My bike!

My exercise bike arrived on Saturday night and I've used it twice since, while Alicia napped - that's my me-time! :) It helps me keep fit and stay healthy while being able to be at home to ensure that Alicia's safe and well!

Here's Alicia trying to play with the foot pedals

I've told her she's not supposed to play with any part of the bike except the pedals and absolutely NO climbing. So far so good. :) In fact, she tells me she will fall and hurt herself if she climbs. hehe... that's my clever girl!

New PJ from Bt Tinggi

Alicia loves this new suit and she refused to take it off after she woke until she was sweating buckets during her meal... :P

She kept stroking the print and saying 'nice nice!' How adorable!

It's just so difficult to get a proper shot of her!

Baby kailan with prawns

Look at the lovely greens!!!

I remember it was a rainy morning when I went to the market and naturally, I was greeted with an abundance of vegetables at the stalls since their business is always adversely affected by bad weather.

Sometimes I just feel so bored... you know... staring at the same range of veggies and all... I don't repeat my dishes for at least a week so sometimes it kinda bothers me that I may have to cook the same veggie again. haha...

Anyway, it's been a long time since I cooked baby kailan and the auntie told me that that day's baby kailan was in top-form and I was sold on the idea immediately. :P

Well, you can stir-fry or just parboil baby kailan... this time, I chose to parboil them! :)

Baby kailan with prawns

Ingredients:

• $1 worth of baby kailan (yes! only a dollar for a full plate of veggies! Sometimes I really can't bear to order veggies when we eat out coz it's like daylight robbery....)
• 6 small prawns
• a few cloves garlic (minced - amount up to you)
• a few shallots (sliced thinly, amount up to you)
• water
• oil
• salt/sugar
• fish sauce to taste

Marinate prawns with:

• hua diao jiu
• dash of ground black pepper
• dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Pluck the kailan into appropriate size/length (cutting veggies causes some loss in nutrients so if possible, pluck em), separating the leaves from the stalks. Rinse leafy veggies thoroughly as leafy veggies usually have lotsa particles.
2. Shell and devein the prawns, leaving the tail intact. Marinate the prawns.
3. Heat some water in the wok (add a little salt/sugar and oil to the water). When the water comes to a boil, add the stalks of the kailan followed by the leaves as the stalks will take longer to cook.
4. While waiting for the veggie to cook, heat a pan with oil and fry some of the garlic till golden brown. Drain and set aside.
5. Using the same oil and pan, add in the shallots and fry till golden brown. Drain and set aside. Reserve the super aromatic shallot and garlic oil for the last step.
6. Once the veggie's cooked, drain and set aside.
7. Heat a little oil in the wok and fry the remaining garlic.
8. Add the prawns. and fry till prawns are cooked before adding in the veggie to mix. Don't fry for too long since it's really just to mix the ingredients together before adding the seasoning.
9. Add fish sauce to taste.
10. Dish and top with golden brown shallots, garlic and the OIL used to fry the shallots and garlic! :)

For toddler's consumption:

Depending on your toddler's ability to chew, this veggie may or may not be suitable. Try cutting the leafy bits into smaller pieces to aid the little one's chewing.

Wa wa cai (娃娃菜) with canned stewed pork (红烧排骨)

I usually cook this dish using wongbok (白菜) but since wa wa cai looks like mini wongbok, and shares the same natural sweetness, I find it a suitable candidate for this dish.

Here's the canned stewed pork I use

(available at supermarkets like NTUC)

The canned stewed pork is well, oily. Hence, I removed the oil from the gravy using oil filter paper and I get tasty gravy without the floating layer of oil, which I personally find gross.

Wa wa cai (娃娃菜) with canned stewed pork (红烧排骨)

Ingredients:

• 1 can of stewed pork
• 1 packet of wa wa cai (they come in a pack of 3 small bunches)
• water
• salt/sugar
• oil

Method:

1. Open the can of stewed pork and separate the pork from the gravy.
2. Filter out the oil from the gravy using oil filter paper. Set aside.
3. Shred the meat.
4. Tear the leaves of the veggie into bite size and cut the stems into appropriate length.
5. Heat some water in the wok (add a little salt/sugar and oil to the water) to parboil the veggie.
6. When the water is boiling, put in the stems first and when they are almost cooked, put the leaves in.
7. If there isn't a lot of water left from the parboiling due to evaporation, simply add the gravy and let the veggie simmer on low heat in the gravy for about 5min before adding the stewed pork. (If there's too much water, discard some of the water so that the gravy won't be too diluted)
8. Let the dish come to a boil before turning off the heat.
9. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Serve only the vegetable and preferably only the leaves as not all can handle the fibers in the stem. :)