Air Fry Turmeric Garlic Chicken (Philips XXL Air Fryer)

Air Fry Turmeric Garlic Chicken (Philips XXL Air Fryer)

Air Fry Turmeric Garlic Chicken using Philips HD9654 XXL Air Fryer

Chicken is a versatile food and our family really loves them especially when it is grilled, baked or fried. Today, I am going to introduce to you this easy way to make this turmeric garlic chicken in a few easy steps using the Philips XXL Air Fryer. 

 

This recipe is cooked using Philips Air Fryer HD9654 XXL. This size is really suitable for a family size of 4 especially when i am going to cook 12 mid-joint chicken wings today. (Detailed reviews at the end) You can purchase it from the same store to ensure reliable and quick delivery. It is currently have a 50% discount. So visit this store if you wish to buy a Air Fryer. 

Serves: 4-5 Prep Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 20 mins using Air Fryer

INGREDIENTS

• 12 pieces of mid-joint chicken wing
• 2 tbsp light soya sauce
• 1 tsp sesames oil
• 2 tbsp of garlic powder
• 2 tbsp of turmeric powder
• Dashes of black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

• Marinate: Put chicken into a big zip-lock bag or any big bowl for marinating process. Put chicken and all the ingredients listed above. Zip the bag with minimum or no air in the bag and massage the chicken. Put the chicken in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or even overnight for more flavor.
• Pre-Heat: Heat up the air fryer for 5 minutes at 180 degrees. Lie chicken flat onto a baking tray (No oil is needed)
• Heat and Cook: After 5 minutes, turn the time to 15 minutes (same temperature) and put in the tray and cook. Then, turn temperature to 200 degrees, time to 5 minutes to cook further to get crispy chicken.
  
• Eat: Enjoy your simple healthy chicken!

Deariebear Mommie Tips

• Use chicken thighs for this recipe too. Depending on the thickness of the thigh, you may need to slice the thigh to ensure that they are thoroughly cooked. 
• Omit the black pepper if your kids are afraid of spices though a few dashes will not have big effect on their taste buds :P
  
• Marinate chicken into many bags of zip lock bags and freeze them up for future cooking.

Full video on air fry turmeric garlic chicken in Philips Air Fryer XXL

Reviews of Philips HD9654 XXL Air Fryer

Features that I particular love:

• Size is good for a family of 4 especially if you wish to cook a large amount of fries, chicken wings and fish
• Accurate digital temperature as you can turn the knob to the actual cooking temperature 
• Keep food warm after cooking 
• Easy to cook almost anything 
• Time saving and convenient 
• Healthy cooking with no or minimal oil needed
• Less messy as compared to grilling it on the cooking pan
• It looks good and stylish in the kitchen

It is having 50% discount now. Catch it before it is gone :)

Happy air frying! :)

How to potty train your child?

“How do you potty train your kids?” asked my friends. Since this topic is quite popular among some of my friends thus I guess it will be nice to share my own experience. 

Some important tips:

• Every kid is different 

• More haste, less speed 

• Observe your child’s readiness 

• Make it fun

• Let’s go toilet together

Every kid is different. The rumour says that girls potty trained earlier than boys. Does it apply to all girls? I don’t think so. My girl was only able to ditch the diapers totally when she was 5 years old but my boy was diaper free when he was just barely 4. So, it really depends on your child’s personality and readiness.

More haste, less speed. I remembered the stress I had when my girl’s preschool teacher said that most of her classmates were toilet trained and my girl was the last two who were yet to. I discussed with the teachers that Claire was not ready yet because she was a year-end born baby. But the stress from school and family “how come your girl is not diaper-free yet?” were lingering and thus I decided to potty her earlier even though she was not really yet. Consequences? Lots of peeing incident, change of bedsheets, and sadly cries. :( After two weeks, I decided to stop and try after a month later thinking of how should I make this better.

Observe your child’s readiness. How do you know your child is ready to attempt this new milestone? 

• Their diapers are dry or very less pee during their awake time. It is a super good news If their diaper is also dry during nap time. 
• They want to go toilet with you to pee which means your little ones are interested to know how adults pee in the toilet. Oh yes, if this happen, please really welcome them to observe you peeing in the toilet. My boy became interested when he saw his father did his pee. It became like a mini-sharing session between them on how to aim their pee into the toilet bowl. :p

Make it Fun!

Week 1 and 2:

• Show them books, videos and songs about potty training or how is it like to become a big boy and girl without diapers. There’s quite a number of them online and my favourite videos is: Elmo Potty Time.
• Involve your child in the purchase of his potty. Show them pictures of some of the potty you have selected and let him choose which to buy :)
• Teach him how to pull down their pants and sit on the potty.

Day time Diaper Free Challenge. We had reward charts which rewarded her for totally dry diapers (though sometimes I feel “wah! Waste diaper!” But this is what she is comfortable with”) to train her confidence level. “Yeah! See no pee pee!” I exclaimed. We used the Huggies XL diaper so you can see the pee indicators clearly. Place potty at the living room so she is able to access it easily.

If your child is not diaper free during awake time, then it may take a few weeks to train that first.

Week 3 - 5:

Nap/Night time Diaper Free Challenge. When your child is totally diaper free during awake time excluding naps. It is time to observe his readiness during sleeping time. Is there pee on his diaper? Or no pee at all? If so, your child is ready. Yeah!

Try naps first because it is shorter sleep time and achievable milestones to build confidence before transition to night time challenge.

Do the same thing that you did for the day time challenge with potty inside the bedroom. Provide a sensor nightlight which will brighten when they go to their potty or have a portable kids nightlight so they can hold it to go to the potty (especially if their bedroom is dark).

Please be patient and expected pee accidents. Encourage your child and tell them is ok and continue to try. If persistent accidents happen, it means your child needs to a break from this training (maybe you too!) and try it maybe a week later.

Let’s go toilet together!

This may seem weird for first time parents but seeing is doing. Let your child see you pee and even poo. They will learn what are good habits and what to do in the toilet. Don’t be shy :p

Lastly, the stress and lack of child’s readiness prolong training. Just remember that your child ultimately will be potty ready or train. Breathe and relax. This is really true after I tried the above steps for my younger child. He was totally diaper free a few days before he is 4 years old. 

All the best :)

Deariebear Mommie

Chinese sausage chicken rice using rice cooker

Chinese Sausage Chicken Rice using Rice Cooker (Philips HD3126)

Chinese Sausage Chicken Rice using Philips HD3126 Rice Cooker

This one pot dish is one of my kids’ favourites at home. The smell released from the rice cooker is so heavenly that you will definitely ask for another second or third round of serving.

There are many versions and ways of cooking this rice recipe and the most common method is using a claypot. However, busy mums like us would prefer anything that is fast and easy. Thus I would highly recommend using a rice cooker so you don’t need to watch a claypot over fire. I have another example of using rice cooker but to cook Chinese Lotus Pork Rib soup.

Any rice cooker can be used to cook this one pot meal. Even this single-function Philips HD3126 would do the trick. (Detailed reviews at the end) 

You can purchase it from store at Lazada. It is having a promotion and it is the cheapest as compared to other sites like Qoo10.

Serves: 6 Prep Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 45 mins using Rice Cooker

INGREDIENTS

• 400-500g of boneless chicken breast (cut into chunks) (marinate with 1 tablespoon each of oyster sauce, light and dark soya sauce, optional of 2 inches of grated ginger)
• 2 Chinese sausages (cut into slices)
• 4 dried shiitake mushrooms (soak in hot water and keep the water then thinly sliced)
• 6 slices of ginger
• 4 garlic cloves (minced)
• 1 teaspoons of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• Dashes of white pepper
• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil
• 2 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1.5 to 2 cups of rice (washed and drained off water)

PREPARATION

• Marinate chicken with 1 tablespoon each of oyster sauce, light soya sauce and dark soya sauce. Grate 2 inches of ginger (optional) onto the chicken and mix them. Put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
• Soak dried mushrooms in hot water till soft. Then slice them thinly after removing their stems. Keep the soaked water
• Wash and drain 2 cups of rice in the rice pot and pour in the mushroom soaked water
• Prepare the rest of the ingredients 

INSTRUCTIONS

• Heat up a pan and pour in cooking oil
• Sauté garlic and ginger till you smell their fragrance
• Add in the mushrooms and Chinese sausages for a few minutes
• Add in the marinated chicken and stir fry till they turn slightly pinkish
• Add in sugar, salt and dashes of pepper and stir fry a few more minutes
• Pour the pan of food onto the rice pot with rice. Do not need to mix them
• Put in enough drinking water till it reaches level 3 or cup 3
• Cook it using normal rice cooking function (takes between 30 mins to 45 mins depending on your rice cooker)
• Keep warm for 10-15 mins
• Open up lid and fluff and mix the rice with the ingredients 
• Enjoy your yummy one pot Chinese sausage chicken rice!

Deariebear Mommie Tips

• You can opt out the grated ginger during the chicken marination if you don’t really like small ginger in your rice. 
• If you want the rice to be more moist, you can put in more water like 1/2 small cup of water with 1/2 tablespoon each of oyster sauce, light soya sauce and dark oyster sauce

Full video on cooking Chinese Sausage Chicken Rice in Philips HD3126 Rice Cooker

Reviews of Philips HD3126 Rice Cooker

Features that I particular love:

• Size is good for a family of 4
• Rice is super fluffy and moist as compared to multi-function rice cooker
• Cook faster than normal rice cooker
• Compact size and stylish
• Only 2 buttons (Cook, Warm). Super easy to use

It is having 10% discount now. Catch it before it is gone :)

Happy one pot cooking! :)

How to use Zearn to learn maths?

I chanced upon this useful maths website, Zearn when my girl was doing her online learning. 

During the circuit breaker. I decided to let my boy to try out Zearn for his Maths out of desperation because I did not know what other activities we can do the whole day. Imagine I have to plan activities for them to do the whole day everyday..

Fortunately, It turned out to be a really useful learning website for them to learn Maths and both of them are “killing” it.

For students:

Zearn is very simple and straight forward to use. I like the fact that it uses a real person to explain the concepts and also infuse with games and badges to motivate students. It included clear progress chart for both students and teachers or parents to monitor students’ progress.

For parents or teachers:

Zearn allows you to create a class roaster of students and assign the grade level to different students.

Zearn helps you to monitor learning progress of your children or students.

It also provide clear descriptions of the different “missions” and guides for offline activities to reinforce the maths concepts.

To conclude this review: It is a useful online website to learn Maths. It provides clear instructions and simple games to motivate students. Another great news is that it is free! I’m not too sure how long it will be free but it allows free registrations due to convid. Thus, please sign up for your kids while it is still available unless you wish to pay for it :)

Batch Freezing and Storing of Baby Food

Baby Claire is eating so happily. Looking at her size, you know that she really loves her food.

Do you know when Baby Claire was approaching 6 months old, I was really anxious on what to feed her? Lots of questions was in my mind like how can I even cook nutritious home-cooked food for her when I am at work? How can I offer her a variety of food to test whether she has allergic reactions to these food?  How can I store and cook organic food for her since organic fruits and vegetables perish faster than non-organic food?

Then I came across online of the concept of batch freezing food. Before I go into the details, I guess now my readers must be wondering whether about the nutritional value of food after freezing. I visited a couple of sites and almost all recommended freezing food when it is at its freshest rather than cooking the fruits and vegetables after leaving in the fridge for days.  An example of such site is here.

What Benefits?

• Save time, Save money, Serve Baby Claire with VARIETY of nutritious food. Last week, Baby Claire succeed tested her allergy against butter, cheese and also button mushrooms.

Store for how long?

• As recommended by Wholesomebabyfood.com, it is recommended that frozen food is to be consumed within 3 months. For us, we will try to consume within a month. Partly, because our small fridge only can store that much of food :P. We will cook and batch freeze baby food every 3 weeks, during the weekends when Justin Papa is around. I can't imagine doing this alone, so much chopping, steaming, cooking and storing. However, the benefits outweighs the tiredness especially when we see Baby Claire loves eating them. :)

Once you have cooked your homemade baby food, it is important that you freeze it immediately. Below contains the different storage methods which we are currently using.

Conventional Ice-cube Tray storage

The easiest and cheapest way to do this is by using ice cube trays with a lid. I bought them from Daiso at only $2 each. There are 2 different sizes. The smaller one holds around 1 oz or 30ml while the other holds around 40 ml. Fill each individual cube with baby puree and freeze. You can then put the lid on once the food has cooled down. The next day, we will remove them from the tray and put them in freezer bags (I double sealed with another zip lock bag) and labelled them.

 

Special Food container

This food container comes in handy when you freeze chunky or chopped fruits and vegetables. There are reusable BPA plastic baby food containers/pots which are easily available in most baby shops. I bought "Baby Cubes" from Mothercare.  They come with trays and allow me to stack these trays up which save space for my fridge. 

To store bigger amount of food E.g. for a meal, we use the Avent VIA Cup. This is really convenient for my FIL who just need to reheat the food using the bottle/food warmer.

Here’s a list of essential equipment for cooking and freezing large batches of baby food, some of which you probably already own:

• Philips Avent 2-1 Steamer and Blender. This site, "My Wok Life" gave details on how to use this useful equipment. It is good for making puree and it preserves most of the nutrients as the water used to steam the food are blended together.

• Electrical Steamer with multiple trays (Normal steaming pot serves well too). We use this steamer when we want to steam chopped food. It was a gift for our housewarming from my university friends. Now it really comes in handy. :)

How long do you steam the food?

Below contain a snapshot of the Avent Philip Blender guide on the steaming period. Hope this may be useful to you too :)

Here contains some examples of her meals.

Macaroni with mushroom, pumpkin, salmon, coriander in chicken stock.	Potato with zuchinii with chesse and lightly cooked with butter.
This is her oat cereal with mango.

It is always exciting to watch Baby Claire enjoying her meal and wanting for more. :)

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie

My kids are sleep trained - Using Gina Ford's method.

Over these few years, I have questions from friends and mothers on the following questions:

How are my kids able to to sleep early?
How are my kids able to sleep by themselves?
How come they are energized and happy?

My well rested happy kids.

I shared with them the importance of a proper routine and effectiveness of sleep training.

Every kid is different.  I have friends who has children whom are able to sleep soundly on their own since when they are babies without any form of training. My kids were the opposite of what you called sleeping angels.

My first baby was not able to sleep unless she had a pacifier in her mouth and needed to be carried till she fell asleep. The challenge was how to “lock” the pacifier in her mouth so that she wouldn’t cry in the middle of the night looking for her pacifier. We even tied a pacifier to her bib but she was not able to find it anywhere.  Imagine waking up in the middle of the night several times to put on the pacifier. This continued for 6 months and we literally had enough. Oh yes, you can say we should be more patient and wait till baby learn how to sleep on their own. But day after day, this sleeping issue literally drained off my energy. I was like a zombie going to work and coming back home and prayed that she would be able to sleep on her own soon.

Finally, I decided to find solutions. I came across Gina Ford’s sleeping training books and read up to understand how it works. Before conducting any form of sleep training, we need to create and follow a routine for our baby. This is extremely crucial because babies might have some form of crying during sleep training and with proper routine, we can be sure that our baby is not crying because of hunger. Please read up here on how to create a suitable routine and the steps for sleep training.

You can also buy the book from Amazon. Click here: The Complete Sleep Guide For Contented Babies & Toddlers

What about our second baby? Oh mine! He was worse when it comes to sleeping. I’m not too sure whether is it because he is a boy. He is not using any means to sleep soundly. We tried pacifier, bouncer, and even the traditional “yao lan” - swinging basket or cloth. It just doesn’t work. With the “yao lan”, he slept like 30 mins the most. I was really worried that the lack of sleep might impact his development. So I decided to sleep train him at 4 months ago but I was worried whether it is safe to sleep train at such a young age. So we seek advice from SG sleep nanny, Zoe Chu. She advised that it is ok and she gave the same advice about routine and also be consistent on where he sleep. I decided that the cot is the one, no more bouncer, no more "yao lan".

Sleeping on his own since 4 months old. Sleeping pose like mama. :P

To our great surprise, after a routine was set, my boy took only 3 days to sleep on his own with crying mostly on the first day. Yes, on his own. :) His sister took around 5 days. I was so proud of myself. So is it possible to sleep train a baby at 4 months old. The answer is definitely yes! However, do bear in mind that you have to be determined to follow through the sleep training and don’t jump into holding up the baby just because she is crying.

Follow the plan, and be a little hard-hearted and you will see the benefits. If not, the training will take even longer. My girl took 5 days because we could not bear hear her cries (especially my hubby) and we held her up straight away. Thus our first day failed. On the second day, I asked my hubby to have a cup of coffee, in fact OUT of the house when I was sleep training her. No one was at home except the baby and I. The second day she cried even longer because she knew we would picked her up. Some of you might be wondering “WAH! Just let her cry forever? Don’t go in at all? Wah!”. No, this sleep training method allows parents to go into the room after a certain time and gave a quick verbal assurance. Believe me it is definitely tough for the first two days but you will see the improvements and the light to the tunnel. Here are the 8 biggest sleep mistakes new parents make and how to avoid.

My kids are now 4 and 6 and they are still following a routine and are still sleeping at 7.30 p.m and latest at 8 p.m. Some may wondering whether are they able to sleep anywhere or only at their cots?

Kids slept in the car. They can sleep anywhere now.

My little boy had a long nap in the plane. Smart use of my shawl to cover the seat.

Well, though the sleep training emphasizes on consistency on the time and sleeping location, but when children are able to sleep on their own, things get flexible. We moved houses twice (3 different locations) and now in Mumbai. Our kids have no problem adapting to new sleeping environment. Thus, learning how to sleep on their own is so so important. It is a important life skill for our little ones. With enough sleep, they are energized and happy, and able to absorb and discover new learning every day. Even the teachers commented that they are pretty flexible in adapting to new school environments.

Going to sleep now in my bedroom with my Elly Elephant.

Cheers,
Deariebear mommie

Air fry fish cod Using Philips Air Fryer XXL

Air Fry Cod Fish (Philips XXL Air Fryer)

Air Fry Cod Fish using Philips HD9654 XXL Air Fryer

Cod fish is flaky, white flesh and has a mild flavor. It is high in protein, B vitamins and minerals but low in calories, fat and carbs. 

“A 3-ounce (85-gram) serving of cooked Atlantic cod has only 90 calories and around 1 gram of fat. However, it is packed with 19 grams of protein Similarly, the same serving size of cooked Pacific cod provides about 85 calories, less than 1 gram of fat, and 20 grams of protein.” From Healthline.com.

I love cooking dishes and trying out recipes using air fryer because it is easy, convenient and little clean-up. Most importantly, it is a healthier way to cook with the use of minimal oil. 

The cod I use is frozen Atlantic cod fish cubes bought from Song Fishery. They are nicely cut and packed in thick cubes. These cod fish cubes have bones totally removed so it is really convenient for busy mums like us to use dish the fish into the air fryer and feed our kids without being afraid that they will get choked because of bones. 

Recently, I upgraded my Philips air fryer to Philips Air Fryer HD9654 XXL because of its huge size and latest technology. Although I have a family size of 4, trust me that this size is really a time-saver if you want to cook lots of fries, chicken wings and other stuff at one go. (Detailed reviews at the end) Previously I need to cook a few rounds with my original first version of air fryer. I bought it in June from Lazada. You can purchase it from the same store to ensure reliable and quick delivery. It is currently have a 50% discount. So visit this store if you wish to buy a Air Fryer. 

Serves: 4-5 Prep Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 15 mins using Air Fryer

INGREDIENTS

• 5 pieces of frozen cod fish thawed
• 1 lemon cut into slices
• 1/2 teaspoon of Himalaya salt
• Dashes of white pepper
• Dashes of black pepper
• Dashes of garlic powder

INSTRUCTIONS

• Rub the salt and white pepper onto the cod fish and leave it for 5 to 10 mins
• Put a few slices of lemons on the baking tray or silicon tray (leave a few slices for putting on top)
• Coat the cod fish with dashes of garlic powder and black pepper  
• Squeeze lemon juice out of the 2 slices of top and bottom part of the lemon onto the fish
• Place the remaining slices of lemon including the squeezed pieces on top of the fish
• Preheat the air fryer. Switch on air fryer for 200 degrees at 15 mins (5mins preheat and 10mins cooking time) 
• When air fryer reaches 10 mins, put the tray onto the air fryer to cook 
• Enjoy your simple healthy codfish!

Deariebear Mommie Tips

• You can use any white fish for this recipes. Depending on the thickness and length of fish, you may need to cook up to 13 mins. 
• You can use 1 more lemon to squeeze more juices to the fish to make it more flavorful (it just happenEd I had only 1 lemon left in the fridge during the recording)

Full video on air fry cod fish in Philips Air Fryer XXL

Reviews of Philips HD9654 XXL Air Fryer

Features that I particular love:

• Size is good for a family of 4 especially if you wish to cook a large amount of fries, chicken wings and fish
• Accurate digital temperature as you can turn the knob to the actual cooking temperature 
• Keep food warm after cooking 
• Easy to cook almost anything 
• Time saving and convenient 
• Healthy cooking with no or minimal oil needed
• Less messy as compared to grilling it on the cooking pan
• It looks good and stylish in the kitchen

It is having 50% discount now. Catch it before it is gone :)

Happy air frying! :)

Storytelling: 小鹿过生日

Title: 小鹿过生日 (Little deer‘s birthday party)

This story is about how a little deer neglects his friend’s feeling over a toy and ends up lonely. It is shared in Chinese. 这故事是关于小鹿怎么为了一个玩具而失去了朋友.

Taken from one of the stories from “爱发脾气的孩子” - 

You can this purchase from Qoo10. It has a series of children stories which share about proper behaviours.

Here is the full video:

Note: We have no intention to breach any copyright infringement. This is to share love of storytelling among kids. Reading aloud helps kids on their articulation and confidence. Hopefully it will aspire kids or children to read aloud.

Chinese Lotus Root Soup using rice cooker

Lotus Root Soup (Pork Ribs, Peanuts) using rice cooker

Chinese Lotus Root Soup (排骨莲藕汤)

Pork and lotus root soup (莲藕汤) is a healthy soup which helps to improve our immune system. The main ingredient lotus root is rich in dietary fiber, vitamin C, copper, iron, potassium, thiamin, manganese and has very low in saturated fat. This nutritious soup is simple yet is rich in flavourful with the addition of dried scallops, dried dates and dried squid.

Serves: 4-5 Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 2-3 hours using rice cooker

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium size lotus root or 300g of frozen slices
• 1-2 carrots - peeled and cut into chunks
• 300g pork ribs
• 100g peanuts - soaked in hot water for 10 mins
• 8 red dates
• 3 dried scallops
• 1/2 dried squid - cut into wide strips  
• Boiling water (preferred) or room temperature water
• A pinch of salt for tasting (put in a few mins before cooking time is up)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Boil water if you do not have enough water to cook soup.
• Soak peanuts in hot water for 10 mins to soften the peanuts. Discard the soaking water.
• Wash, peel and cut the lotus root (if in a whole) and carrots.
• Cut the squid using scissors into wide strips.
• Quick rinse of the red dates and dried scallops.
• Pour everything (except pork ribs, water and salt) into your rice cooker pot.
• Blanch the meat by pouring hot water into the bowl of meat and use tongs to rinse the meat.
• Put the blanched pork ribs inside the pot.
• Pour hot water into the pot until it “just” covers the ingredients
• Start the rice cooker by pressing the necessary soup settings.
• Enjoy your flavourful healthy soup!

Deariebear Mommie Tips

• You can pour hot water into the frozen lotus root slices to give them a quick rinse if you wish to wash them but I believe this optional as they should be cleaned before packaged and froze.
• Do not blanch the meat for too long especially small pork ribs as it will lose its flavour. Please do not wash the any meat with tap water to prevent contamination.
• Keep any left-over soup for the next day and cook with noodles. 

Full video on how to cook soup using rice cooker

 

Reviews of Philips HD3087/62

Features that I particular love:

Keep food warm for 24 hours after cooked

6.0mm 5-layer pot (the usual pot is 2.0mm). Give you the big pot taste

Longer cooking time for more flavourful soup

Durability. Used for 5 years and is still going strong

I Love this pot so much that I actually bought 2 of them :) Been using it to cook soup, rice and steam food. 

I tried cooking soup like the night before like 10pm and the soup will be ready for me to pack to work in the morning or last till we come back home for dinner since it is able to keep warm for 24 hrs. You can also prepare the ingredients the night before and cook it in the morning too. This shows the the durability of the 6.0mm pot. Thick enough to withstand the heat and duration.

Some may say that it is wasting electricity but convenience and time-saving is most important to me while still serving my family warm healthy meals. 

Imagine you do not need to watch over the fire for your soup. Most importantly, you are able to serve hot flavourful soup to your children when you reach home after work.

This Philips HD3087 is considered an old version but it has been the most durable and useful one. Currently it is not commonly sold online. Previously, I also bought them in Big Box 2 years ago (yes. I bought another 2 new ones and used them in Mumbai).

The only cons that I can think about it is;

The pot is heavier than a normal rice pit because of its thickness. Other than that, it is great!

You can consider the latest Philips HD2137 which is also a multi-purpose cooker which can do pressure cooking too. I used that when I need a larger pot of soup of 6 litres as compared to this current pot of 5 litres. It can be used to stew meat, make yogurt and bake. It is currently having a promotional discount at Qoo10. 

Happy soup cooking :)

Night safari 2020

This is our first experience at Night Safari Singapore. We visited night safari on the 29th August 2020, Friday before promotion ends.

Due to convid-19, we need to book tickets online and select the time slot to enter the safari and we managed to get the earliest slot at 7pm. Please book way in advance if you are planning to visit any tourist attraction in Singapore because the attractions are restricting the number of entries and visiting slots are competitive especially the night safari is only opened from Thursday to Sunday. 1st lesson: Book a few weeks in advance.

When we entered the premises at about 7.08pm, we immediately went to queue up for the “Creatures of the Night” 7.30pm show but was surprised to find out that it was already full. Apparently, they restricted the entries to 50 per show. 2nd lesson: Go earlier and quickly queue up for the show. So we decided to take a tram to tour around.

Since it was about 7.20pm that we aboard the tram, we could see the animals pretty clear though it got dark pretty soon as the tram travelled. OMG!!! I could see these animals really close except for the lions and tiger (tiger was in an enclosure). The deers and the tapirs were so super near that they could easily come into our tram and sit with us :p. One tapir was so close to me that I thought it was going to sniff me. Oh yes, I am taking my words back which I’ve said to my boy that we were going to the same Zoo but at night. This was totally different. The Night Safari showcases nocturnal animals.

After the ride At 7.49pm, we immediately try to queue for the show (this was the only show available, the rest were not available else it will be more fun) but was astonished that the 8.30pm was full too. We asked the crew what time should we queue for the 9.30pm show and he said “NOW”. We were like “HUH!” But he was very nice to put us on waiting list for the 8.30pm show. So I brought the kids to the “food court” just beside the show queuing area while hubby was queuing up. The table which we were seated was just beside the queuing area so I can easily pass food to him if we ordered food but LUCKILY the crew told us we were able to come in because someone gave up waiting. Lesson 3: Be thick skinned and ask whether can put you on waiting list. If not, have someone to sit at the queuing bench while the rest can go to the “food court” but choose the table near the queuing bench so can pass food around. 

Yes. We got into the 8.30pm “Creatures of the Nights”. It was a little cozy performance area and the host was really good though I find the show’s duration a little bit too short. We saw  many cute animals up close (seated at the first row) which I never saw them before in the day Zoo like the white raccoon, the little white fox, the fishing cat, etc.. Lesson 4: Sit at the first row to experience these cute animals up close.

Then “makan time!”. We went to the “food court” and ordered the Satays, cheesy fries and the beef noodles. Yes, the place seem like a open-air food court with better ambience but comes with a price. A plate of 6 pcs of satay is about $6.50, beef soup noodle Around $12. Lesson 5: Eat full at home first if you don’t wish to eat there as it is the only place to buy and eat.

At about 10pm, we decided to just take another ride to see the difference. Disappointingly, most of the animals seem to be resting. But we Truly enjoyed the cool night breeze on the tram but my boy was already asleep on my lap with my girl nearly dozing off. Lesson 6: Take the tram or visit the animals or take the walking trails earlier to catch animals while the animals are still active. They were still awake at 10pm but definitely more active if you visit them earlier. 

It was a pity that we didn’t walk any trails because both kids were tired and way past their bedtime. However, this was truly a great and eye-opener for us as this was our first safari experience.

Summary of the tips:

• 1st lesson: Book a few weeks in advance.
• 2nd lesson: Go earlier and quickly queue up for the show
• Lesson 3: Be thick skinned and ask whether can put you on waiting list. If not, have someone to sit at the queuing bench while the rest can go to the “food court” but choose the table near the queuing bench so can pass food around. 
• Lesson 4: Sit at the first row to experience these cute animals up close.
• Lesson 5: Eat full at home first if you don’t wish to eat there as it is the only place to buy and eat.
• Lesson 6: Take the tram or visit the animals or take the walking trails earlier to catch animals while the animals are still active. They were still awake at 10pm but definitely more active if you visit them earlier. 

Have fun!