Rosemary & Thyme Chicken in Pumpkin & Apple Sauce

Came home late from an outing and had to whip up a quick dinner for the hungry tot and to my dismay, I ran out of homemade tomato sauce so this is my quick fix ! No additional seasoning needed.

Rosemary & Thyme Chicken in Pumpkin Apple Sauce

Ingredients
2 chicken drumsticks
1 cup of pumpkin puree
1/2 cup of water
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 cherry apple (chopped)
1/8 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
Olive oil

Method
Stir fry the chopped garlic and bay leaves in olive oil till it is fragrant  , add in the chicken drumstick and let it cook for a while.

Add in pumpkin puree, tomato puree, apples,  water , thyme and rosemary and let it simmer at medium heat for 30 min or until the chicken is nice and tender.

Serve it with rice for a quick and sweet dinner.

You can choose to add some sea salt and black pepper but I omitted both as my little one has a slightly sweet tooth and pumpkin apple sauce is YUMMY!!☺

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.

Pumpkin & Cinnamon Rice Sticks

Several mummies were sharing their pictures of yummy rice sticks so I thought I will jump onto the bandwagon and have a go.

I made mine slightly thicker and softer as LO is still toothless at almost 13 months (spy a cute tiny tooth emerging though, yippie!). Did these the night before so that LO can have it for breakfast.

Pumpkin & Cinnamon Rice Sticks

Ingredient (makes 8 )

5 tbsp pumpkin puree

5 tbsp cooked rice 

1/8 tsp cinnamon 

1 tbsp water (omitted, see note below) 

Note: I'm using japonica/pearl rice which is naturally more moist. And also my puree was really quite moist too hence I omitted the water in the original recipe.

Method 

Blend the rice and puree in a processor till well mixed. Pour mixture into a pipping bag or plastic bag (snip one corner) and pipe out the desired length or thickness.

Bake for 15 - 25 min at 180 degrees based on your preference. The longer baking time will result in crispy sticks.

Enjoy!

cheeky girl with her rice sticks and pau

Steam pumpkin pau

Another midnight cooking while everyone is asleep. The pau itself is so yummy and fluffy that LO and myself enjoyed it tremendously. The pumpkin I bought was really sweet so I may just skip the sugar in my next attempt.

The pau recipe was adapted from this website:  Happy Home Baking 

Get your arms ready for some serious kneading! I did about 30 min of that.

Steamed Pumpkin Pau

Ingredients

300g Hong Kong pau flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp instant yeast

30g caster sugar

160ml water

1 tbsp vegetable oil

300g pumpkin paste (see below)

Method

Sieve Hong Kong pau flour, baking powder and add in yeast, sugar and mix well.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture, add in water and mix to form a dough. Transfer dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead dough until it becomes smooth (approx 5 mins).

Knead in the vegetable oil and continue to knead for another 10-15 mins or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. 

Take a piece of dough  (about the size of a table tennis ball) and stretch it, you should be able to stretch it  to a fairly thin membrane without tearing off easily, if not continue to knead for another 5 to 10mins.

Roll dough into a smooth round, place in a lightly greased mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it proof for about 15 mins.

Punch down the dough and knead a bit to release the trapped air bubbles. Divide the dough into small balls. 

Flatten each dough into a small disc with your palm , make the edges thinner and the centre portion thicker. Wrap each dough with pumpkin paste. Pinch and seal the seams. Place dough seam side down on a square piece of parchment paper. Cover loosely with cling wrap and leave buns to proof for 20-25 mins.

Place buns in a steamer and space them apart so that they do not touch one another. Steam at medium to high heat for 12 min.

Remove immediately and serve warm. Keep any leftovers in fridge (covered with cling wrap or store in airtight containers) and re-steam.

Pumpkin Paste

Ingredient 

300g pumpkin (steamed) 

30g sugar 

1 tsp corn flour

Method

C ook mashed pumpkin,  Sugar and corn flour till it thickens. Form into balls and chill till time to use.

For my version, it was too wet despite using 2 tbsp corn flour so I was not able to form into balls. I just wrapped the pau with the liquid filling .Hehehhe

Homemade Pumpkin Noodle in Chicken Broth

What does one do when you have ample pumpkin puree?  Make pumpkin noodles! Ok, mine was more pumpkin shapes but you get the idea. Hehehe

This is an incredibly simple recipe which I found on the web and had to give it a go to see if it's really tasty enough and it is! 

Pumpkin Noodles in Chicken Broth 

Ingredients 

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup pumpkin puree  

Chicken stock 

Vegetable of your choice ( I used baby spinach)

Method 

Mix plain flour and pumpkin puree and knead well into a dough.

With a rolling pin, flatten the dough to your desired thickness . Using a cookie cutter, cut out cute shapes for your LO ! If you prefer noodles, just cut them into strips.

Heat up the chicken stock and add in the pumpkin shapes/noodles and cook well. I needed mine to be really soft so it was cooked for almost 10 minutes. Add in the spinach and turn off the heat when it starts to wilt .

Serve warm.

Baby loves it and mummy is elated!!

Cod Fish Nuggets (with Pumpkin)

Another simple and quick snack for the LO who is still recovering from a bad cold.

Cod Fish Nuggets 

Ingredients (makes 5 pieces)
 100g cod (I used frozen cod)
70g mashed pumpkin (as desire)
A few pinches of cumin powder (optional)
 2 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp baby oat

Method
Slice fish into nuggets or fingers . Do ensure that there is no bones. Mix the plain flour & baby oats in a bowl and set aside. Mix the pumpkin & cumin powder in a separate bowl.I wanted to introduce cumin to my LO and pumpkin (which is her all time favourite) seems like a good choice.

Cover the fish nuggets with pumpkin mash and roll it in the flour & baby oat mixture. Pan fry in olive oil/vco/butter until brown and crispy on both sides.

* For a stronger flavour, you can choose to add some grated parmesan cheese into the flour mixture.

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.

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