Grilled Chicken Drumstick

I tried my hands on grill chicken yesterday. It was a very delicious meal, even hubby likes the juicy chicken very much. The most satisfying part was at the end of our meal, my lil Missy asked me this " mum, did you buy this or cook this? " hahaha, it must be very yummy that she thought I bought it from the restaurant.

Indeed, this meal is very special because I didn't cook any pasta or rice. I boiled some sweet corn to go with the grilled chicken and broiled veggie. We were just too hungry until forgot to snap the picture of our wholesome meal.

Instilled a Good Habbit

I was quite successful on two things for the past two weeks, (i) get them ready for bed by 10pm on weekdays, (ii) get them to eat their breakfast before go to school.

Previously, they normally drink their 7oz milk when got up in the morning before heading to school. But, until recently, I want to train them to eat a simple breakfast instead of just drinking milk.

On the first 2-3 days, I can see that they really have no appetite to eat their breakfast. But, by the 4th day onwards, the first thing they came downstairs, they will automatically climb on to their highchair and ready to eat their breakfast.

So, on most mornings, I am the busiest person, prepare breakfast, get them to finish their breakfast before 7.40am, then wash them up and get them in car before 8.20am.

I drop the kids at school now because hubby got to get to the office before 8.30am and so, he couldn’t send the kids.

Even with me rushing like a mad lady but still worth it as they are getting a nutritious start for the day!

Just Another Afternoon At Playground

The kids woke up early from their cat nap on one afternoon last week; I decided to bring them out to the club. Afternoon outing means late dinner!

Every time when I brought them out for any outdoor activities on weekdays, I need to think of something simple for dinner as I normally quite rush in preparing dinner once got home. So, I don’t like something spontaneous and like to preplanned ahead.

至阿姨的一封信

Aunty, 我想我好像从没正色向您说句谢谢你对我这么多年来的照顾。

感谢您:~

~~~~ 给我升学的机会

感谢您:~

~~~~ 在我和Ah Leong 在KL最辛苦的时候，对我说的一句话：如果你不够 钱用，可以跟 Aunty 講

感谢您：~

~~~ 在我每次回Kuantan 时，煲糖水和煮白斬鸡给我吃

想说声对不起，因为我有时候做错 或 说 错，一些让您不高兴的事。

从我还在求学时， 直到我现在以为人母亲，你 连我的孩子和丈夫也一様sayang.

Aunty, 真的很感谢您对我这么照顾，谢谢。

祝您母亲节快乐！

A Quick and Easy to Prepare Lunch!

I was short of time the other day when the kids came back from school and they "shouted" for lunch. I think they must be really hungry that day because they normally take their lunch after their bath and rest.

In the nick of time, I came out with this dish. Udon with sausage and mushroom minced pork meat sauce and topped with ikan bilis (their favourite!)

Luckily, I made some mushroom minced meat sauce a few days before and keep some in the freezer for next meal to stir fry with Japanese tofu. Besides, there is always a bottle of dried anchovies ever ready in my kitchen.

So, I thawed the frozen sauce in microwave while cooking the sausage and the udon in the boiling water in a saucepan.

Once the sauce is thawed and warm, just mix it with the udon. Final touch was topping the dish with their favourite ikan bilis!

Simple Lunch - Udon

I was short of time the other day when the kids came back from school and they "shouted" for lunch. I think they must be really hungry that day because they normally take their lunch after their bath and rest.

In the nick of time, I came out with this dish. Udon with sausage and mushroom minced pork meat sauce and topped with ikan bilis (their favourite!)

Luckily, I made some mushroom minced meat sauce a few days before and keep some in the freezer for next meal to stir fry with Japanese tofu. Besides, there is always a bottle of dried anchovies ever ready in my kitchen.

So, I thawed the frozen sauce in microwave while cooking the sausage and the udon in the boiling water in a saucepan.

Once the sauce is thawed and warm, just mix it with the udon. Final touch was topping the dish with their favourite ikan bilis!

Tuna Puffs

I browsed through a mommy blogger' website the other day and came across this recipe. Since I had an oven now and I can try my hands on baking puffs for kids and hubby. My cheeky boy likes it very much because he has been fancy on all those crispy food all the time.

Verdict: The tuna puffs do not look "nice" but it is really tasty, especially when it is just out from the oven. see one missing, can't wait to let hubby tried my "produce"


Here's the ingredient you need:-

6 pieces ready cut puff pastry 10X10cm, thawed
2 hardboiled egg, cut into quarter

Tuna Filling Ingredients :
1 can tuna in olive oil, drained & mashed coarsely
½ cup grated cheddar cheese

Method:
1. Lightly grease muffin pan and line puff pastry.
2. Fill each pastry with quartered egg and tuna mixture.
3. Sprinkle the top with some cheddar cheese.
4. Bake it for 20 to 25 minutes until pastry is golden and crispy.
5. Serve crispy tuna pies while it is still hot.

After A Long Break - Homemade Lor Mai Kai

After a long break, I finally come back to update my cooking blog. Not that I didn't cook for the past 4 months (in fact, yes. I didn't cook for the 2 months holiday in Kuantan as I had my Dad to take care of this! )


Okay, let's start on the ingredients we need to make lor mai kai:-




1) Chicken fillets ( I use drumstick and deboned), cut into strips . Marinate chicken with seasoning sauce. set aside for an hour.
2) 500 g glutinous rice, soak for an hour and drained
3) oil
4) cloves of garlic (estimate), chopped finely
5) small shiitake mushrooms, soaked and removed stalks
6) 1 large onion, chopped finely
7) chinese sausage (lap cheong) (optional)
8) Roast pork (char siew)/ sliced (optional)


Seasoning for chicken

oyster sauce
rice wine (optional)
ginger juice
light soy sauce
dark soy sauce
sesame oil
sugar
a little of cornflour
water


Sauce ( to mix with glutinous rice)

oyster sauce
light soy sauce
sesame oil
fine sugar
thick black soy sauce
1 cup water



soak glutinous rice in warm water for an hour and drained. Steam for 45 minutes. Set aside until ready to use.


Method:

1) Heat oil in wok over medium fire. Stir fry garlic until fragrant. Add mushroom and continue to stir fry. Remove and set aside.

2) Heat oil in the same wok and stir fry onion until fragrant, add steamed glutinous rice and sauce. Stir to mix well. Turn off fire.


3) Lightly grease 10 rice bowl (same as below) with oil. Put in the mushroom, chicken, and others meat into each bowl.




4) Fill glutinous rice until 3/4 full. Press rice firmly into bowl.


5) Steam over boiling water for about 40 minutes. It's best when serve with chili sauce.

What A Good Day!

Tell you, if people ask me what is the thing I can't live without, I must say PEDICURE! I had the habit of doing pedicure/manicure started when I was in Cambodia. I had it almost every week during those days because it was damn cheap there and I was working that time (clean hands are more presentable, hehehe! Plus I had two maids at home to take care of the house chores).

When I came back to Malaysia, I had my pedi/mani done once a month (it's expensive in West Malaysia) and when I came to Miri , I had it done at least twice a month (there is a salon here charging me cheaper as I am their regular customer).

So, yesterday, I booked my appointment extremely early as I need to pick up the kids from playschool at 11.30am. My pedi/mani session started at 9.45am. See, what do you think of my pedicure (nail art) and manicure ?

Tuna Egg Puff

I tried my hand on few baking recipe recently ever since I bought the Faber oven. Here is another recipe that I tried on Monday. Thanks to Momster's Cooking for sharing this recipe.



it was just out from the oven. Can't wait and took one for hubby to try........

I will post the recipe in my cooking blog!

Homemade Lor Mei Kei

Going back to cooking, here's my homemade lor mei kei to share with you. for the ingredient and steps, do hop over to my other blog at http://mommy-chef.blogspot.com/

She Loves Using Chopstick

My little girl likes to use chopstick to eat her noodle while we were in Kuantan. I bought a pair of training chopstick for her while we were in Taipei last month.






see. how good is she holding on the chopstick like a pro


Just recently when we were out dining, she requested to use chopstick to eat and I agreed as I know she won't mess up herself as she is always a clean and tidy freak girl, just like mummy




!
I got this pair of training chopstick from the the local grocery stores in Taipei

Sand Art

As usual, we went for our normal routine on most Saturdays- window shopping at Bintang Mall after lil Missy finished her ballet lesson. When we reached there, hubby went to the phone accessories shop to get my new "gadget" a leather cover.


There is a sand art shop next to the phone shop and lil' Missy kept bugging me to bring her to do some sand art. Well, I have promised her since last week that I will bring her out on a weekday night, just the two of us (poor di-di has to stay home with his papa), doing some girls' thing (shopping, having snacks and accompany her to do some sand art thingy). But I have yet fulfilled my promised until this afternoon.

Since I have to wait for the shop owner to get my phone nicely wrapped, I just brought her over to do the sand art.


Here's the photo captured by hubby using my iPhone.

They Are Finally Settle Down

Both kids are finally settled with their normal routine. Lil' Missy didn't cry started the second week but the little boy is only finally settle with school environment started this week (3rd week).

For the past two weeks, this little boy cried the moment he was bathed and changed into the school t-shirt. He was whining all the way from our house to the school gate. Imagine, I have to bear with the noise from the back seat while driving them to school. But when hubby was the one who drove him to school, he behaved better, at least not whining like he did when I dropped him at school.

Ok, within this 3 weeks ever since I came back to Miri, I had received two "gadgets" from hubby. Firstly, that's the oven I have been wanting to get since Christmas last year. As we are just staying here temporary and there is no point to buy a big built-in oven. Besides, our kitchen space is limited, therefore, it is not advisable to get a 40L oven. So, I finally settled with this...




The Faber FE032, 32 litre Faber oven. Well, I had actually carried out some projects since last week, first was a grilled fish fillet, then a brownies (with ready mixed flour). "Outcome" are satisfying. I didn't snap any pictures of my "produce" as I do not have any digital camera right now.


Here comes the second "gadget"....tang..tang...tang...




Hubby got me the iPhone 3Gs today. He gave me a great surprise this morning by leaving the box on my dressing table. I am "learning" how to use the new gadget the whole day today. The best part is I can start taking clear pictures of my kids and my new dishes with the iPhone 3 Gs.

Thanks hubby!

Coffee Morning

I had a pleasant morning today!

I was invited by my hubby's colleague's wife for a coffee morning. She had catered mee jawa and other kuih muih. Her friends came over and all of them were expatriate in Oman last time. They are all "old mothers" and their kids are all grown up already. It was nice chatting with them and I even pick up my son early and joined them again for second round makan-makan.

I think it has been a long time I didn't had such a "free" time to enjoy my breakfast while chatting around in such a relax mood!

I have been enjoying my "toddler free" moment in the morning since Monday as di-di was in playschool for 2 hours starting this week. So, I do my house chores in peace and also preparing lunch in peace . I would be going back to pool next week, at least I can go swimming 3 times a week.

How How's First Day at Playschool

How How went to playschool on Monday. He was so eager to put on his uniform in the morning after his milk. He was okay all the time until we wanted to enter the door. He was slightly reluctant to go in with me but was slowly step inside his class.

He started to cry when I leave his class. I waited outside and his cry lasted for about 10 minutes. He even requested the teacher to bring the dinosaurs toys for him to play with. Hahaha!

When I picked him up after 1.5 hours (was told to pick child up early on the first week), I was informed by his teacher that he can speaks very well and know hot to express himself well too. Mommy is so proud of you, di-di!

Jia Jia's Progress

My little girl has been reluctant to go to school since Monday. It was the first time I saw her crying ever since she attended Kindergarten in January. Even on her first day to Kindergarten, she was so calm and steady and she didn't even cry. I think it must be long holiday that turn her into a lazy bum bum! Hopefully she will be better next week.

I was informed by her teacher that she was lagging behind too. Almost one term left behind her peers. Hopefully the teacher does not put pressure on her in order to catch up with others. I feel that it was just too early to start a barely 4 years old kid on those "suku kata".

I should better do some extra work with her at home to brush up her alphabets and bahasa.

Back to School......

Jia Jia will be going back to school tomorrow and marked the end of her 2 months long holiday. I think she would probably cry because she has been resisting to go back to school whenever I raised the "back to school" topic. I might ask hubby to send her tomorrow as I know she dare out cry if her daddy drop her off at school.

As for the little boy, He is supposed to start his playschool tomorrow but he has tummy upset since evening and I need to postpone it until he gets better.

This weekend is the first weekend hubby and us spent together ever since we were back from Taiwan. He went back to Sandakan for Cheng Beng last weekend.

I need to hit to slumber land now as I need to get up early tomorrow to get things ready! Back to life...back to the reality........

Just Another Conversation......

My daughter and I was talking about something while I was driving them to a grocery shop to buy juices. Out of sudden, she started on the below conversation with me.........

Jia Jia : Mommy, next time aa, when I grow up ha, I come out to work.

ME: How about mommy?

Jia Jia: Mommy go shopping lor...

ME: But mommy is not working, who give money to mommy to spend?

Jia Jia: I give you lor.... ( she likes to put a "lor" to every sentence nowadays). When you get old, I bom bom (bathe) for you...I change your baju, I wipe you. After that, I on the TV for you. And mommy, ha, I bring you go shopping....and I also sleep with you...

Hahahah...this is exactly what I did for her everyday...

It is so sweet to listen to what she said.

A LAzy ME

I was really lazy to take my wok out for cooking. Kids have been eating out quite frequent lately ever since we came back to Miri last week (bad mommy!). Just lazy...

Tell you, I was on HOLIDAY for the past 2 months. My mom helped me with most of my kids' stuffs. I do not need to clean the house, she even helped to wash and steam the bottles every morning. My dad was in-charge of the cooking for all of us. My kids like his cooking too, especially the porridge.

Bad thing is...it is quite hard for me to resume all my normal routine now. Sigh! Lazy bone, lazy bone.