Only God Makes Things Grow

Not as fluffy as the one I had four days ago, but making this gives me a sense of achievement. It is not hard to make your own roti prata, but who make their own roti pratas at home? It is available everywhere, it is cheap, the frozen pack is cheap and good too, then why go through all this hassle? Well, I did it  for the fun of flipping my own prata and also I want to know if homemade healthier version taste just as good.

Yes, this is fun to do  but it takes many practices. The dough is soft and stretchable, so I cheated a bit by stretching the four corners. I got the recipe from Dr Leslie Tay. a famous food blogger. He has spent many months researching and perfecting this recipe, and also made tutorial videos to guide you. Hop over to his blog for his tutorial if you want to make this at home.

Ingredients

600g plain flour
125ml room temperature water
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup condensed milk

Method (simplified)

• Add egg, salt, oil, condensed milk and water into a bowl.
• Stir and pour into the flour. Mix thoroughly and rest for 20 minutes.
• Knead at speed 2 on your KitchenAid for 10 minutes and rest for 5 minutes
• Repeat kneading cycle until dough is soft and smooth.
• Weigh 90-100gm for each dough ball and oil dough balls.
• Rest dough balls(10 pieces) into muffin tray(clingwrap) or covered container.
• Rest for 8 hours. Oil your hands and flatten a dough ball, flip and stretch into square or circular shape
• fry in a oiled hot pan.

Son flipping prata

I made 3 pratas to try and kept the rest of dough in freezer. Roti prata goes well with Indian curry or you can eat it plain with sugar.

Post Powerlab

Those blue(senior) and white(junior) material bags are from the camp. It is tidying up time and I am clearing the coloring pencils, stickers, slips of paper, unfinished artwork,etc. The group camp photos will be ready by next week and lab leaders will collect and post to their lab crew or visit their homes. This is to foster a closer relationship with the unchurched families and encourage them to attend church, and the children to Sunday School.

'I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.'

                                                                                  1 Corinthians 3:6-7

Powerlab Camp 2012 video

First Will Be Last, And The Last First

Another grease free kitchen cooking for you. This is Soy Sauce Chicken, similar to the one I posted here. This dish is like the simplified version, with lesser soy sauce and sweeter in taste. I will try to adapt both recipes to one,  making this dish the ultimate soy sauce chicken. This dish goes very well with dry egg noodle.

Ingredients

I chicken, whole or cut into half
100ml light soy sauce
1/4 tsp dark soy sauce
1 litre water
10 cloves garlic
3 to 4 star anise
50gm rock sugar to taste
1 tbsp oil
green vegetables, blanched

Method

• Heat up oil in a wok or pot, shallow fry the garlic and star anise till fragrant.
• Add in water, sauces, rock sugar and let it boil, then add in the chicken.
• Boil chicken in the stock for a while, 10 minutes, turn the chicken over, cover the pot and simmer till chicken is cooked through and tender. (approximately 25-30 mins for half chicken).
• Off fire and leave chicken in the pot. Let it cool before cutting up into serving slices.
• Cook the noodle according to packet instructions, blanched the vegtables and ladle gravy over chicken, vegetables and cooked noodles.

Fry garlic and star anise

Add chicken when stock is boiling

Soy Chicken with Blanched Vegetables

Note: This dish can also be served with rice. The leftover stock can be stored in freezer to cook braised pork belly with boiled eggs and fried bean curd.

Sunday Sermon

The pastor preached on The Cost of Discipleship with scripture text from Mark 10:17-31. 

A famous verse from Mark 10:25 'It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.' Can we leave all our earthly possessions and achievements to follow Jesus? For only we can enter into His kingdom by His mercy and grace, and trust in Him. We have all overvalued the Ps we have in life; PROSPERITY, POSSESSION PERFORMANCE,POPULARITY, POSITION and POWER. 

Are we trusting our riches more than Jesus? In verse 24, Jesus explains that it is trusting in riches that condemns a man to not having eternal life in this particular context, and verse 26 asked 'who then can be saved?' Jesus answers in verse 27 'With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.'  What are our rewards when we forsake earthly riches and trust God? Verse 28-30 gives us a clear answer for 'God gives you 100 fold in this life time and in the world to come, eternal life.'  Do not undervalue what God has promised us PROVISION, PERSECUTION, for being Persecuted,  we are  walking on the right path because of our commitment to God. Verse 31 'But many who are first will be last, and the last first.'   We are all servants of God on equal grounds when we are in His kingdom.

Below is the late Dr Richard Teo's testimony on Thoughts of Life















Sunday School

The Sunday after Powerlab camp, we have 6 children from the camp who joined us for Sunday School. It was a special programme by Mr George Ebenezer and his wife Manju from the Beyond Barriers. Mr George Ebenezer is a very charismatic person who is very good in engaging children in storytelling and songs

He also reminded the children of the 3 Ps, and that is ( a) To Meet Jesus PRIVATELY (b) To Know Jesus PERSONALLY and (c) To Stand for Jesus PUBLICLY.

BRAVE! TO LIVE FOREVER!

I had roti prata last night after coming back from Powerlab camp. These roti pratas are from a very famous stall, once voted the best. The pratas are small and fluffy and it is really delicious. We can have roti pratas any time of the day. Some like to have it for breakfast, others like to have pratas for supper. We also ordered the chicken curry which was very good.

Pratas are very high in calories and each prata has about 212 calories. Pratas are basically made of flour, oil(ghee) and egg. There are many varieties of pratas like egg prata, cheese prata, onion prata, chocolate prata, but I prefer mine plain.

I have done some research on making your own pratas at home and will be very soon attempt to make my own pratas at home.

Powerlab 2nd Day

Jesus gives us the power to be BRAVE!, AHA! It was the second day of Powerlab camp and the campers already knew the 2 bible  points and verses. Memory verse is from Psalms 56:3

Bible blast is from Matthew 14:29, Peter walks on water towards Jesus. When Peter takes his eyes off Jesus, he begins to sink. In his fear, Peter cries out to Him.  When we go through difficult, faith-testing circumstances and if we fixed our eyes on Jesus, He can carry us through the storm.

Operation Kid-to Kid

The campers designed two book marks based on the two bible points they have learnt. The book marks were inserted inside the socks and strung on the main sanctuary.
These socks will be given to a mission home supported by a church in Hamilton, New Zealand









Day Three

Jesus gives us the power to Live Forever!, AHA! That's where we want to be if we believe in Him. Memory verse is

Each and every child wrote their sins invisibly and prayed and asked to receive Jesus in their hearts.

We want to thank God for these children, who expressed their wish to attend Sunday School to learn more about Jesus. They have attended this camp and learnt Jesus' miraculous power and they want to experience His love and grow in His way.

Popcorn treats and ice ball treats for the children during tea break and kids having fun during games.Some of the crafts we made are  test tube key chain, lighted heart paper plate, origami windmills. The campers also made their own ice cream in a bag and had fun eating the ice cream they made.

THANKFUL!

Too Easy Blueberry Muffins

Donna Hay can bake these muffins with her eyes closed, but Donna Hay I am not, I still need to refer to her recipe for these too easy blueberry muffins.
These muffins are easy to make even for a child baking for the first time. After coming back from the  first day of Powerlab camp, I wasn't feeling particularly tired, decided to make these muffins for breakfast tomorrow.

Ingredients

375g self raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
220g caster sugar
125ml vegetable oil
1 egg
125ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300g fresh or frozen blueberries
granulated sugar, for sprinkling


Method

• Preheat oven to 180C. Place the flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl,.
• Place the oil, egg, milk and vanilla in a separate bowl and whisk to combine.
• Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
• Add the blueberries and mix to combine. Spoon mixture into a 12 hole muffin tin lined with paper patty cases.
• Sprinkle the tops with sugar and bake for 30-35 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.
• Remove from tin and cool on a wire rack. Makes 12.

Powerlab

Jesus gives us the power to be THANKFUL!  AHA! More than 250 children came to the camp and we want to be thankful to God for sending these children. That is the Bible point for the first day of camp, to be THANKFUL! The children were taught to be thankful to God in everything.  The Bible verse is:

Bible Blast is taken from Luke 17:11-19 The Ten Lepers. The story of gratitude or being thankful. Only one of the men that Jesus healed came back to thank him.

Wacky Craft Time

Play Time

Name Tags

Play Time

Lunch

My Lab Crew

Supersonic Power Up

Thankful Song

To Serve Others

Rolling,Filling,Pleating Pork Dumpling

I like the service is this restaurant. It is always friendly and super efficient. The food is also always consistent in quality. You will be given a queue no and a order form, Once you are seated and tea served, your food will be on your table usually in about 5-10 minutes.

Din Tai Fung is famous for their pork dumpling, served hot in a bamboo steamer. You eat the dumpling with a ginger and vinegar dip. You can read more about its origin from here.

Ginger and Vinegar Dip

 noodle

Fried Pork Chop

We usually order the 10 pieces dumpling to share, a plate of crispy prawn pancake, fried pork chop and  noodle.

Crispy Prawn Pancake

Powerlab

I have just returned from church after supervising the youths to arrange tables and chairs in the Fellowship Hall. This is the place where the campers will  be every morning and evening for arrival and dismissal. They will also have their lunch and afternoon tea here. There are 20 groups(lab crew)of six juniors(4-8yrs) and 22 groups of 6 seniors(8-11yrs).  Every lab crew is lead by an adult or youth helper (lab crew leader)

The kitchen is also cleaned and all drinking cups washed.

The games and activities materials are also grouped accordingly

The campers will have their Songs and Praises (Supersonic Power-up!) in the sanctuary. The sanctuary floor are marked for group seating.

Every crew leader will have a file, and stationery in their material bag. The lab crew leader will appoint one camper to carry the material bag. The file has the campers attendance and personal information like dietary requirement and allergies It also has the three days timetable and lessons and activities outline and contact numbers of all campers

'Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and power of ever and ever. Amen.' 
                                                                                     1 Peter 4:10-11