Baby Food: Potatoes, Carrot, and Broccoli Puree

We get all of these fresh non pesticide veggies from Farmer Market:

Rinse, Peel, & cut into small chunks

Korean Black Noodle

My dear friend, Ci Lily, who inspired me to cook taught me how to cook this dish before she moved out of the country *sob*. She is an amazing woman. I won't be making all these dishes if it's not because of her. Thank you for sharing your passion and recipes, Ci!

The ingredients:

Menu Plan

Last Saturday, Chris joined the Bible Class at our church. I had to sew a nursing cover for a dear friend so I asked Fonda if she can watch Wesley, which she joyfully agreed. In addition, The Prasetyas were kindly taking care of Max. So for the first time in 6+ months, I was having the whole afternoon all by myself. :)

Since we're running out of food in the house and I knew the sewing won't take me the entire day; I went to Farmet Market to get our produce then proceed to go to supermarket to get the rest of our grocery. I haven't been to supermarket in months since Chris usually does our grocery (I know I'm spoiled!). It's a win win situation for us since it's hard for me to shop with two kids in the meantime Chris also enjoy having to buy snacks without having his wife telling him to put them back to the shelves. Okay back to the post.

Here is my grocery:

Indonesian Fried Rice

Looking at this picture makes me drool and want cook this again:

Max's Cap Jay

I have some left over bok choy & mushroom on the fridge so I decided to cook them up with some other things. Turned out Max loveee it. He ate almost as much as mommy.

Laksa

Ingredients and direction:

1. Laksa Instant seasoning Munik brand stired fried with a little bit of minced shallot and garlic.
2. Put in the chicken (1 whole chicken hen, cut into pieces) + chicken broth (1 can) + water ('till the chicken soaked)
3. Put in the rest of the stuff that you want: potatoes, carrot, babat (english =?), tofu, etc
4. Add boiled egg, coconut milk (1/2 can), sweet soy sauce (as you like), & fried shallot. Then add in 5. Add vermicellis (boil separately then add in to the soup or serve separately).
6. Add kafir lime leaves, lemon grass, chili to the soup
7. Eat with lemon, fried shallot, krupuk udang

Counting My blessings

Inspired by Frugal Girl's 365 Projects and gracefullmama's post: The Glorious in the Mundane; I started taking pictures of My One Thousand Gifts: anything from my daily life that make me smile, the sweet little gifts that God bestows each and every day:

...Christmas cards from friends and family. I used to think that sending e-card is fine untill I opened a photo card from a family that we haven't seen for 2 years or so. The joy it brought inspired me to make our own printed Christmas Greeting Card. We ordered ours from Costco $15 for 50 cards and envelopes.


...Max lined up all his toy animals to eat the giant carrot :)


...It's the law now in the city we live in: No more free shopping bag. I'm happy whenever I get to use these reusable bag:


Christ took the picture below:
...Clean plates belongs to my three boys, who happily gulped mommy's cooking.


...Free-Pesticide Local Food from Farmer Market always makes me happy. Also the boy who can pretend play with anything.


Snacking in the middle:


Back to business: he's about to launch the 'rocket':

Have a blessed week!

Sinqua & Fish Soup

Sinqua = Chinese Okra = Oyong or Gambas in Indonesian. My grandma used to cook this soup when I was small. I thought of adding fish to get rid of the fish fillet in my freezer. It turned out to be delicious. :)

Sick

Max has been coughing, sneezing, and having a runny nose for more than a week now. The doctors here do not recommend parents to give any cold medicine to children below 2 years old, so we just have to wait until the virus finishes its course. It is so hard for us as a parent to hear and see him coughing so bad and having his nose congested. We read, asked doctor & friends for advices, and learned about things that we can do to make him more comfortable:

1. Give him a warm shower. The steam from the shower helps loosen congestion in his lungs.

2. Give him an eucalyptus oil's (= minyak kayu putih ) rub, which helps him to breath easier.

3. Clean the mucus in his nose with a suction bulb

4. Make sure he is well-hydrated by continuing to breastfeed or drink her baby formula. I read somewhere that white grape juice helps reduce coughing so we gives him some of that mixed with hot water.

5. Feed him chicken soup. Besides chicken, I also add carrot, tofu, onion, and peas into the soup. Yummy!

Baby Food: Fish and Vegetables Puree

I was cleaning my picture files when I found a few baby food pictures that I haven't post yet so I thought I should just post it even though I no longer making them.

When Max was only a few months old, I didn't know how to make my own baby food so I bought many different kind of baby foods in glass jars only to find out that my foodie baby didn't like any of them. So I start learning how to make them.

Turned out it's super easy. All I need was a steamer and the ingredients of course:

I used organic veggies from Farmer Market and fish {Sorry I forgot what kind of fish it was}. A tip from 100daysofrealfood : "When selecting seafood choose wild-caught over farmed. You never know what farm-raised fish are being fed, and animals that eat the most natural diet possible are not only the healthiest animals, but also the healthiest for you."

Then steam over boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes or 'till the carrots & potatoes are tender


Blend in the blender 'till smooth. That's it! Easy peasy, right?

Fish and Vegetables Puree
Printable Recipe

Ingredients:

1 piece of fish fillet
2 small potatoes - peel the skin then cut into small pieces

1 carrot - peel the skin then cut into small pieces

1 cup of spinach - rinse

Methods:

Boil some water in the steamer
Place all of the ingredients in a baking dish
Steam over the boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes or 'till tender

Blend them in the blender 'till smooth

Place inside small containers; each enough for one serving of meal for a baby.
I usually freeze some for future meals.

More baby food recipes can be found at the bottom of Recipe Page

Teaching kids to do things themselves

One big lesson I learned from The Montessori's Way is to encourage independence by teaching kids to do things themselves. 

Maria Montessori wrote, "Don't do for your child what he can do himself. We habitually serve children; and this is not only an act of service toward them, but it is dangerous, since it tends to suffocate their useful, spontaneous activity. It requires much more time and patience to teach a child how to eat, wash, and clothe himself than it does to feed, bathe, and clothe him."

I learned that I need to take the time to show and teach them on how to do certain tasks and organize their stuffs {clothes, toy, learning materials, and eating utensils} in places where they can reach them without our help.  Below are some things that we encourage our kids {age 4 and almost 2} to do on their own:

Pick up their toys. Great article from Money Saving Mom: Instead of yelling, try helping.

Eat on their own. Starting when they are able to pick up food with their fingers then moving on to using spoon or fork. It's messy in the beginning {even 'till now} but I have no regret on letting them eat on their own as early as possible:

Grab their eating utensils and drink. I placed their eating utensils, glass, and water container at the lower drawer or shelf, where they can reach on their own.

 

Wash their hands. Good safety tip from our pediatrician: turn down the water temperature on the water tank that way when the kids accidentally turn on hot water their hand won't get burn.

Throw trash in the garbage bin:

Put on their clothes without our help

Play on their own. 

It's true that we need to sing, read, snuggle, and give them our undivided attention but I don't think we need to entertain them all the time.  Kids are wired with creativity and curiosity and are able to entertain themselves with almost anything. Safety note: make sure to baby proof the room and keep sharp and dangerous things away from their reach. When in doubt, keep them away from the kid - lesson I learned the hard way

Clean up: vacuum dirt {with a lightweight hand vacuum}

 mop the floor,or wipe the furniture

Be involved and "help" us:

Peel daicon or carrot

Help unloading the dishwasher:

and the grocery
 

Do the number No. 2 on the potty once they can sit unsupported. I shared on how we do it in detail here

Help with simple chores such as watering the plants:

Put their clean clothes in the dresser

or taking the garbage bin out:

What other thing that you encourage your kids to do it themselves?

Roasted Potatoes and Carrot

I am in the process of moving all my food posts to our food website: Asian Family Recipes.
The Roasted Potatoes and Carrots recipe can be found here.

Visiting Taman Safari Indonesia

I had been wanting to bring the kids to Taman Safari Indonesia ever since I read my friend Astrid's blog posts on the park. We got to visit the park twice when we went back two years ago and a few months back. We love love love Taman Safari. It is way cheaper and better {in our humble opinion} compare to the expensive Singapore Night Safari, which we visited earlier. Taman Safari entrance cost was 150,000 Indonesian Rupiah or about 15 US $ per person. If I remember it correctly it already includes the cost for rides too.

We were greeted by many of cute elephants

Indonesian Red Soup = Sup Merah

This is Max & mommy favorite soup. My first roommate in college, Ming2 was the one who taught me to cook this. I cook this every two weeks since Max loves it so much and it's very easy to make; just put in all the ingredients: oil, onion, and garlic, then add the chicken (I only use the bone part, saving the meaty part for other meal), then add 1/2 can chicken broth, water, carrot, macaroni boil 'till soft.
Lastly, add 1 diced fresh tomatoes or 1/2 can of tomatoes, 1 tbs tomato sauce, peas, sausage, salt, pepper, sugar - as prefer then continue to boil until cook.