In the mood for food

This isn't a particular craving...


... just felt like a fast food post! Not fast food as in McDonald's, but food that's quick and simple (simple enough) to make.

Like fellow moms with more on our plate besides just cooking and grocery shopping to do, these are the kinds of meals that work for me a lot.

This was our satay chicken dinner on Saturday night, with some shrimp and green beans, all cooked in the oven...


... turned lunch the next day (below), with a little tweaking...

Now burgers aren't our regular meal to eat at home, but all it took was a few minutes to fry the tomato, and omelete to beef up the chicken. And throw in some lettuce, and it makes for quite a decent midday meal. It was a hamburger bun for one boy, dinner rolls for the other (who's hardly a burger person), and the English muffin (as shown) for us the mom and dad, but all quite easily done.

And the strategy here that I rely on, besides the one-meat, one-vegetable policy, is:
To cook more for dinner, to roll over to the next day's lunch!
Increasingly, I'm applying it to not just our weekday meals, but also over the weekends now, because the time between church on Sunday and Jon's Chinese class is pretty tight to grab anything more than just nuggets and burgers.

Another night's apricot pork dinner (below, left), and lunch the next day (below, right) that this other trick of varying the meal a wee bit with a change of carbo -- macaroni in this instance, instead of rice -- is what I've managed to get by with!

And something like this works especially well, on any of the three days Ben has school, because rice can still be quite a mess for him to eat!

Cooking is a part of my life everyday, the way it wasn't back home when I worked and had domestic help. And now, having to whip up good enough meals to satisfy my finicky eaters, I've realised some things might have been easier to cook for two. Which was where I'd left off my really rusty cooking skills before -- whatever little I had of them -- cooking for just the husband and me, but only when we didn't work late.

For two, it's easy to do a quick stir-fry of meat and/or vegetables, or pop some fish or chicken to steam, or use the rice cooker to do a claypot of sorts. Yet, there's also just so much you can fit into a skillet, wok, or rice pot.

For large quantities, with enough portions to roll over to the next day, here are two ways I use a lot for my family now:

(1) Cook a big pot of stew, braised this or that
Still, I try to wait a week at least, to cook something vaguely similar. Because somehow, my boys aren't always thrilled over such bowls of "all-in-one goodness", no matter how I vary the taste.

Beef stew, braised honey chicken, pork stew, and braised beef with star anise...



A vegetable soup made out of meat bones, like this winter melon one, is fine as a side. But a more "substantial" kind like chicken soup, with greens I cook separately and add to it, is my preferred choice if I only have time to make the pot of goodness our main dish...



(2)Place trays of different kinds of "goodness" into the oven to cook:
I especially like how direct this method is, and how much you can fit into the oven -- just marinade/season the food, and let it cook away!

Curry chicken with shrimp and lady's fingers -- all cooked in the oven, like the toufu, too, which makes for a really simple side dish...

This curry chicken is one alternative to the different combinations and permutations you can play around with a soya-sauce based type of seasoning. This simple marinade works for us:
Curry powder, with salt and sugar, and I like to add some maple syrup or honey too, just to sweeten it, so my spice-challenged three guys won't complain there's too much heat!

Even for fish, instead of steaming it over water in a wok like I still do but with chicken, I use the oven now. As it's frozen fish I always get here, the oven allows me the option to switch it to the "broil" mode towards the end if I think the fish is somehow still "fishy"!

Alternatively, placing the fish in a foil package can seal in the moisture and liquids quite well, to simulate the usual steaming effect. Many a time, I still prefer to use a soya-sauce based seasoning and all the usual works, more than a western, herbed kind of seasoning that I alternate with now and then, for our simple baked fish...

Teriyaki salmon (with just Teriyaki sauce and lemon/lime juice), and cod fish with the usual soya sauce and whole works...

... I like these with porridge!

And while we are already on the topic of the oven, have you also tried
Using the oven to do a "fake-it" deep fry of this and that?

Cornflake chicken, anyone?


Call me "suaku", but I didn't know until coming here and experimenting a bit with the oven, that it works quite well for deep-frying, minus all the oil splattering around on the stovetop that I'm not keen about.

So far, I've only done breadcrumbs for chicken (I like to season it lightly with salt and pepper, and just coat it with flour, egg, then breadcrumbs), and for fish fillet (sometimes using pineapple juice for a change to get the breadcrumbs to stick, instead of flour and egg). Think I'm going to try it with pork chop soon! Yes, in the oven!

The other day, when our storebought breadcrumbs were running low, I saw this nice recipe for Crunchy Onion Chicken on Blur Mommy's Kooky Culinary blog. I don't have the French Fried Onion that the recipe calls for, but her alternative of cornflakes was what worked for me. And no problem either, with adapting it to chicken thighs and drumsticks.

After that, I chanced on a similar recipe in a food magazine at the library -- to coat cod fish fillet, cut into bitesize, with cornflakes, after seasoning it with some oil, salt, and pepper! And like the chicken, you just have to leave it in the oven to bake at 400C, till it's cooked.

Want to give these a try? My boys are more used to the breadcrumbs version, than cornflakes, but it's certainly another way to vary my cooking options!

Nothing like homecooked food...
Straightforward ways such as these, work well for us, and particularly on days when I have to do more shuttling between home and school to fetch the kids, with or without any errands thrown in-between. Maybe I'll do a separate, shorter post another time, on those 'shortcut' bowls of the noodles and pasta kind, that are what I rely on for lunch when for some reason the extras from dinner doesn't exist, or doesn't work so well, and I have to come up with something fast.

For now, I know Jomel will agree -- food, homecooked food no matter how simple it is, can be so comforting, don't you think?

And the COMFORT of all comfort foods, and in the absence of delicious homebaked goods for snacktime or dessert (that are harder for me to find time to make, and even then, it's nothing complicated), there's always...

ICECREAM AND FRUITS to wrap up a homecooked meal! YUM!!!

Yes, even in the dead of winter, and we can eat this every day... just vary the flavour of the icecream and fruit! Of course, yogurt with fruit makes for a healthier option, but ask our boys, and they will pick icecream, for sure!

Have a yummylicious rest of the week now! God bless!