Little Lunch Box #54 小饭盒

It's swimming day and the last day of school. "Yay" for the kids and "Nay" for me. :P It's going to be a noisy and chaotic June for me. :P

I'm trying to finish the pack of buns I bought, so it's burger for my daughter again.

To make this, I carefully slitted and removed part of the 'skin' on the bun. I reused that for the eyes, nose and the markings on the tummy. I dabbed some chocolate spread on the markings so it can stick on.

I used stick biscuits for the ears and angel hair spaghetti for the whiskers. The white part of the eyes are made out of cheese.

This time, I didn't get complains from my daughter for turning her food into some animals as Totoro is one of her favourite cartoon characters. I'm just glad that it was convincing enough for her and she didn't say it was an owl. ;P

So, I hoped you have everything planned for the kids for this school holidays. Have fun (not so fun for the parents :P) and don't tire yourself out!

Happy school holidays everyone! ;)

Little Lunch Box #53 小饭盒

It's Learning Journey for the kids in school today.  Hence, the kids have to bring their own lunch or snack

A few days back, my daughter's friend ask her grandma to check what I will be making for my daughter and wants her grandma to make the same for her too. Hehehe ... Grandma asked if I could help make lunch for her grand-daughter too. ;)

To make it easy (for me :P) I decided to prepare burgers so I do not need to use lunch boxes.

My daughter requested for chopped broccoli and coriander to be in the meat patty and I prepared egg roll with some leftovers crabstick and spring onion as sides too.

So, this was the girls' lunch, wrapped in foil and packed in foam box. ;)

Fish-paste Tofu with Vegetables 鱼胶蔬菜豆腐

In my last post, I mentioned that I will be sharing how I did the sushi-style Fish-paste Tofu.

This is one of my kids' favourite. It's a good alternative to get the kids to eat their vegetables. I used to make this for them when they are younger and they love it because of the colours but had no idea the colours with make using vegetables.

Once they accepted the dish and were always requesting for it, I reveal to them the 'mystery ingredients'. They began to realise then that 'some' vegetables are really not that hard to swallow. ;)

You can also add in some other chopped ingredients for texture. However, do not overload the additional ingredients. As the fish paste may not be able to hold it together if there are too much of it.

Ingredients:

• 200g Fish Paste
• 1 tube Egg Tofu
• 1/3 Carrot or 1 handful Broccoli Florets
• Corn Flour for dusting
• Oil for pan-frying
• Optional chopped ingredients
• a stalk Spring Onion; green part only, if using to tie to rice ball

How to do it:

1. Mix or blend all ingredients, except spring onions, till smooth.
2. If adding chopped ingredients, add only after blending.
3. Oil a dish.
4. Spread paste in dish.
5. Steam for 15 - 20 mins, depending on thickness of paste.
6. Cut into smaller pieces and remove carefully from dish. You can flip it over to a bigger plate if the cooked tofu is not to deep. Otherwise the tofu will break into pieces from the drop.
7. Dust lightly with corn flour.
8. Pan fry on all sides till lightly brown.
9. Side aside.
10. Meanwhile, boil some water with half a teaspoon oil.
11. Turn off heat and place in the fish paste tofu on the rice ball and tie with soften spring onion.
12. Serve.

Note:

• I didn't not add any seasoning as fish paste is usually seasoned.
• You may wish to add 1/2 teaspoon light sauce and a dash of pepper when blending the mixture if you like.
• You can try using other vegetables if you like.

{ Japanese Inspired Set Meal } 日式套餐

This was what I prepared for the kids for dinner last night.

The rice was presented in sushi-style with a slice of Tofu with fish paste. I made 2 types of it. One with carrot and the other with broccoli. 

What with the set was pan-grilled Yakitori chicken. I use mid-joint wings and removed the bones so it's easier to eat. The other sides are butter corn and crab stick rolled in egg crepe. 

My daughter had Edamame instead of butter corn.

If you are interested in how the Chinese-style 'sushi' is done, watch out for my next post. ;)

Cakey Donut Balls 球狀甜甜圈

It was suppose to be pancakes for breakfast but the kids first all the milk before I could get some. Hence, I decided to make donut (balls) instead.

As premix pancake mix is use here, the texture is unlike the 'real' donut which is a bit chewy. It is more like cake and it's crispy on the outside. However, since it's not the actual 'real' donut, there isn't any waiting time for the dough to rise. You just mix it, shape it and fry it. Pretty easy and fast.

Ingredients:

• 150g Pancake Mix
• 1 Egg
• 20g Granulated Sugar
• 20g Cold Butter, chopped int small pieces
• Oil for frying
• All purpose flour for dusting
• Icing sugar for dusting

How to do it:

1. Mix all ingredients, except oil and icing sugar together. Mixing by hand will be easier.
2. Mix and knead till the mixture turn into a dough.
3. Place a piece of baking paper on the table top or you can just use your table top.
4. Dust with flour.
5. Take some dough and roll into a ball.
6. Use your palm to flatten the dough on the dusted baking paper to about 1cm in height.
7. Lightly dust the top of the dough.
8. Dust a circle cutter. I use a piping nozzle which is about 3cm in diameter.
9. Cut the flatten dough with the cutter.
10. Repeat till all the dough have finished.
11. Heat oil for frying. It should be hot but not smoking.
12. Reduce to low heat.
13. Gently drop the circle dough into the oil to fry.
14. They cook very fast, so remember to keep turning so they will fry evenly.
15. Drain on paper towel.
16. Dust with icing sugar and serve.

{Black Pepper Chicken Chop } 黑胡椒鸡扒

This was what I prepared for dinner last night. It's Chicken Chop with Black Pepper Sauce. Nothing new except for the crispy potato wedges; which I will improve on before I share the recipe.

It's so much easier to prepare compared the the usual 3 dish - 1 soup meal. I'm getting lazy. :P  Everyone is happy with dinner except my daughter. She wants her usual Chinese-style vegetables and meat. =_=|||

She ended up having the chicken chop with plain rice; without the sauce to go with Korean seaweed, Braised Chicken Feet, mushroom and egg (which I had prepared using thermal pot the night before I slept). And I thought it would be an easy dinner to prepared. =_=|||

Little Lunch Box #52 小饭盒

I prepared sort of a balanced meal for my daughter's lunch box today. It has rice, vegetable, tofu and fish (paste) in it.

I mashed a tube of egg tofu with fish paste and spread it on a egg crepe. Next I sprinkled chopped blanched vegetable (I used choy sum here) and  chopped crab-stick all over. Then I roll it up.

Steam it till the roll is completely cooked. If you have a Happy Call Pan, you can use that to cook as it will be drier and easier to work with the rice later.

Meanwhile spread some rice on a sheet of cling wrap and gently press to stick them together. Cool the cooked egg roll then place on the edge of the rice and roll it together with the help of the cling wrap. Make sure you blot off the oil or liquid from the egg roll. Use the cling wrap to secure and keep the rice and egg roll together. The cling wrap will be like the nori on a maki. ;) Twist the ends to keep it in shape. Use a sharp knife to slice the roll.

I prepared a roll which was divided into 8 slices. So I gave half of it to my daughter's friend. The girl's grandma was happy that she ate all up cos she doesn't like veggies. I guess it's more acceptable for kids to eat their greens if it's presented in a different way or mixed with something they like. :)

Little Lunch Box #51 小饭盒

It has been a long time since I prepared a 'pink box'. My daughter used to request for bread/sandwiches all the time and I always use this pink box for sandwiches. I decided it will be a pink box day today (because I was too lazy to cook. LOL).

Since Mother's Day is just around the corner, I made a 'flower sandwich' or rather sandwiches in the shape of petals with chocolate spread.

I spread a thin layer of butter on top of the sandwiches before I place the ham. This is to prevent the bread from absorbing the moisture from the ham. To secure all the petal sandwiches together, I cut a slice of circle cheese and put in the middle. Then pin them down with angel hair spaghetti. After that, I covered it with small dots of cheese and ham, which will stick together after being out of the fridge for a while.

The spaghetti 'pins' do not need to be removed before eating as they will turn soft and will not cause any hazard. Maybe just a bit chewy.

Many people ask me how I keep the ham and cheese from turning bad in our weather. I usually pack lunch box with an ice pack but most of the time with a packet of semi-frozen milk/drink. That always does the trick. :)

Ps. No flowers for me for this coming Mother's Day. I'm not even sure if the kids remember the day. :/ Anyways, using this chance to wish all mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day! :)

Mango Pudding with Mango Ice Cream 芒果布丁

Mango Season is here again. I bought 5 mangoes for under $5 which makes it less than a dollar each. The last time when it was in season, I made homemade mango ice-cream.

This time, I using it to make the very popular, Mango Pudding. I'm serving it will a cheat mango ice-cream done using vanilla ice-cream, with the texture like milky shaved ice.

You probably have your own recipe but if you don't, you might want to try mine out.

Ingredients:

• 2 Mangoes, 1 1/2 puree and 1/2 cut into cubes
• 100ml Mango Juice (I'm using Peel Fresh)
• 100ml Whipping Cream
• 10g Gelatin Powder
• 50ml Water

How to do it:

1. Sprinkle gelatin powder on the water and set aside.
2. Warm mango juice but do not simmer or boil.
3. Pour it over the gelatin mixture and mix.
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
5. Pour into cups and chill to set.
6. Best served chilled with condensed milk or a scoop of ice-cream.

Note:

• I did not add any sugar as the mango I used was sweet and I added mango juice to it as well. In addition to that, I served it with a scoop of ice-cream.
• If you prefer it a little sweeter, melt some sugar with the mango juice in step 2.
• You can replace the mango juice with water.
• However, you will have to add sugar for sweetness.
• Melt about 50g sugar or to taste when warming the water before adding to the the gelatin mixture.

For cheat ice-cream:

1. Mix 500ml vanilla ice-cream (I'm using Nestle) with half of a mango chopped into bits.
2. Add in 3-4 tablespoon of mango puree if you like too.
3. Do not stir the mixture vigorously. Use a fork to gently stir a little to make it airy.
4. Return to the freezer and repeat every half an hour till the ice-cream is frozen again.
5. The end results of the ice-cream will look rough and messy. Almost like granules sticking together.
6. To scoop, you can loosen it with a fork or bring the ice-cream out of the freezer for a minute before scooping.

{ Hotdog Sandwich } 热狗三明治

This was what I prepared for lunch today for my son and me. We had almost the same thing. Son's portion doesn't has salad. ;)

The sandwich is similar to the Sausage with Bacon Sandwich, except the bacon here is not caramelised. I use the oil from cooking the bacon to pan fry the potato wedges. Sinful but it smells so good and tasty too. No additional salt was needed too.

Fried Potato Wedges with Paprika and Cheese 红椒粉与芝士粉调炸土豆角

I did this to go with Maltose Rib 2 weeks ago. It is really easy to do and there are so many ways to season it with.

Here, I seasoned it with truffle salt, paprika and pamensan cheese. It was so tasty that I had to control myself not to finish it. :P Try it with your preferred seasonings if you like.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 medium Potato, skin peeled and cut into chunks or wedges
• 1 teaspoon Paprika
• 2 tablespoon Shredded Parmesan Cheese
• 1-2 pinch Salt (I use Truffle Salt)
  Sprinkle of Dried Parsley (optional)
  Oil for frying

How to do:

1. Boil a pot of water seasoned with salt.
2. Place potatoes into the water to boil for 10-15 minutes or till tender.
3. Drain and pat dry the potato wedges.
4. Heat a pot of oil.
5. Shallow or deep fry the cooked potato wedges till lightly golden brown.
6. Remove and drain on paper towel.
7. Sprinkle shredded Parmesan cheese immediately.
8. Season with paprika and salt once the Parmesan cheese has stick to the potatoes.
9. Toss gently to mix well.
10. Serve immediately.

Note:

• You can also leave the potato skin on. Just scrub it clean before cooking it.
• The time needed to cook the potatoes depends on the type of potato used and the size it is cut into.
• The potato wedges are ready if it is easy to poke a toothpick in them.
• You have to spinkle the Parmesan cheese immediately when you remove the potato wedges from the oil, so the heat can melt the cheese and stick.
• However, it is better to let the oil drain away from the potato wedges before you add the paprika and salt so that the potato wedges will not be over covered with the seasonings.

Little Lunch Box #50 小饭盒

It's Friday again. Time flies. The kids have gone thru 6 swimming lessons. Another 6 more lessons and that will be end of the school swimming programme. I doubt the kids are looking forward to that.

Every Friday, when I'm in school to help out, I can see the kids' eager faces. They just couldn't wait to board the bus to get to the swimming venue and get wet.

Today, the boys were so rowdy that one of the teachers in charge 'punished' them by holding them back. That almost made one of the boys burst into tears. That's how much they wanted to play swim.

I didn't plan what to prepare for today's lunchbox the night before as the kids were giving me problems last night and I was too upset to want to think about it.

I only had half an hour to prepare the lunchbox this morning (including cooking the rice; and taking photos of them :P). I knew I didn't have time to think what to do, hence I prepared what comes in mind and this was something similar to what I have done before.

I sprinkled Furikake on the rice before I placed the crab stick on it to roll it. The rice roll was then place on sheet on egg crepe to roll before slicing. If you want the egg crepe to stick, you have to place the rice roll on the egg crepe when it's stick cooking. You can refer to this video for the instructions on how to do it.  The sides are cocktail chicken sausages and edamame.

{ Fried Rice in Egg Pocket } 蛋包饭

This is one of those days that mummy becomes lazy and doesn't wish to do much cooking. It will always be simple 'one pot' dinner. In this case, it's fried rice.

The kids seldom complain about fried rice because I always use their favourite ingredients to cook it. I cooked today's fried rice with french beans, crab-stick, tofu fish-cake and dried scallops. I seasoned it with fish sauce, salt and a little chicken powder. And of course with lots of roasted garlic.

The fried rice is served in an egg pocket. It is very easy to do it. Just cook an beaten egg in an oiled frying pan (to prevent it from sticking and not to fry it). Spread it as much as you can but not too thinly. Remove the egg crepe when it is cooked. You don't have to flip it to the other side during cooking.

Fit the egg crepe in a small bowl, eg. rice bowl. Make sure the egg crepe touches the bottom of the bowl. It is better to have egg crepe hanging out of the bowl. You will find out why as you read on. Next, scoop some fried rice into the bowl (where the egg crepe is) to the rim. Now, fold the excess egg crepe over the rice. It may not necessary cover all the rice, just some part of it. Place a plate over the bowl and flip it over. Remove the bowl and viola!

You may wish to decorate or write using tomato sauce or any other sauce on it or simply slice it like me before serving.