Japanese donburi for dinner

Yesterday for dinner we had a couple of friends over and we decided to indulge in some Japanese food. We actually ended up getting takeaway from this place in the city called Ramen Do- Real Japanese. I love Japanese Food and I have never really found a good donburi. Sure I've had lots of great sushi but never a good donburi place but I think I've finally found it. Ramen Do- You rock! The price is also quite reasonable. I had a GrabOne Coupon but original price is only $12 bucks I think which is a bargain for good food and you get a really big bowl. I'm really impressed.  In case you don't know what donburi is, it is basically rice with some salad and lots of meat. You can get chicken, fish, pork and lots of other delicious toppings.

Check out their website if you like Japanese Food-http://www.ramendo.co.nz/menu

I got the Karrage Chicken Donburi which was so freaking good.It was basically deep fried chicken in soy sauce and it was so amazing. The chicken was really nice and not overcooked.

 

My friend actually go the Katsu donburi which is deep fried pork cutlets and it looks so good. She let me try some and it was really good. I preferred the chicken but the pork was nice and cripsy and had a great balance of salt and sweet.

Easy lunch idea-avacado and tuna toast

Today for lunch I had a little more time to spend. Whenever I have time for a meal I always try to make it healthy and delicious. Sadly today there wasn't much in the fridge so I whipped up this open toasted sandwich ( I have no idea what this is called?). You can tell I was really scrounging around since one piece of bread is multigrain and one is white. They  were the last pieces of bread left in the pantry. 

I placed two pieces of bread in a sandwich maker and on top of that I slice up some avocado, mushrooms and used some leftover lemon pepper tuna. For the mushrooms I'm not comfortable eating raw mushrooms so I boiled them in some water for one minute just so they were cooked. On top of everything I placed some nice cheese. I leave it in the toasted sandwich maker for 5 minutes just so the bread gets nice and crisper and the cheese is melting. 

And voila! This is such an easy healthy lunch and I just love to make this when I have an empty fridge because it only requires a few ingredients but it is so yummy! You can totally customise what you put on top of your toast. In the past I have used leftover chicken, cucumber, fresh tomatoes, and capsicum and it always tastes good. 

Comment below what you like to make for lunch and if you decide to try this please comment below with a picture. I would love to see different takes on this!

Easy and Quick Gingerbread Men

In the middle of winter there is nothing better than a good gingerbread cookie. Now I am really picky about my gingerbread cookies. They have to be soft and warming but still gingery and sweet. I know that the 'American' gingerbread men recipe contains molasses but molasses are a rare and hated thing in my house. I think it's a New Zealand thing? I know most of my friends have no clue what they are. Anyway when I first began to make gingerbread recipes I bought a jar of molasses and I tried a couple of 'American' recipes that called for 1/2 cup of molasses and for someone who doesn't like the taste of molasses they all turned out horribly. Even my brother who will eat anything didn't eat them. I think it's because here in New Zealand we don't have the taste for traditional gingerbread. Instead I found this perfect recipe from Zoella last Christmas and since then I have made these cookies 4 times. These gingerbread men are so delicious. The molasses flavour is hidden underneath the ginger and cinnamon but still provides a warm spice. This recipe is really different because it is made on the stove but it works and makes cleanup much easier as everything is in one pot!

As I said this recipe is from Zoella but I've altered it a little bit. I found that this recipe makes about 50 small gingerbread men. it definitely makes heaps so if you want less you can halve recipe. These are so yummy You should definitely try these. If you do comment below and tell me what you think!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup of brown sugar

2 tablespoons of golden syrup (I prefer to use honey)

1 tablespoon of molasses

1 tablespoon of water

1 teaspoon of cinnamon 

1 heaped teaspoon of ginger

100g of butter

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1 3/4 cups of flour

Mix everything except baking soda and flour in a bowl.

and melt it over a low heat.

When everything is melted add the baking soda and stir quickly. It should change into a golden colour. Once everything is combined take it off the heat. 

Slowly add the flour until it makes a dough and roll it out. Take a cookie cutter and make some cookies!

Place them into an oven for 8 minutes. Check them constantly because they burn easily. If you want the soft and chewy bake them for 6 minutes.

And Voila! 

For the icing I used one cup of icing sugar, one teaspoon of lemon juice and 2 tablespoon on milk. I prefer a lemon icing because the sourness goes perfectly with the warm ginger spice.

I love the way they turned out. I think they are super cute and fun for a lazy winter day!

Easy pasta salad

For lunch today I decided to be healthy and make a pasta salad. This was super easy and I just used whatever we had in the fridge. I tried to make the dressing a little bit healthy by mixing a couple of tablespoons of mayo with some Greek yoghurt and it actually tasted really delicious. 

First I boiled the water and made pasta as normal.

We had some frozen green beans so i thawed them and then fried them with some button mushrooms.

To the pasta I added about half a can of corn, leftover takeaway duck, and some tuna.

For dressing I used 2 tablespoon of mayo mixed with half a cup of yoghurt and some garlic pepper.

And voila! Easy and healthy pasta salad.

Dessert at Frasers

Last night the family and I went out for dessert at Frasers cafe and Espresso bar on Mt Eden road to celebrate getting an A in my first semester at uni. The place was so crowded for a Tuesday night, every table was full and people were turned away. And there was a good reason it was packed. The food was amazing and reasonably priced as well which is a bonus. 

I ordered the warmed chocolate came with vanilla ice cream and warmed chocolate sauce. It was so delicious on a cold winter night. It was $13. 

My mum ordered the lemon tart for only $7 and they gave us a huge slice! It had the perfect sweetness balanced with he sourness of the lemon. Totally worth it.

DIY berry smoothie

Today we finally got some sun here in Auckland after lots and lots of rain so I decided to treat myself with a bright berry smoothie for breakfast. This is super delicious and really quick.

Ingridents:

A large Handful of berries ( I used a mix of strawberry and raspberry)

Half a cup of orange juice

One pot of yoghurt

One banana

One small apple

One teaspoon of cinnamon 

Half a cup of coconut water

Mix and blend thoroughly.

I really love this recipe because it is sweet but healthy. The banana helps me to stay full for a long time. Plus I love the bright pink colour!

Chinese Steam Boat Feast

"Laughter is the brightest where food is the best"

Had a great feast with our neighbors before they move out. I am going to miss them so much even though we've only been neighbours for a couple of years. To say goodbye we invited them over and had traditional Chinese Steam Boat. Steam Boat is basically a mini stove in the middle of the table (in this case we had two- one for the adults and one for the kids). On top of the stove is a big pot full of boiling water and it's basically an all you can eat buffet. Whatever you wanna eat you can put into the pot and it only takes a minute to cook, and then you can dip it into difference sauces. It is actually quite a healthy way to eat because there is no oils or fats, just cooking with boiling water. We had prawns, mussels, fish balls, tofu balls, spinach, squid (as you can tell, lots of seafood), vermicelli noodles, cooked duck and chicken, bean sprouts, crab sticks and lots of other goodies. It was a great night to say goodbye to our neighbors!

 

 

Family Time

Since it's the holidays I have decided to literally do no work for one entire week. During the term it is just go go go and everyone needs a break otherwise I will crash and burn. Hence why I spent today with my family and closest family friends playing fun games and eating good food. We played rummikub. If you havent played this game before its basically like scrabble except with numbers with a little luck and lot of brains. For my first time let me tell you that I was a boss although i was playing with people younger than me hmmm? Can't say the same for mario kart though. I swear I'm a better driver than this game shows me to be. Damn kids these days are so much better at video games than me. Sigh. For lunch I made pasta bake and omg it was so good. Comfort food and hot chocolate on a rainy day always is though.

Music Mania

In music news I am currently loving Be Okay by Oh Honey. I first heard this song on glee a month ago and instantly fell in love with it. It is so bright and cheery and is just a perfect pick me up for my mid winter blues. I highly recommend this song. My favourite line is the chorus "can't complain about much these days, I believe we will be okay" and damn ain't that the truth. 

Fifth Harmony's Boss music video came out yesterday and I can't make up my mind about. The song took me a while to get used to but now I love it. The beat is super catchy, super sassy and just fun. I love their message and I love how they stand for girl power. I've been a big fan since xfactor and I love the girls but I don't think this music video does them justice. I do love their sass in the video though. Also I am a little concerned about how provocative they are dressing in the video which sort of contradicts how they want people to respect them? But I still love them and can't wait to hear their new music. 

One music video I am loving is Megan and Liz's Simple Life video. Holy moly it is so beautiful. I fell in love with the song the moment I heard it. The music video totally does the song justice. They look gorgeous in the video and I'm really glad they kept the storyline really simple so the music and lyrics shone. I've been big fans of megan and liz for a long time but their new music is really good and throwback to their music that they first started writing and putting out which I'm really glad since I think it suits them better. This video is like a giant instagram party! I really love it. My favourite line is " I'd leave this all behind to just live that simple life". In case you can't tell i really love cheesy lyrics but the melody really suits the lyrics. P.S I'm such a sucker for country music and this totally fits that genre.