Weekend treats

I love weekend. Who's not? Weekend is fun, happy, relax, enjoy and spending time with loved ones. These are some food pictures which I took over the last two weekends.

We took the girls to Ipoh for the coming ping pong national tournament training. After dropping the girls to the coach at the school hall. We went for dim sum at Hong Xing Dim Sum restaurant nearby.

I didn't know how to call this pastry. It looks so special to me. It is made of almond flakes, black and white sesame seeds.

Lau Sar Bao is always my favourite. These are 4 mini Lao Sar Bao. I could easily wallop all of them, but I left two for my husband.

When having dim sum, I must order dessert for myself. That day, the restaurant had Kwai Fa Jelly and Egg rolled with meat floss.

We went to Subway, AEON Taiping. It is not our first time having Subway, but it is our first time having it at AEON Taiping.

This definitely is our first time buying 12 Mister Donuts at one go. We took 3 days to finish them. I kept them in the fridge and microwave them again when I wanted to eat.

Weekend is here again. This weekend treat is homemade steamboat with my newly bought induction cooker.  Happy long weekend, folks.

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Campus singing contest

My daughters school is going to held the parental / teacher-student campus singing contest (亲子/师生校园歌唱比赛) .  This singing contest is sponsored by " 南洋商報;Nányáng Shāngbào and CARLSBERG".  We get to know this singing contest in July and the contest date is in September. We have two months to prepare for the duet song.

My 9 years-old May was the first to show her interest in the contest. My 11 years-old April was not so keen to join. However, me, being a supportive and sporting parent,  I pestered my husband to join the singing contest too. Our plan is May sings a duet with me, and April sings a duet with Papa. We informed their music teacher in school, their teacher was delighted with our participation and immediately passed us 2 forms.

While we were in the midst of thinking of what duet songs to sing, I got to know that one of April's classmates is going to take part in the singing contest with her elder cousin sister. Both of them are pretty good singers, especially the elder cousin sister had won herself several champions in local singing contests. April's classmate too won herself many champions in campus singing contests.

April who was not keen to join said,"Mommy, then there is no point for us to join anymore, they sure win."

I wanted to encourage her by saying, "That is ok, we just do our best."

April again said, "She(her classmate) can't just sing with parents and teachers, why must her sing with her big cousin sister? "

I was speechless. I have to agree with her that is what written in the singing contest form. She understood that every one should follow the rule and regulation of the contest.

Let me translate the singing contest rule and regulation as below.
1. This singing contest is opened: Parents/Teachers/PTA(Parents Teachers Association)
2. Two person in a group: Parent-Child/Teacher-Student/PTA-Student relationships.

There is not stated in the rule and regulation that the relationship of Relative-Student is allowed. After much thought and consideration, I decided to text the music teacher on what we think. I told her that it is not fair to accept the relationship of the duet participants other than what is stated in the form, and we wanted to withdraw from joining.

I thought that the school would re-do the singing contest form with new rule and regulation after I made the complaint.

I was informed by the music teacher on the next day that the school has decided to disqualify those relative-child participation. Period.

April's classmate is not taking part finally. April and Papa too have decided to withdraw. May insists to go ahead, I have no choice but to proceed with her.

Now, May and me have started to practice our duet song over and over again, be it at home and at the singing lessons which we purposely engaged for this singing contest.

We are anxiously waiting for the date to step on to the stage. This is my first time taking part in such singing contest. To be honest, I have stage fright worse than May, I am getting nervous. I just wish that I can sing the whole song without any mistake. 

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Purple Sweet Potatoes dessert soup

Lately, I love eating sweet potatoes. Every time, I try to look up for sweet potatoes when I go to hypermarket or wet market. I steam sweet potatoes and take them to office as my snack. Though sweet potatoes is high carbs, but I won't feel guilty for having them after knowing their nutrition facts, especially the purple color one. Purple sweet potatoes rank high in nutritional value along with other purple foods.

Purple sweet potatoes are a high source of:
Antioxidants from anthocyanins and polyphenolic compounds

They are also a good source of:
Dietary fiber
Calcium
Iron
Complex carbohydrate

Purple sweet potatoes are also very low in:
Fat
Sodium

I spent around RM20 to RM30 every week on sweet potatoes. 

When I have started to get bored of having steamed sweet potatoes everyday, I will make them into other food. The simplest way of having sweet potatoes is to make sweet potatoes dessert soup.

Ingredients: Purple sweet potatoes, dried longan, lotus seeds, and I only used  2 Taiwanese ginger tea cubes(台湾姜母茶) for taste.

I like sweet potatoes, because it is rich in fiber and it can make you feeling full.

Ingredients:Pumpkin, purple sweet potatoes,red dates and Taiwanese ginger tea cube(台湾姜母茶). 

I put all the ingredients in slow cooker with hot water. Let it cook for 1.5 hours and serve. It is so yummy both of my purple sweet potatoes dessert soups, I tell ya!

I want to thank my SIL for buying me Taiwan Ginger Tea from Taiwan. I find it is too sweet to drink as a tea alone, therefore I put them into my sweet dessert soup, and it makes my sweet dessert soup taste so well. 

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