Yummy dishes whipped up by the MIL for the past 2 days...
Dinner on 17 Sept 2015...
1. Sauteed zucchini with fresh baby shrimps bought from Kuala Selangor last week.
2. T-bone pork chop with big onions.
3. Fish soup with tomatoes and tofu. It's her first time dishing up this soup and it's so yummy. The kids love it! You can even add in some veggies and chicken fillet to make this a one-pot dish.
4. Steamed black rice with Korean rice
Dinner a few nights ago...
1. Stir-fried organic red spinach with garlic
2. Assam fish with ladies fingers, tomatoes and brinjals
3. Sauteed celery with pork slices. You can replace it with chicken fillet or minced beef.
The MIL will be leaving for Hong Kong by end of this month and well, the kitchen's all mine again. I'm having bitter and sweet feelings about being a cook once again for the next few months. Right now, I have totally lost my mojo to cook. I'll need a few days to pick up the momentum. Thankfully my new part-time maid told me that she loves cooking (she used to be a cook!) and does not mind cooking for us **BIG GRIN and feeling thankful**
I received another batch of Izumio and Super Lutein on Sunday! Since my friend sent the stock to me on a Sunday, Cass was around to help me lug them up to our unit on the 5th floor.
We are pumping up extra packets of Izumio hydrogen water during these crazy hazy days and thank God, everyone is still in the pink of health with no throat irritation, cough, flu or other ailments.
Did I tell you that I managed to meet the company's deadline and won myself a FREE all-expense with free pocket money trip to Japan to visit the Super Lutein factory? Yup, I made it just in the nick of time on the day of the deadline, phew!!! But sadly, I can't go as the trip is during a school-going week!! Nonetheless, our big boss has kindly allowed me to swap the Japan trip with another full package of Izumio worth over RM5,000, woohooo!!! Working for Naturally Plus is really rewarding. I can work at my own pace and the benefits are awesome!
If anyone of you is interested to know how this Naturally Plus business works to help you earn passive income, do drop me an email me at shireenyong@gmail.com to find out more :)
The haze is getting worse each day. Today is really really bad, so bad that we have to shut all our windows and get baked inside our house at 33 degrees Celsius. I can even smell the smog inside the bathroom when I shower!
But thankfully we have Izumio hydrogen water to help us stay healthy and keep those vexatious throat irritation and coughs at bay.
And not forgetting my daily dose of fresh smoothie for everyone. Today's smoothie composes of pineapple, orange, cucumber and fresh coconut water.
The MIL has also been diligently boiling a medley of cooling herbal drinks for everyone everyday.
Lin Chee Kang with Luo Hon Guo - a sweet herbal dessert with a concoction of cooling and nourishing ingredients - Luo Hon Guo, lotus seeds, suet yue (white snow fungus), dried longan meat, dried lily bulbs, palm sugar and pandan leaves.
Here's a rare picture of Cass with her hair let down...
Picture was taken this morning when she was watching the idiot box. Today is a school holiday for Primary 1 - 3 pupils in her school due to the UPSR exam ongoing in school.
My baby girl ain't a baby anymore, though I still call her 'baby girl' and carry her like a baby. She is very much a vain pot, thank GOD!! I would be very worried if she has this "I don't care about my image" kind of attitude, like someone in the house! But thank goodness that 'someone' is starting to put more effort in her appearance these days, unlike her younger days.
Cass would examine herself in the mirror everyday before leaving the house. If something is not right with her hair or outfit, she'll fix them until she looks pretty enough to leave the house. Sometimes we would be late coz this vain pot wouldn't leave the room until her hair is tied to perfection!
This baby girl of mine is a big big fan of noodles, in particular bitter gourd pork vermicelli and pan meen. She'll squeal in delight whenever I tell her that there is her favorite noodles waiting for her when she comes back from school.
Last week, Cass almost choked and puked when she was gulping down her pan meen. Half way through eating, she was gagging on her noodles. I asked her to spit out whatever that's in her mouth, which she did. But she was still trying to pull out something that's still gagged inside her throat... and holy moly, she pulled out a looooong strand of mok yue (wood fungus)!! OMG, had I not asked her to spit everything out, this girl may have tried to swallow everything in and then....
I daren't think of the consequences.
And she could still do monkey faces for me to snap this picture!
Moral of the story is- cut cut cut up the noodles, veggies and whatever that's in long strands for small kids. Even a 7-year old can choke and if there ain't any adult nearby, well... *shudders*!!
We spent our Merdeka holiday at Mid Valley Megamall - shopping, eating and trying out new snacks. Though it's exactly a week away from Alycia's UPSR exam, we are still doing shopping and all. All study and no play makes the big girl mumpish and cantankerous . She still watches the TV, reads novels and newspapers and takes her usual 2-hour nap everyday. And she needs her ice-cream on cone and chocolates everyday to keep herself sane during this stressful period!
Anyway, back to our food therapy at Mid Valley Megamall. After 2 cones of Nana's Green Tea Ice-cream shared among the four of us, Sherilyn was pestering me for Jipangi. We walked past Jipangi ice-cream stall several times recently but didn't get the chance to try it as the queue was very long.
Photo above credits to Eat Drink KL.
Jipangi is a soft-serve ice cream in J-shaped puffed corn canes, a conspicuous attraction that hails from Insadong in South Korea's capital. With the ice-cream on both ends, well, it transforms into something that's feast for your eyes!
It is unclear whether the shape was created intentionally or otherwise, but it sure hasn’t stopped people from taking pictures with it – some in very distasteful demeanor.
Photo above credits to Eat Drink KL.
Cass still munching on her Nana's green tea ice-cream and Sherilyn waiting for her Jipangi ice-cream.
Folks, be prepared to be the subject of stares and giggles if you walk through the mall while licking on this thingy. Many will have their imagination running wild looking at the shape of the ice-cream, including moi, :D Each cane - which can be snapped into two and shared - is stuffed with a choice of vanilla, chocolate or their new flavor - durian (RM7). Or have two flavours, one on each end, for RM9.
Sherilyn chose durian and vanilla, which cost RM9. She shared it with me.
According to Jipangi, the cones they use are made from pure corn, traditionally roasted in a Korean recipe. The brand further revealed that the corn is sourced from the highest quality farm in the US and the cone will be a healthier and tastier alternative for ice cream lovers compared to the conventional sugar coated cone.
To ensure that your ice-cream does not melt and get messy, lick the ice-cream on both ends in tandem.
Quality may not be a priority here. Nonetheless, this novel cool dessert is a fun snack and enjoyable.
For Cass, after drinking half a packet of Izumio hydrogen water first thing in the morning, she is already half full. For breakfast, the girls can't stomach heavy food like sandwiches or eggs. They normally have biscuits, cakes, buns, Edamame beans or cereals.
Here's Cass eating mangosteens for breakfast. Like mother like daughter. She's quite a health freak too! On some days, she will eat a handful of baked cashew nuts or drink a quarter cup of yoghurt drink. That's the most she can stomach at ungodly pre-dawn hours.
You've taken steps by installing an alarm system monitoring home entry ways and systems for fire and carbon monoxide. You can sleep easy knowing the alarm will sound if someone comes into your home or if your teenager tries to sneak out. Plus, you feel secure that you'll be awakened in plenty of time if a fire occurs or carbon monoxide creeps to high levels. But, depending on the region where you live, other natural disasters could take place. Your entire family needs to know what to do if such an event transpires, and to practice the routines. Just like with fires and the Stop, Drop, and Roll routine, there are measures you can take to prepare and practice for each one of nature's furies. Whatever the potential danger in your region may be, set up a location for family members to meet and a communication routine so everyone knows who is safe and who may need help.
Earthquakes
If you live in an identified high-risk earthquake zone, some preparations you can take include double securing anything in your home that could topple, like heavy bookshelves and wall hangings. Practice the Drop, Cover, and Hold on routine. Drop to your knees so you're not knocked down, Cover your head and neck, and Hold on to something sturdy.
Tornadoes
Weather services can predict severe storms with conditions that could produce tornadoes. Pay attention to watches and warnings and take them seriously. Have a predetermined safety area in your home to gather during any warnings. Practice getting to safest area of protection.
Hurricanes
Evacuation is recommended when a hurricane is predicted. The 5Ps make up an evacuation plan in order of importance: People; Prescriptions and medically necessary items; Papers, such as insurance, deeds, and social security cards stored and packed as hard copies or on portable thumb drives; Personal needs, such as cash and credit cards, water, food, clothing, and a first aid kit; Priceless items that cannot be replaced like photo and mementos. Having the items stored in a bag labeled for evacuation is the quickest way to get them to safety with you.
Other disasters include floods and wildfires that could hit any region, therefore, plans should be in place. By preparing and planning you have a better chance to keep your family safe.
Although I own an online store selling clothes, I do not splurge on clothes for my girls and myself as and when I fancy, albeit most times I will be really tempted to do so. This I have to give credit to my dad and mom on training me how to be frugal since young :) Some of my suppliers dress their kids up in new clothes almost everyday. They keep a piece of every apparel design for their kids before selling them. I wonder if their kids have the chance to wear so many clothes. At home, my kids don on old clothes, sometimes in rags like a hobo as they said rags are more comfortable to wear!
In fact, it is me who often ask my girls if they would like to have new clothes by showing them the photo of the apparel from my supplier's website. Most of the time, they will say "NAH, no thanks"
Just the other day, I asked Cass if she would like to have some of those pretty dinner dresses and this was her reply to me "it's OK. I am worried that if you keep buying me clothes, you will go BANKRUPT mummy. You save the money ok!"
Bankrupt? Can I even go bankrupt buying clothes? LOL!
Cass is pretty matured and logical in her thoughts. Sometimes she shocks me with how well thought her reasoning is.
After less than a year of lessons from a new swimming coach, Cass can now swim pretty well. She has finally gotten rid of her phobia of breathing in the water.
I bring her swimming 2-3 times a week. I would love for her to swim everyday but she has other activities and tuition on other days. Swimming can strengthen her muscles and studies have shown that daily swimming of 30 minutes can help to treat incontinence. The only downside from swimming so often in the afternoon is that she now spots a permanent tan on her skin... the healthy looking kind of tan that is! ;)
For those of you who have been quietly enduring pain each time you squat down, walk, run or climb stairs, fret not if you are not keen to take glucosamine. You can relief your knee pain or joint pain naturally with antioxidants or carotenoids.
Super Lutein is a nutritional supplement containing 6 types of carotenoid. It is formulated with lutein, lycopene—found in tomatoes, zeaxanthin—found in maize and egg yolk, as well as α- and β-carotene—found in the orange-coloured pigments of carrots and pumpkins.
One of our team members' customer took 6 capsules of Super Lutein daily (total of 2 bottles of Super Lutein) and her knee pain was totally gone! She now takes 3 capsules of Super Lutein for maintenance of good health.
When an elderly family member has an injury or experiences a long-term illness, the family is faced with some tough decisions. Hospitalization is not only expensive, but it can also be impersonal as well. That is why many people choose to utilize in-home senior care services from organizations such as Advanced Nursing And Home Support to help in the long-term care and recovery of their loved ones. There are many benefits to utilizing a professional service that allows elderly patients to experience their long-term rehabilitation from home.
A Personal Touch
Professional nurses that work for in-home services can help elderly patients to take care of personal issues such as bathing and dressing. It is a service that is provided in the privacy of the patient's home and allows the patient to retain a strong measure of dignity and personal satisfaction.
Home Maintenance
When elderly patients recover at home, one of the worries can be that some of the home care duties such as laundry and pet care may be forgotten. But a professional service will take care of those light housekeeping duties and allow the elderly patient to enjoy their pets, as well as a clean home at all times.
Getting Around
One of the more challenging side-effects of recovering from a medical setback can be the inability to get around town and run errands. Elderly patients do not want to miss out on seeing their friends and family members at the grocery store, and they certainly do not want to have to miss important doctor appointments. In-home care experts make sure that elderly patients get to where they need to go and enjoy the freedom that comes with being able to go shopping and run errands each day.
Long-Term Home Care
Sometimes the families of elderly patients are forced to decide if their loved ones will live in senior facilities, or their own homes for their remaining years. Thanks to the in-home medical services provided by professional organizations, elderly patients can live at home and enjoy the familiar surroundings of a life that they have worked so hard to create.
When it comes to getting long-term medical treatment of any kind, nothing beats being able to be home while you are receiving care. Thanks to the dedicated professionals that work for in-home care organizations, an elderly patient can be at home and get the medical attention they need at the same time
Our Saturday night dinner at the newly opened Macaroni Cafe @ Faber Towers, KL...
As you can see on the menu, prices are pretty reasonable.
Spaghetti bolognese for Cass...
Succulent grilled chicken with mushroom sauce for moi. Very nicely executed. I liked it.
Lamb stew for the man... but we were too stuffed from over-ordering and had to take-away the unfinished portion. Very flavorsome dish for lamb lovers but slightly too salty for my palate.
Burger for him too...
Mushroom pasta for Sherilyn...
Pizza for the girls.
Long strands of chewy cheese pulled out from the pizza! I am no pizza lover (too cruel for my waist line and belly and trashing the unwanted muffin top will see me swimming extra laps each morning!) but the girls don't mind having them 7 days a week.
Wish I was young again with super efficient metabolism to auto-burn all these greasy and creamy carbo without having to painfully exercise so hard! Miss Drama Queen guzzled down this tall glass of strawberry milk shake!
Check out the foamy cream on top. Gawd, if I guzzle this down, I think I will need to skip dinner for a week!
My absolute favorite - chawan mushi in giant bowls, which were ordered from the Japanese restaurant opposite Macaroni.
The crowd can be robust during the weekends, so do make a booking in advance.
Macaroni Food And Coffee Cafe
Lot G10, Faber Tower (Taman Desa),
Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
03-7983 3488
Today one of our team members received another very happy news from her customer. The customer's husband was diagnosed with uncontrolled diabetes, high cholesterol and suspected to have metabolism disorder in April 2015. In under four months that he was on Izumio and Super Lutein, all the above disorders have been well under control.
Have a read on the message between our team member and her customer...
If you are suffering from diabetes, high cholesterol and metabolism disorder and want to treat these disorders naturally, why not give Izumio and Super Lutein a try?
For more reading on Izumio and Super Lutein, please click on the following links:
When Cass alighted from the school van just now...
Me - So how's the result of the Chinese story-telling competition?
Cass (in a really cheery mood) - I did not get into the semi-finals. Only RX and C managed to get in.
Me - it's OK baby
Cass - but I am going to take part in the coming BM story-telling competition! I have already told Cikgu C that I want to take part!! *announcing with renewed hope and optimism*
Me - that's good! I love your attitude and spirit! You have a never-give-up spirit and I like it!
Cass - if I don't win this BM story-telling competition, how?
Me - that's perfectly ok. It's not about winning. It's about courage and persistence. Not everyone dares to go up the stage to talk you know.
Cass - if I don't win in this BM story-telling competition, then I will take part in the English story-telling competition. And what if I don't win the English one, how?
Me - that's OK. Then you start all over again with Chinese, English and BM story-telling competition next year when you are in Standard 2.
Cass - YES! And if I don't win, I will still take part again in Standard 3, 4, 5 up till Standard 6!
Me - even if you don't win, that's OK too.. Someday and somewhere you will win. Just never give up and keep trying.
I just gotta love this girl's eternal sunshine even during her darkest moments in her hospital ordeals!
When I was inevitably forced to quit the job that I love to be a SAHM 10 years ago, I felt really insecure financially. I had a good-paying job with good perks and a great boss, what more could I ask for? But Alycia and Sherilyn's babysitter wanted to retire for good and I didn't trust any other babysitter. So I bit the bullet and threw in my resignation letter.
Three years after I left the corporate world and with tens of thousands of bucks exhausted from my bank account to pay part of Cassandra's surgery bills (which accumulated to over RM50,000 after our 3-week stay at GMC Penang. This amount excludes all her monthly outpatient specialist consultations and drugs), I was itching to make some money to recoup my loss. I set up a blogshop to sell my pre-loved stuff. I later expanded to sell ladies clothing and kids clothing. Five and a half years on, my online store is still running and surviving. Business was good initially as there were not many blogshops around back then. A few years down the road, blogshops started to sprout out like virus in the world wide web. Every other day, I see new blogshops and online stores springing out in Facebook. Competition started to be stiff right until now. Business has now slowed down. Most of my customers now are my loyal customers who have been buying from me for years.
With the recent price hike, GST, savings for my 3 girls' tertiary education and to feed my love for shopping, I wanted to earn more. Then an opportunity came knocking on my door by my blogger friend of 10 years. I turned her down several times as I just wasn't interested in doing MLM business. Plus the products were so expensive! I had dabbled in MLM business several times in the past but with my reclusive and shy persona, no way I could soar in MLM business. One day, she gave me a box of Izumio and told me that she was pretty confident that it would help Cass in her incontinence issue. I was doubtful that the products would work, yet very hopeful. On day 2 of starting on Izumio, Cass reacted positively to it and within a week, I could see significant improvement in her incontinence issue. Sounds too good to be true? Well, it's true!
This month would be the 5th month that I am in this Naturally Plus business to help me generate passive income. The first 1-2 months, I was a tad laid-back but seeing how my friends could earn thousands of bucks every week (some of them every day!), I wanted to be like them too! Like who doesn't like money right? :D
Watch the below videos. They will introduce you to Naturally Plus and the remarkable business opportunity that you can be part of. From this video you can see that it is not that difficult to do this business and anyone can be part of this if you have the right mindset.
This is a summary of the business and roughly how it works…..
Step 1: Buy a package and become a member. Your initial capital is RM5330.00 which will give you 15 products of your choice (IZUMIO / SUPER LUTEIN). With this package, you will also automatically become a member of Naturally Plus and can start earning points. You can consume it if you want (I would highly recommend this) but at the same time, you can also sell it to friends or family for them to try 1 or 2 bottles to get them started. Price per product should you get this package will be roughly RM355. (retail price is RM435).
Step: 2: Start consuming the products. Consuming the products consistently at the right dosage, you will notice and see the difference in your health. If you are healthy (with no health conditions to heal, you will still feel good and will see positive results). It took only 2 days for me to see a remarkable reaction in Cass' involuntary urine dribbling issue. For my other girls and myself, I can say that the products have strengthened our immune system and we no longer easily get throat infections. Even if we are down with a cold or fever, the recovery period is amazingly fast!
Step 3: Start sharing. It can be with family and friends. It can be through blog, through any social media or if you don't like to share, that's OK too. Just don't do anything. Just update me with your progress and my upline and I will help you grow your business. You will be on your way to get that passive income. It will be small at first but it's still free money. Where else can you get free money? The income that you generate from NP business is credited directly into your bank account, how amazing is that! The money can be earned daily, weekly or monthly. How fast and how much you want to earn is entirely up to your effort.
Basically that's it! That's all you need to do. There is no time frame or target on when you should share or how many people you need to introduce this products to. You don't even have to share if you don't want to if you are too shy to share. Updating a photo of the product in your Instagram or Facebook is already considered as sharing. You share about what food you eat, where you go and what you do, so why not share this? Sharing is caring and you can save someone's life, trust me. Most of my customers who took a few products to try eventually signed up for the package.
Once you become a member, you will automatically start your own map. You will be the top of your map, which makes you the leader or the boss of your "organisation" or your business. The map looks like this.
You will have a right and left leg. If you are interested to grow and gain an income from consuming this product, you will want to grow your right leg and left leg as much as possible. If you are just a happy consumer, meaning you DONT WANT to share your knowledge, DONT want to tell people you are consuming this products, or DONT WANT to do anything, like it or not, your map will still
grow by itself.
Why?
Because everyone in the system only has 2 legs. Left leg and right leg. Each time someone above you (your upline) introduces someone to this business or purchase a package, that person needs to place that new customer somewhere on their left or right leg.
For example, if today you sign up a package and become a member, you will NOT be directly under me because I already have people directly under my right and left leg. I will place you somewhere under the people under me. Get it?
Your "tree" or your "organisation" will keep growing as long as people above you keeps adding and signing people up. Even if I don't sign up more people, my leader will still put people she signs up under me. This is because she needs to balance her chart too. In a way, it is a win-win situation.
This business is also about teamwork and I am SO glad and thankful that I have very good leaders who guide me very well. Just tell them your goals and they will help you achieve them.
My leader will help me close the deals if I have problems doing so because she still gets points from my deals. That way, she will always push me to do better because by doing so, she herself is doing better too. And in my case, I will want my leader to do well herself, because if she does well, she will keep adding people under me. It just works both ways. Teamwork is important because in this business, you will want your team to do well because when your team does well, you do well too. Even if someone is not from your team, you will still want them to do well. Here is why:
The bonus structures in the business will also depend a lot of team performances. For example, one of the bonus structure is called the Excellent Bonus. The reward from this is you will get 1% of points derived from total global product sales for the target period divided by the number of qualifiers.
Do you know that this product is sold around the world AND it has been Japan's No.1 product from 2010-2013. Imagine the product sales for this period? Surely a lot right? 1% of GLOBAL product sales is quite a lot already!
The faster you join, the better because that means you will be higher in the chart. So don't wait. Just sign up quickly and join us. You won't regret it. Trust me!
I can be reached at shireenyong@gmail.com
Green smoothie made by the mil consisting of baby bitter gourd, celery, cucumbers, green bell pepper and green apples. Not exactly my kind of smoothie but it's bursting with phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals and disease-fighting compounds. So what the heck, I took a deep breath and gulped this thick foamy green stuff down in a jiffy, BURPS!
Chilled 'tau kok lup' (sauteed long beans with garlic, carrots, prawns, pork, preserved radish and toasted peanuts), which was leftover from lunch and dinner yesterday. It's my favorite and I really don't mind having it in 3 meals straight! It's high in fiber, protein, low in carb and really delish too!
Last Friday, I finally did something that I've always wanted to do but have kept procrastinating - baking!! :D
Sherilyn and Cass have been bugging me for a very long time to bake cookies but my reply to them has always been the same - no time and busy!
I googled for the easiest and simplest Hershey's cocoa cookies recipe ever and watched how cookies are baked on You Tube. The mil was away in Ipoh and I had no freaking idea how to use her cake mixer. So we mixed all the ingredients in a bowl manually AFTER I tried using her new hand held mixer but the mixer blew the flour and cocoa powder everywhere!! Shit, I had a major cleaning up of the kitchen counter top. That was lesson #1. Use a bigger bowl girl!
Cass was REALLY excited to help me bake cookies! It's her dream come true LOL!
She did most of the mixing while I washed the utensils and measuring cups and cleaned up all the flour and cocoa powder on the kitchen top and floor, AARGH!!
The cookie dough texture looked good and they expanded pretty nicely too after baking. The cookies looked kind of perfect from the outside but when I flipped them over, OMG, more than half the batch of cookies were burnt at the bottom *SOBS*
I was totally heartbroken! :(
Only 6 or 7 cookies were perfect.
I figured that I can't set the oven at 180C and bake for 11 minutes though the recipe said so. My mum who is a pro baker advised me to lower the temp to 160C and to reduce the time in the oven to 8 minutes. That's lesson #2.
I was and still am pretty much disappointed with this failure. I think I will need another few months to get over it to try baking cookies again! I told the girls that next time, I'll just try baking a cake from premix cake flour. Let me taste my first baking success FIRST to give me a boost of confidence before I attempt to do another round of baking, HA!
