Redmart Haul

Grocery delivery from Redmart. This cost me $161.50, free delivery. Most of the items were 50% or 70% discounted.

  

 Amy's organic frozen meals are mostly gluten free or vegetarian, there is also light & lean, kosher etc. It sounds really healthy, I've tried their Indian Aloo Mattar wraps before and its really delicious. Now that Redmart is having a promotion on Amy's frozen meals, I took the chance to try out the different flavors.

Nakd whole food bars are gluten free and comes in interesting flavors like banana bread, ginger bread, pecan pie. It's half priced so I got a few. It's not the usual cereal bar we are used to, its kinda dense and gummy.

Troo freeze dried pineapples and pear for snacking. Apparently, freeze dried retains vitamins in the fruits so you get the full nutritional benefit. It's also a gluten free snack. 3 for the price of 1, $9.90.

Weight Watchers Heinz country vegetable soup, it's a whole program that you have to follow to lose weight and very popular in UK. The offer is buy 1 get 1 free, that's how I ended up with 2 cans. I bought a pack of oyster mushrooms to add into this to make it a more substantial meal.

 I also bought 1 can of Mulligatawny soup as I've tried making Mulligatawny curry before and its not exactly what I expected so maybe this soup version will offer me some clue of what its supposed to taste like.

Sandhurst panino mix is an antipasti (mixed vegetables in oil), I bought it coz its half price, am thinking of putting this on Gardenia's new Country Loaf breads (ciabatta/Mediterranean panini). 

I also bought some CP KJ Fish/Shrimp burgers. This is like the burgers you get from 7-11, 1 burger in 1 packet that you throw into the microwave. The offer is buy 1 get 1 at 50% off.

Bonne Maman apricot preserves in XL size (750gm), half price. I am soo used to the tiny 35gm jars of Bonne Maman jams that this size is such a novelty. Planning to have this with Gardenia fruit & nut loaf for breakfasts. This fruit & nut loaf used to be a Christmas special but now you can buy it anytime of the year.

K. Harrodson cookies are back! I love these cookies. I also re-ordered Hormel Chili Turkey with beans, it's the only chili that has white meat. Masterfoods dijon mustard coz I ran out of mustard and its half price. 

Couple of canned seafood that can be pre-mixed into rice inside the rice cooker. Century milkfish, Adabi spicy mussels and spicy cockles, Yeo's minced prawn in spices, New Moon topshell. You can only find tuna, salmon or minced pork on the shelves so these are quite unusual.

 

Heaven & Earth Tea are on sale @ 40% discount, so I got a few. I make it a point to try different brands of coconut water and this is from Philippines, Nyogi coconut water with calamansi, it's also half priced.

These Vanish stain removers are used in addition to regular detergent. The spray can is for spot cleaning, the regular is for washing machines (1 cup to 1 cup detergent), O2 is for whitening.

Dettol is a distinctive smelling antibacterial wash used to clean clothes, furniture, floors. It's used in addition to regular detergent. I purchased some of the new body washes, cool menthol and glitter (the new Gold range has glitter inside).

Gifts Delivery

pic from aliexpress

I remember the paper soap flakes that comes loose in a packet as a novelty gift. I thought it was paper decoration coz it was so thin and my aunt told me to throw it into a bucket of water or tub coz its actually soap and an old world bath luxury type thing.

  

These are carved soap flowers from Thailand, they look just like wax candles that you can also get in Thailand. It's a prestige gift and my dad received a traditional jasmine garland version that we still keep in the display cabinet at home.

Anyway, the thing is now you can get carved soap roses in Singapore via Qoo10. I bought a big bouquet and a box of rose soaps. Yes, it's soo delicate it actually looks like the real thing and smells wonderful too. For Mother's Day and Father's Day, it will keep quite well until the actual day. There are more realistic bouquet styles available and I will be purchasing these instead of real flowers this year. 

Received this cute floral arrangement from FarEastFlora last month, cannot remember when was the last time I received flowers. The vase is concrete, a pretty cool keepsake as there are not that many concrete home accessories out there.

Cat & the Fiddle cheesecakes home delivery.

 

There are altogether 15 types of cheesecakes, some contain alcohol. I ordered their signature Fickle Feline, an assortment of flavors available in either alcohol or no alcohol variety, and an additional apple pie cheesecake to gift my friend, her birthday is round the corner. It's soo strange that you have to buy the packaging, candles, cards separately as add ons. Free delivery for purchases above $90.

Pulse Patisserie a bespoke bakery featured in Feb 2017 Epicure magazine. They offer 9 cake varieties in 500gm, macaron/croquembouche towers, as well as custom orders. You can choose to self-collect or have the cakes delivered to you for $25. All 9 cakes are beautifully presented and come in under $50 each, perfect for gifting or throwing a mad-hatters tea party for you and your friends.

Vegeterian Tofu Dishes

Vesak Day is here and all our meals are vegetarian this time of the year. Usually its vegetarian beehoon as sold in the hawker center or some complex mock meat type dishes in a restaurant. This year I bought Unicurd pressed tofu (for extra firmness) to make some vegetarian dishes at home.

General Tso's Tofu 左宗棠豆腐 that is similar to General Tso's chicken. You have to deep fry the tofu first before stir frying it with a heavy flavor sauce, not necessarily spicy. You almost don't notice its not chicken. There's a lot more sauce here than the way it usually looks in pictures.

Ma Po Tofu 麻婆豆腐 usually has a little meat in it that is substituted with fermented black beans this time around. It's unbelievably spicy and soupy, you have to eat it with rice. I am quite happy with this as it's similar to what you get at restaurants and in pictures.

Liang Ban Tofu 凉拌豆腐 is served cold, do not refrigerate. Once the tofu is put into the marinate you have to serve it immediately, it's like pickles. It looks a little different from the pictures you usually see coz I used blended chili sauce from the bottle instead of fresh whole chilies.

April Showers bring May Flowers

This month I received a bill and a payment from my blog, wish these things cancel out on it's own but it doesn't work that way. Recently, my Youtube account was activated as it's Google linked, I didn't know that. Two of my videos got copyrighted and it's getting more complicated for sure with tags, copyrights, paid content, adsense revenue and even getting subscribers. Right now, my camera cannot even film more than 5 min clips.

I also made some charges to my mom's credit card coz of Easter, sending floral arrangements and gift baskets to local & overseas people. The exchange rates on credit cards are always much higher than the market rate, something to note. For example 1 USD to 1.3 SGD at the money changer, the credit card exchange rate is 1 USD to 1.45 SGD. Let's see, I used ProFlowers for America as they have the cutest plants, 1800-Flowers for UK & Australia coz they deliver there, Gift Flowers in Singapore with the latest box-of-blooms/orchid-in-a-teacup. Gift Flowers also has a Hong Kong site.

Won $6 from Singapore Sweeps, same thing last year as well. I think the biggest prize I've ever won is $20 and that's an all-time record. For small prizes like these, it's easy to claim the cash over the counter at any outlet. Usually they ask you to exchange it for new sweep tickets.