Quick and easy boxed lunch - veggie pasta

Hihi friends of Hazelnutt House (",) 

It's Sunday night!!!  

Tis the night that I prepare my lunches for the next couple of days - usually three days worth of lunch.  I do not enjoy eating out while at work but I don't mind eating the exact same home cooked lunches few days in a row.  So, my lunches are prepared, usually on a Sunday night and on Wednesdays nights.  I used to prepare sandwiches or wraps in the morning before heading to work, but I prefer to sleep in a bit more instead (",) ... so it's preprepared refrigerated lunch boxes for now.  

Tonight, I've celery, bell peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms and broccoli. 

Here's what I do to put everything together...

Coat the pan with olive oil and in goes the ingredients... and swish them around a little before I added the seasoning.

For this veggie pasta, I added some wholegrain mustard and pesto. 

When the veggies are well coated with the seasoning, in goes the pasta that I've boiled earlier.  Stir it all up and let it cook for a bit.  I try not to cook my veggies all the way since I heat them up before eating which in turn cooks the veggies further.  

Just FYI, here's the other bottles of seasoning that I alternate with.  I try not to use tomato or cream based sauces for my packed lunches coz the idea is to eat healthy and sauces are higher in calories as well as salt content.

Here's my little tubs of veggie pasta ready to be refrigerated (",) 

I usually go with 30% carbo and 70% veggies for my veggie pasta. Coz having a full lunch makes me wanna go to sleep while at work.. hehehe...

Talk to you ladies soon!

Easy 3 ingredient breakfast - Oatmeal Flats

U know how it is when you get back from a vacation?  There's hardly any food at home and the fridge requires some stocking up before you can start cooking anything proper?

Well, we just got home from a 3 weeks vacation in the US and I am so sick of eating out all the time.  In Singapore, I eat home cooked food 80% of the time.  So you can imagine how eating out daily upset my system.  

So when I woke up today, I was scouring the kitchen and refrigerator for something to prepare for breakfast and I was so lost coz there was no bread and eggs in the house for me to whip up something simple.  

I thought hard and long and decided to try making some oatmeal flats (yeah, I decided to call them that) for brekkie.

Here's the ingredients I use: 

• 3 tbsp oatmeal
• 1 tsp peanut butter
• raisins 

I added hot water to the oatmeal before adding the rest of the ingredients.   The consistency of the oatmeal has to be thick and not runny.

Then I cooked them on a non-stick pan for about 10 mins, flipping them often to prevent browning.  

Added some strawberries that my mum bought the night before and viola! 

EASY PEASY HOMEMADE BREAKFAST!!!!

I am a happy trooper!

The outer layer of the oatmeal flat was nice and crisp while the inside was still slightly soft and warm.  No extra sugar since the raisins are sweet enough.

Talk to you ladies soon!!!

Phone craft using foam and random bits

Hey hey friends of Hazelnutt House (",) 

Kiddo has a phone! ... yup...one that she made with foam (",) 

I kept these two pieces of foam sheets after removing them from a package and today, I thought of a good way to use it - Kiddo and I decided to make our own mobile phones (",) 

I cut out some rectangles for the buttons using card stock.

To achieve a slightly popup effect for the buttons, we used these double sided foam to stick the buttons onto the foam.

When Kiddo was done with her buttons and home screen, she pulled out her sticker album and started to add some Bling! to her phone.

Kiddo's really thrilled with her phone...*ahem... pls ignore the laterally inverted numbers that she has written on the buttons >_< 

Here's my foam mobile... robot style. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Pumpkin Cubes - Easy Pumpkin Recipes

Hihi friends of Hazelnutt House (",) 

The pumpkin cubes that I bake is always a hit with kids and adults alike.  Some kids turn up their noses at the mention of pumpkin but once they start popping these cubes into their mouths, they come backing asking for more (",) 

The first time I baked these pumpkin squares, I followed the  Pumpkin Bars recipe from Food Network.

It was atrociously SWEET!  Well, to be fair, not everyone has a sweet tooth... so I decided to cut, cut, cut down on the amount of sugar since pumpkin is already sweet on its own.   I also added chocolate chips coz I think it'll go well with the pumpkin.  So here's my take on the pumpkin bars.  I cut mine up into cubes so I'll call mine 'Pumpkin Cubes' instead.

I make my own pumpkin puree so, if you are interested to DIY, click here.

Cubes

Wet Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 can of pumpkin puree (appx 2 cups)

Mix the wet ingredients together.   

Dry Ingredients 

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

Mix dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients.

I did all the whisking and mixing with a whisk instead of an electric mixer.

• 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Once the wet and dry ingredients are nicely mixed, fold the semi sweet chocolate chips into the mixture.  Pour mixture into a baking pan (13 x 10 inch).

Set oven to 180 Degrees Celsius and bake for about 30 minutes.

Once the pumpkin mixture is in the oven, you can start prepping the icing.

Icing

• 250g cream cheese (soften) 
• 1/2 cup butter (soften)
• 1 cup confectioner' sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon powder

I used a handheld mixer for the icing.  Mix everything together at low speed until combined. 

Set the icing in the refrigerator while waiting for the pumpkin mixture to bake. 

Once the pumpkin mixture is baked, allow to cool for at least 30 mins. 

I shaved off the sides and started cutting it up into cubes.

Start pipping the frosting on each cube (",)

Kim the opportunistic pooch waiting around as usual... I gave her some roasted pumpkins.. though (",)

Mashed pumpkin for my pumpkin recipes

  Here's a short entry on how I prepare my pumpkin puree. 

I usually use a whole pumpkin and keep half of for pancakes or waffles.  The types of pumpkins I use depends on what is available in stores.  I use both the local as well as the Japanese pumpkins.  Both are good in my opinion.  

So, I wash and remove the skin from the pumpkin and cut them up into small chunks.  Set the oven at 200 degrees Celsius and pop the pumpkin chunks in there for about 20 mins.  

I used to use a blender to puree the pumpkin but I find that a fork does the job as well.  So I have been manually mashing up the pumpkins instead of pureeing them in a blender.  I prefer using the fork coz I like my 'puree' to have texture and bite to it instead of being too smooth. 

So, here's the end of this simple pumpkin puree entry (",) 

Click on the titles for pumpkin recipes that I've tried out:

• Pumpkin Squares
• Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Sandwich party

Hello Friends of Hazelnutt House (",) 

When I invited my pals over for a get-together, I scoured the world wide web in search for some easy recipes.   

Simple recipes were abundant and I noted a ton of them on a notepad.  I couldn't decide which recipes to choose!  After thinking for days, BINGO!  A sandwich party!  

So, I decided to put together three different sandwiches for that day. 

Egg mayo croissant:

• croissant
• eggs (hard boiled)
• mayonaise (I used my favourite Kewpie Mayonnaise) 
• pepper (to taste)
• leaves

Ham & cheese focaccia: 

• focaccia
• sliced ham
• sliced cheese
• tomatoes 

Cucumber on baguette:

• baguette
• cucumber
• cream cheese
• butter
• salt
• dill weed

Three selections of sandwiches using different types of bread.

I added these fairy flaggies just for fun (",) 

It also helps hold the sandwich fillings in place instead of having them slide around as I cut through them.  I poke the flaggies into the focaccia loaf before slicing it with a serrated knife.

Easy to make, and fun to have... although my friends were poking fun at me for adding this lil' finishing 

touches to the sandwiches. 

Fairy flaggies: 

• office labels (narrow strips)
• toothpick
• fairy stamps & ink

Hope this entry helps in one way or another when you are planning a lil' get-together with friends this holiday season... not very Christmassy but it should be a suitable occasion for a sandwich party (",)

Simple, easy to make Christmas gift.

Ho ho ho! 

Well, this isn't exactly a gift... but I definitely can't call it a greeting card.  So I thought I will just call it a gift.

Kiddo and I made some Christmas canvas boards today.  Instead of giving her teachers at the art school a card, we made these holiday themed boards. 

Whenever I spy these small canvas boards in Daiso, I will load them into my basket, knowing that they will definitely come in handy.  

Before I go on to show the simple steps that is involved in this quick project, I wanna talk about this compass cutter that I found at Daiso.  I have been wanting to get a circular cutter/puncher despite having circle dies for my Sizzix Big Shot machine as well as a Silhouette Cameo machine that practically cuts any shape in the world.  This cutter is easy to use and very portable.

Here is a close up of the compass cutter.  Using the mathematical compass concept, instead of a pencil, there is a blade - instead of drawing circles, you cut circles (",) 

You get to cut a variety of sizes by simply adjusting the compass needle to the left or right.

Kiddo chose the patterned paper and I went ahead to cut out some circles.  This $2 compass cutter worked fabulously!  The only drawback with such cutters it that you will end up with a hole in the middle of the circle due to the needle point.

We gathered some sequin strips and bows...

and some colourful magazine pages.

Kiddo is allowed to use the hot glue gun under my supervision and we glued the sequin strips, circles and bows in place.  For the holiday greetings, we cut out a rectangular background and proceeded to stamp out, 'Merry X'mas!' on a less colourful cardstock.

All done! (",) 

Simple and quick and definitely not too shabby - Christmas ornament balls canvas boards.