Chocolate hokkaido chiffon cupcake

This March is gonna be a very busy and packed month. Few days ago, my parents and sis were around in Sandakan to clear out our old house which we're ready to let go. It seemed impossible but we successfully cleared the house in a few days including majority of its furniture and electronics. Most of the items were discarded (sadly), some were transported to my place, out of those loots, I managed to complete my study room/ play area for the little fella, which I am very happy with. Balance of the items were given away free to friends. Now that my parents and sis have gone back to JB, I need to work my ass on the accounts of Just Health so I can submit to my accountant by the end of this month, and I still have an event to work on for this month, that event is happening in about 10 days and I still haven't done much about me. Arghhhhhh!! (Yes yes I am working on it now, while blogging). 

Despite all these, I am still cooking and baking for the little fella. I try my best to wake up at 6am every morning, so I have sufficient time to make him a snack and a lunch. 

This was something I have made two days back ~  very yummy chocolate hokkaido chiffon cupcakes which were our breakfast for two days. They kept very well in the fridge. On the third day, they are still edible, but they tend to be drier. 

It was a recipe adapted from my little favorite DIY, here. 

Ingredients A 

• 60g grapeseed oil
• 80g fresh milk
• 85g superfine flour
• 2tbsp cocoa powder 
• 5 egg yolks 
• 1tsp pure vanilla extract 

Ingredients B 

• 5 egg white 
• 80g brown sugar

Instructions: 

1. Combine oil and milk in a bowl. Place over a double boiler and cook with low heat, stir well. (I zap the combo in microwave for 40secs) 
2. Add egg yolk, mix with a whisk. Add in vanilla extract. 
3. Sift in flour and cocoa powder. Combine till smooth. Do not overmix. 
4. Using a hand electric mixer, whisk the egg white and add in sugar in three batches until stiff peak. 
5. Add 1/3 of egg white meringue into the egg yolk batter. Combine well. Fold in the remaining egg white meringue into the egg yolk mixture. 
6. Fill up 3/4 of the cupcake liner. Gently knock once or twice. Bake in preheat oven at 150degC for 23min. 
7. I let the cupcake lie on its side on a metal rack when cooking. You may also knock the cupcake on table top once before setting aside to cool. (Apparently this is a must to prevent the cupcakes from shrinking, I didnt do this and my cupcakes did shrink a little). 

Easy 5 ingredients spaghetti bolognese

This morning for my 1breakfast1lunch project, I made a quick fry egg to go with multigrain and seeds bread as breakfast, and this easy 5 ingredients spaghetti bolognese for lunch.

To prepare the chicken bolognese sauce: 

• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced 
• 1/2 onion, finely minced 
• 4 tomato, roughly chopped
• 1 chicken thigh meat, minced and marinated with dash of orange juice, pinch of salt and liquid amino 
• 1/2 cup of water
• Seasoning eg balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper etc (optional) 

Instructions: 

1. Heat up a pan with 1-2 tbsp of cooking oil, I use a choice of rice bran oil or grapeseed oil. 
2. Stir in minced garlic and onion, fry till aromatic, about 1-2min. 
3. Stir in minced chicken. Stir fry for about 1-2min. 
4. Stir in skinned and chopped tomato. 
5. Pour in water. Gently simmer for about 15 to 20min for flavor to develop. 
6. Season with choice of seasoning.  
7. Serve with spaghetti or pasta. 

Crispy hash brown

Every morning, I had to make a breakfast and a lunch dish for myself and for my little boy. Our lunch is gonna be a simple one, organic pumpkin ramen with minced meat and tofu, with soft boiled egg, so that leaves me more time to make something different for breakfast. We have loads of potatoes left in the fridge, so I wanted to make a potato cake or hash brown. I haven't made hash brown for a very long time, so I thought I shall make some crispy ones for the little boy, so he can bring one to school as tea-time snack too. 

Ingredients: 

*3 medium sized potatoes (I made 3 hash browns from this) 

*3 tbsp grapeseed oil (for panfrying the hash brown)

*2tbsp grated Cheddar 

*Salt and black pepper, for seasoning 

Method 

1. Peel and wash the potatoes. Grate them. Sprinkle with salt. Drain and use a thin cloth or sieve to further press out the juice. (I drank the juice that got squeezed out, cos raw potato juice is very good for people with gastric. It heals inflammed stomach lining. I have been having gastric and bloatedness for a couple of days). 
2. Combine with grated Cheddar, and season with salt and black pepper. Use the thin cloth to mould the grated potato and cheese mix into a ball shape. 
3. Heat up grapeseed oil in a flat frying pan.
4. Pan fry the hash brown. Press the potato ball and cheese ball mixture flat, till about 1cm thickness. Fry until it turns golden brown. Then flip to the other side until it turns golden and crisp as well. 
5. Remove from pan and serve immediately. 

Steamed pandan milk cupcakes

Happy New Year peeps! 

I haven't blogged for so long. Been busy. Vacation. Work trip. Busy in shop. Little one started going to playschool. Etc etc. Anyways, despite all these, I managed to kick my own butt to make some nice treats for the little fella. The hubby has been away for a few days so it was just the lil' fella and I during the weekend. He has been behaving so well, I got surprised. I realized that he's especially well-behaved when there's not many of us around. When the grandparent, the aunties and uncles are around, his mischievous side reveals. 

I made these steamed pandan milk cupcakes for our Sunday treats. It smells so good. I plucked those pandan leaves from my garden and blitzed them with milk, was intending to make pandan chiffon cake w/ them, but was disappointed to realize I haven't got cornflour at home to make the cake flour required to make chiffon cakes. Oh, by the way, if you have not known, to make cake flour from all purpose flour, here's how you can do it - to make 1 cup of cake flour, just take 1 cup of all purpose flour, take away 2 tablespoon of all purpose flour, replace with 2 tablespoon of corn flour. Cake flour renders a soft and cotton-y texture to the chiffon cake. I have tried making chiffon with all purpose flour. Failed terribly. The cake rose nicely, but it collapsed when I sliced them, and wasnt as soft as the ones baked with cake flour. So I randomly picked a recipe for pandan steamed cakes from google and found this, which to my surprise, it tastes good! It was a surprise to me, cos when preparing it, I felt that the batter was a little on the thick side, almost like the texture of creamy peanut butter, yet it turn out quite soft and crumbly. I had some extra left over, so I kept them in the fridge. The next day, I steamed them for another 5 min and had them for breakfast. Tastes as good! 

Recipe adapted from Peng's Kitchen

This recipe yields 8-9 cupcakes 

• 2 eggs, medium size 
• 100g sugar (I used 80g brown sugar) 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 60g corn oil (I used virgin coconut oil) 
• 100g pandan milk (taken from the pandan milk I have made from blending together 8 pandan leaves and 200g fresh milk)
• 200g all purpose flour, sifted 
• 2tsp double action baking powder (I omitted the baking soda, and used 2.5tsp baking powder) 
• 1/2 tsp baking soda  

Method 

1. Using an electric whisk, beat eggs, sugar, salt and oil until thick and frothy. 
2. Beat in pandan milk till combine. 
3. Sift in flour, baking powder and fold till smooth batter is formed. 
4. Fill up cupcake liner till 3/4 full. 
5. Steam for about 12min. 

I was supposed to blog about my trips. But there was so many backlog on the trips to update, I get lazy when I think about it. Anyways, here's one of my favorite photo from my trip to Taiwan with the little one. Here's my babywearing little J with my I-angel hipseat carrier (model name: Josh). 

  

Banana muffin with choco chips and cinnamon streusel

It's my son's second day at preschool today. Tell me if you're like me. I have a feeling I'm the one more excited than him. I wake up early to prepare two special treats for him to bring to preschool. Well, not that he's not excited. He loves being in school. Everytime asked, he told me, school is fun! (oh well, I shall keep track and we'll see how long he'll think school is actually fun!). After he got home from his preschool, he has been singing all day long! I asked him, do you wanna go to school tomorrow? He said YES! So I guess it's only fair to say we are both equally excited about him going to school. 

Yesterday, I prepared him pasta with minced chicken in creamy pumpkin sauce, and a pot of yogurt. Food like that may be messy, and I do wonder what the other parents prep for their kids. Anyways, I shall make something that's easier and less messy to eat today, ie buttery cornflake cookies (a recipe shared by a mommy from Healthy Food for My Baby facebook group) and banana muffin with chocolate chips and cinnamon streusel, recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction's blog. Both are delicious and very moorish!! When the cookies were just done, I have been munching on them, and I shouldn't cos they would give me sore throat but they are too delicious!! (Note: They are a little soft and chewy when fresh out of the oven, after about 15 to 20min when cooled down, they will turn crispy). For the cookies' recipe, please refer here. 

Here's the recipe for the banana muffin with chocolate chips and cinnamon streusel

This recipe yielded about 8-9 muffins 

Muffin

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour 
• 1.5 tsp baking powder (I omitted the baking soda from the original recipe) 
• 1/4 tsp salt 
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 50g butter, softened to room temperature, chopped
• 40g grapeseed oil 
• 1 large egg
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed 
• 3tbsp plain yogurt / milk

Streusel topping (You may opt out the topping, but I felt that the topping makes it extra yummy!) 

• 1tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/4 cup dark muscovado sugar
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts 

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 185deg C. 
2. Make the streusel first by combining all ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. 
3. In another bowl, sift in flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 
4. In another bowl, beat together sugar, chopped butter, oil and egg until fluffy. Beat in mashed banana and yogurt. Sift in dry ingredients until everything is just combined. Do not overmix. 
5. Fill muffin liner with about 3/4 full batter. Top with streusel topping.
6. Bake muffins for 10min at 185deg C. Lower temperature to 175deg and bake for another 10min. 

Cheese and mushroom muffin

My nanny is off for a whole week. So I'm a full time 'working' mom, taking care of my son in the shop, while looking after my shop, dealing with the clients with the little cheeky fella roaming around the shop. Phew! It's not easy, but surely fun to spend so much time with him daily. He's with me in the shop till about 3pm, then I bring him home for a bath and his dose of sedative - his MILK! and off he goes for his nap. I then return to the shop for a final hour before I call it a day. So what does he do in the shop? Everything! He reads, he draws, he plays with his playdough, he plays with his toys literally everything, other than napping in the shop. All in all, I'm still appreciative of this week. I got to get up close with him on a few issues, his temper, his basic manners and some other stuffs. Now that he's a 2 year old, he communicates and understands instructions pretty well. So I better start these early than later. 

Anyways, enough about my story. Here's the breakfast I made for us this morning, a savory breakfast muffin - cheese and mushroom muffin and a creamy pumpkin soup. I'll be sharing more about the easy 5-ingredients creamy pumpkin soup later on this month during my class in PJ (see this link for info), so do pardon me as I won't be revealing the recipe here in this blog, yet. 

Back to the muffin. I wanted to make cheese and mushroom scones. But I realized I didn't have any butter nor cream in the fridge. So instead, I searched for a recipe on savory muffin and adapted it to make it my own. It's a great recipe for a savory soft muffin if you don't like too much of sweet stuffs for breakfast. 

 Ingredients:

• 250g all purpose flour, sifted 
• 1tsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt 
• 50g cheese 
• 1 medium size egg 
• 50g oil, I used grapeseed oil 
• 150g milk 

• 4 brown button mushrooms, cleaned and slice (about 120g) 
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 onion, finely minced 
• pinch of salt 

Instructions: 

1. In a frying pan, heat up a tablespoon of oil. Stir in minced garlic and onion, followed by sliced mushrooms. Seasons accordingly. When mushrooms are soft and juices are drained off the mushrooms, they are ready. Keep the mushrooms, not the juice. Chop the mushrooms into small cubes. This step can be prepared in advanced. 
2. Combine dry ingredients, ie flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl. 
3. Beat together egg with oil and milk. Sift in dry ingredients. Add in the grated cheese and chopped stir-fried mushrooms.
4. Fill the batter into muffin cup to about 2/3 full (this recipe makes about 5 muffins). Option: top with an onion ring and more grated Cheddar. 
5. Preheat an oven to 175deg C. Bake for about 20-25min.  

Super moist and healthy carrot cupcakes

I haven't made carrot cake for the longest time ever. Maybe I just dreaded the process of grating carrots, or perhaps the process of cleaning the grater. In actual fact, neither the process are cumbersome at all. Okay, I dunno why. I should bake more of this, cos this is so healthy, with such little amount of oil (and I used virgin coconut oil), yet they turned out super moist and yummy. The taste or texture of carrot are seriously not noticeable. I prepared them for the lil' fella's take out breakfast box, fingers crossed the nanny will tell me he loves the cupcakes. Oh ya, the nanny is bringing him out for breakfast with her friends, so I made a take-out-breakfast-box for him, consisting of his favorite food, ie plain yogurt with freshly chopped mango, some cheese crackers and this carrot cupcake. He held the container tightly with him when we were on our way to our nanny's place. Bless him! Oh, I forgot to mention, with the amount of sugar I have used in this recipe, it wasn't too sweet, just right for my liking. Try it! You'll be in love with them! 

Here's the recipe, which I have modified, adapted from Little Miss Kimberly Ann.
It made about 7-8 medium size cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1.5 cup of all purpose flour, sifted (or 1 cup of all purpose flour; half cup of wheat flour) 
• 2tsp baking powder (I have ommitted the baking soda from the ori recipe, and replaced with baking powder) 
• 1tsp cinnamon powder 
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 1 egg, lightly beaten 
• 2tbsp oil (I used virgin coconut oil) 
• 1tbsp apple puree (I used a tablespoon of blueberry jam) 
• 1/2 cup fresh milk
• 1 banana, ripe, mashed 
• 1.5cup grated carrots
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar 
• 2tbsp sunflower seeds, as topping (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 175degC. 
2. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. 
3. Add the wet ingredients and stir until combined thoroughly, but do not over mix. 
4. Pour batter into cupcake liner, filling about 3/4 full. 
5. Bake for about 20min, or until an inserted skewer or toothpick comes out clean. 

My kind of breakfast

The two questions that I get asked most frequently are: (1) What sort of breakfast do you make for your boy? and (2) What do you eat for breakfast? .. If you've been following my blog or my facebook network group Healthy Food for My Baby, I'm sure you won't be deprived of ideas on breakfast for your little one. Now, what do I eat for breakfast? Tadaaa... this is my breakfast platter! 

I'm sorry if this revelation disappoint you, but unfortunately, (fortunate from my perspective), this is my kind of breakfast, almost every morning, if no one invites me out for an indulging breakfast. My usual routines are as such, I wake at about 6:30-7am, prep my son's breakfast cum lunch (check out this blog to ogle on his food), then I get myself ready for the day, and I sit down for a nice me-time enjoying my breakfast while flipping through a magazine or browsing my facebook or instagram feed. 

The orange juice look-alike drink on the right is made up of freshly squeezed juice from half an orange, a tablespoon of RIN enzyme, a sachet of FibreCleanse with half a glass of water. I have been consuming this drink for some time and I felt that it really clears up the complexion, making my skin more radiant. FibreCleanse is a fibre drink fortified with pre- and probiotics and chlorophyll, therefore rendering me more regular bowel movement, which I felt is the reason for the clearer and brighter skin tone. After drinking this FibreCleanse and RIN enzyme drink, I make myself another half a glass of water while at the same time, I dig into my overnight chia seeds oatmeal. 

The recipe for the simple chia seeds oatmeal are:

• 1 cup of rolled oat, organic 
• 1 cup of black soya milk, organic
• 1tbsp chia seeds 

This oatmeal is prepped the night before, combined and mixed thoroughly and kept refrigerated. For more interesting and delicious combo of this recipe, you may refer here. 

Most of us enjoy eating too much of 'acidifying' foods 酸性食物 these days. As a result, this create an acid ash in our body, allowing for micro-forms like bacteria, yeasts and fungi to thrive in our body, causing problems like recurring infections, poor immunity, allergies, dull skin tone etc. 

RIN Enzyme is super alkalizing, it contains the most complete blend of alkaline-rich foods from Japan that neutralize the damaging acids in our body. I take a tablespoon of RIN enzyme daily coupled with a sachet of FibreCleanse and this combination supports healthy digestion and bowel system. 

Try this breakfast drink and you'll see tremendous results, especially your skin, in just 30 days!

Both RIN Enzyme and FibreCleanse are now available for sale at Just Health. Please call 089 210 620 or email justhealthsandakan@gmail.com for further info.

Mini mulberry scones

I had some really nice organic mulberries available for sale at my shop. I bought some home myself and made lots of nice goodies, including these - mini mulberry scones. I'm really into scones lately. They are so easy to make. I made them again for our breakfast this morning. The good thing about making them in mini size - (1) they take shorter time to bake, about 15min for this size (2) felt less guilty popping two at one go .. LOL! 

Check out how dainty they are

Here's the recipe, it's actually a recipe that I have used many times, blogged about it a few times too.

• 250g all purpose flour, sifted 
• 1.5tsp baking powder
• 2tbsp icing sugar 
• pinch of salt 
• 100g frozen butter, grated 
• 1/2 cup raisins and fresh mulberries 
• 120ml cream or half half of cream and milk

Glaze - 1 egg, beaten with 1tbsp milk. 

1. Preheat the oven to 190degC (fan forced). 
2. Combine the flour, icing sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in the cold grated butter. Mix in the cream. Combine until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. 
3. Gently mix in the raisins and mulberries. 
4. Lightly knead a few times. Press into 2-3cm thickness dough. Cut into round shape scones. 
5. Place on the baking tray and brush with egg glaze. 
6. Bake for 15min or until golden. 

Cornflakes crusted french toast

I have been so lazy lately. Haven't been making proper breakfasts for the little fella. We just have the simple and easy overnight oat. It's seriously the most fuss-free breakfast ever. Felt a little guilty about it when I saw mommies in the Healthy Food For My Baby group on FB making nice breakfasts for their little ones, and I came across a mom who shared about this, cornflakes crusted french toast, thought I should make it for my lil' fella. He loves cornflakes, he should love this. How wrong am I. It turned out that he wasn't big fan of the french toasts. He picked up the cornflakes from the toast and ate them. Meh... 

Anyway, I'm still sharing about it, cos I loved it myself. One tip, serve it and eat it when freshly made. The cornflakes weren't as crispy after left out for some time. 

Here's how you make it. It's pretty much like making the normal french toast, with an added step of dipping the egg-soaked-bread in crushed cornflakes.

• Few slices of bread 
• 2 eggs 
• 2 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 tablespoon of milk
• 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
• Pinch of salt 
• Knob of butter for pan 
• 2-3 cups of cornflakes

Instructions

1. Crush the cornflakes in a ziplock or sandwich bag. 
2. Beat together eggs, sugar, milk, cinnamon and salt. 
3. Heat up a pan, add a knob of butter, swirl around the pan until it melts. 
4. Dip both side of bread into the egg mixture, coat thoroughly with the crushed cornflakes mixture. Press lightly so the cornflakes stick. 
5. Place the crusted french toast on the pan until it cooks to golden brown on one side and repeat with the other side. 
6. Serve immediately. 

 

Mulberry and chia smoothie

Mulberries are very nutritious and is famously known as a superfood due to its high antioxidant content. The moment my organic fruit supplier passed me some of these little gems, I immediately whatsapped a few of my close mommy-friends to inform them of this. These beautiful fruits will definitely do lots of wonder to the health of their little ones. 

Mulberries tastes sour-ish on their own. So I have been having them combined with other sweet fruits (like this), I have baked buns with them, for recipe, refer here, and I have also turned it into a beautiful looking smoothie for my lil' fella who loved it! 

Other than its high antioxidant content, mulberries contain alkaloids that activate macrophages, which then stimulate the immune system, putting it on high active alert against health threats. They are great sources of protein, vitamin C, K, fiber and iron. So hurry up, chuck in some mulberries in whatever you're baking or eating today. 

Here's the recipe for this beautiful and nutritious mulberry and chia smoothie: 

• 1/2 teaspoon chia seeds soaked in 1/2 cup milk for 5min (for a toddler I used full fat fresh milk) 
• 1/2 tablespoon honey or Rin Enzyme 
• 8 fresh organic mulberries 
• 3 tablespoon plain yogurt 

Instructions: Using a blender or food processor*, blend all ingredients until smooth and creamy. Serve immediately.

*I have been using this baby bullet for all sorts of my toddler's food and drink/ smoothie for about a year. I love it because it is small and convenient especially in terms of cleaning. 

Baby bullet is available from 9months maternity in Kota Kinabalu. They are available at 

• Suria Sabah 088 487 966 
• City Mall 088 486 966 

Alternatively if you're in KL/ Selangor, try drop by Happikiddo.  They sell everything you possibly need. Both the owners are parents, they work hard to bring in some premium quality products into the store, with an attractive selection of healthy food and snacks, toys, baby- and kids-safe products suitable for every parent or parent-to-be. 

Superfood smoothie for the super hero boy. 

Breakfast in a jar: chia oat pudding with coral glass jelly

I love making beautiful ensemble for breakfasts. Something like this. We feel jolly looking at it and eating it. The lil' fella was so happy when he saw this. He finished them all. 

This is an easy one, almost like the overnight oat and chia pudding that we've been eating daily, but it has an additional layer, which is the coral g;ass jelly as the bottom layer. Coral glass is a type of seaweed. It is also commonly known as sea bird-nest or the poor man's birdnest, as it resembles birdnest in terms of their dense collagen and high nutrients content. 

According to an info by Matanjun et al, 2009, coral glass jelly contains 10times richer amount of collagen than birdnest, 37 times more calcium than cod liver. It is low in fat and calories but bursting with nutrients like magnesium, iron, sodium and calcium. 

You can see more about it in this previous post. 

To prepare the bottom layer

*2-3tbsp soaked and cleaned coral glass jelly (see previous post on instructions to clean them)

*1/2 cup of fresh milk 

*1tbsp dark muscovado sugar 

Or here's another recipe using apple juice 

*2-3tbsp soaked and cleaned coral glass jelly 

*1 cup of apple juice 

Boil everything in a pan and continue to stir until the coral glass jelly dissolves. Pour into glass jar to set in the fridge. 

In another container, prepare the chia seed and oat pudding with 

*2/3 cup of rolled oat 

*1 cup of fresh milk

*2tbsp chia seeds 

For more idea on the chia seed or overnight oat recipe, please refer here. 

Combine everything and stir until the chia seeds are distributed evenly. Let set in the refrigerator. 

The next morning, pour the chia and oat pudding onto the coral glass jelly. Top with chopped fruits or nuts. 

Breakfast: A vibrant start

Breakfast spread for the lil' fella and I. 

Brunch take-away packed for dear hubby. 

Every once or twice in a week, I 'treat' our body to breakfasts like these. See the way I use the word 'treat'? I'm not sure if my hubby will agree with the use of word 'treat', he may think it's a torture to eat breakfasts like these, but all I know, our body will definitely thank us for it. Raw vegetables are bursting with enzymes and antioxidants. The cooking / heating process destroys or deactivates these enzymes. By eating them raw, we are actually helping our body to digest them and absorb the good stuffs much easier and quicker. We're also helping our liver and kidney to lessen their workload-of-the-day for having less chemicals to be processed. The more processed the food is (more additives added into it) the more work our organs need to do. When there's less work to do, our body will channel the energy to other important tasks like detoxifying or rejuvenating (repairing). Now you get why I describe this as a 'treat' to the body? 

My hubby suffers from the occasional build up of uric acid near his joint (which he complains of the very subtle aches on his wrist). Even though he exercises on a regular regime, it is still not possible to flush out the uric acid build-up effectively. This shows, staying fit - is more than just exercise. It also involves diet of fresh fruits and vegetables (more vegetables than fruits, to be exact, no point stuffing ourselves with durian or mangosteen that does more harm than goodness), drinking little or no caffeine (which would not happen for my case - am a caffeine addict), having a low intake of alcohol (checked!) and a lifestyle with minimal stress (hopefully, checked too!). 

Now .. you wonder why this post. This isn't what I usually blog about. This week has been quite gloomy. We've been bombarded with news of close friend and distant friends diagnosed with cancer, dying of cancer and passed away. Obviously there are more than two cases here that I'm referring to. More and more people are diagnosed of cancer. It must have got something to do with the toxins build-up in our body. So do your body a favor. Treat them an occasional retreat by having a rejuvenating breakfast. 

P/S: the lil fella is turning 22month old in a few days time. Guess what? He actually loves eating the raw salad leaves. He loves munching on the tomato and of course, the croutons were his favorite. Instead of finishing his portion of overnight rolled oat with yogurt topped with his favorite cereals, he helped me cleaned up my plate of raw salad. 

Fried charcoal noodle with dried shrimp

Ermmm.... now.. how should I start.. I haven't been blogging properly for the longest time ever, so many things had happened, and I have no idea how I should summarize all in one short blog post. Okay.. most things that happened are good stuffs... so it's worth a mention.. let me do them in point form:

* I have finally bidded good-bye to my Samsung S2 which I've been using for 21month (I remember the date clearly, cos it was a pre-give-birth pressie from my dad) and gotten myself a mi3 (aka xiaomi) which I'm quite happy with 

* We have also bidded good-bye to TM internet and treated ourselves with Yes 4G which should allow me to enjoy 5x the speed of the conventional 3G. Fingers crossed it would :) 

* I made a business trip to Korea for a week and left the lil' fella at home with the hubby. The hubby managed it fantastically, and life went on normal (more than normal.. according to hubby, the lil' fella behaved better without me around :~ ) when I weren't around. I aint sure if I should be happy or not knowing this. Hahahaaa... but one thing I'm sure, I can plan more biz trip or girls trip in the future. LOL.

* The lil' fella has much more vocab now. He knows majority of the animals he sees on the animal video or the animal book, crocodile, monkey are his favorite. He somehow is fearful of gerbil but he's okay with guinea pig. He also started saying 一二三 in Mandarin and one, two, three, four, five in English. And I haven't properly taught him that. He could have picked them up elsewhere.

* I am back to zumba-ing.

* I have been addicted to instagram-ing. Not that I'm instagram-ing, but I am addicted to checking out beautiful posts on other people's instagram.

* I finally settled my car loan of 7 years. So my suzuki swift is now all mine :D

* My brother is leaving for Japan for further studies in September. We are all proud and happy about it, cos it gives all of us one more destination to fly to in the future. In fact we were already planning the trip to Japan way before he was confirmed with the uni-acceptance and scholarship. LOL  

* Mom's back in Sandakan, which I'm super chuff off, she hasn't been back here for over half a year. This fried charcoal noodle brekkie was made by her. Somehow it tastes much more delicious than the ones I make.

See?... you know what I meant by so many things had happened in such short time? There are more.. but I better stop here. I shall share on the recipe for this simple yet delicious fried charcoal noodle with dried shrimp (I still think the reason it's delicious is because it's made by my mom.. you know how all of us always miss mom's cooking?) 

Recipe (serves 4 adults and 1 baby)

*1tbsp dried shrimp (soaked in water till soft and chopped finely) 

*3 clove garlic, minced

*Half an onion, thinly sliced 

*Half a carrot, julienned 

*Half a zucchini, julienned 

*Few cabbage leaves, julienned 

*Charcoal noodle, cooked in boiling water till soft

 Instructions:

1. Heat up 1-2tbsp rice bran oil in a heated wok. Fry half of the minced garlic, onion and dried shrimp till fragrant. Stir in and stir fry the charcoal noodle for about 3-5min. Set aside.

2. In a clean wok, heat up a tbsp rice bran oil. Stir fry remaining garlic, carrot, zucchini and cabbage until veg turns soft. Stir in fried noodles. Season with Bragg's liquid amino and salt.

Mini mushroom quiche

 

 

Sigh.. the amount of fraud calls I get these days are horrendous!! While I was doing my work, I got a call from this number 03 2167 3833, not anyone on my phone contact list, but it was an automated voice message that says, This is AmBank Credit Card centre. We have detected a pending transaction of RM3000 (3thousand something) in your account. Please press 1 to confirm transaction. Press 2 to talk to our customer service or press 9 to repeat.” I didn't doubt it was a fraud call at first, cos our company do have an AmBank account, personally, I don't, so I pressed 2 to talk to a customer service. The moment the customer service person spoke, 'Ah Hahhh!!', I thought, 'Fraud!!' Guess why? He spoke with a Chinese-y accent which is very very rare for Ambank or any call centre. After a few minute, without wanting to waste my time on this fraud call, I just said, it's fine, thank you and hung up the phone. Without further delay, I went onto google and try to find any similar case like this, and of course, as expected, this is a fraud call.

 

Anyway, back to my quiche.. I made these baby quiches for my boy's breakfast. Don't they look lovely? They are quite easy to prepare.

 

For the pastry

• 200g plain flour
• 100g butter, chop into little cubes or grated
• 1/4tsp baking powder
• 1 beaten egg
• pinch of salt

1. Combine flour and butter until the mixture resembles texture of bread crumb.
2. Add in baking powder, salt and beaten egg. Combine into a dough.
3. Divide the dough to about 4-5 portions. Grease the ramekin dishes.
4. Roll the dough to thin round disk and lay in the individual ramekin dish. Keep in fridge for later use.

For the filling

• 2 clove garlic
• 1 large onion, minced
• 4-6 medium size brown mushrooms, fresh, sliced  
• 1/2 cup fresh milk
• 1/2 cup grated Cheddar
• 2 eggs, beaten

1. In a heated pan, stir fry the garlic and onion with a little oil until the onion turns translucent (about 3-4min). Stir in sliced mushrooms and cook till soft.
2. In bowl, combine fresh milk with beaten eggs.
3. Divide the garlic and mushroom mix in the ramekin dish lined with pastry. Top up with the egg-milk mix until about 80% full. Top with generous amount of grated Cheddar.
4. Preheat the oven to about 175degC. Bake the quiche for about 20-25min until the centre is no more wobbly.

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze from Awayofmind Bakery House at this post.

Pac man sandwich (with pesto and mustard chicken)

 

 

 

I called this a pac man sandwich. Don't you think it looks like pac man? Only if you know what pac man is. It was one of those games we played on video player, during my childhood time. Wonder if my boy will know about pac man in future.

 

The bun was made with my usual soft and fluffy bread recipe, and the filling was green Japanese cucumber with healthy and delicious pesto and mustard chicken. I have stopped using mayonnaise in my sandwiches for quite some time. I launched a personal campaign on 'say no to trans fat' which forbid myself and everyone in my family to consume anything with trans fat, ie breads and buns from outside, commercially baked cookies, cakes and tarts and also mayonnaise. I'm not against it for its fat content. I have no problem stuffing myself with good butter and good cheese. But it is the fact that it's sooo commercially processed, making it non-agreeable by our body. Trans fat has been chemically modified. As a result, our body cannot process it nor excrete it. In the end, it stays in our body and the effects are cumulative.

 



It can be difficult in the beginning, cos it takes effort. And homebaked stuffs without trans fat will never taste the same as the ones from outside. But they can be yummy in their very own way. Check out this chicken sandwich filling made without mayonnaise.

• 1 side of chicken breast, steam-cooked and shredded
• 2tbsp pesto paste
• 1tbsp greek yogurt, plain
• 1tbsp cream cheese
• 1tsp coarse grain mustard

Mix all together and serve in sandwich, or with a side salad.

食为奴咸鱼包 (Salted fish bun)

I didn't watch this drama食为奴. But the 咸鱼包 Salted fish bun was all over the blogosphere and facebook. I checked out the recipe, it didn't seem difficult to make and it would be quite an appetizing one with the incorporation of salted fish in it. So I made it for breakfast this morning. Just like what it says in the drama (apparently, anyway), it has to be consumed right away, leaving it long before consumption will make it tough and dry. Therefore, if you're gonna make this and won't be finishing all, just dry-fry however much you wanna eat and leave the rest in the fridge.

 

I managed to divide the dough into 13 pieces, each weigh about 35-40g, but somehow I only had filling for 11 buns, so I wrapped two with pumpkin puree, and those were for my little fella.

 

Pumpkin dry-fried bun for my little fella 我儿子的金瓜干煎包

 

Dough

• 300g all purpose flour
• 150g boiling water
• 60g cold water

Pour boiling water into flour. Combine all. Add in cold water and knead into dough. Rest for 30min in fridge.

Filling

• 300g minced pork
• 50g salted fish, pan-fried to release the aroma
• 1tbsp chopped ginger
• 3tbsp chopped scallion
• 1tbsp chopped onion

seasoned with

• 3tsp soy sauce (I used liquid amino)
• 3tbsp sesame oil
• black pepper poweder
• 1tbsp brown sugar
• 2tbsp xiaoshing wine (I used 1tbsp cognac)

1. Divide rested dough into 35-40g pieces. Roll dough into thin round disk with rolling pin. Place about a tbsp. of filling and seal the bun.
2. Pour about 2tbsp cooking oil into wok. Place the salted fish bun in the wok. Adjust the heat to medium heat. Add in 1tbsp water, pan fry both side till golden (till water is all dried up).

Japanese green tea loaf (breadmaker loaf) / Three-cheese sandwich with green-tea bread

I knew it's gonna be a very busy day for me today, I wont have time to roll or shape any bun, so I just dump everything into the breadmaker when I arrived at the office and let it does its work on its own. At lunch time, I'm greeted by nice bread aroma and a soft fluffy green tea loaf is ready for lunch.

 

If you've been following my blog, you would have known that I've been baking bread with Alex Goh's magic bread recipe and it has become the fool-proof base recipe for me. Every bread that this recipe bakes is super soft and fluffy and they remain soft till the next day.

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe for three-cheese filling for this sandwich:

• 1tbsp cream cheese
• 1tbsp grated Cheddar
• 1tsp grated Parmesan

Combine all in a bowl and spread as sandwich filling.

 

Here's the recipe for my breadmaker's Japanese green tea loaf

 

Starter dough:

• 100g bread flour
• 70g boiling water

Pour boiling water over bread flour. Stir to combine. Keep in a container in a refrigerator for at least one hour or up to 12hours. If you don't have the time to prepare this in advanced, just measure in bread flour into the breadpan, pour in 70g boiling water and press start to let it combine. Then add the following ingredients in the order listed.

 

Main dough (listed according to the order the ingredients are placed in bread machine):

• 150g soymilk (Fresh or powder-reconstituted)
• 40g grapeseed oil
• 1-2tbsp brown sugar
• 1tbsp Japanese fine green tea powder
• pinch of salt
• 200g bread flour
• 50g all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. yeast

1. Set the bread machine in the normal bread mode (number 1), select crust setting to light*, and choose 700g loaf size, and press start (启动）. *I've always chosen 'Light' cos I do not want to have a thick crusty skin for my loaf.
2. Place all the above ingredients into the loaf pan in the order, as listed above.
3. When all the ingredients has combine together, add in the starter dough in small pieces.
4. Let the bread machine does it work.
5. In 3 hour 12 min, tada!! The loaf is ready!

 If you wish to knead this bread by hand, please refer here.