Boost your Immunity...

... with phytochemicals. Doesn't this look lovely ? So colorful, a feast to the eyes. It's got pineapple, green apple, carrot, tomatoes , and bok choy. There's also ginger, parsley, and lycium Chinese mill ( a kind of dried red berry that will take 3 whole paragraphs just to describe all the health benefits of this fruit. ) Three glasses of this a day, and your immunity system should be in tip-top condition.

Now, try to remember this photo after you've blended the drink, because the aftermath looks HORRIBLE !! A greenish brown sludge that makes ' plop, plop, plop' sounds when poured out of the jug.

It is rather difficult to get the family members to drink it or just merely, walk near it. The taste is okay actually, it's the vomitty texture that's the problem.

Rice Cooker Cheesecake

The recipe was originally from a shopping channel... can't find it now that I'm going to blog about it... It calls for 3 x250 gms of cream cheese. However, I am making just a tiny cheesecake to tame the sweet tooth, so I one thirded the recipe and upped the sweetness level. ( My recipe differs from the original , because ... because I enjoy deviating from recipes . It's more fun this way. Really. )

So, into the blender I threw the followings :

- one block of cream cheese ( 250 gms )
- one egg
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp condensed milk
- a little wedge of lime juice
- few drops of vanilla essence
- 1 over flowing teaspoon of corn flour
- a pinch of salt

Blend until smooth, pour into a cake pan that fits inside the rice cooker. Wrap aluminium foil all around. Drop into rice cooker that's filled with 1.5 cups of water. Set timer to 40 mins. Leave inside rice cooker for an hour with the power off. Take out, cool, refridgerate.

What I like about this cake is that you don't have to deal with the buttery digestive biscuit crust. That just gets in the way when all you want is a taste of the rich and the creamy in the cheese cake.

Felt Toys : Cosmetics Set

Recently, I bought a Japanese crafts book ( ISBN978-4-8347-2818-7 ) that is all about making felt toys for kids. My younger daughter was mesmerized with this set of make-up toys :

I decided to change the color scheme because , well, just look at it ! How many levels of pinkness are there ? I sewed up the powder puff set first :

Notice that I've sewn the mirror upside-down. Things like this happens when you watch TV and sew at the same time. I'm just glad I didn't sew my fingers onto it too. While Little J was going ga-gas over her new toy, I thought it would be quite fun if I add a new one every night. When she wakes up in the morning, there will be a little anticipation about what is in the box, followed by a happy surprise. We should all wake up that way, don't you think ? The next morning she woke up and found ...

Two bottles of nail polish !
Following morning ...

Eye shadow ! ( This one is my design. )

... and the next : Pink Blush !!

And , the finale , lipsticks.

Wet Painting

On days when the kids are home, I try to have an activity in store for them. When they ask, " What are we doing today, Mom?" , I'll just pull that activity out and entertainment is served. Last week, we did wet painting.

You'll need to soak several sheets of thick painting paper in the bathtub for about 3-4 minutes. Wipe off excess water so that it does not leave a pool of water on the table. ( You may want to cover the table with plastic sheetings / shower curtains to protect the surface. ) Then hand the kids paintbrushes , poster paint and a bucket of water to wash the paintbrushes. After that , let them experiment. When the paint touches the wet paper , it'll spread as it mixes with the water. My kids usually goes quiet as they watch the paint run across the paper.

Quiet Time ...

... can be bought with a bunch of flowers. These grow in my mom's garden and sometimes I sneak back some for the girls to play with. They'll make bracelets and necklaces by just joining the top and bottom of the flowers together. Great concentration is needed to make these dainty jewelries. With great concentration comes blissful silence.

Banana Friendly

Bananas make healthy snacks but sometimes you buy a bunch and only half gets eaten. The other half is left hanging, turning mushy and black, awaiting their final descend into the trash bin. Try cutting them out when you take them home from the store. Just slice them off with a sharp knife and place them where they can be easily spotted then watch them disappear. They also become handy food to bring along to be eaten in the car. I think the best part is they look a lot prettier than half a bunch of left-over bananas.