Busy start of 2015

It's a super busy start for 2015 for me - Eunice started primary school and with me getting stressed out with all the lunch boxes idea, as well as the "processes" in the school - which are all new to me, and a few information nights/meetings/assessments, and we decided to sign Eunice up for swimming lesson after all the read up & surveying around, later came February for Eunice's birthday, Chinese New Year, etc.

I thank God for His strength for me to have all these finally settled and over, especially for Eunice's school stuff - it's more into the routine now. Even she knows when is the PE class to wear the right shoes, and when is the library day to bring her library bag and library book.

So I've been pretty busy cooking especially for all these events.

For Eunice's birthday, I steamed a chocolate cake for her when we had a dinner in my aunt's house. So it was a early celebration for her with my cousins (her beloved playmates). It was really yummy. I got the recipe from: http://cakeonthebrain.blogspot.com, it's really easy and you don't even need a blender. The weather was rather warm on that day and we ate with vanilla ice cream, oh it was really very yummy!

Steam chocolate cake

And on Eunice's actual day of her birthday, I got a few of her little girl friends over just for a small party with the children. It's harder than I thought. Anyway I think they still had a good time (I hope!). I made an ice cream cake for the kids. And they loved it! A kid told me it's the best cake she's ever eaten - Wow! I believe kids don't lie. :)

For this cake, I got the recipe from: http://www.taste.com.au. But I didn't follow exactly. I only mixed a tub of vanilla ice cream with frozen raspberries and chocolate chips, and topped with Eunice's choice of favorite berries. I think it looked fabulous!

A week before Chinese New Year, I got some time off from office and I decided to try the bak kwa recipe that I saw from http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com. It was so easy to make and it finished all in a day. However, I didn't make it again because cleaning up (the tray) is too much work. So, I only make it once. :D

Grilling in the oven

Looks pretty good after cutting up!

Chinese New Year is one culture that I'll surely want to keep and instill into my children. I made them say Gong Xi Fa Cai (ended up pretty hilarious with their aussie slang now), and cooked up a storm for our reunion dinner (or a storm was cooking instead). Nah, just being exaggerate. :P. I did cook up quite a bit for our reunion dinner, and we had it with two of our good friends from my hometown as this is their first CNY away from home. It was a good dinner. All the things that I cook are pretty easy - no, I didn't stay in the kitchen for 2 hours to cook all these. In fact, most of them are done quickly, and I still could run around for my errands and take a short power nap!

Roasted chicken. Recipe from: http://www.buzzfeed.com.
4 steps:
1) Thaw and dry the chicken
2) Season with salt & pepper (inside the cavity as well)
3) Truss the chicken
4) Into the oven for 200C for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Done!

My mum does this for every festive season or celebration.
Just lightly fry the hard boiled egg with oil.
We call them 炸蛋 (sounds like bombs in mandarin).

I got the very fresh banana prawns from the supermaket here. Cleaning them up was most probably the task that took up most of my time. And I used the recipe from my favorite cooking website: http://rasamalaysia.com/. Easy peasy and yummy yummy!

This was the first time I bought a whole fish ever since I came Aus. But I was very impressed that the fish from the fish pier outside my house is very very fresh, and it's not expensive too. Well, I just got a barramundi. The girls have not had steamed fish for a looooong time and surely ate a lot of them. Guess this dish will be a frequent dish on my dining table from now on.
5 easy steps:
1) Clean & dry the fish. Julienned the ginger and put on the fish & in the cavity.
2) Steam for 10 minutes (I poured away the water from the fish after steaming to avoid soil smell)
3) Put on fried garlic & garlic oil (pre-made)
4) Mix 1 tbsp soy sauce,  1 tbsp oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and hot water. Pour over the fish.
5) Garnish with chopped spring onions and chili.

Spring rolls! My friend made this so I have no recipe for this.

Lotus root soup with pork ribs by me. Just boil pork ribs (cleaned), lotus root (I bought frozen ones from Asian grocery) and red dates (seeds removed) for 1 hour. Yummy-licious!

Standard stir fried vegetables with scallops by friend.

Our Reunion Dinner

Dishes on our reunion dinner - I was pretty proud of myself!

EG was a happy happy man on the CNY eve. Food was very good and he was full until the next day (yeap, no kidding!). But I didn't put up any decoration or made any CNY cookies this year. I'll surely improve myself next year though he told me it's already very good this year. :). And of course we gave red packets to the children. And I am also impressed with Eunice's school - they have a 1 hour mandarin class on Monday and she told me, "Mummy, it's the year of Goat this year!". :)

So now my major cooking for this year is done - for now! Until the next event comes up. In the meantime, introducing my new member on my kitchen counter!

Introducing - PHILIP AIR FYER!

I am so excited! My friend's mum decided to let go of hers as she hardly used it, so I got it at a big discount. And now, I am looking for recipes to see how this beautiful baby can help me with my cooking, to serve more delicious food for my precious family. :)

Till then,

Mango Smoothies

I love mangoes.

It's now mango season in Australia. Yum yum! The price is getting cheaper and cheaper since it's at the peak of the season now - we can get $2 for 1 mango, or sometimes less if buying in bulk! So, I've been cutting mangoes for our fruits pretty often for the past week. Last week, my friend from church gave me another 3 mangoes! *Drool big time*!

I try not to give the girls mangoes too often - Chinese believes that mangoes are heaty and might cause cough (especially since Nat has been coughing occasionally), but I can't keep them for too long as they might get overripe. As I was wondering what else I can do with them, I then came across this super simple smoothies recipe in a magazine.

We're having simple pizza for lunch today and I decided to make this drink to make the lunch more complete (lazy mum - I know!). I didn't follow the original recipe 100% but tweaked by using whatever I have in my pantry. Result? Oh, it's very very yummy! And it's very refreshing. Eunice had 2 cups. I didn't have almond meals so I didn't put into my drink. Now I know what to do if I have more mangoes. :D

Mango Smoothies

Mango & Honey Smoothies
Ingredients:
1 mango
400ml of fresh milk
1/2 cup of Greek Yogurt
1 tbsp of honey

Method:
1. Peel and chop mango into small pieces and place into a blender with milk, yogurt and honey.
2. Blend until smooth.

As simple as that. Yum! I must go buy almond meal one day and try with it. It should add extra flavor to the drink. :)

Baked Chicken Nuggets

One of the biggest challenges after moving to Melbourne is the need to cook every meal everyday. Well, my family, especially the father, he doesn't really like to eat out. I have been cooking almost 3 meals a day, 7 days a week since I came. I could count with my fingers on how many times I've eaten out so far. But I am not complaining. My family is not complaining. In fact, EG is such a happy man that he could eat at home for most of the meals. Simple logic - he happy, I happy, kids happy, everyone happy. :D

Cooking here is simpler - ingredients are easily available, weather is good - I cook with my sweater on most of the time, like cooking in aircond room haha! (I'll soon share when I have to cook during summer). Because of the different culture here, I can find many different types of food - greek. asian, japanese, korean, etc. Some of the cooking websites, like www.taste.com.au or Jamie Oliver's website, have all their ingredients available in the major grocery shops here.

So I decided to document down some of my recipes in my cooking journey. I am a full time working mum, with two clingy children, so my recipe is not going to be the super canggih one - but mainly the simple, quick, and easy recipe that can whip up a meal in 30 minutes or less. Maybe slightly more complicated ones during weekends or holidays.

To start of, during the weekend, I found chicken breast in my freezer and decided to make baked chicken nuggets for my girls as a treat. I surfed around for the internet to find the easiest recipe and I found one in kidspot.com.au, with most of the ingredients available in my kitchen. I tweaked it a bit to suit the ingredients I have.

Ingredients:
1 pc of chicken breast (about 250g-300g)
1/3 cup of plain flour
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup of breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Method:
1. Whisk egg in a small bowl
2. Mix breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese in another small bowl
3. Put the plain flour in a 3rd bowl.
4. Cut chicken breast into bite size pieces (not too thick).
5. Dip chicken breast pieces into the flour, dust off the excess, dip into the egg wash, and finally coat with the breadcrumbs and cheese mix. Press the crumb mix onto the chicken pieces. Place the chicken on the baking tray with aluminum foil (*Note 1).
6. Refrigerate the chicken pieces for 30 minutes.
7. Pre-heat oven to 180C. Put in the chicken pieces in for 20 minutes (*Note 2) until cook through.
8. Serve with ketchup.

*Note 1: The original recipe uses baking paper but I used aluminum foil. It still works, but the chicken pieces stick to the foil. I probably should have sprayed some oil on top to prevent them from sticking.
*Note 2: The original recipe only asked to bake for 10 minutes but I baked for 20 minutes as I worried the chicken pieces are not cooked through.

I am pretty happy with the final result. The Parmesan cheese makes the chicken pieces really flavorful. Girls love them so much that I have to keep it aside so they will eat the rice instead of keep biting on the nuggets.

Chicken pieces, flour, eggs and crumb mix

Ready to go into the oven.

Yum yum healthy nuggets!