October 2015 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Blue Skies Are Back Again!

I think our country is slowly and surely getting out of the haze.

We were greeted by a very lovely weather yesterday. At 1ish pm yesterday, it was gloomy and a thunderstorm was looming.The skies were clear, though no clouds were seen. It was also very breezy with temperature of 25C. We badly need several thunderstorms to clear out the haze and we’ve been getting the much-awaited rain for several days already.

This morning, I finally saw a smattering of white clouds amidst very pale blue skies – something that we have not seen for almost 2 months now! Yipee, we’re getting back our blue skies, white clouds and rain!!

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Girls’ Lunch (Tuesday, 27 October 2015)

I was really tied up with work the whole of yesterday. When the girls got home from school, lunch was still not ready!

Thankfully Miss Drama Queen offered to help me blanch the soba and udon, bless her!! 🙂

I then popped the grilled sesame chicken that I cooked the night before into the microwave oven and minutes later, we had a yummy Japanese lunch 🙂

Cha soba and udon with Japanese soy sauce, sesame seed oil, toasted sesame seeds, scallions, seaweed and grilled sesame boneless chicken thigh. So delish and wholesome! 🙂

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Our Sunday – 25 October 2015

Last week, I signed up the girls and myself to attend a free motivational workshop conducted by Super Champz. It’s a 2.5 hours workshop held at PJ Hilton and parents must be present too. The kids were briefly taught the techniques of memorizing data in a fun and easy way. It’s a prelude and introduction to a 4-day seminar.

The big girl ain’t too eager to attend but she had to attend anyway! Cass was the most excited and she really enjoyed every bit of the workshop.

We reached PJ Hilton very early and waited for over 30 minutes before the workshop commenced.

At the end of the workshop, the kids who were in another room were brought in to join the parents. Several kids were randomly picked to ‘purge out’ verbally a list of 30 items that they were told to remember. The kids who were picked could spill out the list of 30 items that they went through a moment ago, in exact order of the list — in ascending and descending order. We were awed! When we left the room, Alycia, Sherilyn and Cass could also recite the list of 30 items that they were briefly shown… in exact order of the list and backwards as well.

Yes, I was awed and was very eager to sign up our girls for the seminar.

But the cost was yet to be revealed! A-ha…

When the coach revealed the price of the 4-day seminar to the parents, my jaw dropped when I saw the price on the whiteboard!! My enthusiasm slowly withered. I thought that the most it would cost would probably be about RM800 per kid but I was so outdated. Perhaps? It was a whopping 5-figure price and later slashed to a 4-figure price — RM5,000+ per kid!! Though I am pretty convinced that my girls would benefit from the 4-day intense seminar, the price turned me off instantly! If only we have the budget for this seminar for our girls, I would have no qualms and would have signed up at the end of the workshop.

After the workshop, hubby joined us for hi-tea at the coffee house of the hotel.

This chocolate fondue has been the highlight of the coffee house hi-tea for over 10 years. I still have pictures of Alycia who was about 4 years old and Sherilyn about 2+ years old in similar poses as done by Cass today (picture below). Those picture were taken 8 years ago, before Cass came along. How time flies!

Cass has been bugging me to bring her for a Halloween party. She is obsessed with dressing up as a vampire. Today she colored her lips with chocolate and pretended to be a vampire chomping down her plate of sinful desserts 😀

The haze has eased off a wee bit today. Schools throughout Malaysia will be reopened tomorrow, yipee!! I still very much prefer the girls to be in school. School for girls = me time. I regain my sanity each day during my peaceful quiet mornings. Only SAHMs and WFHMs would truly understand this statement!

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Dinner On Another Dazy, Hazy Day

Our girls went back to school yesterday (Friday) after 4 days of lazy haze holiday.

But what do we know? The haze was really terrible yesterday when school was reopened. The acrid smell of the smog was horrendous and I was choking inside the house. I felt like I could not breathe. My nose and throat were darn itchy and I had to down extra packets of Izumio hydrogen water and gargle my throat with salt water throughout the day. And how can someone say that we will not put pressure on Ind*n to deal with the haze issue! Maybe his house has 50 units of air purifier and another 20 units inside his office. And he can afford each of his meal in an air-conditioned place. His kids are probably at home having online lessons offered by the international school. Abuden?

Chill… yeah we’ve got to chill in this depressing weather and climate. I’ve been chilling with lots of Izumio hydrogen water, cool cucumbers, coconut water and vegetable soups.

Yesterday being a Friday was fridge-clearing day as our kitchen is closed during the weekends.

I made a ‘chaplang’ vegetable soup consisting of sauteed anchovies with garlic and threw in whatever I could find in the fridge vegetable drawer – organic spinach, carrots, celery and sweet corn. And it was so yummy and sweet. The girls loved my chaplang vegetable soup 🙂 I can live with just vegetable soups, I kid you not. I am planning to ditch the meat and go vegan one day.

I had initially planned to make prawn noodles but had a change of mind as I wanted to get rid of the cooked rice that’d been sitting in the freezer for weeks. So I made a fried rice with big prawns, fresh button mushrooms, sweet corn kernels, carrots, celery, four eggs and lots and lots of Bombay onions, garlic and scallions. These are my natural super food flavor enhancers which I love to add to my dishes.

The bean sprouts were also meant for the prawn noodles but I lightly sauteed them with lots of garlic and a dash of soy sauce.

Happy weekend peeps! Tomorrow the girls and I are off to a free half-day motivational workshop. Will update with pictures tomorrow 🙂

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Haze Holiday (Thursday, 22 October 2015)

The hubby said no eating al fresco at our favorite coffee shops, so today is another day that we had to eat our brunch indoors at an air-conditioned eatery – which means more expensive meals. Hey, I think I should join the businessman in Sg Petani and lodge a report on the Ind*n Government for causing the prolonged haze in our country!! This is clearly a perennial menace plaguing our country with no likeliness to an end. It’s causing everyone so much inconvenience and lives are prematurely taken away too. Money is also spent unnecessarily on face masks, air purifier, health drinks, electricity and eating at air-conditioned eateries. It’s unfair!!

Anyways, we had brunch at Faber Tower again. This time at Coffee Box for local hawker fare but at double the cost of hawkers’ price.

The Ipoh style kon loa hor fun with shredded chicken, prawns and fish paste was very good. This will be our repeat order the next time we come. And I think it won’t be long that we have brunch here again. I just have a hunch that tomorrow will be another day of haze holiday looking at the depressing skies!

Curry meehoon was for Cass and me. Half-boiled eggs were hers too.

Nasi lemak with chicken curry for the big girl. The hubby was in a hurry to the office and only took a few bites from here and there.

For lunch, I reheated the flour-free savoury egg muffins that I made last night and they tasted even better today, YUMSS!!

As of typing this post, everyone at home (and I am sure all the school kids and their parents out there) are waiting anxiously on the announcement of school status for tomorrow. When can we see clouds and bright blue skies again??

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Dinner At Home (19 October 2015)

Remember I mentioned in my blog post on Monday that my part-time helper gave me a last minute no turn-up notice? Well despite her absence, I went ahead to dish up a simple yet wholesome and delish dinner. I have told her (and other part-time helpers) umpteen times to inform me before 12 noon should she not come, but these people just never get it. It’s easier to complete all the house chores if I start early in the morning and spread the chores out, where I can work leisurely. When I get eleventh hour no turn-up notice , I have to cramp all the chores plus cooking and cleaning up after cooking and dinner within a 2-3 hour window period, which causes me undue stress.

Anyways, this is one department that I have to improve on – to learn to be easy-going and relaxed even without the help of reliable part-time helpers. It takes time. I had over 10 years of live-in helpers to pamper me. I guess it will take 10 years for me to get used to living without them? It’s been 4 years since our last helper left. So I have another 6 years to go! 🙁

We had ABC soup (with lots of chopped carrots, celery, big onions, plump tomatoes, chicken bones, pepper and chicken drumsticks), broccoli and sauteed fresh button mushrooms with minced meat and tau cheong (fermented soy bean paste).

Cass cut up all her broccoli and dishes and mixed them with rice and soup and commented that her ‘baby porridge’ was very, very yummy! Broccoli and spinach are the only 2 green veggies that Cass really likes and she can even chomp down a whole plate of these greens herself. Thus, you’ll see that we have broccoli almost every day 😀

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Haze Holiday (Tuesday, 20 October 2015)

The girls were bored to the core being homebound as schools were out for another day today. Cass’ swimming lessons have to be cancelled again today. The haze situation now as I am typing this post at 5pm is very bad. Not only are the skies shrouded by smoke but the skyline is yellow in color today! This is getting really serious.

The picture below of KL in yellow haze today (20 Oct 2015) was taken by one of Sherilyn’s classmate’s mother, who snapped this photo and sent it to us in our Whatsapp chat group.

According to the news, the haze may shroud our country until March 2016!! There is no announcement yet on whether schools will be closed again tomorrow. But looking at the skies, I am pretty sure that tomorrow will be yet another day of haze holiday. I am going bonkers with 3 kids at home! I want them to be in school!!

The girls killed time by playing board games. Sherilyn helped out in the kitchen. Today, she helped to make mashed potatoes and mashed carrots to go with grilled chicken chop.

From our unit on the 5th floor, we could barely see the buildings and trees outside. The girls and I are gulping down extra packets of Izumio hydrogen water to clear our lungs and to strengthen our immune system against the haze and now, to protect us against Typhoid – the new epidemic crippling KL folks.

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Our Monday – 19 October 2015 (Another Haze Holiday)

Today is yet another emergency Government declared haze holiday (19 Oct 2015). Latest news which I’ve just received from Alycia’s classmate via Messenger is that schools will remain closed tomorrow (Tuesday, 20 October 2015). Take note parents!

Since the girls’ final exam is over, I don’t feel the stress of yet another haze holiday. When I told them about the holiday last night, they were jumping and screaming in joy! They aborted their plan to go to bed early and joined their daddy to watch 2 movies (Mall Cop 2 and Night At The Museum 3) way till midnight and pecked on daddy’s bowl of Korean instant noodles.

This morning #2 and #3 tagged along with me to the bank. After banking, we had breakfast at our favorite Indian restaurant. Someone pretended not to hear me hollering at her to wake up, so we left home without her and I did not take-away anything for her breakfast as well. Hubs ain’t happy with her at all!

I am so chafed with my part-time helper today. Just a moment ago, she gave me another last-minute no turn-up notice… after I was done boiling a pot of soup and finished preparing all the ingredients for cooking dinner and waiting for her to come! But I ain’t going to be a spoilsport who sulks. I have to learn to live a stress-free life even if that means without her help. The girls will be roped in to help around in the kitchen and house. Silver lining is that I save RM40 for each day that she doesn’t turn up! KACHINGGGGGG *$$$$* 😀

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Our Saturday – 17 October 2015

Cass spent her Saturday practising her piano pieces before class in the evening and learning to draw from You Tube, via our new 55-inch screen TV with WiFi.

The girls rule the new TV. I don’t even have the opportunity to try out the new TV.

After dinner of salted duck’s egg roe crabs plus several other heavy dishes, we felt really full and fat! Hubs suggested swimming. Cass was super excited. I felt lazy and just wanted to hit the bed but the thought of those duck’s eggs and crab roe clogging my arteries made me move my lazy arse. Hubs dragged the other 2 girls who were reluctant to swim to join us. But we had a splashing great time in the pool!! By the time we were done swimming and competing in the pool, it was way past 10pm. It’s been a while since we all did a night swim. I competed with the girls and you know what? I won them! So age is not a factor, thanks to my 5x a week training in icy cold water at pre-dawn! 😀

After everyone had taken their shower, the girls watched ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ with their daddy. Yup, hubs watched a musical comedy with his Charlie’s Angels until way past midnight 🙂

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Our Wednesday – 14 October 2015

It’s a public holiday today, so off we headed to Avenue K for some food and retail therapy!

After our delightful brunch at Bankara Ramen, the girls charged their most favored place – Popular bookstore.

Bankara Raman is a Tokyo-based noodle chain that serves good quality authentic Japanese noodles and cuisine. If you’re looking to dig into some really tasty ramen with lip-smacking broth infused with refined shoyu and pork bones, this is the place to go to. Many of their patrons are Japanese.

Cass claimed her second reward earned from the recent final exam. Each A that she scores earns her a small gift 🙂

Next up was H&M! Shopping for clothes is now getting more gratifying with 2 vain tween girls! The four of us would squeeze into the fitting room to try our clothes. Down side is that daddy’s wallet gets a bigger bashing.

While the girls and I shopped, hubs went for a relaxing massage at Erawan Wellness Massage. After all of us had our mood fixed with our favorite therapy, we fixed our rumbling tummies at Franco, a French Japanese Artisanal Cafe.

Hubs picked FRANCO’s World Famous French Toast! This is an absolute MUST HAVE and it was really delightful.

Azuki Red Bean & Jelly Pancake Matcha Softee. This is a hot and super soft matcha cake topped with matcha ice cream, cube matcha jellly and cube coffee jelly. The combination of hot & cold hit all the right notes. We loved it!

Franco’s Classic Puff Pizza is no run-of-the-mill pizza. The pastry used is puff pastry and I love the small wedges of egg plant in the topping.

FRANCO’s Chocolate Souffle. This hot and fluffy souffle is made using 66% dark chocolate and served on a hot bowl. It is a uber decadent dessert with a delicious chocolaty molten center.

It’s such an awesome thing to have a public holiday in the middle of the week. A one-day breather from the height of work stress and school stress plus a day to catch up on one’s beauty sleep help heaps to recharge our batteries for the remaining stressful days in the week.

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Easy Mac And Cheese With Shredded Roast Chicken

Ms Drama Queen had a craving for mac n cheese last week. I told her that if she wanted me to cook mac n cheese, she had to help me out in the preparation. Fair deal, agree?

She couldn’t be happier. This means a breather from school books and revision for exam. This rascal takes every opportunity to avoid doing revision! *roll eyes*

Our mac n cheese using Hello Kitty pasta, shredded roast chicken breast meat (left over), skim fresh milk and a block of parmesan cheese.

Cass and her drama queen 2-che helping to grate the block of hard parmesan cheese. They pre-prepared the grated cheese a few days before I cooked the mac n cheese.

Check out the drama queen – pretending to be camera shy, peleasssse HA HA!

Cooking is the BEST way to bond with your kids and for your kids to bond with their siblings. Tried and tested here! But the kid must have a love for cooking la, ok, else it’s like shoving a cow up the ship!

Hello Kitty shaped pasta that my elder brother and sil bought from Japan.

Notice that I have been decorating my dishes with mint leaves lately? Well, I’ve got a pot of mint leaves at my balcony now, courtesy from the girls’ grand uncle’s garden.

I am no fan of mac n cheese or any kind of pasta for that matter. While the girls had mac n cheese, I had broc n cheese, so yummy!!

Ms Drama Queen decorated her own dinner…

I followed (and adapted) the recipe taken from www.taste.com.au/recipes/13955/classic+macaroni+cheese but did not really follow the measurements. As usual, I just used my lazy ‘agak-agak’ (roughly) method of using ingredients and measurements in my cooking.

Ingredients:
400g macaroni
50g butter
2 tablespoons plain flour
2 cups (500ml) milk
2 cups (250g) grated cheese (gruyere, tasty, vintage)
Chopped parsley, to serve

Method:
Step 1
Cook the macaroni in a large pan of boiling water according to packet instructions (different brands may vary in size & cooking times) until al dente.
Step 2
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium saucepan and add the flour. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute over medium-low heat.
Step 3
Gradually add the milk, stirring until smooth. Stir gently until the mixture comes just to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the grated cheese and stir until melted and smooth.
Step 4
Drain pasta and return to the pan. Pour cheese sauce over the pasta and stir until well coated. Season with salt and white pepper to taste. Serve immediately sprinkled with chopped parsley.

With this recipe and my lazy and cincai ‘agak-agak’ measurements, the mac n cheese still turned out very well and toothsome 😀

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Comfort Food – Spicy Indian Cuisine

Yesterday morning I was in the mood to eat something spicy with a touch of Indian spices. I was bored of eating bread, oats and crackers for breakfast. I wanted to add some spice to my Friday morning and I knew that the girls would love to have spicy Indian food for lunch too. They are all fans of spicy food.

So I went to a nearby Indian restaurant and packed some herbs and spices chicken, chick pea curry and dal curry. Then segued to the next door cafe to take-away two packets of mee siam.

This Indian restaurant dishes out authentic Indian food, some of which are pretty unique. I love them all!

My brunch — three forkfuls of mee siam accompanied by lots of chick pea curry and dal curry with lots of Indian dal lentils and leaves. So yummy and therapeutic!

With comfort food, enough sleep (forced myself to be in bed by 10:30pm), a good cat nap on my massage chair while the girls were in school and extra dosage of Izumio hydrogen water, I have been feeling fine and dandy since yesterday. My heart palpitations have stopped.

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Party Dresses

Lately I have been shopping online quite a bit. I buy mostly from my suppliers. It’s really tempting when I see new arrivals everyday, all at wholesale and reseller prices! The shopping queen in me just cannot help adding item after item into the shopping cart! The process of adding a product into the shopping cart, waiting for the parcel to arrive, opening the parcel and trying out the new clothes is really thrilling and addictive. Now my wardrobe is bursting with clothes and I am having a hard time choosing my clothes as I can barely move the clothes hangers to see what I have. I have given away several new and hardly worn clothes to a close friend recently. I still have to find more space in my wardrobe to make way for more new clothes 😀 I should spend some time to organize selling some of my pre-loved clothes rather than leave them dusty in the wardrobe.

Today I spent over an hour doing virtual window shopping. I was searching for party dresses for our school reunion party in December this year and stumbled upon this online store that specializes in formal party and dinner dresses.

I really love this pastel yellow Chiffon A-line V-neck Floor-length Beading Prom Dress. Not everyone looks great in yellow. I wish I’d look great wearing yellow without looking like a walking yellow banana ha!

Chiffon A-line V-neck Floor-length Beading Prom Dresses #JCD02018912

This Chiffon A-line Sweetheart Sweep Train Beading Prom dress in orange looks resplendent and elegant. But the problem is many of my favorite colors don’t look too good on my skin. Orange, purple and yellow are just some of the colors that just don’t blend in with my skin color.

I think I should just stick to ‘safe’ down-to-earth colors like black and grey as these colors bring out the best of my skin color. And I still think that I look better in short dresses as I don’t have the height to carry long dresses. How’s this Lace Satin Ball Gown Scoop Neck Short/Mini Beading Prom Dress?

Head over to kissmissie if you are looking for some elegant bandage dresses at affordable prices.

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New Cordless Keyboard and Cordless Mouse

The hubby surprised me with a set of new cordless keyboard and cordless mouse yesterday. When I got up in the morning, I saw a shiny keyboard and mouse without the usual messy entangled wires on my work table!

I suspect that my occasional stiff shoulders are caused by lunging forward to use the keyboard and mouse whenever I am seated on the massage chair in front of the computer. My shoulders will turn stiff and achy if I work continuously on the computer for hours on end. Our body should be upright and not lunged forward in a 45- degree pose.

Now I can work comfortably on my computer while I get my shoulders, arms and back massaged by my portable OTO massage chair and have the keyboard and mouse placed right in front of me comfortably without having to stretch out my arms and neck! Bliss!

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Stressful Monday – 7 October 2015

The past 1 week has been super duper dreadfully stressful for me. Have I told you that Miss Drama Queen has stopped attending the daily after-school tuition center effective October 2015? I don’t see any improvement in her grades for the past 1 year and she did not fulfill her daddy’s ultimatum to show us just a little improvement.

Miss Drama Queen begged us to allow her to continue going to the tuition center but we have to mean what we say and walk the talk. So yeah, cruel as we may be, I had to break the news to the principal of the tuition center. I think she will fare better under the tutelage of our current private tutor who has been teaching Alycia and Cass for the past 4.5 years. Nonetheless, she will still attend tuition at the center once a week on Saturdays. I know she just can’t let go of the friendship she has made with all her bffs at the tuition center for the past 2 years.

Bad news for me is that I holler more at home. This drama queen has a ‘tidak apa’ (couldn’t care less) attitude and is such a dawdler! In every single task that she hates but has to do.

Good news is that she can help me out in the kitchen everyday as she loves cooking 😀

With 2 rascals to monitor in their revision for exam since last week, I think at least 5 years of my life have been snatched away. I kid you not. My heart palpitations have increased in frequency with 9 hours of screaming at home. Every. Single. Freaking. Day!

Yesterday was really stressful for me. My part-time helper called in last minute to inform me that she’s taking a day off. At the eleventh hour that is. WTF!! I felt so stressed out with the girls and with house chores that I just did not feel like cooking or doing anything. I tai-chied floor mopping and clothes ironing to Alycia since her exam is only starting next week and she can still help out in the house. Then we went out to a nearby mall for dinner. But big mistake. After dinner, there was a horrendous traffic jam outside the mall. By the time we reached home, it was close to 10pm. After shower and all, I only had 15 minutes to sit down with Cass to go through the topics that she is weak in her Math. Since Math is in Chinese, I had to rope in Alycia to help out.

Hopefully the drama queen and Cass will fare well in their Math papers today. My mum has always been advising me to chill out and close one eye to the girls’ grades in school. She knows I am one who gets stressed out easily. I wish I can take heed of her advice and close both eyes and just let them be. Whether the grade is A, B, C or F – just chill out and close both eyes to the grades.

But can I?

Can you?

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Breast Cancer – How Hydrogen Water and Carotenoids Can Help

Recently, a customer of one of our team members was cleared of breast cancer after consuming hydrogenated water and carotenoids.

Patient was at Stage 4 and had surgery but after surgery, she still had remaining cancer in her Axillary Lymph Node. However after consuming hydrogenated water and carotenoids, her most recent PET scan showed an inactive status. Patient was overjoyed and has just ordered more hydrogenated water and carotenoids supplement. We are all so happy that the products have helped another cancer patient!

You can email shireenyong@gmail.com to find out more about the products.

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