It's another 6 days to Christmas =)

It's another day that went by. One good news for the day.. I'm getting a new kid to tutor ^^ It's gonna start soon, I think. More income and it will keep me busy for the moment. I'm scratching my head on what type of presents to get for people around me D: It's such a chore thinking of what to buy. I have no idea what to get. 

Cooked my own lunch today =) Made brown rice porridge with french bean, meat ball and other stuff I can find in the fridge. 

Dinner was macaroni salad with mushroom soup. My cream of mushroom looked green >.< caused I included the leaves of leek inside. And I added to much salt inside. It was a little saltier, but the taste is there ^^ It's not my first attempt in making macaroni salad and this time round, it tasted... better cause I didn't add mayonnaise. I just took mayo tuna and mix. 

I think this is the first time round I felt that the holiday was so... not effective. Must start doing something.. Garrhhhhh. 

With me cooking my meals all the time, it seemed like I'm preparing to be a good housewife. I also did some cleaning of the house cause I was too bored. OH GOD~~ BYE!

Project Macaron

I bought a new electronic kitchen scale the other day and I was thinking of what to bake. After thinking and looking through recipes, I decided to make macarons. I have read a lot on it and it was difficult to grasp. I decided to just try it out because I won't know how difficult it is until I've tried.

I'm having the right Attitude!

Just wanna side track a little. I was watching another video on TED.com and it talks about the 3'A' of awesome.

Attitude, Awareness and Authenticity. 

Neil Pasricha is a blog owner of 1000 Awesome things. I love the part where he talk about Attitude. Having the right attitude is always choosing the second alternative for a situation. Because life is never smooth sailing.
He also mentioned about Awareness as embracing your inner 3 year old self. Because when we were three years old, everything seems so new and interesting. Lastly, authenticity. It's being true to yourself. This is similar to what I've learnt in 7 habits/LEAP with Singapore Polytechnic.

Watch the video here.



I took out all the ingredients and equipment I need and started. The recipe that I used was from joyofbaking.com. I love their recipes and they came with demo videos. It's detailed ^^




Here's the recipe.

• 100g almond flour
• 180g icing sugar
• 100g egg white 
• 35g caster sugar

Sift the flour and icing sugar

Measure the egg and sugar

beat the until foamy

add in caster sugar (half the amount eat time)

Beat until it forms stiff peak 

then fold in the dry ingredients

Edited it with dreamy feel!

The outcome! 

I forgot to tap! >< and I think I under mixed my batter so ts pretty lumpy. 

It broke easily and the base was burnt. Think my oven was too hot. 

NEED TO GET AN OVEN THERMOMETER

I don't know where to get one >< 

Will attempt it again ^^

Homemade Barley

I woke up with a headache and I thought its time to down something cooling. Anyways, I went Sheng Siong with bf yesterday and he was saying he missed the barley I cooked for him. So my headache came in timely for me to move my butt to the kitchen and prepare it.

I remember when I was much younger, my grandma used to cook barley for my cousin and I would get a share too ^^ Mad love for barley, especially when they are sweetened. The grains turn soft and chewy after being cooked. My dad will prepare them when I have fever/sore throat.

So here's how I prepared it!

1. 200g of Pearl Barley (don't use the big ones that come from china, the taste will be different)

2. 100g of candied melon

3. Rock sugar to sweeten (100g or until desired sweetness)

I measured the individual ingredients and dump all of them into a big pot with 2 L of water. After which, I boil the ingredients, then switched to low fire for about half an hour.

*while I was preparing this, my dad said that if I don't want to eat the grains, I don't have to boil that long. So depends if you wanna eat them

So the final product looks like this..

After boiling probably you'll get 1 L or lesser of the drink.

Wait for it to cool slightly and remove about 2/3 of the grains.

I like to drink it warm!

It'll be nice cold too.

Anyways.. I was reading on the health benefits and here's what I found

• clear up the complexion
• stop wrinkle formation
• high fiber
• easy to digest
• nourish fat tissue, help in development of healthy bone tissue
• nutritious
• provides energy
• reduce inflammation
• good diuretic
• detox
• nourish kidney - help in cleaning the kidney
• prevent/treat UTI

KILL E.COLI~~~ and other bacterial

• expels toxins from the body, and is a good diuretic, i.e., it induces urination.
• lower cholesterol
• reduce atherosclerosis
• high magnesium - control glucose levels
• antioxidant rich - Lignans
• lower risk of heart diseases
• help in cell repair and growth
• whitens skin

• HELPS TO LOSE WEIGHT!!!