Home-made Muesli

HELLO!

My brekkie!

I really tried to come up with something good after a long hiatus from Salad Mondays. I still eat salads, like everyday, but they’re the same damn salad. This salad to be specific.

So yesterday I decided to try something different.

Ok, I’m lying, it was basically that same salad with a tahini based dressing.

Salad nooooooooooo

Looks ok, doesn’t it?

It was gross. Not super gross, but heavy gross, and unworthy of being touted as a Salad Monday salad.

SO – this was going to be a post I saved for a Friday or a Saturday to inspire some weekend projects but instead, since it turned out so beautifully and made me so happy this morning, I decided to share this little bit of success/heaven.

Every morning I eat some oat based breakfast. It’s usually overnight oats or granola or muesli. After months of the first two, I caved and bought a bag of Marks and Spencer’s “Four Berry Muesli”. Very delicious. Also, very expensive at about SGD15 a bag. It was also close to expiration.

So every morning, as I shoveled this very expensive and slightly stale cereal down my throat (with greek yogurt, obs), I realized I should try making it because a) I had most of the ingredients in my house and b) whatever I made should be cheaper.

This is what I came up with and seriously – it tastes fresh and nutty and is WAY better than any store bought muesli I have ever had, is easier to make than granola and is probably healthier – coz no added sugar!

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup chopped almonds, toasted/roasted (with no added salt)
1 Tbsp chia seeds
2/3 cup raisins
2/3 cups dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 175C/350C.

Spread oats onto a baking sheet until its 1/4 inch deep (ish). Toast for ten minutes, stirring once in the middle.

Remove from oven and cool in a separate tray/ big plates.

At this point you can toast the almonds if you need to. Ten minutes should do it.

Once cool, evenly scatter the almonds, chia seeds, raisins and dried cranberries over the oats.

Started from the bottom

Added nuts + chia seeds

Added fruit

Carefully scoop into an air-tight container.

And done!

Serve with milk or yogurt. Drink black coffee. Revel in your brilliance.

*Adapted from Leite’s Culinaria.

I make ugly food & it TASTES SO GOOD: Vol III

Hi friends! I’m back with the third installment of ugly food I cook and for some reason, you can’t get enough of!

I cook a couple of times a week and many times I look to the Internet Gods for guidance, advice and of course – recipes.

This installment is the longest I’ve ever done and features heavily on desserts… Clearly I need to stop pretending I live in a cold country and need sustenance in the form of sweet treats.

Because I live in Singapore and my ass needs sustenance in the form of raw green things. And some lean protein. But you know #details

SO. This time around I changed up the format. See the pretty pictures first and the ugly AND REAL pictures later.

You guys like reality? Right?

Classic Lemon Bars – Joy The Baker

Scrumptious Classic Lemon Bars

Lemon Bars – Argh

This dessert, like so many others, was born out of a frenzy of denying my body sugar for days. Actually it might have been 24 hours. But as they say, same-to-same. I found the lemons in my fridge, stole my flatmate’s flour and baked these babies up. They might look questionable but I can actually say I pretty much ate ALL of this, by myself.

Healthy Quinoa Chicken Curry Bowls – Pinch of Yum

Healthy Quinoa Chicken Curry Bowls

Watery Curry Quinoa Bowl

I always REALLY regret making Indian-fusion food or anything with the word curry in it. Why? It’s always insipid and then I crave my Mom’s food and then I crawl into a fetal position and cry. True story.

Ginger Walnut Chocolate Blondies – Joy the Baker

Ginger Walnut Chocolate Blondies

Ginger-choc blah-dies

I have featured these babies before here, but before the editing and amateur “food styling” I attempted, they looked like this. They tasted friggin AMAZING though.

Goat Cheese and Blackberry Jam Grilled Sandwiches – Aamupalalla

Stunning Goat and Blackberry Jam Grilled cheese

Off-putting morning goat and jam grilled cheese sammies

I saw this grilled cheese, I had some left-over goat cheese, Hoi had just given me a mini-pot of strawberry jam – and I knew, it was meant to be. Stinky, cheesy and yummy, this baby was intense. Would I make it again? No. But do I regret it? No.

Chicken Shwarma Nachos – My Name is Yeh

Beeyootiful Chicken Shwarma Nachos

Not-so-beautiful Chicken Shwarma Nacho bits…

I made these nachos for a girlie dinner and it went down like a hit. Looking back at these pictures makes me realize though that man – I have got to learn how to style food! Or accept that having a food blog might mean not eating the food you present on the blog. ANYWAY, this was very tasty and Molly Yeh’s original post on it is beautiful. I recommend taking a look.

Oatmeal raisin cookie baked oatmeal – Two Red Bowls

Inspiring oatmeal raisin cookie baked oatmeal

Mildy sick-inducing raisin baked oatmeal

I saved the best, err ugliest, for last. A questionable textured breakfast that tasted pretty yummy, this baked oatmeal looked like the stuff of breakfast dreams, but in actuality looked CRAZY TERRIBLE. UGH.

I swear my food tastes good.

Wild Honey at Scotts Square

Ahh, Wild Honey.

The enclave of yuppies, tai-tais and expats in Singapore since 2010.

When my girlfriends and I were planning a long overdue catch-up and wanted it to be in an indulgent setting (because we’re worth it), we decided to do it at Wild Honey. It’s convenient location meant we could launch directly into a completely unnecessary shopping spree right after in ALL THE MALLS on Orchard Road.

So we, ok fine, I prepped myself by wearing a the uniform of the female Singapore weekender. The maxi dress. Just the right degree of chic and what, this old thing?

English

Wild Honey serves breakfast all day, err day and it’s expensive. Like over 20 bucks per dish (for the most part, at least).

The breakfasts are named after the countries they are supposedly served in and the portions are not huge, but large enough to make you regret you eating the whole thing.

This time around I went for the “English,” which I regretted because really I had my eye on the “Santa Fe” as soon as I saw the menu. Word of advice, if you ask for your server’s recommendation, you generally have to take it or you look like an asshole. So don’t ask for their recommendation.

The “English” was hearty but ordinary – and I found myself craving my homemade version of Ayam brand baked beans, chicken sausages and regular sliced bread.

Californian

Mel had the very photogenic “Californian” which was eggs scrambled with tofu/veggies and I wanna say, ciabatta.

Ham and Brie Sandwich

Hoi opted to go the sandwich route and hers was a delicious ham and cheese ciabatta thingy.

The Tunisian (SGD24?)

Amy, the last girlfriend standing, chose the “Tunisian” which was shaksuka.

Coffee was generally great and the ambiance was comfortably snobby.

All in all, Wild Honey is what I call a black hole of brunch. A somewhat unnecessary experience you keep getting sucked into.

Wild Honey at Scotts Square
333A Orchard Rd
238897
6235 3900

Tiong Bahru Bakery

A Hazelnut Financier – that I got free! Because I have one of those faces…

What: Arguably THE cafe that started the cafe hype in Singapore – it’s an expat haven in the now very chic/expensive Tiong Bahru area.

Pros: Some really good pastries (you gots to try their kouign-amman, almond-chocolate croissant and almond financier) and yummy coffee (I know this clearly means I don’t know good coffee, but I clearly don’t care).

Cons: The savory stuff is very so-so and I swear anytime I try and eat bread from that place, the roof of my mouth ends up a bloody mess.

Verdict: Dude I get at least one pastry a week from there. What do you think I’m going to say?

Details:
Tiong Bahru Bakery – many outlets but I go to:
56 Eng Hoon St., #01-70
Singapore 160056

I make ugly food & it TASTES SO GOOD: Vol II

My first ugly food post is actually the most popular post on my blog EVER. It got 105 views which let’s face it is, pretty paltry and in all honesty it only got there because Shutterbean linked to me. THANK GOD FOR HER.

In a bid to replicate my early success in a time of complete creative drought (I find that I’m mostly really concerned about what lipstick color I should buy) that I thought I would copy an old post.

Like always, I’ve been cooking up a storm and it’s been good, but it really hasn’t looked good. AKA I haven’t bothered styling it.

Here’s what I’ve been cooking and enjoying these past two weeks! Bon Appétit!

Bonkers Awesome Mushroom and Onion Shells and Cheese – Joy The Baker

Vaguely Awesome Pasta Cheese Mess

Bonkers Awesome Mushroom and Onion Shells and Cheese

The minute I saw this recipe on Joy’s blog I had to make it. However the amount of cheese and butter held me back knowing that really eating this could in no way be classified as healthy or good for you. Still I made it (Sans Gruyere – which I will use next time) and not only was it an awesome dinner, it was an awesome lunch to take into work. Too bad it really looks nothing like the original.

Strawberry and Spinach Salad with Quinoa and Goat Cheese – Cookie and Kate

Too much Strawberry and Spinach Salad with Soggy Quinoa and Passable Goat Cheese

Strawberry and Spinach Salad with Quinoa and Goat Cheese

I don’t really impulse food shop because I have a set amount of things I eat in a day and at certain times (5 o’clock apple – everyday!).* So when I do buy something out of the ordinary it generally causes a lot of panic and my mind immediately tries to slot it into my routine. This is what happened when I recently bought some cheap strawberries. I don’t have the calorie bandwith or time to eat strawberries but I had to eat dinner, so I made this salad and added some grilled chicken and was good to go! Was it good? Ish.

Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup – All Recipes

Mildly Fragrant Sweet Potato Swimming In Coconut MIlk Bath

Spicy Sweet Potato and Coconut Soup

Honestly, All Recipes? I know, how very 2000 of me. But seriously this recipe, which I stumbled across after typing in “sweet potato” and “coconut milk” into Google, was actually AMAZING. Make it and dunk in some udon, veggies and some silken tofu and you’ve got A MEAL my friends.

Big Clusters Maple Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Granola – Averie Cooks

No Clusters Maple Cinnamon Choc Chip Granola

Big Clusters Maple Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Granola

I make granola from time and time and it’s always vaguely healthy. This time I didn’t want to do healthy – I wanted to do chock full, can’t even pretend this is good for you granola. Because sometimes you want to. Sometimes you want to be bad – and then feel good – and then feel obese. Because really this is what happened when I made this granola. And honestly – check out the photography in the original post and drool because it is oh-so-good.

*If you think this is strange and weird and you are still my friend then you obviously think this is a charming quirk of mine and we need not discuss this further.