2013 to 2014

Today is the last day of 2013. 2013 has been a very challenge year for us. I am thankful to have my hubby and my lovely son by my side going through a very tough year.
People said this year new year celebration is very special as we going from 2013 to 14 together and in Chinese it sounds like 一生一世. This year I only wish to spend this special moment with my hubby and my son. I want to be with you both 一生一世!
Happy new year everyone, wish all of us have a better, greater and healthier year ahead!

一個罐子跟兩杯咖啡

Someone shared this to me recently. It is a very meaningful article and hence putting this here in my blog to remind myself. It is true that we have been busy for whole life, but are we focusing on the right priority in life? Family, health and loved one are more important than work, house, car or tiny little things in our life. But somehow we forgot about this and tend to spend time on things that less important or not urgent...

這一天的哲學課，教授站上了講台，他卻不發一語，只是從講桌底下拿出了一個空的美乃滋瓶罐。

接著他拿出了一袋高爾夫球，他把整袋的高爾夫球塞進了美乃滋空罐裡；然後教授就問學生同不同意這個罐子已經是滿的了學生們當然是同意。

接著，教授又從桌子下拿出了一杯小小的鵝卵石，他慢慢地把鵝卵石往罐子邊倒邊搖， 不一會兒所有的高爾夫球間的縫隙，竟也都填滿了鵝卵石。

這 時，教授又問學生同不同意，這個美乃滋罐子已經是滿了？學生當然是同意。可是，話才剛說完，教授又從講桌底下拿出了一杯細沙子，教授又用同樣的方法，邊說 邊把沙子填滿了鵝卵石之間的小縫隙。教授又問了大家同不同意？這回罐子是真正的滿了？同學說應該是全滿了，沒有空間了。

想不到同學才剛答完話，教授又從講桌下拿出了兩杯咖啡來，開始徐徐地往美乃滋罐子裡倒，直到兩杯咖啡全部到進罐子裡，一滴也不剩。倒完咖啡後，教授笑著對同學們說：『現在的美乃滋罐子才是真正的滿了啦。』同學們也跟著笑了起來！就在整個教室的歡笑聲裡！

教授說話了：『你們知道我今天做這個表演，是要告訴你們什麼嗎？我是要用這個美乃滋罐來告訴你們一個道理，一個關於我們一生的哲理。這個美乃滋空罐就是我們的人生，高爾夫球就是我們生命中的一些大事情，例如：上帝、家庭、小孩、朋友、健康，還有你的摯愛。

生命裡沒有那些小鵝卵石或沙子是沒關係的，可是要是缺了這些大事情，我們的生命根本沒有意義。小小的鵝卵石就是我們生命中的其他的事情，例如：工作、房子、車子等等東西。至於那細沙子就是我們生命中的小事情，那些細微不重要的瑣事。

今天我的表演...如果是一開始就先把細沙子灌滿美乃滋罐子，那就根本沒有空間好放入高爾夫球跟鵝卵石同樣地，如果我是先倒鵝卵石，那也是會沒有空間好給高爾夫球。
我們的生命就是這樣的，如果你盡是把寶貴的時間花在細微的瑣事上，你就不可能有時間去處裡重要的事情。

所以，我們該多花時間去注意那些，會關係到我們快樂與幸福的事情，多跟我們的小孩一起。多去陪陪我們的父母、祖父母，多些時間給家人！多注意自己的身體健康，不要擔心家事做不完，不用擔心房子還沒粉刷，不要擔心花園還沒整理，我們會找到時間來做這些事情的！先多花些心思在那些重要的大事情上吧！

生命只有一回，我們把事情的輕重緩急跟優先順序弄清楚，生命才會有意義 ,教授說到這裡，有個同學舉手了...教授，那兩杯咖啡又代表著什麼呢？

『我很高興你問這個』教授回答道：這兩杯咖啡就是要告訴我們，不管我們的美乃滋罐看起來是裝得多滿，我們總是可以有空間跟朋友一起享受杯咖啡的！

我們的一生似乎總是這麼的忙? 那麼多的事情要處裡，似乎是一天的 24 小時總是不夠用？如果你還是這麼想的話，想想『一個美乃滋罐子跟兩杯咖啡』的故事吧。

I miss Oregon

We recently relocating to California for temporary and have been here for almost 2 months by now. One day when I was driving back to apartment, I suddenly missed the rain. I haven't see any rain in California since we were here. I used to hate Oregon's rain especially during fall and winter. I described that period as 'darkness' because the day is short and it always cold and wet outside. So I love late spring and summer as the 'darkness' is over and I will have sunny as well as dry day. Surprisingly that I miss the rain in Oregon now!

I miss my kitchen too whenever I read people's blogs on cooking/baking. I miss my kitchen appliances like bread maker and mixer. There are so many recipes I wanted to try out, but I only have a few basic kitchen gadgets and ingredients here since we will be here for temporary and wanted to keep everything as simple as possible.

Chun and I always joke that we both are "kampung" people since we love country style life compare to city life.  We prefer a slower pace and more relax life with a lot of greenery and friendly people. I remembered when my brother in law who staying in LA visited us in Oregon 6 years ago, he described Oregon as enchanted forest for vampire (that's why Twilight was filmed here) and he felt like sleeping all the time because of the cloudy, rainy and colder weather. Haha... California is more crowded. More people, more cars and more houses every where. It reminds me of Penang because there are so many apartments here and cars parking on both road sides due to lack of apartment parking. House price here is also crazy like Penang.

I used to think Oregon has too much rain and wish I could have a California weather in Oregon. But now, I think I can give up the sunny weather for the rest of the goodness in Oregon. Oh Oregon, I miss you so much!!!

Loke-Xuan's 3rd birthday

This week is my son's 3rd birthday. Time flying, it seemed like yesterday when I was in labor room giving birth. Can't believe that it already three years. Loke-Xuan is growing fast. He learnt a lot of new words, can communicate with us with full sentence, can recognize some letters and numbers and he is fully potty trained. :) He is so lovely and is the best gift I ever have in my life! 

We had a simple birthday celebration for him with his uncle who visited us over the long weekend. We got him a chocolate cake and went to Target to get birthday candles where he saw a cute little birthday hat. Surprisingly he wanted to wear it, he usually don't want to try new stuffs. So we were more than happy to get it for him. 

Loke-Xuan loves the cake and the gifts from us, my brother in law and Wai Yee. 

Here are some of the photos we took:

Enjoying his chocolate cake

Thanks Wai Yee for sending him all these gifts. He loves it so much!

Thanks to my brother in law for the teddy bear and clothes for Zai Zai.

I love this photo!

Steamed chocolate cake for Father's Day

For this year Father's day, we didn't have any special celebration. We spent family time relaxing in a park and playground. After that, we went to ColdStone for an ice-cream feast since the weather was so warm.  I also made a cake for Chun. Initially I wanted to make pandan layer cake. But it actually involves more works and I have to give my hubby a rain check to do it in future, probably for his birthday. I did a steamed chocolate cake for him instead and did some chocolate frosting to put on top of it. The cake turned out to be really moist and soft. Chun was very happy and satisfied with the cake. He ended up taking more than 1 piece and started to complain that he gained a lot of weight. :)

Anyway, happy father's day to my hubby. Thank you for being a caring daddy taking good care of Zai Zai and me!

Here is the recipe for the cake:

Ingredient:

180g canola oil or butter

180g castor sugar

200g evaporated milk

2 eggs, slightly beaten using fork

100g all purpose flour

50g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Methods:

1. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla extract and oil/butter in a saucepan. Stir in low heat till sugar is dissolved and butter is mealted. Turn off fire and set the mixture aside.

2. Add beaten eggs into the slightly cold evaporated milk mixture and stir till well mix.

3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Then pour the eggs mixture over the flour and stir still well mix. Cake batter should be runny.

4. Heat up steamer.

5. Lined and greased a 8 inch round baking pan.

6. Pour the batter in the baking pan and place the pan into the steamer. Cover loosely with a piece of aluminium foil.

7. Cover the steamer and steam over medium heat for 45 mins or till skewer came out clean.

8. Cool the cake before putting the chocolate frosting.

Frosting:

100g chocolate, chopped into small pieces

30g milk

Method:

1. Double boil the chocolate and milk until chocolate melt. *

2. Pour onto the cake and chill the cake.

* Add more milk if the mixture is too "thick" so is easy to apply on the cake surface

Steamed chocolate cake with frosting

My son can't resist to try it using his hand!

daddy and zai zai - precious in my life.

yummy

Strawberry picking

Last Saturday, we brought my son to a nearby farm for strawberry picking. This was the first time for us to u-pick strawberry even though we had been in Oregon for a while. Usually we got a lot of rain in spring. So instead of picking own strawberry in a muddy field, we usually opt for a easier solution - buy the ready pick strawberry from grocery stores. This year the weather was so sunny and the temperature was just nice for a outdoor event. Most important, the field was dry. :)

We reached the farm around 9:30am and the car park already almost full. We were lucky to get a wagon for us to put our stuffs and have my son sat on it. He thought it was a train and enjoyed the ride. There were two type of strawberry: Hoods and Valley Red. We can't really differential these two species. They are so sweet and fresh. They really different compare to the strawberry we brought from grocery stall. My son couldn't resist and ate a few strawberry as we picked it. We should have wash it before letting him tried but he can't wait. 

We picked about 4 lbs of strawberry and each lb costed $1.50. So cheap! After done paying, I asked my son if he likes to pick strawberry. He said: "Yeah, can we come again tomorrow?". Hahaha...

I made strawberry swiss roll with the strawberry we picked. My son loves it so much! Yummy...

Spread the whipped cream and strawberry before rolling it.

After 3 days...

After 3 days, this is what left. My son loves this cookies so much. When I showed him this empty jar and said I will do more next time, he jumped and said: "Yeah, yeah, yeah!".

Oatmeal coconut pecan cookies

I usually prepared some healthy snacks at home for my son and hubby. Both of them sometimes will need to snack before bedtime. Instead of eating crackers, I thought homemade snack probably more healthy. So far I did granola and biscotti. I usually kept them in a jar which only lasted for 3-5 days before my hubby and son finished them. 

Another snack idea I have in mind is oatmeal cookies. I have not bake this for a while. I think the last time I baked it was when my son was few months old. The reason is I was the only one like this oatmeal cookies. Chun thought that this cookies is too dry.

I decided to try again today but add a different ingredient such as coconut in it. I toasted the shredded coconut so it will be more aromatic. Chun came back for lunch and tried this fresh from oven cookies and he loves it! Let see how long this snack gonna last.

Ingredients:

1 cup or 2 sticks of butter, melted.

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/4 cup of granulated sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 2 cups of old fashioned oats

1 cup of toasted shredded coconut

1/2 cup of pecan nuts

Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degress.

2. Melt the butter and place it in large mixing bowl. Stir in brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract and eggs. Mix till well combined.

3. Add in flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and shredded coconut. Stir until blended. Stir in oat and pecan nuts.

4. Use a spoon to drop the cookies onto the prepared baking sheet.

5. Bake till golden brown. It takes about 15-20 minutes. 

Potato rice ball

We visited Hillsboro main library every weekend. The library has a kid section and it has a couple of wooden toys for toddler to learn about color, shapes and alphabet. My son loves that and this is the main reason he wants to go library every weekend. So usually after doing our grocery, we will stop by library. Daddy will accompany my son to play the toys while enjoying a cup of coffee with doughnut holes. I will go to world language section and started looking for recipe books. 

I recently borrowed a 15 minutes easy snack recipe book and one of the recipe which seemed easy enough is this potato rice ball.  This is a Japanese style snack. I myself never try a Japanese rice ball before, not really sure how it tastes. They always have rice ball in bento and shape it into cute cartoon features like bears, bird etc. I am not that artistic yet, so this recipe should be a good try for beginner like me. 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup of white rice

2 medium size potatoes

salt to taste

2 tablespoon sesame oil

3 tablespoon corn flour

Methods:

1. Boil the potato and mash it. set aside.

2. Put the white rice into a plastic bag. Use hand to press the rice to break it till the rice becomes sticky.

3. Mix the rice with the mashed potato, salt and corn flour. 

4. Shape the mixture into a triangular or round shape. 

5. heat the frying pan with some sesame oil and pan fried the rice ball using low heat.

6. Wrap the rice ball with seaweed while it is still hot.

Steamed moist banana cake

We had been eating bread for breakfast for the past few weeks and I can see my son started to get bored. Although I was making different type pf bread such as cinnamon, chocolate swirl, whole wheat, ham and cheese, but they still bread. So I decided to do something different. I immediate thought of banana cake. I love the banana cake in Malaysia. The one that sells in a loaf and can easily get in any market. I especially like the cake texture which is fluffy and moist.

I had not bake banana cake for a while. The reason was I haven't find a recipe that produce a really moist cake. I tried using bake method to do this cake but the the cake always turn out to be dry. I was searching for banana cake recipe and happens to find that there is a steamed version of this cake. It is so simple and you can even do it without using mixer (I had a KitchenAids mixer but it is super heavy and I am lazy to bring it down from my kitchen cabinet to use it.). The cake is really moist and I think another important key is the banana need to be overripe so it will taste sweet and flagrant. 

The cake was ready by the time my son reached home. He insisted want to help mum to decorate the cake with his toy pick. By the time he was done playing with his toy pick and allowed me to cut it, I can see so many holes on the cake. (*_*) Anyway, both my hubby and son love it. They even had it as after dinner dessert!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

4 eggs

140g sugar

170g melted butter or oil or a mixture of these two (I used olive oil)

300g mashed overripe banana (about 3 bananas)

250 all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

Method:

1. Mash bananas with a fork in a bowl and set aside. Sift the flour, baking power, baking soda and salt in  another bowl.

2. Use mixer or egg beater to beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale yellow.

3. Add in melted butter/oil, mix well using spatula.

4. Add in mashed bananas.

5. Fold in sifted flour mixture. 

6. Prepare steamer in advance. Let the water boil before putting in the cake. I used a 8x8 square glass pan for the cake. Steam it at high heat for 45 to 50 minutes.

  

Steamed banana cake

My son was playing with his toy pick.

My son was decorating the cake with his toy pick. 

He showed me this and said :"Mummy, I made a train!". 

UBAH UBAH UBAH 5/5/13

Recently there is a very hot topic in Facebook - Malaysia general election (GE) 13. This topic is so hot because this was the dirtiest election ever and both parties had a very close race. 5th May was also the darkest day in Malaysia history.

Let me confessed something first before I continue, I didn't register as voter and hence I had never vote before. I missed the vote registration period for GE 12 because I was in US for relocation and by the time I back to Malaysia, the registration was closed. Since I am married to Chun and will stay in US, I don't register after that as I was thinking it probably hard for me to go back since I am so far away. So I am not voting this time too. Trust me, I felt guilty and bad. 

Malaysia local media (newspaper and TV) are controlled by government. So it doesn't show us the truth news. News are getting "manipulated" before published on paper and TV.  Photo and video were getting edited to FOOL people and information published were always pro government. The funniest thing is some real news can only be found through media oversea and not in Malaysia local media. Here is a great example from a recent black Wednesday rally and what media said about this news:

TV3 news : only 1000 people attended

Utusan : 2000 people attended and the rally FAILED! haha

Sin Chiew : 50,000 attended. china press: 200,000 attended.

Singapore news: 100,000 attended

The truth! Do you agree that this crowd is 1k or 2k as claimed by TV3 and Utusan?

Since existing medias are not reporting the real news, new newspaper website such as Malaysia Kini, Merdeka review started to show up. They offer quality reporting and reveal the truth of Malaysia politic. People especially the younger generation who use internet are exposed to the truth of Malaysia politic. News about corruption no longer hiding under the carpet. Social network like Facebook also play a very important role of spread the news especially to Malaysian in oversea. So even though we are in US, we are quite up-to-date with what is happening in Malaysia especially Chun. He will read MalaysiaKini everyday and watched youtube video on politic talks during election campaign. 

In GE 13 election, there were a lot of dirty tricks done by government in order to remain in power to govern Malaysia. Among the tricks they had: imported foreigner workers and give them IC to allow them to vote, openly bribe people to vote for them by give them money, free meals etc, created a lot of phantom voter in state that won by opposition, had addition ballot box coming in from no where when they were losing and the most ridiculous was have black out in the middle of counting vote and suddenly the vote count number became different. All kind of dirty tricks you can or cannot think of appeared in this election which made people really angry, sad and disappointment with the result and democratic. 

There were something different in this election. I started seeing people talk about a clean and fair government. They no longer playing racial card and spoke as Malaysian instead of Malay, Chinese and Indian. I was so touched when seeing Malaysians are so united this time to perform their duty as voters (higher voting rate this time), involved in politic talks to know about what government had done to us and helped to catch "ghost" (foreigner voter). They will fighting to save our country and future for children . People started to speak up and wanted their voice to be heard. Even my mum who is not high educated person and didn't expose to internet started to tell me that BN is so dirty and there were a lot of corruption happening. I was really surprised. She usually didn't care about politic but this time she said we should vote them out. My friend's Yen Ping's mum even took effort to educated the foreign workers who are guards in their housing area to not vote for BN even though they have received money from BN. But I knew that there still people who vote for BN for their own advantages. For example, a boss in local car company asking their employee to vote for BN because if PK win, the car price is gonna dropped and people will start buying import car and they will lose their job. Teachers are threaten to vote for BN because they work for government. Rich people with luxury life style and high education urge to vote for BN because they already have the "network" set up for their kang tao and if PK wins, they have to rebuild a new "network". Shame on these selfish people whose betray their heart for money and also so short sighted. 

Me and Chun were in US during the election day. Both of us stayed up late to get latest update from news website and facebook on the election. We were really anxious and hope that even though there were so many dirty tricks played by BN, somehow PK will still win. Unfortunately this was not what happening. After the blackout that happened in the middle of counting vote, BN suddenly won by a lot. In a few places where PK was initially leading by a lot in vote compare to BN suddenly lost after the blackout. Blackout trick when vote counting is in progress was no new to Malaysia politic. Someone started using this since last election and more people continue to use the same trick this time. So BN still won majority seats in parliment. But based on the total vote, PK won ~51% and BN won ~46%. And interesting is the total vote and total voter are different. The number of voter was less than the vote their received. There were addition of 250 thousand phantom vote. That's a lot! Without these phantom votes, UBAH operation may have succeed! This is really frustrating when  we knew that there were so many fraud in this election and yet we can't do anything about it. The government and SPR just don't care the noise people made. 

This unfair election made me think about my uni life. Whoever went to local university will know what I am talking about. We were living under the same threaten from lecturers and workers there. We didn't dare to fight or voice out because afraid that lecturers will mark us and failed us. Lecturers wrote something wrong on board, no one will point out. Lecturer scolded us for no reason with harsh words, we had to keep quiet. I remembered one of my friend had a very bad grade for one of the subject and she happened to find her exam paper outside of lecturer room and her paper showed she should get A instead. She brought the paper to see the lecturer. Guess what the lecturer said? He said if she complaint again, he will make her fail and retake the subject. My friend can't do anything, she walked out with tears in her eyes and can only blame for being bad luck. On my graduation day, I was so happy mainly because I was so done with this kind of life for 5 years and I am free now. This is exactly the same thing our government is doing to Malaysian now. The only difference is in uni, we knew we can get out of this life in 5 years time when we graduated. But with this government, we can't unless we overthrow them. 

It had been 3 days since the election, the voice from people never stop. I wish the voice continue so something can be done for a clean re-election. Really thankful and salute those PK leaders. They fought for whole life and yet they never give up. So we shouldn't give up as well so easily!

My heart is always with all Malaysian who willing to fight for a better future. I promise to do my part as well. I will make sure I register as voter the next time I am going back to Malaysia!

UBAH UBAH UBAH! FIGHTING FIGHTING FIGHTING!

65 degree Tang Zhong Bread

Even though I am working in technology company, I had to admit that I am very outdated with phone apps. I heard about WhatsApp app from my siblings and friends for a long time, but never use it before since I don't have an iphone or Android phone. I usually don't use laptop at night especially when my son is still awake. Hence I had been "disconnected" with my friends for a while. They usually dropped me a message in facebook but we can't do live chat like we used to be. My friends kept asking me if I have WhatsApp and we can message each other using that.

Last two months, I happened to know that there is a way of using WhatsApp for Ipad 2. I am so happy about that and started to surf online on step by step to download WhatsApp for my Ipad. Thanks for those who share the tips online, I managed to have this app installed. I am back "online" and continue to stay connected with my sibling and friends. 

We created two main chat groups: forever hot chick which consists of my middle school friends and forever hot mama for those friends that have upgraded to mummy. There is always a little delay in my response due to time zone difference. Is day time in Malaysia when I am at sleep via versus. People said three lady will create a pasar. Since we have ~12 people in the chat group, you can imagine how many pasar there. Sometimes I woke up in the morning and found that I have few hundreds of new messages. I have to scroll back to read the long message thread. :) We talked about a lot of things in the chat room including sharing of news happening among our friends, recipes, asking questions or opinions about something, politics talk etc. WhatsApp makes me feel that I am so closed to my friends and family even though physically we are thousand miles apart.

Yen Ping is one of my very closed buddy that used to sit besides me in classroom during F4 and F5. She is one of the friend that is very active in our chat room. Hence, she earned a new name: our mamapedia since she knows so many parenting tips, baking and cooking tips. She is also my personal search engine for recipes that she had tested and guarantee to work. All I have to do is tell her what I want to make and she will find the right recipes for me. Much efficient that Google search. :p 

I always wanted to make bread/bun that is soft, moist and will continue to stay soft for a few days. I had tried so many recipe online for soft bread but none of them satisfied me. They usually soft for 1-2 hours after bake and will get harden after that. I had to microwave it to make it soft again. But this made the bread dry. So I asked Yen Ping for help and she immediately shared two recipes that she tested before. Yen Ping's recipe uses a starter dough which is a dough that need to prepare up front by cooking the bread flour with some water/milk and add this starter dough when making the bread dough. This is the main difference in Yen Ping's recipe compare to online recipe I tried before and is called 65C tang zhong method.  I tried this 65C tang zhong method and it indeed produce a bread that is soft for 2-3 days. I am so happy and satisfied.

I started using the same dough recipe to do more different style of bread such as cinnamon bun, chocolate bun, wheat bun etc. My hubby started complaint that he is gaining weight as he can't resist the yummy bread and kept sneaking into kitchen to eat the bread after dinner. :) 

Here is the recipe I used:

Tang Zhong starter:

Ingredient:

50g bread flour

250ml water or milk

Method:

1. Mix flour and water/milk till it is smooth in a small saucepan.

2. Cook over medium heat and stir with hand whisk. Keep stirring till you see streaks in the mixture for every stir you make. this will produce a 65C tang zhong.

3. Set aside to let it cool to room temperature before using it.

Bread dough:

200g white bread flour *

170g wheat bread flour *

30g gluten flour *

Tang Zhong starter 

160ml milk

1/4 tsp salt

50g sugar

2 tsp yeast

40g butter

* you can use 400g white bread flour if you don't want to use wheat flour.

Method:

1. Place all ingredients in bread machine or knead it if you don't use a bread machine.

2. After the dough proof, shape the dough in any shape you like. you can add filing like cinnamon or chocolate and shape them.

3. let it proof for another 20 minutes. 

4. Bake at 350F for about 25 mins.

After shaping it

Proof it before bake

More bread styles that I made:

Cinnamon pecan bun before bake

After bake

Chocolate swirl bun

Home grow wheat grass

I love wheat grass juice. I used to buy one bottle of wheat grass juice whenever dining outside in Malaysia. It tastes sweet and has a special green aroma like pandan leaves. I have not drinking wheatgrass juice for a long time. I did notice that local groceries store like New Seasons is selling wheat grass plant but never really know how people using it.

Last week, I was searching for healthy breakfast idea online and came across a blog on growing wheat grass at home. It seems easy enough for a brown thumb like me. I watched a copule of youtube video on how to grow it and decided to get a wheat grass starter kits to try out. The starter kit comes with came with growing tray with drain holes, organic wheat grass seed, organic growing mix, Azomite (natural trace mineral fertilizer) and step by step instruction on growing wheat grass.

Here are the steps:

1. Rinse the 2 cup of wheat seed for 2-3 times and soak it in a bowl for 6-8 hours.

2. Drain off the water and rinse for a few time before putting it back to the bowl without water. Cover it with wet paper towel and let sprout 24 hours. Plant the seed anytime during the next day

after leaving it for 24 hours. Sprout started to show up.

3. Prepare the growing tray by filling it with about 1 inch of soil. Sprinkle Azomite over the soil, evenly. 

add soil

sprinkle Azomite

 4. Spread the sprouted wheat grass seed over the top of the soil and not buried them under soil.

Day 1 of planting

close up photo on how the sprouted wheat grass seed looks like

5. Put 4 layer of paper towel on top of the seed. Water right through the paper towels till the water drips from the bottom of the tray.

Day 3: Put paper towel on top of the seed

6. For the next three days, it is important to keep paper towels wet. If the paper towel dry out, the root hairs on the sprout will dry out and the grass will not come up well. On second or third day, take the paper towels off and water the grass and then place the paper towel for one more day.

Day 4 of planting

7. When the grass is 1-2 inches tall, remove the paper towel and expose to indirect light. Water it once per day until water drips from the bottom.

Day 5

Day 6

8. Harvest the grass when it is six to seven inches tall and start juicing it.
9. Wheat grass growth rate will slow down and the taste will degrade after the grass is harvested. So need to replant after 2 harvest.

I am so amazed by how fast the growth rate of this wheat grass. You can actually notice the difference within a day. I felt so satisfied seeing the green grass growing up each day. :)

I cut the grass, wash it, blend it with water using blender and strain it to get the juice. It tasted like spinach and a little bit of sweetness. I blended a banana or honey dew with the wheat grass juice and it tasted like milk shake. Yummy!

There are the wheat grass benefits that I found online:

1. Wheatgrass Benefits #1: Wheatgrass Builds Blood: Many health experts have highlighted that the chlorophyll molecule in wheatgrass is almost identical to the haemoglobin molecule in human blood. The only difference is that the central element in chlorophyll is magnesium and in haemoglobin it is iron. Due to this inherent similarity the human body can easily transform chlorophyll into haemoglobin increasing the red blood cell count as well as the blood’s capacity to deliver oxygen and other nutrients to the body’s cells (Hagiwara, 1985) .
   Chlorophyll has been shown to build red blood cells quickly, normaliseblood pressure by dilating the blood pathways though out the body, destroy poisonous carbon dioxide, release free oxygen and promote higher metabolism and stimulated enzyme systems. On top of all of these benefits, consuming chlorophyll from wheatgrass is a highly effective way to alkalise the blood and energise the body!
2. Wheatgrass Benefits #2: Wheatgrass Cleanses the Body: Wheatgrass is an extremely beneficial food in terms of both its cleansing capabilities. The contents of wheatgrass juice and powder (green drink) are reported to be within the region of approximately 100 separate elements with scientists dubbing it a ‘complete food’. According to ‘The Wheatgrass Book’ (Wigmore, 1985), just 140g of fresh wheatgrass offers the same nutritional value as over 3kg’s of fresh green vegetables! Thats a great way to get your daily fresh vegetable quota rocking – all from one wheatgrass shot.
   Wheatgrass is a great source of vitamins B, C, E and carotene which are hugely effective in destroying and eliminating free radicals and cleansing the body. Wheatgrass is also highly regarded for its ability to cleanse the blood, organs and gastrointestinal tract.
   Because it is also high in saponin, wheatgrass offers excellent support to the lymphatic system, helping to carry away hundreds and thousands of toxins from the cells of the body. Kulvinskas (Survival into the 21st Century, 1975) wheatgrass helps to ‘detoxify the body by increasing the elimination of hardened mucous, crystallised acids and solidified, decaying faecal matter…It is the fastest, surest way to eliminate internal waste and provide an optimum nutritional environment’.
   These are just some of the cleansing wheatgrass benefits, and I have barely scratched the surface with regards to listing its nutritional content. Put most simply, whether you are looking to undertake a formal cleanse, or simply try to add more nutrition to your diet – these reasons alone are enough to consider adding wheatgrass to your daily lifestyle.
3. Wheatgrass Benefits #3: Wheatgrass Has High Amino Acid Content:: You may have heard the expression before that – amino acids are the building blocks of protein. They are absolutely essential to our growth and cell regeneration. It is the astonishingly high amino acid content in wheatgrass that is leading to many bodybuilders and gym-goers incorporating fresh (a wheatgrass shot) or wheatgrass powder into their daily routine.
   Wheatgrass benefits are so impactful because it is a complete protein and contains, amongst others, the following amino acids: arginine, serine, absenisic, lysine, aspartic acid, glycine, alanine, methionine, leucine, tryptophane, phenylalanine, and valine.
4. Wheatgrass Benefits #4: Wheatgrass Fights and Protects Against Illness: Organic wheatgrass powders and juices are an extremely effective way of boosting the body’s immune system to fight against and recover from illnesses and ailments. Wheatgrass is a great source of beta carotene, contains most of the B vitamins and vitamins C, E, H and K, and also contains over 90 different minerals and 19 amino acids. It also contains several active enzymes which play a major role in breaking down fats, undertaking biological functions and assist hugely in weight loss. Of the 90 minerals found, many of these are very alkalising and include calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium and iron.
   Many of the health benefits of wheatgrass stem from the fact that it is a living food. Being highly anti-bacterial, consuming wheatgrass will help to alkalise and detoxify the lymph and blood cells, helping the body to rebuild and transport toxins out of the body quickly and effectively.
   Again, coming back to the chlorophyll content of wheatgrass – this can protect the body from carcinogens more effectively than any other food. Studies conducted on animals have shown that wheatgrass consumption has reduced the absorption of a number of very serious carcinogens whilst strengthening cells, detoxifying the liver and neutralising polluting elements within the blood.
   

   
   

Granola recipe

I love granola. But the granola that I got from grocery stores is always too sweet. I tried out several granola recipes that I found online, this is the recipe I like the most. It is easy to do and it smells really good. I reduced the sugar from original recipe by half. So it is not too sweet.

Ingredients:
2 egg
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon canola oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup toasted oat
2/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup toasted pecans
1/4 cup sliced almond nut
1/4 cup toasted coconut flakes
1/4 cup toasted sesame seed
1 tablespoon all purpose flour

Direction:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Toast oat, pecan nuts, almond nuts, sesame seed and coconut flakes separately till fragrant.
3. In a large bowl, whisk egg. brown sugar, oil, salt and vanilla extract. Stir in toasted oats, dried cranberries, sesame seeds, nuts and flour.
4. spread in prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool and cut into bars.

you can substitute or add more nuts based on your preference.

Before baking.

after baking