Recipe : Homemade Pure Chicken Essence (鸡精)

Pregnant mother are suggested to take food with warming effects during their postnatal period. They only can take food with cooling effects 3 mths before delivery.

Most Chinese mama in my hometown, used to make us homemade chicken essence. Especially for pregnant woman, it is essential to take chicken essence while your are 3 mths - 5 mths pregnant.
Personally I don't really like the one that they sell off the rack, I hate the smell lol and I think they put preservative on it as well.

What is Chicken Essence???
Chicken essence is a juice from the bones of a chicken ( I don't use any flesh on mine). Using double-boiling method in high to medium temperature about 2 hours to extract the essence. Usually the fats and skin are generally removed in order to produce a nutritional supplement that contains little or no cholesterol.

Why Chicken???
Best use black chicken (pinyin: wu ji qi) or commonly known as silky (silkie) chicken which have black skin, flesh and bones. According to the book Medicine Medicated Diet, this chicken is very sweet in taste, tender and neutral in nature ( for not being to warm or cool) and it benefits the kidney and liver.

The unique of this chicken is that they only have four toes as compared with other types of chicken.

What is the health benefit???

• can relieve fatigue, more active when you took chicken essence regularly. Said that it could enhance cortisol metabolism in blood and promote mental fatigue recovery.

• a traditional remedy for anemia

• increase metabolism

• promote healing

• support health and boost of energy

Chinese Traditional Remedy

Yes, I've got this recipe from my mama. Being told that this recipe has been passed down from one generation to another. 

Usually I will add some chinese herbs such as:

• goji/wolfberry (枸杞) - protect the liver, help eyesight, improve fertility, strengthen the legs, boost immune function, improve circulation and promote longevity

• dang shen (黨參) - known as poor's man ginseng (lol) cause it's like a weaker ginseng. help to improve body function, anti fatigue, stimulates nervous system, increases red blood cells, raises blood sugar and enhance blood coagulation
• red dates (紅棗) - preventing reaction in blood transfusion, improves strength of muscles, inhibits cell mutation and cancer cells, protects liver and calms the central nervous system 

How to prepare

• chicken's bones (no skin, no flesh, no fat) - crush smash whatever you called it lol (pls ask someone else to do it for you if you are pregnant)
• optional : chinese herbs (goji, red dates, dang shen)

1. Wash the Chinese herbs and put them inside the centre of big bowl
2. Put smaller bowl, upside down into the bigger bowl
3. Place the crushed smashed chicken over the smaller bowl
4. Cover the big bowl with a plate
5. Pour water into the pot ( at least it can cover half of the bowl, no worries you can always add water whenever it is needed)
6. Place the combined bowls into the pot
7. Cover the pot with the lid and double boil it for 2 hours
8. Let it cold a lil bit before you take the bowl out from the pot (be careful)
9. Remove the upper plate and gently remove all the chicken pieces
10. Remove the smaller bowl and viola your chicken essence is inside the big bowl with the Chinese herbs
11. Scoop everything to the serving bowl and your nutritious pure homemade chicken essence is ready to be serve (serve them hot :)

Sharing: A Tap water VS Bottled water

DIY: For Minions Maniac

From Ms to Mrs: Our Gatecrash Wedding Game

Haha...again I post a post-dated blog lol...but I really want to share with all of you my sweet wedding day. 

When our both Mama heard that we were going to have this kind of games, they kept remind us not to play it too harsh, make it fun by not embarrassing Mr.Ng and his friends. They don't like the way people play by asking the groom's wear bra, do some sex position, eat wombs and bla bla bla...n Yes all of us do agree with them so we kept if fun n healthy lol

First of all, lemme introduce our beautiful Bridesmaids and handsome Brothers

(Left to right : Ms.Mega , Ms.Yetty, Ms.Henny,Ms.Indah & Ms Phelini)

(Left to right : Harianto,Ripin,Foo TC, Serpoh & Wita)

Let's start the games

1. Entrance tickets

Groom and his brothers need to buy tickets in order to get into the lift. Mr.Ng said it was like early morning robbery lol due to the expensive tickets ahahahaha...

Entrance Tickets

In the process of negotiation

Finally

2. Yoga and cheerleader's pose (teamwork)

Pose 1: Cheerleader

Pose 1: Teamwork lol

Pose 1: They did it perfectly lol

Pose 2: Yoga

Pose 2: They DID it again haha

Pose 3: Monkey style? lol - FAILED

so they were being punished...

Waxing timeee... :P

3. Passing the facial tissue using their mouth

4. To unlock the second door, the Groom need to pay another angpao lol

5. Itadakimasu....

"Suan, Tian, Ku, La"(Sour, sweet, bitter and spicy)  symbolizes the different sorts of emotions a couple will go through together in their life journey :)

• Appetizer : Sour - Whole lemon
  
  
  
  
  
• Main Course: Spicy - Instant noodle with wasabi 
  

• Dessert : Sweet - Cucumber with condensed milk + honey topping

       

Drink : Bitter - Bitter-gourd + Papaya leaf (healthy lol)

They did Yam-seng before drink the healthy juice lol

Hahah..Priceless lol 

6. Final stage: Life agreement :P

Mr Ng sealed the agreement with his sexy lips mark lol...

And Finally THEY DID IT :)

haha..look at his eyes... something like saying "I did it huh"lol

For all bride-to-be....happy preparation and njoy it...u will miss that moment one day hahaha... :D

Good Luck ~

From Mrs to Mommy : Chinese Astrology Parent-Child Compatibility

Yes, we are expecting now... and We are ( esp me) superrrr excited :)

Last May I did my pregnancy test twice cause the first one super blur so I tried it one week later... The syndrome of pregnant cannot be differentiate cause it is exactly the same as having a period. 

I think all mom-to-be is more excited than dad-to-be until he saw the lil one from the ultrasound hehe(Same goes to my Mr.Ng hehe)

As a tradition Chinese family, me myself and my family ( not Mr Ng's side) still do believe in Chinese Astrology Parent-Child Compatibility. So I eagerly want to to try snake baby, and if we failed then we will wait until goat baby, no horse baby on our list. People said that Rat and Horse is totally a big NO NO in one family, so try to avoid having a horse baby if you are Rat parent and vice versa. How much truth is, no one knows but there's no harm try to avoid such unpleasant thing :)

Two most compatible signs for each animal sign:

Start from your own zodiac (as number one), count either clockwise or anti-clockwise to 5 and these will be your two compatible signs

Example : Mine is Rat, then the two compatible signs are Dragon (my lil bro who I pamper the most) n Monkey

Either competitor or compatible:

Directly opposite to each other

Example : Rat with horse

Basically, they are competitor but if the elder sign yields to the younger sign, then the relationship will be compatible (I'm not so sure what does this mean, anyone can help maybe?!?)

Possible non compatible combination:

Start from your own zodiac (as number one), count either clockwise or anti-clockwise to 4 and these will be your two non compatible signs

Example : Mine is Rat, then the two compatible signs are Rabbit and Rooster

In a family (husband and wife, parent and children, brother and sister) relationship that fall under above combination will have quite frequent disagreements ( like me and my big bro lol)

The principles of this Chinese Astrology Compatibility are not restricted to only family relationships, it is also extend to friends and businesses.

Classifying Chinese Astrological Compatibilty:
In Chinese astrology, they also divided the trios of sign which each group are believed to share a common energy. This shared energy can influence everything from temperament, to the focus on intellect over intuition, or pragmatism over the theoretical.

Group	Animal Signs	Common Theme
I.	Rat, Dragon, Monkey	Cunning, intelligent and active signs. Enterprising and ambitious.
II.	Snake, Ox, Rooster	Profound and wary of the superficial. Highly observant and diligent in their efforts.
III.	Dog, Tiger, Horse	Fiercely independent and leadership-oriented. Ego-driven and gregarious.
IV.	Rabbit, Goat (Sheep), Pig	Peace-loving, intuitive and empathetic. Nurturing and cooperative.

Again, how truth it is, no one knows... The most important is RESPECT to each other :) 

By respecting each other, for sure it will lead to having a peaceful family :) and from the non-compatibles can become compatible hehehe...

Enjoy
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