Happy "Moo Moo" Year n 恭喜發財！

I made this for little girl's breakfast this morning, took me quite some time (about 1/2 hour), especially the wording part.  Little girl was delighted to see it, but she complained a bit on the time I took preparing her breakfast.

The ox was made of:

1. cut 1st bread to form ox's head, spread with nutella

2. cut 2nd bread to form ox's nose, ears and horns, spread ears and horns with butter

3. place 2 dried blueberries as nostril

4. cut 2 cheese circles to form ox's eyes, and 2 chocolate chips as eye balls

The wording was arranged with caramel barley pops.  At the beginning I just arranged them on the plate, they were in a mess easily whenever I moved the plate.  Therefore, I spread some strawberry yogurt onto the plate, re-arrange the wording, it was nice n neat then.

I won't be able to blog 2moro onwards til next Tue, so wishing u out there "Happy Moo Moo Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai!"

The Use of Sodium Bicarbonate

I was spring-cleaning my kitchen this evening, especially the kitchen stove.  Usually I'd just used some detergent to wash out the oil stains, but today I experimented with a tip I learned from 女人我最大: using sodium bicarbonate, according to them, it removed those stubborn hardcore aged oil stains EASILY.  Just add in a few drops of water into the sodium bicarbonate and give the kitchen stove a good scrub.

Look at the comparison below:

This was taken before I rub with the sodium bicarbonate...

... and this was after, see the different!

Now, I'm having a sparkling clean kitchen stove that I was so satisfied and proud of :)

Super Lazy n Easy Snack Bento

I felt a sudden of laziness this morning, lazy to cook, lazy to pack bento.  Do u consider this as a bento? Some bread sticks, cheese dip and grapes, but I used a new bento box today, a small Ms Bunny box I bought from 100 yen shop.

Cha Soba Sushi Snack Bento

This is one of little girl's favorite noodle ==> soba or cha soba, she enjoys dipping the noodles in the cold sauce and she may finish a big plate of the noodle!  Don know whether she like the cold sauce more or the noodle?

She ate a lot this morning, 1 mango Calsiyum yogurt with cereal, 1 toast with butter and sugar, then a big plate of the cha soba with lot of nori covered.

Asked her whether she wanna just the cha soba or in sushi form for her snack bento, she said she wanna sushi, so cha soba sushi again (I'd made this bento b4, it is a duplicate)!

Contains of bento: cha soba sushi, grape tomatoes, cucumber strips, cheese spread and diluted men shoyu.

Flower Pasta in Tomato Sauce Bento

Asked little girl what she wanna for her bento, fried rice or pasta, she chose pasta, thus cooked her these flower pasta with Prego pasta sauce.

Contains of bento: flower pasta with tomato sauce (center), some blanched broccoli as bushes, 3 flower sausages and some soy sauce in the rabbit sauce container. As for fruits, there was skinned grapes and cut strawberry with sugar.

We were almost late after finished preparing the bentos, rushed to little girl's kiddy, only to find out that all activities were canceled this week!  Oh fine, little girl was happily having lunch at canteen with 3 of her yoga-mates, and I didn't wait til she finished this time, went for CNY shopping with hubby :)

Here was her snack bento with the same food, pasta, grapes and strawberry.

I packed all her bento in this little bag, along with the ice packs, as weather was terribly hot lately, afraid the food would turn bad.

"Gi Chong Fan" Bento

Hubby tapao (bought back) brunch for us today, gi chong fan and pork ball noodle.  Little girl had 2 pieces of Hello Kitty cake (bought from SS2 nite market) for breakfast and immediately asked for the pork ball noodle for her lunch when hubby was back, she had quite a big bowl os she loves this very much.

Kept some gi chong fan in her snack bento, as it'd be very messy if I gave her the black sauce, I told her I'd put lots of nori and gave her a pack of furakake, she agreed happily and chose her own pack of Hello Kitty furakake.  

Contain of bento (from left): cut strawberry with sugar, 2 grape tomatoes, 1 pork ball, gi chong fan with lot of heart-shaped seaweed and finally the Hello Kitty nori furakake.

I showed little girl her bento after I prepared it, she gave me a big grin when she saw the face on the pork ball, kid just love to see funny faces on their food :)

Ham n Cheese Rabbits Bento

I was not allowed to use the kitchen today, as there was a minor work going on at home.  Thus I could only make some sandwiches for little girl, poor girl, gotta ate sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and snack :(

This is for her lunch, ham sandwich with rabbit faces, and there are few cut grape tomatoes at the side.

This one is for her snack break, little rabbit cheese sandwich cut out from the above breads, and 4 skewers of ham, cheese and strawberries.

Fried Lou Shi Fan Bento

I cooked lou shi fan for lunch today, with mushrooms, chinese cabbage, lettuce, "lap mui yut" (wax lean meat), an egg, and used only soy sauce and fish sauce to flavor it.

When I placed little girl's bowl on the dining table, she rushed over and asked to have "dancing fish" to go with it.  Her "dancing fish" is actually katsuobushi, I have no idea why she suddenly asked for it :)

Placed some lou shi fan in the small bento box for little girl's snack in kiddy, along with strawberry slices and a container of sugar.

Stir-fried Sausages, Cucumber, Tomato n Pineapple in Tomato Sauce

Hubby asked for something with tomato sauce base for dinner, tried to find out those ingredients in cabinet and fridge, dig out sausages, cucumber, tomatoes and a can of pineapple.

I cut sausages into all type of shapes, to please little girl :)  Well, this dish not only please little one, the big one (hubby) slurped lots of it too!

Storing Spring Onions

Have u ever experienced this ==> when u wanna some spring onions for ur dish, u found them all dried up in the fridge?  So pekchek rite?

My way of storing spring onions is keeping them in freezer after washed n cut them, they r always as fresh and green as just bought!

This was freshly cut last sat, b4 going into freezer...

...this photo was taken today, do u see the different between them?

Here again, cut into long strips, b4 going into freezer...

... and photo taken today.

Alphabet Nugget n Fried Potato Bentos

Little girl has her kids yoga trial class this afternoon, prepared this as her lunch after the class.

Contains of bento was alphabet chicken nuggets, fried potato slices, cucumber slices, grape tomatoes, a small mandarin orange and mayo in green container.

Her snack bento has the same contains, only in a very small bento box.

Konnyaku Noodles n Pearl Fish Balls Bento

Little girl loves this konnyaku noodle, she used to ate it almost daily during our stay at Osaka 2 yrs ago.  Sometimes, I'll boil it with miso soup as her simple lunch b4 school.

Bento contains (from left): Konnyaku noodles, grape tomatoes, pearl fish balls, mayo (in orange container) and men shoyu (in pink sauce bottle).

Pork Belly Shreds with Minced Garlic and Black Sauce

(o_O)!  Pork belly again!  Yes, again!  What to do, MIL gave us a big long stripe of it and I gotta find all ways to consume it fast, after all these dishes I cooked, I still have another portion in the freezer!

This was served last nite, it was a cold dish, or an appetizer, go well with rice too!  I got the recipe from a book with the name of " The Pork Belly", hehehe, I bought it cos hubby really love pork belly, (>_o)

Ok, here is the recipe...

Ingredients:

400g   pork belly with skin

50g     chopped garlic

4 tbsp pre-mixed flavored soy sauce

1 tsp    sesame oil

Pre-mixed flavored soy sauce ingredients:

50ml    light soy sauce

1           star anise

1           "cekur"/"sha jiang" (I have no idea what is this, used normal ginger only)

20g      rock sugar

1/2 tsp chicken stock granule

50ml    water

Method:

1. Combine the pre-mixed flavored soy sauce ingredients, bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Cook pork belly into boiling water for 20 minutes until cooked throughly.  Remove, soak into cool water for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the pork belly, drain well, cut into thinly slices, then finely shredded, arrange onto a serving platter.  Lastly, add in chopped garlic, spoon in pre-mixed soy sauce and sesame oil on top, mix well.  Serve at once.

If u see the photo clearly, I'd placed a block of chilled soft tofu underneath the pork, it go very well with the sauce too.

Little girl's plate of dinner, the pork belly and tofu without garlic, fried long beans and rice.

After having pork belly for 3 meals in a roll, we were so overdosed of pork, gotta stop eating meat for a while :p

Stewed Pork Belly Noodle

Used up the very last drop of stewed pork belly to make do 2 bowls of noodle for lunch (for hubby & myself) , the dry version, with choy sam and loads of fried shallots and garlic.

We just love this stewed pork belly very much, little girl even asking for it with pasta again for dinner! After having it for 2 meals, I think I won't cook it again at near future, cos it really boosting up our cholesterol level!  :)

Long Beans & Pearl Fish Balls Snack Bento

Since she had a heavy lunch today, make her a super light snack bento with the ingredients she had during lunch.

Skewered long beans and pearl fish balls alternately in animal picks, made her 6 stick.  Oso with elephant sauce bottle containing men shoyu and a mandarin orange. 

She sapu (finished up) everything again!  :)

Stewed Pork Belly Animal Pasta Bento

Basically, we continued having our stewed pork belly for lunch today, little girl had it with pasta. 

Contains of bento, from left:  stewed pork belly with animal pasta, long beans, pearl fish balls, grape tomatoes, mandarin orange and a little chic sauce bottle containing men shoyu at center.

I think with the magic of having the cutie chic sauce bottle, little girl emptied the bento, all by herself!

As of next week, little girl'll change her time of mental arithmetic class to fri evening, thus I don have to make her heavy lunch bento anymore.  However, I still need to prepare lunch bento, 2 of it this time, but the light version, cos she's joining kids yoga (mon) and modern dance (thu) in her kiddy, and she can only have 15 minutes for lunch b4 her class starts.

Salty Cucumber

Since stewed pork belly rice is so meaty and oily, I made this pickle to go along with it, at least wouldn't feel too heavy. I got the recipe from the same book of the stewed pork belly rice, so for sure it won't go wrong with the rice.

Ingredients:

3 cucumber

1 white cloth

2 cloves garlic

120ml water

1 plastic bag

Seasoning:

1 tsp salt

1 tsp mushroom flavor seasoning (substituted with 1 tbsp men shoyu)

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp chili sauce (skipped)

1. Wash cucumber, cut into thick chucks, rub with 1 tsp salt evenly, marinate for 20 minutes til cucumber sweat, use a piece of white cloth to squeeze out juice from cucumber.
2. Skinned garlic, wash and chop.
3. Mix all ingredients from Seasoning, water and garlic into cucumber, mix well. Pour cucumber mixture into a plastic bag, press out air from plastic bag, seal tight. Let cucumber marinate for 2 hours in fridge.
4. Serve cold.

I skipped chili sauce cos little girl couldn't tahan (stand) even tiny bit of chili flavor. Yet she don fancy this marinated cucumber due to the garlic, however hubby & me just love it.

Stewed Pork Belly Rice 鹵肉飯

Due to hubby's work, we'd stayed at Taipei for 2 months while little girl was 2+.  One of the dish or rice we ate quite regularly was this stewed pork belly rice, or the well known 鹵肉飯.  I had a chinese recipe book on this dish, going to give it a try and I believed hubby would be happy to have it for dinner.

(yield 6)

Ingredients:

600g        pork belly

300g        pork skin

10             shallots

3 stalks    spring onion

20g          dried shrimps

10 cloves  garlic

Seasoning ingredients:

2 tbsp       cooking oil

360ml       soy sauce

3 tbsp       sugar

1200ml     water

1 tsp         mushroom stock seasoning (substituted with oyster sauce)

1/2 tsp     salt

2              star anise (optional)

1. Boil pork belly and skin in a pot of hot water til color change to pale white (about 3 minutes).  Spoon out the meat and skin quickly, give them a cold bath under running tap water.  Cut thinly and set a side.
2. Slice shallots thinly.  Dice spring onion.  Soak dried shrimp in water for 5 minutes, drained and cut into tiny pieces.  Wash garlic, dried, set a side.
3. Heat pan, put in vegetable oil, turn heat to low, fry shallot, spring onion and garlic individually til golden brown.  Drain oil and set a side.
4. Heat pan, put in little vegetable oil, turn heat to low, stir fry dried shrimp til fragrant, add in soy sauce and sugar.
5. Put in meat and skin, stir fry for 5 minutes, add in water, boil, add in mushroom stock seasoning, salt and star anise, cook for 1 minute.
6. Add in fried shallot, spring onion and garlic into the meat mixture, stew under low heat for 30 - 40 minutes.
7. Serve with steaming hot white rice.

You may need to cook extra rice for this dish, as it's so delicious, u will definitely eat more!  If u r on diet, sorry to say, u have to skip this dish, it contains lot of fats but it was this fat that made it so yummy!

Made this for little girl, but she happily took out the furakake when she saw the white rice, dipping on furakake instead of savoring with the pork :(

A big bowl of rice top with the stewed pork belly and sauce  *  drooling  *

Golden Pear Sweet Soup / Tong Shui

Golden pear sweet soup kept in container, left to chill in fridge, refreshing!

Another fridge clearing day, found 2 golden pear, decided to make a sweet soup (糖水).  Little girl helped up peeling off the skin of the pears, sliced them up thinly too, of course with my very close eyes on her little fingers.

Ingredients:

Golden pear / Asian pear skinned, cored and sliced thinly

Honey dates and wolfberries

1. Boiled half pot of water, threw in pears and honey dates (蜜棗), cooked for 45 minutes

2. Put in dried wolfberries and a few cubes of rock sugar, boiled for another 15 minutes

3. Done.  Tasty while it's hot, very refreshing when it was chilled.

Pineapple Tart Snack Bento

A simple snack bento today.  I stole 3 pieces of pineapple tart (little girl's favorite CNY cookie) from mum's place last nite.  Put in a baby mandarin orange and bit of honey stars.

I thought little girl would easily finish this bento, however, she told me she had 3 big pieces of fried dough (her favorite snack at kiddy) thus couldn't finish it :(

I gotta ate the tarts just now, don wanna waste.

Nutella Sandwich Rolls Snack Bento, Chili Fried Kangkong and Braised Layer Pork Belly n Yam Bento

Little girl's snack bento to school today.  It contained 4 little nutella sandwich rolls, 2 Vidaylin minibear gummies and a small mandarin orange with a lovely face.  

After her school, she told me she had 2 bowls of fried mee and her snack bento during her snack time, (o_O)!!  She really ate a lot, hope she won't turn into a fat fat girl.

This is a dinner bento I tapao (packed) from mum's place for hubby.  It contained chili fried kangkong (on top), braised layer pork belly & yam (right) and white rice with topping of fried chili from the fried kangkong.

Simple Hainanese Chicken Rice

Little girl loves eating chicken rice lately, as I'm a lazy person who like to cook 1 dish meal, I cooked this simple version of chicken rice for our dinner tonite.

Little girl's plate of chicken rice

The recipe is very simple, just stir-fry the wings, whole garlics, whole shallots, 1 small piece of ginger in a non stick pan for a while, put in the pre-washed rice and the correct amount of water, season the mixture and give all a boil, then move everything into the rice cooker, let it complete the rest of the cooking, done.

Chicken Frankfurter & Cheesy Scrambled Egg

I felt a bit bored n couldn't sleep last nite, hubby was out wine & cigar with his friends and there was nothing interesting on Astro.  While hopping between channels, I remembered I had 2 chicken frankfurters oledi defrosted in the fridge, why don I play some crafting on them.  Ok, I'm not good at art nor food craft at all, just passing time playing with the food ;p

So, here was the breakfast little girl had this morning, I put the frankfurter to toaster oven for 10 min to get this end result.  Made her scrambled egg mixed with a piece of cheddar cheese too, yum!

Kuromi and My Melody Onigiri

Decided to make some onigiri for dinner tonite since there was some left over food in the fridge.  As to please little girl to eat more, I made her 2 of her favorite cartoon characters onigiri ==> Kuromi and My Melody.  

My Melody turned out so ugly, hubby teased at the little eyes it had, I'm really not good at cutting nori.

While I was busying in the kitchen, little girl was extremely excited when she discovered what I tried to make her.  She pulled her little stool over to check out clearer and asked bunch of questions on why, how and what, I gotta begged her out of the kitchen in order to finish my work, lucky me, she was distracted by Tom & Jerry on cartoon network til dinner time.

Little girl was pleased and kept admiring her plate when I placed it in front of her.  She started off eating away those heart tomatoes and corns, stole one round onigiri from us as she don wanna destroyed hers ;p.  

Finally she gave in to savor it, she was kind enough too to give us each the ears and kept the not-so-pretty My Melody for daddy's lunch 2moro!  You know why, she was quite full after eating the round onigiri, some roast pork and down with 1/2 bowl of miso soup, but she finished the whole Kuromi onigiri!

These were the not-so-interesting round onigiri for hubby and myself.

Another happy ending dinner without any fuss occurred!  Great 1st day of 2009!