Foodarrific» Lunchbox Ideas

Recipe: Crispy Crunchy Chicken Fingers

Chili Queen — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 02:20:08 +0000

Chicken Fingers are a perennial favorite in our household. When all else fails, chicken fingers to the rescue! I’m really not much of a stickler for recipes. I generally just make up the recipes as I go along depending on what I can find in my pantry or my fridge.

I created this version here when my oven refused to work.

It’s really simple and crunchy. You just need some chicken breasts cut into long strips and seasoned lightly with salt and pepper. Leave to marinate for an hour or so. Heat up a good amount of cooking oil in a wok or deep skillet.

Beat up an egg (or two, depending on amount of chicken breasts you’re using). In a plate, combine 1 cup of flour and 2 cups of bread crumbs. Dip the chicken strips in the beaten egg. Dredge them through the flour and breadcrumb mixture to coat evenly. Deep fry till golden brown. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.

You may also like to check out another recipe I posted earlier for Finger-Lickin’ Good Chicken Fingers. These are oven-baked and probably won’t have you running out to look for the most effective fat burners because they’re less fattening.

creative ways with baguette

chili queen — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:32:04 +0000

You know why I love the baguette? There are countless ways you can eat them and they taste good no matter how you make them. If you’re rushed for time, like I often am, even the simplest baguette toast toppings – with garlic butter spread, kaya (coconut jam) spread, or any kind of canned tuna or salmon spread – will make a great meal.

Or if I happen to have bacon sitting around in the fridge, then bacon and cheese baguette it is! I like to make these when the kids have their friends over because let’s face it, nobody can say no to crispy, sizzling bacon!

If I have time for something a little fancier, I will make pizza baguette, another hot favorite with the kids and their friends.

Or if I have leftover chicken curry or Thai green curry, I will simply heat it up and turn it into a quick curry dip for my baguette. Warms the stomach instantly !

Whenever I’m just plain tired or lazy to figure out what to cook, the baguette is my savior. It’s not like I have to cram my day into some stuffy classroom furniture to learn these recipes, I just make them up as I go along and surprise myself and my kids with the wierdest, tastiest baguette ideas.

a new twist to good old lunchbox recipes

chili queen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:49:37 +0000

Now that school is back in full swing, I’m looking back at old lunchbox recipes I’ve posted and giving them a breath of fresh air. Good old school lunches like club sandwiches and toasties can be very easily put together using different veggies or deli meats each time, and a sandwich maker or oven toaster with grill guards.

And when I have time, I will make something more complicated like chicken pie or pita mexicana, or bake some blueberry muffins. The good thing about most of my lunchbox recipes is I can easily give them a new and exciting twist by substituting the ingredients, say chicken with beef, or blueberry with chocolate, and the kids still love them.

four foods on Friday 85

chili queen — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:53:44 +0000

Valmg over at Fun, Crafts and Recipes has a new format to her Four Foods on Friday meme which I so love playing . Come join us with your food ideas and learn what the rest of us are cooking.

This week, our challenge is to “create a meal or share a recipe that uses four ingredients – olive oil, chicken, cheese (any type) and a vegetable.”

In my version of a stuffed pita, I use either chicken or beef. I used a beef filling in this recipe but chicken tastes just as good. It’s a pretty healthy meal too with a bit of each food type – carb, protein, veggies and calcium .

spicy beef paratha wrap

chili queen — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:19:55 +0000

The week before I started my vegetarian diet, I came across this prepacked frozen roti paratha, or Indian flatbread, at the grocery store. Roti paratha is also known as roti canai and is usually served with curry on a banana leaf at Indian restaurants. But instead of doing that, I decided to turn it into a wrap with spicy beef filling.

I used

250 grams of ground Australian beef
2 onions, finely diced
2 tomatoes, finely diced
2 green chillies, finely diced (feel free to vary based on your heat preference, I used birds’ eye chillies but you can use jalapeno or whatever you like)
3 tablespoons barbecue sauce
1 lettuce, shredded
1 pack of frozen roti paratha (about 5 or 6)

To prepare the filling, I simply drizzle some olive oil into my non-stick pan on medium heat. I chuck in the onions and tomatoes followed shortly by the chillies, beef and barbecue sauce and saute for 3-4 minutes. Season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste. When beef is cooked through, I scoop into a bowl and leave aside.

In another saucepan, I heat up a piece of roti paratha first on one side, then flip over to the other side. When heated through, lay the bread flat on a plate and layer on the fresh lettuce followed by the filling.

It’s really this simple and it makes a really fulfilling meal. This recipe is entirely my own concoction. I decided to give the old roti canai in curry a breath of fresh air and this is it. I like that this is so different yet tastes so good *gives self pat on back* , enjoy!

yeong tow foo, or stuffed tofu

chili queen — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:12:19 +0000

Many years, when I worked in the city, my colleagues and I would drive out for lunch to Ampang which is famous for their yeong tow foo, or stuffed tofu. Well, that was years ago and although Ampang Yong Tow Foo franchises and copycats have sprung up everywhere, I haven’t eaten any in a long time.

Recently I bought fresh yeong tow foo at the market. They are fresh and sold loose so I get to make my own selection. They’re usually sold at the grocery stores in prepacked trays but they cost a bit more and you don’t get to pick what you want.

I bought lots of different shaped fishballs at the market the other day. The big fried ones and the white comma-shaped ones are a hit with my kids. I only bought 3 stuffed chillies for myself .

The long dark brown ones are foo pay, or soy sheets wrapped around fish and meat paste. I like those too. And of course, I must have my hot chilly dipping sauce. We typically eat yeong tow foo on its own without rice or noodles, so this is absolutely a no-carb meal!

You might not find me driving into town to buy a Sony Vaio but I might for a taste of yong tow foo once in a while. In this case, I don’t even have to drive into the city, I can have them in the comfort of home.

If you have time, you can actually make your own fish paste at home for fish balls and to stuff the soy pockets yourself. Yeong tow foo is great for parties and potlucks because everyone loves ‘em, kids and adults. Just be sure you have different dipping sauces for kids (tomato sauce) and adults (chilly sauce).

lightly fried Bratwurst sausages

chili queen — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 14:31:54 +0000

Earlier this week, the kids were talking about a German restaurant we used to go to a couple of times in the past. It was a nice little place that not many people knew about.

They had a smoking section out back which was actually the five-foot way fenced in and decorated with cast iron outdoor furniture. Well, the place has closed down now so where else can we get those yummy Bratwurst sausages.

Well, I found them at my regular deli at Tesco last weekend. So I made potato salad with bacon bits and we had our Bratwurst lightly fried. Very nice. So nice, in fact, that the kids are calling for an encore.

dry non-fried instant noodle

chili queen — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:58:45 +0000

I always have a stash of instant noodles in my pantry for ‘emergencies’ like when I need something quick to eat before I head out to Chinese wedding dinners which typically start like 2 hours late !

Instant noodles are convenient and they’re sold at the Asian grocer. But I find the flavoring overly salty sometimes, so what I usually do is not use all of the flavoring provided, or pour away some of the soup and add more water to dilute it.

I came across these non-fried instant noodles the other day. I’ve never noticed them at the store before but apparently they’re healthier than the ones that are fried and therefore contain more saturated fat.

Anyhow this is the jumbo pack I bought which comes without the packets of flavoring inside. Control freak that I am, I’m going, great, now I get to call the shots on what goes in !

Right, so this is what I made – a nutritious kon low, or dry instant noodle. For the seasoning, I put these into a bowl:

2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons of light soy sauce
a good drizzle of cooking oil
a good drizzle of sesame oil

In a pot of water, I blanch a few stems of choy sum, or mustard greens. When done, put it into my bowl with the seasoning.

Using that same pot of water, I boil two different types of fishballs (the small round ones and the larger fried ones) and seafood tofu and throw those into my bowl as well. The seafood tofu is actually pretty tasty and come in small rectangular pieces.

I bring a fresh pot of water to boil and leave the noodles in for 3-4 minutes to cook. The instant noodles come in thin rectangular blocks (see first photo). Two blocks is enough for a meal for one person.

Scoop the cooked noodle into the bowl and mix well with the seasoning and other ingredients. Top generously with chopped spring onions, cilantro and fried shallots, and we’re ready to dig in. Oh, and don’t forget the fresh chopped bird’s eye chilly or jalapeno.

Nature Valley granola bars

chili queen — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:24:38 +0000

Every weekend, when me and the kids go grocery shopping, we have to buy ‘school food’. My kids don’t eat at the school canteen and frankly, I’ve never encouraged them to eat there either. If you ask me, canteen food has an even worse reputation than college cafeteria food !

I wish the schools would take the trouble to ensure the food they serve the kids is healthy and it wouldn’t hurt either to make it taste a little better too. Well, maybe some of the kids find it tasty because most of it is junk food but it sure ain’t good for them, I tell ya.

Anyhow, my kids being picky eaters, we constantly have to source for different types of biscuits, cookies or pastries so they don’t end up eating the same old stuff day in, day out. We kinda go through cycles with different foods. Recently we started back with granola bars again after we sampled Special K at the Cold Storage.

Now we’re on to Nature Valley which is equally tasty and still only 90 calories per bar, and slightly cheaper too. They have several flavors – Roasted Almond, Oats ‘n Honey, Pecan Crunch, Vanilla Nut, Peanut Butter and a Variety Pack.

But so far, we’ve only tried the Apple Crisp which I’ve been buying over and over because the kids love it so much. And of course, I’m going to try my hand at homemade granola bars soon, so watch out for my post on that.

cheese sausage pizza

chili queen — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:09:21 +0000

It’s been a while since we had homemade pizza. To be honest, we kinda OD’d on it a while back and the kids didn’t want to have anything to do with it .

Recently on one of those quick trips to the baking supply store, I picked up a five-pack of pizza bases. Five regular-sized pizzas would be just right for one meal for us.

What I did was very simple. I opened up a jar of Prego pasta sauce and spread a fairly thick layer on each pizza base. I know many moms use tomato ketchup or puree as a red sauce for pizzas and pastas. The taste is not the same because first off, there are no herbs in ketchup and secondly, puree tastes pretty darned tart unless you spruce it up.

I believe if you want to make a really great pizza or pasta with a decent level of authenticity, you got to either cook your own red sauce or use a really good sauce from a jar. Maybe that’s why my kids are such picky eaters .

Okay, so back to my pizza. I preheat my oven to 350F (180C). I cut my fresh tomatoes and onions into semi-circular rings, and 3-4 cheese sausages into round slices. With the Prego pasta sauce as a base, I layer on the tomatoes, onions and cheese sausages.

Sprinkle a generous amount of grated cheddar cheese on top. Bake for about 20-30 minutes or till cheese is nicely golden. And you’re done! Simple enough!

I remember being pregnant and stuck in one of the business hotels overseas and craving for a pizza. It was way past 9pm and our meeting was still dragging on after hours and by the time we got to the lobby cafe, they had practically run out of food! Can you imagine if I’d had one of these homemade pizzas then!