Spinach Meat Balls & Steamed Hairy Gourd

I love to prepare Spinach Meat Balls for Angel because she doesn’t fancy vegetables that much so I have to hide it somewhere or make it ‘attached’ to her favourite meat dish so that she has to either eat them or leave them which is not a choice for her. In that, I can add in lots of veggie in her diet without any protest from her and so far so good :)

The preparation is very simple, just finely chopped up the spinach (or lettuce, chinese leaves, mushrooms, carrots, etc) and mixed them up with the mince meat (chicken/ pork), lightly seasoned with some soy sauce which is totally optional for younger toddlers. Also add in an egg (omit if you were to have any extra egg dish that day), tiny bit of white pepper, few drops of sesame seed oil (optional too), some corn starch for thickening and decorated with some Chinese wolfberries. That goes into the steamer for 20 minutes and the wolfberries will definitely bring in some extra sweetness into the meat balls.

Apart from that, I would also make the same Spinach Meat Balls in some other days and heaped it onto the Hairy Gourd (毛瓜). It does taste very refreshing eating that alone or serve with porridge / rice. For a more ‘tasty’ and less healthy version, I will finely chopped up some ham / bacon which I make a gravy out of it (use the water from the steaming …… but not the water you use to steam the food though :P :P) and drizzle on top of the Steamed Hairy Gourd when it’s done.


And this is the interesting part, you can even make a clown face out of the Steamed Hairy Gourd with an extra fried eggs at the bottom and 2 raisins + some ketchup! With an extra ordinary touch on her meal, Angel did polish up her bowl of rice in no time :)


Angel's clown face rice

Not-So-Perfect Sushi

I know my sushi doesn’t look very good there but that’s the very fist time after maybe ….. 7-8 years that I pick up the bamboo matt and roll out my sushi again. Hence I think those pictures certainly means something to me and a must keep (post) for me :P I used to be quite good in making sushi when I was in the UK where hubby (bf then) always asked me to make! Make! Make! and then we will eat that so call 'sushi-of-love' for our breakfast, lunch and also dinner, straight chilling from the fridge in the cold winter days :P I think my not-so-secret secret ingredient we all love most is the mayo!! And now I am making and sharing those sushi with my little girl …… really didn’t anticipated that ever in my life :)

The funny thing is she dare not to touch the sushi at the beginning, must be wondering what’s that white thingy with the black wrapper at the side :P She is afraid of food in black looking colour ……. but me and hubby didn’t coax her or anything, I just place the sushi in front of her while me and hubby let her watch us gobble down our sushi in no time :) Finally she made her first move and thank god, I am glad that our little picky eater at home loves it as much as her daddy and mommy does :)

I think she took 10 small sushi for her dinner that night :)

Random Daily Meals 2

I am glad that Angel is back to her normal healthy eating habit again FINALLY. So I think it’s good for me to jot down some of Angel’s favourite new menus here just in case I will ever need referring to them for my next ‘battle’ again which I hope is not going to happen ever!! it is really killing a lot of brain power just to think of new food combination for her everyday! Really can’t trust my poor memories to work as efficiently as before especially after giving birth to my darling Angel, the memory brain cell is just dying fast!! I must said that I am thankful that I still can remember my own name at this moment :P Well, as long as I have a happy, healthy and active little girl at home, I don’t think I will have more to ask right? *smile* Ok ok …. Back to Angel’s new daily meals and here are some pictures taken to share.

^ ^ YUK CHUK SOUP: This is Angel’s favourite soup :) Yuk Chuk + Red and Honey Dates Soup served with Rice, Chicken Drumstick and some finely chopped Lettuce for her daily veggie intake.


^ ^ SPINACH SOUP JAPANESE NOODLES: Pork Ribs Broth cooked with Spinach, Chinese Wolfberries, Cubed Chicken Breast served with Spirulina Japanese Noodles.


^ ^ CHINESE LETTUCE SOUP PASTA: Pork Ribs Broth cooked with mince pork, Chinese Lettuce, Red Dates and serve with Angel's favourite ABC pasta


^ ^ MIX VEGGIE PORRIDGE: A very healthy porridge. Porridge cooked with Mince Pork, and lots of finely chopped Green Veggie, Carrots, Corn and Green Peas


^ ^ SILK SQUASH (丝瓜) PORRIDGE: Silk Squash Porridge With Chinese Wolfberries, Mince Pork and a beaten Egg was added just before the heat was turn off.


^ ^ (Left)SILK SQUASH (丝瓜) OMELETTE: She definitely love this dish. Silk Squash Omelette served with Carrot + Chicken Breast Porridge.
^ ^ (Right) BEETROOT SOUP RICE: Another favourite soup of Angel. Beetroot soup boiled with Red Dates + Pork Spare Ribs Serve with Rice.


^ ^ FRENCH BEAN PORRIDGE: Introducing French Beans to Angel. This is one of the meals that I would normally take together with Angel coz it’s yummy. We are having Porridge in Pork Ribs broth with French Beans, Taufu Pok (both finely chopped and leave some chunk for Angel's chewing exercises), and mince pork.


^ ^ CHINESE CHIVES (韭菜) OMELETTE: Chinese Chives Omelette served with Pumpkin and Pork Meat Porridge. She seems doing fine with the taste of Chinese Chives :)

Homemade Vegetable Chicken Nuggets

Angel does not likes her vegetable very much so I usually will hide them inside her ‘meat’ and so far, I am glad that it works ‘most of the time’ because as you can see, the vegetables can’t be separated from the meat so it’s either eat it or don’t eat it at all LoL. I personally love this Homemade Vegetable Chicken Nugget very much because it tastes really good. Angel loves them so much and even hubby asked me to make more for him if I were to make them for Angel again. But the texture of the nugget is much softer then the normal nuggets (because I use 1 small whole egg) and I think it is suitable for young toddler like Angel who doesn’t chew much. Just in case you are interested to know, that’s how I make my own version of Vegetable Chicken Nuggets.

** (P/s: This healthy version of nuggets are not the same as the KFC nuggets, etc :P )

Homemade Vegetable Chicken Nuggets

Ingredients:
- 200g Mince Chicken Breast / Pork Mince
- 1/5 Yellow Onions – finely chopped
- 2 Shitake Mushrooms - finely chopped
- Any Vegetables (I use the stem of broccoli this round) – finely chopped
- 1 small egg
- Corn Flour
- Pepper
- Soy sauce to taste (I did not use any for Angel’s nugget)
- Garlic powder

Method
1. Mix all ingredients together and thicken with Corn Flour to form a slightly watery paste (for young toddler), let it marinate for ½ hour minimum.
2. Heat wok with 2 tbsp oil
3. Scoop mixture into hot oil, pan fried 2 - 3 minutes on each side until slighly golden brown / cooked
4. Eat alone or serve with rice / porridge / mash potatoes


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For the Tomato Sauce version, that’s how I make my homemade tomato sauce

Homemade Tomato Sauce

1. Lightly boil whole tomatoes in boiling hot water for 1 minutes
2. Peel skin
3. Blend in a blender into puree (add few tablespoon of water if necessary)
4. Heat up wok with 1 tbsp oil, lightly brown 1 diced small red onions
5. Add in tomato puree bring to boil
6. Add in Sugar, Garlic Powder and Vinegar to taste (Optional)
7. Fold Vegetable Chicken Nuggets into sauce
8. Serve
* Or if you want a quick version, you can just use normal tomato ketchup instead.



Another way I am hiding her vegetable is ----->>>>

Vegetable Meat Dumplings (Wan Tan) with Mee Hoon Soup. Can't really see the vegetable in the meat from the picture above though :P but I am using lettuce in the dumplings.

Bento#2: Vermicelli Soup and Mix Vegetables

This is what I prepared for Angel’s lunch today. At first I only prepared the Vermicelli with Beet Root Soup, served with some shredded pork ribs, and since I am plan to incorporate vegetables into her every meal so I do not wish to break the rules so at the end, I added some frozen mix vegetables into her lunch for added fiber. Looks like the bento box which I got for her was just enough for the Vermicelli alone, huh? It does looks so big when I got them LoL No fancy decorations for her ‘almost – bento’ lunch this round as I am running out of time today :P Maybe next time ok Sweetie?? Although this looks simple but yet, took me an hour just to come out with this ….. ya, I know I am very slow :P

She loves the soup, she loves the meat, she like the vermicelli, totally crazy over those grapes but she didn’t really fancy her vegetables. However I manage to coax her to finished the carrots and the peas (of course I am eating along with her :P) but she just refused to ate those corns. I thought kids loves corn coz they are sweet?? Maybe my little girl has a strange taste bud. LoL Anyway, to be able to finish the portion of what she had just now is considering good enough for me.

When she really eats her meal and didn’t fuss and picky of her food as usual, I will be the happiest mom of the day :)

Angel’s Lunch: Vermicelli, Beetroot Soup, Mix Vegetables, Black Grapes and Shredded Pork Rib at the side


Wa laaa …. She is full!! But she managed to polish off her soup bowl as well after the picture as taken :)

Strawberries Intolerance

I think my decision to delay the introductions of Strawberries to Angel was correct. As information gathered from the internet, despite all the goodness which can be found in the fruit itself, Strawberries are also one of the potential high allergen fruits which is advisable for babies above 12 months old and also advised to be avoided longer if the baby have high risk of being intolerance to strawberries. But since she is going to be 2 next week, I wanted to give it a try to see whether she is ready to accept the fruit.

Hence few days ago, I asked hubby to pick up some strawberries from the supermarket on his way back from work. Too bad those pretty bright red coloured strawberries were not as sweet as it looks. At first, I thought that Angle wouldn’t want to eat them after her first bite but on the contrary, she loves it so much despite it’s a bit sour. She can’t even wait until I finished washing the fruits and start crying hinting me to give her those strawberries :) She really enjoyed her fruit so much!!


But after having a few of them about half an hour later, she starts having diarrhoea which is one of the sign of food intolerance! I am glad that she is just having some loose stools without the sign of tummy cramps and no rashes appear on her mouth, body or bottom. *phew* So I guess I will have to eliminate strawberries from her menu for the moment being still until her tummy and body is stronger enough to consume the fruit again with the hope that she will outgrown her food reaction towards strawberries real soon :) So is that also an indication of no oranges for her still? I am still considering ………….

Nice try though …. She can’t have them for now but at least she knows how a strawberry looks like and taste like :) We had a good day exploring with the fruit, let her feel the texture and show her how bright and nice a strawberry can be :)

Random Daily Meals

I haven’t been cooking any new menus for Angel for the past week as the battery of my brain is running low after ‘The Battle’ :P Now that she is slowly back to her healthy eating habit, so I was thinking not to overwhelm her with any new food / stronger flavoured food for a week or two until she settle with those she normally eat and also those she used to love, then only gradually progressing back to those stronger flavoured food. It’s a good chance for me to evaluate and find out any changes in her ‘preference’ too. I must say that it’s a good start for me and a good start for my Angel as well. Below are some random meals the ‘mild taste categories’ which she is having without much hustle.

^ ^ RED PORRIDGE: Porridge with Beetroot, Apple, Cauliflower, Chicken Breast Meat in Homemade Chicken Soup Base.

^ ^ CORN SOUP MEE HOON: Mee Hoon with sweet corn and Pork rib. Although the meal looks plain but surprisingly she loves this one a lot.

^ ^ (Left) Bitter Gourd (苦瓜)Soup with Alphabet Pasta.
(Right) Carrot + Shredded Pork with Vege Animal Pasta.

^ ^ VEGE PORRIDGE: Porridge with Corn, Onions, Broccoli, Carrots (not in the pix), Mince Meat in Homemade Pork Bone Soup Base.

^ ^ VEGE PORRIDGE: Porridge with Ridged Luffa / Gourd (丝瓜), Corn, Chinese Wolfberry and Mince Pork Meat.

As she will be marching into her 2nd birthday real soon which means her body is getting more prepared for choices of food in terms of texture as well as taste and flavour, I am also scratching my head and busy looking for more recipes and menu which is suitable for a young toddler. Any yummy recipe for your toddler(s), mind to share?

Purple Cabbage Porridge

That’s Angel’s meal for today, Purple Cabbage + Mince Pork Porridge. Information from the internet says that Purple Cabbage actually has the same nutritional values as those normal white cabbages but with an extra phytochemical (which gives the cabbage such nice colour) that acts as an antioxidant and also improves memory. Same goes with eggplant, prune and grapes etc. I personally likes the colour very much hence thinking to expose Angel to more colours when it comes to her meal.

The colour of the porridge turned out to be much nicer then I have thought. When I first saw it, I was a bit worried that Angel wouldn’t want to eat her meal as she hates black colour food. Hence when I place the bowl onto her table, I was anxiously watching her facial expression. The first word coming out from her mouth was “per-per” (as in purple)!! LoL That is definitely a sweet surprise, I didn’t know that she is actually paying attention to those colour cards I flash to her every morning after all :)

She accepted her ‘Purple Meal’ pretty well actually, managed to finish the portion which I gave to her. I personally think that the porridge is very healthy and very presentable too but purple cabbage tends to be harder in texture then the normal white cabbage, I had shredded them finely so she wouldn’t be having a hard time munching on them and rejects them later.

Bento#1: Hello Kitty Vege Egg Sandwich

That is what I prepared for Angel’s lunch few days ago. This is not a proper Bento meal yet because for Angel’s easy access to her food, I did it in her dish plate :). I am trying to practice with all my tools which has been left untouched actually. It does take a massive time to prepare the bread because I am such a novice in this area still but after preparing the meal (and also having to attend to Angel’s crying and her needs on and off), I think I would only have time to do such meals again when I really have more time to spare or else, dealing with such details and Angel at the same time really was such a challenge :P

Angel can’t wait to eat her meals when she saw the Hello Kitty on her plate and call out “Ti ….. Ti …… “ (as in Kitty) but once I handle her the food, the first thing she dug into was the grapes instead @_@. However after the meal, I think the sandwich would be more suitable for older kids as the sandwich combination is a bit dry for little Angel to swallow without her bottle of apple juice. Furthermore, she didn’t really chew her food hence the bread would stuck on her throat most of the time. Other then that, everything seems fine with her. But I did mention before that Angel hates fried eggs so I thought to give this meal a little difference seeing whether she would love her fried eggs. I have add in not only vege to the eggs but some mince chicken meat as to add some flavour to the eggs as well. she does take a few bites on the eggs then, she keep feeding me the rest of the eggs and only save the piece of bread to herself LoL I guess I shall try other version next time unless I am feeling to have more fried eggs for myself :) Nice try though …. LoL

^ ^ On her plate (clockwise in the top left picture) were Black Grapes, Goat Milk Yogurt sprinkled with Haw Flakes (山楂), Some extra Vege Egg*, Hello Kitty Vege Egg* Sandwich. (*Vege Eggs = Egg, Cabbage, Onions, Carrots + Chicken Meat).

A Tea Time Menu

Angel is having some hard stool few weeks back so this is what I prepared for her tea break in order to loosen her poo poo and helps her bowel movements. It’s Bread with Prune Puree + Goat Milk Yogurt with Grape Puree (sometimes I do it plain if not enough time to puree the fruits) + Papaya + Apple Juice. I think all the above are good in helping to regulate her bowel movements and the end results? Surprisingly there were no more hard stool for Angel the very next day and she was able to pass motion regularly as well *phew* So whenever I noticed that she is having hard stools again, that’s one of the healthy tea time menu which I would normally prepared for her and it really does helps a lot in her bowel movements from my observations. I am glad that she loves this menu very much too but I try to avoid giving it to her everyday as prune puree sometimes can be a little bit too sweet for young kids :)