The (Sad) Story Of A Lazy Baker

OK, so by now you should know that I'm a lazy cook and a lazy baker; I love recipes that are hardly recipes, a bonus when the result turns out amazing, that recipe will get lots of loving and raving, like duh, obviously. z.

And so the story goes like this, I've been dying and craving to bake and eat baked goodies of late, but it's a little impossible (mostly out of sheer laziness) for me right now with my two precious tornadoes locked out behind bars constantly standing at the baby gate whining and wanting hugs and attention all the time.

And so the craving shot up to its max one day and I just HAD TO BAKE AND EAT NOW!

And so. I took out my mug, anyhowly spoon in some flour, sugar, salt, oil, cocoa powder, nutella, gave it a good stir and in it went into a saucepan of boiling water, to be steamed to its perfection, of course! Erm, because I'm... creative like that? 

I thought nutella mug cake is a foolproof recipe, I mean, 9 out of 10 persons who perused the method often came back with rave reviews, but yeah lah, maybe because I so smart go and steam it, not that the thing turned out awful, it just came out... funny. Like eating a mat salleh kuih. HAHA!

Ah well, the Frap took a bite and gave me the thumbs up. Heck, I took the first bite and gave her the thumbs up too. And then she refused it by covering her mouth tightly with one hand, and waving the other left and right vigorously to say no AND running the opposite direction by the third bite. Erm, maybe she's on a diet gua... /shifty eyes.

p/s ok fine, for reals, the texture was seriously like eating some kinda kuih, the taste was a little weird but I conclude that was because my cocoa powder has been kept for quite sometime, and really, by the third bite all my craving for baked goods are gone. For good.

Behold! Steamed Mat Salleh Kuih Nutella Brownies

Easy Recipes For Kids: Beetroot, Pumpkin, Carrot Soup

I’m so excited to share this, once again, super-simple-hardly-a-recipe beetroot recipe! Now I was never a fan of beets. I don’t like the earthly taste. So when my mom gave me one and asked me to eat it, it’s good for you, I cringed loudly inside. 

I rummaged the net for cool recipes, but they all call for spices and herbs and time and patience, which I have not. So I decided to anyhowly make a soup out of it with what little ingredients I have in the fridge – carrots and pumpkin! 

And it turned out nice! The fact that I’m feeding my family beetroot makes me feel pretty good about myself too. So I hope you’ll like it!

Beetroot, Pumpkin, Carrot Soup

Ingredients:

1 pc chicken breast, chunk-cut
1 stick carrot, cubed
1 big slice of pumpkin, cubed
1 small beetroot, cubed

1. While boiling water in a medium sized saucepan, prep and clean up the chicken breast. When the water boils, put the chicken in the saucepan and bring to boil.

2. Add in the carrot and pumpkin, bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low, and let simmer for 60 minutes. Season with a little salt for taste.

And we are done! 

Frap, Oli, and I shared a big bowl of rice flooded with the soup and it was glorious! If you do try this recipe, let me know how it turns out! 

p/s you can also add corn and/or potatoes, if that’s what rocks your socks. Happy eating!

Easy Recipes For Kids: Pasta with Marmite

This is one of Nigella’s recipes which my bro intro-ed me to. While the combo of marmite and pasta just doesn’t sound too right, I assure you, it is really very erm, edible. No, seriously! Not to mention it’s quick to cook with almost no preparation needed; I’d say it’s a perfect go-to dish if you are too busy to prepare lunch for your kiddo (or even yourself!). 

This is the second time I’m making the dish; the first time I followed the recipe fully using spaghetti, I also added the 1 tbsp of reserved pasta water as instructed and it turned out too wet. That aside, I thought the result was a little bland, appearance-wise, so I sprinkled it generously with mozzarella and baked it for a cheesy, chewy meal. This time around, I used colourful spirally pasta and I simply omitted the pasta water and added mixed veges. It turned out much better!

Nigella posted the basic recipe on her site and here, I’m sharing my version, using hers as a base. Do try it and let me know if the recipe’s a keeper or a bummer :)

Edit: Simplified the steps! 

Pasta With Marmite

Ingredients:

Any kind of pasta
½ to 1 cup of frozen mixed veges
50g butter
1 teaspoon of marmite or more according to liking
Your choice of grated cheese (optional)

1. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water, according to instructions. 1 or 2 minutes before the pasta is done, add in the mixed veges. Once done, drain the water, set pasta aside for later. Add a small chunk of butter and a teaspoon of marmite into the pasta+vege combo, mix well and serve with grated cheese.

2. In a saucepan, melt the butter, and add in the marmite, mixing well until dissolve. Remove the sauce from heat, and stir in the pasta + mixed vege combo. Serve with grated cheese, if you like. 

Do you have an easy recipe to share? I’d love to hear from you!

Siu Yoke (Roasted Pork) Pizza

I just had to post this up! Too. Good! Imma gonna make this every week! OK chill, I'm just saying -.-

Easy Recipes for Kids: Tuna Risotto

The Frap has been eating a lot of porridge since she’s started on solids. Even I got boring cooking it. So in a bid to feed something more… interesting (and definitely easy to cook!), I’ve been playing with some recipes and ingredients, hoping to get her to eat healthier, without losing the flavour.


To journal my experiments, I’ll be starting a new category here in my blog – Easy Recipes For Kids – for my own reference; I also hope it’ll be helpful for mothers or young mothers who have been experiencing severe headache from thinking of what to serve come meal time. I improvise a lot as I strive to keep the steps as minimun as possible haha, so feel free to modify to suit to your own convenience and your toddler’s liking! Happy cooking (and uh, feeding!)

Tuna Risotto

Ingredients:

Oil
Chopped onion
About a cup multigrain rice, washed
Chopped,cubed veges of different colours
A clove of crushed garlic
Tomato paste/sauce
A can of tuna fish
Salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil in a small pan and fry the onion for a few minutes, until softened.

2. Add the rice, veges, garlic, tomato paste, and 1 cup of water. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered, about 10 minutes. Then drain the tuna and add to the rice mixture, stirring. Continue cooking, making sure to stir occasionally, until the rice is tender and creamy.

4. Lunch is ready, baby!

Moments Like This Are Rare. Like, Srsly Rare.

Both Jason and I had a sudden case of food poisoning for no good reason over the long holiday weekend, but that didn’t damper MY plan for some almost-me time! Was planning to send the girls away on Sunday night, but had to do so earlier due to our, erm, condition and didn't want to jangkit them (and apparently we parents weren’t missed one bit by them girls during our absence T_T then again, maybe it's a good thing. Haha).


Anyway, in view of my super lazy bug attack (as usual), here’s a photo blog post to capture my awesome weekend (minus the toilet-runs and the crazy beeyotch of an ulcer because Frappy accidentally head- and knee-butted me, twice! On the upper lip! At the same spot! GRR).

My first visit to a board game café! Played a ditzy game called Cloud 9 with some crazy people and won the game, too!

With super good cards! Got 2 wilds 2 times! Take that!

Had McD's and chatted rubbish with the crazy people till the wee hours, which was especially refreshing cause you get to laugh at lame jokes and gorge junk food without a care of diaper-changing time and go home late!

The next day, splurged on lunch at



And finally got my wardrobe some polka dots and a splash of orange!

  

Had meant to grab some coffee and quiet time to read or something, but someone’s missing the girls way too much to allow me the luxury so, off we went back to reality of being slaves parents.

I hope your weekend was as good if not better! Here’s to the next delicious me time (and I'm telling you I can’t wait already)!

Of Ayam Kurma, Nutella, & Cinnamon!

Been acting very erm… motherly, lately! Cooking and baking and ironing clothes! I do amaze myself sometimes. Must be the pregger hormones!


What I’ve been up to in the kitchen recently:

Chicken & Lots-O-Root-Veges Kurma

You can't really see the chicken because this is leftover from dinner! OK, it might not look very appetizing (I like stewy, one-pot-cooks-all stuff like that), but man I tell you! This is da bomb! Here, I just had the leftover with toasted sunflower seeds bread for lunch. YUM!

 

No Bake Nutella Cookies

OK, visually superbly unpresentable. But the recipe says "drop it quickly on the wax paper" So I got very kancheong and antsy when it came to that step, and anyhowly just drop every blob abruptly and very quickly. erm, so maybe the measurements are not right either, because I didn't use proper measuring equipments? So they didn't set very well. They sat out on the table the whole day and were still gooey, in the end I had to freeze them in the freezer. Brought them to home-life, and everyone very give-face-ly had one. But it's really not that bad lah. Erm alright, I rest my case. -.-

No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls

I woke up wanting to eat these stuff so much, I had to google the simplest recipe, and bugged my sister to bake it with me at night. I was so gungho about it that I drove all the way to my mom's place at night to get these done. Since it was our first time making these, it obviously didn't turn out very well, too sweet and dough-y for our liking - we overdid on the sugar and cinnamon and rolled the dough too thin. But, hey! It feeds the craving! :)

Easy Recipes For Kids: Spirally Pasta In Béchamel Sauce

So I got tired of making porridge everyday for the Frap, so I came up with something really simple, but equally boring for her! Haha!

Spirally Pasta In Béchamel Sauce

I thought it looked pretty ok, except a bit bland, which it was la to be honest, but I am very proud of my effort ok! Recipe for the, ahem, Béchamel Sauce (which really, is actually just plain white sauce!):

Ingredients:
Butter
Plain flour
Milk
Salt and pepper to taste


Melt the butter and stir in the plain flour for about a minute, until the mixture turns golden. Then remove from heat and stir in the milk until smooth. After that, return to the heat and continue stirring until the mixture boils and thickens. Season as required.

Voilà! C’ést tout! Béchamel Sauce, how glam!

My Pocky Moment

So good, even babies want 'em!

Love Is...

when you forgive with a big heart.

My cup-of-cino. Yum :)



A Perfectly Lazy Morning

... for a perfectly lazy breakfast  :)




Sliced banana on buttered toasts, cofee, lappy. Bliss.

P/S Thanks Vicky and Essie for a great time last night! The subs and Daiso are better and fun-ner with you guys around!


I <3 Happy Hangouts & Happy Meals!

That, my friends, has been my tagline for the past few days :D

The Ops. PigOut @ Ogawa Japanese Kitchen was awesome! I won’t speak for the rest lah, but I had a total kick-assed blast! And guess what, the get-together actually hooked up some old classmates which was so cool!!! *feels very achieved having done a good deed. Zen out*

Aw man! Happy food and happy friends make me really one rainbowed happy camper! :))) We should really do this more often!

Actually I’m just really lazy to blog lah, zzzz so I’ll leave you with some pictures (but I colour-enhanced them!). There weren’t much photos taken though, we were busy… uh, pigging out. Next round we should put more effort to invite camwhores to join the party! Heh.

The banquet - ready for its guests

Jap's (I mean Japheth's!) favourite dish from the buffet line - "Wateroo Bungari Kekwako". This, apparently, is very good for your health

everybody get their hot or cold green tea in this plainnnn lookin' short glass. EXCEPT for some dude who came in royally late and still get a whimsy sky blue ceramic cup! Cis!

The happy piggies! (I'd stitch up the photos and make them seamless. But whatddayanoe! I'm lazy liddat :)

And from here on I'm lazy already so no more captions. Food and randomness!