Banana-Oat Pancake

I love pancakes! 

My borderline high blood sugar levels though has pushed me to look for lower calorie alternatives. I am ecstatic I found the recipe for "banana oats pancake". 

No Time To Cook? No Problem!

When you have a to-do list that is as long as your arm and you feel like you are going to crumble from all the pressure, even the smallest of household duties can sometimes tip you over the edge. Moms these days are expected to be able to do it all - hold down a full-time job, keep the house immaculate and ferry their kids from one after-school club to the other every single day! If that didn't sound exhausting, add on the fact that more often than not, moms also have to make sure their children are eating healthily too. It can be all too tempting just to cave and order takeout when the last thing you feel like doing is spending hours slaving away in the kitchen. Sometimes, this isn't even a bad thing - the occasional takeout never harmed anyone! But make a habit of it and you could not only jeopardize your own health, but you could instill unhealthy habits into your kids. Convenience food and fast food is even said to have addictive qualities, so the more you can stay away from it, the better for your whole family. But what do you do when you honestly don't think you have time to cook? The first thing to remember is that you don't need to be cooking a spectacular three-course meal every night for you, your partner and your children. Something simple will suffice, and simple doesn't mean you need to compromise on taste. Plus, there are plenty of ways you can save time in the kitchen - a tasty, healthy meal can even be out in 30 minutes or less providing you know what you are doing! Here are some time-saving tricks you just HAVE to use in your kitchen today.

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5 Essential Kitchen Items

Cooking is in the midst of a renaissance at the moment and has been for some years. As a result, people are spending more and more time in their kitchens. Inspired by a new wave of celebrity chefs, bakers and cooks, people are becoming more daring in their creations. This, in turn, has seen a rise in the number and variety of cool kitchen appliances. Here are five of the must-have items in any contemporary kitchen.

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Cooking With My Junior Chefs

R is watching me us I type now. He describes the photo above as their "epic fail" fish recipe. It was a success as a sandwich though! I never thought milkfish would be tasty in between breads! :)

Welcomed Home By Hubby's Cooking

I'm finally home! After hugging the kids oh so tightly and catching up unsurprisingly, the first thing I did was eat. While shopping for grocery items the hubby and I saw curry powder and both agreed it's gonna be chicken curry for dinner! We hurried to the vegetable section for celery, carrots and potatoes then got a whole chicken. I spent most of the afternoon regaining my strength snoring in bed. The aroma of curry woke me up and lo and behold, the hubby's specialty was already waiting for me. 

10 Recipe Ideas to Cook for Your Family

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If you sometimes struggle to think of new, simple meals to cook for your family in the evening time, then you definitely want to pay close attention to the ten suggestions made in this post. Unfortunately, I simply don’t have the time or desire to list all the methods used for cooking, but you’ll have no trouble finding all this information online by searching for your dish of choice. This post has just been created to give you some great ideas, and to encourage you to shake things up a bit from time to time.

So, without any further delays, here are 10 recipe ideas to cook for your family over the next few weeks.

1 - Lasagne

This always goes down well, and all you need is some olive oil, 750 g of mince beef, homemade tomato sauce, 200 ml beef stock, nutmeg, 300 g packed lasagne sheets, homemade white sauce and 125 g of mozzarella.

2 - Lamb Tagine

If you like to eat something a little more exotic, you’ll love this. All you need is olive oil, a diced onion, two large carrots, 500g leg of lamb, 2 large garlic cloves, ½ tablespoon of cumin, ½ tablespoon of ginger, 1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon, 100g dried apricots, 1 vegetable stock cube, 1 reasonably sized butternut squash and some steamed rice. Don’t forget to get some suitable beverages for the adults too, you can go to Jim's Cellars for online wine sales.

3 - Fish Pie

This is really simple and guaranteed to keep the whole family happy. All you need is 1 kg of quality potatoes, a knob of butter, 100 ml of milk, 25 g of flour, some grated cheddar, petit pois, frozen sweetcorn, some chives, 1 tablespoon of English mustard, 1 pack of fish pie mix and 4 spring onions.

4 - Bacon and Cauliflower Pasta

If you haven’t got much time on your hands, and you need to prepare something very quickly, you should definitely consider this. All you’ll need is 200 g of streaky bacon, 1 wholemeal roll to make breadcrumbs, 140 g of cheese, 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard, 330 ml of milk, 20 g of plain flour, 25 g of butter, 300 g of pasta and 1 cauliflower.

5 - Ratatouille and Sausages

Yes, that’s right folks, ratatouille is much more than just a bad animated film, and you should definitely try it out with your family. All you need to get started is 1 onion, 3 courgettes, 400g tomatoes, 8 large sausages, some olive oil and 1 red pepper.

6 -  Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Chips

We all know how unhealthy burgers can be, but if you chose to use turkey and swap the standard chips for sweet potatoes, they’re actually not too bad. You’ll want to pick up some tomato ketchup, 500g of turkey mince, 2 spring onions, 85 g of grated cheddar, 1 kg of sweet potatoes, some olive oil and 4 wholemeal rolls.

7 - Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry

Finally, we move onto something a little more spicy. You’ll want to add all these things to your shopping list: basmati rice, 100 g baby spinach, 400 g of tomatoes, 500 g of sweet potatoes, 2 garlic cloves, 165 g of korma paste, 500 g of boneless chicken thighs, 1 chopped onion.

8 - Bean and Sausage Hotpot

This one speaks for itself, I think. You need: 8 large sausages, some tomato sauce, 3 normal sized cans of baked beans, 1 tablespoon of black treacle and some English mustard.

9 - Tomato Soup with Garlic Cheese Dippers

The kids could probably handle this dish themselves if you took the time to teach them how. All they could need is 400 g of tinned tomatoes, homemade white sauce, 100 ml of vegetable stock, 2 tablespoon of mascarpone, 1 ciabatta roll, 1 garlic clove and 130 g of mozzarella cheese.

10 - Italian Tuna Balls

Lastly, this is another quick and easy one you should try out if you have time. You’ll want a 500 g jar of pasta sauce, 400 g of spaghetti, 1 egg, 50 g of breadcrumbs, zest of 1 lemon, a handful of pine nuts and two large cans of tuna.

Well, I hope that’s given you some great ideas for planning your meals over the next few weeks. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, if you need guides explaining the cooking methods for any of the dishes I’ve mentioned today, you’ll find them online by simply copying the title of the meal from this page and pasting it into a major search engine.

Good luck with all that cooking!

Crispy Fried Crabs: Cooking With Roel and Dealing With Food Allergy

My kids love sea foods! Lately though, I have noticed that they have become sensitive to its components. Yet still they love eating them! Good thing I always have antihistamine which they can take to get rid of the itchiness and discomfort the seafood indulging brings them. Their dad would always say "aaahhh they will get over that eventually, have them become desensitized"...the healer in me is scared like hell because I have seen worst case scenarios of severe allergic reactions at work yet the mother in me wants them to enjoy life and overcome their sensitivity gradually.