Spinach & Cheese Muffin

I have been reading up on several Spinach & Cheese recipes as I love the idea of having a simple and savoury muffin for a change.

This bake turned out to be soft and slightly salted (I love mild cheddar!) with a nice basil aroma. It was kind of spongey within which I was able break into small bites for my toothless LO to enjoy. Her pics below says it all! Hehehe

Spinach & Cheese Muffins

Ingredients (makes 6)
1 egg

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup milk (I used full cream milk)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp basil (optional)

1 spring onion/small onion (chopped finely)

2 cups spinach (chopped finelye)

2/3 cup cheddar (I used mild cheddar)

Method

Sift flour & baking powder into a bowl and make a well in the centre. Whisk egg and milk together and then add to flour mixture. Add cheese, spring onion and spinach and fold in gently. Spoon into muffin tray and bake at 160 degrees for 15-20mins or until brown.

Cool & serve.

Lil Sunshine enjoying her lunch of broccoli, carrots and freshly baked Spinach & Cheese muffin. Mummy was munching along too ! 

Salmon Fish Pie in Greek Yoghurt

I have been wanting to try Annabel Karmel's fish pie for some time and finally got down to doing it.  As usual, I adapted it to my preference of Greek Yoghurt and no bake.  :)

Salmon Fish Pie in Greek Yoghurt

Ingredients

1 small sweet potato

1/2 potato 

Salmon (cut into chunks) 

2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese

1/4 cup Greek yoghurt

1/2 cup homemade chicken stock 

1/4 cup garden peas 

1/2 tbsp Corn flour for thickening (optional)

1 bay leave 

Half clove of garlic 

Some onion

Unsalted butter/olive oil

Method 

Steam/boil the sweet potato & potato, cool and mash it together. Set aside.

Heat up the sauce pan, add in the unsalted butter, onion, garlic and bay leaf and stir fry till fragrant. Add in salmon chunks and stir fry till slightly cooked. Add in chicken stock and peas and bring to a boil. Once salmon is cooked,  reduce heat and stir in cheese and Greek yoghurt. Add in corn flour to thicken soup if desire. Pour mixture into dish and topped with sweet potato & potato mash.

My only regret, made only enough for lil sunshine and nothing left for me! So yummy......

Chicken Oatmeal Patties

Some mummies were asking me if they can pan fry raw oats instead of baking so I decided to give it a try. I love the texture of oats along with the crunch of water chestnut. 

Chicken Oatmeal Patties

Ingredients (makes 6)

1 egg

1/2 cup baby oats

1 piece of water chestnut (diced)

1 Chicken drumstick (cooked and minced)

1 tbsp shredded carrot

Handful of garden peas

Method 

Mix in all ingredients, form into patties and pan fry at medium heat until both sides are cooked.Cool and serve.

Since my 11 mth old baby is still toothless, i tend to smash my peas before mixing so that is really optional. Akso, she loves greek yoghurt so that will be her fun dip for the patties.

Healthy Banana & Yoghurt Oatmeal Muffin

I love oats and yoghurt and the idea of mixing them into a muffin mix just sounds ideal for my little one. :)

Most of the recipes i have seen required sugar and since i am way against that, more banana mash will probably do the trick, and it did !

Healthy Banana & Yoghurt Oatmeal Muffin

Ingredients (makes 6)

1 cup baby oats/ rolled oats

2 ripe bananas

1 egg

1/2 cup Greek yoghurt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

Handful of chocolate chips (for tots or adults)

Method

Mix all the ingredients (except choc chips) and blend it in a food processor. I used favorite my handheld blender. Mix in the chocolate chips into the batter as desire. Pour the mixture into muffin cups. Bake at 180 degrees for 25 min or until brown. Cool and serve.

Cheesy Potato Cakes

Was preparing for an outing with lil sunshine's cousins so decided to make something simple and what all kiddos like, cheese and potatoes ! Little one had the privilege to try some first :)

Cheesy Potato Cake

Ingredients

1 egg

1 potato

1 tbsp baby oats

1 tbsp spring onions (chopped finely)

2 tbsp grated carrot

2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese (I used mild white cheddar)

Method

Boil and mash potato. Add in carrot, cheese, spring onion , baby oats and 2/3 egg and mix well .You can choose to put in the whole egg but i kept some to brush over the patties. Form mixture into patties and place into muffin tray. Brush eggwash over patties and bake for 15 min at 170 degrees or until brown. Cool and serve. 

Will be yummy with sour cream Or yoghurt dip too.

Going .....

Going ......

Gone !No more ???

Mushroom & Peas Millet Pilaf

I read many postings on millet porridge and how it is good for LO so I purchased a packet as an alternative to oatmeal or rice porridge that i will get my helper to prepare in my absence. However, since i am home, i decided to try making something with more texture and besides, i still have lots of portobello mushroom in the fridge. Hahaha

Portobello Mushroom & Peas Millet Pilaf

Ingredients

Approx 50g of millet, rinsed 

150ml of homemade chicken stock 

1 clove garlic (finely chopped)

1 carrot (diced)

1 potobello mushroom (diced)

Handful of garden peas

 1 tsp olive oil

Method

Fry garlic, mushroom and carrot until softened. Add in millet and mix well.
Pour in stock, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer until liquid is almost absorbed. Remove from heat, but keep covered for 10 more mins for the steam to cook the pilaf. Toss in the peas and mix well.

 Simulatenously, put the cod fish to steam. Assemble and a simple healthy lunch is ready !

Lil sunshine refuses to take the preloaded spoon today, opting to mash up her own millet and pick the cod and peas. Oh well, as long as she is happy and eats her lunch which she finished almost everything. :)

Healthy Portobello Mushroom Pasta in Greek Yoghurt

It is such a cold and rainy day so what's better than creamy pasta for lunch. However, stubborn me still refuses to use cream for the sauce so i searched around for a healthy version and chanced upon a greek yoghurt base , how apt !

Portobello Mushroom Greek Yogurt Pasta

Ingredients

4 tsp baby pasta

1 tsp olive oil

1 big portobello mushroom (diced)

1 clove garlic (smashed and chopped finely)

3 tbsp homemade chicken stock

2 tbsp greek yoghurt

1/4 tsp basil
1 tsp cheddar cheese (grated)

1/2 tsp wheat flour (optional)

Chopped onions (optional)

Method

Cook baby pasta and set aside. Pan fry the garlic, onion and mushroom with the olive oil . Add in chicken stock to soften the mushroom and leave it at medium heat for 5 minutes. Once mushroom is soften, add in basil and cheddar cheese and mix well. Reduce heat and add in greek yoghurt. You may choose to add in flour if the consistency is too watery. Mix well and serve with pasta.


Since my 11 month baby is toothless , i gave the sauce a few pulses on my handheld blender hence the consistency you see above . I was hoping to share the sauce with her but no, she finished it all by herself ! Leaving me plain pasta :(

A happy messy Baby

Sweet Potato Greek Yoghurt Balls with Baby Pasta

Had to work late tonight so by the time i got home, i had to whip up an easy snack for LO while prepare dinner for the family . Thankfully i got my helper to put the chicken and herb in the slow cooker earlier so that's one dish down. Whew ....

Ok, back to LO, what should i make in 20 min ? A mash of cos ! Easy peasy, dump into steamer while i fry away for dinner . But that will be kinda boring isn't it, i thought. How about adding milk ? Nah .. Cheese ? BORING so that leaves the unopened Greek Yoghurt raising its hands .......me ! Me! ME !

So to cut the story short , CREAMY it should be. (Ta-dah!)

Sweet Potato Greek Yoghurt Balls w Baby Pasta

Ingredients

Half a sweet potato 

1 Tbsp of greek yoghurt (or more if you desire)

4 tsp baby pasta 

Method

Cook baby pasta and set aside . Steam sweet potato and mash.

Mix in greek yoghurt and pasta. Form into balls and pop 1 into mouth to reward yourself. Hahaha, that's MY method !

By the way, i sprinkled some basil leaves to make it more appealing.
Way too yellow for my liking . :p

Why did i decided to add baby pasta to my mash ? Cos i was hoping to give LO some texture to encourage chewing lest she becomes lazy. 

Sticky Mushroom Rice with Threadfin Flakes

Inspired by the Lo Mai Gai i made earlier for the family, i wanted to give LO a similar sticky rice experience, besides, it is great for spoon training too !

So, i rummaged through my fridge and spotted the Chinese Mushroom and i thought, why not introduce this fragrant and chewy fungi to her ! That's it, decision is made and i got to my cooking. While my 2 babies (hubs is baby numero uno hahahha) snoozed away.

Sticky Mushroom Rice with Threadfin Flakes

Ingredient :

1 slice of threadfin

1 chinese mushroom (soaked and chopped finely)

Handful of spinach (rough opped)

1/2 cup homemade chicken stock

1/4 cup Japonica rice (using small measuring cup for grains)

Ginger

Method :

Poach theadfin with some ginger slices to remove the fishy smell.
Once cooked, remove and flake.

Rinse rice and mix with chicken stock, mushroom and spinach in a bowl and steam for 35 min or until the consistency you desire.
Assemble and serve.

Did she like it? You bet ! Check out the fish flake on her brow, how in the world did it manage to get there ? Hahaha ...love my baby !

Banana & Applesauce Cake

Lil sunshine is turning one come end Aug so i decided to embark on my hunt for a healthy birthday cake for her special day . After all these months of giving her well thought out and nutritious food , i'm not ready to expose her to commercial food dye and sugar and all the junk food which she will eventually come to know in future. Hahahah ....

Came across the recipe Healthy Smash Cake and got me really excited since its Sugar free, Dairy free and Eggless. How perfect! But since LO is still toothless (not sure if cake is too dry for her), i decided to make it more mushy and the result is a kueh like texture that's sticky and gooey. Was a little disappointed as the dense consistency made it almost impossible to hold a shape good enough to frost.

Oh well, guess we will just have to eat the ugly cake now. Nom nom nom

.

 See how dense it is .

Ingredient :

90g wheat flour

3 bananas

200g applesauce

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 vanilla essence

Method :

Mix mashed banana, appleauce, vanilla essence, nutmeg and cinnamon. Mix in flour and baking powder and ensure everything is well incorporated. Pour in mould and bake for 30 min at 180 degrees.

Lil sunshine seeing the cake for the first time. She was more intrigued by the pretty paper cup and attempted to eat that!

Oooh, this brownish sticky gooey mash actually tastes pretty good.

My kind of food ! *loves it when mummy lets me play with my food*

Can i have more please, mummy ?

After thoughts : This experience gave me inspiration to make more adaptions (i will never learn my lesson right ?hahahaha) so i will attempt to replace flour with oat powder (woohoo, gluten free !) Or search for a steam cake recipe for my base cake.Afterall, kuehs are steamed right ? Who says we must have cake for Birthdays. LO will have a MASH cake instead of a SMASH cake!hehehe

Snack time ! Pumpkin & Cinnamon Oat Fingers

What is the best thing about a lazy Sunday ? Loads of snacks of cos!

So i decided to make another variation of the versatile oat fingers for my lil sunshine.

Pumpkin & Cinnamon Oat Fingers

Ingredient :

150 g pumpkin

4 Tbsp baby oats

1/4 tsp cinnamon 

Method:

Steam pumpkin and mash it. Add cinnamon powder and oats and mix well. Form into fingers and bake for 15 min at 170 degrees.

Love the gorgeous orange. I'm in love with pumpkin as you can tell. hahahah

My happy baby enjoying her healthy, mushy and oh so yummy snack!

So while i try a new variation for baby girl, i must not forget Daddy so i made some Yam crisp in olive oil using my favourite turbo broiler. Will probably make these for Penny when she is older since its a healthy snack too. When you can't beat a family of snackers , you just have to make healthy snacks and JOIN IN !Woohooo !

Afternote : some mummies have been asking me where i bought my baby oats. So here is a picture of it and you can probably find it at NTUC Xtra or finest.

Cod on Sweet Potato,Tofu & Peas Mash

Lil Sunshine feeling super reluctant to leave her pool after her dip.

Daddy bought some frozen pacific cod loin and since I do not intend to give her baked stuff today, I decided to make her a vegetable mash with cod.

 What Mummy sees ......

What Baby sees ..... hahahaha

Cod on Sweet Potato, Tofu & Peas Mash

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 sweet potato 

50g silken tofu

50g garden peas

1 piece of cod

Quarter cup of fresh milk

Ginger (optional)

Garlic (optional)

Method

Steam sweet potato , tofu and peas . Mash it and set aside . Poach cod in milk ,ginger and garlic for 15min. Remove the cooked cod and break into pieces. Mix cod with mash and rolled to balls. 

Basically this frozen cod has a firmer texture so I had to break it further for my LO. It is really quite bland on its own so the sweet mash really helps make it easier for baby to accept . In any case ,she finished everything that was shown in the picture above and is now in dreamland. Must be exhausted from the swim and carbo filled lunch.

Salmon Cake , Pumpkin Patties & Meatball

Salmon Cake

Pre cook potato,peas,salmon and mash them.Add a little bit of onion and cheddar and some egg yolk to bind mixture. Then roll into balls, dip in egg and dust with floor and bake it for 15 min at 170 degrees.

Vegetable Meatballs

Mix Minced meat with carrot, pumpkin, french beans, onion, garlic, some cheddar cheese ,corn flour and egg yolk. Form into patties or balls.Bake at 180 degrees for 25 min or until brown. Yummy when served with yoghurt !

Pumpkin & Spinach Patties

Mix chopped spinach, mashed pumpkin with oat powder, onions ,garlic and a little unsalted butter. Form into patties and bake at 170 degrees for 15 min