my dream

i just remembered i used to dream about foods a lot... when i was cheffing back in days, i baked bread every mornings, made desserts, pastry etc... i used to think a lot about food all the time. not so much these days, I'm not so obsessed funny enough. (maybe when i went int to rehab, my obsession to food subsided????) in my dream, i was kneading bread...and panicking.... i don't remember why i was panicking... anyway, i used to loooove kneading bread and baking. i used to tell commis chefs " kneading bread is just like giving loving massage to your girlfriend!(most of chefs were boys!) " they liked that. and funny thing was that when i was angry my bread looked like being angry. when i was happy i baked happy bread! home baked bread ( or anything) is the bast thing! smell comes out from oven when baking.... ah, Divine... i don't eat bread anymore now. but still, i love smell of it! something comfy about it. or maybe it reminds me of my cheffing days??? and feeling nostalgic??? when i feel like that, i always forget how hard my life was. well, i made my life hard... never mind. anyway, my favo bread i used to bake were foccacia bread. bit like making pizza, using different toppings. i learnt it bake at first restaurant i used to work in shoreditch. then i moved restaurant in Soho. there, we used to make beautiful dough and foccacia and cibata. the restaurant in Soho was modern British, we made starter in mornings, wait till froth up. then add some more flour(good organic flour) and mix. all morning during lunch service, remembered to stretch out and punch the dough.  olive oil the top, cling film it and put into walk-in fridge for next day. we used to make 2 big bowls every morning, and bake. in that case, dough get really stretchy and when put on trays, gives lovely texture(looked and felt very silky too) and flavour. then more extra virgin olive oil on top, put some topping; rosemary and sea salt, red onion and thyme, roasted garlic and peppers...... oh, i made once i rolled foccacia dough with roasted garlic inside. it was lovely but the chef didn't like it. he liked simple. anyway bake them for about 40mins or so till sounds hollow when tap the top. and brown and crispy. beautiful. same as ciabatta bread, stretch out onto baking tray with lots of flour. when they were baked, they had lovely pattern on top. i loved the chewiness of the bread. i tried to make bagle a few times, not quite succeeded to bake something i satisfy. well, i would like to start baking different kinds of breads again. just need to find time.... yummy yummy

budget healthy dinner

In late Feb, my laptop dead on me, and I bought a new(second hand) laptop off e-bay,  I've been on budget since. I haven't got lot of shifts at work, so, last a couple of months, I've been struggling a little bit with money. I still want to eat nice healthy dinner, but it costs. I can create and cook nice junk food on budget easy though. Since I became carrot-muncher and health conscious, I don't want to do that. I now love eating my healthy dinner. I don't want to cook too much either, i would like to keep them as raw as possible. My first budget healthy dinner I cooked/made was; Gluten free spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce. It was yummy. What I do sometimes is hydrate soya mince and add to the tomato sauce. Because of price of tofu(quite expensive and not widely available in varies supermarkets in this country but some products are very yummy!), I use soya mince instead. This tomato sauce is very easy to make. Just chop some tomatoes, tofu wieners, add some herbs and good harrisa. Mix and garnish with baby spinach, alfalfa sprouts on top and splash of good extra virgin olive oil. yummy. This is my  budget healthy dinner for this evening!!!

my treat

I love my healthy dinner and food in general, that's what i love. cook and make healthy dinner and food.... but my downfall is; i also love naughty desserts and treat sometimes.........

At moment, I've been into Booja-Booja chocolate truffles, i was introduced to Mr.Booja-Booja products by my boyfriend Marcus.

  we love any flavour, having say that my(our) favo is midnight espresso.......bitter sweet chocolate coating with bitter coffee ground, AND once they are in my mouth, they just melt, flavour comes out, and just sexy!!!! I really thought Harrods chocolate truffles were the best, yes, I still believe there are excellent. Mr.Booja Booja chocolate truffles are different from ordinary ones. Due to no dairy products in them, texture is very light and healthy!!!!!!!                                         I suppose that my excuse to eat out treat ( me and my boyfriend don't see each other often, Mr.Booja-Booja products be come our special treat!!!!!), especially after eating our healthy dinner.  Same as Mr.Booja-Booja ice cream, they are the best!!!!!!!!     I used to make our own ice cream at restaurants i used to work when I was in London. I thought there were the best!!!!!! Yes, they were the best till I had Mr.Booja-Booja's chocolate ice cream. what a texture!!!!  It's soooooooooo smoooooth.....!!!!!!!!     since i wrote this, i found out more yummy chocolate! this chocolate bars are called OMbar. they don't contain dairy products and cane sugar. they contain; "unroasted raw cocoa sweetened with coconut sugar blended with coconut cream and infused with billions of friendly bacteria"!   "far better than cane sugar and low GI than Agave"!  hooray! this is also like melt-in-mouth texture. AND i bought carob version of them too from a health food store in woodbridge. I'm not sure they were OMbar or not. but , again, they were divine! i now got inspired to make nice healthy treats........ yummy yummy