Starting montessori activities

I have shared this set of montessori materials with my friend when lil Joy was around 3 years old. I must say, i have not been super diligent in working the activities with her but I follow the main spirit of  respecting the child and follow their cues to learn. Thankfully, she ended up in a school which does montessori work so she is in better hands now.

Somehow, Jr J seemed to so more interests in the handling of things and so I started him with the knobs the other day. I don't think it is the right way to present this activity since it is meant for 3 years old kids but I don't see the harm of letting him try it since it trains his concentration to sit down and figure things out.

Boy, he is real charming when he is concentrating.

I have been doing light crocheting every night now and to keep lil Joy at the bay, I throw her a ball of yarn n let her do whatever she wants with it.. so a lot of snipping has been going on.

And wrapping too.

Chicken Soup with Instant Pot

We still have leftover curry from yesterday but I do not like the idea of feeding so much of it to my kids. So the menu for today is chicken soup.

I am using the stock that I have made previously, saute the meat on the wok to achieve the crispy brown skin. Instant pot should be able to achieve the same result but I might need to do it in batches which is a no-no for me because time is precious.

I saute the veggies in the instant pot at the same time and then marry all the ingredients together. There is no need for recipe, you just add whatever ingredients you like and add 1 tablespoon of salt and then season to taste when the soup is done. 

I set the cooking time to 35 mins, it took longer to pressure up because I am using frozen soup. Then I went off to do a quick workout from youtube.

Meanwhile, I start stir frying my cabbage and mushroom and here it is. If you notice, I try to minimise processed food and cut down on meat for the family.

This settle the lunch and dinner for the day, not forgetting the Kimchi in the fridge which turn out to be quite nice. Hubby mentioned that it will be nicer if the Kimchi has been fermented longer but I was not ambitious enough to ferment it too long in room temperature for the fear that it might turn too sour.

Oh and I added the Japanese curry from yesterday. It is always comforting to know that there are food at home.

Japanese Curry using Instant Pot

I hate to start my blog posts with.. it has been a long time since I last blogged. But it is the truth, I had been more active in Dayre for the past 1 year because it is easier to post on the phone directly.

Since November, I have been trying to track my work time, past 1 week I decided to include all the activities that I have spent for myself and for my family. I have been actively trying to find ways to be more productive. Tracking makes me aware of the limitation of resources and instead of flaunting  my time away, I try to make sure I spend it on things that are really worth it. 

I am still not a productive person but is in the process of striving to be at least 80% productive most of the time. Hopefully, by the end of this year, I can be on the top of things instead of under them.

One of my daily challenge is to put food on the table, Food that are appealing to my 2 kids and still nutritious enough that I would not feel guilty about feeding them.

Japanese Curry Using Instant Pot

So here are the ingredients with soup stock made last week and ingredients cut by my helper.

To minimise monitoring, I use instant pot but I still saute my meat using the wok on fire to get a more flavourful taste from the meat.

At the same time, I will saute the veggies in the instant pot. My way of multi tasking in the kitchen.

Marrying everything in the pot and putting the curry cube on top all within 10 mins.

Finally, setting the Instant pot to 12 mins on the soup function. After natural releasing the pressure, I open the lid, mix the curry for a little n let it simmer for another 5 minutes under saute mode. 

My curry was a little too watery today, will take note to use lesser liquid the next round.

Tadah.. and here is the final product which is yummy. Pardon the little serving, cause it is also one of my goal to lose some weight this year.

Someone is enjoying his meal a lot. He is starting to make his stand that he wants to self feed. Despite the mess, I still let him on his road to his little independence.