Being Mom

In my house, raw food is express food. Followed by parboiling and steamed.  This week, we shall look at some express food we serve at home. THIS WEEK's SPECIAL: Veggies DISH A  Japanese lettuce, carrots, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes served raw. You can also add dressings of your choice such as olive oil, grapes oil, Udo's oil or salad sauces. A friend of mine called it "rabbit food'. I taught it was a very appropriate name for the dish too because my daughter loves it and she has always wanted "to be a rabbit". Sometimes, she would ask me to call her "rabbit" instead of by her name. 😓😓 DISH B Parboiled broccoli, baby corns and carrots. I don't serve raw baby corns and broccoli at home so I would parboil them. I noticed that after parboiling the veggies, the colours are enhanced and they look better. If I have more time, I would stir fry these vegetables with mushrooms and black fungus. DISH C Steamed cor...

The downside of living in a city is that your children might not get as much nature play as they would love to have.  During my childhood years, I lived near the sea and thus, had spent quiet a considerable amount of time at the beach. We also lived in a bungalow facing a public playground for a few years and had ample time for nature play.  My hubby, on the other hand, used to play at the river's bank with his cousins and cycled around, exploring the beach with his best friends.  So, it was not a surprise to me when he decided to buy a house with enough land for our children to play. And, well, we could also use the plants in our garden to make some art. Couldn't we?  WEEK 9: ART AND CRAFT TOPIC: NATURE One morning four years ago... We collected some items from our garden for our morning lesson.  Here's what we did.  1. We collected some tree barks and leaves.  2. On a drawing paper, I sketched a house an...

When it comes to food , how often do you cheat ? Do you plan to follow a certain diet but end up having more cheat days than you intend to? or Do you intend to eat home cooked food for the entire week but end up eating out almost everyday? You are not alone!!👊 We are partners in crime! Look at the picture below. It's a plate of lunch for my children. Prawn paste fried chicken, stir fry mustard leaves and white rice. Served on a plate from our kitchen. The only thing I cook is the rice. 😜 I bought the chicken and vegetables from an economy rice shop.  They are my children's top picks. It is a shop that sells a wide variety of dishes (about 50-60), mostly Chinese. The food are pre cooked and displayed on large serving trays. It is self service and faster than the fast food restaurant. When my children saw the food served to them, they had a debate on whether it was takeaway or home cooked . 😃 My 8 year old boy said: Mummy bought from Bar Wang Fan (the na...

Slow cooker has been my good friend since life gets busier with the kiddos. I have learnt to cut down my time in the kitchen and let technology do the work for me. Well, in this case, it is a very old technology but it is still one of the best helpers in the kitchen. This week, I would like to share with you a herbal chicken which is very easy to prepare and nutritious too.  THIS WEEK's SPECIAL: Herbal chicken (Dang shen, red dates and goji berries) From the top: Dang shen, red dates and goji berries Herbal chicken Ingredients: Chicken (any parts), dang shen, red dates, goji berries, salt, water.  1. Wash all the ingredients and put them in the slow cooker. Use minimal amount of water. I usually cook two chicken legs and I use 80ml of water. 2. Turn to high heat and cook for 40 minutes and then reduce to low and cook for another 90 minutes.  If you won't be attending it, just use the auto function and cook for 4 hours. 3. You can se...

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. - Confucius  I totally agree with the above quote so I always insist that my children get hands on experience as much as possible.  AND When I ran into my four year old son, JS, playing with my manual breast pump , what did I do?  I had to do what I believe was the best. Even if it is a sensitive one. So, for this week's activity, I would like to share with you on experimenting or hands on experience. Children are curious beings and they constantly seek answers to things that arouse their curiosities. There are times when the topic could be quite sensitive and how would you handle it? I always opt to be scientific. I find it the best way to explain things to a child, especially the sensitive ones. WEEK 8: EXPERIMENTING / HANDS ON EXPERIENCE TOPIC: ASSEMBLING EQUIPMENT So, this was what we did. First, I asked him what he was playing with.  Not  with a...

CULTIVATING THE READING HABIT AT HOME I wanted to cultivate the culture of reading at home. I have failed with my husband .👎 He once bought a   Star Trek novel , assuming that he would start reading if he reads something he loves watching but that didn't help . He did not read past two pages. That was more than 10 years ago and the book was still sitting on the shelf, untouched. I hope my children would read it one day. The only books my husband read was "Who Moved My Cheese" and "Rich Dad, Poor Dad". Recently, he started reading Cashflow Quadrant, a Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom. He is very much a movie person. Sometimes I wonder, is it always an "either or" situation when it comes to "books or movies" ? I hope some of the readers here could enlighten me in this area. How to get him to start reading? ALTHOUGH he doesn't have the habit to read, he insists that our children read . (Fortunately😁) We started readin...

My son loves to eat noodles because he loves slurping it up!  I don't mind cooking noodles often because it is versatile and very easy to prepare. I can use it in soup, toss it in a soy sauce mixture or stir fry it with vegetables and meat.  Preparing noodles for breakfast can be really quick and easy. Just pre cut some vegetable salad the night before or fry an egg before you make the soy sauce mixture (in the same pan or wok). If you have left over soup, just heat it up and pop the dry noodles in and there you go - a bowl of hot nutritious noodles soup to start the day. Today, I'll share with you the dry version of our favourite organic ramen noodles.  Ingredients: Dry ramen noodles or any other dry noodles of your choice, shallots, garlic, scallions, fresh red chillies, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, cooking oil. 1. Boil water in a pot. 2. When the water is boiling, put the dry noodles in and boil according to the instructions on the...