Breathless Brekky

Life gets in the way when the spirit is willing, but the flesh not, when it comes to blogging. As a new mum, time to myself is a luxury. Even when our pride n joy is whisked away by his doting  grandparents to be taken care of, I find myself recently gravitating back to reading — an indulgence since the end of my bed rest and pregnancy.

However, eating well is still one of life’s joys and a recent find, thanks to chowtimes.com and foodforbuddha.com, Fraser Park Restaurant has the best carnivorous creations for all-day breakfast.

A picture paints a thousand words, so feast ur eyes on the Breakfast on the Run that consists of 4 sausages, bacon, eggs, lettuce, tomato, mayo on a ciabatta bun.  Mmm spicy sausages. Don’t get me started on the mayo!

The German Breakfast is extremely hearty, sausage rolls generous and Anton himself, a class act. His homemade sausages are juicy, flavourful and merry well even in a spaghetti sauce.

Take my breath away…

 

 

 

Bowled Over

These bowl noodles were a steal @ $0.99 each from T&T Supermarket. I can’t fathom spending ove $1.50 for instant noodles, regardless of how much noodles there are.

The Roasted Beef Flavour is subtle, reminiscent of Taiwanese beef noodles. I also like that it came with a fork, packets of dehydrated veggies, seasoning oil and soup mix. The pairing of leftover roast chicken and cucumbers with beancurd skin was satisfying.

On the other hand, the Pickled Chilli Beef Flavour had a slightly unpleasant aroma, almost like that of pickled mustard.

It also came with a fork and 3 packets of flavouring.

This is more a miss than a hit.

Bagel Bite

One of my favourite snacks or quick lunch is a toasted 12-grain bagel with smoked salmon cream cheese.

To bring it up a notch, I’ve added a microwaved poached egg and grape tomatoes — healthy, filling n delicious. Today’s lunch was the bagel with cream cheese smeared with a generous amount of spicy tuna.

The Americans Are Coming

Black Friday is a shopper’s paradise and with the sale of Zellers to Target, Boxing Day shopping may never be the same again.

Kudos to Richard Baker, who bought Zellers, the Bay, Home Outfitters for $1.1-billion and sold Zellers for $1.8-billion. I wonder which Canadian exec is kicking him(her)self in the head right now.

Soup’s Up

Granted in my previous post I’d mentioned that the next ones will be on dry noodles, but with the onset of wintry chills n the flu, soup noodles are the only way to go.

One of my favourites, when the mood for tangy n spicy strikes, is Maggi’s Assam Laksa. Going with the 2-minute cooking instructions ensures well-cooked noodles.

Traditionally assam laksa is served with fish, but my mood was for balls. Fish balls. I also threw in a cup of frozen mixed vegetables n pickled cucumbers with beancurd skin from T&T Supermarket.

Incidentally how do u devour your soup noodles? My husband goes first for all the noodles n ingredients, while he saves the best, the soup, for last. My style is to fill a Chinese spoon with soup, noodles n the ingredients. A piece of heaven in each slurp.

Regardless of how you clean your bowl of its goodness, spicy soup noodles is definitely the cure to banishing the winter colds.

Oodles of Noodles

The concept for this blog was inspired by my favourite local foodie blog chowtimes.com which was my main link to the outside world through most of my house-bound pregnancy.

Now that I’m able to prepare meals, foodLiving will showcase quick n simple dishes using instant noodles n sauces.

The first dish is Mama’s Tom Yum Instant Noodles with broccoli, canned sardines in tomato sauce n a microwaved egg.

When laziness hits, I just throw in frozen veggies n an egg into the pot of noodles. Other variations include roast chicken, canned salmon, lettuce or spinach. Leftovers are good too. Pretty much anything works.

It’s my favourite soup-based instant noodles as it comes with a packet of seasoning, chilli powder n tom yum paste. The soup is aromatic n noodles cook up well. Not clumpy or limp.

My next entries will focus on dry instant noodles n curry sauces for meat and seafood.

A Leap of Faith

Motherhood is not for the faint of heart nor someone who likes her duckies all in a row.

Before leaving work each day, I would always check to see that my desk had paperwork arranged neatly in stacks n that my to-do list was updated.

However, now that I’m on maternity leave, that same attitude n mind frame has taken a nose dive. Flexibility instead isthe name of the game.

Recently, my son has started drinking from a large bottle which is a milestone. It all began at his early morning dream feed. Soon after slurping his last drop of milk, BJ started fussing.

Despite attempts to burp him, on the knee or over my shoulder, he was inconsolable. In the end, I had to refill his bottle twice before he smacked his lips contentedly n fell into a deep slumber. Talk about playing it by ear.

Trying to figure out how much to fill the large bottle has been a guessing game as he doesn’t drink the same amount every morning. Some days he’ll drink all 220 ml, others he’s content with 170. This is unlike his small bottles, lined in a row in the fridge, from which he chugs down everything at every meal.

Even with his mid-morning naps, I used to be able to count on getting some shut eye for three hours. Now he sleeps through his morning feed and wakes up an hour or so after being swaddled in his crib.

Someone said that the only thing consistent with a baby is inconsistency.

Guess the perfectly stacked piles of diapers on my son’s change table shelf is the closest that I’ll get to predictable planning.

After the Rain

A major revelation in being a new mum is the lessons that I’ve learned from my son. Though he’s only four mths old, through his stoicism, he’s shown mama that pain n discomfort are bearable. There are always hugs, kisses n smiles to follow.

Just today, as I was lightly dabbing hydrogen peroxide on a Q-tip n blowing gently on the scratches on his forehead, he did not cry or scream. Instead when it stung, he spread his arms on his change table, went rigid n made soft “dok dok” sounds until the stinging subsided. He was rewarded with big smiles n baby talk.

Smiling was far from our minds at his very recent vaccination. He cried for 10 seconds each time the nurse jabbed him but the soreness n pain lingered on til the wee hours of the morning. The poor little tyke howled when papa, grandpa n mama touched his thighs while feeding n comforting him.

It was a rough night all around for everyone, especially when he came down with a slight fever the following day. However, in true trooper form, BJ bounced back n was soon chortling in glee again.

His hair must have grown thicker through the many times I stroked his head. The sounds of long n loud kisses from papa n grandma reverberated through our home.

U see it’s not about the pain, intense and brief, that life throws, but the pleasure that only love can bestow.

Wired Up

Sometimes I feel like someone going from using a rotary to digital phone when it comes to technology n social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Thank goodness Paul’s the techie type or I would truly be left in the dark

As is, I just had a lighting-fast tutorial (grandpa was bringing the baby up for the shift change over) on Tweet deck n m still quite clueless abt Twitter compared to Blogging which thankfully has a short learning curve.

Not only is it with cyberspace that Paul has to drag me kicking n screaming into the Techno Age, but also cellphones — u shld see the grief I put him thru whenever we upgrade. Why do I need a Blackberry? Type w my thumbs? Why is the keypad so tiny? Nah I won’t surf the web on it.

Yes, he’s usually right so we’ll be hooking up to iPhones next year when our contract xpires. Hey I could maybe take decent shots of the baby n makes waves as I surf thru my favourite foodie site! Lights please.

New Beginnings

There are first moments in life that take ur breath away, scare the living daylights out of u or open the door to future experiences.

Take for example the very first time u got on a roller coaster: it was the start of ur love affair with the thrills n spins of twisted metal.

Rides are not my cuppa tea. They produce sensations in my stomach that are akin to waiting in a freezing hallway for piano exams.

Motherhood can also play havoc with the mind, body and soul. This is what foodLiving is about: the ups and downs, smiles and frowns, and peculiarities of being a new parent.

This blog is all that plus the joys of eating out n at home, so sit back, put ur feet up n let’s go for the first of many rides.