Working Mum Must Have

Working Mum Must Have

Steamer Plus Blender 2 in 1- Philip Avent

One of the appliance that I have bought with no regret after reviewing the comments from the web is the Philip Avent Steamer and blender (2 in 1). I bought  it at Jusco during sales at around RM360. It comes with a handy recipe book as well! The measurement cup provided even printed with indicative steaming time on it. For example, 200ml equivalent to 20 min steaming time! This is a must for working mum who wish to prepare solid food for their little one with limited time available. I have tried using it once and already fall in love with it!

Baby Ice Cube Container- BPA Free

After getting the steamer plus blender, we need a ice cube container to freeze the food puree so that we can keep some stock for a week or two. At last I found "Baby Cube", container for freezing the food after preparation. It cost around RM30 for one set with 8 pieces and a holding tray. It comes with 3 sizes. I really like this piece and I think I need to buy more now!

Preparing Food for a Weaning Baby

Smash Potato/ potato puree

With these, I try my first project-preparing potato puree. The procedure is very simple:
1. Peel and cut potato into small cube, no larger than 2-3 cm
2. Put 200 ml water into the steamer tank (for 20 min steaming)
3. Start steaming
4. Turn the jug around and start blending 2-3 times, each time around 10 seconds!
5. Viola! You get a smooth potato puree ready to serve! Keep the balance in "Baby cube" and freeze it

Potato cubes after steaming

Smooth potato puree in Baby Cube container

You can even label the tray with date of preparation!

I certainly going to make more puree for my Little Durian after this! The Mixer plus Blender is really a brilliant invention for a working mum!

Carrot and Pumpkin

Now with the steamer plus blender and the baby ice cube container, I can now easily prepare some puree to keep in the freezer. I can then thaw these cubes and mix it with my plain porridge for baby. It was suggested that the food should be consumed within 2 weeks but I would rather finish it in a week time. I successfully made pumpkin puree and carrot puree but failed in making choy sam plus tomato puree. It taste odd and I have threw it away instead of keeping it. I think I just need to steam a bit less longer. The carrot need 15 min steaming, while the pumpkin need 20 min steaming. For the choy sam, I have over-steamed it for 15 min. I guess I can try 10 min next time. 

pumpkin puree, yummy! 

Carrot Puree, more watery than pumpkin puree

I will try to make more attractive puree after this. With the little time left for experimenting, I need to look up for some recipe I think! Anyway, it was fun making baby food and I enjoy the process! :)

Rocker- Fisher Price

If you ask me what are the gadget for baby which I found useful, one of my answer would be the rocker from Fisher Price. I bought it at RM299 in One Baby World but later found it only selling at RM289 at Jusco! The cheapest price was found at RM269 at Tesco during promotion. I guess one of the thing that I always miss is SALES! I can never wait for sales when I need to buy things for my baby! The reason of course would be my time taken up to take care of the baby and to work out the house chores. I simply could not find time to go shopping for cheaper stuff! Sob Sob....

  

This item was highly rated on Amazon and it was only selling at around USD39 at the time of my purchase. Unfortunately, the price including postage is more than RM300! I have also bought the traditional net rocker at Jusco (RM79) but that rocker could only be used until my baby was 3 months old! I should have straight away buy the rocker from Fisher Price if only I knew at that time there was such a rocker! 

Every morning, I secure my baby on the rocker to wait for me while I have my breakfast, preparing my car seat and other stuff to get to work. This rocker was also useful for feeding baby especially before our baby was able to sit properly. It can be adjusted to 3 levels inclination and it comes with a vibrator for new born baby who would thought he/she was in a car when this vibration was on. I even bring this back to my kampung during last Chinese New Year as it was light and easily compressed into thinner piece! I highly recommend this to a busy mum who need some times doing their own work while keeping the baby safe! 

Recently I found out that this rocker is only selling at RM149 with free delivery charges to peninsular Malaysia!! Check out this website if you are looking to purchase one for yourself or as a present: http://www.moredeal.my/products/deal/more-deal-sdn-bhd/0379fisherpriceportablerocker/

I hope you will be able to grab the good deal! :) 

Foldable Foam Matt 

The next thing that I would like to recommend for a mother is the foldable foam matt. I have selected this piece from Jusco, which was imported from Korea as it was foldable, and the material is slightly harder. I bought it at RM159 and there are many more choices out there. The matt was especially useful when a baby start to roll over and start to learn to sit. It protect baby from knocking their head on the hard flooring. 

Mini Rice Cooker  

When my baby start weaning, I frequently cooked her porridge using slow cooker during weekend. It took me 4 hours to get my porridge fully cooked into smooth tasty porridge using a slow cooker. Sometimes I woke up late during the weekend and do not have 4 hours to spare for cooking the porridge before lunch time. It then force me to cook the porridge using a clay pot (which took me around 1.5 hours). The outcome is good but you have to keep a close watch to the fire. Sometimes porridge will bubbled out resulting in a mess to clean up later :'(

Recently I found this mini rice cooker selling in a temporary store at Jusco (sorry, I normally just hang around Jusco... no time to go further places for shopping the grocery). It was a rice cooker with 1L non-stick inner pot with cook and slow cook function. I was immediately fascinated by the idea of cooking using a mini rice cooker and hand over the whole pot of food easily to my baby sitter. It was sold by Ideahome at RM99 at that time. It comes with a stainless steel plate for steaming food, a measuring cup, a rice washing container as well as a spatula. Thinking of it could be used to make my own food to bring to office for lunch (it cooked and maintain food warm for 5 hours, and you can reheat the food if necessary later by bringing the plug along), and to cook rice for hubby and I (it could be used to cook up to 3 big bowls of rice), and sometimes to make mini steamboat at home, I immediately buy the "idea".

This morning, I started my new journey of exploring the use of a mini rice cooker. I cooked 1 cup of rice with 6 cups of water and it ended up beautifully cooked porridge (just plain white porridge) in less than an hour. I bring along the whole rice cooker to baby sitter and ask her to add the frozen vegetables that I have prepared for her to make up my daughter, JY's meal later. My baby sitter normally serve JY with rice that she cooked for her whole family since JY has more than 8 teeth. Let me continue to explore and tell you if this mini rice cooker is something a working mum must have later! :)