My life as a SAHM, temporarily

I had the privilege of becoming a SAHM for the past 4 months. The daily routine of chauffeuring her to & fro kindy and Chinese tuition, cooking her daily lunches & dinners + spending lots of time with her at home, had its many pros & cons. As a result, my hands became rougher, dry and cracked and my blood pressure shooting the sky most of the time but I seriously miss all my precious time with my precious girl (now that I'm back to the work force).

I no longer had the privilege to eat with her and teaching her homework. After work would be too tiring for me to play and spend quality time with her. I still miss her very much everyday and I call home daily to talk to her. I still envy those mommies who are SAHM but I cannot stand staying at home for a long period either. Anyhow, I need to contribute to the household expenses which seem to be increasing all the time. How nice if my hubby is a multi-millionaire! Dream on >,<

Dried Fruits Almond Oats Granola Clusters

I love eating breakfast cereals, be it granola, muesli or cornflakes, I just love eating them with cold milk. Simply fulfilling. I decided to try making some on my own. I can store them in glass jars and let the hubs bring some to work as his evening snacks. Recently I tried using this recipe. Turned out pretty well, but not very crunchy as I would have expect it to be.

I substituted the icing sugar with molasses sugar instead. Worked well too, in fact I prefer it this way. Will definitely try making bigger batch the next round.

Simple Greens with Citrus Dressing

This simple salad is good to go with heavier main course like pasta, bbq ribs, etc. It's easy and refreshing to eat.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
Mix of greens like butterhead & romaine lettuce, etc

Lemon and Herbs Roast Chicken

This roast chicken never failed us. It is simple and delicious, most importantly, everyone likes it. I referred to Jamie Oliver's website and did some modification myself.

Ingredients: 

1 free range chicken
Fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary or anything you have in the fridge)
2 bay leaves
1 large bulb of garlic, bruised
1 lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper


Method:

1. Clean the chicken thoroughly.
2. Marinate with all the ingredients mentioned above.
3. As for the lemon, cut into halves, microwave for 30sec and squeeze the juice out to marinate the chicken, then stuff the lemon into its cavity. 
4. Place the chicken breast side up, lift up the skin and stuff some herbs and garlic underneath the skin. 
5. Leave the marinated chicken in the fridge for a few hours
6. Preheat oven to 200c and roast the chicken for about 30-40 mins, or even longer if need be. 

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Being the forgetful person that I am, I need to record this recipe in my own blog for easy reference in the future. I've made this sauce years ago using my aunt's recipe. But since I can't really recall much of the ingredients used, I googled and found this recipe. Did some modification to it using whatever I can recall from my aunt's recipe which I think is easier. 

Ingredients: 

• 2 carrots, 3 stalks celery, 2 big onions, 3 tomatoes, 2 large cloves garlic - all roughly chopped
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 medium can tomato paste
• 1 handful fresh basil
• Freshly ground black pepper & salt
• No sugar added Apple juice
• Dash of olive oil
• 2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Heat the sauce pan with some olive oil and saute the garlic & onions.
2. Saute all the vegetables for a few minutes.
3. Add in tomato paste, basil and bay leaves. 
4. Add apple juice (adjust to desired consistency)
5. Simmer for 1 hour
6. Season to taste. I added some dried mixed herbs too.
7. Remove the bay leaves and blend it. 
8. Taste the sauce and add 2-3 tablespoons of unsalted butter.
   > This will help to mellow out the acid from the tomatoes, round out the flavor and give the sauce a nice silky finish
9. You can store this in sterilized bottle and freeze for future use.

Another Accomplishment

Today is the 19th April 2013, Ziyi is 4 years 10 months old and what is so special on this day, you may ask. My girl is never an adventurous person when it comes to drinks. She will only stick to the few drinks that she likes, basically plain milk, strawberry and chocolate flavored milk, milo and horlicks. Occasionally she likes to sip her daddy's iced coffee too. She does not like to drink coconut water, barley, juices, ribena, or any other flavored drinks. Not even soups, she will always make up stories (stomach ache, etc) when I force her to drink soup. 

But today she drank 10ml of cherry flavored fish oil on her own and also 1/2 cup of barley (slightly sweetened with candied winter melon). Both were never her favorite and I am so happy that she is willing to drink them with very little coaxing. It may not mean anything to others, but to me, it's a major accomplishment. Good job Ziyi! 

Ziyi And Her First Extracted Tooth

During Chinese New Year in Feb 2013, the clumsy girl fell flat on her face. She was running with her cousin Nathan and as usual, she was the one who tripped and fell. Seconds later she wailed and daddy immediately rushed over and carried her, checking her knees and hands. When I saw her knees were not bleeding, I knew it had to be her face as she did not stop crying. Opened up her lips and saw blood and it was swollen. We went into the house and cleaned her and dabbed it with an ice cube. Minutes later, I realised her front tooth was chipped. We were contemplating to bring her to the hospital or not since it was late night and this was her 5th time that she knocked on her lips! Lucky the first 4 times was nothing serious.

The chipped tooth looks so harmless, no one expected inflammation weeks later...

2 weeks later, this girl complaint of tooth pain, and I realised her upper lip was a lil bit swollen. With much persuasion, she obligingly followed me to the dentist and found out that it was her gum that was swollen due to the fall. She was given antibiotic and was told to return 2 weeks later.

On 13/3/2013, I brought her back to the dentist and they did a check on her gum, it was still red with signs of infection. Did an X-Ray, she was all good with instructions though I had to stay with her in the x-ray room as she tend to move. Although the x-ray did not suggest any signs of defects, but dentist suggested extraction of the chipped tooth. She said it might or might not affect her permanent tooth and it's better to sacrifice the milk tooth rather than the permanent one. The x-ray also showed that her permanent tooth is going to be a large one, larger than her other usual teeth! OMG!!

Doctor applied a gel on her gum for few minutes, she was lying there with her eyes shut. I was very proud of this girl as she was very well-behaved. Of course, she did not know what the next procedure going to be!
I saw the doctor holding the jab with a long fine needle, ready to inject some med into her gum.. I was trying to not look at it but I couldn't because I had to hold her and be near to her all the time. She was squirming a little and I could tell she felt the pain. Doctor said with the numbing gel she could still feel the pressure and a lil pain because her infected gum could be very sensitive. Poor baby...

Worst part was that the jab had to be done very slowly and she had to get up and gargle her mouth twice. So much of blood! In fact after gargling the first time, she obligingly lied down again and let the doctor continued, this time she couldn't hold it anymore and she burst! My heart broke when she cried and I even felt my tears welling up. The nurse had to hold her hands and I kept on comforting her. After gargling for the 2nd time, she refused to lie down again but with a lil bit of force by the nurse, she lied down, with her mouth wide open (because she was still wailing loud) the doctor extracted her tooth in less than 5secs! That was really quick. We kept on telling her it was done and she had to bite on to the gauze but she refused. I had to calm her down and held on to the gauze for her till we were out of the dentist room. I gave her the iPad to divert her attention and that worked! LOL... She was all okay after that, but I had to keep changing her gauze as she was not swallowing her saliva at all. After a few change, she did not need gauze anymore and all is good with her. I must say I am really very proud of her. She was very brave throughout the process. But I doubt she will want to go to the dentist again, hopefully many many months later she would have forgotten all about the pain she went through.

On a side note, the hubs was not agreeable to the extraction. He kept asking me to get 2nd opinion but hey..he was not doing anything except talking! I have a demanding work schedule and yet I had to bring Ziyi for checkup and follow-up checkup too! He could have brought her girl for a 2nd opinion if that's what he really wanted. What's with men???!!!

My sweetie pie waiting there with her over-sized bib :)

Getting ready for x-ray

My brave girl getting ready for jab

iPad did the job to calm her down

I took back the tooth and created a story of tooth fairy. I exchanged her tooth with a gold 50sen coin & a chocolate placed underneath her pillow. She was so happy to find her new treats! Kids are so innocent.

Tech-Savvy Kiddo

I downloaded Temple Run game on the iPad for myself, and the rest of the children games / educational apps for Ziyi. However, lately she's hooked on Temple Run after seeing me played for a few times. She could play and talk at the same time too. Whenever she plays, she will say out loud the action.. Jump.. Left.. Right.. There was once I heard her saying "I'm good at this" and I found out she was praising herself when playing the Temple Run game. Her daddy is now controlling her time spent on the iPad, allowing her to play only on weekends. I'm more worried for her eyesight. She is going to be another young child with spectacles.

- Ziyi at 4 yrs 8 months old -