Red Dot Mum

It has been only a couple of months since the first grandchild was born in the family, but I am sure it has felt like an eternity for the newly minted parents. Even before the inaugural date of conception, the work of raising a human being was already in full gear. Getting through nine months of enabling a healthy foetus to flourish is no walk in the park. It was not just one person’s lifestyle and dietary habits that had to shift - overnight, if you have to be rid of bubble tea and late-night nibbles after an intense day, that is simply another hurdle to jump over. Most significantly, it was about what the bystanders could do. You learn very early on, once your adult children hit their twenties, that they are their own person - and so as a to-be granny, the first thing one does is to seal thy lips and just listen. Listening and observing are both very formidable skills. They make caregivers of any generation emotionally attuned to their recipients of care. Some memories still linger:...

  Every year, when September rounds the corner, thoughts of Christmas and Chinese New Year preps loom near. Anticipating the coordinated arrangements that will be needed, some preliminary preps begin. I try to prep ahead so that I don’t get all stressed out at year-end. It is a great time after all to sit back in awe and enjoy the festivities all around the world (the Internet is best for this!) Christmas beckons first ~ I have all the usual recipes tucked away in my blog and easily retrieved on the app Pinterest (which also makes it easy for my family to access). The recipe I am ‘reviewing’ is the Shepherd’s Pie. Do you ever wonder why one flinches when another says a particular dish is ‘so easy to do’? I’ve realised that saying a dish “is easy to do” is only ‘so easy to do’ when one has cooked it several times until it becomes ‘automatic’, a bit like preparing for a standard exam when one rehearses the practice of previous years’ exam papers within the given time. Yeah, that sort...

  This recipe feeds four. I adapted it from https://www.messyvegancook.com/five-minute-zhenjiang-noodles-recipe/. It’s a keeper. My hubby grew up with black vinegar. I hated black vinegar at the beginning. But we have been married for 29 years, so our dietary habits are beginning to be a lot more alike than different! It makes family cooking easier too! The adult kids like this dish a great deal. Black vinegar always gives that additional punch of flavour. For those with lack-lustre appetite, fry some sliced onions with black vinegar and put them over a fried egg and eat it with rice. This is also an easy way to cook a ‘no-salt’ dish! Ingredients Kway Teow (2 pkts; 420g each – follow the instructions on it to prepare it for frying – mine came in a pack but one can get fresh ones from the wet market) 6 tablespoons of (Chinkiang) black vinegar + 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, mixed together Spring Onion (1 sprig – separate the white from the green (buy the whole pack of spring onion and...

  If I have learnt anything from these years of being a home manager, it is to mimimise things and keep work flow processes simple because stages of family life change1, every person goes through a different life stage2 and in so doing goes through a developmental stage too. Frugality is a value transmitted down my side of the family; and for me, I have internalised it as part of my outlook on life3. This value has translated into the application of ‘waste not, want not’ in the home and for my husband and I, do form part of a common outlook, to educate our children on home economics. A budget set aside for food is a part of home economics and minimising food wastage is an approach also taken to adhere to a part of the household allowance set aside for food every month. In our family we minimise this by: Organised pantry We had already kept our kitchen organised. Recently, thanks to a clever tip, we put   together all ‘carbs’, ‘protein’, ‘fruit’ , and ‘vegetable’ and ‘flav...

  Pineapple Fried Rice Recipe (1 serving) (Adapted from ‘Rasa Malaysia’ Pineapple Fried Rice Recipe) Ingredients 200 grams leftover cooked rice (I use brown rice) 2 cloves of garlic 112 grams fresh pineapple(I used S&W fresh pineapple from NTUC Fairprice) 112 grams shrimp (shelled and deveined, leave whole or cut into small pieces) (substitute with chicken if shrimp not available) 2 tbsp cashew nuts (optional) 1 tsp of shrimp paste ( I substituted with oyster sauce) 1 tbsp fish sauce 1/2 tbsp pineapple juice (I used canned Delmonte pineapple juice from NTUC Extra) 1/4 tsp dark soy sauce (for coloring) (I used Kwong Cheong Thye Chicken Rice dark soy sauce) 1 fresh red chili (seeded and cut into smaller pieces) 2 tbsp oil cilantro leaves for garnish Method Heat up a wok and add cooking oil Stir fry garlic, red chili and shrimp paste until aromatic. Add shrimp and stir fry until half-cooked. Add rice, pineapple pieces, pineapple juice, and do a few quick stirs. Add fish sauce and ...

  An article contributed for Calvary Community Care (C3) ‘Read With Me’ Literacy Campaign When the children were preschoolers, I incorporated reading aloud or hearing stories read aloud as part of the children’s bedtime regime which assisted with ‘bedtime challenges’. Routines and schedules always help with a child’s emotional development because when the routine kicks in, the child living in an ‘adult world’ knows what to anticipate in the whirlwind world of adult life. Admittedly, I never liked reading a storybook to my own children more than once – parents will know a child will ask you to read a book again and again because for some reason the content resonates with them and they want to continue learning about themselves and about the world from the book. So I substituted in other ways. During that time, we had a domestic helper who was good with children and would read the whole book in my place. My children liked her and looked forward to her reading with them. Or I put on a...

5.  MEAT CONGEE I could use the same chicken stock as the ‘white’ bee hoon to cook this (Knorr stock cubes) but when I or someone else in the family fall ill, I prefer to rely on the homemade garlic-rich chicken stock  I have on hand to cook congee – I could be just imagining it – but I feel better after consuming congee made from it 🙂 Homemade chicken stock cubes always ready on hand for ’emergencies’ The congee is also a great breakfast food for children who are sitting for exams. It is comforting and satisfying to eat a small bowl of warm chicken or pork congee in the morning. A great morale booster! What is more, if you, the main cook in the family, fall ill, you just need to cook one dish which you, as well as the rest of the family, can partake. Honestly, I only eat congee when I am sick but after experimenting with different ways to confirm a surefire way to prepare it, I may think about whipping it up on any other ordinary day 🙂 The surefire way I cook it is inspired...

6.  Fried White Bee Hoon A detoxification (detox) tea like lemongrass ginger tea should have a simple dish to go with it and what better than ‘plain’ bee hoon like this (you can prepare this in advance for a lazy Sunday lunch and thereafter enjoy the lemongrass ginger tea..) I was inspired by this link but as I always ‘shop from my pantry first’ I made some modifications.. I had an extra packet of bee hoon (400g)so I used that. I also had on hand a packet of frozen seafood (400g) as well as a packet of minced meat (300g) (might as well clear everything!) It’s that hard to get your daily serving of greens rich in vitamin C when you eat out so I bought about 4 packets of greens (‘xiao bai cai’ was on offer at 45cents per pack at 200g each) to supplement the bee hoon. As in the recipe, I did not want to put onions so I replaced it with leeks (quantity up to you and even this is optional-remember..keep it SIMPLE) You can actually follow the steps in frying the bee hoon from the above l...

This post is Part 4 of ‘An Organised Home’. 9.  Streamline organisational tools and boxes I use the same organisation system throughout my home… i. Binder Clips ii. Same-sized Storage Boxes iii. Clear Pockets Clear pockets stretch the dollar compared to clear holders; order of pages can be easily changed and the quantity is easily customised They have saved a bundle for me over the long run. Invest in some storage boxes and receptacles after surveying and measuring your available empty spaces, may it be in your cabinets or inside your fridge Of course, it’s easier if you are in a new home and therefore can anticipate using similar-sized storage containers and prepare the renovations for that 🙂 If in doubt, just recycle and reuse the boxes of some consumer items your purchases come in for the time being. Oftentimes, the cheapskate I like to gain that ‘win-win’ situation by buying a supermarket food item so that I can reuse their empty receptacles once we finish eating out their con...

This post is Part 3 of ‘An Organised Home’. 6.  Setting Up Routines Set up some routines to follow up …on your tidy, clean, ‘purged’  home   a) Firstly, tracking your expenses (or what others call keeping a ‘spending diary’) I do this at least once a fortnight (or else my wallet will be bulging with receipts) I scan my receipts and record my expenses in Evernote   In this way, I -keep my weekly spending in check(budgeting) -am informed of my buying history eg. I know how many crates of eggs on average we purchase every month or when it was I bought a bottle of laundry detergent This regular routine allows me to set aside an annual budget for the next year in many categories-groceries, holidays, children’s spendings etc. It, therefore, allows me to carry out Tip 8 above “Stock Up” and I can buy ahead and save time and save some more money!   b) A second routine is paying your bills before time and filing away documents at least once a month will help you tame tha...

 This post is Part 2 of ‘An Organised Home’. 4. Stocking Up As the saying goes, ‘Out With the Old, In With the New’ According to an article in Frugal Housekeeping, “After you’ve gotten rid of the stuff you don’t use, make sure you have stuff that makes sense for the space.” For me “makes sense” is also translated into “makes cents” 🙂 After habitual purging, and having done the TKSD (Throw, Keep, Sell, Donate), I have occupied the ‘vacant’ spaces with items my family regularly use… The items I stock up are toiletries, groceries and cleaning supplies and paper products.  This VERY MUCH lessens the trips I need to make to the stores. In fact, we have honed this so well until we only buy toiletries once a year This once-a-year purchase is made possible because we keep an expenses diary (I compute mine in the app Evernote) We had been able to count the number of dishwashing detergents, rolls of toilet paper, shampoos, dental floss, etc. needed in a year based on the recording of o...

  Yummy and quick minced meat fixes! Chicken and corn patties…Bulgogi mince..steamed egg with mince…pumpkin and mince..potato and mince(Shepherd’s Pie) My life is streamlined around…minced meat! Do you know what’s nice about minced? It’s ready to cook! You don’t need to cut it..it’s just ready to fling all into the pan and to just fry! Minced tofu with minced meat garnished with red pepper (for colour as well as a more ‘spicy’ taste if cannot tolerate the fiery taste of red chillis ) spring onions as well as coriander. An easily assembled dish! You know why I am squirmish about handling raw meat..because when I was raising my kids with no domestic helper and the ‘bao ka liao’ roles (‘do-it-all-mum’ means part-time working employee, housemaid and mummying roles all rolled into one), my children had food poisoning twice because I did not clean the utensils properly… You might be thinking..how could I have let my children suffer as such…but all those who are mummies to pre-school chil...

  Cooking Bird’s Nest In A Crockpot And so my teenager just feels like eating bird’s nest..exam season is on..but she doesn’t want  ‘all the drama’🙄 with it…so this blog acts as a step-by-step guide for her on how to cook the bird’s nest herself(easy instructions) yes..she often does this..raiding the kitchen pantry for ‘stuff’ to eat or when she has the ‘feels’ for some foodstuff but I refuse to cook it because she always tells me at the last minute and I am rushing out. Sometimes, what she asks for is unhealthy..like hams and stuff..and I tell her ‘no’ she has to cook that herself if she wants to eat it..or when the whole family is not at home, she is all alone, there is ‘no food’ (that she likes) in the fridge and she has to fend for her own meals. STEPS ( I cooked this a couple of years ago using the same cooking style and method adapted from http://www.noobcook.com/bird-nest-soup/2/ ) 1) Soak 4 pieces of bird’s nest in water for at least half an hour (just enough to cove...

  Easy Chicken Corn Patties Other than the Claypot Vegetarian Brown Rice (rice cooker method) food recipe I had adapted from the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) website, another very easy and inexpensive to prepare food is this sweet corn chicken patty. Ingredients Chicken, minced 200g Tau kwa 1 piece (the supermarket packs sell in twos so just double your recipe if you are following the recipe to the letter) Sweet corn kernals 1 cup^ Onion 1 big (minced)* Spring onions 2 stalks (finely chopped) (sometimes I omit this if I don’t have any) Oil 2 tbsp ^1 cup is 250ml ..they sell sweet corn in a can or little carton form – I usually divide the corn  into half (so in this case you will get 2 cups from one can of sweet corn:P) *if you don’t have any onions, you can substitute with onion powder (about 1 tbsp) Seasoning Light soy sauce 2 tbsp Dark soy sauce 1/2 tsp (I hardly buy standard dark soy sauce anymore ; instead I have streamlined all my dark soy sauce with one ...

  Shepherd’s Pie I obtained this recipe from a book I borrowed from our local library way back in 1995 -title of the book is “Violet Oon Cooks”. It’s still available for borrowing from the Jurong Regional Library at the time  I published this blog article. I like this recipe because one has only got to buy minced meat and potatoes and that’s it! The other ingredients you should already have in your pantry like onions or milk..When I first encountered this recipe, the only bugbear ingredient was the Worcestershire sauce. All newbie cooks that just got married and start out cooking(other than lack of time and inexperience in the kitchen) will be wondering if they need to buy this sauce or not, particularly if they will be using it just one time for just one recipe. If you face this dilemma, just skip it ..it’s only 1.5 teaspoon(Worcestershire sauce) and it will hardly be missed because honestly I think what makes this dish is the onions! I used minced chicken for this recipe for...