Baby friendly Thai Basil Pork Rice

This is a dish that I like cooking cos it's really simple. Coupled with an egg, it's a perfect meal. 

I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5 and it takes about 30 minutes to prepare. 

Baby friendly Salmon Baked Rice

Here's a simple recipe for a Salmon Baked Rice! I like it a lot! I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5 and it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to prepare this dish. 

Baby Friendly Cynthia's Alfredo

This is one extremely tasty recipe I love to bits (: The fresh pasta I used helped enhance the taste of the dish. I'd rate this dish a difficulty level 3 out of 5 and it'd take 30 mins to prepare.

Baby Friendly Cynthia's Alfredo Recipe

This recipe serves 2 - 3 pax

1 chicken leg, cut into bite sized pieces

1 carrot, cut into strips

1/2 pack shinmeiji mushrooms, cut into bite sized pieces 

1/2 broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

2 portions of tagliatelle (I used fresh ones) 

1/2 cup shredded parmesan (from block)

150ml to 200ml cooking cream

1 chunky English sausage, cut into chunks

2 egg yolks

Garlic powder

Dried mixed herb

Black pepper 

Olive oil

1. Stir fry chicken with olive oil, dried herbs, black pepper and garlic powder.

2. Add sausage and stir fry.

3. Add carrot and mushroom and cook for 2 mins or so.

4. Add broccoli and stir fry for 2 mins.

5. Add cream and mix well. Add black pepper and garlic powder. 

6. Add cheese and egg yolks. Mix well.

7. Cook for another min or so.. add cooked and drained pasta.

8. Mix well and serve!

9. Enjoy!

Baby Friendly 1 Pot Tomato Rice

This is a really simple 1 pot/rice cooker rice and it tasted really good! I'd rate it a difficulty level 2 out of 5. It takes about 15 minutes to prepare and let the rice cooker do the works. Adriel loves this and so do I even though I'm on a low carb diet XD 

Baby Friendly 1 Pot Tomato Rice

1.5 cups rice 

1/2 broccoli, diced

1 carrot, diced

1/3 pack shinmeiji mushrooms, diced

4 cloves of garlic

2 cups water mixed with chicken stock (I used 1.5 cups stock and 0.5 cups water, use all chicken stock if stock is home cooked)

200g beef slices

1 chicken leg

1 tomato, marked with a X the top

Put all into rice cooker and cook as per white rice function! Yummy! 😍

Baby Friendly Oyakudon

This is a simple dish that Adriel surprisingly likes! It's pretty simple to cook too!

I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5 and it takes about 30 minutes to cook, given that rice is cooked. 

Adriel loves it (: He ate the meat and veg via a preloaded spoon.

Baby Friendly Oyakydon Recipe

This recipe serves 2-3 pax

2 onions, sliced

1/2 broccoli 

2 chicken thighs, cubed

1 pack bonito flakes + hot water OR stock 

2 eggs

Method

1. Fry onions with olive oil till slightly translucent.

2. Add chicken and fry for 2 mins.

3. Add stock/bonito flakes + enough hot water to cover ingredients.

4. Put lid on and boil for 5 mins with lid on.

5. Add broccoli and boil for another 3 mins with lid on.

6. Add egg and boil for 2 more mins without lid.

(Ensuring that egg is cooked through for babies/toddlers)

6. Enjoy!

Baby Friendly Creamy Pasta

This recipe was highly raved by mama Angie in the BLW group that I'm in. Original recipe is from Mother Queen Z. The sauce is really creamy but it was well liked by hubby. It was okay for Adriel but way too creamy for my liking. Then again, you may like it so here I am to share it (:

This recipe takes 30 minutes to prepare and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Baby Friendly Creamy Pasta

This recipe feeds 2 - 3 pax

6oz fresh milk

10g plain flour

20g grated cheese

10g cream cheese

50g broccoli, cut into bite sized portions

1 carrot, sliced

1 stalk of celery, sliced

Olive oil

cooked pasta, enough for 2-3 pax

garlic powder

dried herb of choice (oregano, rosemary all work)

Method

1. Cook olive oil, milk and flour on low heat till it thickens.

2. Add in cheeses and mix well.  

3. Add in garlic powder and dried herb.

4. Add in veggie and reduce heat. Enable vegetables to cook through. You may choose to boil/steam it beforehand too.

5. Add in pasta and serve.

6. Enjoy! 

Baby Friendly Waffles

These waffles are easy to whip up and freeze really well. I do not use sugar but use banana to sweeten it instead. You can even add blueberries to make blueberry waffles! Yum! They're crunchy on the outside yet soft and fluffy on the inside. 

This recipe takes about 30 minutes to whip up 1 batch of them.. I'd rate them a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Baby Friendly Waffles

1 ripe banana

160g cake flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 egg separated + 1 egg white 

250ml fresh milk

3 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp cinammon 

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

1. Mix dry ingredients together. 

2. Add banana, egg yolk, milk, oil & vanilla bean paste in. 

3. Whisk up egg whites till stiff peaks are formed. 

4. Fold in egg whites into yolk batter in 3 additions. 

5. Cook as per waffle machine's instructions. I did about 4 mins each.

NOTE: This has a very faint sweetness to it so feel free to add 1 more banana, replacing 20 to 30ml milk or add a few tbsp of castor sugar if you'd like to sweeten it..

Baby Friendly Veggie & Mushroom (Creamy) Risotto

I've been away for too long! I have not been baking much but I've been cooking quite a bit for the family. Here are a few baby friendly recipes I'd love to share! Here's a risotto I love to cook that has got Adriel's heart. It allows me to add lots of veggie that he sometimes would not eat otherwise.

It requires constant stirring when cooking so be ready to stir for a good 20 mins or so but the results are so worth the effort (: I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5 and it takes about 40 mins in all to prepare and cook.

Veggie & Mushroom (Creamy) Risotto Recipe 

Serves 4

1 onion (yellow)

1 carrot

5 to 8 white button mushrooms 

1/2 pack Shinmeiji mushroom 

1 stalk celery

1/2 broccoli

1.25 cup Arborio rice

Stock (about 700ml to 1 litre)

1 tbsp butter 

Olive oil

cooking cream (If you like the creamy version)

NOTE: You can add any veggie you like. I did cauliflowers and pumpkins too and they tasted great.

1, Chop up everything into small pieces. 

2. Add butter to pan. Melt the butter and cook on medium heat.

3. Stir fry onions till translucent. Put in all vegetables except broccoli and stir fry for a few minutes.

4. Add in rice. Stir fry for 2 mins. 

5. Add in 1 ladle of warm/hot stock. Crank heat down to low. 

6. Stir. And stir! And stir!

7. Stir till liquid does not run down the middle when you run your spatula through the middle of pan. 8. Add in next ladle of stock. Do it in many additions. Stir, dry and repeat. 

9. 0 mins into cooking, add broccoli. 

10. Takes about 20 mins. Taste rice for doneness. Add cream in place of stock in the last 5 mins of cooking if you like a creamy risotto. You can also add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese if you'd like. 

11. Enjoy!

Gordon Ramsay's Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

This herb crusted lamb is a favourite of both hubby and I and it's a recipe I've been cooking very often. Even Adriel has it with us. I've tried it a couple of times with and without a couple ingredients so I'll list those I find optional in the recipe. 

I adopted the recipe from this site but I made adjustments according to our fancy as we went along. 

Adriel's portion! He sure is eating better lately! 

Anyway, this recipe feeds 2 - 3 depending on how much meat you'd fancy. I usually serve it with greens and fruits. The recipe takes about 40 minutes in all to prepare and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Pumpkin mantou (baby friendly)

I was exploring with food for Adriel and I did these pumpkin mantous for Adriel. They're pretty soft when steamed but they develop a harden skin after cooling down XD Nevertheless, they're still good. I'd peel off the skin before serving. 

These mantous can be frozen for up to 3 months and steamed to heat up prior to eating. 

This recipe can be done with a mixer or by elbow grease! XD 

It'd take about 2h in all to prepare these and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Pumpkin mantou (baby friendly) Recipe

80g pumpkin

5.5g instant yeast

1/2 tsp sugar

75ml warm water

4 tbsp oil (I used olive oil)

250g cake flour

Method

Peel and cut the pumpkin.

Steam on high heat till soft. I steamed it for about 10 mins.

Nice and soft. Drain off excess water, if any. 

Mash the pumpkin while it is hot. 

Add sugar to warm water. Add instant yeast. Stir well.

Set aside.

After 10 mins! 

Put all ingredients into mixer or in mixing bowl. Knead the dough till smooth and elastic.

Oil bowl before setting dough to rest. Cover bowl with a moist towel. Leave bowl in a warm place (like an unused oven) for an hour for dough to rise.

Nice and fluffy. The dough would have doubled in size. 

Shape accordingly. Use lots of cake flour where needed to prevent sticking. You can roll out a batch of dough, apply water on the surface of the dough and roll it like a Swiss roll. The water would help in sticking the dough together. Portion accordingly and place it on baking paper.

Steam for 15 to 20 mins depending on the size of the mantou.

Enjoy! 

Pandan Gula Meleka Cake

I got rather inspired to bake after a couple of successful bakes last week.. On Sunday, I baked this Pandan Gula Meleka Cake, inspired by the Ondeh Ondeh.

I've been wanting to blog this recipe but since school started on Monday, the admin work and marking has been hellish. I literally slept 2 hours every night, with the exception of last night where I had a better 6 hour sleep. My apologies to those who have been waiting for this recipe!

I'm still dead tired but most of my tasks have been completed for the term.. It's exciting to know that my September Holidays are just round the corner! I plan to catch up on a lot of sleep, bake and craft! 

So anyway, this Pandan Gula Meleka Cake is made with a pandan chiffon base, a swiss meringue gula melaka buttercream and a buttercream sauce.

It'd take about 3 - 4 hours to bake and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5 if you can do chiffons.. and maybe a 4 out of 5 is chiffons are tricky for you.

Old fashioned cake (slices) with homemade piping jelly

After a long wait, I finally gathered energy to bake these Old fashioned cakes. They probably evoke memories for you as much as they did for me. I grew up with them and I loved them alongside many different types of cakes XD 

I used a chiffon cake base adapted from the pandan chiffon cake recipe I have and a recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream by Crystal Kuek. I also took the liberty to make my own piping jelly! This recipe takes about 3 to 4 hours to bake and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Chocolate Fudge Cake

So I've been on a hiatus for like a really long time. I guess work got the better of me.. and I grew lazy. It didn't help that I hurt my back earlier this year and ended up crafting a lot. 

Miniatures have amazed me and opened brand new doors for me (: I started Cynthia's Miniatures too. 

The house has been really messy too (Guess we got too lazy and busy)... Just 2 weekends ago, we cleaned the guest room, gave away our sofa bed and it's now specially for crafting.. and lazing (: It's got tons of pillows and it's Cartoon's land of many pillows XD

So the kitchen did get cleaned too.. with that, I decided to bake this cake that has been on my list for the longest time ever. This Chocolate Fudge Cake was shared by a friend who took it from 8 days magazine. I added my twist to it by adding some hazelnut paste and changing some parts of the method.

It's a delicious fudge cake that's just sweet enough without being sickening. The cake is light and fluffy while the fudge lends a sweet touch to it. It was really well received by my friends and colleagues! 

So here's the recipe for the Chocolate Fudge Cake. It'd take about 3-4 hours to bake and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Salted Egg Calamari Rings

YUMS! Last week, I cooked some Salted Egg Pork Ribs.. today, I had the idea of cooking them in calamari style since I found some fresh ones in the supermarket. I also made improvements to the batter and boy is it delicious! 

The recipe takes about 30 mins to prepare and cook and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. 

Salted Egg Pork Ribs

Having harvested my Homemade Salted Eggs, I decided to cook something with it! I knocked off a little earlier today so I had the luxury of cooking something proper. The week has been insane since it's exam week.. lots of marking to do, lots of assessment to complete.. I wish I have the time to cook much more often. 

Speaking of which, this made me very happy tonight. Most of the kids in my P1 class have performed very well in their English test through their hard work.. I'm a proud chee-cher! 

Anyway, I had my pork ribs thawed overnight in the freezer and had them ready to cook by 5pm. Planning beforehand is good (:

The ingredients are pretty simple but it may turn some off since it involves deep/shallow frying. I decided to do it anyway. >.< It takes about an 30 - 45 minutes to prepare and cook and I'd rate it a difficulty level 3 out of 5. Or maybe 4 out of 5 if you dislike deep frying!