Poached cod with baby spinach - for babies and tots

This is an extremely easy to prepare dish and it is one of my little one's favourite dishes!

Poaching retains all the sweetness and original flavours and is one of the best ways to cook for children or health-conscious people.

Spinach is one of the ten best foods for babies (above 8 months) - I'm so glad that my children love this vegetable!

Poached Cod with Baby Spinach

Ingredients

• 1 small piece of cod fillet (about 15-20g)
• 1 handful of baby spinach leaves (exclude stems for young children especially babies below 1 year old as they may not be able to handle the stem)
• Stock (any type, amount enough to poach cod)

Method:

1. Wash spinach leaves thoroughly.
2. Place fish in a small saucepan with enough stock to cover the piece of fish. Bring stock to a simmer over medium heat - do not boil or the fish may break apart. It should take about 5 minutes for the small piece of cod to cook.
3. Drizzle spinach with a tablespoon of stock and steam the spinach leaves for about 5 minutes or cook the spinach together with the cod.
4. Remove spinach leaves and cut into small pieces with a food scissors. Place cod on top of the bed of spinach leaves.
5. Drizzle cooked stock over the dish and serve with porridge or rice.

Cooking notes: 

1. For babies, you will need to flake the fish after cooking before feeding.
2. You can replace cod with other types of fish.
3. Cabbage may be used in place of spinach - it's extremely sweet and tasty - but cabbage would require a longer cooking time.

Stewed pork ribs with chestnuts

I cooked this super simple yet delicious dish last Saturday and just had to share it with you! 

I adapted the recipe from my friend, Pauline's blog and all I can say is that I'll be cooking it more often since it's so convenient (great for me, the pregnant woman!) and so nutritious. 

This can be a 1-dish meal but since I had some nai bai in my fridge that day, I just cooked it as another dish. :)

Stewed pork ribs with chestnuts

 

Ingredients:

• 500g pork ribs (original recipe calls for pork belly but I don't like that so I substituted with ribs and they turned out wonderful!)
• 300g chestnuts (I bought them in a pack at the vegetable stall at the wet market)
• 1 bulb garlic 
• 3 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rock sugar (optional)

Method:

1. Boil the chestnuts (with their shells already removed) in water for about 3 min. The skin should come off quite easily when you peel them when the chestnuts are still warm.
2. Wash the bulb of garlic, individual cloves separated, skin intact, and lightly crush them.
3. Blanch pork ribs.
4. Add some oil to the wok and stir fry the garlic till fragrant.
5. Add the pork ribs and fry for 2-3min before adding in the chestnuts.
6. Finally, add the light and dark soy sauce and mix well.
7. Transfer the ingredients to a slow cooker.
8. Add enough hot water to just barely cover the ingredients in the slow cooker.
9. Once you see the water bubbling in the slow cooker, turn it to autoshift and let it stew for about 2 hours.
10. Add rock sugar 15 min before serving if desired.

Alicia loved this dish too! :)


For tot's consumption:


Using a spoon, cut the chestnut into smaller, bite-size pieces to prevent choking.
Pork ribs should also be prepared in bite-sized pieces so that it's easier to chew (and swallow) and look out for any small pieces of bones (just in case).

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... :)

Homemade fish finger(s)

After Alicia showed signs of getting sick of her usual baked cod, I decided to add something new to her menu - something which my hubby has been stopping me from adding since a long time ago: breaded cod. :P He's always saying that it's too heaty etc. and since she was very young back then, I also thought it wise to keep fried food to a minimum. Now that she's reached the 30months mark this month, I felt that it was time. :)

I didn't photograph the fish fingers, but here's Alicia eating it on one occasion (scroll down for recipe):

Getting ready to eat! AHHHHH!!

Picking the crumbs to eat first...

Posing with her fish finger :)

Homemade fish finger 

serves 1 tot

Ingredients:

• 1 slice of cod (about 60g)
• 1 egg, beaten
• breadcrumbs (probably about 2 tbsp - I didn't measure)
• a teeny weeny pinch of salt
• a little ground white pepper
• cornflour
• oil

Method:

1. Mix the breadcrumbs with the salt and pepper evenly.
2. Place the slice of cod into the beaten egg, then coat it with cornflour.
3. Return the cod into the egg then coat it with breadcrumbs.
4. Add some oil into a non-stick pan and shallow fry the fish finger till golden brown before turning over to brown the other side.
5. Place the fish on a sheet of kitchen towel to remove any excess oil.
6. Let it cool before serving to prevent burns.
7. (You can fry an omelette for yourself/ your tot with the remaining egg.)

You can repeat the breading process for more fish fingers before frying them.

1 beaten egg can be used to coat 8-10 fish fingers.

New protein food option for the tot

Was at the wet market the other day and the yong tau foo stall assistant recommended this product to me:

This pack costs me $2.50 (200g)

If you eat chawanmushi, you may have come across these cute pieces of fishcake before. The other option apart from pandas was stars and I held both in front of Alicia for her choose and after considering for a short while, she decided to go with the pandas.

These pieces of fishcake aren't quite the normal fishcake we eat. They are less salty as they are packaged for children and they claim to be high in protein. 

Naturally Alicia was very taken by the appearance of the fishcake during dinner but she took a long time to chew and swallow them... sigh. I'm sure that doesn't really happen with other kids though. They taste fine to me and I think she may just be consuming these because they are cute rather than for the taste. She was quite excited to bite off the ears... the eyes.. the mouth... and she asked 'where's the nose?' *faint*

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.

Bak chor nng (minced pork with egg)

This has to be my favourite dish since I was a child! It goes way back to the time I was a young child and my grandma would prepare this for our lunch to go with our Teochew porridge. When I was in primary school, I even helped to prepare this by mincing the pork with the cleaver (yes, I was entrusted with the cleaver!), beat the eggs.... all except flavour it since I knew nuts about it then.

Years down the road, this dish hasn't been forgotten by my family and I was reminded to cook it for Alicia only lately when she had it at my mum's and showed her fondness for it as well. I'm pleased not because she shares my tastes but her acceptance of this dish means that she gets the goodness of both egg and minced pork! I've been having problems getting her to eat egg for a long while and this is the only egg dish thus far that she's ok with!

See the little holes I poked in the centre?

They're to check if it's done!

HOT!

Bak chor nng (minced pork with egg)

Makes 1-2 toddler servings (depending on how much your child can eat!)

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons minced pork
• about 1 tablespoon water

Marinate minced pork with:

• 1-2teaspoons oyster sauce
• a couple of drops of dark soy sauce
• a dash of ground black pepper
• a couple of drops of hua diao jiu
• a dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Add about 1 tablespoon of water to the minced pork. Using your fingertips, run through the mixture to ensure that there are no lumps and no tendons etc.
2. Marinate the minced pork with the seasoning. Set aside for awhile.
3. Crack the egg into the small bowl containing the minced pork and mix well.
4. Steam for 20min.
5. Serve with porridge (ideally) but it's ok with rice too!

Mini Cottage Pies (II)

Ooh, look at the golden brown pies! :)

This time I used red potatoes instead of purple ones so no purple pies! haha... and yes, these brown nicely as you can see from the pic. :)

Waiting to be baked...

Close-up! Look at the smooth texture of the potato prior to baking! :P

Cottage pies usually require the use of ground beef (and in the case of of the English, they use lamb or mutton). In my previous recipe, I used minced chicken because I didn't have ground beef on hand. This time, I had extra ground beef (leftover from the making of spaghetti sauce) and so I immediately thought of making some cottage pies since Alicia had finished the last lot quite a while ago.

If you or your child do not consume beef for religious reasons or simply detest the taste of beef, you can always give my previous recipe a try instead - not as authentic but nevertheless yummy! :)

Mini Cottage Pies (II)

Ingredients:

• 3 egg-sized red potatoes
• 3 tablespoons minced beef
• 1/3 yellow onion (minced) - I ran out of onion yesterday but would have added it if I had some
• 1/2 small carrot (minced)
• 2 tablespoons frozen green peas
• unsalted all-purpose herbs
• unsalted butter

Marinate beef with:

• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 1-2tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar (optional)
• dash of black pepper

Method:

1. Marinate minced beef.
2. Peel potatoes and cube them. Boil them till they are soft.
3. Mash the potatoes with about 1 tablespoon butter, herbs and a pinch of salt.
4. Heat wok and melt butter.
5. Fry the minced onion and carrot till onion is soft.
6. Add the minced beef. Continue frying so that the chicken doesn't clump together.
7. Add the peas when beef is almost cooked.
8. Dish up the filling.
9. Fill the silicon mini muffin cups with the filling to about the half-way mark.
10. Add the mashed potato on top and shape them like little muffins.
11. Preheat oven to 200degC.
12. Bake mini pies for 20-25min at 200degC. (Usually 20min will do for mine)

These mini pies can be frozen and defrosted in the fridge.

Because of the mini size, these can serve well as snacks or even breakfast. Just give more for lunch or dinner! :) Or pair them up with another western dish such as spaghetti - that's what I do sometimes!

Herbal soup to rid pimples...

I dunno why I've been having little pimples lately - my hubby says those aren't considered pimples coz they're too small, but I hardly have pimples so it really upsets me to see those little spots on my face.

I happened to chance upon this recipe from a cookbook my mil bought and it says the soup helps to rid pimples so I thought oh well, might as well give it a try. What have I got to lose? Hehe. Anyway, the ingredients are rather similar to my ginseng root chicken soup just that the emphasis found in this soup is the Solomon's seal.

See the overwhelming presence of the Solomon's seal? :P

The clear soup after removing most of the herbs which can't be eaten and get in the way!

Solomon's seal (herbal) chicken soup

I didn't follow the recipe exactly - I just used my own estimation... :P

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, visible fats removed) - the recipe used black chicken
• 4 large seedless red dates
• 4 dried longan (this wasn't added in the original recipe)
• 40-50g Solomon's seal (yu zhu)
• 10-15g ginseng root
• 1 slice ginger
• 1/2 tablespoon hua diao jiu
• salt to taste
• 500ml water

Method:

1. Blanch the chicken thighs. Remove and place in the bowl for double-boiling.
2. Rinse the herbs and place them in the bowl as well.
3. Add the ginger, water and the hua diao jiu (Note: the hua diao jiu was added only at the point of serving in the original recipe but since I'm still nursing, I decided to add in the wine in the early stage of cooking so that the alcohol content would have evaporated by the end of the cooking).
4. Double-boil the soup for about 1.5h to 2h. (The original recipe cooked the soup on the stove for 1.5h but I decided to double-boil instead).
5. Add salt to taste.
6. Remove herbs before serving for easy access to chicken meat and soup. :)

Alicia loved the chicken meat from the soup as it was sooo tender and sweet. She took a bit of soup too but wasn't so keen - probably due to the slight hint of bitterness caused by the ginseng root.

For toddler's consumption:

• Tear off the soft chicken meat from the chicken bones for the tot.
• Do not serve too much of the soup as ginseng root is considered to be quite 'cooling'.

Sardines!!!

Sardines are more often than not overlooked when it comes to menu planning, especially in my home as hubby isn't a great fan of sardines. He's always complaining that sardines have a 'fishy' smell and taste. Come to think of it, I think this is the first time I've cooked sardines for him since we got married! It's only because I said that I think it's good to introduce sardines to Alicia that he relented the other day. :P

Anyway, sardines are jam-packed with goodness so really, there's no reason not to eat them. And with my home-made sauce to go along with the sardines (there's a pathetic amount of sauce that comes together with the sardines so I have to make my own), the sardines aren't 'fishy' at all! :) Even hubby had to agree! :) and he finished up the sauce together with the rice...

Alicia's response?

Well, she ate one whole sardine (including the bones of course) as one of the courses of her dinner that day! *happy mummy* The last time she had sardines was when I made sandwiches for myself and that was a super long time ago!

Goodness of sardines:

• high concentration of omega-3-fatty acid (sardines are considered to be one of the best sources of omega 3’s around, surpassed by only a few other fish such as Salmon).
• a naturally good source of vitamin D
• high in calcium which can work with the vitamin D to help promote stronger bones
• contains Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Vitamin B3, protein, tryptophan, selenium and phosphorus.
• The fish is considered to be one of the healthiest of the world’s foods, especially with its high concentration of Vitamin D which is found in few foods in such amounts.
• There are no carbohydrates in sardine, yet high in protein

(Sources: healthandnutritiontips.net and healthmad.com)

For more info, you can read this.

Sardines in tomato sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 can of sardines (I use Ayam brand)
• 1 red onion (sliced)
• 3-4 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 chilli (cut into pieces, deseed)
• about 4 tablespoons tomato sauce (I use Maggi)
• 1 tablespoon assam (mix with a bit of water) or use lime to taste
• 100-200ml water

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the onion and chilli and fry till fragrant. Add the garlic.
2. Add the sauce from the can of sardines (but don't place the sardines into the wok just yet).
3. Add some water (gauge for yourself, depends on how thick you want the sauce to be) and the tomato sauce.
4. Add the assam water (without the seeds of course - use a sieve).
5. Let the sauce simmer for at least 10min. (By then, the onions would have softened and the sauce would have been sweetened by the onion so there's no need for extra sugar)
6. Add the sardines and simmer for another 5min or so.
7. Dish and serve with hot fluffy rice.

Mini Cottage Pies for the tot!

How would you like some of these?

They aren't baked yet though... but don't they look nice?

I decided to bake mini cottage pies for Alicia the other day, but using minced chicken in place of minced beef since I didn't have beef on hand. And just in case you're wondering, the potato I used was a purple one hence the violet hue instead of the usual yellow. :) Hubby actually thought it was yam... lol.

Check out Alicia's response:

Hot!

Help me with it daddy!

Waiting...

Still waiting for it to cool...

hmmm... what does it taste like...

mmmm... not bad...

Fresh out from the oven!

Mini Cottage Pies for the tot

Waiting to be baked...

Makes 10 mini pies

Ingredients:

• 1 red potato
• 1 purple potato
• 3 tablespoons minced chicken fillet
• 1/3 yellow onion (minced)
• 1/2 small carrot (minced)
• 2 tablespoons frozen green peas
• unsalted all-purpose herbs
• unsalted butter

Marinate chicken with:

• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 1-2tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• dash of black pepper

Method:

1. Marinate minced chicken.
2. Peel potatoes and cube them. Boil them till they are soft.
3. Mash the potatoes with about 1 tablespoon butter and a pinch of salt.
4. Heat wok and melt butter.
5. Fry the minced onion and carrot till onion is soft.
6. Add the minced chicken. Continue frying so that the chicken doesn't clump together.
7. Add the peas when chicken is almost cooked.
8. Dish up the filling.
9. Fill the silicon mini muffin cups with the filling to about the half-way mark.
10. Add the mashed potato on top.
11. Preheat oven to 200degC.
12. Bake mini pies for 20-25min at 200degC.

These mini pies can be frozen and defrosted in the fridge.

Because of the mini size, these can serve well as snacks or even breakfast. Just give more for lunch or dinner! :)

Alicia's response in the beginning was lukewarm and almost disheartening but after serving these little pies to her a few times, she started to warm up to them and eats well now! :)

Perfect chicken wings for the toddler!

I think it was last Monday that I gave Alicia this meal... a very simple meal consisting of rice, baked chicken wings and steamed peas with a cup of water chestnut drink should she get thirsty during the meal. Well, it's nothing to rave about but it's a balanced meal to say the least. :) For variety, I usually change the veggie and mabbe throw in a bowl of soup in place of the drink.

She didn't finish up all her food ... as usual... what's new? :(

She found it amusing to pick up the peas though and she had her usual fun tearing apart the chicken wings... hehe.

Anyway, if baking only 2 midwings for the toddler, here's the recipe:

Baked midwings for the tot

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken midwings

Seasoning:

• 0.5-1 teaspoon Lee Kum Kee chicken marinade
• 0.5-1 teaspoon oyster sauce
• 0.5-1 teaspoon sugar
• dash of black pepper (optional)

Method:

1. Marinate the wings with the seasoning for at least 2 hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 200degC.
3. Place the wings on the baking tray. drizzle some seasoning left in the bowl on the wings and bake for 10min at 200degC.
4. Turn the wings over. drizzle the leftover seasoning and bake the other side for another 5min at 200degC.
5. Serve with fluffy rice and veggies.

Braised chicken with potato

I was braising the chicken already and still wondering what seasonings to add... can you believe that? :)

And so this concoction is based purely on what I decided to throw in at the spur of the moment.. teeheehee... and it turned out great anyway - savoury tender chicken meat with melt-in-the-mouth potato bits :D

That's the thing about cooking - just go with your instincts and add lotsa love and the dish will be yummy!

Braised chicken with potato

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, chopped)
• 4 egg-sized potatoes (sliced)
• 2 cloves garlic (coarsely chopped)
• 2 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 4 slices ginger
• 2 bunches scallion (cut into 2" segments)
• 1 bowl water
• cornflour slurry
• scallions/ coriander for garnishing (optional)

Seasoning:

• 1.5T oyster sauce
• 1/2T worcestershire sauce
• 1/3T dark soy sauce
• 2tsp sugar
• dash of ground white pepper
• dash of sesame oil

Marinate chicken with:

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

Method:

1. Marinate chicken meat (preferably overnight).
2. Heat oil in a wok. Fry the ginger, shallots, garlic and scallions till fragrant.
3. Add in the potato slices.
4. Add in the chicken and fry till chicken is about half-cooked.
5. Add one bowl water and bring the gravy to a boil.
6. Simmer on low heat for 25min then add in the seasoning.
7. Bring to a boil again before adding the cornflour slurry to thicken the gravy to desired consistency.
8. Once the gravy bubbles, turn off heat.
9. Dish, garnish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut chicken and potato into small pieces before serving.

Crockpot chicken wings stew for the toddler!

I marinated the chicken wings the night before yesterday and hence I had to find some way to cook it without stinking up the machine-load of clothes that was drying in my kitchen. I figured that the crockpot would be the way out for me and so voila! Crockpot chicken wings stew was Alicia's dinner last night. :)

It's much oilier than the previous crockpot chicken stew I made for her simply because in the other recipe, I used chicken fillet (which has no skin). Anyway, because it was a last minute decision to cook this and ingredients are seriously starting to run out in my pantry (thank God that my mum is here today so I can go marketing in peace!), I was secretly hoping that the stew would turn out fine - and it did. Phew.

Crockpot chicken wings stew for the tot

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken midwings
• 2T diced carrot
• 2-3T diced potato
• 2-3T diced sweet potato
• 2 shallots, sliced thinly (I had wanted to fry this but the clothes hanging over my head were a constant reminder that I had to do what was rational)
• water

Method:

1. Place all the ingredients into the crockpot (the wings are to be put in last).
2. Pour water into the crockpot such that it almost covers the wings.
3. Slowcook for 2-3hours and you get a very savory sweet stock as well! :D

Steamed tofu with minced pork

I wanted a simple dish for dinner tonight and here it is! :D Fuss-free and nutritious dish!

*Have to keep my post short due to time constraint*

Steamed tofu with minced pork

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of tofu (for steaming)
• 1 handful of minced pork
• 1 handful of mixed veggies
• 3 shallots (sliced thinly)
• oyster sauce

Marinate minced pork with:

• oyster sauce
• hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper
• cornflour

Method:

1. Remove tofu from packaging and steam it for 5minutes.
2. Fry the shallots till golden brown. Drain and set aside. Dish out some of the shallot oil, leaving some behind to fry the minced pork.
3. Add in the minced pork and keep frying to ensure that there are no big lumps of pork.
4. When minced pork is almost cooked, add the mixed veggies.
5. Add oyster sauce to taste (you can add a little more than usual because the minced pork will be eaten with the bland tofu).
6. Top tofu with fried minced pork.
7. Drizzle shallot oil on the dish then top with the crispy shallots.
8. Serve hot.

*You may add diced prawn and minced water chestnut to enhance the texture and taste of this dish but I didn't have those ingredients with me today.

Alicia still doesn't like tofu, but she loved the rest of the dish and she ate quite a bit of rice mixed with minced pork, the shallot oil, some of the mixed veggies and chopped french beans from the other dish. :D I think she just likes the shallot oil! lol.

Oyster sauce stir-fried chicken with veggies

I had to make do with this picture because I couldn't find my camera last evening when I wanted to take a photo of the dish, so I had to use hubby's phone. Anyway, I was frantically combing the house for the cam but I just couldn't find it... I began to start worrying that Alicia had thrown the camera into the recycling trash without my knowledge and I had just cleared out the whole bag in the morning. Yikes! Fortunately, hubby managed to find my camera after dinner - Alicia had hidden it in her toy car! What a relief to have found my trusty point-and-shoot cam! But needless to say, I hardly enjoyed my dinner because I thought my cam was gone for good.

What a long preamble... anyway, here's my recipe - it's really simple and healthy but I'd say nothing really much to rave about though... hehe :)

Oyster sauce stir-fried chicken with veggies

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs (skin removed, deboned, cut into pieces)
• 6 baby corn (cut into pieces)
• 1/2 red pepper (diced)
• 1/2 Japanese cucumber (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 4 pieces ginger
• 1 bunch scallions (including the whitish portion, cut into 2" segments)
• cornflour solution

Seasoning:

• 1-2T oyster sauce

Marinate chicken with:

• oyster sauce
• hua diao jiu
• Lee Kum Kee Chicken Marinade
• sugar
• a few dashes of ground black pepper
• a bit of sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat some oil in the wok. Fry the ginger and scallions till fragrant then add in the garlic.
2. Add in the chicken pieces and fry for awhile till almost cooked.
3. Add some water.
4. Add in the baby corn and fry for a couple more minutes.
5. Add oyster sauce.
6. Add in the red pepper and Japanese cucumber just before dishing. Just let it fry for a very short while (1-2min) taking the opportunity to mix the ingredients evenly.
7. Thicken gravy with cornflour solution.
8. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Make sure that all pieces of food are small enough for the tot to handle, especially the Japanese cucumber.

Chicken stew served with macaroni for the toddler!

That's Alicia's dinner tonight... macaroni with chicken stew - just for her.

She hasn't had macaroni for months since the last time she rejected it so here I am, trying my luck again.

Unfortunately, it seems I'm out of luck because someone still doesn't like macaroni, so she only ate the chicken stew readily but left all the macaroni behind. It's a really tasty dish but I guess she just doesn't like macaroni so I ended up having to cook spaghetti for her...

Anyway, here she is, sampling her food:

Here's how to prepare the dish:

Ingredients:

• 2-3T chicken fillet meat (or thigh)
• 1/3 large carrot
• 2 baby corn
• 2T yellow onion
• 100ml stock

Marinate chicken with:

• 1T chicken marinade
• 1tsp brown sugar
• 1tsp oyster sauce

Method:

1. Cut the carrot, baby corn and onion into chunks for toddler.
2. Place the veggies into the slow cooker and place the chicken (including any leftover marinade) on top.
3. Add the stock.
4. Cook the stew in the small slow cooker for 2-3hours.
5. Thicken with cornflour solution if needed. You can add noodles instead of thickening the stew - just as flavourful! :D
6. Serve with rice, porridge or your choice of pasta.

No-frills steamed egg

This is a simple home-cooked dish and as the title indicates, it's truly no-frills! :D

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 200ml stock
• 1 bunch scallions (sliced)
• 2 shallots (slice thinly)
• 1/2tsp salt
• ground white pepper
• light soy sauce

Method:

1. Beat the eggs and mix them together with the stock.
2. Add salt and ground white pepper.
3. Sieve the egg mixture twice to get a smooth fluid.
4. Steam the egg mixture on low heat (for about 8min or so), and stand close by to watch the steaming process so that the egg will definitely be smooth.
5. Heat some oil and fry the shallots.
6. Pour a little light soy sauce, the shallot oil and shallots over the steamed egg.
7. Sprinkle the scallions over the dish.

For toddler's consumption:

• Serve steamed egg without the shallots and scallions if your tot is not fond of them.

Chicken midwings stew

I didn't have much time to take a proper photo of the dish as I was trying to watch over the rest of the food I was cooking on the stove. This will just have to do...

Anyway, we love chicken wings - so does Alicia - so it's no surprise that chicken wings make their appearance quite a bit on our table! :)

Chicken midwings stew

Ingredients:

• 12 mid wings
• 1/2 small red pepper (dice)
• 3 baby corn (cut into chunks)
• 2 handfuls frozen mixed veggies
• 2 cloves garlic (sliced and lightly smashed)
• 2 shallots (chunked)
• 2 slices ginger
• 2 bunches scallions (cut into 1.5-2" length)

Seasoning:

• 2-3T oyster sauce
• 1T dark soy sauce
• 1-1.5T brown sugar

Marinate the wings with:

• oyster sauce
• Lee Kum Kee chicken marinade
• sesame oil
• ground black pepper
• brown sugar

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a wok. Fry the baby corn, mixed veggies and diced red pepper till cooked. Remove from wok.
2. Brown the chicken wings on both sides then remove from wok.
3. Heat some oil in the wok and fry the ginger and scallions.
4. Add the shallots and garlic. Fry till fragrant.
5. Add the chicken wings and fry for a short while.
6. Add the seasoning and enough water to cover the wings.
7. Bring the water to a boil then simmer for 40 minutes, stirring now and then for even cooking.
8. Add the veggies in in the last 10min.
9. Add some cornflour solution to further thicken the gravy if necessary.
10. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• If the tot can handle eating the meat from the chicken wing on her own, there is nothing much to do! :)
• Remove the meat from the chicken wing if the tot is unable to eat it on her own.
• Cut the baby corn into smaller pieces.

Chicken with baby asparagus

It's a really simple dish... the taste is quite ordinary and not outstanding. I would have added red bell peppers if I had them on hand, but I didn't, so the appearance of the dish looks a bit drab. Anyway, it's quite a convenient dish and has veggies and chicken so if you want to save time and effort cooking up another dish, you can try this... with red bell peppers if you can, please. :D

Alicia hasn't had baby asparagus for a long long time so she was quite happy to eat them again last night.. :) She wasn't that keen on the chicken... I guess it's because I didn't marinate them long enough so the chicken bits weren't infused with the overall taste of the dish...

Chicken with baby asparagus

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken thighs, diced (deboned, visible fats removed)
• 1 bunch of baby asparagus (diced)
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• 1 small red onion (diced)
• water
• cornflour solution (for thickening of gravy)

Marinate chicken (preferably overnight) with:

• 1T oyster sauce
• 1-2T Lee Kum Kee chicken marinade
• ground black pepper
• 2tsp brown sugar
• 1tsp cornflour

Seasoning:

• 1/2T hoisin sauce

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a wok. Fry the diced onion bits till they become translucent.
2. Add in the garlic and fry till fragrant.
3. Add in the baby asparagus, and some water if it's too dry and the onion and garlic are turning brown too quickly.
4. When the baby asparagus is almost cooked, add the chicken cubes and fry till the chicken is cooked.
5. Add seasoning.
6. Thicken gravy with cornflour solution if necessary.
7. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Make sure baby asparagus is less than 1cm in length. The most tender part of baby asparagus is near the 'spear' so if possible, offer that to your tot.
• Cut chicken meat into small pieces.