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Worms, Bears and So Much More!

September 14, 2018 in Emma, Food & Feeding, Growing Up, What's Cooking | No comments

Something caught her eye in the candy store not too long ago.

We walked in and she exclaimed, “Gummy worms!! Please Mommy, can we buy them?”

“Sorry, not today, darling,” I said, trying to buy time.

Apparently her friend brings them to school as a snack. :O :O

Really?!!! Sugar, chemicals and other unpronounceable stuff?

No thanks.

So I did what any (smart) mommy would do: make our own gummy worms.

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Yummy gummy worms with ingredients we know and love, including Ningxia Red which has the goodness of wolfberries to support good eyesight!

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Kids love ‘em and adults have to fight for them with the kids… hahahaha

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Today we are making gummy bears too. Fancy some? ♥

Monkeying Around Our Lunar New Year 2016

February 19, 2016 in Celebrations, Emma, Ethan, Food & Feeding, Hannah, Vacation, What's Cooking | No comments

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It’s the Year of the Monkey – reason enough to monkey around?  Well, definitely reason enough to eat loads of yummy yummy food (not just bananas) and have lots of great fun!

Traditional Reunion Dinner and 1st Day Chinese Lunar New Year in Ah Mah and Ah Kong’s house in Ipoh:

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A simple dinner gathering back home in Penang:

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Wishing everyone a happy, blessed and prosperous year ahead full of health and love in abundance!

Our “Somewhat” White Christmas

December 29, 2012 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah, Parenting, What's Cooking | No comments

 

Okay, I admit I had been singing “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas…” for the weeks leading up to Christmas, and according to the weather forecast, it was supposed to start snowing at about the time Santa was making his rounds, i.e. Christmas eve.

When I woke up on Christmas morning, I realized that the weather forecast was correct.  There was a light sprinkling of snow to greet us, but it didn’t last long as it stopped snowing later that afternoon.  It was only on the night of Boxing Day that the snow started, coincidentally as we were making our way home from our grocery shopping.  Later that night, I even saw snow ploughs clearing inches of snow from the driveway right outside our apartment.

Anyway, we stayed in the whole day on Christmas and we really had a great time.  It was warm and cozy indoors and we just wanted to relax and enjoy Christmas.

I woke up in the morning to get lunch ready for us, and Ethan was up very soon after.  He exclaimed in surprise and sheer joy as he saw all the presents lying by the fireplace, waiting to be opened.  This year, it was the first time Ethan and Hannah really really expected presents from Santa.  Maybe because this year we have an actual chimney and fireplace in our house..haha.  Ethan and Hannah were also very concerned about Santa hurting himself that Christmas eve when he came down the chimney, so they had made extra sure that we turned off the fireplace by midnight.

So “Santa’s elves” were kept busy on Christmas eve getting the presents ready for Ethan and Hannah.  We got them presents from “Santa”  (the pink-wrapped ones) and also presents from Daddy and Mommy.  It was tricky getting them the presents as surprise ones; one of us had to sneakily make a speedy purchase, and then make a dash for the car to load the goodies in the trunk.  Obviously the one who isn’t 7 months preggers was the one doing the running to the car. 😛

They also each had letters written to Santa, and on Christmas eve, Ethan noticed the letters were still lying around the house, so Daddy had to quickly go to the “office” to send the letters to the North Pole. LOL

The moment Ethan saw the presents, he told Hannah about it, and she immediately woke up.  They were very eager to open their presents, and when they did, all we could get were these rather blur shots with our phone.

Yes, they were still in their jammies.. 🙂

After that, they busied themselves with the presents as I got lunch ready.  It was past 2pm when we had lunch, because the roast turkey takes at least 3 hours to be ready.

We hung out at home the whole of Christmas and the kids were only more than happy because they got the chance to play with their new toys!

Our Christmas in Pictures

January 8, 2011 in Celebrations, Ethan, Hannah, What's Cooking | 2 comments

Every holiday season is a perfect reason to stuff ourselves silly with food, no?  Well, it’s a reasonable *excuse*, if you ask me… 🙂

In any case, we certainly utilized that *reason* to its max during the Christmas that just passed.  We kicked off the eating marathon on Christmas eve itself.  With a scrumptious Chinese course lunch at Starview in New World Park, everyone had a hearty meal and happy tummies could be seen everywhere!

One of my favorites from lunch: Peking Duck served in 2 ways: sandwiched between soft and fluffy mantous AND served in shredded salad form in pie-tees.

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Baby abalones cooked to perfection, and served on a bed of broccoli:

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And the prawn dish:

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Ethan and Hannah got to meet up with their cousins, Jonathan and Phoebe.  While the kids were packed with boundless energy and had fun running around, chasing each other inside and outside the restaurant, the adults had to take turns supervising them…which was a good thing too, as it certainly aided the process of food digestion and calorie burning…

Pretty gals in a row…

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And just as the food from lunch was about to be completely digested, it was time for dinner.  We had a simple gathering at Pete’s brother’s (Patrick’s) place, where the food was served buffet-style (kinda).

Jiu hoo char made by Paul, Pete’s brother, and my humble attempt at fried beehoon:

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Chicken rendang from Eng Ee:

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..and my chicken curry, which I’m a little sorry to say, was a tad too oily…

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Then it was time to unveil the big bird we ordered from Victoria Station:

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Yummy yummy…with lots of gravy!  We kept the turkey leftovers to make turkey sandwiches, and up till today, there’s still some of that turkey in my fridge!  I’m planning to enlist my Mum’s help to make kiam chye boey in a few days’ time 🙂

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While the grown-ups had dinner, the kids busied themselves having fun with the toys…

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And then the inevitable came…it was time to unwrap the presents:

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Technically, it was still a day early, but the kids were all too impatient to bother…never mind, they’ll have another gift-unwrapping session on Christmas Day itself!

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*****

On Christmas morning, we miraculously made in on time to church at 9a.m.  Ordinarily, getting to church at 10a.m. was already a daunting task for us.  It must have been a Christmas miracle! 🙂

Anyway, after church, we did a light breakfast at Kayu…yup, we had roti canai for breakfast!  Haven’t done that in donkey years!

Waiting for our food to be served…

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Doesn’t Hannah look adorable in a girly-girl dress?

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Okay, Ethan…you look adorable too! 🙂

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After breakfast, we resumed our gift-unwrapping session, this time at a different venue…  OUR HOME!! 🙂

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We gave Ethan and Hannah each a toy car garage set.  Very very cool…and yes, it will definitely take up more space in our humble home, but at least they won’t fight over it…(well that’s what we think.. :P)

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Merry and Blessed Christmas everyone!

It’s All about the Salmon

July 31, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, What's Cooking | 8 comments

Ethan has salmon for his meals almost every week.  If I can help it, that is.  Apart from the DHA goodness, fish is certainly good stuff for growing kids, what more salmon!  Of course, he will still get some pork and/or chicken with his meals at the baby sitter’s, so the salmon is just the icing on top of the cake, figuratively speaking.  He gets his salmon steamed…. psst… I have yet to train him to take it raw a la sashimi style, but that will come later. Kekeke….

So during weekends, we would usually go to Jaya Jusco in Queensbay Mall to do our grocery shopping, getting the salmon and the vegetables for Ethan at the same time.  I hadn’t realized how obvious it was that we were getting salmon week in and week out, until last Sunday when I arrived at the fish section in Jusco and the fish guy said, “Hah…Salmon.  Ini tiap-tiap hari beli salmon.”  I corrected him and said it was “tiap-tiap minggu” 😛

SAHM* for the day

March 28, 2007 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, Miscellanous, Parenting, What's Cooking | No comments

I took a day off on emergency leave today because Ethan came down with the flu and had slight fever.  Must have either been contracted from the little girl he played with and hugged in church last Sunday or just a side effect from the chicken pox jab he had.

He still looked his usual self but slightly tired-looking.  He slept for 30 minutes in the morning and another 30 minutes in the afternoon.  I breastfed him the whole day long and I decided to breastfeed him for lunch too, as well as give him as much fluids as possible.  When he woke up at 3:45p.m., I prepared some organic carrot noodles which I had bought some weeks ago.  I cooked the noodles with some egg, lettuce and a little bit of ikan bilis powder.  At first he would not take it, and kept turning away, but when I put the bowl of noodles in front of him with a teaspoon and showed him how to use the spoon, he became VERY interested suddenly…. not sure if he was more interested in the spoon or the food la…but anyhow, I managed to get him to eat a few spoonfuls.  Feed the flu, the say…

Get well soon, my darling Ethan boy! 🙂  I know Ethan enjoyed me staying at home with him today as much as I did…. I could really get used to this! 😉

*SAHM: Stay At Home Mom

Friday’s on a Saturday

February 11, 2007 in Ethan, Shopping, What's Cooking | No comments

We visited Queensbay Mall today to complete our Chinese New Year shopping, and stopped by T.G.I.Friday’s for dinner. At Friday’s, for one adult meal we ordered, we were given a free kid’s meal (provided the kid was there as well).

Pete ordered the BBQ burger and I ordered the pan-fried fish fillet. The free kid’s meal we ordered was the spaghetti.

The food was excellent (yes we walloped the spaghetti too). The company was spectacular. And Ethan had so much fun…….. Psssst! He even took home a red balloon as a souvenir!



Birthday Party!

January 27, 2007 in Ethan, Milestones, What's Cooking | No comments

Ethan had his first birthday party today. We decided to celebrate it during the weekend, i.e. a few days earlier than his actual birthday, to make it easier for our parents and siblings to travel to Penang to celebrate it with us.We had a small-ish gathering during lunch. Small-ish because this would mean Ethan would not experience any confusion and separation anxiety. And lunch, so that it would not interfere with his bedtime.

I’ve read that for baby’s first birthday, the party should ideally be kept to at most 10 guests. This is to ensure baby would feel more at ease and vice versa, the guests would enjoy themselves more. No point throwing a big bash at his tender age when he hardly knows what is going on, right?

Anyways, as Pete and I are rather *fussy*…ermmmm…. detailed people, we of course had a theme for the party, complete with decorations. The theme we chose was Winnie the Pooh…


My Mom and Dad came to Penang the day before the party to prepare the food. We had ooh-la-la yummy-mummy lum-mee… ..and for the appetizer, I made salsa, served with nachos…

We also had yee-sang, an early and prosperous start to the Chinese New Year, compliments from SIL Pauline.
Of course, we had the all-important birthday cake, which was done according to the theme of the party. Doesn’t the cake remind you of the birthday boy?

It is believed that the approach the baby has on his first birthday cake determines the way he will approach life. In Ethan’s case, after we sang the Happy Birthday song, and immediately after we blew out the candle, he planted his hand print on the cake! All 5 fingers!




But then Ethan boy could not eat any of it (as it contained eggs which he had not been introduced to yet), so I made him a special cake instead… presenting my sugar-free eggless banana muffin cookie-cake, made specially for my darling baby boy:
Then came the presents!

We also had a photo session for our party guests (macam photo studio aje…):




Happy Birthday our dearest darling Ethan boy… we love you so very much!


Happy New Year

January 1, 2007 in Breastfeeding, Ethan, Parenting, What's Cooking | No comments

Since we’d already travelled for Christmas, we spent New Year’s in Penang, in the comfort of our apartment. One of my New Year resolutions is to cook more frequently, since I have “ready” customers at home who relish my cooking. Heh… does wonders for the ego too, I might add. So to start the New Year off with a bang (pun intended), I decided to cook today. Pete was such a dear and he looked after Ethan while I dished out the goodies.I’ll have to admit I actually went kind of bonkers and dished out 5 dishes today, instead of the customary 3. The 5 dishes were:

  • Stir-fry beef with celery and carrots (This was the first time I cooked this dish, let alone cook beef. I introduced beef to Ethan today, so since he only took a small portion of the beef, I used the greater part of the meat for this dish)

  • Ginger & spring onion chicken
  • Baked beans with eggs & bombay onions
  • Stir-fry Baby bok choy

  • Watercress soup

Of course, the dishes were served with a healthy concoction of red rice + Herbal Ponney rice + Energy Grain Mix (millet + quinoa + buckwheat).

Delicious or not, you’ll have to ask Pete la…

So as we bid buh-bye to the year 2006, I fondly recall the many blessings God has bestowed upon us and the priceless episodes that have indelibly changed my life:

  • I gave birth to our darling Ethan boy, sans epidural
  • I changed diapers for the first time in my life. Now Pete refers to me as the expert…
  • I experienced the beautiful bond of breastfeeding and am still cherishing the experience to this day
  • Ethan’s first giggle which was filled with such pure innocence and joy.
  • I felt the wonderment of being a mother, and more importantly, of being a parent. Motherhood and parenthood really makes us appreciate our own parents more.
  • …And I witnessed how awesome a daddy Peter is. The way his face lights up when he looks at our little angel – that’s definitely worth a million bucks.

A Voracious Appetite

November 6, 2006 in Ethan, Food & Feeding, What's Cooking | No comments

Since starting off on solids when he was 6.5 months, Ethan has been taking all sorts of yummy food. But food which is only approved my Mommy and Daddy.

So far he has been enjoying:

Carbohydrates
Red rice, white rice, millet, wheat, oats

Vegetables
Spinach, carrots, pumpkin, potatoes

Fruits
Pears, apples, prunes, papaya, bananas

Protein
Chicken, and just last weekend, I introduced him to fish.

White pomfret, to be exact. And I am a proud momma to announce that my boy ABSOLUTELY loves it! It was a real joy to feed him his fish porridge. He would open his mouth WIDE in anticipation of the food, take in his mouthful of porridge happily and then clap his hands with GLEE after each mouthful!!! — and then start banging the table for more!!

Recipe for Happy Fish Porridge
Ingredients:
Red rice
White rice
Millet
Red dates (for flavor)
Steamed white pomfret
Steamed carrots (can also substitute with pumpkin, potato, ad lib)
Unlimited amount of LOVE

Method:
Cook rice, millet and red dates into porridge consistency. Mash white pomfret meat and add into porridge together with carrots or other vegetables. Serve lukewarm with LOVE to happy baby.