Food for Todd Archives - Page 2 of 4 - My One Cent Worth of Thoughts

Homemade Almond Milk

April 20, 2014 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Hmm… I seem to be doing a lot of posts on food lately. Trying to be more domesticated for the sake of the children.

The food stuff I do aren’t too adventurous… pretty idiot proof on the whole. Well, considering my less than illustrious track record in home economics, they are usually very simple to prepare. I should list out my home economics exploits one day…

I have been ordering almond milk (original and unsweetened) from Iherb. 2 liter bottles and believe or not, the children finish them within 2-3 days!! Ok I do drink some of it (figured that since I pay so much for it, I should benefit from the high calcium and low fat properties too!)

However, the supply has been erratic because Iherb decides every other day to discontinue it!!! Gah!

I had to turn to a more expensive local source – silk almond milk from cold storage or market place. And even that source isn’t too reliable either. We buy up all the available stock (just 5 packets) at any branch whenever we see it!

I googled on the almond milk recipe and decided that it’s within my idiot proof skills to make it. So I started stocking up on organic almonds, for rainy days….

It doesn’t come any cheaper than the store bought ones (not factoring the p$ per hour of my time that I used to make it) but it’s awfully tedious!!! And messy… Maybe it’s just me… ?

Anyway, here goes …

2 packets of 213g of almonds yielded just about 2-3 liters. Only….

Soak the almonds in water, just enough to cover them for 1-2 days to remove the phytate. By removing the phytate, the body is able to absorb more of the goodness in the almonds. Basically, the longer the almonds are soaked, the more water they absorb, thus yielding a higher quantity of creamier almond milk.

My fat almonds – after being soaked for almost 2 days…

Add the almonds into the blender. For every cup of almonds, I use 2 cups of water. If you don’t like the original unsweetened taste of almond milk, you can add maple syrup / honey / other sweeteners to taste. Or you can even add pandan juice to make pandan almond milk!

Anyway it’s for the children, so no sweetener was added.

Then… Blend… Pretty no brainer right??? Hehe.

I pour the blender almond milk into a soup cloth to strain the almond bits out.

Looks yummy eh?? Why is it in a plastic container… I wasn’t quite prepared for it. No glass bottles at that point of time. So I just “hum tummed” any empty container I could turn out in my cupboard!!! Made a mental note to pick up proper glass bottles from Ikea. And a funnel too. I used to have one, but don’t know where it disappeared to. Sigh…

It’ll probably last 2-3 days.

I air fried the leftover almond bits at 160°C for 15 minutes. Quite crunchy and fragrant after that. 宝贝 has been eating it during snack time. Healthy snacks! I’ve been adding it to my breakfast cereal. Probably it can be added to cooking and even baking! So no wastage!

But damn! It was hard work!!! I drank a big cup of it to reward myself!

Adding On to 小小宝贝’s Purée Repertoire – Asparagus Purée

April 8, 2014 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

小小宝贝 has finally sprouted 2 tiny teeth, after 12 months. He’s a late “teether” just like his sister, for his Mama (yours truly) was an even later “teether”. According to my parents, my first tooth sprouted when I was 2 years old. They were going to make dentures for me as they suspected that I would be going through life without teeth!!

The good thing with having a late “teether”, especially when I’m breastfeeding him, I don’t get bitten. And the teeth start deteriorating later.

So I’m still putting him on purée diet although I’m now making his purée more chunky. And some soft fruits and vegetables like bananas, strawberries, pumpkins etc, he’s started to take bites out of them instead of being purée fed.

And I’m expanding his food repertoire so that he gets to taste a wide variety of food in their natural form without mixing them together.

Asparagus is low in calories and is very low in sodium. It is a good source of vitamin B6, calcium, magnesium and zinc, and a very good source of dietary fibre, protein, beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamin, riboflavin, rutin, niacin, folic acid, iron, phosphorus, potassium, copper, manganese and selenium, as well as chromium, a trace mineral that enhances the ability of insulin to transport glucose from the bloodstream into cells. The amino acid asparagine gets its name from asparagus, as the asparagus plant is relatively rich in this compound.

I chopped them up in small pieces. Steam them for 15 mins then blend.

All yummy and ready for consumption!

Food diary summary…

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream

March 25, 2014 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Wow! I found this half written draft amongst my published posts. Let me finish it before 小小宝贝 wakes up.

Making homemade ice cream is much easier than you think. I’ve always thought that I need an ice cream machine. Actually I bought one like a decade ago. It’s probably still in my Mom’s storeroom. Still not opened… *faint*

Here’s what you need : strawberries. Haha. No brainer right?!Freeze them overnight.

The food I produce are usually no brainers, based on my less than illustrious track record in home economics. (Makes a mental note to list my home economics exploits/disasters one day)

Frozen strawberries. Rock hard!

I added some bananas to it to give it a natural sweetness, in case the strawberries are too sour. Add a dollop of natural yoghurt and milk. Then blend.

It works for various kinds of fruits. Just remember to balance sour fruits with sweet ones, such as bananas.

It feels more like sorbet though. But it’s yummy and at least I know what goes into it. No artificial sugar or preservatives.

You can freeze it if you are not eating it immediately.

Weaning off Breastmilk – Almond Milk

March 12, 2014 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

My target for breastfeeding 小小宝贝 was 12 months. He’s now 14 months old. Hmm… Seems like I’ve exceeded expectations (in corporate terms ?). Anyway the breastmilk has been dwindling and he’s deriving more nutrients from solids than BM anyway. So it’s more like a good to have but not a necessity.

And it’s more of an emotional connection for me. It’s great to feel needed. ☺️That’s why I’ve been delaying the weaning. For 宝贝 I wasn’t given a choice. She refused to latch on after I was away for one week. We will see how it goes for him.

I’ve reduced my pumping to just 12 noon lunch time and evening 6pm.

Due to experiences with 宝贝’s food allergies and eczema, I’ve been reading up a lot on nutrition, diet and whathaveyous. So instead of formula milk (cow’s milk) which has a lot of additives, I’ve decided to go with plant milk, almond milk.

Although it’s low in fats, but it’s extremely high in calcium and other forms of nutrients. In fact, even higher than animal milk. Fats can be easily replaceable through other food.

The only concern is – is he allergic to almond which falls under the high allergenic group, nuts.

I bought this from Iherb, original, unsweetened almond milk.

I tried it myself… Eh! Quite nice!!

So I gave both of them some, in the morning. In case allergy develops, I’ve time to bring him to the clinic for anti histamine.

And guess what, both of them were fighting to drink it. Good news!!! After 3 days, it’s been confirmed that he’s not allergic to almonds. Time to try other nuts which are full of wonderful stuff! ??

The bad news is, Iherb discontinued this right after I bought my first packet. Sheesh!

So it’s off to cold storage to buy the expensive Silk brand almond milk. $15 per packet.

Food diary summary

My homemade almond milk recipe

Food Diary Summary

January 1, 2014 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Day 1 : Breakfast 1 teaspoon brown rice cereal
Day 2 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 3 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 4 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 6 teaspoons pumpkin purée; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 5 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 6 teaspoons pumpkin purée; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 6 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 6 teaspoons pumpkin purée; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 7 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 5 teaspoons spinach purée; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 8 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 5 teaspoons spinach purée; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 9 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 5 teaspoons spinach purée; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 10 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 6 teaspoons apple purée; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal
Day 11 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 2 teaspoons apple purée; Dinner 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal, 6 teaspoons apple purée
Day 12 : Breakfast 3 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 6 teaspoons apple purée; Dinner 6 teaspoons pumpkin purée
Day 13 : Breakfast 4 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 6 teaspoons sweet potato purée; Dinner 6 teaspoons apple purée
Day 14 : Breakfast 4 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 60 ml sweet potato purée; Dinner 30 ml spinach purée
Day 15 : Breakfast 4 teaspoons brown rice cereal; Lunch 60 ml sweet potato purée; Dinner 30 ml apple purée
Day 16 : Breakfast 4 teaspoons oatmeal cereal; Lunch 30 ml spinach purée; Dinner 60 ml apple purée
Day 17 : Breakfast 4 teaspoons oatmeal cereal; Lunch 60 ml apple purée; Dinner 30 ml spinach purée
Day 18 : Breakfast 4 teaspoons oatmeal cereal; Lunch 30 ml spinach purée; Dinner 60ml apple purée
Day 19 : Breakfast 4 teaspoons oatmeal cereal; Lunch 30 ml sweet pea purée; Dinner 60 ml apple purée
Day 20 : Breakfast 5 teaspoons oatmeal cereal; Lunch 30ml sweet pea purée, 60ml apple purée; Dinner 30ml Spinach purée, 60ml pumpkin purée
Day 21 : Breakfast 5 teaspoons oatmeal cereal; Lunch 30ml sweet pea purée, 60ml apple purée; Dinner 30ml Spinach purée, 60ml pumpkin purée
Day 22 : Breakfast 5 teaspoons oatmeal cereal; Lunch 30ml spinach purée, 60ml pear purée; Dinner 30ml Spinach purée, 60ml apple purée
Day 23 : Breakfast – increased to 6 teaspoons oatmeal cereal. Lunch – pear purée 2nd day
Day 24 : Lunch – pear purée 3rd day
Day 25 : Lunch – new purée – carrot
Day 26 : Lunch – carrot purée 2nd day
Day 27 : Lunch – carrot purée 3rd day
Day 28 : Lunch – new purée – banana
Day 29 : Lunch – banana purée day 2
Day 30 : Lunch – banana purée day 3
Day 31 : Introduction to meat purée. Lunch – new purée – cod fish purée
Day 32 : Lunch – cod fish purée day 2
Day 33 : Lunch – cod fish purée day 3
Day 34 : Lunch – new purée – chicken purée
Day 35 : Lunch – chicken purée day 2
Day 36 : Lunch – chicken purée day 3
Day 37 : Lunch – new purée – beef purée
Day 38 : Lunch – beef purée day 2
Day 39 : Lunch – beef purée day 3
Day 40 : Increase to 2 purées for lunch and dinner. Lunch – 1 meat purée, 1 fruit purée. Dinner – 1 veg purée, 1 fruit purée. Lunch – new purée – avocado purée
Day 41 : Lunch – avocado purée day 2
Day 42 : Lunch – avocado purée day 3
Day 43-45 : No new purée introduction (near the departure of holiday)
Day 46-59 : No new purée introduction. (On holiday)
Day 60 -61 : No new purée introduction. (Too concussed from the trip :p)
Day 62 : Lunch – new purée – pork purée
Day 63 : Lunch – pork purée day 2
Day 64 : Lunch – pork purée day 3
Day 65 : Increase of no. of purée from 2 to 3 for lunch and dinner. 1 meat purée (30 ml), 1 veg purée (30 ml), 1 fruit purée (80 ml)
Day 66 : Lunch – new purée – apricot purée
Day 67 : Lunch – apricot purée day 2
Day 68 : Lunch – apricot purée day 3
Day 69 : Lunch – new purée – broccoli purée
Day 70 : Lunch – broccoli purée day 2
Day 71 : Lunch – broccoli purée day 3
Day 72 : Introduction of Lactogg before breakfast
Day 73 : lactogg day 2
Day 74 : lactogg day 3
Day 75 : Lunch – new purée – white bait purée
Day 76 : Lunch – white bait purée day 2
Day 77 : Lunch – white bait purée day 3
Day 78 : Lunch – new purée – salmon purée
Day 79 : Lunch – salmon purée day 2
Day 80 : Lunch – salmon purée day 3
Day 81 : Lunch – new purée – threadfin purée
Day 82 : Lunch – threadfin purée day 2
Day 83 : Lunch – threadfin purée day 3
Day 84 : no new purée – slack :p
Day 85 : Lunch – new purée – prune purée
Day 86 : Lunch – prune purée day 2
Day 87 : Lunch – prune purée day 3
Day 88 : Lunch – new purée – white cabbage purée
Day 89 : Lunch – white cabbage purée day 2
Day 90 : Lunch – white cabbage purée day 3
Day 91 : No new purée….
Day 92 : No new purée…

New food introduced.
– Strawberries. No allergy. Thank goodness
– Almond Milk. Preparing for BM weaning.
– Asparagus purée

Sukiyaki Egg Cups

October 7, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

This is an extremely easy dish to cook. You can google bacon egg cups and everyone on pininterest is pinning it.

I tweaked it a little and substituted the bacon for sukiyaki pork strips. I’ve cut down a lot on processed meats such as bacon, sausages which are high in sodium and preservatives. I’m sure it’d taste a lot yummier with bacon but I didn’t like the idea of hastening myself and the family to the grave.

You just need the following :
A muffin tray
Sukiyaki pork strips (or bacon strips)
Egg
Cheese (optional)
Salt and pepper and herbs (to taste)

Line the muffin tray cavities with the pork strips. Crack an egg into each cavity. Add salt, pepper or herbs to taste.

Pop the tray into the oven. 15 mins at 200°C. Or when the egg sets. Sprinkle cheese bits over the eggs.

宝贝 gave it a thumbs up and declared that the “jellied” eggs tasted fantastic!!

Cooking with 宝贝 – Butter Cookies

September 7, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

I’ve been keeping this simple recipe so that I can bake this with 宝贝. I can’t remember where I copied it from though. I usually copy and paste interesting recipes into my phone notes.

She’s been clamoring to bake cookies ever since she did it at school and at Totts. She even went shopping for baking stuff with me. We bought a couple of cool gingerbread boy and girl cookie cutters which have been idling in the drawer for months.

We needed to bring food for her school’s pattern party and the same day was also Teacher’s Day so I thought, why not?? We made one for everyone in class, including her 3 teachers. We even made 2 more for her “bus” friends. We even had a lot of dough leftover for our own consumption.

The butter cookies were of the right texture – not moist and with the right crumbly taste. Pretty yummy actually and neither were they overly sweet. Definitely a recipe for keeps.

I set her to the task of measuring out the ingredients. It trained her motor skills and it helped her with recognizing numbers in the hundreds. She diligently measured out the ingredients and set them aside. I only measured out the butter which was too difficult for her to cut up.

I kneaded all the ingredients into a big chunk of dough. Then it’s over to her again. She took the dough out bit by bit, flattened them and cut the shapes out with cookie cutters. I helped her lay them neatly on the paper lined baking trays as they were too soft to be handled by her. See all the misshapen ones out there!

We were mighty proud of the end results. :)

Check out the little gingerbread boys and girls, pigs, rabbits and birds.

320g Butter (I used unsalted butter)
600g Self Raising Flour
150g Icing Sugar (I used normal sugar as I didn’t have icing sugar at home)
1 egg (lightly whisked)

Simple right? Just 4 ingredients. You can add crushed nuts and dried fruits to it. Or you can decorate the cookies with frosting after they are baked.

1. Mix the flour and sugar in a large bowl. My largest bowl was too small. I resorted to using my steel soup pot. :p

2. Add softener butter into the flour sugar mixture. Add the egg in.

3. Knead until the dough is formed.

4. Roll the dough. Flatten it. Cut out the dough with cookie cutters.

5. Bake them for 13-15 mins in a preheated oven for 180°C. If you are using an air fryer, bake the dough for 10 mins at 180°C in the baking tray. I used both because I was trying to finish the baking as soon as I could.

6. Once they are baked, leave them on the cooling rack. Store them in an air tight container when they are cooled. Or eat them all up! Very addictive. :)

Easy peasy. If 宝贝 and I can bake them, anyone can!

Food Diary Day 88 – white cabbage purée

September 3, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

I’ve been slacking in updating my food diary BUT I’m still diligently introducing low allergenic food to 小小宝贝 every 3 days. I’ll try to update it as often as I can.

Today is white cabbage day!

I love to eat white cabbage! You just need to lightly stir fry it to bring the sweetness out of it. It’s vastly versatile and can be paired off with most food. Best of all, it’s one of the low allergenic foods. Not only that, cabbage is a good source of beta-carotene, vitamin C and fiber.

Wash the leaves thoroughly. Cut them up into strips and steam them for 10 minutes.

All my cabbages stuffed into the steamer blender up to it’s brim.

Then blend!

I hope he will love it tomorrow.

Food diary summary…

Food Diary Day 19 – Sweet Pea Purée

July 8, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

This is the first store bought purée (well, minus the Heinz apple one which was unintentional) for 小小宝贝.

We had prepared sweet pea purée for 宝贝 a few years back. After our first attempt, we vowed not to do it again. It simply wasn’t worth the hassle.

In case, you are interested in the preparation procedure…
Buy a bag of frozen green peas from any supermarket.
Steam them for 10 mins.
Blend them.
Press the purée against a sieve to get rid of the hard skin.

It was the last step that “killed” us.

After sieving one big serving of green pea (the sieving took at least 15 minutes), we ended up with just 1/3 of it. Pathetic. After all that hard work….

So, while I shun off the shelf purée, the Healthy Times sweet pea purée is good enough for me.

Food Diary Summary…

Food Diary Day 13 – Sweet Potato Purée

July 2, 2013 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

小小宝贝’s purée repertoire has expanded. I’ve introduced him his first root – sweet potato.

Sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta-carotene (a provitamin A carotenoid), vitamin C, vitamin B6, manganese and potassium.

I’m slowly adding on food from every category and colours. I love colourful food!

Preparation :
Steam the sweet potato for 15-20 mins.
Skin it. After steaming, the flesh detaches easily from the skin. Blend it.