I am back....well sort of :)

growing our own vegetable garden!

Wow it i has been a long long while since I last updated!  I have been so busy being a full time mother to my beautiful daughter Eva!   Can't believe that she is turning two this June already!  How time flies.   She is geting to the toddler stage :).     Less wakings which is a bonus but trying to ignore those little tantrums can be a bit hard sometimes.   Stress levels get up but all is good when I look at her most adorable baby photo above my computer.

We have been trying to build a vegetable patch for the last few months just to ourselves busy....well mainly Eva being busy and teaching her where her green food comes from.   Oh and teaching her how to only pick when the tomatoes are getting ripe!   She is getting good at that and watering the garden nearly every morning.  I think it has become a routine.   When she wakes up she remembers to water the garden! 

We tried to grow broccoli, snow beans and cucumber!   The broccoli just died because something was infesting it!  And our snow beans died because of the heavy rainfall and  the we only 'harverested' one cucumber lol. 

one cucumber from our vege garden!  nice and crunchy

The only greens that are thriving are all the Asian herbs and cherry tomatoes! 

Anyway enough of me rambling on!! 

Sorry about all the photos that are missing!  Not sure what happened!  

I will be sure be updating a little often just because I got more 'time' on my hands now :).



Til next time

Ann

A Late Happy New Year

It has been a long time since I last posted!  Looking back last year's posts............I didn't write much :).  That is because all last year I was taking time off from being pregnant and giving birth to the most beautiful daughter on Earth.   She is 8 months old now and just right now she is sleeping away.

The above photo shows is what I mainly prepare now - baby food!!   E loves loves fruit and a bit of yogurt.    She started solids around 5months and since then I have been battling with her food in-tolerances which created her skin to get eczema, flare ups and really horrible skin.  So then I kept a food diary - the culprit I found was wheat.  So hopefully she can get bread again.......I will slowly introduce that later in the month and see if her skin reacts.

Some snaps of food I have been making but never really had the time to post here (will do soon!). 

Home made pizza

Cassava Cake

Chinese Turnip Cake

Yep my photo styling is always going to be messy and I am hoping to brush up in that department and I really want a new clean and fresh blog format (like every blogspot user moving over to wordpress).  We will see!

Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup)

I have beeen so busy with work and other things in my life I rarely had the time to blog.  It's Saturday morning and I've just finished some paper work off for the week and now I am craving for some pho bo (vietnamese beef noodle soup) that I made last week.

I used this nice recipe from her site Viet World Kitchen and tweaked it a little to my taste.  Since I wasn't making pho for a big group of people I used minimal ingredients which the broth turned out fine.  I found that using beef neck bone made the soup broth not that clear (oh well it tasted delicious anyway) and used ox tail was a nicer but expensive choice.  I simmered both of this for about 3-4 hours, scooping out the scum and then added a cheat already made muslin cloth of pho spices which I got at the local Asian grocery store for around $3.60.   The ox tail meat comes out very tender!

For the bowls I used already sliced knuckle beef and beef balls and tendons - more than enough meat!  Garnishes were fresh basil, green onions /shallots, bean sprouts, dipping sauce was the usual hoi sin and chilli sauce.

The broth turned out pretty good.  It didn't taste anything like the restaurants cause its so msg based!

A nice video of Pho by Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam. The best dish ever!

Ikea Food Restaurant/Cafe, Logan City

I love Ikea and the store I go to is the one in Logan City!  I love Ikea for their Swedish furniture - so modern and stylish yet cheap.  After hours and hours of walking around admiring their show rooms  I start to get real hungry and all I want to do is sit down for a good meal.   The food there is cheap for the price (under $15) and it tastes alright but I think the desserts there are pretty sweet!    I like having coffee there since I get it for free since I am a 'Ikea family member' which  allows me to have discounts on weekly items and deals on meals!

I only been to the Ikea Restaurant/Cafe for lunch.  I have yet to eat anything from the breakfast or dinner menu.  I have yet to try Bistro or purchase their items at the food market.

This is what I had a few weeks ago.  Fish and chips with a daim cake and a free coffee!   I think I paid about $10 altogether for this plus the free coffee.

Daim,  Almond tart with Daim - brittle butter almond centres with a milk chocolate coating.  It's nice and crunchy but way to sweet for my tooth!  I remember it was about $2.95 under the family member discount(?)  Normally its $3.95

Salt and pepper squid (under $6 i think>) and chips (extra $) on the side.  It looks dry but it was pretty okay.

What I had earlier this week:

Chicken breast with vegetable pasta.  I like this and it costs me $7.95.  The chicken was somewhat dry but oh well I get what I pay for :P.

Stuffed salmon fillet with chive and dill sauce with vegetable medallions with chive & dill sauce. $11.95!  This was so yummy!!!!  The medallions were delicious and the salmon was cooked right.  Fresh too.

I am at Ikea to only shop and if I am hungry I will get something to eat here.  It looks like hospital food but for the price you can't really complain!   The service is quick - you wait in line like a canteen and out you go with the food.  Finding a spot to eat is kind of hard if you eat around lunch time.  You have to clear your utensils and dishes yourself since they do not hire cleaners.  

I will recommend it if you are okay with cheap food :P.