MollyMia Aspire to Inspire before we Expire

Sunday 18 December 2016

Mia Bakes: Cocoa Nibs Crunchy Cookies

Okay, I promise this shall be the last baking post I'll do for this year. And the reason for this bake post is because of two new 'babies' I've bought on iherb.


Raw cacao sweet nibs to replace our sugar (and fat) laden chocolate chips.

And a 1:1 sugarless sugar replacement that supposedly bakes and tastes exactly like sugar. 


I've previously baked 1 batch of chocolate chip cookies following their 1:1 replacement instruction and also using semi-sweet hershey's chocolate chips and the result was... SUPER SWEET
So my advice to you is, do not follow the 1:1 replacement instruction. Start low, with about 50% reduction and then slowly work your way up if it's not sweet enough for you. 

So now, let's get over the ingredients so we can get started:

For 15 (1 tbps-sized) cookies, 
60g unsalted (soften) butter
100g AP flour
10g potato starch
(you may sub with corn flour/starch)
15g top flour
(you may sub with cake flour)
1/2 tbsp honey 
(you may replace this with milk and increase your sugars)
25g brown sugar
25g baking sugar substitute (sugarless sugar)
(you may use castor sugar)
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg (small to medium size)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 & 1/4 tsp baking powder (or 1/2 tsp baking soda) 
1/4 cup organic raw cocoa sweet nibs
(you may use normal chocolate chips)

You can get the sugarless sugar, cocoa nibs and other ingredients I've used HERE.

The baking procedure is basic and standard. First up, cream your soften butter and sugars until pale and fluffy. Beat in your egg, honey and vanilla extract until well combined. Sift in all your dry ingredients and fold until just combined before adding in your cocoa nibs and folding your batter until the nibs are evenly distributed.

Using a tablespoon, spoon the batter onto your baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If you're chilling your dough, the cookies will NOT spread at all hence you MUST flatten your cookies and you may position them closer together on your baking sheet. 
Chill your cookie dough (on the baking sheets) in the fridge until they're harden up and bake until they're beautifully browned on the surface. 
I can't advise you on your oven setting and baking time as I've baked them in my mum's air fryer/roaster, which works very differently from a conventional oven. 
Anyway, just FYI, I baked mine at 215 degree Celsius in the air fryer for 5 minutes first before cranking down the temperature to 180 degree Celsius for the next 25 minutes. 
The AF bakes much, much, muuccchhhh slower as compared to an oven (my oven broke down and I haven't gotten a new one) and based on past experience with my oven, the cookies should bake within 15 to 20 minutes (depending on how thin you've flatten them) at 170 - 180 degree Celsius in a conventional oven.


These cookies are crunchy throughout and kept their crunchiness over the days they lasted. Due to addition of cornstarch and top flour, they're slightly crumbly and tender, like a shortbread cookie. 


But the cacao nibs killed it all. T.T
Contrary to those raves on iherb reviews, the nibs tasted sour with a weird, herbal aftertaste. It wasn't even the cocoa bitterness I enjoy in my dark chocolates. Texture wise, some were crunchy while some were overly crisp, somewhat crackly, and it made me feel as though I'm biting onto eggshells.

So my conclusion is, unless you're really desperate to follow through with an extremely 'healthy diet' and absolutely need to find a healthy alternative, if not just stick to your good old chocolate chips, please!

Till then,
Mia Foo

Thursday 15 December 2016

Mia Bakes: Soft & Fluffy Wholegrain Fruit & Nut Loaf (BM Recipe)

Despite telling myself I'm happy with my dense and heavy wholegrain loaf, I couldn't help but keep googling for 'soft and fluffy wholewheat bread recipe' and was just disappointed over and over again when all of the recipes I've clicked in with titles similar to "softest and fluffiest healthy wholemeal bread" pretty much just had 10% wholemeal flour and 90% refined bread flour.
Erm, how can you even call that a healthy wholemeal bread when by ratio, it's effectively still a refined bread?

And so (out of spite?) I decided, let me reverse that and use 10% refined flour! HAHAHA, okay I'm kidding. But I really started adding small amount of all purpose flour into my wholegrain loaf because that 3/4 full pack of AP flour has been sitting in my baking cabinet for a while now and I feel that if I don't finish it, weevils will grow soon, so.... yeah, you got it.

 

Anyway, for this SOFT and FLUFFY wholegrain loaf, you'll need:

185ml (cold) milk
28ml honey
(I wanted to put 30ml but 28ml was all I could squeeze out)
200g wholemeal flour
25g dark rye flour
25g all purpose flour
3.5 tsp vital wheat gluten
(I might have added more per 1/2 teaspoonful hence you may use up to 4 tsp)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp ceylon cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
Abt 4.5g instant yeast
(if you're using mayer BM12, it's 1 full small measuring spoon + slightly less than 1/4)
30g unsalted butter
choice of chopped dried fruits & nuts 
(i used sunflower seeds, and a mix of raisins and cherries)

First up, add in your wholegrain flours and cold milk into the pan and let it sit for 30 to 45 minutes
Then, add in all your ingredients, except butter, and start your machine on mix dough function. Add in your butter only when your dough starts to form a ball. As different brands/batches of flours will have different hydration levels, do keep an eye on your dough and make sure it's hydrated enough. Eg. if it's sandy and tough like a beach ball, add in more liquid (preferably by the 1/2 teaspoonful) and if it's watery and formless, add in more flour.
Upon completion of the mix dough function, check your dough for windowpane stage, It won't stretch as thinly and beautifully as a 100% refined flour loaf, but it should stretch  and thin out quite a bit. If the dough is still lacking in elasticity, restart your machine on mix dough function again for another round of mixing.
After your dough is done mixing, restart your machine on graham or multigrain function and let the machine do the wonders! Oh, do remember to add your chopped fruit and nuts during the machine's feeding beep, too!



Giving you a 'bend test' to show that this loaf is really soft and fluffy. :)

Till then,
Mia Foo

Monday 12 December 2016

Mia Bakes: Mini Yule Logs & Gingerbread Cookies

Tis the season to be jolly, fala lalala lala lala~


Yes, the #bakingtrio has gathered once again for some fun X'mas baking! In case you're wondering what's Smojtocl, it's actually SM . JT . CL (our initials).

Anyhow, let's start off with the more interesting one, the mini yule logs! We followed CupcakeJemma's recipe, but made some tiny changes here and there to bring you 16 (actually it's 15 and a half) mini chocolate log cakes!

So the ingredients you'll need for 1 batch of the sponge cake are:
3 large eggs
75g caster sugar
25g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp ground ginger
a pinch of ground cloves
10" by 14" baking tray

note: 1 batch gives you 8 mini logs and we baked 2 batches because we've only 1 tray. 

First, separate the yolks from the egg whites and beaten the egg whites (preferably with a mixer) until it gets frothy. Add in 25g of caster sugar in 3 additions, beating the egg whites till stiff peaks are formed. Be sure to not get any egg yolk in your egg whites, just a tiny drop of yolk is enough for your meringue to NOT form!

In another bowl, mix the yolks and 50g of caster sugar and beat till it turns pale and thick (you may beat the yolks with a mixer stained with meringue but not the other way round!) Then, sift in all your dry ingredients and fold in gently. Then, temper your egg yolk mixture with about 1/3 of your meringue (just add in the meringue and stir to loosen up the yolk mixture) before adding all the rest of the meringue in and fold until they're JUST combined. DO NOT overmix as it will deflate your meringue too much and you won't get a nice sponge.
May I also suggest that you do the mixing lightly with a hand-whisk instead of folding with a spatula if you're not that confident with your folding skills.
Then, pour the cake mixture into your lined baking tray and level them out gently with a spatula. Make sure they're as leveled as possible so as to not get holes in your sponge cake!

Bake the cake at 180 degree Celsius for 10 - 12 minutes (depending on your oven) or until the top of the cake bounces back nicely when pressed down lightly.

When the cake has cooled down a little, turn it out and gently peel off the parchment paper before leaving it to cool completely. Do cover it with a clean tea towel to prevent the sponge cake from drying out. It won't take that long for it to dry out as it's extremely thin.

So now, on to 1 batch of the buttercream filling, you'll need:
60g of chocolate
(we used semi-sweet choc chips, but I recommend that you got for 70% dark as we found our filling a little too sweet)
100g unsalted butter
90g icing sugar
2 tbsp rum (or your preferred choice of alcohol)

First, melt your chocolate over a bowl of hot/simmering water. Make sure your chocolate bowl does not touch the simmering water if not your chocolate may burn!
Then, beat the soften butter with icing sugar until it turns pale and fluffy (you may want to check if the buttercream is ready by rubbing some between your fingers to make sure it's not longer grainy). Add in the melted chocolate and alcohol and beat until it's well combined.

Then, spread your buttercream onto the sponge before cutting them up into 8 slices and start rolling! It doesn't matter that your sponge is cracking at the surfaces as the chocolate ganache will save you. Just make sure that your mini roll cakes are able to stay together as a roll, that's all you need to focus on.

Finally, let's move on to the chocolate ganache, your saviour for all your crackly mini logs! The ingredients you'll need are:
100g dark chocolate
100ml whipping cream
(original calls for 115ml heavy cream)

Heat up your whipping cream in a pot until it just starts bubbling (simmering, not boiling) and pour the hot cream over your chocolate. Let it sit for a minute before stirring at the mixture until all the chocolate has melted.
And then start drizzling!


After all your logs are generously covered with the ganache, wait for it to set before using a fork to draw out the grooves of the log.

So you'll end up with these!
And finally, sprinkle some icing sugar over the top and viola~

Your mini yule logs are done!

And well, realising that we still have time we decided to give gingerbread cookies another go (we ended up with  gingerFAT man last year). After a quick recipe search online, we agreed to work with Jamie Oliver's easy and fuss-free gingerbread cookies recipe. 

And so what we added into our cookies are:
300g cake flour 
(our AP flour grew weevils)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3 tsp baking powder
(or 1 tsp baking soda)
125g unsalted butter
100g brown sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup

In a point, melted the butter together with the sugar and maple syrup and stir until all the sugar dissolves. Then, add the mixure to the dry ingredients and mix until it all comes together to form a dough ball. 
Roll your dough out to 5mm thickness and start cutting out your cookies into any shape(s) you fancy! There's no need to chill the dough before rolling it out as it's a really easy dough to work with, soft and malleable, yet not sticky. 
Do work fast though, because it dries our pretty quickly and soon it all turned into a mixture that resembles more of moist sand. But if you really wish to save your dried out dough, just add in some more water, knead, and re-roll.  

And the main reason why we decided to bake the cookies was to try out J's new toy. Cookie cutter that allows you to print out messages on the cookies!
Tadaa~ 
The cookies are crisp and crunchy throughout instead of being the soft, bread-ish kind of cookies, which I really like! But J was thoroughly disappointed because she would very much prefer having a soft, bready cookie instead.

And to end off this post, I shall show you one more picture of our awesome mini yule logs!

Till then,
Mia Foo

Friday 9 December 2016

Focus Hairdressing: Back to Black with Oway Hcolor (Special Discount For ALL Readers!)

After getting my c-curls last month with Focus Hairdressing, I returned to visit Ken again to get rid of my yellow hair! Yes, unfortunately, even after chopping of more than half of my locks, I still have some leftover hair that's previously bleached.


See that glorious tuff of shiny orange ends there? I swear the lighting has made them less hay-ish. And yes that's my geeky glasses sitting on the counter right there. HEH! 


And I'm glad to be able to try out their new organic and ammonia free hair colour, Hcolor, from OWay. 


Compared to other ammonia-free hair colouring system in the market, Hcolor has more colour options available and also comes with a pleasant, sweet-floral fragrance and gives you a reduced likelihood of respiratory and skin irritation, even in the most sensitive of individuals. Hcolor respects the hair fibre and the hair's physiological pH, hence helping our hair to maintain its structure. 


And after the going back to dark brown, it's time to give my scalp some attention with Oway scalp treatment. 


At Focus, their Oway treatments uses 100% biodynamic (which, I'm told is better than organic), micronised plants to target 3 main scalp issues:

1. Purifying - To treat dandruff and flakes
2. Rebalancing - To regulate excess sebum
3. Soothing - To soothe sensitive scalp

If I didn't read the catalogue wrong, I think Oway originally have another treatment system specially for hair-loss, but Focus do not offer that option as the previous 3 treatments all have anti-hair fall properties.


And it just so happens that I've been experiencing abnormal hair-fall recently after switching to a brand new shampoo/conditioner, and so soothing treatment it shall be!

The treatment has a very strong herbal scent and gave my scalp an icy, tingling sensation.

And now, showing you my before-after pictures...

Obviously the before: look at all those sebum! 

After: All traces of sebum wiped out and my scalp felt thoroughly cleansed.

And as I've mentioned earlier, I've been experiencing abnormal hair loss recently due to a change in shampoo/conditioner that doesn't suit me, and this treatment actually did work to reduce my hair fall! I've stopped seeing like, countless strands of hair sticking to my palms when I shampoo/condition my hair these days.
HUGE THUMBS UP!

Lastly, to end off the day, Ken gave me another colour treatment, Milbon Deesse's Aqua Smooth Veil Treatment. This Milbon Deesse's treatment is also a 3-step treatment and is quite similar to Mucota Scena (read my review of it HERE). The treatment creates 3 layers to treat and infuse the hair with moisture instantly, repairing and smoothen our hair from inside out. 

However, to be brutally honest, I would have much preferred sticking to Mucota Scena (is it psychological or what?) as I felt that my hair turned out much smoother with Scena as compared to Milbon. The silky effect of the treatment after my regular hair washes, somehow, also lasted longer with Scena, but it might be because my hair wasn't c-curled back then?

Oway Hcolor is now priced at $100 - $150 (for my hair. it was $140) and you only need to top up $60 to get Oway scalp treatment (usual price $90).

And for now, Focus Hairdressing Chinatown will be giving all you lovely readers a special discount of 15% off Oway Hair Colouring service.

All you need to do is to flash my blog page (molly-mia.blogspot.sg) on your mobile phone to enjoy the special discount!

And now, signing off with my #blackhairselfie

Till then,
Mia Foo


Wednesday 30 November 2016

christmastree.sg by Florage Garage Singapore

You better watch out, you better not cry, better not pout, I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming-
WAIT!

credits to http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/

With a #christmastreefail like this, how can you not pout and cry?

But fret not, because christmasstree.sg by Floral Garage Singapore is here to help!
Christmas Tree Singapore is the one stop destination for all your Christmas supply needs. Ranging from Christmas trees of various heights, a variety of Christmas tree ornaments and decorations, and house decorations.

And best of all, they provide real actual photographs of their trees because they believe no one should fall victim to buying a lousy tree.

How sweet is that! 


If you're not familiar with FirTECT, it is a German designed technology made to give you hyper-realistic and super durable trees with amazing beauty. This technology ensure that the structure of the trees may withstand a load greater than the stand of an ordinary artifical Christmas Tree. Meaning to say, trees with FirTECT are able to look more dense as they can hold up to 25% more branches than the usual trees sold in the market. FirTECT also enables the leaves of the brances to go through hyper realistic digital printing to ensure that there will be a slight natural variation in the shades of green. 

For those first-timers (at setting up a Christmas tree), christmasstree.sg is also very thoughtful to provide you a detailed step-by-step instructions (HERE) to ensure that your trees won't end up looking scarce due to poor assembly. 

Other than the usual traditional, hybrid and Pine Christmas trees, you can also find quality christmas tree lights, ornaments and home decorations like baubles, streamers, wreaths and stockings at reasonable prices. 

For newbies looking for more tips to getting your perfect decorations for Christmas, you can also drop by their BLOG for useful guides in creating your unique themes for Christmas tree decorations or for finding the perfect tree for your office. 

And with Christmas getting nearer, christmastree.sg is also launching their new terrarium for those who want to add some greenery to your home for the festive season and yet, wish to keep it simple and minimalist. 


Made up of air plants and the Zamioculcas Zamiifolia, or better known as the ZZ plant, this terrarium is the best choice of houseplant for all those forgetful gardeners out there as we all know ZZ plant care starts with a lack of care, for they'll actually do better if we leave them be. 
But of course, a giving them a little spray of water when the soil has dried out will still be a necessity. 

Get your beautiful Christmas Trees and everything Christmas at Christmas Tree Singapore!
For viewing of their trees, drop by their place at 39 Jln Pemimpin #03-04, Tai Lee Ind. Bldg. Do make an appointment via email (hello@christmastree.sg) before heading down.

Till then,
Mia Foo

Thursday 17 November 2016

Mia's Review: NaturalistCo Facial Oils [Sponsored]



NaturalistCo is an energetic local company run by a dedicated young team, and is a firm believer on the goodness of organic and natural handmade skin care. Aiming to become Singapore's best natural skin care brand with high efficacy and also to not compromise on sourcing and finest and most active ingredients around the world, NaturalistCo is striving to unleash the miracle of natural skin care. They've made their commitments to keep 'natural' as as integral part of their product philosophy and hence their formulations are free from synthetic colours, artifical fragrances, mineral oils, silicone, propylene glycol, petrolatum, animal derivatives, harsh detergents and parabens.


And I was glad to receive two of their popular carrier oils to try out! Isn't the packaging so cute?


Highlight of NaturalistCo’s product: 

- Organic and natural skin care products derived from premium botanical oil and food
- Food grade ingredients
- Handcrafted and made in small batch
- Special bottles and jars to preserve the nutrients for full benefits
- Enjoy fresh handmade skincare with extended product’s lifespan (with patented Miron Violet Glass from Netherlands)
- Shorter lifespan compared to synthetic skin care products, made from fresh ingredients with no artificial preservative.

According to my skin issues, I was recommended both the Grapeseed Oil and Sweet Almond Oils. 



Grapeseed oil is a good source of essential fatty acids and vitamin E. The polyphenols and flavonoids found in this oil contain strong antioxidant compounds. It is mildly astringent in nature and helps to tighten and tone skin. The oil contains proanthocyanidins, which are very potent antioxidants, that help in diminishing the sun's damaging effects and lessen free radical damage.

If you haven't heard of using grapeseed oil on our faces, then you're missing out! Other than helping with prevention of acne and skin aging, grapeseed oil also helps to tighten out skin and minimises the appearance of dark circles. It also does wonder for our hair, helping with hair growth and combating dandruff, but of course it's not that economical to be 'splurging' a precious 15ml bottle on that. 



Sweet almond oil is enriched with Vitamins E, A, B1, B2 and B6. It is a light oil that easily absorbed by skin and rarely clog pores. It is also rich in Omega-9 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids.  This oil comes packaged in 15ml amber glass bottles. It can effectively reduces dark circles, wrinkles and crow's feet around the eye area. It is a good moisturiser and help to balance the skin.

Other than using sweet almond oil as a moisturiser and to reduce dark circles and signs of skin aging, you also also add in some fine sugar into the oil and get your own homemade facial scrub! Sweet almond oil can also be used as part of your deep skin cleansing regime, or to relieve skin problems such as eczema, psoriasis and other skin rashes. 

And I find that whenever we use any oil on our skin, it tends to leave us with a heavy and greasy feel. However, these two oils are extremely lightweight and gets absorbed into my skin quickly, and my skin feels soft and supple the next morning. However, instead of using these oils 'straight up', I mixed two or three drops of the oil into my usual aloe vera gel to get a more refreshing feel.

For more information on other carrier oils and essential oils available on NaturalistCo, visit their website HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo


Monday 7 November 2016

Mia's Review: Pompompurin Cafe [Halloween Theme]


Yes, I finally visited Pompompurin Cafe, all thanks to Sa's special treat for my birthday! 

We visited on a PH, at an off-peak timing of 3pm, and there was still a queue, albeit a short one. Special request for the booth seats will require a longer wait as there really isn't much booth seats available and the cafe doesn't set a time limit as to how long their patrons can stay in the cafe. 


They've already changed into the autumn setting by now, but when we're there it was still the Halloween theme! 


The entire cafe was just filled to the brim with cuteness. 

Love Love Hot Marshmallow Latte

This has got to be the cutest coffee I've ever drank. Can someone tell me if the white female dog is Cinnamon Roll? 
Coffee wise, it's just pretty average coffee (hence you can say it's overpriced) but the cuteness (and IG-worthiness) kind of makes up for it. Anyway, be sure to NOT stir the marshmallows into the coffee, because they're jam filled kind. It's better that you eat them instead. 

Bacon Mushroom Shoyu Pasta

I actually cannot remember the actual name of this pasta (and google came up with nothing!) but there's definitely both 'bacon' and 'shoyu' inside. 
Although not eye-widening fantastic, it was definitely above mediocre for a pasta dish. The spaghetti wasn't too hard nor too soggy, and the bacon slices added a nice savoury taste to the pasta. Well, it's near impossible to go wrong with bacon, agree?
I didn't try out the salsa sauce (served in the cute pompompurin mini-mug) but ate the toasted baguette plain. They were good enough as they were. Yes, I'm totally a bread person.

BBQ Spare Pork Ribs with Rice

This dish is definitely more IG-worthy compared to the pasta, but slightly lacking in comparison at the taste factor. 
The spare pork ribs has the strong 'pork smell' which they've failed to mask over with their BBQ sauce. They're also quite mediocre in terms of the tenderness factor, as I've definitely tasted better. The rice, in order to attain the cute Pompompurin-sitting-in-a-cup look, was made slightly soggy and 'mashed up', like a lontong (malay rice cakes). 
Well, 10 out of 10 for IG-worthiness, but barely a 5 for the taste factor. 

Banana Caramel Pancakes

This scores like 11 out of 10 for IG-worthiness, no?
Although hardly comparable to those popular souffle pancakes that's oh-so-fluffy and light, this is still a decent pancake with top-rated cuteness, and quite a huge price tag as well. They're rather generous with the whipped cream and banana slices though, for we had to 'shift' the white whipped cream aside to minimise our empty calories intake. The banana whipped cream, although still too much, was pretty good though. 


Pompompurin Cafe has now started their Autumn Theme and they're located at 
Orchard Central, #04-08
For more information, visit their FB HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo


Thursday 3 November 2016

Mia's Bakes: Wholemeal Rye Bread (Mayer Bread Machine Recipe)

I've recently purchased Bob's Mill dark rye flour and buckwheat flour off iHerb (again!) to try out more variation of wholegrain bread loaves. 
However, it was really disappointing to find that the results were less than acceptable, for my bread turned out extremely short, dense and crumbly-cakey, like they've hardly risen at all. 


My wholemeal-dark rye-buckwheat loaf was made with the flour ratio of 2:1:1 (2 parts wholemeal) and with NatureGlory's organic Bonsoy and though extremely tasty with the distinctive nutty flavour from the addition of dark rye flour, the texture was just.... mehh. 

And then I realised, I might need a change of yeast.
And so, chucking Saf-Instant, I returned to Bake King's Instant Yeast and decided to give my dark rye flour another try. 
Well, I read somewhere saying that rye flour and bread machine doesn't do well together as a rye dough might be too heavy and tough for the bread machine to knead, but... let's just give it another shot!

So for my wholemeal rye bread, you'll need:

150g wholemeal AP flour
75g low-carbs flour
25g dark rye flour 
190ml milk 
3tsp vital wheat gluten
1 tsp ceylon cinnamon powder
21g raw honey
30g unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 small mayer tsp instant yeast (about 5g)

On my Mayer BM, I first added the wholemeal flour to the milk and let it sit for 20 minutes before adding in the rest of the dry ingredients and honey and starting the mix dough function, which will mix and knead the dough for 25 minutes. 

After which, I restarted the machine on multigrain setting and added in my butter cubes. And then about 75g of raisins and a few handful of chopped almonds at feeding point (which I regretted). 


Probably due to the dark rye flour, which made the dough heavier than denser than it would have been as just a wholemeal dough, the BM was unable to knead in the raisins at feeding point and I ended up with tons of raisins left behind in the bread pan and just a few of them sticking onto the surface of the bread. 


The chopped almond did get kneaded a little more into the dough, though still pretty much at the outer rim of the loaf. 

Although still denser and heavier than a refined white loaf, this time round my wholegrain loaf turned out much softer and chewier with the new yeast as compared to my previous bake(s). 
Just a reminder to self, is to add in the raisins during initial mixing whenever I add in dark rye flour to prevent high raisin wastage. 

Do you have a go-to recipe for a yummy wholegrain loaf? Do share them with me!

To get the wholegrain and low-carb flour I've used for this recipe, hop over to iHerb right now! 

Till then,
Mia Foo

Saturday 29 October 2016

PRIMERO's ErgoSilver Laptop Riser [Advertorial]


-credits to www.northtexaschiropracticservices.com-

Are bad sitting posture in front of your computer giving you pains?

Before we get to the main topic of this post, ask yourself. How many hours a day are you seated at your desk, using a computer? 
Well, personally I spend minimal 9 hours seated at my desk, using the computer, at work. And when I get home, I usually spend 2 to 3 hours watching some dramas or youtube videos on my laptop to unwind, or draft out my next blog post. 

-credits to fairlesshillschiropractor.com-

And frankly speaking, even with my chair lowered to the lowest height possible, it's still impossible to be seated at eye level to the computer and slouching at the computer desk gradually became a norm for me. 

Well, that's until PRIMERO sent over one of their flagship product, the PRIMERO ErgoSilver Laptop Riser, retailing at $34.90 at laptopstand.sg



Suitable for laptops up to 17 inches, this riser is extremely lightweight and portable, suitable for use anywhere.



The riser also comes with rubberized silica gel pads on the top and bottom surfaces to increase friction and prevent slipping and scratches on laptops. 


You might notice that this riser is quite similar to their other flagship product, the PRIMERO ErgoSilver Laptop Stand, and might be a little confused with which is better for you. If you do not have an external keyboard and mouse to use with your laptop, the stand will not be ideal for you as it completely lifts your laptop off the desk. 


And thanks to the riser, I can now admire Lee Joon Gi watch my current favourite Kdrama in a more comfortable position!

PRIMERO will also like to share a little tip with you on alleviating the pains of that pesky backache and how to help with your slouching problems.


It'll just take 5 minutes of your time daily with this Locust (yoga) pose! 
For more information, visit the infographic HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo