Simpulan Bahasa In Comics

I can't believe Cass likes to read Simpulan Bahasa (idioms in Malay) and she is not even in Primary 1 yet!

At the Popular Book Fest yesterday, I bought two books on Simpulan Bahasa in comics form.  Back home, her eyes have been glued to the books, even when we went out for lunch today... all the way in the car right up to the restaurant and until the food arrived!  Hmmm, this is the right time for her to start drinking in all the boring stuff, which she finds interesting!  By the time she is taught Simpulan Bahasa in Primary 1, it would  already be at her finger tips! ;)

Short Stay At Hilton Sentral (26 - 27 July 2014)

We are back from our 2-day 1-night stay at Hilton Sentral!  We did not realize how hazy the KL skyline is until we checked out from the hotel this afternoon. Now we are choking at home. The haze is pretty bad :(

Here are some of the pictures taken during our short staycation:






We stayed at the Executive Floor as usual, to enjoy all the benefits that come with it such as complimentary food three times a day and free WiFi at the Executive Lounge.  Hubs booked two rooms - Cass roomed in with us and the other 2 girls slumbered with their grandma.

Check out my computer addicts. While waiting for the buffet at the Executive Lounge to start, they hogged the 2 computers at the lounge and messaged their friends in Facebook. Can't believe my kids are more Facebook addicted than I am *roll eyes*


Cass who has her daddy's foodie genes truly enjoyed herself with the buffet spread.  This year she is matured and tall enough to get food on her own.  This rascal now refuses me to take food for her.   She gets so much thrill selecting her choice of food from the sumptuous buffet line.




A pose from the camera-shy tween...








Our breakfast at the Hilton Sentral coffee house this morning. Love their buffet breakfast to bits.  But I find that as I age, I can't possibly stomach so much food anymore, which in a way is good as I actually feel healthier eating lesser.


I shared this heart-shaped waffle with Sherilyn.  I decorated the waffle with chocolate syrup and boysenberry sauce ;)



I ate mostly fresh fruits, freshly juiced fruits, Japanese cuisine, muesli and eggs at the breakfast buffet.  These days, I hardly indulge in bacon and sausages (which was once my favorite) and pastries anymore. And I have totally weaned myself off deep fried food!  *feeling awesome*!!


Cass shared her roti canai and dhall with me.  I used to love roti canai, still do but am controlling my portion.




Before we checked out from Hilton Sentral, the foodie hubs bought some mooncakes from the hotel, which cost a freaking RM22++ each for a pathetic sized mooncake!! I would never splurge on such an item. But for my man, splurging on food and enjoying them makes him really happy.

After we checked out from the hotel, we went to Mid Valley Megamall for lunch and shopping.  I bought some more Rainbow Loom bands for the girls.  This time, I bought them the kit as well.

After an enjoyable 2 days, this is the aftermath...


Piles of stinky and damp clothes.



After washing and hanging out 2 full loads of dirty laundry, house cleaning, bathroom washing and finally at 7:45pm, I now have the time to post this up ;)

Short Staycation

Today we will be off on a short staycation at one of the 5-star hotels in town that hubs is a member to.  These hotel getaways are our yearly affair for the past 9 years and the kids enjoy and look forward to each stay.   For me, I think it is more of a chore haha!  Well, I used to enjoy these stays but that was when we had the luxury of maids to help up with doing everything. Oh, how I miss those 'princessy' days of mine where I had 2 maids to help me out.  Those were the good old days. Nothing is perpetual.  Things in life are fluid, as with happiness and sorrow. 

Now, I am alike the maid.  How I hate packing, unpacking and doing the laundry after the 2 days of fun in the city but oh well, the kids love it, so I have to love it begrudgingly just so to see my angels happy. Oh well, that's motherhood, did I not mention many times?  Motherhood means having to 'enjoy' doing things that you do not enjoy.

The picture below was taken in one of our many hotel stays about 8 years ago, at Hilton Sentral...






Here's wishing all my Muslim readers "Selamat Hari Raya" and happy holidays to everyone else! :)

4 Tips for a Healthier Family

Do your kids enjoy fresh air and exercise? Do they eat sweets in moderation and never complain about their brussel sprouts? If they're anything like the rest of America's children, they could probably have healthier habits. But what can you do to instill them in a culture full of fast food and TV?  Here are just four tips for getting your kids off the couch.

1: Make It Fun
Your children may or may not be interested in joining you for your morning jog. If you put them on a soccer field, however, they'll cover the same distance without complaining or even realizing what they've done. The key to curbing childhood obesity is through engaging, interactive activities that don't feel like exercise at all.

2: Don't Ban Sweets
Anything you forbid will become instantly attractive to your children. A better strategy is to allow junk food in moderation so they'll understand that sugar and carbs aren't the enemy. Overindulgence is.

3: Add, Don't Subtract
In the same vein as the above, it's better if you don't throw out all the hamburgers and immediately start forcing your kids to chew tofu. Instead of making them pine for lost favorites, gradually introduce new, exciting ways to eat healthy foods that will become their favorites in time.

4: Change Your Habits
At the end of the day, there's no such thing as a quick fix to better health. If you're serious about raising your children with positive attitudes towards food and fitness, you'll need to change your routines entirely. Visit sites like KingInstitute.org to learn more.

Cass The Number Cruncher

Cass is still very much into number crunching ever since she got hooked on solving Math sums more than a year ago.

Now that she has mastered additions (up to 5 digits and even more sometimes), she has moved to subtraction and is now pretty adept with numbers involving hundreds. N

Cass' latest craze is doing mental subtraction with numbers involving 100 with a two-digit number (eg. 100-26, 100-36, 100-73, etc), done without doing any written calculation. She can come up with the correct answer in just seconds using her mind along with her fingers.  I am impressed that she has now beaten her 2nd sister and at times, she is even faster than her eldest sister in mental subtraction. And she has not even attended any Math enrichment class or mental arithmetic lessons.  But she told me adamantly that when she goes to che che's school next year, she wants to join the mental arithmetic class and take part in Math competitions!  I'll see....

Cass bugs me to give her Math sums whenever she is bored. She hates being bored and cannot stand doing nothing. She loves to work her brain up with Math sums.  In a way, she is making me work out my brain too and I have to work my brain really hard to get the answer before she does!  All done without any calculator, on the go!  Even when I am driving! lol!

I am now training Cass multiplication. As of today, she has mastered multiplication by 2, 5 and 10. She is now working on 3s. This is by far my proudest achievement from Cass and honestly, I did not do much to stir up her interest in Math. I have very little time to read to her, what more teach her Math. It is during the free time that we have while waiting for our food to arrive when we eat out, in the car and in our hospital visits that I teach her Math.  Hopefully Cass' interest in Math will never wane. 




Cass at 6 years 3 month.
She brings along her Math workbooks whenever we go out!  And nope, it is not my idea ok.  She does it out of her love for numbers! :D

Mixed Fruits Ice-Blended Smoothie

Lately, I am back at churning out fresh smoothies for my darlings after a short hiatus!

After seeing how effective a full mug of smoothie can help Cass evacuate her bowels, I have been diligently swirling out a medley of fruit smoothies for the girls for the past few days.

Today I made ice-blended orange + apple + kiwi + fresh lychee + chia seeds smoothie for the girls.



Within less than a minute, my smoothie guzzler downed a glass of smoothie.

 


And it produced the same powerful effect on her guts today, an hour later!  After lunch, she surprised me with something on the throne. 

For someone who has always struggled with constipation, being able to make her dumps effortlessly without pain is a victory. 

This mommy just has to spend 20 minutes each day peeling and chopping fruits and happily pressing the buttons on her Blentec to produce 3 full glasses of rich and refreshing smoothie :)

I. Hate. Katsaridaphobia!

I. HATE. PHOBIAS. 

I. HATE. COCKROACHES.
 
And I have Katsaridaphobia! That's fear of cockroaches.

Cass always asks me this: "mummy, why do God have to create cockroaches?"  Or "why did God create bad people, why did God create moths, etc. etc?" 

Why do phobias even have to exist?!

Of all the insects and objects in this world, why do I have to fear something so small?  In fact, I am terrified of any insect that have flappy wings that can fly, especially those than emit bad odor like our 'siew keong' (aka cockroaches in Cantonese). 

And you know what? I always think I have sixth sense.  This morning when I woke up at 4:45am, I just had this hunch that a cockroach is lurking in the house!  And I am damn right.  My sixth sense has never failed me.  Just as I opened the bathroom door, OH MY GOD!  I saw this really huge black ugly roach slowly creeping on the floor... right smack in the middle of the bathroom!  So how the heck am I and the girls going to use the bathroom?  I felt like screaming my lungs out.  I quickly woke up the hubs.  I did not care if he would say unsavoury things like "eeyer, why wake me up so early and blah blah blah".  I just needed him to get rid of that enemy in my house!

Thank God my sweet hubs pulled his butt out from bed. I quickly passed the bottle of Sol-U-Guard spray (from Melaleuca and damn good in killing roaches and mozzies, savely) to hubs.  He quickly sprayed the tea tree oil solution on the fler but as elusive as the roaches are, it just managed to disappear itself right before our eyes.  I was horrid.  As long as the fler is not caught, it could just be anywhere - it could be on my bed or under my pillow!  EEEEEWWEEEEE!!  I wanted to flee from my own home!

I had no time to waste. I could not afford to waste all my time finding the elusive roach.  I had chores to do and I had to get the girls up for school.

After the girls had gone to school, I bugged the hubs to find the roach no matter what!  He so kindly helped me find siew keong by moving the bed to check under the bed.  He even pulled the heavy king-size mattress up to see if siew keong is clinging on to its dear life underneath but no, it ain't there.  Then hubs surprised me by propping up the super heavy divan bed to check inside while calling out "siew keong, where are you?"  LOL!  My hubs, he is sweet like that lar.  He makes me fuming mad all the time with his MCP (Male Chauvinist Pig)attitude yet can make me giggle like a silly teenager. But the bad news is siew keong is still no where to be found!

I have just gotten back from the mini mart with a pack of cockroach bait and have just placed a bait in every room and bathroom.

I hope siew keong's body will be found tomorrow, else I will be living in fear!!  Dear Lord, please get rid of my fear of cockroaches, pleassssse!  Amen.

Impeccable!

Today Cass surprised me when she used the word "impeccable"... in an impeccable situation with the correct expression!

The MIL made some pesto sauce today.  After Cass tried it, she said "mummy, the pesto sauce tastes impeccable!"  I was impressed and asked where she learned the word from, to which she told me that she heard Kent saying "your cooking is impeccable" to Barbie in a Barbie movie!  She had watched that movie infinity times.

So there you go.  Watching TV ain't that bad after all, provided you screen what you let your kids watch ;)

How time flies.  It feels like it was just yesterday that my baby C was in my tummy...



And I remember those baby C days. Those days were a nightmare to me, for 15 months. If you have been reading my blog long enough you will know why. But her charm did pull my heartstrings just at the right way despite of what I had to go through with her.

Baked Wraps With Beef Bolognese

There is still a big portion of beef bolognese sauce that MIL cooked 2 nights ago for our spaghetti.   Since Cass and I prefer bread vs. spaghetti noodles, I bought a pack of wholewheat Mission wraps this morning and made Beef Bolognaise Wraps for lunch!

First, I spread the beef bolognese sauce onto the wraps and topped it  with a slice of cheese.  Seal each wrap by pressing the sides with a fork.  Then baked in the oven for 15 minutes at 160 degrees Celsius.




Cut the baked wrap into half so that it is easier for Cass to eat. 
Serve with cool cucumbers, organic raw alfalfa sprouts and avocado.
And here is Cass' wholesome lunch,  tadaa...



One thing though that I do not quite like about Mission wraps is that there is preservative added.  IF I have the time, I will definitely make my own wraps and pita bread. IF I have the time that is... haha!

 

Cass liked it so much that she ate one of my halves, which means she chomped down three halves or 1.5 pieces of wraps. This girl sure has a ravenous appetite!
 

Muscovado Sugar

Recently, my mil started to use organic Muscovado sugar to bake bread and cakes. When I first saw it, I was stunned. I have never heard of such a sugar for the life of me! But I knew for sure it must be more superior than white or brown sugar.  My mil only puts in good stuff into her bakes, makes and cooking.



 So I googled Muscovado sugar and here is what I found:
 
Muscovado sugar takes its name from the spanish 'mascabado' (meaning unrefined). Also known as Barbados sugar. This sugar is pure, wholesome, unrefined, natural cane sugar. It is also called 'poor man's sugar'.

Muscovado sugar retains all of the natural ingredients of sugar cane, making it wholesome and healthy. High in nutitional value, comparable even to pure honey.

Muscovado sugar is unrefined, with a high mineral content. Common in South America and south east Asia, but comparably more difficult to find in the USA.

Usage
It is used just like normal sugar. Excellent for baking, cooking, and as a coffee/tea sweetener.

Production Process
The production process is very traditional. The main ingredient is natural cane sugar, but some of the other ingredients are small lime (called kalamansi or calamondin, often described as a cross between a mandarin orange and a kumquat) and fresh coconut milk. The coconut milk is used in the heating process to prevent the sugar cane juice from foaming.

The heating process evaporates the water content and the cane juice will gradually thicken into a gooey liquid. This liquid is sun-dried. The hardened sugar will then be pounded to produce the natural, unrefined muscovado sugar.

Nutrient value
Compared to normal white sugar, muscovado sugar retains all the cane sugar nutrients. High in minerals: potassium, calcium, iron, it has more health benefits compared to normal white sugar, which has zero nutrients, as the refining process to produce white sugar has practically eliminated all traces of nutrients from it.

Grandeur Teppanyaki @ Taste Enclave, Avenue K

This blog post is supposed to have been done about two months earlier. That was when we first visited Avenue K and had lunch at Taste Enclave, a swanky atrium (some may call it high-class food court) comprising 16 stalls and 4 mini restaurants, serving a smorgasbord of local and international cuisines.

As usual, I find it too time-consuming to do a post on a restaurant or eatery.  So  this post is going to focus mainly on pictures (well, not too crystal clear ones as the lighting at Grandeur Teppanyaki was a tad dim) and not so much on my review of the restaurant.

The highlight of our lunch at Grandeur Teppanyaki was this teppan chawan mushi.  I was awed when the teppan chef told me that he was going to prepare our teppan chawan mushi, which is traditionally prepared steamed.

First he stir fried some fresh mushrooms on the hot steel plate.  Then, he placed 3 huge onion rings on the hot plate...





Then he poured in the egg mixture inside the onion rings and added in the mushrooms...




Then let the egg mixture cook inside the onion rings on the hot plate...
 


Dish out from the hot plate and serve nicely on a plate.  Very impressive indeed as it was our first time trying out teppan chawan mushi.  But honestly, I still prefer the traditional steamed chawan mushi as the texture is smoother.




These are part of the dishes off the menu that we ordered and they were all very yummeh!



Love this teppan fresh mushrooms and abalone. Excuse the dim and black background as the table is black in color and the entire food court is not very brightly lit up.











We enjoyed our teppan lunch very much and would definitely come back again to try other dishes.

Rating on HFM's scale = 8/10


Grandeur Teppanyaki @ Taste Enclave
L2-6B, L2-8, L2-9, L2-10 Level 2, Avenue K
No. 156, Jalan Ampang
Kuala Lumpur City Center