After having visitors for about 2 months, were back to our old routine. That also means I get to bake for the kiddos for snack. Nowadays though, I’d like to include them (actually being sneaky about it) in our healthy living/eating transformation.
That being said, I slowly try to make wise choices in the ingredients of the food we make at home. Adding less sugar than what’s in the usual recipe I find online and using healthier substitute slowly, but surely.
One thing we honestly made wrong with our kiddos diet was introducing them to junk.🤪 Yeah! All those sugary and nonsense/addictive stuff you stuff into your mouth. Oh well! Parent’s are human too and we too want to indulge on junk as well! haha
Anyways, getting back to being healthy, I think we should all strive in doing this especially nowadays when health significantly equates to wealth (if you know what I mean).
As a mom, I strive my best to give and prepare healthy food for my family. Being able to afford to buy food is one luxury we are blessed to enjoy. With that also is the temptation to indulge on junk rather than use the money wisely and buy health, quality food products.
Trust me, companies pay way too much money in great marketing to lure customers to buy their products despite the how lousy their products could be especially for the health of consumers. So it’s important to be wise with your money.
In this recipe, which I adopted from the original Spend with Pennies recipe, I’ve tried to customise here and there to make it into my own liking. I also learned some great tips like how to quickly ripen a banana* when you want to bake which requires a banana (this is for newbies on baking: we ONLY use ripen bananas when baking).
Surprisingly, it still turned great and I can tell you, it’s a winner especially with my kiddos! They LOOOOOVED IT!♥️
NOTES:
*Ripen bananas quickly: This recipe requires ripened bananas! If your bananas aren’t quite ready yet, pop them into a toaster for 10-15 minutes. The skin would darken and the bananas would turn our sweeter, just like ripened bananas that you need!
*Mixed just until combined: This recipe requires you not to over mix. It affects the gluten in the batter which makes your muffin chewy instead of moist.
I’d love to read on the comments how you find this quick, easy, and healthy snack you can make for your kiddos. I’d be waiting! Happy baking!♥️
I’m no stranger to blogs. I started reading blogs more than 10 years ago and as a “filipino”, I’ve always loved looking over those blogs of westerners. If only I had the mindset and courage to start my own blog before, I would have written a lot by now. I’m not here to ponder on my past though, I’m sharing that so I could highlight how much less of internet space has been filled with recipe’s that we as Asians really eat.
As much my kids loves mommy’s spaghetti, I’d happily indulge on other kinds of noodles that I’ve come to love throughout the years. On this list, you’ll see my favourite noodle recipes from the country where I was born, raised, and now based on. Some others are those that started as a fad but I’ve come to love too!
Ready to dive in?!
Ramen This Miso Ramen recipe came from Just One Cookbook
Having been born in Japan and visiting there every school vacation, ramen has a special spot in my heart. Even up to now, when rarely eat out, I simply make at home some homemade ramen which the whole fam loves.
Yakisoba This Yakisoba recipe came from NoRecipes (huh?! that’s kinda confusing…just kidding!)
If it’s not ramen, it’s yakisoba that my parents would be treating us for some noodle indulgence. I especially love those yakisoba sold on street markets in Japan. Of all the amazing food stalls, I always end up with some yummy, hot, savory yakisoba! yum!
PancitThis Pancit recipe came from Panlasang Pinoy
If you ask some foreigner to name a chicken dish, that would be adobo. Pancit is the noodles version of that! Always present during birthday parties (as it being noodles symbolises long life)is often paired with some shanghai. This is one filipino fish my kiddos wouldn’t say no.
Lomi may have originated from China but the most popular variation nowadays came from our province called Batangas (about an hour or two from Manila). It’s savoury thick soup mixed with some soy sauce and kalamansi makes it a perfect dish to eat during rainy season. I used to have this even on hot days though before heading home from school.
Now that you knew my fave noodles from my place of birth and where I grew up, let’s head to the variety of noodles I’ve come to love from the place where I’m based now and have been living for over a decade. As diverse as the nationalities of people living in Singapore, this place is a food haven where you can find the best dishes from different countries as well.
If you say Laksa, you’ll most probably associate it with Singapore despite its origin being from Indonesia. This spiced bowl of goodness surely wins a lots of tourists who visit Singapore all year round. You’ll be surprised why one would still order a steamingly hot bowl of Laksa noodles when it’s so hot and humid already in Singapore. Well, that maybe the clue on how good it is, you can’t resist!
Hokkien Mee This Hokkien Mee recipe came from Rasa Malaysia
My daughter’s favourite noodle dish whenever we eat at any hawker place. They especially love the ones from the hawker near Changi Beach! Too good that we’d travel from North to East for them to eat! haha
Mee GorengThis Mee Goreng recipe came from Taste Asian Food
This noodles wasn’t too foreign to me when I came here to Singapore as I’ve got a dormmate in college who was raised in Indonesia. She of course would share some of the food she used to love and have growing up. While here in Singapore, most people would refer Mee Goreng as a Malaysian dish. We’re not here to argue though on the origin of Mee Goreng but acknowledge it’s great taste!
Kway TeowThis Kway Teow recipe came from RecipeTin Eats
This personally is my favourite noodle dish that I often buy whenever we eat at a hawker place. If my daughter’s will have Hokkien Mee, I’ll have Kway Teow. I love how simple this dish is but savoury at the same time. Wins my heart always!
Chow mein This Chow mein recipe came from Damn Delicious
Chinese food can be found anywhere. There’s even 35 Chinatown’s spread across 19 countries in Asia! How amazing is that?! With the population of the Chinese being 18+% percent of the total world population, there’s no doubt you can eat their famous dishes from anywhere in the planet. Here’s what’s surprising though, Chow mein isn’t as popular in China as we think it is rather it is often served as a specific dish at westernized Chinese restaurants. So don’t be surprised if you find yourself in China and can’t get your Chow mein fix.
Then here comes the recipes that started with a fad but remained in my heart and would surely continue to buy or make at home whenever I feel like craving for it.
Pad Thai This Pad Thai recipe came from Hot Thai Kitchen
With a lot of Thai restaurants here in Singapore, it’s no wonder we often stumble to eating on one of them and always order some Pad thai. This is one of those times days me and my hubby would feel guilty for ordering. It’s because it has peanuts and our youngest one has a peanut allergy. Oh well, we can’t wait for her to outgrow that allergy of hers that’s been preventing us to have some PBJ for breakfast! haha..
First of all, don’t pronounce it Pho as “fo”. Don’t be like me! haha..I remember when my SIL told me about this and she can’t stop giggling and teasing me about it! haha.. Anyways, it is pronounced as “fa-a”. You start with a low voice and gradually rise your voice like this. Oh yes! I googled it and for you and found this YouTube video so you won’t make simple mistakes like mis-pronouncing this delicious recipe! I’m getting into Vietnamese food nowadays and I’ve recently ordered some Banh Mi and Pho for lunch. It’s delicious soup would keep you slurping for more!
If you’re part of the army, then you for sure have been swallowed by the Korean fever and would get your hands on anything Korean, including their food. On our recent trip to the Philippines, my sisters (yeah! they are part of the army too) treated us to a Korean restaurant and got us some of these. Aside from not being part of the army (don’t hate me.haha) I personally didn’t like it that much. Why this made it to this list is because of you my army friends!
I hope by giving you this recipes, you get encouraged to cook it at home yourself rather that buy it from somewhere. Not that I’m against the F&B Industry, I/we do eat out as well! But as this website promotes you to take care of your Self-Health-Wealth, cooking at home is the way to do for you to eat it at a portion that best fits you, make sure you only add the healthy ingredients and seasonings, and of course, save you some $$$ than eating out.
Hope this list of noodle dishes made you as hungry as I am now! If your favourite noodle dish didn’t made it to this list, comment down below and I’ll try it somewhere and give my honest review about it!
How would you feel if I tell you how many times you’ve been fooled by marketing ads? I’m not here to hurt your feelings but just to be an eye-opener for many food options that disguise themselves as being “healthy”.
Our lifestyle have come a long way and very much different from the old days. Despite all the innovation technology have made to make our lives better and easier in some ways, food is one thing that we as human are really progressing to the wrong direction.
As more and more unhealthy food is being created, even those who strive to keep themselves healthy are often not saved from it. Without much knowledge and just marketing ads to believe in, many are made to believe to be eating healthily when in fact, they’re eating the same junk as others.
Check-out some products sold and bought by many that are “supposed” to be healthy options:
FRO-YO. My family has honestly been into frozen yogurts ever since they’ve been in the market. First was these pop-up stores which we would visit every weekend as a treat, then to our kids delight, it can also be bought nowadays in popsicle or pint style which can be within your reach at home anytime.
While there’s no denying that frozen yogurts are way healthier than ice cream when it comes to its sugar content, we must not forget the toppings we add to this frozen yogurts when we have them. In there goes some chocolate chip then add that sumptuous chocolate syrup to top it off.
The key is maintaining the healthiness of your fro-yo is to be mindful when eating this. Remembering to choose healthy topping options such as granola and fruits so as not to sabotage it from being healthy.
Juice and Smoothies. Check-out any blogger promoting healthy diets and you’ll surely find juice and smoothies recipes. Unfortunately, not all of us have the luxury of time to make one.
We all don’t want to get left behind so we find ways to fill-in that gap by simply buying instead juices and smoothies from stores. No big deal except that stores usually make them more lucrative to consumers by adding sugary stuff.
This could surely make it taste better but sadly makes it fall-off that healthy category you’re going after.
Bars. Protein bars to be specific has been a staple in the fitness industry and is still getting bigger everyday. The marketing strategy for this being a healthy and handy snack you can easily grab after workout to replenish yourself is a bomb! Unfortunately, if you compare the nutritional components of it to a candy bar, you’ll notice that they don’t vary that much. SHOCKER!!!
Don’t be, that’s the truth of it. I’m not saying all of them are like that but most of them are. If you’re really into protein bars, one thing to keep in mind is to find the word protein instead of some dessert and by making sure the protein content of it is high.
Soups. Soups are a great way to fill you up. They are watery which technically makes you like eat and drink at the same time making you feel full easily. As mentioned earlier, not all of us have the luxury of time and again, the alternative is to buy. In this case, it’s canned soups.
Its nutritional content may be made from something nutritious but knowing that it is canned should already make bells ring in your head telling you how much sodium has been added on it to make it last longer in that can.
As a matter of fact, even those labeled as reduced sodium still contains at least 1,000 milligrams of sodium per can. That’s almost half of the daily recommended we should have.
Diet meals. Convenience at its best, microwavable meals aren’t only made to sell but to sell to those who are diet conscious as well. Ever wonder how our ancestors are able to prolong their food before refrigerators are invented? They smother their food with salt for it to ferment it.
That technique hasn’t change despite having refrigerators and freezers already. So aside from the radiation from the microwave, the food that you eat aren’t as healthy as you think.
Takeaway
The best way to eat healthy is to home cook and making sure to buy natural ingredients. Not only do you have control over the food that you get to eat but you also get to control added ingredients to make them tasty. It helps to be mindful with your food options, to have an open mind, and live with positivity to maintain that healthy lifestyle you’re aiming for.
I hope you learned something from this article. For daily inspiring Self-Care tips, you can follow me here. I’d also love to see you on our Mindfulness Course and be with your journey to a better you. You can sign-up down below.
Are you one of the moms who feels stress ever meal time? Here’s the things you’ll tick-off after reading this:
✔️ Prepare a well balanced meal every time
✔️ End sickening repetitive food prepared
✔️ Have a game plan every meal time
Eating is one thing any person in the planet need to do to survive yet one of the most dreadful questions one would like to be asked is, “What do you want to eat?” OR “Where do you want to eat”? In fact, over the years, people have been creative enough to solve this problem by either making a food decider wheel, something like the ones used in Wheel of Fortune but instead have food places on it. Other’s even use technology and make it available online like this Wheel of Dinner which you can check out online or if you want it very handy, download these apps: Restaurant Roulette!! from Apple App Store or What to Eat from Google Play.
Those may be helpful but for moms who’s task is to feed the family every meal and want it to be healthy, we wouldn’t want to depend our meals on fate, aren’t we? It actually isn’t the cooking itself that’s stressful but choosing what dish to cook as sometimes, we tend to prepare the same dish all the time. So instead of just adding stress to your life with this daily task, why not make a plan, and simply let your day run smoothly ever meal time.
Are you ready to get started? I do!
First of all, this weekly menu isn’t like the ones you usually see online where recipes are already listed, here, you get to choose and pick the food you need to prepare. Why? Because I know that I’m not the only Asian who also loves Japanese, Italian, Mexican, and American dishes but can’t find a weekly menu online to fit my tastebuds. So I thought it would be better let this method be a general method for everyone to use.
A bit confused? Hope you stick with me and keep reading…
Second, as a mother, of course I just don’t want to prepare tasty meals but nutritious too. I’m not a Nutritionist nor a Dietitian so I only go for the basics of science when it comes to making sure my family gets the nutrition our body needs. Too basic that it’s taught at primary school. Any guesses?
You got it! The Food Pyramid! That’s the Go, Grow, and Glow Foods.
Lastly, mindful eating. Yes, that includes savouring each bite we do and making sure we get the right portion of each dish prepared that’s right for us. If there’s one thing we want our children to learn about food, that would be discipline in eating. With this, they wouldn’t feel deprived eating junk, sweets, or whatever since they know already how to control their eating.
Now that we’re done talking about the principles of this meal plan, here’s how to do it.
1.Start by having a Weekly Meal Plan Template like the one below.
2. Choose per day which base you would like to have. For us being Asians, it’s quite easy as we usually eat rice for our daily meals so I only need to choose a dish to match with it. So choose from either Pork, Chicken, Fish, Beef, Vegetable, and Takeaway.
Even if you’re not a rice person, having this base on mind before you make your weekly menu helps breakdown the options you’ll need to decide on that specific day. You’ll also notice I’ve included Takeaway on the list. Well, let’s get realistic, in today’s world, when you’re not in the mood to cook, or you just want to have a day off from cooking, wouldn’t it be nice to know that you’ve also had that planned out?! Less stress = happy mama!
With that in place, your Weekly Menu should look like this. You’ll notice that Chicken and Fish is used twice as I find those two as healthier choices than beef and pork. It’s also cheaper!haha.
Having a big breakfast isn’t a thing in our family. I personally don’t think that saying applies to everyone as not everyone wakes up early and does vigorous work after breakfast. With the Pandemic nowadays, I’m sure most people wake up later than they used to (raise your hand if you don’t miss the morning traffic). With that in mind, we go pretty relaxed on breakfast.
Usually it’s just cereals, yoghurt, eggs, or bread and spread for us. I just get a couple of selection of cereals and spread to choose from and everyone makes their own breakfast of choice. How’s that for a freeing you up from one meal of the day to think from!
Next is lunch. This is where your base comes to place. With the kind of meat chosen already, what I usually do is think of a cuisine. Whether it’s Filipino, Italian, Japanese, American, to name a few, this would help you save up more thinking time. Make sure to add some fruits to eat at the end of each meal as dessert.
Here are incredible sites where you can get recipes for every cuisine of your choice. All you need to do is choose from a vast selection of recipes they’ve got per base you’ve chosen.
After choosing the your recipes, simply list down the ingredients you need. As easy as that, you got your grocery list ready! Congratulations for saving yourself thinking time and relieving yourself from stress of meal prep.
If there’s something I want to remind you about preparing meals, it’s to enjoy doing it. The more you procrastinate on the thing/s you’re doing, the more you’ll feel bad doing it. Food also tastes better when done with love, so enjoy and keep the love burning!
I’m planning to update this post in the future after compiling easy recipes for you! I’d love to hear cuisine and recipes you’d love me to include on it! Hope to hear from you all on the comments below!
I’m an avid fan of apple pies so knowing how easy I can make this apple turnovers at home makes me giddy like a child.
I was quite hesitant at first as I thought pastry puffs are expensive. I tried searching online on how to DIY but wasn’t sold that I can replicate what I just saw. haha. Good thing I didn’t settle with what I just believe in my mind but actually tried searching online to see how much pastry puffs are. Holy guacamole! It’s actually affordable!
Photo grabbed from Lazada website
This BORGS puff pastry block is sold in Lazada’s Redmart for SGD 3.06 for 375g. It may be small but just right for my apple pie cravings.
Here’s my go to easy apple turnover recipe that never failed to satisfy my cravings.
Let me know how yours turns out! Comment below to let me know if you loved this recipe as much as I do.
