September 2010 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

A Ballerina Bag For A Ballerina

I got this pink bag with a sewing of a pretty ballerina costume from Sewing Monster for my little brat to put her ballet stuff whenever she attends classes, which is twice a week. Sherilyn is now attending classes twice a week to prepare her for the second exam early next year. When she saw the bag, she was absolutely thrilled. That’s because all these while, I have only been buying clothes for Alycia from my supplier. Nope, Alycia is not my favorite. It’s just that she’s the eldest and she has no hand-me-downs. Plus, she seriously needs a total change in her wardrobe – she should wear more dresses and skirts and ditch those bermuda pants, jeans and shirts!! She needs a total make-over from one of tomboy to one of girlish and demure. Anyway, coming back to my little vain pot. She was really proud when she brought the ballerina bag to the dance centre. Her bag was the centre of attraction among her fellow ballerina friends who are equally as vain and as chatty as her LOL!!

No. of times viewed = 1068

Sleeping Beauty

Rascal #2 hardly ever naps in the afternoon. She is always bursting with energy and full of mischievous ideas. On most afternoons, she will be playing or would disturb Alycia who is napping by tickling her sister or whispering in her ears!! Even when rascal #2 is tired, she would refuse to go into her room and sleep on her bed. Instead, she would sleep on the couch. I had to snap this picture when I caught her dozing off on the couch in this weird position. I wonder how my girls can sleep in such awkward positions! They are really champions in sleeping in awkward positions.

No. of times viewed = 497

Dad’s homecooked dishes

When my parents were here 2 weeks ago, my dad cooked dinner for us on most of the nights. My dad has a penchant for cooking and can cook very well, though he has no training whatsoever, besides having an interest in watching cook shows on TV. He also loves to bring us to new places to eat. Thus, our trips back to Ipoh are normally filled with eating from dawn till dusk, savouring the best of Ipoh food!

Eating his dishes made all of us felt like we were back in Ipoh. Now that my parents have returned to Ipoh, the girls miss them very much. And I miss my dad’s cooking. By the way, I have also stopped ordering homecooked catered food since yesterday. What a relief!

Chicken stew…

Braised turnip…

Pan fried fish coated with turmeric powder…

Pork chop with big onions – dry style

When I told my dad that the pork chop were a tad dry without any sauce, without any hesitation, he whipped up some yummy sauce for the pork chop, yums!

Pan fried fish cakes.

No. of times viewed = 328

Jelly-Crazed Girls

My girls are jelly-crazed. They love all types of jellies, especially those colorful ones in a small cup. But I don’t like the idea of them eating those as no. 1 there is chocking hazard and no. 2 there are too much coloring and food additives in these jellies, expecially those that are made in China.

When my parents were here, Alycia pestered my mum to make Konnyaku jelly. Everyone loves this chewy jelly, including moi!

Check out how much fun they had helping granny to prepare the jellies:

Cutting fruits for the jellies…

When the just cooked jelly turned cold after half an hour, it became like this….

.. and the girls had so much fun eating them and pulling the strands of jellies, as if they were eating some kind of magical food ….

… digging and fingering every single strand of jelly left in the pot…

The strawberry flavored Konnyaku jellies with pieces of fruits were polished off in 1.5 days! And then granny made jellies again the next day!

No. of times viewed = 412

Buffet Lunch At Xenri Japanese Restaurant, Wisma Elken

We had buffet lunch at Xenri Japanese Restaurant at Wisma Elken, Old Klang Road to celebrate my mum’s birthday recently. Xenri’s Japanese buffet lunch is one of the best Japs buffet in town at a very affordable price. The fish, oysters and seafood are really fresh and tastefully cooked.

I was already really full – had stuffed myself with lots of Shishamu (pregnant fish), salmon, unagi, butter fish (white fish) and Mackeral but when I saw this bowl of ice kacang that my dad took, I could not resist myself….

I just had to pinch some of his ice kacang… followed by my girls who were not allowed to eat cold stuff as they were having cough. But when the grandparents are around, a rule is somehow always broken.

Some of the gastronomic grub from the delectable buffet spread…

Fresh oysters on ice…

Maki and sushi…

Appetizers….

There were also grilled Salmon fish head, fresh sashimi, deep fried soft shell crab, shishamu, teppenyaki, sukiyaki and a lots more.

Restaurant Xenri
No. 20, Wisma Elken,
Jalan 1/147C, Batu 5,
Jalan Kelang Lama,
58200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 77838118
(directly across Pearl Point Shopping Mall)

No. of times viewed = 1904

The Many Wonders Of Gold

Gold is not only considered a precious metal that many people invest in or wear them in jewelry. I read from the newspapers that edible gold is also used to decorate food in some very upscale restaurants in some parts of the world. I also found out recently that gold can be used to save lives! Gold is used in surgery to patch damaged blood vessels, nerves, bones and membranes! Gold is also used in the treatment of several forms of cancer. Amazing isn’t it? My maternal grandma used to have a gold denture too! Now, if you have the money, it is a wise thing to invest in gold bullion. Who knows the price of gold will skyrocket in years to come.

No. of times viewed = 205

A Pants That Alycia Has Been Wearing For 6 Years!

Can you believe that Alycia has been wearing this Disney Pooh Bear pants when she was a chubby 6 months old baby up until today? She is 6 years 9 months old now. When she was a baby, the length of the pants was up to her ankle. As she grew taller, the pants got shorter on her. But the waist is expandable and after SO many washes in the washing machine, the garters have loosened too. The pants is now up to her knees. Despite being the oldest and most ‘charn’ (tattered) pants in her drawer, she still loves to wear it. I guess it must be really comfy.

Super versatile pants! I wonder how long more Alycia can fit into this pants. Even when the day comes when she can no longer wear it, I think I will still keep it as remembrance 🙂 I can be quite a sentimental person at times.

No. of times viewed = 309

Future Chefs

Since young, Alycia has a strong interest in culinary. She loves food and she loves cooking too. In fact, she loves watching Jamie Oliver, Anthonay Bourdain and AFC with me 🙂 If there’s anything that she truly loves to do, it has got to be cooking, painting and drawing. Well, swimming too 🙂

Here, she’s helping koong koong cook chicken stew….

… helping granny make crispy toasted cranberry french loaf slices

… Sherilyn and Alycia helping koong koong make pandan kaya. Later, there was a tug of war over the wooden ladle!!

… helping koong koong squeeze pandan leave juice….

I wonder if she will follow her daddy’s foot steps and take up a course in Hotel & Catering and Hotel Management. I won’t be surprised if she does.

No. of times viewed = 361

Accutane Side Effects

Have you been experiencing pain in your stomach, cramping, diarrhea, bleeding and frequent bowel movements recently? If you have also been popping Accutance to treat your cystic acne, then chances are you are suffering from Accutance side effects. Accutane can result in serious injuries such as Crohn’s disease, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Ulcerative Colitis. Please go to the doctor for a thorough medical examination and if it’s confirmed that these are the symptoms of Accutane side effects, don’t forget to file an Accutane Lawsuit to claim medical compensation. Please click on the link above to find out more about the procedures to get a free consultation from the lawyers.

No. of times viewed = 488

A Morning With Superstars

Last Saturday when my parents were here, we had breakfast at Papparich. Half way through breakfast, our good friend Alan Yun and his friend, Emily came to the restaurant too. Alan Yuan and Emily are movie stars – they are starring in the current Mandarin series in NTV7.

So I took the opportunity to snap some pix of the girls with the movie stars….

One happy family having breakfast together. Later, my younger brother joined us and then my eldest brother and my sil who just arrived from Singapore also joined us. It was a day of eating out for us. The girls had a very, very fun-filled school holiday with their koong koong, granny and 2 kau fus and kam moh.

No. of times viewed = 273

Our Hari Raya Holidays

It was an eating marathon holiday for us this Raya holidays. My parents from Ipoh and brother and sil from Singapore were here too. You can expect to see pix of food in my next few posts in my 3 blogs for the next few days 😛

Yesterday after my brother and sil returned to Singapore, followed by my parents who returned to Ipoh, we went to Mid Valley Megamall. We had lunch at Crystal Jade Restaurant.

Today after lunch, my hubs suggested that we go for a massage since the both of us are overworked. So off we went to a nearby massage shop and had a good massage which lasted an hour.

First, I had my feet soaked in hot water while the masseuse from China gave me a shoulder massage.

Then, I told the masseuse that I have headache and she brought me to a room and massage my face and head. That was SO relaxing and comfortable but rascal #2 kept going into the room and kakacaucau… by talking to me, touching my body and going into other rooms to peep at other people *slap forehead*

After the head and face massage was the foot and leg massage.

After massage, we brought the girls to the hair saloon. School is going to reopen on Tuesday and had I not brought Alycia for a hair cut, her teacher will surely intimidate her and ask her to have her hair cut. Chinese schools’ ruling is that the hair cannot touch the collar!

Alycia waiting for her turn at the hair saloon.

After massage and hair cut, we had fruit rojak and cee cheong fun by the road side at 3pm. Not my idea at all as I absolutely hate the sweltering afternoon heat but hubs was already eating there with Sherilyn while I was inside the hair saloon with the rest.

I am having a terrible neck and shoulder pain now. I must have strained those parts of my body last night. Last night, the hubs allowed the 3 girls to bunk in with us on our king size bed. So the 5 of us slept on the bed! Alycia occupied half the bed, Sherilyn took a quarter, Baby another 1/8th and I took the remaining pathetic portion at the side of the bed. Hubs slept at the foot of the bed LOL!!!! With only 10-12 inches of space to sleep, I slept like a frozen mummified mummy and had Baby kicking me and searching for my boops the whole night. Now I feel like I’d been beaten up. The pain on my shoulder and neck are making me feel terribly down and out. I need another massage to fix my neck and shoulders. I have SOSed the hubs to come back from his basketball game to give me a good electric massage with the OTO Hans acu-points and nerve stimulator.

How have your holidays been?

No. of times viewed = 733

All Done Online

There are tens of thousands of colleges and universities around these days. How do you know which one is good and which one can offer you the courses that you want to enroll in at the budget that you want? I remember my mum used to attend education fairs, send snail mails and make endless phone calls to colleges and universities 20 years ago to find the best college and university for my brothers and me. These days, you can get your findings just by typing in research degrees and google search for it. You will get millions of search results within seconds! No need to attend educations fairs and no need to make expensive phone calls or send snail mails to these colleges and universities anymore! You can also click on the link above for help.

No. of times viewed = 168

Kids Ask The Darnest Questions

Just a moment ago, Sherilyn insisted that she wanted to shower with me, so I let her into the bathroom. As I was brushing my teeth, this was our conversation :

S – mummy, what do people do after they (get) married?

Me – (remained quiet as I was brushing my teeth)

S – (asked persistantly)… mummy, what do people do after they married and go home? (I can’t help suppressing my laughter on hearing her ask that question. It’s as if she knew that after the wedding, the husband and wife has to do something when they get home LOL!!)

Me – they sayang each other….

S – what else do they do?

Me – they make babies….

S – eeeyucks, babies?! How do they make babies? Mummy, how do they make babies?

Me – just go inside and shower. Next time you’ll know! (and I was chuckling to myself hahahaha!!)

No. of times viewed = 184

A Good Laugh!

Yesterday my mum and I had a real hearty laugh over Alycia. This pretty girl of mine has a very girlish and pretty face with killer dimples on her cheeks but she has rather boyish taste when it comes to fashion. Instead of falling for all things cute, pink, dresses and princesses, she is crazy over blue color, Ultraman, Transformers, Ben 10 and guns, sigh! Yesterday, we brought Alycia to Mid Valley to get her a pair of shoes. I was sick of her wearing her purple Crocs, so I told her she has to wear something more feminine to match the new dresses that I will be getting for her.

At the shopping mall, I spotted a pair of pretty wedge sandals (with flowers on the wedges) and I asked Alycia if she liked it. I was expecting her to say ‘eeeeeyucks’ but to my surprise, she nodded her head approvingly and agreed to tried on the wedge sandals. The moment she wore the wedge sandals, this tomboy girl of mine lost balance and almost fell…. and she screamed “Wuuuuooooooohhhhhhhhh” and pulled our hands to prevent herself from falling. My mum and I broke out in a loud guffaw. That scene was hilariously funny. My mum and I are still laughing up until now whenever we talked about Alycia in the wedge sandals about 2 inches high. Imagine if I had bought Alycia the pair of wedge sandals, she would be loosing her balance, tripping and yelling “Wuuuuooooohhhh” each time she wears the sandals, muahahahahahah!

No. of times viewed = 777

Some Facts About My Sherilyn

Remember my earlier post on Sherilyn eating rice and porridge with her hands? And also about her wearing pretty dresses and necklaces at home? Also about her decorating her hair like a X’mas tree and about her tying her hair like Nina Wang? This little girl of mine just loves to be different. And she is super duper VAIN, so vain that her principal highlighted this to me and shoke her head in disbelief how vain Sherilyn is, along with her best friend Berlyn and another classmate. She told me that Sherilyn and a few of her classmates top the ‘vain pot’ list in her pre-school LOL!!!

The other thing that Sherilyn loves to do is to sit in acrobatic stunts on the dining table chair or just about any chair when she eats, like this:

… monkey see monkey do, rascal #3 followed suit and did the same.

Another fact about Sherilyn is that she loves singing, grooving and dancing and is very musically inclined. She has the cut to be a singer and it looks as if rascal #3 is following her 2nd jie jie’s foot steps. Since she was 2yo, Baby can sing very well too. She can sing (complete song) Sherilyn’s school anthem, Negaraku, Bangun Pagi Gosok Gigi, Burung Kakak Tua, Mandarin songs she heard from channel 325 of Astro and a whole list of nursery rhymes. When these 2 sisters get together and sing, you can be very well entertained. I won’t be surprised if these 2 sisters form a band of their own one day….

No. of times viewed = 424

More Of Home-Cooked Catered Food

One thing I like about this caterer is that her dishes are varied and we hardly ever got the same dish for the past 2.5 weeks. But the combo of some of her dishes can be quite weird, like pumpkin cooked with curry powder!

Egg Omelette with sausages, fake crab sticks and long beans. My first time eating such an omelette. She even cooked turnip + pork omelette one time and I liked it.

‘Koo loh yoke’ (deep fried pork with batter) cooked sweet and sour style with onions, tomatoes and curry leaves. Yup, she put curry leaves. Weird combo? And I hate all those ‘wok loh’ (black burnt carbon from the wok) all over her omelette and koo loh yoke.

And this is the weirdest combo and my fist time eating – pumpkin cooked with curry powder and she considered this a veggie dish. No green leafy veggie that night. Luckily I cooked a stir-fried leek + beans dish.

I am now having a hiatus from this caterer as my parents are here and my dad is taking over the wok now, YAY!! I shall resume the catering when they leave this weekend. After the first month catering ends, I will end the service and start cooking again by myself.

No. of times viewed = 643