Fried Rice Paradise

What's the best way of using up leftover rice? You cook the darn thing with egg and make it fried rice. I cooked this up for lunch one day when I was working from home. The rice already had corn and peas in it... score.... and winning! So it was off to cube some Spam, I mean salt cubes.

Oh hai you yummy thing

This made me laugh when we went to Costco recently. A whole pallet of SPAM... The Chinese tend to stick to their own canned meat brands like Ma Ling so I have to admit I had not tried Spam before. My friend who used to live in Hawaii absolutely loves this and I bought some as I was super curious. It's a tin of salt really. And I will not debate on whether Spam is fit for human consumption. Let's just say that a lot of people love this stuff.

More SPAM than I get from Blogger Anon comments!

So I started frying up my Spam in my lovely wok. Wok it out... 

Cubed Spammy stuff.. you either drool here or start gagging.

Lovely cubes of salt

Here comes the great debate ... My grandma has always fried the rice and other stuff first then put the egg last. Everyone knows that my Grandma is correct. As she has now lost her memory and pretty much not that aware of her surrounds, I cannot exactly ask her this question so I am asking you guys. The great debate is that everyone else seems to be doing it the other way. Egg first then rice. So my friends, this time I tried egg first. I have never done it this way before. The world is watching as I fry up the egg first. What is gonna happen! Will everything implode into a rice eggy mess? I added a load of white pepper and some Chinese cooking wine and stirred it all up.

Steamy goodness with cubes of salt

Look at that fried rice porn right there. So hot and steamy, Jenna Jameson wished she was rolling around in it. Anyway, my verdict regarding egg first method. What do you do with the big egg bits? See that first picture (yes you gotta scroll upwards). Am I doing this wrong? Ling from Best Beauty Blog says the rice gets soggy if it is added after. Do I just have to stir the egg really quickly? I cannot believe a pure Chinese is blogging this right now. I am about to go eat some laksa and make myself feel more Chink. 

Right.. so let's debate about fried rice (or if you are Chinese.. Fried Lice).

Stalk my Weekend: Haircuts, Ice Cream and Scones

Phew.. what a jam packed weekend. I'm sorry that Stalk my Weekend is so late in the week. Wait till you hear what happened in Stalk my lousy Monday morning and you will forgive me. I had yum cha with the ladies on Saturday and honestly I didn't take pics. ROFL I had a FOTD picture but it was plastered on my Facebook wall. In the interest of not repeating things and boring you. I have left the picture out. You can stalk my Facebook page instead. Don't forget to likey as I'm feeling unloved. Y'all still love me right?

After yum cha, I ran to meet Mick and the boys in Fitzroy as Mick was having his haircut. The girls proceeded to spend heaps of money at Daiso. Thankfully I already did my Daiso raid of random things on Wednesday. Yay to that! Boys playing with random animals that Jamie somehow has at his studio. After Mick was finished, D said he likes his hair. Nawwww sweet boy.

Bolton Street Chicken

Sunday was jam packed for us as the boys started swimming. WOOHOO!! Thank goodness! We has swimming again! Bought D and Pickles their swimming caps. Gosh, why didn't anyone tell my Mum that fabric swimming caps existed? As a treat, I went to get chicken, chips and salad for lunch at my favourite chicken place. Bolton Street Chicken! It's not exactly close to me, there's probably 15 chicken shops that are closer but gosh.. this is the best! I cannot stand looking at the sad, creamy weird salads sitting in the fridges of other chicken shops.

Fairy Hills Ice Cream

I have been driving past this pretty ice cream shop for months since I started going a roundabout way with the boys after their daycare pickup. D calls this roundabout way the "lost way" because I kept getting lost at the start. LOL.. it is now called sneaky way. So after their rest from swimming, I packed them in the car by myself - I hardly ever do this - as Mick was going to the tip. Such a cute shop! Prices are $4 for one scoop, $5 for two scoops and $6 for three scoops. I bought strawberry and chocolate for the boys.

Baby Chairs or Mummy Chairs?

They also serve coffees, soft serve frozen yoghurt, milkshakes and juices as well. If anyone is interested, they also have baby chairs. D asked if the baby chairs were for Pickles. I said no as Pickles can sit on the chair by himself. He then asked the lady behind the counter if the chair was for Mummy. Erm.. no, Mummy cannot fit in them.

D helping with scones

Oh hurro yummies

Action packed Sunday continues! D and Pickles helped Mick make lemonade scones. If anyone is interested in the recipe. We usually use Taste's recipe for lemonade scones. They are the easiest thing. Just ignore the sugar and cream/fat content. Just eat them ok!

McCormick Recipe Creations

Hurro Meat

If you are still awake... Hurro meat to you as well. I received this recipe creations pack from McCormick at a recent event. I thought this was a fantastic idea as I am sick of bottles of dried herbs and spices that are opened and used once for a one off recipe and never used again. I think I have cinnamon dated 2007 when we first moved into the house. Like s'rsly... Mick keeps telling me, it's fine, just use it.. But like eewwww, the cinnamon is older than D! The pack for Beef Brew and Herb Dumplings comes with the recipe at the back of the card. Each spice/herb that you require is already measured out in the pack. So we had this for dinner on Sunday night.. in between all that baking and ice cream. Mick managed to cook dinner as well. It was a brown and stir, then leave in the oven affair. How good is that?

If you haven't fallen asleep yet. I leave you with two roses from my garden. D and Pickles gave me those from our garden. The one at the bottom is the Jane McGrath rose and the beautifully fragrant one at the top is either The Mother's Love or The Children's Rose. I cannot remember!! I need to look at the label again!

Stalk my Weekend: Cheesey food and nail polish

Kua Wela, Verano and Carousel

I came home on Sunday to this package! This was after coming home from the swimming pool. I put on my Zimmermann bikini in our once a year journey to the swimming pool. Yes once a year. We went to the swimming pool in the morning in preparation for a hot day. I dragged the boys up and down while they kick in the swimming pool and caught them when they jump from the side of the pool. Watched the boys slide down the water slide (very very quickly) with Mick. And basically making sure that they did not fall off whatever they were climbing on. It made me so tired, I think it wore me out more than them. I kept hinting... are we going to go back for snacks? Ie MUM IS TIRED. They left with tears as I dragged them to the hot car. I hate hot cars. I had to promise that they are going to go back. 2 minutes later, can I go back swimming with the slide? Urgh. The good thing is, I found that this fitness centre has booty barre classes on Wednesday night. So guess where I will be doing Barre soon? Yeap! I am so motivated, I'm almost about to run to Lorna Jane outlet in Uni hill to get gear.

Get your sauce on

I rewind you back to Saturday when I really wanted Mac and Cheese. You know when you want Mac and Cheese? Nothing ever comes close. So I made Mac and Cheese! Check out the killer cheesey white sauce and bacon. Ooooh yeah BACON. I wanted to do Pioneer Woman's Fancy mac and cheese. But seriously, I could not be bothered slicing onions. So I did my normal version, except I chucked in some leftover spinach from an earlier dinner during the week. Might as well use it up. I know it doesn't really "go together" but whatever. It eased some guilty conscience that I was eating badly. So ingredients is really just cooked pasta (about 300-350g dry, I usually put in about 3/4 packet). White sauce was 50-60g butter melted, add 3 tbsp plain flour. Whisk plain flour into melted butter. Add in your milk and cream. I added a touch of grated nutmeg in this sauce and felt like Nigella... so fancy.

Ta Da finished

Nomming my Cheesey Pizza

D is nomming his cheesey pasta. The spinach was a no go zone.. but he asked for broccoli with his cheesey pasta. Who is this child?? We had to cook some broccoli just for him. And he ate it happily after that. Soooo... funnyyy.

Oooh yeah spread the cheese

On Sunday night, the boys wanted pizza. As they like making it together, they get their little table into the kitchen. Get some frozen pita bread, spread organic pasta sauce on and hold their hands out to catch grated cheese.

Get your ham on 

Pickles decided to help with the ham but was not keen on the cheese. He grabbed a handful of ham and then disappeared to eat it by himself. HAhahah this boy is smart!

Is it bad that after the boys went to sleep, I ran out and tried out a dodgy hole in the wall local fish and chip place? I basically shoved this crispy battered fried blue whiting into my mouth with enthusiasm. It was SO GOOD. I'm now upset that it has taken me 5 years of driving past this place to finally try it! While I was there, about 6 people walked in to order. Dammit.... I feel like the last one in the neighbourhood to find out about this dodgy place!

Merry Christmas to everyone! And as my weekend started at 2.30pm on Friday and technically it's Monday and still my weekend as I'm on holidays. I feel like I need a Stalk my weekend Part 2 as I actually did stuff today as well!!! 2012 had been a great year for me. And I honestly can't wait to see what's gonna happen in 2013.

Cauliflower & Cheese Soup

Cauliflower & Cheese Soup

I had a long time reader ask if I could provide more recipes. Oh Hai long time reader! I have read it and have answered. This is a favourite during winter and it is super cheap to make as well.

It is SO HARD to take decent pictures of my cooking. And I sort of forget quantities as well.

Once again - here are rough estimates with quantities. As I always say to Mick and I drive him nuts - just look at it and add more if you need.

Ingredients
1 head of Cauliflower chopped
Enough water or stock to cover up to half of Cauliflower
Stock cube if you are using water
Cream
Half a block of Cream Cheese cut to cubes
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cover and cook cauliflower until it breaks apart easily. You do not want too much water in there and it will look like there is not enough. But the rest of the cauliflower that is not submerged in water will  be steamed so do not worry about it.
Once it is cooked till soft. I blend the cauliflower roughly. Add half a block of cream cheese to this and continue blitzing it into the soup. I put about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of cream to the soup to make it creamier. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you have added too much water at the start, your soup will be thinner.

That picture above is what it looks like before I have finished blending it. When finished it should be a smooth soup :). Top it off with bacon bits or croutons.

Multitasking Instant Cooking

Ya know what, I am eating this as brunch/breakfast. Unashamed asian.. LOL.

But seriously I picked up what I thought was a carton of Indomie from Costco. It was not Indomie. It was lord knows what brand. I have not had Indomie since circa 2000 when I first came over as a Uni student. Those days of Uni share housing and cartons of Indomie lasted about 5months. I moved out and upgraded to Korean ones!

So I thought, oh well why not? It has been more than 10 years. I had forgotten that instant noodle cooking involved multitasking. There are HOW MANY PACKETS to cut up and mix up? Times that by the two packets that I normally need - don't judge I have an appetite. So there it is.. one packet of oil and kecap manis. One packet of bumbu powder and chilli powder. ADD deep fried onions into the equation. PLUS a fried egg on top. You need fried egg on top people.

Lucky I had enlisted D to help me with the packet cutting. So frantic packet cutting, noodle in hot water tossing. Drain, mix with the sauce. Cut your powder and toss it. Deep fried onions on top. While frantically cutting powder sachet, heat oil for your fried egg. Flip the egg, toss egg on top.. sweating..

D was yelling I WANT MINEEEE... Grab another bowl. Dish out his share. Cut his noodles, chuck spoon into his bowl. Fall into couch... have another seagull child stalk you for food. Split egg to pieces and start shovelling egg into his mouth. Feed yourself... So there. Multi-tasking.

Meal Planning

Ok ladies.. working mum here that tag teams daddy when I get home. He leaves when I come home.. then I start on stripper bookings after the boy goes to sleep. So this means we need dinner organised very well. What happens now? We never have ANYTHING in the house.
Poor Mick will run out and ask what do you want to eat and the poor man drags the baby out and tries to get enough for one meal. This means there is hardly anything in the house for our meals... which sometimes means... honey let's get takeaway I want dumplings. $30 a meal means our budget is shot to shits.

I have been reading about meal planning on thrift in the kitchen and on EB forum. But I am afraid that I will end up going.. oh I don't want to eat that. And my thrift movement will fail.. fresh food throw into the bin as it goes bad.

So I am trialing this.. and I promise that I will update. BTW sorryz for not updating my bad!

So this week.. the meal plan is in general

Nachos with mince beef
Pasta Tuna bake! yum
Beef tacos
Slowcooker Rump Casserole
Maybe leftovers as casserole means LEFTOVERsss YAY
Sat means it's busy busy busy day and night for strippers fish and chips maybe
Sun I would like to do wontons or something like that

Love my wontons, who doesn't love wontons??

Will update with what I have done!

Today is CNY and last night I made a disasterous orange and almond cake. It was burnt-ish. Sad face, Mick came to the rescue and made a chocolate cake to take to our friend's place. I have had my Chicken rice and I'm a Happy Cat.

Anyone has any experience with meal planning? Or am I in no woman's land? I'm scaredddddd...