COVID-19 Social Distancing

Social distancing is the latest trending word in the society and I believe across the world. In Singapore, the population density is high and we are working hard to flatten the infection curve. Thus, now it's common to see such markings in shops and common areas. May COVID be over soon, may everyone I know be in good health!

Do not sit on the seats with red tape

Space out accordingly

Food for thought (Friday and the weekend)

On Thursday night, I took a nap after getting home from school and visited Mum after that. It was late and I did not want to eat anything so that I can break fast early the next day, but I could not say 'no' to dear mummy as she had dished out some keto friendly food for me. So I ate at 9.30pm and I could only break fast after 1.30pm the next day.

On Friday, it was really a test of great discipline to keep to the 16h and I thought that I will just break fast earlier if I really could not make it. I only drank black coffee for the 6h after reaching school at 7am. When it was almost time to finally break fast, P wanted to go out and get food for lunch and I could not say no to him either, so I got myself chicken rice (without eating the rice of course) instead of eating the prawn scampi zoodles I've brought to school. I topped it up with keto hot chocolate as the lean meat was not filling enough. I'm glad I've brought the electric milk frother to school.

Broke fast with chicken rice without the rice

Cheap and good electric frother 

The COVID situation around the world have gotten really and the March hols was full of excitement? and different news, constant discussions over Whatsapps, but the school hols are not extended in the end and Term 2 is starting in a few hours. Anyway, I was at home binge watching Lucifer on Netflix and I didnt step out of the house except for tuition on Sunday. I think it's good we still get to go back to school and get some fresh air instead of staying at home.

Broke fast with keto matcha milk tea, keto muffin and ice cream

On Saturday after breakfast, I started a new culinary adventure by cooking cauliflower rice porridge, basically throwing in ingredients that I like and pour in chicken broth to make it soupy. I've been wanting to try that for a long time as I loved porridge, I really loved the result of that and I'm going to cook up another pot soon.

On Sunday morning, I accidentally woke up late after binge watching till 3am before sleeping. I almost clocked a 20h fast and I did not even wake up from the hunger or feel anything after not eating for such a long period of time. Hope I can continue my IF in school in the coming week.

Yummy porridge

Leftover smoked duck breast meat from the porridge

What I did the past two days...

On Wednesday, it was another day of staying at home and doing nothing. I was not keen to do another jog that morning due to lack of energy and I had a slightly late dinner the previous day (just chaffles with two eggs) as I got home late after manicure and some shopping. I could only break fast after 10am if I want to do the full 16h, I considered to eat earlier but decided to just go back to bed after P left home for school. Lo and behold, I overslept and only woke up to have my breakfast at 11am. 

17 hour fast

Keto blueberry muffins

Ordered grab food for lunch

I baked some keto blueberry muffins the night before as I got tired of chaffles and wanted some change. I used the air fryer and it turned out burnt on top as I turned up the heat too high, the taste is not too bad though. A mental note to self to put baking paper the next time round so it's easier to get those out of the ramekins. I'm also considering getting silicon muffin holders for baking and lined it with nice muffin cups so it's more fanciful, but that's going to be not so friendly for the environment. Hmm.. 

Anyways, I spent $25 for Grab delivery and had an early lunch before tuition at 3pm. That's a new stall I'm trying out with red grouper fish soup and some pig trotter dish. Both dishes tasted fine but I'm craving for kway chap and pig intestines soup though. 

Prawn scampi with zoodles

New culinary adventures

The early lunch yesterday meant that I could break fast earlier Thurs morning at 7am but I felt hungry after tuition last night while preparing the food for today's meal, so I feasted on some peanut butter M&M's (cheated!) Luckily, I weighed myself this morning and I had already lost nearly 2kg since holidays started.

It's the first time I bought zoodles (zucchini noodles) from Redmart so I scoured over Youtube for nice recipes and also went to get some fresh prawns to whip up the this new prawn scampi zoodles dish. It tasted really good so I'm going to try the recipe again soon. 

Rest and Relax..

I did not go to school today as I had my manicure appointment this afternoon. I went for a 6.3km run around the park after P went to school. It's one of the rare weekdays when I could run in the morning, so I was really enjoying the experience. Sun was blazing hot once it hit 7.30am, just like my previous morning run. This time round I had my shades and cap ready so it was not too bad.

My breakfast

I came home around 8am and took a shower, but I could only break fast after 9am if I want to hit the 16h. I was famished and couldnt wait to have my breakfast after the half an hour wait, it's the last bowl of my delicious soup and yummy peanut butter ice cream I had whipped up. I really love the consistency of Adam's peanut butter as it's keto compliant and I'm able to mix it real well with the whipping cream. Yummy!

Love the theme of my nails this month

The tub of honey even have the wordings on it

I'm so glad that my manicurist Eileen is back at work again. I'm missed her service last month as she is expecting and needed some rest. Honestly, I've tried out at least 5 other home based artists but she is still the best, her room is also the most comfortable as I've done my nails in the kitchen, on the sofa in living room as well as messy bedrooms before. Everyone marveled at my nail designs after my monthly visit and I think this time she has outdone herself again. Love the caramel, bumble bees and the honey pot!

Back to school during the hols

My fast breaker

Managed to continue for IF for a few days, and today I'm back in school to clear some stuff so I prepared some food in advance to break the fast aat 8am. Home made keto chaffles and keto hot chocolate.

The march hols started...

P and I went to bed early last night even though its the weekend and the start of school hols. I woke up slightly before 6am this morning, thinking for a moment if I had to get up for work. I was pleased to remember that it's Saturday and after a mini battle in my head, I decided to wake up and go for a morning run. The last time I did this was before CNY and I was eagerly training for Tokyo marathon then. So many things had happened after that and I stopped my training runs for a month or so.

My home ground

Pork skin and chicken feet are my fave

Last night before I slept, I also took time to prepare my favourite keto soup, its supposed to be bone broth but I only cooked it for 4h in the rice cooker and I kept the ingredients for consumption, so it's not exactly bone broth. I love the consistency of food like pork skin and chicken feet so these are the staples in my soup. I enjoyed a few bowls of the soup after my run in the park.

Lovely way to start the hols...

Back to Keto and IF bandwagon

Doing keto at my favourite Genki outlet

59... 60... 61! Gosh! My weight have been scaling new height throughout these few months. Think the lightest I've gotten was 56kg ++ so I think its time for me to lose off those extra pounds again. I skipped dinner for a few days but it didnt help, so I did IF yesterday. Before tuition yesterday, I finished off some yummy keto ice cream at 3pm and only break fast after 15-16h at 6am this morning with some keto hot chocolate. I've wanted to make some keto waffles, but I had a early night to stop myself from feeling hungry and I could not wake up early enough, so I quickly whipped up some keto hot chocolate in 10 min before rushing to school. My weight finally dropped 1kg after IF, so I guess I better try to continue with it.

Nice grab service

Hand sanitizer! 

These days masks and hand sanitizers are king, its always nice to get a ride on such Grab cars with a big bottle of alcohol sanitizing gel. It is much easier to get these supplies now and in overall the number of people wearing masks on public transport and the streets have decreased, its becoming a norm in life and we have adapted to live with COVID.

Exactly

True story

Counting Down... ONE more week...

T1W10 coming up

It's always a cliche, but time flies this year and we are fast approaching one more week before school hols. This year the holidays gonna be a pretty uneventful one, due to COVID.

2016- Nagoya Marathon
2017- Nagoya Marathon
2018- ??? (first tried out keto, didnt travel)
2019- Japan trip to Shikoku

39th Birthday Celebration Part 3

Celebration with friends

To finish off my birthday celebrations this year, we had a dinner gathering at HDL yesterday. For the first time, there was no queue at the peak dinner hour and we were offered the cosy VIP room, due to the COVID situation. We felt happy with the food and the company. Hurray to the friendship!

39th Birthday Surprises from Hubby P

This year's birthday falls on a Tuesday, a day of tiring meetings and a day packed with lessons. I didnt really expect anything as P usually surprise me with a cake after midnight and sometimes there were small surprises here and there as he loved surprises, but most of the times we discussed how we would spend the day. This year was very different though. I was tired after a long Monday, completed with a short nap and a short run around the neighbourhood. I was just waiting for the clock to strike 12 and then go to bed.

Leftover cake from the family celebration

P took out a very tiny piece of cake leftover from the family celebration and ceremoniously lit up the candle so that he could sing me the birthday song. I thought that was about it, when he suddenly whipped out a LV paper bag. I was really surprised and confused, I'm a big fan of LV but this is the first time he bought me something from the boutique. It was a new LV wallet, honestly not the design I would choose so I did not appreciate the effort at first. But after I moved all my stuff over from the old LV wallet (serving me for 9 good years) then I realised my old wallet was really coming apart and it was time to change a new one.

My birthday surprise gift

It didnt occur to me that I need a new wallet, so it was a very thoughtful gift. I was very curious as the wallet was not newly bought from the boutique so I really wanted to know how it came about. However, P is very determined to keep mum about it (as usual) and he's an expert with online buying and selling so there could be many possibilities. What really touched me was the part when I asked him why he didnt let me choose something I liked, he said "this is the only thing I can afford at the moment..." I felt so bad and fell in love with the new wallet immediately.

First bouquet of flowers from the man

The second surprise came after work today. As far as I can remember, it is very very rare for P to buy me bouquet of flowers for such occasions or even V day. I knew something was amiss once I step out from shower as he was standing in a very curious manner, I stopped dead on my track and kept asking him what he was up to. He spoilt his own surprise by a little as he was so excited to see my reaction upon seeing the flowers.

Phew, my birthday is over... it is really a day full of surprises. We went to Genki Sushi as planned and had a simple dinner after that.

Happy birthday! (to myself)

39th Birthday Celebration Part 2

Today was the family affair. To be honest, I was grouchy and moody prior to heading over as Monday's blues probably hit me and all I wanted to do was to sleep my way through Sunday. On top of that, Mum always prefer to have our meals at home and she reminded us over and over again to get over there early, as always. Of course, things were fine once we were there and it was a simple meal but happy times together.

My family and the tasty birthday cake

The spread mum prepared

39th Birthday Celebration Part 1

Most of my friends are dreading the fact that the big 4 is hitting us but somehow I'm looking forward to that as I'm loving the surprised looks on people's faces when I said I'm hitting 40 or I'm near 40. Anyway, I dont usually care about birthdays but it is a good excuse to go out and enjoy stuff. 

I've been craving for a good wagyu steak so I sent P a list of recommended steak places online here on Seth Lui's page and get him to choose a nice place as he's a big fan of wagyu too. We usually eat at Aston's buffet at Centrepoint but our January visit was a bit disappointing as we were told they ran out of wagyu for quite some time then. Anyway, to cut the long story short, he choose Fat Belly that is near Botanic Gardens and its just three stops away from us. The picture posted on the page looked really good too. I really wanted to splurge but places like Waku Ghin is too much out of our league so the price point and the location pointed us to this place. 

The place is chic and cozy

I did a reservation online at the restaurant's website a few days before. At the back of my mind, I thought the place will probably be empty but I was wrong, and I'm glad we did not just walk-in as the place was busy on Saturday night and people are being turned away without reservation. The shop is not really big, they tried to utilise the seating as much as possible and there are both outdoor and indoor area. Anyway, visiting this place is quite nostalgic for me as it's at Serene Centre and I used to hang out at the area after school more than 2 decades ago. I have no idea it's so near to Botanic Gardens and it has turned out so chic after the MRT station is built just next to it. There was quite a few eateries and a young crowd had gathered on a weekend night.

The menu

There wasnt a lot of items on the menu, they specialise in steaks and there were one angus beef and three wagyu choices. Usually we just share one steak as we are not big eaters and we will not be able to finish if we order one each. We ordered the deckle wagyu which was the most fatty at 250g and the weight and the cost are both in the middle range. P usually have his steak with rice and sauces, he did not mind not having rice as they didnt have it at the restaurant anyway. He ordered two sauces (at additional prices) to go with the steaks and the peppercorn one was the one he preferred.

The deckle wagyu

The place was really busy and we sat down for an hour before the food finally arrived. It was a good thing we were not hungry even though it was already 9.30pm. We were a bit worried at first as the portion was definitely not big, but we still stick to one order as we really could not finish two of this. I had a glass of red wine to go along with the steak, usually I do not order drinks but I picked up the habit after our trip to Italy. :)

The truffle fries

We also added a side and a dessert with the steak, topping up $17. Ordering these items individually will cost $19 so we only saved a couple of bucks. We are not having a lot of food so topping up with side and dessert filled up our stomachs and the meal portion was just right for us. The truffle fries tasted decent and it was not too bad.

Us taking the bartop seat near the kitchen 

Tiramisu

We finished the meal with tiramisu, I did not fancy it as much as it was too creamy and the taste of alcohol/coffee was not as strong. Probably I'll choose the burnt cheesecake if we go back again. Once again, they only had 4 choices for sides and 3 for desserts but I like that they specialise in these dishes. The bill came up to around $120 which was not bad for this chic and cozy place. We went for a walk around Botanic Gardens before heading home.