Dining Out is so Expensive

Dear and I went out for a couple of meals recently. Gosh, eating in restaurants adds up can be quite hefty!

First, we brought the kids to an okay casual dining place near Changi Village. 2 mains about $20+ each, 2 kids meals slightly under $20 each and 2 fruit juices $6 each and the total bill comes up to around $120. Works out to be about $30 per pax. Okay, since we hardly bring the kids out to a nice place to eat. Also their al fresco dining under the shade of trees in mid day made it a nice experience for the kids.

Then Dear1 and I went on a dinner date in a famed restaurant in Keong Saik. 2 burgers about $20+ each, 1 fries to share and 2 teas cost around $80.  Hmm.. This meal cost about $40 per pax. Sounds a little expensive for a dinner for two.

The next day, Dear1 and I went on another lunch date without the kids. A nice restaurant by the bay where Dear1 got a burger (comes with fries; the earlier one didn’t), I had a pasta and a kombucha drink and it costs around $60+. Since the portions were big, we were too full to get desserts. Around $30 per pax, hmm sounds more reasonable.

Dear1 and I are not restaurants-people; restaurants are usually reserved for more special occasions. Now I finally understands why, because eating out is so expensive! In just 2 weeks, because of ‘special occasions’, we have spent nearly $300 on meals. If we were to continue this trend, it’ll become $600 per month. Omg! One cannot have too many special occasions, it is such an expensive affair!

I do not understand folks who dine in restaurants frequently. Every $20, $30, $40 per meal adds up and it really becomes a big snowball at the end of the month. On our third date, we went to West Coast Food Centre where I had a $3.50 youmian and Dear1 had a $3.50 fried rice. We shared a $1.50 soy bean drink while chatting in the spacious and breezy market. The total cost for our dinner was less than $10. Yummy, filling and good. 

I’ll bring Baby1 and Baby2 here someday for dinner too, cos the market is clean and well ventilated and the food is cheap and delicious too. The kids generally do not like dining in hawker centres cos sometimes they are hot and dirty and crowded and stuffy and the folks do not practise safe distancing or good personal hygiene. I do hope Baby1 and Baby2 will like West Coast Food Centre too.

– Dear2

2 Pots Challenge

After cooking breakfast and lunch and dinner EVERY DAY for a full whole week in October, I decided to set myself a “2 pot challenge”. Actually it’s not that I mind the washing, afterall I can fit all those plates into my tiny dishwasher and voila. My nemesis are the pots. 1 pot for rice, 1 pot for soup, 1 pot for stew, 1 saucepan for stir fries. Oh god, only a simple meal for 4 and I gotto wash 4 pots!!! That’s it, I’m gonna limit myself to 2 pots per meal, cos rice alone takes up 1 rice cooker and we can’t possibly have chicken rice or roast pork rice everyday mah.

First of all, it has got to be balanced – carbs, proteins, veggies no less. Then preferably non-oily. Somehow even the oil in a sunny side up egg evokes an oily floor feeling in our kitchen and I got to mop up the floor every single time I use oil. Urgh, not my favourite activity.

So here goes my list of 2 pots meals:

• Chicken rice + boiled vege/ sliced cucumber
• Roast pork long bean rice (+ boiled vege)
• Yam rice + boiled vege
• Mitaimak soup with minced pork/fishball, brocoli
• Yong tau foo kway teow soup
• Chicken (breast) carrot porridge
• Potato carrot minced pork porridge
• Sliced fish porridge (but this is usually without any greens)
• Tomato pumpkin sliced fish/egg porridge
• Chicken/ fishball, hard veggies marcaroni soup
• Minestrone (+ baked croutons, cos the kids love this)
• Army stew
• Egg mayo/ salmon/ fish fillet sandwich + cucumber or tomatoes
• Braised yellow mee with sliced fish/ prawns/ sliced pork and veggies
• Brinjal noodles (1 pot to boil noodles, 1 saucepan for ingredients)
• Beef bolganese pasta (same as above)
• Oven baked chicken thigh on potato baby corn sweat peas or any hard veggies
• Plain rice + dark sauce potato carrot chicken
• Rice + lazy soup (basically a leafy green with any stuff. I loved it for it’s non-oiliness, but Dear1 is not really fond of it)
• Jap rice + Japanese curry with shabu shabu
• Plain rice + 1 saucepan stir fries (eggs, meats, veggies, anything that requires oil…..)

I put rice with stir fries at the last of the list cos that’s my least favourite for now. I used to painstakingly plan and prepare 2 to 3 dishes of fried eggs and stir fry veggies and pork or fish and a 3 hour soup, only to have Dear1 and the kids say that they actually prefer 1 dish meals. So nowadays I’ll simply blanch all our leafy greens in boiling water, drain, season with soy sauce and top with fried onions. I even serve it in the metal pot directly to have 1 plate less to wash, keke.

All our rice is cooked in our lovely ta-cook rice cooker which also has a steamer but which I usually only steam a gyudon or black bean fish because of my limited repertoire of steam recipes. I recently discovered that it has a porridge function so I’ve been cooking all our plain and flavoured porridges in the rice cooker too. It is so convenient! No need to watch the fire and you have perfectly cooked porridge in 60 minutes!

A lot of our older grandmothers like to fry a pot-full of fried rice or fried noodles or fried beehoon or fried kway teow cos this simple dish can easily satisfy the whole big family from young to old with all the required food nutrients in one meal. Unfortunately I can attest that these dishes really do require skills to make. Mine usually ended up too soggy :( Plus, I don’t like that oiliness in the kitchen too. The about-only exception will be kimchi fried rice, cos Baby2 is only able (or willing) to tolerate the spiciness in kimchi.

There is a difference between one-pot meals and one-plate meals. The kids’ favourites – sushi, kimbap, bibimbap, shepherd’s pie, chilli cheese fries, curry baked rice all comes with carbs, meat and veggies in a plate, but do you know how many pots and pans are required to assemble that!? Plus, all of them require oil too!! So ya, it’s easy for you to eat, but it’s not easy for me to make or wash, haha!

I like to cook rice with one soup too – potato carrot corn onion pork rib soup, xiyangcai carrot pork rib soup, old cucumber carrot pork rib soup, lotus root peanut carrot pork rib soup, ta-da that is a complete meal. But because pork ribs need to be blanched in a separate pot first before cooking in the soup, so this dish does not fulfil the criteria for the 2 pots challenge, haiz. Recently Dear1 bought me a pressure multi-cooker so instead of 3 hours on the stove, our soups can be ready in 1 hr cook time + about 40 mins pressurizing/ releasing pressure. No more hot hot kitchen or need to watch the fire on the stove!

• Dear2

The Curious Case of Losing Weight during ‘Lockdowns’

For the past 2 weeks, Baby1 and Baby2 were on Home Based Learning, Papa was working from home the whole time and all enrichment lessons were shifted to online or canceled, so we did not step out of the house for 2 whole weeks. Groceries were ordered and delivered from online, Mummy cooked and prepared all 3 meals daily and all of us ate in-house for that 2 weeks. Surprisingly, Papa and Mummy’s weight dropped 1kg during those 2 weeks. Once the kids went back to school at the beginning of this week, and Mummy felt sooooo tired from 2 weeks of cooking that we have been ordering food delivery or buying out everyday. And surprisingly, Papa and I gained 1kg again. Opps.

We recalled that this scenario happened last year during Circuit Breaker too, when both our weights dropped 3kg at the peak of our lightest weight post-pregnancy. At first, I attributed it to the depressing mood during these lockdown periods, 2 months last year and 2 weeks this time. The local situations were pretty bad and worrying, and there was much fear everywhere even though I tried not to verbalise my negative thoughts to the family. I asked Baby1 if she has any theories to this mysterious phenomena, and her immediate response was, must be the eating out.

Omg. We have only been eating once Tenderfresh and KFC and McDonald’s and in moderate amounts this past week. And it’s not as if we gorged ourselves full during these meals. If 1 week of fast food/ fried food has this immediate apparent impact on weights, then can you imagine how up-and-up-and-up the scales will go and how big-and-big-and-big the size will go for people who indulge in fast food regularly. Oh gosh, is it really true?

It is puzzling. Of course, the weight gain or loss could be due to many other factors apart from food. Our exercise, weather, moods, water intake, output quality, sleep, fruits and vegetables, sweets and chocolates etc. But I do want to think that home cooked food is really healthier. At least I can say for sure that I use lesser salt, seasonings and oil at home. Outside food has been tasting overly flavoured (sometimes insanely salty too), cos outside food has got to be tasty mah.

It’s school holidays again next week (urgh, it felt like the nth school holidays this year; both Baby1 and Baby2 seem to be constantly in holiday mood this whole year, sobz) and it’s back to home cooked food again for 1 week. I want to challenge myself to using 2 pots per meal for this week (including rice pot); I really can’t stand having to wash 3 or 4 pots at every meal. 3 or 4 pots for 3 dishes + rice means having to wash 3 or 4 pots, and means having to keep 3 or 4 pots every time. Who ain’t got the time for that!?

It’s Gut Bliss next week too , so let’s just do rice and rice and rice + an all-in dish for 10 days, don’t think so much, keke.

• Dear1

Shopping Online

Sister-in-law has a baby recently and gosh, how buying things for babies have changed in the last 10 years! Can’t keep the baby in the nappy swaddle? Online buy a “sleeping bag”! Handkerchiefs not enough? Buy more – online! They’re pretty fast delivery, and you’ll receive the items in 2 days usually, no fear.

It is no wonder how eCommerce is raking up huge profits now. Coupled with the pandemic, shopping online has indeed help a lot of people get what they need or want without exposing themselves in the malls’ crowds. Not to mention the convenience too – just sit on your couch and scroll scroll, buy buy and you get your goods delivered right to your doorstep without having yourself to move an inch. Dear1 and I can’t help but be little fans of online shopping too, keke. There were many occasions when we scoured shop after shop or mall after mall for kids toothbrush or anything which are either OOS or price-not-right and ended up buying online.

But as anyone knows, shopping online is a huge evil too. How many times have you bought something because it’s really cute/ sounds good/ cheap/ or cheaper/ got really good discounts and coupons and vouchers and points and coins and what-have-you, only to chuck it somewhere at the back of the house? We told the kids about this guy who bought a live cow online while he was drunk and we all had a good laugh about the absurdity, but are we unknowingly adding unnecessary accumulations to our lives too?

I am insistent that I do not install those online shopping apps to my handphone, because I know that my self-control is bad compared to Dear1 (hmm, or really??!!) Anyways, let’s just all be more mindful and prudent before we click that “Check Out” button. Always think and consider and think and consider first before hitting that inconspiciously evil red button – Do I really need this item?

• Dear2

End of Weighted Assessment 2

Weighted assesment was last week, and this week, Baby1 and Baby2 have been coming home reporting their scores. So far, both of them got the highest in class each for one of their English paper, Baby2 got full marks (15/15) for Math and Baby1 got highest in class, and Baby1 failed her Higher Chinese for the first time ever. For the highest marks papers, both of them were naturally ecstatic; for HCL, boy Baby1 was so crushed.

1. Comparing with Peers.

Whenever Baby1 and Baby2 report their scores to me, it’s usually “I scored higher than XXX and YYY” or “I got 2 marks higher than ZZZ” or “I am highest in class”. For the first time, I realised that they had been doing that since Primary One. But I have never asked for their friends’ scores, or ask if they are the highest in class unless they start feeding me with such information. It seems that in school, teachers still do report the highest marks (and failure rate sometimes), and students still do ask among their peers and compare their marks against each other. This feels so wrong; why are students comparing their marks with others? They should be comparing against themselves, whether they receive a score that they aimed for, and whether are they pleased with their own performance.

2. Fare well, Praise; Score low, Scold?

But having said that, Baby1 and Baby2 have been doing consistently okay in school so far. In fact, better than okay, so usually they receive praises from me for their results. On occasions when they did not score as ideal, I make it a point to emphasize that they learn from their mistakes and make sure that they do not repeat the same mistake again. So I have never really scolded them for poor results. But I wonder what my reaction will be if we have to encounter this one day? I guess I need to constantly remind myself to always encourage my two babies, and to always be there to support them. It is not about end results, but more about the being and process.

3. Fail for the First Time

Baby1 was so devastated that day when she received her HCL marks; she failed for the first time but many others passed. As someone who took HCL before, I know that HCL is a whole different difficulty league so I was surprised that it took her Term 3 to fail a paper when some of the Chinese peers have been failing earlier. My mantra to her remains the same: treat HCL as learning more about the beauty of the Chinese language and not a subject to score. In fact, I should constantly remind both of them about my philosophy of learning, that is to enjoy the joys of learning. Learning (and exams) should be fun!

4. WA 15%, End of Year 70%

I was surprised that the school was in full exam mode during this Term 3 Weighted Assessment. But this WA only carries 15% of the weightage; end of year exams will be 70%. If students are already so stressed during this 15%, I can’t imagine the pressure when it’s EOY. Speaking of which, why am I even talking about percetage weightage? Whether it’s 15% or 30% or 70% exam, in fact, whether is it an exam or test or holistic assessment or non-holistic assessment or weighted or non-weighted assessment, shouldn’t every student treat every test the same and give their very best performance for everything they do? Hmm… puzzling.

5. PSLE next year

So far, I have been cushioning myself away from the hoohaa of competitiveness. I want my kids to grow up well balanced; when it is time to work, we work; when it is time to play, we play. So go away those kiasu parents! But I am afraid that I will crumple under the pressing mood of the much anticipated PSLE year next year. It is nerve wrecking when the whole country places so much attention on that one PSLE exam. Even if we tell Baby1 to just treat every test and exam as giving your best, but when the whole nation and school keep pressing down on the students, I am not sure how those 12 year olds who are probably undergoing hormonal changes with puberty will withstand it all. Calm down calm down, I need to remind myself, cos I know how parental support play a pivotal role in kids development. So let’s hug more, eat more healthy food, have plenty of exercise and movement, eat some snacks and chips occasionally and get whacky and crazy and funny sometimes.

I love you, Baby1, Baby2 and Dear1.

• Dear2

Sugar Addiction

It is very inconspicuous; yesterday for the first time, I suddenly decided that I cannot share a box of ondeh ondeh with Baby1, I NEED to get a box ALL FOR MYSELF! And the day before, I absolutely had to have either a teh tarik or kopi siew dai, I don’t want a coffee black! And for the few weeks before that:

• I want to eat Macdonald’s; I’m fine with Fillet-o-fish or McSpicy or any other mains or fries, but the main thing is, we must get a coke.
• Kopi siew dai every morning please
• Recently I (finally) bought a bottle of kaya and I’m happily slattering big blobs of kaya on my buttered toast every morning. Yumz.
• Kit kat is my go-to when I’m starting to feel hungry. Maybe another one (secretly)? No cheating! House rules say one chocolate per day only!
• I want to eat something sweet, maybe let’s get some macaroons. But look at the price: $2.50 per piece!? Nvm lah, we’ll just get two to share among 4 people.
• Brother got me a cup of bubble tea with ayu jelly instead of bubbles, saying that it’s healthier, but……… maybe please get me bubbles next time.
• And those Chateraise puffs and ice cream tubs, oh they do make me suddenly fall in love with Chateraise products now.
• And whenever I reach back home from Granny’s house, I feel like having a cold flavoured drink. Must be the weather or the tiredness lah.

All the signs are there, slowly creeping in unknowingly. End May and June have been a very busy and tiring month with Granny falling very sick, so Dear1 and I threw all our monthly gut bliss plans out of the window. There were many occasional “cravings” for sweet food which on hindsight now do seem very suspicious as we usually do not have such thoughts cos we typically do gut bliss for 10 days and eat normally for 20 days in a month.

Bit by bit, all the sugars start to pile up in our system until they unknowingly cause such sugar cravings when our body’s level goes low. It is known that many people are addicted to bubble tea because of the sugar addiction; just look at how happy they are when they get their hands on a cup, like 1 cup every day!?

The ondeh ondeh yesterday was a scary wake up call to me; why am I addicted to ondeh ondeh!?!?!?!? In fact, the numbers on the daily weighing scale and my waist (or the lack of it) in the mirror should have flagged some warning bells. Oh dear, time to embark on some Sugar Bliss Plan now. Withdrawal symptoms are to be expected, so hang on tight!

• Dear2

Lego

This June holidays, Baby1 and Baby2 have been spending days playing with their Lego happily. Woohoo! Playing Lego is definitely much much better than playing DS the whole day, hmph!!!

Over the years, Papa has been buying Lego for the girls at every opportunity – when he is overseas and the rates are so much cheaper; as “pre”, “during” or “post” holiday gifts when we go travelling; when there’s super big discounts off local prices, etc. He has always bought Lego Friends FOR the girls, but I always suspects that he bought the Lego more for himself, wahaha!

Recently, in order to fully utilise our expiring Krisflyer Miles, (sniffs), Papa realised that we could redeem Lego with our Miles, woohoo! And so we got 2 more Lego cars. And then he found a super good deal for a 1,500 pieces box, and now we have got MORE Lego bricks, wahaha…

Baby1 and Baby2 do not really like playing Lego actually. We have 2 big boxes of their Lego Friends houses, pizza shop, ice cream shop, campervans, cars, cruise ship etc but they hardly play with them much. I think it is because they do not like to dismantle these beautiful builds or find having to build them from scratch again very cumbersome. At Granny’s house however, both girls can spend hours quietly building random objects out of just a handful of bricks. Hmm….

With the new Lego bricks, Baby1 and Baby2 have been building random structures now. Baby1 seems to enjoy building “proper things” like faces, house, trees etc while Baby2 likes to do “categorized things” like a tall structure made up of similar 2×1 bricks, a collection of “drain” tiles, or a display of all the hair accesories (sorted by colour). Again, it is a reminder that our 2 girls are unique individuals, no comparing please.

We are currently having our very own Lego Masters Singapore Challenge with all 4 of us each having 1 win under our belts. We have previously watched some Lego Masters on TV and were all wowed by the creativity of those contestants. Who says Lego is only “masak masak” for kids?! It takes lots of skills and creativity to create amazingly beautiful builds of asthetics, technical ability and story-telling and is by no means any easy feat even for adults!

I am happy that Baby1 and Baby2 enjoy building and playing with Lego now. It stretches their imagination and gets them to observe and think. I do think that building with Lego trains them to think and create creatively, more so needed when the future of work may be very different from what we are used to now.

• Dear2

Sisters Fun!

Singapore schools started Full Home Based Learning on 19 March 2021. Boy, why does this past 2 weeks already felt like an eternity!? Luckily, the FHBL only lasts 1.5 weeks (actually just 6 school days in total), and it’s the June holidays for the kids! While Baby1’s classmates were complaining of boredom at home, Baby1 and Baby2 seem to be quite enjoying themselves.

They have played twice on their “Library” set up, quietly reading their baby books in their pretend library hideout.

They suggested to start a piano marathon again, cos both agreed that they actually improved lots during last year’s Circuit Breaker when their music school started this initiative. Mummy gladly threw in a cash incentive to reward them for their effort, so it’s $50 per pax for 39 consecutive days of daily piano practice until the end of the school holidays.

They have been whispering and talking hushly to each other in codes of “it”, “this” and “that” which Mummy has absolute no idea of what they are talking about, though I suspects it has got something to do with DS games. Such secrecy and bonds!

They have been doing their ballet stretches together, pulling and pushing each other in order to train each other’s flexibility. And when they got tired from HBL work and needed a stretch, they found a funny dance and danced to it – on repeat modes until Mummy came to join them too!

Baby1 has found new fun doodling and creating pictures using the edit function on her phone, and Baby2 came up with various games using pieces of paper or strings and even her pyjamas, entertaining herself when Jie Jie was still engaged in her HBL work.

I am so glad to see our girls having fun on their own, and I am so heartened that the sisters have each other for company (especially when Mummy and Papa has no interest/ time/ mood/ energy to participate in their games with them, keke).

It is officially the June holidays now, so 4 weeks of home play since we cannot (and should not) go anywhere now. There’s still learning to be done, holiday homework, online piano and ballet lessons, and lots of play time for them. Keeping fingers crossed that they will continue to play nicely with each other.

• Dear2