When it comes to cooking for my baby, I always go by this motto: the lesser effort the better!

That’s why I’ve been exploring my rice cooker, to see if I can come up with easy one-pot, nutritious recipes that don’t even need the stove.

And I think this is a keeper: rice cooker mac and cheese!

It helps too, that the husband is a huge fan of mac and cheese. With this recipe, I can settle dinner for the family all at once. This means more time to shower (I hope) and blog too?

This dish takes all of 25 minutes to cook. Prep time is about 10 minutes with a nifty kitchen tool. If you’ve liked my Facebook page, you’ll know that I swear by this hand-held chopper:

If you hate to chop ingredients by hand and find the food processor too troublesome to use with too many parts to wash, get this. It is saving me so much time in the kitchen, and it’s great when I want to make pasta sauce, or chop vegetables quickly for cbb’s meals. The best thing is: it’s not flimsy! I even use it to mince chicken fillet. I got mine from ezbuy prime (search for the Chinese words). I’ve seen it in Isetan too.

In a nutshell, the recipe goes like this: place macaroni and water in rice cooker, top with chopped broccoli, pumpkin and minced meat, then cover and cook for 20 minutes. Open the rice cooker, and stir in the milk + cooking cream, a smidgen of honey mustard and shredded cheese. Cover for another 5 minutes and serve. That’s it. Crazy right?

I wanted the recipe to be a bit healthier, so I used half-and-half, i.e., 30ml fresh milk and 30ml cooking cream. If you want an even lower fat content, go ahead and use 60ml fresh milk. But it won’t be as creamy or decadent.

TIP: For a creamier and more delicious dish, use 60ml cooking cream. I mean, what difference can 30ml make, right?

Ready for the recipe that will change your life? Let’s go! I’m giving food ingredient measurements in tablespoons, because that’s the easiest to gauge. Leftovers can be mixed with crushed cream crackers and made into meat patties!

If you’re interested to know, I’m using the Tefal spherical rice cooker. Click on the link to see my recipe for mushroom and chicken multi-grain one-pot rice.

I get all my vegetables from OPENTASTE.SG. Get $15 off your first order by entering code ‘240D2E’ at checkout.

If you like my posts and updates, or would like to be informed of baby/cooking-related giveaways and promos from time to time…..
Like my Facebook page or follow @budgetpantry or @chuabeebee on Instagram! Yes, I just started an Insta account for CBB too!

The post Toddler-worthy rice cooker mac and cheese appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

One of my absolute favourite things to cook (and eat): pasta with home made sauce!

This pasta sauce is suitable for kids too, just add the seasonings and spices later. And this is a sneaky way to add lots of vegetables into your toddler’s diet.

I also call this the ‘clear fridge’ recipe as you can make this with the different vegetables you have in your fridge. There can be lots of variation as long as the base ingredients are there: onions, celery and tomato. I like to add carrot or pumpkin purée as a base for the sauce, as it lends a sweetness perfect to go along with the tangy tomato.

If you have the Philips Avent 4-in-1 baby food maker, you can steam and blend everything together. No need to do so separately. Read about our experience with it here: https://budgetpantry.com/babys-first-solid-food/

If using vegetables like zucchini or cabbage, you may not need to add much more water to the pot as they give out lots of liquid in the cooking process. For picky eaters, blend or mince the vegetables so they don’t have comments about them. This is another variation I made two days ago, with cabbage, zucchini, parsley, carrot, onion and honey tomato. Because I added a lot of cabbage, this version is much more chunkier. We love it all the same! Add more water if you prefer it more saucy. You can tell cbb loves her chunky food……

Tip: Always add celery if you have them… it transforms the flavour A LOT!

This dish is a great way to eat more yucky veggies like celery! I hate them when raw but it’s magic when cooked! This recipe is a staple in our household for sure, and is a yummy baby food recipe. Cbb approves!

Looking for a great online grocer for organic/non-organic fresh vegetables for your baby? Get $15 off your first order from OPENTASTE.SG with code ‘ 240D2E’ at checkout.

If you like my posts and updates, or would like to be informed of baby/cooking-related giveaways and promos from time to time…..
Like my Facebook page or follow @budgetpantry or @chuabeebee on Instagram! Yes, I just started an Insta account for CBB too!

The post Homemade pasta sauce for babies, toddlers… and adults! appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Are you finding yourself feeding your baby porridge for every meal? I mean, cbb LOVES her porridge, but it’s nice to see her face light up whenever she tries something new, and I was going to make her grin today!

I’ve discovered that she loves anything with a tomato sauce base, and she prefers texture over smooth food anytime. That is why I thought this cheesy pasta bake would be perfect for her. This is great as a family dinner too. What I do is prepare everything according to cbb’s needs (that means no extra salt or sugar), and when eating, sprinkle some salt on our portions. I often eat it plain like so too, but Jason needs some added flavour.

The core ingredients for this dish: eggplant, capsicums, tuna, canned tomato, your choice of pasta, cheddar and mozzarella cheese. It was so good, even without extra seasoning. When serving it to your baby, you might want to run a pair of scissors through her portion. I recommend this for babies after a year old cos the vegetables can be chunky. But if if you cook it soft enough and cut them to a manageable texture, 9-12 month olds could eat it too. You know your baby better!

How to prepare your eggplant: wash and cut into half, then slice each half into 3 slices, like this:

Then score with a knife front and back, and arrange on plate and sprinkle salt. Let it sit for half an hour to draw out the moisture and minimise air pockets (so that it doesn’t soak up too much oil), then rinse and pat dry with paper towel. It’s important to get the eggplant melty soft, and I choose to do it over the stove top on extremely low heat and about 15 minutes pan-grilling time. Eggplant tastes amazing when done right.

If you’re not a fan of tuna, you can add cooked minced meat or chicken, but then that’s an extra step. Haha. This dish can also be made with most vegetables you have in the fridge. Sometimes I toss in some spinach together with the capsicums, or add some onions. It’s packed with vitamins and goodness, what’s not to love?

If you like my posts and updates, or would like to be informed of baby/cooking-related giveaways and promos from time to time…..
Like my Facebook page or follow @budgetpantry or @chuabeebee on Instagram! Yes, I just started an Insta account for CBB too!

The post Baby & family menu: Eggplant tuna bake appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

The husband suddenly decided to eat at home on Saturday and told me just “随便吃 lor”. He must be joking how can I just let him anyhow eat? As long as he watches cbb I will be happy to cook a feast for him. I miss cooking! Happy that I can cook in peace, I decided to cook something new.

Pasta is the fastest, but aglio olio and carbonara are too boring. I had some delicious chunky otah in the fridge.. I had to make otah pasta! Never would I have thought using otah as the sauce base could taste so amazing. Thank you to Otah-soh of BBQBOYS‘s for recommending it to me!

For a no-frills meal, all you need: chunky otah, pasta (I used linguine), coconut cream and garlic. Then it’s on to the ingredients. I didn’t have prawns if not I would have added them. I only used sliced fishcake, and fried up some crispy ikan bilis as topping and it is already woww. Some bouncy squid sounds delicious too.

For the otah, get those muar types which are thicker and fleshier. You don’t have to get them fresh. Frozen ones from the supermarket will do too, just defrost before using. If you have some finely chopped laksa leaves, sprinkling a little on top will make this dish even more interesting. Chili padi is optional although if you can take the heat, add it! This wowed me today cos it’s so easy and delicious.. the hubby gave it 10 points!

The post Spicy Otah Pasta appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Today I’m sharing a really easy recipe all done in one pot. Although the husband volunteers to clean the heavier stuff like pots and pans, I sometimes feel bad that he has to do the washing up after a long day at work. So this recipe is just perfect with only one pot to wash.

In case you guys think I’m a lazy bum, I clean as I cook la ok – so the chopping board, knife, bowls, cutlery and what-nots are all washed when I finish cooking! I just leave the final pot for him to wash hehe. Love his “service” especially when I use the slow cooker. So heavy!

This recipe basically needs just a few things: cooking cream, your choice of short pasta, meat/seafood to your liking and Parmesan cheese. If you don’t like cheese, I have another version of 10-min White Sauce here, which uses egg instead. To add some protein, I used chicken fillet and prawns. You could also add sliced shitake mushrooms, and of course, bacon would bring the flavour up a notch!

For chicken stock, I tend to avoid boxed/packaged chicken stock cos there’s no way I can control the flavour and I don’t like it – I find them too salty and overpowering. I like using Woh Hup’s concentrated chicken stock . Just remember the ratio of 1 teaspoon concentrated stock to 180ml water. I also use this in stir fries and soups.

I cooked for Ah-mm and Jason and they both commented (at different times) that dinner was delicious! Looks like this recipe is a keeper. I hope you try it!

The post The Easiest One-Pot Creamy Penne Alfredo appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.