Bloated like a pig!

Credits: QuickMeme

I feel like a penguin. My stomach is so bloated right now that I look super duper pregnant. Haha! Gosh, I hate that feeling when AF is coming near and you get these unfriendly symptoms, making your confidence level drop to the floor immediately.

Leah A A

Technology is the root to all evil. Heh!

I'm thinking of deleting my social media accounts but maintain a few; mainly Google+, my blog of course, and LinkedIn. Well, I've got no choice but to maintain these 2 as the first one, it gives me the freedom to pen down my thoughts and records my recipes while the second one is mainly used for work purposes.

In fact, I've been thinking about deleting my FB and IG some time ago but never had the courage to do so simply because, I may need to access to my friend's contacts, lookout for great deals online or even promote whichever sideline business that I will run in the future.

I've noticed some pretty bad habits that I've developed ever since I started using smartphone. I recalled those days when I can only access to my Friendster using my computer desktop at home. How simple was that to just access anything got to do with internet from a stationary desktop? Besides, news feed is getting exhausting with people posting selfies, or whatever they are doing, literally, online, with the intention to evoke jealousy, or admiration maybe? I'm definitely guilty of uploading selfies of myself and sometimes, photos of those moments that I thought is necessary to be shared. And soon after, I will get addicted to checking if my post had received any likes or comments. Geez, such a pyscho act right?

In fact, I didn't used to be a social media addict. I guess everyone started off the same. It was merely those days, where we upload nice picture of ourselves to make new friends (ehem!) online and then, Mark Zuckenberg decided to change the world. You could do more than just uploading photos! Poking (seriously hate this!), messaging, posting anything that you are feeling now, check-in to your location and advertisements from various business setups even started to flood the news feed. And then there was Instagram. Initially, I had used it to edit photos with nice filters and manually upload it to FB. I had few request who wanted to follow my account in IG which I ignored until one day, a friend asked me "Hey, can you please accept my friend request?" And BOOM! that's where the addiction started. You could link IG to FB for a seamless upload. Cheesy huh!

Wow, this post is getting longer than I had expected. I still have more to share.

I discovered Facebook marketing 2 years back when I tried to sell perfumes and cosmetics. It was fun getting likes on the post you share, or likes to your page. It was even fun with the job title you can create for yourself, making yourself feel like a "Big Boss" and having a notification that someone enquired about your products. Truth be told, everyone dreams to be a big boss, but only a few succeed. I wasn't one of the few but I had my share and experience of earning my own income. That further motivates me to try out other things.

So while I'm contemplating to delete my FB and IG accounts, my tailoring sideline is slowly picking up. Soon, I will need to use either a FB or IG account to promote my services. So how do I decide if I should totally be out of these? Pfft!

Leah A A

LEAH's Kitchen: Ayam Masak Merah (Malay Dish)

I love #ayammasakmerah and will attack this dish whenever I go to wedding ceremonies. I wasn't sure about the end-result but my family wiped out the dish in less than a day (mind you, 2kg of chicken), so I guess, it can be concluded that the dish was delicious right? Jeez, such a self-brag! Haha!

Ayam Masak Merah (Malay Dish) (8-12pax)

 

Ingredients:

6 garlic (sliced)

1 onion (sliced)

2 inch ginger (chopped)

2 cm lengkuas (chopped)

2 stalk lemon grass (smashed)

6 bunga cengkih

4 buah pelagah

2 bunga lawing

2 cm kayu manis

60 ml asam water

100 gm chilli sos (Maggi brand)

6 tbs sugar

20 tbs chilli boh

2 chicken (skin discarded, cut into parts)

2 ts salt

1 ts Ajinomoto

Tumeric powder

Instructions:

1. Clean chicken parts and marinate with turmeric powder and salt. Deep-fry chicken until it's cooked (do not need to be crispy). Set aside for later.
2. Heat cooking oil and stir-fry lemon grass, bunga cengkih, buah pelagah, bunga lawing and kayu manis till fragrant.
3. Mix in with garlic, onion, ginger and lengkuas. Stir-fry till soften.
4. Mix in chilli boh. Stir-fry till mixture looks crisp and shiny.
5. Add chilli sos and seasoned with sugar, salt, ajinomoto and asam water.
6. When mixture starts to thickened, add chicken and mix till even.

LEAH's Kitchen: Spinach Chicken Cheese Burger

I came across this #spinachburger on Pinterest and felt that the burger was quite peculiar in a way. I don't usually eat spinach in a burger. My mom cooks spinach in a soup form or stir-fry in a Asian-style as a side dish. But the picture that I saw was very tempting. It looks yummy and pretty easy to make so I decided to give it a try.

 

Spinach Chicken Cheese Burger

Ingredients:

100gm of butter

3 x cloves of garlic (chopped)

1 x onion (chopped)

1 x packet of oyster mushroom

1 x packet of spinach (without stems)

1 x red bell pepper (cut into cubes)

Light soya sauce

Oyster sauce

Salt

Black pepper (grounded)

Chicken parts, boneless (cut into small pieces)

Tomato (sliced)

Cheddar cheese slices

Hamburger buns

 

Instructions:

1. Melt butter in a frying pan. Sautee mushroom for about 5 minutes.
2. Add garlic and onion. Sautee again
3. Add chicken and red pepper. Sautee till chicken is cooked.
4. Add a little light soya sauce and oyster sauce.
5. Add spinach. Finish off with salt and black pepper to taste. Place filling aside.
6. Cut hamburger buns and slightly toast them in the oven.
7. From bottom up, placed tomato slice, chicken filling and top it with cheese.
8. Wrap the burger in foil. Place it in the oven 200 degrees celcius for about 20 minutes till the cheese melt. Enjoy.

Healthy Rating:

5/5. I used wholemeal buns and there are loads of goodness stuff in that burger.

Things will change, if you change...

Keep positive vibes and you will see a difference. Yes, you will.

Ever since I stayed away from negative vibes, I've been feeling happier than before. I no longer feel that I'm just waiting for days to pass, get stuck in my emotions of not being seen or treated fairly, or even think why I can't be somebody else.

I'm thankful for things that are happening to me in 2014. Although my circle of friends have grown smaller in size, I no longer have to fake optimism or feel shunned as if my presence is not needed when I'm with my friends. I'm glad that God opened up an opportunity for me to make amends with people that I have lost touched with and strengthen the friendship that I have built along the way. For those that have come and left, thank you for being part of my life because that's where the chapter of my life ends with you in it.

I'm learning ways to manage my finance, always keeping in check if we have enough for the whole month, until one day I realised that you can't save if you are in debt. I'm not in debt, truly. It's just that we have a lot of things to pay for since we are renovating our house. I struggled with payments and at the same time, scrimping every penny which led to even more debts. Don't get what I mean? Heh, never mind. I envied those earning higher salary than me and wished that I could achieve more for a better life. However, things change when I let go of my ego to save every month and pondered over what I could achieve with the little income that I have. Take a look at this article. It's very encouraging that let you have a different perspective of why salary doesn't matter. Applying this concept, I concentrate on clearing my payments, limit my expenses and alhamdullilah, I've seen a difference that it makes to my financial situation.

Excited for my new house, our renovation works are 90% complete. We checked for defects last night and hopefully our contractor can get it rectified by this Friday. My tolerance for my contractor's attitude is really off limit but I keep repeating to myself that this situation is temporary and it will end soon. Well, he's not a bad person to start with but he lacks the initiative and has poor customer service skills. In terms of workmanship, I would rate it 9/10. So that's the deal. You get good workmanship but poor customer service. I say, I go for workmanship. Some snapshots of my renovation works here:

I've just made some baking sale last week out of a regular customer. At the same time, business for tailoring service is really picking up beyond my expectations. Kudos to Carousell! It's such a good app that I don't even require to create a facebook page or website (of course 1 day I will do!). I've received countless of enquiries and mostly are for wedding events in November. Wow! Good thing is, I'm partnering with my mom for this business and we intend to take it further next year for Hari Raya despite my Dad's disapproval. It's quite tiring but I enjoyed every second of it because you can copy ideas but you can never copy skills that's learnt. Hopefully, one day, I can realised my dream of owning either an F&B or tailoring business!

Leah A A

LEAH's Kitchen: Fried Macaroni (Macaroni Goreng)

I had unusual craving (what's new?) for macaroni, salivating at the thought of biting into those al-dente pasta and chew on the ground beef that is perfectly seasoned with some tomato-based sauce. Anyway, it has been a while since I whip up #friedmacaroni or #macaronigoreng and I had forgotten the recipe. That's the reason why I always jot down the recipe into this blog. I used my six sense (like real only!) and grab whatever I think will make the dish tasty.

Fried Macaroni or Macaroni Goreng (for 7-8pax)

Ingredients:

6 x cloves of garlic (chopped)

1 x big onion (chopped)

5 x chilli padi (optional)

2 x tbs of tomato paste

4 x tbs of chilli boh

2 x tbs of oyster sauce

2 x tbs of light soya sauce

100gm minced beef

500gm of macaroni

2 x cups of peeled shrimp

1/2 x can of button mushroom

3 x stalks of sawi

Salt

Ajinomoto

A little bit of water

 

Instructions:

1. Boil a pot of water and cook macaroni till al-dente (follow packet instructions). Drain water and put cooked macaroni aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix tomato paste, chilli boh, oyster sauce, light soya sauce and water till it's even. Put sauce mixture aside.
3. Using frying wok, heat up some oil and stir-fry garlic, onion and chilli padi till fragrant.
4. Add in the sauce mixture and minced beef. Stir-fry till beef is almost cooked and add shrimp and mushroom. Stir-fry again.
5. Add in macaroni and stir-fry evenly.
6. Add in sawi and stir-fry till vegetable soften.
7. Add salt and ajinomoto to taste.

 

Hello Baby D!

Baby D has arrived and I'm so thrilled for my gf! I couldn't believe it. It was just Monday, 2 days ago, that I met her for lunch with Baby D in her womb and then, yesterday, Baby D, who had been in my gf's womb for 8 months plus, decided to make his appearance into this world. Alhamdullilah, God's creation is such a beauty beyond words description!

Both mom and Baby D are safe and sound. It was a smooth delivery for her, a 2.5hours process of natural delivery. Such a strong woman!

Hehe. I'm excited for my turn too. Hopefully, I'll get the "jackpot" soon!

Stolen from my GF's facebook. Handsome boy right?

Leah A A