Wednesday 15 May 2013

5:2 diet

Ever since I have passed 30 years of age, maintaining my weight has become an issue... I could no longer eat as much as I used to.... In fact as one's age climbs, the metabolism is slowing down and being at home; it makes things even more difficult ( yes ! I tend to cook and bake more to fill in my free time....)

The discovery of 5:2 diet certainly gives you peace of mind... Alhamdulillah being a Muslim this works brilliantly since you could collect pahala along with helping you to maintain weight.

The 5:2 means 5 days of normal eating regimen and two days of restriction of calories ( 500 kCal for women, and 600 kCal for men). It is certainly diet for people who loves her food. The easy way of doing it is to fast on Monday and Thursday and to eat normally for the rest of the week....

To boost my confident with this new diet, I have recently purchased a new book 'The fasting day Cook Book'... I have tried two of the recipes yesterday... and all i have to say... it is absolutely divine!




KLEFTIKO... ' traditional Greek recipe' ( for 4 people), 350 kCal

Ingredients

8 lamb chops
2 lemons
1 tbs dried oregano
2 tbs olive oil
2 onions cut into 4
2 bay leaves
150 ml dry white wine ( I replaced this with juice of white grapes)
150 ml stock

1. Marinate the lamb with lemon juice. oregano, salt and pepper for few hours.... (i only did mine for 1 hour though).
2. heat the olive oil on the pan and fry the lamb on high heat until it browns on both sides.
3. transfer the lamb into the shallow dish/ pyrex, add the rest of the ingredients into the dish.
4. cover the dish with aluminium foil.
5. Roast the lamb for 160 degree celcius for 2.5 hours.
6. now enjoy the food!

I had this with chips and boiled asparagus...  the taste is almost like roast lamb only the meat is softer and nicer.




Tomato and peach salad with avocado salsa
195 kCal
serve 4

Ingredients

1 large ripe beef tomato (I replaced this with cherry tomatoes, and  I halved them)
2 large firm peaches, cut into small pieces ( I think you could replace this with mangoes if peaches is not in season)

salsa
1/2 small ripe avocado ( cube them)
2 spring onions (chopped them)
1 small red chilli (chopped them)
1 garlic clove crushed
1 1/2 tsp chopped coriander
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper

dressing
1 tbs caster sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
2 tbs olive oil

Mixed the salad with the avocado salsa. Drizzled the dressing on top of the salad...









Tuesday 7 May 2013

Baju kurung: the final part of the dress...

Apologies for taking such a long time to update my blog.... the reasons being are because i was so busy with dresses' sewing for the little one. Alhamdulillah, all were worn during our little escapade home quite recently.


In between these dresses projects, I was also caught up with bakings birthday cakes.... travelling to Paphos, Nice and quite recently to Lake Como.... Lastly but not least was our annual holiday to home. We had such a hectic time at home, between a visit to Jakarta and Bandung and trying to squeeze an engagement party for my little sister.... Alhamdulillah, it all went well and 2 weeks after being back from KL we are still feeling down missing home.



Well, as promised, this is going to be the final part of the making of baju kurung.

1. line the pesaks and the kekek on the floor, making sure the kekek is facing the short/curve part of the pesak.


2. Draw an 'L' line 1 inch away from the outside border of the kekek.


3. Sew the pesak to the kekek following the 'L' line . It will now look like this.


4. Do the same on the other side of the pesak following the 'L' line on the kekek.


5. Now, sew the two pesaks together starting from the middle 'L' point.


6. Line the (kekek+pesak) below the sleeve on the floor making sure the widest part of the sleeve lies on top of the (kekek+pesak).




7. draw an 'L' line on the kekek.


8. Sew the bottom part of the sleeve to the pesak and kekek. End the sewing at the middle point of 'L' on the kekek.



9. now, repeat the sewing on the other side of the sleeve.


10. sew the  2 bottom parts of the sleeves beginning from the middle 'L' point.


11. Repeat point 1-10 to form the left side of baju kurung.

12. Mark the shoulder line on the sleeves.


13. Mark the shoulder line on the body part of the dress. 


14. Now sew the body to the (sleeve+pesak) using the mark located on each fabric as a starting point.


15. repeat the sewing on the other side of the dress.

16. Finish the dress by hand stitching the bottom part of the sleeves and the dress with sembat stitching.

17. Congratulations.... you are finally done with making the top part of baju kurung. It is time to try it on in front of the mirror.