I'm a full-time mummy

It's been quite a long time since I last cooked for dinner since my kind MIL is taking charge of cooking the dishes for dinner all this while. But for this post, I am sharing my next dish, which I got over the Internet as MIL is taking the day off to enjoy herself and I thought time to get my lazy buttocks to do some cooking hahahaha... So here goes my post on Fried Tofu with Pepper & Salt:

Ingredients:

1. 1 block of firm tofu – cut into 1” cubes
2. ½ cup of cornstarch
3. Salt to taste
4. For the salt & pepper dip: 1 tsp of Szechuan pepper (I used black pepper) & 2 tsp salt

Methods:
* Dry the tofu with some paper towel. Sprinkle it with some salt.
* Heat oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly.
* Lightly coat tofu pieces in cornstarch.
* Gently lower the tofu into the hot oil – it is important not to coat the tofu in advance of heating the oil, or it will become very moist and sticky.
* Fry the tofu until they are lightly brown and crispy, remove and drain the oil on paper towel.
* Arrange tofu on a platter and serve immediately with the salt and pepper mixture.

Outcome (AFTER BITING HALF ONE OF THE TOFU):

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

We've been adopting a new timetable for our kiddos since last week where we wake up at 8am, get ready for breakfast by 8.30am and then reading time, or water pool activity time (or replaced with running or cycling at porch when my kiddos do not want to play water) then playroom activities, daytime bath, then preparation for lunch, then learning activities for half an hour then naptime at 2pm to 4pm then they wake up for tea break and another round of learning activities for half an hour and TV time for 1 hour and then dinner time, then rest for a while and go for evening bath followed by bonding time with grandma and/or daddy before heading for bed at 9.30pm.

I've also changed our kiddos breakfast to cereals (we buy Post cereals) and I've been making fruit juices and fruit smoothies for them to accompany their cereal breakfast.

This is one of the fruit smoothies I made last week:

Half a carrot + 1 apple + 1 mango blended nicely and served in their own sippy cups. Sometimes my 1.5 year old girl will finish hers, else I will end up finishing for her while my 4 years old boy will always finish his fruit juices/smoothies. I think this idea is great as I get to sneak in some veggies in the juice/smoothies and they don't notice anything.

I basically just blend whatever fruits we have on hand, but mostly we rotate between apples, pears, bananas, mangoes and carrots definitely.

Do you have any favorite/signature fruit juices/smoothies?

I had earlier confessed that one of my 2013 resolutions (I rarely made them in my life so when I made it for this year, I'm trying to stick by it!) is to learn to cook for the family. For this post, I am sharing my next dish, guided by hubby (who got the recipe from his eldest sister) and to be honest, this is the dish that sort of helped me get over my luncheon meat addiction during my initial morning sickness phase (yup, been eating luncheon meat everyday for almost 2 weeks!)

Ingredients:

1. Chicken (depending how much you want)
2. Salted chicken seasoning mix (I use about 4 tsp for the amount of chicken meat we have)
3. A small ginger (sliced thinly)
4. Some wolfberries (Chinese called it 'gei ji')

Methods:
* Marinate the chicken with the salted chicken seasoning mix for about 1 hour. I usually pour out 4 tsp of the seasoning mix into a small container and rub the chicken meat all over with the seasoning mix.
* Placed the sliced gingers all around the chicken meat in the metal plate.
* After 1 hour of marinate process, cover the metal plate with an aluminium foil and steam for about 45 minutes.
* Add in the wolfberries by placing them all over the steamed chicken and cover back the aluminium foil.
* Steam for another 15 minutes.

Outcome:

I love this dish! Really! So much that I made it again and again over the next few days! I once tried to put the wolfberries together with the chicken and ginger and steamed them straight for 1 hour (according to my MIL, it is best to steam the wolfberries earlier to get the nutrients from it) but the outcome is slightly different in the sense that the juice produced from the steamed chicken is darker (due to the coloration from the steamed wolfberries). I much prefer to add in the wolfberries 15 minutes before the process finished as I prefer the juice to be clearer.

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!