3-2-1 Chicken Chop

Oh man, the way I crisscrossed it, it looked more like liver wasn't it?  Luckily the main star in this dish was not the chicken chop but the sauce that I invented.  I saw a Kikkoman commercial on my Chinese cable and it was introducing it's 3-2-1 chicken chop sauce using it's Kikkoman special sauce (I didn't really know what kind of sauce, might be some sort of special soy sauce), sweet rice wine and sugar.  Oh well, I didn't have the Kikkoman sauce neither did I have the sweet rice wine but I do have other sauces at home that I could experiment with.

I thought of Worcestershire sauce and Shao Xing rice wine instead.  Worcestershire sauce had a bit of sour taste to it like vinegar so I thought it would pair well with some rice wine and sugar.  I also added a touch of sesame oil in the end.  This sauce got our stamp of approval, we all loved it.  If you tried it, credit me for my creation and feedback to me ya.  It would go well with pork and steak too.

 

Ingredients:

1 piece of chicken chop (boneless & skinless chicken thigh and drumstick), cut crisscross line on chicken for even cooking.  Season with a little kosher salt.

3 Tbsp. reduced sodium Worcestershire sauce ( I used Lea & Perrins reduced sodium)

2 Tbsp. Shao Xing cooking wine (Chinese cooking wine)

1 Tbsp. sugar

A drop of sesame oil

EVOO for pan-frying

Method:

1.  In a bowl, prepare the Worcestershire sauce, Shao Xing wine, sugar and sesame oil, set aside.

2.  Heat up a saute pan or wok, add in EVOO and when hot, add in chicken chop, turn the heat to low and pan-fry until brown on both sides and almost cook inside.  Cover if needed (for faster cooking time).

3.  Add in the prepared sauce and let the chicken simmer in the sauce until the sauce thicken and the chicken is cooked completely.  You can turn the chicken to soak in the sauce.  Slice and serve with hot rice.

Stir Fried Crunchy Cabbage

I loved crunchy and sweet cabbage.  I finally found the way after all these years.  I saw it at the Chinese cooking show where the host said never to cut the cabbage but tear it with your fingers.  It will give you a different texture.  But I guess I always took the easier way out, that is to slice it with a knife and thinking that shredded cabbage will cook faster and soften easily.  Not sure why but my shredded cabbage never really gives me the sweetness of the cabbage and the crunch that I looked for.

But now with my new way of handling my cabbage, that is to tear it with my fingers, I found the crunch and the sweetness of the cabbage when stir-frying.  This dish is delicious, you can taste the sweetness of cabbage and the crunchiness.  If you read my recipes, you must have noticed that I have been using quite a lot of fish sauce recently.  I think I found the secret of fish sauce in stir-frying, it really give certain dishes a kick in taste.

Ingredients:

1/4 head of cabbage. washed and tear with hands

2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

1/8 cup of dried shrimps, soften

1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

6 extra large shrimps, shelled and cut into half

Fish sauce to taste

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. chicken powder (optional)

Extra virgin olive oil/ olive oil/ any cooking oil

Method:

1.  Heat the wok.  Add oil, when hot, add dried shrimps and garlic, stir-fry for a while.  Add shrimps and stir-fry until cooked.  Move the shrimps to the side of the wok, add in the crushed red pepper flakes and cabbage.

2.  Stir-fry well.  Add salt and stir-fry for a while.  Lastly add 1 tsp. chicken powder and fish salt to taste.  Add a little water (1/8 cup if needed). Serve hot.

Pureed Brown Rice Pumpkin Soup

I am not sure of whether to call this brown rice pumpkin soup or brown rice pumpkin porridge.  I made this for my little girl when she was having diarrhea and vomit since everything went into her mouth, it came right out.  I thought if I pureed the porridge, it would go down easier on her.  But guess what?  She refused to eat it, not even a taste test.  The only thing she would eat was Popsicle and of course she could have as many as she wanted since that was the only thing she would eat and won't throw up.

So, I was the one that finished this soup.  I loved it actually, it was sweet and tasted like brown rice.  Now I know what was the difference between white rice porridge and brown rice porridge.  Brown rice taste really stood out. This is suitable for baby, toddler or older people as it's very nutritious and easy to swallow.

Ingredients:

Serving for one:

One handful of brown rice, washed

Few pieces of cut pumpkin, cut into tiny pieces

1/4 cup of ground pork

Water

Salt to taste

Method:

1.  In a saucepan, add in water and brown rice.  Water for cooking porridge, about double or triple the water needed to cook rice.

2.  When boiling, add in ground pork, and scoop out whatever foam that float to the top.  Add in pumpkin and stir.  Simmer in low heat for about an hour, stirring occasionally.  

3.  When cooked, season to taste with salt.  Add a little chicken powder if you want.  Pour into a glass blender and puree until smooth.  Serve.

Baked Cheese Shrimps Rice

Baked cheesy rice or cheesy baked rice has been quite popular among the bloggers few months back.  I liked the idea and wanted to try it whenever I have leftover cheese or rice.  My opportunity came when I have some leftover Mozzarella cheese from making the Alfredo Chicken.  I needed to finish the leftover cheese within 5 days and just so happen that I had some leftover brown rice.  So, this dish was created.  I did mine in a healthier way as it was less creamy.  No heavy cream, cream of mushroom soup, sour cream, etc.

I found the rice a bit dry, so you can add some fat free or 1 % fat milk into the rice when you add the cheese and stir together.  Perhaps put a layer of rice, cheese, rice and top with more cheese before baking.  Just bake until the top is slightly brown, do not brown it too much as the cheese will turn hard.  Mine was too brown so I know.

Ingredients:

3 cups cooked Brown Rice

8 extra large shrimps, cleaned and shelled

3/4 cup frozen mixed vegetable

2 Tbsp. butter

2 tsp. chicken powder

1 tsp. salt

1/4 cup of water/ low fat milk

1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese

Toppings:

2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 400'F.

2.  Heat up a wok/ saute pan, add in butter.  When slightly melted, add in shrimps, saute until cooked, add in mixed vegetables and fry well.

3.  Add in brown rice and mix well.  Add in chicken powder and water, stir well.  Add in salt and cheese (add some low fat milk here if you want).  Stir quickly or until the cheese is melted.

4.  Scoop the rice into a Pyrex container or any oven safe bowl.  Spread the top with Mozzarella cheese.  You can add more cheese if you like.

5.  Baked in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese brown and melted.

Spicy Chicken with Zucchini

I went to my Asian supermarket 2nd anniversary event recently and they were having food demonstration and tasting on that day.  Even the Lee Kum Kee representatives were there to do a food demonstration and sampling of their product.  They were promoting their oyster sauce, hoisin sauce and premium soy sauce and cooked a chicken dish like above and a fried rice.  Their fried rice were tasteless to me but I fell in love with their chicken dish so of course I had to ask them for the recipe.  I tried to memorize it as best as I can and I think this is the best copy I can come out with.  

I added zucchini and carrot for extra veggie intake.  You can also add onion, bell pepper, pineapple or mango if you like.  This sauce is pretty delicious, you can try it out.

Ingredients:

1 zucchini, cut into cubes

1/2 carrot, cut into cubes

1 chicken breast, thinly sliced and marinated with soy sauce, white pepper, rice wine, garlic powder and cornstarch

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 scallions (only the white part), chopped

1 small piece of ginger, chopped

Seasoning:

2 Tbsp. oyster sauce (LKK)

2 Tbsp. hoisin sauce (LKK)

1 Tbsp. soy sauce (Kikkoman)

1 Tbsp. chili garlic sauce (Sambal Oelek)

1 tsp. sesame oil (Kadoya)

Method:

1.  In a bowl, add in oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce, stir well and set aside.

2.  In a heated wok, add in cooking oil.  When heated, add in garlic, scallion and ginger.  Stir-fry until fragrant.  Add in chicken, stir-fry until chicken is no longer pink.

3.  Add in zucchini and carrot, stir-fry until the veggie is soften.  Add in the prepared sauce and stir fry well.  Turn off the heat and lastly add in the sesame oil.  Stir and serve hot.

Chinese Pumpkin Sesame Cakes

I saw this Pumpkin Sesame Cakes in a Chinese cooking show recently.  It was a pumpkin recipes special and it featured this and a steamed variety.  For the steamed one, the cooking host shaped the dough into a little pumpkin and then steamed it until cooked.  She served it with some sort of sweet syrup.

I was attracted to this pan-fried version as it looked really tasty.  What's more I am also a big fan of sesame seeds so of course I had to give this recipe a try.  I was also curious of how it would taste like.

I gave it a bite to let you see the texture inside of this cake.  It tasted like nian gao, since it was made of glutinous rice flour I guess.  Slightly chewy and not bad at all.  Mine was not sweet enough, I would prefer it to be sweeter.

Remember to pan-frying it in low heat pan so that you won't burn the sesame seeds.  Sesame seeds burn easily in high heat.

Before pan-frying

Method:

Pumpkin,  cut the skin off, cut into half, seeded and save the seed to roast.

Cut pumpkin into slices.  Steam for 30 minutes or until soften.  Mash with a fork. Squeeze out the juice. Mix in some brown sugar, stir well.  Then add some glutinous rice flour until a dough is formed.  In a plate, spread out the white sesame seeds.  Roll the dough into a cylinder shape, cut and slightly roll it flat with your hand.  Coat both sides with sesame seeds.  Pan fry in low heat until golden brown on both sides.  Drain on paper towel.  Serve.

2 cups smashed pumpkin , 3/4 cup (less sweet)  to 1 cup of brown sugar (sweet).  I only used 1/2 cup of brown sugar and it was not sweet at all.  I think the original recipe was made without adding any sugar.

Braised Pork with Dried Whole Chestnut and Tofu

I recently made some chicken glutinous rice and needed to add some dried chestnuts.  Since I was going to soften the chestnuts anyway, I thought I just cooked the whole packet and freeze half for later use.  I just defroze the soften chestnuts in the refrigerator overnight for this dish.  I bought this natural dried whole chestnut and thus the color was brown.  Not good looking but tasted the same and healthier since it was not whiten.

This was like a braised soy sauce pork except I added a handful of dried chili peppers (not the bird eye dried chili) for some kick.  Since my girls were eating this, so not much to create a huge kick, just a little that I didn't much notice but my little Edda said the tofu tasted spicy.  Probably because I didn't soften it in warm water first, I just added some to stir-fry with the oil.  Perhaps that was why it was less spicy.  You can certainly add more if you like it spicier.  You can also omit the dried chestnuts or substitute it with Chinese mushroom.

Ingredients:

2-3 boneless pork chops, cut into small pieces

12 dried whole chestnuts, rinsed and simmered for 1 hour until soften. (do it a day before)

1 block of extra firm tofu, cut into pieces

1 handful of dried chili

4 cloves of garlic

1 piece of ginger, smashed

1 or 2 star anise

Sauce:

LKK premium dark soy sauce, Hua Tiao Chinese cooking wine, Kikkoman soy sauce, 2 tsp. brown sugar, a little salt to taste.

Method:

1.  Heat up a cooking pot, add a little oil.  Stir-fry the ginger and garlic until brown.  Add in the dried chili and star anise.  Stir a little.  Add in the pork, pan-sealed it.  Add the Hua Tiao cooking wine, stir a little.  Add in enough water to cover 3/4 of the meat.  Add in the dark soy sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar and a little salt.

2.  Add in the chestnuts, stir to mix well.  Place the cut tofu on top, scoop some of the sauce to coat the tofu.  Cover and let it simmer for 3 hours or until the pork is tender.

3.  After 3 hours, lightly give it a quick stir to mix in the tofu, be careful not to break it.  Serve hot!

Spiced Pumpkin Walnut Cake

I cannot get enough of this cake, it is soft and moist and left you wanting more.  This is almost like my Best Ever Pumpkin Cake except it's has a little more egg with added walnut and one additional spice.  This cake is smaller and I used a 8-inch square pan to bake it.  I created this when I used 1 cup of the pumpkin puree to make the cookies and left with one more cup of pumpkin puree.  I loved pumpkin cake above all others, more than pie, cookies, soup, etc.  So of course I got to make it into a cake.

If you have canned pumpkin puree at home, give this recipe a try.  I am waiting for the Libby's canned pumpkin puree to go on sale so that I can stock up and make more of this cake.  YUM! YUM!  Oh yeah, need to buy more of the chopped walnuts too.

Ingredients:

(A)
2  large eggs
1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil or other neutral oil)
1/2 (15 ounce) canned or 1 cup of pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
 
(B), sifted or whisked
1 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda

(C)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350'F. Spray a 8-inch square pan with non-stick cooking spray with flour for baking.

2. In a big mixing bowl, whisk or beat together (A).

3. Then, add in (B) and stir together with a spatula until smooth and well blended or beat to blend well.

4.  Add in the chopped walnuts, lightly mix in.

5. Pour into the greased square pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverted to cool completely on a wire rack.  Best enjoy the next day.

Chinese Almond Cookies

I had some leftover almond that I needed to use up, about 1/3 cup of it.  Just nice that we finished the oatmeal cookies that I made for our snack so I wanted to use the almond to make cookies.  A fool proof recipe that I made before and also must be easy.  So I picked this almond sugi cookies recipe that I made dozen of times and added the chopped almond.

I really loved the extra crunch from the chopped almond and this cookie was very yummy.  So suitable for Chinese New Year too. 

Click this link for the recipe I used, except I double the recipe and added 1/3 cup of whole almond, chopped.  Need to double the recipe because of this shape, it's a much bigger cookie.  For the shape, just pinch a bigger dough, roll into ball and flatten it and lightly press it on the parchment paper.  For the almond essence, I did not double it.

The baking time is the same and use a scraper or frosting knife to remove the cookies to cool on the wire rack.  This cookie is pretty fragile but absolutely yummy!

Stir Fried Pumpkin with Eggs

Never did I know that stir-frying pumpkin can be so scrumptious.  I saved some of the pumpkin fresh from a pumpkin that we carved earlier.  I had pumpkin porridge before and I really liked it as it was sweet and filling.  But I know my girls don't really fancy porridge so I thought I would try something different.

I stir fried zucchini with this recipe and we all loved it, so why not try it with pumpkin.  It was my first time cooking a stir-frying pumpkin and it was so yummy.  The fish sauce gave this dish an extra boost.  If you have extra fresh pumpkin at home, give this dish a try!  I took this picture at night, so it did not look very appetizing, but don't be fooled by it's look, this is a dish I will make again and again.

Ingredients:

1/4 of a medium Pumpkin, julienne

1/4 cup of dried shrimps, soften in warm water and drain

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 large eggs, beaten and seasoned with soy sauce and white pepper

(A)

Fish sauce to taste

Salt (optional)

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. chicken stock powder

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, add in some cooking oil.  When hot, add in the beaten eggs, stir-fry until cooked.  

2.  Scoop the eggs to the side of the wok, add in garlic and dried shrimps in the remaining oil, stir-fry until garlic is slightly golden and dried shrimps are fragrant.  Add in pumpkins and mix all together and stir-fry well.

3.  Stir-fry until pumpkin is cooked and soften.  Season with (A).  Serve hot!

Dollar General - A Proud Supporter of US Military!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Dollar General. All opinions are 100% mine.

Dollar General is one of the convenient stores that I frequent.  I like that it is small and I can just go in and get what I want without wasting time.  The bonus is it also saves me money as most of the national brands are at Dollar General prices and lots of items are priced as $1 each.  Not only that Dollar General is also a proud supporter of US Military.  We like to thanks the Military for what they do for us, their values and commitment to serve the country and providing us with a safer place to live.  Thank you veterans!

On this special Veterans Day, Dollar General is giving all Veterans, active military, members of the national guard and their family members a special 10% off discount.  This is their small token of showing their appreciation to the military.  This offer is valid on November 11, Tuesday only and is a ONE DAY EVENT.  This offer is good at all locations of General Store, just identify yourself as such at the register when check out.  Some restrictions do apply, those include Cell Phone Minutes, Rug Doctor Items, Lottery Tickets, Propane, Wine & Beer and all prepaid item (i.e. Gift Cards).  Don't miss out this opportunity to save an additional 10% off the already low price items.

Braised Chicken with Mui Choy

This was actually a remake of a leftover mui choy (preserved veggie).  My hubby ordered a "mui choy gau yook" from a friend and we finished all the "gau yook" (5 layers pork/ fatty pork) and left with lots of mui choy.  It was too salty and the spices were a bit too strong for my taste.  Our friends suggested me to make soup with the mui choy but I thought I would make a chicken dish with it instead.

All I did is chopped some drumsticks, added in a little oil in a pot and gave the mui choy some quick stirs.  Then, added in the chicken, stir a little.  Added in water to cover half of the chicken and a tablespoon of dark soy sauce and let it simmered in low heat for an hour.  Lastly added in a little sugar.  It turned out to be a delicious chicken dish.  What a great use of the leftover mui choy!

Stir fried Spicy Cabbage

I always stir-fry my green cabbage in a non-spicy way.  Stir-frying it in a spicy way never cross my mind until I saw the Chinese cooking show where the chef cooked it with some dried chili.  It gave me the idea of trying something new.  This is a new dish for me and we liked it!  I will certainly make this version more from now on.

I realized that the green cabbage sold in the Asian market is easier to stir-fry than the green cabbage I bought at the American supermarket.  The one at the American supermarket is tougher and harder even after the longer time I spent stir-frying it.  Definitely prefer the texture of the green cabbage I bought at the Asian market, not to say cheaper too.

Ingredients:

1/4 of one green cabbage, sliced

A little diced carrot for color (optional)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 Tbsp. of black bean in chili oil

Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

1.  Heat up your wok.  When heated, add in a little cooking oil.  When hot, add in minced garlic and black bean in chili oil and stir-fry until fragrant.  

2.  Add in cabbage and stir-fry until soft.  Add in diced carrot (if used).  Stir-fry well and season to taste with a little salt and sugar.  Serve hot!

Stir Fried Ramen

Need a quick meal and yet wanted it to be balance?  I was left with two pieces of chicken strips and I had to make it into a meal that could feed three.  I bought those Maruchan ramen when it went on sales for 10 cents each for stir-frying.  I did not like the seasoning that came with it so I either made my own soup base or save this for stir-frying.  With the protein and carbohydrate readied, all I needed was some vegetable to make it complete.  Just checked the refrigerator for whatever veggie you have and you can cook up this delicious ramen dish in less than 10 minutes.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast.  This week host is Ruth herself! Check out her delicious round up on Friday Nov, 5th! 

Ingredients:

3-4 packets of ramen, cook ramen as directed by package, drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 carrot, julienne

1/8 head of green cabbage, julienne

1/2 of yellow onion, julienne

Seasonings:

Fish sauce, to taste

Oyster sauce, about 2-3 Tbsp.

Sugar, about 1 tsp.

White pepper, dashes of

A touch of sesame oil in the end of cooking

Method:

1.  In a heated wok, pour in some cooking oil.  Add in garlic, stir-fry a little, add in onion, stir-fry until soften.  Add in cabbage and carrot, stir-fry until cooked.

2.  Add in cooked ramen and seasonings except sesame oil.  Stir-fry well and do a taste test to see if you need to adjust the seasonings.  If not, turn off the heat and lastly add a touch of sesame oil.  Stir-well and serve on the plate.

3.  Toast the chicken strips until warm, slice it and place on top of the stir fried ramen to serve.

Green Tea Pumpkin Seeds

I always wanted to roast some pumpkin seeds.  My opportunity came when I had a bag of pumpkin seeds given by a library event (pumpkin carving) that we went to.  I loved green tea flavor and so automatically I wanted to try green tea flavored roasted pumpkin seeds.  This is definitely good and make a great snack.  Me and my girls all loved it.

Since this was slow roasted for an hour, we can certainly pop the whole thing in the mouth.  It's totally edible with extra fiber and crunch.  You can taste the green tea and salt.  Of course if you choose to just eat the seed, you can do that too. I did that while watching my korean drama.  LOL!

Ingredients:

1- 1 1/4 cup whole pumpkin seeds (cleaned, remove pulp and strings, wipe with paper towel and let dry)

1 Tbsp. canola oil

1/2 Tbsp. Kosher salt

1 tsp. green tea powder or matcha

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 275'F.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.

2.  Mix the ingredients in a bowl and spread it on the foil lined baking sheet.

3.  Bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Let cool and store in an air-tight container.

(Double the recipe for 2 cups of pumpkin seeds)

Soft Pumpkin Cookies

What can represent Fall season more than pumpkin?  I just want to make something with pumpkin this time of the year.  I saw this pumpkin cookies recipe on joyofbaking Website and decided to give it a try.  The reason was simple because I never make it before.  This cookie is just like what it stated, soft and cake like in texture.  I certainly would prefer a more chewy one or crispy one.  I used sugar instead of brown sugar as stated in the original recipe, I wonder perhaps it might caused my cookies to be none chewy.  I also omitted the cream cheese frosting.  Anyway, my girls loved it nonetheless so I was glad.  Evy will bring this as her school snack.

As for me, I would love to play and experiment with this recipe some more, as I wanted a crispy pumpkin cookies instead of soft and cake like.  It's like eating a tiny piece of cake on the next day.

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

Ingredients:


(A)

2 cups (260 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoons ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (I omitted this)

1/2 teaspoon salt

(B)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 cups (260 grams) light brown sugar (I used sugar instead of brown)

1/2 cup (120 ml) canola oil or corn oil (or other flavorless oil)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup (215 grams) canned pumpkin puree

Method:

1.  In a bowl, sift together (A).

2.  Use a electric hand mixer or stand mixer and beat together eggs and sugar until light and smooth.  Add in the rest of the (B) ingredients, beat until blended.

3.  Add in sifted (A) and beat until combined.

4.  Use a cookie scoop and scoop into a parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake in preheated 325'F oven for 15-18 minutes.   Move to cool completely on wire rack before storing.

Spicy Green Beans with Shrimps

I like this dish and made it quite often.  I don't know if the green bean is in season but the farmer market here has been selling it for 99 cent/ pound.  If I would make this for my family, I would omit the extra chili and since I was making this for adults, I added my chili paste in oil to give it an extra kick.  I only added one teaspoon because I was afraid that it might be too spicy as this new batch of my chili paste in oil was kinda spicy.  I certainly wouldn't want to make it inedible for most because of the heat.

I have a similar recipe here.  Except for this I added some chili paste in oil to make it spicier.  Check it out, super easy to make for the overseas Malaysian who misses this dish.  You can substitute the green bean with asparagus, long bean, okra and eggplant.

 

Evy & Edda Updates 10/10/2010

My Evy at 6.5.  She lost the baby fat on her face and looks slimmer now.  She is considered tall in her class, I think she inherited her daddy's tall gene.  We didn't skip her to 2nd grade so she is at Grade 1 but goes to enrichment class once a week if applicable.  We also signed her up in a Destination Imagination club where she will participate in activities that will challenge her critical thinking, problem solving and presentation skills.  They will get to compete with other schools in COS.

We enrolled her in a Chinese School here.  Now she goes to the Chinese School Grade 1 level every Sunday for two hours.  In this class, she will learn to recognize Chinese characters, read, write, speak and form sentences.  She would received a page of reading material and homework assignment which she would have to learn before class.  I got to say, she did well in it.  Her Chinese teacher was impressed at the sentences that Evy could form in Mandarin.  I was so pleased and proud to hear that of course.  :-P  We just received two text books and 4 work books from the school and she will be getting a test this coming Sunday.

I made her lunchbox everyday to bring to school.  It's nothing fancy like a bento because I couldn't foresee myself being that hardworking.  Her lunch consisted of brown rice, veggie and chicken/fish (sometimes fried rice or noodle) that we had the night before.  I took out her portion before we started dinner.  The next day, I reheat her rice and pack it in a 12oz. food thermos along with her water bottle and snack.  For me, this is healthier than the cafeteria food that the school served (even though this cafeteria offers healthy food choices).   Her reward for finishing all her lunch (Mon-Fri) is she will get to eat in the cafeteria on the day that I don't have a lunchbox for her (like we went out to eat on Sunday night and thus no lunchbox on Monday).  If it happens that one of those day, she brought back half thermos fulled of food, then her reward is canceled.  So, on that day, I will cook some chicken potstickers (from frozen) or omelet and pack with some brown rice for her.

I loved this picture of them!  Now this picture is my desktop.

There is a thing about them that bugs me.  They always want to fight over the stuff that the other has.  For example, when brushing teeth, Edda took the tooth paste first, and Evy had to grab it from her and used it first, thus Edda was crying because Evy grabbed the tooth paste from her.  Another example, when Evy was playing something, for instance a toy, and Edda had to come and play with the same thing, and thus another conflict disrupted.  There is a constant fighting over them as who got to play first, use first, etc.  So, I told them whoever started this nonsense again, I would have to send her back to Malaysia and live with her grandparents.  LOL!

My Edda just turned 4.  She is just a sweet girl but has a temper of her own.  She is conversing in Mandarin and English now instead of just Mandarin alone.  I think she has to pick it up if she wants to play with kids who couldn't speak in Mandarin.  Her pronunciation still needs improvement but she will get there.  She is a little shy at first but once she warms up, off she goes.  I would say she is a smart girl as well.  But I won't know for sure until she got tested at school when she goes for her kindergarten.  I am looking forward to learn her Adam 50 score when she first enters school.  I want to know how she fairs in class.  Hehe...

She will be enrolled in the Chinese School kindergarten level next year.  A chance for her to be familiar with the classroom setting.  Kindergarten class is shorter with longer recess, I guess they have to do it with smaller kids as their attention span is shorter.  Actually we can enroll her now if we think she can sit still throughout the class, but we think she is still too little and I don't think she can write Chinese characters yet.  I haven't even started to teach her how to write Chinese characters.  As she is learning how to write the numbers and alphabets now.  One thing I really need to teach her is how to read, but how to teach?  I asked her to learn the Phonics via dvd so that she can proceed to learn reading.  But her interest in Phonics is short span.  Evy started reading at 4.5 years (but she is gifted), with Edda I don't see it coming soon.  But I got to admit, I didn't work hard enough on her.  Well, she has two more years before she goes to kindergarten anyway, let see how it goes with my next update.

Banana Dried Fruit Waffles

This is another type of healthy waffle that I had in mind.  My elder girl won't eat banana but she liked banana cake.  So, I thought I would smashed up the banana and added into the batter and make the waffle so that she doesn't even know she is eating a waffle with banana in it.  On of my readers suggested me to slice the banana and bake it with the waffle which gave me the idea.  For this, I only used one large banana and surprisingly I could still smell the banana in this waffle.

I read that a good energy food for breakfast is oatmeal, banana, milk and etc.  So, this is definitely a good energy boost breakfast for you to last until lunch.  Not to say, yummy too and no syrup needed!  This waffle has oatmeal, banana, milk, eggs, honey and dried cranberries to list some.

~Yields about 12 waffles (for the above shape)

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup instant oatmeal/ quick-cooking oats

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. cinnamon powder

1/4 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. honey

1 3/4 cup 1 % milk

1/2 cup canola oil

1 large banana or two smalls, mashed (frozen works great)

Dried cranberries or raisin, as needed (optional)

Method:

1.  In a big bowl, hand whisk the two eggs until beaten.  Add in the rest of the wet ingredients, whisk well.  Then, add all of the dry ingredients except dried cranberries or raisin and hand whisk until all is blended.  Set aside.

2.  Preheat your waffle maker.  When preheated, spray with buttery non-stick spray and scoop some of the batter onto the waffle iron.  Spread some dried cranberries or raisin on top.  Then, cover the top and side with more batter.  Cover and cook until brown.  For mine is about 6 minutes.  Exact time depends on your waffle maker.

3.  Take it out with a spatula and chopstick and serve hot.

4.  Or cool on wire rack and put in a zip lock bag and freeze for future use.  Toast in a toaster to heat it up.

New Kellogg's Special K with Added Fiber!

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received this new Kellogg's Special K Red Berries with added fiber as sample.  This product is packed with 3 grams of fiber per serving and zero gram trans fat.  Each serving is about 1 cup and I think this make a great snack for the afternoon too.

I loved the crunchy rice and wheat flakes with strawberries.  It tasted great and would certainly make a healthy, delicious and convenient breakfast for my family.  Anyone would benefit from the extra fiber especially for those who hardly eat your veggie.  From now on, I should make choosing a healthier cereal for my family as a priority, one that is better for us and tastes great, instead of the one that has more sugar and with added colorings.

What about you?  Do you make an effort to check the ingredients list and choose a cereal that is healthier for your family or just buy whatever your kids like?

Salmon Mixed Vegetable Porridge (jook)

Porridge again?  Why so many porridge because this time I had been sick.  I had some bad sore throat right after Evy was cured.  It was really painful and I had to cook myself some porridge/jook/congee.  This time I used frozen mixed vegetable, dried scallop, salmon, dried shrimps and some cut bok choy.  Lastly garnished with some fried shallots.  The cooking instruction can be found at my old post here.

This was how I like my porridge, all the rice grains broken out, watery and soft.  It was sweet with a touch of salt as I added dried scallop and dried shrimps in this.  Healthy too right?

Too bad, both my girls do not fancy porridge, even though it is delicious.  My elder has been very picky and my second one just like to follow her sister.  But if the sister is at school, she will eat the porridge with me.