chicken in ginger gravy/sauce (ayam masak halia)

lol...when i post this n3 i forgot to put the ingredients...so here it is..

Ingredients:

1clove of garlic chopped
1 inch of ginger cut in fine strips
carrots cut in strips (qty is depending on your liking)
1 red chili discard seeds and cut in strips - you can use half red chili and half green for colors
chicken cut in small pieces or chicken breast cut in strips
1 onion sliced thinly
vegetable oil for frying
1 tbsp oyster sauce
a couple of drops of sesame oil
a dash of sugar
100-150ml water (+-)

** if you notice i didn't use any salt as the oyster sauce is already salty so you won't need additional salt to it but pls do taste and adjust accordingly.

i think this is a chinese dish that somehow made its way to the malay palate... any how there are many many version of this dish but this is my version. made this the way my family likes it ^_^. its very easy to make...

first of all you need to get ready all ingredients before hand. cut all vegetables in strips, i cut it this way so that my son can eat it better. for some reason if i cut it in this manner or in some fun shapes he'll eat his veges. anyway it'll give a good presentation too. just like in the picture above. cut chicken in small pieces but you can always use boneless chicken and cut it in strips or cubes its fine. and you can substitute the chicken with any other game or seafood like squid or prawns...clean them and season with a bit of salt and pepper then set a side.

fry the chicken until cooked then set a side. with the same oil used for the chicken, take about a table spoon and heat it in a wok/pan then saute onion until fragrant then add in the garlic, ginger, chillies and carrots. stir fry until fragrant. in a bowl mix in the oyster soy sauce, sesame oil and corn flour and water about 100-150ml. then add in the vegetables stir and let it simmer for a while. it'll thickens slightly then remove from heat. arrange cooked chicken on to the serving plate and pour the gravy in. should the gravy become very thick you can always add in more water. (the consistency should be slightly loose than steak gravy). now you are ready to serve.


** as for the chillies, scrape out the seeds first then cut into strips as we want a clean chillies so it'll give a hint of heat instead a hot dish. but if you like it hot by all means...you can even add in some bird eye chillies if you want. i made this as a children friendly dish so my kid can enjoy it!

DR OZ: Food & Beauty, Facts & Myth

DR OZ...

everybody knows food can contribute to beauty but what can it REALLY DO? the following are the information relating food and beauty the original article was from oprah dot com 'the truth about food' the article was enlightening you can read the full story here and these are the nut shells:

1. High fiber food: it DOES give a faster bowel movement and it ABSORB cholesterol! so eat lots and lots of fiber not just for the faster bowel movement but to also lower the cholesterol level. what is high fiber food? grains,oats, nuts, apples with the skins of course and this is just from the top of my head i'm open to the floor...
2. Calcium: did you know that calsium can contribute to weight loss??????? i didn't know about this until that article, calcium absorbs FATs!! when calcium properties meets the fats, they turned into soap substance which were pushed out from our bowel system. the proof is says Dr Oz, the poop floats! - how's that for a fact?!
3. Go vegetarian! : this is something all meat eaters as i am find it had to do. but you can lose weight within just 12days! 12DAYS people!!! with these diet (at least having lots of veges and fruits and nuts) lowers the cholesterol level by the average of 25% reduced blood pressure by 10% and weight loss about 10 pounds and a quarter inches of the waist!! so if you're desperate loosing weight just GO GREEN people!!!
4. Tomatoes: eating tomato paste/ puree etc would result in a 30% reduction of sun damage. WHY? because of lycopane found in the reddest tomatoes it replanishes skin cells and prevented wrinkles too!
5. Water: sadly it does not give any effect or what so ever to the skin. people say that it'll rid off any impurities from the inside / aids the collagen etc...its all myth...why? according to the good doctor, the food we eat already have lots of water it really quite sufficient without us taking any extra water. Non theless it does matter if it for loosing weight. as it willsatisfies the satiety center. you don't have the urge to eat as much.
6. Omega-3 acids : this splendid acids are from fatty fish like haddock, salmon, red snapper, cod or from eggs, nuts etc. These food is a relaxing food. it reduces stress. reduces stress hormones cortisol by 22% and other stress hormones by 12% including DHEA PLUS a 25% improvement on memory.
7. Detox diet: unfortunately this is a myth, it has no effect to our body, and its not worth to go through with it (most people hated the vege juice and as do i).
   

Superhuman Superwomen

have you ever had anyone telling you that its 'easy' being a full time housewife? i heard that comment today...and i strongly feels that its a very bias comment. it definitely NOT easy being a full time housewife especially if you have kids! i sure mothers around the world would agree with me (or am i the only one who feels this way?)*pondering* on this one. i myself is a mother of 2 and a full time housewife. i can tell you this i had more stress now than i was a couple of years back when i was still working. its all because you have to manage the kids; bath them, feed them, play with them, make sure that they have their naps etc...and if you are 'fortunate' like me having 2 hyper active kids you won't have the time to catch your breath. my daughter; she just turned 1...loves 'house keeping' she'll take out all contents in the drawers make a mess of it, she'll go to the kitchen drawers and 'rearrange' the tupperwares and some dried / canned food, she'll climb the stairs...and my work everyday is to keep a special eye on her. i know what you're thinking i don't have that safety bar for the staircase and the kitchen entrance. my brother in law gave one to us once but the size is too small we couldn't use it and it was supposed to be a standard size, the product was from ikea. we did also bought the drawer lock for child safety but unfortunately again the size didn't fit our drawer it was too small or probably the design didn't suit our furniture..who knows...

Someone in Malaysia should import some quality baby /child safety stuff from The States or The UK or Japan even. we don't get much 'cool gadgets here. and my son is also hyper active, whenever i had my eyes off him he'll try something new and this would usually include water, food and whatever we had laying around and make the mother of all mess in the house. i think i'm so stressed that my hair is actually falling off!my hair is getting thinner everyday *sob sob* and on top of that i still have to keep my house clean or at least in a manageable state *sigh* and then i have to cook to feed them my children are picky eaters as do my husband. with all that...i still have to wake up in the middle of the night should my children had night terrors and later wants some milk. with all these we don't even have any day off. honestly unlike men they go to work (yes they probably feels tired with all the brain activities the driving etc..) but they still have the weekend off where they can RELAX even when i tried asking for help he'd say please not now i'm tired i need some rest... and i was like what? tired? how about me? am i a SUPERHUMAN or SUPERWOMEN to you? i'm wearing 2 hats now one as a mother and one as a wife and i can NEVER take those hats off. i know most of you are in the same shoes as i am...we can never take those hats off can we?

i'm not asking for the world but carefull when making any foolish statements. we are only human...we feel tired too, stress out too and this full time JOB is never one bit easy! but we try our best and give our best so please understand when we sometimes became moody, its a 24hours and a 8days aweek job...

petit chef

oh my God! it really been awhile...and... i still haven't bought the usb cable. i do have some pictures to upload but i don't have the means just yet...the thing is i'm broke. broke to the bone oi~...my almost broke down but i got in time to the workshop...lucky me? oh not so lucky me when they told me how much the bill will be. my throat went really dry coz i was wondering if i even have that much money to spend at once...they told me it'll be more than a couple of thousand...and i'm just a stay home mother of 2...i'm not working therefore i've no income except from the monthly rent commission that i got from managing my parents properties (on the record, those people are not easy to deal with...)

anyway they told me i've got to get my tires change or i'll be bound to have an accident coz my tires are all bold and they all have few deep cracks *gulp*....and my alignment were off, for some reason my meters went coo coo..something to do with belt, floats i really have no idea what are they talking about...so i called hubby to verify things then he told me that i have to get them fixed then i told hubby the price tag. hubby said that its a bit pricy but we had no choice and my car is the car that i use to pick up my kids from school n their grandparents and should anything happen tp then i'll be sorry later...i can't have that! but hubby couldn't help me either its all because of that idiot doctor who purposely delayed writing reports about our son's admission to the hospital last 2 months, now the insurance couldn't pay us the money coz the doctor haven't write the reports necessary for them to proceed with the claims. *grinds teeth*

*long sigh* enuf of that and yesterday was it *pondering* i had this comment inviting me to join this little french site called petite chef... (well i think its french..the name is french..)you can see them on my right panel. i joint them and i find that its a wonderful site to look for new recipes and technics in baking and cooking as they have many foodie members or i would say cyber chef with great recipes n tips too (i think some of then are real chef too). you can have a look here.