Baby Product Review: Philip Avent 4-in-1 baby healthy food maker

Six months passed by in a flash and I realised, I haven't had the time to document anything regarding parenthood!

Yes, that's how occupied one becomes with a baby on board!

So here's a really short post on my first baby product review, the Philip Avent 4-in-1 baby healthy food maker.

Miss Kwek started semi-solid not too long ago when she turned 5 months. The Philip Avent 4-in-1 baby healthy food maker is really a great kitchen helper in preparing homemade puree. All I have to do is steam, flip and blend. It includes a storage container which can be used to store excess puree and the container can be placed in the same machine for defrost/reheat. As easy as ABC! All using just a machine! The manual included also gives a gauge of the duration each type of food item should be steamed.

The machine consist of two parts: the blender and the steamer.

All I need to do is wash and chop food into 1 cm cube, place it into the blender, fill water to the desired steaming duration (as per the manual), lock the steamer side of the blender down, set the control panel to the correct duration and wait. When steaming is done, the machine will "beep" and automatically cease steaming. Very good for multitasking as I do not need to worry about over/under steaming the food.

Next, unlock the blender and flip. Give the steamed food a shake to let it fall to the blade end and lock the blender. Press the center control buttom to pulse the food till desired consistency.

Thats right! Homemade puree is ready for consumption or storage.

Is the machine easy to clean?
Yes!

All the parts are easily taken apart for thorough cleaning after each use.

As for the given container, I have not tried defrosting/reheating puree in it. I usually make fresh batch of puree every alternate days. Hence, I store the one extra serving in the normal Philip Avent container and use the Philip Avent warmer to reheat the puree the next day.

Overall, I think its well worth the moolahs! A dummy proof machine, even Mr Kwek knows how to make puree now!

If you are interested, do try to get it during baby fairs as deals are much better with throw in freebies. FYI, I got mine during Taka baby fair at $169, inclusive of freebies a set of Avent bowls and utensils.

Random Musings: Dinnerwares from 3 Little Picks

I contemplated for the longest time before giving in to purchase my much wanted dinnerwares from 3 Little Picks.

Why?, you may ask.

Well, I am a taobao stalker and most of my wants can be found in taobao. However, I am usually lazy to coordinate the direct buys myself and recently, an agent company which I frequent, pissed me off! Hence, my sinning on taobao had been minimal these days.

So coincidentally, 3 little picks was having some sales. Being tempted constantly by their mailing list emails, I decided it's time for some retail therapy for my home! :p

I was much surprised by how efficient their service is. Within 2 days, the courier man was knocking on my door! :)

Opening the box, it was a pleasant sight, a free gift and my items all nicely wrapped. Not two or three but four layers of protective wraps!!!

Crepe papers - bubble wrap - cling wrap - thin styrofoam paper

Very impressed!

Unlike taobao, which seller always uses soOOoo much styrofoams and I always had a hard time cleaning up the styrofoam bits, 3 little picks items were neatly but tightly wrapped. I needed to employ my trusted home scissors help! No mess, no need to clean up!! :)

 I was a happy girl by the time I am done with unwrapping my buys!

3 Little picks may not be the cheapest shop around but it definitely offer the much required convenience with affordable courier service!

This is not an ad. I just wanted to write about this because, before I buy from any internet sources, I like to read reviews and experiences about sellers and products quality. I don't seem to read about this anywhere and thus, my post.

Afterall, it's a substantial sum of money. Not a big amount but the money could have been used for better purposes instead of bad buys, right? :)

Novita Garment Steamer SS13 : Pretty in Pink

The second item we purchased after the Philip Avance Air Fryer XL from Tangs was the Novita Garment Steamer SS13.

Novita offers a range of Steamer models from which you may select from. However, we decided on SS13, their oldest model, because I wanted the PINK steamer! :)

The pink steamer is SO CHIO, it makes ironing a more enjoyable chore task!

The SS13 has only two buttons at the back of the steamer: the on/off and the steamer heat button that has only low and high heat to choose from.

The water capacity of1400cc allows continuous ironing for at least 2 hours. IMO, this is more than enough for ironing our clothing every week.

Once set up, the steamer is as tall as I am. At162cm tall, it may be slightly difficult for taller people like Mr Kwek (180cm) to do the ironing. They have to bent down to iron the bottom of the clothing. It was quite comfortable for me although I still have to bent slightly. Oh well, I figure, sitting on a standard chair will solve this problem!

So to test out how effective and user friendly steam irons are, I tried ironing my midi skirt that is made of garbardine rayon blend. I used high heat which the sales lady recommended for all type of material other than silk and chiffon which only require low heat.

The result? I thought it was pretty good! Easy to operate and my skit was steamed to perfection in less than 5 minutes.

Say bye bye to burnt clothing with the traditional irons.

The SS13 is definitely ironing dummy approved! :)

St Valentines' Day 2014

Happy blessed Valentines' Day Everyone!!
Hope you had a blissful time with your love ones! :)

Legend had it said that Valentine's Day was first observed by young Roman to commemorate the death of St Valentine. St Valentine was a Catholic priest who secretly performed weddings for couples during the era when marriage was banned. He was later executed when the King, Claudius II knew of his doings.

Thus 14th February became a day for all lovers and Valentine became its Patron Saint. It began to be annually observed by young Romans who offered handwritten greetings of affection, known as Valentines, on this day to the women they admired. With the coming of Christianity, the day came to be known as St. Valentine's Day.

Read more at  http://www.theholidayspot.com/valentine/history_of_valentine.htm#JbPPSipYhYIl53G0.99

Today, although Valentine's Day is observed by couples around the world, it has also turned into a commercialized day that gives retailers an excuse to increase their prices for all things associated to Valentines' Day.

Mr Kwek has a huge dislike for such commercialized events.  However, being the sweet Mister, he still gets me a bouquet a week earlier, every year,  to avoid the retailer's inflated price! :)

This year, Mr Kwek continued to surprise me with little sweet gestures!

The week's earlier bouquet:

The surprise balloon and my favorite windowstill pies!

And concluding the day with a surprised home-cooked dinner! Dinner tasted really good! All thanks to the superhero mum who guided Mr Kwek, the cooking noob!

The end of a simple today leads to a great start to the weekends!  
I hope you have a great day too!

***
Thanks god for all the good things in life! 
***

That's all for now. Lovely weekend to all! :)

Philip Avance Air Fryer XL: Baking Muffins

With some tang vouchers we won from a wedding competition, Mr Kwek & I decided to purchase Philip's Air Fryer for our future kitchen!

The Philip Air Fryer should be pretty well known by now. It is a multi-cooker that uses rapid air technology to fry, bake, grill and roast. Sounds amazing isn't it?

We were both excited yet skeptical about the air fryer being able to aid kitchen dummies like us in preparing meals. However, since we have the tang vouchers and the latest model was on sales, we decided to get it.

Philip Avance Air Fryer XL has a larger capacity of 1.2L as compared to its older generation in the viva collection which only has a capacity of 0.8L. Also, it uses a digital screen to control the temperature and timing. It can remember your favorite temperature and timing with its preset feature. The feature which we felt was the deciding factor to choose Avance over Viva was the basket and pan design.

As you can see, the pan is attached safely inside the roller drawer (which can be detach for washing) while the basket is a part on its own. On the other hand, the Viva collection has the basket attached to the pan which is easily (in a bad way) detachable from each other with a press of a button at the middle of the handle. This makes the pan prone to dropping when plating the food. Personal experience with the dropping while seeing the display set make us decide quite immediate to say no to the Viva air fryer.

Happily we paid up and had it delivered to us the following day. As the Air Fryer is famous for air frying fries to be as crispy as the traditional deep fried fries, by right, fries should be the first item to be tried in the air fryer. However, we went left and tried baking muffins instead.

Its been close to 4 years since I last baked anything and sine my recipe book is deep hidden in a corner of my room (reads: can't find!), I decided to use Betty Crocker's premix and try baking with the Air Fryer.

This is as easy as ABC. All you will need is water, vegetable oil and eggs, stir and ta-da! The mixture is all ready to be spoon into the muffin cups and bake.

 

The air fryer XL can fit up to eight standard sized muffin cups.

For a start, we tried baking one muffin, as per Philip's instruction, at 180degrees for 15minutes. The muffin burnt on the outside but the inside was still great, though a little dry.

We continued experimenting with different set of temperature and timing before landing ourselves with the perfect combination of 170degrees for 10minutes. With this combination, the muffin turn out to be golden brown on the outside, soft, moist and fluffy on the inside.

Top L-R: 180degree 15mins, 180degree 12mins, 180degree 10mins

Bottom L-R: 175degree 10mins, 170degree 10mins

I do not think there is any difference in taste and texture for the air fryer muffins compared to those from the traditional ovens. The only difference will be the appearance. Oven baked muffins will puff up nicely in the middle, where else air fryer muffin doesn't.

Other than the not-so-appealing appearance,
Air Fryer is definitely dummy-baker approved!