Ootoya at Clementi Mall

Went to Ootoya at Clementi mall for lunch. Wanted to try something interesting and decided to check out Ootoya. It was pretty interesting that this restaurant brands itself as a healthy restaurant so there are actually calorie counts attached to all the food items. We ordered the curry mini udon and the curry katsu set. The portion for the set was pretty massive and these 2 items were more than enough to fill us up. The set is approximately 1000 calories and it's quite scary how much food is being served at each meal when we eat outside. (Not referring to Ootoya specifically).

Might be back again to try out their other food items ;)

Healthy salad

And so, I've been starting on my ultra healthy diet and this was one of my creations. Sesame seeds, avocado for good fats. Baked chicken, ham and cottage cheese for protein. Dressing was a light Japanese sesame dressing :) 

Tastes really good!

Jco's frozen yogurt

I love my frozen yogurt dessert. It's the next best thing to ice cream. If you guys have been following this blog, I am a huge fan of the frozen yogurt and have tried quite a no. of them from all over Singapore. Today I walked past J.Co at raffles city and saw that they had this frozen yogurt section and immediately zoomed right into it after dinner. I ordered the yogurt with 3 toppings ($5 or less I think), chose chocolate drops, almond chips and mandarin orange as the topping. Super yummy, it was like having an orange chocolate treat. 

You can't really go too wrong with frozen yogurt. Will come back again!

Fruche @ 152 calories

Found a new snack at the supermarket. Fruche - some kind of pudding like yogurt thing. For a lack of a better description. Tasty and relatively guilt free. I told a friend that it is 98% fat free.. and he went, so the rest is made up of 2% pure fat? 

Lol, that tickled me somehow. But it also brought to mind that I don't really know what the 2% is made up of. Time to do some research. In the mean time, I am still gonna enjoy my Fruche ;) Good tea time snack!

Ichiban Boshi @ Nex

Had a $50 Nex voucher so I decided to invite a friend to dine with me at Nex. He was having a craving for Japanese food so we walked around to scout for one. Walked past Ichiban Boshi and quite liked the menu so we went in. We went straight for the kill and ordered a sashimi platter. (~$30) You really pay for what you get, the slices were so fresh and succulent, unlike the buffet ones that you usually get. Although it seemed pricey at first look but the moment we tasted the sashimi, we knew that it was all worth it. 

I also ordered my favourite Negitoro sushi. Negitoro is minced tuna - I don't know what about it makes it so special, is it the spring onions or mincing of the tuna that adds this special flavour to the dish. It is my no. 1 favourite Japanese sashimi ever since I first tasted them in Japan. 

We ordered a plethora of other stuff and the bill came up to be about $64 (including tax) and we could less off our $50 voucher. I finally understand why people would go to Ichiban Sushi and the lines are always crazy during meal times. We definitely will be back! Awesome Japanese food FTW!

Fruit salad breakfast

And so I embarked on this new diet where I had to avoid all forms of carbohydrates during breakfast and instead incorporate carbs back into dinner. The recommended breakfast plan was to have a fruit platter for breakfast. This was what I had on the first day of my diet - 1 passion fruit, 1 chinese xiang li (pear) and 1 large slice of papaya. 

Unfortunately I couldn't keep up with this diet. What I noticed was that I felt extremely hungry after 2 hours and found myself looking for snacks. Not a sustainable diet for me. Ended up putting on a couple of grams of weight instead. Haha, so in any case, I have since reverted back to my previous diet. I hope I shed the extra weight!

Passion fruit @ Tiong Bahru NTUC

Passion fruit is one of my favourite healthy snack that I can eat anytime. I realise that Tiong Bahru's NTUC always have a ready stock of this fruit and they are really cheap. SG$4 or less for 10 pieces. Just chill the fruit, slice it into half and use a spoon to scoop. Yummilicious. Passionfruit is also good as a really healthy dressing for salads due to its viscosity and texture. Try it! :)

Diet portion size

I've had some questions on the portion size that I usually take during lunch time. Here's one of the pictures of what I eat for one of my small meals. I usually have 2x the amount of vegetables and animal protein and less rice. But because fried rice was being served, so I adjusted the portion sizes accordingly. My lunch everyday is home cooked by our help at home.

Please do not be alarmed and think that it I am under nourished. In fact, I eat many times a day, so I do get my nutrition from my meals, albeit smaller portion sizes. This is one of my secrets to losing weight without killing myself at the gym. Smaller portions, higher meal frequencies. ;)

Wholemeal wraps from Gardenia

Saw this at cold storage - Wholemeal wraps from Gardenia that you can actually use as a wrap, serve with dips and become a pizza crust. I was so fascinated by it. I've been thinking long and hard about pizza crusts. I love pizza but I need to find a way to create a low fat, low calorie yet healthy version. I could probably make a pizza with very thin crust but it is going to be a lot of work and I might not be able to find the time to do so. This wholemeal wrap is definitely going to come into handy!

Can't wait :)

Homemade Pineapple Sorbet

Made pineapple sorbet today. Extremely healthy, low fat and yummy. One of my guilt-free indulgences.

Broccoli Soup with Curried Yogurt Topping

Made this for dinner :)

Broccoli soup thickened naturally by puree-ing the broccoli florets. Yummy and guilt free indulgence.

Check out the recipe here.

Jian Fei Guo - Diet Fruit

My friend saw this at a chinese medicinal hall and bought me a packet. To cook this fruit, you need to put 1-2 pieces in hot water and stir in some honey or sweetener. This fruit is supposed to help you lose weight but oh boy does it taste nasty. 

I misinterpreted the instructions and actually cooked like 6 pieces of it in 2 cups of water without honey, then fed it to my mom, cause i was trying to help her lose weight too. The bitterness from the fruit was so overwhelming that it kind of traumatized her. I immediately went online to re-read the instructions then realise that you put only 1-2 pieces not 6-7. Sorry mom! Didn't mean it. :(

I'll definitely look into matching the fruit with natural sweeteners and perfect the taste, I'm sure the fruit will be able to help one lose weight from its natural properties, and not its taste.

Homemade Fruit Salad

Just thought of sharing one of my healthy weight loss snack tips. Sometimes it's really boring to eat an apple by itself or a cantaloupe in slices, so what I like to do is to actually slice up a few pieces of different types of fruit and mix them together, it becomes more palatable and interesting. 

I notice that I get filled up more easily from snacking this way. One of my favourite combinations - Red dragonfruit, cantaloupe and kiwi. 

Healthy Snack - Red cabbage and plum chips

Was feeling really hungry one day and I needed a quick fix before dinner. I opened my fridge and saw an expiring head of red cabbage. Suddenly an epiphany struck me and I cut up the cabbage into potato chip sizes and sliced up some sweet plums. I then took the whole bowl and plonked myself in front of the TV. The snack was crispy, juicy and sweet. Wonderful guilt free way to enjoy a crunchy snack.