Organizing My Kitchen

After watching the food network channel yesterday, I had this urge to tidy up my kitchen. To be realistic, I started with only my dry kitchen. So I went through some of the articles on tips to arrange the kitchen. One of the tips that I really like said that before I can afford the kitchen that I dream of, it is good to make use of what I have.

So last night, I started at 9.30pm and finished at 12.40am. Blasted out some nice chinese pop songs. I kinda enjoyed the night.

Some tips that I bore in mind as I cleaned up:
1. Throw or give or sell away the stuff that I no longer use or I thought I still needed but haven't touched for years.

- I thew away some pots and pans which I thought I should keep for a "back-up", but they are not of good quality anymore (scratches on the cooking surface).
- Went through my medicine cabinets and threw away the expired ones.
- All those teas, coffees, snacks, packaged food.. it's good to dig through and throw away those that no one in the family will ever eat. (and the expired ones too of course).
- Posted some stuff online to sell away, i.e. bottles drying rack, sterilizer, etc. With all the preloved groups in Facebook nowadays, it is not hard to sell the stuff that we no longer use. Thanks Facebook for that!

2. Categorize the kitchen
- I put all the utensils that are frequently used at a place that are accessible.
- Moved the packaged food to the top (hardest to reach) cos the easier you can reach, the more likely you will eat them.

- Moved all the cleaning products to the top shelves so that the children can't reach them.
- Cleared the kitchen countertop. Stored my air fryer & pressure cooker in a convenient place (at least the countertop looks clean and tidy and I can still take those equipments out easily).
- Took out some stuff that are going to expire to a visible place so that I remember to eat/drink them, i.e. tea, supplements, etc.
- All the new unopened products (i.e. honey, jam, etc) went to the same shelf.
- Tidying my "Tupperware" shelf took the longest time, cos some lids were missing, some containers had scratches, and it was so hard to organize them neatly.
- Basically place the kitchen tools according to their category.

3. Wiped the shelves and tables with Dettol to clean and disinfect.

After all the housekeeping and cleaning, it is not the time to sit back and relax though. It's important to maintain and go through the food and meds again every 6 months. And probably I'll have to start cleaning my fridge and wet kitchen soon. I'll remind myself to take pics of before and after this time.

Cooking Soup Made Easy: Electric Pressure Cooker & Claypot

Months ago, I posted the ways I steamed all my dishes using the 3 tiers steamer.

Today, I wanna introduce to you my 2 fav kitchen equipments to boil soup. Now,  I don't have time to keep checking on the soup or rather *cough* I usually forget that I'm cooking some soup when I'm babysitting 4 children. So I found these two appliances to be super useful.

1. Electric Pressure Cooker.
I bought my "mini" 2 Litres pressure cooker about half a year ago. I wasn't so sure if I was going to use it regularly, so as a try-out I bought SKG brand from Lazada and it was only RM149.00, and now it's RM146. (I never heard of this brand before this, but apparently the quality is pretty good.) It is good enough to cook for 3 little children (lunch and dinner). But if you want to cook bigger portion, you have to buy the 5 Litres one.

So this is my unit. You can cook rice, porridge, soup, chicken, cassarole etc with it. So far I've tried cooking rice (with vco), butter rice, porridge and soup. So far so good. It's very time-saving but the electricity consumption is quite high.

It keeps warm automatically after cooking. 

2. Claypot

Again, with this pot I don't have to check on the soup frequently. After scalding the meats, I throw all the ingredients (except leafy vegetables which i usually throw in 5 mins before serving) in the pot and let it boil at high temp on the stove for about 5-10 minutes then turn to lowest temp and let it continue boiling for about 2-3 hours. 

The thing about this pot is it reserves the water, so you don't have to worry the soup gets dry. And usually, after boiling for hours, the fragrant of the soup is thicker and the meat is so tender. And this pot is big enough for the whole family.  

So these are my 2 favorites, what's yours?

First Outing After 2 Weeks of Quarantine

After 2 weeks of quarantine, I'm SO GLAD that I can finally bring the 2 kids out. But I still prefer that they have no interaction with other kids yet, just to be safe. Keira will be back to school next week. 

Brought them out to eat their favorite spaghetti... HAPPY!

what is an outing without chocolate ice cream?!?

Their smiles were precious!

And after that, we came back home so that Caedy could take her nap and Keira and I did our baking! I've never really baked, in fact, I don't like baking but seems like Keira has been into it lately. This is our second time baking this week.

We used estimation for all the ingredients and it turned out OK. Not the best cupcakes (and we forgot to buy cupcake liners) but pretty decent for amateurs like us. 

Ingredients:

1.5 cups of cake flour (i used "Radiant")

1 cup of sugar (i substituted it with molasses sugar)

1 egg

1 cup of milk

0.5 cup of unsalted butter (at room temp) / vege oil / coconut oil

1 cup of cocoa powder (unsweetened, i used "Van Houten") 

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

0.5 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of coffee powder

Chocolate chips ("i used "Hershey's")

I just mixed all the ingredients using a spatula. Preheat oven 175 deg Celcius and start baking for 20 minutes. Again, you don't expect super moist perfect cupcakes but they are soft (unfortunately, not fluffy) and taste is just nice (not too sweet). Most importantly, Keira likes it and she's proud of herself after the baking session. 

For me, with a cuppa OldTown White Coffee, it's good enough for my tea time snack. 

I quite enjoy a day like this, but definitely can't afford to do it daily. 

New Necessities

During this water rationing period, I realize these have become the necessities in the house. In case you don't know, I have 6 children and 2 adults to look after, so no water can be quite disastrous.
But thank God it's still manageable so far. Phew!

1. Large packs of Spritzer (5 packs to be exact)
I refill them with espring water (Amway water filter) every time the water supply is back. 5 packs of 9L water is usually enough for 2 days.

2. Baby wipes
I know I know.. we need to go green. But please just excuse me for this season. I need to stay sane. It's to wipe the kids, to wipe the spill, to wipe my hands after every diaper change, to remove make-up ... well basically everything.



3. Buds' Nappy Time Rinse Free Cleanser
Usually I rinse the kids' bumbum instead of just using the wipes, but since there's no water supply, this nappy cleanser comes in handy. *wink*

4. Disposable foam food containers and disposable spoons
I only use these for my family though. I'm still using proper bowls and spoons to feed the children I'm babysitting. Well, at least I reduce the need to wash those plates and spoons.

5. Glass containers

So I bought these glass containers to store our lunch and dinner. Basically I cook a big pot of dish that can last for 3 days ... Therefore 3 containers. Usually 1 will go to the fridge (to be consumed the next day) and 2 containers go into the freezer. So yeah quite pity the kids actually, they have to eat the same dish for 3 days in a row. Oh well, probably it can be a good time to teach them to be thankful for whatever food we have :D




6. Pails of Water (Duh??!)
I have 5 pails of water downstairs, and 2 big ones upstairs... Yeap usually enough for 1 day. And another day using water from the "tangki".









Oh!! now that it's raining outside, probably I should store some rain water for toilet use eh???

BYE!

TO CARRY OR NOT TO CARRY

There's this term called CIO, stands for crying it out, that is popular among parents. Basically it's like a training for the baby to sleep on her own; cry it out then sleep. Moms and dads won't carry the baby to sleep.

Caedy has been quite cranky and demand to be carried at around 7-11pm, oh btw I have to walk around while carrying her. That's also the time I need to settle Keira (dinner, shower, change, homework, play, story time, etc). So I'm trying this CIO method for the first time last night.

I let Caedy cry for about 15-20mins. She didn't stop at all, I talked to her and pat her, but no carrying. She continued crying, so I checked her diaper. At the end she managed to sleep before 10pm. She then woke up at around 1am, fed her and then she slept on her own. But at 3am, she woke up screaming. Tummy had gas!! I suspected it was due to excessive crying. So I carried her for a while, walked around while giving pressure on her tummy, rubbed some oil, and there was an explosive gas + poo after that... Phew... then nursed her and she slept back...

It wasn't as smooth as I wanted. It was tough actually. But for long time advantage for everyone... I think I just have to do it. I can't wait til she's older so that she can at least show me different expression. I need to see her smile back at me, to assure me that she's a happy baby. But for now, I think I just gotta bear with it...

So here's for all mommies n daddies that have gone thru or going thru or will go thru this phase! It's all gonna pass soon, so just cherish this moment :)

More Like a Mommie Now...

I woke up at 7am to go to the wet market with Rina this morning. The last time I went was when I was 9 months pregnant. And now Keira is already 9 months. :P

I have a weekly meal planner now, guess why? Because I'll start working in Subang, a place where I'm very familiar with, therefore... I know where to find all kinds of food. So, I make a decision to stick to what I've planned (or at least something close to what I planned :P). Furthermore, I really think as a good wife, I should try cook healthier food for my hubby (at least on the weekend). And I'm gonna try more variety in cooking Keira's food too.

So far, Keira loves to eat porridge. Usually I add chicken or beef + carrot or sweet potato or pumpkin + spinach or brocolli. The smell of beef porridge is the best!!! it smells so yummy. This weekend I'll try fish + carrot or pumpkin. Oh ya, she likes egg yolks too! One of her fav food! Probably I'll try to cook her barley in few weeks time, or oatmeals should be good too! =D

Life of a mom is fun and exciting! Love it to the max!

Books for The Next 2-3 Months

As you guys have read, Keira has not been so well these few weeks, so instead of just reading thru the internet, I bought a book by Dr.Miriam Stoppard. I bought one babycare book by the same author when I was pregnant, and it was quite good.

Actually there's one more book, which is very thick, by the same author, also about childhood illnesses and the treatment, but that one costs too much. So I bought this one, only RM33.95.

Besides, I also bought a book by my favourite author, Dale Carnegie. RM31.90 only.

Hopefully it's as good as the other one that I bought... "How to Win Friends & Influence Them"

It's time to enhance my parenting skills again :) Bought this fabulous copy... Sold more than 3,500,000 and it has been one of the best selling book for 20 years. I'm expecting a lot from this book... RM45.50.

It Costs Nothing to Dream

I know I'm living in a fantasy now. But I can't help. Lately I'm very interested to look at nice interior designs! So, this is how my future house will look like (I should say, i hope my future house will look similar to these pics):

my master bedroom

(with white wall, black ceiling & black furnitures)

The living room

The kitchen

Keira's Room

Keira's Room when she is above 3 years old

The bathroom

(with black color door instead of wood)

Isn't it cool? I'll invite you to stay in my house for a day or two when I have it OK? *lol*

---

I should put the pic of the guest room also right? :P

"Skinny Bitch"

"Stop being a moron and start getting skinny!" say the authors, Rory and Kim. I scanned thru the book in MPH just now, it was quite interesting. I was half reading and half laughing like an idiot in the bookstore, all by myself. The words were quite rude; bitch, shit, garbage, moron, fat pig ... i can't cont the list any longer.

But after "reading" for few mins, I think the ways they recommended were too tough for me, basically no to everything but vege, fruits, complex carbs and exercise. I think I'll still find my own way to lose weights. *peace*

I do think it's a good book though. So if you have one, I dont mind borrowing from you :D