Cookie Museum Cookies

With her pregnancy, Shimin seems more keen on snacks these days. The oily mooncakes left in our house did not find favor with her tastebuds but she's pretty keen on cookies. We passed Esplanade today and bought her a tin of Cran Lychee cookies from Cookie Museum (aka V Tea Room). At $30 for 24 cookies, these little cookies are not cheap! As the name suggests, they contain cranberries, lychees and some roasted almonds.

These cookies are meant to be enjoyed 1-2 pieces with some nice tea but once home, Shimin started on one and could not resist getting another.... and another..... and another. Before they disappear, here's a picture with the remainder....


I did indulge in one and these are really yummy and light unlike those super buttery cookies.
These cookies are also totally organic with no sugar, preservatives or coloring added. According to ieatishootipost, they also use 3 different kinds of flour and the best ingredients... given all that effort and the delightful taste, we are probably happy to buy them again.

Macaroni in Chicken Soup

A lot of pregnant ladies get food cravings during their pregnancy. Shimin is kind of the opposite, she gets turned off and nauseous at certain smells and food especially those with very strong oil smell. So, yesterday, we decided to try some home cooked food... Macaroni in Chicken Soup!

Recipe (serves 2)

1. 175g chicken breast
2. 100g soya bean
3. Handful dried anchovies (江鱼仔)
4. 1/8 onion
5. 1.5L water
6. Macaroni - depends on your appetite!
7. Pinch of salt

1. Add soya beans, anchovies and salt to water and bring to boil.
2. Add chicken pieces, onion and boil for 20 mins
3. Remove chicken and continue to boil for another 10 mins
4. Start cooking the macaroni in boiling water for 7 mins
5. Remove macaroni from boiling water and cool immediately under running water.
   
6. Place cooked macaroni on a bowl.
   
7. Shred the chicken breast over it.
   
8. Pour the soup.
   
9. Add some Chinese vegetables if you want. We added 小白菜.

Overall, soup tastes good but was a tad bland. Will reduce the amount of water to 1L in the future. Some fried shallots will add to the taste as well. Still, its quite a simple, balanced and nutritious meal.

Moving Baby!

Had our third visit to the Gynae today. Bright and early at 9:30am and we didn't have to wait at all, which is great! As usual, did the ultrascan and the baby is now 63.3mm. Below is the first ultrascan with his back to us...


To our delight, he (so far still call 'he' until we determine the sex) turned during the ultrascan and ended with his side view to us, we were about to see his head and all...

At one point during the ultrascan, Shimin laughed and the baby responded by flipping... looks like a very active baby judging by the number of times he moved during the 2 min ultrascan... odds on a boy... we should be able to find out by the next visit. Stay tuned!

Overall, everything is well. Baby's healthy. Supplements wise, since we are in the second trimester, Shimin could stop taking folic acid and start on calcium tablets (1000mg required a day - 3 cups of fresh milk!). We also decided to sign up for the package at $598 for all consultation until birth.

The Hello Farewell BBQ

This is not supposed to be a baby related post but I do my best to keep to the theme of the blog. As mentioned in the earlier post, we had the welcome/farewell BBQ for Sylvia. Here's Sylvia and Shimin...


The boys came bright and early to start the fire... here's our resident firestarter (who brought a blow torch) showing the Singaporean way of fanning the fire...


Here's Steve showing the Canadian way.... who needs a fan!

They find it funny....
Someone's thirsty already from the laughing...


Here's some of the food.... Sylvia's Potato Salad....

And her mum's Famous Aunty Lucy Fried Bee Hoon..

And here's the BBQ food... sausages, black pepper steak, sambal stingray, sambal sotong, chicken wings, mutton and chicken satay...

And here's some pics of the men in action.... the Ketupat man ensuring every piece is equal size...
The backup Satay man (since the Satay man had to send his bro to Pulau Tekong) posing for pictures when he should be looking at his satay...

The Steak man ensuring every piece is tender and juicy....

The Chicken Wing Skewerer and his supervisor looking over his shoulder...


Relevance to the Blog... well, everyone at the BBQ took care of the Preggie... Shimin's friends tasted everything first to ensure that it's not raw before allowing her to eat. My friends also took great care when BBQing food for her to ensure that it is cooked but not charred... Thanks everyone!

Aussie Pressie

Sylvia (along with Steve) came back from Australia/Canada and stopped over in Singapore. We had a welcome/farewell BBQ for her on Sunday 16 Sept. More on the BBQ later. But she met up with Adeline in Melbourne and Adeline had some presents for the baby! It came in a cute little fish wrapper....


And what's in it? Cute bibs with little chicks on it and a giraffe cotton bodysuit! Adeline's not so sure it will be a girl.... so she went for more neutral colors...


My favorite's the smiley Giraffe face at the bum.

First Purchases!

Couple of days ago, Inn Loon smsed me to let me know that one of his neighbours selling baby stuff in Alexandra Distripark is having a moving out sale. Gave him a call this morning to ask him to recee for me to see if they have prams and car seats which they did.

So we went down around noon to take a look at the prams but most of them are too big for our car (Nissan March) boot. Hence, looked at other stuff and found a really good deal for a baby cot ($100 for display set U.P $399). Had to think long and hard about it (since the baby is not due for another 6 months) before deciding it is too good a deal to resist and bought it.


At the same time, saw a playpen which was ALSO a really good deal ($39, U.P. $109 with mattress) and bought it too! Sorry, it is already packed (no intention to unpack until 6 months later) so not much of a picture.

After we lugged the stuff onto the car, Inn Loon invited us over to his shop for surprise! Apparently, his mum airfreighted some baby crib sets over from U.S. to match some of the wallpapers that they are selling. They are no longer selling the wallpapers, so decided to give us a set. In his Dad's words... it is the only set in Singapore... got money also cannot buy. His Mum's words? "Actually I was keeping one set for my grandchildren, but it looks like it will take a while more before they come." (Inn Loon, FYI, is a nice guy who is very much single and unattached, drop me an email if you are interested. :P ) Anyway, thanks Inn Loon for the gift !