Mini Chocolate Cornflakes Cups - Gong Xi Gong Xi

It is still the Chinese New Year festive season and I have already been to a few rounds of house visiting. The good thing about CNY is that we have "valid reasons" to binge on sinful snacks like Bah Kwa, Peanut Cookies, Pineapple Tarts, Kuih Bankit, Love Letters and so much more. This is especially enjoyable when some friends and relatives actually made the CNY goodies themselves. Many of these are not available for purchase off supermarket shelves and bakeries. 

Cheers to my good fortune, there were lots of homemade CNY goodies at V.bro and Uncle Niu's house! I ate to my fill and am down with sore throat and cold now. :[ Well I guess certain professions will be super busy during this period of time due to greedy people like me. Anyway, V.bro's mum doesn't have detailed information on how to make her snacks so I'll be introducing  one of Uncle Niu's goodies; Chocolate Cornflakes Balls. It is simple to make, tastes really yummy, and appeals to kids too! Happy CNY to all!

Mini Chocolate Cornflakes Cups

Vegetables Porridge with Salted Eggs - Mrs. Tan's Method

I wonder why my Piles came back even after embarking on a meatless diet. I wasn't able to sit still in office yesterday due to the discomfort so came home instead. I could only lie down else stand up for the rest of the day. 

Anyway, Pinky asked what's for dinner but I wasn't too sure of what to cook nor the diet suitable for Piles patients. Furthermore I didn't have the ability to sit down in front of PC to Google for information either. So the heck with it , I told her that I had no idea at all and would just cook whatever was inside my fridge. So she suggested Vegetables Porridge, using her Mom's method of cooking porridge. I wasn't keen on the idea because it already sounded bland. Nonetheless, no harm trying since I needed a watery diet so she gave me the instructions on how to go about it. 

The selection process of vegetables was rather tough, and I was faced with the challenge of making the dish sweet and salty without using too much of seasoning. So I chose cabbage and carrots for sweetness, baby bok choy for leafy fibre, and steamed salted eggs + bottled preserved Chye Sim for saltiness. For full vegans, there are other options like adding preserved beans, fermented tofu and other preserved vegetables too. This is a rather versatile dish.

Finally, my Vegetables Porridge turned out quite good. The rice were grainy, soup tasted mildly sweet and lightly salted. And guess what? It relieved my Piles! I wasn't sure at first till I had my second helping later at night. This morning I woke up just with a slight discomfort then ate oatmeal porridge, and I don't really feel a thing now. Thanks to Pinky's suggestion and her Mom that I'm healing fast! Thanks to my other friends for showing their concern too. ;]

My Vegetables Porridge with Salted Eggs

Meatless Kimchi N Tofu Stew - My Vegetable Language

Another 8 days of meatless meals passed by in a blink of an eye. I didn't even find it cumbersome planning the dishes and the dinner table was always full of surprises. I have the vegetables to thank for because none of us knew that they can be cooked in so many ways. ;)

It has been a happier experience dealing with vegetables than meat, mainly because the latter used to be running around but ended up as carcass on my chopping board. Anyway, I gained new insights that in order for my vegetables to taste good, I need to take extra care when handling them. This includes thinking about them and talking to them (need not really talk out loud). Though I know that this sounds odd, I still want to share and use Mr Potato as an example. It goes likes this:

1. Keep Mr Potato in his most comfortable corner prior to cooking
2. Greet him before use
3. Let him know that he's in for one of the best meals in life
4. Bring him to wash and scrub off all the dirt off him with fingers
5. Peel off his clothes carefully with knife without scraping off too much of flesh
6. Bid him farewell and multiply him into smaller but identical pieces with knife
7. Send him into a hot and boiling jacuzzi bath together with his favourite friends
8. A beautiful and happy dish is served!

Enough said of all the above. My 12th meatless dinner was Kimchi and Tofu Stew. I may not be Korean but I love most types of stews regardless their place of origins. The spicy and sourish taste of kimchi tantalizes my tastebuds greatly, whetting appetite up to the max. Usually meat is added into this dish and I was sceptical about bringing out the usual rich flavour. But when the dish was halfway into simmering, I knew that my doubts were unfounded. It took a full 2.5 hours to prepare and cook this meal but every effort was worth it. The idea of meatless seemed texture-less so I used omelette instead of half-cooked egg. It turned out to be really fun to eat!

My Meatless Kimchi N Tofu Stew (Before last 5 minutes of cooking)

Yay! Finally Served!

Mushroom Omelette Rice with Vegetables Stew - Simple Anime Version

Tonight's non-meat menu was Mushroom Omu Rice with Vegetables Stew! 4th day into meatless eating! I had been looking forward to this meal all day, despite having Kaya Butter Toast for breakfast and vegetarian Yong Tau Hu for lunch. Rushed home from work and immediately started chopping all the ingredients then cooked them with all my might.

Just a short intro about my Omu Rice; I have tried cooking a few types of Omu Rice but never this version before. The Japanese Anime Version 1.2.3 (named it myself). And I love this the most though it wasn't the prettiest of all. It  all began when I was tv channel surfing and chanced upon this japanese anime. A hungry boy was roaming the streets at night when he met a scruffy looking homeless man. They became friends and both sneaked into an empty restaurant kitchen. When the man heard boy's stomach growled, he immediately took some simple ingredients, frying pan and spatula then began whipping up a tasty + fragrant plate of Omu Rice for the boy. It made the boy really touched.

The Omu Rice in the show caught my eye instantly as it did not look the same as the standard huge dumpling looking types served in Japanese restaurants. The egg was slightly runny and simply topped onto a small mountain of rice... *yumyum* I could not forget it at all, gotta have it. So I began planning for this dish and today was the day to come! I had tomato ketchup yesterday, so I decided to cook a pot of stew to go with the Omu Rice. Nothing else to describe except that it was a really satisfying meal. 

My Mushroom Omelette Rice, Good to Eat On It's Own

My Mushroom Omelette Rice Topped with Vegetables Stew

Spicy Vegetarian Mee Goreng - 3rd Night

It is always easier to plan meals when there is meat inside the fridge. I'd started off my week's grocery with mainly vegetables; Spinach, Carrots, Potatoes, Mushrooms, Winged Beans, Lady Fingers, Bean Sprouts, Silken Tofu, Red Chillies, and Onions. Of course there were other non-meat purchases like Fresh Yellow Noodles, Kway Teow, Tortilla Wraps, Wholemeal Bread and Eggs. I hope this new diet will really help detox my body system and heal those sandfly bites within the next 10 days! Anyway, I'm into the 4th day of being non-meat eater but still do eat eggs and drink milk for my intake of protein. 

I'm starting to miss those dishes cooked by mum badly because of the taste of love, care and efforts in them. I'm on my own now to take care of myself and others, but looking forward to the Reunion Dinner next month to taste her cooking again. This makes me even more determined to keep fit in the meanwhile! In fact nothing can really deter me from whipping up interesting, healthy and tasty dishes for all 3 meals now. I realized now that it is all about creativity, planning and genuine interest in food.

Just to share with you all the dinner I had last night. Had wanted to try cooking Indian style Mee Goreng (Stir-Fry Noodles) which was supposed to be really red in colour due to the Tomato Ketchup Indian stalls love to use. Somehow I didn't manage to get the color I wanted, but the taste was good! Will try cooking this again another day because I haven't had enough of it. If you are on the track of wanting to stay off sinful food yet longing for a munch, hope that you will get some inspiration from this dish. :)

My Spicy Vegetarian Mee Goreng (Almost Indian Style)