Almond Butter

I'm crazy about almond butter. I first tasted them in the raw veggie sushi at Yes Natural at Aljunied and I'm hooked. Having bought a few jars of almond butter of various brands and from different places, I had almond butter for breakfast with bananas, as a spread for raw sushi lunch, or sometimes just eat it on its own as a snack or a spread. Within a week I found my skin looking tauter and plumper, and my complexion improved (it's all that Vitamin E). I also ate less as my brain was deliriously happy with amount of fats it was getting. Thus my sweet tooth went away too.

Interestingly, eating almonds (together with other food) elevates our mood as well. Almonds contain huge amount of manganese, Vitamin E and B2, magnesium, trytophan, copper and phosphorus. Trytophan trigger release of serotonin, and Vitamin B2 is necessary for folic acid and serotonin production while magnesium is a muscle relaxant. No wonder I feel happy eating it!

I ate so much of the stuff I decided to make my own instead as a jar of 280g only last me a week or less.

A sidenote; all the different brands of almond butter tasted good yet variate with brands. It got to do with the almonds used and their duration of roasting and grinding time. Also, the cheapest jar of almond butter ($9.90) found in Sg is the Merdien brand available at Meiya Supermarket at Liang Court.

Making almond butter is seriously easy.

First get a decent food processor.
Next, you'd need some almonds. I usually purchase them from at Albert Centre Market (3rd storey) at 龍馬 at $10 a kg. Usually 1 kg give you half a kg of almond butter.

I experimented with raw and baked and now I prefer baking almonds at 50 deg for around 5 minutes, so they taste better and yet the vitamins and minerals are retained.

Within a minute, I'd have almond flour. This stage is ideal for bakes and if you're making almond milk (put the flour in a cloth sack and pour hot water over, like making kopi (coffee) at kopitiams (coffeeshops) )

But grind on for almond butter.

This is the toughest part, when oil is released and the almond flour start to clump together and stick to the side of the processor. Continuous scraping is needed.

At this point it gets easier. More oil is released and the almond flour now has a dough like texture and is creamier. Whew, no more scraping is required.

At this point, the texture of the almond butter depends on the duration of processing from this point. For a nuttier, crunchier taste, lessen the time duration.

But I prefer my almond butter smooth and easy to spread. Thus I usually continue for a few more minutes.

Ta-dah! The finished product. It stores in room temperature for at least 2 weeks. And it taste best when its freshly made, when it's warm and buttery from the processing!

It's the same process for most nut butter, cashews, peanut, walnuts or even pecan.

Raw Vegetable Sushi

Hallo, Merry X'mas!

For the past two days I had been busy with potluck dinners with friends. Thus, it also called for some preparing of my favourite snacks and goodies.

When I first had vegetarian food, one of my favourite is the raw vegetable sushi. I would try it wherever it's on the menu and there's definitely no identical raw veg sushi in two places. The dressing, ingredients, all differ from place to place. It's a marvellously tasty, simple and healthy snack to make. And to my surprise, my vegetarian and omnivorous friends like it.

Even my mum, who don't quite fancy raw vegetables much. o_O

 I usually use beetroot, carrots, pea sprouts, red capsicum, zucchini (optional), and cucumbers. The roots are shredded while the other vegetables are cut into fine strips. And because it's Christmas, I added some almond flour.


I buy my nori sheets from Albert Centre market (third storey), where it's sold at 龍馬  at 50 sheets a pack for $5.50. To have a nice crisp nori, toast it for a few seconds in the oven, or over a gas flame.  But were the sushi to be served beyond 10 minutes later, it wouldn't make much difference.

First spread the dressing. I looooooove almond butter, so it's pretty much what I use most of the time. Especially since I make my own, I get quite generous with the stuff.  And the best thing is that it tastes and smells so good, no seasoning is needed. So the sushi is holistically healthily made from whole food sources.

Next layer on the veggies, with roots first.

The zucchini, cucumbers and capsicums next. The finer rheir strips, the neater the sushi will be.









Last of all, the pea sprouts. Pea sprouts are loose and it's hard to put anything else on top of them so they have to go on last.

And with firm fingers, push the vegetables inwards and roll it up!










This was a good attempt. Yay!

And the finished sushi roll. :)

My friends commented this is less crunchy than the one I made last year. That's due to the zucchini added and less cucumbers. To have a crunchier sushi with higher water content, just swap the zucchini for cucumbers. Or try substituting zucchini with chinese pears for a sweeter sushi.

Other possible ingredients are daikon, chinese pear, lettuce,  kale, spinach. avocado. Or for fruit sushi, with apples, pears, mangoes, dragonfruit, kiwi, strawberries.

Different combination of vegetables or fruit might call for different dressing. Alternate dressings are vegan mayo, plum sauce, cashew butter.

Have a healthy, lovely and wonderful Christmas!

Kidney Beans and Lotus seed soup

I had been having really bad water retention for 3 days. My legs literally look swollen and puffy. My body weight also increased by 2 kg.

I did some research and I realised that the culprit of my water retention is sodium and dehydration! Firstly, I'm prone to eating veg and dishes and not much rice, thus sodium intake tend to be higher because I overlooked the cumulative amount of sodium that I ate. Second, I developed the bad habit of not drinking sufficient water (because of not wanting to use the bathroom too often) thus, my yo-yo weight gain and loss are due to water retention. (it finally dawned on me after like years...)

So recently in my post fast, the water retention became very severe. My ankle and thighs were swollen and easily dimpled. Which spells trouble for the kidneys. I had to take some serious action. For 3 days, I ate with minimum salt (or otherwise non at all) and in addition, I made a huge pot of kidney bean and lotus seed soup during the 2nd and 3rd day.

Brought to the boil and cooled repetitively over 5 hour period cos I didn't want to refrigerate and I love how the lotus seeds dissolve into the soup. No sugar added.

I drank alot of soup and water, and I started peeing alot. I actually woke up 3 times at night just for the bathroom. By the 3rd day, my bloated legs became skinny pins again (thank God).  And I lost 5 kg. So my body puffed up with that much water!

It was a huge relief knowing that there are ways to help my kidneys function better and become healthier. I found a new love for my veggies cooked without salt and I actually feel emotionally calmer after 3 days.

My lunch during my 3 day of no-salt cooking. What's in the pan? Cucumber, carrot, broccoli, soy sprouts, tomatoes, spinach, french beans, fungi, shitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms , non salted seaweed and brown rice.

I love food, so even if it's saltless, it gotta taste nice. So with the help of some tomatoes (stir fried with onions, garlic and chilli; it adds a delicious sourish, juicy flavour), seaweed and sesame oil in my cooking to increase the aroma and enjoyment of my meal. Oh there's half a bowl of brown rice underneath the tomatoes.

The best part, I might be happy to cook saltlessly for a long time.