Homemade Mashed Potatoes

Homemade mashed potatoes or whipped potatoes can be whipped up in a jiffy and it's so simple and tasty, minus the MSG. All you have to do is to boil a bag of potatoes, mash them together with some pure butter and add in some salt and pepper. Easy peasy! And your kiddos can help you too. I'll bet they'll love to help out with the mashing as well as the whacking of the yummy mashed potatoes later, like in the case of my 3 angels.

We used premium butter so that the mashed potatoes will be tastier.

Mash and mix the butter with the potatoes, add in some sea salt and pepper.

One picture is missing, which is the end product. The girls were so keen to dig into the mashed potatoes that they helped to prepare that I did not even have the time to take a nice pic of it. Never mind, next time I'll remember to snap a pic!

Lunch at American Chilli's @ BSC

We celebrated Alycia's 'victory' at American Chilli's yesterday. To me getting a placement of 5/39 in Primary 2 is considered a victory. Maybe some of you will define a position of 1st, 2nd and 3rd a victory. But for me, being top 5 in class is already a big achievement for my kids as I don't have the time to do much revision with them. Being yellow bananas who are unable to assist Alycia in her Mandarin subjects, hubs and I are proud that Alycia has always been scoring 88% and above in her Chinese subjects ever since she went to Primary 1 last year.

Part of the sustenance on our table...

A platter of deep fried stuff, not my choice but hubs. Lately, I have been trying very hard to stay away from deep fried food.

Whole wheat cheese pizza...

Roast chicken salad. Didn't quite like the Chinese parsley and certain pungent-taste herbs / plants inside the salad.

Alycia was all smiles as her teachers were all full of praises for her...

And I find the beef a tad dry....


Baby digging on the chocolate brownie with ice cream...

Daddy's small reward for Alycia - 8 pieces of Leonida's supreme chocolates which cost.... check out for yourself! Of course I chose a piece of sugar-free dark chocolate, which iLike, yums!

Onions That Cost A Bomb

Would you spend RM11.50 on 2 huge Indian onions? My hubs would, though the stingy me won't. But after trying them, I think I will have to put aside my frugality the next time I come across such onions. The onions are very sweet, crunchy and juicy. Stir-fried with some soy sauce, black pepper and Lea & Perrin sauce, the onion sauce goes very well with chops and steaks. We got these onions from Cold Storage @ Jaya One PJ.

See the vast difference of a regular size big onion and these costly gigantic onions?

My girls love them just as much as the adults and onions are chokefull of goodness and health benefits too!

Learning Numbers From Sudoku

Not that she can recognize all the numbers, but Baby likes to pour out her che che's Sudoku game and then slots the squares back one by one into the box. As she slots them back, I will ask her to find me a certain number. Fun way for this fella to learn her numbers. And oh yes, the stairs climbing method of learning numbers has proven to be very effective. At 3YO, she can now recognize the number 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Why ends at 5? That's because we live on the 5th floor haha! Next time, we have to climb all the way up to the 10th floor and then walk down so that she recognizes the remaining numbers too. Plus it's a fun way of exercise for the girls and they love this style of flexing their limbs!

Father's Day Lunch At Duck King @ Jaya One, PJ

We were actually lost for choices on where to go to celebrate Father's Day today. From yesterday through today, we just could not settle for a place to have lunch. Finally the hubs put the ball at my court. He gave me the call for the shot. We knew that hotels and Western food restaurants were out of our choice list as these places would always jump on special occasions to double or triple charge their customers. So we had Chinese food at Duck King @ Jaya One, PJ. I am never a fan of this feathery cute bird with long beaks but hubs love them. I chose Duck King as I wanted to have dim sum and the girls could tuck into noodles, their all-time favorite. Plus it was near our church.

We ordered some dim sum, 2 plates of veggie, a smoked mango duck and a pot of glass noodles with 1 crab. The pot of crab noodles cost a whopping RM58!

The smoked duck has a mild smoke flavor and pretty tasty. But the sauce is far too sweet and over-powering. Would give it a rating of 5/10 in the HFM's food meter.

Cool Eh Mummy!

My girls have been crazy over Kung Fu Panda 2 ever since they watched this movie at the cinema during the recent school holidays. When I gave Baby a toothbrush with the picture of a panda this morning, she exclaimed in delight "it's Kung Fu Panda!! It's cool eh? I like Kung Fu Panda, cool eh mummy?" Oh man, she's talking like a gwai lo's kid! She must have picked this up from her 2 che ches or from watching TV. This fella even turned her head to one side when I gave her a peck on the lips the other day! I was shocked when she did that. Surely, surely this fella and her 2 che ches must have seen people locking lips on TV. I better be extra cautious with what they watch from now onwards!

Check out my online store for cool Moboleez nursing hats and other cool kids clothes, kids stuff and of course chic ladies apparel!

Kids Nap The Darndest Ways

I told you before that Alycia and Sherilyn are champs when it comes to napping anywhere and in any position, didn't I? Here's a picture of the runner up of the 'Kids Nap The Darndest Ways' club...

Since birth, this girl can really sleep. If she lacks sleep or skips an afternoon nap, she will be akin a battery-operated doll who is low on battery.

Electronic Gadgets Era Kids

During my time as a tween and teenager, my brothers, friends and I, we used to run on the road outside our house.... to play 'Eager Catching Chickens', hop scotch, fly kites and to play marbles. We would also look forward to catch tadpoles in the drains after a downpour, cycled within 5km radius away from our house to the nearby river to enjoy the scenery, plucked flowers as we cycled, climbed trees, played real masak-masak by frying dried leaves and twigs with fire and anything that we could think of that was outdoor. It was pretty safe then and my mum did not have to worry about us being kidnapped or being ran down by vehicles. I really really do miss those younger days of mine and wished that my girls could enjoy such care-free and happy childhood with their friends. But it's an entire different picture now with kids these days. My kids never have the opportunity to do the activities that I did when I was their age. Instead, they are very attached to electronic gadgets like the TV, laptop, iPad, iPod,iPhone and Nintendo.


Baby playing with her Nintendo and is very adept with it too...

Most kids that I see these days have their hands and eyes glued to an electronic device, including mine! I think it's mainly because it's safer to be at home than on the road or outside their homes. If you are unlucky, you will be seriously injured by an acid splasher! Yeah, acid splashers are lurking everywhere now and it's scary to walk alone on the street.

I'll bet your kids are the same, aren't they? Let me know.

Thean's Curry Laksa Paste

Thean's ready-to-cook curry paste is one of our favorite instant curry mixes. When I crave curry, all I need is to buy a bag of fresh coconut milk, pour in a sachet of Thean's curry paste into a pot of boiling water, throw in some chicken meat, long beans, tofu pok, cabbage and fish balls and half an hour later, voila... I have some fragrant and yummy chicken curry or curry laksa for lunch! And my 2 older girls love it too!

My pot of chicken curry with 1 whole chicken, tofu pok and long beans... for lunch and dinner. Yup, I cook only once on most days and eat the same thing for lunch and dinner to minimize washing and to save time.

Our lunch - chicken curry with vermicelli. Delish, easy to whip up, no frying involved and it's oil and mess-free. Easy-peasy and nice ^^

Lunch At Delicious, Bangsar Village

One of my girls' favorite places for lunch is Delicious. As the moniker says it, the food there is simply delicious! Though pretty costly, the Delicious outlet at Bangsar Village and Mid Valley are perpetually packed with patrons. Delicious serves both Western food and local delights.

We were at Delicious @ Bangsar Village again on Sunday...

Try their mushroom soup. It's thick, creamy and full of blended fresh mushrooms. Goes well with warm bread and butter. We ordered 3 plates of spaghetti cooked in 3 different styles, specially for the girls who are fans of the Italian noodles. But not me. I try to steer away from noodles and spaghetti made of flour and reserve my carbs entitlement for the day for cakes and pastries ^^

Roast chicken with pesto sauce is a must-try too. Pretty healthy and of course delish!

My meal at Delicious will never be complete if I don't get to eat my flour-free orange-almond cake, which is simply delish without much guilt. Hubs ordered an apple pie too but apple pies are never my favorite so I gave that a pass too.

The Drop of Sherilyn's 3rd Tooth

It was yet another memorable one for Sherilyn. The first tooth that dropped - she had to dance and jump round the house deliberately to loosen the tooth, where the nagging pain caused her discomfort for months. The second tooth that dropped - it fell when I was brushing her teeth and she cried blue murder. She blamed me for causing the tooth to drop. The third tooth that dropped last week - it came off when she was eating some papayas during TV time muahahahahaha!!



Blood stained papaya....

Can't wait for the 3 gaps to be filled up with nice, white and straight pearly whites.

Ficelle Boulangerie @ Taman Desa KL

One of our favorite patisseries is Levaine Boulangerie located at Jalan Delima, Off Jalan Imbi. But this place is a tad too far for us when we need to grab some pastries or have breakfast at 8am. Hubs was so excited when he found out that Ficelle Boulangerie has opened its door right at our neighborhood @ Taman Desa KL. Ficelle is under the same management as Levaine. For those of you who are die hard fans of hand crafted pastries and buns, you will fall in love with Levain and Ficelle. Price wise, I think it is still cheaper than The Loaf. We love the pastries at The Loaf too and hubs even has membership at this patisserie.

Your first entrance into Levaine and Feticelle, you will be greeted by an explosion of fresh and nice smelling pastries and of course the bursting aroma of brewing coffee. I love stepping into such places, for it gives me a feeling that I am in a luxurious hotel, enjoying my 5-star continental breakfast.

Last week, hubs woke up and without any notice announced that he wanted to bring us to Ficelle for breakfast. I had just stepped into the house, drenched in my sweat after my work-out session at the gym. When my man wants to go anywhere, he does not like to wait and I have to rush like a mad woman to get my kids and I ready. And I donch like rushing, it drives me delirious! Anyway, it was worth the rush for I really enjoyed my breakfast at Ficelle. So did the girls. Oh yes, if you are a fan of macarons, you can pick your choice of flavors and bright colors at Ficelle.

Ficelle Boulangerie & Patisserie
11-0-12, Jalan 3/109F, Danau Business Center,
Taman Danau Desa, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-7983 0211
Fax: 03-7983 2210

Squashed Cuppies!

We were at Bangsar Village for lunch last week. After lunch, hubs bought some nice cuppies from Bisou. When we got home, I was in for a shock when I opened the box. What were supposed to have been some really pretty cuppies greeting me were replaced with some yucky looking cuppies, with the icing and cream slathered to the sides of the inner box. That was no ordinary box of cuppies ok. They cost quite a bit. Thanks to the person who was holding it, eeeeesshhhh, really felt like smacking her!

Cobwebs In My Blog

Gosh, I have been so uber busy for the past 1 week that I have totally forgotten to update this blog for 6 days!! When I logged into this very first blog of mine that I created over 4 years ago, I almost could not read the words or any pix on it. I had to dust those cob webs away before I could read muahahahaha! I was very obsessed with updating this blog for the first 2 years. I used to have 3-5 drafts ready and I even schedule dated my posts. But when paid posts got lesser and lesser, my mojo just slowly dwindled away. I still do paid posts now, albeit reduced dramatically ever since the global recession 2 years ago. Now, I am blogging for passion, not so much for money as my source of income has changed direction and I am diverting my time and energy towards my online store. Nonetheless, my 3 blogs are still very dear to me and I shall update them for as long as I am able to.

Here's a pic of my belated 11th wedding anniversary. The cake was only cut 3 days later! Go read my previous posts to find out why. Happy weekend and school holidays peeps!