nutritious at lower cost

Nowadays I've become a permanent member of 'reduced to clear' club.
If lucky, can get great deals
like black gold mango - 3 biji for RM0.71 
fresh coconut for Rm0.99
2 bunch of small banana for RM1.99

The verdict : 
black gold mango : 2 is nice and 1 too ripe at one portion (to my standard)
coconut : old coconut with thick juicy flesh (to my liking)
banana : some taste not ripe at middle portion, suspected is made ripe with chemical instead of natural ripe

1st attempt : no bake coco choco mudball

Stumble upon a recipe which I have all the ingredient @ home, so no harm trying since I like choco (cocoa) & coco (coconut).

here's the recipe I copied from the website

the cocoa powder 

the raw honey 














The mixture of shredded coconut, cocoa powder and honey.
Shredded coconut is the type we use to make santan.

The end product, for better taste, cover and chill in the fridge.
I give myself a pass ... taste a little too 'coconuty' due to overpour coconut oil.








Dare not offer anyone except dear ... due to 'you know la' how bad can the food I prepare be .... LOL
Anyone want to be guinea pig next round? ....LOL

colourful things that can go into the mouth

Ever since what happened to us (my family) last year, 

I've learnt the importance of health 

and is more careful with what we put into our mouth.

I like colourful things so I assume my kiddies like them too ...

so I learn to make our own snacks.

I love making these for them.

They love these their mother make for them.

I couldn't have ask for more =)

the 4 jars of dried fruits were gone in less than an hour =D

The process :

1. Cutting and slicing the fruits. Treating some with lemon juice if required (to reduce oxidation)

2. Arrange slices of fruits according to similarity of texture (ie. time needed to dry). Mine is more of trial and error basis.

So we have

• kiwi
• mango
• dragon fruit
• pineapple 
• nangka / cempedak
• green & red apple
• guava

 3. stack up the tray and on power ... then we just wait. I prefer to do it at night after they sleep.

4. When they reach desired dryness, we off the power and let the fruit cool down before canning them in clean airtight container (preferably glass).

5. Give the kiddies some suprises. Enjoy!

the space I miss most

I recently transferred to another department,

I was surprised that the space I miss most was NOT my workstation

instead I miss this space the most.

This is the ONE and ONLY so call 'lactation room' we have in the building.

It is slightly bigger than the size of a regular bathroom.

It can fit up to 4 person (tried & tested)

This was where at one point of time, during my second child time, 

4 mothers cramped inside together to do their motherly duties.

and the best part was this space does not have any power socket (since it is a small partitioned space between the pantry and office room).

and we have to use extension wire (the turn to roll type) to connect power point to this space and extension plug to accommodate 4 electric breast pump.

It was not on purpose that all 4 of us from the same department pump together, our boss didn't like it anyway.

It was all because this is the ONLY lactation room we have in the building and everyone is waiting for their turn to use. So we figured it is better for all 4 of us to occupy the room at one go rather than wait for one another.

Our number twiddle from 4 to 3 to 2 to 1.

And then back to 2 when I had to slot in to other people time (I was on different floor) which make it hard for me to 'book' the room.

And then I had the room all to myself thereafter. 

I remember making myself comfortable in there, momentarily throwing away all my work stress and concentrated on my motherly duties while listening to Ai FM.

The people on that floor has been so used to seeing me around that they notice that I'm missing when I'm on leave. 

They too have been very kind to reserve a electrical point for me to connect from pantry to the room. The other are used for microwave oven and some other electrical appliances.

I miss the birds who likes to walk and chip near the window.

I miss the eavesdropping of people talking in the pantry (either phone call or chit chat)..I know this is not good.

I miss the privacy at least this room provide

Cause at the new place (the building) ...

they have an even SMALLER and ONLY lactation room (half the size).

Even equipped with 1 small table, 2 chairs, 1 power point, and some magazines, 

it feels devoid as it is fully booked throughout the day (a few slots by the same person - kiasu), and no one is willing to share pumping session,

so much so that I've upgraded myself to 'workstation pumper' with 'very the thick skin'.

(a sure very notorious way to gain popularity)

if you are thinking what about vacant meeting room / store room?

meeting room - fully booked most of the time and is all glass from ceiling to floor.

store / document room - too small, too packed and too risky if anything goes missing from inside.

surau - not a suitable place and ONLY 1 small partitioned surau for the whole building also.

So,

This is my OPEN PLEA to organisation especially BIG ones 

At least have the courtesy to RESPECT the RIGHTS of mothers to breastfeed their children. 

We don't do it on purpose to escape from work (we have better ways and excuses than breast pumping).

For all you know, we all have mother / wife / daughters ... someone will surely benefit enormously from this 'room' 

Well, again as always, I'm still very grateful for being able to at least benefited from the 'room'. 

And again as usual, I'll continue voicing this need at every opportunity until someone HEAR us. 

I'm not sure if something will happen if someone stumble upon this post, but 

LET IT GO, LET IT GO!

Can't hold it back any more

View from outside (left side is the pantry)

View of inside 

View from inside 

老板娘的妈妈

how nice will it be to be 老板娘的妈妈

my daughter told me this is her ice-cream shop (think Häagen-Dazs, Baskin Robbins)

and her restaurant (where she cook and serve me) 

haha...fat dreams but no harm harbouring such a little hope

weekend challenge 走多一点 看多一点 学多一点

for the past 2 weekends, to break the monotomy of life, 
I decided to venture out ... to my neighbourhood that is.
So I throw myself a weekend challenge, 
It all started because I had a bad intention of scavenging around for plants to plant
but I'm glad I've gained more than I bargain for.
I missed capturing some of the 'moments' during my walkabout around my garden, but these are some that I managed to capture : 

 A double storey house for rent / sale

 There's a Restoran Connaught in Midah

There's a sausages and ribs steakhouse here?

 There's a well known tuition centre here?

 with many students with fabulous results

 and they actually have a schedule for rubbish collection and cleaning of public spaces and drains 

a guru dharma house







and many more such as we have a park which is like a visit to vegetable farm (filled with many types of edible plants) ... which I think is a very good idea for urban farming ... fresh edibles and good use of vacant public land. (will capture pics on my next trip).
and a kind samaritan actually gave me a few types of plants because I told her she had a beautiful garden. 
and I saved a few lucky bamboo trimmed and thrown away. I'm now growing them as they grow easily rooting from stems.

and my coming weekend challenge ... walking to the morning market (about 1-2km away).
Till then, have a great week =)

my little new toys

here are my little new toys
which I bought online just few weeks shy before I go back to work
and didn't regret getting them 
for I start to like preparing foods 
me definately not a good cook but I'm willing to learn and improve
but 'someone' say I like to buy things that consume a lot of electricity wo...

here my little new toys and some of their end products

(a) little toaster oven & simple coconut cookies

(b) little electric steamer & steam herbal chicken & steam egg

(c) little juicer & a glass of refreshing juice

(d) little ceramic coating frying pan & banana pancake

upside down

I've just gone back to work for 2 days (today 3rd day) 
and I'm feeling upside down.
I'll be so tired by the time 10pm (or even before that) that I dozed off only to realise at wee hour in the morning that I've not wash the bottles, prepare tomorrow breakfast and lunch, pack things for tomorrow use... and a dozen of 101 things ...ironing, folding laundry (and yet you wonder I still got time to write this post? LOL)

I need to change my habits ... I don't know how long will I last if I continue like this.
(this being said as my workload at work is still not maximise)
maybe sometimes we couldn't really have it all ... and there's a price to pay.

ps. and I realised sitting @ work without much physical activities and sunshine is not really that healthy. Not even mention about looking at the computer screen many at times.

well, enough rant, life still have to go on... just that there's still various rooms for improvement.
and many many thanks to a bunch of close buddies who keeps me going thru watsapp (everytime I feel like giving up) thank thank you so much =D

I've only got 2 and 1/2 day left

I've only got 2 and 1/2 day left for me to do things that need to be done
Cause after that I will have to divide my time 
for my family with time for work.

To be honest, I'm going back to work with a heavy heart, a real heavy heart
but life doesn't always go the way we want it to be 
while it's sad for me, 
the next best thing I can do is to concentrate best at what I do when I do it and be grateful. (translate as : work when it's time to work and be the best 'me' when with love ones and friends)

looking back at the past 1 year from today, 
I've got many things learnt, 
many things to say,
many things to share,
many things to be thankful and grateful for
many things to be paid forward

easy yummy fully happy banana pancake

I'm no good at cooking (this is a known fact...LOL)

but I found something totally edible no matter how bad a cook I am

banana pancake with only 2 ingredients needed

banana + eggs 

1. Got some ripe bananas for RM0.99 from reduced to clear .. the riper the better more banana'ish sweet taste

2. cut the banana and smash using fork till puree (like for baby food)

3. beat 2 eggs (here I use telor kampung)

4. mix the banana and egg together and beat again to mix well

5. spread some oil / butter on the stove (I use butter, more yummy and smell nice)

6. pour the mixture into the pan and wait for them to cook. determine how small / big you want your pancake be.

7. Can eat just like that or with banana slice / honey / yoghurt / ice cream (we had it plain because it was already banana sweet. (okay I admit my end product look more like fried egg than pancake)

1st time my kids say I can cook nice food :D

can't wait for making the next batch.

I so really don't-know-what-I-want

I'm always like this ...
I so really don't know what I want
I don't know if I want to be SAHM or FTWM
making choices is already very difficult for me
making choices that involve other lives especially those dear to me is extremely difficult.

or do I just like Quesera sera
'whatever will be, will be' ... 'the future not us to see'
BUT BUT BUT
what we do NOW will determine our FUTURE

what if down the road, the decision I made now was no good and I'm unable to reverse the effect? is it too late to regret? will I hate myself for making that decision earlier? 

the only consolation : not making a decision is not going to change anything... most probably the worst we can do. 
Again, some say you can leave the decision making to others .. yes for certain things but definately not for things affecting us and those dependent on us.

Life oh life ...