Friday 26 January 2018

Quick & Easy Overnight Oats

January 26, 2018 0 Comments
Happy New Year guys!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year. I still can't believe that another year has gone by (just like that) and here we are, living in year 2018! So here's to another year filled with love, joy and laughter. 🍻

One of my 2018 new year resolutions is to eat healthy so let's begin our healthy eating journey from our very first meal of the day which is breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it is the first meal that provides your body all the nutrient and fuel in order for you to kick start your day after sleeping for about 8 hours. I usually sleep an average of only 6 hours which is about 2 hours lesser than the recommended sleep duration, maybe I should add this into my 2018 new year resolution, get enough of sleep. 😴

Back to our breakfast, I have been obsessing over overnight oats ever since I realized how quick and simple it is to prepare one as your breakfast. Honestly, I was not an oat person and I hated it because of its bland taste and mushy texture. But Instagram and Pinterest disagreed with me because somehow overnight oats was a trend on both of the apps, there were tons and tons of people sharing their overnight oats pictures and recipes. At that time, I thought I must have done something wrong to end up with a bowl of bland and mushy oats. Then I decided to look up on Pinterest for overnight oats recipes to try and here I am, obsessing over this jar of mushy oats.

Okay, let's start making some delicious breakfast for tomorrow, shall we?

The first thing that you will need is a mason jar or whatever jar that you have at home to store your oats. Here I am just reusing one of my empty peanut butter glass jars for my overnight oats. By the way, this is the best natural peanut butter that I have ever tasted in my life. They ain't lying about being "SUPER TASTY!" right here. 😋


Honestly, I was quite skeptical on how it would turn out the next morning because I just don't trust something that comes easy. Basically all you need to do is to mix everything inside a jar, put it in the fridge and let the magic happen; 3 simple steps to get your breakfast ready. How would it taste like the next morning? 🤔

But to my surprise, it tastes really good and here is my favorite overnight oats, I called it the Berry Crunch.


So now let me share with you on how to make this quick and easy overnight oats. 😉

Basically overnight oats consists of two parts which are the base ingredients and toppings.

For the base ingredients:
👉 Rolled oats.
👉 Almond milk or whatever milk that you would prefer.
👉 Chia seed.
👉 Honey for some sweetness but it is totally optional based on your own preference.
👉 Yogurt and it is optional as well, you can use either milk or yogurt or even both.

Instructions:
1) Fill your jar with 1/2 of cup of rolled oats.
2) Add in 1 tablespoon of chia seeds.
3) (optional): Add in 1 tablespoon of honey.
4) (optional): Add in 1 tablespoon of yogurt.
5) Mix them all together.
6) Pop on the lid and put it in the fridge.


I usually add my toppings the next morning, just in case if I change my mind of what kind of toppings that I would want to eat with my overnight oats (just me being indecisive).

For toppings, you can add whatever toppings that you like. Usually I will just add in my favorite fruits such as banana, strawberry and blueberry. You can also add in some nuts for a little crunchiness in your overnight oats. For my Berry Crunch, I added some strawberries, blueberries and walnuts, yummy! 😋

Here are some of my favorite toppings to eat with my overnight oats.

Strawberry + Granola

Banana + Almond

Blueberry + Banana

So there you have it, a quick and easy overnight oats for your breakfast which only takes less than 5 minutes to prepare. As long as you have the base ingredients then you are free to add whatever toppings that you like.

I hope you enjoy your overnight oats as much as I do and I shall update you guys soon in my next blog post. See ya!

Love,
Rachel.

Saturday 13 January 2018

Explore Ho Chi Minh City With Us

January 13, 2018 1 Comments
One final trip before I closed the book of year 2017.

Hello Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.


This trip was a little different from the usual trips that we have had in the past because this time we decided to travel with two of our friends which made this trip a couple trip. It was our very first couple trip to HCMC; no light bulbs, no extras. Everything was perfect and I would say it was fun to explore the world with a few extra travel buddies. Plus I have a girl friend to shop with me at HCMC.

In this blog post, I will summarize everything from our HCMC trip such as the Airbnb we stayed, places we visited, food we tried and some other teeny-tiny details here and there. I hope by doing this way, you guys are able to have an idea on what to expect from your HCMC trip (if any of you are planning to visit HCMC).

Okay, without further ado, let's get started!

First, let's talk about our accommodation in HCMC. There are a total of 24 districts in HCMC but you will find most of the museums, restaurants, night markets, landmarks and etc. in District 1 and District 3. For this reason, one of my Vietnamese friends suggested us to live around these 2 districts because it would be much easier for us to travel around and this would also save us a lot of time from traveling as the traffic could be quite congested sometimes and the public transports there were not really reliable.

We then decided to stay somewhere around Bến Thành area in District 1, a place with unlimited restaurants, cafe and night markets. In short, that is where all the good food at. There are quite a number of hotels and Airbnbs available around that area so accommodation wise, you don't have to worry about not able to find a place to stay in District 1.

Since we were traveling in a group of 4 people (or 2 couples) so we decided to rent a whole apartment unit with 2 bedrooms on Airbnb. The Airbnb that we rented was Beautiful Apartment in Downtown Saigon (ITA) hosted by Thuy. I highly recommend this apartment if you are traveling in a bigger group (maybe 4 persons and above) because the apartment is spacious enough to accommodate the four of us with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (yup, private bedroom and bathroom for each couple). And of course, there is a dining area and kitchen which is equipped with microwave, refrigerator, kettle and etc. There is also a washing machine in the apartment so good news for those who wish to do their laundry (no more expensive laundry service from the hotel 😁).
Next up, food.

We ate at a few restaurants or food from the street markets and now I am going to list some of our favorites restaurants or food that we ate in HCMC. ⚠ Spoiler alert ⚠ We had Italian food in HCMC; don't judge me because you will thank me later. 😏

Our favorite Vietnamese restaurant 👉 Đèn Lồng Restaurant (FB: https://www.facebook.com/denlongrestaurant/).
They serve quite a variety of local Vietnamese food at a reasonable price and every dishes that we ordered was delicious! 😋 Our dinner there was about $50 for 4 persons so yeah, I would consider this as a cheap good food to try in HCMC. Definitely don't forget to try their Seafood Fried Rice in Lotus Leaf and Grilled Pork On-a-stick, these were my two favorite dishes at Đèn Lồng Restaurant.
To avoid any disappointment, you do need to make a reservation first if you are planing to have your lunch or dinner there because the restaurant tends to be quite packed during peak hours. We did not make our reservation and we ended up waiting for about 20 minutes for our table to be ready (which was still acceptable in my opinion).

Address: 130 Nguyen Trai, Ben Thanh, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam.
Operating hours: 10 AM - 10 PM

Our favorite non Vietnamese restaurant 👉 Pizza 4P's (Website: http://pizza4ps.com/)
Don't judge us for having Italian food in HCMC. We were walking around Bến Thành area and we could not find a restaurant to satisfy our starving stomachs (because we had been eating Phở or some other noodles for the past 2 days now and we had to eat something different). We then found this place on Google where it has tons of good review so we decided to give it a try (you can never go wrong with pizza).

There are more than 10 pizza flavors available on their menu and my personal favorite was Burrata Parma Ham Margherita (as shown in the above picture 👆), mainly because of the huge burrata cheese on top. If you love cheese as much as I do then you will definitely love this because 🧀 + 🍕 = HEAVEN!

They ain't lying when they say there is always room for dessert and I ain't lying when I say I am a little obsessed with cheese. 😆 So here it goes, I ordered Camembert Cheese Ice Cream as my dessert and hey, this was ON POINT. 👌 Seriously, it was so good and I almost wanted to go back there the next day to have another one.

Camembert Cheese Ice Cream

And lastly, don't forget to make your reservation.

Address: 8 Thu Khoa Huan, Ben Thanh Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City.
Operating hours: Monday - Saturday: 10 AM - 2 AM, Sunday: 10 AM - 11 PM

Our favorite Bánh mì 👉 Huynh Hoa

Crispy baguette loaded with lots of pork meat and vegetables and it was only VND 36,000 (about $2.00). Definitely a must try Bánh mì in Saigon! 👍


Address: 26 Lê Thị Riêng, Phường Phạm Ngũ Lão, Quận 1, Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam.
Operating hours: 2:30 PM - 11 PM

Our favorite street food 👉 Bánh tráng

Bánh tráng or known as the Vietnamese Pizza (that was what my Vietnamese friend told me), it is a rice crepe with lots and lots of toppings, just like pizza. 🍕


I do not have the exact location to this night market because they were only there for some time and would move to another place. If you see the word "Bánh tráng" at a restaurant or night market then just order it, that is the right word for this (verified by my Vietnamese friend 😉).

Our favorite cafe 👉 Partea at The Café Apartment (FB: https://www.facebook.com/letspartea/)

Okay, let me be honest. The only main reason why we loved this cafe so much was because of their super cute decorations. Seriously, it was because of their cute decorations.
Besides than the cute decorations, it was also a good place to chill and relax. Since it is located at the fourth floor, you get to enjoy your tea with an amazing view.


Address: 42 Nguyen Hue street.District 1, 700 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Operating hours: 8 AM - 10:30 PM

Our favorite place to visit 👉 Củ Chi Tunnels

We booked our half day tour to Củ Chi Tunnels from Klook for only $17 per person which included both transportation and entrance fee to Củ Chi Tunnels. Củ Chi Tunnels is located about 50 KM away from our hotel and it took us nearly 2 hours to reach there. There is no direct public transport to Củ Chi Tunnels (from what I Google-ed so far) so joining a tour group had saved us a lot of hassle, all we had to do was to sit back and relax until we reached our destination (seriously, I slept throughout the 2 hours bus ride).

At the end of the tour, I would say it was a very fun and informative trip. Our tour included a local English speaking tour guide and her name is Love. Ms Love was really friendly and she made the tour really enjoyable for everyone. She even explained to us the history of Củ Chi Tunnels and let us experience ourselves crawling through the tunnels. You don't need to worry about being too big or tall and not able to fit into the tunnels because some of the tunnels have been made larger to accommodate tourists.

Click here to book a tour from Klook.

Okay, that is it to this post. I think I took longer than I expected to summarize everything for you guys (maybe I was just being lazy). I hope that this post is able to help you or give you a rough idea on what to eat or do in HCMC. So people, what are you waiting for? 😉

Have fun.


The girl who loves to travel,
Rachel.

Tuesday 10 October 2017

The World's Best Multi-Bag?

October 10, 2017 2 Comments
Hello Bloggies, welcome back to my blog!

It has been a while since I updated my blog and I just want to let you guys know that I am still very much alive! Today I am back again with another review post on a gym bag (or a multipurpose bag?) that I am currently obsessed with. I have been using it for the past one week and I am excited to share with you guys this gem that I got not longer ago from Kickstarter.

Before we get into the review, let's briefly talk about Kickstarter in case if any of you guys have not heard it before. Kickstarter is actually a crowdfunding platform to help creators to find the resources and supports they need to transform their creative ideas into a reality. There are a lot of projects available on Kickstarter for you to browse through before you decide on what project to fund but before that, you will need to have an account with Kickstarter.

One day when I was browsing the internet aimlessly, I came across BOW's project on Kickstarter where they introduced Quiver: The World's First Multi-Bag to the world. The name itself had already caught my attention because who does not love a multi-bag? Looking through their information and videos on Kickstarter, the first thought I had was "I am gonna fund this project and please make that pink Quiver happen (Pink Quiver can only be unlocked at $50000)". The main reason why I decided to fund this project was because of how compact Quiver is, but still, able to fit quite a lot of stuff in it so yeah, of course I am going to fund them.

Every gym goer, at some point would understand the pain in finding a perfect gym bag that could fit everything from your sport shoes to your sportswear and that of course, including me. I am quite a fussy person when it comes to buying a perfect bag or my dream bag (maybe I should just customize my own bag), be it a handbag, a backpack or even a gym bag. Things such as the size, color, number of compartment and even material will be taken into consideration. I normally go to the gym right after work and I will carry along my gym essentials with me when I leave the house for work in the morning. Honestly, it was quite a hassle to carry both of my handbag and shoes bag (I could not find a gym bag for myself and I decided to settle down with just a shoes bag) at the same time. I could only fit my sport shoes and sportswear in the little shoes bag and had to squeeze the water tumbler, food container (I usually pre-packed my pre-workout meal) and everything else in my handbag. You can imagine how heavy my handbag was and this eventually, hurting my shoulder. It would be great if I could pack everything in a gym bag and carry it on one hand but too bad, there was no luck in finding a perfect gym bag because they were either too big or too small for me.

Quiver by BOW

My life has changed ever since I received my Quiver, it is literally a lifesaver. I am able to pack everything in just one bag and carry it around without any trouble. I love the shoulder strap that comes with Quiver (BECAUSE THEY HAVE IT IN PINK) where I can simply sling the bag over my shoulder and the best part of it is it has a card slot in front of the shoulder strap where you can easily access to all your cards in it. The next thing that I really love about Quiver is the water tumbler compartment at the side of it; simply zip it up to fit a larger water tumbler or zip it down to fit a smaller water tumbler. The main reason why I love Quiver so much is actually the number of compartments it has in just one bag.

Easy access card slot

Water tumbler compartment

Besides than the card slot and water tumbler compartments that I really love, here are all the other compartments available in this one multi-bag, cool huh? We have one quick access pouch at the front where you can put your phone inside, a huge shoes compartment (I'm wearing a size 7 and that is why this is considered huge to me) and more pouches for your clothes and toiletries or whatever you wish to put.


I have been using it for the past one week and yes, this is the perfect multi-bag that I need in my life. Whether I am going to the gym right after work from the office or directly from home, this is it, the one bag that I need to fit everything nicely. On the left side of the picture below is when I go to the gym after work, I have my shoes, food container and wet tissue in it. Now you get what I mean when I wrote "huge shoes compartment" earlier, you can literally fit another pair of shoes or sandals in it. On the right side is when I go to the gym directly from home, I just carry some important things that I need such as my water tumbler, wallet, wet tissue and keys.


This will be my second card slot when I don't put my water tumbler in the designated water tumbler compartment and this is what we call versatile, haha! I tend to simply stuff my things in whichever reachable pocket.


I call this the shower compartment where you put all your clothes and toiletries in it. It is great on how I am able to nicely organize my stuff into a few different compartments for easy access. The best thing about shower compartment is you don't need to worry about how your things might get wet in the shower because it is waterproof! Everything that is inside the pockets is safe from getting wet so you can actually shower in peace right now, how awesome is that?



World's best multi-bag?
OF COURSE! It is what I was looking for earlier and it is basically everything that I need in my life. I am really satisfied with my purchase and I will definitely recommend Quiver to my friends and family; in fact, I have already brainwashed one of my friends to get Quiver as her gym bag. 😝

Before I end this post, if any of you guys who are interested in buying Quiver or interested to know more about it, do remember to check out the links at the end of my blog.

That is it for today's review post, thank you for reading and I shall update you guys soon on another blog post. See ya! 👋

Love,

Sunday 30 July 2017

Taking My Cardio Workout Seriously

July 30, 2017 1 Comments
Hello Bloggies!

If you have been reading my blog for some time now then you would know that this post is not about me sharing my cardio workout, not at all. 🙅 I actually published this blog post with the title Taking My Cardio Workout To The Next Level about a year ago and yeah, it had nothing to do with cardio workout (unless you agree with me that shopping is one of the cardio workouts) and today, I am back again to write something similar to that blog post except that this time round, it has something to do with workout. Yeah, I am seriously serious.

Any of you are fitness enthusiasts here or someone who loves to workout? I know I am. 🙋
If you are then you will understand that you can never have enough sportswear and right now with all the different varieties of sportswear available out there, yes, you can never have enough of them. I mean NEVER.

Why am I sounding like I am trying to give myself some excuses to shop for more sportswear so that I will feel better? 😝

Okay, let's skip the long intro, the damage had been done anyway. 😏

Cotton On Body is currently my favorite store where I get all my sportswear because not only that they are affordable (I can't afford to have so many Nike sport bras and shorts) but they also sell good quality sportswear. I have been their loyal customer for some time now and if there is a sale going on, God bless my wallet because that is when I go crazy shopping for sportswear, haha!

There was a sale going on last few weeks and yes, I could not resist the urge to get myself some additional sportswear so I splurged a little bit.

PEEKABOO!


I have been purchasing most of my sportswear from Cotton On Body and I roughly know what sizes I should get so I decided to shop online. Mainly because it is much easier to browse through everything from your laptop and since Cotton On Body was having a sale, some of the items or sizes may not be available in store so in order to save me some hassle, I decided to go online. You can enjoy free shipping for order above $50 so just make sure you have a shopping cart that worth $50 and you are good to go! 😝

Everything was nicely packed in a plastic bag with their price tags on. In case if you change your mind about any of the items you purchased online, just simply pack them back in the plastic and post it back to them. Simple return and exchange policy, that is one of the reasons why I love to shop on Cotton On online.


Let me just quickly go through each and every item that I had purchased from Cotton On Body.

I have finally got myself a matching sport bra and shorts, hooray! Usually I do not care anything about matching my top and bottom because my shorts are all black and black is a universal color that will match everything. If you are lazy to match your top and bottom, just get a black shorts and this will save you a lot of time, haha, lazy girl hack.

BF: "Can't believe that you got yourself a gym uniform." 😂


Halter neck top is currently the fashion trend and I had to get this. 😍 When you gotta be trendy on the treadmill despite being so sweaty with your super messy bun hair, haha! 


I can never say no to pink and I had to get this. Sometimes you need to look cute too on the treadmill, haha! I love the sweet baby pink color on it and trust me, it is very comfortable. I wore this a few times to yoga class, it was very comfortable to move around with.


Last but not least (I wish I had more than these), I got myself another pair of black shorts to match all the other tops that I have right now. Seriously girls, if you have trouble in matching your top and bottom, a pair of black shorts will literally save your life.


I love every item that I had purchased from Cotton On Body but these shorts are my favorite. It is a simple pair of black shorts but I love the tiny holes detail at the side of it.


The best part about these shorts is IT HAS POCKETS!


I don't understand why we can't have pockets on workout shorts or leggings, why??? So far this is the only shorts that I own with pockets, I need more pockets. 

Okay, that is it to my sportswear haul from Cotton On Body.
I highly recommend sportswear from Cotton On Body because I love how they are able to provide great quality sportswear at an affordable price.

If any of you are planning to upgrade your workout wardrobe, don't forget to drop by Cotton On Body and check out their sportswear collection. If I am not mistaken, there is currently a sale going on so don't miss out the great deal! 😉

Happy shopping!

Love,
Rachel.

Thursday 6 July 2017

Gudetama AKA The Lazy Egg

July 06, 2017 1 Comments
Hello Bloggies! 

I am back after being MIA for some time (if any of you guys noticed) and today I am going to share to you guys on my lovely experience at Gudetama Cafe Singapore.


Gudetama or as I like to call it, Eggy is one of the adorable cartoon characters from Sanrio (one of Hello Kitty's friends I guess). Eggy appears to be a lazy egg who is feeling "meh" all the time; feeling unmotivated and lazy, just like how I would feel sometimes when I decided to lie in bed doing nothing but feel sad of my life. Yeah, we all have that one moment in life once in a while, nothing to be ashamed of (proud to be me, haha!).

Why did I fall in love with this lazy egg again?

I first saw Eggy a few years back when I was surfing the internet where people would share a bunch of videos of Eggy in a yellow bun form and people would poke its butt with a chopstick to create a pooping Eggy.

Here is a YouTube video of pooping Eggy if you don't quite understand what I was trying to explain earlier. Oh, and it pukes as well.


Don't call me a freak or weirdo first, that is not why I fell in love with Eggy. Uh-uh, not a fan of pooping and puking Eggy. Before I actually fell in love with Eggy, I used to hate it because this egg looked so depressing and I would be like "couldn't you be happier?". Until one day I realized I could actually relate to this egg because feeling "meh" was basically what I felt when I didn't want to face the world. Slowly I started to notice a lot of shops selling Gudetama merchandise and some of them were really cute especially those t-shirts that I got from Uniqlo (click here to read more).


Isn't it adorable? The third black t-shirt is currently my favorite of them all, it is so cute for it to sit in an eggshell and chill like there is nothing else to worry about. The first white t-shirt is what best describe me when there is time where I don't feel like I can "human" anymore, "seriously... I can't...". That is why I fell in love with this lazy egg, I just love how chill and lazy it is, haha!

Okay, I think we should move on to talk about the cafe.


First thing first, let me show you guys on how this cafe looks like on the inside. Beware, lots of cute lazy egg decors ahead! Seriously, this is like another version of Disneyland; it is a happy place with happy people and you will not want to leave this place afterwards, sounds like Disneyland huh? 😂



We were seated on this "egg chair" and this question hit me, "can I have one of these chairs at home?". I believe I was not the only one who wished to have one of these "egg chairs" at home, am I right? You guys would love to have one in your home too right? 😁 But seriously, where did they get these "egg chairs", I am curious. 🤔 Can they make a doughnut chair too? Or a burger chair?


I wish I could be as chill as Gudetama. Chill... 😌 That is a tissue box BTW, so cute!


Even the menu looks so cute and look at that lazy face of Gudetama welcoming you to the cafe on the menu cover page.


We were a little greedy with our food (since we were there already so why not?) and we ordered an appetizer, two main courses and a dessert. I know right, that sounds a lot for two persons but surprisingly, we managed to finish them all! Not a single food wasted! 👍

We got the Gudetama Lobster Onsen as our appetizer, basically a lobster bisque served in a bread bowl with some salad at the side and Gudetama decided to have some spa moment in our hot soup (ahhh, how relaxing it is).

 Gudetama Lobster Onsen ($16.00)

I am a seafood lover and I decided to try their Lazy Surfer, assorted grilled seafood with Brazilian rice. Honestly, I had no idea what a Brazilian rice was and what kind of yellowy sauce that was served with my seafood but this dish was delicious. 😋👍 BTW, what does "bo chup" means? 🤔

 Lazy Surfer ($28.50)

BF ordered "Shiok" Pork Ribs as his main course and I was only interested with the FRIES! You can have the pork ribs all to yourself but leave those fries alone, those are mine! ✋ And I want some of those veggies as well, that is what I call a balance diet (actually that was the worst diet advice ever, haha)! 👍😂 

"Shiok" Pork Ribs ($38.50)

Honestly, we did not expect much from Gudetama Cafe, we thought usually themed cafes serve like okay kind of food because they focus more on the "theme" but not really on the food. Not trying to say that all themed cafes food are awful but usually they just kind of taste normal to me. But Gudetama Cafe has proved us wrong, according to BF, their pork ribs were one of the best that he has tried so far, it was worth the price he paid. Thumbs up from him. 👍

Last but not least, my favorite part of this meal, *drum roll...* THE DESSERT!

I am a huge fan of matcha and I had to give this a try! Masu-cha was the first thing that caught my eyes on the drinks menu, it is a matcha smoothie with Pepero chocolate sticks, caramel popcorn, marshmallows and some chocolate drizzle on top of everything. The matcha smoothie was so good but the chocolate drizzle was a little too sweet for me.

Masu-cha ($11.90)

At the end of the day, we were both happy (or maybe just me?) and satisfied with our delicious food at Gudetama Cafe Singapore. We highly recommend you guys to give this Eggy a try. 👍

I think my favorite color right now is yellow. 😝


Before I end this post, here is a quick reminder for you guys who have not gotten your new Ezlink Gudetama card. Ezlink just started to sell these cute limited edition Gudetama cards not too long ago so go get them fast before they are all sold out. 😉👍


Here are my Gudetama Ezlink cards with my mini eggy plushie that I got from TaoBao. 😍


Okay, that is it to this post and I hope you guys enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed eating at Gudetama Cafe, haha!

So now which theme cafe should I try next?
I actually have Pompompurin Cafe Singapore in my mind. 😉

The Biggest Eggy Fan,
Rachel.
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