Running out of time Banana muffins

For mommies who are looking for quick and running out of time muffin recipes, here is one that i have. Quick, yummy and basic ingredients that you probably always have on hands. This recipes require no machine or any particular tools. Just 2 bowls and one wooden spoon to mix ingredients together. Promise quick quick quick !

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas (about 1 1/2 cup) NOTE1
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 tsp soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp melted butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs

1. put all wet ingredients into a bowl; milk, melted butter, sugar, mashed banana, 2 eggs and vanilla
2. in another bowl, put all dry ingredients; baking soda, baking powder, flour.
3. incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients bowl. mix slowly and well all together
4. bake at 325 degree for about 18-19 min depending on your oven

 

NOTE1: If you have no banana, feel free to replace this by apple sauce or  yogurt.

Health Chicken Nuggets !

Finally, I made my first Trial of Chicken Nuggets. Wanted to record my first trial here with you. I will be trying new style and version in the upcoming months, hope to find my best in love version. I made a bit more this time and froze them to use later. I hope it will be another practical recipes for school lunches or snack for my son.

Happy Cooking !

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 brick Tofu
• 5 chicken tights meat
• 1/2 cup cooked chic peas
• 2 tsp maple sirup
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup panko
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup flour

Method: 

1. minced chicken meat in mixer and set aside
2. only use 1/2 of brick of Tofu for this recipe, save the other half for other recipes

3. Blend all ingredients except panko, egg and flour in blender. Blend well

4. Looking for a paste like in picture above. semi firm texture which allows you to hold and shape your nuggets

5. Dip your chicken nugget in egg, then flour, then panko. Deposit your nuggets on a baking sheet. This will create your nugget crust. (This is a cooking steps where you can ask your little one to help you.)

6. You have the option to put the nuggets directly in oven and bake. Or you can pan fry them in a pan. Option is free for you to choose. I baked mine at 350F for about 13 min, for other size of oven, your baking time might vary.

7. Eat with fresh salad or noodles or even fries, whatever that you kids will love. I am serving mine a la Japanese style today. With cold noodle, seaweed and green onion. My kids loved it.  

Perfect School snacks !

Life must be busy for all working mommies during September. I finally got my first mommy experience of what does “back to school” feels. My son has started school this week and I am digging ideas for homemade snacks and lunch menus. Today, I have prepare some cookie dough, freeze them individually and put them all in a freezer bag. Will only take 10-12 min to bake on Sunday night to start the week. Cool !

Hang in there all momies, school year have started.

Happy cooking!

Spicy Chinese chicken wings !

During Summer time, don’t you smell BBQ every where from your neighbors ? Everybody is making bbq and it smell so good !  I made these Chinese spicy chicken wings for my BBQ and they turn out lovely ! Marinate them in  advance and just take them out after work and directly cook on bbq. I serve them with some fresh salad or cold pasta.An easy weekday supper for working mommies ! Happy cooking.

Ingredients: 

• About 10-11 Chicken wings
• 1-2 tbsp Chinese Chili garlic sauce (depending how spicy you can take)
• 1 tsp of minced ginger
• 2 gloves of minced fresh garlic
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp chicken powder
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• about 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp sugar

Method: 

1- minced garlic and ginger and set aside

2- put all marinate ingredient in a plate, mix well

3- then rub marinate on every single chicken wings, make sure to cover your wings properly with the sauce ! For ideal taste, marinate in fridge for overnight. Et voila, meat ready to BBQ after a long day of work !!! Kids will love them !

Healthy sushi for kids !

Does your kids like sushi ? Or do you need idea for your kids’ lunch boxes ? Today, I made some cute little sushi for my kids. My daughter of 16 months loved my purple sushi balls so much and I wanted to share this recipe with you today !

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cooked sushi rice
• 1/2  small carrot ( in julienne)
• 1 punch minced fresh spinach
• 1 can of ham (in julienne)
• 1 cooked purple sweet potatoes (mashed)

Method:

1. Cook your rice in your rice cooker. I have selected sushi rice for a longer cooking.
2.  Cut all my vegetables and ham in julienne, minced spinach

3. Steam on a plate the purple sweet potato until soft and you could poke through with a fork

4. Mash the purple sweet potato in a bowl

4.when the sushi rice is ready, incorporate purple sweet potatoes in 1 bowl of rice. I will make some purple sushi balls

5. Roll each purple sushi ball to your liking. it will give you those cute purple sushi

6. For older kids, you could make some regular maki roll, I use the rest of the rice for some normal maki roll.

7. Here you go ready for a great out door pick nick with your kids.

Hong Kong style beef/beef stomach stew

Beef stew is one of my favorite Chinese dish. In Hong Kong, beef stomach/ beef stew are best combination with a nice hot rice noodle soup ! My mom will always bring me to have a bowl of noodle after school, such a great memory. I made my dad this dish the other night when he came over for supper, even my dad loved it. Another easy and yummy dish to try mommies. Happy cooking !

Ingredient:

• 1 package of beef meat (use beef brisket with a bit of fat, it is tastier)
• 1 package of beef stomach
• 1 small piece of cinnamon stick
• 3-4 anises
• 1 Tsaoko fruit
• 1 small piece rock sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 4 tbsps (full overflow spoon) oyster sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tbsps Chinese cooking wine
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups water
• 5 cloves garlic
• 6 slices of ginger
• salt to taste
• 1./4 tsp 5 spices powder (optional for stronger taste style)

 

Method:

1. cut ginger and prepare all herbs on the side 
2. wash beef and beef stomach and set aside to use later. dry them as much as you could
3. In a large pan, add oil and start brown ginger and garlic
4. when ginger and garlic nice brown then add beef in pan to seal the meat. The golden brown of the meat will add lots of flavor in your dish
5. once your meat is well browned, add water and chicken broth in your pan
6. add the rest of sauce and ingredients in your pan; soy sauce, oyster sauce, wine, rock sugar, tsaoko fruit, anise, cinnamon stick, 5 spices powder (optional) and salt (salty to your liking)
7. I personally doesn’t like too strong taste of cinnamon. Therefore, i removed the cinnamon stick after 40 min of cooking. the rest of ingredients i leave in the pan until the end of my cooking
8. simmer with low heat (just very little bubbles from bottom of your pan is the right heat) for 3 hours. I leave my pan with lid a tiny air circulation. It will be important your liquid covers your meat. At least like on the picture below, do not let your meat dry up. Add additional chicken broth to cover your meat up if you need to.
9. I like to check my fire from time to time to ensure all my liquid are fine throughout my cooking. 
10. I added beef stomach in my dish, this is totally optional to your liking. you could just use beef and serve as beef stew. I add my beef stomach 45 min after cooking my beef. Since the stomach require little less cooking time than the meat.
11. After 3 hours of cooking, taste the texture of both the meat and stomach and check if it is at your liking. some people might like it after 3 hours or longer. Use low heat with little small bubble in the sauce is the right heat. Taste and adjust how tender you like them
12. sprinkle some chopped green onion before serving add better taste to your dish

Miso Sake Tilapia

Hi, I should have posted this recipe long long time ago, sorry for such a delay girls !! For those who are bored with baking lemon salmon in their oven, here is another new idea to try. First of all, I love love Tilapia, is a kind of fish that is easy to eat for kids,  and especially Tilapia filet. This dish is also a great summer bbq idea, you could just put your filet in an aluminum plate and just cook in your bbq. cover or wrap your plate with an aluminum sheet will help to preserve the steam and its flavor. it will smell sooo good ! Happy cooking.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 Tilapia filet (depending on the size of your filet)
• 1 tbsp miso
• 2 tsp sake
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1-2 chopped green onion
• little black pepper
• 1 cup diced carrots
• 1 cup diced zucchini
• 1 cup of green vegetable of your choice (mine is a mix of kale salad)

Method:

1. mix miso, sake, water, soy sauce, sugar and black pepper in a large bowl. 
2. then add your Tilapia fillet in one by one. make sure that every filet is cover with sauce proportionally.
3. sprinkle chopped green onion on top of my marinated filet, marinate the filet at least for 1 hour or more for better taste
4. add diced carrots, zucchini and green vegetable of your choice at the bottom of your cooking pan. put your fillet on top of your vegetables
5.  If bake in oven, set oven at 350 for 25-28 min, depending on the thickness of your filet. I had very thick fillet, so i baked for a good solid 28 min. Tips: I love this size and shape of aluminum plates, they are perfect size for this kind of filet baking. it goes well in oven or on BBQ. For BBQ cooking, i would use about the same cooking time as in my oven. Check within first 20 min to make sure you don’t over cook the fish. 

 

Taiwanese pork stew

Ingredient: 

• 1 1/2 lb of ground pork belly meat
• 3 green onion (optional)
• 3 tbsps rice wine
• 3-5 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsps sugar (or a piece of rock sugar that i used)
• 20 g ginger
• 1-2 cup water or chicken broth (ideally to cover your meat as it cooks)
• 6 tbsps of soy sauce
• 2 anises
• salt to taste if requires

Marinate the pork meat:

• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp five spice powder
• little white powder
• 1 tsp rice wine
• 1 tsp ginger juice

 

Method: 

1. I used pork belly and ground it myself at home. I found pork belly is better quality of pork to make this dish, great proportion of meat and fat ratio. 2. Ground shallot, garlic and ginger in food processor

 

3. with medium high fire, add oil and start brown the minced shallot first. and then add the pork as well 

4. Brown your pork in 2-3 batches if it requires to make nice browning. it is an important step to make a nice taste in your stew.

5. Is best to transfer golden brown meat into another deeper pot for stew cooking.

6. add all  your golden browned pork in your pot, rock sugar, green onion (if desires), all sauce and start the pork stew cooking with low heat for 2 hours. (make sure that there are only small bubble in your cooking. Note: The rock sugar serves to tender your pork.

7. The sauce should cover your meat as you cook, if not enough liquid then add either water or chicken broth to cover up your meat level. Check your fire to make sure your fire is not too high and dry up your liquid. Do not use high heat, I use low on my stove.

8. once pork stew is ready, serve with rice or vermicelli soup. Happy cooking !

 

Sour plum steam ribs

Ingredients:

• 1 pack short ribs
• 3-4 pickled plum
• a dash plum wine (optional)
• 1 tsp chinese bean sauce
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3 tsp corn starch
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 clove minced garlic

 

Method:

1- Marinate pork ribs with all ingredients listed above. set aside for at least 30 min

 

2- Make sure to break down the pickled plum in order to release of its flavor

 

3- Cook in steaming rack for at least 45-50 min for tender and juicy pork ribs

4- Ready to serve with white steamy rice

Korean style fry pork stripes

I love these fry finger food. Korean people love to have those finger food with Beer, this is exactly what me and my husband decided to have! My son of course will not say no to those crispy pork stripes. And I was very satisfy with how the crunchiness had stayed after a few hours. Tips: this is excellent choice for party food, prepare in advance and stay on serving table for a few hours and still taste good. Happy cooking !

Ingredients:

• 6 Pork chops
• 1 tbsp potato starch
• 2 tbsp korean pancake mix powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• some black peppers
• little chicken powder
• 1 egg
• 3 tbsp cold water
• oil (to fry your pork use)

 

Method:

1- cut pork in equal size stripes

2. Marinate pork in potato starch, korean pancake mix, cold water and salt, egg, chicken powder and black peppers

3. Heat your oil in a small pan and fry pork until cook. It takes about 3 min before it turn golden and you no longer see pink meat color

4. Ready to serve with rice and a nice cold Beer

Excellent snacks for kids on a weekend !!!