FTWM-NEED YOUR GUIDE
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Dora1:
oh i see,,,,,care to share more on your simple recipe ? kekekeI have 1 DD in CC. FTWM with no maid. I have a part-time maid that helps to clean and iron once a week, which takes a major load off.
I cook 4 times a week on weekdays. Weekends normally dun cook cos will be out or at parent's place.
Thermal pot is my saviour. Also get a rice cooker with a timer.
What I do is to prepare all ingredients for soups or stews the night before, including blanching of spare ribs etc. Then I put all the ingredients in the inner pot, cling wrap it and put in fridge. The next morning, I just put add water and put the inner pot to boil. Then wash the rice and put in the rice cooker and set timer so that it will be cooked by the time I come home. Then I go and prepare to work, get DD ready etc. By the time we are ready to leave the house, the soup/stew will be ready as well, so I'll just put it in the outer pot and off we go to work. DD will have her milk in the car and breakfast in CC. However, on certain days where I know they serve breakfast that she doesn't eat (e.g. oatmeal), I will prepare a sandwich for her to bring to school.
The soup and rice will be complemented by one meat and one stir fry veg.
Meat can be steamed fish, chicken or pork with miso or soya sauce, omelette with silver fish or onion. Or sometimes I just do ma po bean curd with prawns and enoki mushrooms with oyster sauce.
All the meat are pre-cut/marinated the night before and left in the fridge. I put them in the lock-lock glass containers. So come back just need to wash veg and fry the ingredients, and warm up the soup. Notice I have 3 burners, so 3 burners will be in use together
Dinner is served <20min.
Other dishes that I cook on weekdays include fried rice, udon soup (can buy those dashi stock packs from supermarket, takes 2 min to make the stock), fried noodles.
It's doable, have to plan the whole week's menu during the weekends when you are doing grocery shopping. Normally Mon and Tue eat green veg, Wed and Thur will be cabbage and broccoli which is more hardy. I prepare all the stuff the night before after DD sleeps, so that she won't have to wait too long for dinner. Sometimes, she helps me to wash or pluck veg, or beat eggs while I cook the rest. It helps in the bonding too!
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Kissgurami:
hi kissgurami, the chicken soup if you are boiling, which what other ingredients do you pair with?Hi Queen,
I was in the same scenario like you this year and with frequent night calls , my cooking time is limited to 30 mins (including prep if possible).
Dishes which I make during week days
- Pesto Pasta Dishes (sun dried tomatoes, capsicum and bloack olives)
- Tomato based pasta (you can get the jar sauces, roasted vegetables base are usually a hit. you can add minced meat, portobello mushroom or other types of mushroom. Add shredded cheddar or parmesan cheese
- Slow boiled soup, I prep my ingredients into the slow cooker and let it boil on \"Low\" and you get 9 hours of pure goodness which is already ready when you are back. Just need to whip a simple veg dish (cabbage with mince meat, or baby kai lan, broccoli, bean sprouts) and sunny side eggs with dark sauce
- if it is chicken soup , usually pairing it with rice is good enough for kids.
- Pan Grilled Saba with rice. if you have an oven, you can thaw the frozen saba within 6 - 10 mins. so you just need to prep the rice before you thaw the saba. Use the rice cooking time to pan grill the saba (w/o oil , grill the skin first). veg can be shredded cabbage with egg mayo or cucumber. squeeze a little calamansi onto the saba when eating, gives it a nice zing.
- Home made pizza. Use betty crocker's pizza crust. simple and fuss free. do a test run on a weekend to get a hang of the rolling.
- Cheesy Rice: Prep the rice and while it is cooking, prep the chicken fillet or breast with button/white or brown mushrooms, stir fry in some cream, salt to taste . scoop out the rice into a casserole, top it with the chicken/mushrooms and finally top with shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese. pop into the oven and grill it for 5- 6 mins. -
Dora1:
queen
Thermal pots dun need electricity, so they are not commonly sold in electric shops (although some do have a limited selection).
I find the following places quite good for thermal pots:
1)Isetan
2)Takashimaya
3)Robinsons
4)OG
5)BHG
The branded ones are Tiger, Zojirushi, La Gourmet, Thermos. They easily cost from $100 to $300 depending on size. There is also the cheaper Endo. Giant sells some brandless ones for a fraction of the price. But you have to judge it yourself on the quality, cos some are obviously not well made.
I got mine many years ago from OG, brandless. Still working fine.
A word of caution, buy the pot size that is suitable for your family size. I started out buying the 5L when I just got preggie. Obviously too big for the 2 of us. The pot must be at least ~80% full for it to retain heat well. If not, the thermal pot won't cook well.
Depending if you drink a lot of soup, I have a 1.8L and I use it for soups and stews for 2A + 1C. I also have a mini 1L one that I used to cook porridge when DD was a baby. I only use the 5L now when my extended family comes over.
oh i see.... i will go and source for the thermal pot ..... :xedfingers: -
the queen:
I will drop you a PM coz they are from a recipe book from Eric Teo :oops:
hi kissgurami, the chicken soup if you are boiling, which what other ingredients do you pair with? -
Does any of the FTWM buy your meat and freeze them for a week or more? Cos the only time I can do marketing would be during the weekends but my mil frowns on buying chilled meat and freezing them for a week. She says it is not fresh
but how to buy meat daily? -
Dekora:
Does any of the FTWM buy your meat and freeze them for a week or more? Cos the only time I can do marketing would be during the weekends but my mil frowns on buying chilled meat and freezing them for a week. She says it is not fresh
but how to buy meat daily?
u mean u come back home and thaw your meats to cook?! You're amazing!
certain meats like chicken breast/chicken wings/drumlets/thigh, cod slices, tiger prawns, lean pork, minced pork/beef can freeze up to a week. NB: Lean pork here is for making soup only. If you slice it and stir-fry, confirm sucks!
selected ones can change taste drastically, e.g. twee bah/sweet sour pork loin/soft bone pork/pork chop, fresh fish and shrimps, beef cubes, stir-fried beef slices and steak/lamb chops (MUST ask butcher to vacuum pack).
If it's just for weekend cooking, then buy on Sat morning and cook on the same day please. -
Dekora:
Does any of the FTWM buy your meat and freeze them for a week or more? Cos the only time I can do marketing would be during the weekends but my mil frowns on buying chilled meat and freezing them for a week. She says it is not fresh
but how to buy meat daily?
I am a SAHM and all my meat is frozen unless I intend to cook it the same day. In fact, I often buy frozen meat rather than fresh since I'm going to freeze it anyway. I'm not as sensitive as jetsetter so I don't really notice any difference. For your mil - freezing preserves the freshness at the time of freezing; it's not the same as chilling. And nutritionally, it doesn't lose anything (or hardly anything) in the course of freezing. -
I am a FTWM with no maid and no MIL help and I cook 4 out of 5 weekday dinners. No choice have to freeze the meats. I agree with Slmkhoo, I also find that some frozen meats are fresher than if I buy from market and freeze it myself. But have to be discerning on the brands. I always have a stash of frozen pork ribs, deshelled prawns and cod fish in my freezer as standby food.
It also depends on your thawing technique. I put the frozen meat into the chiller the night before for next day’s dinner. Don’t thaw the meat by putting into a basin of water like what the old folks like to do, confirm no taste, and there’s a risk that bacteria will grow if you forget abt it and leave it at room temperature for a while.
But having said that I find that if you want to steam whole fish or sotong, then don’t freeze it, it really does affect the taste and texture. But fish like cod is ok. They come frozen anyway, the fishmonger at the market just thaw and cut a piece to sell to you - not supposed to re-freeze the cod fish bought from market. You can’t find fresh cod in SG markets no matter what they tell you. So for cod, I buy individually frozen portions from wholesalers.
Just plan your weekly menu. Cook food that can’t be frozen on Mondays or Tue. Later in the week cook food that can be frozen, or simple food eg eggs with silver fish and tofu. A sample of my weekly dinner menu for 2A +1C
Marketing on Sunday.
Mon: Steam fish (fresh, chilled from previous day), fry green veg with abalone mushroom, winter melon soup (frozen pork ribs)
Tue: Soya sauce braised chicken (fresh, chilled at 1deg from Sun), green veg.
Wed:Omelette with Silver fish, Bak kut teh soup (frozen ribs), fry green veg.
Thur: Teriyaki Cod fish (frozen), miso soup, fry cabbage.
Fri: Mummy’s rest day! -
Dekora:
Does any of the FTWM buy your meat and freeze them for a week or more? Cos the only time I can do marketing would be during the weekends but my mil frowns on buying chilled meat and freezing them for a week. She says it is not fresh
but how to buy meat daily?
I think you need to work around your own schedule and not be too affected by the opinions of others who do not have your kind of schedule.
I do my marketing once a week. I buy from the butcher and freeze them and sometimes I do not use the meat until more than a week later. I do buy frozen meat as well.
My mum and mil also commented about me buying and freezing and asked me to do my marketing more frequently. I just do my usual, nod and say orh. Then continue with my own routine. :razz: -
Hi Dora1,
Can you kindly share with us where you get all your frozen meat and which brand have you tried so far that is worth to give is a try.
I would like to switch to buying frozen meat instead of buying from market due to time constraint on weekend and full day working on weekdays.
:thankyou:
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