Ah, bacon. Salty, streaky strips of pork that makes our mouths water and our knees weak. There’s no doubt that bacon is a tasty treat but all that fat, sodium and cholesterol may cause trouble in the long term. Hence, we’ve put together 5 easy, bacon-infused recipes that will not wreck your waistline or health, yet allow you to indulge in the goodness of bacon.
Perfect for parties and potlucks, the Bacon Broccoli Salad is a great make-ahead recipe with an Asian influence. The tender crisp broccoli florets, rocket leaves and bacon bits tossed in a sweet soy-sesame mix creates an irresistible salad combination. For extra jazz, we like to add toasted almond silvers and dried cranberries.
Ingredients
Boil the broccoli florets in a large pot of salted water for 1 minute and plunge the florets into an ice bath to stop the cooking process. Drain well, set aside and start to crisp bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. Remove, drain on kitchen paper towels and roughly chop. Then, whisk together soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, seasoned rice vinegar and minced ginger in a large bowl. Add in the bacon, broccoli florets and rocket leaves. Toss well and serve warm or chilled.
Plain green beans meet bacon – a wonderful treat to serve as canapés at your social gathering or as an accompaniment to your weeknight main meal. If you’re not a fan of beans, replace with asparagus spears.
Ingredients
Preheat your oven to 190°C and grease your baking tray. Steam the green beans till tender and set aside. Wrap 6 green beans with a halved strip of bacon and transfer to baking tray. Repeat with all green beans then bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until bacon is crisp. Sprinkle some kosher salt and coarse black pepper over each bean bundle to taste.
Is there anything more delicious and fun for a quick breakfast? These muffins include all the breakfast foods that will shake up your wake up.
Makes 12 muffins
Ingredients
Preheat your oven to 200°C and grease your muffin tin well. Cook the bacon for 5 minutes over medium heat, aim for a flexible but not raw texture. Then, cut circles of bread with a cookie cutter to fit your muffin tin and lay a circle of bread in each muffin cup. Wrap a bacon rasher around the edge of each muffin cup and add tomatoes. Last but not least, crack an egg into each cup and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. For a more cooked yolk, bake for a longer time.
Need more inspiration for the bacon in the fridge? Try the Bacon & Pea Pasta recipe. Al dente spaghetti, garden peas and crisp bacon bits are tossed in a beautiful mint and lemon sauce that’s light on the stomach but full of flavour.
Serves 4
Ingredients
Boil the spaghetti in a large saucepan of salted water until al dente. Add the peas in the final 2 minutes of cooking. Drain, set aside pasta and reserve ¼ cup of pasta water. In another large pan, crisp bacon over medium heat. Remove, drain on kitchen paper towels and roughly chop. Toss bacon back into pan and add onion, garlic, lemon rind and reserved pasta water. Simmer ingredients for 8 minutes or so, then add the mixture to pasta. Combine the mint, stir well and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm.
These Brussel sprouts are pan-roasted until golden, then doused in a tangy cider vinaigrette and topped with crisp bacon. They are so addictive, it’s hard not to join the ranks of Brussel sprouts lovers and eat the entire lot before you serve them. Leftovers (if any) make delicious additions to salads!
Ingredients
Crisp bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. Remove, drain on kitchen paper towels and roughly chop. In the same pan with all the bacon grease, melt butter over high heat. Add onions and Brussel sprouts (cut side down), cook for 10 minutes or until sprouts turn golden brown. Stir in the apple cider vinegar, season with salt and pepper, and toss bacon back into pan for a minute more. Serve warm.
Let us know which recipe was your personal favourite and do share your food photos with us. For the extra health-conscious individual, wash down the bacon grease in your belly with some of our herbal teas. A warm mug of Ginger Rooibos or Blue Ocean tea should do the trick!
Written by Valerie Tan
We have officially reached the month of December! Aka the Christmas month (no seriously it is Christmas every single day in December. Google it, it's the era of awesomeness.) You'll hear jingle bells, 'Santa baby's, 'All I Want for Christmas is You's and of course the iconic Mean Girls video that is bound to be recreated by many groups of people (myself included *winks*) Enjoy lovely strolls down Orchard Road with the beautiful Christmas lights and decorations and eat all the yummy goodies to your hearts' content! It's been a hard year, and we all deserve a nice break. December is also a reminder that 2017 is coming to an end, and 2018 is coming soon! Over the year if you've accumulated a lot of things from your online shopping, then I'm sure you are in dire need to tidy up your house before the new year starts. What better way to welcome a new year with a neat and clean house! A clean house is a happy house and a happy house makes a happy person.
If you feel overwhelmed, anxious, and defeated around the idea of decluttering your homes, don't be! There are so many benefits of a clean tidy house: you have less to clean, less debt, less to organize, less stress, more money and energy for your greatest passions. And of course a neat house is pleasing to the eye and perhaps even the soul. However, looking at the disastrous state of your home may leave you wondering: how in the world should I even begin?! Fret not, your girl has your back!
Take 5-1o minutes to walk around your house and mentally decide what things you definitely need or don't need. Keep in mind that you should declutter room by room for maximum efficiency.
Grab a ton of boxes or bags to place all the unwanted items. (bonus points if you separate your items into recyclables, donations, resell and trash) A lot of us are guilty of impulse buying and sometimes these things are hardly used, so why not give it to someone else who could make great use of it? You are doing a great deed and you can clean your house at the same time, killing two birds with one stone. You could also recycle them or even start a garage sale to sell a few valuable items and earn back some of the money you spent.
Commit to your goal of decluttering, as it might take a few days (Rome wasn't built in a day you know!) So set mental goals for yourself, give deadlines for each room and it'll become a more tangible goal with minimal risk of procrastination.
Before I give you some tips to declutter each room, let me share some of the usual pitfalls in decluttering as well as how to overcome them.
Sunk costs are costs that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Many of the things in our houses are sunk costs except for rare instances where the value of an item increases over time (like gold). A lot of people tend to fixate on the money they spent on their belongings and can't bear to get rid of them. Over time your things will accumulate and you'll get closer and closer to being a hoarder. *gasps* So, since you can't get your money back, you should only think about the value that thing can add to your life in the future. If it doesn't add much value, toss it. Understanding this concept of sunk costs can help you make more rational decisions about what to keep and what you should toss as well as a means to control your impulse spending in the future.
We generally only wear 20% of the clothes we own, 80% of the time. (The comfy loose t-shirts, sweatpants and shorts) And this rule applies to other items too, like bags, games, CDs, etc. Your mission is to figure out what the 80% of things that you only use 20% of the time are and toss them appropriately.
Bathroom Tips
There you have it, some great tips and guidelines to help you reel in the new year with a clean, clutter-free house. Everything mentioned is most definitely doable so put your mind to it and get cracking!
Let's admit it, we all have that one friend in our lives that could have walked straight out of a L'Oreal advertisement. With long silky locks that move in slow-motion every time she flicks her hair, we can only watch in envy (and slight jealousy) as we admit to ourselves that we can never be her.
In the age of blow-drying, extreme bleaching and crazy dye jobs, being that girl requires a whole lot more effort that many of us do not have the time (or commitment) for. Before you despair over your frizzy hair, consider the following few steps that you can easily incorporate into your daily routine that may help to revive your hair. Regard these rules as the 'holy grail' to getting luscious locks, and you're on your way!
The perennial question bugging experts: how often should we wash our hair? After much debate, the optimal number of times is determined to be 2-3 times a week. On days when you are not shampooing your hair, tuck your tresses into a shower cap as water can cause your hair to be frizzy and prone to breakage. Opt for dry shampoo to keep your scalp fresh and oil-free.
Washing your hair too often strips your hair of its natural oils which are produced to to condition and protect your locks, experts say. This can result in your hair over-producing oils, which can create a vicious cycle of oil-production and shampooing.
Thus, for optimal hair condition, shampoo your hair 2-3 times a week. This, however, definitely depends on how often you exercise and your hair type - so vary accordingly!
Be smart about your shampooOpt for sulfate-free shampoo for shiny and luscious hair. Sulfates can dry out your hair and strip it of essential oils, causing your hair to be dry and damage-prone. It can also remove shine from coloured hair, causing it to look dull. Thus, opt for a mild sulfate-free shampoo that will rejuvenate your scalp. Be sure to shampoo only your scalp and not the ends of your hair!
Image cred: Karla Alexander on Unsplash
While hot water might be a great way to relax at the end of a long day, it is a big 'NO' for your hair. Blasting hot water at your tresses will damage it the same way heat styling treatments do - it dries out our hair and creates tangles that can result in breakage.
This rule applies especially when conditioning: rinse conditioner off with cold water to allow moisture from the conditioner to be better absorbed by your ends. Also, towel-dry your hair before conditioning, for excess water prevents the conditioner from being absorbed by your hair.
Part of achieving healthy hair is brushing your locks regularly - but make sure not to tear through them. When your hair is wet, make sure to use a wide-toothed comb (NOT a brush!), working from the ends of your hair up, as it is more vulnerable to damage and breakage. Use a brush only when your hair is dry to work through tangles.
Instead of wrapping your wet hair up with your towel, use an old T-shirt instead. Cotton T-shirts are more gentle on your hair cuticles, so you don't have to work doubly hard to untangle your hair afterwards.
Sugar - the sneaky substance lurking in almost everything we consume. Somehow, sugar always manages to find its way into our diet. Cakes, sugared drinks, candy and baked goods are usually the main sources of sugar in our diet. However, even savoury foods such as bread and rice contain sugar as well, making it all too easy for our sugar intake to spike.
While you have probably heard the saying “consuming too much sugar is bad for you”, chances are the consequences never fully registered in your mind. We all know too much sugar is bad, but how exactly does it detriment our body? Read on for a closer look on how excessive sugar consumption can ruin your health.
Image Credits: Patricia Serna on Unsplash
More often than not, sugary food are made up of ‘empty’ calories, which are lacking in nutrients and usually do not keep you full. Thus, this lack of satiety can lead to over-consumption of more foods that are high in empty calories. Accompanied with a sedentary lifestyle, these extra calories are stored in the body as fat and result in weight gain over time. If this bad habit further escalates, the risk of obesity will increase as well.
Insulin, a hormone, is responsible for regulating sugar levels in the human body. High insulin levels will convert excess glucose into glycogen to be stored in the body. Thus, a diet high in sugar will lead to prolonged periods of high insulin levels, causing the body to be desensitized to it. Eventually, glucose will build up in the blood as insulin loses its ability to convert glucose to glycogen.
This common disease often occurs as a result of insulin resistance. The persistently high blood glucose levels can eventually result in a multitude of other complications, such as high blood pressure and bad vision.
Fructose is a component of table sugar and high fructose corn syrup (often found in processed foods). High consumption of sugar, especially fructose, can cause the liver to go into overdrive, triggering it to store fat more efficiently. A diet high in fructose can lead to a fat building up in the liver over time, leading to the phenomenon of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
The term ‘sugar rush’ should not be unfamiliar to any of us here. Unfortunately, bad news wait for those who rely on a mountain of sugary food for that spike of energy or adrenaline. After a sugar rush, unrelenting fatigue usually follows after the crash. This only results in craving for more sugar, which creates a vicious cycle. Sugar has also been known to trigger the release of serotonin, a sleep regulator, causing you to feel even more exhausted than before. So much for a sugar rush!
Insulin resistance has shown to be linked to high blood pressure - consistently high insulin levels may cause the muscle surrounding the walls of arteries to grow faster than normal. This causes tense arteries and can restrict blood flow, eventually leading to high blood pressure.
Now that you know more about the detriments of a high sugar diet, make sure to cut down on it before your health goes down the drain. One great substitute for sugary drinks would be tea, which is sugar free and high in nutrients and antioxidants. Be sure to check out Nilufer Tea for some amazing organic tea options! They are not only delicious, but also contain a hint of subtle sweetness to satisfy your sweet tooth without giving you the unwanted health problems.
The natural goodness of herbs is a widely accepted – not only are their flavours used in food and drink but they are also used to relax the body and can be used to treat common ailments. Many of us herb enthusiasts have dreams of planting our own herbs in soil and harvesting these plants that we helped nurture while they nurture us with their nutrients. However, if the idea of growing plants gives you flashbacks to the shrivelled up plants that you have tried and failed to grow, you are not alone. We’ve compiled a few tips which will help you achieve your herb garden dreams.
The thing about many herbs is that their natural climate to grow in might be different from Singapore’s tropical one. For this reason, you either have to pick plants that adapt well to our climate or replicate the conditions of their natural habitats. Mint is a plant with a high adaptability and is therefore an easier plant to start with. Furthermore, it has a range of health benefits!
There are a great number of mint varieties for you to choose from. From the popular spearmint and peppermint, to the lesser known horsemint, there is something to suit every taste and fancy. There are slight variations with use so pick a plant that suits how you use them. For instance, many people use spearmint for garnishing savoury dishes and use peppermint for sweet ones. The tastes of each variety are different as well so be sure to pick a mint that you like best.
Image cred: Aquaponics Wiki
The soil required for mint plants is a loamy type. This means that it should have different sized soil particles in order for air and water to penetrate. Soil available here is often clayey and retains too much moisture so mix it with lightweight expanded clay aggregate pellets (LECA) so that it is better for your mint plant to flourish.
Image cred: Tim Easley on Unsplash
The great advantage Singapore has is that it has sun all year round. For most types of mint, getting enough sunlight is a must. If you grow your plant indoors make sure you place your potted plant close to a window or at a location where it can get as much sunlight as it can get.
Most mints grow naturally along the bank of streams and other water sources. This means that growing mint requires more care than simply sticking a cutting to the ground. You should monitor that the plant gets enough water daily. One way to check this is to put your finger in the soil to check its moisture. The soil should feel moist to the touch.
Image cred: rawpixel.com on Unsplash
One thing that remains constant across all mint varieties is their ability to invade spaces completely. These plants are very hardy and they produce runners which can cause them to over-run and get out of control. One way to prevent is by planting them in separate pots. Another is through pruning. Pruning is an excellent way to keep plants producing new leaves and to prevent them from over-growing.
Armed with this knowledge, you are now prepared to embark upon the complicated journey of gardening. Though it requires some extra time and effort, the pleasure of being able to harvest fresh herbs for yourself makes all the work worthwhile. With a little practice, you may be able to grow an entire potted garden for your herb needs.
Mint is also a great addition to your teas. If you would like a minty tea, Nilufer Tea offers Orange & Chamomile herbal tea which has notes of mint for your drinking pleasure. Shop here now!
It seems to me that it was just a few months ago that I was making New Year resolutions for 2017. And yet, here we are nearing the end of it. This year was an overwhelming one – we’ve had everything from controversial elections to royal wedding bells. But we’ve all made it to our favourite part of the year – the end. If you, like me, think the year passed way too quickly for comfort and want to let loose a little before greeting the brand new year 2018, here are 5 events happening around Singapore where you can let your hair down.
If you think New Year’s Eve is all about fireworks, then Marina Bay Singapore Countdown is where you should be at. But there aren’t just fireworks this year – you can expect carnival rides and games, a charity trail, fringe events and projection mapping displays. There are events happening all around the Marina Bay and Civic Districts so there would not be any chance of you getting bored sitting in one place.
Where: Marina Bay and Civic Districts; closest MRT is Promenade
Entry fees: Free entry
Fireworks aren’t your thing? Perhaps you want to go back to the carefree days of the 80s and 90s and groove to the smooth beat of some RnB and Hip hop. If so, then head on over to the Haji Lane Street Party: NYE 2018. Hosted by Piedra Negra and Blu Jaz Cafe, with beats by DJ Jag and DJ Gravity, this is a party where you can dance your heart out.
Where: 241 Beach Road, Singapore 189753; closest MRT is Bugis
Entry Fees: Free
The thought of dancing appeals to you and your friends but everyone wants different music. Well, you can dance to your own beat at Silent Disco Asia happening at the ArtScience Museum. You’ll be spoilt for music choice as you can dance to the tunes of three DJs spinning at the same time. Plus, being at the ArtScience Museum guarantees a spot to see the fantastic fireworks as well.
Where: ArtScience Museum; closest MRT is Bayfront
Entry Fees: Tickets cost $60. You can book here.
Wouldn’t a sumptuous and extravagant dinner be a great way to wrap up the year and ready yourself for the new one? Not only would you be able to relish a great buffet dinner, there are unlimited pours of champagne and wine. Additionally, if you want to continue to party in style, there is live entertainment at the dance floor at Chihuly Lounge.
Where: The Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore; closest MRT is Bayfront.
Entry Fees: Reservations required. From SGD 388 per adult. From SGD 194 per child (12 years and below)
At A Wander Soirée, not only will you be entertained by our very own 987FM DJs – Sonia Chew, Joakim Gomez, Charmian Tan & Gerald Koh, you can also be pumped up by sets from a local band, Shirlyn & The UnXpected. With street drummers, Poi dancers and The Mirror Man, you can be sure to enjoy the festivities. If all that gets too boring for you, you can also party it up at the clubs nearby like Attica Singapore, f.Club Singapore, Get Juiced, Level Up and Zouk Singapore or grab a bite to eat at the myriad of restaurants and bars.
Where: Clarke Quay Fountain Square; closest MRT is Clarke Quay
Entry Fee: Free
So there you have it, a list of places you could go to usher in the New Year. No matter how you choose to spend New Year’s Eve – dancing at a party surrounded by friends, sipping champagne at a classy dinner or even at home with a glass of wine and fuzzy slippers on – you should relax and bask in the jubilation for all that you have done for the year. Now, onward to the next!
Happy New Year!
Written by Annmaria Patteri
