January 2018 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Monday Dinner – 29 Jan 2018

Malaysia’s ‘summer’ is slowly rearing its ugly head. This also means that Chinese New Year is coming soon. Though it’s been raining almost daily, the weather has been really hot and stuffy. Even when it’s pouring hard, it’s still not cooling but humid. Today I showered 5 times (washed my hair 3 times!). When I’m hot and sweaty, I can’t seem to sit and concentrate at my work station. My mind will be foggy and distracted and gravitated towards the bathroom. The OCD in me will be dying to have a nice cool shower, even if it’s just a 1-minute quick splash with cold water. After cooking today’s dinner, I had my 4th quick shower before I zoomed off to fetch Drama Queen back from school.

Today’s dinner is baked cheese fried rice again. This time, I fried the rice with organic pork (marinated with Teriyaki sauce, pepper and sesame seed oil), organic spinach, sweet corn, garden baby peas, garlic, onion and eggs.

Cass helped to layer the rice with slices of Swiss cheese before this baby was popped into the oven. We used about 10 slices of cheese and baked the rice for 20 minutes.

This dish is fast to make and completely low maintenance. Loaded with tons of vegetables, this is a simple yet incredibly tasty dinner you can get on the table in less than 30 minutes. Along with the ABC soup, it took me under an hour to prep two items. While the soup was still boiling on the stove, I got some work done on the computer. I must give credit to my part-time helper for helping me pre-chop the garlic. I always have a tub of chopped garlic in the fridge to last me for 2 days.

Also cooked ABC soup with roast pork bones, sweet potatoes and red dates. I recently discovered that adding sweet potatoes into the pot of soup would yield very sweet and thick soup. The pot of soup can be a filling one-pot dish with meat, carrots, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, cabbage, etc. Lately I seem to have a liking for soups, especially vegetables soup.

When using roast pork bones (or any meat for that matter) to prep soup, just be sure to blanch the pork bones in boiling water for a few minutes to remove the fat and scum, as well as for aesthetics reason. Meat not pre-blanched will result in soup that looks murky and err… looks yucky too.

The fussy king of the house who does not like baked cheese rice had steamed pau and scrambled eggs when he came home at 9pm. Drama Queen helped to steam the frozen pau and cooked the eggs. After cooking, she wiped the stove and washed the dishes.

Me: quick go and shower.

Sherilyn: I can’t shower yet. I have to wait for dad to finish his dinner, then wash the dishes. And I have to wait for the pau to be steamed.

Me: you sound like you’re Cinderella! Thanks anyway.

Thank God for Drama Queen who is always around to help me with the chores that I hate most.

Rainbow after a downpour this evening. Can you spot a double rainbow? Blink your eyes hard and see if you can see two rainbows.

No. of times viewed = 42

The Tooth Fairy

Cass shed her molar tooth early this week. When the tooth finally dropped after days of causing her extreme discomfort, Cass was pleased as punch. She was relieved that the tooth no longer obstructed her mouth movements and she was also looking forward to the ‘tooth fairy’ coming to give her a dollar under her pillow. My youngest baby girl, almost turning 10 and still hopes for a tooth fairy to pay her a secret visit while she’s in lala land. She’s still cute like that. Forever a baby in my eyes.

Three Boxing Days ago, a real life tooth fairy cum Santa Clause who happened to be a complete stranger to us gave Cass a hundred Ringgit note. We were at our usual coffee shop with my parents who were in KL having breakfast. As we were leaving the coffee shop, an elderly man, about 60 plus asked Cass to call him ‘uncle’. When Cass called him ‘uncle’, the elderly man with white hair pulled out a hundred Ringgit note from this trousers pocket and said “kwai” (good child in Cantonese) to Cass and put the RM100 note in Cass’ hands. And within seconds, he walked away, leaving us entranced, as if he came from no where as a tooth fairy cum Santa Clause to reward Cass and then phoofed he vanished into thin air, just. like. that. A few minutes after the old man left, Cass’ loose tooth fell off. It’s as if the tooth fairy came to give her the RM100 note!! I still think this is a real life fairy tale came true for Cass!

OK, back to Cass’ tooth. Since Monday, Cass has been reminding me that she put her tooth in an angpow packet under her pillow. Obliquely, she wanted me to put a Ringgit note in the angpow packet. Upon return from school each day, she asked me whether the tooth fairy came and I would reply her by saying that the tooth fairy has been too busy and didn’t come, while feeling terribly guilty. Four days passed and my baby girl never stopped asking me each day. How could I have forgotten and shirked my responsibility? Cass knows that I am the tooth fairy and she would play along with me acting as if she believed that there was really a tooth fairy. I forgot all about the tooth under Cass’ pillow until I changed her pillowcase yesterday. I felt even worse seeing the angpow under the pillow, knowing that my baby girl has been feeling disappointed that the tooth fairy didn’t visit her for almost a week. I put a Ringgit note into the angpow and when she returned from school that day, I casually told her that I found something under her pillow. The look on Cass’ face when she opened the angpow packet was priceless 💓

No. of times viewed = 3

Home Cooked Dinners (22 ~ 24 January 2018)

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of update in my blogs. I’ve been busier than in previous years ever since Drama Queen started attending high school this year. I have extra school runs and tuition runs to do (from morning through night) and an extra ~~chore~~ job of cooking dinner (and sometimes lunch) as the mil is still overseas.

In addition, I’ve been pretty busy with my online clothing store as it’s less than 3 weeks to CNY. Orders are usually higher around this time of the year. This leaves me with barely any time to blog.

Sundays effective this year have also been busy for the girls and me. The two older girls have started membership/baptism classes in church from 2-4 pm every Sunday until they are baptized on 25 May 2018.

At the home front, our usual efficient part-time helper went back to Indonesia for a 3-week holiday and was only back yesterday. I can’t tell you how relieved I was that she finally turned up at our doorstep yesterday evening. She’s been a great help to me and it’s only when she’s around that I have the time to do my own stuff. She’s been working for us for 4 years and I selfishly wish that she will work for us forever, even after her marriage.

Despite my crazy life right now, despite burnt out to a crisp, I still cook dinner on week nights, 5 times a week, though many times I’ve been terribly tempted to hit up the nearby stalls and restaurants for a quick and relaxing dinner. I know that very soon, the girls will leave the nest and then the house will be so eerily quiet that I can even hear the grass growing. And then I will miss my crazy hectic days again. So I am not complaining. It’s going to be another 3 years that Alycia goes to college and if we have the financial means, she may even be pursuing further studies abroad. Time really flies eh?

Ok, back to healthy food talk! These are the dishes that I prepped this week, from Monday ~ Wednesday:

Monday ~ grilled tomato chicken with tomato onion sauce for the rice; sauteed organic choy sum with garlic. I used Basmathi long rice.

Chicken drummets are marinated with tomato ketchup, garlic powder, salt, Japanese teriyaki sauce, black pepper and chopped garlic. Grilled in the oven for 30 minutes, 15 minutes each side.

Sauce for the rice and chicken: sauteed onion and garlic with tomatoes and tomato paste. Seasoned with salt, palm sugar syrup, Italian herbs and pepper.

Tuesday ~ beet root + carrot + red dates + wolfberries + onion + whole garlic + chicken breast soup; Steamed eggs with fried minced pork.

The steamed eggs with fried minced pork is a new dish and this recipe is a keeper! The steamed egg is so custardy and smooth that the girls commented that it tasted like Chawan Mushi. The minced pork is first marinated with soy sauce, sesame seed oil, pepper and a dash of Chinese cooking wine for at least 1 hour. Then seer the minced pork in a skillet with oil and transfer the pork to a steaming plate.

For the egg mixture, to ensure that the egg is custardy and smooth, do not beat up the eggs but gently stir them till the yolk and whites are mixed well. Add salt or soy sauce and pepper and a little water and mix well. Strain the egg mixture but I skipped this step due to time constraint. Just ensure that there are no bubbles on the egg mixture. Pour the egg mixture into the steaming plate with the fried minced pork. Cover the steaming plate with another plate and steam in medium fire for 10~15 minutes.

Wednesday ~ ABC soup with sweet potatoes + potatoes + red dates + wolfberries +pepper corn + chicken soup; Sauteed baby French beans with Berkcious pork slices + oyster mushrooms + organic miso paste + organic soy sauce and garlic.

No. of times viewed = 21

Baked Cheese Fried Rice

I have about 10 minutes for this post before I make a dash to the kitchen to dish out yet another quickie dinner in under an hour before the final school run of the day.

Every evening is a mad rush in the kitchen and then to school. Traffic is horrendous whenever it rains. Yesterday was such a day. Back home, Drama Queen and I had 10 minutes to eat dinner before rushing off to the next destination ~ BM tuition.

The girls ordered baked cheese fried rice yesterday, which is something that’s so easy and fast to prep. This is one for busy weeknights, lazy weekends and every other day in between. When it’s this easy peasy to make something so lip smackingly good with ingredients that are basic kitchen essentials, frozen meals and home delivery aren’t even a passing thought. No matter how nuts your household is at dinner time (like mine!), no matter how tired you are (me too), no matter how irritating and incompetent your boss or spouse is, how bad the traffic jam home was, how miserable the weather is (like yesterday’s super wet evening) – you got this and your kids to praise you sky high💪🏻

You can fry the rice with whatever ingredients that you fancy. I fried the rice with lots of chopped garlic and onions, added broccoli and julienned carrots and 5 eggs to it.

Once the rice is fried, add in cheese and mix well. Then transfer the fried rice onto a baking dish or disposable aluminum baking dish. Top up with more cheese and some cherry tomatoes.

Bear in mind that the cherry tomatoes have high water content, thus your fried rice will be wet / soggy. So if you have the time, bake the cherry tomatoes in the oven till they are partially dried. Or cook your rice with lesser water. Or omit them if you don’t like soggy rice.

I’ve exceeded my time on this post by 10 minutes and I really have to go now! Happy cooking!

No. of times viewed = 5

Grilled Chicken In Lemon Garlic Butter Pumpkin Sauce

Hello to my new favorite grilled chicken in lemony, garlicky, buttery and pumpkin sauce!

This recipe is not what I intended to prep in the first place. I had wanted to prep a lemon garlic and butter sauce for my grilled chicken but I didn’t have any chicken stock with me, thus I used my papa’s pumpkin soup that’s stowed in my freezer. He prepped it for us during his stay with us recently.

When I used the pumpkin soup, I took a risk ~ the sauce could turn out great or end up in the sink. Thankfully the combo was wonderfully paired and delish! Thank goodness too that the sauce did not curdle on me or turn lumpy. Cass who was initially apprehensive (she hates pumpkin) took a small lick of the sauce and then we both let out a “told you it’s yummy” and “you are right mum, it’s yummy” giggle 😀

Also dished out a cabbage sauted with miso and carrots.

Grilled chicken
Marinate with organic soy sauce, black pepper and garlic powder for at least 2 hours.
Grill at 200C in the oven for 30 minutes (15 minutes each side)

Butter, garlic, lemony sauce
1/2 slab of butter
Chopped garlic – I used half a bulb. Actually, the more the better
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
2 to 3 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons of multi-purpose flour. I used organic plain and unbleached flour.
Chicken stock OR
Pumpkin soup / puree
Fresh herbs of any kind, chopped

Method
Heat up butter in skillet
Add garlic
Add flour and whisk into a roux
Add in lemon juice, zest and honey
Add in pumpkin soup OR
Gently pour in chicken stock, keep stirring and ensure the sauce does not turn lumpy
Add in the chopped fresh herbs. I used coriander.

Pumpkin puree / soup
Cook 1 whole pumpkin with some garlic, onions and ginger.
Add chicken breast (optional)
Blend using hand blender.

Grilled chicken dinner with a perfect sauce for it along with conquering kitchen fears and rushing out to do school and tuition runs. This was done on a hectic Friday evening 🙂

No. of times viewed = 49

My Thursday ~ 11 Jan 2018

It’s been a cold and wet day the whole of today. After 1.5 days of torturous chills, backache and fever, my high fever finally broke last night.

The downside of being a WFHM (or SAHM for that matter) is that work has to CONTINUE whether or not you are fit or ill. Donning on a shawl wrapped round my neck and shoulders, I still had to cook and do school runs in a shivering body. Not to mention waking up at 4:15 a.m. to get the girls ready for school. And hubs is not feeling too well too.

After gulping down many packets of Izumio hydrogen water and chewing on my homegrown Indian borage yesterday, I was right as rain again at night! What would make a WFHM and SAHM happiest? When she’s fit as a fiddle and everyone in the household robust.

As I felt so much better this morning, I did some brisk walking at our condo grounds but had to cut short the exercise when it drizzled. And it has not stopped drizzling since.

As I was in the mood to cook, I whipped up Taiwanese ‘Zha Jiang Mian‘ for lunch for Drama Queen and Cass. As this was totally unplanned, I had to make do with whatever ingredients that I had in the fridge. What’s missing was spring onion.

My Zha Jiang Mian is 80% organic cooked using organic pork, organic Mugi miso, organic seaweed noodles and organic cucumber. What’s not organic are the carrots, cooking oil and garlic.

This dish is very easy and fast to prep. If not for Drama Queen messing up the stove, this would only take 20~25 minutes of prep time. That silly girl put the lid on the pot to boil the noodles and I only realized it much later when the fire was put off by the starchy lava that spewed out from the pot. Hubs had to dismantle the stove to unclog the gas holes and I had to do what I hate the most~ scrubbing the stove, the stove parts and the pot glued with starch!

No. of times viewed = 9

First Sunday In 2018 (7 January 2018)

After church, I took Uber with the girls to Pavillion to meet the hubs. Our lunch on the first Sunday of this year was at Din Tai Fung, the hubs’ favorite Taiwanese restaurant of all times.

In an article published on January 17, 1993, the New York Times rated Din Tai Fung as one of the top ten gourmet restaurants in the world (Din Tai Fung was the only Chinese-run restaurant to receive this accolade). We have always been very satisfied with the food at Din Tai Fung.

The first Sunday of 2018 did not start well for Cass and me.

After Sunday School, Cass flexed her biceps at the monkey bar at the church playground while waiting for me. She spent a good 20 minutes hanging like a monkey in the merciless hot sun. After service ended, we walked back to the car under the sizzling hot sun. It was exceptionally hot that day, easily at 38~40C. Puteri Lilin (Candle Princess) me suffered first-degree burn on the cheeks, which made me looked like I had just returned from a tropical beach holiday that lasted for 2 days.

In the car on the drive back home, Cass complained of headache, stomach pain and leg pain. The headache continued until the next morning when I woke her up for school. Her body felt like burning charcoal. I checked her temperature and it was a burning 40.4C! I quickly gave her a packet of Izumio and a suppository to bring the temperature down pronto.

Then I remembered that Cass is exactly like me, a Puteri Lilin with fair skin and with a propensity to have fevers whenever exposed to the hot afternoon sun for prolonged periods. Even 5 minutes of exposure to the hot sun would cause me a throbbing headache.

Cass with an ‘ice cap’ on her forehead. The ‘ice cap’ is a frozen wet hanky that Cass swears by in bringing her fever down. She would prepare the ‘ice cap’ whenever she feels feverish or hot. When she has fevers, I would diligently ensure that an’ice cap’ is on her head / forehead throughout the day and night. The last time that Cass had a fever was in February last year, after the first day of CoCo activity in school after running in the field in the unforgiving afternoon sun.

Today is the second day that Cass is on sick leave and thank God the temperature has made a descent. But after an entire night of checking on Cass, I am now beginning to experience chills and a back-breaking back pain. I am always at the mercy of sleep deprivation.

After a horrendous 11-hour bumper-to-bumper crawl from Singapore back to KL on a van during the school holidays recently, I have developed a bad backache.

On Sunday after we returned from Pavillion, Cass and I experienced a spell of insatiable thirst. We were gulping down packets of Izumio and plain water but no amount of water that we drank could quench our deep thirst. Our lips were scarlet red and our cheeks were flushed.

I Googled to find out what the symptoms of a heat stroke are and realized that we may have suffered from a mild case of heat stroke.

Symptoms of heat stroke:
Heat stroke results from prolonged exposure to high temperatures — usually in combination with dehydration — which leads to failure of the body’s temperature control system. The medical definition of heat stroke is a core body temperature greater than 40C, with complications involving the central nervous system that occur after exposure to high temperatures.

Other symptoms may include:

Throbbing headache
Dizziness and light-headedness
Lack of sweating despite the heat
Red, hot, and dry skin
Muscle weakness or cramps
Nausea and vomiting
Rapid heartbeat, which may be either strong or weak
Rapid, shallow breathing
Behavioral changes such as confusion, disorientation, or staggering
Seizures
Unconsciousness

Breakfast for everyone this morning : pork ribs + carrot + millet + quinoa + rice porridge slow cooked in the crockpot for 12 hours.

No. of times viewed = 8

First Day Of School – 2 Jan 2018

For the first time, Cass was a tad reluctant to go back to school after her 5-week break. She lamented that homework is what stresses her out the most and she hates lining up for assembly in the hall every Monday. I know her other reason is the fact that she’s now in senior primary and remains in the top class, which gives her a great amount of pressure to excel. Other than that, she was excited to meet her besties again.

Alycia will be sitting for her PT3 and UEC exams this year. But this girl is not much bothered or stressed out over the exams. Alycia wasn’t too enthusiastic about going back to school too as her best friend has left this school for an international school. I hope Alycia will buckle up and pull her socks up as her grades have only been mediocre since she started high school. This year is going to be tough and tougher as the countdown now begins to PT3 and UEC. Also, the school sent out a notice on the first day of school notifying students that they will be asked to leave the school should they score an average grade of 60 and below 😵😱

Drama Queen’s new chapter begins on 2 Jan 2018. She is in Form 1 this year. For the next two years, her school session is in the afternoon. She appeared to be in a jovial mood when she got home on the first day of school, which is a positive sign that she’s starting to like the school, new friends and the whole new learning experience of studying in Malay vs. Chinese., albeit she told me that she finds it tough, for a beginner. For 6 years, she studied in Chinese for all the subjects except for English and BM. But I am confident that with daily practice, she will master BM.

On the first day of school, papa taught Drama Queen how to tie her school neck tie. She has never done this before. In primary school, the neck tie that she wore is readily tied.

Two days before school reopened, mum helped to sew badges onto the pinafores for Drama Queen and Alycia using the sewing machine.

I am totally hopeless in the sewing department. I don’t even know how to operate a sewing machine but thank God for wonderful grand parents for our girls, my tailoring problems have almost always been solved.

How has the first week of school been for you? I hope it has been a walk in the park but if it’s not, take heart that soon, things will fall into place and you can then call your daily life a ROUTINE once again 👍💪

Happy weekend everyone 💗

No. of times viewed = 16

Christmas (25 December 2017)

Happy new year to all my blog readers! Sorry for the lack of update. I’ve been pretty busy since I got back from Singapore two weeks ago. With my parents here in KL to celebrate the year end festivities and the hubs’ birthday with us, we have been out of the house everyday. I’ve gorged on so much rich and artery-clogging food the past two weeks that my guts just could not keep in anymore food. I skipped dinner yesterday, brisk-walked and ran for 40 minutes before day-break today and finally felt so much lighter! I have so many photos in my photo album to share with you and I do not know where to begin! I’ll just start with the Christmas photos first. Drool on…

On Christmas 2017, we attended the 9 a.m. service at the KL Wesley Church. We are not members of Wesley Church but for the past few years, we have been going to this church on Christmas day together with the girls’ grand aunt who is a member of the church.

Our yearly Christmas dinner is quite a feast and a pretty traditional English one with roast turkey, stuffing (bought from London by the hubs’ aunt), roast leg of lamb, minced pie, grilled bacon wrapped sausage, grilled leg of ham and roast vegetables. The hubs’ late grandfather owns a house in London and most of his relatives had spent years studying and living in London. Thus, in their time in London, the relatives have learnt the art of dishing out some very mean English dishes, including the classic English Christmas dishes. I guess I am the only one in the Yap family who has not visited London yet.

The star of the night~ roast turkey with accompaniments:

Grilled bacon-wrapped sausages, potato salad, garlic bread, grilled leg of lamb with mint sauce:

Aglio Olio spaghetti:

Pineapple honey-glazed leg ham (flown in from New Zealand by hubs’ cousin):

Roast pumpkin, sweet corn and bell pepper; crab meat sweet corn soup:

Roast beet root with olive oil and roast potatoes:

Dessert of homemade tiramisu, minced pie (served with vanilla ice-cream) and lemon cake:

The girls with grand aunt Connie:

Alycia with her “little aunt” W (hubs’ youngest cousin), who is of the same age as her:

This will be a short post. I’ll have to dart to the kitchen right now to dish out a simple dinner before zooming off to school to pick up Drama Queen who will be in the afternoon session for the next 2 years. I’m definitely missing my kitchen helper!

No. of times viewed = 22