Chinese new year 2013

First, let's look at my little precious' outfits for the past 3 days! :D

Daddy bought the dress and Hello Kitty sneakers from mummy's friend

We quickly gave her Sophie as she discovered that her shoes are just as chewy ><

Mummy bought the dress and socks online

And no, we didn't train her, but she quickly grabs any angpow that comes within reach!

The dress and bottom are both gifts from a mummy's friend

And there are more new clothes!!

Now comes the yummilious food!

CNY eve 2013

Baby all dressed up in her new "Sweetie" romper on CNY eve~

My 4 styles of CNY eve! :D

"先苦后甜", so gonna share some "bitterness" first... the fake tip on my broken nail came off before CNY. =(

Okay, that's all of the "bitterness"! XD Now on to our reunion dinners!! First, reunion dinner on Friday night (eve of eve) with hubby's family!

Lou Hei

Topless vs Topped

Cooked Food

Grilling vs Grilled

(using Happycall pan)

Steamboat Stuff

Fake Meat vs Real Meat *LOL*

That's not all! Scroll on for more pics... ^^

First time baking with Happy Call pan

"Mummy, can't I have two more licks of that book?"

This was for lunch on Tuesday. 

I digged out whatever ingredients I have and intended to use my Happy Call pan for the first time. I was so excited about it that I kept looking at Happy Call pan recipes on munchministry.com and shortlisting recipes that I'd love to try. On Tuesday, I intended to make mushroom baked pasta with the Happy Call pan, and also wanna use the sandwich maker from Daiso to make an egg and cheese sandwich.

As I was cooking for myself, I prepared small portions and I sauteed the sliced mushroom and cooked egg and cheese together on the pan.

Using sandwich maker to make my egg and cheese sandwich. I was afraid that the pocket sandwich would burst with too much filling, so I only used a portion of the one egg I cooked.

Added boiled pasta into the pan, then cheese and Italian herbs.

My lunch - egg and cheese pocket sandwich, mushroom baked pasta and a side of the leftover egg and cheese on fresh lettuce.

Yesterday, hubby took an off day and we went to Woodlands industrial estate to "sweep" through the factories with food direct sales again. This time it's a good day to shop as it's not a rainy day, it's a weekday so it wasn't crowded, and MIL came with us. We went home with the car boot full of frozen stuff and CNY goodies!

 The top 3 pics were taken in Fragrance (bak kwa), while the bottom 2 pics taken in Fassler.

My favourite buy from the trip - these 2 trays cost 6 bucks altogether!!

Gasp! Our CNY goodies that hubby and MIL bought or received as gifts. (O_o)!!

After the trip to Woodlands, hubby and I brought baby out and wanted to buy the air fryer for MIL as she's been raving about it after using it at SIL's place. But alas, it's out of stock! But luckily oh luckily it was, because today, BIL offered to pass his air fryer to us as he hardly uses it.

I bought stuff from Popular and NTUC. 

Top: Going to start a DIY flash cards project soon! 

Bottom: Wanna try baking with the Happy Call pan! 

Today's breakfast - MIL bought vegetarian beehoon from Kovan when she went to the market in Kovan in the morning.

And today I decided to bake with my Happy Call pan. I am very interested in marble cakes as it seemed fun creating the swirls... haha I'm such a little kid!

I surfed around the internet for recipes and finally I used these 2 as references:
Reference 1 | Reference 2

And using these 2 references, I created this draft last night:

Why did I create my own recipe? Well, I didn't want to buy a tin of unsweetened cocoa powder just to use 2 teaspoons... I don't think I'll be baking that often. So in the end I bought the chocolate essence for much cheaper. I'm just being... stingy. Hahaha~ That's why the chocolate portion of my final product also not as dark compared to the pictures in the references above. =P

But while baking I made some changes too, so here's the changes of my final recipe:
250g self raising flour (adding milo will make it watery)
4 eggs (changed to 4 eggs because the eggs I'm using are rather smallish)

I guess next time I will not make the milo but just mix the milo powder. Oh, and remember to whisk after adding each egg and after adding the vanilla essence, as my instructions weren't specific... lazy to type on my phone lah =P

For better and more complete recipes, please look at my two references.

At the beginning. I'm so grateful MIL has the kitchen scale and electric hand whisk!

Inside the Happy Call pan, getting ready to be baked! Oh, I drew vertical and horizontal lines instead of a figure of 8.

The final product ^^

The top and bottom were burnt. Now the story goes... it was supposed to be baking on low heat but somehow as I was shifting the pan from side to side, MIL realized that the fire went out. And we started ranting about how the stove is so so bad because the low heat always goes out and in the end we were forced to use medium heat, which tend to burn things that need to be cooked with low heat. And yes, because of that, I switched to medium heat and also extended the time a bit as I wonder if the fire was out for long... in the end the top and bottom "skin" of the cake was charred but I "skinned" the cake and the rest was super yummy! So I still consider this a successful attempt, with a little sabotage by the stove. XD

Frankly, everything will be so much easier baking in the oven! I stood by the stove and kept moving the pan around, and then it was quite heavy to flip too. But it's quite an experience... at least now I can tell people that I've baked with my Happy Call pan! ^^

Love my own cake creation ♥

Last weekend before lunar new year

Saturday

Went out to town in with baby for brunch in the late morning with 2 lovely ladies - a fellow mummy Mich and a mum-to-be Meh

Our beverages - I had red rooibos latte

Our brunches

Meh's rosti

Mich's pasta

My rosti with sauteed mushrooms

Gifts from Meh for baby and me! :D

Oh, I discovered baby's teeth in the morning!

Bought these snacks before heading home from town

Keelyn came to visit in the afternoon and bought a gorgeous personalized romper for my little precious! We watched one episode of my fav Japanese home-revamp show《超级全能住宅改造王》(Before/After) and catched up a bit before she left in the evening.

Sunday

Hubby and I wanted to go to Woodlands industrial estate to buy some CNY goodies, just like previous years. But unfortunately it started raining super heavily on the way, and so we decided to catch lunch first and ended up at Yishun Safra Club. We were at Eatzi but unfortunately the only vegetarian dish - vegetarian pizza - was sold out.

While waiting for lunch to be served

Hubby's chicken chop

My special order - vegetarian pasta - which is not in the menu

Hot tea and dessert that come with hubby's set lunch

After lunch at Bengawan Solo factory

It's not as crowded as past years as it was a rainy day

Dinner at my folks' place - my favourite food - mum's cooking!

Vegetarian fish fingers, yong tauhu with mock mutton and stirfried lettuce

Lotus root soup with peanuts, mock mutton, red dates and ginger

It was a great and yummy weekend! :D

Third entry of today

This entry is all about today. I went out for my manicure and pedicure session today, and took this photo along the way.

I love the trees and the beautiful sky. After watching a TV show on channel 8 last night which kept discussing about the population white paper, talking about how in future buildings will be over 50-storey high to accommodate the increasing population of locals and otherwise... i shuddered at the thought that in future, my kids (hopefully I'll give my little precious a sibling but seriously, the baby bonus does not compensate for the stress that both parents and children have to go through living in this highly competitive society) and their kids may not be able to see much of the beautiful sky on the ground, as 70-storey high flats will be built front to front, back to back, side to side to accommodate everyone... that's if the island haven't sink and they live to see that day... I really hope the lovely trees and the beautiful won't go. But I know if more flats need to be build to accommodate the increasing population, it is inevitable, and I feel really sad deep down inside. Why has Singapore become like this? Life used to be so much happier in the past. Taking the MRT was comfy, people were gracious, and it wasn't so stressful. What happened? I love the Singapore when I was younger, I definitely dislike the Singapore now. Like a friend mentioned in his Facebook: "The thing is, land is scare and resource limited. People stressed and make less baby. Then u get more immigrants, making land more scare, resource more limited, people more stressed, and lesser babies... How does it work exactly?" Exactly. And his friend commented, "maybe the KPI for ministers should be linked to Gross National Happiness Index rather than GDP..." Well, I am not in any position to set the KPI for anyone at all, but I must say, I want happiness more than anything else. Of course, that's not all of the discussion. In fact many friends have been commenting on this issue and we've all been in heated discussion together on Facebook. But I guess not every comment is suitable for publishing here in public, and if I really do copy all of them here, this entry will just go on and on. Oh well. Why is it that we like to complain? Because we can only complain as everything's so not within our control. We are mere commoners.

My lunch above... nothing fantastic. Was at the vegetarian stall at Punggol Plaza's Koufu. The stall which, well, sells nothing fantastic. I'm usually fussy about my veggies and the veggies there are not nice, so I did not order any veggies. Ordered tofu, yam roll and mock fish, which is too salty. Cost me $4.30... the vegetarian stalls at Rivervale Mall and Sengkang Sculpture Park's Koufu are so much better, with greater variety of food, yummier stuff and more reasonably priced too.

My pedicure, before and after.

My manicure, before and after. Remember my broken nail? 

Yesterday I broke my nail when washing baby's bath tub and it was utterly painful to deal with the pain and bathe baby and do the chores and especially awkward when shampooing my hair. Today my manicurist did a good job in covering it up with a tip and sparkling gelish colour. Haha~ Now my nails are all ready for Chinese new year!!

Bought these stuff after my manicure and pedicure session, and then went home.

Edamame, super vegetarian balls, baiye tofu, silky tofu, potato, carrot, Meiji fresh milk, Meiji yoghurt, strawberry yoghurt drink, baked almonds and maple syrup. Preparing to steam tofu and cook ABC soup. Wanted to get maple syrup because I can use it to replace sugar when making tamagoyaki. And munching on nuts increase my milk supply, so bought the baked almonds to boost my nursing power~!

Spent some time hanging out with my little precious

Then it's time to cook! Threw in some of the cherry tomatoes too. Heh~

Used MIL's 2-in-1 pot that can be used for cooking in the pot plus steaming on the top layer. Helps to save gas as MIL claims gas is getting more and more expensive!

I already added the baiye tofu last but they still expanded so much in the soup!

ABC soup with vegetarian balls, steamed tofu with fresh mushrooms and topped with shredded seaweed, edamame and fresh cherry tomatoes, plus Meiji yogurt for dessert. Itadakimasu!!