Shenanigans of a dietitian

As you probably know, winter is my favourite season and I love this time of the year. I was really looking forward to Vivid but I could only go once due to the bad weather and other commitments. Unfortunately, this meant I didn't get to cover all the precincts, but I'm glad I saw some of it, at least.  My favourite was the Cathedral Of Light at Botanic Gardens. It certainly received a lot of attention this year, a lot of people thought it was overrated (which it probably is) but I still enjoyed it :) Here are my top 30 :)  Cathedral of Light Almost there.. Cathedral of Light view from the top (my favourite) Central Park Central Park Central Park Martin Place Martin Place Martin Place Sydney's Hidden Stories Sydney's Hidden Stories Laser Fountain Water Theater Laser Fountain Water Theater

Mum left some moong dal in the fridge, I've never cooked with it before so I wanted a recipe to use it. This was probably one of the easiest curry I have ever cooked! So simple yet so delicious :) Recipe adapted from: http://www.steamingpot.com/pumpkin-moong-dal/ I modified the recipe as I did not have some of the mentioned ingredients. Ingredients 1 TB EVOO 1 cup of boiled moong dal (1/2 cup raw) 1 onion, finely chopped 1 tsp of garlic and ginger paste Turmeric powder (sprinkled) Curry powder (sprinkled) 250g pumpkin, finely chopped, skin on  1 red capsicum, small cubes 1 tomato, small cubes  Cumin powder (sprinkled)  Few green or red chillies  Fresh coriander Method 1) Boil moong dal (refer to instructions above- easier if done beforehand) I already had my boiled moong dal so I started from step 2 2) Add EVOO oil 3) Add onions, garlic/ ginger paste and turmeric powder once oil is hot 4) Stir for a few seconds 5) Add pumpkin, boiled lentils and chillies onc

Two of my friends recommended this place, it was my first time trying Afghan cuisine so I was quite excited. I was told they have really nice eggplant and meat dishes. There weren't many people as we went on a weeknight but I have heard that they are really busy and often hard to get a table. We started with their famous eggplant dip. The 'Buranee-Badenjan' came with large naan bread. The dip was rich in flavour but it was just too oily. I did not expect there would be this much floating oil. The bread tasted quite nice with the dip but it was hard to tear and manage. We would've liked if it had been cut in smaller pieces. Buranee-Badenjan as an entree ($6.90) For mains, two of us ordered the 'Qaboli Pallaw' (one chicken and one lamb shank). The chicken was soft and cooked well. The rice was topped with carrots, raisins and pistachios. I enjoyed the combination of sweet and savoury in this dish. Qaboli Pallaw Chicken ($14.95)  Buranee-B

This was probably my best month this year because I had my first ever conference/ mini holiday. But it didn't start off that great, I had to learn how to use a software called Stata for statistical analysis. I struggled a lot in the beginning because I had no idea how to set up the data or what code to use. (Stata has a command interface). It took me a really long time to figure out what I needed to do. I went through a long process of trial and error and seeking help when I got stuck.  The first part of the analysis didn't take as long but the rest of it took me longer than I expected. I had set myself a deadline to finish it before I leave for the conference (but failed). However, the good news is, it finally worked in the end! I felt super accomplished after getting all my outputs. I think I'm slowly learning to be persistent! I thought I would be ready to write up after this but turns out, I still have to do another quality and tool validity assessme

Being a tourist :) Day 1: Reunited with the bestie at the airport. *Incessant chattering* Next stop was food.    First sunset photo We chose an Italian restaurant called ‘Vapiano’, based on another friend's recommendation. It was quite busy; we had to wait to get a table. We decided to order both pizza and pasta. Ordering pizza was pretty straightforward. However, the pasta line took forever. It took so long that we received our pizzas but still hadn't been able to order the pasta. We tried garlic and one zucchini and eggplant pizza. I liked the latter but the garlic one was a bit hard, it got a bit cold by the time we started eating.  The pasta was quite nice and flavoursome but nothing extraordinary and not worth an hour wait!   Vapiano Spotted a cute florist, on our way to dessert For dessert, we wanted to go Om Nom but unfortunately they had no space so ended up going to Pancake Par