When a child don't eat brown rice

My son is a food picker, I have to crack my brain everyday to cook his meal and have to mix and match varieties so he will not get sick. He used to only eats broccoli, cauliflower, seaweed, toufu and grains. Now he is better as he gets older, more sensible and can accept more food. At least he takes carrots, cai xin, ect... For mothers out there, no worry if he don't eat at young age, keep trying and he will eat them one day. Children grows very fast and they changes very fast, even with food, speech, actions ect. It is fulfilling to see them grow and developed new skill and he gives me surprises all the time and it delighted me (that is my rewards) :)    I would suggest to create a Happy environment all the time at home, including during his mealtime, I know it is hard but have to try because when they are happy, their body also absorb nutritious better. Children learn from caregiver and parents, if they are grow up in a caring and loving environment, they will become a Happy adult in the future.

My son does not eat Brown Rice, he will spit it out as it is rough, no matter how I cook it, despite it is soft porridge. Therefore I come out with soft multi grains rice, although he is not eating brown rice but at least something more nutritious. Here I share with you my recipes, feel free to leave any comments.

Grains
Millet  - 30%
Quinoa  - 30%
Red Lentil  - 20%
white rice  - 20%

Mix all the grains together and wash and cook in rice cooker.

Dish
Broccoli
Carrot
Tou Boa

Add a little water in pot and boil it. When it is boiled, add in all the ingredients and cook until cooked then off the fire and add in black bean soya sauce and sesame oil and mix it up.

I like tou boa because the ingredient only states water and soya beans. Sometimes I marinate with black soya bean sauce and pan fried it and it looks like chicken slices.

Thereafter put them together as shown in above picture and sprinkle raw wakame flakes and sesame seed on the rice and serve.

Wakame Flake - I bought the dried wakame in a package and grind them into powder for easy consumption.

Sesame seed is for Calcium, do you know that the calcium in sesame seed is more than milk?

Simple little meal from my humble little kitchen.............

Favourite Salad Part 2 - Salad from the SEA

Beside the earlier version of Salad, I still have another favourite salad of mine, SALAD from the SEA!

This recipe is very easy and simple and REFRESHING! I got this idea from a friend, Angie when she opened house for playgroup years ago. 

The ingredients are:

Wakame - soaked for 30mins

Coral Algea - soaked for 3 hours

Cucumber - cubes or stripes

Tomato - cubed

I simply love Coral Algea, it is gives you the crunch and biting sensation. And we can get B12 from Seaweed.

Seasoning

Lemon Juice 

Sesame Oil

Liquid Amino

Just mix them up together and served! Sprinkle some Sesame Seed for CALCIUM.

Favourite Salad at the moment

I guess after some time of making food from recipes and trying out different type of salads for your meals, you will have one and only salad that you would love to eat it for days or even weeks and months without getting sick. Today I would like to share with you my favourite salad which I have been eating for a period of time and still my favourite. I am now cutting down time in making food and use the time to do other things I like. This salad need no sauce and still taste good to me. It helps me to get back on track after going down hill into eating junk food. Here it goes...

Ingredients : Raw vegetables we have - chopped lettuce finely

                                                            cut up tomato into small cubes

                                                            cut up turnip into small cubes

                                                            cut up cucumber into small pieces

                                                            soaked raisin

Talking about raisin, Nature Glory's raisin is big and juicy, thanks to Wan Yin's recommendation. If you eat it like this, it is chewy, if you soaked it, it is crunchy, yummy! Should try if you have the time to visit Nature's Glory at Tiong Bahru area

Back to Ingredients : add cubes of avocado

                                drizzle some lemon juice - amount depends on your taste to sourness

                                sprinkle some sea salt

Mix them up and ENJOY!

I like this combi, hope you like it too.

Shake it Up, Gelato!

Hey guys, I am back again! Not going to focus 100% into raw making but into Sharing on what I am cooking or making lately. My son started schooling in PCF for 5 months as of now and have outing every month organised by school. The last trip we went to ART OF SCOOP, gelato making, Mmmmmm... Sounds yummy and my son and his classmates all looking forward to this trip. I went along too as this is one of the conditions. This is trip is very interesting and we have learnt to make Gelato ourselves at home. I had shared previously on making popicle at home as in the link : http://rawhealthyfood.blogspot.sg/2010/07/maitris-favourite-ice-cream-and-cookie.html

This round will be another kind of ice cream, they called it Gelato which is from Itali, no eggs, only milk, sugar and vanilla essence. We actually get to make the Gelato in the workshop and it taste great! I started making it at home with Organic Rice Milk, Organic Raw Sugar and Organic Vanilla Extract as shown below:

This is how it goes......

What you need is a big size zip lock bag, a smaller size zip lock bag, masking tape, salt, ice as shown below:

Next pour 300ml rice milk in a cup, add in 1~2 tablespoon of raw sugar (depend on your liking on sweetness), add in 1~2 teaspoon of vanilla essence (taste it before you add more)

Stirred up the mixture until no clicking sound from the sugar, then pour it into the smaller zip lock bag and add masking tape as shown below:

Also add in the ice until half of the bag is filled and add in 1 1/2 pack of salt into the big zip lock bag as shown below:

The final step is to place the small zip lock bag into the big zip lock bag and add masking tape as shown below :

Be sure to place a towel below the bag for ease of cleaning later....

At last the FUN is here, shake it up, this way and that way, up and down, left and right. If your hand are cold slide it on the towel on the floor or tray.

Don't forget to use a glove to prevent your hands from FREEZING.... BRrrrr

Thanks Bro, your hand glove comes in handy.

...........  After 5~10mins......  Your Gelato is DONE! Depends on your shaking speed and volume, the freezing time is different. Scoop it up and ENJOY!

My son likes chocolate flavour, I add 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder to the mixture for the taste.

This is a fun way to keep the kids busy indoor and they get to enjoy their hardship later. 

One point is that there will be waste on the plastic bags and needs lots of ice and salt. 

So in the end I bought a Gelato maker by Kenwood..... Have yet to tried out, will update later on the efficiency of this machine ya

To be continue............

Food Preparation Class in May 2011

Hi everyone, I have just created a new facebook account for my TSL Kitchen. With all the events created, people will know what I am doing and what dishes I am sharing. If you are interested in only one dishes for each session, you don't have to come for everyone of them. Just PM me and I can customise the lesson for you so you learn what you like at one go. I hope to show people that vegan food can be very interesting and tasty too, best of all much more nutritious. Not forgetting to share on what I learn from Our Place International on self healing, for more details, please check it out at : www.ourplaceinternational.com

http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002288671062

Talking about Facebook, it is a very powerful tool in communication, I can reconnect people whom I have lost touch for years. My secondary school friends, oversea ex colleagues and even all my relatives whom we see once in a year. I feel closer to them now then before and truly appreciate their support and presence. Go Go the Chan Family! To all my Cousin! Although I am a housewife but I don't cut myself away from the outside world like what my mum used to sacrifice for us. I still can talk to my friends through Facebook, know what is happen with all the newsfeed. It is so active that my messages from Facebook are more than from my handphone!!! So unbelievable!!! I learn new recipes from my friends and also learning new things from each other. My dear Dharma friends are uploading Dharma messages frequently to Newsfeed and I enjoy reading them.

Now I truly understand now how our mothers sacrificed for us now been a mum at home and how my dad work day and night struggling for daily expenses. Because I am in this situation now in a single income family. Although life is hard but it is a very good learning curve for me to learn and move to another level. We will learn and grow only when when we faces difficulties, this will test our cultivation and this is the time where we can put our Dharma knowledge into good use. I am thankful for my friend, Linda who listening to my problem and enlighten me always and direct me to the right path. Grateful! She is always so positive towards all situation, no wonder she is so cheerful whenever I see her.

Oh, coming back to my food preparation class. I met this friend whom I know her through a mum from playgroup. She happen to see my events in my TSL Kitchen and request for a few dishes to her interest. So I planned it out for her and VOILA! It is as shown in attached. Anyone interested can email ya, will open this class in MAY.

Chia Chia!

I have been hearing people promoting Chia Seed lately, in

Vegetarian Society and in Facebook...The introduction of this seed tells people that it has multiple of certain elements that will benefits the body and this seed is labelled as SUPER Food. Only EPG is selling this and they look so precious for people especially vegetarian because we worried we will missed out certain nutrition when we omitted meat from our diet. For mothers, we will worried that our children will not be nutrition enough as a vegetarian or vegan.

While we are in the progress of improving our diet, these worries are understandable and we would want to know more information before we do the transit. Reading up books and proper website is essential initially, this will built up your confident with examples from others.

Reference : www.ourplaceinternational.com

Herbert Shelton

Harvey Diamond

As our body gets cleaner, our instinct will be better and we will listen to our stomach instead, without using our intellect. When we reached that stage, we don't have to worry about the Nutrition Factor in the food, we just go according to our instinct. This is what I understand from Siok Khoon from our place international. They have been doing self healing and cleansing their body as and when necessary according to body's needs with Fasting. Their instinct revealed slowly and understand the truth better. For me, I am still in progress and will believe that I will experience their freedom if I continue to cleanse my body but not now... ke ke :)

In Buddhism, it is similar, we clear our mind from dust everyday with practise and meditation. So our wisdom will slowly revealed as times goes by. If we stopped one day, the dust will accumulate and we have to start all over again. I am so blessed to know the Dharma and the way in healing our body. For those who read this Blog, hope that you can too, seriously look into these two areas.

Coming back to Chia, me too, bought a bottle of Chia Seed for fun because I have not tried it before. It is quite impressive that this seed can expand 10 times of its size after soaking it in the water for 2 hours, some used them after soaking for 30 mins. It is gel like and is good as a pudding. I tried drinking with beverage like bubble tea with the pearl. But I realised that I will just swallow the seed without chewing them and I don't feel comfortable after that, difficult to digest if not properly chewed. I got this Chia Pudding recipe from everyday raw desserts by Kenney. He has impressive pictures in his books and they all looks like commercial desserts selling in Hotels. I got the Chia Pudding recipe from it and add my own created cream sauce on top. Have fun with the gel like food but don't to be too obsessed with the nutritions in it and force it on your child.

Chia Pudding (simplified from everyday raw desserts by Kenney)

1 cup cashew

2 cups water

1/2 cup agave nectar

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp liquid amino

1/2 cup chia seeds

Blend all ingredients except for chia seeds.

Pour mixture into chia seed and mix thoroughly.

Let it sit for 2 hours.

Cream (by TSL Kitchen)

Cashew

rice milk

agave nectar

vanilla extract

blend them all up and drizzle on top of chia pudding

Cute Mini Processor can do WONDERS

I had been skipping recipes that requires processor because I don't have one. I am reluctant to buy one because it is huge and bulky. With my small kitchen, there is no space for any more equipments or my husband will shake his head.... My intention of buying the Philip hand blender was to make smooth porridge for my son. We went to a Philip Sales with my sister, Kate and brother in law, Trevor. With their generosity, they gave it to me as a Christmas Gift. So Grateful!!! I was hard on cash during that period, hee...

This hand blender comes with a mini S-blade Processor and cake batter, so neat! I started to dig out the processor when I am tempted to try to make raw cake. It works GREAT!!! I love it from the 1st day I used it. I had make so many recipes with it and it is easy to clean too. Raw cakes, pizza, sushi, bread and thick sauces..... Thanks to Kat and Trevor again for making my dishes works!

My friends has been asking me about the recipes for the Foccacia Bread, here it is, enjoy!

1 cup flax seeds, grounded

1 cup sunflower seed, grounded

2 cups onion, quartered

1 1/2 cup tomato, chopped

1/4 cup sesame seeds

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp liquid amino

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp thyme

Process everything in S-blade processor into batter form

Spread on the tray and sprinkle some sesame seed and dehydrate them

For vegetarian, use the below recipes for non onion version

2 cups of sprouted wheat berries

1/2 cup olives, pitted, diced

1 tbsp rosemary

liquid amino to taste

water

blend everything except olive (if you have masticating juicer, use it!!! for smoother texture)

mix the olive in the batter

dehydrate