Dried Fruits Almond Oats Granola Clusters

I love eating breakfast cereals, be it granola, muesli or cornflakes, I just love eating them with cold milk. Simply fulfilling. I decided to try making some on my own. I can store them in glass jars and let the hubs bring some to work as his evening snacks. Recently I tried using this recipe. Turned out pretty well, but not very crunchy as I would have expect it to be.

I substituted the icing sugar with molasses sugar instead. Worked well too, in fact I prefer it this way. Will definitely try making bigger batch the next round.

Simple Greens with Citrus Dressing

This simple salad is good to go with heavier main course like pasta, bbq ribs, etc. It's easy and refreshing to eat.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp orange juice
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp olive oil
Mix of greens like butterhead & romaine lettuce, etc

Lemon and Herbs Roast Chicken

This roast chicken never failed us. It is simple and delicious, most importantly, everyone likes it. I referred to Jamie Oliver's website and did some modification myself.

Ingredients: 

1 free range chicken
Fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary or anything you have in the fridge)
2 bay leaves
1 large bulb of garlic, bruised
1 lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper


Method:

1. Clean the chicken thoroughly.
2. Marinate with all the ingredients mentioned above.
3. As for the lemon, cut into halves, microwave for 30sec and squeeze the juice out to marinate the chicken, then stuff the lemon into its cavity. 
4. Place the chicken breast side up, lift up the skin and stuff some herbs and garlic underneath the skin. 
5. Leave the marinated chicken in the fridge for a few hours
6. Preheat oven to 200c and roast the chicken for about 30-40 mins, or even longer if need be. 

Homemade Pasta Sauce

Being the forgetful person that I am, I need to record this recipe in my own blog for easy reference in the future. I've made this sauce years ago using my aunt's recipe. But since I can't really recall much of the ingredients used, I googled and found this recipe. Did some modification to it using whatever I can recall from my aunt's recipe which I think is easier. 

Ingredients: 

• 2 carrots, 3 stalks celery, 2 big onions, 3 tomatoes, 2 large cloves garlic - all roughly chopped
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 medium can tomato paste
• 1 handful fresh basil
• Freshly ground black pepper & salt
• No sugar added Apple juice
• Dash of olive oil
• 2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1. Heat the sauce pan with some olive oil and saute the garlic & onions.
2. Saute all the vegetables for a few minutes.
3. Add in tomato paste, basil and bay leaves. 
4. Add apple juice (adjust to desired consistency)
5. Simmer for 1 hour
6. Season to taste. I added some dried mixed herbs too.
7. Remove the bay leaves and blend it. 
8. Taste the sauce and add 2-3 tablespoons of unsalted butter.
   > This will help to mellow out the acid from the tomatoes, round out the flavor and give the sauce a nice silky finish
9. You can store this in sterilized bottle and freeze for future use.

Fried Nien Gao

One of my all time favorite snacks...Fried Nien Gao! My grandma always remember to make this for me whenever she has nien gao at home, especially during CNY. 

Sliced nien gao

Sliced sweet potatoes

Chef at work :)

The batter

Sliced yam

And the end product... love it! I tried making them myself too but it didn't turn out as good. 

Nasi Lemak Craving

I was making Sambal Tumis the other day and since the hubs loves my Nasi Lemak so much (I've only cooked for him once many years ago), I decided to make him happy again with my homemade Nasi Lemak. 

This little rascal was having cereal for her brekkie. 

Coconut to make santan and pandan leaves to be used for cooking the rice

Nasi Lemak with fried eggs, stir fried kangkung, ikan bilis and Turmeric fried chicken! Approved by both my bosses.....Ziyi had the same thing too, minus the sambal. 

Apple Soup Recipe

I made apple soup for Ziyi today. Ziyi can be pretty fussy with liquids stuff, she's not too willing to try anything new in liquid form. Hence savory soup is the best bet because she will have no problem eating soupy rice.

This soup is good to soothe your lung especially when you are having a cough. A simple and easy recipe to share with you here.

Apple Soup (serves 4 person)

Ingredients:
2 medium size red apple. Peeled and cored, then rub some salt to prevent oxidization.
1 piece of white fungus
A handful of bitter and sweet almonds
2 honey dates
4 red dates
5 dried figs
3L water
2-3 pieces pork ribs
Salt to taste

Method:
Dump all the ingredients above into a slow cooker and let it boil for 2.5 hours if you are using hot water, and 3.5 hours if you are using room temperature water.

CNY Food by beloved Grandma

Another outdated post...

We are very lucky to have my Grandma to whip up delicious meals for us each time we are back home. She does not look 84 at all and she is still very healthy and she has the loudest voice for an old lady her age!

On CNY Day 2 when everyone was back for a short gathering over lunch, Grandma whipped up these yummylicious dishes:

Her signature prawns: Deep fried with sugar, salt, spring onions and fried shallots.

Steamed salted kampung chicken

Everyone's favorite dish: "Yong Dan" (cantonese). A combination of fish paste, pork and prawns wrapped with eggs. 

Rendang Chicken

Another signature dish: Braised sea cucumber..yum yum

A big pot of pig stomach soup with her homemade fish balls.

Stir fried nga ku with siew yoke and leek

Hubs been bugging me to learn how to cook all those yummy dishes for him. Okok, I shall learn some secret from grandma whenever I have the chance :)

Food that Ziyi Eats

I have heard so much about Kanna Curry House but have not tried it until one day when I decided to bring the hubs to eat there because he's one banana leaf rice fan! I was too lazy to cook for Ziyi, so she had to eat what is being served there. 

Poor Ziyi, she ate white rice with papadum, some cabbage and fried chicken. Her rice was so dry, no gravy for her at all. hehe... I ordered a fried egg for her too.

Our food.. yummy!

This was taken at Wong Kok Char Chan Teng. She ate waffle with peanut butter and chocolate sauce. She is into everything chocolatey!

Home-cooked meal! Pan fried salmon with vegetable of the day.

Her first visit to Tutti Frutti. Bought her favourite chocolate ice cream but she still asked for McD cone sundae! Cheap maintenance huh??!

Happy with an ice-cream from McD. Only RM1.05.......daddy is the happiest with her choice!

Salad with Homemade Dressing

I tried making citrus salad dressing last night. The taste was nice, but I could taste the oil in it, hence I didn't quite like it. Probably I have put in too much oil. The hubs was ok with it. I used a jam jar to store it. Very convenient. Just pour in a little grapeseed/olive oil, mustard, orange juice, lime juice, lemon juice, 2 teaspoons of honey, a dash of salt and apple cider vinegar. 

Shake it well, and taste it before serving to ensure you get the taste you like. I prefer it sweet but the hubs prefers it sour. Drizzle the dressing into a tub of salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and cubed pineapples. A very refreshing salad for brekkie. 

Home-cooked Food

As usual, I will cook healthy meals for Ziyi every weekend, and at times when I have the mood to cook, I would cook for us too. Last weekend I cooked a big pot of porridge for the 3 of us. I've always like pork ribs porridge. But not so much for the hubs as he's not a big fan of anything porky. 

Par boiled ribs, peanuts & ginger (to expel wind)

I boiled these ingredients in the slow cooker for almost 2 hours before adding in the rice. Ribs & peanuts usually take longer time to cook.

Added pumpkin, potatoes & purple cabbage 

Washed & soaked organic 5 grains & red rice for 2 hours before cooking

The porridge was sweet and fragrant with minimal seasoning used. I like it garnished with fried shallots. I forgot to take a pic of the final product though :)

Home-cooked Food

Some pics on what I cooked for Ziyi and us too......

I fried wholewheat noodle with minced meat, vegetable and lots of garlic for her lunch & dinner. She has stopped using bibs for the longest time and when I put this bib on for her the other day, she kept laughing and said she's a baby :)

She only gets to use my iPad on weekends, here she was learning to write and enjoying her meal at the same time. Bad idea, I know, but this keeps her still at the dining table though.

Fried fish with oyster sauce, stir fried french beans with roasted pork and sambal tumis with prawns and lady fingers.

Ziyi's food...stir fried broccoli + capsicum + chicken fillet + mushroom with rice.. yummy

oh yeah, this picture is just to tell you that I'm currently hooked on passion fruit! I like it better this way than to mix with honey drink. Even Ziyi likes it but I only give her the juice coz I think the flesh and seeds are too harsh on her digestive system.

our weekend

With the long Raya cum Merdeka holidays, we had some plans to keep my little monster occupied.  On  Saturday morning, we brought Ziyi to the park at TTDI together with my friend and her daughter Kayla. We were glad the weather was really good.  That was my 1st visit to this park and I learnt that this place is popular amongst family with young kids. We spent almost 2 hours at the park. 

We left for lunch at Greenview SS2 and headed home thereafter. On Sunday I decided to stay home and cooked a simple lunch for us. I tried a new recipe - Soy Sauce Chicken. My auntie used to cook this dish when I was living with them and I never had a chance to savor it ever since I left for my studies in KL. I chose to cook this dish because it's a simple recipe and also because I miss my auntie's cooking. 

Original recipe did not call for sesame seeds but since I have a packet of it in the fridge, I just sprinkled it on top before serving. Everyone gave this a thumbs up, especially my food critic hubby and he had 2 bowls of rice!

Organic tofu with mushroom sauce

Stir-fry organic choy tam with garlic & I boiled a pot of chicken herbal soup too.

Notice her t-shirt? It's a boy's sleeveless top because she is currently crazy over Thomas & His Friends and her favorite color is BLUE. She kept telling me she doesn't like Dora & Boots anymore. :S

of garlic, onions and ginger

i'm a big fan of garlic, be it raw or fried, and also fried shallots. i use plenty of these in my cooking and ziyi's food is not exempted too.

whenever i cook for her, i will chop lots of garlics to stir fry with her vegetables and i will cut up few slices of ginger and an onion to cook with her porridge. i love the aroma of the ginger and onions lingering in my kitchen. i've also tried "double-boiled free range chicken with lots of shallots" soup and it turned out really good.

i found some interesting facts from the www:

• Garlic and onions are among the oldest cultivated food plants. Their culinary, medicinal and religious use dates back more than 6,000 years 
• Crushed garlic can be used as a dressing for external wounds. It was used extensively in the Second World War for its antibiotic and antiseptic qualities. 
• To freshen garlic breath: Swish mouth with lemon juice and then chew fresh parsley
• There is an all-garlic restaurant in Stockholm where they offer a garlic cheesecake. 
• All varieties of garlic--there are more than 450 --are members of the Lily family.

winter melon with coix seeds soup

ziyi's weekend meals are mainly home-cooked food. i always make sure she eats her lunch and dinner at home before leaving the house. she either eats porridge or rice with soup. i came across a blog that recommended winter melon soup with coix seeds (china barley). both ziyi and i love this soup very much and i'll definitely boil this soup again and again.

watercress with honey dates to nourish your lung

my auntie mentioned to me the other day to boil this drink to help nourish our lung. apparently it is also good for heavy smokers, body heatiness and bad breath. more info can be read from this site.

this is the sweet version of watercress soup. my beloved grandma made this for us, upon request. she used 2kg of watercress (cleaned thoroughly) + 15 pcs of honey dates, boiled for 4 hours using charcoal fire. 

hubs and i love it so much that we finish drinking this big pot of concoction in 1 day! 

home-cooked food

i will try to cook for ziyi every weekend ever since she started having her lunch and dinner at her kindy. she usually eats rice with chicken soup and vegetables, mostly carrots and potatoes at school. so most weekends i would cook fish and other greens for her. 

steamed brown rice

stir-fried spinach

scrambled egg with tomatoes

steamed fish

her portion for lunch

beetroot and abc soup