DISCO WUNDERLAND

The more I see news about the hardships of making ends meet, the more I realise that all we ever do is dedicate every inch of our energy and minute of our time to making sure we can get food on the table and petrol in our vehicles.

RISOTTO-STYLE CHILI FLAKE RICE

I AM BACK.

So what's been happening lately?

1. Not much blogging, clearly. Not much cooking either. I've been trying to kick start my fitness routine but I guess my body's like "nah, go and enjoy then start again" so I've been doing that by splurging on bak kut teh, kueh chap and as always... alcohol.

2. Kim's back in town - explains the above!

3. Had a photoshoot after so long with KINO Magazine of not being in front of a camera and it was a lot of fun! I love the idea of photoshoots being fun and loose rather than having to focus so much on a serious face, lengthened legs, collarbones popping etc. I love to smile and I love to laugh!

4. Work's been a bummer.

5. I want to say that life is picking up nicely except I don't want to jinx it

6. It's RAYA! Spent the first day visiting a few houses and I just stuffed myself with all the curry, laksa, cakes, fizzy drinks, satays and fried foods. LET ME TELL YOU THAT when your body is so used to clean food and drinks and you start shoving "foreigners" into it, the battle begins. I also managed to harbour a pimple on my cheek after a looong time of not having any. After the first day of Eid, I decided I shall not visit any more houses and be confined in a house.

7. I'm slowly getting a palate for good coffee.

Honestly, most Malaysians make their butter chicken rice in a rice cooker. I could've just done the same.

You need:
4 cloves, garlic
1 whole shallot
1 cup, uncooked rice
Chicken/ vegetable stock (make plenty)
1/8 of Golden Churn butter (from the stick)
Olive oil
Chicken strips (optional)
Vegetables of your choice (optional)
Salt (optional)
Pepper

1. Unshell your garlic cloves and shallot. Cut your veggies into manageable pieces coz those are going into the dicer/blender (no dicer? Fear not. You can manually chop them up). Dice until they look just right.

2. Heat your pan on low,  add a small amount of olive oil and add your 1/8 of butter. The low heat is important so you don't burn your butter and the rest of the ingredients. Once the butter has melted, add your diced ingredients. Keep the heat on LOW because you don't want to brown it. You just want it to mix in with the butter and the flavours should immerse together.

3. Add your cup of uncooked rice. It's weird, I know. Stir in well and the rice should start "frying". This is why it's called "risotto style" and most risotto recipes use dry white wine but we aren't. Why? Learn below!

4. Add a ladle of chicken/vegetable stock each time. You want to go slow because we are avoiding making rice soup. Let the rice slowly soak in each ladle. Keep adding a ladle in until you see your rice nicely "frothing" up.

5. Grab your lid and close the pot. Let it simmer. You can blast the heat up at this point.

6. Keep stirring and add 1 ladle in as you please until you get the texture you want. I had chicken strips left so I just threw it in the pot. Repeat this process until your rice fluffs up and is cooked. Add in your seasonings - I did not use salt because the butter is salty enough.


It might seem like a lot of steps but once you've done it, you'll realise how easy it is.

LESSON: Certain flavour compounds are more soluble in alcohol than in fat or water, so you get more flavour. NOTE: this is not necessary here. 

Alcohol-free butter chicken rice cooked risotto-style!

Salmon and the occasional tuna are the only fishes I eat. And maybe the ones my mum goes to get but I'm not so fond of those and will always run back to my trusted fillets of ray-finned fishes.

Oil-free, pan-seared fennel seed salmon

Cauliflower Rice

Cauliflowers are a great source of Vitamin C and Vitamin K so you should definitely include them in your diet at least 2-3 times a week if you want to get the health benefits from them! So I found this from www.whfoods.com about these cruciferous veggies:

"While cauliflower is not a well-studied cruciferous vegetable from a health standpoint, you will find several dozen studies linking cauliflower-containing diets to cancer prevention, particularly with respect to the following types of cancer: bladder cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and ovarian cancer. This connection between cauliflower and cancer prevention should not be surprising, since cauliflower provides special nutrient support for three body systems that are closely connected with cancer development as well as cancer prevention. These three systems are (1) the body's detox system, (2) its antioxidant system, and (3) its inflammatory/anti-inflammatory system. Chronic imbalances in any of these three systems can increase risk of cancer, and when imbalances in all three systems occur simultaneously, the risk of cancer increases significantly."

You need:
3 cloves, garlic
1 small shallot
1/3 cauliflower (imagine your veg to be a pie, cut a third of it off)
2 teaspoon, whisked egg
Paprika powder (optional)
Pepper
Salt
Olive oil

1. Remove the garlic and shallot skins. Cut up your cauliflower into manageable pieces. Put all 3 ingredients into the dicer/blender (if you don't have this machine, you can manually chop them up finely). The reason we use it is because it dices the ingredients perfectly to give you that rice texture you are looking for. Also, it takes seconds. (lazy people syndrome over here, haha!)

2. Grab 2 eggs and crack them into a bowl. Season them as you please because this will be your omelette for later on. Whisk well and add 2 teaspoons into your cauli-rice mixture. Stir the egg well until you get a slight, thick texture. Add in your seasoning.

3. Heat your non-stick pan up. Add in a little olive oil. Get your rice mix in and stir. I added a hint of paprika powder for the taste. Stir occasionally to make sure it doesn't get burnt. If you're waiting for it to turn brown as an indicator that it's cooked, fear not - you can cook it for 5 minutes and it's already safe to eat.

Turn this into your own rice variation by adding anything you want (meat, seasoning, fish, vegetables, etc)

Spring onion omelette

With patience and a little love, you'll get a nicely coloured, fluffy omelette.

You might have noticed that the blog name has changed, and my new layout makes the OCD crowd a little edgy.

I am slaving away to construct this page properly.
I haven't had to use html codes since I was 16. And I was very good at HTML/CSS codes. Now I'm not.

Anchovy and spinach rice

I couldn't resist scooping some of the rice out in little balls.

Lemon and rosemary salmon (steamed)

I squeezed in a bit more lemon for that extra citrus flavour.


My meals and their portions are very much suited for my needs. Incorporate more protein for lean gains but don't forget carbs to give you that energy!

It's day 4 since my appendectomy and I feel a lot better. I still walk with a hunch but not as hunched as the last few days, your grandmother can still out run me, my food is still mashed up and every day is just me in bed thinking of gym.

Gym and alcohol.

Just to recap, I was discharged at 5pm on Monday- I couldn't walk and all I wanted to do was sleep. Since then, I've been in bed all day and night and forced to sleep like a surfboard. With lack of movement going on and a limited diet, my back muscles are aching and stiff, to the point you might think I've been doing lat workouts all day when actually it's just super stressed from being a potato.

So here are my meds. They're so generic and even those Uphamol paracetomols were thrown in my pack. God knows how many of those I have by now and I do avoid taking those and replace them with Panadol because they get stuck down my throat.

Augmentin antibiotics, Celebrex painkillers and yep, Uphamol. Don't worry; I do take them since I can't move out of my bed and my med box is just right next to me.

My Celebrex painkillers (400mg). They prescribed me to have this once a day when I felt like I needed 3 of these.

Diet | My relationship with post-op food

EGGS | CHICKEN | SEAFOOD

BABY FOOD 

Can I shower?

How long would recovery take?

I was admitted into KPJ Hospital and prepped into the operating room for an emergency laparoscopic appendectomy - in simple terms, removing my appendix.

So what is appendicitis? 

PC: www.webdmd.com

Prepping me for surgery.

Post Op:

I've spent over 52 hours spearing and executing the 100 Plus Dahagakan Bola event and yesterday was the final day. I've worked until midnight, slept for a few hours to start again at 9am on certain days. This campaign was mostly under the very hot sun, whereby normal people would stay away from and I had slight heatstroke. Awful feeling.

I haven't felt this exhausted since, well, I can't remember. It's been a while since I've been physically, mentally and emotionally drained to the point that I can't even sleep in peace. I'll be waking up around 7 or 8 am when I don't have to and that just irates me a bit more. My gym sessions were forced into 1-2 hour quick sessions in between work and I waved bye-bye to my intermittent fasting because I literally have no energy and life to starve myself strategically. This is the price you pay for proving that you are worthy of the new job you have just been given - or more like, a new position!

So 3 weeks ago, I applied for the hitz Integration Executive position. I was approached by Amy, who is the Head of Integration and my first thought was that I couldn't do this. I'm a bit negative on myself, but I took on board the challenge and went ahead with the interview. I had to come up with a basic concept paper - this is when you come up with an idea of an event, think of the activities and what benefit it has for the station and the client. I spent 2 nights drinking and 2 hours in front of the computer to come up with my concept which I was actually very proud of.

Here's something about me - I am hard on myself. When I got the interview task, I told myself that I couldn't do it. There's plenty of people better than me with better ideas and began to pounce negativity on my soul. Ironically, I also place great importance on making sure everything was thought out of, and whatever I slammed on my presentation slides would cover most aspects that means very little questioning.

I've spent 3 years in Special Events. I'm so used to coming in at 11.30am and finishing at 6pm. What a life. The most stress I've encountered (apart from battling with my own thoughts on an almost daily basis) is managing the Cruisers and that is still, fairly okay. Interview day came and I was just nervous. I never realised how nervous I could possibly be considering I've done tons of work in front of huge crowds but in front of colleagues? Gosh. I tried to tell myself that hosting in front of a crowd is way worse than this but in fact, the fear of letting myself and others down were my only thoughts. I believed in my concept and the last thing I want to do is not sell it like how it should be sold. Luckily, I got through the interview with everything that I had and scored the job.

Do I want this job? Yes. I may not sound like I do, but that's just me. I don't really know how to get what I want. Even when I like someone, the chances of me telling them: little to none. I'd want them to figure it out themselves coz I have convinced myself that humans are psychic and I have shown the Universe my interest. I become confused between my head and heart and comfort zone. I like the challenge, but I'd always be over thinking about it, you know, as in weighing the pros and cons and seeing if I'm worthy. I should stop looking down on myself. I should realise that I have a lot of potential in me. I should also stop being so afraid.

Well, time to change my life around, say goodbye to my sweet afternoon sessions at the gym and count down the days when my 11.30am slowly ends.

When you take up fitness, it's a lot more than just hitting the gym on a regular, attending your classes and becoming a slave to the weights. There are plenty of people who rely on detox/slimming teas rather than paying attention to what is on their plate. Worst still, weightloss pills are easily available online for absolutely anyone to buy and consume and people still believe that they are safe. I wonder if anyone heard the story about the diet pills that contained worm eggs (and we all know that anyone infected with worms in their digestive system will continuously lose weight despite eating a whole elephant in one sitting)...

Good way to start your fitness journey by taking something that's fully natural (check out the ingrediens at the back) but let's be real here, nobody is going to survive solely on this. You still need to eat and your food is what will kickstart a better lifestyle!

Diet & exercise has never hurt anyone and I pretty much turned my legs and butt around in just 7 months.

Yay! Finally managed to fit into this bikini set without having lumps and bumps (I bought it without trying it on, I couldn't help myself since it was only RM40 from Langkawi)

Achievement unlocked today as I finished my 13km bike ride in aid of Run For The Wild 2016! It was a charity bike ride organised by Swinburne University and WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and Astro Radio were given free slots to participate - hitz Sarawak represent! Since I like to challenge myself, especially on a Sunday - and knowing myself too well, I don't usually wake up early for most things - it was the perfect thing for me to do. 

...With a brand new rap!

Okay, I'm now back to blogging AND I WILL MAINTAIN THIS ONE. It's not just because Vey asked me to, but because I've always wanted to but the problem is that my mac is not co-operating with me. 😒

What's changed lately? Well, I've taken up fitness and nutrition since September 2015 and I'm proud to say that from 60kg of muffin tops, bingo wings, a not-so-beer-belly-but-it-is-kinda to a sweet and slender 53kg with muscle. I also am a proud bearer of abs - something I thought would never appear.

I've also learnt the meaning of "love hurts". To actually be happy, have someone whose sarcasm and straight forwardness match yours plus looking up to them as a role model to success then it all fell down with a huge electric jolt and you've no idea why - not even one tiny clue; yeah, felt that this year. We got together unexpectedly and no, he never took advantage. First thing I was drawn to. Next was the fact that I felt the most secure I've ever been with someone. Well, now I know why many people, who were in love, cannot move on quick. And from this, I am growing to love myself through quitting all my satanic habits, shaping my body and taking on more responsibilities in life.

But the biggest change? I've quit a lot. I've literally taken back control of my life and I did this for my own personal reasons. It was the hardest. I couldn't run to the things that allowed me to escape from whatever that troubled me. And with all my problems that piled on me, I had to find ways to solve them and feel okay again. And I managed it. My skin is clearer, glowing, I feel healthier and like a new person again (minus the heart, that shall mend with time).