"The Doctor Says" Recipes

So our doctor said,"If you want to recover soon, no fried and oily food for you. Cut down on your salt and sugar intake." 

Well, it is a really scary order. There goes our Fried Noodles, Curry Chicken, Stewed Pig Trotters, Assam Laksa, Nasi Lemak, Satay, Grilled Beef Steak, Barbeque Spicy Fish and the list goes on! :O

We have to be good though and follow what our doctor commanded. But we start to feel sick and nauseous of eating bland porridge, raw salad, and boiled lean meat everyday. This goes on to an extent that we will rather not get well and decide to live by the "Eat and enjoy life to the fullest" philosophy for good. 

Fact is, if we abide by healthy eating, the chances of recovery is higher. However, it needs to be done the right way else it will be hard for us to keep our appetites going, much less, keep our spirits lifted.

I am not a doctor nor a nutritionist. However I am keen on exploring and creating food dishes that can improve patients' appetites while adding some glimmer to their bored and tired eyes. This is my first post on this segment of recipes and I hope that it can bring about some good and happiness for everyone.

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Vegetables and Meatballs in Tomato Stew

Green leafy vegetables are a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Tomatoes are high in antioxidants and beta-carotene. Meat and Eggs give us the protein and energy that we need. 

This stew is easy to cook and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare. I did not use any salt or sugar for this recipe, and just a small amount of oil and pepper to pep the tastes up a little. It is naturally slightly sour, sweet and has a tinge of salty fragrance. This dish goes great with rice or can be eaten by itself.

Food Crafts: Desire for Sweet Cakes... Origami

I wasn't lacking of ideas for the past weeks. There were simply too many ideas going through my head till sleep became difficult. Anyway, paper food crafts seemed great and I came across this at a bookstore so decided to give it a GO! 

It took me two days to complete, and was rather tedious work. Thanks to lil Pinky and my friends who kept me company (online) throughout. This is for those who love pretty, sweet cakes but want to watch their weight or undergoing special diets. I hope that you will all like these cakes and bring a sweet smile to all your faces. :]

My Sweet Cakes Origami

Made from 99% paper and 1% cardboard

Minced Pork 'Handmade' Noodles (U-Mian) Soup - The Deception Version

Generally children are fun, but not when they are being fussy at the meal table. Recently, buddy "R" was telling me that the food she cooked was always planned to ensure sufficient nutrition for her children. However they tend to compare it with those sold outside (full of MSG) which made her disheartened at times. 

Perhaps we can try the art of 'visual deception' with slight difference in tastes while cooking.  Tonight I will try to cook Minced Pork 'Handmade' Noodles Soup aka U-Mian Soup with my remaining minced pork, vegetables, and eggs in the fridge. It is easy, does not need hours to boil a bone stock base, and has no MSG added.

Let me first show you a picture of a typical bowl of U-Mian Soup that is sold in Singapore foodcourts and coffeeshops. I will try to cook a similar bowl but of much healthier contents. 

A bowl of U-Mian / Ban Mian Soup from an outside eatery

Chicken N Mushrooms Roll - Anti Drop Food

It's always so troublesome; Wearing a nice outfit but having shredded vegetables and bits of meat drop all over while still maintaining poise. Ham and egg sandwiches seem too boring a breakfast/lunch to perk us up on working days. 

A food roll will be a good solution but not an ordinary food roll. It has to be the anti-drop version. This can be made possible by having long pieces of meat, sticky gravy, extra wraps within the roll, and pin it down! :D

Here it is! Which type suits you more?

Cooking Blues: Washing Piles of Dishes and Cleaning Up?

Nothing beats home-cooked food by family members simply because it has the heart-warming factor; genuine care and love. Most importantly, home-cooked food is healthier than most of what we eat at food centres, cafes and restaurants. It is what we grew up with. So try not to stop cooking for our families and/or appreciate wholeheartedly what has been cooked for us. :] 

BUT......

Our common blues are...

• It's tiring to wash the dishes and clean up the mess daily! I always need to clean myself up after that too.
• My hands are sensitive to the detergents and become rough from all the cleaning!
• It is expensive to invest in a dishwasher and I still have to clean the dishwasher frequently too.

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Fast Foods: Frozen Dumplings

Sometimes we are too busy or too lazy to cook a proper meal from scratch. Frozen foods are probably our next best choice after fresh ones. They can last for weeks when kept inside the freezer compartment. For this month, I have bought a packet of frozen Chives Dumplings for cases of "Emergency". One packet usually have about 20 - 30 pieces of dumplings and it would take me about 4 - 5 meals to finish all of them. They taste just fine for most of the brands available in supermarkets but would definitely not be as good as freshly made ones. 

Today I wasn't feeling well so decided to open the packet of frozen dumplings and cook a bowl of hot dumplings soup. It was comforting and the quantity and taste were just right. And it's time for a short, happy nap.

Easy Dumplings in Cabbage Soup

Seafood Claypot Mee Sua Soup - For J.S

It had been raining rather heavily the past few days so the weather was cooling especially at night. Family, friends and I had been staying home for dinner to avoid getting caught in the rain too. At a time like this, a pot of steaming claypot soup might be the most comforting non-greasy food around. I didn't want to hog the whole pot of soup to myself so am sharing it with everyone. This yummy recipe reminds me and is dedicated to 2 of my long-time friends, "JS" , who both love Claypot and Seafood lots. Although the past "JS Love" was gone, this one will stay for long. I hope that they will like it.

The "JS" Love

Ginger Honey Lemon Drink - Flatulence Relief!

POOOOOOOT!!! Some loud and strong, some light and airy, while some others sounded a little watery...  (=_=")

Lately, many friends and family are suffering from "stomach wind" aka Flatulence. Luckily for me, some of them told me about it online rather than let me experience a whiff of their natural fragrance. If only I have smaller nostrils... 

So I did a bit of research online and learned that Ginger, Lemon, Peppermint and Cherry are some of the many remedies to expel wind from our tummies. Peppermint and Cherry are not common ingredients found in Singaporeans' homes so I'll be using the other two ingredients instead. This simple recipe is dedicated to everyone out there, who keeps farting away!

LET'S EXPEL ALL!

Easy Omelette Mee Sua Soup - Lil Pinky's 1st Attempt

Ok, 3rd post in 1 day. I told Lil Pinky that I'd post this entry up for her. Here it goes...

Lil Pinky was at home and had to eat dinner but there wasn't any ready-cooked food for her and Mom was out! So I told her that she'd just need a few ingredients to come up with a bowl of food. I whatsapp-ed her some instructions but it was blur Lil Pinky's 1st attempt at this so she messed some of the steps up. Nonetheless, she managed to save the day and came up with a yummy bowl of Omelette Mee Sua soup to fill her lil tummy up for the night.

Good try lil cheeky girl! Cook your own food more often instead of binging on maggi mee and weird snacks for your meals.

Cheeky Girl's Omelette Mee Sua Soup

Picture taken and sent from Lil Pinky

Abalone Mee Sua Soup - Leftover from CNY!

It is almost 7 months past Chinese New Year and there are still leftovers. A can of abalone that would expire in a few months time. It need not always be a special occasion to cook and eat good food, once in a while. However, my appetite still isn't back and have no wish to eat meat. Mee Sua will be a good choice for me as it can be easily digested, while the slices of abalone will be for family.

As it was my first time making this dish, I had to use lots of imagination to think of the ingredients and different combination of tastes. So I spent about 2 hours just preparing the ingredients and cooking them. It turned out really delicious! (I wasn't supposed to use the brine in the can to cook the soup gravy but I still did, just a little to get the abalone taste. It can be substituted by abalone sauce sold off supermarket shelves but won't be as good. It won't be a bowl of abalone noodles without abalone soup.)

A Bowl of Satisfaction

Fried Veggie Wholemeal Sandwich - An Occasional Treat

It had been another busy week at work and at home for me. Things weren't going that well, sleep was bad and appetite was poor. I could not even finish half a plate of every proper meal I had. At times, when I wanted to eat M's chicken nuggets, I thought of the overpriced 6 pieces and decided not to conveniently walk over to the M's roadside kiosk. 

I needed to get my appetite back. Going vegan and eating lesser for the time being might do my stomach good. Anyway, failed my 3x attempts to make vegetarian chicken nuggets without using gluten or slabs of tofu. I will succeed eventually, but not now... ;[ 

It was a sleepless night again yesterday. In the midst of tossing and turning, I thought of frying veggie sandwich using wholemeal bread with healthy oil. The mere thought of it made me excited again. Today I tried and it was good. I love Veggies forever!

My 2nd Love ("3

Health Pick: Black Seed plus Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO)

This month, I am introducing "Black Seed + VCO" to my friends and readers. Since this blog started, my friends and I have been cooking and testing several recipes, ensuring that the dishes were not too oily, fattening and heavy on stomachs. However, there is no guarantee that we would not over-eat which might lead to detrimental effects like indigestion or crashing our weighing scales. 
Recently, someone recommended me a supplement "Black Seed + VCO"  that helps in Weight Control and other health conditions. I started taking it when the Spicy Minced Chicken N Sweet Basil Rice caused my weak stomach to spice up for the next 2 days. After a few hours, the tummy discomforts stopped while my appetite returned and I have been taking this supplement daily since then. Now, with the information that I have compiled, I will like to share with everyone about the health benefits of Black Seed and VCO.

Minced Pork N Fishball Noodles (Dry) - Slurpz!

It had been raining for the past few days and almost everyone seemed rather happy that the heatwave was gone. However, the rain hampered a few of my plans over the past week including satisfying my craving for minced meat noodles at an eatery in Fortune Centre. So I decided to cook it myself tonight.

Craving Fully Satisfied!

Eggroll N Prawn Mee Sua Soup - Grandma's All Time Favourite

My Grandmother used to always cook her specialty Eggroll dish for Reunion Steamboat Dinner when I was young. She said that it was our family's tradition to have this dish only during Chinese New Year. On this special occasion, she would make many eggrolls which would be the dish that was completely cleaned out first by all of us. Although Grandma had passed on several years back, her dish and tradition were never forgotten. My family would surely have eggrolls for every year's Reunion Dinner and it would still be the most popular dish among us. 

Sometimes, I would make and add these eggrolls to my meals whenever I miss Grandma, reminiscing the old times. Hence I would like to share Grandma's eggroll recipe accompanied with a bowl of mee sua, via this post with everyone.

Missing Grandma...

Spicy Minced Chicken N Sweet Basil Rice - Teary N Sweaty Meal

The first time I tried this dish (Spicy Minced Chicken and Basil Rice) was at a small thai eatery inside Orchard Towers building. The spicy gravy totally blew my mind. I had never eaten something so savoury before and couldn't forget this dish since then. Soon, this eatery closed down and I had to satisfy my craving elsewhere. However, no other thai restaurants that I had tried in Singapore were able to meet the standards because something always seemed to be missing... Hence I had to churn out my own recipe based on my memory of the taste I loved so much. It tasted similar but would never be completely authentic.

Usually I would use sugar and lots of fish sauce when cooking this dish, but I wanted to try something different this time yet retain the sweet, saltish, taste and caramel look of the gravy. Each time after finishing my last grain of rice, I had to down 2 to 3 glasses of ice water. But today I'd prepared a bowl of Egg Drop Chicken Soup Mee Sua to go with my hot and spicy meal. 

My Fiery Thai Meal

Egg Drop Chicken Soup Mee Sua - A Side Dish from Leftovers

Mee Sua need not always be the main and only dish in meals. There are people who like to have their rice meal accompanied by a bowl of light mee sua soup.

Today, I wanted to prepare Spicy Minced Chicken N Sweet Basil Rice for dinner and there were leftover chicken bones, chicken meat, onions. These were too good to waste and combined with the remaining 4 wilting stalks of spring onions + 1 egg inside my fridge, I could come up with a hearty Egg Drop Soup Mee Sua.

Relief the Spiciness!

Invisible Papaya Soup Mee Sua - Mushroom Eggroll + Sweet Corn

Yesterday craved for Chicken Soup Mee Sua and had intended to cook it for my house guests today. However, Notti Mei texted me early this morning that we should go vegetarian instead (due to 15th day of Lunar Month). It shouldn't be too hard to plan something tasty and not too boring at the last minute. A nutritious papaya soup might be good. 

So I went grocery shopping for all the necessary ingredients but bought the wrong type of papaya home! Had bought the green one instead of the orange type. I need to turn it invisible...

Healthy Vegetarian Lunch!