Foodarrific

The last time I made spaghetti carbonara, I used canned carbonara sauce. It tasted alright but it’s not quite the same as the one made from scratch. Un-Italian though this version may sound, let me assure you it really has quite an international flavor about it .

Okay, I got creative and used French beans and enoki mushrooms which I take it are from Japan ? Anyhow I was looking for shiitake mushrooms but it didn’t have a price label and I didn’t want to waste time hunting down the barcode scanner so I opted for the enoki instead.

For this, I used:

• spaghetti to feed 5 people
• 2 large slices of bacon ham, cut into long, thin strips
• 1 handful of french beans, blanched
• 1 pack of enoki mushrooms
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 1 packet (250g) of heavy cream
• 1 sachet of mushroom soup base
• Italian seasoning
• dried parsley flakes
• black pepper
• olive oil

I cook the spaghetti till al dente. In a non-stick pan, I drizzle some olive oil and saute the onions. Then I add the heavy cream and mushroom soup base, stirring continuously to mix well. I didn’t use any cheese because I reckon the heavy cream is fattening enough.

Then in go the french beans, bacon ham and enoki mushrooms. I let everything simmer for about 5-7 minutes on medium to low heat. Add a sprinkle of Italian seasoning, dried parsley flakes and black pepper, and season with salt to taste.

I pour the cooked spaghetti into the carbonara sauce, turn off the heat and mix to coat the spaghetti well. It’s best eaten piping hot before all that lovely sauce gets soaked up.

I made a huge big bowl for lunch and the kids whacked everything in one sitting. There were no leftovers and that’s definitely a good sign. It means I should cook this again sometime .

Filed under: Kid-friendlyLunchbox IdeasMeatPastaRecipesSauces & CondimentsVegetablesWestern by chili queen - No Comments →

During the school semesters, whenever we’re out grocery shopping, I’m always reminding my girls to choose their own ‘school food’. They don’t eat canteen food. Instead they bring some biscuits or cookies.

Lately because of the longer school hours, I have to pack them a slightly more substantial lunch box of sandwiches, pasta or burgers, anything that still tastes reasonably good even when it’s cold, to last them till 3pm. You can check my lunchbox ideas here.

Last weekend, we popped into Cold Storage while waiting for our lunch to be served and a promoter stopped us in our tracks with samples of Special K granola bars.

Mm, yum! We love granola bars… and they were on sale too! There were so many flavors to choose from, we ended up sampling almost all of them. The promoter was very nice and insisted we try everything .

I ended up buying 2 boxes of blueberry, and peaches and berries, and getting 2 vanilla bars free. Each bar is only 90 calories so it’s great, they’re filling but non-fattening .

Now I’m thinking of making my own granola bars. All I need is my trusty non-stick pan to dry fry some of the ingredients before baking. Although it’s more work for me to make these at home, I like that I get to control the amount of salt and sugar.

Filed under: FruitsHealthy EatingKid-friendlyLunchbox IdeasNo Cooking RequiredSnacks & Desserts by chili queen - No Comments →

With the kids back in school, I’m cracking my head again for lunchbox ideas. One day a week, my older daughter finishes school at 2:30pm. Her recess is at 10:30am and she doesn’t get a lunch break.

Teens are hungry all the time and they get bored easily. So I try to pack her something different each week that’s fairly substantial so she doesn’t have to starve till she gets home at 3:00pm!

This week, I concocted my own version of pita mexicana.

For the filling, I used:

• 250g, or about 2 cups ground beef
• 1-2 large onions
• 1-2 large tomatoes
• 2 Tsp barbecue sauce
• 1 Tsp hot chili sauce, or ketchup
• 2-3 tsp flour
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

First I drizzle olive oil on my non-stick pan on medium to high heat. Add the ground beef. To the juices from the beef, add the flour, stirring continuously to thicken.

Chuck the onions and tomatoes in and allow to simmer on medium heat. Add barbecue sauce and hot chili sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Give it a few quick stirs to combine. Remove from heat when onions and tomatoes are softened.

I have 5 slices of pita bread which I slice in half and toast in my oven toaster for 3-4 minutes till nice and crispy. Speaking of oven toasters, I have my eye on the Rival Convection Toaster Oven which, interestingly, is two-tiered (yes, I sure could use more oven space when I’m rushed for time) and comes with a broiler function that might come in handy for another of my concoctions.

I would’ve lined each pita pocket with shredded lettuce first. But guess what, I walked around the grocery section 3 times and couldn’t find one head of lettuce on sale, can you believe that? They must’ve been sold out due to Chinese New Year !

So for now, it’s just the beef filling going into each pocket, topped with cheddar cheese. It’s cheesy and crunchy and most importantly, my kids love it and want an encore !

Filed under: Breads & PastriesKid-friendlyLunchbox IdeasRecipesWestern by chili queen - No Comments →

The girls are tired of eating store-bought cookies and biscuits for recess so we decided to do some baking at home. My kids have never eaten school canteen food. Did I say never? Yes, that would be correct. Frankly if you’ve seen what canteen food looks like, or even been into the school canteen, you wouldn’t eat there either .

Anyhow I was too lazy to go sift through my muffin recipes so I just grabbed a bag of blueberry muffin premix from the bakery supply store. Presumably these are the premixes they use for commercial muffins, so it’s the same as buying the ready-made muffins from the bakery.

We love anything blueberry so this premix is perfect since it comes with dried blueberries. I just have to add 100ml water, 135g of oil (I used melted butter) and 175g of eggs.

Now don’t ask me why eggs re measured in grams! I have no idea how you would even do that, short of breaking the eggs into the measuring cup till you get 175g which strikes me as very strange.

Anyhow I just used two large eggs instead of measuring it out. The consistency turned out pretty okay as you can see.

I’m usually quite wary of premixes because I can’t control the amount of sugar that’s in it. I have this nasty habit of slashing the sugar by at least half the moment I get my hands on any recipe.

Luckily the muffins aren’t too sweet, just right, so I’m going to buy the premix again next time. I’ve got a bag of vanilla muffin premix and I’m going to add chocolate chips to it. Yum.

Filed under: Kid-friendlyLunchbox IdeasRecipesSnacks & Desserts by chili queen - 1 Comment →

It’s the weekend and the kids don’t want the same old breakfast they eat during the school week. Frankly it’s only on the weekend that I have time to make French toast, and even then, it’s very plain.

To make 6 slices of French toast, I just beat up 3 eggs with a pinch of salt. Heat up the pan with a blob of butter. Then dip 6 slices of bread into the egg mixture, one by one, and let them soak up the egg for a bit.

Lift each slice into the pan and fry lightly first on one side, then the other, till cooked through or browned. Basically, that’s all there is to it.

On a whim, I decided to spruce things up a little, add a little variety to the same old, plain old. I spread some honey on each slice of French toast, and lay a few pieces of bananas, cut slantwise, across the toast. Mmmm, it’s the best! Nothing like it. So yummy and healthy.

Filed under: Breads & PastriesFruitsKid-friendlyLunchbox IdeasQuick & Easy CookingRecipesSnacks & DessertsWestern by chili queen - No Comments →