was pretty cold and windy, it felt nice to get out of the scorching heat :) Leaving behind a stormy Sydney After reuniting with the bestie, we went out for dinner to a local Malaysian restaurant close to our home. Sweet and sour prawns with rice  Nasi Lemak Pineapple fried rice and seafood stir-fry I had one whole day to myself before the conference began on Wednesday, and we wanted to make the most out of this.  Oh, hello there, new friend! We had breakfast at Myuna Farm which was a few mins from our house. I loved their veggie focacia.  Brekkie at Myuna Farm  Veggie focacia ($9) Sweet treats at Myuna Farm Next stop was archery, my bestie has been an archer for sometime now, and we have been wanting t
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Struggling September

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This month wasn’t a smooth month for me, as you can tell from my major delay in getting this out. I’m finding it so hard to keep up lately! I officially started working on SPSS this month. To be honest, I have never had a good relationship with statistics, and it has never really been my area of interest. I decided the best to go about it would be to remain optimistic, but this wasn’t always easy. There have been days when I felt confident after picking up a new skill, and there have been other days where I felt very lost and barely made any progress at all. But the good thing is that I submitted my systematic review paper. I know I won’t hear back for a long time, but at least it’s out of my hands for now. Hopefully, this will give me more time and energy to work on the statistics. In other news, we had an EMCR symposium in our building. I’m part of the organising committee so we needed to do lots of prep beforehand. While I wasn’t in charge of many things, I still found it h
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Picnick View Cafe

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We actually had plans to somewhere else but spontaneously decided to come here (as we were running late). I remember reading about this somewhere last year and wondering where the location was.  I used to do volunteering here with Cancer Council and did one of my placements here last year so I knew the area well but I had no idea this cafe was hiding here the whole time (it’s because you  can't see the name of the cafe from the street). It's completely hidden, all I could ever see was Campos coffee. We sat down after ordering food and looked around at all the hipster elements of this cafe. They have a lot here, it's pretty much packed with stuff. We waited for a while and started wondering why the food wasn't coming. We found it quite difficult to sit outside (it was a really hot day) and there was no arrangement inside (it's a really small cafe). Seating area Word! Soon after, one of the staff came and told me my dish would take a
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Holiday cooking (Part 2)

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This part of my holidays was spent a bit differently. I went away to Asia to spend some quality time with my mum. I didn't have to cook as often as I normally would (mum and others pretty much took care of everything) The food supply was also a bit different, some of the things I use back home wasn't readily available here.  Not having access to some things was difficult, but at the same time, I got to try other things I don't eat as often in Sydney (like guavas, they're my favourite!) Recipe up for oatmeal omelette  :) Orange pancakes with spicy chicken Sweet potato, guava and orange salad Guava, pineapple and mandarin salad Yoghurt pancakes Sea of green! Pineapple and chicken pasta Chicken, carrot and pea dumpling Chicken, carrot and capsicum skewers Green papaya and broccoli ribbon pasta Oatmeal omelette
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