Focus+, Author at FocusPositives FocusPositives

Messy House,Frugal Hoarding: 2021 Declutter Challenge

August 27th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink

Declutter Journey

I was so motivated by my 7 day no sit declutter challenge I continued to do it for a whole month. However I was super exhausted mentally I had to take a break from the videos. I was not able to organize them and look at them to make any sense for you. But now after about a year later, I can see it with a different perspective. I am less judgemental and less emotional about the things that I cleaned in the month.

Presenting Decluttering Videos One Year Latter

My mind was a mess when I tried to process all the things I had accumulated over the years. Cleaning was the only thing I could manage. I didn’t want to stop the momentum. I concentrated on cleaning and filming, not knowing if I would show these to people. After watching them again. I realized I was a lot more comfortable with my mess. I could acknowledge them and was less fearful of people judging me. I could suddenly sometime just clean. Before the challenge I always just got very frustrated and stopped before I even began. It was a refreshing feeling to be able to take some action to change my current state of dissatisfaction with my life. So I want to share this with those of you who struggle through similar situations.

Look out for my Video progress Here

Super Easy Eight Treasure Porridge Slow Cooker/Congee (慢炖锅八宝粥)

March 20th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink

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Healthy Porridge Crockpot Recipes

Eight Treasure Porridge is one of the healthiest most nutritious soups. This porridge can be savory or sweet. Sweet porridge can be served hot or cold. In the winter, a hot bowl of this soup build strength and keeps you warm and toasty. In the summer, a bowl of chilled porridge out of the refrigerator makes a cool refreshing snack. You can add a scoop of ice cream into the cold porridge for an extra cold treat in the hot summer months. This porridge will remove excess heat built up in your body while nourishing it at the same time.

What are the 8 ingredients in Eight Treasure Porridge?

This sweet congee is packed with vegan ingredients to boost the immune system. So, which 8 ingredients, as the name suggests, should be to used? There are so many variations on the web? The simple answer is, “Anything you have in your kitchen.” quoted from my mom who’s been making this porridge for me ever since I was a child. I could never remember what was exactly was in the porridge. All I know is, it tastes good.

I love congee or porridge. This is one of the easiest and most adaptable sweet porridge recipes, slow cooker recipes that you can cook in a crockpot. Crockpot porridge recipes are my favorite because you can throw all the ingredients in and forget about it until it’s time to eat. I am using a 5 quart crockpot. It takes time more time to figure out what ingredients to use then it is to prepare. Watch the video below for some extra tips and to help you quickly choose the ingredients to use. Enjoy this crockpot porridge sweet soup. I hope you’ll give it a try. Enjoy.

Eight Treasure Porridge Ingredients

How to Make Slow Cooker Porridge Overnight

Ingredients:

Crockpot Porridge Cooking Directions

Measure and wash all the ingredients. Place the ingredients into the crockpot. Add pre-boiled water. Turn on high. Cook for 12 hrs or until you are ready to eat. Add sugar and serve.

Rice cooker recipe: Salted Egg or Century Eggs and Pork Porridge/Congee dim sum (懒人咸蛋瘦肉粥 / 懒人皮蛋瘦肉粥)

March 9th, 2021 § 0 comments § permalink

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My Favorite Healthy Breakfast, Dim Sum Porridge

If you are craving the porridge you get from dimsum, minus the MSG, this will be the quickest porridge you ever make. Restaurants usually use century eggs for their congee but I will use our home made salted egg this time. You can easily just replace the salted eggs with the century eggs to create the flavor you like. It’s easily adjustable. Slaving over the stove is no fun. This lazy cooking recipe allows you to be multifunctional. For example, sit on sofa and bing on Netflix while this is cooking. This recipe will become your regular goto meal.

No cooking meal prep

Salted egg or century egg pork porridge is a great healthy breakfast. You will be full of energy after you eat this. If you have no ideas for lunch or dinner, it’s an easy set and forget meal that you can have anytime. There’s absolutely no meal prep needed, the quick version will only take 5 minutes to put together. You can decide on a whim when to cook it. The porridge will self cook and be ready in about 1 hr. It’s so quick, you’ll have a lot of extra time to do whatever your heart desires while this cooker rice recipe simmers away.

This cooker rice recipe has 3 ingredients

(Makes 6 to 8 bowls)

  • 10 oz lean pork
  • 2 cups of rice
  • 2 salted eggs or 2 century old eggs
  • 1:6 cup – rice to water ratio

Rice Cooker

You’ll need a rice cooker with a “porridge/congee” function or “steam” function. I am using the Buffalo smart cooker, which has a “white rice”, “brown rice”, “porridge”, “steam”, “soup”, and “cake” functions. I’ve had mine in over 10 years. I love using it. I can cook a whole meal of rice, stew or soup, and veggies in 5 minutes. The Buffalo smart cooker I have is no longer available but I see a new version on Amazon. It has many more functions and healthy features then my old Buffalo smart cooker.

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Rice cookers are a great way to cook healthy meal. This cooker has a 24hr preset function so you can set it up before you leave the house and come back to a fully cooked hot meal. You can preset to cook porridge for breakfast or just about anything ahead of time so you’ll always have something warm and good to eat when it’s meal time.

Cooking with Multiple Rice Cookers

Don’t throw out your old rice cookers if you get an upgraded smart cooker. It will come in handy when you want to cook multiple dishes at the same time. Old rice cookers are super efficient steamers. You just add water and press a button and the dish will be ready after all the water evaporates. I’ve steamed eggs, made oatmeal and stack cooked whole meals with old junky rice cookers. With a few cookers around you can have a huge meal ready enough for a big family when you come home from work. Rice cookers are not only restricted to cooking rice.

Easy amaranth greens, beef and noodles recipe 牛肉莧菜米粉湯

September 1st, 2020 § 0 comments § permalink

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Amaranth greens in garden

We always grow amaranth greens every year. Amaranth greens are super healthy vegetables high in vitamin A, C, and K. Home-grown amaranth leaves taste way better than the store-bought ones. The roots of this vegetable are edible as well but do take longer to scrub and remove all the the dirt.

My favorite way to cook amaranth greens is with beef and noodles. Amaranth in soup has a mild sweet flavor and gives off a beautiful pink purple color that is delightful to the eye. You can use the liquid as a natural hair care product and use it as a natural food dye.

Amaranth greens are easy to grows. We have them growing all year round. Consider growing some. It’s super satisfying to pick and eat from an your own organic garden.

Beef and noodles soup (beef ho fun)

Flat rice noodles, like ho fun, is my favorite noodles to go with this beef and noodles recipe. This recipe is very easy and loose. You can adjust to your own taste and use the ingredients you have. Like many Asian moms, my mom never had specific measurements for recipes, it’s a very flexible way to cook.

I’ll pass this flexible cooking style to you so you can give it a try. It’s a good way to adapt to personal health conditions and flavor preferences. The meat and noodles can be replaced with your favorite meat and noodles. My preference and ideal combination for this amaranth greens recipe are mainly beef and flat rice noodle sticks. Sometimes I like to add an egg and some chili oil to spice things up. Cooking freestyle can accommodate your mood at the time of cooking. I’ll show you the basics and you can add to it what you like. Here’s a short video I made to help you get started.

Ingredients: 2 servings

Soup

Beef flank steak marinade

  • Salt (to taste)
  • Black pepper (to taste)
  • Garlic powder (to taste)
  • 1 tsp Soy sauce
  • 1 tsp Cornstarch

Serve with

Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew)

August 1st, 2020 § 0 comments § permalink

What to do with an huge old t shirt?

If you don’t know what to do with an old t shirt here’s a cute way to cut shirts. I had lots of fun figuring out how I could make use of this huge ugly t shirt I got from working at JC Penny’s during the holidays. Upcycle old t shirts are the best way to repurpose old t shirts. I created this simple t shirt tutorial cutting and braiding the huge t shirt into a cute suspender skirt that is great for the summer season. There’s no sewing involved. Simply cut, braid and tie some knots.Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew)

  1. Pick a t-shirt that is large enough to cover the length you want your suspender skirt to be. Carefully plan and draw where you will make your cuts to the t shirt. Check your measurement twice and then again, you only have one chance to maximize the fabric on the t skirt so take your time. If you have tons of t shirts sitting around then you can afford a mistake or two to get it right. I had only one huge t shirt so I made everything is exactly the way I want before I made my cuts.

Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew) part1

2. Cut the two side stips in the back at the waist line so the front of the two strips are still attached to the front waistline of the skirt. Cut the two side strips into 3 thin strips. These will be the front suspenders. Cut the middle wide flap at the front waistline leaving the back flap still attached to the back waistline. this will be the back suspender. Fold the two front strips down. Fold the back middle wide flap down. Use your thumb as a guide to cut notches all around the t-shirt. The notches cut in about 1/4″. When you open it up, it should be about 1/2″.

Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew) part2

3. Braid the whole circumference of the t-shirt using the chart from daretodiy.com. Tie the last notch.

Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew) part3

4. When you finish braiding all the way around the t shirt, the two (3 thin stips) and the back middle flap will be downwards under the braid. Pull the braids under and up towards the top. Fold the back middle flap up. Cut the middle back flap into 6 thin strips that’s still attached to the waist line. Pull the 6 thin strips under the waistline braids.

Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew) part4

5. The two (3 thin strips) in the front have a sewing connection which was at the shoulder, you can secure it by sewing it with extra thread. If it it tight then there’s no need to do this step. Sometimes cutting the shirt will loosen the connection at the shoulder.

Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew) part5

6. Braid the two (3 thi strips in the front). Weave the back flap that you’ve cut into 6 thin strips.

Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew) part6

7. Connect the two front suspender braid to the back flap weave to create a flower. The connection looks like a “Y”. Cut off any odd pieces when you have secured the connection.

Diy t-shirt suspender skirt (no sew) part7

Cut t shirts are super fun experiments

Cut t shirt experiments are super fun especially if you have lot of old shirts lying around. Sometimes it takes some practice to get it right. Doing upcycle and repurpose projects not only saves your clothes from going to dumping grounds and polluting our planet but is a great way to express creativity. I’d be so happy to see what you made. Share what you made with your old t shirt.