Marinated Baked Pork Chops

This dish is so super delicious and so super easy to make, it's definitely a keeper!

The sauce goes fantastic with rice and/or bread!

Found this recipe online and improvised on it a little and BOOM!, I suddenly have a family favorite!

The hubs loved it so much that he slurped up all the sauce with bread AFTER he had it with rice! Even Renee finished up her whole bowl of rice easily.

This recipe serves 3 but the hubs and I are big eaters, so it could serve 4 as well.

Ingredients:

6 pieces of lean pork chops, trimmed.
2 tablespoon white soya sauce
4 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
4 tablespoon brown sugar
4 tablespoon tomato sauce
2 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 170'C.
2. In a small bowl, mix the soya sauce, vegetable oil, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, tomato sauce and lemon juice together until properly blended.
3. Place the pork chops inside a medium sized baking tray and spread half of the sauce over them. Make sure sauce is evenly spread and meat is covered.
4. Bake for 20 minutes, covered.
5. When done, flip the chops over and spread the remaining sauce over them.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, uncovered.
7. Serve with rice and/or bread.

The pork chops can be substituted with chicken as well.

Hope you all love this dish as much as me and mine do!

Do share with me if you think there are ways to improve on this recipe to make it even more va va voom!

Happy CNY 2012

(pic was taken early this morning when we were all still fresh and energetic)

After a long 1st day of visiting different relatives, I finally have time to sit back and relax a little.

And also to take some time to wish my readers (if I have any), a very Happy & Prosperous Dragon Year ahead!

Tuna Casserole

Over the pass 2 days, I whipped up pretty tedious dishes for dinner so for tonight, I decided, why not do something simple? Besides, I still had a packet of pasta that was very near expiry and we didn't want that to go to waste now, do we.

So here's the recipe for my homemade Tuna Casserole.

Serves 2 (but my 'serves 2' can really serve 3 or even 4 small eaters).




Ingredients:

2.5 cups elbow pasta / macaroni
1.5 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 can of tuna (drained)
1 small can of cream of mushroom soup
A handful of crushed potato chips (I used Lay's Classic)

Method:

1. Cook the pasta until al-dante or soft. Drain.
2. Mix in the mushroom soup, tuna and 1 cup of cheese. Mix well.
3. Pre-heat oven to 180'C.
4. Pour the pasta mixture into a 9' x 3' baking tray.
5. Sprinkle the remaining half cup of cheese on top.
6. Lastly, sprinkle on the handful of crushed chips.
7. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes.
8. Done!

Simple. Filling. And takes less than an hour to whip up.

The tuna can also be replaced with chicken or beef or just plain vegetables.

If you're replacing it with chicken, just change the mushroom soup to chicken soup.

And if you're replacing it with beef, just use liquid beef stock instead.

Hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

2012 and a little more

It's so funny how one tiny little baby can turn your whole world upside down. 

And make you wish that you had more than 24 hours in a day. 

Just to get basic daily chores done.

And maybe squeeze in some 'relax' time in between (if you're real lucky).

But then, I really don't have such luck.

Therefore the lack of blogs.

But I do have time to tweet.

Ample of time actually. When I'm breastfeeding.

So currently, that's where the blog is happening.

Limited to 140 words of course.

Christmas passed by really fast.

In fact, I counted down to Christmas sitting on the floor at Godma's, cleaning poo from Dylan's ass. 

I also counted down to the new year sitting on the bed upstairs in Sarah's room cleaning poo from Dylan's ass. 

Yes. My life is interesting like that.

Dylan saying goodnight to 2011

My last meal of 2011 - mummy's famous mai fun tong, ipoh salted chicken, char siew and siew yoke

Renee experiencing her first ever hair cut in 3 years 4 months plus.

She got a bob!

Dylan's first yawn for 2012 (i think)

The Rodrigues clan came back from Oz so we cousins all gathered for a group pic

Random pic of my keychain stuffed in the car door's pocket

Queuing up for my late lunch.

Drive-throughs are what I frequent these days with Dylan in the baby seat. 

Hubs brought me grocery shopping at Ben's @ Publika

Food village @ Publika

Bought Chatime.

Ordered 3 drinks and asked for double pearls for all.

Heard the counter girl tell the customer behind me "Sorry. No more pearls" as I was walking away.

Hahahaha! 

Little baby cousin Jordan not so little anymore.

He's one of the lead actors on Oz's famous Dance Academy! 

Renee on her first official day to school

So that about sums up what I've been up to since 2012 began.

Nothing interesting.

Just the usual ho hum of family life.

But I love my little family.

No matter how insane they drive me.

Random Happenings

Last Saturday

The four of us went to Empire for Christmas shopping and dinner.

For the first time.

As a family.

It was fun but it was also stressful.

Had to feed Dylan in Madam Kwan when SK wanted to stop there for early dinner.

At 6pm.

Of course, only he (and Dylan), had their food.

And then when we stopped at Lameeya for proper dinner at 8.30pm, Dylan also woke up for his next feed.

I thought there was a nursing room in Tangs and rushed there with a wailing Dylan.

Only to be told that there was NO nursing room in Tangs and that the ONLY nursing room available was one floor above at the OTHER END from where I was -_-'

Well. 

At least now I know where the nursing room in Empire is.

 trying on clothes before leaving for Empire.

still could not fit into any of my skinnies.

damn!

 Renee and Dylan in the twin stroller for the first time.

both deep asleep when we arrived at Empire.

Last Sunday

Was Shanya's baptism-cum-fullmoon do at Godma's house.

We didn't go to church for the baptism.

But we made it to Godm'as house for the fullmoon luncheon.

As usual, we arrived late.

Lunch started at 2pm.

We arrived at almost 3pm *blush*

 my first ever taste of macaroons.

and it's the famous ones from Nathalie Gourmet Studios.

i'm no longer a macaroon virgin!

 Shanya Charisse Ravindran.

Born Oct 26th, 2011.

Weighing 3.55kgs at birth.

 at home before leaving for Godma's house.

holding her precious pringles.

waiting for me to finish feeding Dylan.

 a fully-fed and satisfied Dylan.

 Daddy carrying Dylan for the first time.

See how stressed up he looks.

 pretty scarves from Chiang Mai.

souvenirs from cousin Michele.

picked a turquoise one for Sarah, a reddish-orange one for Jodie and a psychedelic one for myself!

  

 4 generations in the family.

grandma, me, mummy, Dylan, Shanya, Godma, Lynette & grandpa.

Random Pictures

testing out my new toy ;)

So u think I am very free?

Yes. Looking after a house, handling a 3yo toddler and managing a newborn all at the same time is the easiest job in the world.

That's what people think. Isn't it?

Here's the reality okay.

I feel like a fucking feeding machine! Out of 24hrs in a day, I think I spend 18 freaking hours just on feeding and burping alone.

The remaining 6 hrs is used to bathe and diaper change Dylan, bathe and feed Renee, bathe and feed myself, tidy up the house (because nobody helps me!!!) and do the laundry ie. wash, dry, fold, put back in wardrobe. And all these done around Dylan's unpredictable sleeping times.

Yes. There is no 'sleep' in that list because there IS NO SLEEP!

There is no sleep during daytime because if I'm even lucky, I get at least 2 hrs straight to rush through my shower, prepare lunch and make sure Renee and I have our food.

Usually, before I can even finish lunch, Dylan wakes up dy and I end up spending the next 2 hrs feeding him and trying to put him back to sleep.

When he finally goes back to sleep, I get to finish up my already cold lunch, wash up the dishes, do laundry, tidy up the house a bit and give Renee her bath.

Usually though, I only get to finish up my lunch, wash dishes and bathe Renee before he wakes up again. Then the next 2 hrs is again spent on feeding and trying to put him back to sleep.

If I'm lucky, I get to do laundry and tidy up house. If I'm not, then that will have to wait till tomorrow, or at most times, I rush through it while leaving Dylan to wail away in his cot / basinet.

And then it's rushing to prep and feed Renee dinner, wash up dishes and then prepare Dylan for night wipe down and bed time.

All through the nite is the same thing. If I'm lucky, he sleeps straight 2 hrs before his next feed so I get sleep as well. But again, that's usually not the case.

He feeds, fusses, burps and sleeps. By the time I get my mind to relax and fall asleep, he's awake for his next feed.

Either that or I have to change his diapers.

Either that or it's because I have a snoring machine AND a squealing machine in the same room as me.

And by the time I get to have some decent sleep, it's time to wake up and start the day all over again.

No. I'm not complaining.

After all, it was my choice to stay home and look after my own children and my house.

But DO NOT, for a second, think that I'm very free at home.

DO NOT, for a second, think that I'm getting so much sleep that I 'should' wake up earlier to get more things done.

Because I am NOT free and I'm certainly NOT getting enough sleep!

So please, bear with my 'lack of patience' and my 'absentmindedness' okay.

Because I think I'm doing a pretty good job as it is already.

Unless you think you can do better?

MyCameraCouture.com

Was looking around for a nice strap for my camera but couldn't find any available here in KL. The one that I found and really liked cost about RM200 plus.

It was different from the usual black straps that comes free with purchases of camera, but not so different that I was willing to part with that kind of money for. And so, I continued my search.

You know how went you visit a site and it comes up with a list of links related to the site you're on? Well, I went onto eBay to see if the strap I liked was selling for cheaper but it was still the same price, and underneath it there was a whole list of related links and one of them was MyCameraCouture.com. 

It's a website selling only camera straps, all personally designed and custom-made by the owner of the site itself. 

And I found soooooo many that I liked!

The designs were soooooo much nicer.

AND the prices were also sooooo much cheaper!

So I bought myself 2 straps.

As a delivery present to myself.

I calculated the dates, and knew that I would be receiving it a few days after I gave birth.

Perfect!

And true enough, about a week after Dylan and I were discharged from the hospital, I received a parcel in the mail. It was from Canada.

My camera is totally rocking it's new look.

And I'm totally loving my cam's new look.

Oh.

And both straps PLUS shipping cost me only RM180 plus.