Simple Dinner at Home

A simple dinner which I prepared, with whatever things I can put together.

 

Stir-fry lettuce with mushroom and carrots

 Baked Salmon with Garlic Pepper and Thyme

CNY Seamboat Dinner

Steamboat dinner with my family on 4th day of CNY:

 

My homemade yong tau foo

 

 Bubbling pot with everything in!

Shepherd's Pie - My Version

This is a quick and easy lunch, mainly because I used the leftover meat sauce from making lasagna and hence I only need to prepare the mashed potatoes. Quick and simple and a great way to use up my balance meat sauce haha

If you have a craving for meat pie, why not try out shepherd's pie. Its easy to make and I believe will be more healthy than pastry meat pie.

Can you tell from the photo how creamy and smooth the mashed potato is. Contrasts with the slightly crisped top layer.

Ingredients

2 large potatoes, boiled and mashed.
1/2 to 1 cup milk
50g cheddar cheese, soften
salt and pepper to taste
meat sauce (I used balance meat sauce from my lasagna making)

Method

1. Combine mashed potatoes, cheese together and add milk to it to make it creamy and soft. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Fill half of your baking dish with meat sauce and spread mashed potato mixture evenly over the top.
3. Baked in preheated oven of 180C for 20-25min till the top is golden brown.

Spinach Lasagna

Hmmm, the lasagna looks thin right, will slap on more meat sauce in future.

My super big bowl of meat sauce. I still have half a bowl left after doing the lasagna. 


Ingredients

Meat Sauce
300g ground pork / beef
1 onion, diced
1 big carrot, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
4 large ripe tomatoes, deseed and pureed
1 6oz can of tomato paste (I used the whole can as I do not want to have any leftovers)
A few bay leaves
Salt, pepper and Italian herbs to taste

White Sauce
1 cup milk
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
50g cheddar cheese

Mozzarella Cheese (I used low fat)
1 packet of spinach, boiled and chopped
Instant lasagna

Method

1. Heat oil in saucepan. Prepare meat sauce. Brown onion in pan till soften and translucent.
2. Add meat in and stir-fry till brown, add capsicum and carrot and fry. 
3. Add in tomato paste and tomato puree. Add in bay leaves and italian herbs.
4. Cook till mixture boils, and simmer over low heat for 20-30min. Season with salt / pepper to taste. Dish up and put aside for later use.
5. Boil spinach in water for 5min. Drain and chop into smaller pieces.
6. Prepare white sauce. Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour and cook for 2min over gentle heat.Remove from heat and stir in milk. Return to heat and stir till mixture is thick and smooth. Season with salt / pepper as desired and add cheese. Continue to stir over low heat till cheese melts.
7. Preheat oven to 180C. Pour meat sauce into a baking dish. Alternate layers of lasagna, white sauce, spinach, meat sauce ending with white sauce on top. Sprinkle top with shredded mozzarella cheese and bake in oven for 35-40min until cooked through. 
8. Let stand for 5min before serving.
   

Fried Kway Teow

Ingredients

400g fresh kway teow (rinse briefly)

1 stalk chives or scallions, cut into inch-long strips

2 eggs, lightly beaten

5 cloves garlic, minced

2 handful beansprouts 

1 carrot, sliced

1 bunch of chye sim, washed and cut into small pieces (or any leafy greens you like)

Shrimps, shelled and deveined with tails still on

Seasoning

2 tbsp thick, sweet sauce

3 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp water

dash of salt and pepper (if required)

Mix all your everything in a bowl and leave aside.

Method

1. Heat oil in wok on high. You have to maintain high heat throughout.
2. Stir-fry garlic a few seconds and add in shrimps, carrots and leafy greens, and stir-fry till semi-cooked.
3. Add noodles, drizzle the seasoning sauce soy sauce mixture all over the noodles. Gently stir-fry for 3-5 mins.
4. Push the ingredients to the side of the wok. Add some oil, pour the beaten eggs into middle of wok and scramble. Mix ingredients back in.
5. Add chives (or scallions) and bean sprouts, fold the noodles over, give it one good last stir-fry to mix well with the kway teow.
6. Off heat and serve kway teow hot.

First Roast Chicken

I bought a frozen chicken from a local supermarket a couple of week ago when it was on promotion, only S$2.99 for a 1.2kg bird and since I don't know how to chop up a whole chicken, I decided to roast it whole. First time roasting a whole chicken, am so excited haha kept starring at my oven to check the progress. Halfway through the roasting the aroma of roast chicken already filled the whole house.

Juicy and aromatic chicken waiting to be tore into pieces!!

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, neck and feet removed, cavity emptied
1/8 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 large sprig of thyme
Half a lemon
8 garlic cloves (or adjust to your own preference)

Method

1. Wash chicken and pat dry. Lay chicken on roasting tray. 
2. Rub generous amount of salt and pepper all over the chicken. I rubbed some inside the cavity as well. Rub olive oil all over the chicken. Stuff cavity with garlic, lemon and thyme. Sprinkle some of the herbs all over the chicken.
3. Roast chicken at 220C for 30min, reduce temperature to 220C and roast for another 20-30min till chicken is cooked through. (If you insert a fork in the thigh area and clear juices run out (no blood), that is a good gauge that your chicken is cooked.)

We paired the chicken with baked potato, and tomato soup.

Here's our dinner.

Sweet Potato Soup

I have 3 orange sweet potatoes that have been sitting in my kitchen for the longest time. Initially wanted to add it to bread or cakes but was too lazy to do so. Finally decided on the easiest way out - to make sweet potato soup =) quick and easy. We had this for lunch today, together with braised Ee Fu mee (I'm aboslutely in love with braised Ee Fu mee at the moment haha)

I added some fresh pandan juice to the sweet potato soup, hence the tinge of green in the soup.

Thai Green Curry

Ingredients

100g thai green curry paste 
300g boneless skinless chicken meat (I used thigh meat), cut into bite size
200g coconut milk (I used evaporated milk)
300g water (I reduced to 200g as I wanted a thicker curry)
1 large yellow onion
1 carrot, cut into bite size
1 brinjal,cut into thick strips
1 large tomato, cut into quarters
1 lemongrass, pounded
1 red chili, shredded
3 Kaffir Lime leaves (I omitted)

Method

1. Heat wok and oil. Add onion and stir-fry till translucent. Add curry paste, water and coconut milk and lemongrass into wok and bring to a boil.
2. Add chicken, vegetables and kaffir leaves and bring to boil. Simmer till chicken is cooked.
3. Serve immediately with rice, bread or prata - simply delicious!!

Fried Brown Rice with Assorted Vegetables

Chicken Chop with Mushroom Sauce

TGIF dinner. I served this with steamed broccoli and cheesy mashed potatoes, simple and balanced meal. Hubby gave two thumbs up for this meal!! Happy and so glad he enjoyed it =)

Ingredients

Chicken Chop

2 pieces boneless chicken thigh (about 150 - 200g each, I removed skin)

Salt & Pepper

Mushroom Sauce

100g white button mushroom

1 large yellow onion

olive oil for frying

1 cup thick chicken stock (½ cube chicken stock to 1 cup water)

corn flour

a sprig of thyme

dark soya sauce for colour

Method

Chicken Chop

1. Marinate chicken chop with salt and pepper for at least an hour.
2. Bake in preheated oven of 200C for 15-20min till cooked

Mushroom Sauce

1. Cut the mushroom into strips.
2. Heat oil in pan and fry onions until translucent.
3. Stir in mushrooms and continue frying.
4. Add in stock and dark soya sauce.
5. Thicken with cornflour until desired thickness.
6. Pour sauce over chicken chop and serve.

Basmati Garlic Rice

I've always wanted to try out basmati rice but I've only seen 5kg packs in supermarkets in Singapore and they're so so expensive! A 5kg pack is also way too much for me. Was so happy when I saw a 1kg pack of basmati on sale in Jusco, it was only RM6.99!!! I immediately grabbed a pack and started to look for appropriate recipes to try.

I decided to try this recipe as I'm an absolute lover of anything with garlic and onion and this recipe has both! The resultant rice was so fragrant that I can eat it on its own without any side dish! I heart this basmatic garlic rice!

Ingredients

1 cup basmati rice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion, diced

l large carrot, shredded

2 garlic cloves, minced (I increased to 4 cloves)

1 tbsp ginger, minced

3/4 tsp salt

2 cups water

Method

1. In a medium saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onion and carrot, cook, stirring frequently, until onion is tender. Add garlic and ginger and cook for 2 min.
2. Add basmati rice, stirring to coat. Transfer rice to rice cooker, add water and salt and cook till rice is ready.

Baked Teriyaki Chicken with Fried Brown Rice

Its Friday fuss free dinner time again - Easy baked teriyaki chicken with fried brown rice. I love to bake my poultry and seafood. Its super quick and easy - just marinate and pop into oven, very suitable for lazy me as there's no pot and pans to wash up after that haha! Of cos, baking poultry and seafood is also healthier as there is no added oil and we have found that meat which are baked tends to be more juicy and succulent than stir frying or others.

Baked Teriyaki Chicken

Marinate chicken (I removed skin and excess fats before marinating) with soya sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger and sesame oil (i added based on my own agaration) for a few hours. Bake marinated chicken in preheated oven of 200C for 20-25min till cooked. Leave to rest for a few minute before serving.

Friday Fuss Free Dinner

This is again a simple and fuss free dinner on a lazy Friday night. The sauce is the same as the one in this baked pasta, only difference in this dish is I used mashed potato to replace pasta as the carbo source, and added broccoli to provide some greens.

Minimum washing up ha!

Baked Pasta with Oyster Mushroom Tomato Sauce

Simple and fuss free meal, I improvised on the tomato sauce and we had this with the baked drumsticks for dinner =)

Ingredients
(serves 3-4 pax)

3 large ripe tomatoes, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 packet of white oyster mushroom, about 250gm
4-5 tablespoons of tomato paste (I used Maggi tomato sauce)
2 tbsp olive oil
Pasta of your choice
Cheese

Method

1. Heat the oil in a wok or pan. Add the tomatoes, onion and mushroom in a pot and cook over medium heat till nearly cooked. 
2. Add in tomato paste and let it simmer for 5-10min, till the ingredients are soft.
3. Meanwhile, cook the pasta, then drain well. 
4. Place the cooked pasta into baking dish and pour the tomato sauce on top. Top the pasta with cheese and bake at 200C for 25-30min, till the cheese turns golden brown.
5. Serve.

Baked Drumstick

Hubby picked 3 drumsticks the other day when we were shopping for groceries and requested for me to cook these for him. Well, I can't disappoint a hungry man!

I lightly marinated the drumsticks with five-spice powder, salt, sugar and sesame oil and oven baked them at 200C for 25-30min till cooked for a healthier alternative to fried chicken.

Taste good and most importantly, Hubby enjoyed it!

Char Siew

Kimchi Fried Rice

Homemade Yong Tau Foo

Vegetarian Pizza

Easy Cheater's Baked Spaghetti