ALL COOKED IN JUST 1 PAN!! LITERALLY A LIFESAVER FOR A WORKING MOM!
Because I love seafood and because I have so many freezers lol (2 big deep chest freezers and 2 fridge freezers!!), I always always have plenty of frozen shrimps. So when I am lacking in inspiration and simply do not feel like cooking or washing a lot of dishes, one pan dishes like this one is really appealing.
It’s a super easy recipe and you can use black pepper instead of white pepper. But I love love love white pepper so I use it in everything. Minced garlic is a must and be generous with it. It’s really what makes this pasta so yummy.
Ingredients:
Linguine (enough for 6 servings)
2 tablespoons oil
1 stick butter cut in half
Lots of Minced Garlic
3 Tbsp Cajun Spice
Large shrimps
Fresh Mushrooms
Salt and White pepper
Spinach
Instructions:
Boil water in the big pan and add pasta. Once cooked, drain pasta and place aside for now
Using same pan, heat oil and half of your butter. Add garlic and cook until garlic is slightly brown but not burnt
Add in shrimp, mushroom, cajun spice, salt and white pepper to taste, and stirfry until shrimp and mushroom are cooked
Add spinach
Return cooked pasta to the pan and add remaining butter.
I still remember the first time i packed a kaya sandwich in Ryan’s packed lunch to daycare. When I went to pick him up, the awesome daycare ladies asked me what was the green stuff in his sandwich 😛 . They probably wondered why any mom would slather green food coloring to their kid’s sandwich LOL.
So, Kaya is a Southeast Asia jam that basically consist of eggs, coconut cream, sugar and Pandan Essence. Pandan Essence is made from Pandan leaves which is in abundance in Singapore. Not so much in where we live in Canada. So next best thing – I brought back Pandan Paste and Pandan extract 😀 . I mean…what’s a girl gonna do to get her favorite jam fix? 😉
Pandan Paste Vs. Pandan Extract
Pandan Leaves
For those of you who do not know what Pandan Leaves are like, they are a tropical plant that grows abundantly in Southeast Asia. You can read more about the plant at thespruceeats.com if you like but it is known as a “fragrant plant” because of its unique, sweet aroma and growing up, my mom uses it fairly often for baking. It’s got such a sweet and fragrant aroma i love just sniffing the bottle LOL. And Kaya Sandwich is to me like how PB&J sandwich is to my Caucasian friends 😀 . Well, until now where every kid’s packed lunch has to be nut free anyway.
Traditional Kaya Jam takes at least a couple hours to make. It is really a very easy recipe with less than 5 ingredients. Challenge is it requires a lot of patience slaving over the stove using a double boiler to cook it slowly, making sure you stir it constantly over low heat. The patience is what makes good kaya jam smooth instead of lumpy. Well, I like to think I have many virtues but patience is not always one of them
So I decided to use the same ingredients as I would in a traditional recipe. Except that instead of a double boiler, I just cook it in a pot directly over stove on low to medium heat. Took way lesser time to get it to a jam kinda texture. Sure, it wasn’t as smooth but it didn’t affect the taste one bit. In fact, it taste every bit the same ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ as I remember growing up eating that for breakfast made by my adorable mom.. I wonder if Ryan thinks I’m adorable too lol.. probably not 😀 . What matters is he loves his kaya toast as much as I do & that’s a win for a lazy mommy trying to integrate him to his Singapore roots.
Best way to eat it – spread margarine and kaya on your toast 😀
Ingredients:
5 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup white sugar
1 cup coconut cream (full fat version please)
1/2 tablespoon Pandan Essence
Instructions:
Add sugar, coconut cream & essence to the lightly beaten eggs in a pot
Cook the mixture directly on stove over low to medium heat
Keep stirring constantly until it becomes the jam texture you are looking for
When it is cooled, you can store in fridge just like you keep your store bought strawberry jam
I have always disliked making a whole Chicken. Despite my best friend telling me it’s the easiest thing she does in her home, I still don’t like making it. But the few times that I have made a whole Chicken, I have done it using our oven and I always either undercook or overcook the chicken to death 😀
But it was so easy to use my Vortex Plus to do this that I am pretty certain that this is going to start being a Regular in our household. And for whatever reason, Vortex Plus just makes me feel like a little girl who just got an Easy Bake Oven toy as a present LOL.
I must have somewhat feel intimidated about using it cos hubby got this for me as a Christmas gift and while I have used it to make Chicken Wings (which are fabulous by the way) and cookies, I haven’t touched the Rotisserie function at all.
Well, let me assure you that my initial fear is definitely unwarranted. The rotisserie function is so easy peasy to use. If a Lazy Mommy like me can use it and succeed on her first try, so can you 😀
This Bad Ass Vortex Plus is definitely not going anywhere!!! I love it! 🙂
When I have the time, I would make my own seasoning for the chicken but a mom’s gonna do what she’s gonna do and sometimes, there just isn’t enough time in a day to get everything done – well, not for me anyway cos you know, Netflix is important too for my sanity LOL…so ermmmm definitely no shame in using shortcuts lol
So a few lazy mommy tips for this recipe. To save time, I use onion soup mix as my dry rub for the chicken. Also, I know every recipe always calls for adding the food after the oven has been pre-heated but honestly, I don’t find it such a significant difference for some dishes so I just skip that part and just add the food. For the Vortex Plus, the 40 mins only starts after it’s been pre-heated anyway. Another thing – if you are concerned about if the chicken is fully cooked, temp of fully cooked chicken breast is 165 and cooked thigh meat should be 185. But 40 mins definitely did it for my 3 pound chicken. It was cooked fully but also super moist.
Ingredients:
Whole Chicken (must be Under 4 Pounds. I used a 3 pound bird)
1 Packet of Onion Soup Mix
3 Tbsp Melted Butter
Dash of white pepper
Dash of black pepper
Instructions:
In a small bowl, combine the onion soup mix with the melted butter
Pat the chicken dry & make sure the cavity of chicken is clean. Remove any gizzards & tie the chicken with kitchen string. I was lazy and just bought a chicken that was already tied up.
Rub the onion soup mix seasoning all around the whole chicken, including the cavity
Everyone does it differently. For me, I find it easier to insert the left rotisserie fork to the rotisserie rod first. Then I insert the rod through the chicken cavity. Lastly, I insert the right fork to the rod and Ta Da! It is now ready to go into the Vortex Plus (dun be intimidated by my written instructions. Just watch the video. I promise you the video shows how i do it and it’s actually quite easy)
Some users wait till the Vortex Plus is pre-heated before adding the chicken. I honestly just add the chicken right in, close the door before I start pre-heating the Vortex Plus. I find no significant difference in it but you do what you prefer 😀
40 minutes at 375 F and I eagerly remove my chicken. Yum!
To ensure you get a super moist chicken, rest the chicken for 10 minutes. This is important.
Enjoy! 😀
Enjoy the video & let me know how it turns out for you or share with me your favorite Roast Chicken recipe!
All I know is that my son, my hubby & grandpa all gave this Roast Chicken the Thumbs Up! 😎 😎 😎 That make this Lazy Mommy soooo very happy
For my western friends who have no idea what this is – it really is not too different from your meatballs except this is minced shrimps shaped into balls 😀
One thing I want to incorporate at our Chinese New Year Party is the Hot Pot or Steamboat and to me, fish balls is to Hot Pot like Cheese is to Fondue. It just feels odd without fish balls at my Chinese New Year dinner. I can get frozen fish balls here but they really dun taste as good as the fresh ones we get in the supermarkets in Singapore and I really didn’t want to treat my guests to sub par fish balls. I thought okay maybe I could make the fish balls myself .. I mean how hard can that be right? Lol
Oh well, too bad my town or nearby towns doesn’t the kind of fish I need to make yummy fish balls. Sure, I could drive 7 hours to Edmonton but hmmm if I’m already there, I might as well buy the fish balls instead of the fish to make it 😀
Then it occurred to me that why not make shrimp balls 🥰🥰.. they are as yummy and easier to make. So there we go 😀
Ingredients:
Finely minced Shrimps (I use about 18 medium shrimps and mince it in my food processor)
Dash of salt
Dash of white pepper
Dash of Ground Ginger (optional)
Dried chives (as much or as little as you like)
3 tsp corn starch
Super Easy Peasy
Instructions:
Combine all the ingredients and stir them until everything is well mixed
They say to best stir them in one direction till well mixed but oh well, I forgot lol but they still tasted pretty good 😀
Place covered in fridge for a few hours
Boil some water or broth and while boiling, place the shrimp paste in by spoonful. I use a teaspoon but you can use a tablespoon and make the shrimp balls bigger. It really is your own personal preference.
It cooks very fast and once the shrimp balls float to surface, they are done 🙂
I tried a few today and they tasted great! Now the challenge is to not finish them before my CNY Party LOL….These do freeze really well so for those of us who can’t just conveniently get fresh fish balls or prawn balls, this is a great alternative. Make a big batch and freeze them.
Are you all prepared for your Chinese New Year? I know I’m not but I’m definitely using any free time I have now to prep for our Chinese New Year.
Haven’t touched my blog for almost a month. We been gone for a long holiday back to Singapore to see family. And while the weather there is summer 365 days of the year, coming back to -12 frosty weather hasn’t felt very easy. To top that off, the hacking cough or cold I got before I flew back probably got worse after being stuck in a long haul flight (over 27 hours) with my toddler :-(.
Anyhow, last Saturday was the first weekend since we got back. I have every intention to leave the house but looking out the window & feeling like I am gonna cough my lungs out, staying home watching cartoons with my toddler sounds sooooo much cosier
See What I Mean..
And what better than to make than a dump everything in Slow Cooker Chicken Soup.
Dump everything in Slow Cooker Chicken Soup
Our garden carrots, celery, onion, chicken broth, chicken breasts & not forgetting ginger cos Asians put ginger in everything lol. Jokes aside, ginger is loaded with nutrients & always makes me feel better when I have a cold. Dump everything in Slow Cooker on low for 6 hours and Off we are back to the couch with our blanket!
So there we go….Cartoons, Snuggles, Blanket, Couch, Hot Chicken Soup & Video Chat with Grandma was all we could handle 😀
Egg Plant is not unfamiliar to me. Actually in Asia, we call them Brinjal and my UK friends call them Aubergine. Either way, they are all the same thing 😀
In Asia when I grew up in, my mom cooked egg plant quite a fair bit but I have never liked it. It was like a stew kinda egg plant dish. My first few memories of the dish is that it is mushy and looks gross lol
But by chance through Ryan’s babysitter, she told me about this egg plant recipe and boy do I love it. I mean what is there not to love about it?
It’s delicious
It’s healthy
Ryan loves it
And it’s so easy to make
I first made this dish when Ryan was like 12 months old. If you making it for a younger baby, you could increase the baking time to make it even softer but with Ryan past 2 years old now, baking it at 350 for 25 minutes makes it soft enough but not so mushy that Ryan can still pick it up like a piece of pizza
There are other versions of making this dish that involves baking the egg plant once first before baking it a 2nd time with the sauce and cheese. This mommy just wants to minimize the cooking time as much as possible so here goes 😀
How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!
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