Thursday, March 31, 2016

DIY: Easy home made yogurt recipe


This is my MIL's recipe for making yogurt using NEWLIFE yogurt maker. Really simple recipe & steps to making very good & healthy probiotic snack. Many commercial yogurt use alot of preservative and artificial flavoring, so if you really need to buy from marts, please check out the ingredients and be aware of what you are getting in your yogurt.

The recipe uses: 
a) the Jug & maker from the NEWLIFE set
b) organic soy bean powder
c) any sieve you have and water
d) ready made yogurt ~25ml OR yogourmet starter.

                              

General steps outline:


a) 800ml water, add 12x spoonful soy bean powder, stir & sieve


b) add some water to starter, OR use last batch yogurt as starter (your existing probiotics army)


c) stir again, place into maker & turn on power for 10-12hours. 


Illustrated steps below:


800ml water the jug, look at it's marker. Add 12 spoonful of organic soy bean powder.

Stir well until they mix together.

Sieve out any blobs to avoid yoghurt lumps. Transfer back to jug.

Add the starter & stir, if your last batch of yogurt is kept, they can be used as starter as well up to 10 times. Really save up the cost of starter with repeat use.

Put the cover of jug on.

Place into maker, & turn on. Takes about 10-12 hours to be ready although the recipe book says 8hours. Newlife yogurt maker, see link for more details

Done. Who says making yogurt is hard? Serve after refrigerate with some black sugar/molasses/soaked chia seed/with fruits/make yogurt shake. This is arguably the best-tasting and easiest home made yogurt , baby E loves it & keep asking for more. 

At this point, you can store up ~25 to 50ml in small container of yogurt as starter for next time use.

That's it folks for this post.

Other related readings that may interest you:

http://www.mapi.com/ayurvedic-knowledge/food-tips/health-benefits-of-fresh-made-yogurt.html#gsc.tab=0
Freshly-made yogurt is filled with countless numbers of beneficial bacteria that help digestion and kill harmful viruses
Store-bought yogurt is cold, heavy, difficult to digest and can cause the finer channels, or shrotas, of the physiology to become clogged. Also, once the yogurt has been refrigerated, the quantity of friendly bacteria decreases and thus the health producing benefits are less.
benefits from fresh yogurt include decreased bloating, as well as relief of both constipation and diarrhea and other stomach disorders.

http://blog.radiantlifecatalog.com/bid/63303/Homemade-Yogurt-in-4-Easy-Steps-Benefits-of-lacto-fermentation

http://www.sheknows.com/food-and-recipes/articles/973731/why-you-should-make-your-own-yogurt

http://draxe.com/probiotic-yogurt/





































Wednesday, March 30, 2016

6 Key Goals to Achieve Financial Freedom by Shane See


Copy to reshare & for own reference. It's a good write up by Shane See and then shared by ck5354 where i stumbled upon it.
Sharing is caring.

Content highlights (estimated reading time ~15 min)


Key Goal 1 : Eliminating Bad Debts

Key Goal 1 : Eliminating Bad Debts
Key Goal 2 : Sufficient Insurance Coverage
Key Goal 3 : Child Education
Key Goal 4 : Sufficient Income for Living Expenses and Paying Off Good Debts
Key Goal 5 : Availability of Liquid Cash
Key Goal 6 : Additional Expenses (Vacations and Enjoying Life)

ready? start

6 Key Goals to Achieve Financial Freedom by Shane See

Definition of Financial Freedom:
If you look up on the internet, you'll find various definitions on Financial Freedom. Some define Financial Freedom as being debt free and some see Financial Freedom as being able to spend lesser then what they earn. The Wikipedia defines Financial Freedom as the state of having sufficient personal wealth to live indefinitely without having to work actively for basic necessities. I too have my own definition for Financial Freedom which revolves around achieving a X key goals before being able  to declare myself financially free. 

Minimizing Car Loan Debts
These are debts that bring no value to your personal wealth or net worth. The most common bad debt everyone would face? Your car loan of course! 

While your car value depreciates over the loan period, you're still required to service your loan with the same amount monthly. What's worst is that by the time you finish paying off that 9 year loan, you will still be forking out that same amount (or more) for repairing a 9 year old car that's consistently giving  you problems. The solution? Get a new car and repeat the entire cycle all over again. 

Knowing how "comfortable" and "timely" our public transport can be, driving a car has somehow become a necessity for Malaysians. While you might not be able to eliminate this bad debt, you can always minimize it by buying a car that's within your means and taking a shorter loan period to reduce the interest paid to bank.. 

Zero Installment Debts
This ranges from installments for a new phone, a new laptop, furniture, electrical goods, etc. However you want to look at it, I strongly feel that if you can't afford that item, then don't have it yet. Notice that I highlighted the word yet? That goes to say that if I really want that item, I will eventually own it but only when I have the means to pay everything with cash. 

Secondly, most of these items tend to be impulse buys in which we will be still paying the installment long after we lost interest of it. I know I have experienced that before, have you?

Zero Credit Debts
This ranges from accumulating credit card debts to borrowing money from the "Ah Loongs". These are debts that charges sky high interest if you default or late in paying the installment. 

Key Goal 2 : Sufficient Insurance Coverage 
The biggest problem you will face when you get older is health problems. With the current lifestyle (drinking, smoking) and food intake (laksa, nasi lemak, roti canai, etc) among us Malaysians, the most important goal to achieve is to ensure we have sufficient insurance coverage. When I talk about insurance, I'm looking to ensure that I have sufficient coverage for two types of insurance
1. General Health Insurance + Medical Card
2. Life Insurance

*for ladies, you will have to include additional insurance coverage for diseases affecting woman only

General Health Insurance + Medical Card
Being Financial Free means that you are basically not tied down working for a company. That also means that you will not enjoy the medical benefits and coverage offered by the company. Therefore, ensuring that Item 1 is avaialble is a must for yourself, your wife and your kids too.

Life Insurance
This insurance covers both death and permanent disability. Having a life insurance eases the burden on your family if your life expectancy turns out to be shorter then the average lifespan. It's not an interesting point to write about but we can never rule out the possibility of that happening to you. Having a life insurance will could really turn out to be a blessing in disguise especially once the grieving period is over. Think about it.

Key Goal 3 : Child Education 
If you have kids, then the biggest monetary obstacle for any family is education. Once again, we are looking at a worst case scenario where the parents might need to fork out money to pay for their child/ children education. If you're blessed with a brilliant child that could get a scholarship for his or her own education, I am happy for you. However not every kid is blessed with that kind of privilege. As a parent, you should always be prepared to fund your child's education all the way to a degree at least. Therefore key goal 3 highlights the need to establish your child's education fund as early as possible to cater to that monetary obstacle.

Key Goal 4 : Sufficient Income for Living Expenses and Paying Off Good Debts 
Living Expenses
Being financially free requires you to have sufficient and consistent passive income to cover your day to day living expenses. Expenses such as food, utility bills, clothing, petrol, etc should be taken into account when planning for your financial freedom. If you're looking at financial freedom in 10 years, then inflation for 10 years must be factored into the equation as well.

Paying Off Good Debts
The most common good debt is a housing loan debt. For me, I consider myself to be financially free even if I am still servicing my housing loan due to the nature of value appreciation for property. As long as my passive income is able to cover the monthly installment, I need not worry much about it.


Key Goal 5 : Availability of Liquid Cash 
There's an old Malay "peribahasa" that goes like this; "Sediakan Payung Sebelum Hujan". When the "peribahasa" was taught in school, it really did not mean much to me since there were no worries about money and commitment. As we grow older, it became clear that this phrase was meant to teach us to be prepared for all possibilities in life.

From the aspect of Financial Freedom, this phrase advises us to be prepared with readily available cash in the event of an emergency. The target for Key Goal 5 is to build up a savings equivalent to 6 months worth of your current salary. This cash saving can then be used for unforeseen events such as getting retrenched (losing your job), significant medical expenses, major home or car repairs, etc.


Key Goal 6 : Additional Expenses (Vacations and Enjoying Life) Cash 
Being Financially Free is not about having passive income just to live life one day at a time. Being Financially Free is all about having enough money to fulfill Key Goal 4 and having the extra to indulge on things you are passionate about. You might be passionate about travelling, wanting to see the different cultures and sample the different kinds of food all around the world. Well all this can be done once you're financially free with zero worries about being tied down to a job.

Summary:

The 6 Key Goals I mentioned above are the pillars of Financial Freedom. Each pillar must be fundamentally sound in order to enjoy a financially free life. If you're dead serious about wanting to break free from the norms of society, then it's high time you start planning and executing all 6 of the key goals! 




Some notes & comments from me
a) where to get passive income? stock investment, rental yield, side biz??

b) how to calculate inflation for next 15 years ? To find out more.

c) child education - if fund by PaMa some people do house loan refinance - get 100k mortgage cash out. Keep some SSPN while still have tax exemption, bank savings? Have other options?  

d) Have any retiree got their investment payback? Whats the value vs forecast by insurance?? Gimme a holler ya

e) insurance/health - add: routine workout/jog/running target 3 days a week, join running community/club, eat more balanced food, exercise is part of the formula in my opinion.

f) Liquid cash - if have home loan, do capital repayment. Can withdraw at a fee during emergency and also reduce loan interest. If we serve a 30year home loan with its minimum monthly payment only, we end up paying ~double of the loan amount!

Little advertising to credit Shane See , owner of this article (except my notes la)

Try reading the following related articles to help kick start your plans:

Guess how much i love you?




Another video that is nice for little tods. Yup, we bought the book from BBW as well as a reinforcement learning activity for baby E. Very good narrated video, enjoy.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

DIY Fix for wallpaper peeling


This long overdue wallpaper repair ,i have put off again and again. Too busy on weekends, finally last Saturday managed to stop by a curtain/wallpaper shop. Their wallpaper adhesive is the fix to peeled, bubbling and torn wallpapers priced at RM15 each pack. Maybe hardware shop will sell cheaper?

Corner peel, the tear is by curious Baby E. It's an ugly sight in our living room =__=

On small room upstairs. Shop owner says its normal to have peeling from bathroom moisture after a period of time.

Right side of the bathroom door.

Got a RM1.30 brush from MR DIY and a plastic cup cover as mixing container.

This fix is easy and simple like making starch minus the hot water.


1. Pour a little powder into container
2. Add a little water and stir
3. Keep on adding powder/water till you get glue-like texture.
4. Clean the wallpaper surface from dust
5. Apply on both wallpaper & wall.
6. Firmly press wallpaper to wall with used cloth.
7. Clean any excess & check that no bubbles remain under wallpaper.





If you google online you will find tons of complicated information such as cement-mixing like techniques to many others fixes that make your head spin..it's also one of the reasons why i put off the repair work apart from procrastination hehe.

See the result below, turns out quite all right.




Ying Ker Lou @ Paradigm Mall Kelana Jaya


Went to lunch on colleague's treat at Paradigm Mall. Ying Ker Lou is a Hakka specialty restaurant. Overall i kind of wonder how they survive and have so many chain restaurant, food is overprice and on the salty side. Best what?

GPS location: 3.1050837,101.5960481

Non halal, wine soaked chicken + fried radish/carrot cake. If you like strong wine taste this cold served chicken is for you. Carrot cake is only average in taste, quite small portion. Tasted inferior to pasar malam near my house, maybe appeal to those who don't like wok hei?

Siu lung pao is dry my colleague said. So so only to me. Fried yam abacus tasted ok to me, but at more expensive price. 

RM2x + for Lui Cha with brown rice and can topup RM2 to make it a set. It's on saltier side, with fried anchovies to go with, and soup is missing some ingredients that make it less green. Portion is big enough.

Steeeep premium price & steep angle haha..but average only taste.

For more images and menu price can easily google online.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Mobile game: Mages and Minions



Currently playing this simple game. Touch screen to move, draw to activate skills or cast spells. Pretty new and interesting than the typical hack-n-slash games mobile.

Pretty graphics, but a little awkward on some maps with hills peaking on viewer side since can't rotate the view. 



Simple in-game currency. Can earn some freebies gems via daily quest (also too simple) and by watching online ads and by random drops in-game. They have gold too, but not much use other than random generate some rings and necklace or resurrect with full health. "For golden glory!"

Can play off line, but some synced features will not be available. Such as skill upgrade, fuse/combine weapon etc..

"nice bridge, sturrrdy bridge"
"oh no, not a bridge again"



Only downside is no Autoplay, which is pretty common in many mobile games including Zenonia-S where you cleared the level and able to let your char run amok by itself via Autoplay. Pretty fun to burn out some time while grinding for gears etc.

Find the humor in this game funny. Male voice is a bit cheesy, and what's with the bridge in the game? :)

Caring for Mother Earth, Our Planet, Our Home - Recycling point @ Bandar Mahkota Cheras


It's been a biweekly ritual that we bring Baby E to recycling point. First is to bring her out, she loves playground no doubt about it. But also if we can show her something about recycling, then it will be great. There we will sort our own recycled stuff and also to check if baby E bags any of her toys into the recycled bags or recycling station in our house. Do something good while we go outdoor.

Caring for Mother Earth – Our Planet, Our HomeAs a result of global warming, there is an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, typhoons, etc. around the world. The rise in global temperature is primarily due to an increase in greenhouse gases brought about by human activity.“If everyone makes a conscious effort to reduce carbon emissions by adopting a more frugal lifestyle instead of seeking materialistic indulgence, we can all play a part in protecting Mother Earth from further damage.”                     — Dharma Master Cheng Yen (source)


The little shed at one corner of field behind Bdr Mahkota Cheras morning market. 

 From Klinik Mahkota walk up the stairs

A bit of Tzu Chi stuff

 Open every Saturday morning except the 3rd week to accommodate the bigger recycling in front of Organic shop opposite Shell Bdr Mahkota Cheras

So much to do and so little people doing!

Illustration from here click to read more.

PMP - contract management



Saturday, March 26, 2016

Google+ and my first page 1 google search result

Woah, G+ really so power. Have a hard time searching my own blog thru Google even with my own blog title typed, but surprisingly for some reason my search appeared as below when try to find more info on Susan's Bistro.


Scroll down abit...tadah~


Fuiyoh...just below babeinthecitykl. Read her blog quite alot when trying to search for food etc review by local people.

Thanks G+! Now if only I could figure out how does all this search engine crawl ,organic traffic and SEO thingamajig work..

Friday, March 25, 2016

Getfit 2016 March


Sort of like hit my target of 3 days running + workout currently. But still running at n00b distance. Wonder how those guys do it. 

Should i ditch the workout circuit?? Currently doing 2 reps of this - swapped out hand stand for situps. These circuit kills my hips even before i start running. Yesterday was raining & only do 1 half assed rep, the 5km run was a breeze.



  
Flowers blooming @ Taman Banjaran Kelana Jaya.

Recently joined Google+ Running community. Seems like 5miles in 45min is a standard for beginner ~18K steps?..thats 8km in 45 minutes..Damn still quite a far way off from this standard. Getting 3 days out of a week is kind of tough already with all the evening rain nowadays. That will be 15min circuit, 45 min run and ~5min circuit as cooling down. Wish the weather isn't this warm!

Update: managed to get finish 8km in ~50min! Much less than i thought, but stamina level is still bad to maintain good pace. A little too exhausting for weekday training, well it's Friday today hehe.


Brave: Touch the sky

Now this is the video i was thinking about when writing the post regarding montessori for baby and getting back in touch with nature. Remember to sit back, relax and enjoy nature especially with little ones.


Since the baby E is becoming the mini chatterbox of the house, we decided to gather some Disney sing alongs which are usually pretty genius and really help her to learn more words through the subtitle hopefully while we are at work.

Frozen movie not going to cut it since it's too long and less beneficial. Short singalongs seem perfect at the moment with moderation and someone to monitor/control. Now she already understand the deal of giving her some screen time and returning back the phone when requested.


Simple play idea: Family finger props and sing along



Since baby E really likes Frozen, wife started to capitalize on the idea. Make some props by printing Frozen characters and teach her to sing along which she really loves. Singing and jumping at the same time.

from youtube

1) Print the characters & cut out
2) Glue to cardboard
3) Attach using cello phone tape on ice cream sticks. RM2.50 a pack from DIY.
4) Start pretend play, sing & hover these guys above a table like a little showstage.

Here is the a video of family finger video if you have no idea what i'm talking bout.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Thermo Pot aka hot water dispenser

Don't know why so hard to google up this thing. Maybe the term a bit confusing..Even panasonic calls it 'hot water dispenser thermo pot'..even lowyat not much discussion. Maybe the price too low to be worth discussing??



I guess just look at few things before choosing:

a) price
b) capacity
c) brand - those in market long enough usually have better product life & reliability
d) child proof

Choice between kettle or water dispenser depends on usage though, obvious difference will be capacity. dispenser/Thermopot (2liter & above) > kettle typically at ~1 liter, any bigger then have to go for the huge ass kettle.




PROs & CONs section

Hot water dispenser 
a) Yay + nay : Can get hot water anytime but consume more electricity.

b) Nay: Need power on to dispense- one trick we use is boil the water, and off it. Use the thermal insulation to keep water warm, when need to use, turn on & after use turn off.

c) Yay: If have baby/toddler this is better option since need hot water more often. Child proof lock button also important.

d) Nay: lifespan looks like ~2.5 years max -ours at home starts to have crisp plastic crumbles dropping into the water storage tank now. That should be indication that need to replace a new one.

Kettle 
a) Yay: cheaper on electric bill. If you like boiling water for drinking, then kettle better since you can leave it alone to cool off.

b) Nay: reboil needed if you want to make hot drink after >20min

c) Yay:long lasting. Can get ceramic type if you are the paranoid type- really tempting!


Few top brands (locally) that comes up from google searches; Elba (Malaysian brand) , Faber, Pensonic, Hesstar, Panasonic, Toshiba, Hetch, Covac..big discounts for Fujicom online.

Online reviews not detail enough, probably best to make a survey trip down a shopping mall or electrical appliance shop to look and see. If not in hurry, look online for discounted deals + cash back. See the my post link for this.

Didn't know that this can get so technical. Some of the points below can consider as well.

Read more: http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/kettles/article/hot-water-dispensers-how-to-buy-the-best 
Which? total test score for hot water dispensers ignores price and is based on: 
40% overall ease of use 
25% consistency of volume dispensed 
25% speed 
5% water temperature 
5% build quality 

Hot water dispensers needed to score 75% or more in our tests to qualify as a Best Buy. 

Is a hot water dispenser quicker than a kettle, and does it use more electricity? Same.
Fast, doesn't spit much when dispensing, doesn't drip