Acara di Bulan Ramadhan

My 1st taste of Ramadhan only started on 9th Ramadhan huhu jenuh ku mau ganti...

No terawih yet. Just after solat Isya', Hannah wanted to go home, sleepy katanya and she only wants mommy, so I left surau and told her...' you'd better sleep hokeh...' only to hear her saying this 'Hannah rasa macam nak peluk ibulah tapi taknak tido..I love u mommy...' dgn nada yg oh so loving and cute + mata siap kedip2..

Budak mcm tu sampai hati ke nak marah ? Kata tak nak tido tapi 5-min after dah gone pun...

So what's different this year ? Mmm, this is our first Ramadhan in our new house, so preparing dish for buka puasa is more challenging. Why ? Coz I can no longer rely on lauk/kuih ehsan from my MIL kahkahkah and we have to detour for bazar Ramadhan. But the good thing out of it, I became (became ke have to ?) a little bit rajin than usual.

I have to plan ahead and be firm on what to cook coz my place is no longer surrounded by all facilities like before, ada la kedai runcit yang agak limited barangnya. Bibik is getting better in understanding my instructions tho it slipped few times especially during sahur, kemamaian gituh.

What else ? mmm I cook at night instead of after sahur and we now walk to surau for tarawih instead of driving, the kids siap janji2 dgn kawan pegi sama2 (Geng Surau??). So quite a change for us this year but I'm happy.

Sahur is very much an early affairs. By 3.30am I'm up and about if hot food required (nasik goreng or fresh lauk), if they want lauk b'buka then I'll just ask bibik to reheat and acara makan bermula at 4am. By 4.30 everybody back to dreamland. Too early ?? When Hanis started to observe fasting, she was 5, already in pre-school. We had sahur around 5am++ and waited for Subuh prayer before we went back to bed for another 30-min, it didn't work for us me & hubby were sleepy for 1/2 of the day in the office and Hanis complained the same too. She was tired at school. That's when we decided we should have our sahur earlier, catch a couple hours of sleep and we're good to start the day and it works till now. Kesian jiran2 aku..dah la kena dgr bunyi2 dari dapur aku pkl 11pm, pkl 3am pun aku duk kung kleng kung kleng...kan ?

Masa sahur aku godek peti ais tgk brg2 frozen yg bibik nak kena keluarkan, ayam, daging bagai so that aku bleh masak for the next day pulak. Kang kalu tggu aku balik opis baru nk bwk kuar nak kena defrost mwave plak, me not very keen on mv defrosting.

Biasanya aku bleh sampai umah dlm around 6.30, klu detour bazar or OTK then close to 7pm. I got 30min to 1hr to prepare apa2 yg lom siap. Masa ni biasanya bibik dah siapkan air & reheat lauk yg dah masak. Aku cuma masak stuffs yg simple2 time ni especially lauk2 yg x boleh masak awal mcm sayur. Goreng ikan or ayam hehe yang ni aku ngada2, aku x suka makan ikan/ayam goreng yg dah sejuk, so kena masak dkt2 waktu nak makan. Kalau tomyam, baru nak masukkan sayur bagai lah...masa ni jugak aku put aside bawang lada segala utk bibik kopek and bagitau dia bhn2 lain yg aku nak pakai. Bibik can only kopek or blender the bawang, kalau part2 mayang, cincang aku buat sambil2 tunggu piyuk panas...

Lepas b'buka, solat maghrib isya' tarawih sumer, aku either membebel kat budak2 sbb x buat homework or x salin jadual lagi. or tidokan Hannah else aku lepak depan TV, taking my own sweet time reading few pages of book kat atas before aku sarung balik apron, pegang senduk for next day meals. Normal days pun macam tu jgk (cooking at night) but I can afford to be slacking coz I have other options like bringing them out for dinner or buy bubur McD :P. While bulan puasa, you have to prepare the complete set.

That's how Ramadhan for me this year, challenging yet satisfying knowing that I CAN do it and the most important thing is I, myself, WANT to do it.

Next challenge ? Learn to cook more healthy meals which kids would love (I'm sure you know that I cook mostly Malay dishes which are oil-laden, santan-ised and all lemak tepu that u can imagine, sample macam kat bawah ni)

Asam pedas ikan merah, sotong kangkung, ayam guring, puding roti, agar2 merah

Tomyam ayam, bawal sweet sout, cream karamel

Gulai ayam, siput shedut, sambal cili, puding jagun :P

Keli sambal cili, ayam percik ,agar2 merah kegemaran ramai

Nota : Hanya lauk2 yg ada dlm gambar disebut, yang takde harap jangan kecik hati,