Marmite Chicken

Marmite... is either a love or hate relationship. When I was a child, my grandma used to add Marmite into warm water and made me drink it as a soup. I sometimes like it and sometimes I don't because the flavour is too bland (if add less) but too strong (if add too much).

There are a lot of Chinese restaurants in Malaysia used Marmite to create a dish. Be it Marmite Chicken, Marmite Crab and etc. It's all delicious. However, Marmite is used a bit differently in UK. I got to know that my friends in UK used Marmite to spread on toast! That's weird but when I told them that we have Marmite Chicken in Malaysia they gave me the same response. So, I wiped up a dish of Marmite Chicken last night to let them try.

*** This recipe serves 3-4 person ***

Ingredients:
2 pieces of chicken thighs
1/3 cup of water
1/2 tbs dark soy sauce
1 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs honey
2 tbs Marmite
A dash of pepper

Marinate:
1/2 tbs dark soy sauce
1 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs honey
2 tbs Marmite
a dash of pepper

Method:

• Cut the 2 pieces of chicken thighs into cubes.
• Mix all of the marinate ingredients with the chicken cubes together. Leave it to marinate for an hour or more.
• Heat up the pan, add a bit of oil in the pan.
• Add the marinated chicken cubes into the pan and stir fry them on all sides.
• Add water. (If you want the dish to be sweeter, add another 1 tbs of honey together with the water.)
• Stir to mix. 
• Leave it to shimmer until the sauce thickens. 
• Season it for taste.

Marmite Chicken

The Brits loves it! Glad that they like it =D 

Eating Clean

I want to wish everyone an advance Happy Chinese New Year! Drive safe when traveling home.

OK, I'm sure by now you have heard of eating clean. I wasn't aware of it until last month, reading it in a magazine while having my hair cut short. After reading it I have made eating clean as one of my new year's resolutions.

Basically eating clean is laying off processed foods and eating healthier. It's not a diet, it's a health practice. People has always believe in diet to lose weight but it is always just a temporary solution. Once the diet has stop and you are out of control, resume your pre-non-diet routine/eating habits, you end up gaining weight again. Thus, the vicious cycles starts all over again. I realize that in order to lose weight the healthier way is to change your eating habits. Of course, exercising is also one of the option but most of the time what we eat, ends up reflecting in our body, mind and soul.

These are just basics of eating clean.
Eat whole foods
Avoid processed foods
Eliminate refined sugar
Eat five or six small meals a day
Cook your own meals
Combine protein with carbs

I don't want to bore you with the details of the basics but you get the picture, right? You can learn more here (I find it a bit funny that this topic has it's own For Dummies and Cheat Sheet) and here. You can Google your research yourself too :)

Here's my current eating habits and working on eating clean.

Avoid fast food - I used to have Mc D on a weekly basis but I have cut down to not even once a month. I only eat when I really have no choice for outside food. This habit I have started half a year ago without knowing about eating clean.

Say no to soft drink - I don't like soft drink all my life, so this won't be a problem for me.

Add more vege or fruits in your daily meals - this is what I have been lacking of, it's hard to do it if you are eating out all the time. At some point of the time, I don't even like vege and being very selective on the veges I put in my mouth. But I have add more vege in my meals now and it doesn't frustrate me.

Reduce alcohol intake - I have lay off alcohol as much as I can. I will only drink it if there's any occasions. I usually drink beer but maybe will go for wine as wine is healthier.

Lessen the sugar - I have sweet tooth, I like chocolate (but only take dark chocolate), I don't like sweets (weird, huh?), I don't usually add sugar in my coffee unless is damn bitter. I drink tea without sugar, I will order juices or any other beverage will less sugar now. I also will try to quit my daily 3-in-1 coffee intake as the sugar level in them are high.

Include more whole grain - I used to have cornflakes or cereals as breakfast but I have since change them to whole grains, wheat or oats. Try to opt for red rice and whole grain breads instead of whites.

Whole food - this is the most important part of eating clean. Always try to select food, even when you are out, that are for a whole. Cooking at home is the best because you know the ingredients that you are using. Avoid frying your food. Go for soup, stri-fry, steam. I have now in the 4th week of having as many soup dinner as possible.

Eating healthier is not a diet to restrict/cut off yourself from your sinful indulges. You have to be willing to take it as a lifestyle. As I said, dieting is only for short term but a lifestyle for long term. You have to practice one day at a time, in this case, one meal at a time to adopt eating clean. You still can have your favourites once in a while or having them in small portions.

If you are really going for eating clean and cooking it yourself but have no idea what is the recipes for eating clean, go here and here. There are more recipes to explores, so go dig some up and share it with me here =D Share your eating clean habits and lifestyle with me too!

PS: Sorry for the long winded and non graphics post LOL.

Grilled Vegetables

Are you bored of eating steam vegetables, fried vegetables, boiled vegetables *yuck* so on and so on? Why not try grilling them?! It's easy! Btw, it's my first attempt of grilling vegetables and the result is successfully delicious *winks*

Ingredients:
Assorted vegetables of your choice, here I used mini Zucchini, Yellow Zucchini, Capsicums and mini carrots.
Olive Oil
Salt

Tips:
Cut every vegetables in equal sizes so that it's easier to grill them equally.

Well, you have to wash your vegetables first. I like to soak mine for 10 minutes and it's better to soak them in water and salt.

As I have mention, cut the vegetable in bite size equally. I marinate them in just Olive Oil and some salt, mixed them around and let it sit for awhile. Gives you time to prepare for your other food.

Obviously you need a grill to prepare this dish, you may start with the vegetables which need longer time getting cook. Flip them once awhile but not too often.

I find that the carrots takes the longest time to grill and the Yellow Zucchinis takes the shortest time to grill. I'm excited to see grill marks on the vegetables LOL! Once your vegetables starts to turn wobbly, it's cooked!

There you go, it may not look appetizing the way it is presented and it's not burnt! (Those are grill marks). The carrots taste sweet and you can still taste the "rawness" of  smoked vegetables.

Told you it's easy right? Just Wash, Cut, Marinate, Grill and Serve. I eat it with my Chicken Ham Spaghetti, yumz.

Good luck in trying with the grilled vegetables!