No Bake Cornflake Cookies

If you enjoy eating cornflakes, you will enjoy it better by adding these ingredients to 6 cups of corn flake cereal:

1 cup corn syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup peanut butter

Here is how you can make it.

You can watch a video on how to make it at The Craft Patch Blog/

Cooking on a tight schedule

If you are balancing between working life and home, there will be times when you feel guilty that you are not able to cook a proper meal for your family to eat at home.  In situations like this, consider cooking meals with a slow cooker that use minimal ingredients as that will help reduce prep time.

 A slow cooker allows you to start cooking your meal before you leave the house and ensure that it is hot and ready as soon as you returned home from work. Avoid rushing in the morning by preparing the ingredients ahead and stored them in the refrigerator.

I have collected many recipes that use only 3 ingredients that you can cook in a slow cooker or croak pot.  Let's start with desserts, "Slow Cooker Peach Dump Cake".



You can also try making it with apple pie filling.

If you want to use an oven, this is how Peach Cobbler Dump Cake can be baked.

 

How to Make Easy Pancakes

This Easy Pancake is from All Recipes.



Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions


You can make your pancake interesting by baking it in an oven.  Found this tip for "Apple Puffed Oven Pancake" from Eating Well.



Ingredients and Directions

If you prefer to add banana instead of apples, here is one from Better Homes and Gardens.

How to make crepes

This is how Western crepes are made.

Combine 1-1/2 cups milk and 2 eggs and whisk until smooth. Add 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1 Tbsp. oil. to mix and whisk until smooth.

Heat lightly greased 6 inch skillet. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into skillet. Tilt pan to spread batter. Return to heat. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until bottom is browned. Repeat with remaining batter. Spread 2 Tbsp. whipped cream cheese on crepe. Arrange 1/4 cup sliced fresh strawberries on cream cheese. Roll up crepe.





Source:
https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/basic-crepes/9cfb8afa-58e0-4afb-9a83-acf09a3665f6
https://www.bhg.com/recipes/breakfast/brunch/how-to-make-crepes/

This is the way the Chinese cook pancakes.

The Laundry Room Tips

A portable laundry rack that runs on wheels is very convenient to have in the house.



It is good for days when it looks like it is going to rain but there are clothes to be washed.  You can push it to the corner where the sun is shining and push it back in when it starts to drizzle.

You can hang many items on this laundry rack as its poles are extendable.



These circular hoop hangers are suitable for hanging heavier clothing such as jeans, pants, thick clothings or sweaters.  There are also useful for hanging bed sheets and pillow cases.



If you hang the bottom of the pants with pegs as shown in the photo, the weight of the pants will pull the creases out as it dries so that there will less creases for you to iron out.



However, instead of using these loop hangers for drying all items in your laundry, it is best that you use the kind that you regularly hang your clothes on in the wardrobe.  These are heavy duty hangers which can be used to hang pants or thicker clothing.  You are likely to get free hangers like the black one if you send your clothes out for laundry service.



The ones below will not take too much space in your wardrobe.  Try not to choose one with smaller hook as it will make hanging it difficult if the poles of your drying rack or wardrobe is of a bigger diameter.



You can remove dried clothes, that do not need ironing, from the laundry rack and store it in your room without the hassle of changing hangers.  Leave the remaining dried clothes on the laundry rack and push it into the room where you do your ironing.

There should also be a fordable umbrella rack for smaller pieces of clothing, such as, inner wear, socks, shorts, mop cloth and small kitchen towels.  One that is strong and large enough that you can hang a few items together is better.



As it is installed with grips at the end of each hanger, you can slip your items into the grips to hold them securely to the rack. An extra clothe peg can be used to prevent the longer pieces, such as,  towels from being blown off by the wind.



Can you count the number of loop hangers you will need if you do not have an umbrella rack like this?  No mad rush to get the clothes in when it rains as you just need to grab this one piece of hanger.

Easy Creamed Spinach (Spinach Gratin)

I found this Quick Creamed Spinach with Cream Cheese Recipe recipe on Masala Herb.  It is an interesting way to serve Spinach.  

I made some modifications to the recipe as I do not cook with olive oil.  I also do not keep stock of herbs usually used in Western dishes.

Here is another variation of it which you can cook with just onion and cream cheese.  It can be served: 

-spread over pancake and rolled up to be eaten.
-with the rolled up pancakes topped with cheese and baked in creamy sauce. 

You can watch this video for instructions.

TENDER LEAFY GREENS BROTH

You can use vegetables to make soup.  You can decide what you would like to add to the soup by looking at the optional ingredients listed.


This is how the cooking process looks like.



Here is a unique way to cook soup with Spinach, century egg and salted egg.

BLANCHING VEGETABLES TO COOK WITH OYSTER SAUCE

This is a 3-ingredient dish.  You will need:

1) Vegetables with heartier stem
2) 2-3 Tbs of oyster sauce
3) Fried garlic with oil

Watch this video to have a look at how the blanched vegetable is cut and served.

 

SPICY RED SPINACH OR BAYAM

Here is how you can fry red spinach or bayam with spices or without.

Jemput Jemput Pisang

We ate Jemput Jemput Pisang for breakfast this morning.

These are the ingredients in it:

500g of ripe banana
3 Tbsp of sugar
3 Tbsp of grated coconut
1/4 tsp of salt
120g plain flour

Here is how it is made.

Leftover rice? Boil porridge with it.

If you cooked your rice with too much water, you can solve the problem by making porridge with the leftover.

Put rice in a pot.



You can add leftover dish like steamed minced pork or oyster sauce chicken to the rice to add flavour to it.  Bones, if any, should be removed from the leftover dish.

If you do not have any leftover dish to add, you can use marinated sliced or minced pork, chicken or fish.  Add fresh ingredients to the pot of rice once the water is boiling.

Ingredients for marinating sliced or minced pork, chicken or fish:

1) Soya sauce
2) Sugar
3) Garlic Oil
4) Corn flour

Add ginger slices or ginger juice to fish.

This is the bowl of leftover steamed minced pork which will be used to make the porridge.



Fill the bowl of leftover dish with boiled water.  That will make it easier to pour dish into the pot of rice and make cleaning up the bowl easier.



Pour the ingredients into the pot of rice.  Add more hot water to cover over the rice.  Turn on heat.  Reduce the heat once the water starts boiling.

Watch the fire, as you do not want the water to boil over and mess up the stove.  Lifting the lid off the pot a bit will prevent that from happening.

Add salt or soya sauce to taste.  This is how the porridge should look like once it is cooked.



You can add pepper to the porridge if you want to.

If you do not add any ingredient to the porridge, you can eat the white porridge with salted egg, salted fish and preserved vegetable.

Prevent Long Electric Cord From Entangling

An extra long cord that could stretch from one end of the shop to the other is very useful. The problem with a long cord is that if you not do know how to roll it up properly, it entangles each time you use it So, I experimented and discovered that this is the best way to roll it up. I hope you find this tip useful too.

Learn to Make Kuih Bakul

This is a lost tradition.  In the olden days, most Chinese made their own kuih bakul for prayers during the Chinese New Year.  My grandmother had a large grind stone for grinding grains, like glutinous rice to make "Nian Gao", as it is called in Mandarin.


These are the ingredients you need to make Caramel Nian Gao (Kuih Bakul)

350g granulated sugar

430g hot water

350g glutinous rice flour

Adequate banana leaves to line moulds

You can find the full instruction with lots of photos of the processes at MyKitchen101en.

Here is how it can be served, deep fried with sweet potato and yam.

Crispy Smashed Potatoes

The next time you boil your ABC soup, do a "planned over" and add more whole potatoes so that you can cook this Crispy Smashed Potatoes dish.

 

As we do not use olive oil in Chinese cooking, I  have replaced it with garlic oil.



Source:
https://www.recipetineats.com/crispy-smashed-potatoes/

What are some easy meals I can make for cheap?

What are some easy meals I can make for cheap?  I answered this question on Quora and decided to share it here because there are many useful links in them.

There are many easy meals that you can make cheap if you use less ingredients in the dish. I managed to find many such recipes and saved them on Pinterest.

Recipes - 3 ingredients or less

What is the point of making it cheap but there are leftovers to throw away? So, throw away less food by using leftovers from last dish or learn to cook just enough or learn to do “planned-overs”, that is, cooking in excess so that your can create another dish with them.


"Cooking for One or Two" by Food and Nutrition Specialist, Julie Garden-Robinson, Ph.D., LRD provides a guideline on how to reduce the ingredients in your recipe if you are cooking smaller portions. You will find many tips on using your leftovers at Frugal Leftover Cooking Ideas.

You should also try to figure out ways to use less utensils to cook. If you watch cooking programmes by chefs like Michael Smith on TV, you can pick up useful tips from him. He used vegetables, such as, carrots, potatoes and onions to replace the rack you need for roasting. By placing your meat on top of the vegetables you do not have an oily rack to clean up. Doesn’t that make cooking your meal cost saving too since you are using less water and time for cleaning? You can even clean up the sauce off your pans by using leftover rice or bread.

If you are working in that direction to make your meals cheaper, buy multi-functional cooking wares because useful wares can save you time and money. Learn more cooking techniques that will require you to use less gadgets in you kitchen.

Find ways to use less energy to cook. I use a large soup pot, and place a smaller metal pot inside to cook my rice and another to boil soup. On top of the pot, I can also place a plate of fish or chicken or minced pork to steam. Food keep warm in the steamer so that you do not have to reheat them.



If I use the rice cooker to cook or a pot to boil my soup, I will try to include a dish that requires steaming.



Use leftover leftover sauces and cooking oil in your new dish!



Plan meals for the week so that you can buy your ingredients in bulk which make them cheaper. Stock less perishable food and save by buying what is seasonal where you are.

If you like Chinese cooking, here are some recipes for cheap meals I created for my family. I did some of them in slides so that my children can learn to cook too.

Salad out of Leftovers
Perk It Up Dishes
Food Makeover

Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce


Fast food? Can't beat them? Join them!


And if, like I do, you have picky eater at home to feed, make your dish tastier with this magic sauce.


How cheap can you get if you are able to find ways to make use of food scraps to cook? Check out the food scraps used in making this Vegetable Broth.

When I was young my family used to collect a bag of cake scraps from a confectionery nearby. These are cut offs from the sides of baked flat cake layers. I discovered that if you crumbled the cake and mix it up with frosting, you can make Popsicle like these.

 I think you should not have any problem selling them if you want to. You can learn how to make it at Homemade Cake Pops - Sallys Baking Addiction. If you want more recipes using cake scraps just google “cake scraps”. By doing that I found 15 Incredible Uses for Leftover Cake.

How To Stir Fry Vegetable

When you use vegetables with thick stems like broccoli and cauliflower, it is suggested that you blanched them first before cooking but you can also stir fry them first before adding leafy greens. I like this post on Quora by Chef Mark Blaxall on how you can prepare and cut broccoli or cauliflower into florets for your dish.  

Here are steps on how to stir fry vegetables.



Here is how you can stir-fry vegetable with shrimps and yellow bean sauce.



Type of root vegetables that need to be stir fried first in before adding leafy greens.



You can read more useful tips on stir frying vegetables at Taste of Asian Food or watch some videos on “Vegetable Preparation” by Chef Robert Nassar from Dinner Done.

Healthy Pancakes 4 Ways

Saw this "Healthy Pancakes 4 Ways" on Facebook and decided to create a meal card for all four recipes.


As I am working on a project to clear used enveloped and unused exercise books, I use Calibri font size 8 as I want it printed out on A5 paper in landscape format to put in envelopes which will work as a folder.



If you would like to make your own, you can find the recipes on Tasty.

Source:
Banana Pancakes
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Blueberry Pancakes
Dark Chocolate Pancakes

Recipe Print Out Size

My children enjoy eating French toast.  I usually make them when I have access bread to clear.

I do not want my children to be intimidated by the number of ingredients in a recipe so, I prepare it in table form by indicating how they are used in each step.  That way, they will be put off to learn to cook the dish with 6 or more ingredients.



I got inspired by a fan of Foodnetwork Channel, "Good Eats", who use this format to record recipes he collected.

I created the table on an A5 size paper and will print it out in landscape format.  The font I used is Calibri size 8.  That means that even if I fold the envelope size I used in half, I should not have any problem storing them inside neatly.


On the folder, I wonder what symbols I can use to indicate what the meal is for.  That is if this recipe is to be cooked for breakfast or for lunch or for dinner.

I will also create folders with the days indicated so that if they plan to cook for a week, they can slip the recipe into the folder of the day they would like to cook the dish.  When they need to shop for ingredients, they can just take out the weekly folders.

Working on Recipes Folders

I am working on a project to create recipe folders for my children to learn to cook.

How do I make it easy for my children to locate the recipe they are looking for? 

I can use colour codes like this which I can indicate on the envelope.



A 162x229mm envelope is large enough to hold A5 paper.  So, this is the size I need to print my recipes on if I want to fit them inside one neatly.

Looking at this envelope sizes, maybe it is a good idea to consider using DL format which is of  size 110x220mm.  Maybe, I should work on the recipes first before I decide what size folders I should create. 

What can you do with envelopes and exercise books?

What do you do with all those envelopes you received your bills in?  I like to keep the ones in size 16x23cm that I received with my phone bills.  I use them as dividers in my office files.

Some envelopes of this size open up at the wider end and they are some that opens up on the shorter end.



The idea is to make them into Accordion Folder.

I am also trying to find ways to clear all the pages from exercise books that my children no longer use. 

I am thinking of using them to print recipes that my children will find useful so that they will learn to cook on their own.  They can use the envelopes as folders to store the recipes in.  The folders will allow them to segregate the recipes for ease of locating them when required.  They can also store shopping list they create for the recipes and any tips they discover along the way to make cooking the dish easy.

So, how will this re-use of abandoned envelopes and papers project turn out?  Just watch out for the next posting.

What is the best way to keep containers?

If you leave the covers of the containers on, they will take up space in your kitchen cabinet.

It is best to remove the covers and stack one container inside another, with the larger ones at the bottom as shown here.



Stack the covers separately.  I like to separate the squares ones from the rectangle covers so that it will be easier for me to locate the cover I need for each container.

Gordon Ramsay Shares Useful Cooking Tips

I will be sharing more tips on preparing vegetables for your dishes.