little 17chipmunks can “swim”!

Some may have doubted that we put her in the private pool at age 2 months but after seeing the transitions she made, I guess we did the right thing!

We transitioned her to the public pool (our condo pool which is clean) at around age 4 months+. We also brought her to hot spring water and theme parks. She began to fuss around on the neck float at age 1 year old and so we gave her the arm float. She bravely started (stagnant) floating by herself at 13 months plus and now at 16 months, she can do both back and front floating!

And mostly “trained” by someone who doesn’t really know how to swim……aka me!

Read more: little 17chipmunks really can swim now!

Purple carrot bread loaf with flax seeds

Since I bought purple carrot yesterday *grin* and hubby has completed the previously baked zucchini bread loaf, I tried this purple carrot bread loaf with flax seeds. I was surprised that my food model actually decided to taste it despite just finishing dinner.

Scalded dough
100g wholemeal flour
70ml boiling water

Mix both until it form a dough. Leave it to cool.

Ingredients for the bread:
About 180g purple carrot, shredded
120ml water (I added 100ml first and added the remaining when it has not form a dough)
1 tbsp molasses sugar
2.5 tbsp skimmed milk powder
300g bread flour
100g all purpose flour
Pinch of salt
Scalded dough
2 tsp instant yeast

3 tbsp raw flax seeds (optional)

Mode : Basic
Weight : 2.5 llb
Crust : Light
Breadmaker : Cornell

*I forgotten to add olive oil (1 tbsp) but it came out ok!

Teatime: Pandan cupcakes

I bought some pandan leaves from the market this morning. Inspired by papa Zac, I made pandan extract. It is as simple as ABC. But, I didn’t want to make chiffon cake, as it will use too many eggs and I can’t make small batches. So, I made cupcakes instead.

Ingredients used:
100g superfine flour /cake flour
50g unsalted butter
50g caster sugar (I think this can be reduced further)
50g natural yogurt (I used Farm Fresh natural yogurt)
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp pandan extract
1/2 tsp baking powder

I blended everything in my Phillips blender that has a mixer function. Pour into cupcakes sheet (I have about 8 of them). In a preheated oven of 180 degree celcius, bake for 15 – 20 minutes.

My 16 mo just woke up on time to have the cupcakes that have been set aside to cool!

While I am typing this, she is eating the cupcake & she just gave me a kiss on my lip! *sob* *sob*

*To make pandan extract – cut 10 pieces pandan leaves, add 100 ml water, blend it and then extract the juice (I used cheese cloth/those put into soup to separate ingredients)

LOL! She even shared it with her pooh bear!

Happy 16th month old little darling!

Hope you enjoyed your LAST milk bath!

Bittersweet feeling again:

Bitter- this is the LAST stock of expired fbm; 80oz of bm, equivalent to 20 rounds of pumping (I pumped out on an average 4 oz both sides each session for 13 months). Since I don’t pump anymore, there is no longer any drop of bm in fridge. But we will continue with our bf journey as long as she wants via dl!

Sweet – This also means that I have a mouth “stuck” with my boobs for 16 months already! LOL!

In fact, I now fell in love with fully dl – no need to worry about storage, supply & washing the pump parts! I am “lucky” to have such “privilege”.

Comparing Tune Insure AirAsia Protection against AIG Travel Insurance

As we will be going for our first international holiday soon, hubby is exploring the travel insurance for us. For ease of comparison, I have tabulated a chart out. For the extra RM20, we are most likely going for AIG Travel Insurance for a slightly higher coverage for certain items such as accidental death & bodily disablement; and items that do not exist under Tune Insure AirAsia Protection such as Home Away Protection. One significant protection that Tune Insure provides (while AIG Travel doesn’t) is “On Time Guarantee” – delay more than 2 hours from schedule departure by AirAsia/ AirAsia X. Moreover, AIG is more well known in the market – for its fair insurance coverage, i.e. genuine claims are given back. Both can be purchased online.

Stew grapes & tomatoes chicken

I thought this is a normal recipe but the way my soon-to-be 16 mo ate the chicken, made me can’t resist sharing! She finished the whole chicken wing.

Marinate half chicken (cut) overnight with the followings, which have been blended:
Handful of grapes
3 tomatoes
Finger long ginger
Finger long fresh turmeric

Then, stir fry big onions in olive oil. Add in the marinated chicken and some water to cover. Stew for 30 minutes. As usual, I didn’t add salt & it tasted good just like that!

Orange cookies for my little girl!

This is super easy! I copied & modified this from mydish.co.uk.

Ingredients:
100g medium protein flour /biscuit flour (I got it from Bake with Yen)
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
75g unsalted butter
1 orange, grated (skin)
30g caster sugar

1. Sift flour and baking. Mix with a pinch of salt.
2. In a mixer (I used my Phillips blender that has a mixer function), blend egg, caster sugar and grated orange.
3. Mix both (1) and (2) until it forms a dough (rather sticky).
4. Put in the freezer for 15 minutes so that it becomes firmer.
5. Put a scoop on a baking tray lined with aluminium foil that is greased with unsalted butter. Repeat.
6. In a preheated oven of 200 degree celcius, bake for 10-12 minutes (or until golden brown).

This is firm outside and soft inside. It is slightly crumbling but not as crumbling as the butter raisin cookies I made last week! I personally like this too and definitely less sweet!

Aeon Big Thank You Day on every 28th of the month

This week is exceptional; we went grocery shopping on a Monday which is a 28^th of the month instead of Tuesday. Well, I get to know about Aeon Big Thank You Day on every 28^th of the month during our routine shopping two months back but only made it this month since last month’s 28^th fell on a weekend.

 

The discount is not much, i.e. 5% but this is of course some savings for those who routinely shops for the household. In fact, I was aiming for a stockpot for a while, coffee powder, tooth paste, etc. (either bigger ticket item or some household goods that need to be refilled on a monthly basis). There are certain items which do not include into this offer such as infant milk powder and mobile top up cards.

 

Actually the savings is almost the same as the Big Tuesdays savings from Aeon Big Subang Jaya except that you don’t have to make spending on the odds of reaching RM50. In addition, as far as I am concern, Big Tuesdays only happens in the Subang Jaya branch. Today I made a savings of RM8.11. If the same amount is spent on Tuesday, I probably get RM5 worth of cash vouchers. Little by little, it builds a mountain!

As mentioned, I was eyeing for a stockpot. Coincidently, they had a member price stockpot of RM39.90 (member price); its normal price is RM49.90. There’s an additional 5% off, where it cost RM38.90. An error has occurred where I was charged RM54.90 instead. I went to the customer service counter, which made up of 2 officers. I waited about 5 minutes before being attended and then the staff patiently looked into my matter. I had to wait another 10 minutes before she came back to ask if it was alright for me to follow her to the particular section to verify the pricing. I actually brought her there and the pricing was wrong. At last, I was refunded the excess of RM14.25 [(RM54.90-RM39.90)*0.95]. I just need to fill up a form and a cash refund was given without hassle. During the waiting time, I noticed that quite a number of customers came over to complain about the price differences, but the two officers have been very patient in handling it (though I was a little impatient then because little 17chipmunks was starting to make a fuss after she poop-ed while waiting). Some customers actually saw the wrong pricing and suggested a lower pricing – which they could not argue and ended up they did not want the items. But, I would suggest that Aeon Big improve the way they could check the price differences – as the current one is kind of time consuming for them (and also customers) – I am not sure how, but I shall leave this to the experts to figure out.

 

On another note, I managed to find purple carrot in Aeon Big Subang Jaya after several visits there!

 

White cut chicken with mushroom soup & mixed grains rice

I have decided to cook lunch for the whole family today instead only for my soon-to-be 16 mo since we are going out later on Sunday. Anyway, just the three of us plus hubby’s packed lunch next day. So, this is enough for 3 adults and 1 toddler.

Ingredients:
Half chicken (not cut into pieces)
3 stalks of celery
3 tomatoes
2 big onions
1 corn
Water
One pack of enoki mushroom
Handful of shiitake mushroom, sliced
Handful of tofu balls, sliced
Boiled mixed grains rice
2 tsp sesame oil

Steps:
1. In a deep pot, boil the chicken with celery, tomatoes, onions and corn under big fire for 10 minutes. Ensure water covers the whole of the half chicken.
2. Lower down fire and let it simmer for 30-40 minutes depending on how tender the chicken you want.
3. Remove chicken and rub with sesame oil. Set aside to cool before cutting the chicken.
4. Continue to boil the soup with the vegetables (add a little more water) for another 30 minutes.
5. Add in the mushrooms and tofu balls. (I also added the remaining Yong Tau Fu that my mum made). Wait till it comes to boil.
6. Set to serve.

Homemade Yong Tau Fu in fish bones soup!

I didn’t make this but my mum (aka my little girl’s poh poh) – the other (and so far only other) trusted chef for my close to 16 mo – as poh poh “adheres” to mummy’s no salt policy! The fish paste is made of pure fish (Spanish Mackerel/Kau Yee/Ikan Tenggiri) and lastly added egg white while soup is made of fish bones.

When offered to my lo, we asked if it is nice – she just nodded “yes”! LOL!