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The sure-fire crowd pleaser baked fish

June 9, 2011 By 8 Comments

Yes it’s a syiok sendiri title. I had this for dinner as part of my healthier eating for the Marie France Bodyline challenge. I let my Mom and Ryan have a taste. They really liked it. Three’s a crowd mah.

Har har har.

Village Grocer sells beautiful lemon sole (ikan sebelah) fillet. They look absolutely gorgeous and I couldn’t help but to buy a 200g pack that costs about RM7+. The next pretty fish available was the cod fillet, triple the price of my lemon sole.

What I’m using here is half of the entire fillet. The other half was cooked in a white wine sauce that didn’t make it and I don’t want to talk about it.

First, pre-heat your oven to 180°C for about 10 mins. While that is being done, clean your fish fillet using running water, then pat dry with paper towels.

Do you have some herbs and spices? Yes = Good. No = Bad. For this mixture, I used some:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Paprika Powder, Garlic Powder, Mixed Italian herbs, Salt + Black Pepper

I feel that you can basically use whatever you have in your kitchen. If the combination doesn’t turn out well, at least you learned something new, right? :)

Easy Baked Fish - ingredients

Mix the mixture well, then add it to your fish fillet and coat thoroughly. You can add carrots to your baking dish as well to let them cook together. Saves time and electricity!

Bake for about 20 minutes. If you have a thicker cut of fish, then bake slightly longer lor.

Easy Baked Fish - preparing to bake

Serve with aforementioned carrots and cherry tomatoes. Or whatever sides you wish to serve it with. I’m the one who has to eat healthier, you don’t.

Easy Baked Fish

Absolutely delicious! At least three people thought so! :)

Filed Under: Eating In

Suanie and the Marie France Bodyline challenge

June 7, 2011 By 17 Comments

I’ve some news that will make my Mom very happy:
I’m undergoing the full Marie France Bodyline slimming treatment for one month!!

Actually she already knows, so I’m really just telling the rest of you.

In the spirit of full disclosure, this experiment (as I call it) is a Nuffnang-initiated campaign in conjunction with Marie France Bodyline‘s 26th anniversary this year. On my part, I’m obliged to attend 3 sessions a week for 4 weeks and blog a little about my experience(s). Monetary compensation for this campaign is enough to buy 55 Happy Meals. Which of course, is something that I wouldn’t do ;)

Another reason why I said yes was because… ok well, this time last year, I looked like this:

Suanie and Alex @ Changkat BB
With Alex, my Genting Trailblazer 2010 buddy

This time this year, I look like this:

Suanie in late May 2011
With Matthew Pomeroy at Absolut Akademi

Tragic, I know. Boys and girls, that is the result of a mere few months of not working out + eating everything in sight + losing focus on lifestyle and health does to you. Do not be like me.

So I’m giving this a fair chance because I need to get back my mojo. Also at the end of this experiment, there may be a contest between me and 3 other bloggers who are undergoing the same thing. At the moment, I only know one of the bloggers, Tammy of Plus Size Kitten. She is my competitor, so to speak. I heard that she’s really raring to go and rather determined to win…

On Monday, I went to the Marie France Bodyline branch in Uptown for my 1st session. Can’t miss it, it’s nestled among the few slimming centres on the same main road. It’s so strange how slimming centres and bridal shops work alike – open one in a new location and a few months later, the area will be filled with similar shops/ services.

I met with Caron, consultant and branch manager. She’s rather pretty, friendly and informative.

Marie France Uptown - Caron
Caron of Marie France Bodyline

Caron sat me down and we had a long chat about slimming, Marie France Bodyline’s products and services, goals I should aim for and body target areas, etc. To be honest, I was a bit distracted by her eyes. She had those coloured contact lens that made her eyes look like a True Blood maenad victim.

Then Kim, my assigned nutritionist came in to talk about my diet. Based on friends’ true experiences at other slimming centres, I was expecting a cabbage soup recipe that I would be advised to consume if I wanted maximum results, which I was fully prepared to reject because that is a stupid diet programme. Don’t get me started on it.

Well that didn’t happen. She just asked me about my usual food intake, gave some suggestions about food choices and gave me a timetable for me to jot down what I eat (to be submitted to her later so we could have another discussion about areas to improve etc). I asked her about any dieting recipes that she may want to give me, she said nah, she trust me to do it on my own… first. After all, she read my blog and saw that I cook some, and she was sure that I’d be able to make my own healthier meals.

“Oh you read my blog? So you saw the homemade French fries la?”
“Yeah… I did… :X ”

For my 1st session, I underwent 3 hours of 2 types of treatments. One is VRST (don’t ask me what it stands for) for my arms and it includes: ultrasound wave to loosen the fat, a lifting procedure, a 35 min manual deep tissue massage, a mask made of seaweed ingredients (not a very pleasant smell) and an application of a really hot slimming serum. By hot, I mean it feels like you’ve rolled around in a bucket of prepared birds eye chilli.

The 2nd treatment is FEST (an acronym for something that I forgot) for my tummy, lasted 1.5 hours with the following: hot wrapping, manual massage, mask and hot blanket.

I liked the girl, Suggy who helped me with my treatments. Aside from having rather strong hands (for the massage), she was friendly and most importantly, knows when to converse and when not to. Apparently she has been doing this for 8 years, that’s a lot of experience there!

So that was about it for my 1st session. My subsequent updates won’t be as lengthy as this one, this is just an introduction. I didn’t really feel much different from the session, except that my arms was burning a bit from the serum. It went away after a while but not before I received some pretty weird glances my way at Subway…

Since then, I’ve not been working out (couldn’t wake up for Bootcamp) but I made an effort to eat better. Today I had: meehoon fishball soup + x1 coffee + x1 banana + 200g baked fish with 2 carrots and lots of cherry tomatoes + muesli with low fat milk. It’s a healthier and less than what I’ve been eating for the past few months. No wonder the difference in the 1st two photos!

Will make an effort to work out. Really one. Wish me luck!

Marie France Bodyline
Click here for their Facebook page

Filed Under: Fun with Fitness Tagged With: ,

The Ryan-approved Spanish-style Baked Shrimps

June 6, 2011 By 18 Comments

Spanish-style Baked Shrimps I made this twice. First time was edible but overcooked. I have a tendency to do that; overcooking. Something about fear of poisoning myself and others around me just because the darn meat/ seafood/ vege isn’t left to cook long enough. Food poisoning doesn’t sound like a dignified way to go, if you get what I mean.

The second time I made this, I separated it into two bowls. One with chilli for me and one without for Ryan the Nephew. I’m a great aunt like that. You should be so lucky to have an aunt like me.

I think this is a real easy and simple way to enjoy your shrimps. By the way, do you know the difference between shrimps and prawns without googling? I don’t, they’re both the same to me. I’d always had the impression that shrimps are smaller and prawns are bigger. According to this article, they are biologically different. Shrimps have large front pincers and shorter legs. Prawns have longer legs and their second pincers are big. Interesting eh? There, you learned something new today. With the following recipe, you’d learn two new things! La vida es maravillosa!
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Filed Under: Eating In

Ryan and his lyrics book

June 3, 2011 By 9 Comments

Do you remember how you learned to read? I don’t, exactly. It was a blur of alphabets and word posters and Peter and Jane. Thankfully my Mom being a teacher means that we had a lot of reading material lying around in the house.

I think Ryan was having some problems with his reading, generally from a lack of interest. Mom found a solution for that: by writing down lyrics (in big friendly letters) to his current favourite songs, which coincidentally are her favourite :D

See, big lyrics book with big handwriting for the boy.

Ryan and his lyrics book

… first page is a John Denver classic.

John Denver's classic in lyrics book

… this is Ryan reading and singing.

And this is Ryan with his evil youngest aunt in her most disheveled because it was at a comfortable place forcing him do everything according to her whim and fancies, in this case laughingly pose for a photograph.

Suanie and Ryan

Think it’s working. Ryan seems to enjoy learning to read via his lyrics book. Other oldies but goodies include Moon River, Knock Three Times and Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree. All my favourites too ;)

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They use Nail Harmony Gelish for the manicure and OPI for the pedicure. Gelish stays on nails for 3 weeks without chipping or peeling, which is great for manicures ‘cos mine are always the first to go. What, I wash dishes and do other stuff using my hands ok. Can’t afford to lie around and do nothing ‘cos I’m not a tai tai… yet :P

Redeemable till end of August, go make your nails pretty!

Filed Under: Assorted Blah

Homemade French Fries with a bottle of mayonnaise

June 1, 2011 By 22 Comments

Homemade Fries I love fries, especially if the French cut. Even more so if they are done crispy outside and squishy inside, O Fry Heaven!

I also love mayonnaise with my fries. Unfortunately not every establishment that I used to frequent understand this. Their stinginess with their mayonnaise sometimes leave me so frustrated that I have to think twice when ordering fries.

Why make things so complicated? Will giving me additional mayo bring loss to your earnings, or bring forth the end of the world? Charge me extra for it, I don’t care (much), but lying about the availability of mayo in your kitchen will make me flip.
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Filed Under: Eating In