2015年2月15日星期日

Mommy and Daddy's Valentine's Day

Valentine's day will never be the same anymore.

Not that we always celebrate it as the most important day of the year, but most of the years we do at least have some nice meals. Some years, we have gifts. But seriously after being together for more than 10 years, you just do not know what to buy anymore for so many occasions in a year. i.e. Valentine's day, anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas.

This year, with the little baby along, we want to have the celebration at home. The Man suggested cheese fondue. With very little time for preparation, we bought a packet cheese fondue instead of doing it from scratch (It wasn't good, next time I'll do from scratch). And we prepared broccoli, carrot, tiger prawn, "big head" prawn and baguette. We intended to add potatoes and sausages initially, but thank goodness we cut that out from menu! It's just way too full!

 photo Photo14-2-1583341pm_zpse237dcb1.jpg
Cheese fondue, go with boiled broccoli, steamed carrots, butter pan fried tiger prawns and "big head" prawns (prawns were specially prepared by The Man) and butter toasted baguette. 

When you have a baby, a celebration at home was not as simple as merely prepare a meal. It's a crazy ordeal of parents running between the kitchen and the baby. Say for example when The Man was cutting and washing all the raw ingredients, I was patting the tired baby for a nap while pumping milk. When baby was asleep, I finished my pump and ran to help The Man. When I was steaming the carrots and cooking the broccoli, baby cried. The Man had to pat the baby while I continue. And this continued several rounds until everything was prepared.

Of all the cakes I've ever baked (Not that I baked a lot), The Man likes the chocolate cake. On the eve of V Day, I intended to bake it as a surprise desserts! But boy oh boy, my little baby refused to leave me alone. And so, surprise no more. I waited until The Man was back from work to take over the task to putting baby to sleep while I baked the cake.

And as I am blogging right now, I am actually pumping while The Man trying to get the too-awake-to-sleep-baby to sleep at 1am!

Celebration is not the same anymore. It takes extra effort to make things work. And it takes effort from both The Man and The Woman. Of course it's tiring at the end of the day, but it is always worth the effort.

Never take things for granted, never take love for granted.

(They're currently too tired to do anything but to fall asleep in living room while I am trying to finish this entry. I'll let them sleep for a while, especially the baby so that he's more deep into sleep before getting him into his crib. I guess we'll just have to cancel the plan to go Botanic Garden tomorrow morning.)

2015年2月5日星期四

Feed the Mommy——Baked egg with chickpea

 photo 2015-02-03195852_zpsc6ebe085.jpg
Colorful and nutritious meal

This dish combines everything I love!

Egg, chickpea, spinach and bacon! I could have added potatoes but I think that'll make me a little too full, I guess this is more than enough for me.

Prep time: Less than 10 minutes. Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients (for one):

  1. Half onion
  2. Bacon (1 or 2 slices, depending on your likings) You can also use sausages
  3. Spinach (I ran out of fresh spinach, so I used my frozen spinach) 
  4. Chickpea
  5. One egg
  6. Crushed red pepper
  7. Pepper
  8. Dried herbs
Adjust the amount of the ingredients based on your likings.


Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
  2. Dice bacon and onions.
  3. Fry them until golden brown, add chickpea, spinach, red pepper. Lightly fry them.
  4. Pour them into a casserole. If you have cast iron skillet, you can cook this on the skillet and no pouring required. Add the egg on top.
  5. Season with dried herbs and pepper.
  6. Put them into oven and bake for 10 minutes. You can bake longer if you like your egg more cooked.
I think this is good for brunch, lunch or dinner, anytime you want :)

2015年2月4日星期三

Feed the Mommy (and Daddy)——Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

 photo 2015-02-02185825_zps8fa4cb00.jpg
Slow cooker teriyaki chicken on rice

To minimize my effort in cooking, I've recently tried my best to utilize my slow cooker. And I came across this recipe on Rasa Malaysia, so I decided to give it a try. Seems simple enough to make.

However, the recipe requires making the teriyaki sauce from scratch, which I do not think I want to make that effort. So, as usual, I bought a bottle of ready made teriyaki sauce.

Ingredients (for 2):

  1. Two skinless chicken thighs
  2. Teriyaki sauce
  3. Honey
  4. 2 or 3 cloves of garlic
Method:
  1. Place the chicken thighs into the slow cooker
  2. Pour in teriyaki sauce to cover half of the chicken
  3. Add 2 or 3 tablespoon of honey (depending on the sweetness level you like)
  4. Add water to cover most of the chicken
  5. Peel the skin of the garlic, and lightly crush them. Place them into the sauce
  6. Turn on the slow cooker at high, let it cook for 4-5 hours
  7. About two hours, turn the chicken over so that the top side is soaked with the delicious sauce too
  8. Bring the chicken out and shred them. It should fall out from the bones pretty easily
  9. Pour the sauce into sauce pan, add corn starch and let it simmer a few minutes to thicken the sauce
  10. Pour the sauce on top of the shredded chicken, add sesame and spring onions to dress if you have (obviously I didn't have them, that's why the picture look so plain...)
For my first trial, I actually poured the teriyaki sauce to cover three quarter of the chicken. Which unfortunately caused the dish to be a little too salty. Hence, I recommend only cover them half. Besides that, buying the teriyaki sauce can be quite expensive. Hence, for next trial when I finish this bottle, I'd buy the thicker marinade sauce and dilute them on my own. 

Besides, I think thickening the sauce is really optional. I think this dish will also be fantastic with noodles. Next time I'll try serving this with noodles, and pour the sauce on top of the noodles without thickening it. And serve with a poached egg and steam vege, I think it'll be so nice!

2015年2月3日星期二

Feed the Mommy (and Daddy)——Baked Salmon and White Kidney Bean Mash

 photo 2015-02-01140732-1_zps7200d5e1.jpg
Baked salmon with white kidney bean mash and salad (Confession: I didn't mash the beans very well, obviously!)

We do not want to eat out all the time during weekends, it's tiring for the baby to be out whole day, no matter how much he enjoys the outing.

But cooking is still a challenge with a baby around, whether it's a weekday or weekends. With kind of limited groceries on Sunday (before topping up for the week), I cooked this for the two of us. Lunch was served in 30 minutes.

Baked Salmon
Marinate the salmon with salt and pepper for at least 30 minutes. The longer the better. 
Preheat the oven at 180 degree Celsius. Oil the pan with butter, place the salmon skin down and bake for 12-20minutes, depending on how hot is the oven.
You can choose to squeeze some lemon juice on the salmon when it's done.

Salad
The simplest salad dressing is extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some lemon juice. It won't go wrong. 

White kidney bean mash
I saw this on Nigella's program and I wanted to give it a try. The recipe is here
I used three cloves of garlic for stronger taste. I used butter instead of oil. And I used a little bit of lemon juice instead of lemon zest. 

All the three of them are very simple dishes that you can make them all at once. Whip up a meal in 30minutes is not impossible after all :)

2015年2月2日星期一

慵懒的星期天

慵懒的星期天, 不是上班族的专利。就连小小的婴儿也懂得,星期天是享受的日子。

平时在家时间比较少的男人,周末总是宠孩子。难得男人有在,我吩咐他照顾孩子,让我做点事。结果他们双双睡着。而且,孩子还伏在爸爸身上睡,很舒服的样子。

 photo sleepysunday01_zpsdf658ad9.jpg
好舒服的样子

 photo sleepysunday02_zps4da90dbc.jpg
大手小手

宝贝虽然不会说话,不过好像已经懂事。每天晚上都好想在等爸爸回家。爸爸迟回家,他就迟睡;爸爸早回,他就早睡。反正就是要争取时间和爸爸玩。周末干脆抱在一起,呵呵。

每天晚上睡前的最有一次喝奶,爸爸都没敢喂。爸爸不只不敢喂,有时候还走得远远的,不敢出声。爸爸一喂,宝贝兴奋得喝完再起来玩,结果都拖到好迟才上床睡觉。结果,妈妈还是得工作 T.T 还以为爸爸回来可以轻松一下!

今天周一了,刚才喝完奶孩子有点哭闹,不知是否不习惯了。