Healthy Wholemeal and Rye Flour Pancakes

I made my girls pancakes for lunch again, backed by popular demand! Pancakes are easy to prepare but it is very time consuming. If I don't have a helper to help me sweat it out for an hour at the hot stove, I would not have prepared them.

This time, my pancakes are pretty healthy. I used wholemeal flour, high protein flour, rye flour, ground almond, milk powder, a pinch of sea salt and 4 eggs.


My girls wanted to have their pancakes eaten with Haagen Dazs green tea ice cream, and I gave in. And so they had a sinful, decadent lunch of yummy pancakes with ice cream!

Can you guess who the impatient rascal holding her cutlery was at the background?

Happy!

My hard work is paying off and I am seeing the results that I want to see. The profit for my online store for the month of July is 3-fold of what I normally get. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the figures today, which is the last day of July. If this can persist every month, very soon I will be able to purchase a credit card swiping machine so that my customers can pay by credit card, a receipt printer and hire a staff or two. Woohoo!! I wonder if I can cope with the added stress if I expand my business.

Rewards To Keep Them Well Behaved

Last week, I found a very effective way of getting my kids to behave and to listen to me, without having to break a sweat! And I have to thank the creators of Angry Birds. My 3 girls are absolutely crazy over them. On Friday, I bought some Angry Birds stickers and I told my girls that each of them will get to choose a sticker that they want at the end of the day if they behave well. This is working pretty well for 2 days now. I wonder how long this excitement and reward will keep them well behaved and obedient. If the novelty wears off, I will have to find other exciting gifts as rewards. I found a website that sells great gifts. Just click here to check them out.

Beef Bolognaise Spaghetti With Spinach

To help Baby overcome her grossly serious constipation problem, I try to include greens in her lunch and dinner. She used to shun away from veggie even after going through painful episodes of constipation. But the latest constipation left her suffering quite a bit. And she knows that if she does not eat enough greens, fruits or drink enough water, she has to suffer the next day. Now, she willingly asks for greens during meal times :D Boy am I glad!!!

Here's Baby's homecooked beef bolognaise spaghetti with spinach. And a bowl of pink bean-red bean soup with pork ribs and red dates, to boost her protein and iron supply.

Tomato Fried Rice

Fried rice is always the easiest to prepare and my girls love them. I normally prepare fried rice for lunch and cook an extra portion for dinner too. So we only need to mess up the kitchen once :)

My fried rice is cooked in a variety of ways. This one is tomato fried rice with cubed tomatoes from 2 large tomatoes. There are also mustard green (sawi), cubed carrots, diced chicken breast, garlic, onions, eggs and cherry tomatoes and not to forget spring onions to add flavor to the rice. It's quite a complete meal isn't it? Tasty and fuss-free meal for my 3 girls.

Champagne Grapes

We were at Cold Storage and saw a rare sight at the fruits section - cute, tiny champagne grapes. We tried the samples and they were sweet. Baby was besotted with those 'baby grapes', as she called them and insisted that we got her some. To placate her, I took 2 small bunches, or should I say 2 handfuls and they cost a whopping RM7! I could pop the 2 handfuls of cute baby grapes in 2 mounthfuls as they are so terribly tiny. Now that I know they are so costly, I don't think I will buy them again. I'd go for regular grapes - more flesh to chew!

Little Dare Devil

My little dare devil found a novel way of eating her rice - by using the rice + dishes as fillings for her butter bun *roll eyes*

But I must give the credit for creativity to the most creative of the 3 - rascal #2.

Anchovies Soup With Pumpkin, Pork and Fish

Here's another favorite of my girls:

Noodles with fish balls and anchovies soup.

The pot of soup is made with anchovies, yellow fish (this fish is normally used to prepare soup), minced garlic, a few slices of ginger, pork slices and pumpkin wedges. Wholesome and tasty eh?

The only stuff that ain't too healthy are the tofu fish cakes and meatballs. They are very tasty but contain MSG. My kids just love these and also those white as powder fish balls. These fish balls are very tasty and salty and most kids love them. They contain other food additives like boric acid or perhaps whitening agent to make the fish balls so white and bouncy. I only allow my kids to eat them once a week.

Do you allow your kids to eat processed fish balls and fish cakes with food additives? It's hard to escape as even pre-schools serve them as snacks during break time.

She Naps The Darndest Ways

Here's another of Sherilyn's trade marks - dozing off on a stool, outside the bathroom. It's a blood-pressure raising matter for me asking her to shower every day. On some days when I am busy, I will forget to nag her to shower and this is what happens at 9pm....

That's when I have to jolt her up from her sleep with her whining, crying and shrieking away... which sends me a migraine right away! Sigh, this girl is really a challenge to me, testing my patience to the max.

One Two Juice!

Baby follows me into the bathroom almost everyday. I don't trust her to be alone outside with my helper when there is no one else in the house. While I was seated on the throne, Baby came to me and requested that I played "Catch My Hands", a game that we normally play when I am on the throne haha! Then I decided to teach her how to play "One Two Juice", a 2-person game that uses your hand to make pretend 'bird', 'water', 'stone' and see who wins. I used to play this hand game with my brothers and friends when I was a kid. Till today, I still play this with my hubby, to see who has to close the door of the bedroom or switch off the TV LOL!! Within 5 minutes of teaching her this game, Baby grasped the game and was enjoying the game with me.

Just now during dinner, she proudly taught kakak how to play "one two juice" with her. She even played it with her favorite Alycia che che and could even point out the mistakes that her che che made.

My model wannabe, with a Top Baby headband from my online store.

Lots Of Veggie to Beat Constipation

Baby is a very constipated 3yo toddler. When she was a baby, she was very prone to getting diarrhea, no thanks to the E.Coli and Klebsiela bacteria that used to attack her every month, causing her UTI. But thank God, that's a thing of the past and now, I have to counter constipation. And I counter it by giving her lots of green veggie and fruits everyday. No matter what we have for lunch or dinner, I will chop up lots of green leafy veggie and add them into her food.

Baby and her bowl of spiral pasta with beef bolognaise sauce and lots of chopped up mustard green. When greens are added into her favorite food like pasta, spaghetti and pizza, she will have no prob chopping them down!

And this is my lunch - a bowl of beef bolognaise sauce, with lots of veggie to substitute the carbs. I try to avoid eating starchy noodles and substitute them with wholemeal bread or wholemeal crackers and lots of veggie.

Tesco brand food stuff

I am all for buying store-brand products as they are way cheaper than more popular old brands. I love sanitary items from Tesco and Guardian, antiseptic liquid from Guardian, Tesco brand diapers, Tesco brand wet wipes and baby oil and a wide range of Tesco brand food products. Though the price is a fraction of other 'branded' food stuff, the quality is not compromised. Many of the Tesco brand food items are made in overseas countries, like mayo which is made in Belgium, digestive biscuits made in England, among others. As long as the product is not made in China, Taiwan and Japan, I am fine. I really do like Tesco brand food stuff a lot.

Tesco brand mayo - made with free range eggs and made in Belgium. It costs a few Ringgit cheaper than other brands. Taste wise - it's good.

Tesco brand tuna fish. This cost almost a Ringgit cheaper than other brands like Ayam Brand.

I hope some senior Management staff from Tesco reads this post and reward me with a free shopping spree at Tesco :D

Sardine Sandwich For Lunch

Another simple lunch to whip up in a jiffy for 2 school-going kiddos and a toddler, by a busy WFHM:


Sardines with raw onions, lime juice and cool julienned cucumbers...

Spread the walnut wholemeal bread slices with Tesco mayo made from free range eggs.

No that's not it. There was also a soup of the day for the nutrients that they need. When there's no soup, there will surely be a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice for my 3 angels!

French Toast For Lunch

Last week, hubs bought 2 loafs of walnut wholemeal bread. My man can be very extreme when he buys food and other stuff. Fearing that his woman and angels would not have enough to eat, he normally buys food that's more than what we can eat for lunch and dinner and again for lunch and dinner the next day! So I normally deep freeze the food while they are still fresh. The same goes with bread. I will deep freeze the bread on day 1 and keep a few slices for consumption for the next day.

Anyway, coming back to the 2 loafs of bread that he bought last week. Since there were so much bread, I made the girls French Toast for lunch.

I mixed some salt and Maple Syrup to the egg mixture before dipping the slices of bread into it. Then pan fried the egg-coated bread slices with pure butter on a non-stick skillet with lines, thus my French Toasts have lines on them. My girls were surprised to see French Toast on the table for lunch as I hardly serve them this for lunch. And they enjoyed their French Toast for lunch very much. Sherilyn ate it with strawberry yoghurt, Baby liked it with Maple Syrup and Alycia ate her French Toast with a scoop of Haegan Dazs ice cream! The next day, we had bread for lunch again - sardine sandwiches... to finish off all the bread that's sitting on our kitchen top! But there were no complaints from my girls and I told them that if they like bread, they can have bread for lunch everyday! Easy peasy job for mummy hah!

Would You Do It?

Would you wake up at 4am to get yourself ready to be first few in the queue at the computer shop to buy an iPad2? That’s madness. But to some people, being able to own an iPad2 shortly after the launch is something to rejoice about and to flaunt. These are IT junkies and they would do anything to get the latest gadget and tablet computers that everyone raves about. If I have needs to use such android gadgets in my day-to-day work, perhaps I would be one of those early birds to camp outside the computer shop too!

Roast Pork Ribs Porridge With Purple And Yellow Sweet Potatoes

One of the easiest and quickest nutritious meals to whip up for my kids is porridge. And one of the most popular porridge varieties among my girls is roast pork ribs (siew jue kwat) porridge. Sometimes I'll throw in some purple sweet potatoes to add some colors to the porridge, to entice my 3 fussy eaters.

Purple and yellow sweet potato porridge with roast pork. Getting thumbs up from my 3 little pernickety eaters...

Angry Because Of No Angry Bird

Alycia is a tad under the weather today. She's having the exact same symptoms as her 2 sisters -- high fever, slight sore throat and slight runny nose. Both Sherilyn and Baby had fever one after another last week. Just like Sherilyn and Baby, Alycia is still very active and has not lost her appetite. Only her body feels warm and the nagging high temp that only finally subsided a few hours ago. So she skipped school today - the first time this year.

While having lunch today, Alycia was a tad manja, just like any other kid who ain't feeling well. She told me to feed her the porridge that she was eating. I told her that she ain't a baby anymore, to which she replied that she saw from one of the TV programs that a 11-year old girl was fed by her mummy when she had fever *chortle*!! Oh ok, I got the hint. My poor sick kitty wanted to manja her mummy. So I fed her and she gladly swallowed all the porridge that was in her bowl. Next was the soup. She asked me to feed her the soup. As I had something urgent to rush for my customer, I asked her to drink the soup on her own. But she whined and sulked for a good half hour. Finally, she asked me for the same thing that she had asked me this morning, which I had said NO to her. The silly Angry Bird plush toy that she saw from my supplier's website! Uh-huh, this girl was whining not because she was not feeling well. She was sulking because I had refused to get her the silly red Angry Bird plush toy. At 7.5YO, she's pretty matured in her thoughts but at times, she can behave like a 2-year old child. So did I get her the silly ugly Angry Bird plush toy that kids are so crazy over lately? What do you think? The Angry Birds can be obtained here (my online store) :)

The 2 best friends....

Is That You Mummy?!

Alycia was rummaging through my drawer and stumbled upon a 2-decade old newspaper cutting, to which she exclaimed "hey mummy, is that you? Wow, cool, that's you in the newspapers?"

That was me, my first ever appearance in the newspapers when I emerged top secretarial student in a college. And that was a Datin putting a sash on me...

My proud angels, "ooing" and "wowing " over their discovery hehe...