First visit to fun fair

So there was a fun fair in town, kinda like a temporarily put up mini theme park with rides and games booth. We pass by it every morning I send the lil' fella to his nanny's. He's been telling us, let's go there and have a 'walk walk'. I've been telling him, yea yea.. we will go there, one day. But deep down inside, I felt reluctant to bring him there, cos it's a temporarily made up fun fair, how flimsy are the rides and frames gonna be? Oh well, we had to go cos we still have to fulfill our promises. So we thought, we will just bring him for a walk-around. 

Ahhh... seeing these photos, you'll know we didn't just go in for a walk-around. He went onto the rides, alone. I wasn't too sure how my hubby felt, my heart was pumping fast cos for G sake, there were no height restrictions sort of rules and there wasn't any safety belt on the rides (Okay, for I have allowed him to go onto the rides, I shouldn't be complaining at all.. but .. just saying..). With his height, I doubt he would be allowed to go on. Oh well.. he loved it! It was heart-warming seeing the beam and grin on his little face. I hoped there was fear in him (cos that was his first ride, even though it wasn't a fast spinning one, but it did felt fast to me.. and knowing there was fear in him would make ME felt much better cos there was surely fear in me, worrying that he would stand up half way, wanting to be let out...) .. ah .. but again, maybe I was wrong. He held onto the rail obediently throughout the ride and was seen enjoying every second every moment of his entire ride. He even let go one of his hands half way through the ride, and the worrisome me had to remind him to place his hands back onto the rail. Bless him. 

Twas just a short visit. But it surely was a good one for him. We bought him an helium balloon on way back. He held on tight to the balloon even when going to bed. So the spiderman balloon was floating right next to my pillow at night. Nice!  

Last night, I also found out that my gym acquaintance from back then when I was in KL, Eileen Khoo has passed away at the tender age of 37. I hadn't got the chance to know her properly but she was a lovely and bubbly lass. I'm glad that she now doesn't need to suffer anymore. Eileen babe, rest in peace. 

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then the entire life to forget them. You'll always be in our memmory, dear Eileen. 

Breadmaker black sesame hee pan (kikaku)

My clients are getting sick of just baking bread with their Donlim breadmaker. So they are asking if I can come up with more recipes, other than bread. Yesterday, I made soft and fluffy banana and walnut cake with it. This morning I made these Hakka delicacies with the breadmaker. I kneaded the dough and let it proof in the breadmaker, then steamed them in the steamer. The lil' fella loved them. He had about 2-3 of them. I had 3 myself. We love the chewiness but at the same time, also fluffy, especially when warm. 

This is a sponge dough recipe. It requires additional steps of preparation. I have made some simple dough method, but I felt that the texture of the kikaku is quite dense, so I have always prefer those made with this sponge dough. You can refer to those easier ones if you felt that this recipe is a little too cumbersome for you. Here's the link for the easier straight dough recipe. 

Sponge dough: 

• 1tsp active dry yeast 
• 200g all purpose flour
• 150g black sesame drink / pandan juice (if making a pandan heepan) 

Combine all ingredients. Cover and proof overnight at room temperature. 

Main dough: 

• 100g all purpose flour (I have used 85g all purpose flour + 15g cornflour) 
• 150g glutinous rice flour 
• 125g water / pandan juice (if making a pandan heepan) 
• 125g sugar (I've replaced with 75g brown sugar) 
• 1/2 tsp active dry yeast 
• Some oil for rubbing on palms when moulding the hee pan later on. 

1. Place all ingredients, including the sponge dough into the breadpan. Select mode no. 6 for knead (和面）。 Press Start 启动/停止。Let it knead for 10minutes. Press Stop 启动/停止。 
2. Select mode no. 8 for Proof (发酵）。 Adjust TIME 时间 to 01:00 (1 hour). 
3. After an hour, bring dough out of breadpan. Punch out trapped air. Shape into 50g ball and place on a steam paper or banana leaf. Press to flatten. 
4. Let proof for another 15min. Steam on medium heat for 10min. 

中文翻译

面种: 

• 1tsp 酵母 
• 200g 普通面粉
• 150g 黑芝麻奶 

在一个碗内将以上材料混合。盖上保险纸 ， 放在室内室温发酵过夜。 

主面团：

• 100g　普通面粉 （我用85g 普通面粉 + 15g 生粉) 
• 150g 糯米粉
• 125g 水
• 125g 糖 (我只用了75g 黄糖) 
• 1/2 tsp 酵母 
• 油　（整形的时候抹在手板上用）　

1. 将所有材料，包括面种，放入面包桶内。启动菜单 6  和面。 和面 10分钟，按停止。　 
2. 启动菜单 8  (发酵）。 调整时间为１小时。　按启动／停止。　 
3. 一小时之后，　将面团取出。敲打以将空气敲走。　将面团分成50克的小圆形，　放在香蕉叶上压扁。　
4. 发酵15分钟. 中火蒸10分钟。　 

Buttery cornflake cookies

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 muffin's recipe, please refer here. 

Here's the recipe for the buttery cornflake cookies, recipe shared by Yvonne Woi from Healthy Food for My Baby facebook group. 

This recipe yielded about 30 cookies

• 125g unsalted butter, chopped and softened to room temperature
• 60g brown sugar 
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla essence 
• 1 1/4 cup self raising flour (or replaced with all purpose flour plus 2tsp baking powder) 
• 1tbsp milk
• 1 1/2 cup cornflakes, lightly crushed 
• 1/2 cup craisins/ raisins/ chocolate chips (I omitted these)

1. Preheat oven to 175deg C. 
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until fluffy. Sift in flour. Add in milk and combine the dough. 
3. Add in crushed cornflakes. 
4. Line baking tray with parchment paper. Scoop the dough using a teaspoon, roll into balls, flatten very lightly with folk or finger (just very lightly, in face, if you want your cookies to be thick-ish, you wont even need to flatten it). 
5. Bake for about 15min or until cookies turn golden brown. 
6. Leave to cool. 

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.  

Ten healthy kids lunch box recipes

My little 2 year old will be going to preschool soon. So if you are like many others, stuck for easy and healthy lunch box ideas, here's a compilation of my recipes for some kids' healthy lunch box that are easy to make and practical to eat. These will surely get your little one's face light up.  

Super moist and healthy carrot cupcakes

Mini Mulberry Scones

Chia seeds bun

Spaghetti stir fry

Easy fried rice

Oat milk mantou

Chicken Sheperd’s Pie

Pasta with creamy mushroom and oat sauce

Orange and mango chiffon cake

Steamed moist chocolate cake 

If you're keen to know more about food and nutrition for your baby or toddler, join me at the following classes in Petaling Jaya end of this month (November 2014). For registration, please kindly email justhealthsandakan@gmail.com. Advanced registration is required.  

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.