Strawberry, Carrot and Cherry Tomato Milkshake

My friend, Pam, says that the Fitness Wii game is bullshit. "It is just a game, not a real sport," she says.

But what is a real sport?

Pam does yoga. According to Vincent, it is not a real sport since one barely moves when doing yoga. But we don't believe so. Keeping the balance in yoga sometimes is heavier than doing the extreme muscle-moving sport. Do we sweat when doing yoga? Yes, we do. We sweat a lot, in fact.

Dancing. Is dancing a sport? I think so. You move your whole body when you dance. Sometimes when it's too hot of a dance night out, you'll even get stiffed muscles the next morning. How is it any different from jogging?

You know, at times when we - lazy bumps - hear the word "sport", we directly assume it's the adrenalin-pumping, no-fun thing to do. But basketball players find it fun. Yogis find peacefulness when doing yoga. My sister enjoys aerobics because there is music to move along. And all are considered sports because at the end of the day, your body is doing exercises.

I think it is no different with My Fitness Coach Wii game. Just because it comes from a Wii game player, it shouldn't be considered as sport? Football is a game. Baseball is a game. Salsa and tango are not a game, but they give you as much fun as playing a game. And do they pump you up? Yes, they do. Does Wii Fitness game pump me up? Yes, it does.

I'm doing sport!

I have to admit, however, that the exercises I am going through now is not of the hardest kind, perhaps due to my end goals. I registered "flexibility" as my primary goal and "lose a size" as my secondary goal. I only do about 30 minutes per day. It is not too tiring, yet I always end up completely soaked with sweat. And I think it is perfect. I once joined a gym near my house where there was a cute personal trainer. I think he did well in training me. But for someone who just started doing sport again after years, you could not shock me with muscle-breaking exercises. You do that and I will never return again, which was what happened. I had stiffed muscles for a week and I could hardly move. I got cranky because everything hurt and none of the tasks I should be doing got done. With 30-minute exercise a day, I keep coming back and doing it. If I think the exercise of the day is not enough, I do another set of express workout. I lost 2 kilos in a week since the last time I weighed myself, so I guess the Wii game does a justice.

There is also a dietary menu suggestion within the game. Recipes and weekly shopping list are also provided. However, these I don't necessarily follow. But I do scan what ingredients are mostly used for breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks, then I get creative from it.

Typical breakfasts are with fruits. Mixed fruit juice, fruit slices with yoghurt, etc. So one day when I saw these beautiful local organic strawberries at Bali Deli and some local organic baby carrots and cherry tomatoes, I used them as my breakfast. I made Strawberry, Carrot and Cherry Tomato Milkshake. It was surprisingly very, very fulfilling. Of course I used a tall glass to contain the milkshake. But who would have guessed a glass of milkshake would be enough for a Carla? :) Anyway, it tasted very good and what more... it's healthy! I think you should also try it.

Pain Perdu / French Toast

I've always known French toast (or in French is called Pain Perdu) but I was never really interested in making it because it just looks so sweet. However, a few weeks ago I was watching French Food at Home hosted by Laura Calder. She was making the French toast and Vincent, who happened to watch the show too - because I got the remote control so he couldn't change it to Tivi5 - said that he wanted it.

Then it is a different matter when your most loyal customer demands it.

A little bit background about Pain Perdu.... Back in the old days when bread was very expensive, people believed that nothing should have gone wasted in the kitchen. Since most bread only last for a few days, the stale bread is "rejuvenated" into this delicious edible French toast only with the help of egg and milk. Although the name is French toast and ideally it is made of stale French bread, it is not originated from France. It was believed to have come from the 4th century Roman recipes.

If I told you before that I thought French toast looked so sweet, well I was wrong. It COULD be sweet; like most American French toast with the syrup or sugar topping, but you can opt for the salty one too. You just need to top it off with a knob of salted butter (like on pancakes). Anyway, here is the recipe.

French Toast/Pain Perdu

Cheese Muffins

I have been in the mood of muffins this past week. I've already made two kinds of muffins in a week, which was very rare for me to do. I usually only bake at the weekends as a way to treat myself and to withdraw from the usual stuff (work, feed the kitten and cook dinner). My first muffin was lemon muffin, but it was way too lemony for my taste. Turned out that I only put half of the flour needed, that was why. But the second one was meant to be chocolate muffin. I'm normally not a sweet-tooth person but I do crave for some sweetness when I'm PMSing. :P And, like the first one, it was not a chocolate muffin at all. It appeared that my chocolate powder had already expired so I had to throw it away. I thought, ok let's make normal muffin with chocolate chips then. But I couldn't open the choc chip jar!!!! And I wanted muffins. And when I wanted it, I had to have it. So I used the ingredients of the chocolate muffin but using grated cheddar cheese as a filling instead of chocolate. Here goes the recipe (originally from Nigella Lawson's chocolate chip muffin recipe).

Cheese Muffin