Dats me ..

I have not visited the hairdresser for a long time .. and I am getting sick of my long hair .. tired of having to tie them .. not only that at times I looked tired and dead in long hair ..

And today, I decided to chop my locks .. and dis is how I look now .. a newer and fresher looking me .. hehehe

Thanks to my hairdresser, Vincent .. I know I can count on you!

So after the haircut, my sis, daughter and I head down to Paragon to meet my dear buddy, Jun Ernesto and his daughter, Isabel for coffee at Bakerzin..

It was a short meeting as he had to leave to meet his wifey for dinner in celebrating their wedding anniversary ..

To Jun and Mylene - Wishing u guys many more years of blissful marriage!

After coffee .. my sis, Tihani and I walked up and down Orchard Road to do a lil shopping before meeting DH and Auni for dinner at Swensen's @ Park Hotel. These are some of the stuff we ate ..

Fried Calamari

Fried Mee Goreng with Meat Chunks

Black Pepper Seafood Pasta

We also stuffed ourselves with Fish and Chips, drinks like Blueberry Soda, Bandung topped with Vanilla Ice Cream and Black Bean Pudding with Coconut Ice Cream .. (not pictured .. heheh)

BBQ at Aloha Loyang Bungalow

It has been a long time since I rented a chalet .. this year I decided to rent a bungalow at Aloha Loyang for 3 days 2 nites, from 16 - 18 Mar that is .. :-)

The first nite there .. it was family bonding time with my family and we had a bbq and definitely had a good time.

The second nite there .. we invited some close relatives and friends for some fun and food.

Some of the things served ..

We barbecued lots of stuff too .. satay, chicken wings, lamb chops, otak2, stingray, corn, bananas, etc .. unfortunately I was too busy to snap pix of them all ..

Anyways, to the invitees .. I hope you guys had a good time with all the good food and good company!

Banana Pancakes

Banana is one of the more popular fruit highly consumed in my household.

I love them, kids love them, hubby loves them and parents-in-law too love them .. hehe .. easier said, EVERYONE in my home loves them.. ;-)

Bananas, of course, contain nutritional values like proteins, carbo and also fiber.

I had bought a comb of bananas yesterday and so yesterday before I went to sleep, I thought that I would make Banana Pancakes for breakfast today. Why pancakes? Obvious reason being, they are simple to make!

This morning when I woke up, I looked through the internet for a banana pancake recipe and found this.

Based on the recipe above, I tweaked it to suit my taste or rather the kids' taste.

Ingredients

1 cup self raising flour
2 tbsp sugar
a pinch of salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 tbsp oil/butter
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

In a large bowl, mix flour with sugar and salt.
In another bowl, mix well eggs, milk, oil and mashed bananas.
Incorporate wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
Mix well until mixture is free from lumps.
Heat a non stick pan and use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to form each pancake.
Wait till bubbles start to appear on pancake and edges are brown then turn over for a further minute.

Mine was served warm with maple syrup! How good can my Sunday breakfast get?!?!

Next time, I will experiment with other fruits such as apples or pears OR perhaps make savoury ones with shrimps or potatoes!

Banana Choc Chunk Muffins

My sis in law called to ask if my kids are in today. If they are, then her two daughters would be coming over to play with my children.

I have no plans for today so I said that they may come over.

Hehe .. as usual, being the nice aunt, I decided to bake something for my nieces .. and it has got to be fuss free .. and what is fuss free for me?? .. Let me spell it out for you .. M-U-F-F-I-N-S! Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins!

Wassup with me and muffins .. ahh .. wat the heck! Told you .. I wanted to make something which is fuss free!

Using the basic banana muffin recipe that I have, I added choc chunks to it.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 large bananas, mashed
1 cup chocolate chunks + more for sprinkling

Method

Preheat oven to 175C.
Lay paper cases in muffin tins.
A - In a large bowl, put flour in.
B - Combine sugar, egg, oil, milk and mashed bananas.
Incorporate B into A and using a metal fork, fold in the flour and choc chunks till just moistened.
Spoon mixture into the muffin tins and then bake for about 25 - 30 mins or until a pick/skewer inserted comes out clean.
Stand muffins for about 5 mins before turning out to cool on a wire tray.

While the 2nd batch of muffins were in the oven, the kids arrived and the first remarks were "Wahhhh .. smell nice!"

I just took the first batch of muffins out of the oven and the kids just dived in .. they love it .. really really lurveeeeeeeeeeeee it!

I too, could not resist them .. banana-ey, chocolat-ey and best of all super moist!

The muffins were ready in an hour and disappeared quite fast too .. hehehe. I managed to save 5 pcs for sis in law who couldnt make it to my house!

Sis in law, Lily - Speedy recovery from your Lasik surgery .. I packed some muffins for you .. hope you enjoy them! .. See, I never forget you!

Does My Blog Look Good in This?!?

The third round of DMBLGiT is here and the host for this month is Culinary Curiosity.

I am going to join this event yet again .. not that I am a good photographer to showcase my work but really, I am participating for the fun of it.

I do not have the flair for photography though my dad was a great photographer turned one-time model .. hahah .. mum still keeps that paper advertisement of a motoring company that dad modelled for .. kewl eh ..

But hey, I was looking thru my blog and when I thought back again, the pictures I took now are much better than a year ago .. ;-p .. should I hone some photography skills??

Anyways, enuff of my blabbering .. this was the picture that I had just sent to this month's DMBLGiT ...

Well, if you are interested to participate, more details can be found here.

Mango Muffins

I haven't been productive in the kitchen lately. The lazy bug kind of hit me .. hehe ..

I have a large sized mango in the fridge .. overiped and bruised and I thought hey! that either have to go or be put to good use! I chose the latter. I would rather not just feed the bin. I would prefer to feed my tummy! (no wonder the expansion .. haha!)

I could only think of muffin .. the easiest to make .. and so Mango Muffins were born.

Following the Banana Muffins recipe that I have, I subbed the bananas for mashed mango!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 large mango, deseeded and mashed

Method

Preheat oven to 175C.
Lay paper cases in muffins tins and grease bottom only of paper cases.
A - In a large bowl, put flour in.
B - Combine sugar, egg, oil, milk and mashed mango.
Incorporate B into A and using a metal fork, fold in the flour till just moistened.
Spoon mixture into the muffin tins and then bake for about 25 - 30 mins or until a pick/skewer inserted comes out clean.
Stand muffins for about 5 mins before turning out to cool on a wire tray.

Oh well, I had my mango muffin with nuggets of leftover fresh mango!