See What I Get From Oreo!

Wanna have an Oreo anyone?

Actually, it is a little container I got free from buying 2 packs of Oreo, cute?

My Meldoy Sandwich Bento (248)

I have never thought it was that easy to make this My Melody sandwich :)  What I did was: trimmed off the crust from a slice of milky loaf I baked yesterday, filled in some mayo chicken, cut the ham and cheese accordingly, 'paste' them onto bread with mayo, done.  Took me less than 15 minutes to get it done :)

I had 2 pieces of chicken nuggets under My Melody's right ear, used them to stack the ear up slightly higher.

Close up of My Melody sandwich

5 watermelon flowers

Coffee & Raisin Roll and Milky Loaf

Used the no kneading method to bake these rolls, however, I swapped the water with milk, I just love the milky smell & taste.

Ingredients
(Yield 2 rolls)

2 x 200g bread dough
2 tsp instant coffee
3 tsp sugar
2 tsp hot water
100g raisin (presoaked in a tablespoon of rum a night before)

1. Mix instant coffee, sugar, hot water until dissolve
2. roll bread dough to flat rectangle shape
3. spread coffee mixture thinly on to bread dough
4. sprinkle raisin on to bread dough
5. roll up bread dough forming a cylinder
6. split the roll half (without cutting through the top part), twist the roll
7. let proof for 20 minutes
8. bake at 180 for 20 minutes

I don have rum at home, thus I pre-soaked the raisin with VSOP!  I was almost drunk smelling of it, hahaha....  The smell and taste was very strong even after baking :p

Bake a loaf out of the remaining bread dough, still haven't taste it, should be milky and soft.

Asam Fish Soup

Do u know the famous asam laksa stall selling in SS2 and SS3 night markets?  Hop over to masak-masak, it has a post regarding the stall.  Ok, correction, should be 'use to be famous' stall :p  Those day, if u wanna packed a bag of the asam laksa, u need to take the number token hanging at the truck and waited long for ur lucky number to be called.  I usually went there very early to 'tapau', in order to get rid of the crowd.  However, 1 or 2 yrs ago, the uncle had passed his business to a young chap, the taste of the asam laksa turned disappointing and now there r no longer big crowd surrounding the truck.  And since then, I seldom buy asam laksa from the night market anymore.

Last Thu, saw Ohbin posted a 'Asam Fish Soup' recipe, the ingredients and method are so simple that I decided to try.

Ingredients
1 bunch laksa mint (daun kesum)
4 kembong (I managed to get those cooked salted kembong only)
3 mackerel tails
0.8 - 1 liter water
20 shallots
8 dried chili, soaked and cut half
5 bird eye chili (used a red chili, cut)
3 pieces tamarind slice (asam gelugor) (added more for the sourness)
1 tsp belacan (shrimp paste), fry/grill til fragrant (I used about 1 tbsp)
2 tsp fish sauce (use only 1 tsp as the kembong was oledi salty and put too much belacan)
pinch of salt (skipped the salt)
1/2 ginger bud (pink bunga kantan), diced (didn't put this in as I couldn't find it)

1. Boil water, add in laksa mint, shallots, dried chili and chili, simmer for 30 minutes
2. Put in tamarind slices and belacan, boil for 10 minutes
3. Add in fish sauce, kembong and mackerel, boil til fish cook 
4. put in salt and sprinkle in ginger bud, serve while hot

Taste wise, nothing close to the uncle's but good as a beginner's.  Hubby said it was not spicy enough, but I found it ok, just lack of something, think by adding diced ginger bud and some 'har koh' may enhance the taste more.

Packed 2 kembong and a mackerel tail to dad & mum, will see what is their comment on the dish :p

Small & Lazy Bento (247)

Ok, I turned lazy for the bento again this morning.  My only cooking involved taking the frozen cheesy macaroni (extra from last Tue's bento) out, added some cheese and heat it in the toaster oven for 10 minutes.

Time taken for packing the bento, I believe was just about a minute.

In the bento, I have the cheesy macaroni and grapes.

Simple Ham Sandwich Bento (246)

Did my grocery shopping yesterday and brought back some ham, little girl had it for breakfast this morning and she wanna it again for her bento.

As she wanna something cute in her bento, let her mold some print on the sandwiches.  Bento was ready in less than 10 minutes.

Ham sandwiches

6 sticks of grape & honey dew kebabs

Note of the day with Elmo

Broccoli Fried Loh Shi Fan Bento (245)

Fried a vegetarian version of loh shi fan this morning for our lunch and the bento.  Used about 10 minutes for preparation, 15 minutes for cooking then 5 minutes for packing the bento.

Broccoli fried loh shi fan

5 sticks of honey dew

Note of the day with U*sa*ha*na

Chocolate Chips & Hazelnut Muffin

Little girl has been complaining that I didn't bake muffins for her in a long time.  I remembered I still have some chocolate chips left and promised to bake her a batch of chocolate chips muffin again.

I googled n found Nigella Lawson's website, she has a simple & easy version of chocolate chips muffin recipe.  I altered the recipe slightly and managed to get a dozen of the muffins after 40 minutes (the batter mixing & baking time taken)!

Ingredients
(yield 12)

250g plain flour (I used 200g flour and 50g ground hazelnut)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
2 tbsp best quality cocoa
175g caster sugar (used only 150g)
150g chocolate chips
250ml milk
90ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 200C
2. Weigh out the dry ingredients into a large bowl.  Pour all the liquid ingredients into a measuring jug
3. Mix both together - it will be a runny batter - then spoon into waiting muffin cases
4. Sprinkle more chocolate chips on top then bake for 20 minutes or until the muffins are risen and springy

These babies r very delicious, rich and moist too, yum!  I had one immediately once it was slightly cool off, almost swallowing my tongue along :p

Added a teaspoon of nutella into 3 of this muffins, more yum!

Break up 1 to show u the yumminess in the muffin

Cucumber & Takuan Maki Sushi Bento (244)

Bought a pack of takuan from Jusco Mid Valley last week, didn't get to use it til this morning.  I used the takuan & cucumber sticks to make this maki, and sprinkled along some furikake to enhance the flavor.  Used about 1/2 an hour to make the maki and pack the bento.

During lunch, little girl told me that she disliked the takuan, she begged my permission to remove the takuan from the maki, of course I couldn't force her to swallow it, told her to remove it by herself :(

6 cucumber & takuan maki and some cucumber sticks

pineapples

Note of the day with Drifloon from Pokemon

LG:  Mummy, there was a teacher asking me am I a Japanese today.
Me:  Huh?  Why?
LG:  She saw me eating the sushi during recess.  I told her I'm not Japanese, then she asked me is mummy a Japanese, I said no, then she asked me again why am I eating Japanese food, I told her bcos I like to eat sushi
Me:  Ok ...
LG:  She asked me did mummy make these sushi, I told her yes and asked her wanna have one, she said no thanks
Me:  :) ....

Such a funny teacher, why only Japanese can make and eat sushi?

Angel Hair, Braised Chicken Wing and Potatoes Bento (243)

Been lazy this morning, just cooked some angel hair and reheat the braised chicken wing & potatoes I cooked last nite.

Bento was ready in about 10 minutes.

From left: angel hair & shredded cucumber, braised potatoes, chicken wing, a fried tau fu pok ball (given by mum) and 2 grape tomatoes

Questions of the day

Roti in Spring Onion Omelette Bento (242)

Cooked a piece of frozen roti prata for little girl's breakfast and bento this morning.  My way of cooking the roti:

1. shallow fry the roti prata til brown and crisp, set aside
2. mix spring onion into an egg, give it a good mix and pour into hot pan
3. quickly transfer the roti onto the uncook egg
4. sprinkle plenty of cheese onto roti then fold the whole roti omelette half
5. cook until cheese melt

Used about 20 minutes to cook the roti and packed the bento.

Little girl had 1/2 for breakfast

1/2 into the bento, along with 3 honey dew balls, 2 kisses dark chocolate and a container of mayo

Quiz/revision of the day

Kiddy Pizza & Cheesy Macaroni Bento (241)

Little girl made 2 pieces of pizzas for her breakfast and bento this morning, she did everything herself, from cutting the tomatoes & sausages til fixing the pizza.  I only helped her placed the pizzas into the toaster oven and got them out when they were ready.

Then, she asked for cheese macaroni for her lunch, thus I made a small portion along for her bento as I found a piece of the pizza is very little for her.  Sorry, I don remember how much time we used on this bento, it was long for sure.

4 small pieces of pizzas, 1 cheese macaroni and 4 longans

Quiz of the day with Surskit from Pokemon

Zha Jiang Konnyaku Noodles Bento (240)

Was lazy to plan out bento last nite, so this was what I managed this morning with the leftover zha jiang :p

Bento was ready in about 10 minutes.

In the bento: 3 cheese sausages, zha jiang konnyaku noodles, pak choy, longan and tomatoes

Note of the day with Manaphy from Pokemon

Zha Jiang Mian 炸醬麵

One fine day...

LG:  Mummy, do u know what Pucca and her friends like to eat?
Me:  Hmmm.....  zha jiang noodle? (ok, I admit I watched with little girl occasionally, cos Pucca is so cute!)
LG:  YES!  How do u know mummy?
Me:  Hahaha.... cos I'm your mummy, I know everything!  * Wink *  You wanna try zha jiang mian?  May be I can cook it for u.
LG:  Ooh... but it is hot & spicy!
Me:  I can make a non-spicy version for u, ok?
LG:  Yeah!

So after promising her, I look-see for recipe of zha jiang mian, but most of them require ingredients (黃醬-yellow soy bean paste，甜面醬-sweet bean sauce) that I couldn't find in the supermarket here.  Then, while grocery shopping at Jusco Mid Valley last week, I found a bottle of sweet yellow bean paste, thought it should be close to the sweet bean sauce.

When I browsed thru the web again today, I found this site (Eupho Cafe) where miso was added to the recipe.  This gonna be very interesting, I decided to follow the recipe with minor changes, and the zha jiang mian gonna be our dinner tonite.

Ingredients

6 tbsp miso
4 tbsp sweet yellow bean paste
1 cup water
400g minced pork (I had about 350g)
50g mushroom, diced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp cooking wine
1.5 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp ginger, diced (change to onion and garlic as hubby & LG dislike ginger)
1 tbsp sugar

1. Mix miso, sweet yellow bean paste with water, mix til combine
2. Pour cooking wine, soy sauce and water into minced pork, mix til pork absorb all liquid, then stir in corn flour
3. In a pan or wok, heat oil, stir fry minced pork til pale, remove from pan, set aside
4. Fry onion, garlic and mushroom in pan til fragrant, add in sugar, then pour in miso mixture from (1), cook til boil, stir in cooked pork
5. Cook pork mixture and let simmer for 15-20 minutes or until gravy turn slightly dry

Little girl's bowl of zha jiang mian

My bowl of zha jiang mian with plenty of red hot chili oil

At the beginning I thought the gravy would be very salty but it turned out alright after mixing with the noodle.  Overall, we were very happy with the zha jiang mian, little girl asked for more gravy and emptied her bowl fast.  Yum!

Mayo Egg Sandwich Bento (239)

Made an easy bento today as out of ingredients in fridge, and is very very tire after the yoga last nite.  Basically just need to boil 2 eggs, mashed them, squeezed in some mayo and spread them into the bread. The entire process took about 20 minutes inclusive of packing the bento.

In the bento: 1 mayo egg sandwich, 2 cherry tomatoes, some longans and 5 apple sweets (to share with friends)

Quiz of the day with Hawaikotchi from Tamagotchi

Pasta Salad Bento (238)

Prepared a quick bento this morning, mixed cubed cucumber, egg omelette, pork chop (leftover from last nite), some pork chop gravy and a dash of mayo into cooked pasta.  Used about 15 minutes for cooking and 5 for packing.

In the bento: cold pasta salad, 4 red & yellow cherry tomatoes and 2 marshmallows

Quiz of the day with Ojyotchi from Tamagotchi

Little girl said the quiz is too easy for her, will think of some tough one in the future, :p