I'm a full-time mummy

One of my 2013 resolutions (I rarely made them in my life so when I made it for this year, I'm trying to stick by it!) is to learn to cook for the family.

Shocking?

I guess you should be. You see, I only cook for my kiddos. The rest of the mealtimes are pretty much handled by my MIL and sometimes my hubby when he is free from his ever busy work or when he's into one of his food making craze.

So, yeah, back to my resolutions. To learn to cook for the family.

Now my first soup experiment is the: Szechuan Vegetable Soup. A close buddy of mine shared this recipe with me and the ingredients are so simple and the steps are easy to follow that I decided to make this soup my first attempt in soup making journey. Do note that I deviated a bit from the original recipe:

Ingredients:
* 1 Szechuan vegetable (palm size) (soaked in water for 30 minutes and then sliced) (** My notes: I used 2 small size Szechuan vegetable which is about my 4 years old boy's palm size and sliced them up and soaked in water for 30 minutes - very worried that it will turn out salty and spicy that I did the other way round, which is sliced and soaked :P)
* 4 tomatoes (** My notes: I used 2 tomatoes and quartered them up)
pork ribs (rinsed and scalded with boiling water) (** My notes: I used about 250gms of pork ribs, rinsed and boiled for a few minutes)
* 3 soup bowls of water (** My notes: I used 2l of boiled water)

Methods:
1. Bring water to boil.
2. Add pork ribs, sliced Szechuan vegetables and tomatoes.
3. Simmer for 1 hour or more until the ribs are tender. Serve hot. (** My notes: I used slow cooker instead of gas stove to cook this soup, so I put on high for about 1 hour, followed by low settings about 4 hours)

Outcome:

This soup I made is too diluted, maybe I added too much water as I didn't factor in that I'm using slow cooker instead of gas stove. Also because I chose to slice and then soak the Szechuan veggies for half hour instead of the other way round, I think I have made the soup less salty and NON spicy. Whoopsss.... Nevertheless, I told myself, first attempt. Try to do better next time!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

I first saw a picture of this cute doggy cookies on my SAHM group network on FB and decided to give this a try after getting the recipe. It was such a coincidence as well because I asked my almost 4 years old boy what animals he like and he said 'Dog!' There's a slight variation to the original recipe as I added blended Cornflakes to my dough to give it a crunchy feel. So here it goes:

PREPARATION TIME: ABOUT AN HOUR

Ingredients / Tool Required:

What to Do?

* Sift flour and sugar. Add Cornflakes and chopped soft butter. Rub in with fingers until they resemble bread crumbs.
* Add 1/2 tablespoon of very cold water and vanilla essence and knead lightly. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
* Take a tablespoon of the dough, put in about 2-3 pieces of chocolate chips in the dough and wrap them into a ball. Decorate the dough with 2 pieces of Koko Krunch cereal as the doggy's ears and put 1 chocolate chip as the doggy's nose. I also put some chocolate rice as the doggy's eyes.

BAKING PROCESS

So there you go.... my DOGGIES COOKIES recipe!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

Brought to you by:  

I am very excited to be sharing this book with you guys! I mean, how often do you come across a book that helps you build your child's self-esteem through activities like reading, crafts and cooking? I particularly like that this book is recommended for the age 2 to 5 range and I immediately poured over the book looking for activities I can do with my 3.5 years old boy! Anyway, read on for my review below:

Title: Show Me How! Build Your Child's Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking (Positive Parental Participation)
Author: Vivian Kirkfield
Publisher: MoneyPenny Press, Ltd.; 1ST edition (2010)
ISBN-13/-10:  978-0967014753 / 0967014751
Paperback:  256 pages
Dimension: 9.9 x 8 x 0.8 inches

Description from the product page:
"A must-have resource for busy parents and teachers, Show Me How! pinpoints 100 picture books every young child should hear and provides a story summary, gentle parenting tip, easy eco-friendly craft project and simple child-friendly healthful recipe for each recommended title. The fun-filled educational activities help parents gain confidence in their own parenting skills while building self-esteem, developing pre-literacy skills and strengthening the parent-child connection. Lined spaces on every other page allow parents to utilize this guide as a memory book to record their children's highlights. Library Journal loved the tri-level format of reading, crafting and cooking and so will every parent and teacher who uses this award-winning book. "

This book comes packed with stories you can use or refer to with your child and there are points and notes given on how the stories can be used to nurture your child's self-esteem, moral values and build up their confidence. On the opposite side of the page there are accompanying crafts and recipes you can try out with your child as well.

The following day after I started reading this book, I came across a recipe for German butter cookies shared by a fellow SAHM friend in a SAHM Facebook group I joined in and decided to try this out with my boy. I got him to help me out with the mixing sugar and butter part and then gently coached him to make soft indent on the cookie dough so that there are stripes on each cookies surface. He was so excited to be able to take part in the cookie making session!

Ever since we did the German butter cookie session, I have been looking for more child-friendly recipes that I can try out with my boy so that I can get him to help (boost his confidence as well that he is big boy enough to help mummy out in the kitchen!) so I'm very happy to share that there are tons of child-friendly recipes that you can try in this book!

I do however would like to recommend that future revision or updates on this book to include pictures or illustrations of the end results of the crafts and recipes so that we can have a better idea on how they look like.

Overall, this is a wonderful book packed with stories, crafts and recipes that will definitely help you and your child as you journey along in building their confidence, self-esteem and at the same time guiding us as the parents on how to nurture our child to be an independent individual.

Highly recommended, do get a copy of this book for yourself too!!

You can get this book from Amazon.

Yes! I'll be giving away 2 copies of this book on my blog!

Now, 1 copy which I have been given along with my review copy will go to a lucky winner in Peninsular Malaysia while another copy which the author will send personally will go to a lucky US winner!

OK then, just read below for the giveaway terms and entry form, OK?

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I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with a copy of the book in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous book reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My Book Reviews"