Fluffy soft Banana cake

That bunch of bananas have been lazing on the kitchen top for 2 days. I regretted getting such a big bunch forgetting that bananas ripe way too fast in our tropical weather. Banana is one of Baby Kwok #1 favourite fruit. He can eat them EVERYDAY for breakfast - No, he does not find them boring. He even told me he would not mind having them again the next day (on repeat mode).

As a mum, I would not want my children to overly indulge in one particular food. I hope they can widen their food choices and learn not to be as fussy as the mum (oppss) during her younger days. Vegetables still a tough one to conquer for Baby Kwok#1 but well, at least he eats the really soft broccoli without any complaint (well, maybe one or two). Baby Kwok #2 is more adventurous with food but she seems to be really fussy lately! Used to love eating meat and now spitting them out! Grrrr..... I hope it is just the teething phase.

Anyway, back to banana - So not to waste those bananas, I baked a banana cake! I was not expecting much praise from Prince Charming because 1. He does not really like eating banana as much as his son do. 2. He has been complaining to me about his weight. He was with all praise for this banana cake!!!! I should have asked him to draw 4 numbers for me :X

Been into Instagram lately. If you are keen to follow me, add me!
You can search under @Orangejimbo

To make this, you will need:

• 2 ripe Bananas, Approx 220g
• 85g Sugar
• 100ml Oil (I used canola oil)
• 3 egg Yolks
• 1 tsp Vanilla powder
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• 150g Cake flour

• 3 egg Whites
• 25g Sugar

1. Mashed the bananas finely and set aside. Preheat your oven to 180°C
2. Sift the dry ingredients (Flour, Baking powder & Vanilla powder)
3. In a bowl, beat the yolks and sugar till it turns pale yellowish. Slowly add in the oil and mashed bananas. Continue to beat till well combined.
4. Add in your sifted dry ingredients and mix well. Ensure there are no lumps.
5. In a clean dry bowl, beat your egg whites till frothy. Gradually add in the sugar and continue beating it till it reaches Soft peak stage.
6. Take 1/3 of the egg white mixture and incorporate into the banana mixture. Pour the mixture back to the remaining egg white and fold well.
7. Pour into a cake tin and tap against the table top to release bubbles.
8. Bake for approx 35-40 mins or when skewer comes out clean. 

Happy Teacher's Day 2014

Ordered a batch of honey for Baby Kwok #1's teachers in school as their Teacher's day gift. However, got a shock at how mini they were so Prince Charming suggested baking something to go along with the honey. Had a big bag of Granola sitting in the fridge so I thought, maybe a Granola fruit muffins but ended up, I forgotten to add in the granolas! 

Been getting really forgetful nowadays. Anyway, the muffins were also Baby Kwok #1's breakfast as well as Prince Charming. Both gave their thumbs up for the muffins! I ate one and was also surprised at how flavourful these muffins were. The best thing that I ever heard from the Prince Charming "Hey, they looked so cafe styled and they really taste so good. Like those we get in Starbucks or angmoh bakery!" 

On a side note, I should have been more generous with the crumble toppings. They were so so so good and goes so so so well with the muffins!

Look at those mini honey! 

Love these cupcake liners and toppers that I got from one of the online shop :)

Baby Kwok#1 loves those cubed size plums! 

They were organic and taste really fresh!

To make these:

Muffins

• 195g All purpose flour (US metric 1 1/2 cup)
• 65g Caster sugar (US metric 1/2 cup)
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 tsp Baking powder
• 1 Egg (approx 55g)
• 100g Milk 
• 70g Oil
• 2 Organic plums, cut into bite size

Crumble toppings

• 60g Butter, melted
• 45g All purpose flour
• 50g Brown coarse sugar

1. Combine the dry ingredients together and set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 200°°C
3. Meanwhile, combine the ingredients for the crumble toppings and mix till it resembles crumbs like mixture.
4. In a mixing bowl, mix egg, oil and milk. Add in the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Mix in your plums and mix gently. Pour your batter into a pipping bag
6. Line your muffin tray with cupcake liners. Snip a slightly bigger opening on the pipping bag 
7. Pipe the mixture into the liners. Sprinkle the top with a generous amount of crumble toppings.
8. Bake the muffins for 20 ~ 22 mins

All natural Purple Chiffon cake

Finally managed to get some purple sweet potatoes! Was looking up and down the whole of Singapore for them and just when I was about to drop the idea, I found it at Finest Supermarket! Wheeeeee....

And so..  I baked the ALL NATURAL PURPLE CHIFFON CAKE! All natural because no added colouring! The purple colour comes from the sweet potatoes! Love the colours so much! Baby Kwok #1 enjoyed this snack and gobbled one up within minutes. I made them into small cupcakes for him and Baby Kwok #2. The little princess love them too but because she's only 10+ months old, I do not want to expose her to that much sugar (seems okay to us but a lot to infants). Anyway, it is quite a healthy snack for the adults so do give it a try!

Love the colour! 

Baby Kwok #1 enjoying his tea break :) 

He is a cake person like me!!

To make this, you'll need:

- 85g Cake flour

- 50g/ml Oil

- 3 Egg yolks

- 20g Sugar

- 3 Tbsp water

- 4 Egg whites

- 50g Sugar

- 100g mashed Purple sweet potatoes

- 3 Tbsp milk ( I replaced it with infant formula milk as I am giving as a snack to Baby Kwok #2)

- Some diced Purple sweet potatoes

1. In a bowl, mix yolks, sugar and oil. Combine well.
2. In another bowl, combine the mashed sweet potatoes and milk. Add this mixture into the yolk mixture in step 1
3. Add the water and cake flour into the mixture from step 2. Set aside. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180°C
4. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites till foamy. Add in the sugar gradually till you obtained a glossy meringue with peaks.
5. Take half of the meringue and fold into the cake batter from Step 3. Add the remaining meringue into the batter and fold well.
6. Pour the batter into a chiffon pan or cake pan. Tap to release air/gas trapped in the batter before baking. Bake for 30 mins.

Rainbow Chiffon cake

I baked a rainbow! The recent trend of baking anything rainbow has caught me!

Been so obsessed with baking colorful stuffs lately ;) Was thinking of attempting to bake Rainbow-ed macarons but because I wasn't that confident with my macaron skills thus decided to put it on pause (Till I perfect my macarons then). And then, I was amazed with the Rainbow cakes that I saw on Pinterest and on the Internet  (e.g. Martha Stewart, Kerry Cooks and Pixelated Crumb), I almost wanted to bake one  for Baby Kwok #1's 4th Birthday! Oh well, but the boy requested for a Transformers cake (hmpf!) so I dropped that idea.

With the recent leg issue that I faced with Baby Kwok #1, I was a little down. Even though, the Orthopedist has mentioned that his leg seems okay as she did not observed any pain when the cast was removed and he could stand and squat, I am still worried. After the cast removal, Baby Kwok #1 is still limping :( The way he walk is worrying me. I googled and results were showing that it is pretty normal that the child may be reluctant to walk or walk weirdly during the 1st few days (or even week) after going off the cast but it still depressing. I get so stressed when I see the boy limping and get fed up by asking him what's wrong! I think that scares him a little. Sigh... Prince Charming said I am overly paranoid but seriously, WHO wouldn't be worried?! I appreciate some kind advise from parents who have similar experiences so please do send me a comment!

 

Anyway, decided to bake a Rainbow Chiffon to make myself feel better. Colors perks me up!

To make this, you will need:

Cake batter

• 80g Flour
• 60g Vegetable oil
• 60ml Water
• 20g Sugar (I used caster sugar)
• 70g Egg yolks

Meringue

• 180g Egg whites
• 90g Sugar
• 10g Corn starch

1. In a mixing bowl, combine yolks, sugar and oil. Mixed well
   
2. Add flour and water to the yolk mixture. Mix and ensure that the batter is lump free. (Lumps affects the texture of the cake)
   
3. Divide the mixture into 4 bowls (more if you are doing more colors). Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 170°C
   
4. In a separate mixing bowl, beat egg whites till foamy. Add in sugar and corn starch gradually till mixture get transformed into peaks. Do not over beat the mixture - You can check the consistency on and off to ensure you get the right texture. Meringue with soft peaks works well but I prefers a slightly solid peak but not to the extend of very stiff peaks.
   
5. Scoop the meringue into the cake batter mixture (step 3) equally. Add your desired color gel to the individual bowl. Fold and blend the meringue into the cake batter gently. (Do not over-fold as this might causes the chiffon to collapse)
   
6. Layer the mixture into the chiffon pan. Once done, tap the chiffon pan to release air bubbles/gas in the mixture. Bake for 33~35 mins.

Nutless Macarons + Happy 4th Birthday Little Claire!

Attempted macarons again and this time round, it is a nut-less version. You're not seeing wrongly, yes NUT-LESS! No almonds! I wouldn't say the recipe is a big success because I felt that it tasted a little heavy comparing to usual macarons. Sesame has this strong flavour that is too overpowering I suppose. Guess I need to tweet the ratio of the sesame and icing sugar to perfect this recipe.

Black sesame Macarons (Nut-less)

It is my little niece's Claire 4th birthday celebration today! We went over to my sis's place for a mini celebration for the pretty little "Elsa" in disguise LOL! The girls are so crazy over Frozen that they requested a Frozen themed party!

Happy Birthday Claire!

Been trying my best to bake/cook more so that I get to post more. Shall take it easy and do things slowly because it is really not easy managing 2 kids. Baby Kwok #2 is now at the crawling, standing unassisted mode 24/7. She used to be okay with sitting inside the Jumperoo or walker, but now that she is so mobile, she prefers to be on the floor crawling away or be carried by us. Pretty tiring for Prince Charming and myself!

It is even worst when she is at teething stage because she practically do not sleep during the night and would fuss and be cranky. She only has 5 teeth at the moment so I cannot imagine the road down when she starts popping more teeth.

Baby Kwok #1 fractured his left ankle last Friday :( He fell from the school's chair and hit against one of the table resulting in the hairline crack on the ankle bone. Went KK Hospital and was put on a soft cast. Was told not to let him walk until we attend the follow up review this coming Tuesday. I am really praying hard that the review will be a good one and he can remove his cast and be active again. It is really upset when you hear your child asking you "Mummy, is my leg okay?" Please pray for me that the review with the Orthopedist will be a good one!!!

I'm still alive!!!

Oh my! Can't believe that I have left my blog vacant for almost 7+ months! The last time I have posted something was back in Sept 2013. I do really need to find time to publish more posts here!!!!

Though I have not been updating my blog, I do bake and cook on and off. Just that I am plain lazy to  sign in to blogger and start the publishing EVEN THOUGH my heart tells me that I should just go ahead and write a post but my brain just would not listen :(

Finally had the chance to update my post- All thanks to the Prince Charming who has left to run for a marathon and my Baby Kwok #2 is up and roaming around!

Here's what I did for our dinner on 4/26/2014. I attempted Macarons again and they finally had broad feet that I was looking out for! Yay!

Broad feet Macarons! 

It was a dark pink btw, filter of my camera phone makes it look brownish 

Then, I fixed a easy simple western dinner for both of us.  Not too hard and really quick to make them and Prince Charming enjoyed his dinner so do I (even though it was not that full for us but we need to go light on our weighing scale)

Prince Charming's dinner.

Cheese sausage with baguette, Japanese corn and sunny side up

My dinner!

Blueberry bagel with corn and cheese sausage

Baby Kwok #1 and #2 had other food for dinner though. Baby Kwok #1 is not as adventurous with food and he usually prefers asian cuisine to western cuisine so when it comes to main meals (lunch, dinner) his request will always be - RICE, RICE, RICE. Baby Kwok #2 is only 9.5 months old so we are still very conserve with the food that we offers to her (although I have to admit that we are more chincai (easy-going) comparing to the time during Baby Kwok #1 - Middle child syndrome LOL!)

And.. I have not been publishing "professional studio" kind of pictures on my blog because Prince Charming has not been playing with his toy for quite sometime. Should I be taking up some lessons with him to learn how to capture pictures so that I can do it myself? Should I?? 

Hello Hello!!!

Can't believe it's another long hiatus from me :(
Haven't been blogging since I've been really busy.

It has been a challenging year for me in 2012 I have to say.
Now that it's 2013, guess I really need to re-cap what has happen in 2012 and what has been coming up in 2013 :)

Oct 2012

1. Left my previous company where I've sloughed hard like a buffalo for 2 years
2. Suffered from bloated-ness for a whole month and was suspecting something serious :(
3. Sold my 4-rm and upgraded to EA

Nov 2012

1. Joined my current company and really loving it :) Met nice colleagues and have a great boss who appreicates and understand my needs for Work-Life balance as she understands that I'm a mother and needs to be there for Baby Kwok
2. Found out about my pregnancy only after a month into the job! The bloated-ness was one of the pregnancy symptoms :P

Dec 2012

1. Travelled to Scotland for business trip with Prince Charming and little bun in my oven ;)
2. First separation from Baby Kwok for 2 weeks and  was so upset that I cried EVERYDAY

Jan 2013

1.  HDB completion done for the selling of my 4rm and moving out from our 1st home and back to my parents place

Feb 2013

1. Went back to Taipei with Prince Charming, Baby Kwok and little bun bun in my oven for CNY
2. Had my 2nd trimester screening and knowing the gender of little bun bun! We're having a princess for #2!

Mar 2013

1. HDB completion for the purchase of my EA!!! Yay!
2. Went for tiles selection and had the flooring measurement done for our parquet :)

 I have to say 2012 was challenging with me facing with a new job and having to know about my pregnancy. 2013 has been good so far and I'm sure it will be even better upon the arriving of my #2 in July! We're be a family of 4 soon! Yipeeee~

CLOSED **Pre-order** Earth's Best snacks

 

Crunchin' Grahams: Honey Sticks   $5.70

• Classic graham cracker flavor with a hint of honey
• Finger-friendly snack for toddlers
• Made with whole wheat flour
• Excellent source of iron, zinc and six B vitamins
• USDA organic: no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides
• No hydrogenated oils
• No trans saturated fats
• No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives

 

Smiley Snacks: Banana   $5.70

• Fun, smiling faces to help toddlers learn to eat
• Bursting with natural banana flavor
• 12 grams of whole grain per serving
• 2 grams of protein and fiber per serving
• Excellent source of iron. zinc, vitamin C and six B vitamins
• USDA organic: no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides
• No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives
• Kosher certified

 

Snackin' Fruit Hearts & Rings: Blueberry   $4.00

• Healthy finger food can go anywhere your toddler goes
• Made from real blueberries
• Convenient grab 'n go cup - resealable, fits in car cup holder
• 13 grams of whole grain per serving
• 2 grams of protein per serving
• 2 grams of fiber per serving
• Excellent source of iron, zinc and six B vitamins
• USDA organic: no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides
• No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives
• Kosher certified

 

Organic Snackin' Fruit Hearts & Rings: Banana   $4.00

• Healthy finger food can go anywhere your toddler goes
• Made from real bananas
• Convenient grab 'n go cup - resealable, fits in car cup holder
• 13 grams of whole grain per serving
• 2 grams of protein per serving
• 2 grams of fiber per serving
• Excellent source of iron, zinc and six B vitamins
• USDA organic: no growth hormones, antibiotics, steroids or potentially harmful pesticides or herbicides
• No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives
• Kosher certified

 

Sunny Days Snack Bars: Strawberry    $6.00

• Juicy flavor of fresh-picked strawberries inside a wholesome cereal crust
• Individual wrapped bars - perfect for on-the-go
• Excellent source of calcium, iron, zinc and six B vitamins
• Made with organic ingredients
• No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives

Sunny Days Snack Bars: Apple    $6.00

• Juicy flavor of fresh-picked apples inside a wholesome cereal crust
• Individual wrapped bars - perfect for on-the-go
• Excellent source of calcium, iron, zinc and six B vitamins
• Made with organic ingredients
• No artificial flavors, colors, preservatives

To order, simply send your order details to my email: happymrskwok@gmail.com with the below ordering format:

Item 1:
Quantity:
Amount:
Mode of Collection:


Upon receiving confirmation of orders, payment details will be provided.
Collection comes in 3 mode: Registered/Normal/Self Collection.
Postage will be advised upon your confirmed order(s).

Self Collection is only available at selected areas and timing (as well as within my comfort zone) -:

1. Hougang Ave 8
   (Weekdays between 630pm - 830pm)
   
2. Anchorvale Sengkang
   (Weekdays between 900pm - 1100pm/ Weekends between 1100am - 1000pm)
   
3. Ang Mo Kio
   (Weekdays between 1130am - 130pm/ 530pm - 630pm)

Tonkatsu 豬排蓋飯

Shall be a short post cause my back's breaking from cleaning the house yesterday! The pictures will sum up what we had for dinner last night, including my Baby Kwok! We have been very adventurous to explore him to our food recently. I wonder if that's a good thing. Hmmmm.....


Yup! We had Tonkatsu for dinnner :) I played a litle trick on this - No, not about using frozen pork chop but instead of using my Don-pan (which I usually do for donburi), I merely fried the pork chop, cut and shove it on to the rice then pour the pre-prepared sauce over.





Alright, need to rest my aching back! Age's catching up I suppose!
To make this, you'll need:

• Pork Loin, 180g - Pounded flat with a meat hammer (is that how you call that tool?)
• 1 big Onion, sliced
• Panko, 1 packet (Japanese Bread crumbs)
• Plain flour 
• 3 tbsp of Soy sauce
• 50ml of water
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• Spring onions, sliced (for garnishing)
• 1 beaten egg (for coating)
• 1 lightly beaten egg (for the sauce)
• 1 bowl of cooked Japanese rice

1. Dust the Pork Loin with plain flour, followed by a layer of egg mixture and then covered well with panko. Set aside.
   
2. Heat up a frying pot filled with oil (enough to cover the surface of the pork loin),  once temp is ready, fry the prepared pork loin till golden brown.
   
3. Fill a bowl with rice. In a saucepan, pour soy sauce, sugar and water and bring it to boil. Add in the sliced onions and cooked till soft
   
4. Stir in the lightly beaten egg and shut off the heat. Cut up the deep-fried pork loin and place it on top of the rice.
   
5. Pour the sauce over and garnish with spring onions.

Singapore Black Pepper Crabs

Well well well, not that I've been MIA but was really busy. My house seems to be like a junk site every now and then. My little terroist a.k.a Baby Kwok has learnt to open up the drawers and "tidying" up the stuffs in it. Not only that, he has learnt to "hide" my stuffs so that I won't find them till Christmas arrive. The most mischievous act from him - Making the whole house upside down 5 mintues after I've cleaned up the house! Hmmmm... genetics inheritance?

Was telling Prince Charming that we should just hang everything up on the wall so that nothing get losts and thrown everywhere but still I'm sure my litle terroist will find his way up to grab them. He's not learning to walk yet but is already climbing up the window grilles. Though my little terroist gets on my nerves at times, he is still the one who brights up my life, nono our life (+ Prince Charming). The hefty amount of weight that I've piled on during pregnancy, the uncountable stretchmarks and the numbers of sleep that I've lost were worth it! Motherhood is such a bliss that comes with a tint of complaint :)

Anyway, we went to Sheng Siong for crab hunting on Vesak Day! As usual, we arrived late and many of the female crabs were gone and most of the leftover mud crabs were those with smaller pinchers (gongs) but still we managed to grabbed two of them who looks more muscular than the rest. Damages? $24.90!!! CHEAP and good!

This time round, I decided to try my hands on Black Pepper crabs after savouring those from Peach Garden. Wasn't that hard as I imagined! Yummilicious too but a little too spicy cause I've added slightly more black pepper. Greedy me!






It was so shiosk to have this crabs with Bulmer's Cider! Wohoooo!

To make this, you'll need:

• 3-half tbsp Ground Black pepper
• 4 tbsp Oyster Sauce
• 2 tsp Sugar
• 1 medium Shallots, sliced
• 1 medium Onion, sliced
• A handful of garlics, diced
• 5 tbsp Water/stock
• 6 tbsp of oil, for frying
• 1kg of Mud crabs

1. Wash the mud crabs and chopped them into pieces. 
2. Heat oil in wok and fry crabs till they turn red.
3. Back to the same wok, throw in the shallots, onions and garlic and fry till fragnant.
4. Stir in oyster sauce, ground black pepper, sugar and water.
5. Throw in the crabs, fry evenly and ready to serve.

Baby Kwok is 1!

Baby Kwok finally turns 1 year old on April 6! My little baby is officially a Toddler now! Come to think of it, I pretty much missed the days when he's still a newborn :)

Anyway, we had a Closed Door Party for his Big One Celebration at "With a Pinch of Salt by Kyra" last Saturday and though he's still too young to know what's exactly going on but I could tell that he is really happy cause he was smiling and clapping his hands happily :D

The Birthday Cake that I ordered for Baby Kwok was way above my expectations and it wowed all the guests especially the little guests and they were literally going "Wowwwwwwwwwwwww" with their mouths wide open! I was the happiest person on earth at that moment! Oh, Baby Kwok's Birthday cake was from Pine Garden - My All-time Favorite!

Food catering according to my guests' reviews were nice, especially the Bacon Aglio Olio and Banana goes Porky (Bananas wrapped with Bacon). The kids were really happy with the fact that dessert was Ice-cream (Vanilla/Chocolate/Strawberry) and some of the kids came up to me and thank me for the nice Goodies box that I've prepared for them . Thank god for the little ones!

The Birthday Celebration was a big success and I would like to thank everyone for their perfect attendance and of course, the crews at With a Pinch of Salt by Kyra were really friendly and helpful! They were helping me with all the arrangements and even offered to help me cut up the cake and serve the guests! Pine Garden was nice to did some little changes to the cake design according to the Cake toppers that I provided and I was really thrilled when I saw the cake (even though the changes may not be obvious but hey I did noticed it!). They never fail to disappoint me!

Baby Kwok's BIG ONE Party

Time does flies isn't it? Baby Kwok will be turning 1 in another 2 weeks time and my oh my, my little baby has grown to be a toddler now! One super active and cheeky toddler :)

We'll be having his Big One celebration at one of the cafe located in the East and I am really looking forward! I guess when it comes to 1st-time mummy, we usually get overly excited especially with parties and celebrations with our little ones.

Preparation works start as early as January this year but... up till today I have not gotten the invitation cards, thank you note and Goodie bags done. God, now I'm only left with 1.5 weeks to go, I desperately need to fasten my pace so that I can get everything up before the party!

Anyway, been very hardworking in designing invitation card, poster, goodie bag labels and Thank you label for Baby Kwok's party. Friends were suggesting getting something off the rack (those ready printed Disney invitation cards) but I think I'll prefer to design one myself cause I wanted something unique and special :)

Copyright reserved ©

This is the Thank you label that I've specially done up for our guests!
It's not something big but just a small token of appreciating their attendance for our Party :)

And oh, did you notice that we have a new banner? :P

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas is definitely a very special one for both Prince Charming and myself!
Our first Christmas with Baby Kwok! We were really excited about celebrating Christmas with Baby Kwok and that we actually put up the Christmas tree much much earlier than usual :D

Baby Kwok totally love the Christmas tree! He almost pull off the whole tree! The jingle bells were thrown onto the floor and the little red pressies decors were in his hands! I can't imagine when he start walking, I bet my house will be in chaos. My mum was complaining to me that Baby Kwok kept pulling the telephone wires and threw the phone on the floor *Swallow saliva* I have a little terrorist!

Anway, was telling Prince Charming that I BADLY needed some time for X'mas baking~ "Un-offically" been not baking for almost a year! I desperately need to have the baking/cooking regime back, otherwise I think I might not even remember how to break an egg! He "politely" agreed but well, we'll see! Pssst.. if you guys see me posting up my X'mas baking that means he kept his promise if not, you know... :P

Merry Christmas ~

Starting Solid

Guess what, in another 2-3 weeks time I'll be starting Baby Kwok on solids! Always thought it'll be simple but never to expect there's so much to learn about making baby food. To prepare myself, I got myself AK's Top 100 Baby Purees and was amazed at the varieties of food that we can/can't offer to our babies.

Anyway, here 2 recipes that I found on Wholesome Baby Food
I did the Carrot Purees and offered a few mouthful to Baby Kwok and he seems to like it!


Carrots - Basic Purée

1. Peel carrots and cut into small chunks

2. Place chunks into a steamer pan with just enough water visible through the steamer basket

3. Steam until tender

4. Do not reserve any left over water to use for thinning out the carrots if baby is under 8 months old as Nitrates may seep into the cooking water

5. Place into your choice of appliance for pureeing and begin pureeing.

6. Add water as necessary to achieve a smooth, thin consistency.

Apple Baby Food Recipes - Puréed Apples/Applesauce

1. Peel, core and cut apple into slices/chunks

2. Place slices or chunks into a pan with just enough water to slightly cover apples

3. Boil/steam until tender; be sure to check on the water level and stir, That's It. Easy Peasy.

4. Apples may be mashed with a potato masher to achieve a smooth applesauce consistency. If your masher will not achieve a puree type of consistency, then follow steps 5 - 7

5. Reserve any left over water to use for thinning out the apples

6. Place into your choice of appliance for pureeing and begin pureeing.

7. Add the reserved water as necessary to achieve a smooth, thin puree

8. Add cereal (if desired) to thicken up the

9. Ask your pediatrician about adding some cinnamon for new tastes.

My Star baby :D

I have a star baby!

*I guess only Aimei knows what I'm talking about!*

Guess who's who? ;)

I love you my Baby Kwok ♥

Mummy Kwok's back!

Another long hiatus from my previous post in April! 2+ months of MIA and now, Mummy Kwok, S8xxxxxxxI reporting back! These 2 months were tough or in a better term tiring. Baby Kwok wakes up every now and starts being cranky. Being a New mummy, I've got no idea what he actually wanted so I could only guess its either he's hungry or its diaper changing time. Motherhood works like archery, you don't always get to hit the bull's eye!

Being a breastfeeding mum, rest/sleep is almost 0. We need to feed baby on demand plus to work up the milk supply, its a must to pump. I wakes up every 3hr to do my milk pumping, not forgetting feeding Baby Kwok, washing and sterilizing my pump parts and Baby Kwok's milk bottles. When all these are done, my next pumping session starts. *Yawn*

I can't even remember when was the last time I bake a cake or when was the last time I vacuumed and mopped my floor. Prince Charming was nice to help clean the house occasionally but time is really precious. While he's at work, I'm almost sticking to Baby Kwok unless when he's sleeping that I get some time off to eat and do some laundries/house chores.

Tedious but I'm loving every min and seconds! Looking at my calendar, I'm due for work in another 1 week time :( If only I could stay at home, looking after Baby Kwok and get paid!!!
I cannot imagine 8 hrs not being with Baby Kwok!!!

My Baby Kwok ^^

After a long hiatus, I'm finally back to blog.

Still "under-going" confinement now but it will be ending soon in another 1+ weeks time! HURRAY!

It's so tough to have your confinement done during the April period! The weather never seems to help much, plus the temperature seems to get higher and higher each day. Luckily the past few days were quite cooling with the help of some heavy rain. Unable to bathe is a NO issue for me but with my MIL staying in my house, I have to oblige to it but thank goodness my Mummy bought the herbal shower pack for me so that I could at least soak myself in water about once a week. Actually I did sneakily bathe during my stay at mummy's place while she's at work :P *shssssss*

And yes, my most important task to blog today is to introduce my bundle of Joy! My baby Kwok! He arrived on 6-Apr 2010 at KK Hospital! I went through a 26 hours of labour but it's all worthwhile when I see him :)

Here's my birth story which I said I'll share the other time.

5-Apr 2010

--------------

9:30am - Admitted into hospital for induction of labour

10:00am - After the monitoring of baby's heartbeat at Labour ward, prositiin was inserted to help soften cervix

12:00pm - Had my lunch at labour ward as there were no available ward for me to stay in yet

1:30 ~ 2:00pm - Yeah! Finally get to shift to my ward where I can sleep comfortably

2:30pm ~ 8:30pm - Contractions came in but bearable

9:30pm - Heavier contractions encountered, notified nurse and was sent to Delivery suite since I'm having immerse contractions every 2 mins

9:30pm ~ 3:00am - Having bad contractions and was so sleepy. Slept through out but the contractions wakes me up every min!

4:00am - Gynae came in to burst waterbag!! Wooo.. hot fluid coming out!

7:30am - Can't bear with the immerse pain so asked for Epidural aka HAPPIDURAL!

7:30am ~ 3:00pm - Painless labour but at around 1230pm, Epi ran out so was topped up with another one since I was only 7cm dilated

3:30pm - 10cm dilated! Was asked to push so was giving all my best to push to crown my baby's head

4:00pm - Gynae arrived and within mins, baby arrived!

It seems just yesterday that I've given birth but looking at the dates, it's 3 weeks already!

Baby Kwok will be turning 1 month next week and I can't wait to see the cupcake tree that I've ordered for him :)

Prince Charming took this for Baby Kwok and I'm loving it!

We're going to print it in Poster size for Baby Kwok's First Month Party :)

Baby Kwok is here!

After a super long labour, Baby Kwok finally arrives!
I'll be updating my birth story soon, when I'm coping better with Motherhood! :)