Halal Online Article in Shanghai

Was browsing through online to look for some other kind of Muslim Halal restaurants here in Shanghai (we've been eating Xinjiang lam mian pulled noodles all the time and got bored). And I stumbled upon this website. It was written by this journalist name Yao Minji and he was basically explaining about a brief summary of Muslims in Shanghai, Muslim food, the term "Halal". He also talked a bit about the history of how Islam came into China. Though it was written back in 2012, but it was a good article for non-Muslims. 

Click here to go to the Link : Halal Meat to Suit All Tastes

The interesting fact was, a lot of non-Muslim love buying Halal meat as they considered it very fresh and in good quality. 

"...Halal meat, which comes from animals slaughtered by a swift, deep incision cutting the throat, carotid artery, wind pipe and jugular veins, is commonly recognized as good quality and fresh. As a result, many non-Muslims in Shanghai choose to eat beef and mutton from halal restaurants..."

In the article [& also the website], he recommended some of the local Halal restaurants for Muslims like us, can eat & enjoy. And also places related to Islam, Muslim & Halal.

Have a look if you are looking for a different kind of Chinese food besides the pulled noodle aka 'niu rou lam mian'. Hehehehehe! I think, for Iftar today, I might drag my partner for some "Hotpot". It's very famous among the Shanghainese & also Chinese themselves. And it's like steamboat. Kan..? Oh, I miss Johnny's Thai Steamboat. Boo hoo.

Toodles!

2 Weeks of Ramadan.

It's already coming to the 2nd week of Ramadan. How time flies. Didn't feel "meriah" that much this year. Had the best so far in Bahrain. Maybe due to Malaysians Muslim friends were many there. And activities like Iftar get together, Tarawith prayer, & we did few times invited friends for Iftar too. Plus, I was busy baking kuih raya (eid cookies & bars).

This year, the place we stayed didn't provide us with an oven. Guess, God is fair to let us stay in a fancy looking apartment, yet teach us to be grateful no matter what. As for me, it's the oven. Had my taste to use it & now, I've to deal with it. Hehehehe!

Not here to talk about my oven-days. Just a quick post. I made Sweet & Sour Fish & Stir-fry Watercress yesterday for Iftar. I also did Oyster Mushroom Soup ala Thai, but forgot to take any photo, as we were expecting a friend to join us for Iftar dinner. 

Will post recipe for making this simple delicious dish. 

Stir-fry Watercress & Sweet Sour Fish. 

Ate both the dishes with white rice & oats.

Bon Appétit!

Green Thumb.

I took the opportunity of being a full time housewife & learn how to start [& learn how to love] growing. And I told my black thumb, "Be the green, be the green..." Kinda reverse-psycho-ing my mind. And wow! It worked!

I got inspired via Pinterest. I mean, I was just browsing & reading peoples Pin and saw how easy they started growing things indoor. Just by regrowing back greens where they got it from the grocery market. How cool was it. Simple, easy & cool.

So I started with celery, cause it was the easiest that I read so far. It grows well too. [Zira, please insert photo of the celery progress] But it also died too. Boo-hoo. And sadly, I had the dead pic of Mr.C (yes I named them out of love) below.

What's left of Mr. C. The whole body got soft & the toothpick didn't get any
grip, so it plopped into the water. *sob sob*

It died after 2 weeks. Sob sob. It was my fault! I didn't get Mr.C a new home! He was in need of soil & I just didn't give him any. Or was just too late. Why! Why! Why....! You grew beautifully. You had beautiful leaves & stalks.. Oh, well... It was your time. 

After the tragic death, I mend my broken heart by regrowing back some lemongrass & chives. Look at that! New shoots! Green-y leaves. It's amazing. I let them sit in water & sunbathing to the awesomely summer sunlight, & they stay perfectly cool with the room temperature of 18-25'c. 

Lookie' them shoots from the lemongrass. & I have been snipping them
chives for my cooking so many times & it still grows.

And lastly, I grew some lime too. Well, I don't know how well will it grow, but looking from the pic below, the seeds [which I got from the fresh lime itself which I bought it from the supermarket] sprouted very well. I started by just cleaning & peeling off the almost see-through skin of the seeds and sandwiched it with facial cotton pads. Moisten the pads and let it sprout in 4-5 days or more. I think mine took about a week plus. Always keep the pad moist. 

The method I used for the above is just with water. I recycled old mineral/coca-cola/vitamin C plastic bottles and cut them into half. Just turn the nozzle head side down (which will be for the plant) and the bottom half is filled with water. It's a good way for self-watering too. In case ones forget or lazy to water them. Like me. :P

So happy it grew. My "black thumb" aint that "black" after all. Kih kih kih.. I hope I get to post more about their development. Curious in what to do after they sprout or grow shoots. What do I need to do now? Have no clue. But, just happy. It's very therapeutic & calming too. 

PS: So envious with those who grows very well & have a garden or space for it. I can only make do with what I have. 

Happy green day ahead!

Cauli Gets Mashed, Mashed & Mashed.

I declared what I made (pic below), awesome-ly delicious. And healthy too. I know maybe I was a bit absentmindedly unaware that, there is such a thing called Mashed Cauliflower, but I guess I was being totally ignorant about it till I was desperate enough to make mashed potatoes and didn't have them in hand the other day. And I saw my cauliflower dying any seconds (being exaggerating here). No it was not dying, but it started to have molds on it. 

So because of that, I boiled them and didn't know what to do with it. And came up with a brilliant idea (yeah, right!) I said, "Maybe we can mashed it like mashed potatoes.." & quickly did my online R&D if this "oh-not-so-original" idea works. And yes. Thanks to the Internet world, you can just find any 'full-proof-it-worked' recipes & ideas. 

So, being me, I just used what I had in the fridge to make this yummy delicious "langsung-takde-taste-like-cauliflower" mashed cauliflower. 

Ingredients (my version) :-

1. Some low fat milk (or you can opt for Greek yogurt or almond milk or sour cream)
2. 2 tbsp butter
3. 2 cloves of garlic
4. 1 head of cauliflower (cuts into florets)
5. Salt & pepper
6. Some olive oil
7. Chives (which I blend some together & left some for garnish)
8. Cheese (see pic below)

After boiling the cauliflower, just throw all the other ingredients in the blender
& all is in good hands. But some like it not so mushy, so using a hand masher
will do too. *except the cheese. see pic below.

I layed a sliced cheese at the botton of my bowl. Heheheheh! So when you
scoop some mashed cauli, you get some cheese with it. Yumm-eh!

Top up you mashed cauliflower with some snipped chives (which I regrow
it in my apartment)

Voila! Mashed Cauliflower!

This is a good substitute for mashed potatoes. It's way healthier. Even if you used that many butter. Hahahahaha! well, it way better than that starchy 100% potatoes. It is also good with spreading & dipping. My husband kept spreading them on his Ciabatta, and I couldn't stop dipping it with celery & pretzel. 

Have a try. Replace your usual mashed potatoes with mashed cauliflower. :)

Healthy up!

Been telling myself, this year, I need to start back to live life healthy. I hate it that I am that girl who (yes, I confessed!) once married, I don't care of my body. Just like this picture quote below. Guilty!

So I learn to get back into my health. Learning to love my body again. I mean, I'm not a size 0-1 lady, and I sure hell got no 6 pack, muscle arms & toned legs. But all I know is that, you can be fat & healthy at the same time. Though I'm not trying to strive to being just fat. But I aim to be healthy. Being fit is on-going - lah. 

I've been doing research and reading some online articles, about superfood, clean eating, healthy organic, Fit is the new Thin, and the list goes on and on. Therefore I decided to start the habit again. Yes, again! I mean, before I got married (3 years ago) 1 year prior to my wedding, I worked my butt up. Eat healthy, drink healthy and excercise 3 times a week. Every morning, I take 15 mins or more to do some strenght training, sculpting and toning my body. Gosh! I was at my happiest. I didn't weight 40-50kg. But I was happy. And went I look back at my old photo, I was like, "OMG! Look at me! I look so good! And slimmer!" And to believe back then, I was still calling and thinking I am fat! When I look sooo good already. *sigh*

Moving on.

I have always love smoothies. I don't like eating them vegetables raw or sometimes fruits raw, but I don't mind drinking them. Heheheheh! So did my research and notice that, it's like a "healthy fashion" to drink up your greens  now. I used to just drink fruit smoothies only and sometimes, add in those protein mix. But never, never ever add in greens. 

I stumbled upon good, motivational website. For once, of course, I started using SparkPeople to lose my weight, back then. I get inspired by their real life losing weight people, and food calculation, fitness tracking, recipes & so on. I even shared my homemade recipes to know how much I'm eating. Cool. But then I stop doing it. Because I'm married. Alasan!

Early this year, I saw a friend of mine, who gets into a great transformation of being healthy! I envy her! She not only is a qualified yoga instructor, but she started EatCleanKL. Kuala Lumpur needs to eat clean and learn to eat clean too. Heheheheh! She makes delivery too. But please check out her Facebook page first to see where their delivery areas are.

 Next, I stumbled upon this page. Simple Green Smoothies. And I've got to tell you guys, I love this website so much, that I followed them on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram & even Twitter! Them girls (Jen & Jadah) are so full of greens. They make it look like it is fun to drink your greens. Well, it sure is! Not only that it's healthy, all their green smoothie recipes are yum-meh! 

I'm inspired! So inspired that I have started drinking & yes, eating healthy again. It's not like, BAM! everything changes. But slowly, gradually changing my eating habits & drinking my greens. :)

For eating, I still cook white rice, since my husband needs them for energy cause he works with oven & hot heat (& just being a typical Malaysian), but I added in oats. I love this the best [image below], but sadly in Malaysia they don't have them. So far, only found them when we lived in Hong Kong & also here in China. But it's okay. If you can't find them, just used normal oats. 

I love this so much. The least I can do to make my husband eat healthy balance.

Then, I also added organic flaxseed. It is a such a small powerful seed indeed. It helps fight heart disease, diabetes and breast cancer. It contains good fats, packed with fibers & a good weight lose seed too. Have a try. I just add them on pretty much everything. Rice, dishes, & even drink it. Which I used them every time I make my smoothies. Just look at them photos below. (note that some of the photos taken are drank till the last drop image). But because I love the outlook & the after effect that my smoothies make. It's like art. HEHEHEHEHEHE!

For drinking, I started to add in spinach. Yup, just spinach. Haven't tried kale yet, but till I can find a good, healthy & organic kale, will I used spinach first. There you go. Just try adding them greens. Try a cup first. I tell you, you can't taste the green at all! And the colours are just beautiful to see. 

Sadly, my smoothies are not as smoothy as what I see online or go to some fruit juice smoothie bar. Cause I didn't purchase any good blender yet. Hey, you need to keep money to invest a good blender. But at the moment, I'll just use my cheap Philips brand blender. That's why you see loads of chunks in my smoothie. Kih kih kih. It's okay. It will go in my tummy anyways. :)

Reminder to self : I will need to write down the recipes for all the smoothies I made above. 

Self : Ok, noted. :P

Till next blog post! Eat up healthy! Drink up healthy!