i love the kitchen =)

I am starting to regain my strength and energy this week though i find it tougher to jump out of bed in the morning because of night feeds.

My kitchen duties are resuming bit by bit, and i finally had the mind to make burgers from scratch last night.

To keep our fat intake low, i usually mince up beef blocks for dishes requiring minced meat. and instead of the usal bread crumbs added to burgers, i put in ground dried tofu to up our calcium intake.

so when i mean from scratch, yup, the food processor comes out.

lots of vegetables burger stew

with a burger chocked full of lotus root bits

broccolli with sesame dressing

J can't really do broccollis. ask him to prepare, and he asks do i smash it against the wall or shake the bag?

removing the thick brocolli skin and separating the florets are a little too complicated for him, so since i was all in the mood for cooking, i requested for broccolli from the supermart and did it my own.

i think it was expensive, as with a lot of vegetables these few days with the funny weather. but i so wanted to have some brocs!

grille hanpen fishcakes

and our almost the same everyday lunch

soba =)

i am happy with soba everyday. and so is J. so we basically alternate between udon and soba and vary the toppings in it for fuss free lunches.

croquettes for dinner!

The rain and winds make it impossible for me to take a breather walk these 2 days and as my tolerance level is reaching almost maximum, i found myself NEEDING to creep back into the kitchen. It is just my natural remedy to keep myself sane.

Lunch was

salmon & spinach yakiudon

Dinner was something i haven't made for a while

fried jelly!

Ok, it is just a play with the name.

A very local croquette from a part of Saitama. Croquette is typically mashed potatoes and minced meat, but fried jelly is mashed potatoes & okara (soy pulp) and minced meat, which ups the nutritional value.

added hijiki and carrots in too for extra iron

Since our croquettes are oven baked, the bread crumbs have to be baked in some oil first before coating, and for the first time, i used sesame oil for the crumbs! the minced meat was also sauteed in a little sesame oil! in confinement food fashion =P

i was really surprised this tasted really good!!! no hint of strong smelling sesame oil at all!!!

i am just crossing my fingers J doesn't get a sore throat.

with steamed peas in pod, and grilled shiitake

we got one lucky heart shaped shiitake in the pack this time =)

plus more black bean soup

J is so used to making this soup now he doesn't need my instruction sheet anymore!

*pats on the back* =)

we bought a new type of black bean and we were so excited at first taste.

beans from a different part of japan can taste different! this batch was extra yummy. deeper flavour and larger in size. yum yum!

pheee~ some stress relieved from making dinner.

terrible ice cream craving

I find myself having such an immense craving for ice cream that i am so tempted to wolf down a tub when no one's watching.

this is so depressing. no cold foods, no cool vegetables, no walking here n there.

this is just so not my usual lifestyle. i need the mart, i need an occassional ice cream, i want to have lots of cheese!!!

J offered to share an ice cream bar last night and i was allowed only a bite.

but judging from the degree of craving, i told him i would probably need the whole thing, so we agreed to have none and look forward to the 9th of may.

Meanwhile, along with lots of black bean soup, we found a new favourite!

black bean natto!

=)

Last night, after days of suffering from exhaustion from watching J cook, i decided to take things into my hands.

Fried tofu & vegetable stir fry

with the season's bamboo shoots & snow peas

I was kind of touched that the tofu grandma asked J how come i haven't been to buy tofu for quite some time. She probably didn't notice my burgeoning belly because the counter she is always behind in is high up to her chin level since she is 90degrees hunched. J explained, and now we have another person looking forward to meeting the lil one, in addition to the aunties at the farmers' mart.

I can't wait to go shopping at my 2 favourite places, the farmers' mart and the tofu stall!

Hijiki nimono

bean sprout and konbu oven baked omelette

Since i am supposed to be like a cat and keep away from washing the dishes, J did them all, plus help me with the washing/cutting of vegetables which made the whole cooking time really short! =)

Lunch is most of the time made by me, again with J assisting.

Salmon and broccolli udon

with grated onion and ginger shoyu based sauce

These frozen udon packs really come in handy for quick lunches.

just make the sauce, and toss in udon as you would with pasta.

i never thought of buying these frozen noodles when i used to have plenty of time on hands.

i guess it's time to start smart cooking!

The boring postnatal lifestyle

To spend most of the day at home is quite tiring for someone like me.

At times frustrating.

I am thankful for the sakura tree just outside that keeps me company while my butt is stuck on the sofa.

One of the sunny days last week, i decided i need some fresh air and a bit of walking, so off to the old folks home just next door.

Entering the old folks home through the back exit lets me take a good look at the sakura tree outside our window:

Lots of green leaves coming through already, with very very few pink flowers left on the tree.
Entering the home, i see a pinkier image
and a brighter man-made walking area with lots of flowers to cheer me up.

these flowers seem to be kinder to the folks and hang strong in there while most trees have already shed theirs.

And that odd candy like sakura tree, still looking good.

Ahh... that was a nice breather~

Back home, we are having lots of soups typical of the singaporean/malaysian confinement diet

and with lots of easy fish dishes which we just pop in the oven and grill on its own
My favourite garlic stir fries are out of the menu for a while, so onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and lots of black pepper help me make up for the lack of garlic punch.

This is one of the stir fries that J has quite mastered so many of our vegetable dishes are done this way to make it easy for him.

Black bean soup; one of the soups that the 2 of us can agree on.

we both love the taste, and the lots of yummy black beans in there.

Some days, we take a break from chinese soups

Like last night, where we had a large bowl of vegetable soup and a cocote dish with asparagus, mini tomatoes and an egg grilled in it.

red wine beef and cabbage soup, fond de veau stock based

and lunches are basically japanese, mainly udon/soba

I really enjoyed my pregnancy and having a new family member in our home now,

but the process of recovering from childbirth is just long and tiring, which makes me start pondering how can i start making this a more enjoyable experience.

I just can't wait to jump back into my usual lifestyle (= supermarket shopping, making many walks and COOKING).

My labour story

I am back!

I know the baby countdown clock had been ticking away while this little guy decided to arrive into this world 15 days early.

So fast that we couldn't believe it.

It started with Thursdays Chirashi sushi dinner, that i thought went wrong.

J's snores were extra loud, so i thought he was having the bad runs too.

And my diarrhoea like aches seem to be going no where. Why do i feel so constipated when everyone else is having the runs? i thought. Ok the brain just doesn't work normally in the wee hours of the morning eh?

Then i made breakfast while complaining how we shouldn't have had the salmon roe.

had breakfast with aches hitting me harder and harder till i went down on my knees repeatedly at the dining table. the pain would come then go. so i was like a crazy person being totally fine one minute, and squirming in excruciating pain 3 minutes later. We still wouldn't accept that this could be labour contractions! I mean, we are so early, plus i have a check up the next day, so let's wait. I will rest at home today, so off to work you go, i said to J.

But immediately after i changed my mind cos i feel like the pain was like an earthquake taking over me.

OK, let's ask sis in law. She suggests calling the hospital, so off we went in a taxi.

Time of entering hospital 0948. Lil one arrived 1036.

Even when i saw him, i couldn't believe he really arrived.

So, what i thought would be a touchy full of tears arrival, was totally different. Just me still in pain and trying to figure am i really awake or not.

Phooo-

Well, this was the celebratory dinner on the 3rd day at the hospital.

Really gorgeous with crab gratin, salad, fruit platter, soup, dessert (with 3 pieces of mini cakes) and

Beef steak!

Beef steak with japanese shoyu based sauce which made want to finish the whole huge bowl of rice.

yeah, every meal came with a huge bowl of rice which according to the nurse, am supposed to finish to produce good amount of breastmilk!

Well, anyhow, i now find myself craving LOTS of carbohydrates thought my butt is stuck to the sofa most days.

I feel so blessed at this place.

This was the view from my bed

With a Mother Mary statue outside the hospice opposite.

and sakuras still hanging in there, with green leaves sprouting quickly everyday.

And, let me show you something which i think is quite very Japanese.

The baby unbilical cord!

which is saved in a nice wooden box for keepsake.

Yes, i just have to have my 2 cats around wherever i go.

Now, J is the major chef, while i just sit around and make up to do lists.

I really can't wait to get all my energy back and hop around the house.

This was dinner last night

Besides the simple vegetable soup,

Beef & potatoes and bamboo shoot shoyu simmer

burdock in black sesame

And dinner the day before

Ginger grilled fish

and a new experiment for the both of us, spanish omelette!

J is probably gonna take too much time to master making tamagoyaki, so i decided to let him try making this huge omelette in the cake pyrex ware.

Success! Little oil and no sugar unlike tamagoyaki, so we are both giving the thumbs up!

Besides the plenty of so called confinement diet soups he has been making, we are both pretty much getting used to our new lifestyle, so i probably won't be blogging as much as i would like.

Our lives pretty much changed 180deg after the lil one arrived.

But, we are both happy =)

Spring time chirashi sushi

The day was sunny and nice but surprisingly chilly.

But since i was in a spring time mood, i decided to make sushi for dinner!

Chirashi sushi

Chirashi mixed basically means mixed sushi, and you can top the sushi rice with anything i like, usually the season's stuff and colours.

Tonjiru (pork miso soup)

packed full of vegetables

konbu salad

konbu is put into the rice cooker when i cook the rice so that the rice tastes good.

When the broth has been extracted, the konbu is nice and soft, so i usually just toss the strips with some bonito flakes and shoyu. =)

Yeah, and we had a whole lot of okara again. whee~

High on satisfying all my cravings=)

a big plate of our favourite okara

We had fish and rice today.

paper baked cod with enoki mushrooms,

with garlic black bean sauce & ginger strips

lotus root soup

to warm the both of us up since it suddenly became so chilly today.

okara and hijiki salad

Both of us love okara salad, so i usually make a HUGE amount each time so we can happily fill our bellies with this filled with polyphenol & iron salad.

flower greens tossed with nameko

it gets cold one day and hot the other very often in spring.

coping with it was hard in the beginning, but i am learning to enjoy each different day. =)

Kuriyama park

The day was nice hot and sunny!

With a gentle breeze blowing occassionally, taking sakura petals all over the place.

My garden was filled with pink polka dots which really made my day.

of course they fell into the flower pots too

which made me stoop and stare for a long time at how pretty the pink is.

and then i realised, there is quite a lot of mould in the pots of soild.

since it was nice and warm, i just wanted to complete so many things, which made me get down to change all the soil in the pots! whew, it was hard work plucking out the roots, filling the pots with fresh soil, and then cleaning up the place.

but i am so looking forward to yummier herbs and blueberries =)

after all that sweating out in the garden, i craved a stroll outside.

So i headed for...

the old folks home which has a veeeeeeeeeeery pretty garden.

and since i have been wanting to take a closer look at what that candy looking sakura tree is really like, i did it today, and walked in to have a CLOSE view.

they were not just pink and white flowers, but some were fusioned pink & white!

cute eh?

and from far, the pink is so striking they look like candy.

then further down the road at the Kuriyama park

the white sakura flowers were already spotting some green among them

the day was warm, and petals were showering all over, so out came the kids with their buckets and shovels to play at the playground in the park.

I really miss these sand filled playgrounds cos every playground in Singapore seems to have gone through major revamp to reveal all-rubber matting floors and super modern plastic kinds of play furniture.

I am glad most of the playgrounds here are still old-fashioned!

though mum would probably frown at the thought of ants in the sand in hot Singapore.hehe

Dinner tonight was

shabu shabu whey pork on ramen noodles,

dipped in clear salt based soup before slurping

salt grilled shiitake mushrooms, and sweet chestnuts

Whenever we have really yummy ingredients on hand, our favourite style is always salt based.

So with a batch of yummy whey porl slices, shabu shabu is the simplest yet tastiest.

and with juicy fresh shiitake mushrooms, grilled simply with salt, is really the best way to enjoy!