All About Carrots

 

I used to have a hard time getting my lil prince to eat carrots.  When he was a baby, we don't have any problems in getting him to eat carrots as we can puree the carrot.  As he grows older, we no longer puree his food but cut the carrots into smaller pieces.  It started from there, he seems to keep his distance away from carrots!

Few months back, I planned an activity for him.  I told him we are going to do some cutting activity.  I boiled the carrots, gave him a butter-knife and asked him to cut the carrots.  He seems to like this cutting activity a lot.  While he was cutting, he pop some of the carrots into his mouth!  From that day onwards, he reunited with carrots again ^__^.  Boy, I was so pleased with that.   I told him, after all his hard work of cutting the carrots, he needs to taste his carrots.

 

Last week, we did another carrot cutting activity  This time, I used my numbers cutter and let him cut out the shapes from the carrots.  He added his carrots into his porridge and his soup for his dinner.  The best part is he 'sapu' all his carrot porridge and carrot soup!

My next task will be getting him to eat greens!

Snax Box # 038 Fishy Friday

TGIF!!!!...I love Fridays…but too bad, I need to work this weekend. Anyway, I still have Sunday to rest, though.

Today I tried making the ‘fish’ egg for lil prince using my egg mould but it didn’t really turn out well.  Can’t see the fish prints on my egg.  I gave him some fish biscuits (cheese flavor) and two cream puffs that I bought from a nearby bakery.  I also packed some raisins and gave him some chocolate sunflower seeds as a treat!  I bought the chocolate sunflower seeds from Candylicious.  My favourite shop at 1 Utama!  I simply adores that candy shop.  

Have a nice weekend everyone!!

Yummy food @ Melaka Trip - Part II

Continue from previous post.....

These are the yummy food we had on our second day in Melaka.
 

For lunch on the second day, we visited the same restaurant again for chicken ball rice.  We are really a great fan of the chicken ball rice.  After all, that’s our favourite food in Melaka.  After lunch, we went back to our hotel for a short nap before going out for tea again.

Nadeje Cake Shop

We went to Nadeje for tea as I loved to eat mille crepe.  We ordered a tiramisu and a banana chocolate mille crepe and a Melaka crush ice-blended (it has a great taste of gula Melaka!).  I absolutely adored this mille crepe.  It was made out of layers of crepe with creams in between.  Really nice textures just that the price was a bit on the high end :P.   Since we had collected 10 stamps on our ‘priviledge card’, we redeem our FOC mille crepe as I’m not sure when we will visit the shop again.  We ordered the rum and raisin crepe for takeaway.

Restoran Nyonya Amy

For dinner, we visited  Aunty Amy’s Heritage Nyonya Cuisine at Melaka Raya for their famous nyonya food.  We ordered the ayam ponteh, fried omelette with cincaluk, fried toufu and a piece of otak-otak.  It was a pity as we were not able to ordered the spicy food as we had two kids around, we had to take all non-spicy food.  Hubby said nyonya food without any spicy-ness doesn’t  taste like nyonya food at all ^__^ .  Nevertheless, I loved the ayam ponteh and the fried omelette with cincaluk.   We also got a chance to meet Aunty Amy too.  She is a very nice and friendly lady.  Next time when we return, we will definately try all the spicy food!!

Yummy food @ Melaka Trip - Part I

We had lots of good food during our short trip to Melaka.  Here are some of the highlights of our yummmmmy food :P

Day 1

      Chicken Rice Ball

Every time when we go to Melaka, we will not fail to visit this Chicken Rice Ball shop at Kedai Kopi Chung Wah.   This is a MUST have when you go to Melaka.   This is always our FIRST pit stop in Melaka.  We arrived early before 12pm to avoid the heavy crowd.  Ordered 25 chicken rice ball (it comes with five balls per plate) and a medium chicken serving.  We just loved the fragrance of the rice.  Even my lil princess with no teeth only eat the chicken rice balls alone.  She loved it! This shop is located at Jalan Hang Jebat.

Nyonya Dumpling and Cendol

After our lunch, we walk down the road to savor the best nyonya chang.  We went to the East and West Rendezvous shop which was also located along Lorong Hang Jebat.  We ordered two nyonya chang and cendols.  The nyonya ‘chang’ was priced at RM4.00 each and the cendol cost RM 2.50 per bowl.  I loved the taste of the nyonya  ‘chang’!!  This is something which we don’t find in KL.  The nyonya ‘chang’ was filled with diced pork, dried shrimps, mushroom and etc.  It was very fragrance.  Loved the blue-coloured rice (which is a type of flower, I’m not sure what flower it is ^__^).  The cendol was good as it has a very strong taste of gula Melaka.  Before we left Melaka, we even ‘tapau’ eight nyonya chang back to KL!  

 The aunty told me that we can keep it for two weeks in the fridge.  Besides the nyonya ‘chang’ we also bought back the pineapple tarts for lil prince teachers at school.

Fried Oyster

Our next stop was to try the fried oyster at the end of Lorong Hang Jebat.  This shop only opens from 4pm onwards (if I'm not mistaken).  We were the first customer on that day.  We ordered a medium portion.  I find that oyster a bit plain though, probably we forgot to add the pepper and sauce that was placed at our table.  Hubby told me that the fried oyster at Melaka Raya is better.  Nevertheless, it was worth trying.

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Satay Celup

One thing that you will not miss when you go Melaka is to try the satay celup.  We decided to try the satay celup at Restaurant Capitol.  This shop only opens at 5.00pm onwards.  Mind you, before 5pm, you can see the queue of people.  Customers already started to queue at 4.30pm and we were one of them too..hehehe.  There were lots of varieties to choose (ie. fish balls, chicken, crab meat and a whole long list).  All ingredients were placed in a fridge rack, I guess it is to preserved the freshness of the food.  Each stick is priced at RM 0.80.  They also gave us a cup of water for us to wash away the sauce in case it is too spicy for the kids. 

"Burger Maut"

Before the day end, we tried the burget ‘maut’ at Semabok.  We read about it from internet that it was good.  The burger stall was opposite Semabok Inn.  We ordered the Burger Convert (it comes in a hotdog bun with two burger meat cut into small pieces).  Looked at the way he fried the burger in high flames!  This stall opens from 8.30pm onwards till 12 midnight.  Overall, the burger tasted really good!  I guess it must be due to the hot flames ^__^.  Loved the juicy burger meat…yummy!!

Snax Box # 037 Smiley Bears

My lil prince came back yesterday and I asked him what he ate in school (just to see how well his memory serves him).  He told me that he had ice-cream cone (I packed ice-cream cone for him on Monday).  He added one more comment “ Mummy, can you make the ice-cream like the ones we have in the store?”.  I think what he meant was my so-called ice-cream didn’t look like an ice-cream for him.  He said there’s no swirls/twist (like the mcdonalds ice-cream cone ^__^). Hmmm....I need to put on my thinking cap and see how I improve on my 'food art' to convince him.

Here's my snack box for today.  I used the left over cheese cake that I bought from Jusco.  The bear shaped is made out of cheese and the eyes, nose and etc are made of seaweed.  I only like to use smiley face on my snack box as it makes me happy when I see them :P.  I do hope my food box will also put a smile on my lil prince face each time he opened his snack box in school. I added some teddy bear biscuits with vanilla filling and some raisins for him.  I also gave him his cherry tomatoes and strawberries.  Oh, yes almost forget about the tiny marshmallow.

Happy Tuesday!

Melaka River Cruise

Whenever we are in Melaka, we will definitely go for the river cruise.  We never fail to go on the river cruise.  Each time we go Melaka, this is a MUST have on our itinerary.  We loved to sit back and relax on the boat and observed the surroundings historical landmarks, modern buildings, bridges and etc.  The journey for the cruise takes approximately 45 minutes.  The ticket price per adult was RM10 and for child was RM 5.  We were lucky to have a 20% discount voucher from Matta Fair.  This makes our total ticket price to RM20 (instead of RM 25) for three pax as lil princess was FOC.  Tip of the day, go to Matta Fair before you plan your holiday destination.  It will help you save some $$$ ^__^.  For this Melaka trip, we were very lucky as Matta Fair was held one week before.  We got most of our offers and discounts from there.

We took the river cruise in the evening around 5.30pm as it was not too hot.  The weather was just nice and it was very windy too.   Along the river cruise, we see some old and new buildings, some buildings had mural painted on it.  We also saw the monorail having a test run ( I guess).  Both my lil ones were so amazed of the water splashing on them off and on.  

Here are some photos taken during our river cruise.

The next trip, we shall try the night cruise!

Snax Box # 036 "Ice-Cream Snax"

My lil prince was having cough for quite some time.  He did ask to eat ice-cream on certain occasions but we minimize it as we were afraid that it will make his cough worse.  But he has been coughing for few weeks now.  *sigh* I guess it is common for kids when they go to pre-school, they often get sick every now and then.

Anyway, I bought some ice-cream cones from Jusco yesterday and a cheese cake.  I planned to make him a so-called ice-cream cone but with cheese cake on top instead of ice-cream :P.  I scoop the cheese cake to make it look like a ball (I think it didn't turn out well) and added some heart sprinkles on top.

Here's my ice-cream snax box for today accompanied with some red and yellow tomatoes, grapes and strawberries.  I also gave him some egg biscuits (the round shaped biscuits) and two mochi.  Since I still have some ice-cream cones left over, I'm planning to buy some cake probably and make him another cone tomorrow ^__^. 

Melaka Trip

Melaka has always been our favourite holiday destination.  We loved going there for the food especially and there are so many things to do in Melaka.  We stayed at Hotel Puri during our short break at Melaka last week.  I had always wanted to stay in this boutique hotel.   I find that the location of this hotel was very strategic.  It was located at Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock and very near to Jonker’s Street.  I had read so many good reviews about this boutique hotel and three years ago, when we went to Melaka, I went in for a short tour around the lobby area of this hotel.  I just loved all the ‘antique’ decoration that they had in this hotel.

When we went to Matta Fair two weeks ago, Hotel Puri was having a promotion for RM149 nett for a superior room per night.  Since we were planning for a trip to Melaka, we book for two nights stay with breakfast.  I believe this was a promotion price as I remembered their hotel rates for superior room was around RM200 per room.

We arrived around 12.00pm, had our lunch at the famous chicken ball rice shop (will blog about it later) and checked in the hotel around 2.00pm.  We requested for a baby cot for our lil princess but in the end it was our lil prince who slept in the baby cot and lil princess slept on the bed J.  I personally find the room spacious and clean.  I loved the antique chairs and cupboards in the room.   The toilet was clean and they provide the basic toiletries.  

 

Our package comes with breakfast for two days and I find that their breakfast selection was good.  Among the food on the menu were sausages, fried meehoon, asam laksa (on the first day), fried eggs or omelette, potatoes wedges, mushroom lasagna and etc.  There was also some selection of breads, cornflakes, coco crunch and fruits.  I find that there was a  lot of food just for breakfast. 

Here are some photos taken at the boutique hotel.  Next, will blog about the wonderful food that we had in Melaka!

Drypers Pool Party

We were invited to the Drypers Pool Party for the young VIP’s  last week at The Club @ Bukit Utama.  I was not aware that Bukit Utama has a swimming club although we often go to that area.   We didn’t have any problem locating the place as the map provided was straight forward.  We arrived at The Club at 8.30am and proceed to the registration counter.  The first impression my lil prince had was ‘ wahhh…mummy look at the kids pool!’.  He was so amazed with the water tubes and slides at the wading pool.  The club has an Olympic-sized swimming pool. 

 

Besides the pool, there are other impressive facilities available at The Club which includes a nine-hole golf course with night golfing amenities and three indoor tennis courts, four squash courts and two futsal courts.  Our main attraction for the day was to head on to the kids POOL!

Upon registration, we were ushered to the waiting area whereby we waited for other families to arrive.  After the opening speech, each kid was given a float.  Mind you, they prepared very nice floats and balls for the kids.  All the inflatable floats were so cute!  Lil princess was a bit scared of the water, I guess she was not used to it.  I should bring her out to the pool more often.  I ask lil prince to play at the water tubes and slides at the wading pool but he refused!  Sigh!  My lil boy is so scared of the slides.

 Drypers also prepared a set of toiletries for us that include, the baby bath, shampoo, towel, wipes and etc.  We just have to bring along our clothes for change.  After our pool session, we gathered at the hall for a short challenge.  Mummy and lil princess was asked to wear the Drypers bib and the fastest mummy/daddy to complete wins a hamper sponsored by Drypers.  Guess what, my lil princess was so cooperative and we won the challenge!  Gee…this is my first time winning a challenge with my lil one. We got one of these hampers will a full range of Drypers products!  Three families walked away with these beautifully wrapped Drypers hampers.

After the challenge, we filled our tummy with the lunch that was provided.  It was very thoughtful of them to prepare all the foods that most kids loved to eat such as nuggets, sausages and potatoe wedges.  These are my kids favourites as they don’t get to eat them at home :P.

This was indeed a wonderful event for our family.  We had a splashing time at the pool.  Drypers has indeed brought us together to spend some quality time as a family together!

Thank you Drypers Malaysia and Vibes Communication!

Here are some photos of The Club @ Bukit Utama.

Matta Fair 2012

Going to Matta Fair has been our annual event.  Actually, we seldom buy any holiday packages from Matta Fair.  Our main objective was just to go there and look-see-look-see.  I like to see what are the new hotels and the promotions that they offer during Matta Fair.  Last time, we used to purchase the local hotel stay but after a while, these hotels rates seem to be going up and up the hill.  Prices of hotels have gone up a lot.  Five years ago, I remember we were able to steal some good deals for RM80 nett per room for a 4 start hotel in Penang.  Recently, there are no more hotels under RM100.  

We  love to collect brochures from all the countries that have booth at Matta Fair and read about their country.  Well, this is what we normally do when you don’t have the $$$ to travel ^__^.   This time, besides collecting the brochures, we also managed to collect some freebies.  Anlene had a  booth there and offered free bone analysis.  Upon completing the consultation, we were given a small pack of Anlene chocolate milk. 

 The event was from 10am to 9pm and the entrance fee was RM3 for adult and kids under the age of 12 are FOC.  We spent almost 3 hours browsing through all the booths. 

Here are the brochures that we collected from the fair plus our freebies ^__^.  The Taiwan Tourism gave is a water proof paper bag which I find it very useful for travelling use.



The Indonesia tourism gave us a serai soap.  It was nicely pack in a small box.  This is the first time I saw a serai soap and the smell is so nice!

Snax Box # 035 Chicken Meat Floss Bread

 I still have some left overs 'kuih bahulu' from yesterday as I bought a big box :).  My lil prince asked me not to pack too many for him as he said he cannot finished them.  So, I only pack one 'kuih bahulu' and I made some bread with chicken meat floss.  I was afraid that it will be messy for him to eat if I just put the meat floss in sandwich style.  Hence, I rolled them up (like sushi ^__^) so that the meat floss will not drop off.

The side dishes are some fruits (grapes and strawberries) accompanied by some cheese biscuits.  I gave him a sweet treat today as you can see, the ice-cream cone marshmallow.  I also fancy this ice-cream marshmallow too.  It's pretty cute!

This is my so called sushi meat floss bread creation for today :P.

Snax Box # 034 - Monday Blues

 I really enjoyed my one week break during the school holidays.  Enjoy as in I don't have to rush early in the morning to send my kid to school and to rush to work after dropping him off.  I even had the time to go to market last week to run some errands before I go to work.  *sigh* how I miss those times, no traffic jams, no rushing here and there and the best thing is when I return from work, no need to stress on checking my lil prince homework.

I bought some cakes from market yesterday and packed it for lil prince snack today.  The cake was coated with peanut butter and marjerin. Besides that I also bought a box of 'kuih bahulu' (I think this the name for this kuih, I'm not so sure ^__^).  This 'kuih bahulu' was special as it is coffee flavour instead of the normals ones.  Taste good. 

Lastly, here's the snax box for my lil prince today combining both the items.  Added some ABC biscuits, fruits and marshmallows!  Looks kind of plain :(

Luckily today, the traffic was smooth but as usual, after the one week break, my lil boy refused to go to school.  I had to drag him out of the bed. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day!

Speedy Cupcake

 I am really terrible when it comes to baking.  I've tried a few times to make cupcakes but most of the time they don't turn out well.  This time, I bought the ready mix cupcake and followed the instructions carefully.  To my surprise, it was really easy and save time too.  At least, I don't have to measure the ingredients one by one.  For this cupcake mix, all I need was to add in four grade A eggs, 120ml water and 120ml palm oil. 

Instead of 120ml water, I substitute it with my kids milk (since my lil prince seldom drink milk nowadays) and as for the palm oil, I use the Colavita Olive Oil instead (that's the only oil I found in my kitchen ^__^).

The instructions was pretty easy.  Mix all the ingredients and use the electrical mixer and beat in medium speed for 1 minute followed by another minute in high speed.  Scoop the batter into the cupcakes mould and bake for 15 minutes.  This time I was really careful not to put too much of the batter into my cupcake paper cup because I was afraid that it will over flow during the baking process.  I guess I was too careful.  Didn't really turn out that nice.  Nonetheless, this time the cupcake it is edible!

The next thing that I should try is how to decorate my cupcakes!  I only have some sprinkles in my fridge and use them as decoration for my cupcakes.  Looks like my cupcakes has some purple and pink pimples on them :P.