A Bento Set A Day

Here's one of the bento set lunches for the girls, prepared last week:



Jackfruit and grapes before the meal followed with mushroom pasta, fresh coconut water and a Loacker Mini wafer for dessert. The mushroom sauce was pre-prepared a week ago and stored in smaller portions in the freezer. Whenever I am busy, all I need to do is to reheat the sauce, broil some pastas and voila, my kiddos have hot piping food for lunch.

A Bento Set A Day

For my 3 kiddos's lunch...


Fried rice with chicken cubes, mustard green, purple sweet potato cubes, cucumbers and fried eggs. Organic papaya, green bean ice lollies and lotus root soup.

They have a different bento set everyday to perk up their mood and appetite. Today they are having something simple as there's fresh wholemeal-walnut bread. So I am preparing mackeral fish-egg-nori sandwich with old cucumber soup.

Vitagen Ice Lollies

Good quality ice creams like Haagen Dazs, New Zealand Ice Cream and Baskin Robins are very costly. My hubs like to buy these ice creams and I think it's such a waste of money to splurge on branded ice creams. I will never buy them for sure for I am an el cheapo! My girls love ice creams and so does everyone else in the family. Since I don't know how to make ice creams and don't have the time, I made the easier and faster version - ice lollies... with Vitagen, Ribena, yoghurt drinks, red bean tong sui and freshly squeezed orange juice. They are a hit with my girls and cost way cheaper than expensive branded ice creams.


Ice-lolly moulds from 100 Yen Shop costing RM4.90 and 4 bottles of Vitagen... total cost is less than RM10... cheap and nice!!



And my girls love them just as much as the 5-star ice-creams. So why not? Make my own el cheapo ice-lollies LOL!!

Beef Bolognaise Spaghetti With Spinach

To help Baby overcome her grossly serious constipation problem, I try to include greens in her lunch and dinner. She used to shun away from veggie even after going through painful episodes of constipation. But the latest constipation left her suffering quite a bit. And she knows that if she does not eat enough greens, fruits or drink enough water, she has to suffer the next day. Now, she willingly asks for greens during meal times :D Boy am I glad!!!

Here's Baby's homecooked beef bolognaise spaghetti with spinach. And a bowl of pink bean-red bean soup with pork ribs and red dates, to boost her protein and iron supply.

Anchovies Soup With Pumpkin, Pork and Fish

Here's another favorite of my girls:

Noodles with fish balls and anchovies soup.

The pot of soup is made with anchovies, yellow fish (this fish is normally used to prepare soup), minced garlic, a few slices of ginger, pork slices and pumpkin wedges. Wholesome and tasty eh?

The only stuff that ain't too healthy are the tofu fish cakes and meatballs. They are very tasty but contain MSG. My kids just love these and also those white as powder fish balls. These fish balls are very tasty and salty and most kids love them. They contain other food additives like boric acid or perhaps whitening agent to make the fish balls so white and bouncy. I only allow my kids to eat them once a week.

Do you allow your kids to eat processed fish balls and fish cakes with food additives? It's hard to escape as even pre-schools serve them as snacks during break time.

Easy-To-Fix Lunch

Whenever my mil bakes bread, my kids will have bread for lunch the next day. My mil bakes bread about twice in a week.

Here is Sherilyn's lunch - homemade marmalade jam bread (the bread is made with a bottle of marmalade jam) with mackeral fish on half a slice. The other half slice of bread is spread with her favorite kaya and topped with a slice of cheese.




Baby also ate half a slice of marmalade bread with cream cheese, a cup of chawan mushi (Japanese steamed egg) and soup of the day. Yup, she's a big fan of sunnies and refused to remove the sunnies when she ate her lunch *shake head*

Pork-Tofu Sheet-Dried Oyster Porridge

My mil cooked a pot of pork-foo choke-dried oysters porridge in a clay pot for lunch the other day. It was really delicious. Even for someone like me and Baby who dislike porridge found the porridge very tasty.

The pork that my mil used was called 'por jai yoke' (little ball meat) or 'loh see jai yoke'(baby rat meat) coz it's roundish in shape and very tender. This porridge is also suitable for toddlers.

Hakka Mien With Fresh Mushrooms And Minced Pork Sauce and Homemade Fish Balls

My mil bought some fresh Hakka mien back from Ipoh. I am not one who likes yellow noodles but my mil can always whip up something really yummy with the Hakka mien. She either shallow fries the Hakka mien till they become crispy and prepares an egg sauce with meat ala Cantonese style. Munching on the crispy fried mien can be really addictive and my kids love them. They pretend that they are eating Mammee!

The other day, she prepared the Hakka mien in another style. She blanched the Hakka mien with hot water, some salt and sesame seed oil. This way the noodles are smooth and flavorful and doesn't clump up into a block of starch. Then she prepared the sauce by frying some shallots with minced pork, dried cuttlefish and fresh mushrooms. She also boiled some homemade fish balls and blanched some sweet, fat and crunchy bean sprouts which she bought from Ipoh.


This bowl is for Baby and she loved it to bits. I also deep-freezed some of the mushroom-fish ball-pork sauce into smaller portions for future use. On days when I am in no mood to cook for her, I just heat up the frozen sauce and boil some noodles for her.



This one is for me where the 'liu' (ingredients) are more than the mien, yumsss!! :D

Don't Like Rice But Love Chicken Rice!

Baby does not fancy eating rice too much. Her taste bud is very much similar to Sherilyn and thank God Baby eats better than Sherilyn. Baby can feed herself pretty well and she chews her food. Sherilyn still needs my mil to feed her at times, especially when it comes to eating rice with dishes. When Sherilyn was younger, she used to store her food in her mouth for the longest time before spitting them out! My mistake of blending her food until she was 3 years old.

Last week my mil cooked a very flavorful pot of chicken rice. She cooked the chicken, mushrooms and chinese sausages with sesame seed oil, a little sodium-reduced soy sauce and a little black sauce. The chicken rice wasn't too salty and I gave some to Baby to try. I thought Baby wouldn't eat the rice but I was wrong. She lurved it and polished off the whole bowl of rice with chicken and mushrooms!


Baby happily whacking her chicken rice and kombu soup.

Angels in pink.... when there's chicken rice, I am rest assured to see 3 happy, smiley faces. I wish I had a wrinkle-free and line-free face like theirs. Wrinkles are starting to sprout out around my eyes and I hope I don't have to use eye wrinkle cream soon :S

Homemade Bread, Steamed Egg And Soup For Lunch

I ran out of lunch ideas for Baby the other day. So I served her my mil's homemade wholemeal bread with cream cheese spread. Also made her chawan mushi (Japanese steamed egg) and a bowl of soup of the day.


Verdict : everything was walloped! Such a stress-free, fuss-free, easy-to-prepare lunch!


Guess who lay the flash cards on the floor?

Baby choked on a piece of ice cube today. Hop over to my other blog to read the story, which is every parent's nightmare!

Cantonese Style Pasta

My 2 older love eating yee mein or yee mee or yee fu mein (deep fried noodles made of eggs and flour). If I buy yee mein, I will either cook it Cantonese style, ie. with egg sauce poured over the the crispy noodles or Hokkien style.

The other day, I prepared the yee mee ala Cantonese style for lunch. First I prepared the sauce. The ingredients used were chicken breast, cabbage, 3 eggs, some left over smoked salmon, soy sauce, some corn flour to thicken the sauce and a dollop of thick dark sauce. Here is how it looks like in the wok:

I ran out of corn flour, so the sauce was not thick enough.

At the same time in another stove, I boiled some Heinz alphabet and number pasta with some cubed carrots for Baby. This portion is enough for lunch, dinner and deep freezing:



Before adding the dark sauce and remaining soy sauce into the sauce/ingredients, I scooped up some of them from the wok and poured in on Baby's pasta. I don't like putting too much seasoning into Baby's food. Here's how Baby's pasta looks like:



When it has cooled down, I put it into containers for deep freezing:



And this is for the 2 older gals:
I seldom buy yee mee for the gals as I feel uncomfortable with one of the ingredients called 'ash' used to make the noodles. I wonder what ash is. Could it be the remains of fire or some kind of chemicals that makes the noodles so tasty? I wish someone could give me an answer on this.



Baby enjoying her Cantonese style pasta.

Tasty Kids And Toddlers Meal - Mushroom Soup Macaroni With Fresh Mushrooms, Fish And Mixed Herbs

First marinate the fish slice with mixed herbs and some sea salt.


This is the type of mushrooms that I use. You can use any type of fresh mushrooms.


Once the pot of water is boiling, pour in the mushroom soup powder mix. I use Campbell's mushroom soup powder in sachet form. It's MSG-free. Stir well. Then dump all the shiitake mushrooms and fish into the pot. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. Add in 1-2 slices of cheese for a more cheesy taste (optional). When it's cooked, pour in the macaroni and mix well.

The macaroni / pasta / spaghetti can be cooked separately in another pot.


Once cooled down, store in small air-tight containers for deep freezing. These will be for Baby. Most of the time, rascal #2 will pinch 1/4 of it from her baby sister!


Rascal #1 and #2 enjoying their mushroom macaroni.

Pasta Bolognaise For Kids And Toddlers

My 3 gals, especially Baby love pasta and spaghetti with bolognaise sauce. I normally use minced beef, pork or fish. I cook this dish for them at least once or twice a week. Last week, I used fish, shiitake mushrooms, big onions, tomatoes and celery to cook with the bolognaise sauce.

Here's my sauce and all the ingredients in the non-stick pan.

This is how the sauce looks like once the cooking is done.

I boiled 2 types of pastas - one is fettuccine for the 2 older gals and one is Heinz alphabet and number pasta for Baby. When the pasta is cooked al dente, I poured the sauce over and mixed everything well. I sprinkled some Parmesan grated cheese for the 2 older gals. No cheese for Baby coz I find it contains too much sodium for a tiny toddler.

This bowl is for the older gal.


This bowl is Baby's pasta and carrots before the sauce is added. I boiled the pasta and diced carrots together. With the carrots, the pasta would taste very sweet. Baby is a carrot lover and sometimes when she has no appetite to eat anything, she will survive on soup and carrots alone.


After mixing the sauce to the pasta and once cooled down, I transferred the pasta into small air-tight Tupperware containers for deep-freezing.

On another note, after a day's outing at Times Square yesterday, rascal #2 had continuous vomiting. Find out what happened at my health blog.

All-Time Favorite Fried Vermicelli

We have homecooked fried vermicelli at least once or twice a week. My 3 gals do not seem to get fed up with fried vermicelli, so do I. Preparation is easy, cooking time is short and I can cook large portions enough for lunch and dinner and even for deep freezing. On days when I don't have the time to cook, all I need to do to put piping hot and tasty food on the dining table is to reheat the fried mee hoon.



My fried mee hoon with bean sprouts, cabbage, chicken breast slice, 3 eggs, garlic, dried shrimps and shiitake mushrooms. It is seasoned with MSG-free and preservative-free soy sauce and pepper. Baby and Sherilyn love this noodles to bits!

Homemade White Sauce Fish Pasta With Shiitake Mushrooms

I made white sauce fish pasta with Shiitake mushrooms for Baby several weeks back. I had wanted to buy the instant white sauce by Heinz but when I looked at the ingredients, I figured I could whip up a healthier version. I used Baby's formula milk powder, about a tablespoon of butter, a dash of seasalt, a slice of processed cheddar cheese and a few dashes of McCormick mixed herbs. I also chopped up some carrots and french beans. You can chop up some celeries too. I used Heinz alphabet and numbers iron enriched pasta.

Here's Baby's lunch and dinner:

It tasted exactly like the canned mushroom soup and rascal #2 was so hooked on it that she kept pestering me for Baby's pasta for the next few days. And know what? Most of it went into rascal #2's tummy coz Baby didn't quite like pasta cooked this way. Baby hates milk and does not fancy anything that has milk in it. She prefers pasta / spaghetti cooked ala bolognaise.

I made extra portions and deep freeze them.

Heinz Pasta, Heinz Fruit Drink And Yau Char Kuai!

Last week, I went to Babyland to get some stock of Heinz bowled pasta as we will be going to Penang for a holiday soon. These will be really handy for outings and holidays.

Baby only loves bolognaise style or anything that has tomato and mixed herbs but dislikes white sauce pasta. She does not really like milk in her food. She hates cow's milk anyway except fresh human milk :S

I also got this Heinz apple and strawberry puree, which to my surprise Baby loved. I added some water to dilute it though as the puree is quite thick and sweet.



After shopping for baby's stuff, mil requested for Yau Char Kuai, so hubby went to Chow Yang (in SS2) to get the tastiest and 'cleanest' yau char kuai in town. The road side stall is located a few stalls away from Mee Yoke Lim. I could not snap a pic of the stall as there were many cars blocking the stall and the traffic there was quite horrendous.



The gloriously sinful yau char kuai, hum chim peng with red beans filling and khap choong. It's 'clean' coz the oil used to deep fry the flour sticks is fresh and not recycled and 'black'.

Homemade White Sauce Pasta With Fish

I whipped up yet another very tasty and wholesome dish for Baby the other day. She loved it very much. It's so simple and quick to cook too. You can volume cook this dish and deep freeze into small batches for future quickie meals.

You'll need some fresh mushrooms, any variety will do but I prefer white button mushrooms and shitake.
Chop up the mushrooms and some french beans. Marinate a few slices of fish with some McCormick mixed herbs and sea salt.

Then cook some Heinz iron-enriched ABC-123s pasta al dente. At the same time, using another pot in another stove, pour in some mixed milk formula and butter. Then boil the french beans first for about 5-10 minutes. I boiled for 10 minutes as I want the beans softer coz Baby only has 6 teeth. Next, dump in the pasta, mushrooms and the fish and cook for another 5 minutes. Lastly, toss in 1-2 slices of processed cheddar cheese. I only use a slice as I didn't want Baby to eat too much salty cheese.



After the pasta has cooled down, immediately transfer them into small containers and deep freeze them. They are REALLY handy on busy days when you don't have the time to cook.

Pumpkin Bread With Scrambled Eggs For Lunch

Baby has been having the sniffles and she still has quite a bit of phlegm. All these have been dampening her appetite. Lost for ideas again, I really didn't know what to cook for her. So I whipped up something really easy and simple for her the other day. I gave her a small slice of organic pumpkin bread with sunflower seeds slathered with some Philadephia cream cheese and avocado. Also made some scrambled eggs with butter and fresh milk. I cut everything into small bits and sprinkled some rice bubbles onto the concoction as Baby loves rice bubbles. Rice bubbles are puffed rice, so it's quite wholesome right? Vitamins and iron enriched rice somemore, hehe... I thought she would spit them all out again but I was wrong, she so loved them, phew....






She spoon-fed herself and licked her bowl clean, YAY to mummy and Baby!

Simple And Yummy Lunch For The Kids

Daddy had bought a lot of buns and bread again from our favorite bakery. I had wanted to rehead the frozen bolognaise meat sauce and boil some spaghetti for the kids but mil suggested to finish off the buns first since there were too many. So the kids had buns with bolognaise meat sauce and for dessert, mah mah's home baked egg sponge cake (kai tan koa).


The bolognaise meat sauce.




Butter buns sandwiched with bolognaise meat sauce and home baked egg sponge cake.

Animal-Shaped French Toast

Feeling lost on lunch ideas, I made french toasts for the girls with wholemeal walnut bread and eggs. Then cut them up into bear shape with my cookie cutters.



That's how Sherilyn ate them - with kaya slathered on the toasts, topped with cheese.
She loved them.


Baby didn't quite like the french toasts and would only swallow them when fed together with soup. She prefered to eat the carrots from the soup.