Category Archive: Homecooked Food

I bought a packet of santan (coconut milk) this morning, with the intention of eating it with my overnight oats. Since there was still some  coconut milk left, I asked the mil to use it up (santan gets rancid really quickly, though refrigerated) to cook nasi lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk and screwpine leaves).

So this is the girls’ lunch today…

Kid’s Non-Spicy nasi lemak with turmeric chicken, stir-fried spinach with garlic and hard-boiled free-range chicken egg.  The turmeric chicken was our dinner from last night.

I love grilling meats in the oven. It is so easy to dish out, has no splish splash of oil, has minimal washing  and it is time-saving. I leave the meat in the oven and I’ll get back to my other chores. Now that the MIL is away in Hawaii for over a month, the kids are having quite a bit of oven-grilled dishes again 🙂

Earlier this week, I grilled some chicken drumsticks and ribs with fresh rosemary, along with a little Lea & Perrin sauce, black pepper and Agave Nectar.  That was the first time I used fresh rosemary to grill chicken and the result was superb!  I never knew that fresh rosemary imparts such strong flavor to a dish.  The aroma of the fresh rosemary grilling alongside the chicken meat in the oven was heavenly!

Pre-grilled chicken…

Half an hour later…

Rosemary grilled chicken served with stir-fried organic baby pea sprouts, raw organic alfalfa and broccoli sprouts with goma dressing and Korean rice for the kids.  Simple, wholesome and chokefull of goodness!

I had some satay sauce (spicy peanut sauce) left in the freezer, which the hubs brought back from his shop the other day. I wanted to clear my freezer and fridge of all the food before our trip back to my parents, so I whipped this dish up for dinner – grilled chicken with lemon grass and satay sauce.

In the morning, I marinated the boneless chicken thighs with salt, soy sauce, pepper,  pounded fresh turmeric (you can also use turmeric powder), agave nectar (you can also use honey) and chopped lemon grass.  In the evening, the chicken thighs were grilled for 20 minutes in the oven, together with stalks of lemon grass.

While the chicken were grilling in the oven, I heated up the satay sauce in the microwave oven and blanched some lettuce.  Sherilyn helped to slice the cucumbers.

Once the chicken thighs turn golden brown on the outside and cooked in the inside, remove from the oven. Pour satay sauce over and bon appetit!

This dish tasted like chicken satay and is way healthier and more hygienic than satay 🙂

So the next time you have some extra satay sauce when you buy satay, do not throw them away.  Keep it in the freezer for this easy-to-cook dish!

I never liked eating fish head until I tried the grilled salmon head at the Japanese restaurant of Equatorial Hotel, KL many moons back. I have not gone to Equatorial Hotel, KL for yonks as the premises has been demolished, to be rebuilt from scratch.  That first time of tasting grilled salmon head at the packed-to-the-brim Japanese restaurant of Equatorial KL had me at hello with grilled salmon head and that’s how my love for salmon head all started 😀

I had planned to grill salmon fish head with Terriyaki sauce for dinner today.  I went to the mini market to get some stuff in the morning but forgot all about the  Terriyaki sauce!  So I made do with Agave Nectar and the outcome was just as good.  No one would have guessed that I used Agave Nectar instead of Terriyaki sauce.  Both have the same kind of sweetness.   Agave Nectar is healthier as it has  a low GI.

Here’s my grilled salmon head and grilled Ma Yau (threadfin fish) for dinner today.

I marinated the fish with sea salt, pepper, oil and some mixed Italian herbs in the morning.  The Agave Nectar was drizzled onto both sides of the fish about 10 minutes before I turned the heat off the oven.  I did not add the Agave Nectar earlier as I did not want the fish to turn blackish. I also tossed in some chopped onions onto the fish for added flavor, to be grilled for about 15 minutes.

Total grill time in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius = 30 minutes

Outcome of the fish = delish!  I was expecting the meat of the threadfin fish to be a tad rough but hey, surprise surprise!  It was NOT rough and dry at all!  In fact, it was very juicy and tender and so fresh!  The girls’ grandaunt bought the fish from Kuala Selangor on Saturday.

When my girls said “mummy, this tastes like restaurant grilled fish”, I knew it was a success.

Here’s another oil-splatter-free and no-brainer dish that I have coughed out for my fussy kids, amidst my very busy daily schedule and it is so yummy and wholesome 🙂

This is my grilled chicken dish with fresh pineapple.

Rating from my 3 fastidious foodies was A++

It was pretty simple to dish out.  I used whatever available sauces that I could find in my fridge to marinate the chicken in the morning and 8 hours later, grilled it for about 25 minutes (uncovered) in the oven.  The fresh pineapple chunks effused such natural sweetness and aroma into the meat that the dish tasted very much like a restaurant dish.   We all loved this dish and it is all natural without any MSG or added sugar (except for sugar from the Lea & Perrin sauce).  You can use whatever spices that you can find in your kitchen. I used mixed herbs and oregano.  You can use rosemary, parsley, turmeric, basil or whatever herbs and spices that you can get from the supermarket or your garden.  I also used some oil to marinate and tenderize the meat.   Remember to grease the aluminum foil on the baking tray with some oil so that the chicken skin and meat will not stick to the foil.

Do give this dish a try if you want to dish out something tasty in a jiffy. While the dish is cooking in the oven, you can blanch a veggie and wash the dishes.  And you can cook it without any oil splatter 🙂

I love holidays as I get to enjoy my breakfast with the girls.  If I am in the mood to cook, I will whip up some scrambled eggs and omelettes filled with cheeses and mushrooms.   If the MIL is around, she will whip up pancakes, fried eggs or some simple but delish sandwiches, like this one…

Homemade wholewheat flax seed bread with avocado spread, fried egg and pan fried Hormel’s spam meat.

I never buy spam meat or deli meat for the kids.  The mil would buy them once in a rare occasion and we will get to eat them like 5-6 times in a year.  Yes these meats are well known for all the bad reasons but if you eat them once in a purple moon and limit the portion  each time, I guess it is A-OK. Moderation is the key!

We also had some really soft and tasty black sesame buns that the MIL bought from an organic food expo at Mid Valley.

Here’s our homecooked lunch yesterday…

Corn noodles (noodles are made from corn flour) with meat balls in anchovies soup and Chinese cabbage, accompanied with crab meat and fish paste rolls.

As the girls love noodles with fish balls or meat balls, we have this at least once every week. It is easy to prepare and cooking time is short.

Today during my routine morning run, I was thinking hard about what to dish out for lunch and dinner as the mil will be away for a few days. For a perpetually time-challenged WFHM, I can only dish out meals that are easy to prepare with minimal oil splatters and minimal dish washing that can be ready in a jiffy. I have to think of wholesome and healthy meals that are also tasty which my 3 fussy eaters will not push aside and give me a sulky look. Suddenly, I had a light-bulb moment! I had an idea of making chawan mushi (Japanese steamed eggs) for the girls using the microwave oven! But before I am ready to dish it out to place it on the dining table, I thought I should have a practice session first. So during lunch, while Cass was eating the pork ribs porridge that I cooked, I tried making Chawan Mushi cooked using the microwave oven.

The first cup of microwaved Chawan Mushi was a tad hard as I had put too little water. The 2nd cup was slightly runny as I had put too much water. Nonetheless, Cass loved it! I did not intend to give Cass the tryout-imperfect Chawan Mushi as it did not look too appetizing. But this little greedy rat saw it and asked for a spoonful to try. First spoonful was enough to give her the happy nod of approval! And while I was preparing the second cup of Chawan Mushi, this greedy rat gobbled up the entire cup of Chawan Mushi. When the second cup of Chawan Mushi was ready, I left it to cool down on the dining table while I went back to the computer to check my emails. I intended to eat that myself. Within minutes, Cass came up to me with the second cup of Chawan Mushi in her hands and she said “mummy look, I finished your Chawan Mushi!”

So, despite an uninviting appearance, my microwaved Chawan Mushi tasted good, nonetheless! I shall work on improving my microwaved Chawan Mushi next week and shall post a picture of it IF it turns out silky smooth 🙂

For many people, they would try to flee if their mil were to live under the same roof with them.  For me, I think it is a blessing for the mil to live with us as there are more pros than cons.  Yep it is never easy to live with someone harmoniously but if both parties give and take, friction will sizzle eventually.  When the mil is around, I need not have to worry anymore about sweating it out in the hot kitchen to dish out tasty food for the fussy eaters in the house. All meals will be taken care of by her.  Thankfully cooking and baking are her passion and she takes great pride in them to whip up only wholesome and healthy makes and bakes for us.

This is just one of the mil’s homecooked dinner, 2 nights ago…

Oven roasted chicken drumnets, steamed cod fish, blanched coconut flower veggie, an assortment of vegetables with prawns stir-fried, steamed waxed meat, steamed chicken and Basmathi rice. There was also a pot of lotus roots soup. Such tummy and heart warming dishes for dinner! The girls will veto a restaurant dinner and vote for her homecooked dinner, anytime!

Noodles with anchovies soup is something that my girls love and it’s quite easy to whip up. I can add just about any ingredients to the noodles from chicken fillet to minced meat, meat balls, fish balls, fish paste, seafood, green veggie and the list goes.

My kid’s bowl of wholesome organic brown rice vermicelli with anchovies and tomato soup, minced meat, squids, fish paste, meat balls and sawi.  And it tasted just as good as stall bought ones, minus the MSG and other food additives! 🙂

So much ‘liu’ (ingredients) in my pot of anchovies-tomato soup, YUMS!!