Jumping Jacks / Star Jumps Health Benefits

I started incorporating strength training into my daily morning exercise regimen sometime in August or September last year. That's about 9 months ago. With strength training, lower abdomen exercises, brisk walking and running, I clock in 40-45 minutes of workout five times a week. Ever since I increased my workout duration with strength / bodyweight training, I lost 2kg of stubborn post-pregnancy fats that I gained after the birth of Cass 11 years ago!!  My weight now hovers between 44.1kg - 44.9kg. It fluctuates throughout the menstrual cycle and I'm always fattest just before Aunt Flow visits.

One of the exercises that I do during bodyweight training is jumping jacks / star jumps.  This is one of the simplest bodyweight exercises to do and it makes you perspire  real quickly.  Just two or three minutes into jumping and I already start to sweat bullets. Enter frog jumps, jumping squats and lower ab exercise and I'll be drenched in sweat.  The more you do it, the more agile your body gets and the happier you'll get each time you step onto your bathroom scale 😁💪

Sometimes jumping gets a bad rap, but when it comes to increasing bone density it is a great thing. A jumping jack is one of the best plyometric exercises out there and it is a fantastic cardiovascular drill. If you are looking for a way to improve your quickness, this is the exercise.

Health benefits of jumping jacks:

1.  Jumping jacks are highly beneficial to the overall health of the heart. It has been found that this exercise aids in combating serious health problems like cardiovascular-based diseases, obesity, and diabetes.

2.  The heart rate is increased while performing jumping jacks, which increases the amount of blood and oxygen that reaches the muscles.

3.  Jumping jacks aids in improving the stamina of the body and its overall endurance level. These simple exercises will improve the overall flexibility of the body; therefore, improving circulation and mobility.

4.  When performing jumping jacks, you are exercising against the force of gravity. As you perform each jumping jack, the muscles actually pull at the bones of the body. This, in turn, strengthens the bones and increases their density. As a result, the chance of developing osteoporosis is drastically reduced.

5.  Jumping jacks burn calories and fat. This will aid in combating against obesity and obesity-related health complications.

6.  Jumping jacks have the ability to increase your metabolic rate. Not only does a high metabolism aid in burning unhealthy fat from the body, but, it aids in toning and sculpting your body so that you are able to look your absolute best!

You don't need to be attired in sports wear to do jumping jacks. I used to do stretching and jumping jacks in my corporate suit bare footed in my room during lunch hour. I also used to run outside the house at 5:30 a.m. with a stick in my hand to ward off muggers and stray dogs and did a second round of running after work at 7 p.m.  That's how I overcame the symptoms of PCOS 19 years ago!

Diabetes

Today the hubs Whatsapped me a photo of his staff who's warded in the hospital. He had one of his legs amputated yesterday from the knee down as a result of complications from diabetes.  Now I can't seem to shake off the image of his staff with just one and a half leg from my mind. 🤦‍♀️

This morning I bought a punnet of onde-onde from the supermarket. There are 6 bite-size pieces in a punnet. I took two pieces and the other four pieces will be shared among the 3 girls. That's how little sweet stuff we eat. Most times during cafe happy hours, a slice of cake will be shared by the six of us in the family. Each one gets a mouthful or two. I don't really suppress my cravings for sinful food but will satiate them with a bite or two. The girls are much more sweet toothed than us adults but they are well informed of the consequences of having too much sugar in their body.

Today after I'd shoved the second piece of onde-onde into my mouth, the image of the staff's pre and post-surgery leg flashed momentarily in my mind and  I almost spat out the kuih! 🤮 I know a mouthful or two of kuih won't hurt but I may have the predisposition of developing diabetes (though my blood sugar is still pretty good now) if I eat without caution as my maternal grandmother had diabetes and this disorder tends to run in the family. Imagine  waking up from your sleep one day only to realize that you now only have one leg and the bad dream that you thought you had has now become your lifelong nightmare! Scary! 😱

Breakfast On A School Day

Breakfast on one of the school days last week:




The mil got up at 5 a.m. to boil dumplings which she made and organic baby sweet potatoes for her beloved grand-daughters. Because the littlest grouchy girl is fed-up of eating eggs, toast, sandwiches and cereal for breakfast at 5:30 a.m.. She doesn't like eating biscuits in the morning. Because this little manipulative brat will just turn her head away from the 'usual breakfast stuff' and go to school with an empty stomach, we have to think of new breakfast menu for her. Just for the littlest brat. See how much loved she is, even though lately she's been really really manipulative and challenging.

Because boiled dumplings are not her kind of breakfast food, my health freak daughter #2 prepped her own healthy low-carb high-protein breakfast consisting of organic traditional rolled oats with premium matcha powder, vanilla, organic Javanese palm sugar, banana and low-fat sugar-free yoghurt.  She made some for me too and it was surprisingly yums!



Early quick lunch with the hubs at PappaRich before rushing back with takeout lunch for Sherilyn and then went out again to drop her off at school...













Love this new item on the menu at PappaRich ~ fried meehoon with chicken curry and sambal sotong. I had less than a quarter of it and doggy-bagged the rest for Sherilyn.

Pesticide-Free Sweet Potatoes

Last week I chanced upon some super slim and short pesticide-free sweet potatoes at the night market.  These purple and orange sweet potatoes are farmed by Orang Asli in Pahang and according to the organic vegetables seller, they are pesticide-free.  The skin can be eaten and the flesh has no thread-like veins.

Some of the purple sweet potatoes are about the size of my fingers. Never have I seen such slim sweet potatoes in my life!



Just like human fingers, some of the purple sweet potatoes are fat and stumpy while some are slim and long.




We had them steamed ~ the flesh is soft, smooth and free from thread-like veins/fibers.



These sweet potatoes are sold at RM12 for 3 packets.  These tubers are one of the best I've tasted. They'll taste even better when roasted.

Our Sunday, 28 April 2019

When the girls were younger, we always had lunch together every Sunday - the hubs and I and our 3 angels and sometimes with the mil if she's around. There was hardly a Sunday when we didn't have lunch together. When Alycia and Sherilyn were toddlers, we used to have buffet lunches at hotels every single Sunday as it used to be the cheapest place for us to go to!  Our favorites were PJ Hilton and Sheraton Subang.  Throwback to 10-15 years ago, there was this buy-1-free-1 buffet lunch or dinner freebie when you join a certain hotel membership. The hubs was a member of two of such hotel chains for many years.  Thus, we had all the buffet lunches and dinners to our hearts content for the price of ONE ONLY!  The girls ate for free every time. How I miss those days of gobbling down the spread of fresh sashimi, raw oysters, grilled Unagi and salmon head with unlimited servings.  And my appetite was bigger back then vs. now.  Cheap buffet meals aside, we had free hotel stays too at 5-star hotels!

Those were the good old happy days of  cheap hotel meals and free staycations. I do miss those days very much when the girls were younger, cuter and easier to manage; no tween and teenage temper tantrums and they cost cheaper to maintain too with fewer activities in their lives.  Those were the days before the invasion of electronic devices and social media, before the girls morphed into dopamine frazzled zombies. 🧛‍♂️ 🧟‍♀️

These days, hubs and I find that we could no longer eat like champs with a bottomless pit. As we age, so do our metabolism.  Food cravings are fewer now than before. Hotel buffet meals have been cut down to only once or twice a year during special occasions like Ramadan dinner with his staff or gathering with friends. 

Lunch and dinner during weekends these days are hardly with the entire family together. One of the teenage girls will almost always be unable to join us as she'll be either cramming for an exam, attending tuition, rushing to finish a project or practising for a dance competition.

My dinner on Saturday and lunch yesterday (Sunday) was a quiet one, spent with just Cass and the mil.

Breakfast on Sunday, prepped by the mil and Sherilyn:



Turkey ham with egg and avo mash (seasoned with lemon juice and black pepper), organic kyuri and organic cherry tomatoes on multi-grain rye bread.

Korean for lunch at Kimchitiam with Cass and the mil.


Alycia had a lunch date with her church youth club friends and Sherilyn stayed home to work on a project with her friends and then for dance practice. She'll be competing in another dance competition this Saturday!

My stalwart Harry Potter fan, always burying her face in a Harry Potter book, despite mid-year exam approaching in days!  *no eye see anymore* 🤦‍♀️

The Ultimate Mother's Day Gift

Mother's Day is around the corner and so is the gift scramble! A great “safe” option for Mother's Day gift is jewelry! This is a versatile gift that every woman loves and we're sure your mom will love and cherish it too. Celebrate the impact this amazing woman has on your life by gifting truly classic fine jewelry that will last for years to come.  If you're unsure what jewelry to gift mom, here's our ultimate gift guide for choosing the perfect jewelry for the special woman in your life this Mother's Day.

Monogram Necklace
A gold monogram necklace with a personalized pendant of engravable disc monogram initials allows you to engrave both sides of the disc with up to thirty letters. Initials of your mom's name on the front with a special message on the reverse side makes this necklace a unique one designed just for mom!




Hearts are perfect for moms
Show mom just how much she's loved by gifting jewelry with heart features.  Look for heart-shaped pendants on necklaces, rings, bracelets, or earrings. Adding elements like diamonds or gemstones are a great way to show mom how much she is loved.

Mom-themed jewelry 
Jewelry with the word “mom”, "super mom" or "awesome mom" designed into the piece will be something that she can wear everyday that reminds her that she's appreciated and loved.




Family-themed jewelry 
Jewelry that celebrates the whole family will guarantee mom will cherish the gift even more. There are lovely pieces that use all the children's birthstones, engraved names or initials to create a unique gift just for mom.


Knowing your mom's specific style and taste is the key to figuring out what type of Mother's Day Jewelry is perfect for her.  If you did not find any inspiration in the pieces we have listed here, you may be looking for a unique gift for mom.  Perhaps you can consider adding a pearl or a gemstone to the piece of jewelry you pick out for her to make it a stand out piece. Or consider a Gorgeous Personalized Small Celeb necklace in platinum, gold or rose gold.





No matter the piece of jewelry you choose for your mom this Mother's Day, she will be grateful that you took the time to think of her.  If you have not told your mom for the longest time just how much you love and appreciate her, this is the best time  to get her a Mother's Day jewelry gift to remind her of your love for her.  We're sure that your mom will be thrilled to show off her new piece to all of her friends and family! If you still did not find the exact piece you are looking for, you can browse the website here.

What's Causing Your Electricity Bill To Skyrocket?

Our electricity bills cost us the earth, every single month, with figures ranging from RM450 to RM500 every month, for the past few years. Shocking right? Considering we only stay in a 1,500 sq feet condo and there are only the 6 of us. I still don't understand how we can utilize so much of electricity every month. Air conditioner is only turned on for 2-3 hours in two rooms and for my room, it runs for 8-9 hours every night. That seems a lot but I have friends and relatives who literally turn on their air conditioner 24/7 and yet their bills don't exceed RM200 a month. They even leave the air cond turned on when they go out so that when they return and step into their house, it's cool and nice. Nice right? Wish I could do this too!  I don't even use the clothes dryer as this will jack up the amount further. So our clothes dryer is a white elephant sitting atop our washer since last year.

We boil water on the stove as well as use a tiny 500ml Russel Hobbs electric kettle once a day in the morning to make coffee and tea. Electric oven is only used occasionally. Ironing is done once every 2 days, for half an hour or shorter. We have two refrigerators and an electric airport flask. I was told by an electrician that the culprits that suck up hell a lot of power are anything that generates heat - iron, water heater, electric kettle, oven and electric airport flask, and of course the air conditioner.

For the longest time, I've been contemplating if I should get rid of the electric airport flask as we don't really need it anymore.  We bought it yonks ago when the girls were babies and replaced the airport flask with a new one last year.  Last month, the mil and I finally agreed to give the electric airport flask to our part-time helper as she's going to have a baby soon.  After a month, I saw magic on the electric bill!

The figures on the bill went down by a starking RM118! I can't believe that the electric airport flask could eat up so much power and money!  But I'll have to monitor our electric bill for the next couple of months to see if the figures have consistently remained at below RM400 before I can put the blame on the electric airport flask.

Once we had an industrial fridge in our house and our electric bill was so high that we discarded the fridge after a year or so. Right after the industrial fridge was removed, our electric bill took a dive and we were so relieved!





A huge drop in the bill from RM465.80 to RM347 in just a month!

Is your house electricity bill on the high side? If it is, you should go around your house to find the culprit, discard the item if it's not very useful to you and you'll be happily saying good riddance when you receive your next electricity bill!

Our Monday, 22 April 2019

I haven't had breakfast with the roomie hubs for about two weeks as he's been too bogged down with work lately. No doubt we see each other every day, but the bevy of hurried and abrupt interactions we have throughout our busy day feel more like baton passes in a relay than anything close to meaningful connection between husband and wife. Feeling like we're like Box and Cox who only say hi and bye each day, we tried to find time to have breakfast together today, after sending Sherilyn to the tuition center. But even our breakfast lasted no more than an hour before I rushed off to drop him back at his shop before picking up the girl from the tuition center and then to the mart to stock up on water containers for the dreaded 4-day water cut that starts on Wednesday. 😰

Chicken And Potato Dishes

A dish with a combo of chicken and potato is magical at our household.  This combo of dish is the only dish that will be finished in a jiffy, with no coercion on anyone to finish their food. No special ingredients are needed when this combo is whomped up in the kitchen. It's a very forgiving dish, I can cook them in whatever ways I fancy and the dish will always be welcomed on the dining table.

These chicken + potato combos never fail to whet the girls' appetite:

Braised chicken with potatoes
Chicken curry with potatoes
Japanese chicken curry with potatoes
Ayam Pongteh with potatoes
Chicken stew with potatoes as one of the ingredients
Roast whole chicken with baked potatoes (one pan dish cooked in the oven)
Grilled chicken drumstick / drummet / chop with potatoes (another one pan dish cooked in the oven)
Fried chicken with mashed potato
Grilled chicken with mashed potato

The list is just endless! What's it with chicken and potato that pair so incredibly well like bread and butter?!





Clockwise from top - Cassandra's dinner and her lunch (after school) and breakfast (before school) for the next day. I can't have the same food for three meals straight but this girl is just A-OK with it!

Best Gift For Her

If you are looking for a gift for the woman in  your life, jewelry can be the best option to make your sweetheart feel special.

Below you will find best jewelry gifts for your girlfriend, wife, sister and even your mum to make your special someone thrilled on her special day.

1.  Couples Jewelry
Express your unity and love to her with a set of Couples Jewelry to show how much you mean to each other. This Yin Yang Necklace Set with Name and Birthstone from Get Name Necklace is the perfect gift for the both of you as you can choose your birth month birthstone embedded into the pendant.  According to Chinese philosophy the yin and yang represent light and shadow,  complimentary forces working together to create a beautiful balance.  Those who wear yin yang jewelry not only bring about positive energy but also good fortune and luck!









2.   I Love You To The Moon and Back Necklace
What better way to tell your sweetheart how much you love her than with this splendid I Love You To The Moon and Back Necklace in hand-finished sterling silver with unique detail that symbolizes everlasting connections.  You can add a custom birthstone on the heart pendant to make it one-of-a-kind. Lavish love on yourself or a loved one with this delicate heart pendant. This is truly an elegant expression of everlasting love.




3.  Custom Engraved Two Birthstones Sterling Silver Ring
Whether she's your girlfriend or wife, there's no better time to show your other half just how much she means to you with a beautifully crafted, thoughtful piece of ring, complete with a customized message engraved. It's a wonderful feeling to be receiving this piece of exquisite jewelry with love's promise engraved within.  Have it customized with 2 crystal birthstones and 2 engraved names - this 2 stone birthstone ring is a beautiful symbol of the forever love between you and your significant other.  Engrave the inside of these bands with a special date, names, or a special message for a personalized touch. These customizable rings from Get Name Necklace make an unforgettable proposal, anniversary, birthday, Mother's Day, or just because gift.



Every woman has her style and every couple has their own unique relationship and meaning to that relationship.  It doesn’t matter how much you spend or what you end up choosing because it is the thought that counts the most.  If you put true effort into finding the perfect gift and making it personal for her, then that is what will really melt her heart.  💗

Organic Food Products

Eating organic doesn't come cheap and I'm only a partial organitarian. Out of the 8 items in the above shopping cart, only 5 items are organic and the total bill already exceeded RM100!  The organic items are cherry tomatoes, raw honey, cucumbers, soy sauce and snacks (baby snacks!).

The Organix baby snacks are really yummy and crispy but expensive!  They are made from non-GMO corn with no added salt and sugar, with a sprinkle of onion powder, tomato powder, sunflower oil, apple powder and Vitamin B1.  At about RM4.50 a packet (one pack contains only 4 small packets), they make great snacks for the girls' recess.

If I were to go 100% organic, our grocery bills will triple the amount each month!

Are you a 100%, partial or occasional organitarian?

Cassandra's 11th Birthday (9 April 2019)

Cassandra's 11th birthday fell on a Tuesday this year.  Being a regular school day with tuition in the evening, we decided to stay home and have a really simple celebration with fast food ~ KFC! 😋😁

This year we couldn't have everyone in the family around to celebrate with Cass.  Her daddy has been super busy with a very important event with media (Mxxx-Bxxx Fashion Week) that runs the entire week. Alycia couldn't have dinner with us on the eve of Cass' birthday as she had Math tuition and Sherilyn was still in school when we had KFC.  Now that the girls are bigger and are busy with their respective activities, it is extremely hard to get everyone together to have lunch or dinner. Surely someone will be away for tuition, dance practice, martial arts class or in school.

On the eve of Cass' birthday, I took her out for dinner. We wanted to have Fusion food, Thai food or Japanese but being a Monday, all the restaurants that we went to were closed.  So we went to Charlie's Cafe, a restaurant run by a East Malaysian couple that serves East Malaysian hawkers fare.
The birthday girl ordered her favorite food - Sarawak curry laksa and Charlie's homemade dark chocolate gelato. 

We tend to bump heads with each other very often lately with me giving her the rough side of my tongue but no matter how furious this girl makes me each time, I still have a soft spot for this very manipulative tween with a mind of her own! Maybe it's because of what we had gone through together during the first few difficult years of her life that makes me value her a little more. And it is because of what she had to endure since birth that forms her character and tendency to be bull-headed.






True-blue Harry Potter fan...




Dark chocolate gelato for the chocolate lover and White Rabbit gelato for Sherilyn who's been itching to try it since its launch several months ago.



Happy birthday baby girl!  Though we're going through a rough patch lately, mummy just wants you to know that you are still very, very much loved.  We'll weather whatever obstacles that we are facing together and we'll come out even stronger and closer, like how we've always done it. Continue to pray to God for His guidance and blessings upon you.  Happy 11th Cassandra and may you be blessed with many, many more happy and healthy years ahead of you💗💗

Our Thursday, 4 April 2019

Today is retail therapy day for us! It's Alycia's school holiday today, a day off given to students as yesterday was the school's sports day.  As usual, it was a very rush 2.5 hours shopping trip as we had to leave by 12:30 p.m. so that Sherilyn could get to school by 1 p.m.  I finally figured that if I leave the house by 9:45 a.m., I'll be able to get my favorite parking spot right outside Aeon mall and I've also found out by chance that there's one exit at the end of basement 2 that brings me into the KL-Seremban highway and through this exit, it only takes me 5 minutes to Sherilyn's school vs. 20 minutes via other exits!

Within the 2.5 hours that we had today, we had to squeeze in brunch, shop for pants for the girls and hunt for a board game called Rummikub for the mil.  The girls wanted to have their ears pierced at Poh Kong Jewelry but our allocated time was too short, again.  So it looks like I will have to bring them to the mall again for ear piercing.

You think my girls will willingly pose for me to snap a picture? I had to bribe them each with milk tea from Tealive!  The things only blogger moms will do 😆




Just because I had forgotten to warn Alycia not to order milk tea with boba, this girl quietly asked for boba in her milk tea knowing very well that I would not have approved of it.  I was in the washroom and left the girls to get their milk tea. You would have read from the news a few years ago on carcinogenic agents found in bubble tea tapioca 'pearls'.  Whether the news is true and over the years have been sugar-coated with claims that the allegation is fake, I rather take the safe route of not consuming boba. Even if there are no carcinogenic or toxic ingredients in them, they are still very high in calories.  I like my milk tea with grass jelly and reduced sugar.




Brunch was at Ko Hyang, a favorite eatery for the K-pop fan of mine.



Someone doing homework at the eleventh hour!




Scrumptious economical Korean grub

46th Birthday

My 46th birthday came and went in a modest and simple fashion. No chi-chi day-long celebration and no fancy gifts. Everyone was busy on my birthday - my hubs, my daughters, my mil and even myself.  But I'm happy as I had a sumptuous and intimate dinner with my family, at a fancy restaurant 😁

Dinner was at Stone Nine by Jiro Shabu @ Old Klang Road. Other than a crazy 45-minute wait for the food to come, we nonetheless enjoyed our personal hot pot Japanese shabu-shabu with premium assortment of meat and toothsome array of specialty dipping sauces to go with the meat.


My visiting SIL from Hong Kong surprised me with cakes from Just Heavenly Cafe @ Bangsar.

I think I have never shared any baby and toddler pictures of myself with everyone eh?  In commemoration of my 46th birthday, I'd like to share with all and sundry my birthday photos taken over 4 decades ago! 😍



Me on my 2nd birthday with Raymond, my elder brother, my sexy mum and my por por in our first house in Moonlight Park, Ipoh.  I can still remember the address by heart, though we moved from the house when I was 12 years old.  My birthday gift was an inflatable Bugs Bunny toy 😁.




Me on my 4th birthday. Mum was preggers with Roy, my younger brother. My birthday present that year was a doll that could blink her eyes and that doll slept next to me on my double bed together with a bunch of soft toys until I was 12 years old!




On my 5th birthday, Roy my younger brother was 11 months old. Next to my granny was Molly, our part-time helper cum nanny, who was only a teenager. She would come over to babysit us whenever there was no adult at home.

Hope you've enjoyed this brief walk with me down memory lane 💗

Ice Plant

We had our first taste of Ice Plant vegetable at Copper Mansion Restaurant during CNY this year. The Ice Plant was one of the ingredients in the 'loh sang' dish along with fried crispy salmon fish skin and other vegetables. It was the best 'loh sang' that I had ever tasted - super fresh and  delish.  I couldn't get enough of the Ice Plant and asked the waitress what vegetable it was and she told us 'suet choy' (ice vegetable). I thought that it was iceberg lettuce but it's not, though the texture is similar to lettuce.

A month later, I stumbled upon Ice Plant at my regular organic vegetable stall at the night market.  The seller was raving about it and gave me 100% reassurance that I would love the Ice Plant.  The leaves consist mainly of water/juice and are slightly salty. The texture is very smooth and crunchy  and chock-full of nutrition. But the price tag is very hefty - RM15 for a small punnet. I can chomp down the entire pack myself. They are so juicy and refreshing that I can eat them on their own without any salad dressing.




Ice Plant is named so because of its cool frosted look. The Ice Plant is a unique vegetable that originated in South Africa. Tiny crystalline beads of bladder cells filled with salt water cover its stems and leaves, which not only makes the ice plant a lovely decorative succulent (look how it glistens in the sun!) but renders it a fascinating culinary ingredient.


Nutritional Value
As it is mainly made of water, the ice plant is low in calories. What it is high in, though are vitamins A, B and C, mineral salts, and isoflavones – a class of phytochemicals that help protect the body against breast cancer, menopausal symptoms, heart disease, osteoporosis and a host of other disorders.   The juice of Ice Plant leaves have antiseptic properties that may be used topically for infections or taken orally for digestive problems. The Ice Plant makes a great addition to any diet, whether you are health conscious or not.

Cass' dinner of Korean rice, homemade kimchi, avocado, sauteed mushrooms with curry leaves, cauliflower, braised pork and Ice Plant.  Super healthy and yums!

Iron Studies Report

The Iron Studies report for Alycia came out yesterday. I was shocked to see how low the readings of her Iron and Ferritin are.  This explains why she looks so pale and sallow.

Surprisingly though, Alycia's energy level is still pretty high. She comes home at 5-6-ish p.m. on most days, takes a rest, then goes to the gym, tennis lesson or Kickboxing class. She does not complain much of feeling tired.

After the clinic staff Whatsapped the report to me, I immediately forwarded it to my friend (Dr. G) who is a hematologist and sought her advice.




Dr. G's advice is for Alycia to take iron capsule (Sangobion) twice a day for 8-12 weeks, after which a full blood count and Iron Studies test need to be repeated. She said that the readings are common and she's not too worried about it.  For now, I just have to ensure that Alycia takes her iron capsules and eats more red meat and green leafy vegetables.  If however the repeat tests show mild anemia with normal iron level, then another test is to be done to check for Thalassemia.

Meanwhile, I've enlisted the help of the mil to boil red dates tonic and red bean sweet soup for Alycia. She has no issue downing red bean sweet soup but with red dates tonic, the mil and I have to coerce her to drink it, just like how we used to feed her medicine when she was a toddler!🤯

Suspected Thalassemia Minor / Trait

Last Saturday, I took Alycia to the clinic to have a complete blood works  done (pee tested too). For the past one year or so, her skin has turned sallow (skin skews yellow). She used to have the perfect complexion - snow skin with rosy cheeks.  I was pretty sure that she was low on iron as she's not been eating nutritiously since a year ago up until now, as she has been staying back in school almost everyday. By the time she comes home in the evening, she eats very little of what the mil cooks. She tells us that she's already eaten in school and God knows what she eats in school. I know she's a carb lover and loves pastries, buns, pau and snacks.  Whenever there's  soup, she will come up with excuses to avoid drinking it.  She dislikes soups and fish (except for salmon and cod. Expensive taste bud this girl has!). She does not like Chinese style of cooking and the mil only knows how to whip up Chinese style dishes. She tells us that she eats 'chap fan' (mixed rice) in school almost everyday and has already grown sick of Chinese style dishes. Thus, she does not have balanced meals on most week days.

At the height of having a huge fibroid with super heavy menses two years ago, I was severely anemic and my skin was sallow too. So that gave me the cue that Alycia is also low on iron. Her menses can be pretty heavy at times.  She turns a deaf ear on me whenever I ask her to eat red dates, wolfberries, beet root, drink nutritious soups and eat nutritiously. She can be pretty stubborn.

Long story short, this is Alycia's blood works report, collected today:





My guess was spot on!  Alycia's moderately anemic.  Also, her blood seems a tad 'abnormal' and at the  look of this report, the doctor opined that Alycia could have Thalassemia Minor / Trait. His advice was for me to bring the report and consult a hematologist.

Cass has a classmate whose mother is a hematologist at UMMC. When I got back from the clinic, I quickly Whatsapped the report to her and sought her opinion.  Thank God for her kind heart, she replied me very quickly and advised that an Iron Study blood works be done to see if Alycia's low on iron. If she's low on iron, then she can be treated with iron supplement. If however her blood is not low in iron, then another blood works has to be carried out to determine if she indeed has Thalassemia Trait.  No fresh blood was needed for this test as the lab can still use the sample blood that's still at the lab.  I asked our GP to go ahead with the blood test.

This aside, everything else looks good and normal.  Cholesterol reading is normal - praise Lord Alycia does not have Familial Hypercholesterolaemia (FH), an inherited condition of high cholesterol.  Blood sugar is normal, pee is clear, liver and kidney functions are A-OK and cancer marker is low.

Happiness In My Balcony Garden

Pretty blooms found in my tiny balcony garden these few days!

Little things like the occasional flowers that sprout out from our plants often put me in a good mood 😊🌺🌻🌹

Three precious flower buds on the Prosperity flower.




This is the second time that this plant has bloomed.  We bought this plant for RM10 at a church charity sale over 3 years ago. When we bought the plant, it only had 3 green leaves on it and was on the verge of dying. After a year of TLC showered on it (with plenty of water, sunshine, egg shells and fruit peel), flowers bloomed!  Cass and I were delighted. Cass loves this plant and has put in a lot of effort taking care of her 'adopted baby'. She chose this plant from among many other types of plants.

White flower on Kaempferia galanga/ sand ginger/ cekar/ resurrection lily plant.



This is the second time that our sand ginger plant bloomed  a single white flower with a known lifespan of no more than one day. The flower only opens up during the day and usually withers after 1 day. But this flower broke the record and it lived for  about 3 days! I thought it withered after just a day but the next morning, the flower 'resurrected' and lived for another 2 days!

12345 Pork Belly

After my initial success with cooking 12345 Pork Ribs and not having enough ribs for myself, I was raring to cook this dish again the next day.  This time, I used pork belly and it was still yummo. Personally I prefer spare ribs as it's not so meaty and ribs are more tender.  The girls have mixed preference though.  To please everyone, the next time I cook this dish again, I will use a combination of both cuts ~ spare ribs and pork belly!   But I guess it will be another few months before I take over the kitchen as the mil is now back from Hong Kong and I am having my LONG leave as chef! 😀









This dish is so appetizing that Cass who does not fancy rice helped herself to a huge bowl of rice. But it's A-OK as I only buy low GI rice (parboiled and organic Basmati).

Always hiding her face behind her novels during meal times. If her dad was around, he would have forbidden this!

So to all the fans of black vinegar pork trotters, this dish is very close to it. And it's as easy as 12345 to dish it up 👍

Steamed Spare Ribs With Yam (Using Philips Pressure Cooker)

The time of the year is here again for my yearly pap smear and ultrasound scan of the breasts. It's something that I DO NOT look forward to.  I've got an appointment to see my gynae this Wednesday to get this dreaded thing done.

What's the worst thing about a pap smear to you? Mine is not so much about opening up for a torturous 30 seconds or so for the doctor to get things done but  waiting for the results.  If the results are normal, my life continues as usual BUT what if something suspicious is seen? Just thinking and typing about it give me a complex already! We just have to accept the ebb and flow of life being a woman.💃

For a moment, I couldn't decide if I wanted this title to be 'The Dreaded Pap Smear' Or 'Steamed Pork Ribs With Yam Using Pressure Cooker'; and if this post is solely only going to be about my fears about my impending pap smear or on both the pap smear and my new recipe.   I guess I'll incorporate both into one post 😁

So here you go, here's my Steamed Spare Ribs With Yam Using my Philips Pressure Cooker (PPC):





It's my first try cooking this dish and first try steaming a dish with my Philips pressure cooker. I had to turn to You Tube for a few tutorials before trying out this dish. As usual, I tweaked the recipe, by using only ingredients that I am comfortable with, like using organic miso to marinate the spare ribs instead of using oyster sauce or taucu (fermented soy beans).

















Ingredients (for 5 servings)
Spare Ribs
One small yam
Chopped garlic
Organic miso
Organic potato starch or corn starch
Organic brown sugar
Pepper
Chopped spring onions
Sesame seed oil
10 tablespoons water

Directions:
Wash spare ribs under running water for at least 5 minutes. You can also blanch it with hot water.
Marinate spare rib with potato starch or corn starch, miso, chopped garlic, brown sugar, pepper, sesame seed oil for a few hours.
Marinate yam with organic miso for a few hours.
Place pork ribs and yam in a heat proof dish. Add 10 tablespoons of water on the plate of dish so that your dish gets some sauce. You can put more water if you prefer more sauce to go with the ribs and yam.
Pour in 1 cup of boiling water into PPC.  Put steaming rack into the PPC and the plate of pork ribs and yam on top.
Switch PPC to Steam mode and cook on KPT 25 minutes, valve turn to SEAL.
Manual pressure release.