how to cook when you are alone at home...

It's almost 2 months my mother is away. So I need to cook for myself. Actually, I do the cooking most of the time.

Here is my easy time-saving way to prepare foods.

First, I buy a whole chicken "breast".  At the hypermarket I do my shopping, the breast cut refers to a whole chicken sans head, wings and thighs. So it's more than just breast.

And also dried kidney beans, carrots, cabbages, cream cheese and milk.

I would 'boil' the chicken and kidney beans. Is it called boiling or poaching or just making broth. Here, I get some chicken, kidney beans and broth. I also add in some of the discarded vegetable scraps (carrot peels and the outer leaves of the cabbage). I would remove some of the large vegetable scraps before storing the beans and chicken.

Then I would shred the chicken. Feeding the stray cat with the bones and fats and skin. This is the protein source in my salad; along with the kidney beans.

My salad dressing is just cream cheese, oil, vinegar and some milk and salt and pepper. Blend these et voila, my salad dressing. So shredded cabbage, carrots, chicken, kidney beans and the dressing.

Don't forget the broth. I use it for my porridge. Oats. I like my oats salty, not sweet. Just like congee, salty or umami. Sometimes it's barley.

And the easiest protein source is definitely eggs. They are versatile. I could just add them into my glass noodles. Just prepare some 'bumbu dasar' on Sunday, and what's left every morning is to soak the glass noodles in hot water (boil extra for a pot of green tea) and saute the bumbu dasar add eggs, the shredded chicken and finally the noodles and seasonings.

Eating the glass noodles, oats, barley, salad and sometimes grilled tempeh help me with my weight loss. I lose approximately 5kg in 12 weeks. Well, that and my exercise. I could say that my exercise is not very hard, just the right intensity.

And I hope I could continue with maintaining my healthier lifestyle.  Balanced diet and physical activities. No fad diets, just common sense. For exercise, aim for bigger muscles, for the afterburn effect. So I do squats and weight lifting. I must admit that I hate cardio. I replace my cardio session with hiking or skipping ropes.

Wish me luck and success to a healthier me!

*bumbu dasar is a genius Indonesian invention. Just blend chillies, some shallots with oil and salt. Prepare them in bulk so that you would not need to process these ingredients everyday before cooking.