Ingredients:
Kampung chicken, sesame oil, yellow wine, ginger wine, bentong ginger & wood ear.

Method:
1. Blanch the shredded wood ear, drained & put aside.
2. Stir fry the shredded ginger with sesame oil until fragrant, add in wood ear.
3. Add in chicken pieces & stir fry for a little while, add some water, covered & cook well.
4. When the chicken is cooked, add in yellow wine & ginger wine (the proportion I used is 1 bottle of yellow wine with 1/3 bottle of ginger wine)
5. Add in some castor sugar (or just fine sugar) to taste if necessary.
6. If you prefer, add in a little bit of hard liquor (eg. brandy) to the dish.

**This is the yellow wine I used, bought from a chinese medical hall, not those home made ones as I find this is sweeter & tastier.

• 2 Comments

Ingredients:
Pig trotter, vinegar, bentong ginger, gula melaka

Method:
1. Boil the bentong ginger with vinegar for about 15 – 20 minutes.
2. Blanch the pig trotter, drained & put aside.
3. When the ginger & vinegar is ready, put in the pig trotter, covered & cook well.
4. Add in gula melaka to taste.

**The black vinegar we used here are bought from Singapore, my aunt said can’t find it here. Using other brands will not taste as good.

• 3 Comments

As I’ve said, pig trotter in vinegar is one of my favourite dish & I’ve been looking forward to have it. Therefore I insisted my aunt to cook more and I’ve been eating it for lunch & dinner in the past 2 days (Saturday & Sunday).

Today when I receive the food delivered from SN Nanny, guess what? It’s pig trotter in vinegar!! Oh gosh 3 days in a row, I can’t imagine how much fat I’ve taken in……

But it is so yummy that I still finished it all by myself, LOL…. well, let’s worry about weight loss later la.

• 10 Comments

Last Saturday was the 12th day of my confinement and Ive gone to the saloon to get my hair washed & blow, I felt really really great. (well you’ll know what I mean if you have had your hair not washed for 12 days…..)

My friends & colleagues arrived around 2 – 3pm and then the lunch session started. Among the dishes served are pig trotter in vinegar, chicken in yellow wine, omelette with ginger, stir-fried spinach & oyster mushroom. Everyone seems satisfied with the food and we had a good time chatting as well.

Here are some pictures of Kaith taken on the day.

• 5 Comments

What is so special about the 12th day? Well, I’m not sure about others but in my family custom (I’m a cantonese & husband is a hakka), the 12th day in confinement has the following significance:

1. I can wash my hair on this day, and thereafter I can wash hair every 3-4 days. (hooray!)
2. Relatives & friends will come to visit me & baby on this day.
3. I’ll serve pig trotter in vinegar & chicken in yellow wine to the guests & my family.

I very much look forward to this day, as I can wash my hair finally & get freshen up. Most importantly, I get to eat my favourite pig trotter in vinegar (without worrying about the weight I’m gonna put on, hahaha)……..yummy!!! My aunt, who was my confinement nanny last time, will be cooking the pig trotter & I myself will cook the chicken in yellow wine.

I’ll post pictures & share the recipes with all in my other blog afterwards.

• 13 Comments

The nurse came by this morning to check on baby & mummy again, both are doing fine.

Baby Kaith now weighs 3.2kg, an increase of about 0.4kg since birth. She is still taking 3oz of milk every 3-4 hours, but more on breast milk now as mummy is more frequent in nursing & expressing milk.

On the other hand, Dillon still very much fascinated by his lil’ sister and he even wanted to carry Kaith. LOL

• 10 Comments

It’s been almost a week since I delivered Kaith and I’m glad that everything went on smoothly to date.

Nurses has came to check on Kaith & myself on Day 3 & today, they said Kaith has no jaundice at all & she is healthy, and of course they encourage me to keep breastfeeding Kaith, which I’m already doing anyway. They will come again on Day 10 to measure her weight. Kaith is currently on breast milk & formula milk alternately (poor mummy has not establish her milk supply yet :<), taking 3oz each feed on 3-4 hours interval.

Confinement has been pleasant so far, I’ve been taking herbal hot bath everyday, and I’ve also gone for Malay post natal massage on Day 4, which actually has made me feel more energetic & healthier, I shall be going for another round sometime this week.

• 15 Comments

As I’ve mentioned in my previous post about DIY confinement plan & that I’ve placed order with Peiling, now there is a slight change in the plan, yeah it’s very last minute change.

Frankly speaking, I’ve heard some not so good comment about the confinement food catering at Peiling lately & thus I’ve decided to switch to another caterer, SN-Nanny in Sri Petaling.

Since I’ve paid RM200 non-refundable deposit to Peiling, I’ve used the budget to exchange for some necessary goods like sesame oil, sesame cereal drink, ginger wines, for myself & my friends who want the goods as well.

I’ve placed the order with SN Nanny for their Flexi package, which includes 1 meat, 1 vege, 1 soup, 1 brown rice & 1 red dates drink at RM1200 for 30 days. On top of that I need to pay her additional RM300 for delivery as I wasn’t taking the full package (2 meats, 2 vege, 2 brown rice, 1 soup & red dates drink, incl delivery for 30 days at RM2200). I didn’t want to take the full package, as I still want some flexibility in my menu, where I (or my maid) can still prepare some extra dishes that I feel like eating at times.

SN Nanny also provide the double boiled chicken essence at RM15 per serving & I am planning to take on that too later (3rd week of confinement onwards), because I think the price is quite reasonable & it’ll save me time to prepare & I could have more time to rest & bonding with my baby & Dillon.

Anyway, everything is ironed out finally……

• 17 Comments

Most of you would have known that I won’t have a confinement lady this time and I will order confinement food catering. Click here to read about my plan & budget.

Therefore I’ve done quite a bit of “research” & enquiries around with different caterers and I thought I would share the information with all, who knows some of you might need this as reference in future? I would not comment about the food & service here because everybody has different taste buds & requirement. You can always arrange for free food tasting with all these caterers & judge yourself.

1. SHL Care Confinement Cares
Location: Metro Prima, Kepong
Tel: 603-6251 6133 (Joean)

Package A – RM2280 (2 Soups, 2 Rice, 4 Dishes, Snack, Red Dates Drink + 15 packs herbal bath & 1 dry shampoo)
Package B – RM1880 (1 Soup, 2 Rice, 4 dishes, Red Dates Drink + 15 packs herbal bath & 1 dry shampoo)

Flexi meal package (delivery will be charged separately)
Week 1 & 2 – RM38/meal (1 Soup, 1 Rice, 2 Dishes, Red Dates Drink)
OR M65/meal – (1 Soup, 2 Rice, 4 dishes, Red Dates Drink)
Week 3 & 4 – RM40/meal or RM70/meal

2. PeiLing
Location: SS2, PJ
Tel: 603-7877 8000 (Alice)

Complete 30-days package – RM2988 (8 food items inclusive of delivery, 30 days herbal bath for mum & baby, 30 days Rejuvenation Supplement, 1 box Soh Hup Yuen, 1 bottle yellow wine, 1 bottle sesame oil, 1 belly belt….etc)

Flexi meal package is also available (min order of 5 items from the menu list for a min of 14 days, delivery will be charged separately) – more economic

3. SN-Nanny
Location: Sri Petaling
Tel: 6012- 933 8353(Karen)

Complete 30-days package – RM2200 (2 meats, 2 Vege, 1 Soup, 2 Brown Rice, 1 Red dates drink, inclusive of delivery)

Flexi meal 30-days package – RM1200 (1 meat, 1 Vege, 1 Soup, 1 Brown Rice, 1 Red dates drink, delivery will be charged separately) – can order for 14 days at RM560 also

4. Feng Chai
Location: Puchong, opposite IOI Mall
Tel: 012-263 5071 / 012-219 2559 (Mrs. Wu)

Complete 28-days package – RM2180 (2 meat, 2 Vege, 1 Soup, 1 Red dates drink, inclusive of delivery)

Please note that the above package & prices are correct at the time I made my enquiry, it might have changed throughout the months & years so the best is to contact the respective caterer to confirm the package & price again.

• 9 Comments

I’ve finally decided the confinement food menu that I’m gonna order from Peiling and faxed over to them already. In the first 14 days, I’m only ordering 1 meat, 1 vege, 1 soup, 1 brown & 1 white rice (enough for lunch & dinner), plus delivery fees, it cost close to RM700. If the quality of food & service are good, I will then order for another 14 days but might slightly change the combination of menu.

Based on my estimation, this whole confinement food catering will cost me around RM1500 for 28 days and on top of that, I’ll still need to buy some herbs like Dong Guai, Dong Chung Chou, Pao Sum etc & Kampung Chicken & liquor to make double- boiled herbal soup from 14th day onwards. Not forgetting also the Red Dates, Dong Sum & Kei Zhi to prepare the daily herbal tea to drink.

Well if I can work within a budget of 2 – 2.5k, it is still cheaper than getting a confinement lady isn’t it? In my last confinement where my aunty was helping me day care, I’ve also spent nearly 2k on just buying the raw food, herbs & wine so to me I still think DIY it this time can save me a bomb.

• 3 Comments

Since this is already my 2nd baby, I’ve decided to DIY my confinement due to:
1. My aunt was helping me (day time) in my last confinement but she isn’t free this time, and I don’t need a full time stay in confinement lady as I’ll be breastfeeding & taking care at night time anyway.
2. My maid can help to bath my baby & prepare bath water for me.
3. Since I only need the meal, it’ll be more cost saving to just order the food delivery.

I’ve been asking around for comments & checking out a few caterers that do provide confinement food delivery and then I came down to 2 options, which are SHL & Peiling. SHL was my 1st choice based on some Friend’s recommendation but when I call for food tasting, they told me they are fully booked for the month of July, such a disappointment!

So then I went to Peiling for food tasting and found that their flexi-meal package is not too bad also in terms of choice of food & price, so I’ve decided to order 14 days of meal from them and if the service & quality is good, I will then place order for the following 14 days. The only thing that I’ll need to prepare myself would be the daily red dates drinks and the chinese herbal tonic soup from 14th days onwards.

Actually we are lucky that we can have different options nowadays to plan for our confinement, and it can be catered according to our budget.

• 8 Comments