Serena

Salted Popcorn

Posted on August 3, 2019 by Serena

Popcorn’s gotta be one of my favourite savory snacks. When I was young I would always share microwave popcorn with my dad. My mom would limit me to one small bowl. But as we watched TV he would secretly fill my bowl again. I ate so much my lips turned white from the salt, that’s how my mom found out haha. As you can see, my love for salty popcorn goes way back. My friends like sweet popcorn, but I’ll always be on team salty. When I got older, I learned about popcorn lung which freaked me out. The chemical used to flavour microwave popcorn was making the factory workers sick. I also realised that microwave popcorn is very expensive in Malaysia… no wonder mom seldom bought it.

My dad started to make our own popcorn at home. At first we used a pot on the stove to make it, it turned out great, but our arms got tired. After some experimenting, I found out the microwave works just as well! I’ve been making popcorn this way for years, no more store bought popcorn for me! Unless I’m at the cinema… Fresh popcorn also tastes 100% better. The best things about making your own popcorn are there are no funny chemicals, and it costs just a fraction of the price of store bought!

Time: 5-7 minutes (microwave)/ 10-15 minutes (stove top)

Serves: 1-2

Ingredients:

3 Tablespoons popcorn kernels (The kernels can be found in the dried foods section, with the nuts and spices)
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt to taste
Microwave method : Paper bag
Stove top method: Pot with lid, 1 Tablespoon cooking oil

Microwave instructions:

Place popcorn kernels into paper bag and fold the opening of the bag 3 times to keep it closed
Microwave on high for 1 minute 40 seconds (may vary according to the power of your microwave)
Tip the popcorn into a large bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil and toss to coat evenly, add another teaspoon and toss again.
Season wit salt and toss to coat evenly.

Stove top instructions:

On medium heat, heat up 1 tablespoon of cooking oil into the pot.
Place one kernel into the oil. When it pops, the oil is hot enough.
Put in the rest of the kernels. Shake the pot to prevent burning,
When the pops are 1-2 seconds apart, pour the popcorn into a large bowl.
Season with olive oil and salt as above.

Recipes

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal

Posted on July 31, 2019 by Serena

This oatmeal has a terrible name, but it has a GREAT TASTE. If you’re someone who doesn’t like the taste of oats, this is the one for you. The oatmeal is mixed with cocoa powder so it becomes really chocolaty like a pudding. You’ll barely realise it’s oatmeal. This recipe is inspired by my favourite childhood birthday cake, chocolate banana cake and one of my favourite candy, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. To me, chocolate, banana and peanut butter are meant to be together. The combo just tastes so good! All the ingredients here are non perishable, perfect for hostel cooking. Cocoa powder does make the oatmeal a bit bitter so I added date syrup on top, but feel free to just stir in some plain old sugar. The cacao nibs are totally optional, my mom bought some so I wanted to try them hehe…

Time: 2-3 minutes

Ingredients:

4 Tablespoons Instant oats (I used Quaker brand)
2 Tablespoons Plant milk powder of choice
1 teaspoon Cocoa Powder (can be found in the baking section)
Hot water
1/2 a banana, sliced
1 Tablespoon Peanut Butter
1 teaspoon Date Syrup (or sweetener of choice)
Optional: 1 teaspoon Cacao nibs

Instructions:

Add oats, cocoa powder and the plant milk powder to a bowl.
Add hot water to cover the oats. If you like your oatmeal more watery, add more hot water.
Stir until the plant milk powder dissolves.
Let the oats soften for 1 minute.
Top with sliced banana, peanut butter and date syrup.
Enjoy!

(If you prefer, the sweetener and peanut butter can be added in step 1 so it will be mixed into the the oatmeal. Either way is delicious though :P)

Recipes

Pink Oatmeal

Posted on July 27, 2019 by Serena

I recently ran out of my black bean milk powder, so I decided to try Pink Lady Oatmilk (honestly because it’s pink haha…). It’s pink because it has beetroot, which makes it perfect for another coloured oatmeal! Just substitute a “white” plant milk for Pink Lady to make a pink and yummy breakfast. The toppings are optional, I just searched around my fridge for pink/red things to add, purely to make the whole bowl the same colour, it doesn’t have to be completely pink if you don’t want to 🙂 Hope this gives you some breakfast inspiration!

Simple oatmeal

Time: 2-3 minutes

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons Instant oats (I used Quaker brand)
2 tablespoons Pink Lady Oatmilk (Or half a sachet)
Hot water
1 Tablespoon Pomegranate seeds
1 Tablespoon Goji berries
1/2 Tablespoon Dried cranberries
Optional: Sprinkle of Chia seeds
Optional: Sprinkle of Desiccated coconut

Instructions:

Add oats and the Pink Lady Oatmilk to a bowl.
Add hot water to cover the oats. If you like your oatmeal more watery, add more hot water.
Stir until the Pink Lady Oatmilk dissolves.
Let the oats soften for 1 minute.
Add toppings and enjoy!

P.S. Sidenote…Pink Lady says gluten free on the package but the ingredients have barley…why? Is there gluten free barley?

Recipes

Yellow Oatmeal

Posted on July 24, 2019 by Serena

When I’m at the hostel, I like to keep my breakfasts simple and easy. Usually that means plain oatmeal, pour and stir and eat. Done. It’s never fancy nor instagrammable in any way. Since I’m home at the moment, I have the luxury of a kitchen and access to my mom’s spice collection (thanks mom). I decided to make some less boring things for a change 🙂 This oatmeal is inspired by the “eat colour for 24 hours” videos on Youtube! It looks fancy (I hope), but it’s still very easy! Basically, it is an extension of my simple oatmeal recipe.

The secret ingredient to making the oatmeal yellow is turmeric powder. It’s gives a really intense yellow colour naturally which I think is pretty cool. The more you add, the brighter the yellow. I’m not a professional but from what I know, turmeric is anti inflammatory so hey, that’s a bonus. But turmeric does have its own flavour, so if you don’t like the taste of turmeric, don’t add too much. I added cinnamon because I don’t love the taste of just turmeric and I feel the two are a nice spice combo. The toppings honestly are up to you. I just chose some that were yellow to make a totally yellow breakfast. Hope you enjoy!

Yellow oatmeal

Time: 5-8 minutes

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons Instant oats
2 tablespoons Plant milk powder of choice
Hot water
Dash of turmeric powder
2 tablespoons diced mango
1/2 banana, sliced
Desiccated coconut
Optional: Dash of cinnamon powder
Optional: Toppings of choice

Instructions:

Add oats and the plant milk powder to a bowl.
Add hot water to cover the oats. If you like your oatmeal more watery, add more hot water.
Stir until the plant milk powder dissolves.
Let the oats soften for 1 minute.
Stir in the turmeric powder and cinnamon powder (if using).
Top with mango, banana and desiccated coconut. Enjoy!

A Levels

How I Use My Notes

Posted on July 20, 2019 by Serena

I found Bio the hardest to study for because of the huuuuuuge amount of content we had to memorise. It took ages to finish making notes and took just as long to learn them by heart. Along the way, I’ve developed my own way of studying which made life slightly easier. At least I had a routine I could follow so I didn’t have the “where do I begin” feeling anymore. If you need to get over this feeling, read on! Hopefully these tips will help!

Step one: Make notes. (Check out my last post for details on how I make my notes!) I’d suggest to make notes as soon as you finish a chapter in class. Finish as in, when you complete all the exercises and move on to the next chapter. I used to make notes before we did exercises, but later I found out exercises have lots of useful information. I ended up having to add them to my already made notes which were nearly full to the brim, literally there was no white space left. Later I decided to wait until we completely closed the chapter before I made them. But don’t make them any later than that! My number one A Level tip: Never let work pile up!! Resist the urge to do it later!! Resist!

Step two: Underline the keywords in your notes. I like to treat this step like “light memorising”. I usually do this a few days after I make the notes. I’ll go over the notes and underline the keywords with a coloured pen. Sometimes I’ll also put a box around the sub topics, to add some visual interest #visuallearner. This step is like a nice reminder for the whole chapter, without requiring too much brain power.

Step three: Memorise! Honestly, I really don’t like using the word memorise. It makes me seem like I’m just stuffing things into my brain then regurgitating it. Though, for Bio its kinda true, that’s kinda what you have to do. (But make sure you understand what you are memorising! ) So what I’d do is go section by section. I’ll read the first section, which is the top left one, then cover it, and try to recite it from memory. I try to picture the diagrams, the underlined words to help me remember. After I remember it, I move on to the next section, and the next and the next until I know all of it by heart. Some people rewrite their notes from memory, #blurting. I’ve tried it before, but for me it just takes too long and I start to get impatient so I recite it instead. If writing helps you remember, you might want to try blurting instead of reciting, everyone has a different way of studying. I do this “heavy memorising” most probably a few days before a test, depending on the length of the chapter and how difficult I find it.

A Levels

How I Make My Notes

Posted on July 17, 2019 by Serena

I’ve mentioned before I use notes as my main revision resource, especially for Biology. My note making style is kind of a cross between traditional notes and mind maps. I like to use the mind map style to compartmentalise the info, I find it easier to remember that way. The colour helps me too. Like for respiration, I will recall information by thinking of what I wrote on the top left corner of the purple page. Today I’m going to share how I make my notes for anyone curious! Hope this helps!

So first of all, I like to make my notes “pretty”, because that motivates me to make them, since it is kind of like art for me, but you totally don’t have to be so extra like me if you don’t want to. First I choose a colour for the topic. For respiration, I choose purple, so for the titles and keywords, they’ll be in purple, while the main texts will be in black.

Then I get my plain paper and punch out holes, so I don’t end up punching out my writing after I’m done. I prefer plain paper to lined paper because I can fit more in a page and since I’m a visual learner, I don’t get distracted by the lines. Before I start note making, I read through the textbook to get an idea of what sub topics there are and how much information is in the topic, and I also get out my exercises that has information I want to add.

I start by writing the title of the chapter in the middle of the page. Then I draw my first arrow from the title to the top left corner and write the title of the first sub topic, in this case “ENERGY”. Then I start writing the contents in bullet points. It is helpful to have an “arrow system”, to keep things organised, this is mine, but feel free to make your own. (It’s ok not to stick to it exactly, as long as you stick to it most of the time and you know what you are writing)

Don’t be afraid to use symbols and short forms! They can help shorten your study time and make your notes easier to read. For me, @=at, cuz=because, ∴ =therefore. And don’t write full sentences! Just take the key points!

Then you repeat the process for the next sub topic, “ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE”. I use my arrows as separators for different sub topics. Try to always write the sub topics in the same direction each time. So for example, my sequence is, ENERGY, ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE, RESPIRATION, GLYCOLYSIS, then LINK REACTION, KREBS CYCLE, so anti clockwise, then clockwise. This is so you now what sequence to read your notes in. When you fill up the first page, just flip to the back and continue. The only difference is I write the page number below the center title, so ENERGY & RESPIRATION (2).

If you want to make a summary, you can add a box like I do on the side. For extra info just use an arrow to point to an empty spot. And that’s all there is to it!

Many of my friends told me they can’t do mind maps because they’ll mess it up, but for me actually, I don’t really mind. The “imperfections” actually stand out more and I tend to remember them, haha. So there’s no such thing as mess up I think. Just do it, you know, you’ve gotta write what you’ve gotta write. Stay tuned for the next post! I’ll be sharing how I actually use them for studying!

Recipes

Simple Oatmeal

Posted on July 14, 2019July 14, 2019 by Serena

Ahhhhh oatmeal, my favourite breakfast food. I used to hate it, but ever since I started living in a hostel, I had it so often, I fell in love with it. Why? Because with hostel cooking, for a food to make it to my favourite list, apart from being delicoius it must not need the 3 M’s, Mess, Money, and Minutes (aka time).

No mess because we will be using instant oats so no need for cooking and/or cleaning, apart from the bowl and spoon. No money (actually its not reaallly no money) because there are only 2 main ingredients, oats and plant milk powder. The oats cost about RM8 for a month’s worth, the plant milk powder costs about RM25 for a little longer than a month. That’s just around RM1 per serving! Even with toppings the cost isn’t too high. Lastly, no minutes because literally, you just scoop, pour, mix!

I could rave about oatmeal all day. The ingredients are cheap, non perishable and easy to store. The meal is filling and pretty nutritious. You can change the flavour easily by changing the toppings. You don’t need a kitchen to make this. I honestly don’t have anything negative to say!

Hostel food is more than just instant noodles guys!

Simple oatmeal

Time: 2-3 minutes

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons Instant oats (I used Quaker brand)
2 tablespoons Plant milk powder of choice (I got mine at Jaya Grocer)
Hot water
Optional: Toppings of choice

Instructions:

Add oats and the plant milk powder to a bowl.
Add hot water to cover the oats. If you like your oatmeal more watery, add more hot water.
Stir until the plant milk powder dissolves.
Let the oats soften for 1 minute.
Add optional toppings and enjoy!

Personally I like non perishable toppings like dried friut or seeds just for the sake of convenience. My favourite though has to be cinnamon. Sometimes I’ll also stir in cocoa powder or peanut butter to change the flavour. If I’m feeling adventurous, I’ll add some ripe banana slices on top. Here are some topping ideas:

Dried fruit (eg. raisins, dried cranberries, goji berries aka “geiji”. These can be found at supermarkets or convenience stores)
Sprinkle of sugar (white sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar etc)
Seeds (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds. These can be found at supermarkets, convenience stores, baking shops, or pharmacies/health shops)
Nuts or nut butter (peanuts, almonds, cashews etc. These can be found at supermarkets, convenience stores, baking shops, or pharmacies/health shops)
Fresh fruit (eg. banana (least messy), mango, strawberries, dragon fruit, apple)
Coconut flakes, cocoa powder, cinnamon powder, marmite (for a savory twist)

Don’t be afraid to experiment to find your favourite flavour! But hey, plain is good too 🙂

A Levels

A Level Mathematics

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Serena

Last but not least, part 4 of A Level honest reviews is here! So, Maths huh? The most commonly taken subject. The most straight forward one. The almost compulsory subject. The backbone of our studies (too far? ). Regardless of what you think of maths, you can’t run away from it. You’ll have to take it some point in your life. If that point includes your A Levels, well my friend, read on to find out more!

What can I expect?

If you took Add Maths in high school, AS Maths should be easy for you because lots of it was covered before, especially in the SPM syallabus. Things like normal distribution, differentiation, vectors etc are what you’ll be seeing. For me, I had the smoothest transition with maths, which was a relief actually, because my other subjects took up so much of my time. I think it’s safe to say, I found maths the easiest.

How many papers are there?

At both AS and A2 there will be 2 papers. Everyone takes different combinations so make sure you discuss this with your lecturer or counselor. Here’s my combination:

At AS,

Pure Mathematics 1 (P1) : 1 hour 45 minutes
Statistics 1 (S1) : 1 hour 15 minutes

At A2,

Pure Mathematics 3 (P3) : 1 hour 45 minutes
Mechanics 1 (M1) : 1 hour 15 minutes

How’s the workload?

Looking back, I don’t remember having any problems with the work (except at A2). We were given homework after every lesson but the amount was manageable so I usually finished it right after school then got crackin’ with the other subjects. When we were approaching exams, we did one past paper in each lesson. So I could do about 4 papers a week, without taking away time after lessons.

How’s the jump from AS to A2?

Ok, this is where the tough part is. The jump from P1 to P3 was a substantial one. I couldn’t finish the past papers in one lesson. I could only get to number 5 in our 1.5 hour lesson (there are 10 questions in total!) which was bad. That’s when I felt maths getting tough. As with every subject though, DO NOT let work pile up! Even if this happens to you, finish that paper on the day itself, because if you leave it till the next day, you’ll have to do the next day’s work AND yesterday’s work. Chances are you won’t finish it and the work starts to snowball. With maths I find if you stay disciplined and keep on going, one day, things just click. As for M1, it’s pretty similar to physics. We learned the 4 kinematic equations, Newton’s Second Law and stuff like that. So, the jump wasn’t too bad. Before choosing your A2 papers, I suggest to have a look at the past papers first to get a feel of what its like.

Do not worry too much about maths, it’s just a matter of doing lots of practice (a lot!) and time. Be sure to keep up with work and things will be okay ❤

A Levels

A Level Chemistry

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Serena

Welcome to part 3 of my A Level honest reviews! Today is about chemistry, not a subject I particularly love or hate, we just have a “meh” relationship. I find it easier than physics, but not as interesting as bio (I fell asleep lots of times oops…). Many people take chemistry though, no matter if you are team bio or team physics (or even team arts!) because chemistry is the foundation of science (as said by my teacher). If there are no atoms, what would make up the animals we study in biology? What would make up the things we push in physics? Whether you take it because you love it, or like me, you take it because you need it, read on to find out my experience with A Level Chemistry.

What can I expect?

I didn’t feel any significant jump between high school and A Levels. The first few chapters were slightly mind blowing, it totally changed my idea of the atom, but other than that I think it was fairly manageable. I did have an amazing lecturer though. We could ask her anything literally anytime and she would always make time to help us. So that really did help me adjust to the new course. One thing I did have trouble with was organic chemistry, especially in Paper 1. In class we learned really basic concepts but the questions, whoaaaa, they were kind of scary. Thankfully my lecturer was willing to help us, so many past papers later we got back on track.

How many papers are there?

At AS, there’s Paper 1, 2 and 3.

Paper 1: 40 MCQ questions, 1 hour
Paper 2: Structured questions, 1 hour 15 minutes
Paper 3: Practical paper, 2 hours

At A2, there’s Paper 4 and 5

Paper 4: Structured questions, 2 hours
Paper 5: Written practical, 1 hour 15 minutes

How’s the workload?

It’s not as much as biology, but a little more than physics. I’d say its a moderate workload. There’s quite a good balance between chapters on calculations and on memorisation, so it’s not so draining to revise. The memorisation is mostly for organic chemistry (check out my organic chem notes here!). For chemistry I find past papers to be very useful because the questions in exams tend to twist and turn so you have to do more to be familiar. In AS we had a big question on a topic that was seldom asked, so don’t skimp on revising, even if it seems it won’t come out (trust me it does TT) Oh, be sure to remember the AS content. A2 content is AS content but more in depth so make sure your foundation is strong!

What’s the practical paper like?

Also easier than bio, harder than physics! The questions aren’t as predictable as physics, but I find them more doable than the bio papers. In Paper 3, the first part is an experiment where you’ll plot a graph, the second part is qualitative analysis. You have to be fast in Paper 3! Read the entire paper before you start anything so you can plan out your time. Maybe work on calculations while you’re waiting for the water bath to boil, do the experiment that requires cooling first etc. QA for me was pretty challenging, it gets confusing sometimes. Try your best to pay attention anytime you do QA questions in class so you know what each result should look like. Make sure you know the QA table at the back well so you don’t waste time looking for results. My lecturer told us, it’s not about who’s smarter, but who can work smarter! For Paper 5, practice practice practice and you’ll be fine. It’s also a moderate paper, not too hard, not too easy. But don’t waste time doing the old style past papers because they recently changed the format. We don’t have to write entire procedures anymore. The most challenging part for me was when they asked why a result was anomalous. Till this day I’m still blur about that, so if you are too, clarify it with your lecturer!

How’s the jump from AS to A2?

A slight jump I would say due to the time constraint. There are only a few completely new chapters, the rest are AS topics in more depth. Baisically it’s the same as AS, do past papers, revise consistently, and you’ll be a-okay.

A Levels

A Level Biology

Posted on July 3, 2019 by Serena

Ahh Biology, my favourite subject. But my least favourite to revise (oh the irony…). Going into A Levels I knew I wanted to take biology because it’s necessary for my course at university, so I never doubted my choice of taking it. Though I have some friends who didn’t enjoy it and ended up dropping biology. I think everyone has a love hate relationship with bio, keeping it is a matter of loving it more or hating it more (I love it more hehe). So, what was my experience with A Level Biology? Read on to find out.

What can I expect?

For the jump between high school and A Levels, personally I didn’t find it very big at all. Our first chapter was about cells so it was a nice warm up chapter to recall the things we learned before. We learned many similar topics as in IGCSE just in greater detail. But… well, I’m not gonna sugar coat this. Expect loads of stuff to memorise. Loads. That’s probably the most significant difference between high school and A Levels. Don’t mean to scare you or anything, just being honest. I found it quite overwhelming at first. The notes I made for each chapter was literally so packed with information, there was barely any white space left. After I found a study method that worked for me, things did become more manageable so it wasn’t all that bad. Just make sure to keep up with work so things don’t pile up!

How many papers are there?

At AS, there’s Paper 1, 2 and 3.

Paper 1: 40 MCQ questions, 1 hour
Paper 2: Structured questions, 1 hour 15 minutes
Paper 3: Practical paper, 2 hours

At A2, there’s Paper 4 and 5

Paper 4: Structured questions, 2 hours
Paper 5: Written practical, 1 hour 15 minutes

How’s the workload?

Biology took the most time compared to my other subjects just because there’s so much to memorise. For me, making notes for a chapter would take +/- 4 days, memorising it would take maybe half a day. Then I would have to go over my notes a few more times after that to make sure I really remember it. Past paper wise, I find they help jolt your memory rather than help you learn the content as with other subjects. They are still very important though because in Biology there are some really interesting(?), out of the box(?), funny(?), questions, so you’ve gotta train your brain to be flexible in that sense. Oh, a tip for revision: Make your notes/flash cards ASAP after you finish learning a chapter, even if you don’t plan on memorising right away. That way you can just focus on memorising them when exams roll around.

What’s the practical paper like?

So in Paper 3, I almost had a break down because my enzyme solution wouldn’t change colour! It was supposed to turn clear but nothing happened???? (I almost cried haha) After I came out of the lab my teacher told us that the way we present the data carried the most marks so we shouldn’t worry too much. In Paper 5, I had another mini heart attack. The question of planning an experiment was about a computerised reaction test, which we never learned before! Then the second question was about sperm count…which we also never done. In my opinion, bio practicals can be very out of the blue. They can ask what seem to be out of syllabus but they actually aren’t. What to do? Step one, do not panic like I did. Step 2, make sure to know all the possible experiment methods, even if they seem unlikely to come out, like quadrat sampling etc. Step 3, try to link those funny questions to what you know. It’s in your brain somewhere!

How’s the jump from AS to A2?

I felt the jump was bigger than from high school to A Levels. Our first A2 chapter was on respiration which involved a lot of biochemistry. I wasn’t used to it so I found it really difficult. Though as things always do, after awhile I got the hang of it and things were back on track.

Biology may be very intimidating (just look at my mountain of notes), definitely not for the faint of heart. But if you really want to, go for it! Workload aside, I really loved the content, the topics were all so interesting, my favourite was on genetic engineering and conservation. To be honest, A Level Biology helped me get a feel of the different branches of biology, which I am really grateful for! It helped me decide on my university course. For anyone with an interest in biology, I 10/10 recommend A Level Biology (though with a warning sign about the workload!).