I know you have been asked this question way too many times the past few days or even maybe today alone. Mine is to make time to workout more, for my sake and my son’s. Now that he’s becoming more mobile, I would sometimes feel quite frustrated when my back or my knees begin to ache from cuddling or chasing him down. I never had the luxury of time this past year to give my body the exercise it so deserves because my daily routine required me to take care of my son 24/7 as he was just under a …read more

Today I read a line from Diane’s blog that caught my attention: “I find that the more stress I’m experiencing, the less I pay attention to what I am eating.” I couldn’t agree more! Sometimes taking care of the baby and the house can take its toll on me that I would rather have takeaways than stress myself more with contemplating on what to cook for dinner! During these times, my husband and I almost always end up having pizza or fish and chips — not a healthy choice, I know.
Hence, from hereon in, when laziness or stress kicks in, …read more

Indulge me a bit here. I’ve had a migraine for the last couple of hours and I’m loathe to drink any pill. I’ve been trolling the Internet for “magic cures” — okay, not really, but some tea, or some natural medication… so far I’ve found turmeric. But I really don’t feel like making any soups or potions with turmeric…. and there’s no way I can swallow a spoonful of that stuff. Just thinking about it makes my headache worse. I’m not prone to these migraine headaches; just a bad combination of ragweed allergies and lack …read more

The best thing about Somen noodles are that they seem to go with anything, especially summer.  When it is hot and you can’t manage to get hot food to seem appetizing, try this for a quick, easy and healthy meal.
Cook up a bundle of somen noodles for each person, using the directions on the pack (usually boil them in plenty of water for about 3-4 minutes then rinse them in cold water until they are cool).
On top of this pile of noodles arrange your favourite salad including “cold” vegetables like tomatoes and cucumber.  Add some grilled tofu lumps on the …read more

I have had very little experience of hospitals.  I have had very little experience of hospital food.    One thing I do know, is that Hospital food generally gets pretty poor reviews.  In fact it is up there with school food and even prison food for an overall bad reputation.
My wife spent last week in a small Japanese Hospital after giving birth to our new baby son, and she was pleasantly surprised by what they served up. 
Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all served as trays full of a multitude of small, delicious, and beautiful dishes.  Each meal was different to the last and all were …read more

I wasn’t sure about the title for this post as it really depends on your perspective and whether you believe the hype.  I am talking about the three Japanese foods most popularly claimed to help you live a long and healthy life.

Umeboshi
Soba
Green tea

Umeboshi is the Japanese term for pickled plum.  My cycling friends call Umeboshi “The Japanese Miracle”  and most of them love to eat them when we are racing.  They are salty, sweet and also sort of bitter in a way that could scar the hardiest of tongues.  They come in a range of forms from the hard almost impenetrable …read more

This fresh spring roll is one of my favorite spring/summer dishes. It can be served warm or at room temperature, or even cold; and because it’s individually wrapped you can choose to eat it with your hands. Bring it in a basket to the park for a delicious change to your usual picnic fare.
The filling does take quite a while to make, especially when cutting the vegetables by hand. A sharp knife and steady strokes, however, should make for quick prep work. A few minutes of stir-frying is all it takes. And if you don’t …read more

Fake nutritional information brought to light, or why you shouldn’t trust everything you see. Just because it’s on TV, just because there are “researchers” and “experts” on it, doesn’t mean it’s true, or correct.

Well here it is, the dessert that I just had to make. Very similar to the Filipino ginataan, but with more emphasis on the mung beans and the tapioca. I love the extra mung beans though, makes it healthier and that’s a big plus for me and hubby.

The ingredients. Would have used pandan leaves but the store was out and I didn’t have any stashed away in the freezer (sniff). So I had to make do with a drop of pandan extract — but whoa! Too green! So I stopped at one drop. …read more