Blueberry Smoothie

These small round purple-blue berries are packed with so much goodness. They are rich in antioxidants, vitamin C, B2 and an excellent source of flavonoids. Blueberry smoothie is the perfect snack beverage on a hot summer day, or serve it as a meal replacement drink if you want to lose the few pounds you have put on from Christmas and New Year feasting.

Ingredients (2 small servings)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1 cup fresh milk

Method
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

Sweet delight - Banana Milkshake 濃香誘人的香蕉奶昔

Finally, a new post after MIA for more than four months!!! ;) My job is my new best friend (to keep up with the ever-increasing childcare expenses! It's $92/day this year, damn!) and I devote remaining spare time to the loves of my life - B&B. My camera has been sitting idle in the cupboard for months so I decided to check the battery life this morning. It's running low but I managed to capture some shots. Hence, this post... I am unofficially back to blogging.

If you are craving for something sweet, cool and refreshing this summer, here's a healthy nutritious drink to kick start your morning - Banana milkshake. It's super duper easy and quick to make. There are just three ingredients - 2 ripe bananas, 2 cups milk (about 500ml) and 1-2 scoops of vanilla ice-cream. Blend them all in a blender to your desired consistency. This makes 3 small servings.

Coq Au Vin 紅酒燴雞

This was dinner on Mother's Day, the result of spending hours in the kitchen on "my" day trying to cook a special dish for the family. I'm not complaining for having to cook on Mother's Day... but it's stressful when you still can't have dinner served by 7pm and have a child roaming in the kitchen trying to open every drawer and cabinet, pressing the buttons on the dish washer and washing machine, and give you a cheeky grin when you tell him off.

On a side note, I received a small gift from my one-year old when I picked him up from the childcare centre on Friday - a painted photo frame (painted by Bryan with the carer's help). Sweet! :D

Recipe to follow soon... time to hit the sack! Night.

Recipe - Updated

Ingredients
1.2kg whole chicken, chopped into pieces
200g button mushrooms
4 rashers middle bacon, cut into strips
1 carrot, cut lengthwise
2 stalks celery, cut lengthwise
5 shallots, peeled and left whole
5 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
White and black pepper
1/2 cup Plan flour
1 cup red wine
1 cup chicken stock
Cooking oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cook bacon slices in a cooled pan to render some fats. Add shallots and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or until browned. Add the carrots, celery sticks and mushrooms and cook, stirring for about 8 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Pour flour on a plate, season with salt and pepper. Coat the chicken pieces thoroughly in the seasoned flour. Brown the chicken pieces on both sides in a large frying pan heated with oil. Brown the chicken in batches to prevent overcrowding the pan. Transfer the bacon and vegetables back. Stir in red wine and chicken stock. Bring to boil and lower heat to simmer for 10 minutes.

Transfer everything to an ovenproof casserole (with lid) and cook in oven, covered, for about 45 minutes to an hour. Serve with rice or potatoes if desired.

Baked Lamb Cutlets with Herbs and Balsamic Vinegar 迷迭香羊排

Hello peeps!!! Apologies for the long absence! Been busy with work as I am now back to full time duty and don't have much time to try out new recipes and experiment in my kitchen.

This was dinner last Sunday - baked lamb cutlets. I marinated the lamb with herbs, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper overnight, so that the meat will absorb all the wonderful flavors of the marinade. I am a big fan of balsamic vinegar. It is a great all purpose marinade that helps to tenderize meats and works well on all kinds of poultry. Do buy a good high-end aged Italian balsamic vinegar if you could afford it, but a less expensive young balsamic works fine as a marinade.

Full recipe will be updated soon! :) I will be back.

* Updated - recipe *

Ingredients
6 lamb cutlets
2.5 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp dried mixed herbs (rosemary, thyme, basil, marjoram, oregano and sage)
Salt and pepper
1 tsp sugar

Method
Marinate lamb with balsamic vinegar, herbs, sugar, salt and pepper overnight.

Preheat the oven to 200°C fan forced. Baked lamb for 20-25 minutes, brushing with marinade occasionally, or until the lamb cutlets is tender.

Cheesy Pumpkin Bake 芝士培根烤南瓜

This is one of my favourite recipes and one of the best ways I like my pumpkin cooked. You can replace bacon crumbs with chicken dices as a healthy substitute.

Ingredients
1 quarter pumpkin, cut into small pieces
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
5 slices bacon
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Some olive oil


Method
Take the bacon slices cold from the refrigerator and start with a cold pan. (This will prevent bacon from burning and help to render out the fat). Fry bacon till crisp. Remove and crumble bacon. Set aside.

Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat and saute garlic. Add pumpkin and stir fry for about 8-10 minutes till slightly soft.

Arrange pumpkin on a casserole dish, sprinkle bacon all over it. Top with shredded cheese.

Bake in oven at 180°C for about 15-20 minutes till cheese melted and turn golden.

Stewed spare ribs with BBQ sauce 燒汁茄醬燜排骨

I recently bought a 3.5l slow cooker and it's been one of my best purchases ever! I have cooked congees, stews and soups with the slow cooker and they all turned out divine. Meats (even cheap cuts) became meltingly tender, yet retained its flavours and juicy textures. I no longer have to worry about congee getting burned or spilled over, and there is little evaporation involved and minimal risk of soup drying up.

This spare ribs with BBQ sauce recipe is fairly easy to prepare. The spare ribs were simmered to perfection and so tender and moist that they fall off the bone.


Ingredients
2 slabs spare ribs
1 cup BBQ sauce of your choice
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp honey mustard
Dash of black pepper
10 button mushrooms, quartered
1 brown onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp cooking oil

Method
Marinate spare ribs with BBQ sauce, tomato sauce, honey mustard and black pepper for a few hours.

Place sliced onions in the bottom of the slow cooker. Arrange whole slab of spare ribs on top of the onion. Pour in the marinade. Cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-7 hours.

Heat oil in pan and sauté garlic and mushrooms. Pour sauce from spare ribs over mushrooms. Dish and serve.

Cheesy Pumpkin Baked Rice with Alfredo Sauce 白汁芝士焗南瓜飯

I am not done with pumpkin yet, not when I still have a quarter of pumpkin left over from Sunday's baked pumpkin pudding. I also have half a bottle of Alfredo pasta sauce sitting in the fridge from Sunday's BBQ chicken spaghetti. Hey why do I have so much leftover food? I don't like to keep food overnight, especially when I have to eat healthily for two now.

Anyway, this is what I whipped up for Monday's dinner - Cheesy Pumpkin Baked Rice with Alfredo Sauce. Quite a mouthful eh but it explains all. Well not exactly, if I were to have all the main ingredients on the title, it should be "Cheesy Mushroom Chicken & Pumpkin Baked Rice with Alfredo Sauce". -__- Pardon the preggie lady who has her hormones running wild these days... Here's the recipe.

Ingredients
Quarter pumpkin, diced
100g bacon, diced
150g chicken breast meat, diced
6 button mushrooms, sliced
2 bowls cooked rice
Half bottle Alfredo sauce (about 280g)
2 slices cheese/ shredded Cheddar cheese
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method
Microwave diced pumpkin on high power for 5 minutes.

Stir-fry bacon and chicken for 3 minutes till brown. Add mushrooms and cook for another 2 minutes. Pour in cooked rice and pumpkin, season with salt and pepper. Cook and stir-fry all ingredients until heated through and well mixed.

Transfer rice onto an oven-proof dish or a dual-layered foil on baking tray. Pour Alfredo sauce over rice and topped with cheese.

Bake rice in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for about 12-15 minutes until cheese has melted.

Dish and serve immediately.

TGIF!

It's Friday!!! Can't describe how happy I am that the working days are over, and I can sleep in tomorrow because there's no Jap class this week! Yay! We have completed beginners level and level 1, level 2 commences next week with another 10 lessons.

Dralion - Cirque du Soleil premiered in Sydney's Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park on Wednesday and yes, I have just bought 2 tickets to the show in September. Managed to get the VIP seats (second row from stage) that start from a whopping $250 a ticket. But I have paid for less than this price for two tickets! Lalalaaa... :)))

Here's a little background of Dralion, Cirque du Soleil's east-meets-west spectacular directed by Guy Caron:-

Dralion is the fusion of ancient Chinese circus tradition and the avant-garde approach of Cirque du Soleil. The show's name is drawn from its two main symbols: the dragon, representing the East, and the lion, representing the West. Dralion derives much of its inspiration from Eastern philosophy with its perpetual quest for harmony between humankind and nature.
- Taken from Dralion's official website.

I am getting really excited and looking forward to the show, all ready to be dazzled and blown away!

Before I hit the sack (yawn yawm), I leave you with one of our dinner plates this week - Chili con carne, featuring minced pork, tomatoes, zucchini, red kidney beans and combination of herbs and spices.
Bon Appétit! And... goodie night.

MIA

Whoo... I have been extremely busy with work, staff training, performance reviews, Jap classes, financial year-end the past few weeks and my energy level was running at its lows. And we were deeply saddened by the terrible news of my uncle's untimely passing last month. That's how unpredictable and fragile life can be sometimes. T__T

Sydney is gearing up for World Youth Day next week with thousands of pilgrims streaming into the city to celebrate the largest youth event in the world. It is expected to draw more international visitors to Sydney than the Olympic Games. I hope there won't be much disruptions to the traffic and public transports (strikes expected), or I may have to walk to work next week.

Here's leaving you with a pic of our breaky. I have to go shower and get ready for my dating+shopping+hair-cutting day.

Have a lovely weekend folks!

Caesar Salad 恺撒沙拉

Love Caesar salad, absolutely love it. Made this for dinner last Sunday and we each had a big bowl of salad and shared some soup. I used Cardini's salad dressing, which is good but a tad too salty. My colleague Yvonne suggested to add some mayonnaise to the dressing to sweeten it.

B and I have always thought Caesar salad has something to do with Julius Caesar, the emperor of Rome. ~The silly bees~. It's actually named after Caesar Cardini, an Italian-born Mexican who first made the salad and dressing in his restaurant in 1924. Read more about Cardini here.

This is my bowl of Caesar salad.


Ingredients
1 cos lettuce, washed and coarsely cut
1/2 cup caesar salad dressing
BBQ turkey/chicken, shredded
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
2 strips bacon
Croutons - 2 slices bread, cubed
Butter
Parmesen cheese

Method
Separate lettuce leaves and wash in cold water, gently dry them with kitchen towel. Refrigerate till serving time.

To make croutons, preheat oven to 200°C. Spread butter on bread cubes and bake in oven for 5-8 minutes or until golden.

Fry bacon in frying pan till crispy. Remove and drain on paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Arrange lettuce, chicken, bacon, croutons and eggs in individual serving bowls. Drizzle with dressing and sprinkle parmesen cheese on top.

Serve immediately.

Grilled Sardines 烤沙丁鱼

This is a really simple recipe, so simple that I am hesitant to post it. But B enjoyed the dinner tonight and was full of praise. He was even thinking of going to the market to buy the fresh sardines again tomorrow. *__*

I am not sure if fresh sardines are sold in Malaysia and Singapore, but I have only had canned sardines back home. My dad loves canned sardine in tomato sauce, and I'll cook this grilled sardine dish for him the next time he visits us in Sydney.

Ingredients
12 fresh sardines
Sea salt (optional)

Method
Wash and clean fresh sardines. Pat dry sardines and sprinkle with some sea salt if you like. I personally prefer to have it plain with the original taste.

Grill sardines over a grill pan or in an oven on grill mode for about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the fish.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice over fish.


So there you go. I told you it's easy! Simplicity is always the best.

BTW, do you know that sardines are rich in omega 3 fatty acids, which is good for the heart? They also provide good source of vitamin D and calcium.

Meatballs Spaghetti 番茄肉丸意粉

Ingredients

Meatballs
300g minced pork
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup breadcrumbs
A few dash ground white pepper
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
Cooking oil for frying

Pasta
1 packet 500g angel hair spaghetti #6 (Use any pasta of your choice)
1 bottle of pasta sauce (I used Bertolli's Five Cheese, made from 5 types of cheese blended with fresh sun ripened tomatoes)
1 small onion, finely chopped
Cooking oil


Method
To make the meatballs, combine all ingredients in a large bowl and blend well. Shape the mixture into small balls, about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. In a large deep skillet, brown meatballs in butter or oil, cook in batches if necessary.


Cook angel hair spaghetti according to package directions till "al dente". Rinse the spaghetti under cold running water. Drain and divide into 4 plates.

Brown the chopped onion and add the pasta sauce. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Pour sauce over meatballs and pasta. Garnish with parsley leaves and grated cheese.

Lamb Stew 焖羊肉

The stew has turned out to be a soup and I have decided not to thicken it.

.

Ingredients
2 lamb chops

200g boneless lamb, diced into 2 inch thick
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 potatos, peeled and cut into chunks
2 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

1 green capsicum, chopped
6 tomatos, peeled and diced

500ml water

1-2 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

Method
Par boil the lamb chops in a pot of boiling water for 1-2 minutes to remove excess fats and scum. Remove and set aside.

Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat and sauté onions for 2 minutes. Add the diced lamb and fry until brown on all sides, stirring frequently, about 3 minutes.

Add the vegetables, lamb chops and water to cover all ingredients, bringing to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered until lamb is cooked through and stew thickens slightly, about 40 minutes. Add salt to taste.

Dish and serve immediately.

Chicken, asparagus and mushrooms in tomato sauce 芦笋蘑菇拌鸡

Ingredients
Asparagus – trimmed, cut on the diagonal into 2 inch lengths
Roasted/grilled chicken fillet – cut in strips
Button mushroom – washed and sliced
Chucky pasta tomato sauce – 4 tbs
Garlic – 2 cloves, finely chopped
Olive oil – 1 ½ tbs
Salt

Method
Bring a pot of water to boil, add a pinch of salt and 1 teaspoon of oil. Blanch the asparagus for about 2-3 minutes. Drain and set aside. The oil and salt will make the asparagus appear brilliant green.

Heat oil in a pan, add in garlic and give a few quick stir. Add the mushrooms and continue to stir-fry briskly. Pour in the tomato sauce and cook at medium heat until thick. Return the asparagus and toss well to evenly coat the sauce.

Dish up and top with chicken strips.

Fettuccine marinara 海鲜意大利扁面

Ingredients - Serves 2
250g tri colour fettuccine pasta
100g mixed seafood
Chucky tomato sauce
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Chopped parsley
2 tbs olive oil
Salt

Method
Cook fettuccine in a large saucepan of salted boiling water, following packet directions, until al dente.

Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a frying pan and sauté garlic. Add the seafood and cook for three minutes before adding the tomato sauce. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking of the pan.

Serve over pasta. Top with parsley leaves and grated parmesan cheese, if desired.