Last Day of Her Pre-School

This is a backdated post.

My lil' Missy will be enrolling for the kindergarten Level one next year. The preschool held a mini party for the kids on the last day of their school.

lil Missy with her bf Isabelle.

guess she is bored with the games

Just a small group on last day because most of the kids were not joining the party.

I was told that her teacher asked her to dance on that day and she did . Hahaha....

Random Pictures Taken on How How's Birthday

We celebrated di-di's birthday earlier December. Here are the pictures that were taken on his B-day.



papa boiled two red eggs for him in the morning

we had dinner at the restaurant. He opened up his pressie from mummy.

his all time favourite Elmo

mummy and cheh-cheh sing the b-day song

enjoy eating his Elmo cake

Our Winter Solstice Dinner

I cooked up quite a few dishes for winter solstice dinner. This is the first time I cooked such a great dinner (from preparing, washing, cooking and cleaning aftermath) all by myself.

braised fish maw with sea cucumber, chicken, mushroom, scallop and clams

assam fish

stir fried mixed vegetable with Japanese tofu

braised pork with yam (a Hakka dish). My aunt bought it and deep freeze it to bring over to us all the way from Sandakan.

tong yuen in red bean soup

I also boiled a big pot of black chicken herbs soup that day but forgot to snap the photo. Anyway, everyone was so hungry that everything was finished that night and no leftover.

Steam Tofu with Dried Shrimp

Yet another easy-to-prepare dish and very yummy too!

Ingredients:-

1) 1 pack of tofu

2) a handful of dried shrimp. Soak in water to soften up. Drain and chop.

3) a few stalk of spring onion. chopped.

4) garlic and shallot

5) Oyster sauce

Method:-

1) Put a tiny dash of sesame oil on top of the tofu and steam for 10 minutes. Drain the water. Pour some oyster sauce on top of the tofu. Leave it aside.

2) Heat up 3 tablespoon of oil in a wok. Add in chopped dried shrimp. Stir fry until the colour turn golden brown. Add in garlic and shallot. Continue to stir fry for another 5 minutes.

3) Once it is done, dish up and pour over the top of the steamed tofu. Lastly, garnish the tofu with the chopped spring onion.

Barley Ginkgo Dessert

I have a hubby who loves dessert. So, I'll make dessert at least once a week. This is one of the desserts that I made. De-seeding the ginkgo/ lotus seeds is slightly time consuming, so, I normally cook this on weekend.

Ingredients:-

1) Barley

2) Ginkgo/Lotus Seeds

3) Fu Pei (bean curd skin)

4) Rock sugar

On side note:- I use pressure cooker to make this as the bean curd skin dissolve /become soft easily when cook in the pressure cooker.

Method:-

1) fill the pot with water. Add in the bean curd skin and barley to boil. Cook for about 45 minutes. Then put in the ginkgo and rock sugar. Let it boils for another 30 minutes.

2) Turn off the stove. You can either serve it warn or chilled it. I find out it taste good when serve chilled.

Back to Usual

I have been "busy in, busy out" for the past whole week. Cooking, christmas shopping, eating, chatting etc etc. That's the reasons I have been neglecting my blog.

It was a wonderful holiday/week though. Relatives were here and kids are happy because have the "yee gong" and "yee poh" sayang. Have the aunty and jie jie to play with , have pressies and go kai kai almost everyday.

Everything is back to usual now. They go back to their normal routine at home. Getting to eat their full meal (they tend to eat less when dining out). Back to their sleep routine, didn't skip their afternoon nap.

I am now preparing lil' Missy for her "big school" next year, especially she needs to get up early as the school starts at 8 o'clock.

Mixed Vegetable and Fruit Juice

I have been juicing this since the past two weeks ever since I found out that both my kids love it.

I normally mix at least 2 types of veggie and 2 types of fruits in a time. It is either be:-

(A) celery, carrot , green apple and orange or

(B) cucumber, carrot, green apple and orange

It is so good that they eat the celery in this way and they normally do not like to eat celery.

I'll try adding beetroot next week and see how well they can take it!

Veggie and Fruits Juice

I made this the other day for hubby and I. To my surprise, both the kids like it too.

I have been juicing this since then and they had at least 3 to 4 times of the mixed veggie and fruit juice every week. It is another way to boost up their veggie and fruit intake. Yummy!

Stir Fried Fish Fillet with Ginger

I like to cook this because it is so easy to prepare and most important, the kids like it.

Please check out at my other blog for the recipe!

Stir Fried Fish Fillet With Ginger

My kids like this very much as it goes very well either with rice or porridge. Besides, it is so easy to prepare.

Ingredients:-

1) Fish fillet (marinate with sesame oil, pepper and soy sauce for about 20-30 minutes)

2) a few stalk of spring onion

3) Slices of ginger

4) 1 clove of garlic

5) cili padi (small red chili) . Optional. I normally add this at last stage after dish up a portion for the kids as they can't take spicy food.

6) Dash of corn starch.

Method:-

1) Sauteed garlic and ginger until golden brown.

2) Add in the fish fillet and stir fry.

3) Put in the spring onion, chili and water. Continue to stir fry.

4) Lastly, mix corn starch with water and pour in to thicken the sauce.

Stir Fried Squids in Sauce

I like sotong (squids) very much. Whenever I cook squids, I am the only one who eat up everything because hubby cannot take squids due to health issues.

Here's the ingredient:-

1) One big squid

2) One big onion (cut into wedges)

3) One tomato (cut into wedges)

4) Green & Red bell pepper (optional)

5) 1 clove of garlic

6) A dash of black soy sauce

7) Some light soy sauce to taste ( I use Braggs )

Method:-

1) Heat up 2 tablespoon of oil in a wok. Sauteed garlic until golden brown.

2) Add in the onion and stir fried until fragrant.

3) Put in the tomato and green pepper and continue to stir fry.

4) Lastly, pour in the squids and add in the black soy sauce, light soy sauce and a little bit of brown sugar. Stir fry for about 5 minutes. Dish up and serve warm with rice.

It goes very well if serve with rice alone as there are already include veggie in this dish.

Assam Fish

I normally used the ready mix rempah in making this assam dish all the time. Of all the ready mix products in the market, the brand that I like most is Rempah Nyonya.

Here's the ingredient I used:-

1) Whole fish or fish fillet ( I used mackerel fish fillet because I couldn't find a fresh ikan merah)

2) A few stalks of lemongrass

3) 1 tomato , cut into wedges

4) 1 red chili, cut into slices

5) few slices of Mengkuas

6) Assam paste (mixed with water and strain)

Method:-

1) steam the fish for about 5 minutes and let aside.

2) put 2 tablespoon of oil to wok to heat, add in the lemongrass and Mengkuas to stir fry until fragrant. Then add in the red chili and ready mix rempah. Stir fried for about 3 minutes.

3) Pour in the assam water and add in the tomato. Stir for a while.

4) Put in the fish and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Dish up and serve warm.

Finally................

Yeah! I finally got my kitchen cabinet. I have been shopping around the town's best furniture shop and finally decided to get this cabinet which is "peng, liang, cheng" (nice and cheap!)

There are fixed in kitchen cabinet in this house but I need extra storage for my "sa po ang chang" (pots and pans). Because it is not our own house and it is not worthwhile to invest in the fixed-in cabinets as it will be very difficult to move them if we are relocating back to West Malaysia.

So, today will be "keeping and de-cluttering" day for me. With the two "great helpers" around, I guess it will take longer than usual to clear up the stuffs.

I'm So Proud of You

I am so proud of my little di-di. He is fully diaper free now. He surprised me when he went to pee in the potty by himself last night while I was folding the shirts in the playroom.

He told me he wants to pee and I asked him to go look for his papa. He didn't but he took off his pant and go sit on the potty. He even manage to put the pant on all by himself after that. I was soooo...happy. He is just barely 2 years old and he managed to do it. Well done, boy!

I miss his chubby look . Can cubit cubit his leg. This photo was taken when he was 7 months old at grandma house.

Blame It on Laziness

I have been neglecting my other blog lately. No updates at all. I have lots of pictures to be uploaded in the other blog and it is still in my flash drive. Will try to get it done tonight after the kids go into slumber land.

I am sure I will upload more recipes and photos once I got my oven next week! I am searching for the recipes of scones as hubby likes it when we had our coffee at Starbucks yesterday.

Our Saturday

Lil' Missy does not have ballet lesson today and hence we booked an appointment for dental check up. We got up quite late and just in time for brunch when we went out. We had a good and filling lunch before heading to the dentist clinic.

Hubby has a RM1,000 subsidy for dental and optical every year. We had a balance of RM700+ unused portion and hence we better used it before end of the year. So, after our dental check up and cleaning, off we go to Bintang Mall to get another pair of glasses for hubby. Sometimes, it is real good to work for a big company which the benefits given to employees are darn good.

After shopping around at Parkson , we had a coffee break at Starbucks "tanh char" before heading home.

That's our Saturday!

Happy Birthday To You

We celebrated di-di 2nd birthday today. We went out for dinner just now. As he's fan of Elmo, we bought him an Elmo birthday cake!

Things To Accomplish This School Holiday

Tomorrow will be the last day of my girl's pre-school and she will be going to "BIG SCHOOL" next year, Level 1 in the kindergarten. Times flies and I still remembered the first day she attended pre-school 1.5 years ago. Di-di will follow suit as he'll be going to the same pre-school as her cheh cheh next year.

Talk about school break, I have so many things which I planned to do it this coming school holiday such as:-

1) Potty trained di-di at night. See how far he can do it. He has been almost diaper free during day time, except he wears disposable at nap time. We tried not to wear him diaper during "kai-kai" time and no accident occurs. Means he is ready to go 100% diaper free.

2) Checked around whether there is any swimming lessons for lil' Missy. She likes water and I think it is another good exercise for her apart from ballet.

3) Do some minimal decor with the kids (they like Christmas, just like me) for this coming festive season.

4) Plan to buy an oven to do some baking and learn to do cupcakes.

5) Ready the list for packing as we'll be going to Cambodia in January next year. I will not be back to Miri so soon , only after my Taiwan trip in March 2010. Means kids and me will be away for almost 2 months + and I need to figure out what to bring home.

6)Re-arrange the house and do a "mini spring cleaning". I try to keep all household items to minimal as I know hubby will not have much time to clean the house during my absence.

7) Shop for Christmas presents.

List goes on.........and see how far I can accomplish on the above seven "agenda'!

Blame it On.........

..........Beyond the Realm of Conscience! The hottest Hong Kong TVB series. Hubby bought the series on Friday last week. I have been watching it since weekend until my lil' Missy complaint mommy have been watching TV too much worrr.........

So, this is ME now...with sleepy panda eyes..Even my part time helper asked me this morning what had happened to my eyes. I must have looked like a zombie??? She had just last seen me on Saturday last week. Only a few days lack of sleep ended up with such a " huge impact consequences"! See, age is catching up. I remembered I can just easily beats those days with lack of sleep during my younger days. Thanks god, my girl's school holiday will be starting from Friday this week and I can wake up slightly late every morning starting from next week to RECHARGE MY BATTERY!

Faces

I just love to see these faces everyday. I love them to bit but I do scold them and even whacked them at times when they really drive me up the wall with thier mischeif and naughtiness.

Fruit Juice

I made strawberries, apricot and grapes juice for them after lunch the other day. I prefer to use fresh apricot instead of apricot juice but it is difficult to get fresh one here and also I have run out of Del Monte Canned Apricot in my pantry.

Taste ok but a tad too sweet. I will try out a smoothies using same ingredient but add in a plain yogurt some day.

Snacks

Both of my kids like cheese. They can eat cheese with bread, with pasta etc without bored. At times, they can chomp 3 - 4 kraft cheestik at a time. I always stock up my fridge with this as it is easy to keep them pateintly wait for their food when dining out. Sometimes, I also take a pack with me when we drive down to Brunei as this can fill up their tummy before we reach Bandar.

Next Year Plan

I"ll be having a peaceful and serenity mornings starting from next year. Hubby suggested sending his cheeky boy to playschool next year for him to be more socializing with other kids.

I think it would be hard for him and me during the first few weeks as I have a feeling that it might not be easy to drop him off at the playschool. I remembered my lil Missy only took a week to be "familiarized" with playschool and didn't cry at all starting from the second week onwards.

Hubby asked me the other day what I am going to do with the extra bonus time in the mornings. Well, I really need to think how to utilize the time. Cook more yummy food and try more new recipes are one of my plans. Enroll for a yoga class comes second. But I am sure I'll miss my little ones at times some days!

Chinese Herbs Soup- Sap Yee Chan

here's the ingredients!

Just put everything into the slow cooker and put enough hot water to cover the herbs

Some ladies will take this Chinese herbs soup right after their menses every month. What they buy from the Chinese medicine shop is PAT CHAN 八珍. But mine is SAP SEE CHAN 十二珍。My mum got the ingredients when she went to Hong Kong many years back whereby one of her Hong Kong friend brought them to try out some Chinese herbs there. She got the list of ingredients and she started to ask the Chinese medicine shop to follow when she was back to Kuantan.

The differences between both are PAT CHAN 八珍 has 8 types of herbs and SAP SEE CHAN 十二珍 has 12 different herbs. I personally feel that SAP SEE CHAN 十二珍 tastes sweeter and better.

I took SAP SEE CHAN 十二珍 ever since I was 11 years old. Even when I was in Cambodia last time, my mom asked the shop to ready pack a lot and I had enough supplies for a year to bring back to Phnom Penh.

I will definitely pass this “recipe” down to my lil’ Missy!

Do e-mail me if you wish to get the "recipe"!

Halloween Costume

Ain't she look so cute here?

I was given this photo from lil' Missy's teacher the other day when i fetched her from school.

She looks so different with this long curly hair. Now, I only realized that why she talked about witch and tall hat and even asked me to tie her towel at her neck when I change her after her shower the other day.

Flowers

These are the photos of the flowers in my mini garden. The plants and flowers grow pretty well and beautiful too. Thanks to my hard work of fertilizing them once every 1-2 weeks...hmm!






this pot of orange rose belongs to di-di









this pot of pink rose belongs to lil' Missy

Nice or not?

Busy, Busy, Busy

....and lazy, lazy, lazy! Yeah, that's the reasons why I didn't manage to update my blog lately. Been busy with kids, house chores and BEAUTY SLEEP! Yup, I slept quite early nowadays at around 10pm+ and also take a long nap in the afternoon. Nope, don't get me wrong, I am not expecting No.3......

In-laws are here since last week and this mean I got to clean up more. Yeah, that's the disadvantage of not having a domestic helper especially when you have visitors.

It's Dinner

We had these for dinner 2 nights ago. I was in the mood of cooking and thus had come out with 4 dishes. Hubby said it was a lot because the kids doesn't eat much at dinner and both of us have to stuff everything down into our stomach.



assam fish







stir fried squids in sauce





stir fried veggie

steam tofu with dried shrimp. The veggie and tofu dish were cooked mainly for the kids as they can't eat assam and squids.

Not forgetting our dessert


I will post the recipes in my other blog.

How How @ 23 Months

Time flies! My little boy will be celebrating his 2nd birthday in a month time.

This picture was taken on the day he was discharged from the hospital. We stayed in the hospital for 2 days for further monitoring even though it was a natural birth as he has hypoglycemia.




this picture was taken on my birthday. Noticed that he likes to pose like this every time I take a pciture of him

...see a similar one below.....

He has been really "talkative" lately. Hubby is quite amazed at the pace that he picks up words and sentences (yes, he can speak in sentences now). Thanks to his jie jie (sister) who has been keep talking to him while he was a baby!

He recognized quite a few words and numbers from 1-10. He talks a lot until mummy couldn't stand him talking sometimes ...hahaha

And it is always nice to have him accompany mummy in the morning before rascal no. 1 comes home from playschool!

He's using only 1 diaper a day and sometimes 2 when we went out shopping. But most of the time, his diaper is dry even we went for a few hours shopping because he'll like to wee wee in the toilet.

This cheeky boy is also a clean freak because he wants his pant to be changed whenever it is slightly wet. The same goes to my lil Missy too. So, you can imagine how many underwear I've to wash each day. Lately, I just dumped the kids' clothes into washing machine instead of hand washing them which I used to do before.

Just Di-di

I asked him to pose for me while feeding him dinner last night. This is what he gave me!




While I uploaded these pictures and he stood next to me. He laughed looking at the photos and said to me.." di-di so cute"..Hahah...di-di, self praise is no praise laaa..

Anyway, he is getting cheekier by days and he's a real "chi cha gong" nowadays!

We love you, di-di!