Home-cooked food – Page 5 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

RMCO Day 109 ~ Saturday, 26 Sept 2020

The entire evening today was rife with residents in our Taman Facebook group and our Whatsapp groups talking about a Covid-19 positive patient confirmed in our neighborhood. He lives in one of the condos in our Taman. Our Taman has been a Green Zone with only 1 confirmed case so far, in March this year.

The latest patient had just returned from a diving trip in Sabah on Monday and on Thursday, he went to several places in our Taman – to a clinic, a supermarket and a road-side Chee Cheong Fun stall to get takeaway food. Whatever for when you’re unwell?! And now he’s caused so much unnecessary distress and worry to the entire community. But till today, our Taman is still not listed in the Covid-19 alert list in KL and nothing of it mentioned in the newspapers. And I wonder why! The supermarket hasn’t been disinfected by the local authorities in Hazmat suits except by their own staff. Our condo management has taken proactive steps by putting up a notice on the lift wall to inform residents to report to the management office should anyone of us went to the said supermarket on Thursday. Other than that, none of the residents who went to the supermarket has been contacted by the authorities for contact tracing.

In recent days, multiple prominent malls in the Klang Valley have put up announcements for Covid-19 alerts, for shoppers or staff who have tested positive and visited the malls. The silent and invisible enemy within us is now back and lurking around very near us again, ready to cause another wave. And new cases are climbing up to triple digits again. I can’t take another MCO anymore! 😭

In the past two weeks, another two restaurants in our Taman became economic casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic. One is my friend’s home-cooked food eatery (I’m devastated as I love the food she cooks, especially her Black Vinegar Pork Trotters) and another is a Thai, one of our favorite Thai restaurants. My friend’s eatery opened at a wrong time. About 2 months into opening her eatery, our country was plunged into a partial lockdown and business has been slow and she could not make enough profit to pay rental and staff salaries.

Back in the early days of the pandemic in April this year, economists have warn the business world’s greatest casualty will be small and medium-sized enterprises. That’s a big problem in Asia, where they account for 90 per cent of firms and employ half of all workers. I cannot imagine our country’s economy turning off again in the event of another country-wide MCO. So many financially vulnerable people will be in danger of the most severe hardship if another lockdown were to be imposed on our country. Perhaps they won’t die of Covid-19 but of severe financial stress and anxiety.

Anyways…..

There’s no point worrying over something that I have no control of, right? This is a world war and everyone is affected.

So let’s talk food now 😋

Our in-house chef dished out Japanese Chashu (sometimes called “Nibuta”, which literally means simmered/braised pork).

I accidentally bought the wrong part of pork (pork shoulder instead of pork belly) and as a result the Charshu was a tad dry as there’s very little fat. Nonetheless it was delish and the entire chunk of Charshu was polished off.

Charshu rice bowl with overcooked onsen tamago. Our chef forgot that she was boiling the eggs in the pot and played with her phone. When she realized it, the egg yolk was already overcooked 😂

No. of times viewed = 40

RMCO Day 108 ~ Friday, 25 Sept 2020

After getting our cars washed, hubs, mil and I went for brunch at a nearly cafe. Today is the first time in half a year that I brought my car for a wash at the car wash center run by Bangladesh workers. As the number of Covid-19 cases recently involved many foreign workers, we have been very wary of being in close contact with them.

Our car wash during the pandemic is a whole new experience with us seated inside our cars respectively while the workers washed our cars. We told the staff that we didn’t need vacuuming, washing of mats or interior cleaning. After a snow wash and rinse with drying, hubs paid the workers and left. It was a contactless transaction. When I got back to our condo, I cleaned the interior of my car myself, which ain’t that difficult.

Our brunch at Doiffee, an old new cafe. It’s a 6-year old cafe but recently bought over by new owners with a brand new menu and better tasting food this time.

Sherilyn dished out Mille Feuille Nabe aka Beautiful Japanese Hot Pot or A Thousand Leaves Hot Pot for dinner today. It’s an easy one-pot dish with lots of fiber and protein. Mess and oil-free too. We used dashi from sachet (Melaleuca brand) which makes it even quicker to prep. Even if you use fresh ingredients to prep the broth, it’s not difficult. Sherilyn loves making dashi from scratch. This dish is perfect for a cold rainy evening. It’s been raining almost everyday here and pretty chilly on most nights.

Dashi broth ingredients:
Dried anchovies – 10
Dashima or Kombu – iPhone-sized piece
Radish – 50 grams
Shiitake mushroom stems – 3
Water – 6 cups
Soy sauce – 1/2 teaspoon

We used whatever ingredients that were available in the fridge:
Chinese cabbage – quarter head
Round cabbage – half head
Shimeji mushroom – 1 punnet
1 carrot cut into flower shape
Organic soft tofu – 1 packet
Seafood tofu 3 pieces, sliced
Sliced pork belly – palm size

Dipping Sauce
Soy sauce – 2 Tablespoon
Vinegar – 1 Tablespoon (we used bottled organic lemon juice)
Cooking wine – 1 Tablespoon
Honey – 1 Tablespoon

Instructions

Assemble Pot
Arrange the cabbage leaves in a circular path with the sliced pork belly in between leaves of cabbage.
Finish the pot by placing the mushrooms in the middle.
Scatter sliced tofu, carrots and seafood tofu on top

Dashi / Broth Preparation
Boil the Dashi sachet OR fresh ingredients for Dashi if made from scratch for 30 minutes.
Gently pour the broth into the pot of assembled vegetables and ingredients and simmer until pork belly is cooked.
Serve immediately.

The mil also cooked a braised fish head dish with brinjal and fermented bean paste.

No. of times viewed = 41

Bountiful Harvest

Planted from just stems after we ate the leaves, these Malabar spinach are finally ready for harvest after 5-6 weeks. They are grown on a pot on our condo’s tiny balcony.

Such a bountiful harvest! But the girls ain’t big fans of slimy vegetables. Only the adults eat them. But the mil is replanting the stems again for another round of harvest. Why waste something that can be replicated for free and it’s organic, right?

Tonight we’re going to have Malabar spinach egg drop soup again. Don’t care about the girls. They don’t know what they’re missing out when they don’t eat this wholesome veggie. But I believe that one day they’re grow to like this vegetable, just like yours truly who used to hate this dish each time my late maternal granny cooked it🤭

No. of times viewed = 30

RMCO Day 99 ~ Wednesday, 16 September 2020

Since it’s a public holiday today (Malaysia Day) and Maria is here to help, Sherilyn has been very fruitful in the kitchen. She baked a banana loaf and cooked Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Stew) for dinner complete with Samgyupsal gui (grilled marinated pork belly), Gyeran Mari (egg roll), Musaengchae (Spicy Radish Salad) and organic kombu in dashi soup. Everything was delish but the banana loaf was a failure this time – it turned out unexpectedly with a texture similar to pudding / kuih. Even after baking it in the oven for over an hour, the loaf felt jiggly when I removed it from the oven. From the outside, it looks like a successful loaf of fluffy banana cake but once sliced, it looks like banana pudding / kuih pisang 🤨

Budae Jjigae (Korean Army Stew) – the soup is made using the homemade Gochujang that she made a few days earlier. She also added dashi stock (Melaleuca brand), dried shiitake mushrooms, lots of fresh radish, cabbage, onions and organic kombu to cook up a very flavorful pot of soup. It’s up to you what you want to put into the soup and we used fish and crab meat balls, an assortment of fresh mushrooms, eggs, organic soft tofu, 2 packets of instant noodles and a handful of organic glass noodles.

Samgyupsal gui (grilled marinated pork belly):

Organic kombu in dashi soup:

Gyeran Mari (egg roll):

Musaengchae (Spicy Radish Salad):

I’m still craving to dig into a less sweet sublime banana loaf but the tenacious side of me keeps preventing me from ordering it from my regular homemade banana cake seller on Facebook. Each time I’m about to Whatsapp the seller, the other side of me keeps reminding me that banana cake’s loaded with sugar, butter and white flour and haven’t I forgotten that my cholesterol reading is high?! Dang the genetic high cholesterol!

No. of times viewed = 41

RMCO Day 53 ~ Saturday, 1 August 2020

I love Saturdays simply because Maria comes in on Saturdays. Maria has been our part-time helper for the last 8 years. She used to come in 5-6 times a week but because we’re on an austerity drive now, a consequence of the MCO and RMCO (and possibly another MCO/restriction order if Malaysians don’t behave and don’t adhere to Covid-19 SOPs), we have to prune off unnecessary expenses. Part-time helper is one on the list. When the pandemic eases off and hubby’s business rebounds to how it used to be, our helper can come in 5-6 times a week once again. For now, I’ll have to soldier on. Oh. My. Poor. Hands.😓

I first heard of the term “austerity drive” when I worked in the bank some 20 years ago, when the bank I worked in had to implement some austerity measures to cut costs due to recession. That was circa 1997 or 1998. So I learned a few tips and tricks to cut costs from the bank and from my parents, who also had to invoke a host of harsh cost cutting measures during the recession in the mid 1980s when my dad lost his job. I can splurge when times are good and I am also able to ride out a humble lifestyle with no luxuries. I am resilient and so are our girls. I’ve always been drilling into their heads to be thrifty and to always always have as much savings as they can for rainy days like this darn pandemic. Because it sucks and rips your entire dignity off your soul to have to borrow money from friends and relatives. This is something I wish I never have to do but if this pandemic and MCO never ends, I’m not too sure about it. Well, maybe half the world population would be dead by then 😪

As Maria is around to help us clean up, we could cook up a storm! 🤭 I dug out the packet of rack of lamb that hubs bought about a month ago and told our baking queen the menu of the day. She’s always more than happy to cook, especially new recipes. She spent almost the entire afternoon in the kitchen — first with making Taiwanese sweet potato dessert and then seared the rack of lamb.

Pistachio crusted grilled rack of lamb:

My house rule is: if you want to eat, you have to help out. And I roped in the littlest brat to make mashed potato.

Alycia the ‘tai siew jie’ (big princess) with royal fingers who doesn’t like kitchen work was roped in to cut a big cantaloupe. With an inflamed wrist, I have to delegate all the heavy duty chores to the girls whilst I stand, supervise and do spot cleaning 😁. OCD me will freak out at any crumb, juice, sauce and food remnants on the floor. The ants in our house seem to have bionic sensors as they would come and feast on even the tiniest piece of food crumbs within 5 minutes of dropping it on the floor!

Midas touch – this girl seems to have magic in her hands. Everything that she dishes out is delish!

Pan seared + oven grilled pistachio crusted rack of lamb with sides of mash and grilled carrots, celery and garlic.

Hubby’s friend went to Seremban and gifted us a famous Lucky King chicken curry bun. Gawd, it’s humongous! One bun is enough for 3-4 eaters with ravenous appetite. The chicken curry is such a delight and very flavorful. We had this for dinner as well. Yummsss!

A very pregnant bun with a huge packet of chicken curry within.

But mil and I were not too comfortable eating something that’s cooked with aluminum foil and plastic. The chicken curry is wrapped in a plastic bag and a layer of aluminum foil is then wrapped over before the bun is baked 🥶 😱. Imagine the chemicals leached out into the food!

Someone couldn’t wait to mop the curry sauce with the bun:

Photobombed by the hangry brat:

No. of times viewed = 42

RMCO Day 49 & 50 ~ Tuesday & Wednesday, 28 & 29 July 2020

These yummy goodies from hubby’s shop came at the right time as my post-Carpal Tunnel Syndrome right hand is inflamed and dang painful resulting from over-usage during the MCO (too much repetitive movements from house chores and washing after cooking 2-3x a day) when our daily part-time helper couldn’t come. Yesterday was another cook-free day for us, a day for my right hand to rest. I guess I’ll take the easy way out again tomorrow from hubby’s kitchen😁🥳

Mee Siam:

Ayam Masak Lemak (Chicken curry):

Stir-fried mixed vegetables with fresh shiitake mushrooms:

Ikan (Mackerel) masak cili berlada:

Acar Rampai:

Traditional Rainbow Ghee rice / Nasi Hujan Panas:

My ultimate kryptonite – angku kuih and all types of fattening kuih muihs 😆

Will need to see a physiotherapist soon 😥

Sherilyn’s lunch box today, which she cooked last night:

Gaji-namul (Korean seasoned steamed eggplant) and
Gyeran Mari (Rolled Omelette)

These are our favorite Bapsang (side dishes) whenever we have Korean. They’re very easy to prep, healthy and yummy.

Gyeran Mari– thinly pan fried eggs rolled up with Japanese rice and kombu (from the Dashi that she made) seasoned with soy sauce and sugar (optional).

Gaji-namul — steamed egg plant, minced garlic cloves, chopped scallions, soy sauce, hot pepper flakes/chili flakes, fish oil, sesame seed oil and toasted sesame seeds all mixed together.

She made extra eggplant for me, which I had it for breakfast this morning 😊

The food critic giving comments on Sherilyn’s rolled omelette 😆

Our lunch today is exactly the same food as yesterday as there were orders for Nasi Hujan Panas from his customers again today 😁 Tomorrow there are orders for 100 boxes of Nasi Lemak again but I don’t think we can stomach anymore spicy food. However, if hubs calls me to collect extras from his shop tomorrow, it’s going to be hard to resist the temptation 🤭

No. of times viewed = 29

RMCO Day 46 ~ Saturday, 25 July 2020

Cass, mil and I had breakfast at our favorite open air kopitiam today. It’s Cass’ first time eating here during the RMCO, her first in 4 months. Of all the cafes and restaurants that her gourmand daddy often brings us to, this humble kopitiam is still her favorite.

Why?

Because of friendly Uncle Weng’s fish paste noodles, which is her favorite. She used to be hooked to this bitter gourd minced pork noodles sold at a neighborhood kopitiam but the seller had moved away years ago. And she’s since shifted her favorite to Uncle Weng’s fish paste noodles! Moreover this girl just hates to dress up fancy-schmancy just to go out for a meal at a fancy restaurant. She prefers going out in her pajamas (almost!) at a casual open-air eatery to have a quick bite and go home 😁

This brat always singles out all the fried shallots in her noodles and dump them to me 🙄

My fried meehoon with ‘liu’ from the mil’s curry noodles. The amount you see on the plate is just a quarter; the other three quarter portion is in a tiffin carrier, for whoever who’d like to eat it for lunch later. I think I have a stomach with an XS capacity as I can’t eat much in a meal, thus my size and 42.7 kg weight 😄

MIL made bubur cha cha with 3 types of sweet potatoes, yam, mixed beans, aromatic palm sugar (from blocks) and freshly squeezed coconut milk for tea time dessert.

And our simple dinner of steamed cod fish, stir-fried celery, long beans and ‘fu pei’ and steamed minced pork with preserved mustard green for the 5 of us. Hubs was at a client’s wedding event – his first outdoor catering for a wedding during the RMCO 🙏

Alycia was finally in the mood to complete the 800 pieces jigsaw puzzle that her granny gifted her last Christmas. Despite a 4-month home quarantine during the MCO, she didn’t have the mood for puzzles. The girls seemed to be discombobulated throughout the time they were stuck at home and had no mood for anything besides seeking comfort from their gadgets. Being able to go back to school seemed to make them happier as their lives returned to normalcy.

My happy food and ultimate kryptonite – kuih 😛

PS: It took me 4 days to complete this short post as there’s been too much going on the past few days – too much distraction, feeling down and having too much to do with too little help. I’m feeling better today 🥰

No. of times viewed = 30

RMCO Day 43 ~ Wednesday, 22 July 2020

Today has been another fruitful day for me on the jogging treks. I clocked in 10,000 steps before 12 noon today! The vibration and buzz on my Fitbit to congratulate me on hitting 10k steps is such a sensational feeling; a feeling of victory and a golden ticket for me to treat myself to some sinful carbs like kuih, cakes and Nasi Lemak from hubby’s shop without the guilt 😁

Ever since school reopened I find that the days are shorter and time seems to whiz by so much faster. On most nights, I would conk out on my chair in front of my PC by 9 pm but I’ll be running on fumes to continue my Grab Mom duty to fetch Alycia and Sherilyn back from the tuition center at 9:30 pm (on Wednesdays and Thursdays).

I really wish that there were more hours in a day for me to sleep and do the things that I love. If I had more time on hand, I’ll definitely learn to bake keto cakes, bread and cookies. But for now, I’ll put this in my To-Do list when I retire 😄

On some mornings, something as humble as the economy noodles really perk me up. Today after jogging at the park I bought a packet of economy Mee Siam with added fried lobak and shared this with the mil for breakfast.

Lunch today is Nasi Lemak from hubby’s shop again. Today is the second straight day that we’re having Nasi Lemak from his shop. Yesterday there was chicken rendang with otak-otak and today there’s Ayam Goreng Berempah. Tomorrow his staff will be prepping 100+ boxes of Nasi Lemak again and I’m undecided if we should take some too 😬

We love the aromatic fried spices and onions scattered on the Ayam Goreng Berempah.

This is my portion: just 2 tablespoons of fragrant fluffy coconut rice with 2 pieces of fried chicken, lots of fried spices and some crunchy fried anchovies and peanuts. Simply divine!

Salivating already? Just Whatsapp Catermate at 019-266 4297 to place your order 😁

Our dinner, yesterday:

Curry vegetables (takeaway), Sam Pei Jie (3 Cups Chicken) cooked with homegrown basil, stir-fried red and green spinach and omelette with organic ‘Yeh Heong Fah’ edible flowers aka Chinese Violet Telosma Cordata.

No. of times viewed = 37

RMCO Day 23 ~ Thursday, 2 July 2020

In less than two weeks, Sherilyn and Cass will be returning to classroom learning! While I am glad that they can be back in school and not be cooped up at home and get hooked to their gadgets all day, I am a little sad that our long holidays will soon be over 😌 This kind of holiday happens once (or maybe twice) in our lifetime and it’s the only time in our lives that we get to be together lollygagging around the home 24/7 for four months.

Despite the anxiety over a bunch of uncertainties facing us, grinding gears with family members, the stress of having to cook 3 meals a day and cleaning up like crazy the entire day with a house full of occupants throughout the four months of house quarantine, in hindside, I’ve enjoyed the quarantine at home with my girls. We get to sleep in everyday, have no where to rush to, my Grab mom duties were put on hold and the girls have no exam stress. PT3 and UPSR exams were scratched out and SPM postponed to next January and that’s the biggest joy for us 😆

Things are slowly and surely getting back to normal. I wouldn’t say that this year sucks as everyone has been grounded; the grounding has pushed a total reset button in all of us, which is a good thing, as most of us took many things for granted pre-Covid19. The past 4 months have been a time of reflection for many of us. The only downside of the pandemic and months of partial lockdown for us is that it has sucked out a chunk of hubby’s savings just to keep his business going without laying off his staff and the household running uninterrupted. It’s like a game of Snakes and Ladders and this year we landed on the snake’s head and have to slide down to the bottom of the snake and work our way up again. If you’ve played this board game before, you’ll know that everyone has to land on the snake’s head at least once and get thrown to the bottom again. And like the game, we will somehow reach the top again, in a matter of time 💪

Our dinner: Japanese curry (the girls’ all-time favorite dish), ‘Yeh Heong Fah’ / Fragrant Telosma omelette (my favorite) and leftover radish+ mushroom+ carrot + pork bone soup from yesterday.

No. of times viewed = 63

RMCO Day 15 & 16 (Wed & Thursday, 24 & 25 June 2020)

Wednesday, 24 June 2020

Cass’ best friend, A and her mom visited us today! A’s mom brought a huge bag of Enid Blyton books for Cass as A knows that Cass loves everything Enid Blyton from the Famous Five series to the enchanted tales series. We had lunch together at our condo’s in-house Japanese restaurant for the 2 girls to catch up on the 3 months that they missed out with each other in school. Cass is enamored of A and they are upset that they’re going to have very little time to spend with each other before they go separate ways to different high schools next year. This is their last year in primary school and they have to miss all the important and exciting events in school because of the pandemic — sports day, concert, canteen day, jogathon, trips, parties, UPSR and the culmination of their 6 years in primary school — their graduation ceremony. As the MoE announced yesterday that the year end school holidays will be shortened by two weeks, a graduation for the Year 6 students may still be possible in December with strict SOPs in place.

When we came back from lunch and stepped into the house, the aroma of fried chicken from the kitchen wafted in the air. Someone was deep frying chicken, something that both the mil and I will never do! And the chicken tenders were coated in flour – double the calories and fat! I freaked out but Alycia and Cass were all excited and couldn’t wait to dig into the forbidden food!

Not exactly chicken Karaage but a cross between it and oriental style soy sauce honey garlic fried chicken. And the girls loved it to bits. Food that’s usually forbidden always tastes extra yummeh eh?

Thursday, 25 June 2020

Today is the 100th day of MCO that our country is in and let’s all pray that our country never has to relive the MCO days again when the RMCO ends on 31 August 2020.

In the morning I brought Sherilyn to the clinic for the doctor to check out a corn on her right big toe that has turned inflamed. A corn is a tiny, discrete callous that can be very tender if it’s on a weight-bearing part of the foot. The corn developed on the bottom part of her big toe as a result of over-friction — from over-twirling on that toe during dance practice for several competitions, during taekwondo, kickboxing and Muay Thai classes when she had to train bare-footed and during running practice for an inter-school competition. This dancer of ours has been having rather frequent injuries to her legs caused by dancing, running and accidents. Early last year I took her for an x-ray when she fell during dance practice, injured her spine and had a swell on the spine. When she was 11 and 12 years old respectively, she fell from the stairs when she didn’t listen to my warning to her not to run down the stairs. She missed a step and landed on her ankle. The exact same accident happened around the same time, two years in a row and I thought that she was really jinxed.

Our lunch today was glutinous rice dumpling / zhong as today is Dragon Boat Festival. The zhongs were gifted to us by hubby’s aunt and are deliciously replete with ingredients.

Today we ate the last two Gula Melaka Nian Gao (glutinous rice cake) that my mum made for Chinese New Year this year. With this, we will have to wait for another half a year for her to make these sweet delight again. Mum makes really good Nian Gao that’s full of aroma from the palm sugar with soft and chewy texture. She makes it with her Philips pressure cooker.

This is my spunky, sociable and social media savvy 74-year old mum who enjoys baking and cooking. She makes almost all her food from scratch. In this photo taken last week, she’s prepping the dough to make ‘yau char kwai’ (Chinese Crullers / Oil-Fried Devils). My mum can fix anything in the house from changing light bulbs to simple repair works to changing the single handle kitchen faucet on her own! If only she lived near us, we could exchange homecooked food and visit each other more often 👩‍❤️‍👩

No. of times viewed = 66

RMCO Day 10 ~ Friday, 19 June 2020

After 4 days straight of eating delectable rich curried food from hubby’s shop this week, I had to run an extra mile today, in the glorious 10-ish a.m. sun. It feels absolutely satisfying to be drenched in sweat with rosy cheeks after a 40-minute jog 🏃‍♀️.

I had a light mid-morning breakfast of sugar-free yoghurt and added swirls of sugar-free crunchy peanut butter and homemade caramel, made by our baker daughter. Today’s breakfast is light and easy as we’re going to be digging into Nasi Kerabu from hubby’s shop for lunch, which is just an hour away!

Today our baking queen rolled out tangy and zesty lemon curd tarts. She split the baking into several days and started prepping the tart dough first earlier this week. Next day she baked the tart shells. And the following day she prepped the chocolate cream for the chocolate tarts. Yesterday she made the lemon curd and today she filled the tart shells with it. All these were done in between online classes and house chores (her duty this week is washing dirty dishes) with the OCD mother screaming at her to wipe away crumbs, flour, sugar and cream droppings on counter tops and floor before the ants feast on them and make her ballistic 🙃

Lemon curd that tastes like a hundred bucks! This jar comes from the juice and zest of 4 lemons. I eat it straight from the jar, like ice-cream, yumms!

When life gives you lemons, go make lemon curd and lemonade. Sherilyn made me a glass of super sour lemonade sans any sweetener or honey, which helped to melt away the beef rendang and Nasi Kerabu from hubby’s shop 😆

Sherilyn also cooked Japchae today and that’s for her breakfast tomorrow as she won’t have the time to cook anything tomorrow — she’s attending a Fighting Course for PT3 students conducted by teachers at her tuition center. I’d paid over RM500 for this 3-month revision program just before the Coronavirus pandemic. No one could have guessed that a month later, the Ministry announced that all government exams for this year will be scraped off due to the pandemic and partial lockdown, except for SPM, which will be postponed to the first quarter of next year. Since we’ve paid, the course will still proceed as planned. I think it’s still very beneficial that she attends this course (to be conducted online until the MCO is lifted) so that she gets to learn everything that she missed out in school throughout the MCO.

In the evening, Alycia toddled out of her room and sprang a surprise on all of us when she cooked! The girl who hates to be in the kitchen and hates greasy hands actually cooked a new recipe which she’s just watched on You Tube and couldn’t wait to try it out! It’s some kind of Korean tofu noodles pancake, using a little Japchae that her sister cooked, and added soft organic tofu, eggs and flour. Very impressively addictive, I must say, and it’s pretty healthy too as she used very little oil and didn’t add any salt to the batter 😁

No. of times viewed = 35

RMCO Day 6 ~ Monday, 15 June 2020

Today I’m feeling a wee bit under the weather – throat is starting to act up and nose feels unusual, the kind that you know a cold or flu is about to attack. I know that if I don’t nip the virus or bacteria at the bud from proliferating, I could end up with a full blown nasty flu and throat infection. I still went for my usual 10 a.m. morning run to soak up the healing sun rays and popped Esberitox, drank honey with propolis tincture, sprayed throat with propolis spray, gulped down a few packets of Izumio and gargled my throat with a concoction of sea salt water with Melaleuca essential oil, Clove essential oil and Peppermint essential oil several times a day. I used the same concoction to clean my inner nose with a cotton bud. I think this routine seems to help. I better go to bed early tonight as sleep is just as important for healing.

Sherilyn cooked meat balls spaghetti bolognese for lunch with the leftover burger patty meat that she prepped last week. By the time she finished cooking, it was already 3 p.m. Cass ate so much that she was too bloated for dinner. She’s going to have a 17-hour Intermittent Fasting if she breaks her fast at 9 a.m. for breakfast tomorrow! 😆

Our dinner tonight: steamed cod fish, ‘Tai Yi Ma Kar Lui’ (braised hairy gourd with pork, dried shrimps and glass noodles) and braised sliced pork shoulder with tomatoes and Bombay onions.

Below: throwback dinner from one of the weekdays last week: healthy rainbow fried rice, stir fried organic baby spinach, sweet and sour fried Mackerel and sweet corn fritters.

No. of times viewed = 34

RMCO Day 2 ~ Thursday, 11 June 2020

After churning out a whole load of brioche buns two days ago, our baking queen finally had the opportunity to roll out her version of Killer Gourmet Burgers (KGB) today. Being the fastidious and critical chef / baker / dancer that she is, she made sure that the KGB lives up to its moniker. Almost every piece of ingredient in the KGB is curated, baked and cooked by her – from the meat patties to the pickled onions, grilled zucchini, grilled sweet potato and potato sticks, caramelized onions and brioche buns. The homemade pickled onions that she made this morning gave the burger the moreishness and refreshing tang. She soaked the onions in apple cider vinegar, Gula Melaka syrup, rosemary and a few other aromatic herbs. The result is a droolicious assembled KGB that tastes like a hundred bucks!

I can’t believe that this KGB is produced by a 15-year old girl whom I once suspected had ADHD as she was just so hyperactive, mischievous and lacked focus in her studies that I just didn’t know what to do with her! Thank God all those negative traits were just a passing phase. I thought she was a no-goner when she was 11-12 years old but surprisingly when she went to high school, she had a 360 degrees turn, even with her studies. I am amazed! So I still have hope in Cass, who’s going through the same terrible phase as what her 2-che went through when she was 12 years old 🙏🏼

Love at first bite!

Sherilyn’s homemade Brioche buns. Now that they’re sliced into half, they don’t resemble ‘heong pneang’ that much 😆

Homemade pickled onions – this morning she woke up early to start prepping these. She soaked the onions in apple cider vinegar, Gula Melaka syrup, rosemary and a few other aromatic herbs.

Homemade minced pork patties with melted Mozzarella.

Grilled sweet potato and potato sticks.

Ingredients for assembling the KGB.

A KGB piled so high with ingredients that it’s so hard to bite onto it! We replaced lettuce with fresh basil leaves.

Thanks for dishing out the gourmet burgers Sherilyn! We appreciate your effort very much, though I scream and cuss a lot at the mess you create each time you play masak-masak at the kitchen 😘

No. of times viewed = 31

MCO Day 84 ~ Tuesday, 9 June 2020

Today our baking queen baked her very first loaf of hand-kneaded bread, which is Brioche loaf bread and Brioche buns! According to her, the bread is not 100% perfect as the texture is not super fluffy and pillowy but her sisters and I think that it’s pretty good — super soft, buttery and rich (she used 6 eggs and an entire block of butter for all these). In fact she even marked her Brioche as ‘FAILED’! That’s how much a perfectionist and critical she is, just like her dad.

Brioche burger buns… but we think they look like ‘Heong Peang’ 😆 Nonetheless. taste and texture are commendable.

Lunch today is Sundubu jigae (Korean Spicy Soft Tofu Stew) again as there’s still one last portion of homemade Gochujang in the fridge which Sherilyn made some two weeks ago. She also made a side of Oi Muchim (spicy Korean marinated cucumber). Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Sundubu jigae which tastes so much better than the ones at Korean restaurants as ours is less salty (and doesn’t give me a bad aftermath of unquenchable thirst) and most of the ingredients are organic.

Dinner tonight is Nasi Hujan Panas from hubby’s kitchen.

Today marks the last day of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and tomorrow begins the next phase ~ Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO). Our country is slowly but surely on the way to recovery! 🙏

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MCO Day 80 ~ 5 June 2020 (Friday)

This morning’s jog was cut short when it started to drizzle. Oh how I dislike wet mornings! I continued running for a short while in the drizzle until it got heavier. Getting a minimum of 30 minutes run each day is as important as getting my daily supplements. My daily workout is akin to popping a daily happy vitamin 😊. When I got back from my morning jog today, brekkie was served! Our in-house chef has prepped a luxurious gourmet breakfast for me and she later prepped something light and healthy for lunch 💝

Breakfast menu:
* Tartine rye toast with smoked salmon and poached egg with homemade Hollandaise sauce and dill;
* Banana walnut bread baked with organic almond flour, organic multi-purpose flour and organic coconut sugar, thus the dark color.

Lunch menu: grilled broccoli, carrots and onions drizzled with Hollandaise sauce and steamed sweet potatoes.

Banana walnut bread was baked two days ago. Today Sherilyn heated up a slice in the oven for my brekkie.

My guilt-free snack of grilled vegetables ~ I can eat grilled vegetables everyday and never get bored of it. Everyday can be a different combo – from zucchini to pumpkin, beets, sweet potato sticks or wedges, sweet corns, etc. The variety of vegetables used, herbs and spices used to flavor the vegetables are just endless.

The girls also prepped something for our in-house guards – potato chips and tortilla with yummy tuna mayo dip, decorated with dill and seasoned with freshly ground black pepper.

Boxed juice and yummy snacks for our friendly hardworking guards. They are also happy beneficiaries of boxed food from hubby’s shop whenever there is surplus food.

No. of times viewed = 32

MCO Day 77 & 78 (Tuesday, 2 June & Wed, 3 June 2020)

Tuesday, 2 June 2020

With over 2 months of being stuck at home and devoid of a daily part-time helper, all the cleaning and washing finally took a toll on my hands. My stiff shoulders got stiffer and the crick in my neck got ‘cricker’. I’m currently suffering from pain on my right hand (the hand that I use the most) and have difficulty turning this hand. The Carpal Tunnel Syndrome that attacked my hand shortly after Alycia was born was also on my right hand. My right hand has been grossly over utilized! Yesterday I fished out my Salonpas patches and stuck them on my neck and right hand. I also massaged my neck and hand with Wintergreen essential oil. Both the Salonpas and Wintergreen essential oil provided a little pain relief but complete healing is going to take forever as long as Maria our beloved part-time helper doesn’t come back to provide me with the real pain relief! 😫

I miss having my portable massage chair to give me daily massages on my shoulders and back. When I went to Mid Valley Megamall last Sunday, I was shocked when the staff at Osim informed me that my faulty massage chair is still stuck in their shop – their reason was it’s still Hari Raya. But from the staff’s ‘guilt-stricken’ expression when she found out that my massage chair was still at their shop, I knew they’d forgotten to send it to the head office. 😥 With such cheesy quality despite the 5-star price, this will be my second and last purchase from Osim. The sales staff even had the cheek to cajole me to buy their second-generation portable massage chair, that’s more expensive at a whopping RM1,800! No way Jose, not even if it’s at a 50% discount🤔

Our baking queen made Chawanmushi for lunch today and this time, it’s umami-packed with a consistency that’s similar to those from Japanese restaurants. She added dashi and a little Chinese rice wine since we don’t have sake at home.

Hubs gave us a surprise when he came back early with tapau Ba Kut Teh for dinner. His catering event ended early and he came back early to rest as he woke up at 5:30 this morning to start work at the kitchen with his team.

Dinner of fried rice (with eggs, turmeric, kafir lime leaves and curry leaves), blanched broccoli, cauliflowers and celery, stir-fried lean pork with big onions and leftover sambal from hubby’s shop and Ba Kut Teh.

Wednesday, 3 June 2020

Hubs tapau Yong Tau Fu, Sarawak curry noodles and char koay teow for brunch from O&S Restaurant @ Paramount Garden, PJ after his physiotherapy session at the hospital today.

Today I started my morning jog a tad late at 10:30 a.m. and the sun was already out in full force grilling me like a piece of meat when I jogged at the jogging trek of our condo. Somehow, the morning sun does not give me a migraine, only the afternoon sun does. In fact, it gives me a high of serotonin, which makes me very happy and calm! No matter how busy I am, I try not to miss out on my morning jog – this is very important in helping me detox not only my body through sweat, but also a detox of my mind from negative and unhappy thoughts. The only downside is I now spot a bronze tan on my limbs and face. When the girls return to school (which no one knows when, yet), I think I won’t look like a Chinese anymore 👩🏾 😜

Hubs brought back Nasi Briyani from his kitchen in the late afternoon. Since there was warm yummy food on the dining table, I had my lunner at 3:30 p.m. so that I could have a longer Intermittent Fast today. We used to have dinner at 4 p.m. pre-Covid19 as the girls would be back from school around this time; when they’re back from school, they always appear like famished feral dogs. So I always ensure that dinner is ready by 3:30 p.m. and I eat my dinner with them at this hour!

We also had 5-Elements Miracle Soup today. This meat-less soup is believed to have the ability to fight cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and other ailments. I love this soup and don’t mind having it everyday as it’s meat-free and naturally aromatic and sweet. It’s composed of the following roots:

Daikon Radish Leaves (Green element)
Daikon Radish (White element)
Carrots (Red color element)
Burdock Root (Yellow element)
Shittake Mushroom (Black element)

No. of times viewed = 39