Easy Peasy Recipe: Overnight Oats

I caught the overnight oats convenience bug for about a year now and I am pleased with the results. This simple, no cooking required recipe has kept my cholesterol index healthy. 

As much as I enjoy this cold breakfast, I also indulge in the occasional warm oats porridge on a weekend when not rushing to be out of the door for school run.

The easy-peasy steps, as you may already know:

1. Place 3 tablespoons of rolled oats into a jar. I use an airtight jar from IKEA because I happen to have a couple in storage. 

2. Add 200ml goats milk (you may use milk or soya milk, according to your preference). The easy formula is oat to milk ratio being 1:1.

3. Stir as lightly as possible to soak oats evenly. The more you stir, the thicker the oats as more beta-gluten is released. I just swirl the contents nowadays.

4. Place jar with lid tightly closed into the fridge overnight.

5. Stir well and serve with topping of choice. You may choose to scoop portions out of the jar to add toppings and serve; or eat from the jar after adding toppings.

I usually add one fruit with one type of nut or seed topped with one type of condiment. It is a fun game of adding whatever is acailable from my larder/fruit basket! As a result, I do not have a particular favourite combination and secretly love the surprise I give my family every morning. Different textures, colour and taste all help to keep my young ones interested. 

Firm favourites in the household: 

a) blueberries, walnuts, cinnamon powder, honey.

b) banana slices, cashew nuts, raisins, nutmeg powder, maple syrup (non-sugared). 

c) strawberries, dried apricot slices, dehydrated nutmeg slices, wolfberries, chia seeds.

How do you like your overnight oats served, my lovelies? Please do share!

Milestones: Bean Speaks

We were playing on the Fisher-Price playmat yesterday afternoon when Bean pointed at a print of blue elephant and said "blue" with a huge grin on his face.

I asked him again, out of excited disbelief,"What is the colour of this elephant?", and he replied without missing a beat,"Blue!".

Oh, my precious son, SubhanAllah! I felt my heart swell with pride, such a wonderful feeling that Allah swt has created for mothers to enjoy, Allahuakbar!

Bean pointed at and said "purple" last Saturday to my FIL. I missed that milestone! He also says "there" and "no" purposefully now. His favourite words are "bot bot" referring to Samsung Vacuum Robot, "baa baa" for four legged animals and "dada" for his favourite person at home. 

When we ask him to point out objects from his books, he can get it 90% correct, including finding the right object from a different page of the same book or corresponding image from a different book. Trick questions, we love asking him, as he reciprocates by enjoying the challenge. Evidently, he beams with pride and flashes the sweetest grin as he triumphs those trick questions.

Thank You, Allah swt for sending us Bean.

Snippets: Courage

The Little Girl cried at school today. 

On the stage.

In front of 1000+ fellow students, teachers, principals, et al. 

I would have cried too if I were 4 years old, missing home, missing my mummy and just wanted to play outside.

Her class had been asked to introduce themselves by name using a microphone and when her turn came, she broke down. I sincerely pray this will not scar her for life! Indeed, public speaking skills can be taught, talents can be honed. Maybe she will fare better next time.

The Chairwoman would recall meeting her just yesterday and had kindly given The Little Girl a strawberry-flavoured Mentos. Oh, dear me. 

As her mother, I feel that she must have felt overwhelmed and intimidated by the stage and audience in a huge, new, unfamiliar hall. While it is natural for me to turn all cave-woman and protective, I give credit to The Little Girl for being resilient in recomposing herself well enough to continue the remainder of the day unperturbed. By dismissal time when I picked her up, she was her usual merry self, SubhanAllah!

MasyaAllah, I have only comforting hugs for her. May Allah swt grant her courage, confidence and at the same time humility to learn. Education is indeed, not just about studying. May her passion for learning not be snuffed out, Amin!

Snippets: Banter

1. The Little Girl was served chicken kurma with rice and vegetables today at school lunch. Her review of the dish: "The chicken is not Chinese, Malay or English." Trust me, you don't want me to repeat my "short speech" on racism here. Let's just conclude she now knows to use adjectives such as spicy, salty, sweet, aromatic, etc to describe the chicken dish *broke a sweat there* 

2. The Little Girl's first peer pressure. Her exact words were,"But I want to ride the school bus with my friends." "We will see about that, young lady," came my quick, instinctive reply. After the earlier racism discussion, I thought I will spare her this "lemmings jump over the cliff, it does not mean you must too" (let's save this herd mentality for another day, I do not want to overload her). This is a repetitive request so my opportunity will come soon. 

3. Summary of mass/sunlight penetration/how clouds are made of water droplets/how water droplets have no colour on its own when asked why do clouds sometimes look white, gray or black. This was my favourite topic for the day. It is perpetually scientific and neutral, the quality of my parenting style will not come into question, ha!

Don't I just love car rides with her? If she keeps this up I may have to start to tag her witty/ignorant/cute/rude/sarcastic and sometimes borderline smart remarks.

What are your banters with your mini-you(s) like, my lovelies? Please do share!

Welcome Home, Bosch Dryer!

The replacement dryer arrived at noon today, alhamdulillah! The slot we were given was between 2 and 4 pm. TBM under-promised and over-delivered. Awesome!

I managed to see it placed before rushing off to pick The Little Girl up from The Big School. The weather was scorching hot, the sun was shining brightly. You'd have thought the sun was mocking delivery of my Bosch Classixx 7kg dryer!

We can now safely confirm that I am not a hoarder. Sure, it felt a bit sad to see my old, out-of-service, Electrolux dryer go but I felt close to zero attachment to it as it was being carted out of The Flat through the service door. The 7kg condenser dryer had served us well, thank you Electrolux for the glorious 5 years. The physical built was as new as a pin! Alas, it spins no more and the service centre's lack of response did not do it any justice.

Time to move on and make space for Boschie. Welcome home. Bismillah hirrahmahnirrahim. May you work hard and outlive your warranty period, Amin!

P/S: forgot to snap a photo of the former dryer for keepsake! 

Serendipity Saturday

The Little Girl and I were on our way to music lessons when by chance, lo and behold, we bumped into my "pupil master".

I say it in inverted commas because on record, his partner was my then pupil master. However, professional chemistry and work interest steered us together to work as a team. He was not a morning person and I was an early bird so that gave me plenty of chance to complete my mornings at the then Jalan Raja High Court for hearing in chambers, file searches and such. 

On a non-court morning, I used to have working breakfast with another lawyer who was already a partner but not hesitant to share her precious time with a newbie to guide, encourage, motivate and sometimes "reprimand". Often, breakfast was as simple as a small packet of nasi lemak with a cup of pulled tea, or as fancy as a big breakfast with latté. What mattered more was team spirit. That carried us through difficult files, tough clients and tight timelines.

I learnt a lot from them during my short stint there. By the time my long call came, we were all friends! I got offered back into oil and gas so I hung up my robe because it seemed far more lucrative as I especially loved the international exposure.

Coming back to serendipity. 

It is amazing how friends can part and nothing changes. We all went through passage of life along our own path but the ties and warmth remain. Alhamdulillah!

To MES and ZBM, thank you. 

Popular Question

Some readers wonder what I do for a living, other than the obvious Domestic Engineer/Chef/Driver/Bibik/Madam-do-it-all-by-herself post I have held since 09.09.09. 

Well, in 2011 I obtained my Companies Commission of Malaysia license to practice as a Company Secretary and the license is renewable every 3 years on condition that I complete 60 hours of continued professional education, inter alia. 

Since then, I have been working with a private investment company. Majority of my drafting work is done late at night, after my kids have slept for the night. That can range from 8.30pm on a good evening, or never on a particularly difficult evening. Imagine the stress of looming deadlines, laugh not!

During the day, I try to schedule my meetings around school runs so that I can be as productive as possible. About 4 days per annum are spent in formal training workshops so my PIL help me watch and care for my children from 8 am to 6pm. For that, I am thankful.

Smartphones and 3G has indeed mobilised my office to a large extent. Board meetings are still conducted face to face but almost everything else can be settled online, fortunately!

This position pays my bills, and keeps me in the loop indirectly with corporate legal work that I have been professionally trained for and have had 10 years working experience before "quitting" the rat race in downstream oil and gas. I call it the ember of my career where given the right condition, it can spark and burn wood well again, figuratively speaking (imagine the hazard of an actual fire in an oil and gas company - no x infinity!).

My other job is pro bono for a charitable education trust. It is a cause close to my heart and keeps my passion alive through helping underprivileged students. Together with other advisory council members, we select beneficiaries, review performance of beneficiaries, device polices and plans to assist beneficiaries achieve more out of schooling life and generally support them until completion of Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia.

It doesn't pay my bills, but this portfolio feeds my soul and keeps ennui at bay. I feel that it is important for my children to observe and participate in this education trust from young so that they can always be thankful for whatever little they have, knowing that love and family unity values are important, appreciate good education, value education as a way out of poverty for many people and that it is our obligation to help as best as we can. I really pray for my children to recognise that this is His Blessings ultimately and that we are just vessels to channel His Blessings to deserving persons.

That sums up the answer to the famous question *smiles*. What about you, my lovelies? What do you do for a living? Do you have causes that you support? Please do share!