Chill Out: Pineapple and Grapefruit Smoothie

It has been raining, my clothes are not going to dry, if it continues like this. :(

I made Pineapples and Grapefruit Smoothie just now.

This is the outer look of a pineapple and a grapefruit. A grapefruit looks like an orange. I got the grapefruit from Jusco for RM1.69 for one piece.

This how the pineapple and grapefruit look in the inside. The grapefruit flesh is reddish. And the grapefruit is very juicy.

After being blended. It has a light orange color with creamy texture. Because it is sour, I put salt in the mixure. You could put honey/ sugar if u like it sweet.

Hopefully this mixure will help me to "detox" haha..I am going back to my hometown this weekend. Happy Merdeka Day!

Weekend Project: Making Kimchi

My ex-colleague has always been amped-up in making kimchi. He is a kimchi freak, lol. So he came yesterday, my housemate, me and KS made kimchi. Making kimchi is kind of messy ( chili paste here and there) but a lot of fun, a nice activity for rainy days..

So, the ingredients for kimchi:

1. Chinese Cabbage

2. Garlic (about 10 biji)

3. Red Chili (about 10 stalks)

3. Ginger (optional)

4. Chili Padi (optional)

Steps:

1. Chop the cabbage into quads.

2. Sprinkle salt on the cabbage, this process is to dehydrate the cabbage so that it will shrink and able fit into our container. Also pickle the cabbage as well.

3. Wait for the cabbage to shrink, it will take at least 2 hours.

4. Make the garlic paste.

De-skin the garlic.

Use a food processor, blend garlic, chili and ginger together. Because we used a crappy blender, we added some water to the paste to make it blend well.

Add in the sesame seeds and there you go. Tada! The paste.

5. Our cabbage has shrunk! The cabbage should be soft and is malleable, which means u can bend it easily.

6. Spread the paste in each layer of the cabbage leaf, make sure you spread it towards the stem (the hard white part) because the paste wont get there if you dont put it there.

A kimchi sandwich, anyone? lol

7. Squash Put the kimchi into the glass container. This process can be messy. Tips: Put a pale under the glass container, so we can re-use the paste that dripped down.

Gross eh? Haha..

8. Done, kimchi awaiting to be harvested.

9. Wrap the container up with a plastic bag and let it sit somewhere in the house. We need to wait for one month before we can eat the kimchi. Oh, I cant wait.

Note: Remember to put the kimchi into refridgerator after 3 days if u are in hot country like Malaysia.

Till then, that was our kimchi making process. Will show the result after one month if I get the chance.

No $$ already - Homemade Toner

Ever since I lost my job, there are a few things that I have been holding back from buying. The things that are in my buying list at the moment are (1) Pot of Gold Skin Balm (2)Remedica Cleansing Paste (3) Laneige toner. I still have like 20% left of my Lancome toner, but I dont see that it is doing anything on my face. I still have a lot of tiny pimples on my face though I dont need to worry about working stress now.

Then, I come across this simple homemade toner from youtube. It uses two ingredients: Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) and green tea. That's all. I have always think that I dont clean my face thoroughly, this could be one of the factors for my pimple problem. ACV is a very good cleanser, and I have some ACV with me, that's good!

So, here's the video. From a famous + pretty youtuber.



I have my ingredients:

The product: Apple Cider Vinegar and Green Tea in 1:1 portion

I keep the toner in the fridge. When I apply it using cotton pad on my face, I could feel the cooling effect and also some tingly effect when it touches my pimples. I guess it is disinfecting the bacteria or something. Overall, I find the toner quite good, I have only used this for a few days, I have yet to see the result. But, my face feel soft when waking up the next morning. So, that's a good thing. Hope it will work!

Weekend Project - Making Pan Mee

Last weekend, my housemate, Chiang made Pan Mee for lunch. It was simple, but super nice!! I am a big fan of pan mee, especially homemade one.

First, the main thing is - the noodle. You need to knead a dough from flour. Let the dough to sit for around half an hour.

The other ingredients: vegie, chili, garlic and little onions.

Not to forget to boil the ikan bilis (anchovy) soup first. And also fry the garlics and onions bits into golden colour. The bits are to be spreaded on the soup.

Tear the dough into pieces into the boling soup. There you have it , homemade Pan Mee. Yum!!

DIY Hair Rebonding

My sister and me share the same problem - Curly fringe.

Even though rebonding treatment has gone quite cheap nowadays, but you still need a hundred to get it done. So, this time we DIY.

I have my model - Jessie, my sister. with curly hair.

The tools:

1. Straightening Flat Iron (picture is stolen from here.)

Note: The straightening iron should have an adjustable temperature control, make sure it can go up to at least 180 degree Celsius.

2. Hair Clips (picture is stolen from here.)

3. The thing that does the magic -Straightening Creams

The straightening creams that I bought from a local hair store. RM20 for cream 1 and cream 2. Damn cheap.

This is cream 1 - Strong Straightening Cream

Instruction for cream 1:

Texture of Cream 1.

This is cream 2 - Neutralizing Cream

Instruction for cream 2

Texture of cream 2.

The Steps:

The steps are actually shown at back of the creams. But here I will elaborate more.

1. On dry hair, apply cream 1 all over the hair. Cream 1 is for breaking the bond of the hair. After the bond of the hair is broken, then we can sculpt the hair to what we want it to be. Cream 1 stinks. It would be good if you use a glove during application of Cream 1. But I didnt, daring eh?

2. After applying cream 1 we need to wait for the hair to "soften". It says wait for 30 minutes at the back of cream 1. There is a tip to check whether the hair has "soften" or not. It is to take a pinch of hair, then tie the pinch of hair into a knot. If the knot does not loosen, then it means the hair has "soften". This is because if the bonds are broken, then the hair will loose its elasticity.

After application of cream 1.

3. Rinse off cream 1 (if hair has soften) without using a shampoo. Then, apply cream 2. Cream 2 is a straigthening cream that will "mold" our hair straight. In another word, Cream 2 is a super strong glue to hold the bonds of the hair.

4. After 10 minutes. Rinse off cream 2, without shampooing again.

5. Blow dry hair, and then use a straightening iron to straighten the hair. The process of straightening will be a time consuming, cos we need to flat iron the hair bit by bit. I sprayed some water-based heat protector (MP Italy's, will be reviewed later) to protect the hair from extreme heat.

Voila. Done.

According to the salon, we should not wash our hair for 3 days after the rebonding.

The Result:

Sis's fringe is straight. But the hair behind is not that straight because we didnt wait long enough for the cream 1 to develop. However, this DIY rebonding session definitely tidy up sis's hair a bit. Not that fluffy and stuff.

Weekend Project: Making Mochi (failed version)

I have always fancied those mochi that they serve in Sakae Sushi, they are so nice and adorable. So, I thought, it shouldnt be hard to make it, same concept as in making Tong Yuen (Glutinous rice balls). So, this is an attempt to imitate the mochi.

I searched the youtube and found this video and I got the ingredients:

Glutinous Rice Flour (RM2.60), Wheat Starch (RM2.30) and crunched peanuts.

First, melt sugar (I used 4 tablespoons) with some water, then gradually pour into the rice flour. Knead the rice flour into dough, like this.

The dough wasnt hard to make, it didnt need a lot of kneading. I filled the ball with peanut + sugar. Then roll them into balls. The video says steam the balls for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, I took out the balls. They were HARD like rocks! I dont know what went wrong, it could be due to the added wheat starch. I dont know :(

Why? Why the balls turned out to be so hard? So, for the next batches of balls, I just chucked them into the boiling water, and waited them to float. This time, the balls were moist.

The results:

I spreaded the balls with some wheat starch, so that they dont stick on the wrapping paper. I put them in the refrigerator, the next day, the balls turned hard again =(

I am so done with this mochi making thing. No more mochi making next time. The mess that I created:

Weekend Project - The Return of the Legendary Aloe Vera

Happy Mother's Day! It's Mother's Day, and I am doing some 'aunty' stuff again.

The come-back of the Aloe-vera, hoho.. I got another bag of Aloe-vera from my aunty again. Since there is so much of aloe vera, I decided to make an aloe vera syrup, so that I can store in the fridge, and consume it when necessary.

The ingredients are the Aloe-vera, brown sugar-cane sugar, dried longan. Optional stuffs are red dates and pandan leave. I used 3 pieces of Aloe-vera here. Cube the Aloe-vera, the Aloe-vera is a pretty nasty thing, it is sticky and slippery. For those who havent seen an un-naked Aloe-vera, please click here, my previous post about Aloe-vera. You can use any kind of sugar actually, this brown sugar-cane sugar, I bought it from a grocery store for RM1.60 a packet. I used 2 pieces of sugar here. Dried longan can be bought from chinese herbal shop. I bought these dried longan at RM3.30 for 100 grams.

So, to make it happen, add the Aloe-vera and sugar into a pot. Cook it under low heat for an hour. Do not worry about the Aloe-vera might stick on to the pot or not. It wont stick. Because as you boil, the Aloe-vera will discharge its 'water'.

When the syrup is almost ready, add in a handful of dried longan. The syrup turned into brown color and the content has shrunk to half.

Wait until the syrup cool down, pour it into a container and keep in the refrigerator. According to my aunty, the syrup can last for one week.

To serve, pour some of the syrup into a glass, then add ice-cubes and some water (depends on how sweet you want it to be). I havent tried this syrup yet, I hope it tastes good.

Weekend Project - Barley and Small Bittergourd Drink

This is a remedy that said it can heal pimples if drink it for 3 days. The ingredients are barley, and small bittergourd. You can buy these bittergourds from the wet market, and some supermarket sell them. These bittergourds are much more bitter than the big ones. However, if u boil it for a long time ( 1 hour +), the bitterness will go away.

I've only used 1/3 packet of barley + 2 small bittergourds.

Cut bittergourds into halves, remove the seeds. Put the bittergourds and barley together in a pot, add water then boil it until the barley is soft, and the bittergourds turn yellowy.

The drink is ready. I did not add any sugar, you can add if you want. It tasted a little bitter. I dont eat the barley and bittergourds, you can eat them if you want. :)

Weekend Project - "Cooling" Myself Down

I am having runny nose. It has been 3 days already. Therefore this weekend no beauty activity, because my nose is messed up. It is not a cold, it is because of heat. It is "boiling" inside of my body. I feel hot (inside) and my mouth & lips are dry, my nose is like a spoilt water tap, cant stop dripping!

I need to cool myself down. I need to get rid of the heat.

1. Drink Barley water

Boiled barley for 3 days already, didnt help much. I guess barley is only good for preventing heatiness but to cure, not that efficient.

2. Eat Vitamin C

Been taking Vit C on and off. Didnt see the effect also.

3. Eat panadols

Helped to have a good sleep. And preventing from feeling "heaty" during wake up. Also helped to have a good sleep.

4. Drink Honey

Helped a bit. It helped to moist inner body from the "heat".

5. Drink Medicated (Tan Ngan Lo)

It helped. But not enough to put off the "fire" in my body.

6. Drink Herbal Tea (from Herbal Store)

Bought this from a Chinese Herbal Store. It says "Cooling Herbal tea" at the package.

I put the ingredients in the pot, turn off the fire right after the water boiled. Let it sit for 1-2 minutes. This tea does help! I feel a lot better after drinking this.

Weekend project - Loh Han Guo and Aloe-vera drink

Both Loh Han Guo and Aloe-vera is said to have cooling properties in Chinese medicine term. I had a very hectic day yesterday, hiking at Pantai Keracut in the morning + Easter party at my colleague's apartment. We had Malay food for Easter party, so I woke up very "heaty" this morning. So, I decided to boil some Loh Han Guo drink.

The ingredients: Aloe-vera (Free from my aunt's garden) + 1 piece of Loh Han Guo (RM0.70 from Chinese Herbal Shop)

First, we need to "dissect" the aloe-vera. Use a knife to cut the skin off the aloe-vera, then cut the aloe-vera into cubes. The process of dissecting the aloe-vera is kind of disgusting, because the aloe-vera has very runny fluids, and it is slippery and hard to hold. This is how the cubed aloe-vera look like:Wash the Loh Han Guo and make sure you rub its surface, if not the drink will turn out bitterly. Squeeze the Loh Han Guo to break it, so that the inner part of Loh Han Guo can easily absorb into the drink.

Lastly, chuck the Loh Han Guo and aloe-vera into the pot, and boil it for at least 2 hours. I did not put any sugar, because the Loh Han Guo is sweet enough for me :)

The product, yum ~ :)