Crockpot chicken wings stew for the toddler!

I marinated the chicken wings the night before yesterday and hence I had to find some way to cook it without stinking up the machine-load of clothes that was drying in my kitchen. I figured that the crockpot would be the way out for me and so voila! Crockpot chicken wings stew was Alicia's dinner last night. :)

It's much oilier than the previous crockpot chicken stew I made for her simply because in the other recipe, I used chicken fillet (which has no skin). Anyway, because it was a last minute decision to cook this and ingredients are seriously starting to run out in my pantry (thank God that my mum is here today so I can go marketing in peace!), I was secretly hoping that the stew would turn out fine - and it did. Phew.

Crockpot chicken wings stew for the tot

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken midwings
• 2T diced carrot
• 2-3T diced potato
• 2-3T diced sweet potato
• 2 shallots, sliced thinly (I had wanted to fry this but the clothes hanging over my head were a constant reminder that I had to do what was rational)
• water

Method:

1. Place all the ingredients into the crockpot (the wings are to be put in last).
2. Pour water into the crockpot such that it almost covers the wings.
3. Slowcook for 2-3hours and you get a very savory sweet stock as well! :D

Steamed tofu with minced pork

I wanted a simple dish for dinner tonight and here it is! :D Fuss-free and nutritious dish!

*Have to keep my post short due to time constraint*

Steamed tofu with minced pork

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of tofu (for steaming)
• 1 handful of minced pork
• 1 handful of mixed veggies
• 3 shallots (sliced thinly)
• oyster sauce

Marinate minced pork with:

• oyster sauce
• hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper
• cornflour

Method:

1. Remove tofu from packaging and steam it for 5minutes.
2. Fry the shallots till golden brown. Drain and set aside. Dish out some of the shallot oil, leaving some behind to fry the minced pork.
3. Add in the minced pork and keep frying to ensure that there are no big lumps of pork.
4. When minced pork is almost cooked, add the mixed veggies.
5. Add oyster sauce to taste (you can add a little more than usual because the minced pork will be eaten with the bland tofu).
6. Top tofu with fried minced pork.
7. Drizzle shallot oil on the dish then top with the crispy shallots.
8. Serve hot.

*You may add diced prawn and minced water chestnut to enhance the texture and taste of this dish but I didn't have those ingredients with me today.

Alicia still doesn't like tofu, but she loved the rest of the dish and she ate quite a bit of rice mixed with minced pork, the shallot oil, some of the mixed veggies and chopped french beans from the other dish. :D I think she just likes the shallot oil! lol.

Steamed sambal cod

Like Alicia, we love cod.

And we love sambal too.

Hence it's no surprise that we both love sambal cod. :D

Steamed sambal cod

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces cod
• 2 bunches of scallions (cut into 2" segments)
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger (sliced)
• 2 tablespoons homemade sambal (commercial will do too)

Marinate cod with:

• hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper

Method:

1. Place scallions (save some for garnishing), ginger and cod into a plate for steaming.
2. Steam cod for 5minutes.
3. Top the cod with the sambal and steam for another 2 minutes.
4. Garnish with scallions.
5. Serve hot.

Riding with little doggie

Alicia suddenly took a fancy to this old soft toy doggie of hers and she has been doing really cute things with it. For instance, I've heard her tell her doggie 'ma ma bao bao', then she'd hug her dog... lol. And the other day she tried to feed her doggie fruits too :D

Here she is, taking doggie for a ride on her car!:

Someone's luvin' chicken wings... yumz... :)

Alicia loves to eat chicken midwings so I usually bake or braise them for her then I'd tear out the meat for her. Recently, she wants to eat the wing on her own and she does it really quite well! Here she is, eating her baked chicken wing (this is her second chicken wing - she'd licked one clean already):

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 2 Week 5)

This week's focus was on 'jelly' so no prizes for guessing that the kids got to eat jelly during class that day! What was surprising to me though was that the jelly-eating session was in place of a piece of artwork that day. The Mandarin teachers went on as usual with the art but the English teachers had the children eat jelly with fruit cocktail during that segment. Alicia was very happy to eat the jelly that day and she self-fed half a bowl of it before going on to do her art.

I had to throw away her piece of work that day because the glue wasn't dry when we left Julia Gabriel so the glue leaked onto the bag. Fortunately I managed to clear the mess but the piece of craft had to go... the teachers gave them three small plastic containers and they filled them up with some paint, covered them and shook them so that the paint would be distributed through the containers. Then they glued the containers of paint (which were supposed to be jelly moulds of 'jelly') to a paper plate.

During magicbox time, the English teachers had a jar of jam in the box and the teacher, Rino, demonstrated spreading jam onto half a slice of bread and ate it in front of the kids. After that, the kids all got a jam sandwich too while he read a book about jam sandwiches to the children.

I think Alicia had enough food to fill her up during the lesson so when it came to snack time, she hardly ate a morsel. Rino was shocked that she'd 'finished' snack so fast this time because she'd always been last to finish for the past few weeks, since Term 2 started. haha... that was only because she didn't eat. Anyway, all the kids finished snack earlier than usual that day so everyone had extra time for either music time or outdoor waterplay - of coz the kids chose extended outdoor waterplay! :P I guess everyone played enough that day because when it was time to clear up, there wasn't the usual bawling. Even Alicia, who was last to leave the tub, didn't protest all that much when I brought her off to change. :)

Barley drink

Alicia suddenly had a slight fever last night of 37.7deg... got us worried... we quickly fed her paracetamol and tucked her to bed. Fortunately the fever didn't return...

Anyway, I thought she might be a little heaty so I decided to boil this barley drink and she had about 100-150ml of it.

Barley drink

Ingredients:

• 4 handfuls Chinese barley (生熟薏米, also known as 薏米仁 or苡仁)
• 1 handful deng xin cao (灯心草) - omit this if pregnant as it helps with urination - something that pregnant women don't need :)
• 1-2 handfuls candied wintermelon (冬瓜糖)
• about 1.5-2L water

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Add the herbs to the water in a pot and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer on low heat for 1.5 - 2.5hours.
4. Sieve and remove the herbs.
5. Serve warm or chilled.

Here's a pic of deng xin cao - it's supposed to have 'cooling' properties as well:

Lunch - La Mian!

Bought this la mian from the market yesterday and this was our lunch today!

Alicia's portion:

And this is mine!

Alicia was quite happy to eat together with me at the coffeetable with me today - she stood while I sat. At one point, for a few minutes, there was silence in the house and all that could be heard was the sound of noodles being slurped. Hahaha. Anyway, she refused to try the minced pork balls totally but she did eat some of the spinach. She didn't finish her portion for she kept coming to my bowl after awhile and insisted from eating from mine. When I drank soup, she also insisted that she had to drink soup - from my spoon and bowl - immediately. Oh well. She's getting cuter by the day - before she started on the food, she told me, 'same same' (meaning that she was eating the same thing as me) and the food was 'hot hot'. :)

Anyway, since she didn't eat the pork (as expected), I had baked chicken wings on standby for her already and 2 baby corns on top of the spinach! hehe...

Here's how to cook this simple one-pot dish:

Ingredients (serves 1 adult + 1 toddler):

• 1.5handfuls of la mian
• 600ml stock
• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• 1 handful minced pork
• fish sauce to taste

Marinate minced pork with:

• oyster sauce
• sesame oil
• hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper

Method:

1. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add the la mian and cook till soft but still slightly springy. Drain and set aside.
2. Bring the stock to a boil.
3. Add the spinach, let boil for a short while before adding the minced pork (shape into meatballs if desired).
4. Just before dishing, add in the la mian.
5. Add fish sauce to taste.
6. Dish and serve.

I was working with what I had on hand so you can add more ingredients if you wish! :D I forgot to top the dish with the shallots and shallot oil though... pity...

Oyster sauce stir-fried chicken with veggies

I had to make do with this picture because I couldn't find my camera last evening when I wanted to take a photo of the dish, so I had to use hubby's phone. Anyway, I was frantically combing the house for the cam but I just couldn't find it... I began to start worrying that Alicia had thrown the camera into the recycling trash without my knowledge and I had just cleared out the whole bag in the morning. Yikes! Fortunately, hubby managed to find my camera after dinner - Alicia had hidden it in her toy car! What a relief to have found my trusty point-and-shoot cam! But needless to say, I hardly enjoyed my dinner because I thought my cam was gone for good.

What a long preamble... anyway, here's my recipe - it's really simple and healthy but I'd say nothing really much to rave about though... hehe :)

Oyster sauce stir-fried chicken with veggies

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, deboned, cut into pieces)
• 6 baby corn (cut into pieces)
• 1/2 red pepper (diced)
• 1/2 Japanese cucumber (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 4 pieces ginger
• 1 bunch scallions (including the whitish portion, cut into 2" segments)
• cornflour solution

Seasoning:

• 1-2T oyster sauce

Marinate chicken with:

• oyster sauce
• hua diao jiu
• Lee Kum Kee Chicken Marinade
• sugar
• a few dashes of ground black pepper
• a bit of sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat some oil in the wok. Fry the ginger and scallions till fragrant then add in the garlic.
2. Add in the chicken pieces and fry for awhile till almost cooked.
3. Add some water.
4. Add in the baby corn and fry for a couple more minutes.
5. Add oyster sauce.
6. Add in the red pepper and Japanese cucumber just before dishing. Just let it fry for a very short while (1-2min) taking the opportunity to mix the ingredients evenly.
7. Thicken gravy with cornflour solution.
8. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Make sure that all pieces of food are small enough for the tot to handle, especially the Japanese cucumber.

Alicia loves Monsters Inc.!

She's watched Monsters Inc. countless times but this is the first time I filmed her dancing to the tune of the introduction... I dunno why I took so long to film her... haha. Fortunately she's still so excited to watch the introduction! hehehe...

Beetroot juice

That's not red wine, in case you're wondering... :D I couldn't find any glasses in my house except for the wine glasses so I decided to use them. Anyway, the deep red hue does kinda resemble that of red wine... hee. 

I made this beetroot juice last night, mainly because I didn't want the beetroot in my fridge to go to waste... :D After googling and reading through several beetroot juice recipes, I decided to go with the one that best suits my palate - the beetroot, carrot and apple juice combi!

It's recommended to use a juicer instead of a blender for the juice but I only have a blender so I had to strain the juice after blending it...

Beetroot juice

Ingredients:

• 1 small beetroot
• 2 small carrots
• 1 medium-sized apple

Method:
Remove the peels of the veggies and fruit and just juice them! :D 
(I'm paranoid about the peels because these aren't organic but if you're ok with the peels, you can just scrub the skins then juice the fruit and veggies)


As simple as ABC... :D

Alicia took quite a few sips of this... must be because it's sweet... lol.


For information about the nutritional value of beetroot, you can read this site. Also you may want to note that beetroot juice should be combined with other juices as consuming purely beetroot juice could cause temporary paralysis of your vocal chords, make you break out in hives, increase your heart rate, cause chills or a fever.

Ginseng root with Ophiopogon tuber drink

The weather has been really bad recently - scorching heat in the morning and early afternoon followed by thunderstorms in the evening. I've been wanting to boil some 'cooling' drink but only got to do so today...

This Ginseng root with Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) drink is not only 'cooling' but also energy-giving due to the ginseng. Mildly sweet due to the candied wintermelon and a hint of bitterness due to the ginseng, I find this drink refreshing and almost invigorating. :)

Ginseng root with Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) drink

Ingredients

• 1 large handful ginseng root
• about 35g ophiopogon tuber
• 5-6 sticks candied wintermelon
• about 1 litre water

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Add all the herbs into the pot of water and bring to a boil.
3. Leave it to boil for 5min then turn off the fire and cover the pot.
4. Leave the pot covered for at least half an hour before consuming the drink.

Alicia drank 1 cup of this too (her baby cup)... I was surprised that she actually drank it (and finished every drop at that) because I wasn't expecting her to be able to tolerate that hint of bitterness (which intensifies the longer you let the ginseng roots soak in the drink).

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 2 Week 4)

This is the first Saturday that I've had to bring Alicia for class on my own since we started her at Julia Gabriel. Well that's because my hubby has reservice and hence we had to go there by cab and back. I was a little apprehensive at first because I was afraid that it would be difficult to get a cab from Evans Road on a Saturday, but thank God, everything worked out well and I got my cab within 5 minutes of waiting by the roadside. She misbehaved in the cab on the way home but that's another story...

We were late again for class - it seems that it has become habitual. I do hope that we can put a stop to this bad habit of turning up late for class. I've never liked to make an entrance and now with a kid, I still don't. Plus, I don't really like to disrupt the class...

Anyway, Princess couldn't get up this morning and instead of concentrating on eating her breakfast (chocolate bread), she was pinching her bread, poking the chocolate filling with her finger....... doing everything possible to make us even later for class. And when I finally stopped her from her nonsense and ate up the rest of the bread, she was of course furious and started throwing a tantrum. Knowing that she'd not agree to drink any water in that state (and I really wanted her to drink some fluids after that chocolate bread), I decided to nurse her although we were already late. Of all days, someone took longer than her usual 'sip' at the breast and made us even later for class.

When we arrived, the teachers were just about to demonstrate the art work for the day. Here's Alicia's work:

She simply loves to sprinkle glitter and it took me a long time to coax her to stop sprinkling glitter...

Anyway, today's lesson's focus is on 'apple' and so during Magicbox time, the children were each given a slice of apple to eat. As usual, Alicia was last to finish - in fact, she gave up the last small bit to me coz she wanted to participate in the 'apple-plucking' activity that was going on (one of the teachers 'dressed up' as an apple tree and had 'apples' on her for the children to pluck and put into a basket). The way Alicia reacted to the teacher - the inquisitive look as she took in the sight coupled with the running back to me hurriedly yet still ever so cheekily to 'tell' me what she had seen - was really cute. Children are so amusing really.

As usual, she was last to finish the snacks today and eventually I took the plate and cup away from her so that she could participate in the lesson's song and dance segment. Maybe she was upset with me for doing that because she kept throwing tantrums during that segment. Even when they were singing her favourite song 'Skimerink', she didn't do the actions or sing along as she normally would. The only song she decided to participate in was 'Twinkle twinkle little star'. Sigh.

Outdoor play was sandplay today and she refused to play with the sand - as usual. And so she ran around in the playground in the sweltering heat, 'cooked up' some 'dishes' in the play-kitchen and that wrapped up today's lesson!

Chicken stew served with macaroni for the toddler!

That's Alicia's dinner tonight... macaroni with chicken stew - just for her.

She hasn't had macaroni for months since the last time she rejected it so here I am, trying my luck again.

Unfortunately, it seems I'm out of luck because someone still doesn't like macaroni, so she only ate the chicken stew readily but left all the macaroni behind. It's a really tasty dish but I guess she just doesn't like macaroni so I ended up having to cook spaghetti for her...

Anyway, here she is, sampling her food:

Here's how to prepare the dish:

Ingredients:

• 2-3T chicken fillet meat (or thigh)
• 1/3 large carrot
• 2 baby corn
• 2T yellow onion
• 100ml stock

Marinate chicken with:

• 1T chicken marinade
• 1tsp brown sugar
• 1tsp oyster sauce

Method:

1. Cut the carrot, baby corn and onion into chunks for toddler.
2. Place the veggies into the slow cooker and place the chicken (including any leftover marinade) on top.
3. Add the stock.
4. Cook the stew in the small slow cooker for 2-3hours.
5. Thicken with cornflour solution if needed. You can add noodles instead of thickening the stew - just as flavourful! :D
6. Serve with rice, porridge or your choice of pasta.

Sweet potato brown rice porridge (with modified si shen soup)

For the past two days, Alicia has been having one meal of sweet potato porridge cooked with my modified si shen soup. It's sooooo sweet and fragrant, and most importantly, oozing with nutrition! :D

Guess what Alicia does when she sees her sweet potato porridge?

She picks out all the sweet potato to eat first... leaving behind the porridge. But after tasting the first mouth of porridge and realising that it's yummy, it becomes easier to feed after that... note: easier compared to usual; doesn't mean it's easy per se.

And so, she has this porridge with either pan-seared/baked cod fillet or baked/braised chicken and it's a balanced meal already. Hehehe. For those who have children who don't mind minced chicken or pork in the porridge, by all means add that in!

Sweet potato brown rice porridge (cooked in modified si shen soup)

Ingredients:

• 2T brown rice grains
• 200ml modified si shen soup
• 3T Japanese yellow sweet potato (peeled and cubed)

Method:

1. Wash the brown rice grains twice.
2. Steam the cubed yellow sweet potato for about 5min to release the flavour and aroma.
3. Place the grains into the soup in the slow cooker's earthen inner pot and bring the soup to a boil on the stove.
4. Place the earthen pot back into the slowcooker's outer pot, add the steamed sweet potato cubes and cook for slightly past an hour.
5. Dish and serve.

Udon... not!

I gave Alicia udon on Monday (fried udon for lunch and udon soup for dinner). This is the first time Alicia had udon and although she ate some of it, she didn't quite like it. Hubby hates udon and I'm not particularly fond of it either... maybe it's a genetic preference in Alicia's case... lol.

Anyway, for some reason, she refuses to use her cutlery lately and sometimes she refuses to be fed... I've got such a temperamental girl! sigh...

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 2 Week 3)

Alicia was relatively well-behaved during Saturday's class... Anyway, during the previous lesson, the instructors gave the children grapes to eat as part of the teaching of the letter 'g'; this week, to teach the colour  'orange', the instructors gave them carrot juice to drink! :D And so the kids were made to queue up to collect their carrot juice and had to say 'orange' before the cup was handed over (well, of course even if the children didn't say it, they still got to drink it!). Alicia had two small cups of 30ml each... yes, she queued up twice... but there were times she just wanted to be part of the queue, even before she finished her first cup. The instructor said she just loves to be part of the queue... lol.

For snack time, the kids were given raisins, watermelon and biscuits. As usual, Alicia was the last to finish but this week, she refused to give up on the food so the instructor moved the table and chair aside so that the class could move on to the song and dance segment. And so, Alicia was the spectator for the day... every time the class danced around the classroom and when they walked by the table, they'd laugh at Alicia - still eating! sigh... and in the end, she finished everything only after the song and dance segment was over! During that segment, Alicia would do the actions of songs that she likes then carry on eating... LOL.

For art, they painted a 'carrot', and used a comb to make squiggly lines to make it look like a real carrot. But we didn't get to take the carrot home as it'd be included in the graduation booklet. Here's the other piece of art she did. She was given a balloon filled with some water and that was the painting medium for the day!

The Letter C - Literature

The days sometimes just fly past and before I know it, it's the end of yet another day, and sometimes I feel that I haven't done anything very constructive with Alicia for the day... I wonder if anyone else feels the same way... I guess for me, it's mainly Alicia's super slow eating that's the obstacle to the many other activities I could have done with her. I can only hope that she will progress and get out of this phase.

Anyway, yes, we're still on the letter C mainly because of Alicia's eating.

I've not covered the literature for the letter C and I decided that this week's the week to do so! And we can hopefully move on to the letter D soon...

Here are the books we read!: The Very Hungry Caterpillar (borrowed from Julia Gabriel's Bookroom) and Just like Jasper!

Alicia just loved the little holes in The Very Hungry Caterpillar book and she kept poking her fingers into the holes and she'd move her hand over the page just to feel the different texture created by the holes. And she kept meow-ing when we read Just like Jasper!

There are quite a few activities to do with your kid if she's older... just google "The Very Hungry Caterpillar activities" and there are free printables and lesson plans to go along with the book!

For Alicia, I decided to just read the book with her as I don't think she's mature enough to handle the activities suggested... well, except for maybe the eating bit... if only she can eat like the caterpillar... oh well, never mind... :P

And here's the other book which we read earlier before and she was crazy about: Hermie: A common caterpillar...

Saving up for a rainy day!

Yesterday hubby got a free piggy bank from pumping petrol so I decided to let Alicia have it.

According to this site,

"the fine motor control needed to grasp, hold and slide a penny into the slot develops concentration and coordination. A young child will naturally discover that coins come in different sizes, colors and thicknesses, which will spark a curiosity to learn more about the names, values and pictures associated with each one."

As you can see in the photos, Alicia's concentrating very, very hard! :)

Putting in the coin...

It's in, mummy!

Let's put more in!!!

Our staycation in June 09

Just realised that I've not uploaded the photos we took during our staycation at Siloso Hotel last June... :)

Well, it was quite a disappointing holiday because Alicia was ill so she slept more than usual and in the end we had to come back earlier to bring her to the doctor... :(

Napping at the hotel...

Underwater world

Waiting for dinner on the first day

Bought the arm floats from a shop there but in the end she didn't get to swim with it there...

We're leaving!!!!

Atlantis City@Delta

I've been wanting to bring Alicia to Atlantis City@Delta for awhile already but due to her schedule, I've been unable to do so. Today I finally managed to and I'm glad I brought her because it made both mummy and toddler happy! :D

She was rather apprehensive at first but warmed up quickly to the place and towards the end of the hour, she was squealing in excitement at the smallest thing and she even did a double turn and started dancing to the song that was playing in the background at one point (unfortunately, I didn't manage to capture this moment in time).

Anyway, here are the photos I took of her at the place:

I can swing myself on this double swing...

... and so can I on this swing!

I love this swing too!

*Posing for a photo* :)

Will this pose do, mummy?

I'm having so much fun mummy!

Back home for lunch with a very hot and sweaty mummy!

*took soooo long to take a shot with her and this is the best I managed!*

My early birthday celebration :)

Celebrated my birthday early at my mum's... here are some photos! :)

Grieving...

*emo-post*

DEFINITION OF GRIEF:

The emotional depiction of

great loss accompanied by a sense of

hopelessness,

anguish,

denial,

anger and

confusion.

It was a bad day for me today.

I found my Cameron 'baby' gone.

Gone from where I had last seen it just after lunch.

I'd just gone into my room to

shower with Alicia and nurse her to sleep.

When I came out,

it was gone.

My mil had thrown it away - without asking. :(

Again.

I was terribly upset because I had meant to give my Cameron 'baby' a proper 'funeral' and keep the pot in remembrance of it.

I didn't even get to say goodbye to it...

if you've had a pet, you'd know how terrible it feels to have someone throw away your pet's carcass

without informing you,

without having you take a last look at it,

without

you around.

Now I only have this photo of my Cameron 'baby' to remember it (fortunately I took a picture yesterday!)...

It's a pity we didn't take a photo of it when it was flourishing so beautifully.

We used to be so happy to note that it'd grown taller, had more sprouts etc. but somehow we didn't take a photo of it then... perhaps we didn't think it'd leave us so soon... :(

Needless to say, I immediately called my hubby but he was unable to take my call and of course that made it all the worse for me. By the time he called back, I was ironing the clothes with a very heavy heart but upon hearing his voice asking me what happened, I just broke down again and cried.

He offered to buy me a new plant,

and I'd get to choose what I want.

Although that can't make things better or

bring back my Cameron 'baby',

I'd say that probably is the next best thing he can do to make me feel better.

So I told him since my birthday's approaching,

I'd like to have a new plant for my birthday present then -

he'd offered to buy me a DSLR but I think that'd be under-utilised so I feel a new plant would suit me better though it can't take the place of our Cameron 'baby'.

I guess I have to slowly move towards the process of acceptance,

knowing that no amount of grieving will bring my cactus back to life and

blaming my mil for throwing it away won't make me feel better because I know

it is gone.

Gone.

Climbing up the piano chair...

I've been asked how Alicia can climb up the piano chair on her own...

well, the agile little one demonstrates it here in this video:

My little Mozart

Alicia recently loves to play the piano so I'd just open up the piano in the morning so she can play the piano whenever she wants to. She'd climb up onto the piano chair on her own and start playing...

Here's a video of her playing the piano today:

Our poor Cameron 'baby' ...

Here's our poor Cameron 'baby':

It was flourishing well at first... then I think at some point, we both didn't water it for awhile and then it started to wither... and it finally collapsed yesterday... :'(((

Modified Si Shen soup (四神汤)

Alicia hasn't been eating so well lately - ok, she picked up a bit since Saturday - so I decided to make this si shen soup. It is well-known for improving appetite and is commonly given to children with poor appetites. I think the main herb that does this is fu ling as research has shown that it strengthens the body, improves body weight and improves appetite. I wouldn't encourage parents with big babies/toddlers or babies/toddlers with an already hearty appetite to serve up this soup to your darlings as si shen soup is probably the equivalent of the Western appetizer.

Alicia guzzled down this 100ml of soup at one go last night! :D

The 四神:

Ingredients:

• 5g huai shan (淮山)
• 10g dried foxnuts (qian shi) (芡实)
• 20g fu ling (茯苓)
• 40g dried lotus seed (lian zi) (莲子)
• 250g pork rib
• 6 chicken thigh bones
• 1 soup pot of water

For added taste I added these ingredients:

• 4 dried figs (无花果）
• 3 candied dates (金丝蜜枣)
• 1 big red apple (cut into quarters)

Method:

1. Rinse the chinese herbs.
2. Blanch the ribs and bones.
3. Place all the ingredients into the soup pot and bring to a boil.
4. Simmer on low heat for 3 hours.
5. Sieve the soup and serve only the soup.

No-frills steamed egg

This is a simple home-cooked dish and as the title indicates, it's truly no-frills! :D

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 200ml stock
• 1 bunch scallions (sliced)
• 2 shallots (slice thinly)
• 1/2tsp salt
• ground white pepper
• light soy sauce

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and mix them together with the stock.
2. Add salt and ground white pepper.
3. Sieve the egg mixture twice to get a smooth fluid.
4. Steam the egg mixture on low heat (for about 8min or so), and stand close by to watch the steaming process so that the egg will definitely be smooth.
5. Heat some oil and fry the shallots.
6. Pour a little light soy sauce, the shallot oil and shallots over the steamed egg.
7. Sprinkle the scallions over the dish.

For toddler's consumption:

• Serve steamed egg without the shallots and scallions if your tot is not fond of them.

Chicken midwings stew

I didn't have much time to take a proper photo of the dish as I was trying to watch over the rest of the food I was cooking on the stove. This will just have to do...

Anyway, we love chicken wings - so does Alicia - so it's no surprise that chicken wings make their appearance quite a bit on our table! :)

Chicken midwings stew

Ingredients:

• 12 mid wings
• 1/2 small red pepper (dice)
• 3 baby corn (cut into chunks)
• 2 handfuls frozen mixed veggies
• 2 cloves garlic (sliced and lightly smashed)
• 2 shallots (chunked)
• 2 slices ginger
• 2 bunches scallions (cut into 1.5-2" length)

Seasoning:

• 2-3T oyster sauce
• 1T dark soy sauce
• 1-1.5T brown sugar

Marinate the wings with:

• oyster sauce
• Lee Kum Kee chicken marinade
• sesame oil
• ground black pepper
• brown sugar

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a wok. Fry the baby corn, mixed veggies and diced red pepper till cooked. Remove from wok.
2. Brown the chicken wings on both sides then remove from wok.
3. Heat some oil in the wok and fry the ginger and scallions.
4. Add the shallots and garlic. Fry till fragrant.
5. Add the chicken wings and fry for a short while.
6. Add the seasoning and enough water to cover the wings.
7. Bring the water to a boil then simmer for 40 minutes, stirring now and then for even cooking.
8. Add the veggies in in the last 10min.
9. Add some cornflour solution to further thicken the gravy if necessary.
10. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• If the tot can handle eating the meat from the chicken wing on her own, there is nothing much to do! :)
• Remove the meat from the chicken wing if the tot is unable to eat it on her own.
• Cut the baby corn into smaller pieces.

Julia Gabriel PlayClub (Term 2 Week 2)

Alicia was so restless in class, moving here and there in class... but she didn't wander away from the activities. Instead she kept going up to her teachers to ask them for hugs and just to sit on their laps...

For teaching of the letter 'g', the instructors gave the children one big grape each to eat during English story time. When the children had gone to wash their hands, Alicia went up to the instructor and told him "more, more!". Hahahaha.... but she didn't get more because it was time for Chinese story time...

As for swimming that day, she refused to enter the tub at first and by the time she agreed to do so, it started to drizzle so she hardly got to play much. Once out of the tub, she wanted to go to the playground to play but she was wet and had to get changed so she threw a terrible tantrum when I brought her back to class to be changed. Sigh. I wonder if she's already reaching the terrible twos coz she's been extra naughty recently...

Anyway, here's her art for the day:

Celebrating Natalie's 3rd bday!

Here're some photos and a video of Alicia celebrating her cousin, Natalie's birthday at my mum's place as well as at my brother's on the next day.

Stealing a taste of the cake before it's cut!

Let's dig in!

Here's Alicia concentrating very hard on drinking...

it's the first time she's so cooperative drinking straight from a packet!

It's a pity we couldn't capture more photos of the party held at my brother's coz my camera battery went flat... but Alicia enjoyed herself! And judging from Nat's behaviour last night, I'm sure she enjoyed every moment of her birthday party! :)

Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) drink

Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) can be brewed as a drink and these are its medical functions (obtained from here):

1. Effect on circulatory system:

(a) improves contraction of heart muscles

(b) protects heart muscle and arrhythmia

2. Anti-shock

3. improves toleration of lack of oxygen

4. improve immune system

5. improves recovery of cells of the pancrea and lowers blood sugar

6. anti-bacteria

I decided to brew this in particular to improve our immune systems, including Alicia's... fortunately she agreed to drink it although it has a 'herby' taste...

Here's how to make this drink:

Ophiopogon tuber (麥冬) drink

Ingredients:

• 75g ophiopogon tuber (麥冬)
• a handful of candied wintermelon (冬瓜糖)
• about 1L of water

Method:

1. Rinse the ophiopogon tuber and place it together with the candied wintermelon into the pot of water.
2. Bring the pot of water to a boil.
3. Simmer on low heat for 25-30min.