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.

Look at the bright side of life

For the longest time I can remember, I love cold milk. Nothing beats the joy of gulping down a glass of iced cold milk.

So you can imagine my horror when I realised I am lactose intolerance at the age of 20 plus. It is so bad to the extend that I cannot eat ice cream for 2 days in a row. However, every cloud has a silver lining.

Constipation seems to be a common issue for pregnant women and I am not excluded. However, I have a really quick and nice fix to this tiny problem. Whenever I feel slightly congested, a nice ice cream cone will do the trick. Ho Ho ho...

Now I wish there is such a fix for the nausea and puking.

Seasons of life

Recently, I am in a season of my life which is both familiar and distant to me.

I have completely stopped all my crafting activities, the only craft related stuffs that I do now is occasional checks of my favourite crafting blogs and the 1-second look at my Work-In-Pogress piles on some days and wished that i could just crochet a few stitches or paint a tiny bit on the journal.

However, time when my mind is clear is so precious that I usually spend them on work, putting food on the table and interacts with lil Joy. The rest of the time, i am usually on bed resting.

It is good when one can rest but when one has to rest for long duration of time, it starts to get frustrating or maybe it only happens to me. I start to feel useless and the stress from the undone work starts to freaks me out mentally.

I have started to recognise that I am in a very different season of my life. Gone are the days when I can just do what I want and what I need to. As I spend more time brooding over the 'freedom' of others who are doing what they love doing. I realised that I was once in that season and that season will come back to me in the future differently.

It is now a season for me to slow my pace down for my own wants and needs, a season for me to nurture the next generation. Patience and endurance is needed while I try to appreciate what this season brings for me.

Mummy tired

Lil joy's favourite bedtime activities are songs request and a 'pat pat' session. She will always request for these before her slumber.

This night, she asked me to give her some patting and then asked for 'twinkle twinkle' when we were on our bed. I started to pat her but told her, 'no songs today k, cos mummy is very tired.'. 

Her response is sitting up and then moved to her own mattress on the floor, lie down, then said, 'no need pat pat, mummy tired' and went to sleep on her own. Of course, she have left her mom very touched by her consideration at such a young age.

I really hope that you can grow up to be a considerate person, my girl :)

Temper in the public

Sometimes, I get surprise tantrums from lil Joy when we are out. They do come in all sorts of styles and situations.

Last night, Lil Joy has a strong opinion against her dad's decision to stop her from running around in the library while I was borrowing books. She cried really loudly in the peaceful library. I calmly brought her outside and told her that she is not allowed to run in the library. This method obviously does not work for a two year old. Lil Joy avoided eye contact and kept wanting to run off. She threw a little tantrum by crying and sitting on the floor.

Honestly, I do not know what to do and so I waited till she has calm down a little and ask her to look into the library. I pointed to her that the people inside the library are all walking and they do not run. So I pointed to every single person who walked past the entrance to emphasis my point. When I thought I saw the light in her eyes that signal "oh.. people walk in the library", I held her hands and told her that we are going to walk into the library this time. So we did a little walk into the library back to the same location where she had been running about just a while ago and then out of the library.

I really hope that this little exercise do get something into the little mind of her.

Emotions at 2 years old

It has never been very obvious to me that a child's emotions start to develop. They do not cry just because they want milk, hugs or they are tired or in pain anymore but starts to feel sadness, happiness, jealousy and many more.

There was this incident which happens when I am watching a television program with lil Joy. It is a reality show about the life of a family with quintuplets. Lil Joy enjoyed the show a lot because there were a lot of toddlers running around.

When the show ended, Lil Joy turned to look at me very sadly and repeated 'baby' multiple times. Soon she started to tear up and cried badly. It dawned onto me that she is very sad that she could not see the toddlers on the television anymore.

The only thing I can do is to cuddle her and explain to her that the show has ended.

It is funny to have a 2 year toddler, with the capacity to feel and armed with new emotions. I feel like I am walking into another new and unfamiliar terrain of motherhood.

A rocky and relative start of 2015

Hi World,

Happy 2015 on the 3rd of Jan 2015.

Yes I am so glad to be up and sane on the 3rd day of 2015.

The last day of 2014, we were messing around with the battery operated LED lights and lil Joy had a blast with it... placing it around the room, putting it into a tupperware and keeping it under a blankie and finally.. I hung it up on the row of photos on the wall.

We have the last family picture of the year and look forward for more of it in the coming years. Yes.. all in the Pyjamas .

On the first day of 2015, we did the most interesting and important activity.. grocery shopping and train up a new skill in lil Joy, that is to push the shopping cart. It is so much fun to see her making 3 point turns and pretending to check out the goods on display and finally heading to the cashier. All these actions while wearing her backpack with her favourite doll inside.

That was the end of the beginning of 2015 before i had a very bad gum infection which left me in pain and sleeping stage for 2 full days. 

Most importantly, I am on the way to full recovery and this painful experience has once again reminded me that health is really important. Sometimes, we wanted to get things done and accomplish more to make our life fulfilling and that sometimes made us focus on the wrong things occasionally.

I do not have the time to sit down and set out my resolutions properly but I have more or less plan out certain things that I would like to follow thru for 2015 in Dec which are as follows:

1. Spend more quality time with family
2. Wake up earlier (like 7.30am)
3. Practice piano on daily basis (and yes,, i still got up and hit a few ivory keys on those 2 days when I was in pain.)
4. Exercise on a more regular basis (like 3 times a week)
5. Be more in control of my work demands
6. No buy of craft materials (unless really required to finish up a project)
7. Clear out the clutter in house, buy less and clear more (we have already planned out the home re-organisation plan for 2015)
8. More diligent with my virtual diary aka this blog

These are the things that I would like to remind myself on a more regular basis on 2015 and no, I am not going to whack myself hard if one or two of them slips due to unforeseen circumstances. I am going to enjoy and live 2015. 

Last but not least, I would like to thank all those who have walked in my life in 2014. You all matters and had made me who I am now. I am even more grateful to those who have made a positive impact on my life.

Morning Repair

Lil Joy received a very pretty present, a book on the nativity scene. I loved the idea of explaining her the story of Jesus with 3D cardboards without DIY.

Last night, before bedtime, she had taken the book out and ripped the angel's wing and the little lamb.

So this morning, before I start my work, I repaired the injured and place them back into the set. Somehow, repairing books has became a routine of mine and I need to do it at the earliest possible date before they starts to pile.

Here's a pic of the healed 'patients' and I shall continue to talk to lil Joy about taking care of books.

Quicky updates

It was a long quiet pause on the blog because life have gone busy because of the many weddings, work deadlines and growing up going around the house.

We attended 3 weddings in the past 2 months. One required lil Joy and me to travel to our neighbouring country.

I met up with my very dear secondary school friends for one dinner and got inspired to potty train lil Joy.

So potty training it is, she is diaper free when she is not sleeping and is not out of the house. I am thankful that it wasn't the nightmare that I imagined it to be.

Work is slow but steady.

Crafting is even slower but I managed to sew a dress for lil Joy for my sister's ROM.

In the meanwhile, I am enjoying my life, waking up to lil Joy calling me 'MaMa' from morning till night for at least 1,000 times. Enjoying her tiny hands grasping my fingers when we hold hands together. Enjoying lil Joy requesting me to hug or carry her. Enjoying the kisses I get and give to her.

And all these, I am thankful to God for his blessings.

Lil Joy and Daddy

She cannot make real conversations with us yet but with the limited vocabulary she has, she makes sure we know what she wants.

All these happens last night when I was still working in the evening, daddy has some time with lil J and he kept coming into the room and report event 1 and 2 at regular intervals.

Event 1

Lil Joy: *pointed at daddy's face*
Dad: huh?
Lil Joy: *went to the table and grab a bunch of tissue and give to dad*
Dad: *puzzled*
Lil Joy: *use the tissue, wipe her face and point at daddy's face again*
Dad: *realised that she wants dad to wipe away the sweat on his face*

My take on this: Aw... so sweet of her.. must have seen me doing that dad before :P


Event 2

Helper came out
Lil Joy: *use both hands to pull daddy's hands up*
Dad: huh?
Lil Joy: UP
Daddy realised she wants her to go because she prefers to play with helper instead of him..

My take on this: Daddy need to spend more playtime with his girl.


Event 3

Before sleep family time, the three of us are lying on the bed doing our quiet things aka parents reading and Lil Joy walking up and down the bed quietly.

Suddenly lil Joy went over to daddy and grab his hands, wanting to bring him somewhere. After several attempts, daddy reluctantly moved and Lil Joy bring him round the bed and make him sit beside me

Lil Joy: Scratch
Me: *bursted out in laughters*

She wants to scratch daddy's back with me.


Realisation: all the little things that we do get registered in her tiny brain. It is really important to do family things together, love one another so she remember and will make loving a daily part of her life. Sweet is the fact that my little girl is growing up, interacting and doing things with us. She was just a crying infant about 2 years ago. Kids grow fast, too fast, in fact.

Heart melting moments

Recently, I am starting to realise that Lil Joy is baby no more. It is sweet when she do certain things.

Incident 1

Grandma came over to our house and Lil Joy started to dig her bag and took out her spectacles. Lil Joy then insists that grandma put on her specs and kept pointing towards a direction. It didn't take us long to realised that Lil Joy is pointing to a stack of newspapers and is indicating to grandma to use her specs for reading. ooohhh...

Incident 2

I have to leave the house every week for my lessons and last month, Lil Joy broke into a cry when I left. This week, when I was leaving, she ran into the house towards the dining table. I was anticipating some tears but Lil Joy seemed to be very serious and is pointing to something on the table. Then I realised, I have forgotten to take the present meant for my teacher. Oh.. that was an intense heart melting moment to know that my little girl is starting to help me out.

All kids seems to melts their parents' hearts when they do simple things. Treasure these moments is my motto at the moment. Hahahaha

Earrings too many?

I was out on errands on that particular day and arranged to meet hub and lil Joy at Orchard. I found myself elated when i reached Orchard Road early and is alone. I nearly did a dance when I got off the bus. So I went for a quick shopping trip and ended up with an umbrella and this set of earrings.

And yes, who ever mentioned that a girl can have too many pairs of earrings?

Lantern Festival

My favourite chinese festival which is filled with childhood memories of good fun, great cousins and friends and lots of burnings. 

Last year, we got an inflated lantern for lil Joy who is only interested in chewing on it. This is the first year that I thought she might have more purposeful lantern carrying and so mommy prepares...

I refuse to buy the sticks for the lanterns and so made some from the old magazines. 

And the most important thing for late night walk, mosquitoes patch.

A few cute traditional lanterns.

And LED candles for very young children.

When we reached the playground, the reality is.. the lantern got chucked on the floor.

Lil Joy ran off with glee..

Yes, she spent the next hour running up and down the playground with our neighbour's kid. I suppose she is still not that ready to celebrate the festival with me yet.

Waiting for Meal

One must be patience when we are waiting for our meal to be served. Lil Joy should be famished this day because her parents had left the house too late for dinner. 

A little girl should still have her manners at the table, especially when her mommy is taking pictures of her. Just joking about this part, I just thought these pictures of hers are so cute.

Daddy is checking out his handphone? Wonder what is he looking at?

Hmmm, when is my food coming?

Seriously? They need to take such a long time?

 I must make full use of my time and check out that handsome boy at the other table.

Hey Mom, the food is here!!

Warnings to all DADs: This is how you look when you are busy with your phone and do not realise how many precious moments you could have missed.

Playground at the new Sports Stadium

We went for a short trip to our newly opened Sports stadium, it is big and spacious and seemed to be sufficient to accomodate events with lots of people and there was a football match that evening and I did not even feel swamped by people.

It is a great place for evening walk with a stroller and lots of space for lil Joy to run around and there is our beautiful Kallang River too.

It was a beautiful and quiet evening for our small family and I did not take a lot of pictures except when we are at the playground.

The playground is at the 2nd level. Do refer to the map to look for it because I am quite lost in this place.

We found these slopes of greenery on our way to the playground and lil joy was intrigued by it.

And when we reach the playground and off she dashed. It amused me to the max when I see her ran off.

We found this mini 'wall climbing' and lil Joy is so determined to climb up but she seemed to be slightly too small to make it all the way to the top. Of course, she soon realised that if she cannot make it, just call for help and her mommy has to help her up. I ended up quite busy helping her up this wall so she can get to slide.

There is this turning seat which i recall that it helps young kids with their sense of balance. Apparently, lil Joy does not like it but she enjoys the one with a pole at the playground near our house. I suppose she does fear of falling.

And lastly, my favourite is the see saw which is very rare now. Lil joy even get to play with some other kids at the playground. Before that she has to play with daddy who is so much heavier than her which resulted in this 'unbalanced' scene.

I love the gleeful look when she is on the see saw.

Our First Movie

Lil Joy does not have much interest in television programmes. It could be due to the fact that we seldom use the TV. She spend most of her time messing around in the house. If I have time to sit down with her, we try to do fun play.

She usually watches the TV program for 5 minutes or so and ran off to do other stuff like climbing on her mother.

Last Thursday was a dream moment. The Tigger Movie was showing on Fox Family Channel and me being a Winnie the Pooh fan must watch it. So I called lil Joy to sit on my lap and we started watching mommy's favourite movie together. I supposed it is easy for her to relate the movie to her favourite soft toy and we had a great time watching our first movie together. It has great songs, great animations, great imaginations and good morales stories inside. I am pleasantly surprised that lil Joy sat with me all the way to the end of  movie minus off the 30 mins that we have missed at the beginning.

I think my greatest joy is to find lil Joy adoring the same cartoon character as me. I am like reliving my childhood again..hahaha.. am I weird to find such a simple thing to be such a happy occasion?

Sharing here.. the pooh collections (one baby pooh is missing though) we have in our household at the moment which I expect them to expand their family in the near future.