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.

Just for kids! - Cabbage wrap chicken minis

Here's a simple recipe to share that will make both mummy and kid happy!

Cabbage wrap chicken minis (makes 1 mini)

Ingredients:

• 1 cabbage leaf (depending on the size of your cabbage, you may only need half a leaf for one of these minis)
• 1 thumb-length piece of chicken fillet (you may mince this but I didn't)

Marinate chicken with (just a dash/pinch of each seasoning!):

• oyster sauce
• Lee Kum Kee chicken marinade
• ground black pepper
• sugar (optional)
• sesame oil

Directions:

1. Marinate chicken fillet for at least an hour.
2. Wash and blanch cabbage leaf in boiling stock or water to make it easier to wrap the chicken (about 5 minutes)
3. Spread cabbage leaf out on a plate and place chicken fillet on it. Wrap the chicken fillet up as you would with a springroll.
4. Place the wrapped chicken on a plate and steam it for 10minutes.
5. Optional: Pour the 'juice' that is in the plate after the steaming into a small saucepan (top up with more stock if necessary), add cornflour solution (mixture of cornflour and water) to thicken into a gravy. Dish gravy over the wrap.
6. Serve.

This is how it looks prior to steaming

And the verdict!:

My little boy had one of these too (he's almost 1!) - but I had to cut the wrap into really small pieces for him to handle.

Omit all the seasonings for children under 1 year old. The chicken and cabbage are naturally sweet so there is no need to add seasoning. :)

Asparagus with prawns

Ok, more vegetable dishes coming up! haha. I've got like a million other posts to blog about so everything's gonna be short and sweet.

I've got another version of this veggie but it's baby asparagus rather than asparagus. 

Asparagus with prawns

Ingredients:

• 2 small bunches of asparagus
• 4 prawns, shelled (retain the tail), deveined 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• oil 
• salt 
• water

Marinate prawns with:

• a bit of hua diao jiu
• dash of ground black/ white pepper 

Seasoning: 

• fish sauce to taste

Method:

1. Trim the stem end of the asparagus. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the tough fibers on the stem - how much to remove depends on how old your asparagus is.
2. Rinse the asparagus and slice it diagonally. 
3. Place a bit of oil and salt in some water and bring to a boil. Parboil the asparagus for 2 min till almost cooked.
4. Drain and set aside.
5. Heat oil in wok and fry garlic till fragrant.
6. Add marinated prawns and fry till 70% cooked. 
7. Add the parboiled asparagus and some water and simmer for a short while till prawns and asparagus are fully cooked.
8. Add fish sauce to taste.
9. Dish and serve.

For tot's consumption:

You can cook the asparagus for a longer time to soften it further if your tot is not so good at chewing crunchy veggies. :) Cut into bite-size before serving.

Chayote (chokos) with glass noodles

I'm really quite in love with this vegetable as you can see... I cook it as a dessert, I stir-fry it with prawns and dried shrimps and just over the weekend I tried cooking it with glass noodles.

I came across this idea while reading Ju's blog and I thought, I'd try it some day.

And so that day came and I cooked it.

I think I still prefer the thinly sliced version instead of the julienned one because I prefer my chayote to be crunchy rather than soft. But oh well, if I don't try it, I'd never know right? :P


Chayote (Chokos) with glass noodles

Ingredients:

• 1 big chayote
• 1 handful small dried shrimps
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 bowl stock
• 1 bowl water
• 1 small packet of glass noodles
• fish sauce to taste

Method:

1. Remove the skin and seed of the chayote and julienn.
2. Rinse the dried shrimps a couple of times then soak in a bowl of water. Remove the shrimps and air-dry before frying (to prevent oil from splattering later). Reserve the bowl of water the shrimps were soaking in.
3. Soak the glass noodles to soften them a bit.
4. Heat oil in a wok and fry the garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant.
5. Add the chayote and fry for 30sec before adding in the stock and bowl of water.
6. Bring the stock to a boil then add the glass noodles.
7. Add fish sauce to taste.
8. Dish and serve. 

Chayote (Chokos) with dried shrimps

I dunno about you but I've taken a great liking for chayote (chokos) and on Sunday, I found that I had no prawns in the freezer so I decided to fry it with dried shrimps instead.

I was very pleased with the outcome and in fact, I liked it more than the version I cooked with prawns. You're bound to love it too - if you're fond of dried shrimps :P

Anyway, I was lazy and took the shortcut - didn't parboil the chayote slices this time round and just fried them ... it was still ok. :P

Chayote (Chokos) with dried shrimps

Ingredients:

• 1 big chayote (chokos) - remove skin and seed and slice very thinly)
• 1 handful of very small dried shrimps
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• fish sauce to taste

Method:

1. Rinse the dried shrimps a couple of times. Soak them in about half a bowl of water for about 1/2hr. (Chop the dried shrimps into smaller bits if you're using the bigger dried shrimps)
2. Remove the dried shrimps from the water and leave to dry - you don't want oil to splatter everywhere when you're frying them later. Reserve the water for cooking.
3. Heat some oil in the wok. Fry the garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant.
4. Add in the chayote and stir-fry for about a minute.
5. Add in the water that the dried shrimps were soaked in and bring it to a boil. (Add more water if nec)
6. Simmer on low heat for about 5-7min (depending on how crisp you like the veg).
7. Add fish sauce to taste - you don't need a lot of this as the dried shrimp is already a bit salty.
8. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption (above 18mths):


Cut the chayote slices into smaller pieces to facilitate chewing.

Chayote (Chokos) with prawns (佛手瓜炒虾仁)

The lighting when I took the photos was really bad, so you've really gotta pardon these photos with a blueish tinge...

To make up for the bad photos, I can tell you that this dish was truly a delightfully crunchy and savoury one, so if you do see chayotes in the market or supermarket, do give it a try!

Alicia didn't like the chayote cooked as a soup the other time - I guess she doesn't like the texture after it's cooked in the soup but she enjoyed the crunchy bites of the chayote yesterday during dinner.

Hubby and I enjoyed the dish too! I can't wait to cook this again soon!

Chayote (Chokos) with prawns (佛手瓜炒虾仁)

Ingredients:

• 1 chayote (chokos)
• 6 small prawns (washed, shelled and deveined)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• oil
• a pinch of salt
• water
• fish sauce to taste

Marinate prepared prawns with:

• a dash of hua diao jiu
• ground white pepper
• a bit of light soy sauce
• a dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Remove skin and seed of the chayote. Cut it into quarters and slice as thinly as possible - the thickest slice I had was not more than 0.1cm.
2. Marinate the prepared prawns accordingly.
3. Parboil the sliced chayote in water with a pinch of salt and a bit of oil for no more than 1 min.
4. Remove the chayote slices and run room temp water/ cold water through them. Drain and set aside.
5. Heat oil in wok then fry garlic till fragrant.
6. Add in the prawns and stir-fry for a short while till prawns turn slightly pink on both sides.
7. Add some water and the chayote (the water should cover about a third of the ingredients in the wok).
8. Stir-fry for about 2-5 min (depending on how cooked you'd like the chayote - chayote can be eaten raw so there's no worry about eating raw veg).
9. Add fish sauce to taste.
10. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut chayote slices into small pieces for easier chewing.

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.

Green radish and carrot soup

Adoring the beautiful green radish on my chopping board... :)

Green radish apparently reduces heatiness, alleviates stress, promotes urination and is good for expelling phelgm.

Green radish and carrot soup

Ingredients:

• 1 green radish (chop into chunks, remove skin)
• 2 small carrots (chop into chunks)
• 6 red dates
• 1 dried scallop (place in soup bag)
• 250g pork ribs
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 3 cloves garlic (with skin on)
• 1.5L water
• fish sauce/salt to taste

Method:

1. Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
2. Rinse the red dates and garlic.
3. Add the red dates, garlic, pork ribs and chicken bones to the water in a slowcooker.
4. Let it cook on LOW for about 6hours.
5. Transfer the soup to a pot suitable for cooking on stovetop.
6. Boil on high heat for about 30min then remove the red dates, garlic and chicken breast bones. Retain the pork ribs if desired. Return the scallop to the soup.
7. Put the soup through oil filter paper to remove excess oil.
8. Add the green radish and carrots and boil for at least 30min till the green radish softens. (Don't expect them to be soft like carrots or even white radish. The texture's quite different!)
9. Add fish sauce to taste.

If cooking on stovetop,

1. Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
2. Rinse the red dates and garlic.
3. Add the red dates, garlic, pork ribs and chicken bones to the water (2L instead of 1L) in a pot.
4. Boil on high heat for about 30min then simmer for 2-3hours.
5. Remove the red dates, garlic and chicken breast bones. Retain the pork ribs if desired. Return the scallop to the soup.
6. Put the soup through oil filter paper to remove excess oil.
7. Add the green radish and carrots and boil for at least 30min till the green radish softens. (Don't expect them to be soft like carrots or even white radish. The texture's quite different!)
8. Add fish sauce to taste.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut the green radish into small cubes of about 0.5cm to make chewing easier. I found it ok to feed 2-3 such cubes to Alicia at one time, but it depends on your toddler of course... :)
• Cut carrots into cubes as well but there is no need to cut it as small as the green radish as carrots are much softer.

Stir-fried baby spinach with crispy whitebait

Mmmm.... tender bites of baby spinach with crispy whitebait!

The highlight of the dish... :)

Stir-fried baby spinach with crispy whitebait

Ingredients:

• 1-2 bunches of baby spinach
• 1 big handful of Japanese (dried) whitebait
• 100ml stock/water
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• shallot and garlic oil (made by frying shallot and garlic in oil till they brown)

Method:

1. In a wok, heat some shallot and garlic oil then add the whitebait and pan-fry till they turn golden brown and crisp.
2. Set aside the whitebait on a kitchen towel to remove any excess oil.
3. With the remaining oil in the wok, fry the garlic till fragrant.
4. Add the baby spinach and stir-fry for about half a minute.
5. Add the stock/water and simmer till the spinach is cooked.
6. Add fish sauce to taste.
7. Dish and top with crispy whitebait.

Alicia loves the crispy whitebait and she ate them neat. :)

For toddler's consumption:

• The whitebait from Japan is not salty and I highly recommend it for toddlers' consumption!
• Make sure the spinach is of appropriate length/size before serving to prevent choking.
• Serve the spinach and whitebait separately if preferred.

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. :)

Chayote barley dessert (佛手瓜薏米甜汤)

I bought chayote the other day from the market as it was recommended by the vegetable seller. I had asked her for recommendations for any remedies for ridding phelgm and she suggested this (though it wasn't the first option - she had something else in mind but apparently it was already sold out so chayote was the next best choice).

FYI, I saw this in NTUC and it was labelled as Chokos.

I got some information about chayote from this site:

"Chayote (pronounced chai-yo-tay) is a member of the cucumber and squash family. Though it is eaten both in raw or cooked forms, it is actually a fruit. In both forms it is a good source of amino acids and Vitamin C. It is also low in calories, sodium, contains no cholestrol and is a good source of fibre. You can peel it or prepare it with the skin on. The seed is tender and edible as well."

Here's the pic of the chayote from that site:

And here's the cut version of the chayote:

After a bit of reading up about the chayote in Mandarin, this is what I've gathered:

Chayote's health benefits:

• Boosts immunity against diseases
• Lowers blood pressure
• A good choice of food for heart patients as it's a low sodium food
• Has 2-3 times the protein and calcium in cucumbers
• Has a significantly higher amount of minerals and vitamins compared to other melons
• Alleviates indigestion, wet cough, chest tightness, flatulence, vomiting, liver and stomach gas pains and bronchitis.
• It is high in selenium (selenium has a strong antioxidant effect that protects cell membranes from structural and functional damage).
• Aids patients with fertility problems.
• High in zinc which stimulates intelligence in children.

How could you not give this vegetable/fruit a try? :P

It is a versatile veg/fruit and can be eaten raw as in salads, cooked in savoury soups or desserts.

This time, I've decided to make a dessert out of it:

Double-boiling in progress...

Here's the link to the stir-fried version I made.

Chayote barley dessert (佛手瓜薏米甜汤)

Ingredients:

• 1 chayote (skin and seed removed, chop into chunks)
• 2 candied dates
• 1 handful Chinese barley
• less than 1 teaspoon sweet and bitter almonds (combined)
• 2-3 rice bowls water
• rock sugar (optional)

Method:

1. Rinse the herbs.
2. Add all the ingredients (except the rock sugar) into the double-boiler.
3. Double-boil for about 2 hours.
4. Add rock sugar to taste (it's already quite sweet so this is entirely optional).
5. Sieve out the candied dates and barley. Consume only the soup and the chayote.

Alicia had some of this though she wasn't particularly fond of it... in fact, she didn't quite like the chayote but was quite ok with the taste of the soup.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut the chayote into smaller pieces before serving or allow the tot to bite off from the adult's portion.

Hairy cucumber soup (毛瓜汤)

I think the name of this vegetable is hairy cucumber or green marrow or something... but I'm really not too sure. :P

It's usually cooked in soups and it contains carbohydrates, protein, vitamin A, vitamin B1, vitamin B2, vitamin C, riboflavin, fructose, carotene, phosphorus, calcium, iron and other minerals. It's considered 'neutral' compared to wintermelon which has 'cooling' properties.

I actually cooked this soup last Thursday but had no time at all to blog about it and am finally doing so today!

Hairy cucumber soup

*Skip the dried scallop for tots below 18mths*

Ingredients:

• 1 hairy cucumber
• 250g pork ribs
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 1 dried scallop
• 1 handful red dates (pitted)
• fish sauce to taste
• 1 soup pot water

Method:

1. Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
2. Rinse and place dried scallop in a small soup bag.
3. Remove the skin and seeds of the cucumber and chop into chunks.
4. Place all the ingredients (except the hairy cucumber and fish sauce) into a pot.
5. Bring to a boil and simmer for a few hours.
6. Sieve out the bones and place everything else back into the soup, including the dried scallop.
7. Add the hairy cucumber and boil for about 20min.
8. Add fish sauce to taste before serving.

For toddler's consumption:

• Skip the dried scallop for tots below 18mths
• Cut hairy cucumber into small pieces before serving or allow the tot to bite off from the adult's portion since it's so soft! :)

Romaine lettuce with oyster sauce

I went to the wet market yesterday and glanced at the vegetables at the vegetable stall. I was incredibly bored with the usual range of vegetables that was left at that time of the day since I always go down very late so that I can pick up early lunch on the way home with Alicia. It's awfully tiring to have to lug groceries with one hand and carry a toddler who refuses to walk where I want her to go with the other hand. I haven't even started on the sweltering heat... Anyway, that's why I'd rather just sweat it out once and for all with a one-trip-outta-the-house! My range of vegetables has to be compromised... till someone is more obedient...

Back to the vegetables.

Xiao bai cai, cai xin, spinach, endives, broccoli.... boring stuff.

Then I saw a box of fresh-looking vegetables that weren't part of the all-too-familiar vegetables.

Pang cai.

That's what the vegetable seller calls it. And that's how my mum and I refer to it too. Then I had to go online to try to search for its name. After searching for awhile and corroborating with a friend, I think 'pang cai' is none other than romaine lettuce.

NTUC labels it as 'local lettuce' - whatever that means.

It's some form of lettuce. You get the drift. If I'm wrong that it's romaine lettuce, please do drop me a line so that I can correct it.

Anyway, who really cares what it's called because it tastes so nice? This is a popular zi char stall vegetable dish and being able to replicate it at home at a fraction of the price is just wonderful.

In case you're wondering, this big plate of vegetables cost me only $1! :P I think it's an understatement to say that it's a fraction of the price of the dish!

Romaine lettuce with oyster sauce

Ingredients:

• 2-3 bunches of lettuce (do you call that a bunch? hmm...)
• 3 shallots (sliced into thin rings)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 thumb-sized ginger (julienned) (optional)
• 1 small piece of chilli (julienned) for garnishing (optional)
• oyster sauce
• water

Method:

1. Parboil washed and plucked lettuce in boiling water (with a little oil and salt/sugar added so that the veggies look nicer when served). Drain and arrange the lettuce on a serving plate.
2. Drizzle oyster sauce on the lettuce in a zig-zag manner.
3. Heat oil in a wok and fry the ginger, shallots and garlic till golden brown.
4. Place the ginger, shallots and garlic on the lettuce and drizzle the oil over the lettuce.
5. Garnish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut the lettuce into smaller 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

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.

Sweet potato brown rice porridge (with modified si shen soup)

For the past two days, Alicia has been having one meal of sweet potato porridge cooked with my modified si shen soup. It's sooooo sweet and fragrant, and most importantly, oozing with nutrition! :D

Guess what Alicia does when she sees her sweet potato porridge?

She picks out all the sweet potato to eat first... leaving behind the porridge. But after tasting the first mouth of porridge and realising that it's yummy, it becomes easier to feed after that... note: easier compared to usual; doesn't mean it's easy per se.

And so, she has this porridge with either pan-seared/baked cod fillet or baked/braised chicken and it's a balanced meal already. Hehehe. For those who have children who don't mind minced chicken or pork in the porridge, by all means add that in!

Sweet potato brown rice porridge (cooked in modified si shen soup)

Ingredients:

• 2T brown rice grains
• 200ml modified si shen soup
• 3T Japanese yellow sweet potato (peeled and cubed)

Method:

1. Wash the brown rice grains twice.
2. Steam the cubed yellow sweet potato for about 5min to release the flavour and aroma.
3. Place the grains into the soup in the slow cooker's earthen inner pot and bring the soup to a boil on the stove.
4. Place the earthen pot back into the slowcooker's outer pot, add the steamed sweet potato cubes and cook for slightly past an hour.
5. Dish and serve.

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.

Cauliflower with carrot

This cauliflower has been sitting in my fridge for quite a long while... it was actually meant for Alicia's meals but due to her extremely slow eating, I've often had to skip the veggie at night and just give her fruits instead to balance her meal. And that's how it ended up as our meal instead. Well, she did eat some of it that night and she even drank up the leftover sauce...

Cauliflower with carrot

Ingredients:

• 1 cauliflower
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 handful dried shrimp (omit for tots below 18mths)
• 1-2 cloves garlic (mince)
• water
• fish sauce to taste (optional)

Method:

1. Cut the cauliflower into florets, remove any blemishes. Peel and slice the carrot.
2. Rinse the dried shrimp then soak for a short while then mince the dried shrimp. Keep the water in which the dried shrimps were soaked for the cooking.
3. Heat some oil in a wok and add the dried shrimp and fry till fragrant.
4. Add the garlic and fry till fragrant. Don't add the garlic together with the dried shrimp as garlic browns very quickly.
5. Add the cauliflower, then the carrot (cauliflower takes longer to cook).
6. Add the reserved water so it's not too dry. Let it simmer in the wok till the cauliflower is cooked.
7. Add fish sauce to taste (optional) - I didn't as dried shrimp is already saltish.
8. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption:

• Cut cauliflower into small florets and carrot into smaller pieces before serving.
• Omit the dried shrimps in the cooking for tots below 18mths.