Jazz up your stir-fry!!!

While Josh was working late one night, I did not really feel like a proper dinner but still want to have something quick, light and of 'cos full of goodness. I found a pack of filo pastry in my fridge and thought I will make my dinner out of it. Out comes some turkey mince (they are really yummy and most importantly high in protein and low in fat!), all the veggies I have in my fridge and freezer and some curry spices 'cos I felt like it.

Anyways, I chopped, baked and fried and out came this little baby that tasted so yum that I nearly finished all the filo cups and left only the stir fry for Josh to wipe up with lavesh bread.

This dish is really suitable for finger food parties. Everyone will be so impressed by its classy appearance, easy on your budget and it takes you practically no time to make it if you have already done the chopping of the veggies beforehand. The filo cups has a nice crunch to it with the stir fry filling giving it a whole dimension of it. Before you scroll down to the recipe, I just want to say that when it comes to making savoury meals or dishes, I mainly eyeball my ingredients and go by taste (for the stir fry, i mean). So I would just list the ingredients added and it would be up to your own liking to what sort and how much veg and meat you would like to use.



To make the filo cups:

1. Lightly grease your 12 muffin cups tray. And preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
   
2. Remove 6 sheets of filo pastry and cut all of them in half.
3. Hold a half sheet of filo pastry up and lightly spray it with oil (I use rice bran oil for its high smoking point and high content of antioxidant).
   
4. Fold the greased sheet into a square and push it into one of the muffin cups' hole. Repeat the same for the rest.
5. Bake for 15 mins in preheated oven. Remove once the filo cups turn into a shade of golden brown. Leave it in the tray to cool for 5 mins and transfer to wire rack.

Ingredients added to stir fry:

500g turkey mince (I took it out of a prepackaged box)
zucchini, chopped
carrots, chopped
frozen corn
frozen long beans
tomatoes, chopped
Onion, chopped
cumin
curry powder
soya sauce
rice bran oil, to grease pan
Freshly ground pepper

Its really easy cooking this up once everything been chopped up. Its really up to personal choice to whether what sort of meat or veg to use. One thing for sure, just trust your taste buds as you throw this dish together and you will definitely not go wrong. =)
Some ideas......

• stir fry mung bean vermicelli with chicken mince and top with a little sweet chili sauce and chopped coriander on top for an asian twist
• cajun chicken mince
• moroocan orange and lamb stew for a more gourmet and exotic dish
• a mexican chili hot pot if you are looking for something with more of a bite! You might want to only fill the filo cups with the chili only before serving 'cos the heat (temperature) of the chili might soften the cups.
  

As I have said before, its entirely up to your creativity to fill this cups!!! Have fun!!

Stuck my fingers in too many pies!!!

I can't believe in just a month's time.....i would be heading back to SG for another couple of months. It actually just felt like I only been here for 6 months! November is going to be such a hectic month! I have to promise to come up with something for Becky's (my SIL, i have got seven SILs for those who don't know) graduation family dinner party on the 8thNov, a cake for a joint birthday for my beloved Tashy and my youngest SIL, Meg, who are good mates with Tashy. Then, I have also promised my other SIL, Kate, who will be moving on to uni next year, to help her out with a grad dinner party for her too. So I'm expected to churn out 3-4 cakes or sth along those lines in the span of 3 weeks!!! What have I got myself into now?! Its hard work keeping all my dearest SILs happy!

"It felt like I just finished a major exam!"

IT'S PARTY TIME!!!

The gurls loved posing for my camera and this was one of the pic which I thought was very cute!

Waiting for people to arrive.....

That's what I felt like when the party finally got going and everything went really well without any major hiccups. It had been a crazy hectic week of planning, buying, preparing, cooking, baking, managing and sorting etc. It all paid off and went really smoothly today. Strangely enough, despite the amount of stress and heaps of planning that were involved, I actually loved and enjoyed every moment of it. It felt like I found something a long lost love somehow.

It was a gorgeous day for it with a flock of 8 cockatoos feeding on the grass not far away from us. The sky was clear and the sun rays shone through the leafy trees and there was a constant light breeze which kept all of us cool on this sunny day. Everyone was in a relaxed mood, catching up with each other and simply enjoying this beautiful day. We had a huge thunderstorm a couple of days before this BBQ, so the creek was filled up and running and the grass was lush and green.

Bbqing the mushroom skewers

The Sausage men

While we slave our butts away, the old folks just chit chatted under the shady trees.

Part of the spread that we prepared

Roast Beef Finger Sandwiches

Cheesy Mini Muffins

Chicken Noodle Salad

Fresh French Baguette from a Vietnamese Bakery, BBQ Mushroom Skewers & Sausages.


I never have to worry about Tashy going hungry 'cos her Meggy gu-gu always made sure she has something to eat and included in the kiddy group (which I thought was very sweet of her).

Birthday man and the cake with 69 mini chocolate muffins with cream cheese muffins and a red velvet cake to top it up to a big 70


This was the great highlight for the kids since the start of the BBQ. Most of them have a terrible sweet tooth and were eyeing at the flake, chocolate fingers and cupcakes especially. One of the flake and chocolate finger border around the cake actually went missing 'cos a sneaky little boy by the name of Gerald sneaked two pieces out of the cake when no one was watching. *tsk* tsk* "boys!!!"

The cake was really moist and had a deep chocolate taste which was a hit with everyone.

Though it was just a nice and simple gathering amongst the church, Hans enjoyed this day immersely being the centre of attention and having such a big crowd to celebrate his 70th birthday. The hard work that all of us put in beforehand had paid off indeed. =)

List after list

My melancholic nature comes right up whenever I am preparing to for a significant event, exam, period of my life etc. I just keep writing list after list after list, and it sure it rearing its head with a birthday party that the youth group is planning for a 70th year old man from our church. I eagerly jumped at the opportunity to take up the responsibility to be in charge of the catering aspect of the party. In his mind, he was just planning to have a simple BBQ party with just sausages, patties, a couple of salads and soft drinks. But it was a different story in my maid. Numerous finger food and cake recipes raced through my mind with my hand trying desperately to capture my train of thought on paper. It was becoming an obsession so much so that it was the first and last thing that I think of every day and night.

However, with some expert advice from a colleague at work, I managed to come up with a simple menu that would be easy to prepare and still be below budget for us. (we only have a maximum of $300 to spend for 60 people and that works out to be like $5 /person.) The menu is as below:

On the Grill
Sausages
Mushroom skewers
Grilled Onions

Salads
Fresh Garden Salad
Chicken Noodle Lettuce Cups

Finger Foods
Cheesy Muffins
Satay Beef Finger Sandwiches

Dessert
Summer Fruit Bowl
Mini chocolate and blueberry muffins with cream cheese frosting

A birthday cake for him (which I will only reveal to everyone after the event, in case you still don't really know me, I really love giving people surprises be it in real life or blogsphere =p)

Josh and I just got most of the ingredients to make the food today and tomorrow is there for me to get the little things that I have missed out on today's shop. God has been really good to make sure that we got a few good discounts like the mushrooms which would have cost us $3 a small box was reduced to $1. And that allowed us to get more than we planned for. And we also managed to get gourmet sausages at a reduced price similar to the normal thin ones. That made up half of our sausages for us. (yea!!)

I'm sort of half looking forward and half anxious about Friday. 'Cos there will be a mad rush to chop up all the salad stuff, make all the cupcakes and sandwiches, fruits etc. And to make sure all that need to be chilled are chilling and those that need to be defrost are being defrosted. I should really stop here now or my melancholic nature will rear its ugly head and start coming up with a list right at this moment. I should really go to bed now having at work at 8.30am tomorrow. Will update about how everything went. Pray for me and wish me all the best. (*smile anxiously*)

Pie my strawberries, please!!!!

It already looks so yummy even before baking

Got an entire 12 tray punnets of strawberry yesterday at the fruit and veg market for just $5! Josh got me to make his favorite strawberry pie. Yum!!! Instead of having a proper dinner, we had that instead which I thought was an absolutely good idea and excuse to use up the juicy and sweet strawberries.

Josh got to the pie before my camera did!


Tashy has her father's sweet tooth too! She had about 1/4 of that pie!

Of course, I made sure that this pie is not only tasty but that it also fit my nutritional criteria for dessert. So we (or maybe more of me) won't feel as bad giving this to my family for dinner. I love the rustic look of free form pies!

Running Fun

Tashy loves her ballons

Can you believe that J & me was already up and having brekkie at 6.30am this morning? People who knows us well will know that's weird for us to be up and about at that hour being the night owls that we are.

Josh was still coming out of slumberland at the running grounds

Well, Josh darling actually woke up so early just to participate at a 5Km fun run out at Springfield with me. It was 10Km that I planned to prepare for initially but it was somehow cancelled for some reason or other (which was pretty annoying since I just can't run fast enough to get a good timing for 5k). Anyways, we still went ahead since it was a goal I set at the beginning of this year to get myself back into long dist running.

If you look carefully you would be able to see J coming from behind.

It was great having Josh to pace me the entire way and I simply love running with a huge group of people. Though this might not be as big as ones that I have participate before like Standard Chartered (in Singapore), its better than nothing I figured. There were the fit runners, okay okay fitness runners (me!), the just for fun runners, back pack carrying runners, pram pushing parents runners,just there to walk runners etc. Its interesting to see the variety of different runners all congregate together to do this fun run on a downcast and chilly morning. I was thankful that the rain held back till after the run cos I can't see myself being able to run as fast being all wet and cold.


And that's me doing my last stride for the race.

Towards the last 100m, J went ahead and got in under 24 mins and with me striding behind him just slightly over 24mins. We figured that our actual timing is probably slightly lower than what was stated on the electronic timer since we started in the middle of the crowd. I'm looking forward to see what our actual timing was (recorded by a microchip that each runner has on his/her bib) on Wednesday this coming week when the results gets posted online. Till Wed.......Us feeling refreshed and yearning for more after the run.

There were events planned after the race, one of them being tug of war. This man at the end was ultra strong, man. He actually won by just grabbing unto turfs of grass and walking backwards.


Meggy joined in the fun too!

Found a boy who shares the same name as me

We end the morning at a cafe with Tash sipping on her fav cup of cuppa: Baby Cino

Spring's bub

A very dear friend just recent had a new addition to her family. A beautiful baby boy named Elijah, “the Lord is my God”. Our friendship extends to when we were first thrown together on a mission trip to Myanmar by both our churches. And due to similar life interests and circumstances, we had grown closer over the last couple of years. It’s a comfort to me to know that I can always turn to her with all my troubles and woes and she would be there to listen and turn me to God’s path.

When I first heard that she was pregnant, I could not be happier. For I know her love and yearning for children of her own and the multitude of hurdles both her husband and her had climbed over just to hold a baby of their own in their arms. Having heard that she has already had this little one is making me really impatient for Nov 25 to come. I just want to rejoice with them and see for myself God’s little miracle.

Since I can’t physically be there now, let me dedicate this little favorite muffin recipe of mine to her little family. (I promise to bake you some when I get down there!) Both T and J just can’t get enough of this muffin which is full of wholegrain goodness and simply bursting with flavor. I was pleasantly surprised to sink my teeth into a soft and fluffy muffin which is unlike some other rolled oat muffins I baked not long ago. This is an extremely versatile recipe to have at hand to play around with the ingredients and to help use up stuff in your pantry.

One most important step to baking a perfect cranberry muffin is to always plump the dried cranberries up in hot water with some lemon zest for 20 mins before using. This helps to restore moisture and adds more texture to the end product. Since I making this on behalf of my friend’s little one, I shall name this recipe after him. =)

Elijah’s Cranberry Bite

1/2 cup brown sugar
1-2 tbsp golden syrup (can also be substituted with honey or maple syrup)
3/4 cup Greek yogurt
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 over ripe banana (mashed)
1/4 cup butter (melted)
1 egg
3/4 cup rolled oats (ground in food processor)
1 cup wholegrain flour (can be substituted with unbleached plain flour if unavailable)
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup dried cranberries, plumped in hot water and 1 tbsp lemon zest

Mix the brown sugar, golden syrup, yogurt, vanilla extract, banana, butter, egg and rolled oats in a bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes.
Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients along with the cranberries until just mixed.
Spoon the mixture into a greased muffin pan. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for about 20 minutes.

Rejoice in Spring with a new little bub......

I just want to sent my wholehearted congrats to my dearest friend who just had a beautiful precious baby boy named Elijah, 'the Lord is my God'. My friend is one whom I have known since we were 16 being put together on a mission trip to Myanmar. And we have been in contact ever since and had grown even closer due to our similar lifestyle and interests. I praise the Lord for keeping both her and baby safe and just can't contain my excitement and happiness for her knowing that this baby did not come easy for both her hubby and her. God is indeed a gracious and generous God, I would never doubt that with them being a witness of his sovereign grace. My dear Dorcas, I just can't wait till the next of next month to finally meet you. Miss you lots....

Let me then dedicate this little favorite recipe of mine to her little new family. Both Tashy and Josh loves loves loves this muffin that I just discovered not long ago. Its full of wholegrain goodness (which would be in Dorcas's favor) and simply bursting with flavour!! I was pleasantly surprised to be able to sink my teeth into a soft and fluffy muffin which is unlike some other healthy muffins I have baked before in the past. The flavours of banana, cranberries, lemon and greek yogurt blended in with each other to give a full flavour that its so hard to describe till you bake this yourself. But before you reach for your mixing bowls, there is one important step to baking a perfect cranberry muffin. Always remember to plump up dried cranberries in hot water with lemon/lime zest for 20mins before using them. This method restore some moisture to the cranberries and contributes more texture to the end product.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1-2 tbsp golden syrup (can also be replace with honey or maple syrup)
3/4 cup greek yogurt
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 over ripe banana (mashed)
1/4 cup butter (melted)
1 egg
3/4 cup rolled oats (ground in food processor)
1 cup flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup dried cranberries, plumped in hot water and lemon zest


Directions:
1. Mix the brown sugar, maple syrup, yogurt, banana, butter, egg and rolled oats in a bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes.
2. Mix the flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl.
3. Mix the wet and dry ingredients along with the blueberries until just mixed.
4. Spoon the mixture into a greased muffin pan.
5. Mix the pecans, flour, cinnamon, brown sugar and butter until they form crumbs.
6. Spoon some of the streusel onto the muffins.
7. Bake in a preheated 375F oven for about 20 minutes.

I'm in Strawberry Heaven......

Spring is here.....Flowers are blooming...

It was great having Jo and Jema come visit us for the past ten days. I always love dear friends to visit from Singapore 'cos I'm so deprived to the point that I just can't speak Singlish properly. Besides that, it always brings about a good excuse to go places, eat out and most importantly make nice yummy food just for entertainment sake. Since its strawberry season at the moment, one new dessert recipe that came to mind was strawberry trifle. According to Wiki,

"A trifle is a dessert dish made from thick (or often solidified) custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or, more recently, jelly (gelatin), and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top."

And it can double as a aesthetically pretty dessert if layered in a transparent glass bowl. Anyways, I found this refreshing and melt in the mouth strawberry and lemon curd trifle from "Joy of Baking" website ( a favorite website that I adore!) which turned out perfectly. It involves a sponge layer, followed by a strawberry sauce layer, then sprinkled with fresh sliced strawberries, followed with the lemon curd layer and then a whipped cream layer. Then this is repeated till it fills up the bowl.

Being a health nut, I decreased the amount of sugar added to the homemade strawberry sauce and lemon curd to almost half and used light cream instead of the full cream version. To further decrease the fat content, I added only a thin layer of cream just to give a touch of flavor and creaminess. I also added more strawberries than the stated on the recipe just to bulk up the trifle and increase the fiber content of the dessert. And the end result turns out perfect....the trifle turned out to be just right on the sweetness level (I would not add more sugar than what I had added). The tangy-ness of the lemon went well with the strawberry sauce and the cream layer added the right amount of flavor without being too overwhelming rich (I just can't stand the feeling overly rich dessert gives me..). This recipe is a keeper and I would definitely make it again.

My modified ingredient list......

Strawberry & Lemon Curd Trifle
A packet of ladyfinger/ sponge fingers
1 1/2 cup Strawberry sauce (recipe below)

500g fresh strawberry, sliced
1 1/2 cup Lemon Curd
(can be bought from the stores to save time but home made is always the best)

1/2 - 3/4 cup light whipping cream (depends on the size of trifle bowl)
2 tbsp raw sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used a homemade one)

Homemade Strawberry Sauce

570g frozen/ fresh strawberries

1/8-1/4 cups of raw sugar (depending on sweetness of strawberries)

Homemade Lemon Curd

3 eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/3- 1/2 cup raw sugar

(original recipe calls for butter but I made do without that and it still tasted just right. I can just eat it by itself if not for the trifle..)

For specific instructions of how to make the trifle refer to the original recipe here.

I just love how spring brings about the blossoming of flowers which covers our lawn with snow beds of yellow petals.....