Food That Got Into My Belly

Hello people!

So tonight I thought I’d share with you guys the photos of some of the food I’ve eaten recently (and did not look too gross to be put up on the interweb).

Persimmon love <3

Grilled haloumi and tomato sandwich on sourdough bread! I’ve been loving haloumi so much lately. I think I could even call it, dare I say, my favourite type of cheese. There, I said it. At least for now.

Afternoon tea with my beloved Mum  Okaasan <3 I think she got the spinach and feta quiche or something, and a mug o’ hot chocolate.

And I got a white chocolate strawberry muffin

Sauteed some Singaporean noodle with spinach in EVOO one night. Dinner for two, served in less than 10 minutes. (Although I’m so skilful in the kitchen that it took me and extra 10 minutes just to get the stuff out, cut packages open, burn myself on the stove, etc. I just love how attentive I am.)

Homemade zucchini and red capsicum pizza!! Okay fine, I used a store-bought thin pizza base, but hey those veggies did not saute themselves and my magic fingers had to sprinkle that beautiful mozza on top. The addition of herbs was great. It was so good, I inhaled in moments. Definitely need to make this again. When I’m not as lazy as usual (I hope that happens someday).

Unagi (teriyaki eel) bowl. I think I’ve written about how disappointing it was over here. But you win some, ya lose some. The eel itself wasn’t all that terrible, but it was the way the whole thing was assembled and the cold and hard rice that just made this outrageous. Yeah, I am capable of developing those feelings to food.

Babe spinach, rocket, tomato and crumbed chicken, with the trusty honey mustard dressing.

Sort of an open toast/grill/sandwich? Toasted multigrain bread, spinach, gouda cheese, ham.

Roasted beetroot for the first time in my life! Kind of time consuming, but the end product made it totally worth it Consumed with spinach, rocket and the honey mustard dressing.

Sushi Hotaru with Mum for lunch <3 Love those grilled nigiri.

Kangaroo burger from Moo Burger! It was made on warm and fluffy sourdough bun, with a kangaroo patty with fresh sage and garlic, beetroot relish (gotta make this thing as Aussie as possible), tomato and rocket, with homemade mayo. So ginormous. So fanfreakintastic. Party in the mouth. Need to conquer the entire recipe. Hypercholesterolaemia? Psssshhhh, kind of not worth thinking about when you have this guy staring you in the face.

Went to Maxbrenner with the girls after burgers <3 Their white chocolate chai was overly sweet but still very delish! And their magic mug is fun too; so basically you place that teapot thing on top of your glass mug and it pours automatically! It’s nice because you can pour out any amount you want, and then keep the rest relatively warm until you want to drink some more again I kind of like the novelty value of this thing

Kale, purple carrot, broccoli and mashed avo salad with honey mustard dressing. I am Asuma, and I have a serious dressing addiction.

Made some frenchie toastie for Mum and myself one lazy morning.

Mum made some udon noodle with chinese cabbage, shimeji mushrooms, konnyaku and tofu in a soy sauce and dashi based broth.

Kale and crumbed chicken salad.

Classic felafel wrap in pita bread with hummus from Yummba in Bondi Westfield! I wish I could eat this guy every week.

Baked some banana oats vegan muffins. Was quite moist and chewy and nice Recipe here.

The best grilled cheese I ever made <3 Used wholemeal bread and gouda cheese. Mmmmm….

Chickpea, celery, zucchini, red capsicum, tomato and capers – with the dressing with garlic powder and dried herbs.

Vegan zucchini bread (with goji berries and sunflower seeds) <3 My post about it with the recipe here.

Ebi chilli set from Ton Ton. It was very filling but loved it! I think it was a great deal for just $10.

Afternoon tea with Mum again The almond croissant that we shared, from Becasse in Westfield Centrepoint was delicious <3

Rice noodle with veg

I don’t know what this is called in other Asian countries, but it’s called “chimaki” in Japan, and it’s made with sticky rice, wrapped in bamboo leaves. The ones I had in Japan were plain, but this one that I got over here in Sydney at an Asian store had sweet red bean paste inside. It’s nice to try new things once in a while I feel like I’ve been experimenting more with food since Mum came over!

Tomato and pesto pizza from Bourke St bakery <3 Mum loved it a lot as well.

It’s so nice to go out to eat with Mum; that way we can order more and share to try different things

Mum made us some oshi-sushi with smoked salmon and cucumber! With a side of seaweed miso soup.

Homemade pastry with fresh pear. Courtesy of Mum <3

Bean sprouts, mushroom, red cabbage, capsicum and corn, with french onion dip.

Vermicelli salad with cucumber and ham, with soy sauce and sesame oil dressing.

Cecilia’s birthday celebration

Brown rice, tofu, kimchi, sauteed bean sprouts and spinach dinner.

Please do not report me to RSPCA. I did not eat this kitty. She was just so obedient and cute basking in the sun, and she didn’t even run away even when I approached (so I was kind of trespassing into this property…oops), I had to show you this photo.

So that ends my food recap, consumed over the course of about a month, I guess.

What was your most recent favourite thing that you cooked at home?

- Asuma xxx

Birthday Girl + Study Group

Hi hi, people

It’s Saturday night! What are you all up to? I’m just sitting here after a good hot shower with a facial masque on, putting on hand cream and typing this post…oh how thrilling is my life. Really.

Anyhow, yesterday morning, some of my previous SG members (SG = Scenario Group, it’s a bit like what people call “tutorials”) met up in the library for a group study sesh. I really love the people from my previous SG (okay I admit, most people)…who are mostly the same people from the very first SG in our very first term in our very first year. Yeah, basically one of the first people we met at uni. A few others also joined the SG last term though, and one of them is Cecilia (love her so much, this girl ), whose birthday was on the 16th this month <3

 

 

Happy birthday Cecilia!

 

Obviously, celebration was in order! Cecilia had no idea that we were planning it so it was a sort of a surprise for her. But she brought us all these amazing double chocolate chip muffins for breakfast!

Yeah, now you’re just getting to know about her awesomeness Beckie also brought some mini vanilla cupcakes with strawberry glaze (the ones in the pink box).

 

Beckie’s so cute, she even decorated them with pink and white sugar butterflies

And the brown cake thing in the middle was my contribution…Gateau Choco-Coco (recipe here), from Chocolate & Zucchini by Clotilde Dusoulier. Although, I substituted the cocoa in the recipe with carob powder, the butter with avocado oil spread, and used wholemeal flour and low fat yoghurt. It was the first time I tried the recipe, but apparently it came out pretty good because everyone seemed to like it I thought I didn’t do too bad a job myself after tasting it – I usually prefer my cakes moist rather than fluffy, so it kind of hit the spot for me.

So yeah, that’s all for tonight. Please forgive my abrupt endings to the post (*cough* like that’s not the case every time anyway *cough*).

What did you bake recently? Sweet or savoury?

Do you prefer to substitute ingredients with healthier options, or are you a hardcore “use the real thing” person?

Have a great weekend people

- Asuma xxx

Thanks, Beckie

Now Beckie, I have promised a blog post just for you, so here it is

Birthday present from Beckie, with the sweetest (and the longest) card

Just randomly – I like her new hair

Cards are one of the best parts about birthdays, in my opinion

The No-Brainer Yoga Mat Strap from Lululemon!! I am totally in love with this coral rose pink colour I have never seen this shade in stores before either, so I’m really stoked about this. I have a hot pink portable yoga mat from Lululemon, so I think it will look cute with it (it won’t be too matchy-matchy like a hot pink strap would have been).

Thank you so much, Beckie

 xxx

Asuma.

Birthday Recap [Bad, I'm Bad]

Singing to the tune of MJ’s bad. Yeah I’m bad. For taking 4 whole days until I actually sat down to do this post.

For those of you who don’t know, 15th was my birthday and I finally turned 20!!! The feeling hasn’t kicked in yet, and I’m probably almost going to say that I’m 19 if someone asks me my age today. Not only am I bad, I’m pretty slow like that….

Anyway, the 15th really was a day I could feel the warmth of people around me in my life. This may come off as me just being a cold person, but to be entirely honest, I never really used to give any significance to facebook birthday wishes from people I barely knew (though of course I thanked them; I do think it is nice of them after all because they could have just ignored the whole idea and not wished me at all). Though I don’t know why but this year, I sort of felt warm from the inside for every acknowledgement I got, whether I received it on a social networking websites or face-to-face from that person. Maybe it’s one of the effects of me becoming “softer” these days – as I’ve written about pretty often in this blog as well, I have been trying to be kinder to both myself and those around me. I have been trying to go back to the core of our being; remembering that nothing else matters if there is no kindness and love. Cheesy, I know. I’m not saying that everything is rosy and peachy perfect in this world, but I am trying out a non-cynical approach, and it has been doing me good so far. The fact that I literally felt “loveful” that day itself is a proof. One of the biggest things I can be thankful for today. So thank you, to all my friends, family, and everyone for acknowledging me and making me feel that way. I wish you all the happiness you deserve!!

Okay, so this post was supposed to be an actual “recap” of the activities of my birthday; sorry I went off the track.

Birthday breakfast…nothing special, the usual oatmeal.

Wore my bracelet that says “mum” in different languages. Love you, Mum!!!

The SGS members at uni surprised me with a present and a birthday card!!!! Thank you so much, Beckie, Shiny, Bronwyn, Austin, Dush, Divya, Cecilia, Daniel, Nithya, Chris and Darran,  you guys are awesome

Pink roses from Cecilia. So sweet of you Cecilia, thank you so much!! Getting inspired to incorporate more flowers into my life.

Leaves are turning red and falling already….

‘Tis the season for sweaters!

Thanks to Austvina for organising such a fitting dinner! “Fitting”, because 20 = legal age you can start drinking in Japan and “izakaya” is like a pub/bar traditional Japanese style

Thanks to all of you, Julz, Kelly, Des, Lachlan and Shaun for coming!!!!

Despite being in an izakaya, I did not order any alcoholic drinks, as usual…just hot water for me

Kara-age (Japanese style fried chicken).

Sashimi.

What I ordered – grilled mackerel with radish.

The extensive bar.

Hi

The Wagyu.

I tried a bit of this dessert. These popcorns on top? The best thing EVER. They were sugar crusted with bits of lavender. AMAZING!!!!

Hello again

The wall art was pretty cool…sad I couldn’t take a better photo of it

Oh, and this dessert too Also, unpictured was Lachlan’s ice cream with Japanese vinegar (whatever that is…maybe rice vinegar?), and that was awesome too

Shaun gave me this cool cookbook that consists of 200 recipes of JUST SALADS!!! Need to make it a project of mine to try out every single one of them Thank you so much for such a thoughtful present, Shaun

And this card was from Shaun as well

And this awesome gift was from Lachlan! Thanks so much!! So thoughtful too – headphones, so I can listen to music and keep my ears warm when I run outside I tried them out and they are super light, comfortable yet fitting and obviously so much of a better sound quality than my old earphones!!!

All in all, it was an amazing day and I’m happy got to spend such a fun time with my friends! Thank you all so much for such a lovely day

Love,

Asuma.

Weekend & The-Monday-After Photo Log

Here goes…

…wholemeal pasta on cooked spinach, topped with tomato relish…

…apartment hunting; still nothing…

…breakfast on the go – cooked oat bran, chia, lsa, cinnamon, egg whites, milk, vanilla with stevia…

…trying out types of fruit i typically don’t buy…

…refreshing…

…my usual peppermint tea…

…indulging in wholemeal sourdough with fig cinnamon jam….

Some thoughts residing in my head right now:

• These simple iphoneography tips on fat mum slim are easy enough to incorporate into daily snap shots, even for someone like me! Thanks Chantelle, for sharing with us
• I don’t mean to sound like an obnoxious smartpants by correcting other people’s grammar, because I’m sure I certainly make tonnes of them myself, but it bothers me that so many people use the term “awhile” in place of “a while”. In short, “awhile” literally means “for a while“, so when people say “for awhile”, they’re saying “for for a while”. Get it? When you’re not using the word “for”, simply say “a while”, for example, “it will be a while until she gets here”. You get the idea.
• 4.5 good days were followed by a day and a half’s failure. I don’t feel miserable though, and I am not going to call that 1.5 blah day a failure anymore. Looking up and moving on.
• I haven’t been to yoga or pilates for a while (and not “for awhile” ), since I’ve been more into weights lately. Maybe I’ll go back when I feel like it on rest days.

 

Sorry for the incoherent post! Wait, “incoherent”, or “incohesive”? Now I’m getting paranoid about my language

Anyway, tomorrow’s my birthday so I want to be excited!! Hope this blah mood will just go away.

Love you all

Asuma

 

Tribute to Audrey Hepburn

Good morning everyone.

It’s the 4th of May…and 83 years ago on this date, our most dearly beloved Audrey Hepburn was born.

She did not always have an easy life, but she was an inspiration to many of us during her days, and still continue to be one even today, despite having had left us for almost two decades now.

I would like to present this post as a tribute to Audrey, whom we all so dearly miss, as a show of gratitude for inspiring us about thoughts on kindness, love and grace.

Thank you, Audrey.

May your soul ever rest in peace.

Love,

Asuma

Recap – Austvina’s Birthday Lunch

Austvina’s birthday lunch!

Happy birthday, once again, Austvina

We headed to Pitt St Diner close to her home on her birthday (last Sunday), and although none of us had been there before, it was a great hit.

Austvina sure knows where to go out to eat whenever we get together.

I loved the nice cozy atmosphere of a private room we were taken too (black and creme striped wall, another green wall…kind of liked the walls there, I know I’m wierd talking about walls).

Doesn’t the above chandelier look lovely though?

The menu looked great and there were so many things I wish I could have ordered…coconut cornbread, pancake with caramelised apple, pear and gorgonzola salad (which I couldn’t get because they ran out of pears)…everything looked amazing.

But I eventually ended up getting this roasted beet salad.

The menu said it was going to come with green beans, but they came with spinach.

I was sort of upset about this, but when I took my first mouthful I did not give a damn anymore.

The sweetness of the beet with the balsamic dressing and pinenuts came together so well and I really enjoyed the dish thoroughly.

Got to admit though, everything tastes better with pinenuts!

And guess what Des got for us – tiny Avenger onigiri mascots!!

Iron Man, Loki, Thor, Captain America and Hulk.

We could not stop playing with them!

I got the Onigiri Hulk. Love it!!!!

Thank you so much Des!!!!

After lunch, some of us headed back to Austvina’s place and proceeded on to play Trivial Pursuit. (That was the name of the game, right?)

Kelly and I were on one team…and we were pretty much losing.

Sorry Kelly!

This is going to sound like sour grapes, and maybe it kind of is, but why do we know the answers to other teams questions and never our own? Damn it.

But I had to leave early to prep for some uni work so I couldn’t stay for the entire game.

Wonder how it ended though?

Anyway, I’m not really sure how to end this post…well, happy one week after birthday Austvina!