If you are an avid reader of my blog you’ll know that I love gardening. I grow only edible plants. I used to love growing flowers to beautify the house but these days, practicality is my priority. It is better to grow my own vegetables so I can get organic produce at home.  Chilies grow well at my place. I have two pots of them. The other day before we went for our holidays, I […]

The boys love eating burgers but I limit them as I’m not too sure what goes into the burgers that we purchase outside. The better way to feed their appetite is to make our own burger patty. We can make our own burger bun too but that will be too much of a hassle so for now, let’s just start with making our own burger patty. Making our own burger patty is actually very simple. […]

As you would have probably known (if you are connected with me via Facebook), my parents celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary last weekend. A Golden anniversary, it is a blessing to be able to celebrate with beloved family members and close friends. I’ve shared pictures and videos on my Facebook but I’ll share some again here in my blog for keepsake. THE ATTIRE The Golden Couple, Baba Robert and Nyonya Lilian 50 years of marriage […]

If you have had the opportunity to dine with me especially during hi-tea buffet, you’ll know that I always, ALWAYS, eat onde-onde first. I love the feeling of the melted palm sugar that floods my mouth when bitten into. But good onde-onde is rather a rare find these days. The ones I ate are mostly just flour with very little gula melaka filling inside. What do you do when you are craving for one of your […]

We were privileged to be invited to experience the newly unveiled completely restyled West Wings guest rooms at Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel last weekend. I’ll write more about those wonderful new rooms later as there are many pictures and videos I’d love to share with you but haven’t got the time composing them into a story yet. During our staycation here at Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel, I was also treated to a much needed relaxation at Mandara […]

Murtabak is popular especially during the fasting month. Whenever we visit bazaar Ramadan, the first thing we’ll do is hunt for our favourite Ayam Percik and Murtabak. These days the weather is scorching hot, we prefer to just stay home but we still crave for our favourite Murtabak. Thank goodness I know of a simple recipe to make murtabak the easy and hassle-free way. We call it Murtabak Popiah. Murtabak Popiah Ingredients: 100gm minced chicken […]

*VIDEO* During the recent school holidays, we took advantage to travel up to Sitiawan – the place I grew up after my father retired from the Navy. My parents have since moved to Melaka hence I’ve not been back here for almost 20 years. We also made the most out of this trip to spend some precious time being close to nature. We stayed at Swiss-Garden Beach Resort, Damai Laut. A hidden gem; secluded but […]

As you have viewed in many of our past videos, Lil’ Chef Ayden had been using our rice cooker to cook a lot. Though the rice cooker does wonders, it takes a longer time to heat up especially when Ayden needs to saute and stir fry stuffs. Hence we decided to get a multi-cooker for him.  We got the new PHILIPS All-in-One Pressure Cooker as we read rave reviews over it online. It functions as a […]

Ayden has been attending Mandarin enrichment class for over a month now. This has totally changed our routine and I am still trying to adjust having to go to bed earlier at night so that we can wake up early for his class. This also means I now have less time to work on my blog and it kind of driving me crazy a little but it’s okay. I’ll find my way to make this work […]

It is the school holidays so I got both the boys to cook together. Since our Muslim friends are observing the holy month of Ramadan, the dish we’ll be sharing today is one that is popular during the fasting month – Roti John Sardin. Roti John is an omelette sandwich. Meat is usually added but we prefer to use sardine since my mom has been making it this way for us since young. This hassle […]

Last Saturday was the beginning of the school holidays. We brought the boys to Sunway Lagoon Wildlife Park to take a walk on the wild side. Ethan also took part in the Wildlife EduHunt challenge where he has to complete 10 challenges ranging from Peek-A-Print, Mix & Match, Mystery Box, animal appearance to feeding swans, macaws and squirrels. Wildlife Encounter Schedule As we go through the Wildlife Adventure, we get to learn about the many species […]

With the mid term exam done and over with and the school holidays is here, it only means it is time to have fun, FUN and MORE fun! We officiate the two-weeks school break with popping our own popcorn. I’ve blogged about making our own popcorn some time ago but now it is time to pass the skill to the boys or rather the big brother Ethan. Homemade Popcorn Ingredients: A bowl of corn kernels […]

Both my kids love eating mushrooms. Mushrooms is also said to be good for the brain so I try to include mushrooms in their diet regularly. Today’s recipe sharing is this super simple dish of Mushroom Chicken. This quick and easy yet delicious dish is a hit with the boys and I always add extra mushrooms as they always ask for more of it. Mushroom Chicken Ingredients: 7 chicken drumsticks 5 tbs oyster sauce 2 […]

I’ve mentioned this countless times – how playground time is important for us. It is especially important during exam weeks as Ethan goes there to release stress.  We went to the playground as usual today. I got my dose of exercise too from jogging and utilizing the playground equipment such as this monkey bar: Can you see my little supporter there?  So nice to have someone cheering me on when my arms are already feeling like […]

About 3 weeks ago, someone in our family gave birth ahead of time; catching us all of guard.  As she has no other family members here in PJ except us, I cooked some confinement food for her. It was my first time cooking confinement food and I somehow simply whacked as long as got ginger except the black bean soup lah. That one has no ginger in it. I also boiled red dates and longan […]

It was just another ordinary day for us today. We were strolling at a mall in town, admiring the many bonsai around as they were having a plant exhibition at the moment.  The above bonsai grabbed my attention. My mother has that plant at home but hers is planted on the ground and shaped to be a big cute ball. So I took a picture of that and sent to my Mom via Whatsapp.  I continued […]

Today Lil’ Chef Ayden cooked another Sichuan dish – Kung Pao Chicken. If you love Sichuan dishes, you may like Ayden’s previous video – Ma Po Tofu. We did not use Chinese Shaoxing rice wine in our Kung Pao Chicken though but I find it still as yummy. Ingredients: Cubed chicken fillet 3 tablespoons roasted peanuts 6 dried red chilies 3 tablespoons oil An inch fresh ginger, sliced 2 clove garlic, sliced 1 stalk scallion, cut into […]

For the third year now we celebrated Mother’s Day at Eastin Hotel Kuala Lumpur. Located less than 30 minutes drive from our house, it is one of our favourite hotels in town. At RM88nett per adult with children paying half the adults’ price, their Brunch Buffet featuring both local and international buffet spread is also one of the more affordable deals around. What I love about Eastin Hotel is they never fail to arrange interesting […]

The fasting month is fast approaching. This is the time when my favourite buah kurma or honey dates are available in abundance. We came out with this recipe back in 2015. It took us two bakings to get it right back then. Now, it is my fail proof recipe come the holy month of Ramadan. I like to bake this for my neighbours during this time of the year and am glad they love it […]

Over the weekend, Ayden cooked something that got him sweating buckets. What is it that he dished out that made him sweat? It is his first time cooking Sichuan food – Ma Po Tofu. As we all know, Sichuan cuisine is well known for their bold and fiery flavours resulting from the use of garlic and Sichuan chili peppers but that did not deter Ayden from trying. He dished out this Ma Po Tofu the ‘cheat’ […]

It has been so long since I last uploaded a video of Ethan’s drumming. Drumming has taken a back seat in his life at the moment as he has been busy with other stuffs but he still attends drumming lessons once a week. He still plays the drum every once in a while though as he’ll be sitting for Grade 6 exam next month. He gets bored when he has no performance scheduled in the […]

Hello there! A personal matter cropped up over the weekend and we were kept busy but let’s take a break and cook something simple and delicious today. Little Ayden has a new Chef hat and apron courtesy of Uncle Kimmy. It fits perfectly and he loves it very much. Thank you Uncle Kimmy ♥ Today, Ayden will be sharing this super simple yet delicious recipe of Honey Garlic Chicken.  Ingredients: 6 chicken drumsticks 1/4 cup honey […]

This weekend has been a very busy one. We spent our Saturday at Sunway Pyramid having a great adventure with Thomas & Friends and on Sunday, we went to Main Place Mall at USJ to join the Hawaiian themed carnival.   It is a one-day carnival and we had so much fun here.  We bought game coupons to play the many games available.  The first game we tried was this super cute Pineapple Coconut Bowling game. […]

Thomas and Friends has invaded Sunway Pyramid and I brought the boys there today to join Thomas on his journey beyond Sodor! Here’s a video of the activities the boys participated in during their adventures with Thomas & Friends: Ethan and Ayden got to ride on Thomas around the mall.  They also went on a Space adventure.  Slide into ‘shark infested’ ocean.  Sharks are friends, not food. Now let’s tell the shark that these boys are […]

Sweet potatoes are an excellent source of carotenes. We need carotenes as our body converts it into Vitamin A. Vitamin A is important for good eye vision and healthy skin; especially beneficial for school-going children. I try to include sweet potatoes into the boys’ diet as often as possible. Sometimes they eat it steamed on its own but at times when we have more time to spare, I’ll prepare this delicious Sweet Potato in Gula Melaka drink for […]

We took advantage of the long weekend to make a quick trip back to Malacca to visit my parents. We went back on Sunday as Saturday was a busy day for us. Traffic was smooth and we arrived about 2pm. While having lunch, my mom informed me that she will be going over to my uncle’s (mom’s elder brother) house (a stone’s throw away) for a BBQ dinner.  I promptly Whatsapp my uncle to ask […]

If you have been following our progress, you’ll know that Ayden has been to the dentist numerous times as his teeth are very fragile and chips off easily. He had filling done on his teeth a couple of times but some eventually dropped off.  Last weeked we were at the dentist again.  This time Ayden needed to get only one filling done, thank goodness for that.  Since Ayden was done rather quickly, the Daddy took advantage […]

Little Chef Ayden is back with this very simple recipe we learned from my mom. She often prepares this at home but instead of using pork ribs as she always does, we used chicken.  Steamed Chicken with Minced Bean Paste aka Taucu Ingredients: 6 Chicken Drumstick 5 Cloves Garlic (pounded) 1 Red Chili (pounded) 1 inch ginger (pounded) 1 tbs salted minced bean paste (taucu) Method: 1) Pound garlic, ginger and chili. 2) Add the pounded […]

I received an invitation on Friday night to bring Ayden over for an audition for a local Kids Talk Show today. They were scouting for kids aged 3 to 8 years old. I believe it will be a good experience for Ayden as he has never attended an audition before so I agree to it. I am also eager to see Ayden’s reaction to all these.  Today, we woke up as usual, got dressed and […]

My family loves cheesecake a lot but we’ve never baked one ourselves as we don’t have an oven. We came across a rice cooker cheesecake recipe online recently and got excited to try it out. The only problem is, the recipe from Dingo Food is not in English and when I clicked on the translated version, it requires the use of FOUR DOGS! I reckon it will be such a hassle to catch 4 dogs. Moreover, […]

Being home-schooled, one of the activities I frequently do with Ayden at home is painting. Painting provides endless benefits to children. Even myself as an adult find painting therapeutic. Here are some of the benefits of painting for children: Hand-Eye Coordination – This is a very important skill at their age; to be able to coordinate their hand movements at par with their vision. It may sound easy to us but for young children, practice makes […]

Today Lil’ Chef Ayden will be cooking Dhal Curry. Dhal Curry has always been the boys’ favourite whenever we eat Roti Canai so today I thought, why not guide him to cook it himself? The heat level of Dhal Curry can be adjusted according to your preference. If your kid can’t tolerate spicy stuffs, then go low on the chili or you may omit it altogether. Dhal is simply the Indian word for lentils. I […]

This is a delayed post of the recent week-long school holidays. I only got the time to blog about it today as I wasn’t feeling well the past week.  Kids these days are very lucky. Malls in major cities especially the Klang Valley will always have some fun activities for them during the school holidays and these activities are usually complimentary.  After we got back from Penang, we brought the kids to 1 Utama to enjoy […]

We love bananas. It is one of our favourite local fruits. Banana is KING when it comes to nutrition. It is power-packed with essential vitamins and minerals such as potassium, calcium and many more. Potassium helps to maintain a healthy balance of fluids in the body and as an electrolyte, potassium stimulates nerves and muscles throughout our body. I eat banana everyday before going for my evening jog. Last week, it rained almost every evening deterring us from […]

During the school holidays, Ethan managed to spend some time in the kitchen. I guided him to cook this famous Peranakan dish, Ayam Pongteh.  Ingredients:  6 Chicken Drumsticks 2 Potatoes 4 Chinese Mushrooms 2 Tablespoon Tauchu 1 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce 2 Teaspoon Gula Melaka 5 Shallots (Pounded) 5 Cloves Garlic (Pounded) Method: 1) Pound shallots and garlic 2) Slice mushrooms 3) Heat oil in wok 4) Fry garlic, onion and tauchu  5) Once fragrant, add in […]

During the recent school holidays, we made a trip up to Penang. One of the reason we went up is to visit the new Jurassic Research Center at The TOP, KOMTAR. The boys love it there as they got to see their favourite dinosaurs come ‘alive’. Imagine seeing dinosaurs in your books up close and roaring in front of you. That was what they got during our visit there. You can read all about it […]

I’ve shared this super simple yet extremely delicious moist chocolate cake recipe back in 2015. This cake requires no mixer and bakes perfectly in the rice cooker. During the recent school holidays, I got the boys to bake this favourite cake of theirs themselves. Ingredients: 180g Salted Butter 180g Brown Sugar 100ml Full Cream Milk (I used Fresh Milk instead) 2 Eggs (lightly beaten) 100g Self-Raising Flour 1/2 tsp Baking Soda 50g Cocoa Powder Method: 1) Add […]

We love Penang. It is only 4 hours drive away from Kuala Lumpur hence it is easily our favourite choice for a short getaway whenever we need a boost of some Vitamin Sea and nice, sandy beaches. We usually stay at Batu Feringgi whenever we go up to Penang as the boys love to spend time playing by the beach. It is no different this school holidays with Golden Sands Resort by Shangri-La being our […]

The weather is pretty hot these days. It is better to not eat too much ‘heaty’ food so I got Ayden to steam egg for dinner. It is pretty easy to prepare this dish. Ingredients needed: Egg Chicken Stock Pepper Sesame Oil Spring Onion Fried Onion Water Method: 1) Break an egg into a bowl 2) Whisk the egg 3) Add chicken stock 4) Add water and mix 5) Sieve the egg 6) Add pepper […]

Penang has long been enticing visitors with its beautiful coasts and scrumptious cuisines. This beautiful island welcomes modernity yet at the same time preserves its traditions and old world charm. I remember visiting KOMTAR, the tallest building in Penang when I was little. It has been THAT long ago. Last weekend I found myself back, this time at The TOP, KOMTAR with the boys to visit Jurassic Research Center, one of the latest attractions here. The TOP @ KOMTAR […]

It has been over a month after Chinese New Year and we still have leftover chicken floss. How? Make our favourite French Toast with Chicken Floss of course. The boys always look forward for me to make them this treat after every Chinese New Year but I am not going to make it for them this year because they are going to make it themselves  Ingredients : 1) Chicken Floss 2) Egg 3) Bread 4) […]

We are going to share a Peranakan Nyonya dish today. It is a popular soup dish called Ayam Masak ‘O’.  One of the quickest and easiest soup to prepare, it is easily a favourite among children as well as adults with its soupy gravy, soft potatoes and flavorful chicken with lots of ginger. Though we use ginger to cook this, it is not gingery hot but rather just nice to complement the whole thing. Best […]

The other day when there were only me and Ayden at home, I saw a cockroach in the toilet. You know me, I freak out each time I see cockroaches. They are my worse nightmare.  Seeing that there is no one to help us, I told Ayden to stay out and used aerosol to spray it dead.  The cockroach did not die instantly though. It laid down on the floor with its legs kicking in […]

Sweet potato has many health benefits. They are an excellent source of vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene). Our body converts beta-carotene into vitamin A. We need vitamin A for healthy skin and good eye health and vision hence it is an excellent food choice for growing kids. As sweet potato is naturally sweet, it is delicious eaten on its own. It is extremely easy to cook sweet potato. All we need to do is […]

Little Ayden is getting really comfortable with our rice cooker these days. He uses it to bake cakes and recently cooked a chicken dish in it. I saw how easy it was to cook using the rice cooker and decided to let him try cooking Chicken Stew in it. There is a whole lot of ingredients required to cook this Chicken Stew but these are mostly basic stuffs that you’ll usually have ready in your kitchen on […]

This is the story Ayden and I have been reading last week – The Hare and the Tortoise in Bahasa Malaysia. He learned many new words through this story such as mengejek, mengajak, berlumba dan laju.  Here is the video of Ayden summarizing the story for us. Hope you’ll enjoy it. Ayden @ 3Y5M Let me also share this video of Ayden summarizing the story of The Grasshopper and Ants in Bahasa Malaysia (in case you missed […]

After all the cooking videos I did for Ayden, I think it is only fair to have one for Ethan too. That boy has been so occupied with school, homework, co-coriculum and more that I hardly have time to speak to him on weekdays  Just a blink of an eye, Ethan is already 9 going to be 10 this year. He is growing up fast before my very eyes so I better take more pictures […]

A recent conversation I had with an acquaintance had her saying this to me, “You are lucky to not grow sideways after having kids”. I beg to differ. LUCK has nothing to do with me growing sideways or not.  I put on over 20kg during each of my pregnancies. Being only 4’9″, the additional 20kg was really taxing on me. Closer to the end of my pregnancy, I waddled around like a penguin as I […]

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I did a live Peranakan cooking demo at The Straits Hotel and Suites, Melaka. One of the dish we cooked is Ayam Satay Buah Keras. Today, Ayden cooked the same dish at home but instead of using the wok, he used the rice cooker because he is too young to be handling a wok and a gas stove. If you wish to try cooking this dish, do […]

Ayden is 3 years 5 months. He is still not attending any preschool at the moment so it is entirely my responsibility to keep up with his total development. Children pick up a new language best below 6 years of age so I take this opportunity to teach Ayden an extra language besides English. I teach him to speak in Bahasa Malaysia. I wish I can teach him Mandarin but that is totally an alien language […]

The Straits Hotel and Suites Melaka is having Peranakan Buffet Dinner every Friday and Saturday from 20 January to 11 March 2017.  When I got invited by the hotel to do a LIVE cooking demo featuring Peranakan dishes, I knew I should get my mom, the true blue Peranakan Nyonya to do this with me as she is the master chef of our family  The hotel’s promotional poster. These are the lovely family members and […]

Today we are making something really simple because we used store-bought items  Let’s call it a cheat-day as I am a bit lazy to prepare them from scratch. Nevertheless, it still gets a double thumbs-up from Lil Ayden as shown below: What is it that he made that excites him so much? Watch this video: It is also his first tutorial in BM  Ayden @ 3Y5M

We’ve been frequenting this playground since big brother Ethan was a baby. The moment I was out of confinement I started to bring him here, until today together with lil brother Ayden. This was big brother Ethan when he was 17 months old.  This was lil bro Ayden when he was 2 years old. You can see that the equipment in the playground had obviously been vandalised over the years. That was back in 2015. […]

Homeschooling Ayden has its ups and downs. There are days when he refused to touch any books and prefer to just play. On days like that, I’ll improvise and see how we can make it a learning session nevertheless. I saw that Ayden was engrossed playing with his PlayDoh so I suggested for us to make a stop motion animation out of it. This is the first time he is involved in the making of […]

I took advantage of the Thaipusam holiday to go to Daiso to buy a trolley-full of items because effective 1st March 2017, each normal item at Daiso Japan stores in Malaysia is being increased from RM5.30 to RM5.90!  Yup, a whopping RM0.60!  When the government implemented GST, the usual RM5 per item at Daiso cost an additional RM0.30, making it RM5.30 per item.  Next month with the price increase, we are going to pay RM5.90 per item […]

I’m going to show you FOUR pictures. Can you guess what do they have in common? Karon View Point, Phuket, Thailand Uluwatu Temple, Bali, Indonesia Aquaria, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Sentosa Merlion, Singapore Okay, maybe the title of this post has given the answer away. Yes, all these pictures have a diaper bag in it.  When I posted the above picture of the boys and their Superman bags on my Facebook before Chinese New Year with the […]

We went for our first family holiday this year at Lexis Hibiscus, Port Dickson. We have always wanted to come here since their soft launch over a year ago but decided to wait until they are fully completed so that we can fully enjoy their facilities. The first thing I noticed was that they have free WIFI and the coverage is pretty strong throughout the entire resort. Thumbs UP! Before I go into details, here is […]

My parents-in-law runs a sundry shop hence they don’t go out much. Once a year, during Chinese New Year we will try to bring them up to KL for sight-seeing. For the past years we have been going to Pavilion but this year we decided to do something different and brought them to KL Tower. KL Tower / Menara Kuala Lumpur The 3 generations of Yeows. My father-in-law using the telescope at KL Tower. He […]

We just returned from our first holiday this year.  It was one of the best holidays we have had and I am excited to share with you more about it but before that, we discovered Ayden’s beloved Pikachu is missing as I unpacked our luggage  Ayden even brought Pikachu along on our first helicopter ride.  However, we don’t remember when or where we last see it.  Ayden’s last wefie with Pikachu during our recent holiday   […]

Ayden and I were on MHI, TV3 this morning to demo how to make two popular Chinese New Year snacks – Chicken Floss Rolls and Seaweed Popiah Snack. Ayden and I setting up our cook station The last time I was on MHI TV3 was in 2013. That time I went on air with Ethan to demo making Chinese New Year lanterns using Ang Pau wrappers. I was pregnant with Ayden then. Here is the […]