31 July 2012

Foodie Adventures (Singapore) - Dim Sum Royalty

Took Liliane with a few friends to Royal China for a surprise birthday lunch (thank you to ladyironchef for the amazing recommendation!). Have to keep reminding myself that I'm not a food blogger, hehe, but this place is worth sharing (and for more yummies you can always just follow me on instagram!).



The girls!




The height of sophistication


Tiffany blue!

Isn't this just the most beautiful room?


Round one

Yes - Round numero uno.





Amazing amazing amazing. It was my first time trying a custard bun and it blew my mind. I could eat their char siew sou's forever as well. Delicious. Perfect place for a birthday girl who LOVES dimsum!


Ming xx

P.S. More singing posts coming soon! Been in the studio everyday lately so watch this space for more music coming your way shortly!




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27 July 2012

DESSERT FOR BREAKFAST!?

TOO GOOD NOT TO SHARE.

Ok so I've been having peanut butter/nutella cravings for a long time now. I've occasionally splurged out on a packet of peanut M&M's, shared a cupcake or an ice cream if presented with a nutty flavour but haven't properly had the chance to fully indulge. You can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon this COMPLETELY HEALTHY RECIPE online (healthy as in nutritionally actually REALLY good for you - what!?)

"Nutella" Overnight Dessert Oats (don't let the name fool you - it doesn't taste like oats what so ever - tasted like the most delicious moussey chocolatey goodness)



I love food blogs. And I love experimenting in the kitchen. HOWEVER I find the hardest part (a part from the cleanup, of course) is actually finding all the ingredients. After that throwing it all together doesn't seem too menicing. It's when I don't understand the ingredients or even know where to find them... So you can imagine how EVEN MORE EXCITED I was to find out that I could find every single ingredient I needed in Brown Rice Paradise at Tanglin Mall (except the protein powder which I already had lying around..)! All in one place! Amazing.

Ran there, ran home and did this.. (recipe from CHOCKOHLAWTAY which can be found here, she has so many other really cool ones so do have a look at her site!)

Source: http://chockohlawtay.blogspot.sg/

Step 1 ingredients:
1/2 cup Rolled Oats (old fashioned - gluten free if needed)
1 tbs Hazelnut Butter (natural, no sugar/salt/oil added)
1/3 - 1/2 Almond Milk (unsweetened; or any other milk) - I used 1/2 almond milk

Step 2 ingredients:
1 scoop Chocolate Protein Powder (32g scoop) - I used my own 'Optimum Nutrition 100% Whey Gold Standard Double Rich Chocolate' which I got at GNC.1 tbs Regular Cocoa Powder - I used Organic Green & Black's1 tbs Ground Flaxseeds (or ground chia seeds)
1/16 tsp Salt
2 - 5 packets Sweetener (I used 3 stevia packets and it was pretty sweet so I personally wouldn't put anymore unless you have a serious sweet tooth)

Method:- In a medium sized bowl, add all the Step 1 ingredients and stir.
- Add the Step 2 ingredients and stir again.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge overnight and enjoy the next morning! (I left mine in the fridge til the morning after and they were still ok - Just, you know, if you were intending to make more for .. later days.. I thought you should know).

IT IS THAT SIMPLE!
I moved my mix into a prettier bowl before covering it with plastic wrap just so it was pretty to present in the morning!


I did a little comparison of the nutritional value compared to that of a cup of Chocolate Haagen Daz and holy moly! (This is just what I found on a calorie counter website for Haagen Daz and the other was putting in the ingredients I personally used, MAY NOT BE ACCURATE WHAT SO EVER - It was just something I wanted to look at)

2 SERVINGS OF 'NUTELLA' BREAKFAST OATS                       1 CUP OF CHOCOLATE HAAGEN DAZ ICE CREAM 



1 cup of Haagen Daz chocolate ice cream next to 2 servings of the Nutella Dessert (dad and I shared) - CRAZY! Look at the fat, especially saturated fat! AND it includes dietary fibre and so much more protein! wahoo! Having said that I'll never go off ice cream - but it's good to know, hehe. The funny thing is this is probably more nutritionally satisfying than a normal breakfast for me even thought it feels a million times more naughty. Weird? Maybe I should study nutritional science. Dad describes it as a "chocolate ice cream bircher muesli" and that he'd "eat it everyday", hahaha.



SUCCESS!


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20 July 2012

The Health Journey

Get ready for the biggest rant of the century. People always comment on my photos of food complaining about how I can eat ‘sinful’ food all the time and remain thin. First of all, food shouldn’t be ‘sinful’, you only live once and you should enjoy life and eat how you like. HAVING SAID THAT, there is a balance and if you want to live long and healthy you’ve got to make sure what you’re putting in your body is nutritious most of the time. Lets say, 80% of the time. And you’ve gotta move and learn to love exercise.

MY STORY (get set, it's a long one)

I’ve always been obsessed with food – probably even more now that I’ve stopped eating junk food and actually think about what I eat. Looking back 2 years ago I was the McDonald’s queen. Me and my sister's regular day consisted of chocolate pancakes at home for breakfast, curry puff for a snack, chicken rice/nan and curry for lunch, a fruit snack at home and a dinner of pizza or McDonald’s (unless we ate with the family). Our regular McDonald’s order was (between us) 2 Big Mac MEALS, 2 McFlurries, 20 chicken nuggets and Mcwings A la carte to share (no joke). We ate fast and ate a lot. A big meal to us would be an all-you-can-eat buffet. I didn’t think about what I ate I just ate it cause it was there. I ate when I was bored. I ate all the time, whatever tasted yummy – even if it didn’t sometimes. I remember I was so obsessed when I went to England I almost cried the first weekend I got out of school and got my hands on a Big Mac, haha. I was very lucky that it never really used to show but I was very unhealthy. After England I started gaining weight I guess from growing up and my metabolism having enough of my crap diet. The worst I’ve ever been was at Christmas when I purposely went out to eat 3 ice creams a day, pancakes, cakes, you name it (Our holiday schedule always revolves around food – we are a big food family).

Recipe from The Londoner

How things have changed. My sister and I in the last year started exercising and learning about healthy and nutritious foods and our skin got better, we lost weight and overall had so much more energy to actually do things!

SELF magazine

I just cut the CRAP (Caffeine, Refined sugars, Alcohol, Processed food) most of the time. In fact, probably 80% of the time when I eat and its not that hard to do with the world becoming more and more health conscious. I know foods that are good for me, my mind, my body and from never having set foot in a gym or on the field I now love kick boxing, am a regular yogie, take spinning classes and (although I still HATE running, I can’t run anywhere) do interval running when I travel and bring a skipping rope with me. I do weight training because I know muscles increase my metabolic rate and I want to age gracefully actually having some muscle instead of starting out with none and finding out its too late. BEING HEALTHY IS IMPORTANT.

Recipe on SkinnyTaste

The only times I’d eat out when I was younger would be with my parents so I’d follow them around. Now that I’m more independent it’s a blessing and a curse as I have more time to try different things instead of going to hawker centers all the time but I have to make food choices myself. It’s so nice now that I can go out and appreciate things more. Really, when you’re healthy and you really want something and have it – you really savour it more than having a Big Mac everyday. I’m now back to what I was when I was 15 JUST by being healthy 80% of the time. Now that my sister and I understand so much more about nutrition instead of getting wanton noodles for dinner we will get vegetables too – I’ve grown to love vegetables. I try and get 5 portions a day and lots of lean meats in as I want to build muscle. Its easy and cheap to go to the wet market and pick out lean meats and fresh veggies so theres really no excuse.

The girls behind Tone It Up!

Tone It Up! girls on the move

DON’T DIET. I’ve probably read every diet book and it doesn’t work cause it's just not sustainable. I’ve lost so much weight in the last 6 months purely from my 80/20 rule and it's just amazing. Everything in moderation. Of course there’s stuff I still struggle with such as eating slowly (I’m the fastest eater alive and therefore can, if needed, consume ridiculous amounts) and everyone has cravings.

Fish Taco's recipe on The Londoner

This post is not about losing weight but I can guarantee you if you follow this you will slim down. We aren’t meant to be fat. Your body will adjust. There is SO SO MUCH healthy nutritional information online and available for you and in magazines. Whenever I want to go back to my old ways I pick up a copy of SHAPE or a Women’s Health magazine and remember how much I love feeling this amazing. I love eating healthy foods.

Recipe on SkinnyTaste

I have LOTS of tips. I will give you a few but after this story I won’t write too much more, let me know if this is helpful and you want more stuff on this! I love the share my advice as it’s my personal journey and I know it works! This is to maintain a lean, healthy body while having curves and not being too skinny. It’s being HEALTHY!

Victoria's Secret

1.     DRINK WATER AND LOTS OF IT. I don’t drink fizzy drinks, there is so much unneeded sugar. I also drink decaf green tea and Yerba Mate tea as they’re full of antioxidants and I love it!

2.     Try not to drink much water 20 minutes before and after you eat as its bad for digestion

3.     You need calcium everyday – I have a tub of organic fat free greek yogurt for breakfast with blueberries

4.     Don’t skip meals. It just makes you more hungry and you should be burning fat throughout the whole day.

5.     Have wholemeal most of the time if you’re having simple carbs. Carbs aren’t bad but don’t go crazy on pasta/rice/bread as people also forget they’re high in calories and do not watch their portion sizes!

6.     Drink a large glass of water as soon as you wake up

7.     GET ACTIVE (but also remember to get enough rest too, you need those 8 hours of sleep to recover!)

8.     5 portions of fruit/veg a day

9.     Eat good fats (helps fight tummy fat) such as omega 3 sources, fish, nuts, avocado, olives, olive oil

10. Cut back on coffee and alcohol

11. Don’t stress about small stuff and always look on the bright side of things. Life is about living and being happy! Stress only adds on weight and makes you feel miserable.

12.  Adding a little lemon juice to your water or meal can help lower the GI index by about 20- 40%

13.  Eat slowly (my biggest weakness). It takes 20 minutes on average for you to realise you are full and I always end up leaving the table feeling horrible when I’ve rushed my meal and eaten way too much.

14. Are you actually hungry? Drink a glass of water when you start getting hungry only an hour after you’ve eaten or suddenly get a craving.

15. Do you really want to eat that or are you just desperate to have ANYTHING? I make a list on my phone when I crave things, and once I’ve eaten I find that I actually don’t really want it at all – I was just hungry.

16. Know your super foods! I’ve placed a list of some below but they are available all over the net!



Remember THIS IS NOT A DIET! Its supposed to be a sustainable way of life to try and be healthy while giving yourself room to be naughty because lets face it, you only live once. If food makes you happy (as it does for me) then why restrict yourself? Just be healthy too! Healthy food doesn’t have to be boring – I have nutritious, yummy, gorgeous meals that make me feel full, refreshed and more energized than how horrible I used to feel after stuffing myself with McDonald’s. If I’m going to indulge in some KFC or my favourite desserts later during the day I’ll make sure I have a really healthy breakfast and lunch. All in moderation. You need to let your body cleanse itself and to be honest, the more clean your body is, the easier it is for it to flush out all the bad stuff when you do have it! And do not starve yourself because your body will immediately want you to gain weight. This is about thinking about if what you’re putting In your mouth is good for your body more than trying to not eat much. You should not stress over this as its supposed to make you feel happier and more energized. Little swaps like a pack of crisps to berries and a piece of dark chocolate or peanut butter and an apple do make a difference. It’s all good for you. Its really not as hard as you think, I managed it and I was the MCDONALDS QUEEN! Having said that I do indulge now and again but the chemicals in food like this always leave you wanting more so that ‘just this once’ attitude doesn’t work too well. The longer you stay away the longer you find you just don’t want it. And trust me there are SO MANY nutritious alternatives to your favourite foods that taste even better and are so much healthier, why waste your money polluting your body?

Recipe on SkinnyTaste

This wasn’t very orderly. I apologise. But do let me know if you want anymore tips because I am happy to share! There are ways to motivate you to lose weight but I REALLY wanted this post to focus on just being happy and healthy at the same time. Here’s some links:

Elle Macpherson at 49

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2065733/Nigella-Lawson-weight-loss-secret-revealed-James-Duigan-Bodyism-Clean-Lean-plan.html (nice little block on food friends and enemies at the bottom – bodyism is amazing – think Elle Macpherson)

http://www.skinnytaste.com/

http://www.healthfulpursuit.com/

http://thehealthyfoodie.com/

- healthy food blogs (there are SO MANY)

http://www.thelondoner.me/2012/01/anti-diet.html

http://youngmarriedchic.com/

-       Both love to eat, love to exercise, amazing bodies and bake loads of crap too (my inspiration). They have amazing naughty and healthy recipe’s on their blogs too.
http://www.bringmemypassport.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/how-to-not-diet-when-youre-dieting.html - my sisters awesome blog post on how to diet when you’re not dieting

http://www.self.com/ - I love following them on twitter and all their healthy articles they give me!


Hope this helps! Stay happy and healthy!


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16 July 2012

Foodie Adventures (Singapore) - COLD STONE BABY

Ok so saying this is one of the most amazing things I've ever tasted in my life would be the understatement of the year. IT IS THAT GOOD. And that bad for you too. BUT HOW CAN YOU RESIST!?

My faaaaaaaavourite. Will tell you more about it in a sec..

 Having said that, when my stomach was about the burst from my cousins reunion korean BBQ dinner I did not object when everyone decided they wanted to pop to Orchard Central for a cup of Cold Stone Creamery Icecream. Nope, not even a peep could escape my lips. The fact is, I was reaaaally full. Like, really really. But ice cream is one of those rare things where you can still eat it even if you're full (unless you're one of those annoying people who can actually stop - I'm extremely jealous). LETS MOVE ON.


Always a huge queue after dinner (but so worth it, trust me)


HOW CAN YOU NOT GET EXCITED! ARE YOU EXCITED? I'M EXCITED!



There goes my baby..




Pah, they gave me 2 spoons. Like I'm going to share.

Tada! Without fail I always order - Cotton Candy Icecream with brownie, graham cracker (pie crust), white chocolate chips and marshmellows. My sister gets oreo's instead of white chocolate chips but aurgh, so so so so so good! They have other creations too that I'm dying to try! They all look amazing.


ANYWAY. I just haaaaaad to upload a post showing you my ultimate favourite creation. AND I'm expecting you to tell me yours too so that I have an excuse to go back and try it!

It's just so delicious I can't even begin to explain. While eating it I genuinely thought "I could grow fat on this and I would just be so happy". So there you have it, right from a girls own lips. It's worth aaaaaallll that.

I did feel a little bad after, I mean, I didn't even need it but then I realised the last time I had indulged in this gorgeous creation was 5 months ago, and the feeling was replaced with "5 MONTHS AGO!?!?". My sister has said she wants to come at least twice before she goes back to England.

Not objecting. I'm going back for this little beauty.


See you there?

P.S. It's located on the ground floor of Orchard Central, you can't miss it!


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15 July 2012

Foodie Adventures (Singapore) - DEAN & DELUCA

I was initially going to write about loads of cafes in a single post but... its a rainy afternoon, I'm sitting here with a cup of warm green tea with a whole bunch of yummy photos that need to be looked at!


DEAN AND DELUCA! Augh I just love cafes! My cousin had had her eye set on going ever since it opened so we made a date and then spent the next few days counting down and looking through pretty photos others had started to post online..


I love going to places that sell unique and beautiful products. I am SUCH a sucker for marketing. Packaging means so much. It's one of those places I could just spend hours wandering and looking through all the gorgeous little things on display. (I'm a regular culprit at Jones).




My cute little expresso shot! (I really didn't realise I was actually just going to be given an expresso shot, this isn't the first time I've made a mistake with coffee).


My attempt at being healthy, followed by..





SO GOOD SO GOOD. Even if you're just popping in for a coffee I would highly recommend it! Orchard Central is actually really really cool and somewhere I don't go to enough but whenever I do I'm just reminded about how much I love it. They have some really awesome shops and promotions, etc etc etc... just.. go check it out, ok?


It was a little pricey, but the portions are big. We shared between the three of us and had so much left over (luckily I only ordered half a salad, ey ;)). Oops, awkward double chin bracket. I would go and try their main dishes as a lot of the stuff in the bakery is provided by different stores around Singapore - which is kinda cool too. I haven't been to a few of them so it was nice that they had gotten what (I assume) is the best and put it all in one place!

My sister is back this week so it's deffinately an excuse to go back and try some more. So if you're like me and need an excuse to indulge.. make one now and get down to Orchard Central for some seriously yummy stuff!

xx


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14 July 2012

Ziggy & Singlet - Behind the scenes

WAHOO! A little feature in Ziggy magazine and a feature and cover on Singlet magazine!

Oh hey there, Miss Think-a-lot


I had so much fun doing the shoot! Chuck Reyes (the amazing photographer) and I actually met a long, long time ago on a shoot when I was about.. 14? He took one of my most beloved photos at that time in a teen vogue inspired shoot (do you recognise me? hehe). I'm a huge fan of his camera skills.


ANYWAY. So I walked through the door and there he was! I hadn't seen him in years! I think we both exchanged the same reactions and hugs and stories were exchanged. It was really, really nice.


Hair and makeup for the shoot


The whole shoot was really fun, vibrant and playful!


Apart from my ultra cool shorts, all the clothes came from Topshop and being a HUGE fan of pastel, I was in love.

Having fun on set with my many "WAIT I CAN MAKE THIS JUMP LOOK OK" shots.

Eager to see the results

The shoot was so relaxed and natural. I really had such a good time on set.


SO MUCH LOVE for the neon jacket. Ohh yes.

Ziggy Feature


Tada! The result of many a jump take! Singlet magazine is avaliable in Singtel stores and Ziggy in these places. Grab a copy and let me know what you think of the feature!


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