Creamy Pumpkin Soup

Who actually knew that this little halloween decoration is actually a gem when it comes to boosting your health. Pumpkin is from now my favourite..fruit. did you know it is a fruit? =)

I have been researching alot about pumpkin lately (i know im a health geek) and I want to share with you this;

• Its full of carotenoids - which neutralizes free radicals.
• its high in lutein and zeaxanthin, which means it helps prevent forms of eye problems.
• It is packed with iron, zinc, fiber. You should alredy know why that is good for you.
• pumpkin seeds are high in protein
• it is low in carbs (for those on a carb diet)
• it helps maintain healhty blood vessels, because its high in essential fatty acids. 

Pumpkin seeds:

• promote overall prostate health
• contains L-tryptophan,, which is a good anti-depressant

Overall its great for me cus its low in carbs and high in flavour and vitamins. 

Anyways, for some weird reason ive been craving pumpkin soup for the last two weeks. Maybe especially since its so hard to find.. Marche has a really good carrot soup which almost tastes the same but if anyone knows where to find a pumpkin soup in Singapore please let me know. Anyways, since I didnt find it, I decided to take matters into my own hands and just cook it myself. If you love creamy, thick pumpkin soup, this is what to do;

Go to your nearest supermarket,( cold storage or fairprice finest or marketplace or anywhere you are)

For MY secret (or not so secret anymore) home-made, tried untill perfection pumpkin soup, please Get these:


RECIPE:

• 1 box of cream
• salt/pepper
• 1 white onion
• 1 Leek
• Milk
• Bacon
• 1 pumpkin
• 2 carrots
• Nutmeg
• 1 Knorr Stock cube
• Fresh Oregano leafes
• olive oil
• PUMPKIN!

You will need a food processor or hand processor or blender or MixMaster as we call it in norwegian. You will also need 30 minutes on your hand, because that roughly how long it takes but trust me its worth all the trouble and dishwashing.

1. Cut your bacon into small pieces and fry it with oliveoil in the largest pot you own. 
2. cut the leek and onion up to small pieces and dump it in the pot too. sizzle for 2 minutes.
3. cut the pumpkin in smaller cubes and dump it in same pot. sizzle 3 minutes.
4. TRY NOT BURNING IT OK?
5. dump 1 liter water in same pot, together with 2 KNORR stock cubes of beef flavour or chicken.
6. cook untill pumpkin is as soft as a soft potato. (poke knife through it to check)
7. Now, transfer all your stuff into your blender (or use hand processor or food processor)
8. blend for 2-3 minutes depending on how chunky you want soup. its still hot so be careful!
9. now, transfer back to pot, and blend in the whole box of cream. 
10. top it with nutmeg, salt, pepper, and the fresh crushed oregano leaves
11. cook for 1 more minute because the cream might have made it abit cold again

VOILA!Meras  CREAMY TASTY DELICIOUS HEALTHY Pumpkin soup just for you =)




Still didnt get it?


Is it my advanced language? Ill make it easier for you ;

1. CUT the bacon strips

 

2. Fry the bacon and olive oil

 

 3. cut onion

4. cut the leek

 

5. Fry onion and leek together with bacon

6. take of pumpkin housing

 

7. cut pumpkin in cubes

8. fry everything together in the pot

9. insert 2 stock cubes

10. insert 1 liter of water and boil. simmer till pumpkin is soft

11. put everything in blender and blend

 12. pour back into pot, add 1 box of cream

 13. Add other spices like nutmeg, oregano, salt,pepper, and other spices of your choice

 

Alternative sidedish: Bread from Prive Bakery Cafe with garlic butter and JARLSBERG Cheese, put in mini oven untill cheese is melted

VOILA!

Great TV snack!

Bon Apetitte!

Bday Dinner!

 Mmmm my favourite cake again =)

 Russian shot.

 love the venue!

Rebecca Black Friday

 Whats the big buzz about this video, Friday by Rebecca Black? Its one of the most popular viral videos of this month. have a look at the awesome music video here:



It is truly hard to decide on whether to sit in the front or the back seat of the car.

It has the most awesome lyrics and Rebecca truly is a real star.(maybe for the wrong reasons?)

 Even mr Chris brown loves this girl:


Turns out, Ms Black is one of the young artists that has been managed by "The Ark Music Factory" which is basically a record label who takes in young artists and mould them into fabricated popstars. Obviously theres alot of rich parents involved in this when you have to autotune most of your stars to be so robotic that even Rebecca Black sounds like a dude.

Take a look at other videos and artists under Arks wings:






If you are able to watch all the videos through to the end, I applaud you.


ps. apperantly she paid Ark 12000 (nok) for this video !

Freshlook: The next big Thing

Coloured Contact lenses is really the latest trend amongst young girls in south-east Asia. Where I am from, you have to pay a large amount of money to do an eye-checkup to get a proper certificate and evaluation of your eyes before even being able to purchase any lenses. And buying the lenses can cost up to 100 $. Thats at least what i spent last time I bought coloured contacts in Europe. In the picture below, Im wearing a brand called "clearly colours" which was around 100$.
 

 What made this trend become so popular? Now its more normal to change your eyecolour than your hairstyle. Its just like another part of a make-up routine. And changing your eyecolour DOES make a huge difference for many.

Lenses are available everywhere in Singapore, and they have a lot of variations in blogshops - but there is something to be aware of, if you just purchase an unknown /un-certified brand from online, you wont have the opportunity to talk to experts to find out if these lenses can potentially hurt you eyes. They might be too big, your eyes might not be suitable for lenses at all, you might need degree - all these factors matters if you want to keep your vision in check.

and for gods sake, dont sleep with your contacts! I somehow fell asleep with them once after a heavy night of drinking, woke up with really blurry vision and I couldnt open my eyes for 2 days, literally lying in bed all the time! Luckily my boyfriend at the time and my housemates were there to nurse me, but still upon till today I feel that something that night triggered my eyesight and my left eye is still a tad blurry.       

Believe me, my eyes was so red an swollen I ended up resembling my best friends.. chihuahua

My advice to all new and also regular users of contact lenses is to go for a brand that is bought from a proper optician, and go for a brand thats well known, like Freshkon or Freshlook. Before your first purchase, check if your eyes are suitable for lenses first and then check if you need a degree. If your eyes are not suitable for wearing contacts and you still go ahead wearing them - you can get permanent damages.



So. What is the deal with these Big Eye contacts that are supposed to make you more beautiful ? Lady gaga has big eyes in one of her music videos from last year. This apperantly sparked a huge interest over the whole of asia, and sales boomed. But her eyes are obviously computer generated in this part of the video. News from Australian msn:

"The over-sized lenses, which are illegal in some countries but not in Australia, cover part of the white of the eye to give the wearer a cartoonish appearance.
In the video for the Lady Gaga song ‘Bad Romance,’ which was released last year, the singer's eyes appear to have been enhanced with the lenses.
Although the effect in the video was created in CGI during post production, several US media reports claim that it has caused large lenses to become trendy among teens.
In the United States, where novelty contacts are illegal, teens have reportedly been purchasing the lenses from foreign stores over the internet."

Anyways, what I was gonna say is your eyes are never gonna get BIGGER wearing these lenses but it does extend the whole iris area so you would look "younger" and more "doll-eyed".
But be ware, there are so many brands of "circle lenses" as some call them out online and they are sold ILLEGALLY. The shops dont normally have a license for it.

So kids, if you want to be safe about this whole Big Eye craze - buy freshlook Illuminate! This is what they say :

Specially designed for Asian Eyes, FreshLook Illuminate gives you naturally bigger and brighter eyes effortlessly, everyday!

Im a big fan of freshlook because of their vibrant colours and also this range called "illuminate" which does make your eyes more alluring (I feel.) Under is a photo of me wearing the "everyday illuminate" lenses.

Doesnt my eyes look bigger? hmms








His eyes certanly do!!!:

This is me wearing freshkon blue

 

Although, hard to tell, i WAS wearing freshkon brown on the FHM cover March=)

Stearling grey:

Me and my friend Wendy headed to Paragon last saturday to join the Freshlook "The next big thing" competition in Makeup Store. Wendy signed us up and we were one of the lucky ones to get chosen for this fun contest!> We had ten minutes to do a makeover on ourselves.

This is our "after shot"

Freshlook gave us an additional 5 pairs of lenses to use and makeup store gave us a membership card! The grand price is a trip to Paris, all expenses paid... really really hope well stand a chance to win it - =D Wish us good luck.