Nutrition course from Coursera…and its FREE!

Weehee…I’m officially a STUDENT again!

For those who’ve never heard of Coursera, its a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free. Yes, FREE! There are renowned universities likes Stanford, Brown, John Hopkin, CALTEC, Princeton and more..! At the end of each course, you get an accredited certificate.

There are many courses from different categories like Computer Science, Mathematics, Economics etc. If you’ve ever thought of taking such courses but never did, this would be a great place to start. Who knows, you might find something you really like!

I’ve enrolled for the Fundamentals of Human Nutrition course from the University of Florida. It’s a 10 week course and seems quite intensive! Lots of reading, online lectures, quizzes, sharing in the discussion board etc…but I’m so excited to start this learning journey!! Hopefully I will be able to create more balanced and healthier meals, and share this knowledge with everyone else =)

Yay to good health!

 

Raw foods day 19 & Raw banana oat sqaures recipe

Its been 19 days  and I’ll be coming to the end of my raw detox soon. Been CRAVING for ice cream so I decided to make Choco-cherry “ice-cream” soft serve for dessert yesterday to accompany my Homeland marathon  (frozen bananas + frozen cherries + cacao powder + cacao nibs + agave nectar — all food processed). But alas, i forgot to put my bananas in the freezer, and had a mini panic attack (no ice cream?!?!) . So I caved and went to buy my favourite vegan coconut ice cream =X

Yummy yum yum

Anyway, today i made the most DELICIOUS raw banana oat squares and i couldn’t wait to share!

Got the recipe from The Sweet Life, one of my favourite blogs! I used the same ingredients but created my own proportions. You can do the same too, because the ingredients go so well you’re bound to get something delicious anyway.

Raw banana oat squares

Ingredients

• 2 bananas ,sliced and dehydrated over night ( I use the Ezidri dehydrator, and set it at low). Make sure the bananas are still a little stick and foldable
• 1/3 cup pecans + 1/4 cup pecans
• 2 large medjool dates
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup raw rolled oats

Here’s how

• Dehydrate bananas overnight
• Process bananas + 1/3 cup pecans + 2 large dates + salt
• Add 1/4 cup pecans and 1/2 cup rolled oats
• The texure becomes dough-like..flatten it into a little square on a parchment paper. Freeze it for a bout 1 hour so that it becomes easier to cut into squares.
• ENJOY!

Raw foods – Day 18 and an awesome rawsome hummus recipe

Hello its day 18 of my detox and I haven’t been posting much about my meals because I’ve been repeating them quite often. I normally make stuff in batches and eat them over 2 – 3 days. For the past 2 days, I’ve been enjoying a mixture of veggie sticks with avocado and raw hummus. I will NEVER get sick of avocado and hummus!

Anyway, this raw hummus recipe is simply DELICIOUS! Adapted it from Gorilla Food – a raw food book – but changed the portions a little. It was my first time trying out a recipe in that book, and since it turned out so well, Ive already bookmarked a few more recipes to try! Can’t wait!

Recipe : Raw Hummus

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup tahini
• 3 garlic cloves
• 3,1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 large zucchini, roughly chopped

Here’s how

• Mince garlic in a food processor
• Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy.

You’ll be surprised how much it tastes like real hummus!

Ooo also wanted to share with you about this new raw chocolate bar from Loving Earth. OHMYGAWDDDDDD…. its soooo good!! Its called LuvJu…like Love you.

Got this from Four Seasons Organic…around $5 plus per piece but so worth it.

Strange thing happened to me after eating the Mint flavoured one though – My entire face started to flush, my ears felt warm and turned dark red,  heart starting racing and there was an onset of a migraine. Pretty much the same symptoms when i drink too much alcohol lol.

Did a bit of research and apparently, even though cacao has countless benefits that has earned it the title of “super food”, consuming too much can give you an overdose. Raw cacao contains caffeine and the stimulant thobromine. For caffeine sensitive people (aka, me) strong doses of cacao can send your body reacting in such a way.

Was quite surprised that thought cacao is touted as THE living food, there are just as many detractors warning about the side effects of cacao (like this) and how toxic it actually is. Gonna do a bit more research about this…but i would hate to believe that cacao is bad for health!!

Till tomorrow XO

Raw foods – Day 15 & Green smoothies challenge

Wow I can’t believe that I’ve been on the raw food detox for 2 weeks! I’ve been enjoying it so much that it doesn’t seem like detox at all.

I think what really helped was that I’ve been adding alot of variety in my meals and trying out new recipes and different produce.

I also think that my daily green smoothies has helped me reduce cravings – when you start of your day eating well, you are much less to overdo it with unhealthy snacks throughout the day.

Just wanted to share some changes I’ve noticed after 2 Rawsome weeks

• Improved complexion (my pores look SMALLER!!)
• Weight lost (around 1Kg or so?)
• High energy levels

1 more week to go…but I’m already seriously cotemplating going 70 – 80% raw after this detox ends.

Anyway, wanted to share something really inspiring (for me at least). My colleagues have been curious about my smoothies and also wanting to get healthier…so they’ve decided to join me on my green smoothies challenge. So for this whole week, we’re all have green smoothies for breakfast! So happy that more people are proactively getting thier health back on track and that they love the smoothies!

Some pics of us prepping for our daily brekkie : Kiwi + Mango + Spinach + Pineapple in ziplock bags for 8 of us=)

YUM!!

Organic and Specialty food at Mustafa

Mustafa Center is one of my fav one-stop mall in Singapore. You can find everything and anything there…house hold equipment, stationery, electronics, a giant supermarket, jewellery, clothing, gardening items, storage, luggages, CDs & DVDs etc. I can spend hours there! But Mustafa is extremely crowded, but luckily its 24 hours, so try to go during non-peak hours.

You may not know this, but Mustafa’s supermarket actually sells alot of organic and specialty imported food stuff. And for most specialty food (except those from Japan), its around 30% cheaper than in our normal supermarkets.

I went there last Friday to stock up on my raw nuts and medjool dates …but ended up buying a whole basket load of stuff. Found some new interesting items:

Herbs to last you a lifetime

Coconut oil Raw Agave Syrup 

Agava Syrup – Raw /Maple flavoured/Light

 Pickled carrot? Carrot jam?

Charlie’s whole fruit smoothies . Around 40% more in Cold Storage 

Date syrup 

All the spices you’ll ever need

Veggie delight 

Please don’t buy this! The ingredients say its 100% pure coconut water but nooo…its full of sugar Medjool dates Wraps – Barley, Rye, Spelt, Chia, Oat …you name it! 

Raw nuts – almonds, pine, cashew, walnuts. (WAYYYYY cheaper than any supermarket . I buy them by the kilo) Sunflower seeds, prunes, raisins Vegetarian and Vegan frozen food

Vegan  tenders anyone?My shopping basket =)!

MUSTAFA CENTER

145 Syed Alwi Road, Singapore 207704

Raw foods – Day 9 – 11

Yikes really behind on my blog posts! Been extremely busy last couple of days and was on a 80 – 90% raw diet most of the time. Here’s a quick recap for the last 3 days – Hopefully my memory serves me well.

Day 9

• BREAKFAST: Green smoothie (1 banana + pineapple + peach + almond milk + Cai Xin)
• BREAK : 1 banana
• LUNCH : Raw Mariana sauce (yes, just like that haha…)
• TEA BREAK : 1 banana + handful of grapes
• DINNER : 2 Raw Cranberry and Cacao bars ( recipe below)

Day 10

• BREAKFAST: Green smoothie (2 bananas +papaya + almond milk + Cai Xin)
• LUNCH : 2 raw bars
• TEA BREAK : 1 Banana + handful of grapes
• DINNER : Raw veggie salad + Miso soup. Longans for dessert.

Day 11

• LATE BREAKFAST  : Green smoothie ( red spinach + papaya + apple + strawberries)
• LUNCH + BREAK : Handful of almonds + pistachios + cashew nuts
• DINNER : Cold tofu + Raw sashimi salad + Miso soup.
• SUPPER : Raw chocolate bar

I’ve been making raw bars almost every other day now and I’m ADDICTED! They are so easy to make, portable, delicious and way cheaper than the ones in stores. One bar outside is around S$5! Did my math and my homemade bars cost around $2.50 – $3.

Store bought raw bar….small and expensive!

Home made raw bar – good for the wallet and easy on the hips=)

Before I post my recipe, wanna give credit to this blog here. If you wanna make your own raw bars you have to read the entry. Basically beginner homemade bars have a simple mathematical formula : 1 cup nuts + 1 cup stick fruit (for binding) + 1 cup filling + 2 – 4 tbs flavouring. Then you’re off to creating all sorts of delicious bars!

Raw Cranberry Cacao Bar (makes 4) No bake/ GF

Ingredients

• 1 cup almond meal (leftover pulp from almond milk)
• 1/3 cup cacao powder
• 1/2 cup cranberries
• 1 cup medjool dates
• 1 tbs coconut oil
• Sprinkle of cacao nibs

Here’s how:

• Process all ingredients until the mixture turns clumpy and dough-like
• Line a tray with parchment paper and knead the dough onto it to form a rectangle
• Cut the rectangle into 4 bars. Wrap each bar with parchment paper and refrigerate.

Question : I’m just curious how come I haven’t gotten any detox symptoms yet. Is it because I’ve been on an 80 – 90% raw food detox the past few days? If anyone has been on on the same detox, would love to hear how long it took for the symptoms to show in your body!

Raw foods – Day 8

Made a Raw spaghetti dish today…so pleased with how it turned out! (recipe below)

BREAKFAST : Green smoothie (1 banana + 4 wedges of papaya + 1/2 cup pineapple + lettuce) This is SO filling

LUNCH : 2 Raw coconut and cranberry bars (recipe here)

TEA BREAK : 1 banana + 1 warm soy milk w/o sugar ( not raw) + handful of almonds

DINNER : Raw spaghetti  (Spiralized zucchini with raw mariana sauce)

Recipe : Raw mariana sauce (makes one LARGE bowl. Half the serving if needed)

Ingredients:

• 2 tomatoes
• 1 cup sundried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup mixed cashew and walnuts (added very little nuts, feel free to add more)
• 1 1/2 clove garlic
• Basil and Thyme herbs (I have them in a bottle and sprinkled generously)
• 4 tbs olive oil

Here’s how:

• Process all ingredients

This was so good i was eating it straight from the food processor!! Hopefully you have more self control than me haha.

Till tomorrow=)

Raw foods – Day 6 & 7

Hello! Didn’t manage to blog yesterday so today’s post is going to combine Day 6 & 7. Before I recap my meals, just wanted to share how the detox is working for me

I FEEL SO ENERGETIC AND AWAKE!

For the last 3 days, I’ve been sleeping very little –  partly because I’m busy, but partly because my mind is so active. Even though I only get 4 – 5 hours of sleep, I don’t feel lethargic or grouchy in the morning. I normally snooze a gazillion times before finally crawling out of bed…but today sprung up almost instantly, like it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

Another interesting fact , I’ve been having less cravings, snacking less and eating less.  I read somewhere before cravings are our bodies’ way of telling us what it really wants (what nutrients it lack). For example, a craving for chocolate could mean that our body lacks Magnesium. When you’re on a raw foods detox, your diet becomes more nutrient dense, and you don’t need to eat so much to satisfy your body… thus you eat less and crave less!

Will blog abit more about the benefits of raw foods in separate post, for now , here’s a recap:

Day 6

1. BREAKFAST: Green smoothie (2 cups pineapple + 2 cups peach + bunch of kailan)
2. LUNCH : Chopped celery & carrot sticks, collard leaves,  with raw tahini dip & creamy guacamole. HEAVEN HEAVEN HEAVEN.
3. DINNER: Giant salad from Cedele – Mixed greens, olives, tomatoes, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, red cabbage and orange vinaigrette.

Day 7

1. BREAKFAST: Green smoothie ( 2 bananas + 2 cups raw almond milk + baby Bok choy)
2. LUNCH : 2 raw bars (see recipe below)
3. TEA BREAK: 1 apple
4. DINNER: Veggie “taco” boats. 3 large collard leaves as the “boats”. Filled with a mixture of avocado, chopped baby tomatoes, onions, red & green capsicum.

Recipe : Raw coconut and cranberry bars (makes 4). Raw ,GF, No Bake

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1 tbs coconut oil
• 1/2 cup medjool dates

Here’s how

• Throw all ingredients in a food processor and process till it turns clumpy
• Knead the “dough” into four bars and wrap in parchment paper
• Refrigerate over night in air tight container
• Keep for up till 1 week.

Enjoy and till tomorrow =)

 

Raw foods – Day 5

Happy Sunday everyone!

Short entry today because I’m really sleepy and tomorrow is gonna be the start of a long week at work.

Breakfast : Green smoothie (1 avocado + 2 bananas + 2tsp agava + bunch of kailan)
Lunch : 2 carrots + 1 green capsicum + 2 stalks of celery + totmatoes all cut into strips. Dipped with a raw tahini+seasame+avovcado dressing from The Living Cafe. This was SO GOOD I can’t wait to go back and buy more.

Tea break: Handful of cranberries, sunflower seeds and pine nuts.
Dinner : Guava + Red apple juice and 1 large bowl of longans .I can eat ALOT of longans! My second fav fruit after durain.

In the meantime, its the end of the first week of the New Year! I’ve made 5 new year resolutions for myself, for now and every remaining year of my late twenties. (sob only 4 more years!) .

Love God

Forgive & Forget

Eat Well

Travel Far

Move More

I hope that you will continue to persevere with whatever detox decision or New Year resolution you’ve made at the start of the year =)

Till tomorow !

Raw foods – Day 4 and a trip to The Living Cafe

Was feeling slightly more energetic today but still a little under the weather and feverish from the food poisoning. But that didn’t stop me from making a trip to The Living Cafe! So excited to share about my experience, scroll down to read more.

Recap of Day 4
 Breakfast – Green smoothie (Pineapple + Banana + Kailan)

Lunch – 3 course Raw meal ( Raw mushroom soup + Raw mushroom burger + Raw blackforest cake) Scroll below for details

Dinner – Salad (lettuce, shredded carrots + cucumber, seaweed) + Miso soup

Vegan options are limited in Singapore (growing, but slowly) and raw vegan options are almost non existent. So I was really excited when I found out about The Living Cafe, the only cafe in Singapore which serves up a full western raw menu – from appetizers to main courses to desserts.

I finally made my way down to The Living Cafe for lunch yesterday.Have been looking forward to visiting the place ever since my colleague bought me 2 slices of their raw cakes. It was SO GOOD!

The Living Cafe is housed in Blanced Living Asia . Besides the cafe, they also conduct health food classes, holistic workshops, yoga lessons and nutrition consultation.

Love the bright and spacious ambience of the cafe

Literally skipped to the cake section…all these delightful cakes are RAW=)!

The menu  is quite extensive and is not limited to only raw food. It ranges from appetizers, salads, soups, pizzas, sandwiches, wraps and desserts and under each section, there are vegetarian, vegan and raw options. You can check out the menu here.

1st dish: Raw mushroom soup with raw sour cream

The soup tasted really creamy and gourmet and PZ loved it. Was impressed by the consistency of the soup but thought the winning factor was the raw sour cream .It gave the soup a tangy taste and complimented it very well

2nd dish: Raw TLC burger. Pattie made from mushrooms, walnuts,sunflower seeds,oats,tomatoes,sprouts served in a lettuce wrapped ‘bun’ with raw cheesy sauce. Thought the patty was a tad dry – i guess that’s what you get from dehydrating food. But the cheesy sauce gave it the right amount of moisture. Wouldn’t have minded if there was more =) Doesnt look like it, but its extremely filling!

Because I was soo full, i only had space for one slice of cake. Took forever to make up mind which cake to order and finally decided on the raw blackforest cake…because its one of my favs! ( personal option is the best bfc is from Pine Garden’s)

Was trying to identify all the ingredients in the cake which each bite. Figured there was beetroot, medjool dates and dried cherries. Was chatting with one of the waitresses and she mentioned that the 2 special ingredients they use in their cakes are physllium husks and irish moss. The cake was very “fibre filled” but luckily the chocolate cream and icing gave it a nice balance.

After lunch, we took a walk around the cafe. They sell a range of products from health supplements to superfoods (like lucuma powder, cacao powder, bee pollen, irish mosh) to equipment like the Excalibur and Vitamix.

There’s also a second storey which sells raw food and health books, yoga mats, accessories, cleaning products, body products and supplements.

Am so glad the raw food movement is growing in Singapore. If you’re keen to taste some raw vegan good, I would highly recommend a trip down to The Living Cafe=))

I’ll be there soon too……so see you there!

The Living Cafe

Food: 4.5/5 , Ambience : 4.5/5 , Service : 5/5 , Cost : $$

779 Bukit Timah Rd Singapore 269758
+65 6468 4482

http://www.balancedlivingasia.com