All my love

The school holidays have begun! ^__^ It's been so relaxing. I've been borrowing books from the library and reading up on recipes to experiment with. So far, I've tried a pork, chilli and bean stew from a Woolworths Good Food magazine I got from Burnside library - it was so yummy! 

Omo~ So proud of myself ahah >< It's coriander sprinkled on the top, and there's red capsicums in there as well as chunks of potatoes, and diced pork loin. It was pretty dry though, sad to say. Might try a fattier cut of pork next time :( At the end I threw in a can of chickpeas, a can of pureed tomatoes and some tomato paste, to make it a little bit thicker. My sister added some corn flour in because she said it looked 'nothing like a stew.' So depressing right?! Aha, but I thought it turned out pretty well. Again, self-praise for mahself hehe. 

I didn't really do much today >< All I did today was wake up at 10, complete my depressing pile of homework and then we headed off to central market where I had a little tiff with my mother (again) over vegetables and yoghurt -___- Sigh. 

Fluffy couscous salad with coriander and chickpeas

Today, we had a farewell party in Chinese for Miss Sun :( Omg no please don't gooooooo.... Miss lam should be the one staying in hongkong -_-  I really don't want her to come back and I think half of the class doesn't want to too. Omg she's so depressing everytime she steps into our class. Like, she expects our Chinese speaking skills to be of background standard. We all don't come from China alright so don't expect everybody to speak Chinese like youuuuuu......She's so annoying, she has something against me. She kept on telling my dad how 'southeast asians had no creativity whatsoever' in essay writing -___- Just say me lah, okay?!?! Don't blame the whole continent.

Come back okay, miss sun! We love you and will always remember you :) Ellen and I were busy conversing with her. She's such a friendly teacher to converse with, like a friend and still a teacher. Ah, she's so amazing really <3 Take care of yourself!!!!!!

So today for lunch, I decided to go healthy! I made a couscous salad with coriander and chickpeas. Turned out rather successful. Was reluctant to try the couscous salad in the morning because I'm just so inexperienced with Western grains. All it said on the packet was 'Pour in boiling water and leave it for 5 minutes for it to absorb all the water.' I was so freaked out. Where is there such a convenient grain?!!!? I didn't even want to try it out. Was just going to be all asian and stick to my rice bento boxes. But well, experiment experiment. And so I tried it out, and this is how it turned out:

Success, no? I thought it turned out prettttty well....LOOK HOW FLUFFY THEY ARE. Or is it just me? Omg. So pretty. It freaked me out so much how fluffy the couscous became after only five minutes of coming into contact with boiling water.

I loved it. Such a healthy salad yet so good for you. Step one to Hyunah's abs...... T___T" Ahah. The coriander was kind of a last minute decision to throw in to make it tastier because there was some leftover coriander sitting around in the refrigerator where my mum keeps most of her herbs. And the chickpeas were convenient because I just rinsed some reduced-salt chickpeas and threw them in, mixed them around.

Yeah. I'm up to my neck deciding what to update. Maaaaaybe I'll show you my growing culinary herb garden?! ^_____^ Yay it's growing well. Right now I'm trying to find bay leaves to grow, as well as lemon thyme. Might try Jekkah's Herb Farm. I can't wait for the day that I go "Oh I need this herb" and I go to a garden filled with pots and pots and pots of different herbs!!! OMG HEAVEN.