Wake Up and Smell the Cake

These days we are blessed to get a whole day to ourselves for the weekend, and the Husband isn't too busy lately. I've been bringing breakfasts to work, sometimes lunches too on gym days, and Sundays are the best days to prepare make ahead meals. I'll usually marinate some chicken, or cook something to reheat in the mornings before going to work, or if I'm REALLY lazy I'll just let it thaw to room temperature before eating hurhurhur. When I first began to bring meals, I'll be wasting lots of ingredients, like salads (I can't finish off that whole head of lettuce eating wraps) or I miscalculated the amount of meat I'll use, or rice or other things that accumulated in the fridge because they're not fresh anymore. These days I try to manage better, and thanks to Google there's so many recipes you can make out of leftovers. Like just now I found that you can make yummy rice pudding out of leftover rice! Okay next project! Yesterday I manag

I made a batch of double chocolate banana muffins to clear my yoghurt and overripe bananas and I used a recipe I've tried before, here . 1 ½ cups self raising flour (if not then add 1 tsp of baking powder & baking soda each) ½ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (Valrhona) 1 egg, well beaten ½ cup yoghurt 1 cup granulated sugar ½ cup canola oil 1 ¼ cups mashed, ripened bananas (~3 large bananas) Semi-sweet chocolate chips These are really good! Easy and yummy, very chocolaty! I also made sausage aglio olio with bell peppers, mushrooms and cili padi of course, for this week's packed brunch. Remind me not to buy sausages again, even if they're gourmet. The amount of fat that was left after cooking was just scary. Not to mention they harden when cooled. I managed to scoop out the excess oil, but the veges were already coating in them. Oh wells. Lesson learnt.

Back from the long weekend! Spent two days fully at home, cooking and baking. So happy. Day 1 was sindhi briyani and Almond London . Day 2 was ayam lemak cili padi and a batch of almost Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies , but I split the batter into 2: hazelnut, white chocolate, cranberry combination and hazelnut, dark chocolate chip combination. I made the cranberry ones first, they taste awesome. But after I ate the chocolate chip one, say bye bye to cranberry! Nothing beats chocolate. And the white chocolate chips somehow dissolved into the batter, melted. What to do, it's just white chips from Redman. I should try a better brand instead.  Happy new year indeed!

I have wanted to try a pasta alternative for my packed breakfast cum lunches, and I've always wanted to try couscous cos it looks so intriguing - grainy yet looks like mashed potatoes. Another reason for cooking couscous is my leftover chicken stock from the Hainanese Chicken Rice. I need a reason to use it since I have painstakingly strained it (though not all) and it's not easy to get homemade healthy halal chicken stock. I hate those chicken cubes urgh. Also my chicken stock has pandan flavour huahuahua. I didn't realise couscous is so easy to prepare! Way faster than pasta. Boil 1/2 cup of stock, turn it off, add 1/2 cup of couscous and wait for 2 minutes. Add lil bit of butter and fluff it up and it's done! 1/2 cup can make both my breakfast and lunch, cos after adding stuff to it like chicken, vegetables etc, it really becomes a big portion. If only The Husband would like to eat such things hahaha. Yesterday I did couscous with shredded black pepper chicken

We spent the whole of Saturday at home, just us. So I decided to cook chicken rice after being inspired by my friend who attempted it the weekend before. I followed the recipe from Steamy Kitchen because of the very detailed method and pictures. I didn't have sesame oil though, but drizzling the cooked chicken with light soy sauce gave the chicken rice effect! Haha Chicken rice flatlay! For the Chicken: 1 whole chicken Salt 4 inches ginger, cut into 1/4 inch slices 2 stalks green onions, cut into 1 inch sections (both the green and white parts) 1 teaspoon sesame oil (I used light soy sauce instead) Pandan leaves Rub salt all over and in the chicken. I bought a whole chicken, with most spare parts already taken out and skin on. The chicken was pretty clean, but if it's not then exfoliate it with the salt rub.  Stuff the chicken with the spring onions and ginger. Completely submerge the chicken in a deep pot of room temperature water. Turn on high heat u

So today is Day 2 of Junior's K1. His session is 4 hours, with a break for snacks i.e. breakfast since he doesn't want to eat before leaving the house. My parents will nag at me for not giving him breakfast but he doesn't want to eat! Yesterday I gave him nutella sandwiches, a little extra than what he gets during nursery. He finished all 4, which is about 2 slices of bread. Today I packed for him fish finger burgers. Airfried fish fingers sandwiched between white bread, no edges. Gave him 2 slices of bread and 3 fish fingers in total. I added a teeny bit of light mayonnaise and thai chili sauce for some flavour. My mum said he didn't finish it, only ate 1 set. Sigh. Not sure what to give him tomorrow. Maybe nutella sandwiches and fish fingers without bread? It's so hard when children are picky! And especially when they don't eat eggs! Oh wells I'll see what other ideas I can come up with. 

Yes I finally made them! I thought I'd take about 2 days but I finished them in the morning. That's pretty quick! Got up early to do the pandan cupcakes first, no one to disturb me. Decided to make the frosting before storing the cakes since I had the time. Recipe adapted from here . Pandan Cupcake 125g butter 2 eggs 150g sugar 200g self raising flour 3 tbsp homemade pandan extract 80g coconut milk +20g water Coconut cream cheese frosting (aka experiment) 250g cream cheese 120g butter Finished off my icing sugar, probably 3/4 cup Splashes of coconut milk Grated coconut Some gula melaka syrup Cream the butter and sugar like the normal cake method. Add eggs one by one until batter incorporated. Add in the flour and milk mixture in a flour - milk - flour sequence. Since I didn't use any green colouring, my cupcakes turned out pale green. The top is more brown that green too. Made holes using a knife and ate all those cut out pieces huahuahua. That

Have been away so long! It's been the long weekend but weird enough I didn't cook, except for the normal cook for kids. I did do lots of laundry, and in between made some oreo muffins and kuih bakar, same recipe as before . Oreo Muffins 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup milk 1/3 cup sour cream 1 egg 1/4 cup butter, softened 20 oreo cookies Chocolate chips Could have reduced the baking powder by a bit, since I have tasted slight bitter taste in some of the muffins. Or I might have not mixed well. The muffins the next day taste better. I have some more oreo cookies, enough for another batch. Would probably bake and bring for family gathering this weekend! No pictures! Again, haha.

The little one woke me up just after 4 for milk, and at that time I didn't feel sleepy at all so I played games on the phone and got up at 5 to make today's breakfast and lunch. It was clear-the-fridge aglio olio! Sadly some of the mushrooms have gone bad, but I managed to salvage some. I also have cauliflower, capsicum and fried chicken to clear. For a portion of 2, the following ingredients were used: 4 cloves garlic, minced 3 cili padi, sliced 1/2 capsicum, sliced Whatever mushrooms I had 1/2 floret of cauliflower 2 handfuls of shell pasta (HA HA lazy me used hands as unit of measure) 2 cooked chicken breast, sliced Extra virgin olive oil for dressing In the interest of time, I boiled the cauliflower in the same water as the pasta. Cauliflower was cooked first, taken out then pasta goes into the boiling water added with salt and oil. I also pre-fried the capsicum in a little oil, mainly cos I fried the whole capsicum and set aside half for another day. In

When Husband's not around, I become more hardworking HAHAHA. I clean more, I cook more. Saturday I made lontong goreng tomyam for breakfast, and yesterday I made my first ever chicken rice. I even have ingredients to make aglio olio, which I think I'll make either tonight or early tomorrow morning for breakfast. The lontong goreng was a pure experiment, no inferences from recipes and all but it turned out good. Not sure if it's something Husband would eat haha! Lontong Goreng Tomyam 1 packet lontong instant Adabi, cut in cubes 4 tbsp tomyam paste 2 eggs, pre-scrambled Handful of mushrooms Chicken breast, sliced Coriander leaves (I didn't have lemongrass or lime leaves) 1/2-1 tsp salt Fry the tomyam paste in some oil, then add the mushrooms and chicken to cook them. Add some water so the paste doesn't dry up. Add in the scrambled eggs then the lontong cubes and fry until mixed well. For yesterday's chicken rice, I adapted slightly from a reci

Husband's gone for 15 days. Third time in two months, or 22 out of 60 days. That's a whole lot of days. I usually stay at my mum's when the Husband isn't around especially for long periods, but I decided to stay on our own, and this will be the longest ever with him around. So far I've managed well, though I feel I should be bringing them out more on weekends, but I am just occupied with basic housework stuff. This weekend I shall make an effort to bring them to see Elmo and Cookie Monster. Haha. The day he went off, he wanted to eat some homecooked meal, and requested for rendang. I already have a rendang recipe from my mum , but we tried the minang version, provided by my friend. I tweaked it a bit, but I will show you the original recipe as well. Rendang Minang original version 1kg beef 1 litre pati santan 2 tbsp kerisik 1 pc asam keping 2 tbsp gula melaka 2 daun kunyit sliced thinly 3 tbsp cili kisar Ingredients to blend: 10 red onions 4 clove

No photos today, but just wanna document my breakfast effort this morning! Marinated chicken (garlic powder, ground cumin & coriander, black pepper, salt, cayenne pepper) with stir fried capsicum from the oils of cooking the chicken, butterhead lettuce and sour cream in a wrap. Yummy! But I'm kinda hungry now hurhur. I should've put more chicken. I think I'm gonna get for myself yoghurt.

Excess tart shells + cheese about to expire = mini cheese tarts. Easy peasy cos the tart shells are pre-made, so all I had to do was to bake the shells, make the cheese filling and bake again! My son wanted to help so I got him to fill the shells with the cream cheese mixture. He's more descriptive now, and it's a joy to hear his comments and questions. Found this recipe from the facebook group Baking's Corner, since someone posted just a couple of days ago, hence the inspiration. Cream Cheese Filling 500g cream cheese 40g butter 2 eggs 120g sugar Beat all the ingredients together until no lumps, using a handheld electric mixer. Scoop a tablespoonful of filling and fill the baked tart shells. Note: Tart shells were baked at 180 degrees Celsius for 14 minutes and left to cool before filling can be poured in. Bake the filled cheese tart for 10-12 minutes untill cooked. The tart shells have a milk powderish taste, which doesn't feel like what shortcr

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and I'm one who can't live without breakfast. I have no idea how some don't have any appetite and just skip breakfast altogether! I've been lazy in preparing breakfast again, and since school closed, there's only one stall opened here and practically everything is fried, and/or laden with coconut milk. The tipping point was yesterday, when the man at the stall charged a higher price for the exact same thing we ordered the day before! And when I mentioned that why is there a difference, he totally ignored us. So here's to more homemade breakfasts again, and I have to either sacrifice my sleep, or be more efficient and somehow find breakfasts that can be made in a jiffy. Yesterday we bought minced meat, butterhead lettuce, eggs, vegetables and smoked salmon with peppers. The ingredients are enough to make sabsuka, egg sandwiches or wraps, aglio olio, and if I have more time, quiches. Today I woke up later tha

I love apples in cakes but sometimes the amount of apple is just too little. I had 6 apples to use up, and I figured, why not try replicate Swensen's apple crumble! So I searched for apple crumble cake, which some call the German apple cake. This recipe is by allrecipes UK . Apple Crumble Cake For the cake base: 100g butter (I used 30g butter, 70g oil cos I was lazy to thaw more butter) 100g brown sugar 200g flour 1 tbsp baking powder 3 eggs Apple layer: 6 apples, peeled and diced sprinkle of cinnamon Juice of 1/2 lemon Crumble top: 125g butter 125g sugar (can reduce to 100 next time) 150g flour Mix the cake base like a normal cake/muffin method and pour into an 8 or 9 inch springform pan lined with baking paper. Important to always line the tin! Mix the apples with the cinnamon and juice, then layer over the cake base. You can press in the apples into the cake base so that the cake won't be apple-less haha. Using your fingers, mix the crumble ingredi

I realised I haven't written down nasi lemak recipe in here. I've made a few times, some hits some misses, especially with the salt for the rice. Maybe next time I'll try using coconut milk instead of cream, and low fat option too. Nasi Lemak 1 packet santan cream (Kara brand) 9 pandan leaves, knotted 5 of my cups of rice, which is probably equivalent to 5 cups additional water after the cream 3 tsp salt Sambal Tumis To blend/ pound: 3 onions, sliced 7 cloves of garlic 1 inch ginger 2sq cm belacan 1 tsp tamarind paste, soaked in water 8 tbsp cili kisar prawns/boiled eggs 2 tbsp sugar Fry the blended paste in oil, then add in the cili kisar and fry. Add in the water from the tamarind paste and sugar. 

Last Friday I was craving some tomyum creamy pasta from Pastamania. I thought I'd have that for my me time lunch. But. I got turned off at the queue with lots of students. Urgh. How much pocket money do these kids get?! So I went NTUC instead and got ingredients for Sunday's experiment meal. I couldn't find much tomyum pastes, which I thought was weird, so I settled for NTUC brand paste. Didn't get any seafood either cos I don't fancy seafood that much. The darling daughter had 3 hours nap, which left me with much time to iron clothes, sweep the floor, cook the pasta sauce and marinate chicken breasts to be eaten with the pasta (I didn't put meat into the sauce). I cooked for dinner for myself and Husband, with agarations as usual since there's no recipe per se. Cooking the veges first Tomyum Creamy Pasta 1 onion, sliced 2 lemongrass, bruised 3 tbsp NTUC tomyum paste  (2 for less spicy) 100ml cooking cream 100ml milk (no need salt!)

Today my baby boy is celebrating Children's Day in school and everyone was to bring goodies or food. I made brownies for him to bring since they are easy to transport and they're chocolatey. Kids like that right? I tried another recipe, one which is more trustworthy. Hershey's! I had Hershey's cocoa to use up too. It is a perfect go to brownie recipe! I don't usually come across 4 egg brownie recipes but that made this brownies more moist and less prone to being hard in case of overbaking. I made one batch yesterday morning before work as a test, and since it was good, I made another this morning but with nuts and some chocolate chips for the office and our home. This is husband approved! :) Two batches worth of brownies Hershey's Brownies 225g unsalted butter 1/4 tsp salt 4 eggs 2 cups sugar 3/4 cup cocoa powder 1 cup flour 1/2 tsp baking powder Melt the butter and mix with the salt and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time and incorporate int

I finally nailed it. Made this before but it was either too pedas, or too salty, or not salty at all. This is actually a recipe for nasi goreng kampung but my mum uses it for lontong goreng as well. My Mum's Lontong Goreng 2 packets cooked instant lontong, cut in cubes 4 eggs, scrambled To blend: 2 onions 5 green chillies 5 red chillis 3 tbsp ikan bilis 1 square inch belacan (the flat round one) a little bit of water for blending Fry the blended paste in oil until dry and the chillies cooked. Add in the scrambled eggs and lontong. You can also add in minced meat or chicken if you have them. I am itching to make maybe some salted caramel cupcakes. But who am I kidding. I should go make the caramel first haha! This calls for a trip to the supermarket to get some heavy cream!

Finally baked something over the weekend! I got my little boy to help me even though he was feeling all sorts of tummy aches and having fever. Made a simple butter cake, and the pan was chosen by the boy too. Marble Bundt Cake 225g butter 250g sugar 4 eggs 65g almond flour 240g self raising flour 1 cup evaporated milk 2 heaps of Hershey's cocoa powder Little boy brought his Boulder transformers along, and he helped with weighing, mixing and making patterns. Had a good weekend, going to USS for family day. Only took 3 rides though cos the boy's fever shot up again by noon. Tonight I'm gonna try make chicken baked rice for tomorrow's sahur. I did it before but I didn't write down the recipe, have to start from scratch again sigh.