Shiok Lah Vegan

Introducing to the culinary world, Chef Prahelika 😍🤭🤩 Father & daughter debating on who is the Head Chef 🤭 (behind the scenes)

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Helloooo everyone, i have been soooo out of touch with social media lately. Mommyhood has been keeping me reeeaaalll busyyyy 🥴

So last 4mths i have been giving Prahelika milk with multigrain cereals for breakfast. Plus, she stopped eating banana directly as she doesnt like the either the taste or texture (m not sure 🤷‍♀️) Recently, i decided to try something different, a bowl of smoothie together with her oats n spelt cereal for her breakfast. This method works n gets her to eat banana 🤩

Super power smoothie

1. 6 blueberries
2. Half handful baby spinach
3. 1 small frozen banana
4. 1/2 tsp soaked chia seeds (soaked in milk for 10-15mins)
5. 50ml milk (breast or formula milk)

- Blend everything together till smooth
- Add 2 spoons of oats and spelt cereal each
- Let baby enjoy 😋

* You can use any kinds of fruits. Eg: peach, mango, papaya, watermelon, rockmelon, strawberry, etc

🇸🇬 Happy 57th Burfday Singapore! 🇸🇬 Our 1st National Day together as a fam. We r all ready for NDP 🤩

So i watched Jamie Oliver's cooking show on T.V afew wks ago.This dish inspired me to cook for hubby n myself for one of our dinner.Had to tweak abit here & there from Jamie's original recipe.Was an interesting dish.I have never eaten aubergine this way.Hubby was happy n ❤️ it!😍

Ingredients

2 medium Aubergine (250g)

4 tbsp Vegan butter

1.5 cup Breadcrumbs

olive oil

Vegan Parmesan cheese block

2 cups of dried fusilli

2 cloves of garlic (minced)

1 x 400 g tin of quality cherry tomatoes

½ a bunch of basil (15g)

• 1.5tsp each of dried paprika n thyme

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cut the skin off either side of the aubergine,then cut 3-4 pieces of 1cm-thick slices lengthways (saving any offcuts for another day).Sprinkle the slices with sea salt & spend a couple of minutes gently bashing & tenderizing them with a meat mallet.Take a piece of kitchen paper & dab off the liquid from both sides of the aubergine.

• spread the butter on both sides of the cut aubergines.

• Mix 1.5tsp of salt, dried paprika & thyme to the breadcrumbs.

• Dip each side of the eggplant to the breadcrumbs mixture.Coat them well.

• Fry in a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 6 minutes or until golden, turning halfway. Transfer to an oiled baking tray, finely grate over most of the Parmesan & pop into the oven for 15mins

Cook the fusilli in a pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions.

Wipe out the frying pan, returning it to a medium-high heat with ½ a tablespoon of oil. Add the minced garlic.Fry till lightly golden, pour in the cherry tomatoes,swirl a splash of water around the tomato tin & into the pan.

• Pick the baby basil leaves & put aside,tear the rest into the sauce,season to perfection,then leave to simmer on a low heat

• Once cooked, drain the fusilli water to a small bowl,discarding the rest of the starchy water.
Toss the cooked fusilli to the tomato mixture adding alittle of the starchy water from the bowl. Divide between plates.Sit the aubergine on top, grate over the remaining Parmesan & finish with the baby basil leaves.

Keep Calm & Smile 😍 Happy Vesak Day & to the loooong weekend 🤩🥳🥰

So becoming a mum has totally changed my daily schedule but more or less i have been fine tuning my routine. With great demands of taking care of the lil one by myself now (mum n hubby have gone back to work), cooking everyday is exhausting 🥴 This gives us great temptations to taking out or ordering in for convenience purpose. However, it isnt healthy for our health n wealth 😅

Therefore, hubby n i decided to meal prep on his off days (twice a week). We cook and portion out my lunch for different days in individual containers so that i can just warm up n eat immediately. Meal prep time is crazyyyy... 🤯 Lotsa cutting, peeling, etc... Alooot of time is actually taken for prepping up the ingredients and cleaning of the kitchen at the end 😂 The easiest is the actual cooking itself 🙄

So our last meal prep, we did beehoon with tofu, potato n beans in it. We also did sambar (lentil soup) and for side dish we did, tofu potato sambal. I cooked the ladiesfinger n rice on the day i wanted to eat sambar. So while the lil one is napping, i quickly chop everything i need for the ladiesfinger n quickly stirfry. So far it has been successful. More meal prep photos next time, hopefully 🤪

Hello to all my lovely peeps, soooooo..... Like finally i squeezed in the time to do this... 😂

Raja n i wana introduce to all of u our gorgeous lil bundle of joy, Prahelika Rajakumar, yaaaayyyy 🥳😍🤩

My best burfday prezzie came afew days after my burfday with her in my arms after labouring for 14hrs. I must admit i was super nervous, expecting the delivery process to b a nightmare (blame the movies 😒). However, i was soooo blessed to have such an amazing team of nurses, midwives, gynae and paediatrician who were soooo patient, gentle and helpful. They guided me so well from the moment i got admitted and till i delivered. They made the entire delivery so easy and almost painless, to a point i didn even realize Prahelika was out until i saw everyone cheering n she was placed on my chest 😅 Couldn haf asked for a better team 😢🙏

Last 1.5mths haf been sucha rollercoaster ride for Raj n i. Becoming parents definitely haf changed our lives totally, some moments r beautiful but some moments aaaarrreeee... overwhelming 🥴 like moments when she sleeps for only 30mins or pooping again within 5mins after a diaper change and of course having a 1hr uninterrupted slp is really a bonus 😅 Oh wells, these will b the new norm from now onwards...

However, m so so so thankful n relieved to haf sucha hands-on WONDERFUL hubby and my mum around 🙏😍 Soooo much to learn but we r loving it. We r taking it 1 day at a time.

On that note, wishing all the folks who r celebrating CNY, Gong Xi Fa Cai 🍊🍊 & the rest Happy Holzzz 🍻🥳 from the Rajakumar nest 👩🏻❤👶🏻❤🧔🏻

This has been THE BEST time of my life (in terms of food that is 🤪) becoz i didn have to worry about food bump as i can get away with baby bump 🤭😂😬

Finally got the time to setup n figure out my built-in oven (thanx to hubster 🥰) and baked my favourite choc chip muffin that i have been craving for moooonntthhsss 🙄 My go to vegan recipe for muffins since day 1. I juz swap out choc chip with other toppings like blueberry or banana. Gona try orange choc chip muffin next 😋

Ingredients:

240g Self-raising flour

1/2 Cup Soymilk

1/2 Cup Refined Coconut / Vegetable Oil

3/4 Cup Maple Syrup

100g Chocolate Chips

1/2 Tsp Salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius and line a muffin tray with paper cups

Sift the dry ingredient (flour) and set aside.

In another clean bowl, pour milk and add salt. Stir well.

Add maple syrup and oil to the milk bowl. Stir it.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient. Fold the batter. At midway, add the chocolate chips and continue to fully fold till batter is well incorporated.

Do not overmix. It is alright to have a few lumps. Overmixing will cause the muffins to be dense and hard.

Using small spoons, divide the batter among the cups, 3/4 filled to the top.

Optional: You could add more chocolate chips as toppings.

Bake the muffins for 10mins. Then, turn the muffin tray by 180 degrees and continue baking for another 10mins or till they are golden brown. Turning of the tray allows for an even baking.

Use a cake tester or toothpick and insert to the middle of the muffin. If it comes out clean, the muffins are done.

Let it cool for about 20mins before indulging. Enjoy!

Things to note:

Alternative to self-raising flour: Plain flour or Whole Wheat Spelt flour with 2 Tsp baking powder

My breakfast on Deepavali 3 days ago! Thosai using ready made mixture & hubby n i cooked up kurma using impossible meat. Kurma was super yumz, tasted like the real deal, very meaty texture n flavour 😋👍

Below is the recipe. It can serve 4-5pax. Seems long n tedious but if u lay out everything nicely before u start cooking, its actually quite fast. Give it a try 😍

Ingredients

Part 1:
1. 10 pieces of raw cashew nuts (soaked in hot water for 30mins)

Part 2:
2. 1 carrot (cubed)
3. 1 cup frozen peas
4. 2 potatoes (cubed)

Part 3:
5. 1 small cinnamon stick (3-5cm long)
6. Cloves x 4
7. Cardamom x 2
8. Dried bay leaves x 1 big piece
9. Chilli padi x 1 (halved)

Part 4:
10. 1 big onion (thinly sliced)
11. 1 big tomato (chopped)
12. Garlic ginger paste x 1 Tbsp
13. 170g of impossible meat (half pack)

Part 5:
14. Turmeric x 1 Tsp
15. Chilli powder x 1 Tsp
16. Coriander powder x 2 Tbsp
17. Garam Masala x 2 Tsp

Part 6:
18. Salt (as desired)
19. Cooking oil x 3 Tbsp
20. 1 cup of water
21. Coconut yogurt x 3 Tbsp
22. Handful of chopped coriander leaves

Method:

- Blend the soaked cashew till smooth n keep aside

- Heat a pot, add oil. Once oil is heated, add all the ingredients in part 3. Stir for a minute till aromatic.

- Add the sliced onions n saute till soft & translucent.

- Add ginger garlic paste. Saute till no raw smell of the ginger garlic paste.

- Add all the powder from part 5. Mix n stir well.

- Add the chopped tomato. Stir until well smashed.

- Add the impossible meat, stir n cook till the meat is browned.

- Add 1 cup of water & all the ingredients in part 2. Add 1 tsp of salt n stir well. Cover the pot & let it boil for 2 mins. Then simmer it for 5mins in low heat.

- Add the cashew paste & coconut yogurt. Make sure to stir the yogurt before adding. Stir the mixture well & let it boil for 1 min. Do not boil for too long.

- Taste for salt & consistency of the kurma. If its too thick,add boiling water according to your liking.

- Add coriander leaves, mix well n turn off heat.

* Best eaten next day bcoz all the flavour from the spices will be well infused into the "meat" & vege.

🪔 Our first Deepavali as Mr & Mrs Raja 🪔 Happy Deepavali to all who celebrate n Happy Holz to the rest 😍🤩🥳