Jus Alpukat - Avocado Juice

Hello again. During my last trip to Bandung, we had a chance to taste one of the famous juices in Bandung - Juice Alpukat or Avocado juice..recently my best friend Molly tried to make the juice at home. First attempt failed...reason being the avocados were not ripe enough, resulted in very bitter juice..then she kept the Avocado a few more days until it is totally ripen. She tried again and it was a success! She kept telling me how delicious it was..

One day, after having tea with Molly & Sha, we decided to go kai2 at Giant Section 13..and lucky for me there was a promotion on Avocado..one pc for RM1.99 - wow, good opportunity to try the Avocado Juice myself now..so sharing with all of you here is the Avocado Juice recipe - thanks to Molly for her experiment and the recipe.

Avocado Juice

Ingredients

4 pcs of ripe Avocado (soft when pressed)

2 cups of fresh milk (you can try vanilla flavour)

4 tbs brown sugar (or gula melaka) boiled with some water

some ice

All these items are to be blended.

Hersheys chocolate syrup

Scoop out the avocado, pour the milk & brown sugar...blend them. Then put in some ice and blend again..Done!! (just to add in some cool effect)....Pour some chocolate syrup in the glass, before pouring the avocado juice..you may also like to pour some on top the juice. Very easy and I can guarantee it is very delicious...a friend of mine was saying this is definitely better than xxx!!!

Have a try......

Picky eaters...

Do you ever faced with problems with your kids eating habits? Not taking vege, fish etc? I have the same problem before but now thank god, my children can eat almost anything!! (halal of course). My kids used to only eat what they like..other than that, they won't even touch!!

Picky eaters are common among kids..they only eat what they like or what they used to and reluctant to try new food. That reluctance has a name - "neophobia," the fear of trying anything new and unknown, including food. Kids developed "neophobia" as their safety measures..they only consume what they know and do no want to be exposed to the risk of unknown..

Eating habits among children can be moulded by the parents (especially their mom). I still remember when I was young I did not like fish due to the fishy smells..and my mom went along with it, so I ended up not eating fish until recently. I learnt a lot on the advantages of consuming fish - low in fat, high in protein and an excellent source of omega 3 fatty acids (certain type of fish)... then I know I need to change my eating habits to influence my children..slowly, started to eat fish...(still selected fish though).

Amirul (my eldest son) for instance, only like to eat Tom Yam..so it's everyday Tom Yam (almostlah..) no tomyam tak nak makan..can u imagine, me & hubby have to eat tom yam everyday?...so I decided to ignore his Tom Yam request and instead introduce new meal to him..first few days, he mogok tak nak makan..just makan roti, biscuits and other stuff but not nasi..but one fine day I think he got sick of eating those food, he eat whatever i put on the table..no doubt he still have his favorite food but he is eating other food too..and btw now his favourite food changes from Tom Yam, to ayam masak merah, masak lemak ayam..he even eat fish now .. and ikan siakap kukus has become his favourite too. He becomes so adventurous with food that he is willing to try any food now..he can eat ulam, salad, tempoyak & even budu!!

It is very important for mothers to change the children eating habit..don't go along with what they like and dislike..I know it's sounded as though I'm using force, but it works. But not all kids are the same..Alya (my youngest) for instance, reacted differently. Force does not work on her..as she is still on her formula, so if I cooked anything she don't like, she'll resort to milk. Then I tried involving her in the food preparation..from shopping, preparing & cooking. When she is involved in preparing the food, she is more than willing to give the food a try and most of the time she ended up liking them...

I know when your children are picky eaters, it will be a battle every meal time..I felt the stress before. Now that my kids are willing to try new foods, it is making it for fun for me to try new recipe everyday. I will try to include some of the simple recipe in my next entry...

What's for dinner?

One thing I hate the most is to think of what to cook for the family...most of the time I'll open the fridge, stare at the content and try to figure out what can I cook out of the ingredients available...

and most of the time my mind would go blank..can't think of anything at all..

Nasi? Hmmm everyday nasi...want to eat out, so lazy to get dressed and drag the kids out of the house..must think of anything simple..suddenly thought of Jamie Oliver cooking show and remembered how easy for him cook the roasted chicken. But I don't have whole chicken in my fridge! Well then, roasted chicken to be postponed for tomorrow..for now it got to be nasi again... since all my energy has been consumed on thinking what to cook,so masak nasi goreng jelah..

The next day went to nearest fresh market to get the whole chicken...my instruction to the Bangla at the market "kasi ayam seekor..tak mau potong". Five minutes after that the Bangla past me a plastic bag with the chicken inside. Man!!! the head and feet are still there! God..luckily I saw it, otherwise I have to chop them myself, which I don't think I have the guts to do it...can't imagine cooking the roasted chicken complete with the head & feet... even JO will faint!!

Still can't believe how easy Jamie Oliver made it..so I'm going to try it and share it with you
Recipe for roasted chicken

Ingredients

Whole chicken - without head & feet!!!
1/2 lemon
1 head garlic - cut the top
5 cloves garlic - mince finely (or tumbuk)
25gm butter
1tbs olive oil
rosemary

To prepare
Heat the oven to 190 degree C

Clean the chicken (empty the stomach)
wipe the chicken with clean towel
place the chicken in the roasting plate
Stuff the chicken with half lemon & garlic
Rub the chicken with butter - cover all surface
Rub the chicken with olive oil
Spread evenly the mince garlic on the chicken
Sprinkle some rosemary all over the chicken.

That's it..the chicken is ready to be roasted.

Roast for 1 hour..after 1 hour, take out the chicken and check if it's well cooked. Cut a bit at the chicken wing and see if there's no juice, the chicken is almost ready..to be safe, roast the chicken for another 20-30 minutes.





So what's for dinner tomorrow?????

Alya's 4th Birthday

The long awaited day has arrived..Alya woke up at 7.30am and the first question she asked was "mama kek dah siap"? She slept quiet late last nite waiting for me making her birthday cupcakes..and I only completed the 2 batches at 12.30am...after cleaning up I went straight to sleep..so tired but satisfied. My hubby could probably see me smiling in my sleep....

OMG! So busy with the cake making that I totally forgot about the goody bags for her friends at kindergarden. So I quickly hit the shower!! Dashed to Tesco, grabbed the goodies..need to be back home by 9am for Alya to catch her van to school..Luckily, managed to do 'speedy shopping'!!

We arrived home and Alya decided to ponteng (cut school) just to help me pack the goody bags..well it's her special day today..so ponteng jerlah sayang..and I really need the help as we need to be at her school before 10.30am for the break...

Ahhh..want to see the final outcome of the birthday cupcakes?....





ALYA 4TH BIRTHDAY


Birthday girl..so happy now that she got her birthday cupcakes...


Alya blowing the candles..."Happy birthday to you my sweet darling"!!


Abg mirul doesn't want to miss the BIG DAY..."sayang abang"..



Alya with teachers & classmates..

Baking...not my cup of tea?

Hmm..Alya's birthday is coming and mama have lots of ideas to make this a memorable events..since mama have a lot of time to spare... I still remember her last birthday when I did a last minute dashed to the bakery to buy her the birthday cake and she was not happy with the cake that I've chosen..so new resolution, we gonna make the cake together..'
Alya saw beautiful cupcakes in one of the bakeries in Shah Alam and she said to me "Mama, buatkan Alya cupcakes untuk birthday Alya boleh?..please mama please..ooh, my heart dropped listening to her plea..

How to make cupcakes? I don't even like to bake all this while..but people change..coincidentally my hubby bought me an oven for my 37th birthday last January...so I decided: What the heck, might as well give it a try!

How do I start? Thanks to google, now everything can be learnt through the net..so I googled : HOW TO MAKE CUP CAKES..to my surprised it's doesn't look complicated at all. So after Alya came back from her kindergarden, we drove to the nearby baking solutions shop...started shopping for the ingredients..deep in my mind I was thinking..can I do it?

Alya was so excited on this cupcakes project...and mama already have second thoughts about this..what if tak jadi? Poor Alya, she's going to be so disappointed!! Oh well, we never know if we don't try right? So...project ON!!
When we reached home, immediately we started baking...hhmmm the result??






Ahh..not bad. Not bad at all..



Alya - mama going to make the best cupcakes for your 4th Birthday!!

So if you put your mind on something and take the effort to do it, Insyaallah it'll be a success...