Superfoods - Blueberries

Blueberries have been in season for the past few weeks and I got some since blueberries are known to be highly nutritious and have been even hailed as a superfood by some sources. Read here for more details.

Though hubby isn't very fond of them (I still make him eat them due to the health benefits) and Alicia isn't exactly crazy over them, I still grabbed two punnets last weekend and promised hubby that I'd be making a blueberry sauce to go with pancakes the next day for him. That blueberry sauce with pancakes has yet to materialise since on the day I bought the blueberries, I developed a low grade fever that night and so instead of waking up early to make the blueberry sauce with pancakes the next day, I woke up early to head to the clinic instead :(

Anyway, on days that Alicia takes too long to eat her lunch and has no time for veggies (erm, she still largely takes her dishes one by one rather than mixed), I make her eat some blueberries instead - and somehow that seems to move a whole lot faster than say, broccoli. :P Well, as long as she gets her balanced meal, I'm happy... :)

Grab some blueberries before they are out of season! :P

I'm sooo hoping to do that blueberry sauce one of these days!

Fun with flowers

I brought Alicia down to the playground on Tuesday morning since she had a filling breakfast and there was time to kill before lunch... plus the reno works upstairs was freaking her out so I thought it was best to get out for some fresh air and let her work out a bit so she'd be hungry for lunch!

We were greeted with lots of ixora at the playground - someone had plucked them and left them at the playground.

Alicia, being the nature-lover that she is, was thrilled to see sooo many flowers and she started to fiddle with the flowers and 'decorated' the playground:

Placing the individual flowers into each hole requires her to practise her fine motor skills :)

This activity kept her busy for a long long time... lol

Pretty?

It never fails to make me happy to see her enjoying herself :)

Goggles!

Alicia was rummaging through her basket of toys and she found a pair of goggles! :P

Just some fun shots of her and the goggles:

Trying to put on the goggles

The world... seen through a pair of goggles...

FUN!

First lesson of Term 3 at Julia Gabriel

It was pouring last Saturday morning and it was a last minute decision to bring Alicia to class because the rain abated only at 11+- and thus, we were REALLY late that day!

This term's theme is "Out at Sea" and the week's focus was "dolphin" so the kids had fun threading a cut-out dolphin and painting a dolphin with crumpled newspapers and a stencil.

Alicia can thread quite well already - it's been some time since I last gave her a threading activity and she has improved tremendously! :)

Time to make some learning aids for threading? :P

Here she is at home with her dolphins:

Made her pose with her dolphin :P

Splish splash!

Nice?

I think it's pretty artistic... :P

Tomato egg drop soup

Served this together with the minced pork fried rice on Saturday. Though Alicia isn't much of a tomato lover (like me), we both still enjoy a tomato egg drop soup :)

Tomato egg drop soup

Ingredients:

• 4 large ripe tomatoes
• 1 egg
• 250g pork ribs
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 handful dried shrimps
• 1 dried scallop
• 1L water
• fish sauce to taste
• coriander or scallions for garnishing (optional)

Method:

1. Rinse the dried scallop (then place in a soup bag), garlic and dried shrimps.
2. Score the tomato skin.
3. Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water (the skin will slide off easily). Chop tomato into small chunks and remove the seeds.
4. Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
5. Put the pork ribs, chicken bones, garlic, dried shrimps, dried scallop, tomatoes and water in a slowcooker and slowcook for 6hours on LOW.
6. Sieve out the chicken bones, garlic and dried shrimps.
7. Return the pork ribs, dried scallop (remove from soup bag) and tomatoes to the soup after putting the soup through oil filter paper.
8. Transfer the soup to a pot suitable for cooking on stovetop and bring the soup to a boil.
9. Add fish sauce to taste and wait for the soup to boil again.
10. Crack an egg and beat it. Swirl the egg into the soup slowly, bit by bit, in one direction. Turn off the heat and cover the pot for awhile.
11. Dish and garnish with coriander or scallions.

Minced pork fried rice

Cooked this for Saturday's dinner... these days I try as much as possible to cook dishes that Alicia will eat as well so that I don't need to make extra effort to cook something else for her.

This is a simple dish that's sooo yummy! Try it!

Minced pork fried rice

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup of rice grains (the cup I used to measure the rice came together with the rice cooker, hence it's not your usual cup)
• about 3 handfuls of minced pork (about $3)
• 2 handfuls dried Japanese whitebait
• 6 cloves shallots (sliced thinly)
• 4 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 handfuls frozen mixed vegetables
• scallions (for garnishing - optional)
• Oil
• Oyster sauce

Marinate minced pork with:

• hua diao jiu
• 2-3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• sesame oil
• ground white pepper

Method:

1. Cook rice as per usual. You may prefer to use overnight rice.
2. Rinse the Japanese whitebait and leave to dry on kitchen towel.
3. Heat some oil in a wok (be more generous than usual with the oil as we will need to pour this oil over the rice eventually).
4. Add whitebait to the wok and fry till golden brown. Strain and set aside.
5. Add the garlic and fry till light brown. Strain and set aside.
6. Add the shallots and fry till golden brown. Strain and set aside.
7. Dish out the extremely fragrant oil and set aside for later use, leaving a little behind to fry the minced pork.
8. Add the minced pork and fry quickly to prevent lumps.
9. When the pork is almost cooked, add the mixed veggies.
10. Add the cooked rice and mix well.
11. Add oyster sauce to taste.
12. Dish and top with the whitebait, garlic and shallots (and scallions).
13. Drizzle the fragrant oil made earlier over the rice.
14. Serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• If particular about seasoning, remove toddler's portion before adding the oyster sauce.
• Drizzle the fragrant oil over the rice and serve the crispy whitebait separately (skip the garlic and shallots if your toddler isn't fond of them.

Green bean (mung beans) barley dessert

After making the green bean (mung beans) cooling drink, there is no need to discard the beans and pandan leaves. Instead, you can transfer them to another pot and cook them together with Chinese barley to make a yummy Chinese dessert. :)

Made this dessert soup because we ran out of breakfast foods on Saturday morning and it was POURING so I rummaged through the fridge and decided to work with what I had. Anyway, who says you can't eat a dessert for breakfast? :P

Here's the recipe if you're cooking the dessert without having made the cooling drink:

Green bean (mung beans) barley dessert

Ingredients:

• 1/3 bowl mung beans
• 1-2 handfuls Chinese barley (sheng shou yi mi)
• 4 pandan leaves
• rock sugar to taste
• 1.6L water

Method:

1. Wash the pandan leaves and trim off any brownish edges. Tie the pandan leaves into a knot.
2. Wash the mung beans and barley thoroughly.
3. Place the pandan leaves, mung beans and barley into a pot of water and bring it to a boil.
4. Simmer for about an hour (remove the pandan leaves after half an hour) and add rock sugar to taste at the end of the cooking process. (The green beans should have split and the barley should be soft and fluffy)
5. Dish and serve. Can be served hot or cold.

Alicia likes this dessert too! :)

Green bean (Mung beans) cooling drink

The humble mung beans...

Read more about the goodness of mung beans here

Mung beans have 'cooling' properties, provided they are not cooked till they split. After they are well-cooked, they lose the 'cooling' properties and become 'neutral'.

Green bean (mung beans) cooling drink

Ingredients:

• 1/3 bowl mung beans
• 1.5L water
• 4 pandan leaves
• rock sugar to taste (about 1 handful)

Method:

1. Wash the pandan leaves and trim off any brownish edges. Tie the pandan leaves into a knot.
2. Wash the mung beans thoroughly.
3. Place the pandan leaves, mung beans and rock sugar into a pot.
4. Bring to a boil then simmer for 5-6min.
5. Sieve out the mung beans and pandan leaves.
6. Add more rock sugar if necessary.
7. Serve.

Wintermelon soup

Wintermelon is versatile - it can be cooked in a savoury soup or as a drink.

Wintermelon is not only 'cooling', it is good for detox too! If you understand Mandarin, you can read this site for more details. In general, cooking the wintermelon with the skin on is more effective if you are interested in the 'cooling' properties.

Wintermelon soup

Ingredients:

• 1 slice of wintermelon (keep the skin on)
• 250g pork ribs
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 1 handful dried shrimps
• 1 dried scallop
• 3 cloves garlic (keep the skin on)
• fish sauce to taste
• 1.5L water

Method:

1. Wash the skin of the wintermelon clean. Remove the seeds and cut the wintermelon into chunks.
2. Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
3. Rinse the dried shrimps, garlic and dried scallop.
4. Place the pork ribs, chicken bones, dried shrimps, dried scallop (place in small soup bag), garlic and water into the slowcooker. Cook on LOW for about 6 hours for the soup base.
5. Transfer the soup base to a pot suitable for cooking on stovetop. Add the wintermelon and boil the soup on medium-high heat for about 30min (you should get a 'cloudy' soup base).
6. Sieve out the bones, garlic and dried shrimps. Put the soup through an oil filter to remove any extra oil.
7. Return the pork ribs (if desired), wintermelon and dried scallop (take out of soup bag) into the soup.
8. Bring the soup to a boil and add fish sauce to taste.
9. Dish and serve.

It's the first time Alicia's agreed to take wintermelon! :) She usually dislikes the texture of melons... :P She lapped up the soup of course...

For toddler's consumption:

• Remove the skin from the wintermelon before serving.

Sweet sour prawns

Cooked quite a bit last week but had absolutely no time or energy to blog... not that I'm brimming with energy now... still feel quite drained and easily tired out due to the virus I caught. Keeping everything short and precise... :)

Succulent sweet sour prawns... :)

A whole dish of prawns... just for the two of us...

Sweet sour prawns

Ingredients:

• 1/2kg prawns (cost me $7)
• about 100ml cubed pineapple (fresh or canned)
• 1 chilli
• 1/2 big tomato
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 4 slices ginger
• 2 bunches scallions
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 100ml water
• 100ml syrup from canned pineapple

Marinate prawns with:

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

Seasoning:

• 2T tomato sauce
• rice vinegar (optional, if not sour enough)
• sugar to taste

Method:

1. Wash, remove the prawn heads and devein the prawns. Marinate them accordingly.
2. Cut tomato into small chunks.
3. Deseed chilli and cut into strips.
4. Cut scallions into 2" segments and dice some for garnishing.
5. Heat oil in wok. Fry the ginger, chilli, garlic, scallions and onion till fragrant.
6. Add the tomato, pineapple, syrup and water (if not using canned pineapple - hence no syrup - just increase the amount of water).
7. Bring to a boil and let simmer for about 10min.
8. Add the seasoning.
9. When the gravy comes to a boil, add the prawns and simmer till they are cooked (3-5min).
10. Dish and garnish with scallion and more pineapple on the side (optional).