Oats in Curry

Oats in Curry

You read a lot nowadays about how processed food and pollution are killing us, awakening the cancers in our bodies and clogging up all our arteries. It is ironic that as Science prolongs the human life, we end up killing ourselves through the way we chose to live.

I am, unfortunately, one of those unhealthy people guilty of not eating enough fibre, preferring a largely protein and carbohydrate diet, and also not doing much physical exercise as a general rule.

My mum is currently an avid reader of the Mind Your Body column in the Straits Times and she really watches what she eats for a couple of years now. That's the same mum who was feeding us snacks all day long when we were kids, fried frozen food from the supermarket (especially during the boom import years when Singapore started becoming very quickly industrialised) and yummy restaurant fare on weekends and during outings.

You look at my siblings and myself and you know that genes apart, we have picked up our fat body shape and generally bad eating habits from those years and it's not possible to turn back the clock. As a mother, I have passed on some of these bad habits to my own children and they are even worse eaters than I've ever been. I started out really well when they were babies and I had to prepare their baby food daily and fresh, but once they started being able to eat food from outside, all my good resolutions flew out of the window and I basically fed them as I would myself.

At the same time, I really think that we should enjoy our food and I wake up every morning looking forward to what I would savour in the day. My grand aunt died when she was 100 years old (the one who used to teach Mrs LKY Geography in MGS, and who was the wife of my illustrous grand uncle Dr. Lim Tay Boh) and as far as I could remember, she spent decades basically eating only boiled vegetables and very little meat (also boiled). I don't think I can live like that, I'd be happy to die of a heart attack later on in life if I'd had my fill of good steaks and other sinful delights.

But you can see that I've nonetheless given some thought to the subject, so I made a resolution to at least eat more healthy stuff like oats whenever I can. The other day I made a chicken curry (actually I make a curry or 2 every week) and we finished most of the meat leaving the equivalent of a small bowl of the gravy behind.

For breakfast the next day, I reheated the gravy with a few tablespoons of rolled oats without overcooking them. Oats in Curry tasted surprisingly pleasant, almost like a dal.

I endeavour to repeat this dish as often as I can in times to come, in fact, I also had oats in Bak Kut Teh a few days later.

Cinnamon French Toasts with Melted Gouda and Grilled Mushrooms (and a Morbid Dream)

Cinnamon French Toast with Melted Gouda and Grilled Mushrooms

It was 6 in the evening (yesterday) and I had a sudden craving for French Toast. With Cheese. Why not with Mushrooms too? I should be off washing the mountain of dirty bedsheets, prepare MIL's bedroom, file our French taxes or tidy up after the kids - but I made Cinnamon French Toasts with Melted Gouda and Grilled Mushrooms instead. And just before dinner too.

Sweet (I always use sweetened condensed milk when making my French toasts) and savory go really well together and the melted cheese contrasted nicely with the firmness of the grilled mushrooms. If I were counting calories I would surely have burst the day's quota, but since I have no head for numbers anyway ignorance was bliss.

Tomorrow I have planned a vegetarian lunch for a few friends. Not that I'm suddenly into vegetables, but 2 of them are strict vegetarians and I thought that it would be easier this way. But one couldn't come because she had guests visiting, and the other cancelled last minute. I am now tempted to change my menu, but it wouldn't be easy since the fridge's stuffed to the brim - with vegetables, what else. I had visions of going to the neighbouring chicken farm and stealing a chicken or 2 - but that place really stinks and I wouldn't know how to murder a chicken.

I was debating as to whether I should share with you my recent morbid dream nightmare, since it really wasn't appetising, but this blog is more for me to remember my own life than anything else so I will note it down.

I dreamt that I had come into possession of a beautiful coffin. And in it there were 2 corpses. I have no idea who they were or whether they were men or women, but they were definitely human. I brought them to a special place where there was a special stove that could cook the corpses in their coffin. It took a long time to cook them. But whether they were grilled, steamed, broiled, sautéed or boiled I have no idea.

Then when the cooking was done, I suddenly realised that I hadn't chopped them up before cooking them - and decided there and then to abandon the coffin with the cooked corpses. The rest I couldn't quite remember now.

Now, wasn't that a truly horrible dream? How could one interpret such a nightmare? Probably had to do with those 2 uncles who were recently admitted to hospital...

Breakfast Eggs

Breakfast Eggs Singapore-style

Hub dominated for a number of years with his Oeuf à la Coque - basically half-boiled eggs served shell-on. Eaten with salt and pepper and eventually a small slice of toast.

In the past year, I've decided to show the kids the way I've always eaten my half-boiled eggs : shells removed, dark soy sauce and pepper. They resisted for a while because the dark soy looked ominous, but I made sure that I looked like I was really really loving my eggs each time I ate them and finally Baby Girl cracked and asked if she could try.

Needless to say now she prefers her half-boiled eggs this way too and if Baby Girl is on you can be sure that her little brother will follow suit.

Victory is sweet.