What’s With All This Quinoa Craze? (RECIPE INSIDE!)

And yes of course, I had to try it. And it tastes good! Okay I mean not half bad. The quinoa tastes bland when eaten on its own, like all rice and it’s substitutes, so I had to make it into a stir fry. You should know this about me: I LIVE FOR FRIED RICE. And since I don’t take carbs that often now, it got me thinking why not? Plus I already have quinoa lying around for quite some time now, might as well just use it. So here we go - some snippet of the end result (just an insta video cause I’m too stoked to plate it out and snap a pretty picture of it, maybe next time?) follow me on instagram if you havent! Link at sidebar ------>

Serves 2
15 mins

1 cup quinoa
1 1/2 cup water

1 tsp oil of choice
2 cloves garlic
1/4 inch grated ginger
3 Spring onions, chopped
300 grams sliced beef
Handful of veges - I used cut cabbage, frozen peas and julienned carrots
4 tbsp light Soy sauce
1 tsp Sesame oil
Salt pepper
1 Birds eye chili (optional)
4 tbsp beef broth (optional)


Method:

Run the quinoa with tap water to remove bitterness
Combine quinoa + water in a saucepan (or beef broth, I just added some towards the end for flavour)
Simmer 15 mins w lid closed
When done, fluff up the quinoa and set aside to cool

Heat up oil in a pan
Sauté garlic and ginger
Add beef and green onions, stir for 5 minutes or until beef no longer pink
Combine soy sauce + sesame oil
Add mixture to beef
When beef is cooked, add chili, veges and quinoa
Stir for few minutes to let veges cook (add water/beef broth if dry)
Season with salt and pepper to taste

I wanted to add in eggs but I just love the flavour and colour already so I skipped it. Feel free to add in and use some other veges if you like! My mum told me if the recipe already calls for soy sauce, you can omit the salt but it depends on you really. For my liking the soy sauce is enough so I didn’t add any to mine. I love how the bitter taste of the quinoa perfectly goes along with the beef and also the pepper. I put extra to make it feel like black pepper beef before adding in the quinoa and veges. Have fun trying and comment below if you’ve tried it! Here's to healthy eating! 

Xx Alhana

I'm Getting Married!

in exactly 54 days... you do the math.

OMG i can't believe it I'm actually getting wedding jitters right now. And its too late to change my mind (i mean even from the start its already too late cause yknow theres feelings involved LOL) but like yeah, this is really happening. It's real life guys. And for the past 6 months that I've been working (yes it has been that long) I've been doing mostly mundane stuff, nothing out of the ordinary, basic 830 AM to 530 PM jobs, 5 day work week and its really stressing me out sometimes. I'll tell you why in a bit. Lets get back to the part where I'm excited for my WEDDING YAY!

So basically i haven't really been updating anywhere or anyone about the details of my wedding preparation. I just have an excel sheet, some notes on my phone of all the never ending list of things to do and that's just it. I'll have a monthly update with the fiance on our progress just to make sure we have everything listed, and nothing gets left out you know. The last thing you wanna have on your wedding day is to go - wait where my ___? oh no. nope. not in my wedding preparation book. And plus, i have a suuuper organised mother, who takes care of things down to a T, yes i mean that. But then that also means less work for me cause she basically does half of the planning for me and I well, have just to go along with it. It is kinda exhausting but I stuck with it cause its gonna be my wedding anyway. Not that I didn't have any fun planning my wedding hehe but it was less stressful than I thought it would be. I don't really have any bridezilla moments (yet?) and the only time we're like even remotely close to fighting is just things relating to money. It really is a big issue since my mom is paying for like a huge chunk of my wedding. My power of authority only covers things that I'm paying for which includes gifts for the hubs, my solemnization dais and other teeny weeny stuffs. Lol. Theres more of stuffs that looks like I'm paying from my own pocket, but its also the same pocket that my mum fills in every month so... you get the idea. But really, it's not all bad, because the way i think of it is like the ceremony is hers to begin with. It's to celebrate me getting married as her daughter, not the other way around. I'm just happy that she's finally letting me go on an unsupervised trip with some guy she just knew after all of this is over. LOL

So yes, i'm basically super stoked that i finally get to marry the man of my dreams and head on to the next adventure of my life. Apart from that, remember all the things i said about being kinda stressed about work at times? Well the wedding plans has definitely helped with some of the stress, but I've really been thinking of venturing out to other ways to fill my time rather than aimlessly scrolling through social media just as a mean of "resting". I'm even thinking of starting my own YouTube channel! Wait for it, you might not know whats there to come. I really feel tired living this way, it really feels like i'm not living my best life. But I don't really have anything to complain about since I don't have to pay for rent and transportation but thats just how I feel. Hope that you guys don't take this the wrong way. Hehe

Well its almost 530PM (lol i'm blogging at work since i completed mine for the day) and its time to head home. Wish me luck guys! Until next time my dear readers, I love you all xxx

Alhana