Pizzary Muffins

Baby FAN has been really really picky with her food these few days, she simply refuse to eat anything that is normal like rice, porridge, noodles and potatoes. She just wants to eat food that she can picks up with her fingers like biscuits and yogurt. So tried my hand at making some mini muffins for her to try, hope she likes it.

Pizzazzy Pizza Muffins
(adapted from Super Baby Food Book)

Ingredients & Directions

• 1 3/4 cups Flour (I combine 2 tbs of wheat germ, 2 tbs of formula milk powder and top up the rest with unbleached flour)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbs fresh or dry oregano (as I only have the italian seasoning, I used that instead)
• 1 beaten egg
• 1/2 cup of homemade tomato sauce (I used 2 tbs of maggi tomato ketchup instead)
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 200 del celsius.
2. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and all the wet ingredients in another bowl.
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry.
4. Pour into greased muffin tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Mango Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

It's my sis's birthday, so decided to try making a nice cake for her. But I thought a normal chocolate cake was quite boring since she could have bought it anywhere, so decided to trying making something unique and of my own creation and I came up with this Mango Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake. Of course, I don't just come out with the recipe without consulting the website. Found this Mango Cheesecake recipe from My-Cheesecake-Recipes.com and decided to give it a try and added some chocolate to make it more interesting. I frosted the cake with the chocolate butter frosting used in my previous Chocolate Birthday Cheesecake. Made an angel as my sis likes angel, but think it still look a little childish and not as elegant as I have wanted. Well, here's the finished product.

Mango Chocolate Swirl Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base

• 125g plain sweet biscuits
• 60g butter, melted

Filling

• 250g cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 fresh mango
• 200g tub mango yoghurt (I used normal plain yogurt as I can't find mango yogurt)

Chocolate Swirl

• 80g dark chocolate
  

Directions

For the base

1. Crush biscuits in a food processor or with the end of a rolling pin.
2. Add melted butter and stir well to combine.
   
3. Press into the base of a 20cm springform cake tin. Refrigerate until set.

For the Filling

1. Beat cream cheese until smooth.
   
2. Add sugar and beat well.
   
3. Add eggs and vanilla, again beating well.
   
4. Chop half of the mango in to small pieces and fold into cheese mixture together with the yogurt.
   
5. Reserved 1/3 of the mixture for the chocolate swirl. Pour the rest into the chilled base.

For the Chocolate Swirl

1. Melt chocolate and mix it into the reserved cheese mixture.
2. Pour mixture into a piping bag. Then pipe the chocolate mixture into the cheese filling using a circular motion. Then used a chocolate stick and swirl the chocolate mixture into the cheese mixture.
3. Bake the mixture at 180 degrees celsius for 20 to 25 minutes or until firm. Allow to cool in oven with door slightly ajar. Refrigerate when completely cool.

Cheese Wafers

Was searching the web for some interesting breakfast and finger food that I can make for Baby FAN when I stumble upon this site which provided a lot of interesting and healthy food for kids, check it out, it's really cool...Weelicious

Tried making the Cheese wafers and it tasted really great, I was munching at it while putting it in the container, it has a crispy outer like a biscuit yet rather chewy and soft like wafer in the inside. Best of all it's so easy to make.

Cheese Wafers
(original recipe here)

Ingredients & Directions

• 150 grams of Cheddar Cheese
• 3 Tbsp Butter
• 1/2 Cup Flour plus additional for sprinkling
• 2 tbs of milk powder (optional, healthy extras that I added)
  
• 2 tbs of wheat germ (optional, healthy extras that I added)
  

1. Combine all the ingredients and form into a dough
2. Remove all the dough to a piece of parchment or waxed paper and shape into a thick flat circle. Cover with waxed paper and refrigerate for one hour or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
4. Open waxed paper and roll out dough on it into a 1/4 inch-thick piece.
5. Take small cookie cutters and cut out into shapes.
6. Place on a cookie sheet (preferably lined with a silpat or parchment paper) and bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool on sheet for 2 minutes before removing.
7. Serve.

Easy Claypot Rice - without the claypot

Hubby wanted me to cook a one-dish meal for him, he got tire of eating 3 dish meal. So decided to try my hand at making claypot rice. Tried to combine the recipe from this 2 site: Lily's Wai Sek hong for the ingredients and seasoning and Rasa Malaysia for the instructions of cooking the rice without the claypot. Here's my finish product:

Claypot Rice

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice, washed and drained
• 2 cups chicken stock (I dissolve 1/4 cube of maggi chicken stock cube in 2 cup of water for the stock)
  
• 2 chicken drumsticks cut into pieces
  
• 5 Chinese mushrooms, soaked, cut into half
• 2 Chinese sausage, sliced
• 1 ½ cm thick salted fish, sliced thinly, fried till crispy (As I'm cooking for the kids, so tried to make it last salty for them by omitting the salted fish)
  
• 11/2 tbsp black soya sauce
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cup of chopped vegetables (I used Cai Xin)
  

Marinade for the chicken:

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
• 1 tsp of ginger juice (grated a knob of ginger and squeeze)
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• ½ tsp pepper
• ½ tsp sugar
• ½ tbsp corn flour

Garnishing:

• Spring onion chopped

Directions

1. Chop the chicken drumsticks into pieces.
2. Add the chicken and mushrooms with the marinade and mix well. Marinate for an hour in the fridge.
3. Rinse and cook the rice with the chicken stock in the rice cooker.
4. At the same time, heat up a wok with some cooking oil. Add in the chicken and shitake mushrooms. Quickly stir-fry the chicken until half-cooked. Add in the chopped scallions. Dish out and set aside.
5. Deep fry the salted fish and set aside. (I omitted this step)
   
6. Add the chicken and chopped vegetables into the rice cooker when the rice is almost dry (about 7-8 minutes) and continue to cook till rice is completely cooked.
7. Sprinkle salted fish (if adding), pour in the black soya sauce and olive oil and mix in to combine. Leave the rice cooker on “Stay Warm” for 15 - 20 mintues till rice is dry and fluffy.
8. Before serving, sprinkle with spring onions.