February 2018 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Homemade Natural Baby Powder

I am a sucker for baby powder. I cannot live without it, literally. I’ve used baby powder all my life. After each shower, I lather my body generously with baby powder. Just LOVE the smell of baby powder. Who doesn’t love the smell of babies, yeah? And who doesn’t love the dry feeling under the armpits and thighs after a cooling shower? I also use baby powder as loose powder on my face.

But is baby powder safe to use?

All the while, I thought it was. Mum used baby powder to dust our tushie after each diaper change. In fact, mothers since the dawn of time have used baby powder on their baby’s tushies to keep them dry and nice smelling, as well as to prevent nappy rash. Baby powder is a staple on every baby product aisle but in recent years, there have been so much negative articles on the dangers of using talcum powder and baby powder that you wouldn’t want it near your baby or yourself anymore.

Baby powder has fallen out of favor in recent years due to it’s main ingredient, talc, being listed as a possible carcinogen. Many commercial baby powders contain synthetic fragrances which can be irritating to baby’s sensitive skin.

Some of the reported dangers of using baby powder / talc powder include:

1. Breathing issues and lung damage.
2. Talc powder is associated with ovarian cancer and women who use powder on their genitals have more than a 40 percent increased risk of cancer, according to The Huffington Post.
3. Cornstarch used in talc powder can worsen a yeast infection of the skin, creating a really bad diaper rash that will have to be treated with anti-fungal cream.

So scary, right?

These reasons are scary enough to prompt me to make my own baby powder using only organic and natural ingredients. And it’s SO easy and fast to make it at the comforts of your home. It takes 10 ~ 15 minutes at most to prep a 50g bottle of baby powder.

You’ll need:
1. Organic arrowroot powder or organic corn starch. Be sure to get only organic powders and not GMO powders. Some recipes use kaolin clay and bentonite clay. But I am not 100% sure of the safety of these clay powder, thus I’m sticking to organic plant powders.

2. Pure essential oils. You can choose the fragrance of your choice. For my first batch made two weeks ago, I used tea tree, peppermint and grapefruit essential oils from Melaleuca. For my second batch which I made yesterday, I used tea tree, peppermint and lavender essential oils. I use about 6-7 drops of each essential oil. You can use more if you wish.

3. Funnel

4. Sterilized bottle.

Instructions:
~ Pour the powder into a bowl.
~ Drop the essential oils onto the powder.
~ Mix well with a clean spoon.
~ Pour the baby powder into a bottle using a funnel.
~ Shake well before each use.
~ The powder will turn slightly lumpy over time as there’s moisture from the essential oils. But not to worry. The powder is super soft and does not harden. Pour the powder onto your palm before use. Using your finger tips, press on the soft clumps to break the the powder before applying on your face and body.

This homemade baby powder is safe to use and does not cause tightness and dry feeling on your body and face. My homemade baby powder is super smooth and moisturizing on my dry and sensitive skin.

If you intend to apply the baby powder on your baby, you can try adding something soothing and mild like dried chamomile flowers and calendula flowers, powdered in the blender or food processor.

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Friday Lunch ~ 23 February 2018

Drama Queen and I have been tucking into lunches at our neighborhood shops almost daily since the start of the school year in January this year. After lunch, I will drop her off in school. It’s the first time that she’s in an afternoon session in school. After about a month of having noodles, chicken rice, char siew / siew yoke rice and economy rice, we have gotten really bored and sick of these food. We want simple food sans the added oil, salt and MSG.

Today I decided that we are going to have homecooked lunch. I prepped what the girls love the most ~ my grilled chicken, which is a dish that is SO easy and fast to put on the table.

After I got back from my morning exercise, I defrosted the chicken. Then did another round of laundry and showered. When the chicken was thawed, I marinated it. I cooked the rice before leaving the house at 9 a.m. to drop off Drama Queen at the tuition center and then to have breakfast with the hubs. When we got home at 10:40 a.m., I quickly popped the chicken into the oven. While Drama Queen showered, I cooked 4 wallet eggs and washed some cherry honey tomatoes, purple grapes and cut apples.

This is an under 30-minute meal. No matter how busy, tired and hangry you are, even if you have to do 10 things in the morning or evening, you can still muster up the energy for a seriously tasty lunch or dinner for your family which requires minimal effort.

This one was for Drama Queen. Two wallet eggs for this girl who is always hangry.

And this was for Cass. She is only allowed one egg today coz yesterday, this rascal ate 4 eggs ~ 2 eggs with mayo for lunch, a cup of Chawan Mushi and chicken egg rice bowl for dinner. She always declares that egg is her favorite food.

Forget about the green vegetables when you are running out of time. Don’t stress yourself up over greens. You can always eat them tomorrow 😀

This is anytime yummier and healthier than the economy rice or chicken chop that we had this week. And way kinder to my wallet too!

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Chinese New Year 2018 ~ Day 1 (16 February 2018)

Our Uber driver came at 7:15 a.m. to fetch us to the KL Sentral Station to catch the 8 a.m. ETS to Ipoh. Thankfully traffic was light and we even managed to grab some light breakfast snacks from McD to be eaten on the train.

I ordered a McD Bubur Ayam (chicken porridge) Happy Meal just because someone wanted the Rilakkuma toy that comes with the set. I had qualms about the taste of the porridge but hey, it actually tastes pretty delish, with shredded chicken and condiments like fried onions and spring onions. Cass liked it too but she liked the Rilakkuma toy even more.

After getting breakfast at McD, we had just a few minutes left before the train would leave. We ran to the platform and I still had enough stamina to muster the strength to whip out my phone to snap a picture (while half running to coach A, which was towards the end of the platform), just for remembrance sake, though I was also pushing a trolley bag 😀

The Juice Rilakkuma toy can blink its eyes at the press of a button behind. Cass loves it, though she’s on the brink of turning 10. She’s still very much a little girl in some ways.

Our trip to and fro Ipoh this time was pretty eventful!

On our ETS trip to Ipoh, Cass and I were locked inside the toilet. The lock of the toilet was jammed up and we could not unlock it. We banged on the door to elicit help. Signal strength inside the toilet was weak and it was only after a few tries that I managed to call the hubs for help lol! The staff unlocked the door for us.

Our train ride back to KL today was more chaotic. Someone had put cans of Kickapoo into a bag and as luck would have it, one of the cans exploded and the sticky sweet liquid dripped down to the seat from the rack above where the bag was placed. Hubs and I had to bring the bag that’s soaked with soda to the toilet to clean up the mess. I used up all the tissue papers that I could find in my bag to wipe the bag and clean the floor of the train. Everything inside the bag had to be placed on the floor outside the toilet so that we could wipe the bag dry. Oh. My. Gawd. How hygienic can that be!! I gave the girl a big piece of my mind over this. This is what happens when kids are forbidden to drink sodas and sugary drinks at home. They go crazy over them at every opportunity (and especially at the grandparents’ place) and trouble often brews!

After lunch of vegetarian fried mee hoon cooked by dad, we had our usual ang pow giving ceremony.

The first day of CNY this year is also Drama Queen’s 13th birthday. Dad ordered a pandan chocolate cake from JJ Cake & Swiss Rolls Bakery to celebrate his 2nd grand daughter’s birthday.

This lucky girl collected a good amount of ang pow this year for CNY and her birthday. She had a jolly good shopping spree the next day at Kinta Parade using her birthday ang pow money.

This year, we have two new additions to the Yong family ~ a set of twins (a boy and a girl) from big brother Raymond and wife. The twins are super adorable and I can never get enough of cuddling them.

Our first sumptuous reunion dinner was at Kok Thai Restaurant. Despite the crazy CNY crowd, quality of the food wasn’t compromised and everyone enjoyed the meal.

At night, we had drinks with our Ipoh childhood friends who are also our travel and makan kakis at M Roof Hotel from 10 p.m. until midnight. We could have stayed longer to chat but had to leave early as we had to wake up early to attend another reunion meal the next day at the Yaps’ ancestral home.

Here’s wishing all my readers a PAWSperous and healthy woof woof year 🐶🐶 Koong hei fatt choy everyone!

No. of times viewed = 11

Tuesday, 13 February 2018

Today I had another opportunity for a few hours of morning ME TIME as Drama Queen had to be in school at 9 a.m. for her weekly librarian meeting. Ever since she started high school, I hardly have the time to go out for more than two hours as my morning time is reserved just for her ~ to Uber her to the tuition center (3x a week) and to school for her back to back activities. This year Drama Queen is into volleyball, athletics and taekwondo. She’s also a librarian and has to be in school in the morning twice a week for meeting and duty. In church, she’s starting to get actively involved in church activities, which includes a compulsory street-feeding project.

I jumped at the opportunity to do some CNY retail therapy since I have about 4 hours of free time before Cass comes back from school. Off I went to Mid Valley Megamall, the nearest mall to where I stay. Traffic in and out of Mid Valley for the past two weeks has been horrendous due to shoppers doing their last minute CNY shopping. I was extremely lucky I got a spot to park right outside the entrance of the mall, effortlessly, in less than 5 minutes! So true to the adage “the early bird catches the worm”. And it’s so easy to be early when I shop alone and don’t have to wait for the dawdlers at home to get ready. Mothers with many kids will relate to me on this 😉 Traffic back home was congested, partly contributed by the bumper-to-bumper traffic jam on Federal Highway that spilled onto the KL-Seremban Highway and Old Klang Road. The iconic EPF building on Jalan Gasing was 40% on fire around noon yesterday, which was around the time that I drove home.

I got home just on time to receive Cass from the school transporter.

Today is the school’s CNY celebration and students donned on their red CNY clothes. The tee that Cass is wearing here was wore only once by Alycia when she was Cass’ age 5 years ago, also at the school’s CNY celebration event. This is the second time that the tee is worn and it still looks brand new. On regular days, the girls don’t like donning on bright red clothes. They find them too gaudy, especially those with CNY motifs.

Cass saying “hi” to our neighbor’s cats on the 7th floor. Our neighbor has 4 cats that look identical. They must be siblings. These 4 adorable cats’ favorite pass time is to lay precariously on the outdoor air cond unit, taking their peaceful siesta. I always wonder how they never fall off the air cond unit in the midst of their beauty sleep, lol!

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Three Key Things to Make Sure That Your Kids Stay Healthy

The most important job that any parent has is to keep their children safe and healthy. Sometimes, however, this can be a daunting task, especially because you can often receive information that is contradictory or confusing. The truth is, though, most of the advice that you get about taking care of your children can be simplified to a few basic facts. If you can take care of the most important elements of your child’s health, you don’t need to worry about every sniffle or sneeze that they might have. Here are the three move important elements to taking care of your kids.

Make Sure They Get Quality Medical Care

Don’t skip any appointments with your child’s doctor and take the advice that you get when you go to the doctor’s office. A qualified medical professional can give you all of the information you need regarding vaccinations and preventative care, as well as let you know what you need to watch out for in the future. Don’t let things you read online distract you from the importance of getting real advice from a qualified expert. There are many ways to pay for medical care. For example, you can be a part of a Christian health share like that offered by Freedom Health Share, or you can be part of a traditional insurance or government program.

Get Them The Food and Exercise That They Need

Most people in the developed world don’t need to worry about getting all of the nutrients that their bodies need. In fact, the real problem is getting too much food. However, as parents, your job is to make sure that your kids are getting enough time outside participating in physical exercise. Exercise should always be fun for kids, not a required gym time. As for food, emphasize plants, including fruits and vegetables.

Fruits and Vegetables of Brazil 5

Give Them Emotional Support and Guidance

Don’t neglect your child’s emotional health in pursuit of physical health. Spend quality time with your child and teach them the importance of patience and honesty. Model good behavior so that your child looks up to you and listens to you about the things that matter. Encourage an open dialogue and don’t judge your children for their interests and tastes. Instead, support your child as he or she matures and eventually grows into a fully capable young adult.

Mother Daughter Quotes

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3 Ways to Beat Your Cravings for Junk and Fast Food Through the New Year

Everyone seems to make similar resolutions when it comes the things they hope to accomplish in the New Year. From weight loss, to eating better, to beating sugar cravings and ditching junk food—there are hundreds of avenues you could go with your health resolutions. But how do you maintain those promises to yourself throughout the New Year and beyond? Read on for tips on how to keep your resolutions intact this time.

One Gallon of Water [Daily] Makes a BIG Difference in Your Cravings, Complexion and Overall Good Health
The recommendation for the average adult, water-wise, is 8 8-ounce cups daily. However, that is the bare minimum. One gallon of water is enough to cleanse your system, clear your complexion, improve the overall health of your internal organs, and beat cravings for sugary, fatty, unhealthy foods. However, pace yourself. Drink the gallon in intervals throughout the day to avoid headaches or water intoxication.

Keep Temptations Out of Your Kitchen and Cupboards
Are you serious about nixing the sugar and junk? Then don’t buy it. Keep it out of your kitchen and cupboards. Even if you have children. Ask them to keep their indulgences locked up in their own cabinets. Or, better yet, ask your family to join you on your journey to better health. YOU, and only you, are responsible for what you do and do not eat, so strengthen your resolve and make the right decisions.

junk-food-NO

Eat Lots of Protein and Plenty of Good Fats to Keep Your Body and Mind Satisfied Between Meals
One of the leading reasons, aside from boredom and plain sugar addictions, for regular consumption of junk food is a diet lacking in nutrients. You need good fats and lots of protein to keep your body satisfied between meals. Strive to incorporate more protein and good fats into each meal. For example, if you need a snack, roll up a slice of provolone cheese with a slice of turkey or ham and a dollop of mustard. Or, when you eat out, research your options beforehand. Look at the menus of restaurants in Plano Texas, or wherever you happen to be, and go from there.

Fish, nuts, meats, and eggs supply plenty of protein.

Think of how amazing you want to feel when you beat your addictions to junk and fast foods. Then commit and dedicate yourself to thinking forward. Use your resolve to strengthen your willpower, then march ahead without so much as a look back on your old, unhealthy lifestyle. Sure, it’s super-hard, but you can do it.

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Macaroni And Cheese With Grilled Chicken Drummets

Wednesday evenings are hectic for me. After prepping dinner, I rush off to fetch Drama Queen from school. She only has about 15-20 minutes to eat her dinner before I send her to the tuition center. Her BM tuition class starts at 7:30 p.m. So I always plan a quickie home-cooked dinner for Wednesdays. And the meal has to be easy and yummy to eat (pasta, spaghetti and fried rice are often on the menu on Wednesdays) so that my dawdler can gobble down her food in a jiffy. Today I made mac and cheese, with grilled chicken drummets and blanched broccoli as sides.

Ingredients for macaroni and cheese
1. 8 ounces elbow macaroni
2. 1/4 cup butter
3. 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt
5. Ground black pepper to taste
6. 2 cups milk
7. 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
8. Chopped garlic

Directions for macaroni and cheese
Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook elbow macaroni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, 8 minutes. Drain.

Melt olive oil and butter in a saucepan over medium heat; add in some chopped garlic, stir in flour, salt, and pepper until smooth, about 5 minutes.

Slowly pour milk into butter-flour mixture while continuously stirring until mixture is smooth and bubbling, about 5 minutes.

Add Cheddar cheese to milk mixture and stir until cheese is melted, 2 to 4 minutes.

Fold macaroni into cheese sauce until coated.

Directions for grilled chicken drummets
Marinate drummets with garlic powder, coriander powder, salt, black pepper, olive oil, chopped garlic and a dash of Teriyaki sauce or soy sauce. Leave in fridge for at least an hour.

Grill for 30 minutes at 170C (15 minutes each side)

Drizzle gula Melaka syrup (palm sugar) or honey on the chicken 15 minutes before the drummets are removed from the oven.

Alycia’s latest craze is pulled strands of stretchy cheese in her food ~ pizza, toast, pasta, baked fried rice, noodles and even on cream crackers! I used shredded pasta topping cheese and 3 slices of Swiss cheese for this dish.

Mac N Cheese with grilled chicken drummets and broccoli for the girls:

Mine is keto ~ half a box of alfalfa sprouts and brocolli to substitute the macaroni with grilled chicken rib and one piece of drummet. Also quaffed down a bowl of chicken soup from yesterday’s dinner.

No. of times viewed = 35

My Monday, 6 February 2018

After a riding out a very challenging year last year, I only realized recently that I have not had a foot spa and pedicure for 17 frigging months! I was just too preoccupied with my health issues last year and didn’t have the mood for a foot spa or pedicure. I just wanted to get back my health on the right track.

Yesterday was a good opportunity for me to do it as I needn’t have to drop Drama Queen at school at 1pm. Instead, I dropped her off at 10am. With only 3 hours window of time before Cass returned home, I told my pedicurist that I only had 3 hours for my foot spa and pedicure. Thankfully Sofia was my pedicurist again. She’s very thorough in her job and always gives my feet a beautiful make-over. She assured me that she could get the job done. And she did. But I had to choose a simple design for my two big toe nails so that she could get the job done in the shortest possible time. Because of the time constraint, she used nail stickers for the nail art this time, instead of painting. I chose ‘diamonds’ too, which cost an extra RM3 for each ‘diamond’.

After I left the saloon with my beautiful feet, I tried to be extra careful when I walked. But alas, when I got into the car, I accidentally knocked my toe on the door as I got into the car, DANG IT!! The nail polish at the edge of my right toe came off. My heart broke💔. I was in a hurry to join the hubs for lunch as I only had 30 minutes for lunch with him before my rush home like Cinderella. I hurried back up to the salon for a 5-minute touch up and the lady boss didn’t charge me for the touch up.

Sofia cleverly painted the affected part with purple nail polish and touched up the ‘scar’ with some silver glitter nail polish.

After lunch with the hubs, I got home just in the nick of time to receive Cass at 1:30 p.m.

At 4 p.m., I met the assistant principal for afternoon session at Drama Queen’s school on the Dual Language Program (DLP) classes matter that I had raised via a formal letter to the principal last week. I recently got to know from Drama Queen that this year, the high school that she’s in has been approved by the MoE to conduct Math and Science in DLP (BM and English). Only selected schools are approved by the MoE to conduct Math and Science in dual language. But Drama Queen was not selected to be in the DLP class as she did not fulfill a few criteria. At the meeting, I was informed that there are still chances for Drama Queen to be transferred to the DLP class if she gets good grades for her Math, BM and Science in the mid year exam in June. I know that the chances are 50-50 as BM is Drama Queen’s weakest subject. Math and Science are currently taught in BM in non-DLP classes. Drama Queen did comment at the start of the year that she’s finding it challenging to study all the subjects in BM, after 6 years of studying in a Chinese school.

I’ve done my best and it’s now all up to Drama Queen to fight for what she wants. She has until the final exam this year to proof herself to the principal that she’s worthy for the ‘promotion’ to one of the two DLP classes next year. Each class only has 25 students. The transfer / promotion to DLP class is not applicable anymore for students in Secondary 2 and beyond. Whether she makes it or screws it up, the ball is now in her court 🙏🏻💪🏻🏀 Sherilyn, you can do it! And I know you still secretly read all my blog posts 😉

No. of times viewed = 11

Home-made Meat Patties / Burger

Since it was a public holiday yesterday, I decided to embark on a little project that’s been long sitting in my bucket list ~ making burgers. The girls LOVE burgers ~ Burger King and Mac Donalds especially but this is an occasional holiday food. We only eat burgers when we travel back to Ipoh by ETS as these two giant fast food chains are so conveniently located at KL Sentral. We normally grab burgers for a quick bite before boarding the ETS back to Ipoh.

I’ve always wanted to make my own burgers and let the girls eat to their hearts’ content without any guilt but I’ve always put off this project due to time constraint. I only have an hour to spare for prepping dinner from Monday ~ Friday before I rush off to fetch Drama Queen back from school.

It’s actually pretty easy to prep the meat patties. It is rolling and shaping the meat patties and then pan-frying them that’s time consuming. With Drama Queen and Cass around to help out yesterday, it was really fast. The big princess who avoids the wet kitchen as much as she can was happily working out at the gym for over an hour. When she came back, she was pleased as punch to see burgers on the dining table. Haiz, this princess with royal fingers better get herself a high-paying job or marry a rich man in future so that she can afford to hire helpers to cook her dinners.

I taught #2 and #3 the art of shaping the meat patties and they rolled out 12 pieces. I oven-grilled 4 pieces and pan-fried 8 pieces, just to see which tasted better.

#2 and #3 thoroughly enjoyed shaping the meat patties.

Can you tell which ones are oven-baked and which are pan-fried?

The 3 pieces on the right are oven-baked.

Verdict: both types taste almost the same. We can’t really distinguish the difference, except that oven-baked ones get slightly burnt on the sides. I managed the pan-fried ones better as I kept flipping them, so the colors are more uniformed. Taste wise, they are YUMS!

Drama Queen stuffed cubes of Kyubu Japanese nacho cheese into her meat patties and the outcome was pretty good. The cheese gives out pops of salty creaminess to the meat.

Drama Queen gave tutorial to Cass on how to fry wallet eggs. And this teacher is so garang! Cass told me quietly that her 2-che was bossing her around in the kitchen, hahaha! Check out the teacher’s hand impatiently hooked on her waist…

This tomato ketchup is sweetened 100% by veggies, made in Auckland and couriered to us from Hong Kong by the sil. The mil got this for us from New Zealand and sent it back to us along with other goodies when she reached Hong Kong recently. She’ll be in Hong Kong for another month.

I sauteed shimeji mushrooms with miso, garlic, home-grown scallions and black pepper as one of the sides besides cucumbers, tomatoes and grilled sweet potatoes, carrots and cherry tomatoes.

This is Cass’ DIY burger. She shaped her meat pattie into hearts.

This is Chef Sherilyn’s creation. She prepped the grilled vegetables under her own steam and initiative. The grilled veggies were seasoned generously with olive oil, mixed herbs and black pepper.

And this burger is meat-free, specially prepped by Drama Queen for kakak Maria who does not eat pork. The girls adore our part-time helper who has been working for us for almost 5 years.

Recipe for the meat patties:
Ground meat. We used organic pork.
Chopped onions
Chopped garlic
Chopped scallions / green onions / spring onions
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Salt
Organic soy sauce
Bread crumbs. As we didn’t have any bread (other than the buns), I used corn flour (about 2 teaspoon)
Lea & Perrin sauce
1 egg, beaten

Method
Season the ground meat with all the ingredients and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Shape the pattie using your hands and gently press / flatten the top.
Find a flat tray and spread cooking oil on it. Place the shaped meat patties on the tray.
You can pan-fry or oven-grill these meat patties.

Cooking is one of the best ways for a family to bond. The girls (except the big princess) love cooking and we always have loads of fun cooking and bonding, despite leaving a big mess, including oil splatters (OMG!!) in the kitchen. Just don’t sweat over the mess when the kids help out in the kitchen but focus on the fun and end product 😉

Top Kids Backdrops for photography

The skies were cloudy after a downpour on 31 Jan 2018, the day of the super blue blood moon’s appearance. Thus, we didn’t get to see any moon that night. But the next day, we saw the moon, big and bright, though it was a tad cloudy.

Picture above was taken with my Huawei Mate 10 phone with dual leica lenses at around 9:30 p.m. on 1 February 2018.

No. of times viewed = 11