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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Hungry for…..Chicken Parmigiana!

Tonight’s dinner was relatively quick but much washing up and trouble.

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DSC01278                            Not the prettiest picture – i know..haha

Ok..Here the recipe goes..Really simple.

Ingredients (Serves 3)

600gm Chicken Breast
1 jar of Bertoli Grilled Summer Vegetables Pasta Sauce
Mozzarella (As much or as little as you like – Fresh, packaged..whatever)
1 egg
Panko Breadcrumbs

Directions

The chicken breasts i bough were from Lilydale – Free Range Chickens. There were 2 breasts but they were relatively large and fat so i sliced each into half and got Fish to pound them to thin the breasts out.

In a baking dish, pour the jar of sauce into it and even it out.

In 2 shallow dishes, crack an egg in one and the breadcrumbs in the other. First, i seasoned the chicken with just salt and pepper. Heating an amount of oil in the frying pan, then taking a piece of chicken, dipping it in the egg then the panko breadcrumbs then into the hot pan. Do this with each slice of chicken. When they’re cooked, place them into the baking dish on top of the sauce – overlapping if necessary.

Easiest part – Sprinkle as much mozzarella as you like over the top and send it into the oven on around 220 degrees for around 10 minutes – till the top cheese is bubbly and brown and the sauce bubbles a little.

Enjoy!

To go with this, and since i had a few potatoes lying around – i had brushed potatoes which means it came with soil on it – so i washed it all yesterday and peeled off the skins.

I decided to make wedges.

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These are really simple too. I just sliced the potatoes into wedges, rubbed chilli powder, BBQ seasoning, salt and pepper and olive oil onto them, then into the oven they go around 220 degrees for around 20 minutes or so. I think i added too much chilli powder..haha..

Have Fun Cooking and Eating!

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Lunapads

WARNING: Blatant Advertising of Feminine Products!

Here goes...

After deliberating for 2 years, i have finally decided to go ahead and purchase Lunapads. These are reusable menstrual products. They are really really comfortable! My greatest hurdle was the washing. We have been influenced to think of menstruation as something disgusting and something we conceal and hide. When i first asked my mum about it – she gave a standard reply – washing the blood and all? It does sound a little icky – but seriously, it ain’t that difficult or disgusting at all.

Get a bottle of earth friendly liquid detergent and a pail. I use the ‘earth’ brand although i should be buying the ‘seventh generation’ one after i finish with this. Wash the pads under warm water and just rub/scrub it with your hands. This ought to get rid of most of the blood/discharge. Place a little detergent over the pad and rub it in again. Without washing the soap away, soak the pad overnight in the pail filled with water and the appropriate amount of liquid detergent. That’s all. Hang to dry.

You can use washing machine to wash, but try to dry it naturally. My sis placed it in the dryer and it shrunk quite a bit. So, drying it naturally is the way to go. 

Lunapads1Shown above is a maxi cloth pad. It can be used as it is, or if you have a heavier flow, you are able to insert more liners under the ric-rac bands. I bought these but i have so far only used it once. The length of it is quite long as compared to commercial disposable ones.

Lunapads2This is the 7 day mini pantyliner kit that i bought. I use pantyliners on a daily basis and i felt it was such a waste. The amount of used pantyliners, pads and tampons being thrown into landfills each year is enormous! Disposable pads and tampons also pose potential health risk due to the chemicals in them. Also, since they are really easy to wash and dry, i actually don’t use all 7 of them. My sis has 2 of her own, i gave her one of mine and i still have one which i have not used at all. They are also really compact to keep and bring around. When not in use, you can fold them up and clip them together (if you can see the clip in the picture – the white square thing).

From forums, there are so many concerns regarding the wearing of pantyliners on a daily basis as it is not good for the body and of course, your vagina. So this would be a very very good alternative to disposable ones.

Lunapads3This is called the DivaCup. It is a wonderful tampon alternative. Tampons have a serious health risk – Toxic Death Syndrome. This does not exist with the DivaCup. The divacup does not absorb your natural vaginal fluid (self-cleansing) as opposed to tampons. The cup is inserted low in the canal instead of high up like a tampon. There are no strings attached. As icky as it might seems, it is made of medical grade silicon which is way way way safer. If you are interested in the intricate details, let me know… Supposedly, it doesn’t leak. There might be occasional leaking but it’s usually if you have not create a proper seal or if the cup is nearly full. You can wear it overnight, else in the day, depending on your flow, some can last the whole day, some empty it every 4-5hrs.

The pads are really comfy and there are many different fabrics and colours to choose from. My personal favourite has to be bubble mosaic – but it seems to be running low on stock for that fabric.

Price! On the offset, it seems expensive – which is also a reason why i put off buying it. The 7 day pantyliner kit costs USD$72 (SGD$110) w/o shipping fee. Seems really expensive eh? However, the pad can last up to 5-10 years. Lets do a little calculation here shall we?

I took from NTUC’s website: A pack of Whisper Breathable Pantyliners (40’s) costs $3.67: 1 pantyliner costs $0.09

Let’s say you use 1 a day, a month would costs: $0.09 x 30 = $2.70
a year would costs: $2.70 x 12 = $32.40
5 years: $32.40 x 5 = $162 ( This amount is more than the amount you pay @ lunapads)

The costs above is based on if you only use 1 pantyliner a day without changing (some ppl might use more a day). This is also compared to the 7 day kit – but you might not need that much. I currently am using 5 of the 7 and have 3 always kept in my wardrobe. I just like to use them for their cute patterns depending on the mood i am in. But i think effectively, practically speaking, you might only need 3 or 2 minimum.

Okay, i think i have rattled off enough. They have many other products on their website as well. Take a look, ask me if you have any questions. I don’t sell their products (duh) but i am a really satisfied customer.

蕭敬騰

Hello…..

Ihope you guys have all heard of Xiao Jing Teng aka Jam Hsiao.

He is my current favourite singer!

The song you’re listening to (if you are..) is a song from his first album. I must admit that, at first hearing, i only fancied one song (原諒我 – Forgive Me). However, after listening to the whole album, i gradually fell in love with the whole album.

The song playing now is 王子的新衣. I really like this song esp the dynamics of his voice.

He just released a new single which was penned in Italy called 給.愛人.
It sounds really nice as well and it has quite a nice mv which should be i think recorded in Italy. You can find at Youtube (of course!)

Anyways, i hope you guys enjoy the song!

Monday, April 06, 2009

Updates!

Hello Peepz…Okay, this will be a concise pictorial update of everything that happened.

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Me and Hui’s new water bottle! Look it at www.kleankanteen.com but i didn’t order it there because it was more expensive as compared to www.greenfeet.com so i ordered from greenfeet instead. The blue one is Shi Hui’s and the the black one is mine. i ordered our caps to be stainless steel instead of plastic – it’s easier to wash and maintain.

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I baked cookies! It’s just a simple cookie with chocolate chips. The next time i make cookies will be using Nigella’s recipe which is ultra-chocolatey. I will post the recipe and pictures of that when i do. =)

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Fish was really sweet and made a wonderful dinner one night. We had left over chicken rice so Fish made a baked rice with corn kernels and smoked chicken. There was no sauce which worked perfectly because the rice was overcooked – it was soft and mushy – which worked really really well in this dish. Thank you Fishie!

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This was what i made for tonight’s dinner. We had pork mince in the fridge and by chance watching a cooking show yesterday gave me inspiration to cook this tonight. Wontons. Not fried and not boiled.

Wontons are easy easy to make. I bought store bought wonton skins. So i had pork mince, diced shallots(onions), fresh shitake mushrooms (although i do think that dried shitake mushrooms would have been much better), oyster sauce, sesame oil, soya sauce, ground white pepper etc.. Then i just wrapped it very simply as you can see from the picture.

It is cooked in guotie style.

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I needed to use a frying pan that has a lid which i don’t have. So, i used a korean pot instead. First, place the meat side down and just let it fry without touching it. When i see that the bottom has browned, i add water (which was just nice warm/hot – i guess it could be just normal room temperature water) to around 1/3-1/2 of the height of the wontons. The wontons will be done once the water has completely evaporated off. The tips of the wontons might just be a little hard because the water doesn’t touch the tips but it wasn’t a big problem. It still tasted really good. Fish makes his great dipping sauce to go with the wontons which tastes really good but i have no idea how it is made. HaHa.. Anyway, i’ve realised that wontons are really easy and really nice to eat – we basically just had a little noodles with wontons.

It was also nearly just nice – for the amount of pork we used was just nice for one pack of wonton wrappers. I am not totally sure how many i made – i think its around 40-50 wontons.

There’s one more important important thing which i did not take pictures of – i will later. I bought Lunapads – washable pantyliners which i have really really grown fond of. www.lunapads.com I thought the washing part might really put me off, but seriously, i’ve grown so used to it – i have a small pail in the toilet where i soak the pads overnight and a towel rack where i hang them to dry. They are really comfy and though they may seem a little expensive – they have be used up to 5-10years which makes them extremely cost effective and natural and environmentally friendly. So girls, or boyfriends, take a look at the website, i hope that some of you might take a plunge and try! I took 2 years to finally buy it this year.

That’s it for now! Lunapads pictures coming up next!

Sunday, April 05, 2009

Posts

Haha.. a friend of mine reminded me to blog..

It has been long..busy with so many different things..

Problems with our wireless internet was one thing. Had a presentation last week about our dear Singapore President.

There are so many things..and yet i draw a blank..i don’t know where to start..haha

Anyways, this is the 5th Week of semester, almost half a semester is gone..essays are going to be starting to pile up..

Okay..i dunno what to say le…I’ll blog again when i have an idea.. =)