Ramadhan 2016

alhamdulillah, we meet another Ramadhan. its always a beautiful and exciting month, ramadhan. a month we look forward to. especially since the boys have started fasting. what used to be done alone, quietly, is now done together, as a family. prayers, iftar, visits to the mosque, preparation for eid, picking theme colour for eid.

this year is a mixed of emotion - excited because it will be akmal's first ramadhan, worried because of a baby around hence nightly feedings (although amira have been sleeping through the night, but one never know, right?), scared because the first week of ramadhan will be during school holidays (eeekkk!!!)

on the first day of ramadhan, the boys and i wrote down five ramadhan goals. what we wanted to achieve in the month - fasting, of course, reading the Quran, memorising surahs, a simple, yet difficult for some to do, such as uttering Alhamdulillah daily, selawat. i'm embarassed to say, most of us did not meet our goals - some not even close! we will try better. i believe, its a journey, you make goals, try to achieve them, if you don't succeed, you try harder. insyaAllah one day, you will achieve what you set out.

once again, my goal is to prepare food for the whole months. maybe only half a month for sahur (because after a couple of weeks, one probably cant face a full meal at 5am) but hopefully throughout the month for iftar. this year however, i wanted to make more desserts. the fruits will be mainly starters and then we'll have our main meal and we will end our meal with my desserts (if i make them, at least).

for obvious reasons (singular - new baby) tarawikh prayers at the mosque is a totally no-go. the boys would love to go everyday but that would depend on hubby.

i'm glad that, while i did not manage to meet all of my set goals for ramadhan, i was able to prepare good meals for the family. while it did take a lot out of me, to prepare for 30 days in a row (because normally, i'd take a couple of days a week off cooking) and sahur preparations made it even more difficult, it held on. easy for some but not entirely easy for me. i'm not fond of white rice with lauk. i much prefer western, one-dish with salad meals but we cant have that for a whole month. the boys needed rice or else they'll wilt away.

i had a couple of meals that is ok to recycle particularly nasi lemak and chicken rice. the boys can have that on a weekly basis. and then there's the cook a lot and have it for sahur with rice method - works well with roast chicken and grilled lamb. or the cook a lot and then make fried rice the day after trick. my slow cooker helped tremendously as well. on days i'm just too not in the mood, i'd throw stuff in there and make stew or soup and i would add desserts. fruits of course is a must. we love fruits - watermelon, mangoes, apples and grapes made their appearance from day 1 and stayed til the last day of ramadhan.

i do look forward to my ramadhan entries being more than just about food. but for now, when my boys are young and food-focused, that takes centre stage.

my grilling days...

on slightly more rajin days, mee kari and mihun soup...

the usually dinner meals, chicken rice, butter rice and nasi lemak...

my slow cooker assistant...

some days i do prepare rice and lauk for iftar...

the sahur dishes. there was one day when i was a bit excited and had steamed fish on the table.

tried making new desserts this year...sad that this stopped after ramadhan, it really shouldnt...

the icing on this wonderful ramadhan is that the 6 of us, fasted the full month, and that includes my baby boy, akmal izzat.

just like last year, asyraf's bff came over to bake raya cookies. but unlike last year, amir, asyraf and adam were glued to the ps3 and only ariff and akmal helped me with cookies.

adam ended up staying for 2 nights with us because he refused to go home...

we had iftar at his house on the last day of ramadhan. that was the one of two days we had iftar outside. the other was at klgcc with the family. this is the only place i'm ok to have iftar at as the surau isnt too far away and the buffet line isnt crowded.

Ramadhan 2015 - Part Two

we're getting to a stage where, while the fasting and time management is getting smoother and easier, the food planning gets more difficult. rice is taken off the list, for sahur and for iftar. we just could not look at rice anymore, particularly white rice. except for asyraf of course, who can't go by a day without rice.

sahur is just simple cereal or toast with any type of spread. hubby has his boiled sweet potatoes. chocolates would accompany our sahur as we had a big delivery recently.

iftar day 19 - mee kari. the boys actually love this but i have to tone down on the spiciness of the curry.

iftar day 20 - grilled lamb, roasted potatoes, salad and spaghetti. lamb looks pretty ugly though.

iftar day 21 - ayam panggang. excellent. had this with veggies and fries.

iftar day 23 - taco french bread pizza, potato salad and snickers shake. this is what happens when you browse through the fb of cooking moms. and bread pudding for later and the day after because i thought the main meal was too light, it wasn't actually.

iftar day 24 - the mihun soup that requires strength of mind to prepare.

iftar day 25 - shepherd's pie, salad and fruits, this time its grapes and mangoes.

iftar day 26 - oven-baked chicken (a family favorite), salad, hash brown, sautéed mushroom and fruits.

sahur day 27 - starting the process of clearing the fridge. leftover chicken soup from the mihun soup, sambal fish and stir fried long beans with some paru that hubby bought.

iftar day 27 - the third time we had iftar outside. the first was at chilis, the second was buffet at klcc and we had our iftar this time at a restaurant in taman tun. ok lah. laksa johor was good. i didn't eat anything else apart from that, i'm not such a buffet person anymore. no pictures of the laksa though, only of us in the cab ride to taman tun.

sahur day 28 - fried fish, petola masak lemak and ayam cili from god knows when.

iftar day 28 - second full meal bought from the pasar ramadhan. the first was a disappointment, asyraf's chicken was not properly cooked, i had loads of sambal on the rice i bought, akmal's mihun was too hot, amir & hubby's nasi kerabu wasn't nice. this time, it was better. roti john, satay, nasi lemak for asyraf and a better nasi kerabu for amir & hubby.

iftar day 29 - after closing the kitchen for a few days, i reopened it by spending hours in it. the final result - beef rendang and pulut kuning which hubby complemented with lemang he bought. lovely meal for the eve of aidilfitri, alhamdulillah.