Little Insta Weekend #5

My weekend was great. Delicious food, great accompany and awesome movies.

We watched two movies in two nights. I really enjoyed how's the story line goes and it keeps me guessing what's going to happen next!  Had a good laugh with the crazy things they did especially the Hang Over Part II. 

On Friday, baked the chicken with dijon mustard, red wine and maple syrup. It taste good without marinade it ! Covered the chicken with sauce and baked in the oven. Bam, that's easy! Surprisingly, all the flavours immersed into the chicken breast. If you are lazy and looking for simple recipe, definitely must give this a try.

Here's the link for the recipe. I used two chicken breast instead of four with the same amount of sauce. No one would complain if sauce is too much!

I also been addicted making salad especially the avocado pesto. EASY! Firstly,  roast the broccoli and garlics. Combine roasted broccoli, roasted garlics, avocado and parmesan cheese, olive oil and process it! The pesto could just add on to any salads or even wraps! Recipe adapted from greatist.com 


Not long ago, I urged to buy a food processor. Oh yes, I bought it with $20 at Target and lucky me, the instruction book was missing and they offered $5 as a discount Definitely worth it presumably I have been using it for number of times.

DC was liking the avocado pesto and I made it again for another night. We had tuna wraps for dinner. Not to mention, a night is incomplete without dessert. Especially freezing night in Melbourne in these days, we couldn't bother to go out and suffering from cold ! As I remember DC likes eating black glutinous rice at Dessert Story, so I tried to make it. Need longer time to boil it till really soft and constantly watching it too. Quite a hassle and you need AT LEAST one hour to boil it. Nevertheless  it turned pretty good and I added really a lot of pandan leaves! I couldn't believe that Asian store does sell pandan leaves. Make sure you use Gula Melaka instead of normal sugar or caster sugar.

Serve with warm coconut milk and fruits like mango (optional). I was thinking lychees might be a good option too.

Thanks to Pin Interest, I'm addicted to find inspiration for cooking when I am just clueless what to eat.

22nd Birthday @ Monarch Cake Shop

My 23rd birthday is going to be on next month and before that, I think it's better off to post about 22nd birthday before it's too late. Heh! 

After having dinner at Veludo restaurant (click to view the post), they suggested let's have dessert at Monarch Cake shop as it seems one of the famous cake shops in St Kilda. 

Famous Chocolate Kugelhoupf

Hands down. Must order this on next time. 

How could we not ordering the 100 year old polish cheesecake?

Yup, that's my birthday cake and guess what, much better than having unworthy big round cake.

The reason why I have been delaying this post because of the video! Since my brother recorded some clips during the the trip, I was thinking why not just compile it and post a short video here. Initially, I saved the file up to almost 500mb. When I try to upload it in youtube, damn, has to spend like 170 minutes for 1 minute video ! Therefore, it should be fine for the low-quality video as I'm more likely experiencing how to edit the video. =)  

Trial and Error

The first day when I moved to the dorm in 2009, that was my first time cooking a meal. It wasn't any fancy meals, it was ordinary dishes - broccoli, fried egg and rice. It turned out edible. Phew! I wasn't expecting it. One day, my friend asked : How to cook rice? I was a bit stunned to that question because it should be simple and easy!

 

Thanks to My Kitchen Rule, I was so inspired to cook more these days instead of having canned food or instant noodles. This is what I have been trying the new recipes for the past two weeks. 

Polenta Chips with parsley 

I have a mixed feeling for this. It seems too soft and probably I added too much of water? That is my very first time having polenta chips. Probably will order it in the restaurant on next time to check out what's the Polenta chip should taste like. 

 

Caramelised Pork Belly. 

 Can't deny that this is soooooo good. 

Recipe adapted from My Kitchen Rule. 

Nasi Goreng

I made a mistake between rice cup and standard measure cup when I looked at the recipe. Thus, more like sticky rice rather than fried rice! Instead of buying the marinate sauce, I made it with soy sauce, chilli, garlic, grated ginger and caster sugar. 

All these years, I have been enjoying cooking especially comes to exam period. Of course, there was a period of being lazy or too busy for cooking, my daily meals are takeaway food and I lost controlling my diet. It leads me gained A LOT of WEIGHT!  At the moment, controlling my diet is one of my aims to achieve and it's just so hard for me to resist desserts !!! Even worst, I baked more dessert. T_T

Chocolate Gluttony Brownies
This brownies recipe just sooo chocolateyyyyy. 

Supposed a No Bake "Green Tea" Cheesecake. 
I bought the Macha ($2.80) from Daiso and the cake couldn't taste the matcha at all. A cheap quality of matcha compare to the one that cost $7 make a difference. 

Blueberries Ice Cream 
I attempted to make ice cream. Overmixed the ice cream and turned not that smooth. The taste of condensed milk is too overpowering and couldn't taste much of blueberries. 

Here I am, definitely a beginner when comes to cooking. 

Not to Forget, 

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!