Breadmaker

First it was the Happy Call Pan, next the bread maker. Am I serious about homemaking? Haha...

Our very first loaf of cheese bread. Keziah loved it! Hubby supported it!

More Happy Call Pan

Mommy is starting to experiment more with the Happy Call Pan under the inspiration of many who shared their recipes on Facebook. More recipes can be found from the new website set up by her friend with some others.

After that perfect silver fish omelette, it's now baked pasta…The kids love it just that next time, the cheese will be more browned.

Char Siew..simply delicious! Did some vegetables using the pan as well and it seemed to draw out the sweetness especially of the corn.

Happy Call Pan

Staying home somehow draws more interest in homeward. Saw this Korean pan advertised on TV and heard so many good reviews. So it is. Mommy bought one to try. The first attempt at thick omelette filled with silver fish. Yeah, picture perfect!

Baked Broccoli and Cheese

Daddy bought so much broccoli and Mommy decided to just make broccoli and cheese bake for lunch. In the casserole, just to clear the fridge, we included mushrooms and cherry tomatoes. Accompanied by baked teriyaki salmon and some pasta for these pasta lover kids.

Daddy's the cook

Daddy took a day off as the kids didn't have school today and went grocery shopping. Surprise surprise he even made them a lunch of miso beef udong and baked salmon fish for dinner. It's always nice to have home cooked food.

Bang Bang Cake...

The kids had some fun making these with Nei Nei and along with a big mess in the kitchen! Chocolate indulgence….

Learning out of Class - Zoo

Keziah's been going for school excursion almost once a term. This term they headed off to the zoo to reinforce the theme on circus that they on this term. She had been so excited about it and kept reminding us of the day.

Mommy decided to pack a hot lunch and surprised her with her brand new Dora food jar. So glad she finished every bit of it!

Cooking for a week

Cooking is never easy when you want minimal preparation time but best output. This holidays was the most cooked food time when we had almost 4 days of homecooked meals.

Monday: Just simple marconi chicken soup.

Tuesday: Mommy tried some instant sauces such as Japanese Curry. Yes, it's mild enough for the kids. Sauces all prepared and all we had to do was to fry some mince meat and mixed vegetable to add in more nutrients to the meal. Easy to go together with rice.


Wednesday: Little more elaborate with Shepherd's pie. Though it's just 1 dish to bake but the preparation time was more challenging than expected. It took Mommy almost 2 hours with all the cutting, frying and mashing of potatoes to get this dish. We tried a mix of red, purple and yellow potatoes and the kids seemed to like the purple potatoes quite a bit.


Thursday: Clearing stock from the fridge with pork rib and vegetable soup and a dish of sweetpeas fried with mushroom.

Conclusion: Mommy's too ambitious with trying to cook meals. Cooking is definitely more tiring when you have to do the cleaning up after and playing with 2 little ones! We might just have to have tingkat when no. 3 arrives if Mommy were to have sanity of mind to spend time with 3 kids.

Simple meal for sick

Abel was down with the bug! Fever, lots of phelgm, cough like a barking seal and almost lost his voice totally. Mommy took childcare leave today and spent the day nursing him. There really wasn't very much in the fridge so using what there were and what we could get nearby, Mommy cooked up this simple pasta.

All you need for 4:
250g Mince beef
1 large Tomato diced
1 large yellow onion diced
1 cup of frozen peas

Fry the yellow onion till brown, brown the beef and stir in all the vegetables. Add some stock or water to simmer till cooked.
Mix in cooked pasta.

Cookiez!

Oatmeal Chocoloate Chip this time!

 Hands everywhere!

Yummies…just like Famous Amos crumbling in the mouth! Ok abit too far fetched!

Calzone or Burritos?

Learnt this trick from a friend. We often cook beef Bolognese with pasta but what more can we do with it when you just simply have too much meat sauce.

Get some tortilla and make some calzone by filling it with meat topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheese. Oven it till crisp and there you go! A calzone oozing with meat and sticky cheese. Hmm…somehow look more like a burrito! Kids just love them!

Lasagne

Time to mess at home. Mommy was given some lasagne sheet some months back and today she tried to prepare the ingredients for the kids to get their hands on cooking. It was simple. Just make some mince beef sauce by frying 250g mince beef with onions, mixed vegetables and diced tomatoes (1 400g can) and cheese sauce by cooking a tablespoon of plain flour over melted butter followed by whisking in a cup of fresh milk till a thick sauce is obtained before adding in 70g cheddar cheese.

Then the kids got busy layering the lasagne, one to do the mince beef sauce, the other the cheese sauce. So the alternate between lasagne sheet, mince beef and cheese sauce.

Finally top with mozoralle cheese and pop into the oven. 30 - 35 minutes at 180 deg C and it's done! Well the cheese was a little too brown but otherwise fine :)

Biking out @ ECP

Our first attempt at taking the kids out on pillion. Well, it's definitely a new and refreshing experience. The kids simply enjoyed the ride though Keziah was a little afraid as Mommy isn't a steady driver after all.

Nothing more refreshing than a cold coconut drink after being under the hot sun for awhile.

Keziah was going to have an end-of-term party on Friday. It's going to be a jungle theme and our dear girl wants to be a giraffe. So after her nap, Daddy and her worked on this little creation.

Mommy was busy cooking up in the kitchen. It's Mexican for the night. Instant mix but nonetheless healthy wraps.

Teachers' Day Gifts

For the first time, Mommy decided that we shall start making gifts for the teachers. Nothing elaborate. Just simple cookies and cards. The kids were really excited about the whole stirring and mixing of the cookie mix and not to mention dropping them onto the pan.

We did some punch out and made some cards to tag along the biscuits. Yes, our Keziah leaving her simple note. It started out all high but Keziah was soon distracted and had to reminded several to complete the 6 tags for her teachers.

Pizza galore

Another weekend of cooking for the kids. It's pizza day! Ok you can see Mommy isn't quite good with Chinese food and what's easy to prepare but a western meal. Fun and easy. All you need is prepare the ingredients and the kids are ready to be the chef and make their own meal!

Simply cheese pasta and roast chicken

It's Mommy's old time favourite - roast chicken and vegetables for the dinner. Well, it was meant to be simple but Keziah asked for pasta. So Mommy made an impromptu cheese sauce by warming up some fresh milk and adding in cheese singles that we had in the fridge.

One conclusion about roasting vegetables - never roast broccoli. They tend to get burnt. Our two dearies don't like zucchini so Mommy ended up replacing them with raw lettuce which Abel happily munched away but Keziah simply put them aside, preferring the former.

Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon

Kids loved stews and definitely so when it comes to beef stew. Mommy wanted to try something new and remembered a recipe once shared by another. Yes, French style and here's the recipe. It was certainly a lot of work considering the preparation and stewing time of 3 hrs! Thankfully all turned out well.