LAZY MOMMY GUIDE

Instant Pot Asian Braised Chicken Wings

Saw that I had a pack of wings in my freezer and thought about a dish that my mom would always make at home for us. It’s one of our family comfort food. It’s chicken wings braised in a saucy stew. Unlike most of my Western recipes when we usually need to thicken up the sauce, this recipe doesn’t call for that. We love the liquid stew drizzled over white rice. And that stew is perfect for putting in peeled hard boiled eggs, firm tofu and mushroom.

We usually eat this dish with steaming white rice and it’s a dish that my mom makes on a regular basis at our home. Obviously, her version is made more with love, patience and slaving over the stove. Mine is the lazy version 😀 .

This is the first time I tried cooking this in the Instant Pot but this is not the first time I have made wings in the pot so I more or less feel fairly confident that i can spin this off. I mean I know the basic ingredients. How hard can this be? And oMG it is seriously this easy. I just love it when I am able to recreate a family traditional recipe for Ryan.

So Some Things About This Recipe:

I use frozen wings but I did let them thaw slightly on kitchen counter as it is always advised to separate the wings in the pot. If your frozen wings are already separated, you do not need to thaw the wings at all and I would just increase cooking time from 15 mins to 20 mins.
My mom’s original recipe does not have sweet soy sauce but I always love dishes that are a blend of sweet and savory so I added the sweet soy sauce. If you can’t find sweet soy sauce but still want a sweetness to the sauce, just add 1/4 cup brown sugar.
Growing up, I remembered my mom dish being quite watery and we would just drizzle the sauce over our rice. That’s how I remembered it and how i like to eat it but feel free to thicken it up with some cornstarch if you prefer a thicker sauce.
This is a very common dish in many Singapore households but while the dish is fundamentally quite similar, every family cooks it slightly differently.
I would add chopped green onions and real sliced ginger. I just did not have these in my pantry today.

Enjoy 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

Kitchen Fun & Mishaps – White Pepper

Along with our awesome fun adventures in the kitchen, this is the page we share our flops & mishaps lol. Obviously every mom plays differently in the kitchen with their kids. Some moms are really awesome in just letting their kids have free rein in a safe manner when they play in kitchen. Honestly I’m still trying to learn that.

In any case, allow me to present to you today’s featured mishap – Very Very White Peppery Omelette 😀

What a nice Saturday it was today. Ryan and I both slept in and when we woke up, both of us felt so refreshed that I thought hey buddy, wanna help mommy make omelette for brunch??

Got him to help me crack (with my help of course lol) and beat the eggs. I thought this is such a simple task that I didn’t feel the need to do what I usually do – pre-measure & place the dash of white pepper in a small bowl to pour in. Instead I gave him the whole pepper bottle & ok, the rest is obvious from the pictures lol.

Ryan mixing some eggs for mommy’s omelette

Tip: Dun give your toddler the white pepper bottle directly & ask him to put a dash of it LOL. I think Ryan put like 1000x dashes of white pepper in it. I think my omelette is going to taste VERRYYYY PEPPERY Hahaaaa 😀

In any case, Happy Saturday Everyone 😀

Easy Peasy Pancake Muffins (Freezer Friendly)

Beautiful Saturday and I really wanted to make pancakes for lunch for us. LOL I missed the breakfast part as I totally slept in and Daddy totally took care of breakfast for Ryan. So I thought why not make pancakes for lunch? Then I had an even better idea. Why not make pancake muffins???

They are easy to make, doesn’t require flipping and watching the stove. And best thing is that Chef Ryan and I can do this together 😀 . How fun would that be?

Of course, that actually meant that I would have to clean my kitchen. Oops. Clearly did not think this through enough LOL but whatever, we are so doing this today!!

Ryan and I had so much fun baking these today. Sure, there were more things to clean up but oh well, such is life 😀

Hope you enjoy Chef Ryan’s baking video 😀 😀 😀

Some Things To Note for this Recipe:

YES!! You can totally freeze these. They are perfect for taking one out the night before & by morning, Ryan can have them as breakfast or I can put it in his lunch box
We use dark chocolate chips, blueberries and strawberries as toppings but the sky is the limit and you can use other toppings that your heart so desire
If you have a sweet tooth, add 1/2 cup sugar instead of 1/4 cup

Easy Peasy Pancake Muffins

Ingredients

1 1/4 Cup Pancake Mix
1/2 Cup Quick Oats
1/4 Cup Sugar
Dash of Salt
1 Large Egg
1 Cup Milk (I use 2%)
1/4 Cup Melted Butter
Dark Chocolate Baking Chips
Blueberries
Cut Strawberries

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add pancake mix, oats, sugar and salt in a bowl and give it a good mix
Add egg, milk and melted butter & whisk everything in until blended
Spoon batter into silicon muffin cups.
Add your desired toppings,
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Enjoy

Instant Pot Cajun Shrimp Pasta – Lazy Mommy Version

I am not kidding when I say this is like an amazing recipe 😀 . So I got home tonight and I honestly had no clue what to cook. Then I remembered I had a bag of Walmart frozen shrimps and half a bag left of Rotini. TAH DA!! I’m gonna make shrimp pasta. So I googled instant pot shrimp pasta for like 5 minutes (cos that’s all the time I had) and every recipe I see calls for heavy cream, which I don’t have. So, I decided “You know what? I’m gonna try and spin something out from my head” and believe me when I say that most of the time, when I cook without following a recipe, I have more FLOPS than SUCCESS but YAHOO!!!

THIS ONE IS A SUCCESS. IT’S A WINNER! 😀

I was really prepared to order Chinese Takeout last night lol.

So even though I say it is Cajun Shrimp Pasta, it honestly taste like Shrimp Aglio Olio to me. Luckily, I LOVE LOVE LOVE ❤ ❤ ❤ Aglio Olio. But I’m calling it Cajun Shrimp Pasta…. It’s like what I tell my hubby when he corrects my English “Whatever…Potato Potaato..they are the same lol”. It taste great and that’s all that matters 😎

So Some Things To Note for this Recipe:

I use frozen shrimp but feel free to use thawed shrimps. They work just as fine.
I use Campbell Lower Sodium Seafood Broth so I feel like I need to add more salt (my personal preference). If you are concerned about sodium, just add the salt at the end after you taste it and feels like you need more. Less is more when it comes to salt. Not like you can undo the salt.
I know of friends who uses garlic powder instead of minced garlic. If you are using garlic powder, I suggest you only add the powder towards the end after you have placed your pasta. That way, you don’t need to worry about the “BURN” message if you did not deglaze it properly.
I only had half a bag of Rotini (about 450 gram) but as you can see from video, there are definitely room to double the recipe. I will try that next week and update here if doubling the recipe works the same.
Everyone loves their pasta texture differently. I like it al dente but my hubby likes it softer. 5 mins for this dish works perfect for me but if you like it softer, just add another minute. I saw an online recipe that cooks the pasta for 9 mins. Personally, that’s wayyy too long for me.
Honestly, the original plan was to use Chicken Broth but I ran out and only had Campbell Seafood or Campbell Mushroom Broth so I just used the seafood broth but feel free to use chicken broth if that’s what you have.
Another confession lol – I had seen in one recipe to put in 1 stick of butter which equates to 8 Tablespoon butter. I thought I had a stick of butter. Sadly, I had like a small leftover piece of butter which comes up to about 3 Tablespoon butter & guess what, the dish is still incredibly tasty. If you prefer to add 1 stick butter, I’m sure it will just taste even better but I love that I didn’t have to give up the plan just because i am short of ingredients. If you try the 1 stick butter, let me know how it works for you.

With no further talking from this Lazy Mommy, give this Easy Peasy No Fuss recipe of mine a try and let me know your experience 🙂

Instant Pot Cajun Shrimp Pasta - Lazy Mommy Version

Time: 45 mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

Cooking Oil
2 Tsp Minced Garlic
3 ½ Cups Campbell Lower Sodium Seafood Broth
450 gram Rotini Pasta (about half a bag)
3 Tsp Cajun Seasoning
Parsley
Black Pepper & Salt
3 Tbsp butter cut into smaller pieces
1 lb bag Frozen Shrimp

Directions

Set Instant Pot to Saute function & add cooking oil
When hot, add and saute minced garlic until it browns slightly
Add 3.5 cups Campbell Seafood Broth. I use low sodium broth so you might need to put a bit more salt, depending on your taste buds
Add pasta & give it a mix
Add all your spices and seasoning & give it a good mix
Dot top of pasta with butter cubes
Dump bag of frozen shrimp on top
Put lid on, make sure vent is set to seal.
No mixing needed. Close the lid & ensure vent valve is in sealing position
Cancel Saute function. Select Pressure Cook and set time for 5 minutes. Once it beeps, it is done. Press Cancel. Do a quick release, open lid and stir it. It might look slightly soupy at this point. Don’t worry. Give it a good stir. The pasta will soak up the liquid pretty fast.
Serve it while it’s hot. Enjoy!

Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff – Lazy Mommy Version

We like Beef Stroganoff but prior to the Instant Pot, I don’t cook it as often as I would like to eat it but happy to say that now it is a staple and a regular meal at our home and it always turns out so delicious and creamy and so Easy Peasy 😀

So, it’s an understatement when I say that there are a lot of Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff recipes online but most recipes I have seen and tested has additional steps that I really feel is fine to skip but hey, you can be the judge here.

I dread cooking or doing any household chores. But there is no choice here. Cooking and household chores are part of Adulting, they say . And this is truly why I see myself as a Lazy Mom. I feel too lazy to cook beautiful meals from scratch lol but I will go to great lengths to make any recipe or cleaning activity as short-lived and as easy as possible (like testing 6 different Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff recipes to figure out how to make the the process even shorter 😀 .

So the additional steps that I have seen online & tested myself so far includes:

Seasoning the beef first in a separate bowl
Browning the beef and when doing that, you have to do it at least in 3 batches meaning because you don’t want to crowd the pot and you need another plate to work through all the browning
If you brown the meat, you have to make sure you deglaze any browned bits from the bottom of the pot or the “BURN” message will show up on your instant pot
Cooking the mushrooms in a separate pan on the stove so the mushrooms doesn’t get mushy after 12 minutes of pressure cooking
Cooking the egg noodles separately on the stove
Using a bazillion spices to season the dish

Don’t get me wrong. There are some steps here that I will follow for a weekend dinner if I have friends or family coming over. I would totally use different spices and seasoning on a weekend but on a weekday evening after what feels like a long day of work, I just want to get home, get dinner ready as fast as I can and spend that time with my little boy & my couch & my TV so judge me if you want to but I’m using the onion soup mix as my seasoning for this dish and I am not cooking my egg noodles separately and I am definitely not browning the meat first in batches. And one easy tip so that your mushrooms doesn’t get super mushy after 12 minutes of cooking, just don’t slice the mushrooms. Just throw in the mushrooms as it is.

So, to each their own but give this Easy Peasy No Fuss recipe of mine a try and let me know your experience 🙂

Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff – Lazy Mommy Version.

Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff - Lazy Mommy Version

Time: 45 mins
Difficulty: easy
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There are a lot of Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff versions online but most recipes I have seen has a few more additional steps. Way too many steps for this mama especially on a weekday night after a full day work. I need something Easy Peasy. The less work, less plates to wash after, the better. And truly, I think this is really yummy even without the additional steps. Give this a try and let me know what you think.

Ingredients

2 to 3 TBSP Cooking Oil
1 chopped onion
Mushrooms (use as much as you like but don’t slice it smaller)
Stewing Beef
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 Packet Onion Soup Mix
3 Cups Low Sodium Beef Broth
3-4 dash of Worcester Sauce
Dash of Black Pepper
1 package of egg noodles
3/4 cup sour cream

Directions

Set the Instant Pot to Saute function. When the Instant Pot is hot, add oil, onion and mushrooms. Add as much mushroom as you like. I just only had that small bowl of mushroom in my fridge. Saute it for a minute.
Add stewing beef. No browning or seasoning ahead of time required. Add 1/4 cup all purpose flour and give it a good stir.
Quick Tip: Put your own seasoning by all means but when I get home on a weekday night after a day of work and I need to get dinner ready fast for my 2 year old, a packet of Onion Soup Mix as seasoning never fails me.
Add 3 cups of beef broth. I use low sodium beef broth since the onion soup mix already has plenty sodium. Give it a good mix.
Cancel Saute function and press Pressure Cook and set time for 12 minutes. Once it beeps, it is done. Do a quick release, open lid and stir it.
Add Worcester sauce (about 3-4 dashes) and some black pepper. Add 1 package of egg noodles and give it a good stir.
Set Pressure Cook & set time for 5 minutes. Once it beeps, your noodles are cooked. Do a quick release, open lid and stir it.
Add 3/4 cup sour cream and mix it
Serve it while it’s hot. Enjoy

Daycare Lunch Box Ideas

Since Ryan started daycare, I am forever searching for lunch ideas. I wish but his lunch box doesn’t look like this every day. Some days, I scramble to just get something half decent for him to eat at daycare. I have packed like KFC leftovers in his lunchbox 😅.

Fortunately, his daycare provides all the snacks. We just need to provide his lunch.

I’m going to start taking pictures of his packed lunches and post it here as it goes. I figured Hey putting the photos on my blog is like the Best way for me to remember & get inspired on those leftover KFC nights 🤣

**Strawberries/Apricot/Cheese/Cherry Tomato/**
**Carrot Muffin/Beef Stroganoff**

I have been using these reusable lunch containers. But been trying to find a great Bento Box. Please share what Bento Box you use and why you like it.

Bye for now!

Yes or No to Chores for Toddlers

It’s no secret that at a certain stage, your toddler will start exerting their independence and might even throw a fit if you insist on helping them. Now, I’m no expert by any means but our experts at Parents.com says that between 18 to 24 months, they start showing interest in what mommy or daddy does so it might even seem like they are shadowing us when we go about doing our household chores…

When we first started getting Ryan to help with chores, I had a few friends who exclaimed that Ryan was too young, that it is dangerous and way too messy. And now, I don’t disagree with all the above 3 claims but only if you let it to be. Now, if I gave Ryan a super difficult chore expecting perfection, he would be too young for it. And seriously, I don’t even do chores perfectly myself & I am in my forties LOL….

But the whole intention at that stage was really for Ryan to have fun & for us to have fun together. And really, them doing chores mostly would entail us parents helping them so yes, that means more work for us so my tip is to keep the chores simple and easy so it would mean less work for ourselves.

While there are endless debates about it, I think there are so many benefits of getting toddlers to help with chores and this is my own personal feelings and experiences.

Teaches them a sense of responsibility/accountability & hopefully work ethics in the future
Helps with mastering their motor skills
Encourages them with their curiosity by not exclaiming “NO” every time they want to help because believe me, they will get to a stage where they prefer to do anything else but help lol
Great family bonding activity by letting them be involved

Before turning 18 month old, some simple chores Ryan did include:

Putting his toys away
Putting clothes in laundry basket
Throwing trash into garbage bin
Bringing something to you
Helping to push the highchair away
Helping daddy carry & move the laundry basket

After he turned 18 month old, the sky’s the limit… okay just kidding but now he can do the above & more:

Putting his clean clothes away
Sweeping the floor with a broom
Watering the plants & the garden
Cleaning up tiny messes with kitchen towel
Carrying his own lunch bag
Putting his shoes & jacket away when he gets home
Dusting

The list is non exhaustive but you get the drift.

Ryan Helping to water the garden. I think he did a pretty good job!

And I’m by no means the perfect mom who lets Ryan helps every time he wants to. Despite my intentions, there are many times when I am busy trying to get shit done and when he express interest in helping, I let out a loud “NO” because it be too messy, because I really need to get dinner ready, because I really need to get this and that done ASAP & because THIS MOMMY IS IN A RUSH. Many times, i tell my hubby I feel like a horrible mom because I can’t count the number of times that I have shouted out “NO” to Ryan during the day. But at the end of the day, I am also human and I know I’m a good mom.

Not a Perfect Mom. Definitely a Lazy Mom. But for sure a Good Mom 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone and would love to hear your experiences of chores for your children 🙂

Spinach & Broccoli Frittata (Freezer Friendly)

Another super easy peasy recipe. The original recipe at Myfussyeater.com asks for the vegetables to be sauted first with a bit of oil in a pan but I omitted that step and just put the vegetables right into the mixture. One less step and one less pan to wash is always a win with this Lazy Mommy 😋😋

**You can tell Ryan loves his egg frittata already!**

It is super soft so that makes it a perfect Baby Led Weaning recipe but as your baby grows to be a toddler, it becomes a perfect daycare packed lunch or breakfast. I love easy and multi purpose dishes.

They are also freezer friendly so I usually make a bigger batch and freeze some. Not all Baby Led Weaning recipes are things I personally would like to eat but HEY, I’m not a baby LOL. But these egg frittatas are yummy and I bring them to work for my breakfast too.

Spinach & Broccoli Frittata

Time: 25 mins
Difficulty: easy
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Credit: Myfussyeater.com

NOTES: Feel free to use other vegetables like mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini and etc. If you are storing them in fridge, they would be good for 2-3 days. If you are freezing them, they can stay in the freezer for up to 3 months. I highly recommend that you freeze them individually so anytime you need one, you are not trying to get one frittata that is stuck to a while batch of frittatas. Hope that makes sense. If not, ask me in the Comment section and I’ll answer asap.

Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped spinach
1 cup chopped broccoli
3 large eggs
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 tbsp all purpose flour
Salt & Pepper (optional)

Directions

Preheat to oven 350 degree. Line a square baking dish with parchment paper.
In a bowl mix all ingredients until well combined.
Pour this mixture into the dish and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let cool before cutting it for baby.

Raspberry Porridge Fingers (Freezer Friendly)

Literally the easiest breakfast to make for Ryan. It’s healthy and he loves it. For moms who is thinking of trying Baby Led Weaning for your babies, this is a really great Baby Led Weaning recipe. Best thing is that the sky really is the limit on what you want to put in as the ingredients. If you want something sweeter, add some maple syrup or honey. If you want a different texture, add some chopped up raisins or unsweetened dry coconut flakes. Since making this, I have made many different variations of this recipe but the overall recipe stays roughly the same with the oats and the milk.

So easy peasy. I feel like a great mom already!! LOL

Raspberry Porridge Fingers

Time: 5 mins
Difficulty: easy
Print

Credit: Healthylittlefoodies.com

As mentioned, you really could use different ingredients for this recipe. Only the oats and milk needs to stay the same. When I made this for the first time, I only had some raspberries and apple sauce so I just used that. Wasn’t able to drag baby out to the grocery store just to make this so just used whatever I had in my kitchen but Moms, the sky is the limit :-).

Ingredients

3 TBSP rolled oats or quick oats
2 TBSP milk
About 2 TBSP Mashed up raspberries
1 TBSP applesauce

Directions

In a microwavable bowl or dish or container, mix everything together until oats is a mushy texture. I just use a small microwavable square container.
Make sure to press the mixture into whatever container you used in step 1 flat and level.
Cook in the microwave for 2 minutes on high.
Cut into fingers while still hot and serve when cooled.

Starting Baby on Solids – Baby Food vs Baby Led Weaning

I have to say that starting Ryan on solids was a pretty exciting event for us. I don’t know about Ryan but I was pretty excited to see and video one of his exciting milestones 🙂 It might have something to do with the fact that I’m a foodie and I hope my son will grow up to be my partner in crime or shall I say food lol..

So, according to the experts at HealthLinkBC, your baby needs more nutrients and is ready to start trying solid foods at 6 months of age. I know of moms who start their babies earlier at 4 months and some later at the 7th month.

Every baby is different but the general guideline is 6 months. We could tell he was ready at 5 months. The way he eyed our food or tried reaching out to our food with his hands and that he was able to keep his head steady while sitting down. But to be on the safe side, we waited till about 5.5 months before we started Ryan on solids.

I can still remember the first solid we fed him was oatmeal. Nothing spectacular. Just one of those storebought baby oatmeal. He was pretty ok about it and finished the oatmeal. He wasn’t thrusting out his tongue and he was reaching out when his daddy brought the spoon closer. YUP. He is ready.

When you first start baby on solids, you want to make sure their tiny system doesn’t react to the food so best practice is to wait a few days before letting Baby try a new food item. If Baby does develop a reaction, it would also be easier to narrow down to what food gave him a reaction.

So he had mushy oatmeal for the next 6 days and on the 7th day, I tried giving him mashed up banana. So glad I got a video of that. You can tell from that video he definitely was going for it! lol

Up till that point, I had never heard about Baby Led Weaning and boy am I so glad to have chanced upon an article on it after starting Ryan on solids.

So you can read tons of articles on it but just as a OVERVIEW, traditional baby food means food that is MUSH. Sorry. Best way I can describe it. Baby Led Weaning (BLW) just means selected finger food that Baby can feed themselves with. There are pros and cons with each method.

For my family, we decided we will do BOTH 🙂 and we will just follow Ryan’s lead. As long as he is FED and healthy, that’s honestly all we care about.

We still gave Ryan mushy food but we also gave him finger food that was safe for him to feed himself. We thought it would also be a fun experience for him and a great way for him to learn his motor skills. Not saying that our approach is the right way. We just did what we felt was right for our family :-).

To see the Baby Led Weaning recipes that we have tried with Ryan, visit My Recipe Box.

Share with us what your family did for your baby :-). Bye for now.

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Easy Peasy Pancake Muffins

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Instant Pot Cajun Shrimp Pasta - Lazy Mommy Version

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Directions

Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff – Lazy Mommy Version.

Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff - Lazy Mommy Version

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Directions

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Spinach & Broccoli Frittata

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Directions

Raspberry Porridge Fingers

Ingredients

Directions

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