Foodie Fridays - What's cooking this week?

I planned to cook for the full week but did not managed to do so, only managed to cook once and DinoPapa cooked for 2 days.  Well, 3 days out of 5 days, not too bad, so a pat on both of our shoulders for a job well done.  Here is our dinner menu for the pass week.

05 May 2013 - DinoPapa came home early and decided to cook dinner!  YAY!  Its a rare occasion that he is able to knock off early.  After a long day at work, he whipped up a simple dinner of Japanese pork curry (mild) rice with a beautiful sunny side up within the hour.  Looks delicious isn't it?

Japanese pork curry rice

21 May 2013 - DinoBoy was down with stomach flu, we went grocery shopping after a visit to the clinic to grabbed a packet of xiao bai cai and a pre packed 四神 soup mixes.  Found some fish cake in the fridge and decided to add it into the vegetables for DinoBoy to enjoy.  Luckily DinoPapa separate the packet of black cod fish into a few portion, I took out one and steam them.  

Dinner preparation starts early I put the soup to boil around 2pm and left it on the stove with small fire for about 2 hours. After that its about half an hour of stir-frying the vegetables and steaming of the fish.  A healthy dinner for all of us.

Quick stir xiao bai cai with fish cake

Steamed Black Cod fish

23 May 2013 - DinoPapa is home early again!  He craves for grilled chicken spaghetti and he sets out to make one for all of us.  We had our dinner in about 1.5 hours later.  I felt so blessed this week~

Grilled chicken spaghetti  

DinoBoy's portion

Campbell cream of seafood mushroom soup

Today's the 1st day of Cook for Family challenge but we are not cooking dinner tonight as we are going out with friends, so happy cooking every one!  Looking forward to see all of your creations and yummilious food!

~ ~ ~

This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

<center> <a href="http://www.dinomama.com/search/label/Foodie%20Fridays"><img border="0" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/uglymartian/dinomamaFF2_zps47ce96bc.jpg" /></a></center>

Annual leave not enough

For 6 years I have mentioned to my friends that I will always have at least 5 days of annual leave to be brought forward to the following year.  I have always been able to set aside at least a week in December to spend time with DinoBoy, bringing him out for some fun.  This is because besides the annual leave entitlement of XX days, I also enjoy 6 days of Child Care Leave which I was grateful as on many occasions I have to take urgent leave when DinoBoy falls sick suddenly during the night and have to stay home instead. I would have exhausted my annual leave fast if not for these extra 6 days.

So the day DinoBoy enters Primary school is also the day I "lost" this Child Care Leave entitlement.  We are only near end May 2013 and I have about 10 days of annual leave left!  And with so many things happening at home I am afraid that I will use them up before the end of the year.  I am already seeing that its impossible to take a week's leave in December as usual, am so not liking it.

In case you are wondering its not as easy for DinoPapa to apply leave plus I would want to be with the boy looking after him.  If I leave him with DinoPapa I will be worried the whole day; did he give the boy medicine on time, how's the fever, did he prepare nourishing healthy food for the boy to eat etc, its the Mothering thing that is making me a worrywart.

Anyway, besides taking leave to attend to DinoBoy who was feeling under the weather, I have also taken 3 days when school starts just to visit the school during recess time to make sure he is OKAY.  And on the few occasions I have listed below we need to make a trip down to the school; the last one below is optional BUT you know you would not want to miss it for ANYTHING!

* Chinese workshop
* Maths workshop
* Parents Teacher Meeting

* P1 performance 

All the above events only takes 2-3 hours, you can take half day's leave but I usually take a day as it's a bit rush for me since my work place is in town.  I will make use of the extra time for house work, groceries shopping and preparing for the day's dinner.

Photo Credits

There you have it, with the above its already 5 days (DinoPapa attended the Maths workshop and we couldn't take leave to attend the P1 performance), add in the days where DinoBoy was sick and urgent leave for some important matters, half of my annual leave is gone.  It's very frustrating especially when I planned to take some days off during the June school holidays to go for some interesting activities with DinoBoy.  Looks like its not going to happen too.  It breaks my heart when DinoBoy expressed disappointment after I told him that he is unable to go for some holiday workshops as they fall on weekday - a working day.

I just hope that next year it will be better.
That next year I will have time to bring him to where ever he wishes to go.
That next year we will have the budget and time to go for an overseas holiday, I know DinoBoy wants to go to Penang again.

Next year...

Damn you This Year!  GGRrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

~ ~ ~

Linking up with

No complaints are too small to be ignored

I was reading my book on the train as usual while commuting to work, then I have this sudden nagging urge to put down the book n pick up the phone.  Its not my habit look at the phone while on the book, anyway I took the gadget out and saw 2 missed calls from a familiar number - The School.

A few things flashed across my mind when I see that number.

1. Is he injured?

2. Did he injured some one?

3. Is he sick?

4. Did he get himself into trouble and the Principal wants to see me?

Alright maybe #4 is a little bit unreal since school just started 6 minutes ago.  Anyway I returned call and it turns out that DinoBoy was feeling unwell.  I immediately hopped off the train and took the train from the opposite direction to go back.

I was met with a pale scrunched up faced DinoBoy.  He was sent to the sick bay after complaining of stomach pain and he also vomited once earlier.  My heart ache, how did a normal morning turned out like this?

This morning he does not want breakfast, not unusual but he rarely skips breakfast, I thought it was just one of those rare days, I gave him a cup of milk and we starts to get ourselves ready to leave the house soon.  He paid a visit to the toilet for his "big business" and complained about tummy aches after that but I thought perhaps that cup of milk has kicked off his system and made him hungry.  Plus he always mixed up tummy pain with hunger so I did not think too much about it.  We went off to school without breakfast as there were no time.

Well, if it's comforting, this was not caused by skipping this morning's breakfast as the doctor confirmed, DinoBoy's having stomach flu with bloated stomach which may have happened over the night.  Now how did I missed the sign(s) that he is not feeling well?  Perhaps I should have paid more attention to his "tummy pain" complain instead of brushing it off as nothing serious.

Ok lesson learnt, luckily it was not a painful or regretful one.  I shall be more attentive to this little fella instead of taking all his complains/whines lightly.

Enjoying his Long John Silver breakfast

An hour later we left the clinic and heads off to Long John Silver for our late breakfast (well, its either this or Mcdonalds).  For a boy who complains of stomachache and vomited earlier he sure have a good appetite and finishes off a Big Fish meal all by himself!  Either he is really famished or his stomach feels better after he vomited.

Its 4.50pm, I have been keeping an eye on him, after taking the medicine there are no sign of feeling lethargic and wanting to vomit though occasionally still complains about tummy pain .  He's been cheerful and happy since we got home, playing with his toys, ipad and watching tv.  No screen time during weekdays I know but he is SICK, so it does not count?  Ok unreasonable Mum trying to reason out here.  Truth is, I'm feeling a little bit guilty for what happened this morning and trying to make myself feel better by giving him the privileges.

Get well soon son!  I promise you that the next time you complain of any discomfort, Mummy is going to show more concern and be more attentive, I shall try to find out the cause of it and deal with it in a much better manner then today.

On a side note, I am really glad that I am working in a company with understanding bosses.  I have been taking a tad too many annual leaves (sometimes urgent leave) during the pass 2 months but they did not show any unhappiness about it because they know about my current situation at home.   

~ ~ ~

Linking up with

   

Foodie Fridays - It's easy to Cook for Family on weekdays

Last week I tried cooking dinner for us during weekday, it was tiring but I was glad that I did it.  It all started when I bought some vegetables and did not managed to cook it that same weekend.  Instead of keeping it till the following weekend (which they probably turn bad before that) I decided to cook them.

With the Cook for Family Event coming up next week from 24th May to 31 May 2013 I thought I'd share what I've cooked during weekday.  All these are whipped up within an hour except for the fish stew that took 1.5hours.  I made the wrong estimation on the cooking time thus I have one impatient 7 year old who keeps wander into the kitchen saying "Mum, I'm HUNGRY!"

As a FTWM and weekend cook, I am very proud that I have decided to make an effort to cook dinner during weekdays.  The dishes does not need to be fanciful, one pot dish or one dish dinner should be ok but make sure the ingredients are mostly fresh and not processed food.

07 May 2013 - quick stir-fried choi sum with fresh black fungus and abalone mushrooms in oyster sauce, done in 45mins including preparation time.  We had this together with left over soup from the weekend and rice. It was a simple but tasty dish, the black fungus was soft, even DinoBoy likes it.  However, when DinoBoy sat down at the dinner table he asked me innocently "Mum, where is The Meat??" O-kay... no more 1 vegetable dish meals, must have meat as I have a meat eater at home.

08 May 2013 - Tuna baked pasta, this took an hour including preparation time as I have to boil the shell pasta and heat up the can of mushroom soup, baking time took 30mins.  Fail proof dish!  Both DinoPapa and DinoBoy love it.  I should be more adventurous and throw in more cheese, never mind I'll remember this the next time I bake this again.

09 May 2013 - White fish stew & Crab meat soup to go with white rice, took me 1.5 hours including the mad rush preparations.  Ok I seriously do not know why the fish stew turns out white, perhaps I put too much milk?  And I have coincidentally prepared 2 "white" dishes, I don't blame DinoBoy for not having any interest in that night's dinner as it really does not appeal to anyone's appetite even though they are delicious.  On top of that, I forgot to remove the bay leaf in the stew, it gives a weird bitter spice taste.  The crab meat soup is YUM!, this is the first time I am preparing starchy soup and I am happy that it turned out well. 

14 May 2013 - Creamy ham pasta & mushroom soup.  This was a simple pasta dish, cooking instruction given to me by Regina, she said "Use olive oil.  Fry chopped onions.  Add bacon or ham.  Then add cream sauce.  Don't let it boil!  Fire must be low.  Add salt to taste.  Then add pasta. That's it!"  And it REALLY is as easy as she said!

DinoBoy requested for the "twist-twist pasta" aka fusilli pasta, I added the some ham I found in the fridge to the sauce and TA-DA~ savory creamy pasta for dinner.

That same night I get to play with my new kitchen toy; Philips|Jamie Oliver food processor, to prepare DinoBoy's favourite soup; mushroom soup.  I can only say this "I TOTALLY love my food processor!"

We reached home around 6.45pm and dinner was served on the average at 8pm, DinoBoy was famished by then but this also mean that he finishes his dinner in shorter time.  It was consider late as we usually have our dinner outside between 6.45pm to 7pm, but I'll still try to keep this going because late dinner or not most important thing is we have well balanced home cooked meals that are nutrition, delicious and healthy.

Note to self : I MUST start doing meals planning.

Hope I have given you inspirations or ideas on the food you will be serving to your family, I sincerely wish to see you at the Cook for Family event starting end of next week.  Do join the event by clicking the link provided at the top of this post and share your food photos you have cooked during the event.

Till the next time, Happy Cooking Everyone!

This week I am linking my post with Adelina of Home Maid Simple for her Foodie Friday linky.

~ ~ ~

This linky is for anything that is FOOD related. It could be a restaurant you visited recently, meals you cook with your family or for your family or recipes you wish to share with every one.

<center> <a href="http://www.dinomama.com/search/label/Foodie%20Fridays"><img border="0" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v495/uglymartian/dinomamaFF2_zps47ce96bc.jpg" /></a></center>

A little something from HeART Studio

The wonderful people in HeART Studio was very happy after reading our recent post on the Peranakan painting and they would like to give 1 free workshop class (worth at least SGD65 each) from the following 3 categories to 3 of my lucky readers with 7 years old and above child (That's DinoBoy's age too)!  Hip-hip-HOORAY!

HeART Studio have workshops for younger children and there are holiday camps for the 5 years old and above children.  Do check out their workshop timetable below.

*** *** ***

Workshop Details

Workshop Name : Young Master Workshop (Painting & 3D Relief Art)
Suitable Kid's age : 7 years old and above.

Workshop Date : Thursday 13 June 2013 & Friday 14 June 2013
Duration of Workshop class : Approx. 2 hours each

1) 2D hands (Wassily Kandinsky)

This art programme enables students to experience the painting of a famous artist (Wassily Kandinsky) with a twist. Using Gouache paints to interpret the artist’s painting style, students will also explore ‘collage technique’ by drawing out their hands on a piece of paper and drawing in lines on the hands to create two-dimensional effect.

2) Relief Leaf Print

A Fossil is a trace or piece of an organism from the past, such as a skeleton, shell or leaf preserved in the earth. In this programme, students will explore on how to create printing on air dry clay using dried leaves/flowers. Students will also use paints to add colours on the surface of the print.

3) Relief Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal art was first created by the indigenous people of Australia. In this programme, students will explore the famous ‘Aboriginal Dots Painting’ using modelling clay.

HeART Studio June 2013 Holiday Workshop Timetable

Mark these dates!
Little Master Workshop (for 3 - 4 years old child) 03 - 07 June 2013
Young Master Workshop (for 5 years old & above child) 10 - 14 June 2013

HeART Studio June 2013 Holiday Workshop art work from the different workshop for different age group.

*** *** ***

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

Please read the giveaway requirements carefully.

1. The 3 catergories of workshop in my giveaway are ONLY suitable for 7 years old and above child.

2. Participate in the giveaway through the Rafflecopter widget below.

3. Leave a comment below this blog post telling us the following;

a) Your Name
b) You email address

c) Child's Name

d) Child's Age

e) Workshop interested (2D hands (Wassily Kandinsky / Relief Leaf Print / Relief Aboriginal Art)
4. We do not like to say this but incomplete info will means that we have to strike off your chance to win the giveaway *so sad*.
5. Giveaway will end on 22 May 2013 @ 2359hrs and winners will be announced in our blog and facebook page on 23 May 2013.
6. Giveaway is open to Singapore only.

If your child is between 3-4 years old, here is a good news, MamaSue from Beanie N Us! is hosting the workshop for this age!  Quick!  Hop by there NOW!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Heart Studio LLP

101 Soo Chow Walk Singapore 575385

Tel: (65) 6554 7563

Fax: (65) 6554 7562

Email: info@heartstudiosg.com

NOTE : All comments with personal information will be removed immediately after the giveaway ends.

*** *** *** *** ***

ANNOUNCEMENT

We have the winners of our giveaway~  The kind people in HeART Studio has generously given us an additional slot for the workshop, so now we have FOUR winners instead of three!  Congratulations to all winners who has fulfilled the giveaway requirements! 

2D hands (Wassily Kandinsky) 

1. Amie Chen

2. Henri Soh

Relief Aboriginal Art

1. Mrs Lee

2. Megan Yeo

You will be receiving an email from us soon!

Wordless Wednesday - A Bored Mum & Child

What do you do while waiting for friends to reach the lunch venue? You'll probably read a book if you have one or you glue your eyes and hands to your smart phone.

Add a bored 7 year old and what do you have to do to entertain him, even for 1 minute?

Well, I did this...

I asked DinoBoy to show me his version of the 4 basic emotions.

~ ~ ~

Linking up with

The "battle" with them Bicycles

Before going on, I must proclaim that I have nothing against cyclists or bicycles, I am ok with them riding the 2 wheels pedal-driven transport around the neighbourhood.  I can't cycle for nuts and I wish I could so that I can save some leg walk and money when I need to get around the neighbourhood.  However, some inconsiderate cyclists has made this into a love-hate relationship.

DinoBoy's school is about 10mins walk from our house, we always enjoy the slow walk to & fro the school, taking the chance to chat about school, discuss that day's dinner plan or just plain nonsensical chatting.  Many a times during our walk and chat we were interrupted by some cyclists who pressed on their bell many times, some times from a far and most of the time with no intention of slowing down while expecting us to get out of their way FAST!  They fail to understand that it can take longer then usual for some reaction to take place especially when you are with a child, carrying heavy school bag and sometimes with groceries.  Instead of being patient, the cyclist continue to press on their bell vigorously, maintaining the same "zoom-zoom" speed while the distance between us gets shorter and shorter.

Take a look at the photo below, you can see that the path way is not wide, it is already "squeezy" with a man and a cyclist side by side.  Imagine DinoBoy and me with his big school bag on one shoulder and my bag on the other, we practically take up 2/3 of the space.  With the cyclist flying towards us in top speed, we are often being forced out of the path way and onto the sometimes muddy grass patch. 

Many a times the cyclist zooms passed us too close for our comfort.  During morning rush hours, the path way is always crowded with people walking along it, the cyclists still rides at fast speed, oblivious to others' safety.  Once, an elderly uncle zoom passed DinoBoy almost knocking into him, DinoPapa was unhappy and shouted at him to be careful, the uncle slowed down, turned around and hurl vulgarities at him before zooming off again! 

I really do not think we; the pedestrians, deserve such a treatment from cyclists.  There is a reason why this sign was put up at both ends of the path way.

I got really frustrated with their inconsiderate selfish thinking that they have the right of way over the pedestrians on the path way. 

I protested on my own, I made DinoBoy walked at the side while I walked in the centre, when I hear the irritable familiar "ding ding ding ding" sound coming from behind us, I ignore it.  I continue to walk with no intention of giving way to them.  When the cyclist is flying towards us, I stare at the cyclist hard, daring him to continue at that speed, they usually slowed down when they see my murderous stare.

Then I grew tired.  All these makes me tensed up, sometimes I will start scolding under my breath, using words that I do not allow DinoBoy to say and feeling guilty when DinoBoy caught the words and questioned me.  Our pleasant 10mins walk turns out to be stressful and unhappy.

Well, they say "If you can't beat them, join them!"  I wish I can but this mama is not going to go out and get a bicycle to learn how to cycle it, risk falling down, scraping my kneecaps, breaking my arms and legs in the process.  Ok ok I'm exaggerating I know but you get the idea.  Plus, going through the hard work of learning to cycle just to join the "baddie" and "bully" the others?  No Thanks!

So what did we do?  We start taking the public bus to school!  No more chatting and additional money spent on transport but we get to enjoy 5mins of cooling air condition which we welcome with open arms especially during the hot and humid mornings.  We still walk back home from school as there were far lesser "threats" at that time and have our usual casual chatting about the day's event.

In the end, we won the battle, so to say.  We took action and removed ourselves from that danger zone.  And we end up "Happily Ever After".

~ ~ ~

Linking up with