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Category Archives: Food

meal planning

Posted on July 19, 2016 by enitsuj

After almost a year of procrastination, actually maybe more, I finally got down on my ass one Saturday night and randomly picked out 4 magazines to select some recipes. Turns out I had picked out one of my favourite magazines and found some favourite recipes which I had totally forgot about!

And also those favourite recipes turned out to be snacks that I had been wanting to make for the kids. Hahaha. So much for meal planning. It should be called snack planning.

Anyhoos, when it was just the hubby and I, it was really a lot easier to meal plan. Now I have to factor in what the kids would eat. Bah. I mean, there are some basic recipes that I know the boys would eat (pizzas, pasta, roast chicken, EGGS..omg, eggs are lifesavers). But hey, this momma would like to try some different food leh. So, #challengeaccepted.

It wasn’t easy. *sigh* But….today is Day 2 and Oliver (excuse me, no more Ollie. More about that in another entry) has devoured each dish! Hellooo,,what is happening huh? Oliver has to be just about the pickiest eater and I am surprised he finished his dinner! Quentin instead…is another story. Hrm. Never mind, we’ll try to expand his palate a little more.

Day 1: Creamy ham & mushroom pasta bake

ham & mushroom pasta bake

I used the recipe from the print edition of BBC GoodFood Asia Edition and it can also be found here! What I added to the recipe was frozen veggies so that the boys would still have some intake of veggies. For the ham, I bought offcuts of Virginia ham cos it’s cheaper #auntiemodeon I mean..gonna chop everything up mah, no need buy until sliced ham so nice =P

Day 2: Baked Honey-Miso Cod with Vermicelli Soup

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The boys are picky about their noodles *sigh* Well, Quentin pretty much eats any types of noodles but Oliver is the picky one. Vermicelli or bee hoon is a hit and miss with the boys so I decided to use the Heinz Farley’s Carrot Baby Noodles. What I love about it is that it comes in portions for kids. I don’t have to worry about cooking too much. And it cooks really fast too! (unlike pasta…al dente and all pfffpt.)

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Recipe | Xin Flavours, Issue 29
500ml
3.5 tbsp of miso paste (I got mine from Daiso)
1 brown onion, sliced
50g enoki mushrooms
80g shimeji mushrooms
4 shiitake mushrooms (soaked)
200g cod fillet (I had waay more than I needed cos we love cod)
150g dried vermicelli (soaked)
40g silken tofu (cubed)
1/2 tbsp honey

Bring water to a boil. Add onion and boil over medium heat for 15 mins
Add 3 tbsp miso paste and stir well. Turn to low heat. Remove onion.
Preheat oven to 190 degrees
Add all mushrooms into miso soup, followed by cod.Gently spoon miso soup over cod continuously until cooked. Remove cod and set aside.
Add vermicelli and tofu into miso soup. Cook until soft.
Mix remaining 1/2 tbsp miso paste with honey. Brush the mixture on one side of cod. Bake for about 5 mins until golden brown
Pour soup into bowl. Arrange cod on top. Serve

Hope these two recipes will help to sort out some meals of the week! They are pretty much one pot meals and easy to prep.

Category: Food | Tags: #foodietuesdays, #recipe

foodie Tuesdays

Posted on June 28, 2016 by enitsuj

a recipe that I’m thinking of trying!

See, I have shelves of magazines like these, that I lugged back from Australia, and then continued subscribing in Singapore. Real Living, BBC GoodFood Australia, BBC GoodFood Asia, Food & Travel, Xin Flavours.

The only existing subscription that I have now is Xin Flavours cos it is a 2yr bi-monthly subscription. Got it cos I was in damn auntie mode and they were giving a free electric double boiler with the subscription. Hahaha too good a deal leh. Now I can double boil some soups in smaller portions!

I would go through the magazines and select recipes that I thought might be interesting and simple to make. One week, it would be all magazines in the month of Jan for even years, another week, it would be all magazines in the month of Aug for odd years. I would try and pick one recipe per magazine to try. Sometimes I would throw in a recipe book in the mix to cook from as well. Once selected, I would write down the ‘location’ of the recipe and the ingredients I would need to get in a notebook,and then decide when I would cook them base on the lifespan of the ingredient. If the recipe was awesome, I would put a note next to it to rate it.

breakfast for the kids one morning

It worked well in Perth for Donald and I. It worked well in SG before we had kids. It worked well when we had Ollie. It sorta slowed down when we had QT….

Then when QT turned one, meals became what I could whip up in the shortest time.

Special meals became homemade pizza (dough from scratch), spinach & ricotta pasta bake, or a Peranakan dish cos the prep is more extensive. The easiest dish had to be the babi sioh. Super special meals happened once a quarter properly. Or I would refer to previously selected recipes and used it.

feeling the need for something refreshing yet healthy

But heck..I missed it. And I tmd am going to try and restart this again. Else my magazines are going to be collecting dust! Err..Peranakan dishes gotta wait. Making rempah is SO SO much effort! When we moved into our current place, I would make rempah on a monthly basis and it would take me one whole day. Rempah for assam pedas, sambal, laksa..etc. Then, I was stupid and spent 2-3 hours peeling those damn shallots. My Muslim colleague told me that I should soak the shallots so it would be easier to peel. Well, it did take some time off it, mebbe an hour? Now I buy peeled ones, but of course got different taste lah. My grandma would scold me if she knew I bought peeled ones. She was old school with her cooking, peel shallots, then pound by hand with pestle & mortar. I remember seeing her do it when we lived together. I tried it. I bought a pestle & mortar. It was…..tedious. I use it for smashing some ingredients. I love the feel of it.

But I love my Kenwood Food Processor more *kisskisskisskiss* oh and my KitchenAid too! *kisskisskisskisskisskiss*

can’t make my baguette without my KitchenAid!

Now if I attempt to even make any, Donald will definitely say he would rather pay to go out and eat. Bah..what does he know. hahah

I would bulk make lah, and store it in little packets so I can take and use. Now..hello Prima Paste. Sigh. Okok, must jia you. So far can only keep up with babi sioh. Laksa and sambal, I gotta wait! All that crazy dried chilli soaking plus sieving out the seeds. OMG.

School’s reopened so time to get meal planning again! Been watching Masterchef Australia so hopefully that’s gonna inspire me more!

Category: Daily, Food | Tags: foodtuesday

honey-soy roast chicken pasta

Posted on June 6, 2016 by enitsuj

To be honest, this recipe was a fluke. haha. I sorta winged it and threw in what I had in the kitchen. It was one of those days where I felt that, hey, maybe cooking something pretty might make life more cheerful.

And it did. It made me feel a little more accomplished cos some effort was made. But I totally forgot to take a photo of the roast chicken before I used the leftovers for the pasta. ARGH.

But here’s what I did:

4 chicken marylands
1 brown onion, cut into eighths
1/4 pumpkin, cut into chunks
1/2 punnet of cherry tomatoes
2 sweet potatoes, cut into fries, soaked in water for 15 mins

Basting marinade: well mixed
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius, convection oven.

2) Coat pumpkin and sweet potato with a light layer of olive oil. Place onions and tomatoes together, with pumpkin and sweet potatoes surrounding it. Place chicken marylands on top of onions and tomatoes.

3) Brush a layer of the marinade on the chicken. Put chicken in oven. Baste chicken with marinade every 15 mins. Should baste it about 3 times after you put chicken in the oven. On the 3rd baste, switch oven to fan forced, and roast for another 15 mins. Leave chicken in oven until ready to serve.

I had 1 maryland leftover, together with some of the roasted veggies. So I made them into a cream based chicken pasta. I saved all the oil/juices from the roast and kept it together with the chicken. I also had some stir fried brocolli with garlic leftover, so I also threw them in together with the chicken in the container

I used:

2 cups of spiral pasta
200ml thickened cream
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
a knob of butter (probably about 20g)
handful of cheese ( I used Perfect Italiano’s Perfect Bakes)

1) Cook pasta. Cut brocolli into smaller florets. Peel & shred the chicken off the bone.

2) Melt butter in a pan. Once butter started bubbling/frothing, throw garlic in and stirfry for about 1 min or so. Pour thickened cream in and bring to boil, before simmering.

3) Throw in chicken pieces, roast veggies and brocolli together with the oil/juices. Mix well and make sure it is all thoroughly heated.

4) Turn off the fire, and toss in the cheese and mix well.

It was mad yums and flavourful! All the juices from the roast sweetened the cream and the chicken marylands were still tender. The pumpkin and sweet potato also sweetened the pasta dish.

Two dish in one. Waah..swee. Er, by the way, my ingredients are an estimation of the amount I used, and I am in no way a chef wannabe. But I should think it is close enough to create something palatable enough!

Category: Food