Category: Little Kitchen Helper

Baking, Food, Little Kitchen Helper, Recipe

Easy pizzas

immrseio

Finally, Mrs Eio had the time to try out this online pizza recipe that her friend forwarded to her. It’s really easy to make the dough. There’s no need to knead but the dough has to be prepared 12-16 hours in advance. 

Please refer to the link below for the recipe. http://www.jennycancook.com/recipes/easy-pan-pizza/

Thanks to Jennycancook! 

Mrs Eio prepared her pizza dough at 9pm the night before. She doubled the ingredients so that she could make more pizzas. 

Next day around 1pm, the dough had doubled in size and there’s air bubbles. 

Mrs Eio added a bit of flour & mix the dough. Next, she greased a pan & spread the dough onto the pan. 

Let the dough rest for another 1-2 hours. 

Meanwhile, she prepared the ingredients for the pizza toppings: mushrooms, pork knuckle meat, olives, tomatoes, onion & cheese. 

Mrs Eio mixed 2 tbsp of tomato paste with a teaspoon of mixed herbs & 2 teaspoon of olive oil. Spread this mixture onto the dough. 

Well, Mrs a Eio’s little kitchen helpers are back in action again. Adding the toppings! This is the fun part! Meanwhile, preheat the over to 200 degreeC. 

Wallah! El can’t have cheese so there’s a corner of the pizza left for her. 

Pizzas are done after 15 mins. 

This is the crust. 

The kids loves these pizzas. They enjoyed the preparation too! 

Education, Food, Kids/Children, Little Kitchen Helper

Dumplings making with Eio kids! 

immrseio

Eio kids love to eat dumplings! Weeks ago, Mrs Eio made dumpling skin (refer to the earlier post:  Dumpling making  | I am Mrs Eio: https://immrseio.com/2016/08/02/dumpling-making/ )  together with them but they didn’t have the time to really master the skill of wrapping dumplings. Mrs Eio has been waiting for a chance to teach them how to wrap dumplings but the plan was put on hold as El was unwell for a week…

  
El had to rest at home for a week. Here’s the day when El was better & Mrs Eio’s tired of cooking dinner. She’s thinking of a way to keep the kiddos occupied, yet having them to settled their dinner & prepared for their meals to come. No time to make dumpling skin that day & Mrs Eio already bought the ready made Wu Li Hao Taiwan dumpling skin from the supermarket a few days ago. Be sure to get the right ones (NOT shui jiao skin 水饺/ NOT Yun Tun 云吞 skin) . Otherwise, the skin will be soggy after cooking. 

 
Here’s the ingredients for the fillings. 

  • Minced pork 400g
  • 1 egg (realised one is enough)
  • 1.5 cups chopped carrot 
  • 2 cups chopped chives 
  • 2tsp of grated ginger & it’s juice
  • 2 tsp of sesame oil
  • 1 tsp of soy sauce
  • 2 tsp of fish sauce
  • 1/3 tsp of salt 
  • Some pepper 
  • 4-5 tsp of corn flour (depending on the size of the egg & how wet is the mixture) 

Mixed the ingredients together & chilled it in the fridge for 1-2 hours for the ingredients to absorb the seasoning. 

   
Eio kids were extremely excited. They kept asking Mrs Eio when were they going to start making dumplings while the fillings were chilling in the fridge. Finally the time has come. Here they go! 

 
Mrs Eio was amazed that Eio kids picked up the dumpling wrapping skills really fast! Never belittle little children.  


Step by step:

  1. Wash your hands!!!
  2. Take a piece of the dumpling skin & put it on your palm. 
  3. Scoop a tsp full of meat unto the skin
  4. Dip your index finger into the water & put a bit of water on the edge of the dumplings skin. (Explain to the kids that the water is acting as glue here to stick the skin together when they close the openings. 
  5. Fold the skin into half & pressed the sides to close the openings. 
  6. You can make gathers at the sides as you close the openings so the dumplings look prettier! 😊

 

Quality versus quantity

Eio kids were following Mrs Eio’s instructions. This whole process tells a lot about their personalities. Em would put the dumplings on the plate so that he could focus on making gathers at the edge. He wanted to make pretty dumplings. El would simply close the openings of the skin flat & move on to make the next one. She wanted to make many many dumplings. Lol. 😅

  
After making a few dumplings, Em realised it’s easier to put the dumplings on his palm to make the gathers. 

Lo & behold, Mrs Eio & Eio kids made 68 dumplings in less than 25 min👏 (exclude time used to prepare & chill fillings). They freeze the dumplings for subsequent meals. 👍👍
 
Here’s their dumplings for dinner on the next day! 

 
Mrs Eio wanna take picture of Eio kids eating their dumplings but in less than 10 min (while Mrs Eio’s washing dishes), El had finished eating all the dumplings in her plate. She swallowed 8 dumplings!!! Yummy! Em still admiring his dumplings & how lovely they looked…haha. How they loves dumplings.❤️❤️

Food, Kids/Children, Little Kitchen Helper, Recipe

Dumpling making 

immrseio

Mrs Eio finally gets down to make dumplings. 

 Ingredients for the dumpling skin:

  • 3 cups of plain flour
  • 1/3 tsp of salt
  • 1 cup of hot water

Mix the salt & flour together. Gradually add the hot water into the flour & mix them tog. It’ll be lumpy in the beginning but make sure not to add too much water. Knead the dough till its smooth & ready to be used. 

Let the dough rest for at least 1 hour. Cover it when it’s resting so the dough don’t dry up. 

 

This dough yields about 25-30 dumplings. 

Divide the dough into 30 pieces . Have a cup of flour beside you to coat the small pieces of dough. Roll them into small balls & press them flat like a pancake so that it’s easier to roll them into skin. Once you have rolled them into skin, coat the skin with some flour to prevent them from sticking with one another. 

Add 2 tsp of meat fillings into the dumpling skin. Fold the skin into half.  Press it down to close the opening or make a side gathers. 
   

Eio kids trying out with Mrs Eio. 

 
For the fillings, Mrs Eio uses the following: 

  • 400g of minced pork
  • 1 cup of chopped celery 
  • Half a cup of chopped carrots
  • 2 tsp of grated ginger
  • Seasoning: 1/2 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of fish sauce, 1 tsp of sesame oil, some pepper, 2 tsp of oyster sauce. 

Mixed well. 

 To make her preparation worthwhile, Mrs Eio also add the carrot & celery (bigger cut) into her pot of corn soup for dinner. There’s another container of marinated pork with chopped carrots to be frozen for another meal. Probably to cook with mushrooms or beancurd. Here’s the dumpling fillings. Mrs Eio will freeze the dumplings for another meal. 🙂 
Mrs Eio has her own preference on the sauce to dip her cooked dumplings. 

Dumpling sauce for dipping: 

  • 3tbsp of vinegar
  • 1 tbsp of sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp of soya sauce
  • 2 tsp of grated ginger

Mix all the above together. Wallah! Enjoy…

Baking, Food, Kids/Children, Little Kitchen Helper, Recipe

Walnut chocolate chip muffins

immrseio

Little kitchen helpers are in action again. This time round, they are helping Mrs Eio bake walnut chocolate chips muffins. Mrs Eio needs to use up the left over nuts from a gathering.  

 
Ingredients: 

1) Mixture A

  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 cups self raising flour 
  • 1 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/3 teaspoon salt

2) Mixture B

  • 2/3 cup nutrisoy milk (reduced sugar) 
  • 1/2 cup canola oil 
  • 2 eggs (beaten)
  •  1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

3) 1/2 cup chocolate chips

4) 3/4 cup crushed walnut 

5) Some almond & cranberries for toppings 

  
El’s a good helper! 

First, add & mix all ingredients together for mixture A.  Add & mix all ingredients together for mixture B. Add mixture B to mixture A. Put walnuts & chocolate chip into mixture A& B. Mix them together. 

 
Em helped to crush the walnuts.    

This recipe can yield 12 muffins. Scoop the mixture into the muffin cups. 

El added the cranberries & almond toppings to the muffins. 

 
Preheat oven at 180 degree C. Bake the muffins for 20 mins. 

   
Done. Let them cool down before serving. 

    
Eio kids love the muffins. 🙂

   
Good way to get the kids to eat walnuts (brain food). Try baking it! 

Education, Family, Kids/Children, Little Kitchen Helper

Little kitchen helper: Eio Kids make egg burgers

immrseio

Mrs Eio is starting a new category in her blog- Little kitchen helper. 

Practical Reason: some of her SAHM or mommies friends are asking what she does with her kids at home? How she get them to help to prepare their lunch or dinner? What exactly Eio kids do when they help to prepare meals? 

Here’s some photos & descriptions for easier references. Just sharing some ideas. She’s sure many mommies are doing similar stuff or even better job out there!👍

Please note that most of the photos are back dated as Mrs Eio didn’t really take photos recently when the kids help out. Will try to make an effort to take photos if possible. 😁

  

Why does Mrs Eio need helpers in her kitchen? Very practical reasons again! 

  1. It’s a life skill they need to learn. Just like some parents think learning how to swim is important. 😊
  2. It’s educational. Eggs are not scrambled, poached, fried or sunny side up. There’s egg white & yolk too. Lol. 
  3. Instead of them playing & starting to get bored… bickering around evening time… Come on! Do something constructive with/for mommy & the family! 
  4. Kids to learn the process & be appreciative. If Eio kids ever question their mommy why cook this dish today or gets bored with certain dish. OK! DIY!!! After the kids started helping in the kitchen, they can better understand it really takes effort for mommy to prepare a meal for them!
  5. Eio kids like to help in the kitchen. They like to stand around to see how Mrs Eio prepare a meal. Aiyoh! Don’t stand around. Help out lah! 

  
There’s couple of “things to note” before getting the little helpers to help in the kitchen.

7 key pointers for mommies: 

  • The task assigned must be age appropriate! You can’t expect a 2 years old to fry an egg?!?!? Probably learn how to crack an egg is more age appropriate.
  • Starts with small & simple tasks. Please refrain from getting the little helpers to do complicated tasks when they are asked to help for the first time round. There’s a possibility of them messing things up. If mommy starts to get upset due to the mess, they get discouraged. 
  • Set rules & boundaries. Be clear with your instructions. Hello! They are kids! There’s stove, knives (dangerous items) etc in the  kitchen. You really want the kids to know this is not a playground right from the start! Especially if you have more than 1 little helper! 
  • Avoid wastage & unnecessary “volcano eruption”(getting upset). Eg. You may wanna scoop out the pasta sauce or put some ingredients into bowls to avoid the little helpers from spilling the entire can of sauce or messing up all the ingredients. 
  • Preparations needed depending on what you are getting the kids to help you in. Eg. Stools if your kids can’t reach the table top. Cutleries that’s suitable for kids’ use etc. 
  • Provide compliments & affirmation when you see job well done or good behaviors. Practice makes perfect. The more the kids do, it’ll get better. 
  • Last but not least, adult supervision is absolutely required!!! They are little helpers. Not adults. It’s important to teach them how to use a plastic knife & supervise how they do the task. 

    
Egg burgers: 

As you can see the Eio kids crack eggs & add the sesame oil, salt & pepper to the egg. Beat the eggs. But Mrs Eio did not let them fry the eggs then as they were already very hungry. As of now, both kids can crack an egg. Em can crack it beautifully without breaking the yolk most of the time. El is still trying to attain that standard. 

 Making burger… Spread butter… Add tomatoes, eggs etc. 

   
Eat lah! Yummy! 

From level of difficulty 1-5, 1 being easiest. This kind of preparation is considered level 1. Easy for both their age. For el perhaps it’s 1.5.. But still, very safe & easy to manage. 😊

 
Frankly speaking, when these little kitchen helpers prepare their meals, they tends to finish everything. Lol. 

Enjoy…😄

Animal-Milk-Protein Free, Baking, Dairy-free, Food, Little Kitchen Helper, Recipe

Mrs Eio’s little helper & mommy’s birthday cake

immrseio

Mrs Eio’s little helper was helping to make mommy’s birthday cake.   
This time round, Mrs Eio decided to make 2 cakes. 

 
She altered the previous recipe (her lemon chiffon cake) so the cake was more moist this time round. 

   
 Ingredients for making 2 cakes: 

(A) Flour mixture:

-3 cups of cake flour

-9 egg Yorks (from fridge because that’s where I store my eggs.) 

-4 tsp of baking powder

-100 ml of caster sugar

-3/4 tsp of salt

– 100 ml of water 

-140 ml of canola oil 

-lemon zest of 1 lemon

– juice of 1 lemon -seive before use. (please don’t throw away the lemon after juicing. Add them into water for drinking or use them to make enzymes for cleaning) 

Mrs Eio seived the cake flour, baking powder & salt and set them aside. Beat the egg York & sugar using a whisk till she feel the sugar has mixed well with the york. Add oil & mix well. Add water & mix well again. Add the lemon juice & zest, mix well. Last but not least, she added the mixture into the cake flour mixture. Whisk till everything mix well together. Set aside (mixture A). 

  
(B) Egg-white Sugar mixture: 

– 9 egg white 

-100 ml caster sugar. 

Mrs Eio used a electric handheld blender & beat the egg white & sugar mixture till it becomes a white light foam (mixture b). Slowly fold in mixture b into mixture A. A ladle of mixture b at a time. Must not over mix both mixtures (mixture c). 

Set aside 1cup of mixture C. Pour the rest of mixture c into 2 baking containers. She tapped the containers on the table a few times to “set” the mixture.( Extra air bubbles can escape.)

Piping for the cake: Add a teaspoon of chocolate powder into the 1cup of mixture C that’s set aside. Mix well. Put it into a piping bag. Time to design something or write words on the cake. Somehow the mixture is runny so the words are not well written. 🙂

Preheated oven at 160 degree celcius. Baked for 35 minutes. 

 
Blessed birthday Mrs Eio! 🎉