Home cooked steamed dishes

I always opt for steamed food over fried food. A steamer in the kitchen come very handy, more so if you have got an electric steamer, and we were given one by my SIL. I always use it for steaming fish, vegetable, heating up food (instead of using microwave) .

Last night, I have got an idea of dumping everything in the steamer, cook and heat up everything at one go, save time and my energy. This was what I did,

Steam chicken on the top layer, warming of lamb curry in the middle decker, and steam organic cabbage on the bottom decker.

the raw chicken ready to be steamed

the steamed chicken, the soup is tasty

warmed up curry lamb

before steaming

steamed cabbage with dried shrimps

Fine Multi Grains from Greenmax

After trying half a glass of my colleague's eight grains dessert the other day, I want to cook some for myself too, I like the taste, the ingredients and the health benefits of having natural grains as meals or dessert. She brought the dessert from home as lunch, so it was not nice of me to ask for a share of her lunch. She told me that she bought the mixed grains from the supermarket's organic food section, I set my mind to buy a packet this weekend.

Last night, I bought a small packet of Greenmax brand Fine multi grains from a hypermarket nearby. I would like to try cooking some this weekend by using slow cooker so I do not have to keep checking on it.

It consists of 11 types of grains and seeds, can be cooked into rice, or porridge (meat can be added too) or dessert (if you like it sweet). Hope my girls will like it; I think they prefer the porridge to be very soft and fine.

Happy Moon Cake / Mid Autumn Festival

The moon shining so bright & round tonite, on a Mid-Autumn day

We only bought 3 moon cakes this year. I brought one for the gathering at Angie's new home on 31.08.2010 (a once in year gathering with my Innosabah's ex-colleauges). One for Pearl's school. Each of the students has to bring a moon cake to school for mid-autumn celebration. Crystal insisted to buy one more because she likes to eat. Which she did, she ate almost half of the moon cake these two days.

Previous years, we used to buy a box of moon cakes for my parents. However, we stopped doing that this year, because just 2-3 weeks ago my father admitted to the hospital the day after he ate about one whole moon cake by himself, his blood pressure shot up to 230+ and sugar level undoubted went up as well. He can't afford to have another stroke. So we have to control on buying moon cakes for health reasons, furthermore, the price of the moon cake is not cheap.

Crystal enjoying the moon cake, she likes the one with yolk

Crystal asked me why we celebrate Moon cake festival, I told her that I need to find out how the story goes, I can only remember there was a beautiful lady called Chang-er based on an ancient story. So I searched on internet this evening, there I found several versions of the story, I got myself confused which one is accurate, at the end I told her that she will learn about it in school in the future. I never remember Chinese history or stories that's one of my weak point being a Chinese (a Malaysian Chinese, can be excused ba...haha!).

We had a simple dinner at brother's house, we are all working today so only my mum did the cooking herself. A bit stressful on her.

Rainbow over the Mount Kinabalu

These scenes were taken when Cletus was on his way to Sandakan last week. A rainbow over the majestic Mt Kinabalu can rarely be seen by most of us living in the city.

Avoid Canola oil

Thanks to an email from one of our friend with a message he forwarded about the danger of consuming Canola cooking oil. I have been very choosy on the type of cooking oil therefore this has prompted me to read on what is all about on Canola oil.

Shocking to learn that Canola oil is not food; Canola is a genetically engineered plant developed in Canada from the Rapeseed plant, it is very toxic and not meant for human consumption, generally used as lubricant for industrial used.

After reading this article, Canola oil became clearer and familiar in my mind, I have seen it someway, I quickly went into my kitchen to check on the cooking oil that I just bought....yak..Canola & Sunflower Oil clearly stated on the bottle, worst still I have been buying and my family have been consuming it. Pure ignorant on my part, all this while I thought vegetable and plants oil are similarly good for health.

A bottle of newly bought Canola cooking oil in my kitchen

Recently I bought a bottle of extra virgin coconut oil meant for hair care and also read about the benefits of using coconut oil for cooking. Luckily for the past few days I have been using the extra virgin coconut oil for my cooking, if hadn't Clet gone outstation I would have used the Canola oil because he doesn't like the smell of the coconut oil in the food.

A bottle of my extra virgin coconut oil, produce of the Philippines

I have decided to throw the bottle of Canola & Sunflower oil into the bin though I have not used much of it, why should I continue feeding ourselves poison, right? you can read the health hazard of Canola oil here or try search more about it on the web.

Even though coconut oil is known as the best cooking oil for health, some may not like its strong essence, the next best choice would be olive oil but it is much more expensive. Any good suggestion on alternative healthy cooking oil?

The Promise of God

Rainbow - the promise of God, one of the beauty of God's creations.

We saw a very nice rainbow on our way home this afternoon. I captured this beautiful scene from my garage as soon as we reached home. In fact this is a half circle rainbow appeared in the sky but I was unable to capture it all with my camera, joining these 2 photos together will give you a full picture of how beautiful this rainbow was.

More pictures on Catherine's blog.

Crowd control products

Crowd control products can commonly be seen in the banks, government departments, cinemas, galleries, post offices, airports and places where control is needed to keep the crowd staying in the line and get them organized at all times.

Crowd control products like stanchions, velvet ropes, barricades are used in exhibition halls too. These products are highly portable, can be easily moved to suit any locations and occasions. I personally find that with the presence of these products in places I go, they give me a sense of directions, especially with information stating on sign frames.

I always get annoyed with the queuing system in the school canteen where the parents always jump queue to buy food in the morning rush. The school should start using the crowd control products to keep those impatient parents stay in line and let the children get their breakfast first before the bell ring.

Raya Cookies & Selamat Hari Raya

Clet's company received a basket of assorted raya cookies from his business counterpart this year. It was presented in a simple but nicely decorated basket consisted of 5 types of cookies. We appreciate the very good gestures from them and we are sharing these cookies with our family members.

SELAMAT HARI RAYA TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND ESPECIALLY TO MUSLIM FRIEND S WHO ARE VISITING MY BLOG!!

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Greenmax Yam Nutritious Cereal

Yet another health drink from Greenmax, the Yam Nutritious Cereal. My colleague gave a few packets to me because she did not realise it is savoury when she bought it. She prefers the sweet ones. It taste more like soup than a drink to me. Best to serve hot.

The ingredients as indicated in the packet : Yam, Tomato, Pumpkin, Seeds, Green Tea, Job's Tear, Wild Rice, Flat Red bean, Black Bean, wheat Germ, Black Sesame, White Sesame, Sea Weed, Oats, Buck'wheat, Wheat (Cereal Containing Gluten), Vegetables (Carrot, Cabbage, Celery), Sea Salt.