September 2016 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

My Healthy Colorful Dishes

I love colors – bright, neon and happy colors. They make me happy. Naturally, I love colorful food too, natural colors that is. Most of my dishes are colorful, consisting of red, orange, green and yellow. I love adding tomatoes, carrots, sweet corn kernel, scallions, kafir lime leaves and loads of garlic and onions into my dishes. These are not only colorful, they are bursting with antioxidants and disease fighting phytochemicals. They are also natural sweeteners and flavor enhancers. No need to use oyster sauce (it contains MSG) and MSG which only cause insatiable thirst and are unhealthy.

Here’s one of my colorful dishes – Colorful Fried Rice with sides of green vegetables and braised pork ribs with radish and egg.

My fried rice always has more colorful vegetables than rice. It is often meat-less. Here, I used grated and julienned carrots, sweet corn kernel, baby garden peas, kafir lime leaves, scallions, onions and garlic.

And added 4 free-range chicken eggs for the protein.

I love my colorful healthy fried rice. I only use parboiled rice which is low in GI and starch, so I eat sans the guilt 🙂

Next is my colorful pork bolognese angel hair spaghetti. The sauce is cooked from scratch with organic tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, onions, garlic, Portobello mushrooms and lots of herbs.

Since I don’t like spaghetti noodles, I added organic oats into the bolognese sauce. My oat pork bolognese was simply delish and guilt-free too!

I always cook an extra portion so that the girls can have them for lunch the next day. This was Alycia’s lunch last Saturday, after she got back from school. Fruits for her were orange, avocado and raw red capsicum. I love my colorful healthy meals 🙂

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Good-Bye Teacher Kaitlyn

Cass’ piano teacher is a 19-year old girl who teaches part-time while studying in college. Although teacher Kaitlyn is very strict and has a tendency to blow up if her students produce crap during lessons, Cass still loves her. Yes, there had been many times when Cass was chided when she got on teacher Kaitlyn’s nerves. Cass can be as stubborn as a mule. Her bullheadedness can drive me bonkers to the point I want to strangle her. But there is just a special chemistry between them and no matter how badly she got chided, she still loves teacher Kaitlyn. She just clicks with her teacher Kaitlyn.

Teacher Kaitlyn has informed us since the beginning of this year that she will be leaving Yamaha to pursue her degree in Law. When Cass first heard the news, she was really really upset. With 9 months to let the reality sink inside her, Cass has mentally accepted the fact. Last Saturday was teacher Kaitlyn’s last day at Yamaha.

At the end of the class, teacher Kaitlyn gave Cass a gift. Cass was awestruck when she saw the gift. Her eyes lit up and she gasped in disbelief. For a moment, she was so thrilled that she froze there staring at the gift. Teacher Kaitlyn and I burst out laughing seeing how she beamed in delight when she saw the gift. It was what she has been bugging me to get her – Season 5 Shopkins, which was released in Australia, US and Canada sometime in May / June this year.

Cass and I are already missing Kaitlyn. She’s a very talented pianist who is smart and funny at the same time. We hope that Cass’ new teacher will be a very patient teacher and most importantly have good chemistry with Cass too. I strongly believe that a child will excel in anything if he/she has a very good teacher whom he/she idolizes.

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Busy Busy Monday – 26 Sept 2016

Yesterday I have been SO BUSY that I forgot I was over exhausted!

The past one week has been really really hectic for me. Applications for purchase of Izumio and Super Lutein have been high as the promotion for 1 free product ends on 30 Sept 2016 and many people are submitting their applications at the eleventh hour. My online store business has been pretty busy too.

I haven’t been getting sufficient sleep since a week ago. After the week-long school holiday, I have been having a hard time waking up at 4:45 a.m. again. With barely 5 hours of sleep each day, I am a mummified mummy with puffy eye bags and dark rings round my eyes 🙁

Yesterday morning, I woke up with a slight throb on my head due to lack of sleep. I told myself that I would just skip exercise for the day and instead hop back onto bed after sending the girls off to their transporters. But the determined fitness freak inside me screamed out to me to just get onto the walking tracks. And so I did, for half an hour. But as I walked, I could feel my heavy eyes drooping. I was dozing off on the walking tracks, in the pre-dawn darkness. Have you ever felt so frazzled and sleep deprived that you actually dozed off while walking or driving? I had many times. I know it is dang dangerous to snooze off for even a few seconds while driving. I did not even have the energy to run and I soldiered on for half an hour of brisk walking yesterday and this morning.

Back home, I just wanted to plonk my weary body onto the bed. But I downed a packet of my hydrogen infused water. And what do I know? After my shower, I worked in front of my computer until 6pm! Non-stop, except for leaving my desk to prepare lunch for Cass and for toilet breaks. I was so busy that I had totally forgotten that my body was exhausted. I even skipped my usual daily 20-minute power nap. In the evening, I downed another packet of hydrogen water. I really needed extra packets of hydrogen water yesterday to give me the energy as I was totally zonked out. Iz**** really rocks!! How can I ever function without my most trusted Iz****? My life as a work-from-home-mum is REALLY TOUGH and hectic. I find that it’s way more stressful that having a full-time job at the office. And I CANNOT afford to fall sick. Thankfully I have my Iz**** to keep me mentally and physically strong.

Breakfast yesterday was something light and plain which I could eat whilst seated working in front of the computer and filling out forms simultaneously. Yup, mothers are really good in multi-tasking 😀

Today I am feeling a tad lightheaded from having my eyes glued to the computer screen on top of filling out so many forms for the past 2 days, with no break to rest.

Yesterday’s breakkie – Vanilla cocoa hazelnut granola with organic multi puffs (puffed buckwheat, sorghum and brown rice), organic sunflower seeds crackers and dried cranberries. I didn’t have the appetite to eat anything more than this.

Yesterday’s dinner was pork chop loin with onion sauce and blanched veggie. Cooking was done pretty late again. Thank God for Drama Queen who helped me to cook the rice, wash the vegetables and fry the onions sauce when she got home from school at 4pm.

Today is yet another super busy day and I still haven’t got the chance to take my power nap to recharge my batteries coz I’ll have to leave the house in a bit to get some errands done. I’ve already delayed doing them for days and I can’t procrastinate anymore.

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My Saturday – 24 Sept 2016

After dropping Drama Queen at the tuition centre this morning, Cass and I had breakfast at our favorite supermarket to try out the food at a new stall that popped up just a few days ago. It sells curry noodles, porridge, yam cake, tong sui, chicken balls and some deep fried delights.

Cass had porridge while I had curry noodles. Food was very tasty and betcha know why – they were loaded with salt and MSG! Gawd, the chicken balls, curry noodles and porridge were super salty my tongue felt numb! Our poor kidneys, hope they won’t get overworked with the overload of salt. Cass and I have been pumping ourselves with so much water since we got home this morning.

After breakfast, we went grocery shopping. The price of one staple item in my kitchen has skyrocketed since a month ago. My favorite natural food enhancer – the garlic, is now something that not everyone can afford and will buy. Garlic is now priced at RM14.99 for 1 kg, whereas big onions only cost RM2.99 for 1 kg. Naturally, this stingy el cheapo ah soh has been boycotting garlic for about 2 weeks now. Why do I have to pay 5 times more for garlic? The girls and I don’t mind having onions in all our dishes anyway. Onions are from the same family as garlic anyway, and have the same potency and flavors. I am going to stick with onions until the price of garlic comes down 😛

Pictured here is Drama Queen helping Cass with her Chinese language homework. See how bossy the Queen is. Walaueh, I even had to bribe her for help *shakes head*

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Whatsapp On Web

Call me a dungu but I only just found out from my sifu that there is now Whatsapp on Web. Yup, Whatsapp Chat can be downloaded onto your desktop computer and laptop. Have you been Whatsapping from your desktop computer too?

No wonder la, she can always reply me at lighting speed with really long messages! She’s been typing from her desktop keyboard while chatting on Whatsapp. And I was wondering how she can type so fast.

I have never liked to use Whatsapp coz of the tiny keyboard on my phone. And darn the annoying auto-correct spelling which makes typing such a nuisance. Now I can Whatsapp friends and customers from my computer at lightning speed!

Just go to Whatsapp.com and download the app onto your computer. Then there will be a code for you to scan using your android phone from the Whatsapp Chat menu of your android phone. I was stuck with scanning the code and I went to You Tube for visual help. Within seconds of bringing my phone to my desktop screen, TING and the Whatsapp chat appeared on my computer… like a magic wand doing its magic work! Amazing!!

Try it and see. The whole process won’t take you 5 minutes now that I have told you how to do it 😀

No. of times viewed = 1

Breakfast And Lunch On A Busy Wednesday – 21 Sept 2016

Today has been a very, very hectic day. It doesn’t help that my Aunt Flow is visiting. And she’s been really bothersome today with a heavy flow. Another thing that’s bothering me is this big zit right smack in the middle of my right cheek!! And it looks SO prominent on my pale colored skin. Dang the PMS hormones! Today the zit has shrunk a little after I applied Izumio on it, along with Melaleuca oil. Yesterday it was sorely sitting on my cheek screaming out to everyone for attention! For someone who hardly gets zits, the sight of it on my cheek is really disturbing. Did I also tell you that Izumio works very well with controlling period pain? Just a packet yesterday along with a massage on my abdomen with peppermint essential oil and the nagging cramp in my uterus slowly dissipated.

Since I felt a tad bloated and lacking in appetite this morning, I ate something really light – a piece of organic buckwheat seaweed cracker…

Also had a small bowl of buckwheat puffs with toasted almond slices, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds.

Lunch was wat tarn meehoon with squid + minced pork + Chinese cabbage + yau mark veggie + egg sauce. The sauce was cooked last night, for dinner with organic pumpkin yee mee. Today, I blanched some meehoon and yau mark veggie and that’s lunch for Cass and me.

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Mum’s 70th Birthday Celebration

My mum celebrated her 70th birthday in KL this year. My parents and younger brother, Roy arrived from Taiwan on Friday afternoon. They had earlier gone on a week-long cruise from Taiwan to Okinawa in Japan. Thank God they survived a nauseous and choppy ride on board a cruise liner amidst Typhoon Meranti when she lashed out on Taiwan last week! On Friday too, my elder brother and his family arrived from Singapore to join us in the 2-day celebration.

To be able to turn 70 and celebrate it with your spouse, children and grandchildren is a blessing from God and indeed an occasion that must be celebrated with grandeur. I wish I can do that too when I roll into the big 70.

Hubs got mum a sumptuous black sesame chocolate cake from Les Deux Garcons.

The birthday dinner was held at Unique Seafood Restaurant, PJ. Hubs booked a room with karaoke coz mum wanted to serenade and dance the whole night! Yep my mum and dad are still sizzling hot even in their 70s. They occasionally dance and sing all night long at parties.

Fresh blanched prawns was really succulent and juicy.

Braised house-made tofu with fish maw and seaweed.

Juicy Scottish clams / razor clams with garlic and glass noodles.

Patin fish caught from a river in Pahang.

The gourmand hubs bought this RM400 fish from his friend. As the Patin was really huge, we had half the fish that night and brought the other half to our regular restaurant and had it steamed for lunch the next day.

Baked crabs with salted duck’s eggs.

Claypot crabs.

A birthday dinner will never be complete without the longevity noodles dish.

And steamed ‘sau thoe pau’ (pau in the shape of peach) which signifies longevity too.

May God bless my dad and mum with many, many more happy birthdays.

Dad and mum belting out and twisting to the tune of Gangnam Style by Psy. I never knew dad could twist like someone in his 20s though he’s already 73!!

Alycia and Cass made cards for their granny but Drama Queen who has a little Picasso in her decided to paint something on canvas for her granny. And I think her painting is just awesome! Oh, did I also mention that Drama Queen also baked an awesome strawberry gluten-free cake for her granny? I shall write about it in another post.

No. of times viewed = 11

Save Money On Nail Spa With Groupon Coupons

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.

With half my right toe nail yanked off yesterday, I have no more excuses to procrastinate making a trip to the nail salon. My left toe nail still has the Hello Kitty nail art intact and the right one is gone. It looks awfully awful now!!

Several days ago I bumped into my regular pedicurist at the shopping mall. I intended to make an appointment for a foot spa but what do I know? The promotion price that I got just 2 months ago has ended. I now have to pay more!

Why do I have to pay more when I can pay less with Groupon Coupons? I have just found a bunch of good nail art and foot spa deals at Groupon and can’t wait to purchase the best deal.

Everyone loves shopping at Groupon because it helps you to save money. This is one of the best coupon sites in terms of easy navigation, variety and good deals. The Groupon Malaysia Facebook page has over 16 million LIKES and that accounts for more than half of the total population of our country!

Groupon has just about everything that you need from travel packages to dining, diapers, toys to even ovulation kits (great place to get one if you’re too shy to get one from the pharmacy!), photoshoot and basically everything that you can think of.

No time to go shopping? Groupon will help solve your shopping woes. Hop over to Groupon today!

No. of times viewed = 2

Mid Autumn Festival 2016

The weather for this year’s Mid Autumn Festival was just perfect, unlike previous years which were wet. We saw the big round moon shining majestically against the backdrop of the the night sky, illuminating it. We had dinner at our usual Chinese restaurant with the girls’ grand aunt and grand uncle.

Since I didn’t have to cook dinner, I allowed Drama Queen to bake a cake for her granny (my mum) who will be celebrating her 70th birthday on 19 Sept 2016. For weeks, Drama Queen has planned to bake a gluten-free cake complete with frosting for her beloved granny. My parents and younger brother, Roy will be arriving KL from Taiwan tomorrow, after a week-long cruise from Taiwan to Okinawa, Japan. We will be celebrating her birthday in KL this year. I shall put up a post on the awesome gluten-free strawberry cake that Drama Queen baked for her granny… with SO MUCH LOVE! 🙂

After dinner, I brought Cass down to the lobby for a walk with her lantern. She got the lantern from her Sunday School teacher last Sunday. It’s a basic no-frills paper lantern that probably costs a Ringgit each but Cass liked it anyway. The 2 big girls were such spoil-sport. They commented that it’s such a bore to walk downstairs in the darkness without any lantern. And the hubs was just plain lazy to move his butt. DUH!! So it was just Cass and I.

Cass enjoyed her short walk with me and commented that she really enjoyed the stroll and chit chatting with me… just the both of us 🙂

After our walk, Cass created quite a stir at home. My bad too, for forgetting to blow off the fire on the candle before we stepped into the house. She brought the lantern into the house and twirled around with it inside the house, dancing gleefully, under the ceiling fan. She lost balance twirling round and round and dropped the lantern on the floor– onto her sister’s school bag! Our part-time helper had just finished wiping the bag and left it on the floor to let it dry. I quickly pushed the burning lantern away from the bag. Seconds later, there was a mini bonfire right in front of our eyes. Ashes were blowing in the air. I quickly turned off the fan. Hubs quickly brought a cup filled with water and poured it on the burning lantern. Phew! I could feel my thumping heart in my mouth!

Earlier in the afternoon, I walked right into Cass as she made a sudden turn backwards towards me when she was walking in front of me, resulting in my big toe nail yanked off… and the side of the toe nail was still stuck to the skin. Oh. my. gawd. That was another nerve-racking few minutes for me as I tried to cut it off with a nail clipper. It still hurts now.

Now that my toe nails are in such bad shape, I have no more reasons to procrastinate visiting the nail salon early next week!

This year’s Mid Autumn Festival is such an eventful one where Cass almost burnt her sister’s bag (and maybe the house down too!) with her burning lantern and I think she will probably remember it until she’s a hundred years old 😀

No. of times viewed = 3

Human Nature Natural Personal Care Products

I am a sucker for all things organic, natural, environmental-friendly and most of all affordable 😀

This makes the products from Human Nature a perfect match for me! Human Nature is the largest natural personal and home care brand in the Philippines. They now also have the most number of NPA-certified products in the world. That’s right – more products certified by the USA-based Natural Products Association, than any other brand in the whole world! Human Nature products are available in the USA, UAE, Singapore and of course, Malaysia. And they are still growing.

Today I received my personal care products consisting of kids natural shampoo, moisturizing natural shampoo, hydrating face toner with moringa extract, calming massage essential oil and tea tree and lavender rescue balm from Human Nature.

Both the kids hair shampoo and adults moisturizing hair shampoo do not have overpowering perfume scents and are very gentle to the scalp. I love the calming massage oil, which has nature’s premium calming trio of lavender, orange and lemongrass essential oils. I use it to moisturize my body after a shower and to massage Cass. The hydrating face toner is gentle and mild in scent. It is brimming with moringa, a powerful ingredient that has 7x more Vitamin C than oranges, 4x more calcium than milk and 4x more Vitamin A than carrots, it doesn’t just help replenish lost moisture, it preps your skin for what should come next – moisturizing! The end result? Luminous, astonishingly soft and beautiful skin!

Did you know? Many chemical toners and astringents contain alcohol, which belongs to the hazardous family of petroleum by-products that pollute the environment and threaten human health. Also, alcohol in toners can dry your skin further leading to premature skin ageing. So why even use alcohol when all you want to do is care for your skin? Phthalates, on the other hand, are present in many toners and astringents and can be damaging to liver & reproductive organs. Human Nature uses none of these nasties so you get only the good, at a price that will not break your wallet.

Internationally, Human Nature pride themselves on being a leading social enterprise with a palpable mission of promoting beauty with compassion. This means offering products that are not only good for our bodies and our planet, but also make a huge difference to impoverished farming communities. This is what I like about Human Nature. They use natural ingredients that grow, or can be grown, in Asia because that’s their way of helping alleviate poverty among farmers. They are among the poorest in the world and as long as they grow nothing but rice they will remain poor for generations to come. Teaching them how to grow high-value crops like lemongrass, mangoes and coconuts, offers them a truly sustainable way to get their families out of the vicious cycle of poverty. Human Nature operate under fair trade principles, meaning they pay market price or higher for their ingredients.

Why Human Nature?

All of Human Nature’s products are natural and chemical-free (no SLS, no parabens, no artificial fragrance, no formaldehyde, no phthalates).

The products can be bought online and delivered to customers anywhere in Malaysia, to help busy mummies and other multi-tasking superwomen.

The products are priced reasonably so that even the average family can afford to go chemical-free.

Just to let you have a rough idea on the price range of Human Nature’s products, the hydrating face toner with Moringa 200ml is priced at RM23.90, kids natural shampoo & body wash tangerine 500ml at RM39.90, natural moisturizing shampoo 200ml at RM24.90 and rescue balm 10g at RM16.90.

Do hop over to Human Nature to check out their products and I am pretty sure that you’ll be tempted to get a little something for everyone in the family!

No. of times viewed = 2

The Mugger Was Caught!

Remember my post on the harrowing snatch theft incident that Drama Queen and I witnessed where we helped the victim? That happened last Wednesday. It is indeed fated that the victim and us have to cross paths twice in a short span of just 7 days.

While grocery shopping at the supermarket this morning, we bumped into her. She was really surprised to see us again. I saw the wounds on her knee and elbow. While they still looked bad, they were drying up. I was really happy when she informed us that the person who snatched her bag had been caught! I just couldn’t believe my ears. I can’t believe that our policemen are so efficient! I was also a snatch theft victim once upon a time. The hubs’ cars were stolen twice yet the police never found the perpetrators. Can you believe it?! I have since lost confidence in our policemen and what I heard today has given me a renewed confidence in them.

We found out from the lady that the mugger is an Indonesian with a Chinese parent. I am so happy that justice has been served. And like I always say, karma is a bitch. You will never escape from it! So do good and fill up your good karma bank with lots and lots of good deeds. Good karma will come chasing after you too when you least expect it.

Our brunch of char siew wantan mee at our favorite coffee shop – Sing Kee Kitchen. They serve one of the best char siew wantan mee in the world, with melt in the mouth char siew and springy noodles. And despite digging into it at least once a week for the last 10 years, it is something that we can never get bored of.

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Holiday Activity – Cookie Baking

This idea was entirely Drama Queen’s. And I entrusted her with the entire task as I knew she could handle it pretty well. Except for helping her with the oven and checking on the doneness of the cookies, Drama Queen enlisted the help of her 2 side-kicks on this holiday cookie baking project today.

She got the recipe from her favorite You Tuber – LaurDIY, which is sugar-free banana chocolate chips cookies.

The 3 girls had a whale of a time in the kitchen. I was too busy with work to supervise. And they were so glad that I wasn’t there to poke my nose in their job.

Cass – I am so happy that this whole thing is WITHOUT adult supervision! Shoo shoo mummy! We can handle this!

The outcome of the cookies was not bad. The cookies were crispy on the outside and slightly soft in the inside. It’s like eating crispy banana muffins. Weight watchers will love this cookie as it is sugar-free and made from organic unbleached flour. The sweetness comes entirely from the ripened bananas. I must say that it’s pretty good, coming from 3 girls under 13 years old who treated this as a real life child’s play masak-masak.

Even the girls’ favorite kakak Maria has 2 jars of cookies to bring home today 🙂

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Hydrogen Infused Water And Carotenoids For Good Health

At a products training session two weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet and make friends with an amazing lady. She’s non other than Yvonne Gabriel. Yvonne is the aunt of my team leader cum mentor, my friend of 11 years. Looking at Yvonne, one would NEVER have thought that she is a cancer survivor. She looks TERRIFIC, so pretty, bubbly, spunky, SO friendly and humble and no one would have guessed her age. Scroll down to see her picture on the cover of Her World magazine, Feb 2011. Yvonne is 60 years old this year. Bet you won’t believe it looking at her!

Yvonne is a single mom who has raised two teenagers single-handedly, now young adults, for the last 15 years without ANY help from the ex-husband, who is non other than the singer of Hijau. Yvonne is currently consuming hydrogen infused water and a carotenoids supplement for good health.

Here’s a written testimonial written by Patsy, my team leader:

She is also a colon cancer survivor having gone through chemotherapy and I have personally seen her suffer with my own eyes with black toenails and pus and blood coming out of them everywhere she walked whilst she was undergoing chemotherapy.

These were some of her health ailments that she hoped to heal and see improvements on last year (2015):-
1. Frozen shoulder
2. Knee pain
3. Insomnia
4. Neck pains
5. Recurring depression
6. Gum deterioration (receding gum line)
7. Vision deterioration
8. Symptoms of old age (wrinkles!)

And one year later, we can report that:-
1. Her shoulder is much better. 3 months later it was still a bit stiff but from not being able to carry an Izumio box AT ALL then, she can now carry two.
2. Gone
3. Sleeps much better
4. Gone
5. Gone
6. Comment from Yvonne herself – As for my gums, i now brush my teeth with a pinch of salt every time, so hopefully it will stay healthy. I just want to say, exercise is crucial in maintaining body and mental health….especially as you age.
7. Vision has improved
8. She is looking hotter than ever! (Yes, I can attest to that!)

We pray for her complete healing!!!

If you would like to give this hydrogen infused water and carotenoids supplement a try, I can be reached at shireenyong@gmail.com or 019 266 4290 for more information.

No. of times viewed = 3

Save Money On Hair Styling With Groupon

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are mine.

My hair is currently at waist length. This is by far the longest length I have ever kept my hair to. I actually planned to have a transformation of my dull long hair since 2 months ago but what do I know? I have been so busy with the blur of life events, with work, daily routines, cooking and minding the girls that I keep procrastinating my visit to the hair salon. I am also long overdue to make a trip to the beauty salon to have a foot spa and my toe nails repainted. Yet again, busyness has taken over all my time.

Today I went hunting for hair styling deals at Groupon and saw a handful of deals that are just too good to resist buying. I just love browsing the Groupon website. There are so many great deals on just about everything that my entire family and I need. I also saw a pair of Beats by Dre Mixr DJ Headphones that I know that the big girl will heart to bits. I’ll seriously consider buying her the headphones for her upcoming birthday when she officially turns into a teenager 🙂

Not only do I love shopping for Groupon Goods, even my mum who turns 70 in a few days is a big fan of online shopping at Groupon! She has bought many items from Groupon since last year and I love it that online shopping gives her something to look forward to. Retail shopping is one of the best stress busters!

Everyone loves shopping at Groupon because it is a great money-saving site. Searching for coupons is a breeze too. They carry just about everything that you need from luggage bags to kitchen accessories, mobile phones and parts, toys, electrical items to winter clothing to everything in between. If you have never tried shopping at Groupon, try it today! 😉

No. of times viewed = 7

Our Monday – 12 Sept 2016

School holiday means catching up on my beauty sleep, respite from school books, breather from everything academic and eating out. I’ve been sleeping in till 7:30 am (not so lucky to sleep in way past 8 am though) since Saturday and getting 8 hours of sleep has reinvigorated my mind, body and soul! Lunches and dinners have all been settled outside of the house since Saturday. If only everyday is a holiday!

Well, today I am itching to cook again coz much as I love food served aesthetically to me without me lifting a finger, I just can’t tolerate the high sodium, oil and additives added into our food. My girls feel the same too. We were so stuffed after going on a food marathon yesterday that we only ate toasts and some raw veggies for dinner last night.

We reached the mall by 11 am yesterday. Since we were pretty early, we got a table at Sushi Zanmai effortlessly without the usual crazy long queue. The girls’ grand uncle from New Zealand joined us for brunch.

After brunch, we went shopping. I got my swimsuit.. finally!

After shopping, my trencherman dragged us to Haegan Dazs, albeit the girls were treated to Baskin Robbins by their grand uncle just an hour ago.

See, someone just could not wait, though all I needed was just 5 seconds to snap the picture. He photobombed the ice-cream photo!!

2 scoops of macadamia nuts for him and 1 scoop of salted caramel for Cass and me.

After walking non-stop for 3 hours or so, we were still feeling a tad hungry, though we had ice-creams sloshing around in our tummies! The foodie hubs then dragged us to the newly opened Ben’s General Food Store @ Gardens to try out the food.

Desserts were just middling. I didn’t like the S’more cookie and raspberry doughnut at all. The walnut brownie were.. well, OK.

The Chicken Spit Roast bundle was to die for! We waited for almost 20 minutes for the chicken to arrive but it was down to the bones in just 5-10 minutes. Very yummy indeed. Hubs commented that his 3 princesses are like very famished piranhas!!

So he ordered another roast chicken – a quarter Thai roast chicken bundle and again, the chick was dug fast to the bone in just minutes!! Even the delish chicken stock sauce flavored with a hint of Thai was downed to the last drop!

The kicap manis roast egg plant with baby French beans and chicken salad didn’t really go well with the girls as they didn’t like their salad sweet and cold. I told them that I’ll make something similar for them, sans the sweet sauce next week. So watch this space!

Three happy girls after half a day of retail and food therapy!

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Home-Cooked Dinner – 8 Sept 2016

Pan-fried red snapper fish and mackerel fish marinated with turmeric powder, Baba’s fish curry powder, organic shoyu and ground black pepper.

I have tried frying fish using steel wok, non-stick granite pan, non-stick Teflon pan and Khind stir-fryer.

My verdict is – the Khind electric stir-fryer gives the best outcome. For the 3 slices of fish yesterday, total time in the stir-fryer was only 4 minutes – exactly 2 minutes on each side. For smaller whole fish, the outcome would always be crispy on the outside and juicy on the interior.

I don’t really fancy buying mackerel fish coz the meat tends to be dry and dull after pan-frying. But with the Khind electric stir-fryer, the meat of the mackerel fish was very tender and juicy yesterday. The texture of the red snapper fish fried using Khind electric stir-fryer was cooked to a tee.

Below – omelette with Wattie’s sweet corn kernels, kafir lime leaves, organic tomatoes, lots of organic scallions, a dash of organic shoyu, pepper, tomato ketchup and lots of big onions and chopped garlic.

The girls and I love the scent of kafir lime leaves in the omelette. It rounds the dish up with the right tinge of Thai aroma. I also use kafir lime leaves in fried rice, braised brinjal, curries, noodles and just about anything. Kafir lime leaves are inexpensive and easily available here. I normally get a small punnet from the supermarket (costs RM1 a punnet with a big handful of leaves) and store them in an air-tight container in the freezer. That can last me for many months.

Below – ingredients for the omelette, just before the egg mixture and scallions are added into the pan.

No. of times viewed = 5