Spoon and Chopsticks

I've heard about chicken nuggets being made with mechanically recovered meat (MRM). I've tried making my own chicken nuggets. They are very easy to make with only few ingredients. You have a choice of adding your favourite herbs and spices. My oven baked chicken nuggets are healthier, cheaper and tastier than the store-bought chicken nuggets.

A simple one-pot dish for a weekday dinner. It's very easy to make with only a few ingredients and is a healthy meal.

This lovely and delicious bean and mince nachos with guacamole is a perfect dish for my weekend lunch. It is very easy to make and loved by everyone in family.

This fermented tomato pickle is quick and simple to prepare. You can use it as an accompaniment with any meal. I usually make this pickle during summer when the tomatoes are cheaper. If you have extra tomatoes in your fridge, just try this simple tomato pickle.

Gnocchi and white sauce goes well together. Pan fried chicken breast on the side makes it a perfect meal.

This delicious cake made with milk powder and topped with lemon curd frosting is perfect with tea or coffee.

This is an easy snack with only a few ingredients that are easily available in your kitchen. The cumin powder enhances the flavour of the potato mixture and makes it more delightful. You can enjoy these potato puffs with any type of sauce. These can be enjoyed in lunch or in picnics.

It's almost summer here in Sydney. During a hot summer day, I don't feel like spending too much time in the kitchen. I need something easy and refreshing. I usually make this salad for my light lunch or even as an entrée.

This healthy homemade ice cream is made without an ice cream maker. I used soy milk instead of full cream milk, added less sugar and used dark chocolate and nuts. I did not use cream in this recipe but I still managed to get a smooth and tasty ice cream with this method. Let me know what you think about this method.

I often use fenugreek seeds in my cooking. Fenugreek seeds have a bitter taste and have certain health benefits. Fenugreek seeds are readily available in any South Asian grocery stores.

Making this dish in a pressure cooker reduces the cooking time. You may also make this dish in a pot but you may need to add more water and cook it for a longer time. It can also be made as a vegetarian dish by removing the mince from the recipe.

I made this traditional Thai dish with my own homemade tamarind sauce. My recipe is done with shrimps. You may use chicken or other meat or even make it vegetarian. Pad Thai has a great combination of sweet, sour and chilli. You can adjust the recipe according to your taste.

For this baked basa fillet recipe, I made my own homemade pesto with walnuts, olives and spinach leaves instead of the usual garlic, pine nuts and basil. Cover the left-over pesto and leave it in a fridge. You can also use this pesto in bread wraps or mix with pasta.

Cinnamon rolls (also known as cinnamon buns) are perfect for breakfast and afternoon snacks. The store-bought cinnamon rolls are usually more sweet. In my recipe, I've tried to make the cinnamon rolls more healthy by reducing the amount of sugar. The nice aroma of freshly baked cinnamon rolls are truly inviting.

This spinach and corn pancake is quick and easy to make with simple ingredients available at home. This pancake is great for a quick breakfast or light lunch. You can also add grated vegetables or diced ham to this recipe.

I did a post about stove-top beef salad a while ago. Today I am going to do a similar recipe using thinly sliced beef chuck steak with green garlic (also known as baby garlic). The lovely flavours of green baby garlic and sesame oil really enhanced the taste of this salad.

This simple and healthy homemade pizza is full of unique flavours. I tried mustard paste on the pizza base and used only a few toppings without cheese on this pizza. A good drizzle of olive oil and Sriracha chilli sauce on top added extra flavours to this cheeseless pizza. Hope you'll enjoy!

Red beans are a good source of iron and protein. Red beans are also very good source of cholesterol-lowering fiber. To make it as a full meal, you may also add some cooked pasta or rice. It also goes very well with any type of bread. This delicious homemade red kidney beans in tomato sauce is also a good substitute for red meat.

For this recipe, I have used dry red kidney beans as they don't contain any preservatives and they are cheaper. However, you can also use canned beans for this recipe.

This hot and spicy Korean kimchi stew/soup (also known as Kimchi JJigae) is one of my favourite winter dishes. It is a complete dish in itself as it includes meat, vegetables, tofu and soup along with the unique spicy flavour. I usually make this stew with the old kimchi that has been sitting in the fridge for some time. I like to have this dish with a bowl of rice.

You can also make a vegetarian version of this stew by replacing meat with mushrooms.

Baking at home is always very exciting. I like the nice smell of baking around the kitchen. I tried prunes and walnut in my cake. The gooeyness of the prunes and the crunchiness of the walnuts was like a match made in heaven. It was a truly delicious cake which I enjoyed with a cup of coffee for my afternoon snack.

I hope you will like my cake. Let me know what you think about this prune and walnut cake. If you've made something similar, feel free to share the link on the comment below.

Ras Malai is a famous and one of my favourite Indian sweet desserts. It is made with paneer, which is a kind of homemade cheese popular in South Asian countries. Ras Malai has a nice creamy flavour with a lovely smell of cardamom.

Ajwain, also known as carom seeds, is a great home remedy for common cold and cough. Ajwain drink is very easy to prepare with only a few ingredients. My husband had cough a month ago and this drink cured his cough within a day. I don't recommend drinking it more than twice a day as this drink generates a lot of heat.

This yellow lentil soup/dahl (also spelled daal or dal) is a great winter soup to warm you up. It is quick and easy to prepare as this recipe has very few ingredients. You can also make it with your leftover dahl. It has a mild taste and is very nutritious. It is liked by people of all ages.

I have used pressure cooker for this recipe. You may also use a sauce pan but you may need to cook it for a longer time until the lentils are well cooked.

Pomelo is a citrus fruit which is popular in southeastern and south Asia. It has a sweet and sour taste. It tastes similar to a grapefruit. I usually buy pomelo from my local Chinese grocery.

This salad is very popular in Nepal and is consumed during the autumn season. Pomelo is locally known as Bhogaté in Nepal. If you cannot find pomelo where you live, you may just use grapefruit for this salad. You can add other fruits in this salad such as apples, pears, bananas, oranges, pineapples and other citrus fruits. The salad has sweet and sour taste and also has some nutty flavour that comes from the sesame powder.

We were in Singapore about a couple of weeks ago. We stayed there for 3 days. The hawker centres there were great. The food were much cheaper compared to Australia. They had a huge variety of food to choose from. I liked the way they sell the soft drinks. When you buy a can of coke, you get a cup of ice for free.

Every meal cost around S$3 - S$6 in hawker centres. The quantity of food was pretty good for the money and the taste was awesome. Below are pictures of some of the food we tried.

Do you have your own hawker food experience to share?

Braised Duck

I usually prepare this easy and healthy salad for dinner. I think soya balls are versatile ingredient that goes well with anything. For vegetarians, it is a great substitution for meat. I also use soya balls in dumplings. If you want to make vegetarian dumplings, soya balls can certainly enhance the texture and flavour of your dumpling fillings.

Soya bean is a great source of protein. It can be consumed in various ways. This is my method of using soya bean in a sauce. Soya bean and tomato sauce is a very tasty sauce which goes with almost everything. I personally like to use it as a dip for dumplings.

This is a quick, simple and healthy recipe for a weekday dinner. I used basa fillet but you can use any type of fish fillet. Despite this recipe having only a few ingredients, the combination of soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil gives a very nice flavour to the fish fillets. You can serve this with a bowl of steam rice.

Chutney goes well with rice, bread, wraps or sandwiches. Chutney can be used as a replacement for jam if you like sweet and sour taste. Mango chutney is very easy to make at home. If you like more sour taste, you may add some vinegar in the recipe.

This is a simple and easy stuffed chicken breast recipe. Chicken breasts are usually dry. I have used stuffed mushroom cooked with butter for stuffing to keep the breasts moist. Mixed herbs with paprika, cumin and vinegar adds extra flavour to the chicken breast. You can serve it with risotto, mashed potato or salads. Hope you will enjoy. Feel free to share your thoughts.

Bitter melon, also known as bitter gourd, is widely used in Asian cuisine and is a significant ingredient in Okinawan diet. Just like our body needs salt and sugar, it also needs some bitterness to have a balanced diet. The most significant health benefit of bitter melon is related to diabetes.

In my bitter melon salad, I've used sesame powder for nutty flavour and the lemon juice for sourness. I think it is a great combination of flavours. It is good to have this salad once a week to get its obvious health benefits.

Korean radish kimchi, known as kkak ttugi or ggak du gi, is a great side-dish full of hot flavour. Radish is good for digestion. You can prepare radish kimchi in large quantity and keep it in a refrigerator for a few weeks.

When I come home really tired from work, this is the recipe that comes into my mind. This is quick to make and you can add any vegetables that you have in your fridge. All you need is a pressure cooker. I find pressure cooker very handy. I use my pressure cooker a lot for making stews, dahl, soups, etc. This dish is a combination of different ingredients and is quite nutritious, full of flavour and filling at the same time.

Flatbread wraps make a great weekend lunch. These are also ideal for your kids' lunch and picnic. It's worth the time spent making your own flatbreads as they are cheaper, healthier and softer than the market-bought flatbreads or tortillas.

Home-made truffles are sweet treats for anyone of any age. These are absolutely easy to make and are filled with goodies such as dates and nuts. Truffles can be made in larger quantities and stored in a fridge. I've used scraped chocolate and milk powder for coating the truffles. You may also use cocoa powder, scraped milk chocolate or shredded coconut for coating the truffles.

The yellow lentils are good for your health. Chicken with yellow lentil dahl (also spelled daal or dal) is a quick and easy dish to prepare.  I found chicken and yellow lentils go well together and adding just a few spices simply enhances the taste of this recipe. This dish goes well with bread or rice.

Yellow split lentils are also known as mung beans. They are relatively easy to cook and digest. There are different types of mung beans or yellow lentils available in the market. For this recipe, make sure you get "yellow split lentils". I usually don't find these in my local supermarket so I buy these from South Asian groceries.


In the recipe below, I am making yellow split lentil pancakes with mince. You can also make it vegetarian by simply removing the mince from the recipe and following the same preparation methods.

Perfect for a quick meal, these stuffed banana chillies are very easy to prepare. Only a few easy steps towards this simple creative dish with wonderful flavours.

This beautiful and delicious fish fillet dish is flavoured with a paste made of grilled red banana chillies and grilled tomatoes. Combination of ginger, garlic, fresh cream and lemon adds extra flavour to this dish.

On one of my earlier posts, I demonstrated making a quick and easy homemade yoghurt using milk powder. Today I am going to share with you a different method of making yoghurt using milk reduction method. I personally prefer milk reduction method as it is healthier than using milk powder because you will be using pure milk to make this yoghurt.

Don't forget to keep about 2-3 tablespoons of yoghurt in a fridge to use as a starter for your next batch.

The smell of freshly baked breakfast bread in bakeries have always enticed me to go in and try their bread. I have always wanted to bake my own breakfast bread with all the nice ingredients they use in the bakeries. Today I would like to share my latest baking creation. The bread turned out really nice and crispy and is perfect with my morning cuppa.

How are you everyone? It's been ages since I wrote my last post. I have been extremely busy with moving home and with my work, I hardly had spare time to write a blog post. I missed all your lovely posts.

Today I am going to share with you sugar-free date cake I made for my diabetic father-in-law. I think dates have their own sweetness but not adding extra sugar in a cake is ideal for diabetic patient. Not only my father-in-law but the whole family loved this cake.

I cut the cake into cubes (it was my husband's idea) which was ideal to serve with tea or coffee. I hope you'll enjoy.