The torturous test week is over and it's finally the school holidays! ^^ Which means more time to blog and Instagram hehe.

I've been wanting to share about where I get my groceries from, since quite a number of people have asked me before! I really enjoy grocery shopping; I don't see it as a chore. Occasionally I'll go to Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market, but most of the time I get it from the regular supermarkets: NTUC, Fairprice Finest, Giant or Sheng Siong. There's a whole section in every supermarket that's filled with vegan food - the produce aisle! (Credits to @vegantweeter on Twitter for this line lols) 

For health foods and more exotic foods, I get them from iHerb.com, Taste Original Organic Mart (Harbourfront), Yes Natural (Clementi) or Zenxin Organic (Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market). 

Recently, I've started going to the market at Holland Drive. My grandma has been grocery shopping there for quite some time now and she always says that stuff there are cheap!

And they really are! This all costed S$26.70. :O In a regular supermerket it might be about twice the price!

Each bunch of pisang bananas was going for $0.50.

3 fat and sweet carrots were going for $1.

4 brinjals for $1.

3 apples for $1.

Each pack of veggies for $1.

SUCH MADNESS

HOW CAN IT BE SO CHEAP

3 oranges for $1.

5 tomatoes for $1.

3 long brinjals for $1.

5 eggplants for $1 (!!!)

3 bittergourd for $1.

4 mao gua for $1.

3 Japanese cucumbers for $1.

1 watermelon for $4

(they have watermelons ranging from $2-$5+)

This haul costed about $25. 

The quality of most of the produce is not bad. However, I found that the carrots tend to brown and soften within about half a week (they are more orange and sweeter than those from the supermarket though!). Similarly, the beetroot softens relatively quickly compared to those from regular supermarkets. So I guess you'd just have to eat them quicker! And the corn may not be so fresh - the leaves (?) haven't been peeled off so it's hard to check how it's like inside. Grandma cooked soup with one and the soup tasted a bit off. But I roasted one in the oven and it was SO SWEET yum yum! 

Now for some market scenes:

Grocery shopping with the aunties (and uncles)! :)

Everyone seems to know exactly what they want. I just grab as much as I can carry hehehe.

There were like several aunties meticulously picking up one watermelon (at the right of this picture) after another, tapping them to check whether they were ripe! A hollow sound means that it's ripe by the way. I just pick any one. ._.

Oh oh, this is just one of the stalls at the market! The stall beside it sells good handmade tofu, and there's another stall behind that sells veggies and portobello mushrooms (3 huge ones for $4 I think..?). There are also quite a few stalls selling dead animals. Awful. Stick to the fruit and veggie stalls and you'll be fine. ^^

"If you keep good food in your fridge you will eat good food" - Errick McAdams

Enjoy your grocery shopping! 

Hello! Sorry for the hiatus, I've been busy with schoolwork lately. With my final year project, a torrent of reports & assignments and test-week coming up, I've got little time and energy to blog. But once it's the school holidays (in about 2 weeks) I'll probably be posting at least once every two days - I've got lotsa posts I've been meaning to write!

So meanwhile, I thought that I'll share with you some of my favourite Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and YouTube channels. I've got a list of my favourite blogs above, but frankly, I rarely visit blogs. :x

(All of the following are not in any order)

Facebook:

1. There's an Elephant in the Room

Besides than it's intriguing name, this page has lotsa thought-provoking quotes and pictures. Posts are frequent too!

2. Gary L. Francione: The Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights

For wonderfully original quotes-on-photos in English, French, Spanish and German. Plus delicious-looking recipes from Fleur Holl.

3. Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary

One of the first vegan pages I've 'liked'. Photos and stories of farm animals. You have no idea how adorable, intelligent and unique (as in, they each have their own individual personality) they are! I would love to visit the sanctuary someday!

4. My Face Is on Fire

Yet another intriguing name. I love what she says! She focuses on abolitionist vegan education and animal rights. Her blog is great too. 

5. Vegan For The Animals

As it's name suggests, it shares information and photos about animal rights and welfare.

6. Jo Frederiks

Amazingly thought-provoking original artwork by Jo Frederiks. Like WOW.

7. Compassion Over Killing

Vegan news, recipes and products. Nice quotes-on-photos too!

8. Compassion is Consistent

Shares about animal welfare, quotes and recipes. With the occasional cute farm animal photos.

9. Vegan Sidekick

COMICS. Need I say more. (Also on Twitter)

10. Live Love Fruit

Those pages listed above are more about ethical veganism. Well, this page is about the health aspect of it! They don't specifically mention veganism, but all the recipes and infographics are are about fruits, vegetables and other plant-based whole foods. Everything looks so amazingly vibrant!

11. Plant-Based Dietician

(That's what I wanna be!) This page shares about health (eg. dangers of processed meat, sources of vegan protein etc.) and fitness, plus the occasional vegan humour.

Twitter:

1. Vegan Tweeter (@vegantweeter)

Alex has many interesting and quirky tweets! Plus there's the more-than-occasional photos of drool-worthy food he eats in NYC. I WANNA GO NYC OMG.

2. Vegan Revolution (@VeganRevolution)

For thought-provoking tweets. They also offer free advice on how to transition to veganism if you simply DM them! They've also produced some online films (that were banned from YouTube) - the first one is Bliss Is Ignorance (which I've downloaded but have yet to watch) and the next one is Comfort In Despair (newly released). 

3. Physicians Committee (@PCRM)

Focuses more on the health aspect of veganism/non-veganism. Mostly news and scientific studies.

4. Vegan Problems (@MyVeganProblems)
Her tweets are funny, amusing and relatable! Also on Instagram.

5. Vegan (@vegan)
Tweets encouraging quotes and shares about the latest vegan news.
Actually I'm just following it mostly because of the twitter handle.

6. Love-Vegan (@GoLoveVegan)
Shares mostly about health-related news articles and links.

7. Vegan Future (@veganfuture)
Tweets about vegan health news and articles about animal welfare. There's also some vegan recipes and new products.

8. The Vegan Society (@TheVeganSociety)
Mostly about the vegan happenings in UK. Hmm. Also following mostly because of the twitter handle!

YouTube:

1. Freelee The Banana Girl

She really inspires me to embark on a high carb raw vegan lifestyle! :D Her videos are educational and she seems really down-to-earth and not at all fake.

2. The Vegan Zombie

I've been watching their videos even before I became a vegetarian! They are a vegan cooking show and they concoct many great recipes for foods such as pizza, vegan omelettes, chocolate cake and raw cake. So inspiring!

3. NutritionFacts.org
Really informative and science-y videos about health issues! They have categories such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, and every single video is backed up with studies. 

I'll probably update this list if there's any changes! So. See you in 2 week's time! ^^

Happy Mother's Day!!

I baked a chocolate cake for Mum. ^^ I'm glad that it turned out well and that she enjoyed it!

I adapted a recipe from Instructables. Mum liked that it was slightly denser than those storebought cakes, and it was 'almost sweet enough' (I thought that it was just right - it tasted unhealthy haha). Well, maybe I shouldn't have decreased the amount of sugar heh (I wanted to use just 1/2 cup but then I remembered that Mum likes sweet things so I used 3/4 cup..). I think it would've been better if I added more cacao powder though! 

But still, I believe that this is the BEST whole cake I've EVER baked. I'm always apprehensive about baking whole cakes because the middle might not cook well. This (it took 1hr baking time instead of the recommended 30 mins) has totally given me faith in my baking skills LOL.

But first, more about the paper bunting! It's such a cute prop for desserts and I've always wanted to try making it. And finally, I did! 

All you need is:

- colourful string (I got mine from Daiso)

- UHU glue

- scissors

- 2 wooden skewers

- colourful paper (I cheated and used paper post-its!)

- marker

- lotsa PATIENCE

It's worth it though - cakes look so pretty with it! Plus it's reusable if you don't glue the paper on. 

*ahem Father's Day ahem*

Now for the cake!

This is what the batter looks like before going into the oven. The consistency was flow-y but thick.

I baked it for 30 mins (as the original recipe instructed) but to my horror, the middle was still very moist! Luckily, it firmed up after another 30 mins of baking.

Evil looking smile.

I left it to cool while Mum & I went for a dip in the pool. ^^

It was quite cool after an hour. It looks so good!!!

I had to cut a bit off the top.

The bits of 'crust' were SO GOOD. I devoured them. I really need to make muffins with this recipe - there'll be so much more 'crust'!!

This is a blur photo, but the air bubbles were perfect!!

I spread tofu mousse (plain tofu + psyllium husk) and sprinkled on chopped pecans to one half.

And topped it with HUMONGOUS strawberries, and blueberries and rainbow sprinkles.

The cake is small but it looks even tinier with the strawberries!!

The strawberries make my cake look even smaller ._.

And then I added on the bunting! ^^

This was lunch hehe.

If you were wondering what those drinks are - I had a fruit tea and mum had the same fruit tea + soymilk (it was weird).

Undecided about whether I consider this 'healthy' haha. I mean, I use healthier ingredients like wholemeal spelt flour, coconut sugar (which SMELLS LIKE COOKIES!!!) and extra virgin olive oil. But as for the proportion of ingredients - the amount of sugar is shocking!

The wonderful thing about this recipe is that there isn't even an egg or milk or butter substitute!! So magical!

Dad bought me this cake knife for my birthday and I finally got to use it! He's overseas by the way. Took the chance to bake chocolate cake since he doesn't like it!

We each had 2 slices each yum yum.

♡♡♡

Easy Peasy Vegan Chocolate Cake

Serves 3-6

Recipe adapted from Instructables

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup* wholewheat spelt flour (or other flour)
• 3/4 cup* coconut sugar (or other sugar)
• 1/3 cup unsweetened raw cacao powder (or cocoa powder; I'll use 1/2 cup next time)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup water at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup olive oil (or other vegetable oil)
• 1 tsp coconut vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
• Note: If you want it sweet, follow the original recipe and use 1 1/4 cup flour and 1 cup sugar

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients together.
2. In another bowl, mix all wet ingredients together.
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry. Mix well until no lumps of flour can be seen.
4. Lightly oil a small pan (mine was 1.0L in volume). Pour in the batter.
5. In a preheated oven, bake at 180 deg C for 15 mins, then lower the temperature to 150 deg C and bake for about another 35-45 mins, or until a skewer poked into the center comes out clean.
6. Once done, remove from oven and leave the cake to cool (in the pan) for about 1 hour.
7. Slide a knife about the edges and remove cake from pan. Ice and top with fruits as desired. Enjoy! :)

On Saturday, my family went to have a Mother's Day lunch at One@KentRidge! ^^

Mum & I had the Salad Bar Meal while Dad ordered a main. It's kinda pricey (there's service charge and GST), but there was quite a reasonable selection of food! The difference between lunch and dinner is that there's dessert at dinner. 

For free-flow drinks, you'll need to top up $3.50 (I think?). And water is chargeable at $0.50.

UPDATE (Nov 2014): Prices are different now!!

The menu was a festive menu, and I was like "Huh? What festival is it?"

Lols it's because it's the Mother's Day weekend.

The spread.

Other than salad and fruit, there's also pasta (with tomato basil sauce), soup (cream of mushroom & minestrone) and ice cream.

It's quite a quiet restaurant! We were seated at a booth near the window, and the lighting was GOOD. ^^

Interesting article on the table. Probably to support why they're a salad restaurant (ordering other mains also gives you access to the buffet).

Somehow it mentions that 'protective effects of fruit extend to fresh and dried fruit, but not frozen or tinned fruit, which actually increased risk of death by an alarming 17%'. O_o I'm not buying it. I understand the tinned food part, but flash frozen fruits have an equal (or sometimes higher) amount of nutrients as fresh fruits. PLUS this article fails to mention MEAT. Lols maybe meat-related articles were not shown (by the restaurant) because it might discourage people from ordering the mains.

This side of the salad bar mostly has whole, unprocessed veggies.

This side has canned veggies and 'compound salads' (as mentioned in the menu). All of the compound salads were not vegan, I believe. I almost took something because the chicken cubes looks so much like tofu. And another one had tiny slithers of shrimp which I nearly missed seeing. BE CAREFUL.

We saw this and we were fascinated! WOW. So now I know what they look like. 

The texture is more crunchy and juicy, and it's less sweet. Dad LOVED it and preferred it over dried dates. He even went to ask the manager (I think; he asked Dad to eat as much as he wanted haha) about where to buy it, but unfortunately it's not sold outside. I prefer dried medjool dates though, especially those huge, soft ones from Mustafa, because they're sweeter and chewier! I must buy more soon!!!

I started with the fruits! Because it was just after a class of Bikram yoga and I was thirsty. That's such a mouthwatering pile of watermelon!!!

This would be my favourite restaurant ever if they had MANGOES.

The fruit was good (as they naturally are). The kiwi wasn't ripe enough though. I believe the fruit on the very left is cantaloupe - the yellow-skinned melon - and I've not had that in ages!!

This is what a fresh date looks like inside.

There was also this random toppings + corn chips bar. 

I liked that the broccoli was just lightly steamed and had lotsa crunch! The salsa was spicy and delicious too.

The corn chips go so well with the salsa!

Here I have: corn, kidney beans, chickpeas, carrot, black fungus (they are kinda garlicky), snap peas, corn chips, salsa, string beans, roasted pumpkin, asparagus and mixed greens. 

I love that nothing was oily, not even the roasted pumpkin. :)

This is such a pretty photo. Such wonderful lighting!!

Hehe.

Overall, despite being somewhat pricey, this salad bar buffet provides lotsa healthy (and vegan, and raw) options, and you'll probably not meet much resistance if you're dining with meat-eaters. Plus it's quite ulu and will probably not be crowded. ^^

Seasonal Salad Bar

Open Daily

11.00am - 10.00pm

1 Lower Kent Road

#04-18/19/20 One@KentRidge (accessible via Kent Ridge MRT)

Singapore 119082

Tel: 6724 2652

-mini rant-

Plagiarism. Slightly flattering, but mostly frustrating.

This was quite a few months back. My IG friend Margaret (@plantstrongvegan) alerted me about this - some of my Instagram followers are really nice to tag me in pics where people took my photos and didn't credit. :') (So touched that they'd actually bother! And that they recognise my photos!) Anyway, I commented and I didn't get a reply.

Of course, I feel that plagiarism of anything on the internet is kinda inevitable. And photos are really easy to screenshot & save. Also, some people don't do it intentionally - they just found it floating around on Tumblr or We Heart It etc.

Well, at that point in time I really regretted not watermarking all my photos. And I brought it on myself that that I didn't bother doing so...

AND THEN YESTERDAY

I saw this on my Twitter feed and I was like "Oh! That's mine!" and was kinda pleased with the compliment, but of course on the whole it's not a nice feeling. I commented but got no reply HMPH.

AND THE WORDS WERE CROPPED OUT. 

?!?!?!?!

Did they not like my font?

Did they not like my bench?

This was the original. It's on my blog too!

ANNOYING POOP

-end of mini rant-

Of course I don't expect anything to happen with this post. 

It's nice to talk about it though. Thanks for reading! ^^

Note: Busy with my schoolwork and projects, so I probably won't be posting much here and on Instagram!