The other motivation to start making my own breakfast every other morning, is due to first and final visit hb and I will have at Wild Honey at Mandarin Gallery.
My Norwegian breakfast
I saw Avocados, Asparagus, salmon slices, some cream cheese, topped with some mozzarella cheese on two slices of thick white toasted bread from this dish that I had at Wild Honey. And it tasted bleah, very bland in fact. Hb had Eggs Benedict and we both had a coffee and soft drink each. This meal cost us SGD$85.00.
Hb and I felt totally ripped off. Thank goodness we paid with vouchers we claimed from credit card points, so dissonance from Wild Honey was a lot more manageable.
I still cannot understand why there are crowds queuing outside their restaurant every weekend. The regular profile of people who goes to Wild Honey are young adults between the ages of 21-30, decked out in their hip clothes and bags, with some tourists thrown into the mix.
And the service is far from being desired. We had to order from the counter and we were charged service charge, for what in particular I wonder?
So, this visit to Wild Honey is our first and last. I know I will never ever go back there again. Even if a naive friend willingly wants to buy me a meal there. Anywhere but Wild Honey!
So I decided to embarked on the Breakfast Challenge to start eating healthy and to prove that my breakfast can taste as good, be alot healthier and look just as nice as a $85.00 breakfast meal at Wild Honey.
I made poached eggs for hb, with shaved ham on Danish bread, without the rich Eggs Benedict sauce. If u know that in a dish of Eggs Benedict, you will be ingesting a total of 5 egg yolks at one sitting, you probably will not want to ask for Cholesterol-laden Eggs Benedict anymore in a typical breakfast place. This is my very first time making poached eggs, and I wasted 1 egg (which got stuck in the pot during the poaching process).
I made pancakes too, making some changes to a recipe that I found on allrecipes.com, here’s the recipe if you want to explore making your own pancakes.
Ingredients
(for 8 servings)
Directions
Instead of using maple syrup, you can also make your own fruit compote. Here’s some Apple and Blueberry compote on top of the pancakes. All u need to do is to slice up the apple thinly, without the skin, simmer in a small pan until some of the juices start to emerge. Then add about a tablespoon of brown sugar, and throw in the blueberries.
For a quick pancake breakfast, I divided the dry ingredients into 4 for 2 servings each. Put the dry ingredients in 4 plastic bags and keep them in the fridge and only added the wet ingredients in the mix, when I was ready to fry the pancakes in the mornings.
Apart from these slightly more rich breakfasts, I tend to go for these regular healthy options daily.
Toast again, with grapefruit, cherry tomatoes and salad with Wafu dressing
Walnut danish, fruits and salad
Ham on boule bread with jam, fruits and salad
More variety of fruits and a Passion fruit butter with cheese on boule
Hot lemon tea, it actually tastes just as good as cold ice tea.
Smelly yummy cheese with crackers, dried apricots and nuts to share with hb on weekends. To make sure that he does not reach for the packet of Doritos for that morning.
Just a simple breakfast of a sunny side up with ham on bread.
So did I manage to prove that my meals are healthier and look just as good as what they have in Wild Honey?
I think I did.
So take that, Wild Honey. I definitely do not need to pay for a $85.00 breakfast meal and think that I am eating so well.
P.S
All photos in this post were taken with my iPhone 4s, using Instagram filters and natural light from the windows. No other DI were done to these photos.
Yum!! I think yours look 100 times better than Wild Honey’s!
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Rachel Reply:
May 16th, 2012 at 10:34 am
Thanks Liza. It all comes down to natural lighting, fresh ingredients and some effort in plating…haha
The food looks great. The $85 spend on the meal at Wild Honey can certainly last much longer with such yummy homemade breakfast!!!
Dominique@Dominique’s Desk´s last blog post ..List of 10 what Motherhood has Changed Me
Rachel Reply:
May 16th, 2012 at 10:35 am
Oh yes $85.00 last me for probably more than 10 breakfasts at home 😉
Wow! Your breakfast sure looks awesome … When can we expect an invite to Breakfast at Rachel’s? hehee…
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Rachel Reply:
May 16th, 2012 at 10:36 am
Anytime…when the ladies are available 😉 I will make simple ones if u don’t mind, omelette on toast, pancakes with fruit compote, healthy poached eggs 😛
Well done Rachel! These look just as good as any restaurant food out there.. Sometimes I get the feeling that hey, I can make these at home too costing so much less but unfortunately, I don’t have that much time to cook or bake as much nowadays.
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Rachel Reply:
May 16th, 2012 at 10:38 am
Apart from a couple of dishes that need some cooking like poached eggs, pancakes or omelette. The rest are time-saving especially, simple toast coupled with lots of veges and fruits. Try adding more fresh fruit and veges to at least one meal a day, it will make alot of difference I am certain of it
Poached eggs! It’s the most challenging egg dish to make, I reckon! Yours looks divine!
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Rachel Reply:
May 20th, 2012 at 7:41 pm
With your cooking experience, I think u have no problems
Judging from how great and glowing you look yesterday – I REALLY must strive to have these healthy breakfasts!
Regardless of what others may say to disregard the benefits of starting the day right, you are living proof that it does live up to the hype!
Rachel Reply:
May 20th, 2012 at 7:41 pm
Hehe..thanks for the compliments
I do feel the difference on the inside as well, so that’s encouraging me to keep this up
Kudos on the breakfast challenge! Me thinks you emerged champion over Wild Honey.
$85.00 is a rip off! And yes, I don’t understand the queues as well. Are they out of options or are they just going there to be seen. Hmm.
Rachel Reply:
May 20th, 2012 at 7:40 pm
I think they think it is a hip hangout and prob reminiscing their uni days from Australia or the US where all day breakfasts haunts are so common.
The pancake looks good! I don’t know how to poach egg myself.
Rachel Reply:
May 20th, 2012 at 7:39 pm
THanks Merryn. Techniques to poach eggs can be found easily on youtube.
Your breakfast is looking awesome. I’m starting on my rice crackers for breakfast too. Love what you say about starting the day right.
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Rachel Reply:
May 20th, 2012 at 7:39 pm
THanks Susan… great combinations u have been making with your rice crackers. Let’s continue to encourage each other to keep it up in this healthy breakfast journey!
excellent!
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Rachel Reply:
May 20th, 2012 at 7:38 pm
Thanks Betty-Ann!