Carrot Cake

Ingredients

    1 cup castor sugar
    1 cup plain flour
    1½ cups grated carrots
    2 eggs
    ½ cup olive oil
    ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
    ½ teaspoon baking powder
    1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
    Walnut and raisin (optional)


Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. Line a standard loaf tin or oblong cake tin with baking paper.
3. Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
4. Pour mixture into cake tin.
5. Bake for approximately 45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
6. Remove the cake from oven and allow to cool.

Tips

1.  Add some chopped walnut and raisin to improve the texture of the cake.
2. Although this recipe is not too sweet, sugar can be reduced some more to 3/4 cup, just a hint of sweetness.

Potato Pancakes

I tried this last week. Quick and easy recipe. The only time consuming part is the shredding the potatoes and onion.  Most important of all, Iggy wolf it down quicker than I can make for him ...

Ingredients

	2 large potatoes
	1 yellow onion
	1 egg, beaten
	2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
	salt and black pepper to taste
	vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1. Finely shred potatoes and onion into a large bowl. Drain off any excess liquid.
2. Mix in egg, salt, and black pepper. Add enough flour to make mixture thick, about 2 to 4 tablespoons all together.
3. Turn oven to low, about 200 degrees F (95 degrees C).
4. Heat oil in the bottom of a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Drop two or three tablespoons mounds into hot oil, and flatten to make 1/2 inch thick pancakes. Fry, turning once, until golden brown. Transfer to paper towel lined plates to drain, and keep warm in low oven until serving time. Repeat until all potato mixture is used.

Blanched Spinach

Lately, I am into Korean food. I found that some of the Korean food really suit my taste. I especially like their banchan, those small side dishes served with rice. Here is my attempt to make Korean blanched spinach.

Ingredients

	1 bunch of green spinach
	1 tsp minced garlic (optional)
	1 tbsp sesame oil
	salt and sugar to taste
	sesame seeds (optional)

Directions

1. Clean and blanch the spinach. Drain and squeeze out excess water gently.
2. Transfer spinach to a large bowl. Add in minced garlic, sesame oil, salt and sugar.
3. Mix gently, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve

This recipe is very flexible. If you like crunchy spinach, cut down the blanching time. If you don't like garlic, no problem, dismiss the garlic.

Tips

1. Sugar is not the usual part of this type of recipe. However, adding a pinch of sugar will lift the taste and add the sweetness to it.
2. Toast the sesame seeds to bring out the its wonderful smell. I use both black sesame seeds and white sesame seeds. I also toasted them together until the white sesame seeds are lightly brown.

"If Yan can cook, so can you" - not necessarily ...
"If Pauline can cook, so can you" - definitely!!!

Oatmeal For Iggy

Iggy loves oatmeal I cooked for him.  My oatmeal recipe is simply, the ingredients are flexible and the cooking instruction is extremely easy.

I add a few types of veggies to my oatmeal, usually 2 to 4 types of veggies.  It could be any type of veggie you prefer.  Following are the veggies I used so far: pumpkin, potato, radish, carrot, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, sugar snap pea

 
cauliflower, baby carrot, sugar snap pea

For protein, so far I only use either anchovies powder or minced chicken

 
Minced chicken added to rolled oat

Mixed everything, add adequate water to the mixture of rolled oat, veggies and minced chicken, and double boiled the mixture.

 
Oatmeal mixture ready to be cooked

You can cooked it on the stove if you want.  It just happened that my rice cooker is not the conventional type rice cooker.  It is actually a rice steamer which can be use as a double boiler too.  Although it might takes longer to double boil it than to cook it, I can actually leave it and not have to worry about stirring constantly to avoid burning the oatmeal.  It takes about half an hour to double boil, depending on how mushy you want your oatmeal to be.

 
Cooked oatmeal

Let the cooked oatmeal stand for a while, it will further thicken it up.  I usually will make 2 to 3 serving of oatmeal at a time.

 
Cheese added!

I also add bits of Kraft cheese to give the oatmeal a hint of saltiness.  Iggy doesn't like sweet stuffs, except for fruits.  Then in the fridge it goes.  At the next meal, just reheat the oatmeal and the cheese will  melted and blend with the oatmeal nicely.

For protein, so a far I only use either anchovies powder or mince chicken

What is Iggy Eating Lately?

Friends have being curious with what I feed Iggy with...

 

This is the latest!

PASTA!  Spirals vegeroni to be exact.

"Huh?  Pasta?"
"Pasta?  Why not rice porridge?"
"Should give him rice porridge lah"
etc..

That's the usual responses I get.  Ok, ok pasta might not be a typical food for a Chinese baby, but why not?!  Pasta is healthier compare to noodle in the market.  Besides, I looove pasta and most of all Iggy seems to love it too, hahaha.

The recipe:

1 or 2 handful of spirals vegeroni (cooked until soft)
some cauliflower, potatoes, pumpkin (cooked until mushy)
1 teaspoon of olive oil
bits of kraft cheese

Mixed everything together and you are done! Super easy!