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Category: Food for Todd

Milk – How Much Should the Baby Drink??

Milk – How Much Should the Baby Drink??

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I learn something new everything. Well, after waiting for 2.5 hours at the pediatrician, I told myself, ‘die die’ must ask a lot of questions!!!!

The first thing I learnt – never visit a pd on Mondays or Saturdays. Unless it’s for a matter of life and death!!

The 2nd thing I learnt – how to calculate the intake of milk for an infant. The mathematical formula is :
Amount of milk per feed (ml) = empirical no x body mass (kg) / no. of feeds in 24hours

The empirical no is 120 to 150.

Simple right??

QED

Tofu Cheesy Fish Cake

Tofu Cheesy Fish Cake

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Laundry done. Check.
Dishes done. Check.
Extra fish cakes stored. Check.

Yes! All done. Hub has brought 宝贝 to her grandma’s place. 1.5 hours of reprieve. Time for blogging!!

It’s the time of the week again. Once a week, it’s cooking time for me. This week, it’s Tofu cheesy fish cake, using the air fryer. Sounds really healthy right??

Ingredients (whatever is in the fridge, again…)
Organic tofu (what’s tofu fish cake without tofu?!)
Fish fillet (you can use salmon)
Shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese
Mixed vegetables
Fresh button mushrooms
Flour
Egg
Salt, black pepper, spices (thyme, parsley etc) (I omitted these for 宝贝’s portion and added for mine)

Dice everything and dump them in a bowl and I aga aga all the quantity. It’s always aga aga and minimum washing for me!! Make sure everything is well mixed.

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Add flour until the mixture is sticky and you are able to shape them into balls.

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My not very shapely balls. :) I used the air fryer baking tray. It’s so small that I could only fry 4 balls at one time. Temperature : 200 degrees Celsius. Time : 10 mins

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They turned out to be really crispy and puffed up. 宝贝 loved her non salted version. Everything’s done without oil!!

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Check out her happy smile!! It’s actually quite filling. She ate 4 cakes and I ate 6. Her praises have inspired me to start thinking of next week’s menu!! Hmm… What should I cook next week??

My New Air Fryer – The Path to Healthy Eating

My New Air Fryer – The Path to Healthy Eating

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I’ve been reading about people gushing about their air fryers for a while. It was some time before I convinced myself to buy it, because of its hefty price tag!!

Anyway, I’ve bought it. I’ve only used it to fry some fish fingers and it’s true I didn’t use a drop of oil. They turned out crispy. But then again I wasn’t a fan of fish fingers.

I cut up some potatoes into strips and made my first batch of home made fries. I soaked them in water for 30 mins to get rid of the starch, brushed a little oil on them and air fried them. They turned out quite fine, though nowhere near the legendary Macs fries. Macs fries are really unbeatable and absolutely sinful, unfortunately.

Then the air fryer just sat there, under utilized, until I checked out the recipe book and googled some recipes online.

I decided to air fry some food for 宝贝’s lunch.

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As usual, no condiment meal. I put a piece of chicken thigh into the mesh basket. You can marinate it with the condiments of your choice 2-3 hours before frying or even the night before. Brush it with a layer of oil. I forgot to brush mine so it came out a little dry. Set the temperature at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 mins. If you use a traditional oven it’d take abort 30 mins.

I roasted some cherry tomatoes and some cut up spinach for 6 mins at 160 degrees Celsius.

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The chicken turned out a trifle too dry. I must try again by brushing it with a little oil. The tomatoes came out great. Nicely roasted. The spinach was a surprise. They became crunchy, like those dried seaweed that I love to snack on. The next time I fry the spinach, I should mix it with a wee bit of salt and maybe some spices. It will make a good healthy snack, for myself of course.

Quite a good experiment to have discovered crunchy spinach!! :)

It’s Cordon Bleu Weekend!

It’s Cordon Bleu Weekend!

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I saw someone cook Cordon Bleu and posted a picture of it on facebook. So I had this wave of inspiration to recreate a simplified, condiment free version that didn’t require too much time to prepare. And also to cater to 宝贝’s liking for not-so-rich food. So I had to do away with the typical cream sauce. (she complained about tcc’s spaghetti gravy for being too salty. =.=” I have succeeded in my no salt no sugar diet training on her. Too successful in fact…)

A typical Cordon Bleu involves seasoning the chicken with herbs and condiments. Then bake it in gravy for a while so that it absorbs all the rich taste. Then combining it with bacon and cheese before cooking it again. It’s a multiple stepped dish.

Well lazy me just simplified it to a few steps.

Ingredients :
Chicken breast
Bacon
Cheese (preferably not so salty ones)
Cornflakes
Egg

Lay the chicken breasts nicely in a row. If they are a wee too thick, you can pound them down to desired thickness or slice them down. Lay the bacon over the chicken. Then lay the cheese slice over the bacon. I simply used the cheddar slices because they were available in my fridge. Big mistake… They were a trifle too salty. Swiss cheese may be better.

Align the slices to the top before rolling them together. Try to fold over the cheese so that it doesn’t flow out while being baked in the oven. Fasten the roll together with toothpicks.

Beat up an egg. Pour out the cornflakes on a plate and crush them into smaller bits so that they stick better to the rolls. You can use bread crumbs too. Coat the egg dipped rolls with the cornflakes.

Line them nicely on a baking tray.

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Pop them into the preheated oven at 185 degrees Celsius for about 30 mins.

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That’s the end product. You can make some cream sauce and pour it over. But since 宝贝 doesn’t like gravy. So lazy mom didn’t make any. :p

It’s Cordon Bleu and her favourite steam cherry tomatoes. A thumbs up from 宝贝. :)

Breakfast Art

Breakfast Art

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宝贝 is a true blue carbo baby. She loves noodles, rice, bread, pasta ….. All the energy giving but non nutritious stuff. Much to the delight of the older folks. They think that I starve her by giving her little rice and loads of veggie, meat, fruits etc. *roll eyes* A starving toddler at 14.7kg at one month short of 3 years old?! You must be kidding me.

Anyway she’s more inclined to eat something that she’s made so here’s something simple n fun for breakfast.

Rainbow Crackers

2 pieces of wholemeal high fibre crackers
1 slab of cream cheese. (she loves the cow brand – whatever you call it)
Lots of dried fruits like cranberries (you can vary them because of their colours)
Lots of dried nuts and seeds (almond, macadamia, pumpkin seeds etc)

Spread a thick layer of cheese on the crackers. Let her decorate the crackers with the colourful fruits and nuts. Easy peasy. Simple to make and prepare. She gets to prepare it creatively and the best thing is… Because she prepared it, she usually eats it all up without much persuasion or coercion!

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Weekend Lunch for 宝贝 – Pasta Carbonara (my own concoction)

Weekend Lunch for 宝贝 – Pasta Carbonara (my own concoction)

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The last 10 posts were all about 宝贝. For a I-can’t-stand-kids to become an obsessed mother, I just can’t help it! But then again, I’m not too keen to play with other children still.

She probably loves weekend meals – dining outside and a change from her regular Mon-Fri porridge. Dining outside = condiments!!! That’s why she loves it. She probably gets herself a 2nd helping during her school snack time. =.=” Although I don’t add condiments to her home cooked meals, she’s not a very picky eater.

Her weekend meal this round : Pasta Carbonara (mushroom and fish), grilled asparagus and tomatoes

Well Grilled asparagus and tomatoes was pretty straight forward… Just grill lar!!

As for pasta carbonara, I memorized the recipe from a cook book somewhere (hehe… yes you are right. I’m one of those cheapo people who browse cookbooks at the bookshops and memorize the recipes… *guilty look* But it’s not easy to memorize recipes ok!!) once upon a time. I just didn’t add the herbs etc. So it’s more like a simplified, watered down version.

I used home made pasta. Just boil them for 15 mins (these are rather hard… so I boiled them for 20 mins). Usually I add in a pinch of salt and oil, but not for her. Like what I mentioned, she’s not picky anyway!!

While the pasta is cooking, to save time, start cooking the sauce! I fried the fish a little, breaking it into little pieces in the pan. Next went the diced fresh mushrooms. When they were cooked, I added the fresh milk and simmered it a little. Not too long or it would start to curdle. Beat in an egg (I used a quail’s egg as the portion was pretty small). Just mix the whole stuff together. Let it cook for a little while. The pasta should be ready. Drain it and pour it into the mixture and let it cook a little. I used to just scoop out the pasta and put it in cold water to stop it from cooking itself further. Then put them on the plate and just ladle the sauce over them. But I have seen the professionals cooking the pasta a little with the sauce before presenting them on the plate. I tried it and found that it truly tasted different. The pasta was simply more yummy. So Monkey see, monkey do lor…

There you go! Pasta Carbonara with grilled asparagus and tomatoes!!

Home Alone with 宝贝

Home Alone with 宝贝

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It has been a while since I last spent time alone in the house, by myself (it has become a myth since her Highness’ grand arrival). And also some time alone with her, just the 2 of us. I took the day off from work as my Mom, who is her primary caregiver, has gone on a short 3 day holiday – Fri to Sun. A very well deserved one, as she has already retired from the working world and should spend her golden years enjoying herself.

The whole house to myself! WOW! After sending 宝贝off to her 1/2 day school, it was spent eating a leisurely breakfast, catching up on my backlog of newspapers, a few chapters of a book that I have taken almost forever to finish, surfing the net a little and then.. it’s gone!! She’s going to be home in 1 hour!

Time to prepare her lunch. Ah.. something different from her usual boring fare of porridge. Hmm.. I don’t really have that many exciting ingredients in my refrigerator. :( I remembered reading my friend’s post on pop corn chicken for kiddos. Argh! I can’t find that post on the recipe! Nevermind, I just had to improvise from memory and rummaged for ingredients in the fridge.

I’m still putting her on a no seasoning home cooked diet. We bent the rules when we eat out. The great thing about 宝贝 is that she eats food with or without seasoning. That accounts for her hefty weight. Hehe. I came up with chicken thigh, some cornflakes, egg, milk, shredded mozzarella cheese… Ok.. good enough..

Zhiwei’s very own corn flake, cheese chicken strips!

Cut the chicken thigh into small strips, just big enough for her to hold with her fingers and eat in 2 bites.

Crush the cornflakes into powder form (Not exactly powder but small enough to be used as a coating)

Mix the cornflakes with the shredded mozzarella cheese.

Beat the egg with some milk.

Dip the chicken strips into the egg and coat it liberally with the cornflake cheese mix.

Lay them evenly on a baking tray.

Bake them in the oven at 220 degrees C, for 15 mins.

And Voila!!

Zhiwei’s Cornflakes Cheese Chicken Strips! I tried one myself, it’s nice and crispy even without any seasoning. Because the cornflakes and the cheese are good enough.

Together with baked cherry tomatoes, heated up some spinach, I used the rest of the cornflakes cum cheese cum egg to make scrambled egg, the chicken strips, all in a plate. It looked quite a lot to me, in fact, more than what I usually eat… But she cleaned it up… And declared that she loved the chicken strips and patted her round tummy.

It’s so nice to have a glutton for a daughter. :)