Category Archives: Today’s Simple Dinner

Today’s Simple Dinner – Instant Noodle

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Posted by Vedis on January 20, 2010 – 8:50 pm
Filed under Noodles, Today's Simple Dinner

Before drifting into sleep at 5.30 p.m., hubby mumbled that we would go and eat the delicious chicken rice. But at 6 p.m., I cooked myself a bowl of instant noodle with tomatoes and gai choi.

Why didn’t I wait for hubby to wake up and go eat the yummy chicken rice? Well, it won’t happen.

There have been too many times that he was so exhausted that he woke up at 9 p.m. or the next morning. It will happen again and again. ;-)

What about his dinner? Of course, instant noodle too. Just that his will be added with an egg. So, his instant noodle will have tomatoes, gai choi and egg!

Instant Noodle
Photo Credit for Instant Noodle

Wow, it will be even more delicious if Lap Cheong aka Chinese sausage, hot dog, ham or luncheon meat aka cold cut is added! Yummy, yummy.

Updated at 8:50 p.m: Hubby woke up at 8:30 p.m. He didn’t want to eat any instant noodle. Instead, he finished half bowl of cooked barley.

Great! Eating barley is better than eating instant noodle. Barley is a healthy high-fiber, high-protein grain boasting numerous health benefits.

You know, “One cup of cooked barley provides 193 calories, 6 grams of fiber and 3.5 grams of protein. With less than one gram of fat per serving, barley is a virtually fat-free food and is also cholesterol-free.”

Today’s Simple Lunch & Dinner – Yam Rice

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Posted by Vedis on January 19, 2010 – 12:45 pm
Filed under Chinese Dishes, Chinese Rice Recipes, Malaysian Dishes, Today's Simple Dinner, Today's Simple Lunch

A Note to Myself: Cook the yam rice ingredients and brown rice in another pot before pouring them into the rice cooker!

My rice was uncooked just now because I stirred the brown rice and ingredients in the rice cooker. As I opened the rice cooker a few times to see and stir, the rice cooker went into ‘Keep Warm’ status. The ‘Cooking’ button just kept popping to ‘Keep Warm’?!

So how? Since all the ingredients had already been cooked and the rice was the only problem, I scooped the yam rice including the ingredients out of the rice cooker and heat it in the steamer for 20 minutes.

Yam Rice
Photo Credit for Yam Rice

Thank God. My yam rice rice was totally cooked and it tasted yummy. The big pot of yam rice is for today’s lunch and dinner!

This is my first time cooking yam rice, so follow at your own risk. ;-)

So long as it’s delicious, it doesn’t matter how you cook it, right? Here is my Yam Rice recipe that uses the rice cooker only.

It’s a long story if you want to know why I only use rice cooker, steamer or/and slow cooker for cooking. Stove, gas burner, microwave, multi-purpose cooker??

Ingredients:

2 palm-sized yams, cut into big chunks
1 chicken breast, skinned and cut into chunks, marinated with oyster sauce and soy sauce
1 bunch of Gai Choi aka Chinese mustards, remove stems from core, wash well and cut into 1.5 lengths
50g dried shrimps, soaked in water for 5 minutes
50g dried oysters, soaked in water for 5 minutes
Water for boiling
3 2 measure cups of brown rice (3 measure cups of rice was too much for two of us for two meals. We were not able to finish the yam rice.)

Instructions:

1. Place the water, yams, dried shrimps and dried oysters into a cooking pot. Bring to boil.

2. Add the marinated chicken, brown rice and Gai Choi into the cooking pot and stir well whilst adding oyster sauce and soy sauce.

3. Once everything is evenly coated with seasoning, pour the whole pot into the rice cooker.

4. Add more water to cover rice mixture completely with about 1 cm above the surface of the rice. Switch on the rice cooker and let the yam rice fully cooked. Do Not Open the Rice Cooker Cover and Stir the Yam Rice!!!

If you open the rice cooker to see and stir, the rice cooker will go into ‘Keep Warm’ status like it happened to me today.