This is a cooking diary for myself. It is looooong cuz it’s a couple of months’ worth of meals haha. If you like you can browse through it and hope some of them give you some ideas on some simple cooking for kids and busy mama like yourself. (If you love the food but are not a mom or don’t like cooking then ask your husband/boyfriend cook for you lol).

I used to do #lunchforjunya but since now that he eats his lunch in school, it has turned into #breakfastforjunya instead.

I thought that since Junya’s school serves both breakfast and lunch, I could save some time (and snooze my alarm a few more times) in the morning to prep him for school. But it turned out to be quite the opposite. I have been waking up extra early to fix breakfast since the second day of his school life, and it was because of this:

I was allowed to stay with him in class throughout the first day of school, and I got quite a shock at the breakfast provided.

His breakfast was a slice of pandan cake and half a cup of milk.

On some other day, it is half a hard boiled egg and half a cup of milo, or like one red bean pau with milk.

Of course I just kept the shock to myself back then because… well, every kid in his class was eating the exact same thing. Plus foreigners are not allowed to complain in Singapore right? lol. I guess if he kid is a big eater, he can always ask for more slices of pandan cake or refill of milk but… that’s not the point, right. I mean, really… how is that acceptable as a breakfast for a toddler?

But it must be just me because apparently this is what every preschool/childcare in Malaysia and Singapore serves in general (from toddler up to K2), and nobody seems to have a problem with it so yea, it’s probably just me.

Actually now that I think about it, I probably had the same kind of breakfast when I was a child (totally cannot remember), but somewhere along the way I have turned into this demanding, paranoid, kiasu mother who cannot accept pandan cake on the breakfast table.

So that is how I ended up waking a little (ok, A LOT) earlier so Junya can have breakfast before school. Then eat at school again if he wants. And to make myself feel a little better because at least I see him eat.

Breakfast for Junya (and family)

1. So the first day he had a slice of pandan cake and milk for breakfast. I woke up 6am on the second day, so this was his breakfast (and ours). I kind of like it because it means the family get to have breakfast together on the same table, and that’s really important for us.

 

2.The third day I made Wagyu hamburg served with roll bread and blanched vegetables. Fruits and Yasai juice.

 

3.The third day I woke up late so we only had greek yogurt with whole most delicious cereal by Calbee, butter shortbread, apple, Yasai juice and leftover pizza.

 

4. And the next day we had oden and Chicken Tsukune cooked the night before, apple and Yasai juice.

5. Wagyu hamburg was very popular so here’s a repeat. Grilled on skillets, served with salad and cold-pressed mikan/mandarin juice. Also it was raining so the lighting was bad haha.

It was before CNY so I received lots and lots of mandarins. The glass on the left is made with Japanese mikan and the juice jar on the right random mandarins given by friends. Got a huge difference in taste and sweetness :P.

6. Sausage and vegetable frittatas on skillets, yogurt+cereal and Manuka honey lemon salt cooler because that day both me and danna had slight sore throat.

7. Sauteed spinach with bacon, leftover frittatas, and egg&ham bread basket, with cold-pressed green juice.

8. Mushroom&broccoli omelette, shirasu toast, ham&cheese toast and hardcore green smoothie. Apple, celery, cucumber, komatsuna, kale powder and chia seed. A bit too hardcore liao this one. XD

9. Rainy day so we had hakusai&sausage milky stew.

10. I was gonna make Aglio Olio Shirasu pasta but we ran out of spaghetti so I used thin udon instead. Omg it was super yummy! Aglio Olio never ever fails. Served with buttered sweet potato and strawberry banana smoothie. A bit unmatched hor hahaha.

11. Tuna melt shio pan with spinach cream soup, diced mango, cereal and Nyoya Kuih given by our kind property agent when he comes to fix the shower lol.

12. Disfigured Pooh ham toast, fried egg on skillet, ham salad yogurt+cereal and salt lemon cooler.

13. Tried using the oven to bake for the first time in my life XD. Strawberry scone made with hotcake mix. Not to bad haha.

14. Brie cheese platter, ham&egg toast, yogurt+cereal, green juice, and cold-pressed almond milk.

I found a super interesting way to make toast so here it is:

Coincidentally became Gudetama in his ham blanket lol.

Looks like this sideway. Yum.

15. Pooh peanut butter toast, yogurt+cereal, cheese, ham and leftover karaage platter. Cold-pressed apple&carrot juice.

16. I think around this time the danna announced that he will be on a diet and cut down n carbs so suddenly my breakfast is just for Junya. And me sometimes. It becomes soooo much easier haha. Usually just a toast with a glass of juice/milk.

I want to share this recipe because I am soooooo addicted to it!! This is brie cheese, nuts (walnuts the best) toast with maple syrup. Just slice the cheese and place it on bread (danish bread is yummiest), toast at 200C for 5 minutes until crispy, then drizzle maple syrup over. Sooooooooo good I swear.

17. Strawberry peanut butter toast with TsumTsum cookie Junya’s classmate gave him. And milk.

18. 3 different variation of Tantan Noodle. Regular Tantan Noodle for mama with extra La-yu, non-spicy for Junya and Konnyaku Noodle (0 calorie) for papa.

19. Sauteed shimeji mushroom and scramble egg udon topped with chicken tsukune, served with Kumamoto mikan.

20. Shogayaki for mama and Junya. Junya’s with less onion, mama’s with extra onion and shichimi powder.

21. Junya’s mostestestestest favorite breakfast : peanut butter banana toast. He can eat this everyday, 3 meals a day, forever (at least up to now lol). Whenever I ask him what he wants to eat, he will only say “peanut butter toast”. (with or without banana is fine). Served with boiled egg and spinach green juice.

22. Cereal yogurt with raspberry, and banana bread&pudding. the smaller bowl is for Sakura ^^.

23. Canabae lolol. 3 variation: Super Spread (nuts, sesame and chia), ham mayo and strawberry cream cheese.

 

Lunch for Sakura

For Sakura, she is able to eat more and more table food now, so it makes cooking for her soooo much easier. Usually she eats whatever I prepare for the family, in finer texture. She has 4 teeth now and she seems to love heavy-textured food so I don’t even bother grating anymore. She can even eat rice now!

24. Tonjiru (from the adult pot) porridge with strawberry.

25. Carrot and chicken porridge with potato minced meat (from the adult plate).

26. Hijiki and aosa porridge with banana.

27. Purple milk bread..? Haha. Just diced bread dipped in formula and purple yam powder.

28. Carrot, pumpkin lentil stew served with egg yolk. Everything was orange XD.

29. Aonori somen in baby dashi and minced pork. Apple & carrot smoothie.

30. Scallop & Hijiki porridge, served with komatsuna and shirasu ankake (corn starch dashi for easy-to-eat texture).

31. Shirasu, gobo & carrot porridge with nanohana, Aomori apple juice.

32. Scallop & dried oyster aosa porridge with chicken nugget.

33. Hakusai pork belly rice with soup. Green smoothie.

34. Creamy cabbage & salmon risotto. Strawberry and tomato puree jelly.

35. Keema curry rice for Junya, and meat stew soft rice (without the spices) for sakura.

 

Lunch for Mama

What does mama eat? Junya is in school, Sakura has her own lunch, so most for the time, lunch for mama is really, really shabby. XD

But I do have cravings once in a while so here are the less-shabby things I made for “Hitori Ranchi” (solo lunch). And sometimes if I cook extra I keep it for Junya’s snack/dinner.

36. Ebi wantan soup noodle with Satsumaage, which ended up perfectly just like chinese sliced fishcake.

37. Weekend cook-off with Carolyn lol. She is from Penang so we made Penang-style char kuey teow using my brand new kick-ass River Light Kiwame Chinese wok for alllllll the wok-hei. Bought it from TokyuHands here in SG.

38. Another day I made Char-So-Ba instead of Char Kuey Teow because I couldn’t find kuey teow lolol.

39. The danna doesn’t eat carbs so I end up pigging out on noodles because usually he won’t eat noodles, so I’ll have it all at lunch 😛

40. Goya champuru (bitter gourd with spam, egg and tofu), Tonjiru soup with rice.

41. Mentaiko ochazuke with tuna piman. This is one of the most cheat meals when I really have no time to cook. No stove needed! Made with instant ochazuke pack, topped with fresh mentaiko. Piman and tuna is cooked in microwave with sesame oil, sesame seeds, tsuyu and binito flakes.

42. Yakisoba with lots of negi. There was extra so kept it for Junya’s dinner.

43. Minced meat potato, broccoli and ham curry mayo salad.

44. Karaage rice bowl, eggplant miso soup and salad.

45. This is economical and surprisingly good! Sauteed tofu, minced meat, bean sprout and chives, with lots of la-yu!

46. Bought unagi from Kochi Fair from Meidiya so here’s unagi rice bowl for me! And chawan mushi.

47. Prawn paella made in rice cooker (super easy!!) .

 

Dinner for Papa

Papa is on a no-carb diet so I am learning a new cooking style! It’s a little challenging but can be done. By the way there are a lot of hidden carbs in food even though they look low-carb, for example dishes cooked with sugar, mirin, sweet miso, and lots of sauces, as well as proccessed food like sausages, meat patty,  meat balls, fish cake etc, which often are mixed with starchy ingredients. Certain vegetables are carb-laden too so gotta identify.

48. Ebi ajillo and tako broccoli & tomati ajillo with roasted siew-yok. Cheese & ham platter with Ika shiokara. Mini pooh toast and mango is for mama and Junya. ^^

49. Goya champuru again, Airfried chicken with shiokoji, nanohana with mustard. Fried chicken is made without corn-starch/flour.

50. Grilled cod fish with aji tamago, tuna piman and tofu miso soup.

51. Tuna steak with aji tamago, crabstick cucumber salad, wakame miso soup. I forgot crabsticks are full of carb so I ate them all haha.

52. Shogayaki pork, salted egg-yolk bitter gourd and butter sauteed enoki with seaweed soup. Onion is quite heavy on carbs so I serve it onion-less for the danna.

53. Crazy fish day lol. Assorted sashimi, grilled salmon and feta green salad.

54. Airfried chicken, garlic sauteed eringi mushroom, hakusai pickles, chicken negi soup.

55. Tsukune tofu hakusai soup pot slow-cooked with 12 chicken wings. Don’t waste the wings cuz you can panfry them crispy for an extra dish!!

56. Snack plate for danna haha. Just hiyayako tofu with negi and shirasu.

 

That’s all!! If there’s any dishes that interest you and you want to know the recipe let me know! ^^

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