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Friday, August 26, 2011

Adam will be three!

My baby will be 3 in a couple of days and we will be hosting a partayyy!!!! As ususal, it will just be a small do at my parents' place in Terengganu! So if you are in KT on 3rd Raya, we'd be honoured if you could join us to celebrate Adam the Builder's 3rd Birthday.


Owh, we had a pre-celebration earlier. Actually it was not much of a celebration, just Adam blowing the candles. The cake was meant for Adam's favourite Uncle Bo's 30th birthday but Adam blew the candles too to mark Adam is 3 in Muslim Calendar. 


Anyway, party preparation is only 30% completed. Though I  started late this year, I am quite happy with what I managed to do thus far. I am always excited to plan for Adam's party. If only we have moooore money and I am moooore creative :) Too late to change Mom, Adam! So just be happy with me ok :)

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Energize your Ramadhan!

Hello all! It's been a while I know but here I am again. Today marks the beginning of Ramadhan, how fast time flies eh?

Anyway, what have you done as a preparation for Ramadhan? I am always excited come Ramadhan. It's like I am given another chance to repent and improve myself to be a better muslim, daughter to my parents, mommy to my son, wife to my hubby n sister to my siblings. Last year, I remember tweeting and discussing on what to cook for breaking of fast with my friends. We rarely went to Pasar Ramadhan as I cooked most of the time last year and I intended to cook as much if not more this year.

Apart from stocking up your pantry and freezer with fresh food, have you prepared enough supplement to keep you going during Ramadhan? When I was 13, I could Sahur with fruits only and stayed active throughout the day and even played netball on most of the evenings. But at 30, I guess my body needs more help and the vitamins from the food we consumed might not be enough.

A couple of weeks ago, I was invited by my friend, Shikin, a Nutritionist with Liqua Health, for a product review at Marche, the Curve. I almost did not make it as it happened on the same day with Bersih gathering and most of the roads were closed. Boy am I glad I went anyway because it was the first time I get to try Spirulina in other form and lovin' it!



I am sure many of you has seen spirulina in tablet forms and might have even takes it as part of your daily supplement. Do you sometimes feels like it's a torture to swallow the little pills? I do especially when I was pregnant. The fishy smells does not help either. But I still take it as I know it is very beneficial in terms of giving you energy and all. I even make Adam eat them daily as the vitamins and minerals he gets from his meals might not be sufficient.

Liqua Health's spirulina is not like those we usually seen in the market. For a start, it is in liquid form and came in 3 yummilicious flavours, Berry, Lemon-Lime and Grape. During the session, Shikin showed us how easy it is to include this Spirulina as part of your daily supplement.

Lemon, Berry and Grape Spirulina

First, they gave us a glass of watermelon juice and we were asked to pick one of the flavour and I picked grape.

Watermelon Juice and the Spirulina. Yes! The one in the packet.

Just shake it up!

We were told to just shake it up and drink it. It was sooooo yummy! Tasted like grape with no after taste at all! It was a bit sweet though maybe because we mixed it with watermelon juice. But don't worry as the sweetness came from fructose from the fruits that gives flavour to the spirulina.

Next, we were asked to mix it with plain water. My friend, Rabby had the honour to mix it and she picked Berry. It tastes great! Not as sweet because we just mix it with plain water. It's perfect for breakfast! We cannot mix it with hot water though as it contains life enzyme that will help with your digesting system. Bye-bye constipation! :)

Berrylicious!

For many of us who always doesn't have much time to prepare for breakfast, this would be the perfect solution. Just arrange some sliced bananas on a slice of bread and top it with the spirulina instead of jam. Yummy! 

 Fila demonstrates how to spread the Spirulina

I am salivating!

These Spirulinas are also perfect for fruit salads.

Lemon-Lime Spirulina is a perfect match to these oranges

Great for fruit salad too

So what's in a Spirulina you asked? Well, here is what I gathered from the leaflet given:
  • 6-8% Fat
  • 3x more Protein than meat
  • 6x more Protein than egg
  • 10x more Calcium than milk
  • 65x more Iron than spinach
  • 5x more Beta-Cerotene than carrot
  • 4x more Fiber than flour
Spirulinas are great for everybody at all age. It's great for those trying to conceive, for the expecting and nursing mommies and for those having menopause as well. It can also be used as your head-to-toe spa at home, for healthier and shinier hair, for medi to pedi and most important, it will help keep your appetite under control and slim away!

Your kids are too small? Shikin shared her personal experience giving spirulina to her son, Qael from Day 1. Just give the baby a quarter teaspoon a day and helps them to have a stronger immune system. The cool food is also packed with glycogen that will give your kids the instant energy boost and keep them alert during classes. Wish I know about spirulina when I was in high school. Spirulina also has up to 60% vegetable protein to promote healthy muscles build for them to grow tall and strong.

For the elders? Among others, Spirulina helps with vision care, promotes normal blood pressure, maintain body sugar level, hair care, prevent heart disease and stroke, improve rheumarhritis and has antiepressant effects.


During the session, we also get to try new products that will be launched soon. They will be packed in ready to drink bottles prefect for those who are always on the go. Adam gave it a try and love them to bit. He even asked for more :)

Some of the soon to be launched products

Adam too participate as the product tester

 Pretty Shikin in action

Thank you Shikin for the opportunity given and of course all the goodies that came in the goodie bag. I am now prepped up for Ramadhan. I am giving myself a Spirulina challenge and will take the Spirulina daily during sahur this Ramadhan. I am crossing my finger with hope to shed some kilos in time for raya. Will update you on the results. Have a blessed Ramadhan all!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Nasi Tanam Ayam

Hellooooooo!!!! This is just a short entry to share a recipe that has been requested by friends in FB. Started with Nette who tweeted about making Nasi Daging Berempah for dinner. Then she shared the recipe at her blog. Masa tu dah salivate dah tapi my hubby tak makan daging but bila tanya Nette, dia kata tukar dengan ayam pun boleh.

Suddenly a few days after that, Umi Faryhah, my junior from STF days shared a picture of Nasi Tanam Ayam in FB. Looks yummy! When she gave me the recipe, it looks almost similar to Nette's Nasi Daging Berempah, the process at least, and Nasi Tomato I learned from my mother-in-law last Sunday. Finally last night I managed to try it. Here is the recipe I got from Umi. The one in (blue) was how I made mine.

Bwg merah(5),putih(3) n halia (lupa letak) dihiris
Bunga lawang(1),cengkih(2),kayu manis(1 pendek) n buah keras pelaga (2).
Tumiskan semua ni dgn butter(3 heap tbsp planta)+minyak zaitun (x guna) smpi kekuningan..
Masukkan serbuk kari daging/ayam (3tbsp) tu.ni ikut suka kalo nk nasi pedas sikit,letak lebih..
Tuang air secawan (x letak air pun sbb planta over ;p)..then tnggu smpi pecah minyak.
Masukkan ayam (2 whole legs cut into 8 pcs) yg dipotong smpi half cooked.
Then masukkan beras basmathi yg di tos (3 cups).
(masukkan 1 biji bawang besar yang dihiris bulat)
Masukkan susu ideal 1tin,air(ikut sukatan pot or ikut tahap lembut nasi yg nak) (letak susu aje pun dah sampai kat tanda 4.. sepatutnye sampai aras 3 je)
Gaul rata semua,masukkan dlm rice cooker n cook..
Garam masukkan jugak sedikit (3/4 tsp). 



It was not bad for first try yang main agak-agak je ;p Tapi rasanya kurang garam. Macam kurang lemak tapi when I told my mom, dia kata kalau garam kurang mmg kurang lemak rasa. Tak pedas pun jugak. So, next time, I would definitely increase the amount of salt and curry powder. I overdid the Planta so masa nak masak tu sampai 3 kali tekan kat rice cooker still basah tapi mentah. So, I steamed the rice for almost an hour. 3 pots ni of course sangat banyak just for me and hubby so there was plenty for hubby's breakfast and my lunch today. Selamat mencuba!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Caramel Cake

I first saw this lovely cake at my cousin Nana's blog. Her housemates baked it for her birthday. So, I asked for the recipe and tried it last Friday. It was one of my colleague's last working days so I thought it would be nice to bring something for her. When I was about to bake it, I just realized we were out of eggs. We had, but it was not enough. Managed to persuade hubby to drive us to Tesco. We were home by midnight. So I looked at the recipe and saw the baking time is only an hour and the recipe seems easy.

I remember the cake was quite thick so I decided to use my springform tray as it is thicker than my other baking trays. I started with caramelizing the sugar. Easy peasy. Pour it in the springform and it hardened quite fast. So, I proceeded to make the pudding mix. Very easy as well. Then I poured into the springform. Oh no!!!! the pudding mix came out from the bottom of the pan! My springform leaked! Dang! Panic attack! So I quickly poured the mix back into the mixing bowl. It was already 12.30am and I was cursing debating with myself whether should I continue or just call it a night. But there were 7 eggs in the pudding mix and it would be a waste! So I decided to divide the mix into 2 and use 2 baking trays.

So again, by 1.15am I was done caramelizing the sugars and poured them into 2 baking trays. I continued to prepare the cake mix and then divide both pudding and cake mix into 2 and pour into the trays. As my oven can only fit in 1 tray at a time, both cakes were only ready at 3 am! Put the first tray into the fridge and the other one I just let it cool down in the oven and brought both to the office in the morning.



The caramel cakes were thin but nice! Glad my friend loved it. She has been a good friend and she deserves the lovely cake for her farewell :)

Decided to bake another one after that. I bought a new cake tin and glad it turned out well. Just the right thickness though I think it could have been better if I have a new oven. As I mentioned before, my oven's heat is not balance. Enough with the ramblings, here is the recipe for the yummy caramel cake. Seriously easy. Give it a try!



Caramel Cake
1.Puding
7 biji Telur 
1 cawan Susu fullcream
1cawan penuh gula
3/4 cawan air
Sikit vanila essense

2.Caramel
10sudu besar gula

3.cake
1 cawan tepung gandum
3 biji telur
250g butter
3/4 cawan gula
1/2 cawan air
Vanilla essense
1 sudu kecil soda bikarbonat 

1.(Untuk caramel) panas 10sudu besar gula dalam baking tray,api slow and gaul. Bila dah perang, angkat tray.

2.(Puding) gaul semua bahan sampai sebati. Tuang dalam baking tray tadi.

3. (Cake) pukul butter and gula sampai kembang.letak bahan lain. Bila sebati, letak jugak dalam baking tray.adunan cake akan terapung,so masukkan slowly dlm baking tray.

4.Letak baking tray dalam tray yg diisi air sebelum bakar. Bakar dlm api 180deg sampai masak (about 1 hour)..:) 




P/s: I found out that springform is not suitable for pudding mix hence the mess. So, I don't have to throw my springform :)

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Birthday

Baca entry Am on Hadi's birthday (yang sangat happening dari gambarnya), terus teringat birthday Adam. Tahun ni, birthday Adam falls on 2nd Syawal. Rasanya tahun ni paling lambat Mommy Adam bersedia. Selalunya dalam 6 months before dah tau dah nak buat tema apa. Tapi tahun ni apa pun belum fikir.

Hmm.. tahun ni giliran beraya di Melaka. So pastinya second day tu baru sampai dari Melaka. Sempat ke nak prepare tiup-tiup belon like previous years? Bibik pun tak ada nanti dia balik cuti sebulan. Macam mana ni ye?

Any ideas kawan-kawan?