Month: October 2016

The Travel Tales

SG-Bound

Dyan

We’re back from New York. Both me & Nadya masih suffering from jetlag and i’ve read that West-East jetlag is harder to kick than East-West jetlag. 

I don’t know. We’ll see. Nadya took 3 days to recover from the jetlag when we were in NYC. I just hope she’ll take no more than 4days to go back to her sleeping pattern. 

We both slept at 5.00am yesterday and woke up at 7.00pm. Right now it’s 6.00am and we’re both still very much awake. Die. 

So anyway, i’ll try and write up abt NYC as soon as i can since there were a few who asked me abt travelling long-haul with toddlers lah, getting around NYC & Halal food etc. 

We survived the long flight. It was surprisingly painless. I worried too much for nothing. I should have prepared myself for our jetlag instead actually 😂

But i had a good time in New York! It was a great 5th year Anniversary & Pre-birthday trip! ❤️

Motherhood, The Travel Tales

Long Flight Ahead! 

Dyan

In preparation for our long flight to New York, i’ve made plans to make that 23.5hr journey bearable for us all 3. I know we’ve got to expect meltdowns cos even adults can’t handle long flights seh. Apa lagi toddlers. 

Babywearing: 

I plan to babywear Nadya most of the time in the plane. Will probably put her in the bassinet only when she’s asleep or during playtime. 

We survived a 6hrs bus ride with babywearing and if we can do it again, even for 6hrs pun aku bersyukur sangat2 seh. Lol

Essential Oils:

I love using essential oils on Nadya so will definitely resort to oiling her. And me. Hahahaha. Lavender EO for sleeping time. Peace & Calming EO for obvious reasons. 

Will also be bringing other EOs like Lemon, Peppermint, Thieves etc since weather will be quite cooling. 

Activities:

Super excited about this because i bought few stuff for Nadya and i’ve been keeping it aside for the trip cos i want her to be excited cos new things mahh. So hopefully it’ll make her spend more time on it! 


Especially love this Smiggle Casing! It’s so cute with all the cartoon characters and i can already picture Nadya poking the characters and saying “tatik…tatik.” Hahaha.

I’ve filled it up with blank papers, a small notebook and gel crayons so she can do her conteng-conteng. 


Activity Book! Mad expensive but there’s so many things to do and really nice stickers. Nadya loves peeling out stickers and pasting it everywhere. Suspect she’ll paste it all over the plane seat. Lol

I also bought her some new books and small activity toys to play onboard to help keep her occupied.

Videos

This is my last resort. I usually don’t allow Nadya to hold any gadgets on her own. I do allow screen time but most of it strictly through the TV where i still have control over it. When we go out, she only get to watch in the car through the car dvd player. 

I have a spare iphone and i have downloaded all Barney shows on it. This will be the very very last resort and i hope i’ll still get to control it as in i’ll be the one holding it for her or u know i’ll use a monopod or something but i hope this will be the last resort in case she gets really really cranky. But let’s hope she behaves most of the time! 

Cos i really don’t want her to develop the habit of wanting to hold a phone all the time and doing this might just trigger that. Sighhh. 

Let me know if u have any suggestions to keep a toddler occupied during flights! 

Kitchen Projects

Sabsuka

Dyan

Made sabsuka on Sunday cos i was craving for it! One of my favourite Sabsuka is the one from Badoque but i was too lazy to make my way there so i made my own! So puas hati lah ok. 

A couple of my friends requested for the recipe so i thought i’ll put it up here for reference.


Ingredients:

  • 500g minced beef
  • 4 tbsp chili paste
  • 2 tbsp minced garlics
  • 1 tbsp minced ginger
  • 4 tbsp curry powder
  • 1 big onion diced
  • 1 tomato diced
  • 1/2 can of Large size tomato puree 
  • 4 tbsp tomato sauce
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1 cup of water
  • salt 

Ingredients for toppings:

  • 1 big onion diced
  • 2 tomatoes diced
  • some coriander leaves
  • 1-2 bird’s eye chilies sliced
  • 1-2 green chilies sliced 
  • 6 eggs

How to?:

  1. Marinate minced meat with curry powder and let it rest for 20 mins.
  2. Heat oil and saute onions. 
  3. Add in chili paste till “pecah minyak”
  4. Add in the marinated beef and stir till everything is covered. 
  5. Add in 1 cup of water. 
  6. Once it has started boiling,  add in tomato puree, tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.
  7. Stir, add in salt and sugar.
  8. Let it simmer. The mixture shouldn’t be too thick or too thin.
  9. Put the beef in oven dish to bake. I didn’t bake it though. i just put it in a pan and do it over the stove. Either way, it works so it’s up to you.
  10. Sprinkle all the topping on top of the beef mixture.
  11. Make small holes for eggs if you’re baking it, then bake at 180C degrees for 15 minutes. If you’re doing it over the stove, less than 10mins will do. 
  12. All done & serve it with french loaf! Yums!