Salmon and Quinoa Pasta / Pie (Gluten free)

Salmon & Quinoa Pasta

It's been some time since I've last blogged about recipes for my toddler son. I think I have been less adventurous with recipes now and more occupied with his daily activities. Happikiddo had recently launched a contest searching for an all-time thumb-up recipe for our little cutie pies. I have decided to enter my son's favorite fish pie recipe into the contest. It's a very healthy and balanced meal as each serving alone meets the recommended vegetable intake for a child aged 1 to 4 years. In addition, I incorporate 'quinoa' the illustriously known supergrain in making the creamy pumpkin sauce for the fish pie. It is so creamily delicious no one would suspect it is actually this 'healthy'! At least my husband never suspected it. 

I am sure I have written or blogged about quinoa some time back, but there's no harm talking about this good stuff, as good stuff like this always need a gentle nudge. Quinoa (pronounced as 'keen-wah', is in fact not a grain, but a complete protein in the form of amino acids, in other words, they are very easy to digest and are essential for development and growth. If your diet lacks of protein eg fish, tofu or meat, then consider adding quinoa into your diet.

Quinoa for babies and kids 

Quinoa is hypoallergenic (less likely to cause an allergy), thus making it suitable for young infants. Quinoa may be introduced to baby from 8 months onwards although many babies do tolerate it prior to 8 months. This nutritious-dense ingredient makes a great addition to your little one's diet and it is very versatile. You can cook and serve it as puree, or congee (porridge) or in this case, a creamy sauce. It is packed with fiber, calcium, iron and folate, making it a great option for parents who find it tough to get their kids to eat vegetables.

I have made this creamy quinoa and pumpkin sauce many times and have served it with mashed potato topping (as salmon & quinoa pie - somehow the presentation makes the entire dish very attractive to a little kid), or pasta or even rice.

There is no need to add thickener like cornflour to thicken it up as the addition of quinoa turns it into a perfect consistency, somewhere between a creamy soup and a sauce.

If you like this healthy and delicious recipe, kindly give me a LIKE on the following facebook photo link. Huge thank you in advanced.

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Here's my recipe for my salmon, quinoa and pumpkin sauce
(By all means, replace salmon with other fish or meat)

• 150g salmon, cubed 
• 1/2 small onion, cubed
• 100g pumpkin or butternut squash, cubed 
• 1/4 cup quinoa, rinsed 
• 1 1/4 cup vegetable stock, homemade 
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced 
• 1 knob of butter / grapeseed oil to pan fry the garlic and fish 

Instructions: 

1. Steam-cook cubed onion, pumpkin, and quinoa in a pot / rice cooker with the vegetable cook (about 20 minutes). Once cooked, transfer all to a blender, pulse for 2-3 minutes or until the sauce turns creamy. Set aside. 
2. In a frying pan, heat up butter or oil. Stir in finely minced garlic and sautee till fragrant. Stir in cubed salmon. Cook for about 2 min. 
3. Pour in creamy pumpkin and quinoa sauce. Simmer for another 2-5 min. 
4. Serve with mashed potato, pasta or rice. 

To make the salmon and quinoa pie: 

Boil potato till tender. Mash with salt or pepper (optional) and butter, milk and cheese. 

To assemble the pie, divide the salmon and quinoa pumpkin sauce between 3 ramekin dishes. Top with mashed potato. To achieve a nice golden color, brush top of pie with beaten egg mixture and bake in a preheated oven at 180deg C for 10 to 20 min. 

Pumpkin and cashew pesto

Here's a superb creamy pasta sauce for your toddler if you're out of idea for his meals. I love making my own pasta sauces for my little J because this way, I can control the amount of seasoning that's added in, and I know exactly what's inside the sauce. The usual ones that I make are the bolognese and the creamy mushroom sauce. The pasta sauces I make are usually very simple cos I don't have too much time in the morning to prepare them, and other than these I also needed to make another dish for his breakfast. This morning, for an example, I made this delicious pumpkin and cashew pesto for his pasta lunch and I have also made a nice soft and fluffy pandan kikaku (hei pan) for his breakfast and late afternoon treat.  

I usually make extra portion of these pasta sauces, so that I can use them again for another pasta dish later on in the week. These pasta sauces are also okay to be kept frozen and are usually consumed within a week or two. 

For this creamy pumpkin and cashew pesto sauce, I have added in lots of garlic for seasoning purpose and also for a boost to his immune. Here's the recipe: 

• 3-4 tbsp raw organic cashew nuts, dry dried in a frying pan until they turn golden brown. Leave aside. 
• 2tbsp cooking oil, I used organic grapeseed oil 
• 3-5 cloves of garlic, finely minced 
• Seasoning eg herbs and salt 
• 200g pumpkin, cut into little cubes 
• 2 tomato, skin peeled and cut into little cubes 
• 1/2 cup of water 

Method: 

1. Heat the oil in a cooking pan. 
2. Stir in garlic, fry until fragrant but not too brown, stir in cubed pumpkin and tomato. Cover with lid to simmer for a few minutes. 
3. Pour in water to simmer for another few minutes. Season accordingly. 
4. Cool down and blend with toasted cashew nuts until it reaches a creamy consistency. Serve with pasta. 

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. 

Easy chicken bolognese for toddler

Bolognese sauce, other than creamy mushroom sauce, is a staple recipe in my kitchen. I usually whip up bigger portion of it and serve it over a few days, or sometimes, I even freeze portions of it, and use them when I am out of food for the little fella. It's so versatile. It is perfect with pasta, also goes well with rice as pasta bake or just simply rice and sauce, I have also used them as the filling for sheperd's pie under mashed potato. This round, I served it with cous cous. This is also the first time the lil' fella is having cous cous as his main meal. 

To prepare the chicken bolognese sauce: 

• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced 
• 1/2 onion, finely minced 
• 1/3 medium sized carrot, finely chopped 
• 4 tomato, lightly scored at the bottom, and boiled in a pan of boiling water for 2min to remove the skin, then finely chopped
• 1/4 chicken breast, minced and marinated with dash of orange juice, pinch of salt and liquid amino 
• 1 cup of chicken stock, homemade 
• 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 and chopped carrot. Stir fry for about 1-2min. 
4. Stir in skinned and chopped tomato. 
5. Pour in chicken stock. Gently simmer for about 15 to 20min for flavor to develop. 
6. Season with choice of seasoning.  

To prepare the cous cous:

• Place 1 cup of cous cous in a flat container. 
• Pour in 1 cup of  hot boiling water or hot boiling stock into the container with cous cous in it. 
• Cover with lid for 1-2min. Open up. Fluffy with fork. Ready to serve!  

Slow-braised lamb with black eyed beans

This was the first time I served lamb to my 23mo toddler. I didn't actually intend to make this dish for him. This was made more for my hubby cos I was going out for dinner with the girls and the in laws weren't around, so I decided that I would prepare dinner for the hubby and the little fella before I leave, so they can dine peacefully at home and settle for an early night. 

I was afraid that the taste of lamb would be too intense for the lil' fella and the texture would be too tough for him. However, after the dish was made, I was pleasantly surprised of how soft the lamb had turned into. I let him tried the lamb. He loved it. He actually finished up quite a big portion I plated him. This is quite an easy and convenient one-pot dish. Just chuck in the veg and meat and any sort of beans you have at home, it's a nutritious and delicious meal on its own. I prepared this dish in the morning and just heated it up and plated it for dinner in the evening before I left home. 

I just simply googled for a recipe for lamb stew and I stumbled upon here. I adapted the recipe using whatever I have in my fridge, the results were superb. 

Here's my recipe, adapted from Jamie's Homecooking Skills

• about 800g lamb steak, diced to cubes 
• 2 slices of ham or streaky bacon, chopped
• 1 medium onions
• 1 parsnip, peeled and cubed or 1 potato, peeled and cubed 
• handful of fresh brown button mushrooms, cleaned
• handful of cherry tomatoes 
• Half a medium carrot, cubed 
• 3 cloves garlic, minced 
• 500g tomato juice (organic tomato juice in a bottle, with no sugar nor salt added) *
• Salt and pepper (according to taste) 

*If you dont have tomato juice, you could probably use half half of stock and tomato puree.

1. Heat up 2tablespoon of cooking oil in a casserole pan/ pressure cooker (I prepared this dish using a pressure cooker). 
2. Stir fry garlic and onion till fragrant. Then add in diced beef, ham and all the mixed veg. When all is slightly brown (in about 3-5min), pour in tomato juice. 
3. Simmer on low heat for about 15min, then put on the lid for pressure cooker to work. (without a pressure cooker, this dish may takes 2-3hrs to cook on low heat). 
4. Serve with cooked pasta or mashed potato, or in my case, both :) 

My gf and I had a great time out when hubby took good care of the lil one. 

Animal pasta bake with creamy roasted veg sauce (Safari pasta by Mogli)

Encourage healthy eating and active learning at the same time 

My boy loves animals. I think now at 21mo, he knows at least 50 animals' name if not more. I love this organic animal pasta by Mogli (product of Germany). It only needs about 10 minutes of boiling and the pasta is soft. The thing about my son, he wants to know what he's eating. For every bite he takes, he will look at it, and tell out it's chicken or fish, or egg, in this case, it's animal's name, ie lion, crocodile, monkey, bear bear, elephant etc. I found it difficult to identify the animals when it isn't cooked. But interestingly, they are more easily distinguished once cooked. 

This recipe was made for his Sunday's late lunch. I prepared the sauce in the morning and baked it around noon time while he was having nap with his dad. When it was done, I just left it out on his little dining table so my hubby could let him eat it when he woke. Oh.. I went out with my mom to the hospital to visit a close family friend who got hospitalized. When I got back, I found out that he almost finished (okay.. he ate about 80% of the dish) which was great (that means he loved it) and it was quite a decently big portion for his little tummy. 

Here's the recipe 

First, prepare these vege to be roasted 

• 3 tomato, skinned and cubed 
• 80g pumpkin, cubed 
• half a cob of sweetcorn, kerneled 
• half a zucchini, cubed
• 3 cloves garlic, finely minced 
• half an onion, finely minced 

Thoroughly combine these prepared vege in a baking tray with the following marinade and cover with alum foil

• 2-3 tbsp basil-infused olive oil 
• pinch of salt and pepper 
• 1/2 tsp pizza and pasta seasoning herbs (optional) 

Preheat the oven to 180deg C. Roast the above veg for about 45min to an hour or until all the veg are soft. 

Leave to cool. 

Once cooled, puree the veg to turn into sauce. Add water or milk if the veg is too thick to be pureed. 

Cook the safari pasta (about 2-3 tbsp) in boiling water. 

Once cooked, combine the pasta with the roasted vege sauce with a tablespoon of cream cheese and serve. 

*I baked it a little in order to keep the dish warm. 

Pasta with creamy mushroom and oat sauce (5 ingredients pasta sauce)

The happy lil' fella :)

Aside than the creamy tomato and pumpkin sauce, this is my favorite pasta sauce that I always make for the lil' fella. It's easy to prepare with just a few simple ingredients and it is yummy especially when served with shaved parmesan or just grated cheese. Sometimes, I add more milk or water to it, and turn it into a soup, served with toast. I have also used it as sauce for pasta bake. Very versatile indeed. I don't add salt into it, still standing firm that his food shall not need to be seasoned with salt, before he reaches two year old. The garlic and onion gives it the mild savory note. Of course, the final addition of cheese (but it's optional) makes it yummilicious!

I have made this sauce with potato and mushroom. This time, I added in rolled oat instead of potato. The addition of rolled oat makes it thicker and creamier without the need of adding in flour. It also boost up its nutrition count and dietary fiber content.

All you need for this creamy and healthy pasta sauce are:

• 3tbsp rolled oat soaked in half cup of full cream fresh milk
• 1 cup of water or stock
• 5 - 7 fresh brown button mushrooms, cleaned and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• Half an onion, finely minced

Instructions:

1. Heat up 1-2 tbsp cooking oil (I used rice bran oil) in a heated frying pan. Stir in minced garlic and onion till onion turns translucent. Stir in chopped mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms sweat.
2. Add in rolled oat with the soaking milk and water or stock.
3. Simmer on low heat for about 10-15min or until the mushrooms turn soft. Season with pepper and salt (optional).
4. In a food processor or blender, blitz the sauce till creamy. Serve with cooked pasta sprinkled with shaved parmesan or grated cheddar.

Options:

• Serve with cooked vegetables eg broccoli, carrot or sweetcorn that is pre-cooked in another pot of boiling water or steam-cooked.
• This sauce is suitable for freezing for 2-3 weeks. Prior to serving, thaw in refrigerator and heat till piping hot.



Spaghetti stir fry with pumpkin and fish 南瓜炒意粉

To be more exact, this is a Fettuccine stir fry, cos it was Fettuccine that I used, not spaghetti. This is a quick and easy breakfast cum lunch prepared for the lil' one. The Fettuccine was boiled the day before and stored in the fridge. In the morning, I just soak it in hot water for about 5 min before stir-frying it. I only got little time for a quick and easy recipe this morning, cos I was also making egg tart for our breakfast. See this post for the egg tart's recipe.

 

Fettuccine or spaghetti are great for stir-fry, and especially if you are like me, keeping it warm in the thermal for the little one's consumption later on, unlike some noodles, fettuccine or spaghetti doesn't get soggy easily. It still maintain its bite even after a few hours sitting in the thermal container. Here's the recipe for this Fettuccine stir fry. Bon Appetit!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of cooked fettuccine (or any pasta of your choice)
• about 200g pumpkin, julienned  
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 piece of threadfin fillet (thinly sliced) and marinated with Bragg's Liquid Amino, toasted sesame oil and black pepper powder
• 1/2 cup water + seasoning (optional), I added 1/2 tbsp. Bragg's Liquid Amino
• 1 egg, beaten with 1tbsp milk

Instructions

1. Heat up the fry pan with 1tbsp grapeseed oil.
2. Pour in beaten egg mix and cook on low-medium heat until one side is cooked. When the upper side is cooked, roll up and remove from fry pan. Thinly slice and set aside.
3. Add a little oil to the fry pan and heat up. Stir in minced garlic and onion, followed by pumpkin julienne. Cook until garlic and onion turns soft and fragrant. Add in fish fillet.
4. When fish is cooked through, add in cooked fettuccine. Stir fry for about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add in water and seasoning. Put on the lid and let the noodle simmer for another 3 minutes (this stage is optional. I do this because I want the fettuccine is softer, easier for consumption by my 19mo).
6. When the liquid has been absorbed, remove fettuccine stir fry from pan and serve with sliced omelet.

Hello there! This is my jolly lil' fella, enjoying the Fettucine stir-fry.

Pasta with creamy broccoli sauce/ soup

The lil' fella had been refusing to eat his broccoli lately! To avoid him wasting the remaining broccoli I have in the fridge, I decided to turn them into pasta sauce. Any kid that refuses vege wouldn't know this super creamy and yummy pasta sauce has veg in it.

Ingredients (this makes about 3 baby's meal portion)

• 1 stalk of broccoli, cleaned and cut into florets
• 2 small size potato, peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 cup of water or vegetable stock or 1/2 water 1/2 milk
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/4 onion, minced
• 1tbsp butter

Instructions

In a pot of boiling water, cook cubed potato and cut broccoli till soft (about 5min). Drain off and set aside.

Heat up a soup pot, or fry pan. Add in the butter. When it starts to sizzle, stir in the minced garlic and onion. When the garlic and onion are brown and fragrant, add in boiled potato and broccoli. Saute for another 1-2 minute.

Add in water/ stock. Simmer for another 5 minutes.

Bring the mix to a blender and blend until creamy and smooth.

Serve with cooked pasta or serve as soup.

He told me he was going to board the airplane and waved me 'bye'.

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (June 2014 Event: Butter) organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Jozelyn Ng (Spice Up My Kitchen)" 

Avocado yogurt with orange

He pronounced 'Oren' when he saw this. I corrected him, it's 'O-RAN-GE'.

 

 

 

This is a snapshot of my little munchkin enjoying his two-course breakfast this morning. He is now 19month old, weighing 9.8kg. I don't feed him huge portion of food, but I make him an assortment of meals, with different texture, taste and color, so that he'll find joy in eating and at the same time, provided with nutrients from different source of food. I don't stock crisps or biscuits or cookies at home. But I always bake and there are plenty of homebaked bread, buns, cakes or muffins readily available if he decides he wants to snack.

 

This morning, I prep him a simple pasta to be brought over to the nanny's for his lunch. There was extra so I also let him have a small portion for breakfast. The sauce was made from just FOUR ingredients, ie garlic, onion, pumpkin and tomato. It's super easy to make, and requires very minimal seasoning to make it tastes super good. All we need was just a tablespoon of grated Cheddar or a dollop of cream cheese. The recipe was shared here. You can adjust the consistency by adjusting the amount of water or milk added when blending it.  

 

I also served him avocado yogurt with fresh oranges. It's a great breakfast or dessert for the adults too. Here's the recipe:

• 1/2 ripe avocado, chopped into small cubes
• 3tbsp full fat greek yogurt
• 1tbsp honey or 1tbsp apple juice

Place all ingredients in a blender. Blitz till smooth. Pour into a bowl. Top with freshly cut orange segments. Chill in refrigerator for about 10min before serving.

 



Spaghetti with tomato & almond pesto

It's been a long time since I made pesto, cos I haven't bought Parmesan or pine nuts for a long time, and the Thai basil outside in my garden are not thriving well. But who says pesto has to be made with Parmesan or pine nuts, it can be done nicely with any cheese and any nice nuts or even seeds. This time, I actually made them with tomato, so it isn't a green pesto but a red pesto. Tastes equally nice, if not nicer!

 

Again, this pesto sauce is very versatile. I served it with pasta and season with lots and lots of grated Cheddar. My son and I are huge fans of cheese. I've also served it with breakfast pancakes I made this morning and made it into a breakfast pancake lasagna.

 

 

Here's my son, who had gone nuts over the roasted almonds I'd prepared for this pesto sauce. I wasn't very willing to let him snack on them cos there are still  risk of choking even though I did chop them into little pieces. But we've run out of snacks or bread or cakes at home!! Nothing!! Not even fruit! Darn. And he seems hungry. So I let him, in the end. He loved them!



Here's the recipe for the very versatile and delicious tomato pesto, you can make double or triple portions of this, and it'll keep for 10 days in refrigerator.

• 1 tomato, chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2tbsp roasted almond or raw almond
• few basil leaves/ Thai basil leaves
• 1/2 cup of basil oil (see photo below)
• 1-2tbsp Parmesan (I don't have this, so I omitted them, but I serve this sauce with lots of grated Cheddar) 

1. Steam everything, except for the oil and cheese until the tomato turns soft.
2. Blitz in a food processor, slowly drizzle in oil and Parmesan, until it achieves a creamy consistency. May adjust with more or less oil to get the consistency wanted.

Organic basil oil, also known as pistou in Provence, its full bodied aroma makes it great with salad, or homemade vinaigrettes and sauces like this.

Cous cous with duck egg and black eyed bean

 

 

 

 

 

I have only eaten salted duck egg 咸蛋， but I have not tried fresh duck egg before and I have no clue on how to prep or cook them. But the friend who generously gifted me with a few fresh organic duck egg told me that I just need to cook it like how I cook chicken egg. After reading more about it, I realized duck egg are not much different from chicken egg in terms of their nutrition, but with the exception that duck eggs are larger in size, they also have larger proportion of yolk, and thus duck eggs have more protein and are richer than chicken eggs, with higher fat content and more cholesterol. When boiled, the white turns bluish and the yolk turns red-orange. Duck egg has thicker shell and thus keeps longer than chicken egg, about 6-8 weeks if refrigerated. With no exception, I would use it to prepare some healthy and nutritious meals for my little boy, cos he would need all these good proteins and good fats. According to my aunt, some of the sellers use duck egg to make kaya. Ah.. I guess I know why! Because duck egg has more yolk and is richer in terms of its flavor, so the kaya would definitely turns out tasting great and creamy!

 

I have paired up this dish with some black eyed beans which I've previously cooked in big batch and kept some frozen for use at occasions like this, where I need a quick dinner for the little fella. Read here if you want to find out more about black eyed beans. I don't add any flavoring like salt or pepper to this, cos eventually, it'll be nicely seasoned with finely grated Cheddar cheese.

 

Cous cous is something that's very simple and quick to prepare. I personally am a huge fan of cous cous. I eat it paired with raw lettuce, fresh tomatoes, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, cucumber, hard-boiled egg, dressed with a delicious Caesar dressing. The great thing about it, it's very high in fiber, the reason why I ate loads of it when I was pregnant. Check out the following instruction, it's super fast to prepare, it only needs no more than 10min.

 

To prepare a basic cous cous, you'll need:

• 1cup cous cous
• 1 1/4 cup water or stock
• 1tbsp olive oil

In a shallow pan, boil up the water or stock. Spread the cous cous thinly in another heat-proof container or dish. Pour in the boiling water or stock. Cover with a lid. Let stand for about 5-10min. After 10min, fluff with a folk and season with olive oil.

 

In my case, I actually had additional ingredients in my cous cous:

• 1clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 2tbsp cooked black eyed beans
• 1 hard-boiled duck egg, shelled and chopped
• 1-2tbsp finely grated Cheddar
• 1cup raw cous cous
• 1 1/4 cup water or stock
• 1tbsp olive oil

1. In a frying pan, heat up a tablespoon of cooking oil. Fry the garlic and onion till fragrant.
2. Stir in the cooked black eyed beans and heat them through. Pour in water or stock. Simmer for about 5min.
3. Pour the water or stock mixture to a oven-proof casserole where the cous cous is.
4. Cover with a lid.
5. Let stand for about 5-10min. Fluff with a folk and season with olive oil.
6. Mix in the chopped duck egg.
7. Top with grated Cheddar.
8. Place the casserole dish under a hot grill / oven to melt the cheese.

 

 

 

 



Pasta with spinach cream sauce (baby food)

 



This is my baby's dinner. Don't you think it looks really 'gourmet'? It looks like an expensive dish served at a posh fine-dining restaurant. Hohooo.. no, it's not. It's a simple dinner I whipped up for my adorable little fella. It's actually a very protein-rich creamy sauce pureed from sautéed spinach, potato and black eyed beans (called 眉豆in Chinese), served with brown rice shell pasta and grated Cheddar cheese.

 

Again, it's a meat-free dish, my son doesn't eat a lot of meat, so I had to ensure that he gets sufficient amount of protein and iron from his meals, in this case, he gets plenty of them from the spinach (for the iron) and the black eyed beans (for the protein). Black eyed beans, unlike many other beans like adzuki (red) beans or mung beans, are easy to cook and has a lower tendency of causing gas. I have made black eyed bean puree for the lil' fella when he was under one. It actually tastes sweet and has a nice creamy consistency. Other than its high protein and fiber content, black eyed beans are also rich in folate, making it a great pregnancy food or snacks too.

 

Black eyed beans doesn't require soaking prior to cooking. But soaking it would make it easier to cook/ soften. It only took me about 15min (in a pressure cooker) to cook it till soft, without mushing it. The black eyed beans used in this recipe are pre-cooked. I usually cook a big batch of the beans and freeze them in individual portion and use them in sauces (like this), salads or soups.

 

To prepare this, you'll need:

• 2-3 tbsp. cooked brown rice pasta
• 1cup spinach
• 2tbsp pre-cooked black eyed bean
• Half a medium size potato, skinned and cubed
• 2clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, minced 
• 1-2tbsp rice bran oil (or other cooking oil / butter)  
• 1cup water / stock
• 2tbsp fresh milk / cream (optional)

Instructions:

1. Heat up a pan / wok and heat up the cooking oil.
2. Stir in minced garlic and onion and sautee until fragrant.
3. Stir in potato, cooked black eyed bean and spinach. Sautee for about 2-3min.
4. Pour in water or stock. Simmer for about 15-20min or until the potatoes turn soft.
5. In a blender, puree the sauce till it achieves a creamy consistency. Add in milk or cream.
6. Serve with pasta and season with grated Cheddar.

 

Aside from serving this sauce with pasta, I have also used it to bake a spinach loaf and make sandwich spread.

 

Spinach loaf with mung bean

 

Sandwich with spinach and cheese spread

 



 

To make the spinach and cream spread:

• 2tbsp of the spinach and black eyed bean sauce
• 3tbsp grated Cheddar cheese

Heat up the spinach sauce in a microwave (1min) or a heated pan. Stir in grated Cheddar. Use as sandwich spread.

Creamy tomato soup with pasta and purple sweet potato bread stick

In the mommies network Healthy Food for My Baby, there was a dad (hmm... I realized it's not right to call it a mommies network) who's very committed to preparing all sorts of yummy meals for his little ones. I get very impressed cos all the men in my family doesn't cook. This is a breakfast meal that was inspired by one of his meals prepared for his little boy. 

 

This is quite an easy one. The purple sweet potato bread loaf was done in my breadmaker using this recipe, but the spinach puree was replaced by purple sweet potato puree. I served them fresh on the first day. Second day, I toasted them in the oven and spread some pesto on the bread. Still nice!

 

 

Here's the recipe for the creamy tomato soup:
This recipe makes 2-3 servings
*2 tomato, blanched in boiling water to remove the skin
*1 small onion, peeled and chop
*2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
*100g pumpkin

Steam all the above ingredients for about 20min until soft, then blend with about 1/2-1cup of milk until achieve soup- consistency. Serve with mini corrallini pasta.

Pumpkin pesto chicken bolognese

Very delicious with parmesan.

 

Hubby's brunch

 

This is recently my favorite meal for the lil' fella. It's easily done, very convenient and very delicious. Most importantly, I can make the same dish and it feeds all of us (me, hubby and the lil' fella).

 

This is what I do to prepare it in the morning.

 

1. Steam cubed pumpkin with minced chicken, season with homemade pesto sauce. Also add some milk and dash of olive oil to make it saucy.

2. When the chicken is cooked and pumpkin turns soft, mash the pumpkin with a folk. Add more pesto sauce if needed. Serve with grated cheese or parmesan.

 

For the lil' fella, I pack the cooked pasta and sauce in two different container. So the nanny can add the sauce into the pasta when she needs to feed him later on.

 

For me and hubby, I just add the sauce into the cooked pasta and top with lots of parmesan.

Seaweed omelette with tomato and pasta

 

 

 

 

I dressed the lil' fella in jeans and sneakers today. I'm in awe of how fast baby grows. This time last year, he was still a little baby using only cries to communicate. Now, he can do much more than that, but at the same time, he also gives me more time to spare to prepare sumptuous food for him.

 

He has just turned 13mo yesterday. At 13th month, I'm quite flexi with what he can or cannot eat, and am gradually adding seasoning (like salt or Bragg's liquid amino) into his food.  I also let him eat more than just porridge, especially on weekends. He has pasta, roasted vege, cheese, steamed muffins as snacks, and he had baked frittata for dinner last night. I'm not sure if he appreciates them, but all I know he eats his food. That's what matters.

 

I ran out of meat at home, no fish, no meat. All I have is egg and cheese. I can still make delicious and pretty looking meals out of them.

 

Recipe

• 1 egg, beaten with about 2-3tbsp fresh milk, seasoned with dried herbs, salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp. of cut up dried seaweed, unseasoned ones
• oil to cook
• 1/2 cup of homemade tomato puree / passata
• pasta, cooked
• grated cheddar cheese to serve

1. Beat the egg with milk and season. Add in seaweed.
2. Heat up 2tbsp grapeseed oil in a frying pan. Pour in the egg mixture. Cook on one side (abt 2-3min) flip to the other side to cook.
3. Slice the omelette.
4. Heat up the homemade tomato puree using the same pan.
5. Serve the omelette with the tomato puree and cooked pasta, top with grated cheddar cheese.