The best part about coming home is preparing my own food again! So excited for exams to be over so I can start cooking and baking again. For now, breakfast prep will have to suffice.
HEALTHY IN A HURRY: 2 Ingredient Mango Sorbet
easy breakfast ideas
#antoliyacooks : January
One of my New Year Resolutions was to cook once a week, so I thought it would be a brilliant idea to share what I’ve cooked at the end of each month! By doing so, I’ll be keeping myself accountable, and also giving you guys ideas on what to make.
I started off January with these really simple, and quick dishes. You know, just warming myself up. I’m still learning, and honestly, I have so much to learn, so do give me your feedback, tips, and recipe suggestions so that I can improve myself! (Contact me at foogo321@gmail.com for just about anything! Even if you just want to say hi.)
WEEK ONE
Simple Fried Rice
There isn’t a recipe for this, it’s so simple, you literally just add whatever you have at home. I kicked off the new year with the perennial classic home-cooked dish – Egg Fried Rice. All you have to do is cook rice (obviously) and dice up whatever ingredients you want to add in (frozen veggies, prawns, luncheon meat, anything!). Cook all the individual ingredients separately, and put them in small bowls so that you can toss them in easily. When you’ve cooked all the ingredients, add everything back into the wok, add the rice and stir to mix well. Add the eggs and stir, ensuring that all the rice is well coated in the yellow goodness. Season with soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste.
It’s really that simple! If you like it spicy, add some chilli flakes as well. I was considering adding charsiew sauce into the mix, for a sweetish charred flavour, but decided against it cause the rest of my family may not be accustomed to it. There’s always next time!
By the way, apologies for the atrocious lighting, I made this for dinner, and you know how the lighting is.
Mini-Chocolate Dipped Viennese Cookies
You’ve seen these babies before in my earlier post, when I shared the recipe. It was well worth the extra effort to pipe these cookies, cause they look so much prettier. The piped lines make the cookies look classier than normal round cookies. I would make these again! In fact, my family is already asking for these again, so looks like it is time to get down and dirty.
WEEK THREE
Weelicious Oatmeal-on-the-go Bars
I’m no stranger to this recipe, I’ve made it at least 3 times before, and I loved it every single time. I’m in the process of tweaking the recipe, to make it a little more Singaporean, so stay-tuned for a recipe 🙂 My favorite mix for this oatmeal bars is the blend with dried blueberries and dried cranberries. I love the sweetness and tartness that comes from those two dried fruits. Like the fried rice, you can really add any dried fruits and nuts that you love, and even add in extras like black sesame powder, if you’re a fan of black sesame, like I am.
WEEK FOUR
Honey Joys
I had no idea these were called Honey Joys. I always thought these were called honey cornflake cups or something simple like that. Haha. Apparently these treats were created in Australia? Well, I’m glad they have found their way to Sunny Singapore. I’ve made these time and time again, but this round, the sweetness level was perfect. Perhaps it was because not all the sugar dissolved fully. If you’re interested, I used this recipe, but reduced the sugar slightly. It made about 40 mini cups for me (although the recipe states that it makes 24)
Sheperd’s Pie
Honey joys aren’t exactly considered cooking, since you just need to melt stuff and stir them together. So, I made Sheperd’s Pie as well! I loosely followed this easy recipe from BBC GoodFood, but chose to add in an extra yellow zuchinni for colour. I also replaced the tomato puree with a fresh finely diced tomato.
I was quite pleased with how this dish turned out, even though mashing potatoes are a pain. If I had mushroom soup on hand, it would have made the perfect side dish. Imagine spooning some creamy mushroom soup on top of the Sheperd’s pie to create a flavor explosion. Mmmmm.
So far so good! I’ve managed to cook once a week for January. Fingers crossed that I’ll be able to keep this up in the coming months, even as I start working and go off to university in the later months.
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR 😀
Ooh, I just thought of something fun. I should create a link party so that everyone can join in the fun and link up what they’ve cooked at the end of each month!
Do email me if you are interested 🙂
If I get enough interested folks, I’ll look into setting up a link party.
BREAKFAST SERIES: Peachy Chia Oatmeal (ft. Goldilocks and the 3 bears)
Well, it certainly has been awhile since I posted in the Breakfast Series, so what better way than to start the morning with a post about breakfast?
Today’s special feature includes Goldilocks and the three Bears. Its funny how I never realised that the bears in the story were eating oatmeal as well! In my case, I topped my Peachy Chia Oatmeal with three Teddy Grahams, so I guess that makes me Goldilocks!
Of course, you’ll look much happier than these bears after you make this recipe.
Now, I know many of you are turned off by the idea of oatmeal. The first thought that comes to mind is probably mushy, brown tasteless goo.. or baby food as my friend put it. Well, by adding fruits, topping it with honey, or even stirring an egg in, oatmeal can be really yummy! I used to hate oatmeal when I was younger, taking ages to finish a bowl of it. I dreaded the mornings when I was greeted by a steaming bowl of.. blechh.
But now? I look forward to oatmeal for breakfast! Rolled oats taste way better than instant or quick oats cause they absorb the liquid to form plumper grains, rather than turning into unappetizing mush. My ultimate favorite would be egg white oatmeal with honey. Peanut butter and banana is not a bad combination with oatmeal too! Whatever it is, its about mixing and matching until you find your favorite flavor.
Oatmeal is loaded with nutrients and is bursting with fiber and protein. On a cold and rainy day, there is nothing more comforting than sitting down with a steaming bowl of oatmeal that will start your day right and keep you nice, warm and full.
Yes, yes, I hear you. The recipe, get to the recipe!!
Well, just one more thing… I used a little trick from Chocolate Covered Katie to make my bowl of oatmeal seem larger. Well, actually I first saw this trick on Courtney’s blog and I was intrigued by it. One thing I love about eating healthy food is that you can eat more.
Peachy Chia Oatmeal
What you’ll need:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 1/4 cup water/liquid of choice (ie milk)
1 tsp chia seeds
1 diced peach
Dash of cinnamon
Here’s what you need to do:
1) Bring the water to a boil before adding in the rolled oats
2) Once the oatmeal has cooked for awhile, add in the cinnamon, chia seeds and peach.
3) Stir to mix everything up, and then cover and leave it on the stove to set. It may seem like there’s way too much liquid at this point, but trust me, just leave it to set for at least 2 hours or overnight.
4) Just before you want to eat it, just heat it up, and give it a good stir. Feel free to add a drizzle of honey if the fruit doesn’t add enough sweetness for you.
5) Top with anything you like! Teddy Grahams, a spoonful of nut butter, sliced banana, blueberries, jam, the possibilities are endless.
6) Enjoy 🙂
Switch things up!
Here are some other flavor combinations you could try for oatmeal:
Peanut butter & banana
Peanut butter & Jam
Blueberries
Black sesame (I used unsweetened black sesame powder)
Apple pie oatmeal (stir in a diced apple and more cinnamon. Add apple pie spice if you have)
Egg oatmeal (just stir an egg in before serving)
There’s even the savory option:
Soy sauce, spinach oatmeal topped with an egg
Pumpkin and peas oatmeal
Hope you enjoyed this recipe! Feel free to create the wackiest combinations and let me know how it works out for you 🙂
Foogo! 