Tips on becoming a housewife

I have several people asking me whether do we have enough to go by monthly once I quit my job. They also asked what should they prepare for if they want to quit their job like me.

To tell you the truth, I am not the right person to answer these questions! Why? Because I quit my job without much plans. I did it because of Marissa. However, I can list out a few things from what I have experienced throughout the whole year of being a housewife. It's not easy I tell you! Especially when you are living in KL.

Haha I wish I am like this!

1. List out all your debts. Minimize it to the maximum especially your credit card. Just have 1 credit card at least. We didn't do that and it's biting us in the butt. LOL

2. I unsubscribed my 3G line since I am mostly at home. We have WIFI at home so it wasn't an issue at all. I used to pay rm200 more or less monthly including the 3G subscriptions but at the moment my phone bill is only around rm40. It took me awhile to get used to not having any internet connections when I am on the go but on the good side, you won't see us playing on the phone while having dinner or hanging out somewhere. No anti social geeks at all! LOL.

3. Invest in a good, big fridge. This is the first thing I did when I quit my job. I cook most of the time now so it is essential to get a good fridge that can store a lot of food. Oh plus, we have the habit of buying a lot of seafood and meat whenever we're back in our hometown so I need a fridge that has a big freezer! If only the house is bigger, I would have gotten a deep freezer as well.

4. Once you have the big fridge, please cook at home! It doesn't have to be a big feast everyday. Just simple healthy meals. You will save a lot if you eat at home. You can control the MSG, the salt and only use fresh ingredients.

4. Buy only when you need it. Don't buy just because it is on sale. Think whether this is something you need. Whether do you need a 100 of these because its on sale or just 2? Plan your spending. Our focus is mostly on our daughter. So the expenses on her must be the number 1. Oh ni paling susah. Took us awhile to adjust to this.

5. Solat sunat Dhuha. Try to perform solat sunat Dhuha whenever you can and be grateful with what you have. Insya Allah rezeki tu ada.

Homemade Meatballs

This is the recipe that Chef Marina Mustafa shared with us during the cooking demo with Phillips. Sedap sangat! Kebetulan I have all the ingredients so apa lagi! The secret ingredient in this meatballs is raisins! Tak pernah terfikir pulak nak add raisins in meatballs sebelum ni.

 Ingredients:
250grams minced meat
1 cup chopped onion - fried lightly so it caramelized a bit.
1 egg
2 tbsp of chopped raisins
1tbsp of chopped parsley
1/2 tbsp of ground black pepper
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp of salt.

I substituted the parsley with coriander leaves. Sarah memang suka daun ketumbar. Penyedap rasa. I didn't add any salt since I wanted to make this for Marissa. Just add all the ingredients together and make a ball like below:

 

I don't have an Airfryer so I only pan fried it with a bit of oil in a pan and cover it with a lid. This recipe is definitely a keeper! This is how it looks like after it is cooked. Odd shape meatballs! Haha.

 

Breakfast Picnic at Lake Garden

We had a great morning at Lake Garden last Saturday. I made sandwiches and my cousin bought nasi lemak for our picnic cum playdate. This was our first time to the playground. It's huge! Marissa was so excited!

One part of the playground. There's more on the left side.

This is another part of the playground

 We reached there around 9 am. Just nice. It wasn't too hot and there were not many kids around. Marissa was so fascinated with the squirrels and birds.

Watching daddy feeds the birds

Macam boboy tak? haha

  

 We try to bring Marissa out to non crowded places.This is the perfect place for her. I don't know whether it is always like this or it was just our luck. There were people having a birthday party there as well but because the park is big, kids can run around freely! Sangat best!

World Prematurity Day

17th November every year is the Word Prematurity Day celebration. Do you know that 1 in 10 babies in the world are born premature?

Wikipedia explained that Premature birth is defined either as the same as preterm birth, or the birth of a baby before the developing organs are mature enough to allow normal postnatal survival. Preterm birth means giving birth to a baby before 36 weeks.

Premature infants are at greater risk for short and long term complications, including disabilities and impediments in growth and mental development.It is among the top causes of death in infants worldwide.

My daughter was born premature at 27 weeks with the birthweight 750grams. She had to be born early because i had severe pre eclampsia due to the hypertension. She is almost 1 year 6 months and alhamdullilah she is healthy. We still quarantine her when she is sick and that really helps. We still don't take her to crowded places as much.

She was in NICU at hukm for 80 days under the best prof ever: Prof Cheah. His team of doctors were very supportive to the parents. She didn't have much of complication except for 1 blood tranfusion and a series of apnea after that due to the infection from the tranfusion. She did have a prominent hole on her brain due to the lack of oxygen in the womb. However we did an MRI when she was about 7 months old and doctore said its not there anymore.

Looking back I am very thankful that she is fit and healthy to this day. Many of her preemie friends had to go through many complications such as ROP (retinapathy of prematurity) Pda, and hernia.

I didn't even know that Malaysia has a lot of premature birth cases until Marissa came into our life. To all mothers out there, please educate yourself about premature birth or even babies when you are expecting. Please read more of the risks of pregnancy as well. We do have a few support groups in FB.  It does help a lot to share your experience with the first time parents of premature babies.  You can search for JEWEL ( Miracle Baby Family United ) in FB.

INCIDENTAL COMICS: A Year of Parenting

INCIDENTAL COMICS: A Year of Parenting
It sure describes the best about me!

Mummy's Day Out with Phillips Avent

I attended an event by Phillips Avent last Saturday. My former schoolmate Liza extended the invitation to me and i thought why not? I haven't seen her for more thank a year anyway so it kind of nice to catch up for a bit.

I did have a great day! They invited a nutritionist dietician Mrs Indra to talk about nutritions during pregnancy and breastfeeding. I will talk more about that in my next post.

 

Lets talk about something that I love: cooking! They invited Chef Marina Mustafa to do cooking demo using their products. she showed us how to fully utilize Phillips products and oh i am in love!

She did 4 recipes:
 1. Meatballs using the Phillips Air Fryer

2. Homemade tomato sauce using Phillips Avent Steamer Blender

3. Vegetable Paella using Phillips Viva collection Electric Pressure Cooker.

4. Mint and Beans dip using Phillips Soyamilk maker.


My favorite is the Phillips Avent Air Fryer ! The meatballs came out very moist, juicy and delicious. I am definitely putting the air fryer in my wishlist.You save a lot of cooking oil and our food is a lot healthier too.

How does the air fryer functions?

Using Rapid Air technology, the Airfryer circulates hot air around a metal mesh cooking basket, requiring little or no oil as it fries, bakes and grills. The starfish design on the bottom of the Airfryer facilitates air circulation, ensuring your favorite foods cook evenly. 

It is definitely  the healthier alternative to deep frying! 

    

The bloggers that attended the gathering!

 

H.E.A.R.T.S

Have you heard about this program? This program Housewives Enhancement and Reactivate Talent Scheme was created earlier this year to cater to the needs of current workforce. It is to train the housewives that decided to go back to work in various specialized skills.

I have been looking for a program like this and suddenly a friend pointed out on FB about this program. This program is organized by Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) or in bahasa Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad. It is fully funded by the government. When I saw the post of FB, I quickly signed up for this program. That was in July! I haven't heard from them until November.

So last week I got an email asking to attend a briefing and Interview for the program. It was held at the PSMB building at Bukit Damansara near my old workplace HP tower. Puan Shamsinar, the person who is overlooking this program said that it took her awhile to go through all applicants and filter out who is eligible for the program.

Basically, there are about 10 programs that you can choose from:

• Script Writing

• Website Development and Maintenance

• System Application Development

• Social Media Management

• Research

• Certified Project Management

• Consultancy / Train-the-Trainer

• Software Examiner

• Graphic Designer

• Business Process Contact Centre

I chose Certified Project Management. That is the only one that is relevant to my previous work. Social Media Management is the most sell out program out of all. Puan Shamsinar did go through each programs in detail and according to her the training will be conducted by various training companies in KL and it will only take about 5-10 days.

To apply for this program, you will need to be:

• Educated homemakers/housewives or single mothers (Diploma and above) who have stopped working to become full time homemakers/housewives

• Aged between 25-60 years old.

• Malaysian citizen

In the website, they stated that you need to be 30-50 years old but Puan Shamsinar said they have made some changes over time. 

The briefing started around 9am and by 10.30 we were ready for the interview. The interview only took about 5 minutes and you can ask her any questions regarding the program. Don't be scared about the interview. She only asked some basic questions regarding yourself. If you are qualified for the program, their listed training companies will call for the training. I hope I do get it!

If you are keen in participating in this program, please log on to www.hrdf.com.my. It is an ongoing program so you can apply anytime. Check out their FB as well. There will be more programs next year as they have received a new budget for this scheme.

Simple Naan Bread

I made this probably around 2 weeks back. I wanted to use the rest of the yogurt in the fridge and I thought why don't i try making naan bread and tandoori chicken. i thought it was going to be hard.

I found this recipe online. I forgot the link. +'ll update it soon.

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast - i used the mauripan instant yeast.

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 

1 cup water (warm) 

1 teaspoon salt 

3 cups all-purpose flour 

6 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter or unsalted butter) 3 tablespoons yogurt 

* ghee (clarified butter or unsalted butter) - i used unsalted butter

Directions: 

1. Mix the yeast and sugar into the warm water in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. 

2. Add the salt and flour into the liquid followed by the ghee and yogurt and mix until it forms a dough. 

3. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. 

4. Place the dough in a large greased bowl and cover. 

5. Let it rise for 90 minutes. 

6. Punch the dough down and knead it for 10 minutes. 

7. Divide the dough and form balls.

8. Roll the balls out. 

9. Brush both sides with ghee and fry in a pan until golden brown on both sides.

You can use a mixer if you want but i only knead the dough using my hands. I used the magic grill pan (pemanggang ajaib) to grill the bread. The result? Awesome! We had a little picnic at ttdi park and the bread  was still soft when we reached there. Must be due to the yogurt.