Food Waste Friday: Buns and Orange

Posted on September 2, 2011 by The Giddy Tigress

Today (and hopefully every Friday), I’m joining The Frugal Girl and other bloggers out there in posting my food waste photos within the past week, calling it Food Waste Friday.  It is hoped that by sharing pictures of the food I have wasted, it would motivate me to reduce wastage as much as possible.  I will try my very best to participate each week, and hopefully there will be weeks where I will be able to happily report that there was 0% wastage! 🙂

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This week, I am sad to report that we threw out 3 wholemeal sweet potato buns.  To make things worse, these were preservative-free and tasted really good.  Ouch.  The reason why we did not finish them was because we had too many other things to eat in the house…that, and also because of the school holidays, we were out for a whole lot more than usual.  To be fair, those 3 buns did look okay…not at all moldy, but because it had been 5 days since we bought them, I decided to err of the side of food safety.

The other item I threw out was a lone mandarin orange, which had been sitting in the fridge for goodness-knows-how-long.  I did not want anyone to eat it because we all had a bout of sore throat and cough and mandarins were not good for that.  In the end, it turned soft and lumpy.

How did you do this week?

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Sharing Some Bloggie Love on Nuffnang’s Blog Day 2011

Posted on August 31, 2011 by The Giddy Tigress

First of all, I’d like to wish all my Muslim readers a Happy Eid-ul Fitr/Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, and to those of you who are in Malaysia, a blessed Merdeka Day to you too!  In addition to all the festive celebrations, Nuffnang is also celebrating Blog Day 2011 today.

To keep the blogging spirit very much alive and not succumb to the pressure of only micro-blogging, I will now showcase 6 blogs, which I have either discovered recently and/or enjoy reading.  Do check them out and I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly entertained too.

Our Dog Kennel (Malaysia)

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This blog belongs to my brother, and contains interesting snippets and personal accounts which he has put together in a unique manner, sometimes light-hearted and humorous, sometimes serious and profound, but always a refreshing read.  I’d mostly agree with all of his posts …oh, except those that extol the glory that is Man U though.  Heh.

The Frugal Girl (USA)

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How often do you come across a blog that is frank, funny, is updated almost every day and above all else, strives to be frugal in everything she does, while keeping her sanity in check?  This is one blog that has me nodding along, and admiring the excellent photography.

A beauty blog which has sadly been discontinued (Singapore)

At the request of the blog author, I have removed all references to this blog.

Adino Online (Malaysia)

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There are many many Mommy bloggers out there but only a handful of Daddy bloggers, and Adino is one of them (apart from my brother, that is…).  I read this blog for its insightful posts, funny thoughts and also the view from “the other side” (from a father’s point of view).

Catch Forty Winks (Singapore)

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Also one of the more recent blogs I happily discovered a few weeks ago, which was a pleasant surprise and a delight to read.  I usually know I want to read more of a blog when I keep clicking on the “Previous Posts” link at the bottom of the page, and this blog did that to me.  I especially love the posts on home organization and interior design.  But that’s just me… 🙂

Love and Olive Oil (USA)

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People who know me well will know that my personal unmentioned motto is “There’s always room for dessert”.  And of course, there’s always room in my heart for a blog that is dedicated to the art of creating beautiful, delicious-looking desserts…good-looking enough to make me wanna jump into my computer screen to take a bite.  I found it all here in this blog.  Superb photography and clear, concise recipes.  With a tagline that simply reads “Eat to Live.  Cook to Love.”, I absolutely love it.

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And there you have it.  My personal selection of 6 must-read blogs.  Do you know of any blogs you’d like to recommend or share with me? 🙂

Posted in Blogging, Thoughts & Scribblings | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Me-Time Luxuries: Yogurt and Oatmeal Facial Mask

Posted on August 30, 2011 by The Giddy Tigress

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I’ve always loved natural products.  Homemade ones are even better.  So I decided to try making my own facial mask a few days ago…after all, how difficult could it be?

Back in the days when I still pampered myself with regular facials at the salon, my facialist advised me to use a suitable mask on my face at least twice a week.  Now that I don’t do salon facials anymore, I need my own mini facials at home too.  I usually put my mask on after I use a face scrub on my face.

This time, I’ve decided to try a simple yogurt and oatmeal mask, purpotedly suitable for sensitive skin.

Here’s what I used:

  • Half a cup of plain yogurt
  • 2 tbsp oatmeal/rolled oats

What I did:

Mix ingredients together until a paste-like mixture is obtained.  Apply onto cleansed face and leave for 10-15 minutes.  Then rinse off and dab dry.  I like to apply my mask before my shower and wash it off in the shower itself.

On my first attempt, I had some problems making the mask stay on my face, because the oatmeal bits kept falling off!  I added a little bit more yogurt but that didn’t help either.  So since I had half a cup of yogurt left, I tried a different approach the following day.  Using my dry mill, I ground the oatmeal into a somewhat powder form and then mixed the yogurt in.

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Ah…success!!  The result was a more pasty consistency, which was easier to apply and it adhered better to the face 🙂

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I loved the cool feeling of the chilled yogurt mixture on my face, and it smelled great too (if you like yogurt, it will smell great).  Washing off the mask was a breeze and it did not feel too sticky.  I would have loved to leave the mask on for longer though, but even after 15 minutes, the result was a very smooth and moisturized face.  I loved it!

Half a cup of yogurt yielded enough to apply the mask on my neck too, so that’s precisely what I did. 🙂

Continue reading →

Posted in The Fairer Sex, Thoughts & Scribblings | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Food Waste Friday: Koay Teow and Miso Rescued

Posted on August 26, 2011 by The Giddy Tigress

Today (and hopefully every Friday), I’m joining The Frugal Girl and other bloggers out there in posting my food waste photos within the past week, calling it Food Waste Friday.  It is hoped that by sharing pictures of the food I have wasted, it would motivate me to reduce wastage as much as possible.  I will try my very best to participate each week, and hopefully there will be weeks where I will be able to happily report that there was 0% wastage! 🙂

This week, I’m quite pleased with the results.  We had hardly any food waste from the fridge (yay!), and I tried to use every possible vegetable and herb I had when I cooked.  However, we did have some food waste when we dined out last Sunday at Old Town.  It was in the form of half a bowl of koay teow.

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We’d probably ordered a little too much to begin with, and when we were all full, there was still half a bowl of koay teow left.  I ate all of the chicken pieces but could really eat no more.  Note to self: order less next time.

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Back on the homefront, while cleaning out my fridge, I noticed a jar of  Organic Brown Rice Miso, which I had forgotten all about, and realized to my horror, that it had already gone way past its Best Before date.

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…Operative phrase here being “Best Before” and NOT “Expiry”… So I opened up the jar and inspected its contents, by sight and smell.  It looked all right to me, so I decided to whip up a simple serving of miso soup, since I happened to have some tofu available.  I didn’t have any spring onions though, otherwise it would have tasted better.

Yeah…it actually tasted good. 🙂 … and no tummy aches or whatever, thankfully!!  So I’m gonna save this jar… and use its contents up as soon as I can.

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Easy Peasy Miso Soup

Ingredients

  • Chicken/vegetable stock
  • Smooth white tofu, chopped into small cubes
  • 1 tbsp Brown rice Miso paste
  • 2 soup bowls of water
  • Spring onions, chopped

Method

  1. Put tofu into water and place into a soup pot.  Bring to a boil.
  2. Turn off the heat and scoop out about 3-5 tbsp of the soup into a separate bowl.
  3. Dissolve the Miso paste in it and pour it back into the hot soup, stirring gently.
  4. Add spring onions and serve.
Posted in Close to Heart & Home, Drooling & Cooking, Thoughts & Scribblings | Tagged | 3 Comments

My New Snake Grass Plant

Posted on August 26, 2011 by The Giddy Tigress

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My new plant is actually a type of grass.  It’s called Sabah Snake Grass (Scientific Name: Clinacanthus nutans).  My MIL has passed the plant to my Mum last weekend to pass to a friend, but since my Mum would be travelling back to Ipoh on bus, I offered to care for it.

This plant is reputed to be able to cure many types of cancer, including lung, uterus, breast and prostate cancer.  I could not find any medical reports on this, so I am assuming it is a form of alternative medicine.  A search in wikipedia yielded no results too, which is rather strange, I thought.

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In any case, I’ve read in blogs that cancer patients ingest the leaves whole as is, or blended together with ice cubes and green apples.  The number of leaves to be eaten also depends on the stage of cancer.  The leaves of this Sabah Snake Grass was originally used to cure ailments like sore throat, uric acid, gout, high blood pressure, cholesterol level problems, uterine fibroid, prostate inflammation, kidney problems and various skin diseases.

I’m just going to take care of this plant for as long as I can, just in case anyone wants to use it.  Not sure how I’ll fare though, cuz hubby is always saying I’m not the “green fingers” type.  Hehe.

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Have you used any alternative medicine or herbal remedies to cure ailments?

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