Banana Loaf

I got this recipe from a recipe book by Jessica Seinfeld tittled "Deceptively Delicious". When my sister-in-law told me about it,I was all puzzled by the book name but when I did some research on it, I realised its a book that every parent with a toddler would want to have. You see I have a fussy little eater who like most other children refuses vegetables or anything bordering on the nutritious side. It gives some great recipes and ideas on how to include vegetables to their food without them realising it. Have tried a few and they're awesome, will post them when i have time.

This recipe was intended as a tea time snack for my little girl, found it to be simply too sweet for my taste as a snack, I however love this for dessert, warm the loaf in a microwave for about 20 seconds and add some vanilla ice-cream to it, totally ROCKS!

The next time I makethis, I'd half the amount of sugar as I have a sneaking suspicion that this would be really nice when toasted and spread with maybe jam or peanut butter.

Here's the original recipe:-

3/4cup wheat flour

1/2cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 cup canola oil or any vegetable oil

2 large egg whites

1 1/2 cups banana puree

1/2 cup cauliflower puree (cooked cauliflower)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Mix the flours with the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon if using. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the sugar and oil with a wooden spoon until well combined. Mix in the egg whites, banana, and cauliflower purees and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and mix just till combined.

Pour the batter into the load pan and bake at 160C for 55-60 minutes or till a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

p/s: I should have mentioned that if you're not intending for this recipe to be a kid's treat, you could omit the cauliflower puree, just add another 1/2 cup of mashed banana and further reduce the sugar as the banana's are sweet itself.

What feeds the stomach

Japanese Cotton Cheese Cake


Macoroni & Cheese


"Pan Mee"



Scrambled eggs with cauliflower and cheese with toast

Pork Shoulder Roast

Following on from the meat marinate post, here's the piece of pork having been roasted. Verdict is: Those parts that has fats were to die for but otherwise because the piece of meat is so big, certain parts that didn't get the marinades didn't have much taste. If its something that I'd want to go with rice, Roasted Crispy Pork ("Siu Yuk") will still be my no.1 choice. But this is how i like this shoulder roast best that the roasted crispy pork won't come close!

Light pan fry the pork pieces and sprinkle on some Salt&Pepper to give it a smokey flavor before assembling your own mega sandwich. Ooooo so yummmmm........

Meat Marinates

Ok I'm officially sick of takeaways! But what's a FT working mum to do? Definitely have no energy to cook elaborate dinners after a long day at the office and coming home to a loving toddler who demands my full attention. Time to be best friends with my oven, microwave and crock pot then.

I've got a nice big fat juicy piece of pork shoulder from the Mad Butcher. Look at the size of that, mad eh!

Had no idea what i wanted to do with it till i opened my pantry door and ask the man if he likes it western/Chinese style. Of course the banana goes for western. OK just grabbed whatever that's on hand that seems western and hopefully it'll logically work out to taste good. Sorry no measurements here, free handedly threw in lots of oregano's, mustard powder, salt, crushed black pepper, paprika and then the wet stuff were Lea & Perrins & Red wine vinegar. Left it in the fridge unwrapped and will let it sit for at least 3-4 days before roasting it, this way the meat dries up enough to give a very crispy roast as well as a very well marinated piece of slab. Will let you know how it taste when we roast it then :)

Loh Mai Kai's

Found a recipe for Loh Mai Kai at Lily's blog and tried it but my attempt at recipes are never exact, more of a free hand cook. But anyway Lily's recipe was really marvelous! I made extras to keep frozen so that i could indulge as and when i want to. Just wrap it with foil and then with another layer of cling wrap outside, this has sat in my freezer for 3 months. Needs no thawing, just take off the wrappers and steam it for 35 minutes. Came back to life as good as it were just made! I've once tried to microwave if but found that the rice turned really hard and it wasn't an enjoyable experience at all!

Happy snack-ng

I'm honestly not a huge fan of Chinese snacks, more of a potato chip junky when my waist allows me a little indulgence. But there's just something about these snacks that makes me feel more at home, not that they're from Malaysia but still...They didn't taste as fab as those in Malaysia obviously, but having them placed there on the kitchen counter was good enough to make up for the rest :)

Nourishing apple drink

Sore throat, dry itchy cough and what not, what's a girl to do when she thinks of all her mum's concoctions from home? Well DIY and DIY the simplest and the nicest one to down. I love this drink and often makes it in a big batch so that i could store in my Tupperware tumblers and let it cool in the fridge. This is one of the reason i bought my big 8.5litres crock pot. Here's an easy peasy one to nourish that throat:-

-8-1o apples cleaned and cut into any wedges size
-A handful of red dates
-3-4 honey dates
-2 strips of cane sugar or rock sugar if you like

Just fill the crock pot with boiling water (to lessen the cooking time) till its 3/4 full, leave it on low if you're making this overnight or on high if you intend to finish cooking it within the next 3-4 hours.

Variations:- you could add in any of these ingredients; white fungus, sea coconut, dried longan, gingko hmmm ahh why not? In fact anything that you fancy to it.