Raisins Cupcakes

While Adrian brought Giselle to attend a full month celebration of his colleague baby, I took the opportunity to stay at home to bake some raisin cupcakes. The results was quite good as the texture and sweetness were just nice. Phew! :)

Some Progress during Swimming

Giselle finally has some good improvement on her swimming skills as now she could swim without us or her coach holding on to her float... Her progress is quite slow but we were glad to see some progress made recently....This also means her water confidence is much better.

Chinese Lunar New Year Day 1

I had prepared to wear my cheongsum that was tailor-made in Shanghai. Giselle, on seeing me wearing this outfit, wanted to wear hers and refused to change to other more comfy dress that i bought for her.

As usual, we headed to my grandma house and stay at my in-law house to wait for visitors as usual. I was so tired that day end. Giselle had fun playing with her 9 year old cousin boy.

CNY Reunion Dinner

Today we went to 2 places to eat our reunion dinner. One is at my grandma house and the other is at my in-law place. Luckily both units were at the same block at Lengkok Bahru.

Royal Carribean Cruise Trip 16 - 19 Jan 09

We signed up for a cruise to Malaysia on 16 - 19 Jan 09. Who knows Adrian was down with fever the day we boarded the ship. The ship set sail at 4pm on the 16th and returned to Singapore on 19 Jan at 8am. The ship went to Penang and KL for docking.

We still continue with our holiday plans bringing along all the necessary medications. Adrian was sick throughout the trip and I myself got the virus from him on the last day and was down with cough and slight fever too.

Nevertheless, we were glad that Giselle had enjoyed herself on the ship with all the Kids Ocean Club activities. She made a new friend there, named Jun Yong. He is a lovely and friendly boy.

Giselle meals there was mainly broccoli with fish or pork taken from the buffet spread. Luckily I find the food suitable for her because they weren't too saltish.

Aeroplane??

Recently Giselle likes to use Lego and build something which she called it as a "aeroplane". But I find it look like a ship to me... hahaha

Home-made Fish Cakes for Kids

Actually I looks more like fish patties to me... haha!.

Came across a simple recipe on the internet and decided to try it out today. But I didn't follow the recipe exactly and I just use whatever ingredients I can find at home. It's really very easy to make, just that i find that it is not saltish enough for me or for any adults... hehe

This is the actual recipe I found originally:

Ingredients:

300 g boneless white fish fillets, try flathead, rockling or bream1 tablespoon

olive oil

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup self-raising flour

1 small cucumber, finely chopped

1/2 red capsicum, chopped

3 spring onions, finely chopped

Method:

1. Process fish in food processor or chop finely.

2. Combine with the remaining ingredients.

3. Heat oil in non-stick frypan and cook spoonfuls of mixture until golden brown on both sides.

Notes: Makes 12 fish cakes.

Healthy Creamy Broccoli Soup

Since Giselle has not much appetite for anything, I made this soup for her lunch today to go with some wholemeal softrolls. I learnt this very simple recipe from her Delcare school auntie cook.

Basically just boil a potato in some stock till soften, throw in some chopped broccoli and when soften, use a hand-held blender to blend the potato and broccoli in the soup. Add in some milk (I used her usual FM) and stir till it boils. Turn off the heat and serve.

Luckily this soup opens up her appetite a little. She likes to dip the bread in the soup and eat :)

My Little Gal is down with Flu...

Well, so concidental that last week Adrian and I were talking about Giselle's having high fever last year during CNY and now the whole thing happened again :( I guess kids are really "pantang" when comes to all these...

It started on Thu night when her fever began. It was slight fever and we just continue to let her sleep after giving her the chinese medicine from EYS. Friday morning, her fever still there but since she is as active as normal, I didn't let her attend school but brought her to my facial centre as I have an appointment at 12noon.

She quietly waited in the room as I am, observing how the beautician did my face. After that she felt cold and I quickly send her back home.

On the same day, her cough and flu symptoms began to appear and fever still up and down. Highest hit this round is about 39.4 degreeC. I didn't bring her see GP yet since I still have the fever medicine. Fed her that when it is over 39 and continnue to let her take her chinese herbs...

I didn't let her go for her swimming class on Sat and she really going to miss it 2 classes in a row as next weekend we are going for the Royal Carribean cruise. She looked very listless and weak and kept wanting to lie on my chest for comfort when her fever came up.

Last night, she had difficulty sleeping as her nose was really blocked. She woke up a few times in the night to whine and I have woken a few times to pad her to sleep.

Anyway I let her attended her chinese class at Berries World today since her flu seems better. Really hopes she recovers fast...

3rd Attempt - Japanese Cheesecake

Today is really my lucky day for baking. I would say the result was better than my expectations. The cake has risen to a good height when in the oven. The texture was quite good, and it really melted in the mouth.

Too bad Giselle was sick, and hence, no appetite for most of the food.

Hope I would be as lucky always... Haha. No lah, what I meant is I want to practise more to maintain this standard or even better texture :)

Chinese Cucumbers Stuffed with Minced Pork

This is one of the dishes that I have learnt from my mum recently. The taste is really very yummy especially with the crispy garlic and sauce on top. I am not good at writing recipes as all the ingredients and seasoning used are by estimation.

Basically, you just need:

- 1 chinese cucumber (cantonese called it "Ji4 Gua1)

- some minced pork mixed with some chopped onions - marinated with light soya sauce, corn flour, pepper.

- chopped garlic

- Spring onion for garnish

Sauce to be poured on the dish:

- abt 2tbsp Abalone sauce or Oyster sauce (I prefer Abalone sauce because it has no msg)

-Pepper

- a dash of sugar

- dark soya sauce

- corn starch to thicken the sauce

Directions:

-Peel off the skin of the cucumber and cut into sections. Use knife to cut out a hole in the section to put your marinated minced pork

- Steam it for about 15 min

- While the steaming is in process, fry the garlic with oil till light brown in colour. Set aside.

- Next cook the sauce directly on the same pan after the garlic is done. Put in the abalone sauce, water (depending how much gravy you like at the end), dark soya sauce and sugar and let it boil.

- Add in sugar next. Then pour in the cornstarch to thicken the gravy.

-When the steamed cucumber is done, pour the gravy over each piece. Followed by using a spoon to scoop the garlic and put on top of every piece.

-Prinkle some spring onion on top and voila. The dish is done! :)

Update on her swimming lesson...

Giselle kicks are better and more powerful now but she is only good when she is kicking at the edge of the pool. When the Coach bring her to the water with her float, her confidence level falls and she starts to get wobbly on the water.

Coach suggested one of us to go into the water with her next lesson. He said her confidence will get better since our bonding with her is there...

Banana Cake

Since I have some leftover bananas, I decided to try my hands on baking a banana cake. This time round, I reduced the sugar by 30% and the taste was just right! However, the texture still needs improvement though...

Giselle, being my usual supporter, took 2 slices at 1 go :)

Happy New Year!!!

We went to Marina Square this morning as we wanted to get a bedsheet from John Little Sales for our new king size bed. Since we long time have not brought Giselle to MacDonald's, we asked her if she wanted to eat that. She excited said "Yes!" and I ordered a kids meal for her that comes with Chicken Burger, mini-corn cup and a packet of apple juice.

She finished the whole set nearly all by herself. When I took her apple juice to drink a bit, she told me that is not for adults to drink... *fainz*

Glad that she had enjoyed this meal :)