0 A true JEM

Drugs paper was so bad today I should have cried. Instead, I relieved my sorrow with a bout of grocery shopping (4 peaches, 10-grain BRM pancake/waffle mix) and whipping up a yummy one-bowl-buddha-bowl lunch (couscous, garlic cod, avocado, blush tomatoes, red peppers). And then random surfing of the www until now. Is this yet another year-4-graduation symptom?

I haven't posted a picture in a long while and here's my pre-exam breakfast fuel. Delicious but sadly, did nothing to help in my writing speed and memory.

Steel cut oats cooked in almond milk (Natura, unsweetened) spiced with vanilla & cinnamon, on a bed of chopped strawberries, blackberries, nugget of Laughing Giraffe vanilla almond macaroon, chopped mango pieces. Baked for an additional 10 minutes to get it all hot and bubbly. Topped with my concoction of JEM cinnamon maca AB/melted raw chocolate truffles (Ultimana)/raw macadamia nut butter + more toppings of crushed almonds and dried cranberries. The shade of pink is so lovely, isn't it?

JEM nut butter definitely lives up to its name. For the cinnamon/maca version, it tastes exactly like caramel, and if you're familiar with asian cuisine, full of that gula melaka (jaggery) flavour. That's because they sweeten it with coconut palm sugar. My next haul from Raw Food Living will definitely include another of their products - likely the cardamom one. Sounds exotic!

***

Update. Was dreaming about pancakes for tomorrow's breakfast and then mum came home, with not just one box, but TWO or maybe THREE boxes of durians! New idea: durian pancake! Like Four Seasons style. My intention initially was fluffy pancakes with blackberries and strawberries but now, it's gonna be crepe style with thick chunky durian pulp! With all these going on, I can hardly focus on studying! Bad girl.

0 Berry Banana Morning

New star ingredient: Waitrose Blueberry Coulis!

There's only one ingredient on the list, which is 100% blueberry puree. But if there's no preservatives whatsoever, I wonder how the coulis manages to be packed without going mouldy. Anyway the coulis had a bright, tangy sharp flavour, clearly just blueberry goodness without the sugar nonsense.

Paired with fresh chopped strawberries, mashed banana, and spiked with cinnamon and vanilla, my steelies could not have been more awesome. The nut butter frenzy continues with four toppings today! Chunk of Laughing Giraffe vanilla almond macaroon, Jem red maca almond butter, Woodstock Farm almond butter and my homemade peanut/almond/flax/sesame butter.

I froze the rest of the blueberry coulis into ice cubes because I know I wouldn't be able to finish the package within 2 days as recommended. Makes as awesome after dinner dessert especially with the repressive humidity + blisteringly hot weather going on now.

0 Power up!

Could breakfast get any better? This morning's version was a buffet of treats. I wonder how many ingredients you can pack into this small Le Creuset bowl of mine ;)

• 20g oat bran
• Few drops of the last of Silk soy (unsweetened)
• Water -- microwaved and it overflowed :( --
• 3/4 (60g) frozen mashed nana
• Sesame-pumpkin-flax + Garden of Life raw protein
• 11 giant blueberries
• 10g Superfood Green hemp/spirulina/coconut granola
• Heaping Fage 0% yogurt
• JEM raw maca almond butter
• Woodstock Farm almond butter
• Homemade almond/peanut/sesame/flax butter
• Hidden treasure - raw cacao nib ball

12 Awesome ingredients! And very-belly satisfied!

0 1000 words a day

What a major load off the back! Poster session is finally over and done with. While one examiner asked plenty of questions, the other was barely listening and did not appear very much interested. Anyway, I'm so glad and happy it's over. Now I just have to write ~1000 words a day to the final thesis submission on 11 Apr. Okay, ideally I should write for one week and revise for another week so that makes it 2000 words a day.

Power breakfast to start the day: 33g oat bran (necessary for the time-being instead of steel cutters due to time constraints in the morning), 25g frozen nana, 11 blueberries, 1 strawberry, innards of one durian cream puff, chia seeds, sesame/flax/pumpkinseed powder, homemade almond/sesame/peanut butter, 2 raisins and topped with more sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Needless to say, the treasure in this bowl was the dollop of D24 durian cream strategically hidden in the centre of the bowl.

Let's get the ball rolling towards the goal of 2000 words a day! >>>

0 Strawbnana eggy oatmeal partaaay

Cream of whipped eggy strawbnana-on-a-hot-date Scottish Mayan oatmeal-quinoa-amaranth blend with sunbutter, and extra crunch fom sunflower and pepita seeds. If you understood that, you would understand the partaay that went on during this morn's breakky.

0 New [oatmeal] idea!

Rooibois infused oatmeal base ft. (beyond-juicy) Red Anjou. The rooibois tea (TWG) will be steeped in soymilk overnight for a stronger flavour (may it not be too bitter), and then cooked in oatmeal as per usual. Toppings will be dates, nuts and SUNBUTTER!

0 Q_Q

Once you start, you can't stop. Slurp slurp. Ccrrrunch! Chewwww.... Repeat. Sluuuurp!....

What the heck am I referring to? It's the original black/white (or more formally known as soy bean/grass jelly) mix with multiple funful toppings (peanuts, red beans, pinto beans and QQ yam balls from BeansTalk (did they infringe the copy right law of BreadTalk?). And all for $2 only! Quite proud yet shocked at myself dor finishing the tub. I had portioned out only about 1/3 of it, topped upon Earnest Eats Mayan blend (15g) and a Rude Health Spelt Oaty biscuit smothered in Maranatha's sunbutter. But it's too slurpilicous to stop! I'm not sure but it could be by far the heaviest breakfast in a while. The switch up (and venturing into the unknown territory) feels so good. Shoulda have taken a pic of the dessert tub.

0 Every second matters now

Oh my, I hate seeing the calendar page flip from "Feb" to "Mar;" later at 12pm (1 hr to go), the church bells are going to chime in their mocking tone, chiding my procrastination and perfectionism which results in me doing things so slowly just for the sake of precision, which ultimately, nobody would really care (except me).

Farewell lunch turned out to be at Itacho Sushi, which was a life-changing event, really. The blow-torched soy sauce salmon sushi was orgasmic, the fatty omega-3 oils literally oozing from the skin and melting into fishy goodness on the tongue. Salmon nigiris topped with lobster salad, chawanmushis, crabmeat beancurd, tamago were all equally good, and not too expensive. This has sparked a new found craving for sushi and I'm so going to have to check out the "shiok sushi" from Koh's Grill and Sushi Bar at Wisma's Food Republic - in 3 months time? And to learn to make sushi. It's amazing, rekindling the passion and love of something that I'm never experienced since... the discovery of oatmeal (which of course I'm still passionate about)

Speaking about oatmeals, this morning's creation was rather novel - 1/2 portion BRM's oatmeal cooked in Pacific soy milk and Garden of Life RAW protein powder, with a Rude Health Spelt Oaty biscuit crumbled in, a slice of Larabar Cappuccino melted in, Sunbutter, topped with a sprinking of nuts & seeds. Superb mix of creaminess and crumblyness from the biscuit (which surprisingly didn't disintegrate in the heat). A Red Delicious that was so red it could be the Snow White poison apple on the side. Garden of Life RAW protein powder has that malty, slightly chalky taste similar to Sunwarrior, which may be disagreeable to some as I found initially. However, I've even grown to like it now! So far, Lifetime Basics has the most neutral of "neutral flavours" out there in the market; you relaly can't detect the powder taste at all when mixed into oats.

0 The days are numbered

Never had I thought FYP could amount to such a tremendous amount of time, pain, blood and effort. The days are numbered, and I'm not even 10 percent through my poster and thesis :(

Ten days later and my second bowl of creamy, fluffy, eggy (white) oats, again bananafied with broiled and caramelized bananas. The twist this time was sesame/pumpkin/flax powder and passionfruit, and needless to say, the mandatory salty [and now chocolately] sunbutter. Amazeballs texture and taste! My appetite these days have been ravenous and my digestion speed may amount to a high speed train; despite the (expected) high protein content of this breakfast, it barely tided over two hours, but I decided to hold the hunger in anticipation of: Farewell lunch later with the lab members for HM and I at Star Vista!

0 (Waiting to be) discharged

Last few moments in the hospital ward. Document procedures sure take long! Just had my last meal, again from the Western selection. "Cream of green pea soup; Slow braised minced chicken caccitore and vegetable." A wee salty overall and had the "canned" taste, from the tomato sauce to the pea soup. But lately salty food has been appealing to me (usually not the case). - baaad. The oatmeal this morning was slightly thicker, an improvement from the watery version I had a few days ago. Their "peach compote" ended up as half a canned peach, and the lemon ricotta was non-existent. But I can do without cheese in my oatmeal, thank you.

Anyhow, my latest weight is 33.3 kg, meaning I gained ~2.5 kg over 6 days, which averages 0.4-0.5 kg a day. Is that too fast a rate? But I'm happy and feel better. No more bak chang feet though now the swelling has decided to hit my abdomen - BIG TIME. I'm like an underaged 4 month pregnant woman. Hope this issue reverts back to normal soon and is not a symptom of another condition!

Happy to be outta here!

0 Discharged

I'm a free bird! No more drips and needles and radiation and cold air-con and unappetizing breakfasts and back to hot creamy oatmeals! Though I shudder and the thought of the state of my flies and horrendous amount of lab work that's piled up in just 6 days

Hospital meals today were exceptionally good. I had Western full diet for both lunch and dinner. Lunch was "Grilled Chicken with Orange Veloute, Mashed Potato and Steamed Vegetables." The grilled chicken was the chicken chop kind which means it was fatty in some areas. Nevertheless, there were enough lean parts to fill my tummy. The orange veloute was not so much of a veloute but a sauce, but still, it gave a nice citrusy kick to the dish. The mashed potato came in the form of wedges instead, with skins on. It was nice in a sinfully salty way, though I tried to just eat the fluffy insides and avoid the fried outer parts. Dinner was "Seared Snapper, Salad Nicoise with Citrus Vinaigrette and Butter Rice." The seared snapper was awesome. Their version of "salad nicoise" meant carrots, green beans and yellow zucchini, which I don't see in what way resembled the real mccoy. Nevertheless all forms of veggies are good and I'm not complaining. Tmr's breakfast offered the seemingly appetizing option of "Hot Oatmeal with Peach Compote and Lemon Ricotta". After two days of Rude Health's Spelt Oaty's and bites of Larabar's Chocolate Cherry Torte for breakfast, I decided to risk having watery oatmeal again. Let's see how it turns out.

0 The gift of sleep and rest

Some things are just too coincidental to happen by chance; I believe it was a sign from God. Today's Bible verse is Psalm 127:2

In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat--for he grants sleep to those he loves.

In light of my viral feverish sickness, I believe God wants me to take a break and rest; the few days before that I had been returning to the lab for consecutive days on end. Despite my sickness I still went back to the lab the past few days and was really non-productive, like slow jerky movements which is not good because you need steady hands. Maybe because I was defiant, I still have not recovered (fever has subsided but cough is persistent). Another reason is perhaps although I'm taking the cough medicine (pi pa gao), I'm still taking my nuts and nut butters and other cough-inducing foods that I would not give up. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed this morning's stick-to-your-ribs bowl of oatmeal: whipped banana blueberry Scottish oats (BRM) cooked in water/goat's milk, protein powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract, topped with crushed nuts, raisins, chocolate AB (Justin's) and tahini. Except that it was interrupted with bouts of coughing fits in between.

I should learn from my cat - snooze all day!

0 Full blown

Every step I took today was a chore. At each twist of a sarcomere, each stretch of a muscle, C-fibers were relentless in sending out impulses to the CNS. Nevertheless, protocols and procedures meant that I still had to return to lab. Obviously I wasn't very productive today, with movements seemingly carried out in rewind mode. I was down with full-blown flu sympmtoms, from high fever, to chills, aching bones, dry cough and heavy chest. It's still raging.

Today's breakfast was a new creation: raw oats+chia (Rude's Health The Oatmeal)and raw buckwheat groats soaked separately overnight (oats soaked in skimmed goat's milk and buckwheat in water) in 50-50 ratio. In the morning, I rinsed the buckwheat well to get rid of the slime (lab experience tells me that you'd need a good 5-6 rinses to clean it completely). The oats were still gritty so I microwaved the mix after addition of cinnamon, vanilla extract and protein powder. Then I combined the oats and buckwheat groats, added chopped Ambrosia apple and topped with a medley of nuts, raisins and tahini. I think the 50-50 oat/buckwheat ratio strikes the perfect balance between bitterness and earthiness (buckwheat) and creaminess (oats). Lurrve Ambrosias! Tomorrow I'll probably be having oats again - best cure for viral flu

0 All the good eats in a [klutz] day

Breakfast - banana cinnamon oat-muffin-bagel porridge topped with Justin's chocolate almond butter, a chunk of Theo & Philo green mango and sea salt dark chocolate and cocoa mole hot chocolate sauce made with Delamere's skimmed goat's milk, and a scattering of pomegranate seeds. Lunch - Italian salad leaves, roasted vine-ripened cherry tomatoes and uber-ripe mushy avocado slices, purple potatoes & carrots roasted in avocado oil, seasoned with black pepper, cumin, paprika and dill, two whites-one-yolk creamy scrambled eggs, crumbled goats cheese, and half an Ambrosia apple afterwards. Dinner - lup cheong, shitake shroom and scallion soy sauce fried rice, sea bass, slow cooker chicken wolfberry herbal soup with si shen powder, papaya slices.

On the other hand, something was wrong with me today. 1. Spilled gooey egg whites all over the kitchen counter when I cracked the egg (NOT fun cleaning up). 2. Splashed egg mixture onto stove top when stirring the eggs in the non-stick pan. 3. Prepared my secondary antibody mixture wrongly three times before I got it correct. 4. This included fixing the dissected brains in the secondary antibody mix instead of fixing buffer! 5. Almost incubated the in situ brain samples with a secondary antibody mix with mouse Cy3 (red is Tyramide Cy3!) 6. spilled rice all over the floor when scooping rice for dinner.

I believe He was trying to impart a message about having quiet quality time today. The topic in Our Daily Bread today was "Time Out," a reminder to take time out and pray in the midst of hard work. Incidentally Luke 10 (I'm still through Luke 10) also talks about Jesus' teaching on Prayer.

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

0 2012>2013

I ushered in the new year... by not ushering it in; I was in deep slumber, knocked out and unconscious. Initially I even contemplated going for watchnight service. But as I crawled into bed at 9 PM (just after dinner and newspaper reading), I knew I was a goner. What an eventful start to the new year, ha.

2012 was a year of turbulence and self-discovery. It started off with re-adapting to the intensity of NUS's curriculum, after spending a relaxing semester at KCL, which may even be considered a semi-holiday. Of course, there was much nostalgia and pining for the days of yore. Politics of Heritage was also one of the most challenging, stressful but rewarding modules I'd taken so far. Of course, the highlight was the trip to Cambodia which really opened my eyes to the less fortunate and atrocities of mankind; my previous travels were largely limited to the first world countries. Starting lab was another turning point. I'd never imagine it could get so intense, or maybe it was the nature of my project. Even before commencing the project, finding the right professor proved a challenge as a faced many rejections.

Spiritually, I think I can say I've grown a teeny weeny bit. At least I try to devote the best part of the day (mornings) to reading the Bible and learning God's word. I hope to continue this practice in 2013, as well as to do more prayer and read deeper into the Word, and not just read for reading's sake. I would love to join a small group in church, but I'm so afraid of commitments, especially when my schedule is so unpredictable. I know this is an unexcusable excuse, for nothing should override God as priority. But still...

It has also been a lot of fun on the gastronomy side. Although I still like dining out, I now much prefer home-cooked food and experimenting with ingredients. This (oops, I mean last) year many new creations were replicated or developed, from breads from scratch to curries and protein powders. The tradition of oatmeal continues unabated, but with more flourishes and toppings. I also overcame my fear of coconut in 2012; now I enjoy coconut butter in appreciable amounts, use coconut meat without second thought in smoothies and drink coconut juice with gusto. The top few dining highlights in 2012 were (in no particular order): Pollen at GBTB, Waterfall Cafe at Shangri La, Wah Lok at Carlton Hotel, Wild Honey at Scotts and the sweet potato curry from Palm Sugar (?) restaurant in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Actually I loved all the food in Cambodia. Unfortunately, I lost even more weight, and am at my lowest physical point ever, if that is even possible. :(

In 2013, I hope to gain weight (drink supplements consistently and treat it like it's medicine); grow stronger spiritually and have a deeper relationship with God, and hopefully discover God's purpose for my life; learn to live and let loose; learn to treasure friendship, family ties, and not be so insular.

Today the new year gave an impetus to try out a new breakfast: buckwheat groats porridge. Previously I had only tried buckwheat flakes before which has a very earthy taste and definitely would benefit from some (natural) sugars. As a fail-safe strategy, I did a cream-of-banana-cinnamon-vanilla with buckwheat groats, cooked in water/soy in 1:2 ratio. The groats were much less absorbent than oatmeal, and did not get creamy at all. Although according to instructions, the groats would be cooked within 10 minutes, I doubled the cooking time as I did not want to be biting into stones for breakfast. It was topped with the usual tahini, protein nut mix and a special (last) chocolate-covered raisin. The result? Either the groats were tasteless or the banana-cinnamon-vanilla spice completely overwhelmed the expected earthy taste of buckwheat. I may reduce the cooking time to 10-15 minutes for some chew; this time it was quite soft although the groats still retained their individual shape. Overall it was not a bad experience. I am also looking forward to experimenting it in salads and savoury dishes like pesto buckwheat.

For lunch I also prepared an artichoke - a first experience. Another post will be dedicated to this!

Seeing prof for ISM arrangement tmr morning :( My last ISM. A tinge of regret that I procrastinated last sem and shifted it to this sem.

Bible verse to tide through the year (or at least the month or week)- Joshua 1:6-9

6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.

7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

0 Doughy, carby, chocolatey

Things have been busy lately, but it's the repetitive-kind-of-busy, which means not much progress made on the lab front. At least I've managed to clear 90% of confocal imaging, which was my target set for 31-12-12. I'm really quite sick of lab now; what's keeping me sane is knowing that it'll all be over in a matter of months time. It's so near yet so far. I know all this will pass in a whiz, yet during this period of time there's still the data to process, thesis to write, poster presentation. These very thoughts scare me.

On the food front, things could not have been better. I take every meal, especially breakfasts and Sunday dinners, as an opportunity to exercise creativity. From Christmassy oatmeal themes featuring s'nog (soy nogs) and homemade cranberry sauce (above) to pools of hot mole chocolate made with good quality dark chocolate like Godiva and Fauchon (below).

Today's breakfast theme - triple chocolate & banana (from bottom up): seared 'nana coins; Rude Health The Oatmeal cooked in water with a nugget of Justin's chocolate almond butter stuck in the core; topped with hot chocolate mole sauce made with soy milk, protein powder, square of Fauchon 65% coffee chocolate noir, chocolate mole powder and extra coffee granules.

This week I also bought Rudi's cinnamon raisin bagels which I had for a quick lunch today before going off to Middle Earth. Mouthfuls of doughy carbs paired with mushy avocado and flakey salmon = pure satisfaction.

Dinner was aloo matar gajar, basic indian curry with potatoes, peas and carrots (translated in that order). I added carrots for extra bulk. Alongside I had a hunk of Curry Times' curry bun, which was filled with even more potatoey goodness, and I must admit, their filling was much tastier than mine. I loved the soft sweet white bread bun. Doughy carbs again!

It's yet another eventful year gone by. I'll be ruminating on the changes and challenges I'll like to take on for 2013 as I reflect on events of 2012. Maybe a dedicated post tomorrow, if I can fit the time in.

0 Weed potato

My sweet potato kick started with an innocuous can of sweet potato puree (Farmer's Market). It featured in breakfast and lunch two days in a row. The canned puree is more watery than if you were to self-mash a sweet potato. Nevertheless, the taste doesn't suffer; if fact it's so freakish puddingly good that I'd call it "weed" potato - addictive!

For example, this morning's breakfast: Baked sweet potato s'nog oatmeal with cherries.

--Ringing in the season with seasonal oatmeal themes!--

Words alone cannot describe how good this was. It had a texture cross between a pudding and muffin, and of course, full of sweet, sweet 'potato. I made this with Silk s'nog and it did up the festive quotient a bit! Most importantly, before baking, I stuffed dollops of Justin's classic peanut butter randomly throughout the mixture, and digging into chunks of melted PB + sweet potato oats is the best thing to wake up to.

Baked sweet potato (s'nog) oatmeal with cherries
Yield: serves one

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup oats (Rude's Health The Oatmeal - blend of steel cut and medium oatmeal)
• 1/4 tsp chia seeds
• 1/2 scoop protein powder (Lifetime Basics, neutral flavour)
• 1/4 cup sweet potato puree (Farmer's Market)
• 1/4 cup soy eggnog (Silk)
• Dashes of cinnamon
• 3 cherries, quartered
• Peanut butter

Directions

1. Mix everything except peanut butter together and let sit overnight in the fridge.
2. The next morning, preheat oven to 375. Meanwhile, stuff peanut butter dollops into oat mixture.
3. Bake for 20 mins
4. Enjoy the best breakfast, especially with the festive Christmassy ingredients. Play some Michael Buble Christmas songs if you wish. :)

0 Dysregulation

I think am self-destructive, or at least immune to stress, or maybe, have a damaged amygdala. Knowing very well that I have an assignment which deadline is imminent, exam in two freakin' weeks time, and untouched revision, yet I still am surfing the web like it's the holidays. Why can't I regulate my behaviour properly???

But I haven't been that relaxed and happy in such a long while. After church (7.30 AM service - a convert to early bird :)) I headed to Cold Storage at Takashimaya for grocery shopping. Unfortunately at just past 9 the shops were still closed. What [bad] luck. As such, it called for a detour to United Square's branch instead. But it proved a blessing in disguise because I scored a few discounted items and exotic buys. Like:

• Kashi cinnamon harvest (blame it on Amanda's influence! In fact I still have an unopened box of Dr. Oz's buckwheat flakes)
• 71% Ecuador dark chocolate block (Montezuma)
• Swiss farmer rolls (Swiss Bake) - 1/2 price!
• Pacific Almond milk (unsweetened) [couldn't bring myself to splurge on Silk's almond milk]
• Flavour Fall pluots - 1/2 price and in rather good condition still!
• Wild sockeye salmon [omegas yum!]

I think what put in a such a good mood was really today's breakfast: (last of) rolled oats (Binda Valley) cooked in unsweetened soy milk (Natura), sweetened with 1/2 mashed nana and raisins, upped with protein powder (Lifetime Life's Basic protein - the most neutral flavour thus far, compared to Sunwarrior and Vega Health Optimizer) and protein blend (real good food), spiced with cinnamon and chocolate chili and dressed with chocolate hazelnut butter (Justin's). A double whammy of chocolate would be bound to deliver a double whammy of endorphins and it sure did!

And then it was home sweet home. Managed to be a good girl and squeeze in a bit of work before spending ~2 hours (!) cooking and eating lunch, which was a ooey gooey curry & cumin bean stew (BRM whole grains and beans soup mix) with torned tortilla pieces, avocado, sardines (Boiromar), curly lettuce, cucumber, tomato, honey goat's cheese (Delamere) and beetroot relish.

A Jaffa sweetie (pomelo x grapefuruit) to end the meal. Guess what was found on Pubmed:

All applied methods showed that sweeties had higher antioxidative activity than grapefruit. Experiments on laboratory animals show that diets supplemented with sweeties, and to a lesser extent with grapefruit, increased the plasma antioxidative potential and improved the lipid metabolism, especially in the rats fed with added cholesterol.

Apparently a sweetie has more antioxidants than a grapefruit!

Lately people's been asking what I plan to do after I graduate. My PI is persuading me to consider PhD at TLL. For once, I really don't know what should my next step in life; so far it's been pretty straightforward: pri > sec > jc > uni, with the choice of school's quite [re-determined too. Pray for God's guidance in this.

0 Night fest 2012

I found this year's Night Festival slightly underwhelming. On the good side, I think there was a wider selection of more accessible (i.e. not so 'artsy') programmes such in the music genre (beat-boxing, rapping, samba, acapella). I remember lots of folksy tunes from last year's night fest, mainly by foreign artistes, which may not be highly appealing to the common man.

On the other hand, the experience of the highlight performances by Argentinian group Fuerzabruta fell short of my expectations. La Argentina was merely a dancer swinging in the air supported by a crane, looking/acting to be superbly happy while dishing out confetti and glitter as she cruised along Armenian St. The floating pool performance was marred by horrid lighting and poor sound systems. I caught only the last bit of the silver curtain one and that may be slightly better. But overall, spending a night out was still better than staying home.

I had a nice [tropical] start to Sunday with durian-coconut protein peppy kernels (mix of oats, wheat, barley, rye, millet, sesame). Featuring mao shan wang durian (flesh of 2 seeds), Artisana cacao bliss, Bob's peppy kernels and Vega Complete Health Optimizer, topped with coconut flakes. The texture was lovely - creamy from the durian and protein powder, yet slightly crunchy from the mixed grains. But it barely tide me over. I felt hungry again 1.5 hours later, a (happy) problem of late. Despite excessive consumption of durians (11 seeds so far) and what-not over the past few days, my stomach is becoming a bottomless pit. But I don't know where all those calories go; clearly not onto my body.

I read that puffed grains is quite toxic due to the protein extrusion caused by the high heat and pressure of puffing. And I just bought a box of Kashi's 7-whole grain puffs.

0 Priorities refresher

What do you live for? What makes you tick? What rocks your boat?

Life is short; we all have some passion that gives our lives purpose, so as to make the best out of our temporary existence on earth. Sometimes we are guilty of chasing after material goods, wealth, experiences, certificates, medals, epicurean delights and other worldly pleasures. Personally I need to remind myself to eat to live and not vice versa. As the Bible reminds us,

Serving two masters
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Matthew 6:24

Putting God first
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:33; Luke 12:31

The antidote to greed and coveteousness, as the Pastor delivered in his message today, is to live a simple lifestyle. Eat simply, dress modestly (as in having a timeless wardrobe and not chasing after the latest fashion trends), and donate the extra time and money for good causes.

A somewhat simple breakfast for a simple lifestyle this morning: D24 cashew coconut steelies, which was in every way a tropical paradise. In case you're interested, it's steel cut oatmeal simmered for 25 min in water/soymilk (3.5:1 ratio), then D24 durian puree and Sunwarrior protein powder stirred in two minutes before serving. Finally, cashew coconut butter was drizzled on top, the heat causing it to melt instantly into milky nutty puddles.

I shall take this chance to review Sunwarrior protein powder which I had purchased online from iHerb. It has a mild, slightly malty taste which I really like. In fact it's the best tasting protein powder I ever had! Many plus points for taste. However, it doesn't dissolve as easily as soy/whey/egg protein powder. It will eventually after much vigorous stirring, and yield a rich creamy texture. No griity bits like soy protein! If you're seeking fluffiness in your protein powders, stick to egg white; Sunwarrior brown rice protein merely thickens but does not give much volume. I've been enjoying Sunwarrior daily in my oatmeals. Overall this is really one of the best protein powders and it's name lives up to the many raving reviews.