Antidote is a new organic cold-pressed juice company in Singapore! You've probably heard of cold-pressed juices as they've increased in popularity in Singapore within the past year or so. The process of cold-pressing retains much more of the nutrients in the fruits/veggies than in regular juicing.

Antidote mostly has juice cleanses and 6-packs, namely the Weight Loss Pack, Skin Rejuvenation Pack, Nut Milk Pack and Pre & Post Workout Pack. Venessa, one of the founders of Antidote, has kindly let me try their products, and I selected the Skin Rejuvenation Pack. My skin hasn't been very good since coming back from New York (it was doing great there but started breaking out on the flight back -_- ) and I wanted to try both their juices and nut milks!

The two green ones are Mt Eden and Mt Fuji. They taste okay to me - slightly sweet and not really bitter. My Dad tried Mt Eden and made a face. I expected that 100% because these kinda green things scare my parents LOL. 

The two orange-y ones are Golden Gate Bridge and The Atlantic. The Atlantic has the shortest ingredient list out of all these juices - apple, pineapple and mint - and this combination tastes quite good. My favourite out of all the 4 juices would be the Golden Gate Bridge! Probably because they include some of my favourite ingredients - sweet potato, carrot, lemon and cinnamon!

The last two are nut milks: Real Cacao Milk and Sesame Hazelnut Milk. The Real Cacao Milk looks pale but the cacao taste is still quite strong. I find that both are just the right thickness and sweetness!

The juices and nut milks can only be kept for 3 days since they're all freshly squeezed and preservative-free. They can be used as a meal replacement or as part of a meal! I had the Golden Gate Bridge juice with kale chips and fruit one morning. :)

After 3 days, I didn't really see significant changes to the condition of my skin. (Other than the fact that I've been picking my pimples oops) I think it's because I generally eat lotsa fruit and veggies so adding cold-pressed juice to my diet isn't a big enough change for my skin to improve visibly. However, for busy people who aren't able to eat piles of fruit and veggies daily, I feel that this is a good option. Like you'll probably see and feel good stuff happening after drinking them haha. Each bottle of juice has like 2-3 pounds of fresh, organic produce woah!

Oh and I really like their packaging too! I've kept the bottles because they're pretty and of good quality.

The lovely people of Antidote are giving out some juices so that you can try them out for yourself! It's an Instagram giveaway that's open to Singapore only, and all you need to do is to follow @antidote_sg on Instagram, repost this photo and hashtag #eyr_antidote! You can see this on my account (@serenesayyian) too.

I'll select 1 winner next Monday, 25th May. If you're the winner, you can choose between the Skin Rejuvenation Pack, Weight Loss Pack, or the 1-day Beginner Juice Cleanse. You can visit their website antidote.sg to read more about them!

All the best and have a great week ahead! ^^

The Bruneus line of products, produced by Superlative Foods, is a brand created with the aim of bringing nutrient-rich food to the public. They have kindly sent me some of their products to try and review. :) The products all vegan, gluten-free and organic, plus they don't contain additives or preservatives! By the way, 'Bruneus' means dark brown/brownish in Latin, and it represents the colour of cacao nibs!

Their products are all manufactured in Singapore! The ingredients are sourced sustainably and fair-trade from Bali. They work directly with a small group of cacao and coconut palm farmers and support them in having a better livelihood, wow!

The sweetener used in Bruneus products is coconut flower sugar, which is much higher in vitamins and minerals and lower in glycemic index than regular sugar!

Here's what I thought about the 5 products:

The Sweet Cacao Nibs are just subtly sweet - I usually eat the unsweetened ones but even so, I didn't think that these were too sweet! If you're new to raw cacao, this would be a good introduction.

The Chia Seed and Raw Cacao were noticeably sweeter! It was a really interesting combination of crunchiness from the seeds and the cacao nibs. The shapes reminded me of the tiny, colourful pebble-shaped candies I used to eat as a kid. But of course these are much healthier and atas haha. 

The Activated Cashews/Almonds/Walnuts and Cacao Nibs were like nothing I've ever tasted before - in a good way! Although they're raw and all, they have this caramelised, slightly savoury taste. There are specks of cacao nibs coating the nuts. My favourite would be the cashews!

Activating nuts involves a tedious process of soaking, sprouting and dehydrating at low temperatures. This removes the enzyme inhibitors and improves digestion, increasing the nutrient value of the nuts. I don't eat nuts very often because they usually leave me feeling heavy and bloated - a sign of indigestion. However, these activated nuts from Bruneus do not! They were filling but I didn't feel like they took very long to digest.

Other than eating them on it's own, I also like to have them as a topping for smoothie bowls!

They're also great to have on rice cakes and toast. :)

Their prices range from $7.90 to $8.90 for a 75g bag. Sounds pricey, but I think it's worth it for the amount and quality of ingredients! You can find out more from their website superlativefoods.com. 

Hello! My very last exam of poly life was yesterday yay! I can't believe how quickly 2.5 years flew by. Woah. And you'd think that after exams there'll be a long break, but not this time. My internship starts next Monday. These last few days of holidays aren't entirely free either since there's still my final year project to do. Oh well. Makes me treasure these five days of freedom!

I'll be interning at Raffles Hospital for three months. I'm not exactly sure what I'll be doing, and I've not even bought suitable clothes yet LOL. New environments take time to get used to sigh. Especially the new eating environment haha. I'll be bringing my lunchbox as per normal but................ yeah. New environment. I'm starting to miss school and class already.

As for my diet, I've more-or-less been following 80/10/10 (high carb low fat) these last couple of months. Nearly all breakfasts are raw but overall, my diet is more of the cooked 80/10/10! At this moment that's what I can handle and it's what works for me. ^^ 

Okay three paragraphs about my life is enough. Here's some high carb raw vegan meal ideas that I don't think I've posted here on my blog before (but you'll probably have seen them on my Instagram). 

Chocolate banana chia pudding (2 bananas + 1 tbsp raw cacao + 1/2 tbsp chia seeds + 1/2 tsp psyllium husk) with green kiwi, banana, grapes, cherries, orange (ate the rest too) and super sweet plums! ^^

White dragonfruit, blueberries, watermelon, strawberries, lemon, mint.

Papaya boats! Papaya, pomegranate seeds, cherries, strawberries, passionfruit, green kiwi, golden kiwi, mint.

A rainbow fruit jar.

Grapes, sugar prunes, green kiwi, starfruit, purple dragonfruit, pomegranate, strawberries.

Watermelon monomeal by the pool!

A simple breakfast - watermelon, mango, kiwi.

I've not been practicing proper fruit combining (eg. melons should be eaten alone), but I don't feel any obvious changes in my digestion when I eat different fruits together as compared to having a monomeal. Or maybe I'm just not attuned to my body enough haha.

Fruit skewers with a raw chocolate dip - raw cacao, banana, cinnamon.

Dragonfruit bowls! Purple & white dragonfruit, mandarin orange, passionfruit, cherries, grapes.

Durian-banana smoothie bowl (there's so little because my blender failed me and leaked a whole lot) with blueberries, pomegranate seeds and dragonfruit.

A failed fruit rainbow haha. Grapes, green apple, banana, strawberries, mango.

Papaya boats again! Ate the whole thing of course. Which reminds me, I've not had any good papayas lately..

Orange chia pudding with the usuals.

Banana nice cream made with bananas and black grapes. This was made with my old blender. 

Then I got a new food processor (that comes with a blender (that I've not tried)) and NICE CREAMS TASTE EVEN BETTER. Like they taste amazing already but with my old blender I had to add water to get it to move, which makes it more diluted, ice-y and melty. That's because it's not a high speed blender. 

A food processor will change your life!!!!!!

Haha okay I night be exaggerating. But since I've bought it I've been eating more nice creams for breakfast

= more raw breakfasts + more high carb 

= happiness + good digestion

= a good life

Lols if only life was that easy.

This is a 8-banana nice cream with mango (at the bottom) and blueberries (at the top). Nice creams made with my food processor are like SO CREAMY.

Yeah all that above looks glamorous but actually most breakfasts look like this (bowl of nice cream) plus a few dates or 1-2 pieces of fruit. Hehe. 

I'd really like to do another banana island but I don't think I can do anytime during the next few months. Since I mostly want to eat nice cream and not room temperature bananas haha.

Okay that's all for now! Have a great day ^^

I'll be doing a 6 (or 7)-day Banana Island starting today! (Sorry for the short notice.) I've been eating quite unhealthily in recent months - more processed foods, sodium and fat. Not just during the Taiwan trip, but also before and after the trip! My digestion is the worst it's been in 2 years - and I can tell because I've had that acid reflux thing (vomit coming up throat ewwww) twice in the past month, when I never used to get that! Also, I usually have something light within 2 hours before going for Bikram yoga. I used to be able to handle 6 bananas (and I even start to feel hungry midway through the class), but now even when I just have an apple I feel nauseous during class. -_- And I'm starting to understand why some people don't eat breakfast  - because there's leftover food from the night before in their stomach, so they don't get hungry! For as long as I can remember, I woke up hungry, but nowadays I don't because of my sluggish digestion. :(

So, I'm doing this to 'reset' my digestion and tastebuds (it's so much easier to stick to eating healthier and more raw after), and feel more motivated to exercise!


Here's a list of answers to questions I was asked previously.

1. I'll eat spotty-ripe bananas (NOTE: bananas shown above aren't ripe enough for eating yet), medjool dates, raw carob and organic cinnamon, and maybe add in tender greens (spinach, romaine etc.) and cucumber at dinner. I plan to consume most of bananas frozen. Btw, if you've not tried it, bananas + dates = heaven in your mouth!
2. The most important thing is to EAT IN ABUNDANCE. I'll make sure to consume a MINIMUM of 2500kcal daily! It's essential even if you're short petite like me. I'll count calories using Cronometer to make sure I get enough! 
3. If you're wondering whether I'll work my butt off to burn off those extra calories, the answer is NO. I'll probably do light exercise and then catch up on some reading/kdrams & complete my to-do list (which I'm 3 days behind because I procrastinate everything -_-). However, it's likely that you'll be more motivated to exercise as it gives you energy!
4. I'm not an expert on this, so you can find our more from these lovely people from Instagram: @freeleethebananagirl (watch her vids on YouTube!), @kalecrush and @rawkorean.
5. By the way, this won't give you a sugar high, nor a potassium overdose (to get that you'll need to eat 400 bananas in 30 sec). I didn't get diarrhea or constipation either!
6. The only difficult thing (at least for me) about this is that people who think that you've gone bananas! (Pun intended) All you need to do is to block those comments out, because you don't need such negativity in your life. ^^
7. Oh yes, your house might stink of ripening bananas too ._. You'll get used to it.
8. I buy my medjool dates from Mustafa, and it goes at $3.90 for a 1/2kg box, which is half the price of what's sold in regular supermarkets! Previously I bought my bananas from Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market at $25 for an 18kg box, but I wasn't able to get bananas there this time. I got bananas from Sheng Siong at $30 for 15kg, and I might buy more later this week.

Hehehe people were staring.

I weigh and label boxes of sliced bananas before I freeze them, because from my previous experience, I often forget how many there are in each box hehe :x

You can view these links to see my previous raw weeks and 3-day banana island experience, and view the hashtag #sereneeatsraw on Instagram. :)

• Raw Vegan 80/10/10 Week!
• Another Raw Vegan 801010 Week
• 3-day Trip to Banana Island!

For more about TLC, view this other post.

I visited The Living Cafe today for late lunch with a friend! It was after a grueling 7km+ hike (okay it was a walk but hike sounds more adventurous) from Harbourfront to home [Marang Trail - Mount Faber Park - Henderson Waves - Hilltop Walk - Forest Walk - Alexandra Arch - HortPark - Kent Ridge Park - Home]. It was supposed to be less than 6km but we got lost at the start... despite me having walked this trail countless of times with my mum. My legs are so heavy and tired.

Okay, back to the food! The menu was similar to the last time I came here, though that was quite a while back and I expected some change. It's kinda limited and only this page had the mains and the sides; the next page had drinks. The desserts are ordered from the counter.

Also, the doors and window were left open, and the aircon wasn't switched on. IT WAS HOT.

Oh yes, and their name has changed to The Living Cafe & Deli. Ooh.

I like glass. 

They didn't put mint in the water like they did previously!

I like wood too.

The main focus of this photo isn't the lady, oops. 

I ordered the Vegan Quinoa Burger ($15). IT WAS GOOD. And so photogenic too. Previously, it was put on a long white plate but this wooden board looks so much prettier! Plus, they cut the base of a paperbag to hold the sweet potato wedges, and the used the top to line the wooden board - so creative! Hahaha I love it when food looks good. :)

The quinoa patty was more like quinoa and veggies held together loosely and formed into a patty shape. But nonetheless, it was yummy and flavourful!

Between the buns (which were just right - not too fluffy and not too tough), there were microgreens, the patty (not really visible here), tomato, balsamic reduction, romaine lettuce and cashew mayo.

The burger came with a side of coleslaw and sweet potato wedges. The coleslaw was refreshing and not creamy. The wedges were nicely seasoned with cracked black pepper and a spice that I'm unable to identify (looks like cumin but rounder :x )

It's more soft than crispy, and I feel that a tiny bit less oil could've been used. And I'm kinda biased towards Japanese sweet potatoes, because these were sweet but not that sweet. But I like that they kept the skin on them! 

In all, I felt that this was really worth the price - delicious, filling, healthy* and photogenic. ;)

*Depending on individual definitions of healthy.

Then (after letting our food digest for a while) we went to attack the desserts! Haha.

They sell wraps. Pricey.

I've probably mentioned this before, but did you know that you can buy a large, perfectly ripe papaya at $1 each (when Giant has a promo - and it's not even reduced-to-clear!)? So my thoughts whenever I see expensive food is like "You can buy 10 papayas (10 meals) with this." I believe $1 is also the average price for a banana mono-meal. ...Doesn't always deter me though hahaha.

2.5 papayas.

We got three raw desserts - Strawberry Mocha Slice, German Chocolate Cake and Blueberry Cheesecake.

This German Chocolate Cake ($8.50) was really rich, dense, chocolate-y and coconut-y. Great for chocolate lovers but even if you are one, it's probably impossible to finish one by yourself! It something that you'd get sick of after eating a bit. Haha :x

It also contains honey (which strict vegans don't consume), and I only noticed after eating. So, I think non-vegan ingredients could be displayed more prominently, or at least in bold in the ingredient list.

What's interesting though, is that I believe that the icing/cream/sauce(?) on top is made of zucchini!! I've used zucchini to ice/fill a cake before, because my fridge was void of my most-commonly-used icing ingredient - silken tofu. And it didn't turn out that great. Hehe. But this was good! You'd never have guessed that it's zucchini.

Unless I'm wrong and it really isn't zucchini hahaha.

Strawberry Mocha Slice ($5.00). I liked the creamy, smooth strawberry layer and the crunchy, fig-y crust, but the chocolate was too much after the German Chocolate Cake. 

If all of the denser cakes were this size that'll be good!

This Blueberry Cheesecake ($8.50) was lighter and fluffier than the previous two cakes, due to the use of psyllium husk. It reminded me of blueberry jam! We liked this one the most, because it wasn't dense, heavy and chocolate-y. :x

Overall, I feel that despite the small-ish menu, the food and the ambiance is good! There's also no service charge and no GST. Being a non-veg establishment (they serve meat), it's probably a more suitable place than fully vegan restaurants when you're eating with veggie-hating people lols. Plus I think that this is the best place for raw vegan cakes in Singapore! :)

The Living Cafe 779 Bukit Timah Rd, 269758 How to get there: Alight at Farrer Road MRT (CC20) and take bus 174 Phone: 6762 8029
Monday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Tuesday-Friday: 11:00 am – 10:00 pm Saturday: 9:00 am – 10:00 pm
Sunday: 9:00 am – 7:00 pm

I'll be eating raw vegan 801010 in this upcoming 1 week, from tomorrow (Monday) to Sunday! It will be my second time doing this :) I've realised that many of my non-recipe posts are really messy and random, so I'll do it in a more organised, 5W and 1H way. The following info is to the best of my knowledge! Correct me if I'm wrong please.