Yeast Bistronomy @ Bangsar

The hubs had wanted to bring us to Yeast Bistro @ Bangsar for months but never really got to it due to a variety of reasons. Finally we made a trip to Yeast Bistro last week, on a week day during the school holiday.

When we stepped into Yeast Bistro, we were a tad disappointed as we expected something more than just yeast centered food. On the glass displays were cakes, pastries, breads and everything yeast. The kids wanted pastas and spaghetti very badly while I wanted something more filling like some chops but none of these were in the lunch menu. The kids were very disappointed and urged daddy to walk over to our favorite Aussie bistro, Antipodean to check on a table but daddy came back with tail behind the legs. So we had no choice but to flip the menu at Yeast and order something to eat as everyone was famished.

I was really glad that Antipodean was packed and we were 'forced' to have lunch at Yeast, as originally planned. Though everything that we ordered were yeast based, we nevertheless enjoyed our French lunch very much.


Yeast is a newly opened, chic and cozy bistro that offers unique French cuisine.  The founder of Yeast is a French man and his  Malaysian-born wife. Yeast, specializes in traditional Artisan French breads. I heard that their breads are made using home-grown and natural yeast, which gives the breads a better texture, perfect crust and flavor. 


The first dish that arrived was green pea soup with a slice of artisan bread.  The kids with rumbling tummies polished off the bowl of soup in a jiffy and daddy had to order another bowl.

 



Mesclun Lardons. This is a french salad with egg and tiny chunks of bacon.  Not sure what style the egg was cooked though but this salad dish was yummy!




Spinach quiche set.  The girls polished off this set too and daddy ordered another quiche set, this time Salmon quiche set (not in picture)

 


 
Egg Florentine - love the way the eggs were cooked and I love this kind of healthy and crusty artisan bread with seeds and rye flour.

 


For someone who loves everything almond, I ordered this almond croissant with a generous filling of almond paste, yummae!

 



Egg Ben Turkey. What I love about this French bistro is the way their eggs are cooked.




The Cappucino which I shared with the hubs, which has a swirl of pretty foamed-shaped  swan on the coffee.  But the caffeine in the coffee was SO potent that I felt giddy and heavy-headed immediately!   This seldom happens to me but if I drink really 'kau' artisan coffee, I will get a caffeine overdose, with such symptoms.




For dessert, we ordered a Round Cala Passion Tart and a slice of  Moka Choco cake.  I love the Moka Choco cake while the Cala Passion Tart which has a slightly sourish lemony taste was nothing to shout about.




The bill came up to RM207.64 which is pretty steep for a lunch but for the number of items that we ordered, I think it was reasonable, considering the location of the restaurant and the quality of the food.

Would we go there again?  Most definitely and this time, to try their dinner menu.

Girls' Play

During the recent school holiday, on days that we stayed at home, the girls entertained themselves. Alycia, my TV-addict would be glued to the idiot box and the younger girls would play with each other whenever they were not fighting with each other.

Check out what they did with their soft toys...

They dolled up their soft toys with their hair accessories LOL!  I can see that these 2 vain sisters are very creative and imaginative.  I love the pink hair tie on Cass' 'baby'. Cass said that it was her baby's tutu skirt.

 



And on days when the 2 older girls boycotted Cass, she played on her own.  Her favorite was making food from blue tac.  I got Cass a pack of blue tac which comes in not only blue color but in an assortment of  bright colors.  She will 'take orders' from me and then 'cooked' the food.  She rolled the blue tac with a rolling pin and then cut them into 'cookies', 'doughnuts', 'mushrooms' and just about any type of 'food' with a pair of scissors :D

Coffee And Sinful Indulgence At Ficelle

The day before my parents returned to Ipoh, we brought them to Ficelle Boulangarie to have coffee and desserts after lunch. 

If you have a weakness for pastries and cakes but are on a diet, stay away from Ficelle!!   I succumbed to the temptation and chomped down quite a bit of sinful delights!









I was very, very tempted to grab a piece of Madeleine and Financier but to pay RM2.50 for a minute piece enough for one or two mouthfuls? NO!  I put them back on the tray. The mil said that she will bake them.  She bakes very tasty Madeleines.





Spoilt for choices, it was pretty hard to decide on which to order. Here's our sinful loot and I liked the chocolate cake the best.

No-Frills Hair Cut In Ipoh

Our girls have their hair cut at least 4 times a year, during our trips back to Ipoh.  Their hair cuts would be at this village style hair saloon called Orchid located in a village.  They will have their no-frills but very neat hair cut done by the owner of the saloon. My mum has been patronizing this hair saloon for decades.

The total cost for 3 no-frills hair cut was only RM22, which is not even enough for one hair cut for Alycia at a glitzy hair saloon back in KL. Her hair cut normally costs RM36 with NO wash.  Being a school prefect, she is very, very pernickety on the length of her hair as a school prefect has to be exemplary. She gets her hair cut once every 2 months.

Do check out the silai on the left -- she was engrossed playing with Candy Crush on her iPad whilst the hair stylist worked on her hair! These days, everyone seems to be engrossed with Candy Crush. Some people always complain that they have no time for this and that, yet they have time for Candy Crush LOL!  I suppose this game can CRUSH away their STRESS! I don't know, perhaps I will also get obsessed with this online game if I were to try my hands on it.

 


#2 and #3, looking fresh after their hair cut :)
 

When My Right Eye Lid Twitches...

The Chinese say that if your right eye lid twitches, some inauspicious news are looming.  I try hard not to believe so much in this old wives' superstition but you know, I think this superstition is somewhat true.  Nine out of ten times, my forewarning comes true whenever my right eye lid twitches. Most times, it is someone dear to me who fell sick.

For the past few days, my right eye lid has been twitching throughout the day. Today, I received a very unfavorable text message from our part-time maid. She informed me that she does not want to work for us anymore. I knew that this day would come. How could someone so good be mine for so long? Mariatik is by far one of the best maids whom I have known. She is very hardworking, easy-going and has a very pleasant personality.  Good things will come to an end and good people whom we have in our lives will one day leave us too. I have to accept her decision.  I think her decision to stop working for us is caused mainly by a growth in her neck.  For the past one week, there has been a lump on the right side of her neck and she has been worried sick over it. And  exhaustion is another reason. She holds a full-time job as a janitor at a nearby office. After work, she would come to our place to work until 11pm.  She has been working for us for exactly 5 months.

When the tough gets going, the going has to get tough.  My girls who have had the luxury of a kakak for so long have to get back to some serious work and help out in the household chores. And I am going to make watching TV and playing laptop or iPad a reward for helping out in the household chores. They have to learn to earn their rewards and not take things for granted anymore. And once again, I have to brave myself for some tiring days ahead of me until I find another part-time maid. Wish me luck!

Fuss-Free Way Of Spot Cleaning Bags

When we had a live-in maid, she would help the girls scrub their school bags with detergent and then sun the bags for days. Now that we are without a live-in maid, the girls and I have to do this chore ourselves.  Thanks to Pre Spot laundry stain remover from Melaleuca, we can now spot clean the school bags with just a few sprays. For stubborn black stains, I use concentrated Sol-U-Mel from Melaleuca and scrub the surface with a piece of wet tissue.  Once thoroughly cleaned with Pre Spot, I spray some Sol-U-Guard disinfectant from Melaleuca onto the bags interior and exterior.  I bet their bags were teeming with germs as the girls place their bags everywhere on the floor and even on the road.

Heartburn Treatment

Millions of people suffer from heartburn every single day. Are you one of those people? You may have heartburn and not realize it. Fortunately, there are all kinds of medications, both over and under the counter, that you can take to help manage your symptoms. Some people are even able to completely eliminate their heartburn with some simple diet and lifestyle changes. Some of the most common symptoms of heartburn include a burning feeling in the chest, throat burning, pain in the chest, sore throat, hoarseness and even trouble swallowing.

If you are suffering from one or more of these symptoms and you live in Maryland, you may want to make an appointment with your local Maryland gastroenterologist to seek treatment. What will your gastroenterologist do for you? First off, he will talk to you about your symptoms. He may even order a scope procedure to determine whether or not your problem is heartburn or possibly something more serious. If it has been determined that you do have heartburn, you can expect your doctor to prescribe some medicine to help you. He may also suggest some changes to your diet that might help you, such as switching to blander and less processed foods.

Homecooked Feast - 23 May 2013

The mil's a champ when it comes to cooking and baking. She is capable of cooking up a storm for a small group of people single handedly.

Here's what she dished out for a bunch of relatives (about 16 of us) on 23 May 2013...

Stir-fried lotus root with pork belly slices, stir-fried assortment of veggie (the girls' grand-aunt cooked this dish), gado-gado (this Indonesian salad dish was a hit with everyone as it is healthy and delish), her famous Hakka braised pork belly with wood fungus and dried oysters, stir-fried long gourd with fish paste and ear fungus, braised turnip, a big pot of lotus root soup and red bean tong sui for dessert (not in picture) and....





 ... her signature dish - braised duck with ginger.

 


She spent hours at the wet market in the morning and upon return, she stood at the kitchen chopping, cutting, clanging pots, pans, woks and sweating it out till almost midnight.  I don't think I am capable of handling all these on my own without any help and secondly, I am not as ambitious as her when it comes to cooking and baking ;) 

Mobile Medical Units

When you use mobile medical units from LifelineMobile.com, you will be able to help anyone in need no matter where they are at that particular time. These mobile medical units basically allow you to bring the office with you on the road. Whether you want to do an amazing medical road trip or you just like the idea of helping people out when there is an emergency, these medical mobiles from Lifeline Mobile are the best place to turn. There are no limits to who you can serve when you have one of these medical healthcare facilities, and there are a large number of different situations where something like this could definitely come in handy.

First of all, you have to realize that all forms of treatment are covered by the Lifeline Mobile system. Whether you are a dentist or a doctor, you will be able to hit the road and find patients wherever you go. This is somewhat similar to the Meals on Wheels program, and the only difference is that you will be able to give people medical care instead of giving them food. The mobile healthcare stations are quite amazing, and a doctor would have everything they need to treat a patient with any kind of medical problem on the spot. You will be amazed when you take a look at the inside of one of these trucks for the first time because they look like a regular doctor's office once you open them up.

Teachers' Day Gift

Last year, the mil made some cuppies for the girls' teachers for Teachers' Day. This year, she baked cuppies again - Hershey's chocolate cuppies with pecan and they were delish! But darn, I now have to go on a diet after chomping down a few of these cuppies plus all the goodies that she's been baking and cooking! I even had to tighten my tummy during our 2D 1N stay at Westin Hotel over the weekend :(  It's SO easy to gain weight but takes SO much sweat and pain to lose it all again!!   And it takes a TON of will-power to stay away from those inviting desserts and meat at the buffet tables!!



The girls wanted to get a gift for all their teachers and that would be very costly, thus the mil baked cuppies and wrapped it up tastefully too with pretty plastic bags and bag ties that she bought from Taiwan! Well, home-baked cuppies ain't cheap too as she used free range chicken eggs and organic flour but wouldn't you be happy to receive a home-baked chocolate cuppie too on your day? It's A-Ok to treat all their teachers once a year to some goodies ;)

LED Curtain

If you're an aspiring college student, you're probably running low on real estate. After all, dorm rooms aren't exactly the beacon of our dreams, and those tiny apartments set aside for student housing can be equally as abysmal. So, you may be wondering what you can do to spruce up such a dim living space. One of the most important things students should remember is that they need to make purchases that serve more than one purpose. There's absolutely no sense in acquiring a wealth of items that are just going to take up precious space. In fact, it's much better to invest in something that has multiple uses, so that you're getting the most out of not only your space, but your money, and that's something a student on a budget can get behind.

Beaded curtains offer a fun way to infuse some whimsy into your home for a small price, and the beauty is that you can get them in a variety of distinct colors and styles. Some even feature images that span the length of the beads. If your digs are low on privacy, this is a great way to maximize your space and sense of sanctuary.

To push it further, an LED curtain will be an even greater investment. LED lights are low energy, so they won't sap you of your electricity. LED curtains can provide fabulous mood lighting and make your room sing with personality and positive energy. It's the best way to blossom some motivation for your daily studies.

Homecooked Dinner - 21 May 2013

Our yummylicious dinner on 21 May 2013...






From top left clockwise : radish and beef tenderloin from the soup, stir-fried Japanese pumpkin with pork belly slices, stir-fried celery, red and yellow bell peppers, stir-fried baby butterhead veggie and steamed pork with preserved veggie.

The mil is now having a sauna of a time in the hot kitchen cooking up a storm for tonight's dinner, comprising mainly of traditional Hakka dishes. We are having a group of relatives to our house for dinner tonight :)

Opening A Restaurant

Opening a restaurant is one of the most common business dreams in the world. Sharing family recipes and special creations with the world is a highly rewarding experience that connects with people on a very instinctual level. Unfortunately, running a restaurant is also one of the hardest things to do in the world of business. Three quarters of start-up restaurants are said to fail within the first two years of business. There's no single reason why this happens. It's combination of high competition, high costs, labor intensity and low margins.

One of the biggest problems for new owners is kitchen equipment. Parts can easily break, and when they do, repair can be very expensive if you don't know where to look. Having an easy and affordable place to get replacement parts for a kitchen makes running a restaurant a whole lot easier. Parts Town can help restaurants of all types replace broken components from a wide variety of ovens and other kitchen appliances. Whether you're looking for Blodgett oven parts or components for an old mixer, their easy-to-search database makes it simple to find parts by manufacturer number or description. With live customer support and same-day shipping, there's no reason to go anywhere else if you're in the restaurant business. Keeping your kitchen running smoothly is an important part of restaurant success.

Whatsapp-ing The Tutor

This is one of the many photos of Alycia's Chinese school homework that I Whatsapp-ed to her Mandarin tutor yesterday.   I am thankful that I have found a very accommodating, diligent and easy-going tutor for my girls.  Alycia can Whatsapp or call her tutor anytime of the day and she would get a speedy reply from Ms M.  With the help of this tutor, Alycia managed to score an A for her Chinese papers in almost all her previous tests.  As for Sherilyn, she scored a B, which ain't too bad.  Before the Mid Year exam, Ms M had to go through lots of hair-pulling and voice-raising sessions with Sherilyn.  Ms M had forecasted a borderline pass  for Sherilyn's Chinese test papers.  I was not surprised too as I know Sherilyn's capabilities and interest in the Chinese language.  So when she got a B for her Chinese test paper last week, I could not be happier :D   Thank God too that Sherilyn scored 93% for her Math in Chinese papers. Thank God that she could recognize the key words in the Math papers :D

I think Sherilyn has plenty of room for improvement. She just needs to improve on her concentration power during classes and needs to put in a 100% effort in character recognition. In Chinese language, you need good memory to remember the characters.

Naughty Cass

My 5-year old rascal, still as naughty as ever...



She gets a kick challenging everyone at home with her words and actions but she is still as cute as a button when she's good. I love her yet I hate her. I love her when she is asleep as that's when she looks so angelic, so babyish and so demure.  It's a love-hate relationship with her now and I hope that this rebellious phase will soon pass.

In this picture, she dozed off while making another Mother's Day card for me. Since 2 weeks ago, she has been making me umpteen Mother's Day cards till I lost count of them but I have kept them all in a clear folder.  When my angels grow up and leave the nest, I am sure I will get a kick looking at the card, each and everyone of em'..

Homecooked Dinner - 16 May 2013

My brain has been feeling foggy for the past few days and I just did not feel like blogging or do much to my online store. My mojo seems to be slipping away from me.  Maybe my brain has been unknowingly switched to exam mode for the past one week and my utmost priority for the past week has been to focus on my 3 girls' exams.  Well, today is the last day of their exam and I am starting to feel that my mojo is slowly drifting back to me, weeeeee!!

I only have under 5 minutes to spend on this blog post before I pick Cass up, so this is going to be another short post with more pix.


Here's what we had for our dinner yesterday...

Stir fried organic spinach, blanched organic ladies fingers, chicken curry cooked using A1 chicken curry paste, pan fried fish roe and pan fried white pomfret fish.






Errr, does the fried fish roe look like some gory human body parts? With veins some more!!  Muahahahaha!!

Dinner Time

Here's our dinner yesterday - 14 May 2013, comprising of  tomato omelette, long gourd with wood fungus and fish paste and a steamed white pomfret fish. There was also a wai san + wolfberry soup.  It's a pretty simple dinner with only healthy dishes and the kids prefer homecooked meals to restaurant food. 

Dinners are our most cherished time of the day as we all get to sit down  together as a family. It's also the time when I will do my pep talks with the girls. Some how, my girls are often in a good mood during dinner time and I will strike when the iron is HOT lol!

No-Crayon and No-Water color Ruling

I hate it when my kids do painting with crayons and water color as this would spell w-o-r-k for me. Each time crayons are used, crayon dust would get stuck on our plastic table cloth, floor and under their finger nails too. Just the other day, rascal #2 caused a big mess on the plastic table cloth after an hour of coloring with crayons. She was coloring a Mother's Day card - project from her school teacher.  Her finger nails were spared from vigorous brushing and washing as I instructed her to wear a pair of disposable rubber gloves. But the table cloth needed washing and after a wash, the prints on the table cloth faded. It looks like I would need to go through some spandex table cloths selection to get a replacement table cloth. I have previously imposed a NO-crayon and NO-water color rule in the house but it seems quite impossible to enforce this ruling when the kids keep getting art homework from their teachers, sigh!

A Super Hot Day

Today is another super sweltering and skin grilling day in KL with temperature of 35 Degrees Celsius. It is so hot that I did not even feel like walking to Cass' kindy to pick her up, lest I get another bout of migraine. So I drove to her kindy to pick her up and thereafter, we headed to the mini mart to get ice-creams haha!

Here's what we had for lunch today...

Delish oodles of glass noodles with pork slices, cabbage, prawns, julienned carrot and eggs.  And of course vanilla ice-cream for a cooling dessert!

Papaya Strawberry Grapes Smoothie

I had a large papaya sitting in my fridge and decided to try out a new smoothie with this wonderful nutrients-packed fruit.

As I was worried that my girls would find the taste of pure papaya not too flavorsome if whipped into a thick smoothie, I added some sweet strawberries to mask the taste of papaya and added some purple grapes to make the color more vibrant.   I also added some chia seeds and ice cubes before whirling this into a very refreshing and soothing healthy smoothie.

Looming Thunderstorm

Love my Samsung Galaxy Note!   It can perform an even better job than my Canon digital camera.  See how sharp this picture of a looming thunderstorm turned out... with nice view of KL Tower and KLCC some more!

Picture snapped from the 5th floor of my condo on 8 May 2013.



These days, it pours cat and dog shit in the evenings but during the day, it is so freaking hot that a 5-minute walk to Cass' kindy to pick her up at 12 noon can grill my skin crispy and make me drench in sweat. Thus, I need to shower at least 3 times a day on such crazy hot days (hair washed twice a day everyday), I kid you not!  To my readers who live in cold countries, I'll bet you almost fell off your chair when you read that I wash my hair twice a day every single day eh? lol!

Tell Me It Ain't No Magic Hat Trick!

I have been feeling a tad disturbed and troubled since yesterday. A customer of mine informed me yesterday that after collecting her stuff for her baby from me 3 days ago, she only realized yesterday that 2 items were missing. Now, I am 101% sure that I did put the 2 hats in, absolutely indubitable! I had paid my supplier for the hats and when I received them, I had updated this customer's invoice before putting the hats inside the parcel.  I have records of my payment to my supplier for the 2 items.  The terms and conditions of my online store states that for missing item or defective item, the customer must report to me within 24 hours upon receipt of parcel. So I have every right to reject her claim. But this customer is just too nice to reject her outright. You see, it hurts and it pays to be nice!!  Sometimes I wish I had a heart like Cruella who would not give a d*mn on how other people feel as long as I feel good! People say you have to be cruel at some point to be able to climb up real high!  That explains why I can never reach that high!!

This customer does not seem to be the trouble-maker kind of customer. She is amiable and warm. I can feel it through our chats on FB.  There is really a big mystery surrounding this missing hats case. She had wanted to come and pick up the stuff from me so that she could meet me.  After 3 months from the date of purchase, she finally told me that she could pick up the stuff from me at my condo on one afternoon. As I had to go out on that day, I left the parcel with the guards at our condo and gave instruction to the guards to pass the parcel to her. But she did not turn up. I had to go down and collect the parcel back from the guard at night.  Then about 1.5 months later, she told me that she could come and collect her stuff again.  Again, I was not free to wait for her and had to pass the parcel to the guard at the Guards Control Room.  She finally came and pick up her parcel. But 3 days later, I got a shock when she told me that 2 items were not in the parcel.

I quickly checked the cupboard that I keep all my customers' parcels and almost turned it upside down. I went through each and every customer's parcel to check if the 2 hats were inadvertently placed in the parcel but NO, no sight of the hats. I sat down and checked the invoice again, over and over again and the more I tried to track back the sequence of events, the more assured I was that I had placed the 2 hats into her parcel.  I then began to feel that there is something really creepy going on.  There seems to be a creepy magic hat trick!?  These days, everyone in our country is talking about MAGIC... not going to elaborate further on this political magic, lest I get arrested too.  I just don't understand how the 2 hats can go missing! I asked my customer to check her car and house and she said she could not find them.

In my 3.5 years running this online store business, this kind of problem has never surfaced. I dare say I am an overly cautious person in nature. I would check the customer's invoice against the items in the parcel and again check the invoice against my email / FB message with the customer before sending the parcel out. I would repeat this process at least two times before I seal the parcel. Sometimes when I feel uneasy, I would open up the parcel again to double check for the last time before sending the parcel out. I know very well the consequences if any item is left behind or if  I send the wrong item to a customer. All my profit would go towards the return  postage by courier!

Now, how would you handle this situation?  I can feel that she wants me to pay her for the 2 missing items but how can I pay for a mistake that is not even a mistake that I made? Maybe she had really misplaced the 2 items herself?  It is her words against mine.  But then I should also give her a benefit of the doubt.  But who will give me a benefit of the doubt?  Though the 2 hats do not cost me a hundred bucks, it is not the money that matters. It is a matter of principle and I want to darn know where the heck the 2 hats disappeared to!

Oh yes, I even went to the guards control room to view the CCTV footage and got some unkind comment from the chief guard.  I do have some suspicion that the guard that day took the 2 hats but heck, they are hats for babies! But who knows, the guard took them for his baby girl?  Fark, all the possibilities have been running wildly in my head for the past 2 days and this missing hats mystery is making my mind sick!

I am still waiting for my customer to revert on the next course of action. Running a business is never easy. It is even tougher if time is not always on your side... when you have to divide yourself and juggle all your tasks (personal, kids, business and what not) carefully every single day. Sometimes it is not money that makes you unhappy but everything else that surrounds the situation or the problem. I could have just refunded her the RM60 but I am not the type of person who splashes money for the wrong reason. I know the hats are in the parcel but where the heck are they now?! Dear God, please let the truth reveal itself soon, amen...

Dealing With A Rascal

Cass, my once submissive, yes-mummy and boops-obsessed baby girl is slowly turning into a rascal.  Stubborn, challenging, irritating, naughty -- these are just some of the words that I try very hard not to use on her everyday.  On Saturday, she got her first major punishment from daddy.

It all started when she kept irritating and agitating her 2 sisters, thus they could not sit down to do their homework. When daddy came home, her 2 che ches reported this to daddy.  Daddy reprimanded her and asked her to say sorry but she just would not say this very simple word!  Daddy locked her in the 'dark room' but yet she would not cry.   Though she was very angry and frightened, she was as quiet as a mouse throughout her time in the dark room!!  After a 20-minute 'battle' with daddy, she was 'kicked' out of the house by daddy and still, this tough cookie with a steely determination and hard head did not muster a cry!!  Finally, she lost the fight and she sobbed but not the wailing kind of cry.  But yet, this stubborn girl just would not want to say SORRY.  I kept prompting her to say SORRY but all she said was "I dare not say"!  *facepalm*  After some drama with her throwing up, I washed her up and was still trying to coax her to say sorry to her 2 che ches and daddy. After she had cooled down and was level-headed again, she agreed to apologize. I called the hubs on the mobile phone and Cass finally blurted out the golden word to daddy  and then I brought her to apologize to her 2 che ches.

Sigh.... this girl is such a challenge now. She has acquired the negative attributes from both her che ches -- stubbornness from Alycia and cheekiness from Sherilyn. Dealing with Cass now brings back my not-so-fond memory and hair-pulling days of having to discipline Alycia and Sherilyn when they were younger.  Motherhood sure is challenging and the more kids you have, the more FUN you face everyday!  Like I have said before, life if NEVER a bore when you have kids.



Cassandra... still looking as cute as a button but drives my butt up the wall every single day!

Planet Popcorn @ One Utama Shopping Centre, Bandar Utama

My girls and I are huge fans of popcorns! Our favorite popcorns are the ones from Garrett's Popcorns and those caramel coated ones from the cinema. Garrett's popcorns with nuts and cheese are very addictive and we all love them but the price can be a major turnoff!
 
When we spotted Planet Popcorn at One Utama Shopping Centre last week, we were all naturally excited and happy as the price of Planet Popcorn is almost a fraction of Garrett's. My girls and I dashed to the kiosk and the salesgirls manning the kiosk were so happy to let us try all the flavors! Our favorite was seaweed and cheese. As there was an on-going promotion, we bought 3 vacuum packs and got 1 small-sized pack of kimchi flavored popcorn for free, so happy!! Yeah yeah, you must be wondering why this health freak mommy is snacking on unhealthy snacks but I chose the least sweet ones. And did you know that popcorns are high in fiber? So it ain't that bad an idea to snack on popcorns. I pour a handful of popcorns into my Granola every morning and enjoy my bowl of high-fiber delish breakfast! Sometimes the girls will bring popcorns to school for recess.

Planet Popcorn are big and round hand made popcorns, freshly made everyday, coated with 9 different mouth watering and exciting flavors. 'Beyond common' is how they describe their yummy popcorns. When I finish my current popcorn stock and do not have time to go to the mall to buy them, I can even order them online!



Cass and Sherilyn could not be happier to try all the flavors for free...

And here's my loot - 2 vacuum packs of seaweed flavor and 1 pack of cheese flavor, which got me rewarded with 1 small pack of kimchi flavor popcorn for free :D

Fruits Infused Water

My group of friends in Facebook have been making fruit infused water after some articles on the health benefits of drinking fruit infused water went viral in Facebook. When you see your friends making good stuff and they post pictures of their good stuff everyday (several times in a day!), you can't help getting 'infected' by the healthy virus! So I jumped on the fruit infused water bandwagon too and made a pitcher last week.

Here is my first pitcher of fruit infused water - which is a concoction of East meeting West. I used lemon grass, lime, orange and strawberry. My kids loved it and it got their wholehearted thumbs-up!




Sherilyn was so amazed with how attractive and refreshing the fruit infused water was that she begged me to prepare a tumbler for her to bring to school to next day. Yup, she really did beg me for it. I was too lazy to do it but finally gave in to her power of persuasion!

This was for Sherilyn to bring to school...





Drinking water infused with fruits or herbs is a smart and tasty way to hydrate and cleanse your body without getting overloaded with sugar and calories. It is a great and healthy way of getting your kids to drink plain water, free from sugar and food additives. It is way better than fizzy drinks.

When I was pregnant with Sherilyn and Cass, I could not tolerate drinking plain water as I was massively nauseated during the first trimester. So I added slices of lime, lemon and strawberry into my plain water everyday and kept myself hydrated by drinking the required 8-10 glasses of plain water a day.  If you or your kids hate drinking plain water, do give this fruit infused water a try. You can have fun choosing your favorite fruits or leaves (lemon grass and mint leaves taste great) and adding them into your pitcher of water.  Depending on the ingredients you infuse, this fruit infused water offers tons of great health benefits.

Smokeless Cigarette

The smokeless cigarette is one of the greatest inventions of this age. It allows you to indulge in a habit that you enjoy while making strides for your health and the health of those around you. Highly customizable, these electronic cigarettes at LeCig.com are a great choice for anyone who wants to take back control of their habit. LeCig has basically everything you could need for your electronic cigarettes, whether you are a new user looking to switch over or an old hand who is getting good at creating their own vapors. The electronic cigarette starter kits at LeCig are truly the highlight of the website if you are new to electronic cigarettes. With this pre-packaged sets you can get started with everything you will need for your electronic cigarettes as well as vapors in some of the most popular flavors on the market. When it comes to shipping on electronic cigarettes at LeCig.com, you will be surprised at just how great their shipping is. On most orders within the United States they offer free first class shipping which can save you quite a bit when it comes to large orders. They also clearly mark their other shipping options with pricing and estimated delivery times. The customer reviews on the website are there to help you know exactly what products are good for. With at least two reviews on every product, you can be certain you know everything you need to know before you make a purchase over at the LeCig website.

Seaweed sandwiches

We had several loafs of freshly baked homemade wholemeal bread and the girls had sandwiches for lunch.  While the adults had pan fried Hormel spam meat (something that we eat like once or twice a year only) with eggs and cucumbers, the kids had something else.  Cass was the easiest to please - just give her 2 half-boiled free range chicken eggs and she can wallop 2 slices of bread.  Sherilyn was pretty easy to please too but she wanted something different that day. She rummaged through the drawer and fished out a packet of shredded flavored seaweed, which is her latest craze.

This is what she prepared herself -- shredded crispy seaweed with slices of cucumbers on 2 slices of buttered wholemeal bread!  I also gave her a cup of yoghurt drink with chia seeds for the extra nutrients.

Health Freak Mommy's Morning Routine

Glimpse of a health freak mommy's breakfast...

A slice of homemade bread (spelt flour + wholemeal flour) with a teaspoon of Nutella chocolate hazelnut bread spread and sprinkled with a teaspoon of superfood chia seeds!  And of course my must-have mug of hot match :D





That's not all, the first food that goes into my tummy at 5:15am everyday is a mug of apple cider vinegar with psyllium  husk. That will surely do its 'drain declogging' job half an hour later haha!  Half an hour later a mug of low fat milk with coffee goes in.  After my daily exercise, it would be fruits on an empty stomach and half an hour later, the REAL breakfast, which is normally all the carbs 'allocation' I give myself. I try to eat my 'carbs allocation' in the morning, keeping it low at noon and try to maintain an almost carb-free meal after 6pm and strictly no food after 9pm.That's how I maintain my 45kg weight  for years, which is only 2kg of weight increase after 3 kiddos.  Pre-kiddos weight had always been 43kg since my teenage years :)

Throes Of Motherhood... Raising Kids And Discovering Them!

Cass has just turned 5 years old.  She is slowly metamorphosing into a brat who is really cheeky, mischievous, fearless and rebellious, just like Sherilyn when she was Cass' age.  And she is wearing my patience real thin in each passing day. What is happening to my cute, meek, obedient and adorable Baby C??  She is afraid of no one at home. Though she is afraid of being whipped, yet this will not deter her from doing the things that she is forbidden to do. Oh gosh, she is just exactly like Sherilyn who has tested over 5 years of my patience and worn it so thin till it was torn and almost irreparable. But thank God, Sherilyn is improving in the areas of obedience and sense of importance in punctuality, albeit going at a real SLOW pace. But at least I see improvement in her and I am starting to feel that we can actually get along really well! :)

Now my biggest challenge is Cass, my baby girl who is torturing me mentally, emotionally and physically every day! Day in, day out, I reprimand her and I nag at her till the point that she has developed an immunity towards my reminders and nagging! She is definitely a brat who has been spoilt rotten over the years. Everyone dotted on her and gave in to her whims and fancies because of her medical condition and not to mention her cuteness!  It hurt us deeply to see her on drips and being poked and prodded every month from the time she was just 6 weeks old up until she was 15 months old (post-operation). We just sucked up to all her nonsense all these years. And I am feeling and seeing the consequences now of spoiling my baby girl! Now, this cute baby girl of mine is metamorphosing into a monster eating me up everyday, bit by bit!

Last night, I suddenly remembered what my late aunt had told me about -- never use negative words to scold your child.  During our bedtime ritual last time, after saying a prayer with her and giving her a goodnight kiss and hug, I said this to Cass : "baby, tomorrow, you will be a good girl. You will listen to mummy. You will not talk in class and you will not be punished by your teacher. Tomorrow you will be a good girl and will make mummy happy only, OK?"  She gave me an approving nod and gave me wet pecks all over my face, like a happy puppy.

It is never easy to raise a child. It is even harder to raise a child into a good and useful individual with a wonderful disposition and attitude. But I am learning everyday.  I have just discovered what has been causing my eldest daughter to throw tantrums and sulk whenever she is asked to do her homework. And I told Alycia about my discovery and both of us felt so happy yesterday evening, after we found out what made her edgy with emotional outbursts so frequently lately.   We discovered that no matter what, this girl MUST have at least an hour of nap in the afternoon to recharge her batteries BEFORE she can start doing anything that is academic!   I feel a sense of achievement and victory when I discover hidden answers like this, which is like finding a missing piece of jigsaw puzzle!.  I have also recently discovered that COW'S MILK was the CULPRIT that caused Alycia to be so sick when she was a toddler and she has an ultra sensitive throat with phlegm up until now.  I have now eliminated cow's milk and all products of cow's milk out from her diet and thank God, I am seeing so much improvement in her throat now!   Can you beat it that it took me over 9 years to 'know' my daughter? But at least I did!

Dear God, I ask for guidance and wisdom from you to raise my daughters, everyday. Thank you God, Amen!

Our Saturday - 20 April 2013

The hubs was free to bring us all for breakfast yesterday morning.The girls and I all unanimously voted for Casa Del Coco, our favorite cozy Italian cafe that serves healthy, wholesome and delish food.  We love their healthy omelets, which come in a variety of flavors. Our favorite omelet is fresh mushroom omelet, which composes of generous amount of mushrooms and herbs and it ain't too salty too.



To side track a little... check out hubs' 'flat' abdomen!  He caught on my health and fitness freak regimen and has lost 5kg!  I hope he has the discipline like I do to sustain this healthy lifestyle.


We ordered a Health Freak Omelet, Bacon Omelet, Giant Breakfast, Smoked Salmon Benedict and their award-winning healthy carrot cake with cream cheese and marmalade.





The damage to the hubs' wallet was RM101. Pretty expensive for a breakfast huh? But the up side is that we were all so stuffed that we needn't have to eat lunch, which means that the amount was enough to cover our breakfast and lunch LOL! 

Fruits For Art

Rascal #2's art teacher in school told the class that there will be a session on drawing and painting of fruits.  Every pupil was to bring their own fruits to school. So I drove her to the nearby mini market and asked her to choose the fruits that she'd like to draw. As expected, this rascal who likes to do extraordinary things chose only exotic fruits, not to mention expensive ones!  She wanted to choose a bunch of grapes which cost over RM10 and  mangoes which are expensive too. I said NO! I knew that when the fruits returned home after the painting session, they would surely be inedible anymore with dents and splashes of paints on them.

So I bought her a pineapple (RM5.90) and a red dragon fruit (RM4) as these are not the run-of-the-mill apples and oranges and I think it would be fun to draw them.  She had a great time drawing and painting the exotic fruits in school and thankfully the fruits were still in good shape when she brought them home.  The red dragon fruit had dents every where though, of which I immediately cut it up for her to eat.  And the pineapple had splashes of pink paint on it but thankfully no dents or holes and can still be cut up to be eaten :D

Sherilyn Is Now Bespectacled!

Two weeks ago, Sherilyn was officially a sei ngan mui ('four-eyed' girl)!  After three checks with the optician and ophthalmologist, I was finally convinced that she has Astigmatism. She was actually diagnosed with Astigmatism since early last year but I was not convinced with the tests down by the optician and later the ophthalmologist. After the third test, I was finally convinced. I took the trouble and time to bring her for three tests done by three different doctors as I wanted to be uber sure that her eyes indeed needed corrective glasses. I did not want her to wear glasses because of a wrong diagnosis and prescription. And I had a hunch that this rascal wanted to wear glasses because her good friends are wearing eye glasses too.

I got her a reasonably priced purple colored plastic frame spectacles and I think she looks cute wearing it! And oh yes, the hubs also has to wear glasses now but only when he reads!

Machine test carried out by Dr C from ISEC @ Mid Valley.  This is the ophthalmologist who operated on Cassandra's eye Chalazion  3 years ago. It was after seeking confirmation from him that I was convinced that my rascal has Astigmatism.




And another round of test, before she was given a prescription.
Right eye Astigmatism is 250 and left eye over 100, which is pretty high for an 8-YO girl.





I think she looks prettier and cuter with the eye glasses put on :D




... and has a smart-girl and good-girl look too, when the glasses is put on LOL!!

Snacks box

This is Sherilyn's snacks box for recess today, consisting of 3 slices of Gardenia white bread and a packet of seaweed to go with the bread. Seaweed sandwich is her latest craze and she can chomp down 3 slices within 15 minutes!  When it comes to sandwiches, this bread lover can have it 3 times a day! Serving sandwiches as a meal is a fuss-free, muss-free, win-win situation for rascal #2 and #3 and me. They are both pretty easy-going and not very selective. It is the oldest rascal who is the hardest to please for she is the fussiest of the lot with a very pernickety taste bud!

The Girls' Work Of Art

These are Alycia, Sherilyn and Cassandra's poster painting on canvas at art class on Friday...




 

Left to right :  Cassandra's drawing of 'herself', Alycia's painting of Vincent Van Gouh and Sherilyn's painting of Vincent Van Gouh's Starry Night.


I like Alycia's painting of Vincent Van Gouh the best as I like the artistic painting of the color tones and shading on the face and hair.

Deep-Freezing Kueh Ang Koo

My mil traveled up north last weekend with her daughter from HK and told me that she would make a pit-stop in Ipoh. I jumped at the opportunity and quickly messaged my mum in Facebook for her to get me my favorite black glutinous rice ang koo from Ipoh Garden South. When we went back to Ipoh last month, we stopped at this kueh stall twice but luck was not on our side, the stall was closed. This time, my dad bought 30 pieces of ang koo in a variety of flavors - black glutinous rice skin, red skin and pandan skin.

I was so happy when I saw the boxes of ang koo and gobbled up 3 ang koos immediately.  I may be a health freak but I have my weaknesses to some very fattening stuff like kueh and durians which I can never resist!

There were so many ang koos that I squirred away some and stashed them nicely in an ice-cream container in the freezer.  That can satiate my crave for another month *burp, oops!* LOL!

Cassandra Is 5 Today!

My baby girl, she's 5 years old today! At her request, daddy bought her 2 strawberry cakes -- one Hello Kitty strawberry cake for our celebration at a Japanese restaurant last Saturday (her choice of restaurant) and another strawberry cake for her celebration in school today.
Here is the custom made Hello Kitty strawberry cake for Cass, with layers of strawberry paste between the layers of sponge cake and fresh strawberries as decor on the cake....




And a strawberry white chocolate cake from our favorite bakery for her celebration in school today.




When everyone was singing the "Happy Birthday" song to her, her expression suddenly turned from happy to one that was on the brink of crying! And she covered her mouth with her palm as if to stifle an outburst of emotions, just like how those beauty queens normally react when they are announced the winner. I thought she was really going to tear but thank God, she soon smiled again when daddy asked her to cut the cake LOL! After school, I asked her if she almost wanted to cry during the celebration in school and she said YES! I asked her if she was overcome with emotions and joy and she said YES! I told her that it is normal to feel this way and then I told her about her birth story and that I also teared when I heard her first cries in the OT exactly 5 years ago today!

Tonight, to make this feel like her day, I will be ordering pizzas to be delivered to our place for dinner. I pray to God that He will bestow my baby girl with good health, happiness and wisdom always. Happy birthday baby girl!

Background Checks

One of the tasks that I had to do when I was working as a Human Resources Officer at a bank was to perform background checks on prospective employees. The job entailed calling the prospective employee's former employer to ask about his or her employment track record and to perform a CTC check. The task was time consuming as many of the previous employers needed time to retrieve the personal files (some files would had already been sent to a ‘cold storage’) and some of the employers were not cooperative. If you work in a HR Department, you can check background checks now from the internet at the convenience of your mouse. How very convenient!

One-Pot Easy Peasy Dish

The mil was away for a few days last weekend, so I had to be in action again in the kitchen. As usual, I will only cook dishes that are simple and fast to dish out with minimal splish splash of oil. So here's what I whipped up...

Anchovies soup with baby spinach, carrots and 3 huge chicken drumsticks. Healthy and wholesome, complete with protein, iron and fiber.






Everyone was happy that evening. Whenever there are chicken drumsticks on the dining table, shouts of  "YAY!!" will always echo in the dining area, albeit cooked in the simplest way :)

Our Former Live-In Helper

Cass missed our former live-in helper dearly when she left about 8 months ago and she still misses her ‘kakak’. Occasionally, she would tell me that she still misses ‘kakak’. During Chinese New Year two months ago, we received a surprise long distance call from ‘kakak’. It was good to hear her voice again. If she ever tells us that she wants to return to work for us, I think I would receive her with open arms! Though she had done many things that infuriated us for the past 4.5 years, I have forgiven her. We are all but human beings who are very prone to making mistakes. One time, when Cass was about a year old, ‘kakak’ gave Cass a pencil with sharp pencil lead along with some tiny disc springs to play with when I had gone jogging in the morning. When I came home and saw carbon stains on Cass’ mouth (I reckoned that she had put the pencil into her mouth to chew), I was so furious and almost wanted to strangle her! But I soon cooled down. This was just one of the many blood-boiling incidents that she had done. She had done many foolish things to annoy us but I have forgiven her.

Homecooked Dinner - 1 April 2013

Our heart-warming, tummy-warming and delish homecooked dinner on 1 April 2013...


 

1.  Tomato omelet with Chinese parsley cooked the Fong Lye Taiwanese Restaurant style - this is the kids' top favorite dish at our favorite Taiwanese restaurant.
2.  Pan fried salmon fish
3.  Stir-fried long beans with pork belly slices
4.  Braised pork ribs with fermented soy bean paste

For the next 2 days, the mil will be outstation and the chef job will be passed back to me.  I have already told the girls not to expect fancy dishes like how grandma dishes out everyday but to expect porridge for lunch and a one-pot spinach-chicken drumstick soup cum dish for dinner ≧∇≦

Spin In My New Pink Car!

Last Sunday, the hubs finally had the time to bring me, along with the 3 brats for a spin in my new car, with me driving it for the first time. And it was the first time I drove a car in almost 6 years! Thank God, my driving skill ain't completely lost. The moment I started the engine and hit the wheels, memories of myself being the dare devil on the road 6 years ago took over me instantly! I was really glad that I can still remember how to maneuver a car! Driving a car is like riding a bicycle. You will not lose the skill completely. If you were once good in it, you will always be. And I was equally surprised that I did not lose touch of my parking skill just yet, albeit I admit that I have to improve on my L or side parking.

This morning, hubs brought me for my second refresher course. After dropping Cass in school, we went for breakfast at Ficelle Boulangarie and then went to the mini market. He suggested that we should do this every morning for at least another week until he gives me his stringent 'pass' LOL!