February 2015 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Life Of A Primary 1 Girl

This is a daily affair for Cass on a school-going day – she comes home from school at 2ish pm, washes up, has her lunch and after lunch, she gets so knackered that she snoozes away for at least an hour… at the dining table! Sometimes she dozes off while sitting on the throne in the bathroom… with a storybook in hand!

And why is she so jaded? She wakes up at 5:30am on school-going days The transporter comes at 6:20am. She still struggles to move her butt out from bed in the morning but I must say that she is doing pretty good and does not need much pushing and smacking on the butt. She is raring to go to school every morning.

She could have taken a catnap in the van on her ride home from school but Cass is another social butterfly. She likes to yak a lot with the older kids in the van. After a month at school, she has made many new friends and she still prefers school-going days over holidays! 🙂

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Cass at 6 years 10 months.

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WonderMama X @ Avenue K, KL

On the 3rd day of CNY, we went to Avenue K for a late lunch at our favorite ramen restaurant – Bankara Ramen. After lunch, everyone had their dose of retail therapy and bought what they wanted.

Dinner was at one of my favorite restaurants at Avenue K – WonderMama X.

WonderMama X serves inimitable infusion of East-West food. It is the place where affordable comfort food prevails. Digging into some of the dishes gave me the nostalgic feeling of being at home. No wonder this restaurant is aptly called WonderMama as many of the dishes taste home-cooked.

This is our second time at WonderMama X. The first time we came here was in September 2014 but I had not had the time to do a post on WonderMama X. So the pictures that you see here were taken on 2 dates.

The 2 pix below were taken in September 2014…

These little cute button biscuits with colorful cream on top gave me the warm fuzzies and sent me down memory lane. I grew up eating these as a kid.

This bowl of Nyonya laksa tasted top notch. Even my curry loving Cass could not resist giving her thumbs up and photo-bombed this pic!

Love this WonderMama Super Hor Fun with shredded chicken meat…

This WonderMama nasi lemak is seriously delish and sure a crowd-pleasing item. The coconut milk rice is satisfyingly fragrant, partnered with accompaniments of sambal, some green veggies, hard-boiled eggs, papadam, crispy peanuts and anchovies and deep fried crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside boneless fish cutlets. We had this in September 2014.

We ordered nasi lemak with chicken karaage this time. On the left is tortilla chips with minced beef – perfect as a snack or for someone who just wants something light.

Yummy spaghetti for the kids (had this in Sept 2014)…

East meets West Carbonara pasta with chicken karaage, daun kesum and julienned cucumber (Sept 2014). This is one of Wondermama’s lovely illustrations of a cross-continental cuisine.

Special Cham with coffee and jelly – a marriage of coffee and tea with cincau jelly served with ice cubes in a metal mug. Perfect thirst quencher and another crowd-pleasing beverage. I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s using these metal mugs too.

Refreshing mango smoothie – not overly sweet and a healthier option to ice-cream.

We ordered both items on both the occasions we were here.

Another teh tarik fan-see joining in with her 2nd sis to tax my mug of cham. That is why I can hardly grow in size coz I always have someone pinching my meals or drinks before I can lay my hands on them. I am always slow to eat or drink coz work comes first – take pictures first and eat later 😀

Nutella waffle with caramelized banana slices topped with a scoop of ice cream. Super comfort food, which will leave you feeling guilt-stricken after whacking this down.

Mee Siam with Japanese style chicken karaage. Love the very flavorful mee siam.

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I singled out most of the deep fried chicken karaage and have them packed to be given away. The girls know that deep fried food causes havoc to their throat.

Wondermama X @ Avenue K
G-6, Ground Floor, Avenue K
156, Jalan Ampang, Taman U Thant
55000 Kuala Lumpur
03-2161 2589

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Chinese New Year 2015

Gong Xi Gong Xi to all my readers! How has the start of the year of the wooden sheep been to you? I hope that everyone has been having a great time eating, bonding, traveling, shopping or simply chilling out at home doing nothing.

We spent our day shopping and lunching at Pavillion on the first day of CNY. On the 2nd day of CNY, we loitered at Mid Valley Megamall. On the 3rd day, we hung out at Avenue K and today we had our Yap family reunion lunch at a Chinese restaurant at Shaw Parade.

After lunch at a Japanese restaurant on the first day of CNY, we went window shopping and camwhoring at Tokyo Street.

Cass is still very much into her roller skates shoes and wears them wherever she goes to these days. She can skate very well now, gliding up and down the floors of the malls, twirling and gyrating gracefully but she can get on everyone’s nerves when she squashes our toes with her roller shoes!

Lion dance performance at Pavillion on the 1st day of CNY…

I’d like to wish all my readers a very prosperous, happy, auspicious and smooth sailing year of the sheep. May all the bad luck that lurked in our lives the previous year exit from our lives and may only good luck stay within 🙂

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Cheongsam Girl

Cass this afternoon – just back from school in her CNY outfit for CNY performance in school today…

Can you guess how old this cheongsam is?

Alycia wore this cheongsam only once when she was 3 years old! I think Sherilyn never wore it. And my soon-to-be 7YO baby girl can still wear it! And no, Cass is not petite, in fact she is quite chubby. Now this reminds me that Alycia was a pretty big baby and toddler! And she lost all her baby fat when she was about 8 years old 😀

Still looking like brand new, this cheongsam is almost a decade old! That’s the wonder of cheongsam – evergreen and versatile.

Every Friday ever since Cass started Primary 1, she would say this to me “mummy, I wish tomorrow would be Monday. I hate holidays. I love going to school. OH WHY DID GOD CREATE SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS, WHYYYY??!” That’s how much Cass loves going to school!

Happy eve of the eve of CNY to all those celebrating CNY. To those who are driving back to your hometown, remember to drive safely. To those staying behind, enjoy your holiday! If you want to binge on your favorite CNY goodies, goat ahead but remember to exercise ya!

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Cassandra’s Pop Piano Course

Cass at her fourth pop piano lesson at Yamaha on Saturday…

Cass is now pretty familiar with the do-re-mis, A B Cs and counts of each note and which key on the piano representing which note.

At her 4th lesson on Saturday (14 Feb 2015), her teacher taught her to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Happy Birthday without referring to any book. She can now play Happy Birthday without referring to a book (treble clef only).

We have not bought any piano for Cass yet. Yes, my phobia of Cass losing interest in piano (just like myself) is still there and we are not buying a piano just yet. A relative is lending us her daughter’s old keyboard and we will make do with it for another 4-5 months. I think by then, we will know if Cass still has interest in learning the piano. If her passion is still strong like she has now, we will gladly buy her a piano. It will be a sacrifice for us not only financially (RM165 per month for fees and another RM6-7k for the piano) but we will have to get rid of one of our sofa sets to make way for the piano in the living room.

Since we do not have a keyboard or piano yet, Cass downloaded a piano learning app onto her iPad and she practises on it during her free time. Well, this is better than zilch practising right? lol! I am glad that Cass still has this burning desire to learn the piano and I hope that the interest will never falter.

For my blog reader who left a comment in my post on Cass’ piano lesson last month, my apologies for not replying earlier as I did not have an answer for you yet. It was still too early to comment on anything back then. If you still want to find out more on which piano course best suits your child, I think the best is still to make a trip to Yamaha with your child to enquire 🙂

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Drama Queen Turning 10

Our drama queen will turn 10 tomorrow! Also known as the social butterfly, what makes her happiest is being with her besties. She pestered her dad to allow her to bring along 2 besties for lunch today.

We had brunch at Nutmeg @ Bangsar Village.

The girls played with each other more than they ate.

One of Sherilyn’s friends is allergic to mushrooms and another friend is allergic to eggs. So the only dish that they could agree on was this grilled salmon aglio olio spaghetti, which they loved to bits.

This pan seared chicken dish with mushroom sauce was top notch and very flavorful.

Grilled veggies on toast with pesto sauce…

Beef bolognese spaghetti…

A meal at Nutmeg would never be complete for me without indulging in my favorite flour-free orange almond meal cake (ice cream for the girls).

Hubs said he specially ordered this red velvet pomegranate cake that comes with a heart shape food pick for us as we did not have dinner with each other last night

We had a hearty meal and enjoyed every single dish and dessert at Nutmeg. What I like about Nutmeg is that I almost never leave this restaurant feeling disappointed with the quality of their food.

Hubs then brought the girls to have dessert of ice-creams at Haagen Dazs.

Next, we stepped into Aldo for hubs to shop for leather shoes. We asked B, Sherilyn’s bff of 7 years to choose a gift as today is her birthday. Not only are they bff, their birthdays are 1 day apart and I think they have some slight resemblance in facial features too!

After shopping for gifts, we brought Sherilyn to Toys R Us and got her a Power Surfer.

Back home, the girls had a cake cutting session and played till the late evening…

Sherilyn and B – the two birthday girls who have been besties since they were 3 years old. May they be blessed with perpetual friendship.

I wonder what they wished for!

Happy birthday Sherilyn. I hope and pray for good health, wisdom and happiness for you always!

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Matakana Village Farmers’ Market, New Zealand – 20 December 2014

Another destination to tick on our list of must-visit places the next time we visit Auckland is the Matakana Village Farmers’ Market.

Just 45 minutes north of Auckland lies the picturesque Matakana wine region, the home of over 30 boutique vineyards, olive groves, restaurants and the famous Matakana Village and Farmers’ Market featuring locally grown food and produce. Settled in the 1840’s, Matakana has a proud history and strong sense of community.

The 45-minute road trip to the Matakana Village was one that was filled with picturesque countryside with herds and herds of fluffy sheep and cows on green rolling hills. Though I was really knackered and sleepy from the days of lack of sleep due to jet lag, I just had to keep my eyes wide opened to enjoy the scenic green countryside.

On arrival at the Matakana Village, what greeted me was this tree blooming with beautiful lilac color flowers. Behind me is a century old church. What a beautiful backdrop on a cool and crisp Saturday morning. I just had to snap a picture for remembrance. What a pity the girls missed this trip as they had gone to do some indoor extreme sports with their aunts.

At the village market…

The ambience and setting of the Matakana Village market reminded me of our very own ‘pasar pagi’ (morning market), except that this village market is way cleaner than our local markets.

I got myself a cup of freshly made green machine juice on arrival…

New Zealand is internationally well-known for its good quality dairy products. Stalls selling cheeses are very common at village markets and are aplenty. But buffalo cheese, buffalo milk yoghurt and buffalo milk labneh? Er, no thanks. There were free samples to try but hubs and I walked passed them.

Available at the market are luscious fresh produce like fruits, vegetables, delicious artisan baking, Italian sausages, organic chocolate, flowers, fine wines, olive oil, nuts and the all important freshly brewed morning coffee with locally roasted beans; all with a live musical accompaniment.

Nestled on the banks of the picturesque Matakana River, the Farmers’ Market has a unique experience that hubs and I really enjoyed.

With such picturesque view of the Matakana river, we patronized the Matakana restaurant seated next to the river and had brunch by the river side to enjoy the view and experience New Zealand by watching how the locals go by. Food was top notch.

Too bad the girls missed this trip. I know they would have enjoyed themselves playing on this tree house located along the river bank at the market.

We tried this Paella for NZD10. It would be cut throat price if converted into Ringgit Malaysia. And there is nothing really to shout about too.

How could I walk past the organic blueberry stall without getting some? At only NZD5 for 2 punnets, it’s a steal!!

We also tried this Greenlipped Mussel and Paua Fritters, which reminded me of our very own ‘ho cien’ (oyster omelette).

I thought that these 2 were ordinary trees until the MIL pointed out to me that they were Sakura trees! If only they had Sakura flowers blooming on them, I would be hugging the trees and collecting the flowers!

Till we meet again Matakana, I will definitely pay you a visit again the next time we visit Auckland. I think it will be in another 7 years’ time. And our agenda will be different by then. Perhaps Alycia will be staying there for purpose of tertiary education or perhaps we will all be there as migrants, who knows! 😉

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Sunday Smoothie

My Sunday brekkie for everyone in the house today…

Smoothie consisting of orange, apple, strawberry, baby spinach and boysenberry honey from NZ, churned out from my most helpful kitchen gadget, Blendtec.

This is going to be a very short post as we are rushing off to the church.

Happy Sunday peeps! 🙂

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Random Updates

I have been so so super duper busy the past week. Well, I should say I have not been free since the start of school on 12 January 2015.

As with other years, orders at my online store have been very high around this time as CNY is less than 2 weeks away. Plus I have been busy with the girls. Sherilyn’s BM language is weak and if I do not guide her, she is really doomed since she is going to be stuck in a public school until high school. Every night, I spend at least half an hour coaching her in BM. One of my greatest wishes right now is for a big windfall and I am pulling my girls out of Chinese school right away and in they go to a private or international school! *wishful thinking* LOL!

Now that I have a tad more free time in the morning, I spend longer time in the gym in the mornings. It feels good not having to rush off working out. Once I am home, I take a shower, take a short breakfast while I work on the computer and off I go to the nearby supermarket to get my groceries. Back home, I work till the girls return at 2ish pm.

Visiting the hair salon is a regular affair for us. Alycia needs her hair cut twice a month. You know the absurd ruling in Chinese schools is that if your hair is not tied up neatly into a bun (with no random strands of hair jutting out), your hair must be short like Lam Ah Chan and cannot touch the collar! Remember this Hong Kong slapstick comedy in the 80s on Lam Ah Chan? LOL!! Since Alycia is a school prefect, she gets panic stricken each time she imagines that her hair is touching her school shirt collar and then goes into a frenzy, bugging me to bring her to the hair salon.

On Saturday last week, we visited our regular hair salon for Alycia to get her hair cut…

Throughout the half hour when Alycia’s hair was being cut, Cass kept kissing and hugging her che che while stroking her cheeks and saying “awwww, you’re so cute che che”!

Though they fight and bicker all the time, Cass is nevertheless besotted with her Alycia che che and loves her to bits.

On some days after school, Cass goes on to do some freelance modeling job at mummy’s online store…

Cass, after school today. I worry about her a lot everyday on how she is coping in school. I think she is getting along really fine and already has a handful of buddies. She keeps telling me the same answer each time I ask her if she likes school. She is loving it! And now my next hurdle is to perfect her Chinese word recognition. That is another tall order and I hope that we will be able to overcome it together.

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Maintaining Healthy Teeth: What You Need to Know

Everybody wants a nice, healthy smile and white teeth that look pleasing to the eye. However, the old brush and floss every day routine are not always enough to keep you looking your best, even if you do it religiously.

There are some things that you can do on your own though, and some cosmetic procedures that can greatly help you if your teeth don’t look their best. Use this guide to get and maintain that perfect smile you’ve always wanted.

1. Brush your teeth after you eat dark colored foods. It might not be immediately obvious to you, but anything you put in your mouth that’s dark in color can stain your teeth. Rinse and brush after eating them and get your teeth cleaned regularly by a dentist.

2. Use a brand of toothpaste with a mild bleaching agent on a regular basis. You don’t need whitening toothpaste each day, so use it about three times per week. That’s your best bet for white teeth that are healthy and not damaged by abrasive whiteners and cleaning agents that can come in some commercial toothpaste.

3. Think about dental implants Brooklyn if you’re missing teeth or have damaged teeth that need to be replaced. There are dental implants Brooklyn residents love, and they won’t stand out like they used to. Today, dental technology is so advanced that implants will be made for you and look exactly like your healthy teeth, only a touch better!

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