Cream of Mushroom Soup (Vegan version with tofu)

Cream of Mushroom (Vegan version with tofu sauce)

Ingredients

5 med Portobello mushrooms (remove gills and rough chopped)

1/2 small white onion (diced)

2 cloves of garlic (minced) 

2 bay leaves

1/4 tsp basil and oregano (as desired) 

1/2 tub silken tofu 

1 cup water 

Olive oil

Method 

Saute onion ,garlic and bay leaves in olive oil. When onion is translucent and fragrant , add in chopped  mushrooms and herbs and water. Simmer till mushrooms soften.

Put tofu and some water (from the mushroom soup) in a food proceesor and blend until creamy. Slowly add tofu sauce to pan and simmer on low for 2 minutes.

At this point,  the soup is done and you can choose to serve it as it is but 

my LO has only 1 tooth so I blended the 

mixture before serving. I added home made croutons to the soup too.

Rosti Pancakes

Mummy was craving for Rosti so LO has crunchy Rosti Pancake for breakfast!

Rosti Pancake

Ingredients (makes 6 small pancakes)

1/2 potato (grated)

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup vegetable puree (I used my frozen batch of roasted veg soup)

1/4 cup water

Olive oil 

Cheddar cheese (optional. I omitted it)

Method

Grate the potato and mix all the ingredients together to form batter.

Add some olive oil to a heated pan and pan fry the pancakes at medium heat till it is cooked or brown.

There is no seasoning or aromatics added in the batter as my vegetable soup was flavorful with herbs and spices so if you intend to use pure vegetable puree, you may like to add in some onions, parsley or even herbs.

Happy Baby finished 4 pancakes leaving only 2 for mummy.

Mango & Yoghurt Steam Cake

Inspired by a fellow mummy's sharing on steam Dragon fruit cake so I decided to attempt my own fruit cake for LO's breakfast before I scoot off to work this morning. 

I omitted sugar as I am still trying to hold it off for my 14 month old girl and since she likes yoghurt, she enjoyed the mildly sweet and sourish cake.

Mango & Yoghurt Steam Cake

Ingredients (makes 3)

1 egg (beaten)

1/2 cup flour (I used cake flour)

1/4 cup fruit/veg puree (I used mango)

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp vanilla essence 

1 tbsp sugar (I omitted this) 

1 tbsp olive oil 

2 tbsp Greek yoghurt/milk

Method 

Sieve the flour and baking powder in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, lightly beat the egg,vanilla essence and sugar (if you opt to add) . Add in yoghurt and mango puree and mix well.

Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture, mixing well and adding in the oil.

Scoop into cups and steam for 10 min

Plain Steam Buns (Mantou)

It is another cold afternoon and what's better than piping hot mantou to go with my coffee! LO will have her share after her nap.hehehe

Obviously mummy needs more practice with her mantou designs. :P

Plain Steam Bun

bIngredients (makes 8)

200g Hong Kong Pau Flour

10g sugar (original recipe of 15g)

1/4 tsp baking powder 

3/4 tsp instant yeast 

100ml lukewarm water 

1 tsp olive oil

Method 

Mix all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and transfer it to a lightly flour dusted baking sheet and knead for 5~8 min until the dough is smooth.

Transfer the dough back to the mixing bowl,coat it with some olive oil and keep it covered for 10 min.

Divide the dough into small balls or whichever design you prefer and leave it covered for another 30 min for it to double in size. Since I have reduced the sugar, I added lil sunshine's favourite raisins in the mantou.

Steam for 18-20 min and it's done!

She loves it! Especially looking for the hidden raisins!

Baked Veggie Balls

Baked Veggie Balls

Ingredients (makes 9)

1 potato 

4 broccoli florets

1/2 small carrot (diced)

1/4 cup frozen peas 

Handful of parsley

1/4 cup shredded cheddar

Method 

Steam the potato,  broccoli, carrots and peas. I did this as my LO has only 1 tooth so I wanted to be sure everything is soft. 

Mash the potato and mix in all the ingredients.

Form into balls, placed on a baking tray  and drizzle some olive oil over it.

Bake for 15-20 min at 180 degrees.

You can choose to coat the balls with crushed oats, breadcrumbs or flour for a crunchy texture.

LO finished 4!happy mummy 

Baked Salmon in Rosemary & Oregano with Yoghurt Mash

I was planning to bake salmon for lunch and was thinking an oat crumble will add some crunch and variety . 

Baked Salmon in Rosemary & Oregano with Yoghurt Mash

Ingredient

Salmon

2 tbsp blended oats

1/2 tsp cold unsalted butter

1/4 tsp rosemary 

1/8 tsp oregano

Sprinkle of black pepper

Method 

Sprinkle rosemary, oregano and black pepper over the salmon and coat it well.

For the oat crumble,rub in chopped cold unsalted butter into the oats till it resembles breadcrumbs.

Place the salmon skin down on a baking tray and add the oat crumble on top.

Bake for 20 min at 180 degrees. The baking time is dependent on the size of salmon.

Yoghurt Mash 

Ingredient 

1 small potato 

1 sweet potato

Some yellow onions (chopped)

1 sprig of spring onion (chopped)

3-4 tbsp Greek yoghurt

Method 

Steam the sweet potato and potato.

Mash them and add in the greek yoghurt ,spring onion and onions. You can adjust it accordingly based on LO's preference.

Sweet Potato Pancakes

Here's another quick breakfast of whole wheat pancake with raisins and sweet potato pancakes.

Sweet Potato Pancake

Ingredients (Makes 8)

1 small sweet potato

1/2 cup milk

2-3 tbsp whole wheat flour

Method

Steam and mash the sweet potato.

Mix the milk, wholewheat flour and mash ed potato into a batter.

Scoop the batter into a heated non stick pan and cook till nicely brown on both sides.

Serve warm

 *Depending on the sweet potato you use, the amount of liquid will vary.

Homemade Chicken Stock Powder

Several mummies have been sharing their recipe on homemade stock powder so I decided to give it a go . This is definitely not a recipe for one who is in a rush for time as the entire process took approximately 3 hours.

Homemade Chicken Stock Powder

Ingredients 

250g chicken breast

1 carrot

1 leek 

1 corn
2 sprig of parsley

1/2 yellow onion

3 cloves of garlic 

1/8 cup grape juice 

Oil

Method 

Place all ingredients into the food processor and blend until finely minced.

Heat up 1-2 tbsp of oil and stir fry the minced ingredients for about 40 min.

Pour the mixture on a baking tray and bake at 120 degrees for about 2 hours or until it is completely dried. Stir occasionally to enjoy even drying.

Pour mixture back into food processor and blend into fine powder.

Keep in air tight container if not used immediately.

 Decided to use some for a stir fry Chye Sim for lunch.

 

Approval given! Lil sunshine finished everything in record time! Either she was famished waiting or it is indeed yummy hehehe

Roasted Vegetables Soup with Homemade Croutons

It was another cold morning which reminds me of Autumn so I was inspired to hunt for root vegetables to make a bowl of hearty soup for the LO who has gotten mummy's cold.

Isn't the colour just gorgeous?! And all those sweet caramelized goodness and vitamins. What's best is that I can finally sneak in capsicum without her objecting and it sure adds some natural spice to the soup. 

Roasted Vegetable Soup

Ingredients 

300g butternut squash (peeled and deseeded)

1 carrot

2 sweet potato (I used honey sweet potato)

1 yellow capsicum 

1/2 big white onion

2 cloves of garlic 

1.5-2 cups of boiled water/ homecooked  stock 

Olive oil

Method

Cut all the vegetables into cubes of similar size, arrange on a baking tray. drizzle some olive oil and toss well.

Bake for 40 - 60min at 200 degrees until the vegetables turned soft and tender.

Place the roasted vegetables and boiled water in a processor and blend to desired consistency.

Homemade Basil Croutons

Ingredients 

2 slices of bread (I used fresh wholemeal but you can use any type of bread, even stale bread) 

Olive oil

Basil or any other herbs

Method 

Cut the bread into cubes,  drizzle olive oil over it,  sprinkle dried basil and toss well.

Bake for 5 min at 180 degrees,  mix it well and bake for another 5 min or until brown.

Remove and store in air tight container if not using immediately.

My reward, a happy smiley baby.... oops toddler I meant.

Sugar Free Carrot Muffin

While flipping through the BLW cookbook for some nice bakes, I decided on the sugar free Carrot Muffin which looked really simple . LO tried it and gave it thumbs up. :)

Carrot Muffin

Ingredients (makes 5)

1/2 cup whole wheat/plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

2 tsp unsalted butter 

1 egg

1 medium carrot (grated)

1.5-2 tsp fresh milk 

Zest of 1 Orange

Method

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and make a well in the center.

Melt the butter in a small pan over low heat and combine with the egg and grated carrot and mix well.

Pour the carrot mixture into the flour and fold together lightly.

Add enough milk to give a soft consistency and scoop the batter into the muffin tin.

Bake at 180 degrees for 15-20 min until brown and springy.

Tuna & Peas Patties with Oat

Since lil sunshine seems to be enjoying food once again, I decided to introduce her to a new taste of canned tuna. I chose the tuna chunk in water as that is healthier and with least sodium.

Tuna & Peas Patties with Oat

Ingredients 

1 medium size potato 

1/2 cup peas 

1/2 small onion 

1/4 cup cheddar 

1/4 tsp basil

Pepper to taste 

Oats for coating

Method 

Steam the potato and peas and put all the above ingredients in a blender and blend till desired consistency.

Form into patties and coat it with baby oat/rolled oats.

Bake at 180 degrees for 15 min or until oat turns slightly brown.

Here she is enjoying them at the cafe.

Easy Banana Bread

I was surfing around as usual and chanced upon this incredibly simple recipe so I had to give it a try and boy was I pleasantly surprised with the results.  I improvised a little as I ran out of self raising flour. 

Easy Banana Bread

Ingredients

1 egg 

11/2 ripe banana 

1/3 cup raisins (I used Sun Maid)

 1 cup bread flour (plain flour works too) 

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/8 tsp nutmeg 

1/8 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp baking powder

Method 

Mix the cinnamon, nutmeg ,baking powder into the bread flour. Rub in the unsalted butter until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Add in egg, raisins and mashed banana and mix well. As my LO is still toothless,I

 halved the raisins before mixing it into the batter.

Pour into greased pan and bake for 45 min to an hour at 180 degrees. I decided to put the batter in cups .

Picking out the raisins from the bread

Lil sunshine is still recovering from Roseola hence the spotty appearance. Get well soon sweetie!

Homemade Tomato & Pumpkin Sauce

Lil Sunshine has been trying to recover from Roseola and had loss of appetite for several days and that got me really worried.

Thankfully her fever broke after 4 days and she is finally taking some interest in food again so it is back to soft mushy food for her little tummy.

Here's a really nice tomato and pumpkin sauce that is so easy and versatile.

Tomato & Pumpkin Sauce

Ingredients 

6 large tomatoes (deseeded)

300g Pumpkin 

1 medium white onion 

1 clove of garlic

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/8 tsp dried oregano

3 bay leaves

1 cup water

Method 

Cut the tomato and pumpkin into smaller pieces and put all the ingredients in the slow cooker for 5-6 hours or longer if desire.

Remove bay leaves and tomato skins and using a handheld blender, blend the sauce to your desired consistency.

This sauce is good on its own but I have decided to serve it with cheddar biscuits that I have blended into crumbs to add in some flavour and texture.