$10 Meal - Dish 1 (Chicken Macaroni Fishball Soup!)

I don’t know about you but I am totally in love with 1 dish/pot wonder. Truly, madly, deeply.

I love to cook but as a working mum the amount of time I get to spend in the kitchen is really quite a stretch. There are a few classic 1-pot wonder dishes we make at home and I decided to make myself a challenge – 5 days of recipe sharing but that’s not all... :o) 

They have to be all within a budget of $10! 

Impossible? Well, follow me over the next few days and find out!


Here's the recipe for Dish/Meal#1!

Chicken Macaroni Fishball Soup

The items:

1) 1 Honey Baked Chicken from Cold Storage ~ $4.99

(Look out for special promos like these from your friendly neighbourhood supermarkets. I could add in chicken to the dish as it was on promotion at just $4.99 from Cold Storage)

2) 1 packet of fishball ~ $2 (I bought mine from Giant)

3) 1 packet green vegetables ~ $0.60 (from Giant too)

4) 1 packet of macaroni ~ $1.70

Total amount: $9.29

Money left: $0.71!


To cook: (serves 3 - 4 pax)

Step 1: Shred the chicken, and use the chicken bones for stock. Add in a tad of oyster sauce 

Step 2: While waiting for the stock, in a separate pot, boil water and cook the macaroni (add salt and a bit of oil. In my household, 1 packet feeds about 4-5 adults + 1 kid so please cook according to your family size

Step 3: Wash the vegetables and keep aside

Step 4: Add in fishballs and vegetables to the broth

Step 5: When the macaroni is cooked (different brands have different cooking time, so please read the instructions on the packet), dish it out and place in separate servings.

Step 6: Add in the soup + fishballs + vegetables to the serving mentioned in step 5

Step 7: Place the shredded chicken over the macaroni

Step 8: Serve hot, add in shallots to taste.

What our family loves about this dish? Its yummy, quick and wholesome. :o) Enjoy!

Click here for Dish #2: wholesome beef stew!

Disclaimer: I am a regular shopper at Cold Storage and Giant hence the promos and pricing shown here are from these 2 supermarket chains. I am not being compensated in any way by them. Though *ahem*, it would be nice to have a vouchers and while we are at it, a supply of pull up pants and formula milk. LOL (Yes, I know, they are not to do with the food items for this post!) 

Birthday Blast! Under the Sea!

I am pleased to have with us this week, guest blogger Justina Tey from Mum in the Making. Justina is a Bento whiz and is one crafty mama! Here, she shares her party ideas for a fun fun fun "Under the Sea" party!

Justina:
Hello!  I'm here to share about the party that we had for our little boy early this year!  Initially, the party was supposed to be a jungle themed one, but he changed his mind last minute, and asked for an under the sea party.  Here's what we did:

:: Decorations: We did up the wall near the dining table (it was a small party of close friends, so we held it at home), draping it with crepe paper seaweed.  Then we added various sea creatures which were done by the boy, as well as the wordings, which were actually recycled from his previous birthday party...

... there were jellyfish made by the boy:

and starfish too (he got to add all the dots)!

We also made octopus balloons for the guests to take back, which were a hit!

The decorations cost us less than $5 to make!  Get the instructions for making the decorations here.

:: Party packs: We decorated plain paper bags using DIY foam stamps (how-tos here).  They initially were covered with leaves (we had prepared them thinking it was going to be the jungle theme!), but with the last minute change we added fishes too:

Those party packs were filled with treats like cheese dippers and apple juice.  The kids also received an ocean scene with their names on them, and a sheet of fish stickers.  After they had gone all crazy sticking all the fishes down, we laminated the papers to use as personalized placemats, which they got to bring home:

:: Food: We usually like having local yummies for our parties, and this time we went Peranakan.  Since  most of the food was spicy, the kids got home-made bentos instead (Junior J only invited a couple of friends so this was still doable!), with starfish rice cakes, mushroom egg rolls and peas:

We had a great time, just hanging out with close friends and the kids had fun playing together.  And of course, pigging out!

About Justina:

Jus is a stay-home mom to two little boys.  She has itchy fingers and enjoys cooking, crafting, scrapbooking and photography.  She loves to learn along with her kids, and blogs at "Mum in the Making".

This is part of a Birthday Blast series where blogger mum friends hop on over to share their birthday party planning tips and ideas. Coming up next is Susan from A Juggling Mom. Susan will be blogging about a Mickey and Minnie Party for her little girl! Watch this space!

Happy Birthday Singapore!

I enrolled the little one for a National Day Special workshop organised by National Parks: Beautiful Vanda Miss Joaquim (A Planting cum Art Workshop). From a homeschool perspective, I did not want it to be yet another meaningless Public Holiday (though of course PH are always nice :p). Rather I wanted Dumpling to have some understanding of the significance of the occasion.

From a swop with some mummy friends last year, Dumpling did a National Day pack so she does have some knowledge of this theme. But this year, I wanted to focus on other areas and this event fitted our theme nicely. :)

The workshop was termed as a Planting cum Art session so I did not really know what to expect. So it was a pleasant surprise to find out that the "Art" part was actually a floral arrangement session! :)

A trainer was there to present and demonstrate the floral arrangement to the children. It was a "drop-off" session as parents had to wait outside the room (with clear glass windows and doors). Besides her earlier Art session, this is the first time Dumpling has been "dropped" off like that so the clear windows and doors helped. :)
I liked that the entire arrangement was based on National Day and the trainer took time to go through the significance of colours - red and white as well as the symbols - crescent and the 5 stars. This was then "represented" in the floral arrangement which is made primary of what else, but orchids! :)

Here's some tips to share if you wish to do this with your little one(s) :)

To start off, you need to of course have the right "materials" - a sponge base and the container, both of which are easily available from flora shops. Here, the kids were taught to "line" the base with leaves to form a frame around the base.

The children were also taught to cut the stems (at an angle - I had to hop in and help Dumpling as some of the stems required a lot of strength to be snipped off). Once the "frame" is done, you can add on the smaller flowers. Here the red orchids were to represent the red in our Singapore flag.

Once the red orchids were added on, the children can then add on the white around it. The trick is to remind them that none of the green sponge should be be seen. So there were fillers provided - the purple (statice) and white flowers (Monte Casino Aster) as above, for the kids to "fill" up the spaces / gaps.

And of course, not forgetting the Singapore flag. Tada!

The second part of the workshop was on Orchid Potting. The orchid was of course, none other than Vanda Ms Joaquim. 

Above pic: trainers doing demo and explaining the origins of the plant

Above pic: the trainer helping Dumpling to secure the plant to the stick with cable ties

And it was time to add some stones and charcoal (most orchids, except for a handful, require a drier base to grow well in, hence the use of charcoal instead of soil)

This part of the session was relatively simple and she was done in no time.

It was a simple and enjoyable morning as we got to head outdoors and Dumpling got to do almost all of the activities on her own while I stood outside busy snapping away on the camera.

Frankly, I am not a floral arrangement person so this would not have been an activity that I will do with Dumpling but I felt that it was very meaningful to have tied this activity back to the significance of National Day and the meaning of its symbols.

I also wanted to highlight that the staff from Botanical Garden that morning (2 young ladies) were very helpful and friendly too. Dumpling hurt her knee a few days before the workshop and was limping the whole time. The two ladies upon knowing this, helped her to get around in the classroom and went back and forth to get the flowers for her. A big THANK YOU to you both once again. It was a very kind gesture. :)

Finally, here's 2 parting shots from us!

Bottom pic was taken by Dumpling. :0)

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SINGAPORE AND HAPPY NATIONAL DAY TO ALL OF YOU!

Breakfast for Champions! Silky smooth Taiwan Mee Sua for that omph!

Breakfasts to me are sacred. This is because weekday mornings are spent zooming around as I do my chauffeur duties sending everyone off to work and school. So the only time I get to slow down and relish in yummilicious breakfast would be the weekends and over public holidays.

My best memory of breakfast is where I sit down and people watch in a hawker centre as I slurp up raw sliced fish generously dressed with spring onions and shallots and, with a dose of light soya sauce with pepper. Accompanied with thick and smooth “Cantonese style” porridge and finishing the treat with a nice hot cup of Kopi O. Haha, that says a lot about me - a “cheena” girl with very Asian palate for breakfast.


When Adora Tan initiated a breakfast blog hop party - Breakfast for Champions, without any hesitation, my choice was to prepare something Asian. Something piping hot, something that is easy and quick to cook for the busy mums yet suitable for even young children.

Introducing...... Taiwan Silky Smoooooth Mee Sua

I have a love affair with this dish. I first tried it at the Shilin Taiwan street food stall and being an oyster and mee sua lover, I was hooked! I love the silky smoothness of the dish and the “well balanced” mesh of sourness and spiciness.

The dish is also suitable for very young children (sans the vinegar and chili of course :p) who are just being introduced to solids as the noodle is very soft.

Ingredients:

1. 1 can of Chicken Stock (I opted for No MSG type) + 1 can equivalent of water

2. 1 can of straw mushrooms (cut into thin slices)

3. 3 bundles of Mee Sua (Vermicelli)
(Pre-soak these for 5 - 10 mins as the noodles are fairly salty)

4. Shredded chicken (I bought BBQ spring chicken and shredded it. You can easily get these from a neighbourhood BBQ stall or from the Rotisserie at Cold Storage)

5. 2 – 3 slices of “old” ginger

6. A fistful of spring onions cut into 2” long

7. 2 tablespoons of cornstarch mixed with 1/3 cup of water



Seasoning

1. Half to one teaspoon of dark soya sauce (more for achieving colour)

2. Oyster sauce to taste (I did not use any because my BBQ chicken was quite salty)

3. Optional: Rice wine

To cook:

Steps as below:

Optional: you can add in rice wine / hao tiao before cornstarch mixture.

 

Add shallots, more chopped spring onions, chili and vinegar. Place shredded chicken over mee sua. Serve piping hot (serves 2 - 3)!

 

 

 

This is a Breakfast for Champions initiative. Click on the button below to find out what other yummy delights you can make for your family. :)

2 dogs and a baby

I have my dogs for about 10 years now and many have asked me how I did it. Some ermmm... 'interesting' souls have even asked me in the early when I was pregnant when I will give the dogs away. 


That's actually one of the more 'normal' remarks. My favourite? It's what I call the Oracle remarks - 'wow, you mean you are gonna still have them around? What if the dogs give your kid asthma and she dies? What if they maul your baby and she dies? Or what if they give her an incurable disease and she dies? What if they sit on the baby and suffocates her and (you guessed it!) she DIES?'

Source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/o/oracle.asp  

Well I was determined to show that they are wrong. I was gonna be the mum who can handle it all and still look gorgeous with my poof-ed hair and solitaire ear studs every morning. I was gonna be that yummy mummy that loses the 7kg I put on during my pregnancy within 2 months after I 'popped' by heading to the gym as soon as I can get some rest and drive myself to the gym.


Then I had post natal depression. And I have a child who is highly alert and sleeps very little. And did I mention super sonic hearing and sense of smell too? I also have dogs who howl.


So, I would be carrying the little one in a sling. Tired. Throat was dry (she liked me to sing softly and hum when she was young - hubs told me that's white noise for the baby but I ignore him since he's tone deaf), C-sec wound still sore, wrist was tired from patting her for the past 45 mins and she finally sleeps. So I tiptoed across the room and gently lay her down.


Then I tripped over the dog-rug. Goldie who likes to walk near me and likes to just lay there (and maybe play dead). Only I didn't see her and I tripped.

Source: http://www.supercoolpets.com/archives/2010/04/tripping_over_pets_sends_thous.php

Because Dumpling was still snug in my sling, all she did was to move a bit. I gained my balance and made my way slowly to to cot again. Placed her down and AHA! I can finally take a shower, lie down and rest.


Then, Oreo decided to howl.  Ah-oooooooouuu...


I jumped out from bed, ran towards Oreo to shush her up and she thought it's a game! With a wag of her tail, she jumped and ran AND... Barked! In a split second, Dumpling cries.


So into the room I went and tried to pacify Dumpling but she was totally awake and could not get back to dreamland. I coo-ed with her, patted her, played some more and she finally yawned. Picked her up and put her down in the cot. She slept. I headed for the shower and was rinsing out the shampoo when the door bell rang. Guess what? Yes, the dogs barked again! 


I rushed out, half showered, my helper was trying to pacify Dumpling but nope, she was up again. I rushed to open the door and heard squeals of laughter and fast footsteps. Turned out it's a prank. This actually happened quite a few times and it was then I pasted a homemade sign above the door bell (which I subsequently disabled). I don't have a photo of the actual thing but let's say that I was inspired by graphics such as these:

Source: http://www.zazzle.com/god_is_watching_you_postcard-239712945572906473 

I still have not had my proper shower then, my hair was dripping wet and I cannot recall where I left my solitaire studs. A few months of this and despite all the jumping out of bed (which I was trying to convince myself that it was good exercise), I still have my post pregnancy + post natal depression fats to lose (the PND drugs made me fat.) Add that to severe lack of rest, I was certainly no where near to being a yummy mummy. 


Fast forward to a few years on, we are doing much better now that the dogs are used to Dumpling's routine and they nap too. It has been hard the first 6 months easing everyone (and every dog) into the routine. I have lost some weight along the way, catching the same cold and illness that I am trying to nurse Dumpling from. 


The great news? Dumpling did not get mauled and is still very much alive (did I mention that my dogs are known as the terrifying breed - american cocker spaniels?) and yes, while there have been many "misses", we are doing ok as a dog-baby (and many other pets in between but that's for the next story) family. 


So the verdict? Here's Goldie :)