coriander in pho

not a food blog

  • Penne pasta with tuna and grilled veggies

    filed under:
    tags:

    At this point, it might be known that I really really like pumpkin.

    We had rice for dinner yesterday, and the day before, and I got so tired after a Zoom hangout with my colleagues (today is a full-meetings day.) I tried to come up with some quick and easy recipe, and as tempting as food delivery is, I tried to cut down on the expenses.

    I grabbed a quarter of pumpkin (not sure about the size. It was pre-cut. Uhhh, 1/6 of pumpkin? I guess,) half of broccoli, and red bell pepper. Cut them up to small pieces, and mix them together in a deep dish pan (brownies pan) with olive oil and some veggies seasonings.

    Put it in the oven for 30 minutes with 180°C in temperature.

    I then cooked penne pasta — I don’t check the amount and I’m suck at it. One of my biggest problems is to calculate the amount of pasta to cook. I tried to cook for four people, okay, and I usually ended up with pasta enough to feed the whole Roman battalion.

    Once the pasta is cooked, I sliced some garlic because it’s a must (I used 3-4 cloves.) Drained the pasta, then put olive oil in the pot. Heat the garlic, then I took a can of tuna and put it there too. I added a bit of pasta water to make the “sauce” then I added the pasta. I didn’t add a lot of salt because the pasta water is salty enough.

    Serve the pasta with grilled veggies. I really like the mellow sweetness from the pumpkin combined with the salty tuna. I’m thinking of making the grilled veggies again because it’s that good.

  • Exercising is a go!

    filed under:
    tags:

    With the risk of jinxing things (because I tend to jinx stuffs whenever I talked about it,) I’m pretty proud to say that I’m starting doing exercise since early June.

    I haven’t done anything super intensive as I don’t think I would be able to do it (I once tried Stair Master equipment on my apartment’s gym and suffice to say, I almost passed out after trying it for 5 minutes.) Right now, my routine is 30 minutes of treadmill walk with 4.0 speed and 4.5 – 5.0 elevation.

    I usually do it in the morning time — I found it works better for me to release some kind of excess energy. I’m not sure if it’s excess energy or something else (SHOULD I BE WORRIED?) but I found my hands trembling in the morning and feeling restless whenever I’m not doing my exercise — whenever you found me referring myself as “a hamster in caffeine”, yep, this. Some said it’s a sugar rush (I usually take my morning coffee with sugar) so doing exercise helps me to get rid of the rush and focus better on my work.

    When I am unable to do treadmill in the morning for whatever reasons, I usually do yoga (I once shared the video a couple of posts before this) then do the walking in the afternoon.

    Right now, I’m also thinking of rechecking my meals. I really don’t want to do drastic no-carbs no-sugar no-salt method because: 1. I love food, and 2. You will find yourself trying to pry my beloved bread and rice from my cold dying hands. The key, I guess, is “moderation”. I really really can’t giving up tteokbokki, ramen, dim sum, and garlic bun. What I can do, though, is to be mindful of the portions and increase the protein and fibres.

    I’m actually tempted to buy whey protein powder, thanks to my friend — but I’m actually not super sure because I think my protein intake is already enough on daily basis (I usually have two half-boiled/hard-boiled eggs for breakfast) and adding whey protein to the pattern will be a moot point.

    How about you all? Do you have any methods on ensuring you are consuming enough nutrients on your meals and stay healthy? What is your favorite menu?

  • (Leftover) chicken porridge with sweet pumpkin

    filed under:
    tags:

    I suddenly remembered one of my colleagues once asked this question: “Do you have any tips on how to combat post-lunch sleepiness?”

    This is one of the tips.

    Recently, I’ve been taking a liking to pumpkin and sweet potatoes. My favorite is steamed sweet pumpkin with soy sauce and a bit of white pepper.

    Just now, I noticed we have a leftover from our Sunday lunch: Korean fried chicken with honey coating (by Kyochon 1991.) The chicken was on the fridge, so I went with my usual route: Add it on oatmeal porridge.

    I took 4 pieces of chicken wings and pulled all the meat/deboned it. At the same time, I boiled a quarter of sweet pumpkin (the smaller variety.) Once the pumpkin is soft enough, I put them aside.

    Then, I prepared for the porridge: Four tablespoons of oatmeal, water, and chopped green onions. As for the seasonings, I added garlic powder, MSG, and half package of instant noodles seasoning (Maggi noodles. My son once made a couple of Maggi noodles soup and he left one seasoning package so the noodles won’t be too salty.) I didn’t add any salt because the seasoning powder is salty enough.

    As I stir the porridge, I put some of the chicken and the pumpkin into the porridge to add more flavor. I put aside some of them as toppings.

    Once the porridge is ready, I put the rest of the chicken and the pumpkin as toppings. Garnish it with green onions.

    This gets me through the afternoon without feeling lethargic and hangry. Highly recommended.

Nindya’s quick blurbs

  • A month too late, but I just stumbled upon IKEA France’s Tiktok video, hinting a possible collab with Animal Crossing. Unfortunately, no further information about this other than IGN picked up this news when the video was posted.

x

bookmarks

Latest snap

Current tunes