Refreshing Old Cucumber Soup (老黄瓜汤)

Old cucumber soup is one of our favourite soups. The soup is clear and very soothing.  Old cucumber is actually matured cucumber which has brownish skin. It is said that the older the cucumber is, the better it tastes! Old cucumber is not only cooling for hot weather but is also good for our complexion. and even helps to prevent aging! Now that's enough reason for us to have old cucumber soup as often as possible! 

Old cucumber is usually used for soup and there are variety of soups you can try depending on your preferences.  For a start, this is a very simple soothing soup with minimal ingredients and almost every Chinese knows how to cook it.  No doubt it is very simple, it is very refreshing and yummy too..... :)

Ingredients :

- half free range chicken (cut and blanched)

- 1 large old cucumber (skin thoroughly scrubbed and washed, de-seeded and cut into chunks)

- 1/2 (or less) stalk ta tau choy (salted mustard green) (soaked and cut)-do soak longer as it can be very salty

- enough water for the soup

Method :

1) Boil enough water in a big pot.  When water started boiling, put in all the ingredients.

2)  Boil at high heat for 10 minutes and lower the heat to medium low.

3)  Simmer for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours

4)  Add salt to taste and serve hot.

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Super Easy and Quick Braised Tofu

This dish is super easy and quick especially for those who are rushing to get a meal ready.  Besides, it is also quite delicious and kids love it too especially with Teowchew porridge.

All you need is a canned of minced meat with bean paste, semi soft tofu and tomatoes.  Add red chilies if you like it spicier.  Put everything into a medium-sized pot and add 1/2 to 1 cup of water depending on your preference.   Let it braise for about 5  minutes.  

Add salt or soy sauce to taste.

This is so simple, isn't it?

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Simply Beautiful and Healthy Living is 1 year old and Simple Sweet Sour Prawns

Time really flies...  Simply Beautiful and Healthy Living is 1 year old today!  It has been exactly 12 months since I set up this simple humble blog of mine!  Oh... I just can't believe I can go this far! Hehehe..

I am proud to say that I have learned a lot from being a non-blogger to a blogger.  I still consider myself a new blogger cos' there are still rooms for improvement.  Initially my intention to have a blog is to post everything that concerns healthy lifestyle.  As time goes by, I started to share my recipes.  All my recipes are very simple and I find joy in sharing even though they are just  very simple and common dishes.

There is still one thing which I really hope that I have enough time  - to take beautiful and creative photos of  yummy foods cook by me!.  You see, most of the time whenever I cooked a dish and wished to share with my readers, I just grabbed the camera and started to click without actually aiming for a good shot.  I am sorry  I usually did it in a haste.  I regret that I don't have time to do all these.  Well, I promise myself that once I have ample time, I would do nice shots of those recipes that I am sharing.    Give me some time.... and I will do it!!

Another thing is that if you are constantly following my blog publicly or silently, you would realise that I don't have any baking recipe!  Yes, you are right!  When comes to baking, I am hopeless.  I also promise myself that I would learn baking when I have time and  if one day you do see my 1st baking recipe here, than you are sure that I have taken my first step in baking and am proud to share it with my dear readers.  Tell you what... I have all the baking tools from oven to pans, but all are for show only! So ashamed to admit this!  They are either still brand new (even though have been standing there for years), nicely packed in the store room or either have been used once or the most twice only!!!  

I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to all my readers who have taken time to visit my blog.  Furthermore,  every single of your comment is being appreciated.  Without you all, I can't be here.  As at today, my page viewers have reached 29,982 and I am indeed pleased with the results.  Of course I can't compare with those experienced bloggers who have readers over hundreds thousands or even millions!  I really admire them!  I wouldn't be here today unless  someone out there bothers to visit my humble blog every once in a while. With that in mind I would really  like to thank each and everyone who follows my blog. It is indeed satisfying to see the readership and page views increasing each day. Last but not least,  I really appreciate it when a total stranger who cares to take some time to stop by, pays my humble blog a visit and give comments; especially with so many other super quality blogs around.  Once again, A BIG THANK YOU!!!! :)

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Ok, enough about my bragging...  To celebrate the 1st anniversary of Simply Beautiful and Healthy Living, here is a dish I would like to share with all my dear readers.  Hope you all like it! :)

Ingredients :

- 500 gm big prawns (cleaned and de-veined, marinated)

- salt (for marinate)

- pepper (for marinate)

Sauce : (to taste)

- 1 thumbsize ginger (washed and finely chopped)

- 1 tbsp garlic (finely chopped)

- spring onions (cut)

Sauce Mixture :

- 1/2 cup tomato ketchup

- 1/2 cup chili sauce

-1 tsp apple cider vinegar

- soy sauce (to taste)

- salt (to taste)

- sugar (to taste)

Method :

1)  Heat oil in a wok.

2)  Lightly deep fry marinated prawns and set aside.

3)  Saute spring onions, ginger and garlic until fragrant.

4)  Add sauce mixture and stir.

5)  Add in fried prawns and mix well.

6)  Dish out and serve hot.

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