January 2010 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Dad’s Homecooked Food

When my parents were here last week, my dad took over the wok one afternoon and cooked fried vermicelli. After happily sweating it out in the kitchen (my dad is naturally a talented cook and loves whipping out dishes for us), my dad suddenly remembered he had forgotten to put the marinated pork into the wok to fry together with the browned garlic half way through cooking.

So after he had finished frying the vermicelli (ingredients were fine vermicelli, silver anchovies, dried shrimps, dried bean curd sheets, cabbage, shallots and garlic), he whipped out another dish with the forgotten marinated pork — stir fried pork with ginger and ginger wine, one of my favorite confinement dishes.

My 2 fried mee hoon fanatics. Whenever there’s fried vermicelli, meal times are such a breeze. I can eat in peace and leave these 2 flers alone to gobble down their bowl of mee hoon on their own.

No. of times viewed = 412

Completely Burnt Out

Last night after dinner, hubs brought us to my supplier’s place to collect my customers’ clothes. By the time we reached home, it was almost 10pm. Alycia who had to wake up at 6am to prepare for school and had skipped her afternoon nap as she had to attend Mandarin tuition was so burnt out that the moment she stepped into the house, she plopped herself onto the floor and went into lalaland. I was busy checking my customers’ clothes on the floor (glad that the quality was really good and there were no faults in the clothes) and when I looked up, I saw my poor baby in this weird sleeping position:

Baby brought out the blanky and put it on her favorite jie jie LOL!!

BTW, have you shopped for your CNY clothings yet? If you haven’t, quick hop over to my online store to shop now. Skip the traffic jam and the time finding a parking space, just shop for them online and have the clothes delivered to you at your doorstep!

No. of times viewed = 302

Why, Why Baby?

Why, why Baby are you waking up at 6am everyday for the past 2 days? Once this happens, mummy’s plan will go haywire. You don’t want Kakak or daddy but only want mummy, no one else but mummy!! Aiyoyo Baby girl, mummy has to supervise Alycia jie jie so that she gets ready by 6:30am. Yesterday Aunty F the driver was angry coz she had to wait for 7 minutes for Alycia jie jie… yes she said that “why so late? I waited for 7 mins already?”

Please be good Baby, hush little Baby don’t wake up until 8am ok? Mummy has to go and exercise in the morning – jog, swim or work out in the gym. Without exercise, mummy will go bonkers. And if you do wake up early, don’t fuss, just play with daddy ok?

Baby ain’t a fruit lover. I can count the fruits that she likes – durian, sweet tangerines (which is only available during the CNY period and she can eat bowls and bowls of it if I allow her to!!), the occasional mangoes and cherries. The rest of the fruits, she’ll chew and then spit them all out, eeeesh!!

No. of times viewed = 294

CNY Cookies

2 weeks ago, we bought our first jar of CNY cookie to ‘pong chan’ (help to patronize) the very nice girl who sells veggie at the pasar malam. It was a jar of almond cookies. Several days later, hubs bought several jars of cookies from his supplier (pumpkin seeds, mixed nuts and double chocolate). Boy, they tasted SO good and I’ve been gobbling them every morning for breakfast. I can’t eat them when my 2 older gals are around coz they would get distracted by the cookies and ditch their lunch or dinner. See, being a mother, you have so much to sacrifice. I even have to eat junk food that I love inside the kitchen or when they are not around, just so my 3 gals can’t see mummy eat junk food and get distracted LOL!!. Of course I will reward them with cookies when they have finished their proper meals.

Anyway, back to the CNY cookies. I bought some more cookies to ‘pong chan’ the lady who sells ‘chai’ (vegetarian) at the roadside yesterday morning. So pitiful right, gotta toil and sweat under the hot sun or get wet in the rain to sell ‘chai’ and cookies. It’s this box of almond flakes-pumpkin seeds-black sesame seeds crisps with syrup. They taste really, really good and half a box is gone! I’m planning to buy more cookies from her.

My hubs also ‘pong chan’ the sundry shop owner who kept advertising this bottle of deep fried crispy crabsticks. They taste good too but too salty, so I have hidden it so that my gals can’t steal them LOL!!

What’s left of the double choco cookies and almond cookies. Another bottle of pumpkin seeds cookies was walloped a week ago.

I am planning to buy some more cookies next week, this time from the woman who sells newspapers by the roadside. Pity this lady who was cheated on by her ex-husband. Every year, I would buy cookies from her to ‘pong chan’ her, though the cookies are expensive.

Have you bought your favorite CNY cookies yet? Or you’ve already walloped them all?

No. of times viewed = 1094

Princess Treatment

Since birth, Baby has been treated like a princess. Why? One, she’s the baby of the family. Two, we have to shower her with more love and TLC because of the frequent UTIs and pain that she had gone through. We love her even more after seeing what she had gone through during her 3-week ordeal in the hospital after her 2 surgeries in May last year. Three, she’s just too cute 😀

See the superstar here?

She’s none other that my cutie pie. Kakak tied her hair up this way and this superstar sunnies is Baby’s X’mas gift from daddy last year. She is enjoying all these fanfare and attention given to her and often gives us a smug look when all eyes and hoo ha are on her.

BTW, do check out my online store for some trendy new arrivals and weekly discounts! Don’t forget to add my website to your Google Reader so that you can check out new arrivals, which I will add several times in a week.

No. of times viewed = 289

My Jones Custom Soda

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Jones Soda. All opinions are 100% mine.

My Princess Wannabe will be celebrating her 5th birthday in 3 weeks. Hubs and I have not really planned on how we are going to celebrate her birthday. But I have intention of inviting some close friends and relatives to the pool-side of our condo for a BBQ dinner. This year, our Princess Wannabe’s birthday falls on the third day of the Chinese New Year, so most restaurants will be fully booked on that day. Hence, a pool-side BBQ at our condo would be ideal. To make this occasion really special, I have an idea. For those of you who have heard of Jones Soda, I intend to have my Princess Wannabe’s picture imprinted on the bottle of the Jones Soda. This is how it will look like:

Custom messages can be printed on the front and back of the Jones Soda bottle.

This birthday door gift will be given to our close friends and relatives at the BBQ. I have chosen root beer as the flavor for the soda as my Princess Wannabe loves root beer and so does everyone in the family.

I think a myJones custom soda door gift for our friends and relatives would be a gift so unique that everyone will absolutely love. It’s perfect for keep-sakes too! It would be perfect as a wedding favor gift, birthday gift or for just about any occasion.

No. of times viewed = 250

Outing At KL Times Square

Last Saturday, hubs brought us to Times Square as my parents from Ipoh were here and they have never been to Times Square. We left the house at around 11am and left Times Square at around 4ish pm. It was a day filled with endless fun and thrill for the gals. They had so much fun that they did not even feel hungry and we only had a late lunch at 3pm.

Before we went inside the Cosmo’s World Theme Park, which is the largest indoor theme park in Malaysia, hubs bought some burgers from McDonald’s. We were prohibited from bringing outside food into the theme park, so we had to gobble them up before entrance. Rascal #2 refused to eat. Let’s see what happened to her at the end of our outing at Times Square.

Let me tell ya, Cosmo’s World is huge, really huge and the rides are awesome, especially the rides for adults. I was really tempted to sit on the roller coaster and the almost 3 to 4-storey high dunno what you call it ride that’s rectangular and goes up and down in a criss-cross motion. I think I can overcome my Acrophobia (fear of heights) but I can’t control of what goes inside me when I am being tossed and turned upside down continuously for a freaking 10 minutes or more, coz I am one who gets dizzy and nauseous very easily. My almost 70-year old dad went on the roller coaster ride himself though hahaha… papa, you’re really sporting!

The scary ride I was talking about is at the far back. I think it’s called Spinning RBIT. Passengers are seated inside the 2 long rectangular bars that will spin up and down.

Part of the huge Cosmo’s World Theme Park.

Alycia and Sherilyn each won a bear when they successfully rolled a ball onto a jar with a colored lid.

Don’t know what this is called but it’s surely gonna send your adrenalin rushing out. It rotates and swings you up and down 360 degrees, over and over again. I sat on this ride in Goldcoast, Australia many years back. This time round, I gave it a skip and encouraged my maid to have a ride on it. She’s seated third from the left in this pic. She gladly went but shut her eyes tight throughout the horror ride, muahahahahah!

After the terror rides, we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Times Square. Then we went to the Concourse area of Times Square and snapped pix of the CNY decor, which is a Chinatown theme, iLike, nice!

Ckeck out my health blog to find out what happened to Sherilyn after spending half a day at Times Square.

No. of times viewed = 826

Baby C’s First Wedding Dinner Experience

Baby attended her first ever wedding dinner at a hotel on Friday last week. My maid did not attend and I had to feed Baby dinner and changed her diapers (every hourly, for fear of another UTI attack) by myself with the help of my mum. She could sit still on the high chair for an hour, thanks to the nitrogen-filled ballons and the wedding favours, which she played with. Towards the end of the dinner, she was crabby and didn’t want to drink her milk when I spoon-fed her. She even puked on the floor when I tried to force-feed her to finish off the pathetic 4 ounces of Pediasure milk.

When a man dressed up in traditional Chinese sam foo wearing a HUGE face mask came hopping out just before the first dish was served, Baby startled, screeeeeamed and jumped out of the high chair. She was terrified of the man in mask, hahahahah! Nevertheless, Baby enjoyed some of the food, especially the fish ball from the cold-hot combination dish and the crispy fried chicken. She ditched her own food (fried mee hoon) which I brought along.

Baby with Princess Wannabe Sherilyn jie jie, who dressed up in her Princess Aurora costume, which koo mar bought for her when she was in Hong Kong Disneyland last year. She even insisted that granny painted her finger nails with nail polish! This Princess Wananbe is going to be one very, very, very vain pot when she grows up.

Baby with Dhillon, her boyfriend. I kept telling her Dhillon is her boyfriend coz they seemed to be an item and had a liking for each other. But their friendship ended bitter when Dhillon accidentally pushed Baby onto the floor and caused a blue-black bump on her forehead!

No. of times viewed = 326

Scrumptious Hawkers’ Food

2 Sundays ago, we had some scrumptious hawkers’ food from Paramount O&S coffee shop (take-out). I’ve always wanted to eat at O&S coffee shop but with 3 young kids, the idea of sweating it out while digging into the food at a sardine-packed restaurant with dirty loos always turn the idea off me. So whenever I crave for the hawkers’ food (especially the yong tau foo and prawn paste cee cheong fun) from Paramount PJ, hubs will take-out and we all get to eat them at the comforts of our own home.

An assortment of deep fried foo pei (fish paste stuffed tofu sheets) and deep fried wantan.

An assortment of ‘yeong liu’ (fish paste stuffed brinjals, fried tofu, ladies’ fingers and fish balls)

Yong tau foo (fish paste stuffed tofu) and har koh (prawn paste) cee cheong fun. This prawn paste cee cheong fun is by far the tastiest I’ve eaten. The prawn paste is really thick and rich and flavored with bits of peanuts, really gloriously sinful!

Ngau Lam (beef brisket with radish), deep fried lin koa with sweet potato and yam…

Egg tarts and my favorite chicken pie…

Prawn noodles with added pork ribs. This bowl of ‘kar liu’ (extra ingredients) prawn mee cost a whopping RM10! Cut throat or not you say?

Pork vermicelli.

O&S coffee shop is located beside the Caltax petrol station in Taman Paramount.
55 Jalan 21/12
Paramount Garden
46300 Petaling Jaya

No. of times viewed = 719

Gardening The Organic Way

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Safer® brand. All opinions are 100% mine.

My mum has a small veggie patch in her garden. She plants several types of green leafy veggie, anti-cancerous herbal plants, a plant that can treat diarrhea, a spiky plant with purple flowers that can treat eczema and cysts, some beans and also a papaya tree in the garden. The papaya tree can bear very sweet and tasty papayas. Sometimes, the papayas get eaten up by birds even before we get to eat them. The leaves of the veggie and plants are also being feasted on by some caterpillars and insects. These critters are driving my mum bonkers as all her efforts in toiling under the scorching sun tending to her plants are snatched away by these pesky critters.

Just yesterday, I introduced my mum to saferbrand.com, a leader in organic insect control, organic plant disease control and organic gardening. She is going to have a fun time reading about organic gardening at saferbrand.com and she’s going to educate my dad too. My dad has just retired and the both of them now have all the time in the world to tend to their garden, organically! Have I told you that my dad uses fruit peels, veggie stems and used tea leaves as compost for their veggie patch?

Did you know that organic and natural fruits and veggie are two different things? You can read more about the interesting facts at Safer brand’s facebook page.

Oh yes, Safer brand is officially on twitter too and if you are an organic gardening buff, do join them on Twitter and Facebook. I’ve just joined them too and I think my mum will follow suit soon!

No. of times viewed = 305

Water Guzzler

Baby can guzzle down water from her sippy cup pretty easily. She likes it even more if she is given water from our cup or from our tumbler. Here, she’s drinking water from my tumbler. She even knows how to tilt the tumbler gently so that the water will not come gushing down on her. She has had several bad experiences where water entered her nostrils and she choked.

Baby’s vocab is improving by the day. She loves imitating what we say and her pronunciation is quite good. Each time I change her diaper, she will say “stoooooo, stooooo, back….ache, back….ache” and points to the stool. She can pronounce the word “backache” quite well to. She says that because I always tell her “bring me the stool, mummy has backache, don’t make me bend my back”. If I don’t pull a stool next to the bed to sit, she will rant on and on and will go round searching for the green Ikea stool for me. She’s just like Alycia, a very thoughtful and sweet little sweetiepie who does not like to see mummy in pain!

No. of times viewed = 167

Do You Know How Wheat Works?

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Wheat Food Council. All opinions are 100% mine.

Many of us include wheat in our diet everyday. I am one of them. I am a bread lover and I have toasted whole wheat and multi-grain bread for breakfast or lunch almost everyday. Even the pastas and pancakes that we eat are made of whole wheat. Today I discovered a website where I can learn all about wheat. How Wheat Works is an interactive, online multimedia program that delivers a farm-to-fork education on wheat, enabling us to have a better understanding of the nutritional value of wheat. In this program, we are shown the amazing journey of wheat, from the time the seeds are planted until it appears on your plate as bread, pasta, tortilla and much more.
The How Wheat Works program has four interesting stages. Each stage only takes a few minutes to complete and the entire program is completed over four days. Participants of all ages can virtually grow, harvest and mill their own kernels to create their desired wheat food.

The interactive opportunities include the selection of the type of wheat to be grown and wheat flour to be milled. Once the program is completed, you will help Operation Homefront, a non-profit program assisting needy U.S. Troops and their families. This is by way of the Wheat Foods Council donating two pounds of flour for each person that completes the program. The Council, together with their members at ADM and ConAgra Mills, two of the world’s largest millers will donate up to 90,000 pounds of flour. The Wheat Foods Council believes that by introducing people to the process of how wheat is produced, it will increase the public’s awareness on the nutritional value and health benefits of wheat. A special interactive program for youth has also been created through www.wheatfoods.org to enable them to learn all about wheat.

If you’re just as interested as I am to know all about wheat, do click on the links above. You can also join the Wheat Foods Council on Facebook to interact with fellow wheat lovers. I have just joined the Council on Facebook too!

No. of times viewed = 155

She’s Afraid Of No Chillies

My 2 older gals love nasi lemak, Indian food or anything that is spicy. When they were younger, they could not stomach spicy stuff but as they grow older, their palate evolved and now, spicy food spice up their mood and appetite!

This bowl of Nyonya nasi lemak (minus the sambal which I find was too spicy to tolerate) was for Alycia. She loved the ayam masak merah with the coconut milk rice. She could chomp down the whole big bowl of rice and chicken and I had to stop her, lest she overate and got a tummy upset. Since birth until now, this girl has a voracious appetite and seldom gave me problems when it comes to eating or drinking. In fact, I’m trying to control her food intake, lest she balloons up into a tai fei por hahahahahaha…

Uuuuuuuu…..mmmmmmm, hmmmmm, so yummy!

No. of times viewed = 303

Roasted Pork Ribs-Abalone-Chicken-Dried Oyster Yummylicious Porridge

My girls don’t really fancy porridge, unless the porridge is cooked with tons of ingredients and is full of flavor and tasty like this one:

Porridge with roasted pork ribs, abalone, chicken (marinated with sesame seed oil and sea salt) and dried oysters.

Even Baby who dislikes porridge and mushy stuff loved this porridge and whacked off 2 full bowls – 1 bowl for lunch and 1 bowl for dinner. Her bowl of porridge is behind the big bowl of porridge in the picture. I chopped up some stir-fried veggie for her too.

No. of times viewed = 347

Bye-Bye Highchair, Welcome Booster Chair

Last week, Baby finally ditched her Safe n Sound highchair (which she had been sitting for almost 19 months) and graduated to a booster seat, which Alycia jie jie once sat on. Aitelyu, she was beaming with pride and joy seating on the booster seat, together with us at the dining table. It’s like an indication that she’s grown up and can join us adults for lunch and dinner at the dining table.

Baby enjoying her meal of buckwheat noodles and onion omelette. Check out my health blog to find out how nutritious buckwheat is. Before you hop over, anyone wants to make a wild guess what buckwheat is? Is it a grain like wheat, a root or a fruit?

No. of times viewed = 369

Deep Freezing Fried Vermicelli

I always cook large portions of spaghetti and pasta and deep freeze them for Baby. The other day I cooked a big pot of fried vermicelli and decided to try deep freezing them. I had never before tried deep freezing fried vermicelli and I am glad that I experimented doing so, as the defrosted and reheated fried vermicelli tasted just as good several days later.

My fried mee hoon (vermicelli) with mustard green (sawi), chicken breast meat, tofu pok (puffed tofu), lots of chopped garlic and 2 eggs. My 3 gals love fried mee hoon and this pyrex serving dish of mee hoon is enough for lunch, dinner and 2 portions for deep freezing.

Does anyone deep freeze fried vermicelli too? I am a deep freezing health freak mommy. My freezer is filled with frozen food from bread to stews, spaghetti, pasta, soups, unfinished rice and much more. My mum is the champion. She deep freezes mooncakes, CNY cookies, cakes, durian, strawberries and just about anything that she can think of!

No. of times viewed = 1697