A toddler's Zha Jiang noodle 一个幼童的炸酱面

'Mien mien is black in color', he told me when he saw this. Deep down inside, I was nervous, but I hid my wrecking nerves, cos I wasn't sure if he would accept it, I have heard many kids who doesn't accept non-ordinary-looking color noodles or pasta. I took the risk today in making this black charcoal noodle topped with zha jiang (minced chicken with finely chopped pumpkin and apple in organic fermented red yeast bean curd sauce 有机红曲豆腐乳酱）。 Yummm.. I uttered out while slurping the noodle. He then said, mien mien hou sik (the noodle is delicious). Tada!! I was a happy mom he loved this! 

Today's theme for his tot schools is bat, inspired from the CVC words that he's learning this week, ie Bat, Cat and Hat. Even his meals today are inspired by today's theme, black color charcoal noodle that resembles the color of bat. Pumpkin and apple are bat's food. 

I personally love zha jiang mian a lot, I love to have lots of the zha jiang that gives flavor to the noodle, but I don't know what flavoring or sauces are used to cook those sold outside. I am just trying my luck with this organic  fermented red yeast bean curd sauce, it turns out to taste very yummy. 

Recipe (serves 2-3)

• 1/4 or 1/2 chicken breast, minced, marinated with pinch of salt, toasted sesame oil and 1/2 tbsp cornflour 
• 2tbsp cooking oil, I used organic grapeseed oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced 
• 150g finely cubed pumpkin 
• 1/2 apple, finely cubed 
• 1/2 tbsp fermented red yeast bean curd sauce, dissolved in 3tbsp hot water 
• pinch of salt and white pepper powder (optional) 
• noodle, boiled to bring to cook 

Instructions 

1. Heat up 2tbsp cooking oil in a hot frying pan. 
2. Stir in minced garlic and minced chicken. Stir fry until chicken gets brown. Stir in cubed pumpkin and apple. Stir fry for another 2-3 minutes 
3. Pour in fermented red yeast bean curd sauce, close the lid and simmer for another 5-10minutes, make sure the pan doesn't gets too dry, add in more water if needed. Season accordingly. The red yeast bean curd sauce itself is fermented, thus is quite salty. 
4. Optional, thicken the sauce with cornflour if needed. 
5. Serve with cooked noodle. 

**Organic fermented red yeast bean curd sauce 有机红曲豆腐乳酱 is available for sale at Just Health, Sandakan. Contact: justhealthsandakan@gmail.com 

Organic pumpkin ramen with tofu and minced chicken

Ingredients
*about 300g minced chicken, marinated with seasoning (see below)
*3 pieces of soft tofu, cut into small cubes
*2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced
*seasoning: salt, organic toasted sesame oil and organic "oyster" sauce, vegetarian (made from mushroom)
*bok choy, boiled for 2min in boiling water.
*Soft boiled egg (boiled for 7min)
*Organic pumpkin ramen

Method

1. Bring a pot of water to boil. Cook pumpkin ramen until tender. Drain and put aside. 
2. In a wok, heat up 2tbsp of grapeseed oil. Stir in minced garlic, minced chicken and tofu. Cook through. Season according to taste. Add in water and cornflour mixture to thicken the sauce (optional). 
3. Serve minced chicken dish with ramen, vege and soft boiled egg. 

Stir-fried organic pumpkin ramen

Every morning, I felt like I am racing with the ticking clock, to prepare his breakfast snacks (for school) and lunch in an hour and then get myself ready and him ready for school by 8am. I wasn't as disciplined as this prior to this. Before this, if I woke up late, I can just let him eat whatever that the nanny eats. But now that he isn't going to the nanny's anymore, instead he comes home after school, I gotta make sure he has his lunch prepped ahead. 

This morning, I made him stir-fried organic pumpkin ramen. He loves noodles and pastas. He eats rice, but his favorites are noodles and pastas especially when cooked soft. So I love these series of organic ramen. They turn tender, yet still maintain their texture when cooked. 

Here's a simple recipe for the stir-fried pumpkin ramen (serves two to three) I always make extra for my own lunch 

*Organic pumpkin ramen
*Black bean soy sauce (thick) as seasoning 
*2-3 cloves garlic, minced
*Shredded vege like carrot, taugeh, onioin etc 
*1-2 eggs
*Salt
*Meat eg chicken, pork etc

1. Boil noodle in a pot of boiling water until tender.
2. In a wok, heat up 2tbsp grapeseed oil. Stir in garlic and sliced vege. Stir-fry until aromatic.
3. Stir in meat and stir fry till brown and cooked through.
4. Stir in boiled ramen. Season with black bean soy sauce (thick) and salt. Push the fried ramen to side of wok. Break in 1-2 eggs. Gently fry. Combine with ramen and veg.

The other breakfast snacks that I've prepared for him for school was a simple roast sweet potato. They are easy to make and delicious eat. So easy, I forgot about them. Gotta thanks my buddy Fei Tseh for sharing with me what she prepared for her little girl H. I peel the sweet potatoes, cut them into long chunks, place on roasting or baking pan, drizzle with organic grapeseed oil, season with salt. Preheat oven to 180degC and roast for about 15-20min. 

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.

Oat noodles with tofu and mushroom in miso sauce

This is my lil' fella's lunch. I also prep extra that served as breakfast for me, him and hubby. I talked about miso a couple of months back in this post, when I first introduced miso to my lil' fella, when he had bouts of diarrhea and hasn't got appetite to eat much of his food. Since then I have been cooking with miso a lot, for the baby and for the adults.

Here's the info I copied from my previous post on miso:

Miso paste is an Asian seasoning made by fermenting a mixture of soybeans, barley, brown rice and several other grains with koji or also known as Aspergillus oryzae. The result of this fermentation is a smooth-textured paste with a strong savory flavor. Often used in Japanese cooking, miso is a healthy, probiotic food that helps support digestion by adding beneficial microorganisms to your digestive tract.

 

According to the Harvard School of Public Health, consuming miso rich in probiotics can shorten the duration of infectious diarrhea, especially in infants and children. (Here's the reason why I served him miso when he had his bouts of diarrhea, info from here). Just like the other fermented food eg cheese, yogurt or tempeh, the array of nutrients are very wide in miso. Due to the diarrhea, it would be normal to assume that he has lost a lot of liquid and nutrients from his body, therefore feeding him miso was a good way to replenish back the good nutrients. Nutritionally, miso provides mostly carbohydrate with some protein. It is also rich in several of the B-complex vitamins and contains several minerals, including calcium, iron, zinc, copper and magnesium.

 

Other than its beneficial effects onto our digestive tract, it is also known to protect against radiation exposure. After the atomic bomb in Nagasaki, Japan, Dr. Akizuki fed his patients a diet rich in sea vegetables and miso, limiting their consumption of sweets and sugar. The patients at Dr. Akizuki’s hospital were only one mile from the bombsite, but everyone survived. Many people outside the hospital perished due to radiation exposure. This piece of info was gathered from here.

 

Miso paste can be used to prepare broth for noodles or porridge. It has naturally occurring sodium, so there is no need to add salt into the broth. Miso can be gradually introduced to the little ones after turn. I have started introducing miso to my lil' fella at 16mo. The following recipe has no meat. You may want to add in minced or cubed chicken into the dish while cooking.

 

Ingredients (This recipe makes 2 babies' meal, and 2 adults' breakfast)

• 2 bundle of oat noodle, cooked in boiling water till soft
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• Half an onion, minced
• 3-4 fresh brown button mushroom, cleaned and chopped
• 2 soft white tofu, cut into cubes
• 1 small stalk of broccoli, blanched in boiling water for 2min and then chopped
• 1tbsp mugi miso (depending on types of miso, some miso tastes saltier)
• 1/2 tbsp. liquid amino (by Bragg) (that serves as a salt-free alternative to soy sauce)
• 1cup water (a little warm-ish)
• 1/2 tbsp. corn flour with 1/2 cup water (optional)

Instructions

1. In a pot of boiling water, cook the oat noodles till soft. Blanch the broccoli for 2 minutes and chop into little pieces (this is more for the baby. If you're making this for adult, you may opt out the chopping).
2. Dissolve the mugi miso in the water (a little warm-ish) - this is the stock.
3. Heat up a shallow fry pan with 1tbsp grapeseed oil, stir in the minced garlic, onion, followed by chopped mushroom, tofu and broccoli. When they turn slightly brown, pour in the miso stock and the liquid amino, and let the dish stew for about 5 minutes.
4. Dissolve corn flour in water, pour into the stew. Let boil for 1 minute and serve with cooked noodle.

This is Bragg's Liquid Amino I've been using when cooking at home, it's a salt-free alternatives to soy sauce. Despite of the fact that it's salt free, it still tastes good. It contains naturally occurring sodium, so only introduce it to the little ones after they have turned one or 15month old. It's available for sale at Just Health or any organic or health shops.

 

 

Fried beehoon with pumpkin and fish

I never would have done this if I haven't come across it here. I never know I can fry beehoon with pumpkin, haha. I'm not that creative with Chinese dishes. So, I'm constantly checking out what Chinese dishes I can make for my lil' fella. It's great now that the lil' fella is eating more adult-like food, cos I can make them for him and the rest of the family too. For this fried beehoon, I prepared a portion for his packed-lunch at the nanny's, and then I further seasoned it with more seasoning for our likings. Hahaa... he's still taking his food sans salt (ie lightly seasoned).

 

 

 

This is my son's bento box this morning (at 17th mo). I am not a bento mom. I don't do it. I don't like too much mandling of his food (man-handling). And I've always packed his food in his thermal jar so that it's still warm-ish when he eats it at lunch time (don't think it's possible to do a pretty shot when the food is packed in thermal jar). Even for this, I had to remove it from the red container and place it back in his thermal. I don't feel good letting him eats his beehoon cold. The white blob on the right is a soft soy mantou I made the night before, and the cupcake is a super healthy egg-free banana cupcake I made the same morning.

 

Recipe for fried beehoon with pumpkin and fish

• 200g red beetroot vermicelli, soaked for at least 3-4hrs in water
• half an onion, thinly sliced
• 80g pumpkin, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 bunch of spring onion, sectioned
• 1 fish fillet, sliced and marinated with liquid amino, toasted sesame oil, white pepper powder
• 1 ham, sliced

Seasoning, adjust according to own preference

• Liquid amino
• Miso paste
• White pepper powder

1. Heat up 2tbsp oil in a heated wok.
2. Fry garlic and sliced onion till fragrant. Stir in pumpkin, fry for 1-2min.
3. Add in soaked vermicelli. Continue to stir, pour in required amount of water to soften the vermicelli.
4. Season accordingly. Just before dishing up, stir in sectioned spring onion.
5. In another wok, heat up 1-2tbsp oil. Cook sliced fish fillet, add in sliced ham. Add to the cooked vermicelli.