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8 months of pregnancy to date and I can tell you that of all three trimesters this is my least favourite one.

Day by day I see myself morphing from a baby elephant into a mother of all elephants. Supporting evidence to this statement would be some of my tight maternity clothes! I had to go buy bigger sized ones a few days ago.

My poor stomach literally feels stretched that it itches sometimes while I keep getting sharp pains near my rib cage! I always thought it was my bra cutting into my skin, which prompted me to go out and buy bigger cup ones (okie so that’s the only advantage I can think of for now) but according to my gynea, it’s because of the pressure from the baby’s growth.

If that’s not enough, my back feels like its being snapped into two all the time. It almost feels like someone is hitting me violently with a stick and there’s nothing I can do about it. That’s what I go through almost everyday. There are days where the pain is soo immense that I am not able to move! I hate that feeling so much that I tell my husband that we should just perform a C-sect NOW and bring this baby out so that my back pain would just bloody stop. With all the pain, it suck eggs to be waking up early to go to work and being confined to the cube for 9 hours straight.

Gone are the days where I can sleep in till 1pm on weekends. Like an alarm clock, I am up by 10.30 a.m rummaging the kitchen for some breakfast!! I can’t even lift a finger to do anything these days. A simple task of bringing the laptop from the room to the living room or going to the kitchen to get a glass of juice just seems so daunting and an uphill battle. Which makes me ask my husband to do it. Which also make it look like I’m being a bossy demanding wife. Which could be true (it is it is it is!) but I’ll just blame it on my pregnancy if he ever retorts back. Which he hasn’t to date.  Coz bless him, that man knows what’s best for him

Every day my husband looks at my belly button and says he swears it’s going to pop. Every day I tell myself I am going to demand for something expensive once this baby pops.

And my Baby S! She has become EXTREMELY active. I can feel the kicks and punches everywhere, on the left side, on the right side, near my chest, sometimes she taps in mose code, or kicks me three times continuously like she’s attempting a knock knock joke and this goes on from morning while I’m at work right into midnight. Sometimes even till 1ish which makes it hard for me to sleep. Does this baby not ever sleep?? Sure it’s cute, other times, it can get a handful. I don’t know what the heck is going on in there but there are times I’ve told her to quit it or else……….(heh, who knew I’d be saying those words already!).

My husband is able to see her movements clearly from my stomach which excites him. Previously she would only use her legs to kick but now it appears that she has finally figured what to do with her hands – push mommy’s stomach and see how far it will stretch.

Destination Down South yo – It looks like my baby has finally turned position, which I long suspected even before the scan coz of all that kicking and pressure on my rib cage. From the recent scan, she is still my baby girl who just happens to have her daddy’s nose – that’s the first thing we both noticed! They do say afterall first borns usually look like their dads. Her cheeks are still very chubby,  most likely as a result from all that yummy food I’ve been eating :D  Can’t wait to see how she looks like in person.

According to my gynea, I am on a 95% way of having this baby via vaginal birth. Although I am quite happy to hear that (only because a C-Sect would take 4 weeks to fully recover), I am also terrified at the pain that I’ll have to endure down there. My visits to the gynea will be more frequent now too.

My new official due date: 16 September 2010. Which coincidentally is 1 Malaysia Day and a public holiday to welcome Princess S :D  7 weeks before she arrives.  We’re both very excited!!

Hmm, looks like my first posting of the week is slowly turning out to be a cooking one

I made chicken kebabs for Saturday dinner. I got this very-easy-to-do recipe from Rasa Malaysia and it turned out beautifully.  It was however a tad spicy but I blame it on my itchy hands that just could not resist sprinkling in some chili powder on top of the recommended chili flakes.

Note to self: Choose either one!

I took Whimiscaljottings advice on how not to get the sticks burnt and wala it did work, except for the front bits. But that’s purely my fault for not covering it with the chicken. I used the oven since we don’t have a grill!

As for the sides, I sautéed up the remaining capsicums and tomatoes in olive oil and topped it up with some potato pancakes, which I got from this site. The recipe was a little bland so I added in a bit of, yes, chilli powder, breadcrumbs and some cheese to it. It still needs a bit more oomph in it, I’ll figure that one out the next time. Maybe some curry powder should do the trick :D  This one took more cooking/preparation time compared to the kebabs. And it was only the side dish!! I was dead tired by the end of it all.

All together now!

It’s a good light dinner to have esp after you’ve pigged out during lunch.

You know what they say about how practice makes perfect? Well since my first fish dish came out good, I got tempted and was more confident to take on another fish recipe for Sunday lunch. I searched for a Chinese recipe this time around and came up with a nice Deep Fried Sweet and Sour Fish recipe, which I modified a little :) 

 Ingredients

1-2 BIG slice fish – I used tenggiri

1 egg, beaten

Salt

 Pepper

1/2 cup tapioca flour or corn flour

3 clove chopped garlic

Half chopped onion

1 chopped chili

Diced 1/2 red and green capsicum

1 Diced tomato

Sauce (combine):

Half tablespoon sugar or to taste

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 tablespoon tomato sauce

2 tablespoon plum sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp corn flour, mixed with 1 tbsp water for thickening

Garnishing:

Spring onion

Method

Make three diagonal slashes on both sides of fish. Then season with some salt and pepper. In a bowl, beat egg and mix corn flour. Coat the fish then deep fry until cooked. Place it on a serving dish.

In a wok, sauté garlic, onions and chili. Add in both the capsicums and tomatoes and fry for a bit. Pour in the combined sauce and bring to a boil. Add in thickening. Once done, pour sauce over fish and garnish with spring onions, like this:

The husband was really impressed with this one coz he said it tasted like what you get in Chinese restaurants *floats on cloud nine*

But of course, I really should credit Kuali.com coz that’s where I found the recipe from :)  And then credit myself for modifying the recipe, heh.

I also made my favorite broccoli and cabbage in oyster sauce for some vege goodness.

YUMMY

My life has been quite the pink of late

PINK sandals from Aunty Wylane to Baby S who got this all the way from Jakarta

Gift from Aunty Nicole– a PINK baby romper from Ralph Lauren

Thank you both for such a cute gift. Baby S will surely love it to bits.

PINK Baby Phat bottle cooler bag from the mother of Baby S

Which came with such a cute wet-wipe holder

If that’s not enough, I’ve been obsessing over rose scented products lately.  Or any bath products that smell good!! Which evidently comes in cute PINK packaging.

Latest obsession: Kose Happy Bath products – which smell like ROSE!!

First I got the shampoo and conditioner and found out that my husband has been secretly using it too

Then came the body lotion to compliment my rose scented mane :)  Now this he does not use.  He knows his boundaries, heh.

Smells so heavenly!

The obsession did not stop there.  I got Nicole to help buy me the shower gel and cologne from Sasa Singapore since it’s not readily available here. Thanks Nicole :)  Anyone who needs anything from Singapore – just get in touch with her as she goes there often.

I got the Victoria Secret 3-in-1 Hair/Body/Bubble Bath in Cupquake. Yes I smell like a walking, talking tray of freshly baked cupcakes topped with lots of sugary icing goodness with this one Perfect to chase away those Monday blues.

I also got myself perfumes to keep my scent-es (senses, get it!) happy!! I did not have to pay retail coz I bought it off someone’s collection.

CK Euphoria Blossom

YSL  

And Lancome Miracle which I bought from Ebay US

They may not smell like rose but I love it!!

I guess this is a good diversion since I can no longer shop for normal clothes To think these scents keep me very happy and satisfied too

Note: All photos credit to the sellers

I’ve just realized all three previous post have been somehow Thai-related!

And now for the fourth

I made a Thai Style fish dish this weekend *gleams with excitement*  I’m super excited because it is my first time  (and believe it or not) making a fish dish and it came out mightttty fineeee yo!

Ingredients:

2 fillet of fresh white fish.

2 sheets banana leaves (or you can substitute it with tin foil as the banana leaves burn easily)

1 Lime

Salt

For the Sauce:

¼ cup oyster sauce (or less)

3 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

1-2 tablespoon chili sauce

2 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon vinegar

3 tablespoon water

2 stalk lemongrass, minced.

2 chopped chilies

Chopped fresh coriander

4 clove chopped garlic

Directions:

1.  Rinse and pat dry fish fillet. Drizzle lime juice over each fillet while rubbing some salt in it.

2.  Wrap each fillet in a tin foil or banana leaf, fold it and place in the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until cooked and place aside.

3.  In a pan, stir in the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, chili sauce, fish sauce, vinegar, water and bring to a slight boil.

4.  Add in the chilies, coriander and minced lemongrass and let it simmer for 5 minutes or until aromatic.

5.  Taste to see if the sauce has a balance between sweet and sour. If it’s too salty, squeeze in more lime juice. Add in more sugar if it’s too sour and if it’s not salty enough, add in some more fish sauce.

6. Remove baked fillet from banana leaf/foil and place it on a plate. Drizzle with the sauce while sprinkling fresh coriander and tomatoes for garnishing……………..like this!

Serve together with Thai Chicken with Cashew Nuts, mmm mmm

And for dessert, thankfully I opted for something non-Thai, heh. I made a whole Nutella Cheesecake.  Boy, it was a good weekend for me and Baby S

It’s a non-bake cheesecake minus the gelatin (which explains why it looks a bit woobly) :D I threw in a huge tub of nutella in there and it’s absolutely rich!

BUT, I’m starting to think it’s cheaper to buy a few slices because all in, I ended up spending a little over RM50 just for the ingredients. And one top of that, I found out that my mixer has officially gone missing from the move!!! You can imagine the panic and dissappointment finding out only AFTER buying the ingredients…….thankfully after rummaging through the cupboards, we managed to find the owner’s mixers so wohooo, there is a Cooking Goddess after all

What to cook next? Hmm….something non-thai I guess?

I made fettuccine pasta with cream sauce topped with grilled chicken recently

But I’m going to blog about my Thai Basil Chicken

Came across the recipe here  and when the sweet day came where I felt like cooking, I found out the minced chicken I bought had expired!!!!

So we settled for maggi mee for dinner that night

The next day, the hubby helped buy the chicken from Carrefour.  He brought it home only to find out that the meat had a pungent smell to it that almost made him throw up!

Cereal was my dinner that night. (It is times like these that I miss staying with my mommie!)

Quite adamant to try on this recipe, we dropped by the same damn hypermarket on Saturday only to find out that they were not selling those nicely cut and packed boneless chicken bits and had no choice but to settle with keel. Why we keep going back there to buy our chicken - well good question coz I have no idea myself!

Chicken keel according to the hubby is the part above the chicken’s butt! That made me want to throw up until I googled and found out that it’s actually the breast bone,  that smart alec.  But still, we’re going to BAN buying any sort of  meat from this hypermarket going forward because I am seriously allergic to bones or hypermarkets that do not give us the luxury to buy nicely packed boneless chicken meat. Where are my damn options?!

This is the end product after the husband tried his very best to separate the meat from the bones, eww.

It only took me a good 10 minutes to cook it and  I wasn’t 100% satisfied with it because I wanted to use minced chicken or chicken fillet to begin with! Am I the only one this fussy when it comes to such things? Besides, the recipe was okie, it might need a bit more tweaking for a bit more ooomph, which I will figure out soon.

Meanwhile,  shall experiment on more recipes come this weekend.