Hi everyone, I’m so sorry it has been a week or so since I last posted – but boy have I been busy creating a brand spanking new website to share with you!
Please subscribe to my new site today so you don’t miss a post. There is a ‘subscribe now’ box on the right hand side of the page near the top…see the screenshot below.
I’m sharing recipes, meal plans, fun stuff and the ‘need to know’ stuff for families living in Singapore. I’ve even moved across all your favourite recipes and posts from the old site so you won’t miss a thing!
Yes Will.I.Am and Fergie, tonight was a good night…kiddies ate all their dinner (eventually) AND I got to bed early, albeit in my son’s bed, and it was a more a case of dozing off balanced precariously on the side of his bed. Parenting eh, you gotta take it as it comes.
Inspired by the organic food row in NTUC Finest @Bukit Timah Plaza, I purchased some black eyed beans today and had the forethought to boil them in advance for a hearty one-pot dinner. I also cooked up a vat of tomato, garlic and onion sauce using one of my immense 1.5kg cans of tinned tomatoes.
Baby to scale! 1.5kg tin of tomatoes from GIANT
The kids literally got their hands dirty and enjoyed pulping up the whole tomatoes for the sauce. So into the giant pan went approximately 200g of pre-cooked (till tender) black eyed beans, 6 halved pan-fried sausages, and 5 or so big ladles of tomato sauce (seasoned with sea salt and dried oregano). Simmer for 5-10 minutes and serve sprinkled with a little fresh parsley for the adults! FYI, the best place to buy fresh parsley and mint is the wholesale fruit and veg market. I get two large handfuls of each for $1.
Best news is the remainder of the sauce is frozen in two more dinner portions for making spaghetti bolognese, and secret seven tomato sauce for pizza later this week. Life just got a little easier.
Meal plan for this week is…
Day one – Black eyed beans and sausage one pot
Day two – Saffron chicken – a la Ariana Bundy
Day three – Creamy chicken (use left over chicken), spinach and roasted squash pasta
Day four – Spaghetti Bolognese
Day five – Home-made Pizza (using home-made dough and my secret seven tomato pasta sauce for the base)
Dinner party’s are such fun and whilst lots of work, nothing beats feeding an appreciative crowd. I often turn to the queens of cookery for inspiring dinner party dishes, and did again to food temptress Nigella Lawson and the original bad girl Martha Stewart for Saturday. There was enough food to make a whole week’s meal plan out of – no joke! So my lovely readers… break it down!
Cucumber and Pomegranate Salad
Day one – Lemon and Herb Pork Chops, Fatoush and Nutty Quinoa
Day two – Baba Ganoush, Red Kidney Bean Dip, Olives, Pomegranate & Cucumber Salad, and Pitta
Day three – Oven Roasted Sea Bass with Potatoes, Red Pepper, Anchovies and Garlic (this is Rick Stein’s actually… )
Day four – Chocolate Ganache Tart with Chewy Citroen Base (who’s even thinking about the main with this dessert on the horizon?!!) Do my Vertigo Burgers if you are stuck for ideas 😉
Day five- Sweet Potato and Pork Mild Nonya Curry (made with remaining uncooked pork from day one)
This week is heavy on the veggies with a little raw food inspiration too. It all started with a recipe I received into my inbox from Sally’s Baking Addiction for Vietnamese Spring Rolls. These are the non-deep fried version of spring rolls, refreshingly packed with mint leaves, shredded vegetables, sometimes prawns, and can be dipped in delicious Thai dipping sauce or peanut satay sauce.
Aparagus, beansprouts, prawns and Thai green chilli dipping sauce
Rolling a rice paper into a Vietnamese spring roll a la Friedlander
The rolls were great fun to make, in fact we rolled them at the table so the kids could choose their own fillings and help roll them.
I prepared mint and coriander leaves, baby asparagus blanched, julienned carrots and cucumber, steamed prawns and sliced them in half, frozen corn and peas (cooked!), Vermicelli (rice) noodles. For dessert rolls I sliced strawberries, blueberries and banana and laid it all out on the table like a buffet. I also made Sally’s peanut satay sauce but I would use less soya sauce next time, 1-2 tsp is plenty to reduce salt for the kids. Scroll to the bottom of this post for a little lesson in knife skills or in case you were wondering about ‘Julienned Carrots’...
And without further ado, my 5 day meal plan…
Day one – Vietnamese spring rolls
Day two – Poached salmon salad with sweet potato wedges
Day three – Fussili Ratatouille
Day four – Spaghetti Bolognese (use leftover ratatouille to make the bolognese)
Day five – Mississippi Mud Pie – yes I know, it’s a dessert but c’mon its the highlight of the meal!
My trip to The Rockin Cafe, american diner last week has left me wanting more. Time to master the old fashioned american pie. Wish me luck, I’ll post more details anon.
Sawadee ka! This week’s meal plan comes to you from the island of Phuket, Thailand. It’s Easter school holidays in Singapore and it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, so here we are. We are self-catering so there’s been a little bit of cooking as well as some delicious and delightful meals out. Day one we popped to Tesco’s to stock up on nappies, other essentials i.e. wine and baby formula. The Tesco is a hypermarket and in the ‘foyer’ there are several other shops, a food court and a soft play area. So for £5 (S$10) we all had lunch…chicken fried rice, chicken rice, pad thai omelette, rice and 2 curries… and the kids got to play for about 2 hours whilst mummy did supermarket sweep. The food was fantastic, freshly prepared, hot and tasty. I’m afraid I got half way through my Pad Thai (glass noodle) omelette before I thought to take a piccie.
Beach restaurant ‘Tony’s’ on Laiyan Beach was perfect for the kids, food a bit pricier then Tesco but then they are catering for tourists from neighboring Laguna (Banyan Tree Hotel, Dusa Thani hotels…). All in (2 adults, 2 tots and a baby) with beer it cost about £40 (S$90). The kids got to play in the sand and we all got to admire the beautiful sunset. Now it really feels like a holiday.
So this week’s meal plan has to be Thai inspired. I have included links to recipes but you can always go for takeout, or for those reader’s lucky enough to be in Singapore check out those AirAsia bargains!
Day one – Pad Thai Omelettes served with crunchy green salad and lime dressing
Day two – Thai green curry (use my recipe and leave out chilli for kids)
Day three – Chicken Satay with peanut sauce, Shrimp cakes and Green Papaya salad (salad for adults as spicy)
Day four – Sticky BBQ ribs, wedges and coleslaw (sliced apple, raisin and grated carrot for kids)
Day five – Massaman beef curry (mild) and chocolate banana pancakes for pudding!
Ahhh Easter in Barbados. Wouldn’t that be nice? Just reminiscing about a wonderful honeymoon spent in the Caribbean six rather busy years ago having just celebrated an anniversary with Mr Friedlander. Which I hasten to add we celebrated by dining at Clifford Pier @ Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore – highly recommended.
Whilst we won’t be in Barbados this Easter, life in Singapore is pretty good and I’m certain I’ll be tucking into some good grub and quite possibly (definitely!) a rum cocktail over the Easter weekend. Thinking about Barbados I realise I haven’t cooked from my Caribbean cook book for ages! So just had a flick through and found some of my favorites that I’ve dropped into this week’s plan. Don’t forget all of the recipes are best cooked cocktail in hand – and lucky for us Jamie has come up with a pukka YouTube cocktail channel!
Day one – Rum Steaks (…get in the dark rum in preparation!)
Day two – Spiced Beetroot and Feta Tartlets – not Caribbean but a new recipe for me as I bought beetroot at the market. Photos to follow.
Day three – BBQ or Roasted Rolled Lamb Leg and Hoppin John (rice – recipe to follow) and Green Salad
Day four – Salmon in Coconut and Coriander with Sweet Potato Wedges
Day five – Sausages and Beans Caribbean Hot Pot
Behold, the little folk and I have been crafting Easter hats and I am mighty pleased with the result. What started as fun ‘homework’ for the eldest for preschool became my craft obsession! I created pin boards. I had plans! BIG plans! There were moments of excitement, joy, a little bit of rage, and then tenderness. Blue Easter bunny (left hat) didn’t weather the storm as middle son decided he was scary, and was better off with his bunny eyes, ears and face removed. His hat, his choice. It pained me to see my, I mean his, artistic creation being defaced but I am learning to let go. Queue music…”Let it Goooooo….” I think I have found the Frozen music video for the dads here…
Gosh, so much to share with you this week, I went to West Coast Fruit and Vegetable wholesale market – brilliant! If you can get there I thoroughly recommend the produce, affordable and great quality. Just dodge the speeding pallet loaders! I hosted a free Bread Baking workshop at my house and picked up some new ideas for breads. And I have been drooling over cake recipes in prep for my littlest one’s 1st Birthday later this week. Sally’s Baking Addiction Lemon and Blueberry Layer Cake is the front runner. You gotta check out this cake porn…keep scrolling, honestly you HAVE to see this….
And Jesus is just like pancakes, because… my eldest was trying to get her head around religion (at 4???!). I brought it back to food. “You know Aunty Vanessa doesn’t like pancakes, but, you lurvvve pancakes?”…”yes”…”Well some people believe that Jesus was a real man and love him a lot, like you and pancakes,… and some people don’t think Jesus was real and the story about Jesus was just a nice story”.
And so, from religion, to pancakes, to meal plans!
day one – Pork & Sweet Potato Nonya Curry (using the chicken nonya recipe)
day two – Lamb Chops and Bruschetta
day three – Ratatouille & Bacon Pasta
day four – Prawn and Chicken Paella
day five – mum’s night off, 1st birthday cake to cook!
Good Saturday Morning everyone. Hope everyone had a good week. This week’s meal plan is perfect for the sleep deprived parent who needs it easy.
I find a spot of humor always helps when its been a tough week and below is an oldie but a goodie from Fawlty Towers….or Flowery Twats for those seasoned FT watchers.
Day one – Ode to Manuel…Basil Ratatouille Pasta (pack this with veggies and blitz for fussy eaters)
Day two – Sausages (chorizo, plain pork), Sweet Potato, Caramalised Onion and Feta
Day three – Golden Beer Battered Fish, Chips and Peas
Day four – Chicken Curry with Green Beans and Rice
Day five – Meatballs Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce
I made fish and chips, which was a bit of a watershed for me as I have never deep-fried anything in my life! Well, I shallow fried in my wok. But it really was fish and chips. And I hasten to add for my dutch ‘air-fryer’ missionaries – this would not be possible in an air-fryer. Own your deep-fat-frying I say, stop pretending it’s healthy. At least if you do it the proper way, its’ such a pain in the arse to clean up, you won’t do it that often – which is probably healthier than finding a quick and easy way. That’s my logic any how.
Easy Cooking Week Day Meals
…it’s your choice this week, make the meals from scratch or grab a helping hand using pre-made sauces or take outs e.g. the tomato sauce for the meatballs, fish and chips, curry pastes…
Am a big fan of long weekends… the chance for a lie in on at least one of the days, which is not a normal occurrence on any given weekend.
I’ve been trying out some Persian recipes from my new cookery book ‘Pomegranates and Roses‘ by Ariana Bundy, and doing some experimental bread baking this last week. So here is this weeks’ meal plan with a few success stories. I’ll add recipes for the Saffron Chicken (by Ariana Bundy) and my delicious Pizza Bread in the next few days.
Saffron Chicken cooked by Elaine. Recipe by Ariana Bundy ‘Pomegranates & Roses’.
Day one – Coriander, Coconut & Lime Sea Bass (the sauce can be used for chicken or fish)
Day two – Pizza Bread; Black Olive, sun-dried Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil
Day three – Saffron Chicken with French Beans and Basmati Rice
Day four – Jacket Potato with Bolognese
Day five – Creamy Garlic Chicken Pasta Bake
FYI for my wayward reader’s…Wednesday is CNY eve, and Thursday is New Year’s Day. My daughter told me earnestly today “Mum, do you know why you have to clean the house up before Chinese New Year? Because if you sweep the house on CNY you will sweep all the good luck away”. Love it. I’m just gonna park the broom for the week, just to be on the safe side.
We have a variety of CNY decorations hanging up in the house, our daughter has her school assembly tomorrow with lion dancing, and I’ve eaten the lion’s share of a tub of pineapple tarts…so we are getting into the spirit of things. Took a rain check on visiting china town this year after the rather stressful crush we experienced last year…note to families with young children…DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT visit Chinatown on the Saturday evening before CNY and talk a stroll down the lanes, IT IS INSANE. This year we drove down Eu Sen Street and enjoyed the festive light display from the comfort of our MPV, much more comfortable!
So…this week’s meal plan is…
Day one – Coconut Cream, Lime & coriander Sea Bass, with rice and long beans
Day two – Home-made Turkish pizza and sweetcorn
Day three – Spaghetti Bolognese
Day four – Saffron Chicken Stew
Day five – Roast Pumpkin, Feta and Chorizo Risotto
Feeding the Friedlanders 