Cheaters' pasta sauce

Right, as the name suggests, this pasta sauce is gonna be real easy to prepare. Heck, I even used a jar of pasta sauce for it - I did say it's a cheater's pasta sauce!

So what I did was merely to make the sauce taste even better, and I must say this was so convenient and definitely more time-saving than my other pasta sauces done from scratch.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 200g minced beef
• 1 small yellow onion (slice)
• 2 bay leaves
• 3/4 Knorr beef stock cube (dissolve in a bowl of hot water)
• plain flour
• 1 bottle of ready-made pasta sauce
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• mushrooms of your choice (optional)

Marinate beef with:

• oyster sauce
• worcestershire sauce
• ground black pepper
• garlic powder

Method:

1. Marinate beef prior to cooking.
2. Add oil to the saucepan and brown the beef. Remove when done.
3. Add oil and sweat the onions. Add the bay leaves, beef stock, mushrooms (if adding) and return the browned beef to the saucepan. Let it simmer till it's not too watery.
4. Add the pasta sauce and plain flour (and sugar).
5. Toss cooked pasta in the sauce and dinner's done!

Btw, my fussypot loved the sauce! :)

Homemade pasta sauce with pumpkin

Saw this pasta sauce recipe over at The Little Teochew some time back and I knew I just had to give it a try and I must say that both hubby and Alicia loved the sauce!

It's a really sneaky way of adding pumpkin into Alicia's diet coz she doesn't like pumpkin... but she doesn't know that in that delicious sauce, pumpkin is a key ingredient! hee.... *evil laughter* Then again, I don't like pumpkin much either... I like pumpkin soup though!

I modified the recipe as the recipe does not contain any meat so since I wanted to make it a one-dish meal for the family, I added in the usual minced beef and mushrooms... and I made a much bigger batch of sauce to freeze the remainder in small portions for Alicia. :)

Homemade pasta sauce with pumpkin

Ingredients:

• 500-600g pumpkin (skinned and cut into chunks)
• a bottle of passata (you can view the photo of the actual product over at The Little Teochew's post)
• 1 small yellow/ white onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 250g minced beef
• 10 white button mushrooms, sliced
• salt to taste
• basil flakes to taste - I added a generous portion :)

Method:

1. Steam the pumpkin till fork tender, press the pumpkin through a sieve (truly reminds me of the days I pureed food for Alicia!). Set aside.
2. Heat wok and add some oil.
3. Fry the onion and garlic till fragrant and the onions have softened.
4. Add the minced beef and some water if necessary to make sure that the minced beef does not become lumpy.
5. Add the mushrooms. Saute for awhile.
6. After the beef is browned, remove all the ingredients from the wok.
7. Add passata and the pureed pumpkin to the wok. Let it simmer for about a minute.
8. Return the ingredients that you fried earlier back into the wok and mix well.
9. Let the sauce simmer for about 10-20min (to ensure that the mushrooms are cooked and have released their sweetness into the sauce) and meanwhile you can add the salt and basil to taste. :)
10. Pour sauce over cooked pasta or put the cooked pasta into the wok and mix well before dishing onto the plate. (I chose to pour the sauce over the pasta as I wanted to save the remaining sauce to freeze in baby cubes for Alicia)
11. Top with grated cheese of your choice (optional).

Notes:
Passata can be easily obtained from NTUC or Giant.
You can substitute beef with chicken.
Omit the basil if you do not like it or you can add other herbs of your choice. I have a bottle of basil in my kitchen so I just used it... :)

Fried Bee Hoon

My hubby absolutely loves this fried bee hoon I make and I must say I love it too. It's so simple to prepare and cook and since it's a one-dish meal, it's great for those days that you're strapped for time.

Fried Bee Hoon

Ingredients:

• 1 can of stewed pork - don't consume this too often though! (leave this out if you want vegetarian bee hoon) 

• 1/3 large carrot, julienned
• 1 packet xiao bai cai, washed and plucked
• 4 handfuls beansprouts, washed and plucked
• garlic and shallot oil (made by frying minced garlic and thinly sliced shallots in oil on stovetop or microwaving for about 3 min) - this has to be omitted if you're on a strict vegetarian diet
• 1/2 big packet bee hoon

Seasoning:

• oyster sauce
• dark soy sauce
• water

Method:

1. Soak bee hoon in water till softened.
2. Remove stewed pork from can. Remove all bones and shred the meat (not too finely). Set aside.
3. Strain the gravy from the canned stewed pork with an oil filter paper. You will get a clear brown broth.
4. Heat some garlic and shallot oil in wok. Add the carrots first as they take longest to cook. Fry for a couple of minutes then add in the rest of the vegetables, beansprouts last.
5. Then add the shredded stewed pork and mix evenly (beansprouts should still be crunchy so keep a close watch on them in case you overcook them)
6. Dish out the ingredients.
7. Add garlic and shallot oil into wok and fry the bee hoon. When it gets too dry, add the strained gravy.
8. Fry till bee hoon is cooked and add the seasoning to taste. If you want the bee hoon to be whitish, leave the dark soy sauce out.
9. Add the ingredients fried earlier and mix thoroughly.
10. Dish and top with more garlic and shallot crispy bits and oil if desired.

Tip: If your wok is too small or the amount is too much for you to mix thoroughly, you can mix the bee hoon and the ingredients in two batches.

Steamed Tofu with Prawns and Glass Noodles

I was inspired to cook this dish after looking at the beautiful pictures at Foodie's Kitchen. My dish turned out yummy but my photos are far from hers though. :P 

It was perfect timing the day I decided to cook this dish because the night before I came to the decision, I happened to have bought silken tofu from Meidi-ya - this special silken tofu was kept in shelves of ice cold water to retain optimum freshness... and it is almost double the price of normal tofu brands. 

This block of tofu costs about S$1.90!

Steaming this tofu was ideal as we could really savour the texture and flavour. :)

I had a lot more prawns than tofu and my prawns were larger than each tofu cube... but everything still worked out well. Hahaha...

I especially loved the look of the curly scallions and it's all thanks to homeladychef for sharing the tip! :)

Steamed Tofu with Prawns and Glass Noodles

Ingredients:

• almost half kg of prawns
• a few cloves of garlic, minced
• olive oil
• 1 bunch scallions (for garnishing - optional)
• 1 block silken tofu
• 1 small bunch of tang hoon 

Sauce:

• light soy sauce mixed with rock sugar to taste

Method:

1. Soak tang hoon in water till softened.
2. Remove tofu from packaging and cut into blocks (best to have 1 prawn per cube of tofu)
3. Remove head and shell of prawns (retail the tail) and devein. 
4. Prepare garlic oil by either frying the garlic with oil on stovetop or popping it into the microwave for 2-3min.
5. Arrange glass noodles on plate for steaming.
6. Carefully place the tofu on the glass noodles and top each tofu block with a prawn.
7. Once water in the steamer is boiling hot, place the dish in and steam for about 6 min.
8. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Add some water if necessary, depending on your preferences. Heat this sauce on stovetop or pop it into the microwave to warm it.
9. Drizzle this sauce over the cooked dish and top with garlic oil and the crispy garlic bits.
10. Garnish with curly scallions.

Such a simple dish to cook and soooo presentable! :)


Here's our dinner the other day - 

• Steamed tofu with prawns and glass noodles
• Hongkong style steamed fish
• Stir-fried baby spinach with crispy whitebait
• Mixed brown rice

Ok, I know that's way too much food for 2 but we still finished it all... hahaha...

Review: Marks & Spencer's organic wholewheat animal pasta

Brand: Marks & Spencer

Origin: made and packed in Switzerland

Where to buy: Marks & Spencer

Product: organic wholewheat animal pasta

Weight: 250g

Note: contains wheat, gluten;

suitable for vegetarians

My friend passed me this pack of animal pasta for Alicia (hence I'm not sure about the cost) since she doesn't get a chance to cook for her daughter and I decided to let Alicia try it last night.

Cute little things

While all pastas are low in fat and good sources of complex carbohydrates, not all pastas are made equal and some pack more of a nutritional punch than others, particularly where fibre - which may help protect against heart disease - is concerned.

Marks & Spencer's organic wholewheat animal pasta is, I would say, in the league of the more nutritious pastas as it is made from organic durum wholewheat semolina.

All semolina, regardless of whether it is enriched, contains several important B vitamins. Durum semolina in particular is very high in protein for a grain product. Semolina contains no fat or cholesterol and is very low in sodium.

It is stated on the packaging to cook the pasta for 7-8 min but I cooked the pasta a couple minutes more than stated since after the instructed time, I found the pasta still rather hard.

As an adult not accustomed to the taste of durum wholewheat, I hardly found it palatable.

Luckily, I thought to myself, I had my trusty pasta sauce to go with it to cover the taste. :)

Alicia's verdict: it's FUN to eat it! She was busy trying to point out which animal she wanted to eat and we would name the animal and make the sound that animal makes together. Rather fun really. I was holding my breath throughout the time she took to chew and swallow that first animal pasta. Fortunately she finished it quickly and asked for more... phew.

The serving size stated on the packaging: 50g of uncooked pasta for a child, give more if your child has a hearty appetite. Not knowing what age 'child' meant in the packaging, I decided to go with less and I prepared 40g of it. She had a few animals left in the bowl after she decided she was done with dinner so I guess I can prepare the same amount next time... :)

The downside of the product I guess is that this is probably quite pricey, since it's from Marks & Spencers and it's organic food. But I'm not really sure. I'd say, if your child is fond of animals and is quite a fussy eater, perhaps spending a little more to have that element of fun during mealtime might be worthwhile. :) A little money to spare yourself from frustration during mealtimes - I think it's worth it!

Homemade pasta sauce (version II)

I slow-cooked the pasta sauce this time and it was really marvellous! So convenient to make and so delish! For the previous recipe, click here.

Even Alicia loved the sauce... you can be sure that if Alicia likes something, it's gotta be good though the converse isn't true... LOL.

Homemade pasta sauce (Version II)

Makes 3-4 servings

Ingredients:

• 2 cans Hunt's stewed tomatoes
• 1 yellow onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• about 200g minced beef
• 4 white button mushrooms
• 4 Swiss brown mushrooms
• unsalted butter

Marinate minced beef with:

• worcestershire sauce
• oyster sauce
• hua diao jiu
• dashes of ground black pepper

Method:

1. Blend the stewed tomatoes with the onion and garlic.
2. Pour mixture into the crockpot.
3. Remove stalk of mushrooms and chop mushrooms into small pieces.
4. Heat wok and melt butter.
5. Brown the minced beef.
6. Add the mushrooms and beef to the crockpot.
7. Cook on HI for 3-4hours or LOW for 6-8hours.
8. Pour over cooked pasta of choice and serve hot.

Optional: Transfer to stovetop after cooking with the crockpot if the sauce is too watery. Simmer till sauce has thickened to desired consistency.

Freeze in batches for instant hearty meals! :)

Stir-fried Ee Fu Noodles Version II

I cooked stir-fried ee fu noodles yesterday but changed the way I handled some ingredients and varied the seasonings used.

Hubby preferred this version a lot better than the other one as he felt the previous version was too bland for his tastebuds (I felt it was alright though). :D

Stir-fried Ee Fu Noodles (Version II)

Ingredients:

• 1 pack ee fu noodles
• 1 carrot (shredded)
• 1 chicken breast (deskinned)
• 1 pack Shanghai greens
• 4 big fresh mushrooms
• 1 bunch scallions (cut into 2" segments)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 4 shallots (sliced thinly)

Marinate sliced mushrooms with:

• hua diao jiu
• oyster sauce
• a couple of dashes of ground black pepper

Marinate chicken breast with:

• Lee Kum Kee chicken marinade
• oyster sauce
• ground black pepper
• brown sugar
• hua diao jiu

Seasonings:

• oyster sauce
• abalone sauce

Method:

1. Pluck Shanghai greens and shred the carrot.
2. Steam chicken breast for about half hour or till cooked through. Slice/shred chicken meat and set aside.
3. Cook ee fu noodles as per instructions on packaging. Set aside.
4. Heat oil in wok and fry the shallots till golden brown. Drain and set aside.
5. Leave the shallot oil in the wok and fry the scallions and garlic till fragrant.
6. Add shredded carrot.
7. Add mushrooms then add the ee fu noodles.
8. Add the chicken and mix well.
9. Flavour with seasonings.
10. Dish and top with fried shallots just before serving.

Alicia still isn't fond of ee fu noodles although she has become less picky. She agreed to eat a little before finally giving up on her bowl of noodles... that's already an improvement since she refused to eat it after the first mouth of noodles in the past. :)

Lunch - La Mian!

Bought this la mian from the market yesterday and this was our lunch today!

Alicia's portion:

And this is mine!

Alicia was quite happy to eat together with me at the coffeetable with me today - she stood while I sat. At one point, for a few minutes, there was silence in the house and all that could be heard was the sound of noodles being slurped. Hahaha. Anyway, she refused to try the minced pork balls totally but she did eat some of the spinach. She didn't finish her portion for she kept coming to my bowl after awhile and insisted from eating from mine. When I drank soup, she also insisted that she had to drink soup - from my spoon and bowl - immediately. Oh well. She's getting cuter by the day - before she started on the food, she told me, 'same same' (meaning that she was eating the same thing as me) and the food was 'hot hot'. :)

Anyway, since she didn't eat the pork (as expected), I had baked chicken wings on standby for her already and 2 baby corns on top of the spinach! hehe...

Here's how to cook this simple one-pot dish:

Ingredients (serves 1 adult + 1 toddler):

• 1.5handfuls of la mian
• 600ml stock
• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• 1 handful minced pork
• fish sauce to taste

Marinate minced pork with:

• oyster sauce
• sesame oil
• hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper

Method:

1. Bring a small pot of water to boil. Add the la mian and cook till soft but still slightly springy. Drain and set aside.
2. Bring the stock to a boil.
3. Add the spinach, let boil for a short while before adding the minced pork (shape into meatballs if desired).
4. Just before dishing, add in the la mian.
5. Add fish sauce to taste.
6. Dish and serve.

I was working with what I had on hand so you can add more ingredients if you wish! :D I forgot to top the dish with the shallots and shallot oil though... pity...

Experimenting with Alicia's menu: Chicken veggie combo

Made this for Alicia's dinner yesterday. I thought to give her a break from porridge so I decided to run this experiment. She was quite wary of it at first but later warmed up to it... even then, she wasn't VERY keen... she definitely wasn't going "more! more!" but well, she ate it though she didn't finish all of it. I may try it again some time later again, varying the texture and ingredients...

If mashed up totally, it's actually suitable for younger babies too. :)

Chicken veggie combo

Ingredients:

• 2T cooked chicken fillet
• 2T broccoli
• 2T yellow sweet potato
• 1T carrot
• 3T potato
• 1T uncooked alphabet pasta
• water
• pinch of salt
• a few drops of oil
• 70-80ml stock
• unsalted all-purpose herbs

Method:

1. Bring a small saucepan of water (with oil and salt added) to boil then cook the alphabet pasta and potato till soft.
2. Steam everything else for about 5min.
3. Mash the cooked potatoes and carrot (I have to hide this as Alicia's not very fond of these).
4. Chop the cooked chicken fillet, broccoli and sweet potato into smaller bits.
5. Bring the stock to a boil.
6. Add all of the cooked ingredients to the stock and bring to a boil again.
7. Add a few dashes of unsalted all-purpose herbs before serving.

Easy Chicken and Mushroom Crockpot Meal

I've been ill again (since last Friday but am almost fully recovered) so haven't been cooking much - and if I have, it's just simple, convenient food. Today since I had to bring Alicia to JG for class, I knew I won't have much time to prepare dinner since it's usually quite late by the time we get home and she finishes lunch and takes her nap. So I decided to prepare a crockpot meal and after pondering over what should go into the pot, I finally came up with this (served over cooked pasta):

Easy Chicken and Mushroom Crockpot Meal

Ingredients

• 3 skinned, deboned chicken thighs (visible fats removed)
• 10 white button mushrooms (my favourite!) (remove stem and cut into half)
• 2 leeks (cut the white segment into about 3cm-length parts)
• 1/2 large white onion (chop into large chunks)
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can of cream of mushroom with roasted garlic

Method:

1. Place the leek and white onion into the crockpot first.
2. Arrange the chicken thighs on top of the leek and onion.
3. Place the mushrooms on top and pour the two cans of soup in (without diluting).
4. Cook on low for 8hours.
5. Serve over hot pasta with a generous topping of Italian herbs.

Food for the ill... or the very health-conscious

So many ingredients you can't see the thick bee hoon below!

A few days ago, I developed a sore throat but it went away, only to return with a vengeance this morning. Last night I also started to cough a little. There went my plans to cook laksa today (I always cook laksa using the Prima mix - it's really nice I tell ya). I had already bought the ingredients earlier on but my throat infection meant that laksa was definitely out of the question. Instead of letting the innocent packet of thick bee hoon and beansprouts go to waste, I decided to cook a soupy meal. Fortunately I wasn't feeling too ill to get out of bed to cook dinner...


This is definitely a meal that would go down well with someone who's ill... or if you're feeling a bit health-conscious...


Ingredients:

• 1 packet of thick bee hoon (serves 2) - or you can use other types of noodles (usually I use other types of noodles like ee fu noodles, vermicelli, or egg noodles)
• 4-5 handfuls of beansprouts, plucked (you can cut down on this - I bought a whole pack so I decided to use it all)
• 4 crabsticks - remove the plastic covering and cut each crabstick into half
• 1 packet of fishballs
• a couple yong tau foo items (depends on your preference)
• fish sauce/salt to taste
• ground white pepper
• spring onions (washed and cut into 1cm length pieces)

Soup base:

• 3 chicken breast bones
• $2-3 worth of pork ribs
• 1 dried scallop (rinse, place in small soup bag)
• a handful of ikan bilis (washed a few times)
• a few cloves of garlic (rinse)
• a soup pot of water

Method:

1. Clean the chicken breast bones and pork ribs, removing any visible fats.
2. Blanch the bones and ribs.
3. Place all the ingredients for the soup base in a soup pot or claypot. Bring to a boil then simmer for a few hours (I think I simmered it for about 4hrs today).
4. Sieve the bones and ikan bilis out of the soup and place the pork ribs (if desired) and the dried scallop (remove from soup bag) back into the soup. Set aside.
5. Steam the yong tau foo items (I do this for hygiene reasons). Set aside.
6. Bring a pot of water to boil and place the thick bee hoon into the boiling water.
7. Remove the thick bee hoon from the water and portion into serving bowls.
8. Add the beansprouts to the boiling water. Let it boil for awhile till it's cooked but yet still very crunchy. Remove from water and place in the serving bowls.
9. While cooking the bee hoon and beansprouts, bring the soup base to a boil.
10. Add the fishballs first and let them boil for awhile.
11. Add the yong tau foo items and add the crab sticks last as they cook very quickly. (The fishballs should be floating by now - which means they're cooked)
12. Season the soup with fish sauce and pepper.
13. Dish the fishballs, crabsticks, yong tau foo items, pork ribs and dried scallop into serving bowls and pour the soup into the bowls.
14. Garnish with spring onions.

I told my hubby that if there's a dish he's gotta learn to cook, it's gotta be this one.... so he can cook for me when I'm ill!! :)

Nonya Mee Siam (Dry mee siam)

I was in a hurry to take the photo and get down to eating as soon as possible so this photo kinda doesn't do the actual dish justice...

This is the rempah that you can prepare and keep in the fridge for later use.

This is one of my favourite dishes! I remember cooking this dish when I was pregnant with Alicia coz I had a super strong craving for it. Thank goodness I can cook! Again, just like some of the other dishes that I've blogged about so far, this was first introduced to me by my mother-in-law. It's really great that I've got a mummy and a mother-in-law who happen to be great cooks coz I get to eat nice food and I also get to know a repertoire of dishes, of which I have learnt to cook some - though not necessarily from them. I usually do some research about the dishes I cook and I will think through the dishes myself and work out my own methods, according to my own logic and knowledge about cooking. To me, that's what enjoying cooking is about - it starts from the moment I start visualising the process of cooking!

Anyway, this dish is a nonya dish and hence it's called nonya mee siam. Unlike the other type of mee siam which has gravy, this one is dry. Just in case you're wondering whether I'm Peranakan, well, yes, I am half-Peranakan coz my dad's side of the family is Peranakan. Unfortunately, my paternal grandma wasn't into cooking so none of the delish nonya cuisine recipes were ever passed down to my mum. It is ironic that the recipe of this dish was given to me by my mother-in-law who's Hokkien - and by the way, I'm Teochew. :D That makes me a Teochew Peranakan... or is it a Peranakan Teochew? Anyway, I always tell my hubby that I feel like a Little Nonya when I'm preparing and cooking this dish!

On to the more important stuff - the recipe. I modified my mil's recipe to suit my own tastebuds...

Nonya Mee Siam (yields 6 plates of mee siam)

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of bee hoon
• one bunch of Ku Chye (chives)
• about 40-50cents of beansprouts (plucked)
• 1/3 packet of assam mixed with a bowl of water
• the juice of 20-22 small limes
• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons blended tau jio (salted soy bean paste - I'm using Tiger brand)
• tau pok or tau kwa (If using tau kwa, cut into small cubes and fry them first)
• prawns - devein (optional)
• eggs (optional)

Rempah (blend all of these):

• 130g dried shrimps
• 5 red chillies - deseeded
• 30-40g (one handful) of dried chilli - deseeded
• 1 bulb of garlic (about 7 cloves)
• 20 shallots

Note: I remove the seeds from the chilli and dried chilli so that the chilli paste will be very smooth rather than full of seeds. I'm sure you don't want to be biting into chilli seeds all the time while eating the mee siam! For chillies, just cut them open and remove the seeds. For dried chilli, cut it into segments and scald in hot water. This is to clean the dried chilli and make it easier to blend. It also helps to remove some seeds. You will have to cut open the dried chilli to check if there are leftover seeds before blending - personally, removing the seeds of dried chilli is my most dreaded step for this dish! Wear gloves if you've got sensitive skin.

Method:

1. Soak bee hoon in cold water for about half an hour. This will give the bee hoon a 'crunchier' texture. I find soaking bee hoon in hot water makes it too limp for my personal liking.
2. If using tau kwa, cut it into small cubes and fry them till golden brown. Set aside.
3. Blend all the ingredients of the rempah.
4. Fry the blended dried shrimps first.
5. Add in the rest of the ingredients of the rempah. Mix well. If not cooking the mee siam immediately, you can dish this out and let it cool before storing them in tupperwares in the fridge.
6. If cooking the mee siam immediately, proceed to add in the tau jio.
7. Pour in the assam water (remember to use a sieve).
8. Pour in the lime juice and the sugar.
9. Mix well, boil on high heat.
10. Once it boils, add in the beansprouts, ku chye, tau pok (or cooked tau kwa) and prawns.
11. Add in the bee hoon and mix all the ingredients well.
12. Beat the eggs and make omelettes out of them. Slice the omelettes into strips.
13. Garnish the nonya mee siam with the egg.

Spaghetti with home-made sauce

Spaghetti with home-made sauce (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti
• $2 worth of chicken fillet (cut into small chunks)
• 2 cans of Hunt's whole tomatoes
• garlic (diced)
• white onion (cut into small pieces)
• Organic raw brown sugar (I used 2.5 tablespoons)
• Basil
• 1-2 dashes ground black pepper
• Grated/Shredded cheese (Parmesan or Mozarella)

Seasoning (for chicken) - not too elaborate so as not to affect the taste of the sauce:

• chicken marinade
• dash of ground black pepper

Method

1. Set the spaghetti to cook.


2. Blend the whole tomatoes. I dun blend them too finely as I prefer having some tomato bits in my sauce. You can choose to blend the garlic and white onion together with the tomatoes if you do not like to bite into them.


3. Heat the oil and fry the garlic and white onion till fragrant and the white onion is quite limp.


4. Pour in the blended tomatoes.


5. Let the sauce simmer till a consistency you like - in general the longer you simmer it, the thicker the sauce would be.


6. Add basil to taste.


7. Add 1-2 dashes of ground black pepper


8. Add sugar to taste.


9. Once the sauce is of the preferred texture and taste, add in the chicken fillet to cook.


10. Once the chicken is cooked, pour the sauce over the cooked spaghetti and top with cheese.


11. Serve hot.

Egg noodles soup

I cooked egg noodles soup for my dinner yesterday (it was really a last minute decision as my hubby decided that he wanted to go wash his car and asked me to have dinner first). I was lazy to go downstairs to buy food so I just scavenged around in my fridge and found some simple but nutritious ingredients to make my dinner. Since it was so yummy, I reserved some for Alicia. It's really simple and easy, just like instant noodles - but without the MSG! :)

Ingredients:

• Stock - this is a MUST to make the noodles tasty!
• egg noodles
• cauliflower (or other veggies of your choice. I used this coz Alicia usually has broccoli for lunch and cauliflower for dinner so I always have these two veggies in my fridge)
• egg
• fresh shitake mushrooms
• a pre-packed portion of chicken fillet (optional since there's already egg. Feel free to interchange the two sources of protein)

Method:

1. Soak the egg noodles in water for awhile to soften slightly.
2. Rinse the shitake mushrooms, remove the stalk and slice them.
3. Wash the cauliflower and remove any brown spots.
4. Bake the pre-packed portion of chicken fillet and cut/shred into small pieces after it is cooked.
5. Set the stock to boil in a saucepan.
6. Once the stock boils, add in the cauliflower and egg noodles.
7. Once the noodles have softened (you can pick a little strand to try if it's soft enough for the toddler), add in the shitake mushrooms.
8. Crack the egg and add it to the saucepan. I like to have my egg in small pieces when I eat noodle soup so I will stir quickly (but not too hard in case the yolk disappears into the soup totally).
9. Add the baked chicken pieces/shreds in and voila! the nutritious meal's ready. :)

Add a small amt of salt/sauce if preferred.



As my darling's not really a soupy girl (yet), I gave her the noodles without the soup. Although she didn't drink the soup, the soup's a crucial ingredient as it makes the noodles tasty! And most importantly, in her bout of fussiness about food recently, she ate this dish!

It's really a very convenient dish to make since it's something that the whole family can eat for lunch/dinner so there's no need for additional work! Hurray! :)

Stir-Fried Ee Fu Noodles

Here's another food adventure with Alicia - fried ee fu noodles.

I'd been meaning to cook fried ee fu noodles for some time and I finally got down to doing it. I made this for dinner for hubby and myself and gave Alicia a bowl of it. Since it was her first encounter with ee fu noodles, I think she was trying to get used to the taste and texture so I didn't really have high hopes that the whole bowl would be finished. As long as she ate some, that's already an achievement. :)

I referred to the Fried Ee Fu noodles recipe from a food blog but adapted it to suit my own preferences.

Ingredients (serves 3 adults (or 2 very big eaters - that's us) + 1 toddler):

• 1 pack of Ee Fu noodles


• 1 packet of Xiao Bai Cai (or other leafy veggies)


• 1 carrot (shred finely)


• 1 chicken breast (deskinned and deboned)


• Shitake mushrooms


• garlic


• 1 small onion

Seasoning (you may choose to omit or cut down on the seasoning if just cooking for the toddler):

• 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce


• 2 tablespoons soy sauce


• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce


• a dash of pepper


• sesame oil

Method:

1. Marinate chicken breast with chicken marinade, sesame oil and a dash of oyster sauce for at least 30min. Steam the chicken breast till cooked (about 30min). Shred/cut the chicken breast into pieces. Reserve the gravy in the plate that was used to steam the chicken.


2. Rinse mushrooms. Soak mushrooms in warm water and add a bit of sugar. Slice mushrooms after they've been soaked sufficiently. Reserve mushroom water.


3. Shred carrot. Pluck leafy veggies to appropriate size. Dice garlic and onion.


4. Cook ee fu noodles till soft. Set aside.


5. Fry the garlic and onion till fragrant and the onion has softened. Throw in the shredded carrot. After that put in the mushrooms. Fry for awhile then add in the leafy veggies and fry till the veggies turn dark green. Put in the shredded chicken meat. Put in the cooked ee fu noodles and toss and mix the ingredients. Add the seasoning, the chicken gravy (from steaming) and mushroom water. Add more seasoning if necessary.


6. Serve hot.

Spaghetti in simple tomato sauce

I tried giving Alicia spaghetti in simple tomato sauce today (and yes, I forgot to take photos again). She didn't quite like the tomato bits but I think she enjoyed the taste.

Ingredients:

1 tomato
1 tablespoon of Maggi less-salt tomato sauce
A dash of all-purpose Italian herbs
Garlic (sliced)
Pasta
Olive Oil

Method:
Set pasta to cook. Make a few gentle cuts on the tomato skin. Blanch the tomato and remove the skin. The skin should come off easily. Remove the seeds and dice the tomato.

Heat the olive oil. Add in the garlic and fry till fragrant.

Add the finely diced tomato. When the tomato's cooked, add in the tomato sauce and a dash of herbs.

Toss the pasta in the simple tomato sauce.

Serve with side dishes or simply toss in some veggies and cooked meat to make a complete meal for the toddler! :)

Aglio Olio - the toddler version

Her pan-fried cod's missing from this picture coz she ate it already!

I made spicy aglio olio with prawns for dinner for my hubby and myself a couple of weeks ago and I prepared a non-spicy version for Alicia and it was a hit with her.

Baby Aglio Olio is really easy to make.

Just have:
lots of garlic
some olive oil and of course
your choice of pasta
a pinch of salt (optional)

Method:
Slice garlic into thin slices. Set the pasta to cook.

Heat the oil (but not too hot such that garlic will burn immediately).

Put in the garlic and fry till fragrant but not browned as it will become bitter. Once the garlic oil is done, remove the garlic slices and pour the oil over the cooked pasta.

Toss to coat the pasta with the garlic oil evenly.

Serve with side dishes or simply toss in some veggies and cooked meat to make a complete meal for the toddler! :)