Late Night Snacks to Cure Every Distress

Taken from Yahoo! Beauty Eats.

If we weren't meant to eat late at night, why is there a light inside the refrigerator? Besides, there are times when you just gotta have something. The trick is to be prepared. Because the main problem with nighttime nibbles has less to do with when you're eating than with what you tend to eat after hours. Instead of reaching for a pint of mint chocolate chip or a slice of day-old pizza, stock up on the following -- there's something here for every midnight muncher.

If you're stressed to the max
Rich, sugary comfort foods actually do short-circuit stress, but they also contribute to belly fat. So try to resist the chocolate chip cookies and grab a handful of unsalted almonds instead. The satisfying crunch will help you work off your anxiety, while the B vitamins and magnesium help your brain make relaxing serotonin. And at only 160 calories for about 22 almonds, you won't add weight worries to your woes.

If you're just tossing and turning
Starchy carbs may help you nod off. Why? Foods that quickly raise your blood sugar also raise blood levels of the amino acid tryptophan, which the brain converts to mind-soothing serotonin. So unless you're a diabetic, microwave a potato, warm up some instant rice, pop an English muffin in the toaster, and wait for the Zs to happen.

If you're burning the midnight oil
You could mainline coffee to get your Powerpoint project done overnight, but that'll just leave you with a world-class case of jitters the next morning when it's time to run it by the boss. A better bet, believe it or not: a salad of dark greens and chopped veggies. Not only will the complex carbs in the veggies give you energy, they're full of folic acid, which new research suggests helps your brain work faster.

If you're on a diet or just plain hungry
Give that rumbling tummy a little bit of protein, like a low-fat cheese stick, some lean turkey, or even an egg-white omelet. Eating about a third of your daily calories in lean protein keeps you feeling full, and a there's new evidence that it may also help you burn a few extra calories while you sleep.

If you're pregnant
Forget the pickles, but have the ice cream. Extra calcium is excellent when you're eating for two.

Baby-and-Me Smoothie
½ cup fat-free vanilla ice cream (or 8 oz nonfat vanilla yogurt)
1 banana1 cup frozen, unsweetened strawberries
1 Tbs. frozen orange juice concentrate.

Puree everything in a blender until creamy. Then put your feet up and enjoy every sip, knowing that you're getting about 340 mg of bone-building calcium -- more than 20% of your recommended daily value -- plus a bunch of vitamins and minerals, so the 373 calories are anything but empty. Even better: The milk protein and banana contain a bit of sleep-inducing tryptophan.

True Comfort Foods

7 Foods That Fight Anxiety
- Taken from beauty eats by RealAge

Bills arriving in heaps? Gas prices sky-rocketing? Summer love turned sour? Regardless of the cause, there's a counter-intuitiveness to the goodies we turn to for comfort. Take the classic-curling up with a pint of ice cream. It's a total backfire. Why? Sweets are insidious: After the initial rush, the body's insulin response kicks in, causing a sudden blood sugar drop that triggers the release of stress hormones. Soon you're feeling more jangled than you were before you inhaled that whole container of Chunky Monkey. And alcohol, of course, is a wolfish stimulant in calm sheep's clothing.

But true comfort foods do exist.

1. Berries, any berries
Eat them one by one instead of M&Ms when the pressure's on. For those tough times when tension tightens your jaw, try rolling a frozen berry around in your mouth. And then another, and another. Since the carbs in berries turn to sugar very slowly, you won't have a blood sugar crash. The bonus: They're a good source of vitamin C, which helps fight a jump in the stress hormone cortisol.

2. Guacamole
If you're craving something creamy, look no further. Avocados are loaded with B vitamins, which stress quickly depletes and which your body needs to maintain nerves and brain cells. Plus their creaminess comes from healthy fat. Scoop up the stuff with whole-grain baked chips-crunching keeps you from gritting your teeth.

3. Mixed nuts
Just an ounce will help replace those stress-depleted Bs (walnuts), give you a whopping amount of zinc (Brazil nuts)-it's also drained by high anxiety-and boost your E (almonds), which helps fight cellular damage linked to chronic stress. Buy nuts in the shell and think of it as multi-tasking: With every squeeze of the nutcracker, you're releasing a little bit of tension.

4. Oranges
People who take a 1,000 mg of C before giving a speech have lower levels of cortisol and lower blood pressure than those who don't. So lean back, take a deep breath, and concentrate on peeling a large orange. The 5-minute mindfulness break will ease your mind and you'll get a bunch of C as well.

5. Asparagus
Each tender stalk is a source of folic acid, a natural mood-lightener. Dip the spears in fat-free yogurt or sour cream for a hit of calcium with each bite.

6. Chai tea
A warm drink is a super soother, and curling up with a cup of aromatic decaf chai tea (Tazo makes ready-to-brew bags) can make the whole evil day go away.

7. Dark chocolate
Okay, there's nothing in it that relieves stress, but when only chocolate will do, reach for the dark, sultry kind that's at least 70% cocoa. You figure if the antioxidant flavonoids in it are potent enough to fight cancer and heart disease, they've got to be able to temper tension's effects.

Staff Lunch @ Straits Kitchen

Just when morale is starting to dip a little, a staff lunch comes along the way. And so for the sake of a $38+++ buffet lunch, I dragged myself to work.

Back from the Straits Kitchen, and I smell like a concentrated Hawker Centre. This restaurant at Grand Hyatt is a very up-market Hawker Centre serving local fare. Do not come here if you're looking for fresh raw oysters, sashimi, or other famous expensive buffet items.

Here, you'll find a few "stations", each specialising in different Asian cuisine. There is Indian, Chinese and Malay. Outside of these staples, is the extensive dessert station, and other miscellaneous things like popiah, rojak, and assorted juices. One major no-good factor is that coffee and tea is not included in the buffet price. One has to top up another $5+++ to get a cup of kopi. *major sulk*

One review claims that the best cooking came from the Malay section. Well, for today, I have to agree. The last time I went, I was most fascinated by the Indian section. I quite enjoy North Indian cuisine with their naans and papaddums and different types of grill meats, and other veges or curries, and dahl. I like dahl.

This round, the Malay section won with their superb grill food. I tried the chicken and satay, and rendang. Very nice. Would have like to try the grilled sea bass and sting ray. Sea bass serving was too huge, so I didn't dare to take. And stingray was out, everytime I want to go take it.

Chinese section was so-so. But, it's too typical food, like char kway teow, fried rice, roasted meats, fried oyster, etc. So, I didn't think I should waste too much effort sampling the food. The fried rice tasted better than it looked though.

Didn't get to try the rojak, but the popiah was quite nice. The filling is just nice, not very wet nor too dry, and the sweet sauce is very fragrant. Can definitely eat more than one piece.

I'm not a typically sweet-toothed person, but this time, I did try out more desserts. The variety is great. There's ice kanchang (wif abundant fresh cubed mangoes available). There orh-ni (lotus paste) and goreng pisang (assorted type). There's also the ice-cream segment, with choice of wafer or bread. Then there's other desert like gui-lin gao (looks like guilin gao), mango pudding, chin chow, longang almond jelly, sago, with choice of gula melaka and/ or coconut milk, or just plain syrup. There's also assorted kuehs and cakes, and peanut pancake, muah-chee, etc.

The way to close off the lovely lunch was really a nice cup of coffee. Just too bad it's too exhorbitantly priced. Honestly, i would not have paid an extra buck more for coffee, it should come complimentary with the meal.

That said. Every round I make pass the food sections, I ask myself, how am I gonna burn off these?

Of Steak & Vegetables

Last Saturday, the bf brought me out for a steak dinner. He said he wants to eat American steak. Okie, it was probably Australian beef, but prepared and served in an American restaurant. We went to Brewerkz. I had the NY Chargrilled steak with garlic-stout butter, while he had it with mushroom and wine sauce. I think I was abit sleepy towards the end of the dinner, because I had abit too much beer in everything, from the steak to the soup to the beverage. Tried their lightest beer. It's nice and easy to drink, very low on bitterness, and felt rather cooling. Otherwise, I hate beer. Beer = Bitter.

The brisk walk to the restaurant was romantic & wet. (Brisk walk & wet - 'cuz it was pouring like crazy). Also, I don't know if if I was hungry or what, but almost every eatery we walked by, I wanted to try the food. From Chinese to Indonesian to Mexican.

The Bf comes from a Buddhist family, and his parents are vegetarians. At one point, he was vegetarian too. So, prior to dating me, he doesn't really eat beef. He never said so, but I now half suspect he may have found beef abhorring.

I still remember the shocked faces of his long-time friends and neighbours when I mentioned he was eating beef in the US. It was quite funny. 'Cuz i was thinking, what's the big deal. But, they were like stunned.

Now, he's "persecuted" for eating beef. To be fair, I was "persecuted" for eating vegetarian too. One night, after I returned home from a vegetarian dinner with the bf's family, my family members, one by one, took turns to ask me how was vegetarian food. It was quite hilarious come to think of it.

Initially, whenever he said he's taking beef, or about to eat beef, it'll seem abit like a Fear Factor moment. I wonder if he'll break out into a fever, or have stomachache from eating it. I mean, if he doesn't like it, just don't eat it. It's his loss to miss out on the best type of meat in the world, but it's definitely not a requirement. But, well, nothing says "I love you" more than the willingness and actual effort to change one's habits and preferences. So, point noted.

Truth be told, I used to mock-lament about how the bf doesn't take beef, and maybe next time, I also won't get to eat beef. Most of my very close gal pals were stunned and gave me the disbelief look that my bf doesn't eat beef. But, one referred me to her husband who also used to not eat beef because of his family upbringing. Then, she reminded me of the Aussie trip we took a few years back. He was going for T-bone almost every meal. T-bone T-bone. Honestly, it's not that we want them to change for us, it's just that it's their loss if they can't appreciate beef. Haha..or so we'll like to think.

As for vegetarian food. Thank God, his family still take eggs. And so far, of the three vegetarian meals/ tastings I had, they were pretty good. Tasty, with variety.