Category Archive: Homecooked Food

My girls love California rolls and simple cucumber Maki and these ain’t cheap. A simple California roll with filling of eggs, cucumber, crab meat stick and crab roe can cost between RM5 – RM8 each at a Japanese restaurant. A family of 3 kiddos and 2 adults can easily chomp down 5-8 pieces of California rolls in a meal and that’s only the appetizer. An ala carte lunch or dinner of Japanese for our family of 5 can easily cause a damage of RM100 – RM150 to my hubs.

I had a light bulb moment the other day while having lunch at the Japanese restaurant.  I decided to be ambitious and planned to make my own California rolls for the girls’ lunch.  So the next day, I bought a packet of frozen crab meat sticks, a Japanese cucumber, vegetarian char siew, vegetarian fish and vegetarian roast goose, fried some eggs and bought a packet of cooked Japanese rice from the Japanese restaurant at our condo.

The ingredients….

I cut a large piece of toasted laver (Murasaki) or seaweed into half, placed a small slice of thinly pan-fried egg on the seaweed, followed by the Japanese rice, Japanese cucumber, crabmeat stick, vegetarian meat, squeezed in some creamy Japanese mayo and rolled it into a cone.  Next time, I must remember to get an Avocado too for the filling.

Though the California roll wasn’t neatly wrapped, my kids and sil loved it.   Each of them chomped down 3-4 rolls and I am having new orders from my 2 older pernickety girls for more of my homemade California rolls!  Now, I need to keep practicing to improve on my California roll wrapping skill. And don’t you think that this is also a well balanced meal?  It has a combo of protein from the eggs, crab meat stick and soy beans from the vegetarian meat, fiber from the seaweed and cucumber and carbo from the rice.

My girls and I love pancakes. I like to be adventurous when it comes to baking and cooking. Some of the flavors that I had whipped up in the past were multi-seeded pancake (which I added sesame seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds and wholemeal flour), mashed banana pancake, chocolate flavored pancake (which I added my girls’ chocolate-flavored milk powder), durian pancake, orange juice pancake and my latest creation – cheddar cheese pancake.  My girls like their pancakes drizzled with maple syrup, ice cream or even with yoghurt.   Pancakes are normally made for lunch and an extra portion made (and pan fried) for deep freezing for our future lunch (normally eaten within 2 weeks).  The frozen pancakes, after thawing and heating in the toaster taste as good as fresh, in fact even better as the sides are crispy after heat up in the toaster.  My next pancake idea is a savory one where I will add some tuna fish and chopped onions.  My girls would love pancake with sausage or ham but I hardly buy deli meat and I consider them junk food.

Ingredients used for cheddar cheese pancake : pancake mix, 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons of milk powder, grated block cheddar cheese, olive oil or butter.   Butter pan-fried pancakes are more flavorful while olive oil pan-fried ones are less flavorful but healthier and friendlier to your waist line too.

My mil made yam cake (woo thau koa)and pizza last week. Her yam cake is generously topped with fried crushed dried shrimps, chunks of yam and sesame seeds.

The yam cake would taste really good when pan fried after it’s steamed….

And this is her thin crust pizza topped generously with capsicum, bacon, parmessan cheese, mozarella cheese and 100% homemade organic tomato paste.

Looks good eh? They taste even better. With her around, I always have to work out in the gym doubly hard to burn off those calories!

My all-time favorite chicken dish is chicken cooked with turmeric – in all styles, be it deep fried or braised. My dad can dish up a really tasty braised turmeric chicken dish with lots of chopped turmeric and onions. During my confinement, I requested the confinement lady to cook turmeric with chicken or pork almost everyday and yet I did not get fed up with the dishes. The only downside was that the bristles on my toothbrush were stained yellow all the time!

My mil cooked this chicken dish with turmeric, onions and lemon grass the other day. It was a very flavorful and tasty dish, not forgetting healthy and packed full of anti-oxidants!

Turmeric is one of nature’s most powerful healers. The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. Tumeric has been used for over 2500 years in India, where it was most likely first used as a dye.

Long known for its anti-inflammatory properties, recent research has revealed that turmeric is a natural wonder, proving beneficial in the treatment of many different health conditions from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease.

These are some of the health benefits of turmeric:

1. It is a natural antiseptic and antibacterial agent, useful in disinfecting cuts and burns.

2. When combined with cauliflower, it has shown to prevent prostate cancer and stop the growth of existing prostate cancer.

3. Prevented breast cancer from spreading to the lungs in mice.

4. May prevent melanoma and cause existing melanoma cells to commit suicide.

5. Reduces the risk of childhood leukemia.

6. Is a natural liver detoxifier.

7. May prevent and slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by removing amyloyd plaque buildup in the brain.

8. May prevent metastases from occurring in many different forms of cancer.

9. It is a potent natural anti-inflammatory that works as well as many anti-inflammatory drugs but without the side effects.

10. Has shown promise in slowing the progression of multiple sclerosis in mice.

11. Is a natural painkiller and cox-2 inhibitor.

12. May aid in fat metabolism and help in weight management.

13. Has long been used in Chinese medicine as a treatment for depression.

14. Because of its anti-inflammatory properties, it is a natural treatment for arthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

15. Boosts the effects of chemo drug paclitaxel and reduces its side effects.

16. Promising studies are underway on the effects of turmeric on pancreatic cancer.

17. Studies are ongoing in the positive effects of turmeric on multiple myeloma.

18. Has been shown to stop the growth of new blood vessels in tumors.

19. Speeds up wound healing and assists in remodeling of damaged skin.

20. May help in the treatment of psoriasis and other inflammatory skin conditions.

Whenever I want to whip up something that’s fast, fuss-free, nutritious and does not require using the wok, I will cook a pot of porridge. Our favorite porridge is roasted pork ribs porridge. Sometimes I will toss in some sweet potatoes into the porridge. The sweet potatoes will make the pot of porridge sweeter and they are tasty too.

Besides, sweet potatoes are very nutritious and have a wide range of health benefits.

Sweet Potato Nutritional Benefits
Sweet potatoes, especially the deeper-colored ones, are extremely rich in carotenes (precursor of vitamin A). They are also an excellent source of vitamins C, B2, B6, E and biotin (B7).

They provide good amounts of manganese, folate (folic acid), copper and iron. It also has pantothenic acid and is rich in dietary fiber.

Sweet Potato Health Benefits

Sweet potatoes are excellent sources of plant proteins with very low calories. Unlike other starchy root vegetables, it is very low in sugar, and in fact is a good blood sugar regulator.

As an anti-oxidant: Sweet potatoes have been found to contain a high amount of anti-oxidant, making it suitable in combating inflammatory problems like asthma, arthritis, gout, etc.

Diabetes: This fibrous root is suitable for diabetics’ consumption as it is a very good blood sugar regulator, helps to stabilize and lower insulin resistance.

Digestive tract, healthy: The significant amount of dietary fiber, especially when eaten with the skin, helps to promote a healthy digestive tract, relieving constipation and also helps prevent colon cancer.

Emphysema: Smokers and people who inhale second-hand smoke should regularly consume foods high in vitamin A as smoke has been found to induce vitamin A deficiency, causing a host of other health problems to the lungs.

Fetal Development: The high folate content is important and necessary for healthy fetal cell and tissue development.

Immune System: Regular consumption of sweet potatoes strengthens the body’s immune system and develop resistance to infection.

Heart diseases: Consumption of this high potassium root helps to prevent heart attack and stroke. It helps maintain fluid and electrolyte balance in the body cells, as well as normal heart function and blood pressure.

Muscle Cramps: A deficiency in potassium can cause muscular cramps and greater susceptibility to injury. Make sweet potatoes a regular part of your diet if you exercise a lot, both for an energy boost and to prevent cramps and injuries.

Stress: When we are stressed, our metabolic rate rises, causing the body potassium levels to be reduced. By snacking on the potassium-packed sweet potato, it helps to rebalance the vital mineral, and helps normalize the heartbeat. This in turn sends oxygen to the brain and regulates the body’s water balance.

Food For Thought
Despite its name, the sweet potato really doesn’t belong to the same family as the potato, not even close. Potatoes are tubers, sweet potatoes are roots. I never knew that! I’ll bet you didn’t know that too eh?

I found by chance a way to prepare fish cake (yue paeng) without shallow frying or deep frying the fish paste. The other day, I decided to dump the whole big chunk of homemade fish paste into my pot of beet root-carrot-pork ribs soup that was still cooking in the stove. I wanted to cut down the time of rolling the fish paste into balls, one by one. I had planned to make fish balls. After 5 minutes, I fished out the chunk of cooked fish paste. I then sliced it into rectangular pieces.  Not only does it taste like fish cake, the color from the beet root gave the fish paste a natural brownish color, as it they were fried.   No one could tell that the fish cakes were only broiled.  And I managed to fool my 3 girls into believing that I bought the fish cakes from the ‘cee cheong fun’ stall LOL!!!

Healthy, wholesome and easy to prepare lunch for Baby : homemade fish cakes with green tea noodles, sesame seed oil, Braggs Amino Acid and toasted sesame seed.

And a must have soup of the day : beet root-carrot-big onion-pork ribs soup.

My mil cooked seafood porridge in claypot for lunch yesterday. She bought the fresh seafood from Kuala Selangor yesterday. Everyone in the family heart this pot of porridge, including Baby who doesn’t fancy eating porridge. Try this if you want to whip up something healthy, yummy and easy for everyone at home.

Claypot seafood porridge consists of crabs, prawns, fish, chicken bones and pork. This pot of porridge is really TASTY!

Pumpkins are wholesome and nutrients packed. Pumpkins are more than just a Halloween decor.  Pumpkins are rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, both the flesh and seeds of the pumpkin provide many health-boosting nutrients.

Pumpkin is low in fat and calories and rich in disease-fighting nutrients such as:

Alpha-carotene
Beta-carotene
Fiber
Vitamins C and E
Potassium
Magnesium
Pantothenic acid

My 2 older girls hate pumpkins. It’s a tall order getting them to eat pumpkins. They won’t even eat pumpkin pies which are so tasty. To get them to eat pumpkins, I sometimes julienne the pumpkin and fry them with vermicelli. Throw in some dried shrimps or dried small anchovies and the pot of fried vermicelli will be really flavorful and delish, not to mention the color looks bright and enticing too.

My pot of stir-fried vermicelli with homemade fish paste, organic Japanese pumpkin, veggie, garlic and eggs.

My mil can bake not only breads, cakes and cookies, she can bake pizzas too. Last week, she made pizza for lunch 2 days in a row. Here’s her healthy homemade pizza:

Thin crust pizza with organic red, green and yellow bell pepper, fresh mushrooms, freshly blended tomatoes (for the tomato paste), mozarella cheese, black pepper, big onions and sausages from Europe (I have to say that this is the least healthy). The pizza tasted really, really delish!