Chai Kuih aka Steamed Vegetable Dumpling

Okay, let me start of by saying that these dumplings are the sort of dumplings I could inhale on a regular basis.  I am head over heels in love with these bite-sized morsels just bursting with delicious, garlicky juices.  As much as I could wax lyrical as to how ah-mazing these delicate little dumplings are, I urge you to give these a whirl at some point, and then come back to me and profess your love for them as I have from that very first bite!

Chai kuih translates to vegatable dumpling. These little dumplings are similar to the type you get when you go to your local Chinese restaurant for yumcha.  The difference between the standard dumplings you have at yum cha, and these wee beauties, is that the skin needs to be quite thin. There are two types of chai kuih - the original bangkuang or yam beans (sometimes referred to as sengkuang or jicama) and the ku chai (chives). 

Vegetarian San Choy Bou

Can I just point out we are technically only the second month into spring? Then why is it 32 degrees outside already??! I am positively melting in this heat and my kids had to have a soak in the tub to cool off today. I feel like this summer is going to be an absolute scorcher.

As the weather heats up to searing temperatures, this usually causes a downturn in the want to spend time in a hot kitchen.  Frankly, I think I could survive on ice blocks. I wonder if I could look at turning standard meal fare into ice block concotions... now there's an idea...

Tom Yum Fried Noodles

There are days where the last thing you want to do is spend significant time in the kitchen cooking.  As you can imagine, having two boys can be a handful, and when they aren't at school, you have to keep them occupied somehow! Today we went to the park with some of their school friends, taking along these chocolate chip cookies (which were a big hit I might add) with us.  With tired, hungry boys and all my energy spent at the park with them, I wanted to throw together some quick, easy but delicious which I know the boys will eat, no question asked.  

This is a vegetarian dish, meaning if you've come home for a day out, you don't need to worry about defrosting meat and so forth.  If you do want to add meat to this though, I don't see why you couldn't.

Tomato and Egg Scramble

Midweek meals. What a struggle!  It's always a fine line between creating something that is tasty but the boys will also eat.  Often it gets to the middle of the week and my brain can't comprehend the fact I should be making a nutritious meal.  My eyes draw longingly to the fridge with the pizza pamphlet tacked to it...

Good thing for me, there are several recipes I have up my sleeves for such days like these, where I don't have to think to hard but food miraculously appears with a mere two or three ingredients and gets eaten with no complaints.  This dish here contains ingredients that should be staples in your fridge.  If anything, they may end up being the ONLY items in your fridge come Friday (no, just me??). 

Research has suggested that tomatoes are good for men.  The lycopene in tomatoes has been suggested to reduce the rate of cancer in prostate as well as stomach and lungs. Regardless as to whether that is concrete or not, tomatoes are full of nutrients and this dish provides flavour to the eggs (which I might add, is protein rich, so great for growing children!)

This dish is widely serve in Mainland China. My Mum and Dad went to China couple of years back with a tour. When they came back, I had cooked this dish and Dad gave me very unimpressed look! He told me that he had to consume this dish every single day at every single meal they had in China! Whoops, my bad - sorry Dad!! 

Cheese Twist

 

Having to entertain two kids during school holiday is a full time job. They seem to know that by being on school holidays, I have the time to indulge them in their favourite foods (pancakes anyone?).  My youngest one is a real foodie, trying new food with gusto, and definitely letting you know if he definitely does enjoy it or not. 

We live on a quiet cul-de-sac and the kids on our street love coming round for a play during the school break. As you know, active kids make for hungry tummies.  No doubt all the bike riding, running around and rough-housing works up a healthy appetite.  This is where these cheese twists are the perfect snack to put together a group of ravenous kids.

These tasty, cheesy, savoury pastries will no doubt make you popular with whoever consumes them, and best of all they are so ridiculously easy and require very little forethought.

Baked Vegetarian Zuchinni Cups

In this day and age, it has been suggested mixing your regular meat-based meals with vegetarian alternatives can be beneficial for your health.  Growing up, certain Chinese religion would dictate certain times of the month or year as solely vegetarian.  

Being the ninth month in the lunar calendar year, this is the time of of the year where my grandma would bring out a separate complete set of utensils, pots and pans and we would go on a strict vegetarian diet for nine days.  This was a celebration for the 9 Emperor Gods and I would get so excited during this time as this was also a fabulous opportunity to taste different vegetarian dishes along the streets of Penang (and for those that haven't tasted hawker foods in a street environment, you don't know what you are missing!).

Although I now no longer practice the nine-day vegetarian diet, I have been asked by vegetarian friends to share some vegetarian recipes that they could try. I have tweaked my favourite zucchini slice recipe to turn this into a vegetarian option, which I might add, is still pretty darn tasty! 

I have created these into cups for ease of transportation for the boys lunch box, however you can absolutely combine all the ingredients and just put it into a big dish for dinner. This is a recipe that you can also add your own creative licencing to as well, adding any other kind of vegetables to it (can you tell I am a big advocate for "scrape-the-bottom-of-the-fridge-Friday" recipes??!).