Foodarrific» No Cooking Required

Chicken Margherita sans cooking

Chili Queen — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:16:37 +0000

For the second day in a row now, I’ve been having TV dinners for lunch. Not sure if they still call them TV dinners because these new and improved boxed meals definitely look and taste much more gourmet than I remember them to be when I was going to college.

This is the Chicken Margherita from Healthy Choices which claims to be a healthy, well-balanced meal made from fresh ingredients. It comes in a solid dish with the meal on the top steamer dish which drains all the juices into the dish at the bottom where the sauce/dressing is.

When you’re done microwaving your meal, you simply lift the steamer layer up and pour its contents into the dish below, stir and mix well with the sauce, and you’re ready to eat!

Sure beats cutting and cooking all this from scratch and just think of the washing up it saves you. Taste pretty good too. The chicken is soft (not hard and frozen as you might imagine TV dinners to be). No, I’m not getting paid to say this.

The instructions vary slightly depending on what meal you’re cooking. It was pretty challenging to read the small print. I had to squint and now I need the best eye wrinkle cream!

fresh California rolls

chili queen — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 04:25:00 +0000

There are so many things I love about the California roll (or handroll, as they’re sometimes called) I don’t quite know where to begin. For one thing, it uses healthy ingredients like fresh raw carrots and cucumbers, and nori, or toasted dried seaweed which is a great source of iron, calcium, vitamin A and B, iodine and fiber.

For another, it’s so easy to make I can literally lay out the ingredients on the table and whoever walks into the kitchen can easily wrap one up and chomp on it right away.

Well, since we won’t be going on any Vegas vacations this year, I thought we’d stay home and make these. DH bought the large crispy toasted nori sheets from a trip to Japan. I’m making two variations here – one with smoked salmon, and the other with crab sticks – just to make my kids happy that they have a choice .

The ingredients I use:

large nori, or toasted seaweed sheets
cooked white rice (the thing to use is sticky rice but I use regular rice, tastewise I don’t think it makes much of a difference)
crab sticks
smoked salmon slices
cucumbers, long and thinly sliced into sticks
carrots, long and thinly sliced into sticks
Japanese mayonnaise
wasabi, or Japanese green mustard

First I place a nori sheet on a flat surface or plate. At that spot on the lower half of the nori sheet where I’m going to place a tablespoon of rice, I squeeze just a little wasabi, or green mustard. Wasabi is deadly spicy and has a pungent sting to it, so you may want to use very little, or none at all if you’re serving it to kids.

Then I layer on a slice of smoked salmon or a crab stick, and 2 or 3 cucumber and carrot sticks. The best part is squeezing a squiggly line of Japanese mayonnaise all the way over the top of the filling.

Now it’s time to wrap the whole thing into a cone. The mayo at the top layer will ‘glue’ the wrap nicely together, and you can add a little more at the end to make the cone hold its shape better.

And that’s basically it. It’s not hard, just takes a bit of practice to get the cone all nice and neat. I’m not picky so I just let the kids get creative. Sometimes they roll it up like a cigar. So try it and have fun with it .

last week of being vegetarian

chili queen — Tue, 26 May 2009 01:26:35 +0000

Well, here I am, at the beginning of the last week of my 30-day vegetarian diet. It’s a great experience and I’m doing great! I work out, I eat, just avoiding meat, seafood and eggs and …

… well, just about the only thing about being vegetarian is that I’m always hungry and need to eat all the time . So like every one or two hours, you’ll find me raiding the kitchen and munching on milk and Oreos (man, these are the best!), guacamole and chips, biscuits and whatever else I can get my hands on.

I’m not a snacker by any means so it’s really hard figuring out what to eat all the time. With everything I’m eating, you probably expect that my new best friend would be the fitness equipment at the gym . But most times, I just end up drinking lots and lots of tea and water to fill me up.

One day, I made ambrosia, sheer heaven!! A couple of times, I made huge pots of tongsui, or dessert soups – lotus seed soup with gingko nuts, three-bean soup, black glutinous rice porridge – and survived on those for a whole day.

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).

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.

garlic butter

chili queen — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 07:57:54 +0000

I love butter, period. I don’t care what the people with jobs in health care say, I’m not quitting butter in favor of margarine ! No way, Jose!

Once in a while, when I’m in a baguette buying frenzy, I will make my own garlic butter. I just peel a few cloves of garlic, pop them in the blender, mix with a few scoops of butter and I’m done. Of course, you can vary the amount of garlic depending on how strong a flavor you prefer.

I slap the garlic butter on halved baguette slices, pop them in my oven toaster and I’ve got a crunchy breakfast toast with my morning coffee. Oh and one more thing, remember not to kiss anyone afterwards or they’ll remember you for life !!!

MomFlurry, my homemade McFlurry

chili queen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:51:55 +0000

My kids can never resist a McFlurry whenever we walk past McDonald’s. Tell me, which kid can?

I make my own version at home now because it’s just too easy to make. And for the price of a commercial one, I can make a whole tub and I get to eat it too, not just steal a mouthful here and there from my kids.

I call it the MomFlurry, my own registered trademark . I just grab a roll of Oreos and a tub of vanilla ice cream, any brand though we prefer Nestle because their vanilla is thick and creamy.

Crush a few Oreos and add to a bowl or cup of vanilla ice cream. Mix well and voila, your kids can have their MomFlurry whenever. No need to leave the house or head to the Outer Banks. My teens make their own, even better !

Special K granola bars

chili queen — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:37:02 +0000

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.

baguette topping: bacon and cheese

chili queen — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:09:48 +0000

I just haven’t been able to resist buying baguettes lately. My kids love the different toppings I’ve been putting on them. And obviously what better time to stuff yourself silly with baguette than when they’re on sale. Two for the price of one is so worth it.

I made this for breakfast last Sunday and again for lunch this week on my kids’ request. Simply lay strips of cheddar cheese slices along the length of the baguette and top off with a strip of streaky bacon. Pop them into the oven toaster for about 8-10 minutes.

I tell ya, the smell of bacon crackling in my oven toaster first thing in the morning is heavenly. I rarely buy streaky bacon but the bits of fat in it really do add a great sizzle of flavor.

If you’re making these as hor d’oeuvres for a party, you can cut the baguette into shorter lengths and stick a fancy toothpick in the center.

ham and cheese club sandwich

chili queen — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:15:18 +0000

When I was pregnant with my two older kids, I used to run across the road from where I worked and order my favorite sandwich from Oliver’s Super Sandwiches during lunchtime.

I tell you, I’m such a sucker for their very substantial sandwiches crammed with fresh veggies and meat that I’ve always wanted to replicate them at home. But of course, not quite to the extent that they pile up theirs sky high.

Cramming a club sandwich into one mouthful to be quite a challenge, even more so for the kids. So I have my homemade club sandwiches less bulky, hence less likely to unhinge anyone’s jaw .

I just toast 3 slices of bread (white for now, till I can somehow convince my kids to like wholemeal). Butter the bread lightly.

Then I start layering one slice of ham, then sliced cucumbers, the second slice of bread, one slice of cheese, then sliced tomatoes, and finish off with the last slice of bread.

Stick a toothpick right through the center to hold all the layers together. Slice the club sandwich diagonally with a sharp, serrated knife and it’s all ready to go into a lunchbox or a growling tummy. Sweet !