Curry noodles

I can't recall where I bought my first packet of ready mix under this same brand. If it wasn't from Penang, then it must have been from JB. That first packet was a curry chicken-flavoured one. I loved it and later on, found it on my local NTUC supermarket shelf. However, on the day that I wanted to pick a pack up, no curry chicken was available, thus I made do with the rendang. It was a mistake. I didn't like the end result and have decided to stick to the former flavour.

I cooked a big pot of curry using the mix, and had half a pot leftover. It so happened that we're in the midst of rainy season and it almost always rains every evening. This remainder pot of curry was put to good use last evening. I cooked some porridge for the princess as she's been complaining of tummy pains, thus something light would do her good. She didn't want to go to school this morning, saying her tummy hurt, but I wouldn't hear of it and got hubby to rub some tummy oil on her before packing her off to school. I boiled some bean sprouts and sliced some fishcakes, and together with laksa noodle, created a curry noodle dish. To top it off, I finely cut some laksa leaves and sprinkled them over the noodles. Lovely for a chilly evening of thunderstorm. Princess had a small bowl of it in the end. I'm very proud of her now that she can take spicy curry. I have not tried other spicy food stuff but curry alone is enough for now. It makes cooking easier. And to think that all this started with her first taste of Japanese curry. She won't eat roti prata now, without curry. :)

This curry was not cooked with coconut milk, as with most of the curries I prepare. It ensures that I get to enjoy it without suffering from all the pain the coconut would otherwise do to me. I simply replaced the coconut with normal fresh milk. At times, I use evaporated milk but I usually have a lot of the milk left and do not know what else to do with it, thus it was a waste. Fresh milk is handier.

Doraemon

This post is dedicated to the dear sister, who loves this little cat with no tail. :)

This is another simple lunch dish using instant chicken stock, bee hoon, fishballs, minced pork, lettuce and Doraemon fishcake. I only added a dash of white pepper as the diluted stock provided sufficient saltiness.

Bee Tai Mak

Ever since my girl started school this year, I have been a very hardworking mum. I not only cook dinner, I have added meals to prepare, which is breakfast and lunch. It's mind boggling business. Haha.

Previously, it was usually cereal for breakfast, but since this year, I needed to prepare a simple breakfast for her to take along on her short journey in the school bus which lasts approximately 15mins. Usually a slice of bread will suffice as she doesn't have much of an appetite in the morning, just like me when I was growing up. It's really tough to struggle out of bed and then stuff food into the tummy. Drinking a cup of something takes too long as I try to give her the maximum rest she can get so she's usually woken at 15-20mins before the bus arrives. A quick wash up and changing into her uniform, getting hair tied etc, all done within those precious minutes.

I made her a lovely omelette sandwich for yesterday's breakfast and I was told she only ate the remainder half of it at the end of the school day on the journey home. :(

Was having a chat with one of her ballet mate's nanny. Apparently she cooks a full hearty breakfast for the family in the morning, and little A who is slightly more than half the size of our dear princess, laps it all up. Her breakfast, I kid you not, include bacon, eggs, ham, toasts and sometimes mee goreng... well, you get the idea. This girl is petite! Where does all the food go? Hahhaa. I can't see myself swallowing all that stuff at 6am for sure!

I need to rack my brains on what to cook for lunch most days. If I happen to be out in the morning, I sometimes pick food up for her. However, since this year, I find that I stay at home more.

I tend to get my inspiration with a trip down to the wet market or supermarket. Sometimes, I get so sick of cooking the same old stuff and I just need something different. Lunch is not elaborate so I don't need to fuss over it. Take for example this bee tai mak which has only 6 ingredients, namely pork fillet, fishcake, baby corn, baby caixin, an egg and bee tai mak.

I love to slice my food thinly, so the pork and fishcake were cut that way. Pork was seasoned with oyster sauce, white pepper, sesame oil and some cornstarch. To be honest, I am not a pork lover, so I tend to buy the least amount from the pork seller. It's always $2 of minced pork which can last us for weeks, as I only use a little at a time. On the odd occasion, I will buy pork bones and once in a very blue moon, I will buy the fillet. It is an expensive cut of meat but it is ever so tender. It's great for kids or for people, ahem, who don't like the animal so much. I cut up some young corn which she likes and some greens.

First I fried the garlic till fragrant, then added the pork, followed by the corn and fishcake. Make sure all ingredients are well cooked before adding the bee tai mak (which takes very little time to cook so make sure you don't overcook it), ending off with the beaten egg and the few stalks of green leaves. I seasoned the dish with oyster sauce, some sprinkling of salt, white pepper and sesame oil. After scooping out her portion into the thermos flask, I added some sambal to mine and it was oishii!

Here is her portion of bee tai mak sans chilli, with a side of 2 apple turnovers. Glad that she loved her lunch that day. :D

A lovely gift from her godma for her birthday. This will definitely be put to good use for storing her lunch. I love the size of it, just right for a single child's portion. It retained the heat quite well because 2hrs after I put the bee tai mak in, she was commenting that the food was too hot when she ate it.

Today's bento and lunch

Alright, mummy's still in lazy mode. I bought some wassants yesterday, as requested by princess. We're addicted to the stuff and a pack of 10 is gone now in a day! In her bento, I packed a wassant, golden kiwi, some crisps made from peas (if only she knew that... she doesn't like peas but I bet she'll eat this stuff haha), a pack of pistachios and a little cocoa-coated nut.

I saw this packet of noodles a few times at the supermarket but didn't buy it. Then one day, I decided to just get it to try out. I like the fact that it's frozen which makes it really handy for me. Princess loves noodles but often, a packet is too much so for this one, what I did was to break off a piece. Even so, it was a big bowl. Will break off slightly lesser next round. It's somewhat like instant noodles, but it's fresh, and the texture is nice, and princess loved it. And I think, that's all that matters. ;) It's great for those days when you just don't know what to cook for a little one. Just boil some stock, or some miso-based soup, add a couple of veg, some fishballs, crabsticks, minced meat balls etc and voila, a healthy and nutritious dish!.

I made this for lunch today. There were fishballs, broccolini, Jap fishcake & a sprinkle of hello kitty furikake.

Another gift from a friend who just got back from Taiwan. Thanks!

A summary

I've become very lazy lately, I have to admit. Don't blame me, blame facebook. :)

I find it easier to do an all-in-one post these days, a summary of the stuff that I've done in the past week. :P

It was a busy weekend and 2 busier ones to come. I needed a break, and most of my Sundays are not packed with activities unless there are birthday parties, just time for church and time to rest, either at home, at dad's, or at Miz K's. This past Sunday, we spent it with Miz K and her family. I love going there. I only only wish they will move to our part of the world soon. :(

As we celebrated Father's Day with my grandpa, dad, and uncles on Saturday, Sunday was a free day for us. We had lunch at Bakerzin before proceeding to Miz K's. Got some macarons as Father's Day gift from princess to her godpa. I brought over some beef & chicken rendang leftovers from Saturday, so knowing the kids will not eat spicy, decided to make some onigiri for them. However, J asked if I was making bento, and not wanting to disappoint him, I decided to make them up on the spot. Thankfully Miz K had the necessary stuff, like takeout box & sausages. All I had to do was assemble them with the rest of the food, such as steamed fish and broccoli, which was part of dinner. We also had some honeydew beancurd which was a free gift with purchase of tofu from NTUC. The kids loved their bentos and it was a real delight watching them finish all their food. :) That made my day. :D

This wanton noodles was my dinner last evening. Totally loved it! I do not have the address but it's from a coffee shop at East Coast Road, called Mei Yuen. They serve chicken & duck rice too. It's in the row opposite Jago Close, near Holy Family Church. Yummers!

A sinful indulgence of mine this noon. It's durian season now, and each time we pass by the Ntuc near my place, lots of people will be at this stall queuing to buy the king of fruits. I've been tempted, but haven't had the chance. I thought yesterday was a good day to get it, but who's to know, while I was at the supermarket, dad called to say he wanted to take us to lunch. Durian plan abandoned. :( So by hook or by crook, I had to have it today. I got myself a $2 one, and the man says he won't open it to put in box, because why? It only costs $2! Oh well, I'd have to do it myself then. Verdict - It was ok, can't exactly say it satisfied my craving, cos it wasn't great. But it'll do for now. I did panic when I realised that the house stank even though I had it in the kitchen. Hehe. So made sure I opened all the doors and windows to let the smell out before hubby got back. :P

For lunch today, I made princess some boiled broccoli sausages, baby corn, pasta tossed in olive oil and seasoned with salt and Italian herbs, plus cream of corn soup and some cherries which are also in season.

Her teatime bento consisted of cheese sandwiches in the shape of miffy & friends, some golden kiwi, grapes, pistachio nuts, chocolate, and piggy gummies. I used the gel pens and thus the ink spread on the eyes and mouth, making them quite ugly. :P

Pork Bulgogi Udon

I have been preparing lots of one-dish meals lately. Firstly, to minimise cleaning up, and secondly, to make life easier for me. School holidays are busy times, with lots of activities to do, which leaves very little time for food prep. Of course, it's not really all true, just being lazy. :P

Sick of pasta all the time, I decided to do this using udon. I remembered seeing Peony do a fried udon dish recently. That gave me the idea. I have done fried udon before, and I thought the bulgogi will go very well with the noodle. Mum recommended the bulgogi marinade and it looked good. I do like some of the Asian Home Gourmet ready-mixed spices which I've tried so far. I love the convenience of it and I do use it a lot. The Thai pineapple rice is nice too. Mum has a whole fridge-ful of such ready spices hehe.

Here are the ingredients I used for this dish...

I marinaded the pork yesterday, thinking I was going to prepare this dish for dinner. However, at the last minute, we had a change of plans as princess wanted to swim at her friend's place for a lot longer than planned.

I picked these up from the Cold Storage at Takashimaya, and was delighted to see Japanese cabbage & bunashimeiji, from Japan. The best part is that both of them were selling at very affordable prices. I also added in some broccoli for fibre.

Ooo... look what I found at the supermarket?? Cold Storage's very own kids' sausages. What I love about them? Well, I haven't tried them out. But what made it very interesting was the various flavours they come in. Here, I picked the broccoli & cheese ones. I saw yoghurt & apricot, and carrot & apple, not sure what else there were. For sure, these will be a regular in my fridge. I love how they take the basic sausage and add in veg & fruits which most kids do not like, and make them into yummy food. Well done! I'm sure most mummies will approve. Love the very cute packaging too.

For tea yesterday, I picked up some 'happy donuts', and sushi to take to her friend's place.

I couldn't resist the hello kitty ones.

Today, she's off to art camp an entire day. Thanks to IM who introduced me to this place. I do love it. And I think the girls will have loads of fun. I prepared the bento below to take with me when I collect her from art camp. I know this girl of mine when she's hungry, she's not very patient. Many a times I have been nagged at while preparing dinner, as, it's late mummy, it's already 6pm, still not ready?? It's 6.11!

In the bento are hello kitty sushi, broccoli & cheese sausage, and white nectarine.

This is the end result of my udon with pork bulgogi... err... not very appetising-looking, but it wasn't bad at all... subtly flavoured, although I had to add in some soy sauce, a drizzle of sesame oil, and some black pepper to make it more tasty.

Bento #55 & product review - char kuay teow

Hubby had an outing with his mates last evening which I totally forgot about. The pain in my joints were quite severe yesterday and I really had no mood at all to do anything, much less cook. So when I was reminded of his not coming home for dinner, I was filled with joy. It meant that I only needed to prepare a simple dinner for the child. For myself, there was a portion of lor mai kai in the fridge which I had bought from the pau shop two days before. :D I boiled some pasta which I then made a sauce with instant soup from the pouch, boiled some crabsticks, made a flower ham (first time doing it and it turned out very pretty), washed some cherry tomatoes & strawberries and voila, dinner was ready!

For my lunch, I tried out this instant char kuey teow which piqued my interest when I spotted it at the Korean shop. It looks nice & all, but really, was pretty disappointed with the taste. It tasted nothing like it looked. Guess I won't be getting more packets.

The interior was pretty impressive with everything in individual packets.

The seasonings which included fried garlic bits (too much of those).

I added a few fishballs & a poached egg to the dish. Apologies for the very gross-looking end product. :P

Lunch - 7.4.09

There is no significance to the date above. It's just that I have no inspiration to think of a title and that's how I came up with that. :) Had planned to go to PP for a nice, steaming hot, bowl of ban mian. Unfortunately, dear princess wasn't in the mood to go out. Thought it'd be nice to eat out since hubby is working from home today. But on the other hand, thank goodness we didn't, as a thunderstorm arrived soon after I came back from market with the fishball noodles.

Seeing that the menu for today is only ham bun, I decided to feed princess well before she left for school. Bought her bee tai mak which she likes, and added some dried seaweed to the soup. Also got two little pieces of fried fish wanton as a side dish. Yesterday's menu mentioned that they were having nasi lemak, but when she came home, she said they were only given brownie & fruits. :(

For hubby's lunch, I made him a sandwich with the panini bread given by AG. I still have 2 pieces in the fridge to finish up. Didn't realize how big they were, so, greedy me had asked for 6 pieces, but thank goodness they only packed 4. :P

For the filling, I boiled some prawns which I then sliced into half, and together with a boiled egg, lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo, I made up the sandwich. In the background are slices of Chinese pear to complete the meal.

Lor Mee + Bento #5

For today's lunch, I had the famous Old Airport Road lor mee. It's been a long time since I last had it, and you can be sure to witness a snaking queue on weekends, which is when I never eat it. Honestly speaking, I don't find it that great. What is the fuss all about I wonder?? Well, the people tending the stall are polite enough, considering the roaring trade that they are doing. You know how it is with some hawkers who tend to become proud once they become famous. My favourite lor mee is from the old Tiong Bahru market, but since they closed down the old market before the renovation, I've not tasted it. I've heard that they've moved to Bishan, but frankly Bishan is rather far for me to travel to, just for a bowl of lor mee, so this will have to do for now. I find it rather plain, with just fish flakes, pork slices (which I ask them to leave out as I do not like streaky fatty pork), and a ngoh hiang.

I've blogged about this sandwich cutter before, but just to show S what it looks like. It consists of an elephant, car, dog and a fish.

Made a simple ham & cheese sandwich, with grapes and a little kinder chocolate, a Christmas gift from one of her kindy teachers (which I thought she had forgotten about, but was reminded of, when she went to the supermarket in the morning).

Oodles of noodles

In this house we love pasta and noodles. I've been cooking lots of rice in the past few weeks so decided to make a simple pasta for dinner last evening. The reason was that I had spied a packet of pizza toppings in the chiller while buying some ham, so I decided to grab that. And what better way to use them than in a pasta dish cooked in plain olive oil, salt, some herbs and plenty of black pepper? I added fresh mushrooms, a yellow capsicum sliced, onions and some crabsticks.

You would think that having just had pasta for dinner, I'd have opted for something else for lunch today, but no siree... it was noodles. :P Well, reason being I had planned this for dinner but hubby reminded me that he had a dinner appointment with an old colleague who is in town. Oh well...

I made two different styles. One was a non-spicy type for the little one, and the other was using a laksa paste for me. For hers, I fried an omelette and sliced it up to use as a topping. Her ingredients included sausages, bean sprouts and fishcake. I used oyster sauce, sesame oil and some white pepper for the seasoning and garnished with some fried shallots.

This packet of instant paste caught my attention while I was in Cold Storage one day. How to resist, right? Plus it is by Prima Taste so it shouldn't be all that bad. So I got a packet to try out.

Instead of using it to fry rice, I decided I should use it for a noodle dish. I got some fresh laksa noodles from the market, together with fishcake which I sliced rather thinly, prawns, bean sprouts and tau pok, in keeping with the laksa theme. Those are the ingredients typically found in the normal soupy laksa. I couldn't find any laksa leaves this morning so just had to do without that. I fried the tau pok before everything else in order to keep it crispy. The result was rather good. I guess it could have been a little spicier. I should have added some sambal to it. Will remember the next time. But all in, I did enjoy the dish. I guess it's a good substitute for laksa, in my case, as I can't take coconut milk. There is coconut in the paste but it's not significant so it shouldn't do me much harm. :)

Brownies & lunch

I seem to be in a baking frenzy. :D I guess I've been inspired by the few of you with all your yummy-licious bakes. Just couldn't stay away from my oven for long. Thanks gals for inspiring me. My next bake will be the sesame and wheat biscuits once I get hold of some wholemeal flour. ;)

I've been itching to bake these brownies ever since I laid eyes on them and here they are. I didn't do a ganache to go over the top but they were delicious on their own. I would have liked them to be a little more chewy and more chocolatey so will make some adjustments to the original recipe the next time I bake them.

For lunch yesterday, my only day at home this week (thanks to cleaner coming), I prepared a noodle dish for lunch. I usually like these noodles done in dark soya sauce but my little one does not like 'black' food. That is the opposite of me. I love black food myself. Ingredients included fishcakes, crabsticks, thinly-sliced pork fillet, bean sprouts, egg, sliced carrots and yellow noodles. I made a stock with dried anchovies to 'sweeten' the dish.

Oh dear, got to go... Michael's calling. More about that later... ;)