4 Months Old

Wait, what?! I'm 4 months old today? Woohoo~~

This little naughty boy at home, is 4 months old today!

Lots of clothes are tight nowadays, good sign. And his kicks on my stomach, oh gosh, it's painful!

When I lift my head, I feel haolian~

He likes to lift his head up, but to roll over entirely on his own is still a struggle. Sometimes I caught him trying out silently. Sometimes he cries for my help. I gave him a push and he's all smiling!

I need a hand here.

Koala bear toy and koala bear clothes (Thank you Auntie Kia Hooi, Auntie Ponny and Uncle Han Chean!)

Big boy already!

Feed the Mommy——Bacon & Spinach Pasta with Feta Cheese

At times when you don't feel like eating soup or stew for meals anymore, you'll turn on the stove. But with baby around, I'm always very careful because I do not want to end up cooking half way while my baby cry for milk or discomfort.

So, I like my 15 minutes meal. From stove to cleaning your plate, 30 minutes. Wonderful!

Simple and delicious

Ingredients:

1. 2 slices of streaky bacon (chose back bacon if you're healthy eater, I'm not!)
2. A bunch of baby spinach, as much as you like
3. Feta cheese
4. Pasta of your choice, in my case today, it's mini farfalle
5. Any herbs you like. I have some leftover sage leaves
6. Pepper

Method:

1. Cook pasta as per the instructions on the packet.
2. Meanwhile, cut your bacon into small pieces. I never bother to use a chopping board. Just cut them directly into the pan with kitchen grade scissors.
3. Fry the bacon until golden brown and add herbs.
4. One minute before you put in your drained pasta, add spinach to wilt it. Don't overcook spinach.
5. Add pasta and stir everything together, add pepper.
6. Pour everything into your plate. Crumble some feta cheese onto the pasta.
7. Tadaaa! Serve!

Beautiful colours, ready to dive my face in!

Simple and quick.

P.S. I miss feta cheese so much. I haven't had any since I got pregnant. I only learned from my pregnancy that there are many types of cheese to avoid, and most of them are my favourite! I'm glad I can have them now :)

First Online Groceries Shopping

Being a stay at home mom, means you have very little time for shopping. Even if you finally got the correct timing to get the little rascal out, carrying groceries is an even tougher task than ever before.

Sometimes, we make use of the time where The Man is around to help. But I think it's not sufficient. Therefore, I had my first trial of online groceries shopping.

There are many online groceries shopping options in Singapore. All the major supermarkets offer online shopping, NTUC FairPrice, Giant, Cold Storage. However, for the first trial, I tried Redmart. And I love it. To have everything delivered to my door step.

I've always wanted to try and last Sunday, I did. We went out for the whole day on Sunday, hence, no time for groceries shopping, which was initially my plan. So after we settled the baby to sleep, I started to plan my one week meal and required groceries. I never thought I'd come to that!

My planning

Then, I started to click happily away in Redmart. I ended up with $75.65, hence, free delivery. Besides, I opt for flexibility in delivery, which enables the delivery team to have two hours of flexibility. I reserved 12-2pm slot, but with the option, the groceries shall arrive within 10am-2pm. This will help me to save $1 from my bill. Since I'm going to be at home all the time, why not!

If you happened to purchase dry goods, no fresh produce, you can even opt to have your groceries leave at your door if they can't reach you.

I was eagerly waiting for my phone to ring this morning. As I mentioned specifically to have them call me before they come. In case I'm attending to baby. But they didn't. At 11.50am, the delivery guy showed up at my door and deliver all my items.

My $75.65 worth of groceries, not much! Nowadays, $75 didn't get you a lot of stuffs.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the goods and the prompt delivery. However, I wish they could have followed my instructions on calling me before delivery. I could have been in the bath with baby, or pumping milk (that's even worse), or shower etc. And baby can't receive my goods for me!

Will I do that again? I think I will! I love the convenience!

P.S. I really like the canned food selection of Redmart!

Feed the Mommy——Minestrone

After eating almost entire week of chickpea sandwich, I've finally cleared up the entire tub! But there are still lettuce left in the fridge, amazingly. The lettuce didn't seem to deplete much even though I've been feeling I'm eating them like a goat.

This week I have a better planning of my groceries, and today, is minestrone day! It's been a while since I cooked this.

Simply delicious minestrone!

While my son was sleeping this morning I quickly cut all the ingredients that I need for minestrone, while waiting for the rest to come from my Redmart delivery (I'll blog more about this in later post).

After he got up, we do all the routine of playing, feeding, cleaning, bathing. Then, I proceed to my cooking, which will be my meal for lunch and dinner for today, and probably tomorrow's lunch too!

Ingredients:

1. 3 cloves of garlic
2. Half onion
3. 1 large potato
4. 1 large carrot
5. 1 stalk of leek
6. 3 slices of bacon
7. 1 can of diced tomato
8. A few cubes of frozen spinach
9. Approximately 400ml of chicken broth
10. Herbs i.e. sage leaves, dried coriander, Italian parsley
11. Pepper
12. Parmesan cheese

Method: (Prep time: 10-15 mins, Cooking time: 30 mins)

1. Finely chop onion and garlic.
2. Dice potato, carrot, leek and bacon.
3. Heat the pan, fry bacon in oil or butter (I prefer butter, always butter!) until golden brown.
4. Add garlic, onion and sage leaves (bay leaves are good too!) into the pan, sauteed until they smell so good.
5. Add leek, potato, carrot and tomato. Lightly fry them. 
6. Add chicken broth and add the same amount of water.
7. Boil.
8. Add frozen spinach and the other herbs. Add pepper to season too.
9. Let the soup simmer for 30 minutes. 
10. Check if the potato and carrots are nice and soft, if not boil until they are.
11. Serve the soup into a bowl, grate Parmesan cheese on top of the soup.

For alternative, you can add chickpea, white kidney beans, cabbage, zucchini, cucumber, peas etc into the soup. That's how great minestrone is, just add whatever you like!

You could eat this with pasta, but today I prefer bread. It'll be nice if it's toasted but I have got no time and no toaster. Can't wait for the bread to toast on pan.

This soup is dangerously delicious and appetizing! Don't reach for second bowl if you're on diet! Besides, if you reach for second bowl, what about dinner? :P

I hope I have leftovers for tomorrow :)

棒球宝宝

男人是打棒球的，几乎每个周末都有training和比赛。我在Amazon看见这套棒球的服装就忍不住买了。给男人爽一下。

投球！哎呀！球卡在“嘎啦底”！

这个角度，还有点圆

这样摆，有没有铁达尼号的Rose一样销魂？哈哈哈！

妈咪，拍照的时候可以挖鼻孔吗？

话说回来，这还是我们回来新加坡后，第一次照相哦！

Feed the Mommy——西芹炒鸡肉

常常为了煮chicken stew就买西芹。一大棵西芹才用那么一点点，不赶快用就浪费了。而以我非常有限公司的厨艺，我变不出什么来，只会西芹炒鸡肉。

西芹炒鸡肉盖饭

材料（一个人食用）：

1. 两根西芹
2. 一块鸡肉
3. 蒜头
4. 酱油

做法：

1. 将鸡肉和西芹切块。
2. 鸡肉用酱油腌制20分钟，更久也无所谓。
3. 热锅，爆香蒜头。
4. 鸡肉下锅，炒熟以后，加入西芹，翻炒几分钟。切忌太久。
5. 加点开水（要勾芡也可，本小姐懒惰就免了）。
6. 西芹变绿了就可起锅。
7. 盛碗白米饭，把西芹炒鸡肉淋在饭上。
8. 想要更美味，可以洒一点furikake。

这样煮法，很快就可以吃。适合忙碌的妈妈们。我就是这样解决我昨天的午餐。

而晚餐，我吃chickpea sandwich。趁宝宝睡着的时候，我赶快做好一大个tupperware的chickpea mash，收在冰橱里，早餐可享用，不够时间准备午餐或晚餐也可以备用。多好。

Chickpea sandwich （内有chickpea mash，芝士，生菜，番茄，够营养的）

就这样，忙碌的一天依然确保自己吃得有营养，才有办法照顾孩子。

Sleeping Baby

Why are you frowning?

He's 111 days old today!

As cute as they are when they're tucked into the blanket and sleep peacefully (you're like ah.... finally), sleeping baby is a messy business.

The soft toys, the blankets, the hanky, the pillows, bolsters... One small baby can easily occupy a queen sized bed on his own. No kidding!

When he was new born, we put a lot of things in his baby cot. All of the items mentioned above, and wet wipes, moisturizer, nappy rash cream etc. Now, after good three months, I realized I could only put the baby, pillow, bolsters and blankets in the cot. That's it.

I transferred him to our bed this morning after he woke up. I thought he will stay awake until I finished my morning pump and helped him to bathe. But I guess our bed is far more comfortable than his cot, he's fast asleep after that and still sleeping up till now.

Ah... Peaceful morning :)

Feed the Mommy——One Bowl of Ugly Chicken Stew

Slow Cooker Chicken Stew

I was considering very hard whether should I upload this ugly piece of photo of my chicken stew. But I did it anyway, because this is a reality of being a mom. Nothing comes out as expected.

I used to cook a more elaborated version of chicken stew, but hey, I really don't have time for this. (Just like I really don't have time for my food photography, I'm embracing the iPhone photography now.) So slow cooker it is. My lunch and dinner depend on it!

Ingredients (for one pax and two meals):

1. 2 skinless chicken thigh (just the upper part)
2. 1 potato
3. 1 carrot
4. 3 stalks of celery
5. 1 small onion or 1/2 of a big onion
6. 2 cloves of garlic
7. Chicken stock (approx. 400ml)
8. Pasta of your choice 
9. I'd like to add cherry tomatoes and bay leaves which I've totally forgotten when I went out for groceries shopping on Wednesday

Methods:

1. Dice potato, carrot, celery and onion. 
2. Sauteed onion until golden brown, add celery into the pan and let them sweat. 
3. Add chicken stock and mix almost same amount of water into the pan and let it simmer for a few minutes. (I do not like to use all chicken stock because it's too salty)
4. Poor the mixture into the slow cooker.
5. Add potato and carrot and garlic (crushed). (If you have bay leaves, add them too)
6. Turn the slow cooker heat to high.
7. When the soup starts boiling, add the chicken thigh.
8. After a few hours of boiling, take the chicken thighs out, and shred them. At this point they're basically falling out from the bones.
9. Add pasta (and cherry tomatoes if you have. If you'd like to thicken the soup, you can add a tablespoon of plain flour too) to the boiling soup and cook till al Dante.
10. Serve.

So what makes my chicken stew so ugly? Step 9! While my pasta is finally al Dante, my baby started to cry for milk. There you go... My fusili was left in the soup for way too long and soak up all the moisture! When I finally got to eat, sitting beside the satisfied baby, it was already 3pm something.

But ugly as it is, I need not to worry for my dinner later. Wonderful (^.^)

Feed the Mommy——半个番茄饭

在家当个全职妈妈，全天候服侍小宝宝，也不可以忽略妈妈的肚子。过去一天里，我三餐都吃罐头tuna为生。再喜欢吃也不能如此，罐头食品毕竟不是最好的食品。

昨天男人傍晚回来，帮宝宝梳洗完毕，我们一家人就出门吃晚餐！在新加坡还是第一次！其实出门的目的有两个，一是医肚子，二来是买groceries，这样妈妈我才不必每天啃面包，吃tuna。

今天来个前阵子网上疯传的整个番茄饭。（疯传期间，我好命的和妈妈煮。每天三餐定时，完全不用下厨）毕竟是第一次煮，再加上是一个人吃，我来半个番茄饭好了。

半个番茄饭

网上随便按都是整个番茄饭的做法，因此做法我就不写了。不过，倒是本小姐做的一些更改在这里记录一下。

我本人认为只是番茄太单调了。因此，用昨天Cold Storage买回来的Chorizo Sausage切小块在平底锅稍微煎一煎。（不煎也可以直接放进饭锅里，只是煎过的比较香）把香肠和煎过的油一起倒进米饭里。至于水，因为蕃茄本身就很多水分，不太喜欢米饭湿湿粘粘的朋友，可以少放一点水。在饭煮熟前五分钟，把broccolli放在上层蒸一蒸。

这样，营养美味的一餐就解决了。

正当我想吃的时候，宝宝醒了！真不是时候！没办法，我只好饿着肚子把他喂饱饱以后，把我的午餐捧出来，坐在他旁边和他边聊天边吃。

这样一来，我们大家都满足。 :)

It's Official

As much as I dreaded this day to come, time still flies no matter what and here we are.

When the plane finally touched down in Singapore, I can hear myself loudly (inside my heart) shouted "my baby didn't make a fuss in flying, hurray!" But the joy is short-lived, for a very understandable reason.

Shortly after we settled down in our home, I will have to face all of these myself. The feeding, the cleaning, the fuss, the shouting, the sick, the temperament etc. All by myself. Help will only come when The Man comes back from work. (The "fear" actually doubled because the day before we flew back, baby had his vaccination and he got fever. The night after the vaccination, he cried for two hours non stop. Everybody in the house felt like shit.)

Once we reached home, I let The Man took care of baby for a short while I make a run to the nearest supermarket to get the simplest no brain groceries to last me for one day. And that's when I realized myself, this is where the stay-home-mother part of my life starts. Yes, I'm a temporary stay home mother now.

Yes, NOW!

Once I reached home with milk, bread, cheese, yogurt, a can of tuna, The Man got ready to go to work. The baby looked at me, as if he's saying, so it's you and me now.

Adorable expression

The things that I fear most for coming back, is bathing the baby! Baby kicks a lot in his bathing tub and it's scary if I don't hold him tight. But I can't let the baby go on without bathing can I? I had a brief training a week before I flew back. And lucky for me, I bought a safety net for baby bath when I was pregnant. I've done it twice so far, and baby enjoys it! To my surprise!

My mommy bathed me by herself for the first time, and she nailed it!

One Fear DOWN!

It's been 24 hours since we got home. I managed to eat my dinner, breakfast and lunch with my no-brainer groceries. And I've also tried my best to keep baby entertained in this very quiet house. Both of us had got used to the home with laughters and fun. Hope he can get used to this quiet one too.

A can of tuna from yesterday's groceries, I had tuna pasta and tuna sandwich for three meals! Time for groceries shopping again tonight.

Keeping baby entertained with rocker, music, play time and Facetime too! :)

我的百天宝宝

网上看见大家都为宝宝百天的时候，拍些萌照，我也来跟风。

萌吗？

很老套的说一句，时间过得飞快。一晃眼，这小瓜已经折磨了我们一百天。（嗯，这样说也不对，他也有乖的时候。）

一百天了，经过每天不懈的努力，小瓜的头总算抬了起来。（他很奇怪，满月之前已经抬头了，不过，过了两个月，他好像忘了那件事。现在总算又抬了起来）至于翻身嘛，还不会，只会从一半翻起，另一半就由我们为他推一把，他才不至于卡在半途。

下个星期，我们就要飞回新加坡了。没有妈咪在身边，说真的，我有点害怕。想到一整天只有我和小瓜对望，要全天候服侍他，还要打点家务，还要pump奶，还要照顾自己的肚子，我有没有办法做到呢？

想到就有点怯步，真有点后悔这么早飞回新加坡。也没办法啦，小瓜长期和爸爸分开也不太好。况且，也该让他适应公公婆婆家、外公外婆家、还有自己的家。这样希望以后我们飞来飞去不会太难。希望啦。

只能够告诉自己，顺其自然啦。没有人帮忙的时候，总会想到方法应付的。

再来一张 :)

希望小瓜健健康康，快高长大！^^