by Alexandra Nicole Nuralam

Healthy Eating with Lisa Yap: 4 Simple & Delicious Recipes

Everyone knows that the foods you eat have a big influence on your health, quality of life and of course, your skin. Although healthy eating can be fairly simple, the rise in fad diets can make it confusing for some people.

Eating healthily shouldn’t be about strict limitations or depriving yourself of the foods you love. Rather, it’s about feeling great, having more energy, improving your health, and boosting your mood. Besides, who says healthy food can’t taste good?

We check in with Singapore-based content creator and foodie Lisa Yap of the @thelisafeed, to find out her favourite recipes for healthy eating (without sacrificing flavour!) and her beauty picks.

What inspired you to start The Lisa Feed?

Being a foodie at the core, I grew to love cooking easy and yummy food, especially after getting married and moving out. In the modern society we live in, it seems as though we’re slowly losing the cooking culture. I realised that friends my age who were newly married and had moved out of their parents’ homes didn’t cook much. They either found it too much of a hassle or just simply didn’t know how to. I wanted to inspire fellow millennials to find joy in cooking because I believe that home-cooked meals really do play a huge role in building closer relationships at home. An enjoyable home life benefits everyone in the household! Cooking good food isn’t meant to be stressful or difficult—it’s meant to be enjoyable and everyone can do it.

What are some of your favourite superfoods that you think people should incorporate into their diet?

Whenever I do eat superfoods, I like to incorporate them into what I’m already cooking—creating special grain bowls and salads are not really my thing! Some of my favourite superfoods which are good for you but also taste great are:

Kimchi

It’s great for your gut, aids digestion and is honestly delicious! I love to eat it cold as a snack or use it in my dishes (like kimchi stews, tofu stews, or even in Asian fusion pasta).

Miso

Another fermented product, miso is rich in probiotics that improve gut health and is also loaded with minerals and vitamins like vitamins B, E and folic acid. Apart from adding it to soups, I’ve found that it’s also great as a seasoning to add some umami flavour to your stir-frys.

Ginger

I love how comforting ginger is because of its warming qualities! It also aids digestion, combats inflammation and supports immunity. It’s great in soups and stir-frys.

What’s your approach when it comes to beauty and wellness?

I’m a simple girl and I tend to live by quite a low-maintenance approach when it comes to beauty. Physical beauty and maintenance is not my priority as I tend to focus more on feeling confident and secure about myself and having a positive outlook on life. As cheesy as it sounds, I believe that this is really what lets you shine from the inside out and it’s a radiance that no one can take away from you. Combining that with the right education and the right products, I’ve been able to keep my skincare efficient while still ensuring my skin gets the moisture and nutrients it needs.

Talk us through your favourite beauty products.

I have sensitive and dry skin which can flake if not moisturised properly, so my skincare routine has got a lot of hydrating elements in it.

I start by removing my makeup with a water-based cleanser before hopping in the shower where I use a moisturising cream cleanser. After that, I apply some toner, followed by a hydrating ampoule, serum, face cream and lastly, I finish off with a sleeping mask to lock all that goodness in.

I tend to alternate my serums and masks; sometimes I want more of a glow and sometimes I need to even out my skin tone as I do have some redness on my cheeks.

Favourite skincare step?

My favourite skincare step would have to be applying skin boosters like ampoules and serums! I spent so many years just piling on moisturisers and creams thinking they would help hydrate my skin but still struggled with flaky, dry skin. Nothing I applied seemed to actually improve my skin. It was not long ago that I learnt moisturisers simply locked in the moisture but I needed to introduce a hydrating agent, like hyaluronic acid, to my skin to really make a difference—and it did!

Serums with niacinamide help even out my skin tone and reduce redness and blotchiness—this is a step that has definitely shown me visible changes to my skin ever since I started incorporating it into my routine.

Lisa’s Beauty Picks
Skin1004 Madagascar Centella Toning Toner, SGD25.90
Tosowoong Hydrating Hyaluronic Acid Aqua Ampoule, SGD33
The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%, SGD10

The Recipes: Simple, delicious and healthy

These quick and easy home-cooked meals filled with superfoods like miso, salmon and sweet potatoes are both delicious and great for you. Here are Lisa’s recipes that are easy to make, yummy and healthy:

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