Oreo Muffins

Boy, I'd been longing for a batch of muffins since yesterday.  Originally I thot of baking carrot & raisin muffins, but little girl rejected the offer as she dislike carrot and afraid that she may taste the carrot in the muffins.  Then I suggested oreo muffins, it couldn't go wrong with this, as 3 of us adore oreo, and of course little girl approved it.

I googled for a recipe during lunch this afternoon, found this but decided to change the recipe slightly to the ingredients I have on hand.

Ingredients:
(yield 8 muffins)

1 3/4 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup yogurt
1 egg
1/4 cup corn oil
10 Oreo cookies, coarsely chopped

1. Mix flour, sugar and salt in a medium bowl, set aside
2. Blend milk, yogurt and egg in a small bowl, stir in flour mixture with oil until just combined.  Gently stir in chopped oreo cookies.  Spoon batter into muffin cups
3. Bake at 200C for 20 minutes

Got 8 of them from the recipe

Oh boy, they smell so good while baking

Should I eat it with coffee or milk?

Sad Looking Mushrooms Bento (338)

We were celebrating my nephew Picky eater Y's birthday at mum's place last nite.  Mum prepared so many dishes that though all of us had stuffed ourselves so much, we still couldn't finish it.  Thus eldest sis & me gotta help mum finish up the dishes by packing some back home.

So, other than the fruit & marshmallow, the rest of the items in the bento were leftover food from the party.  I had it warmed this morning and packed into box nicely, all ready in about 15 minutes.  While placing the mushroom slices over the chicken rice, I found them looking very sad, with the look just like little girl this few days, as exams are drawing near.  Hence, I sticked some mouth to the mushrooms to emphasize more on the sad look.

The bento full of leftover

3 sad looking mushrooms on a bed of chicken rice

From the top: cut lamb chop, roast duck and broccoli

Marshmallow and watermelon balls

Note of the day

Green & Black Rice Balls Bento(337)

It is Fri, little girl has to go to school early for dancing class.  As we were out of bread at home, 1 couldn't prepare a sandwich bento for her which last better in a longer period, the other alternative I able to think of is rice.

Make 2 types of rice balls, 1 mixed with baby green peas and the other with sesame seaweed, both having pork floss and a dash of mayo for filling.

Time spent on bento => 25 minutes.

Baby green peas rice balls

Sesame seaweed rice ball

A big piece of nugget & 3 kiwi berries

Kitties Among Flowers Bento (336)

Little girl asked for soba today, when I asked she wanna it in a roll or just plain normal, she chose for the plain normal.  Therefore in order to make it more presentable, I turned them into flowers.

The preparation process was simple, but spent most time on decorating the kitties.  Used about 35 minutes.

Left soba stuffed with shredded cucumber,

middle soba stuffed with sesame seaweed,

right soba stuffed with leftover stir-fried cabbage,

kitties was made of cheese frank

Watermelon cubes and strawberry jelly

And the almost forgotten to pack along frozen diluted men shoyu with frozen spring onion

Roti Canai & Dhal Bento (335)

Little girl was very delighted when I told her I'd made her roti canai for bento, thot of transforming it to roll but little girl preferred it normal with dhal.

Thus, just needed 5 minutes to prepare & pack the bento, time used on frying the roti, preheat the dhal in microwave oven and threw all into box along with the fruits.

Cut pieces of roti canai with a container of dhal hiding underneath

Watermelon cubes, kiwi berries and a container of sugar

Stir-Fried Loh Shi Fan with Broccoli and Shredded Pork Bento (334)

Most of the ingredients from this bento was bought from the SS2 night market yesterday, the broccoli, fish balls, loh shi fan and the kiwi berries, something new in the market (but they aren't as sweet as the fruit seller promised).

We had the stir-fried loh shi fan for our lunch as well.  Bento was prepared and packed in 40 minutes.

Stir-fried loh shi fan with broccoli and shredded pork, along with 2 cutie & juicy fish balls

4 kiwi berries, 2 nectarine wedges and a container of sugar for the sour kiwi berries

Baked Potato with Mayo Crab Stick Bento (333)

The idea of baked potato was intrigued after having our lunch at Wendy's yesterday, little girl said she didn't have this for quite some times.

Didn't really have to prepare much for the baked potato, just need to bake it in toaster oven, blanched the crab stick & peas, shredded the crab stick and mixed with mayo and black pepper, done.  Bento was ready in about 30 minutes (time used mostly on baking the potato).

Baked potato with mayo crab stick

Baby green peas mixed with butter

Fried nian gao 年糕 and cheese in popiah skin (I prepared on Sat)

Nectarine wedges

Egg Tarts & Nectarine Bento (332)

I'd been absented for the past few days, didn't prepare any bento as Tue was a holiday, then from Wed til Fri, I had been buried with meetings and appointments, and little girl had to spend her nites at mum's place.  Little girl had me bought her 3 chicken wings from SS3 nite market on Tue, so that she able to have 1 each for her 3 days' bento.  She was preparing her own bento for the 3 days, though getting mum to help her on the pre-heating part, but she able to plan and pack it herself, I was really really please.

Due to lack of sleep and tire after days of meetings, I was lazy to prepare little girl something special for bento today (Yeah, it is a school day today, sigh...).  Luckily I bought her some egg tarts from MV Megamall previous day, put 2 in for a quick & easy bento.  Bento was ready in 3 minutes.

Yummy Tong Kee egg tarts

Nectarine wedges and a marshmallow

Heart Sushi Bento (331)

It's Valentine's Day today and I didn't even prepare any bento with this theme before it reaches, sigh...  been lazy or busy...  I don remember ...  :p

I roughly planned this out yesterday, after reading the sushi book I bought from HK, well, just planned out the ingredients to be used only.

Used about an hour to get the bento ready, phew!  Luckily the result was rather satisfying :)

Able to get 4 heart sushi only after busying for about 1 hour

The pink heart was mix of pink seasoning and diced crab stick with sushi rice

The outer layer of pink heart was surrounded by long bean and thinly shredded egg

2 heart cheese franks

Extra crab sticks

Mandarin orange

Heart marshmallows and kisses

Last but not least, a beautiful song for u, from Fei Wong and Eason Chan, Happy Valentine's Day and enjoy!

Wanton Noodle Bento (330)

Hubby offered to buy little girl wanton noodle this morning, thus I don have to cook for her bento and lunch :p

Merely transferring the wanton noodle from plastic bag to the bento box and peeling off the skin from the mandarin orange.  Bento was ready in less than 5 minutes.

Wanton noodle, choy sam, cha siew and wanton

1/2 mandarin oranges and 2 marshmallow

Chong Fan Wraps (329)

Went to SS2 night market yesterday b4 fetching little girl back from school, managed to buy a packet of fresh chong fan.  Little girl don really fancy chong fan, but she won't complain if I transform it to wraps, isn't she funny?  :p

Bento was ready fast, just gotta blanch the crab sticks, shred all ingredients then wrapped into 2 rolls.  It was ready in about 10 minutes.

Made 2 types of chong fan wraps:

Left: with bbq pork slice 肉干, pork floss, cucumber and mayo

Right: crab stick, honey dew and mayo

Left: marshmallow

Right: fruit jelly

Steamed Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf Bento (328)

The glutinous rice wrap was leftover from the 3rd day CNY dinner which was hosted by Puchong uncle at a restaurant in IOI mall.  All the dishes from the restaurant were good, however, we were either too filled up or overly high with alcohol (14 bottles of wines) after half way thru the dinner, thus these rice wraps had to pack home.

Little girl agreed to have it in her bento, though it has a spicy center (with spicy dried shrimps), she really fancy glutinous rice.

I had the rice wraps steamed in the rice cooker for 10 minutes, then threw into box along with some cut honey dew, all ready in less than 5 minutes.

Steamed glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf

Cut honey dew

Steamed Radish Cake 港式罗卜糕

This steamed radish cake has been in my to-do list for few years, and I finally dare to make it come thru :p  Luckily, it turned out fine but was rather too salty as I over seasoned it.

I adapted the recipe from Shirley@原味生活, she had listed the ingredients and steps clearly, thus it was so easy to follow.  I'll advice u to go thru her recipe a few times b4 attempting on trying out the recipe.

Ingredients

1800g radish, skinned and shredded
75g rice flour
150g corn starch
375ml water (liquid from cooking radish)
4-6 shiitake mushroom, cubed
2 sticks chinese sausages, cubed
50g dried shrimps, diced

1. Heat wok or pan, stir fry chinese sausage and dried shrimps til fragrant, add in shiitake mushroom, continue stir fry til oil being absorbed and fragrant.  Dish out and set aside
2. In the same wok or pan (without washing), cook the radish with its juice til soft, mix in the pre-cooked chinese sausage, shiitake mushroom and dried shrimps, seasoned with sugar, salt & pepper to taste.  Off heat
3. Remove 375ml liquid from cooked mixture, mix into rice flour and corn starch (do not have to wait til cool), stir well til blended and not lumpy
4. Without turning on the heat, pour the batter into radish mixture, mix well
5. Turn on low flame, keep stirring & folding the mixture til liquid turning dry and mixture turning gooey
6. Off heat, continue stirring & folding the mixture til even
7. Oil a mold, pour in the radish mixture, even and smooth out the surface
8. Steamed with high flame for 40 - 45 minutes

I made a mistake on seasoning the radish b4 mixing in the pre-cooked chinese sausages and stuffs, thus it turned much too salty.

I like the texture and it was really filled with all the goodies' flavors, will definitely make it again next year!