3 cooking tips for a working mother!

Good morning Zesties!

A couple more days to the Lunar New Year! How is it for you? I was talking to my boss last week about childhood experiences during CNY and yea, the consensus is that sometimes family reunions can be tough, uneasy and stressful. Not sure how these gatherings are for you but growing up, I always found them daunting. Just imagine, I was not a typical smart kid. I struggled with studies. Hell, I was overweight(according to BMI) and was not conventionally good looking. So yes, very anxiety-triggering.

Of course, I digress. There is the #Postin3 and I want to use this platform to get some writing done. I do eventually want to write something but I haven't been writing for years. So yes, for that huge step to be done, I need these baby steps to get words out, scaffold my thoughts, find my voice, etc.

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There are kids in my life. I try to cook as much as possible for them on weekdays just because it is healthier and I can add as many good proteins and vegetables as possible. So here are some things that I definitely will have in my kitchen.

✅ Vegetables/Fruits

For the family, the basics will be garlic, onions and shallots for any stir-fry dish or stew.

Definitely tomatoes, carrots, old cucumbers, corn, white onions, white radishes for soups. Every couple of days, I will brew soup for the kids. So those items listed are good to add in soups along with chicken drumsticks/spare ribs. Tomatoes 🍅 are very versatile, you can put them in stews as well.

We will have a vegetable dish- spinach, french beans, and broccoli. Accompanying them, likely mushrooms, and there are so many types of mushrooms such as the swiss brown mushrooms, oyster mushrooms or the bunashimeji mushrooms. Megan especially like the canned mushrooms. Not the healthiest but I do have them in my pantry. 😂

My kids love potatoes 🥔 and they are such yummy ingredients to add in a stew to make it more filling. If not, I can make it a stand alone dish- salted garlic potatoes with fried onions.

Oh, my family always has a jar of kimchi in the fridge as well. It depends on work and the day class schedule, sometimes if I have no time to prep a vegetable dish, the kimchi comes to the rescue. If it is a quick dish for one person, and you have leftover rice, you can easily whip up a kimchi fried rice.

✅ Proteins

I will usually get chicken (drumsticks, thighs because they are more tender), salmon fillets, beef/pork shabu shabu. Prior to cooking, I will marinade them accordingly, depending on the recipe with the usual sauce suspects like sesame oil, light/dry soya sauce, teriyaki sauce etc.

Eggs are a must at home. The family almost have at least one egg daily. Just imagine. 7 x 5 = 35! Yea, at the very minimum, we go through 35 eggs a week! 🥚🥚🥚

If for some reason, I get very busy during that week, I do have frozen food such as gyozas, chicken bites, chicken nuggets, frozen otah, frozen salmon fillets and what have you in the supermarket. There are so many options in the supermarket and trust me, my fridge is filled with choices. Like on days that I know I have only max 20-30 minutes before I need to head out for work, I can pop these in the oven, serve them with kimchi, miso soup and rice. Voila!

✅ Carbs

We have Jasmine long grain rice, Japanese short grain rice(because we do have sushi/onigiri), a couple of pasta options(I do prefer to buy pasta from DDDK), udon packets if they want a noodle dish.

For requested breakfast, I will prepare wraps and tortilla pockets. But that will be more intentional- like I will buy smoked salmon, honey baked ham with the intent of finishing these ingredients in two consecutive breakfasts because these things cannot keep for long.

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It may sound very overwhelming if you do not cook very often. Just like many things, with practice, everything somehow gets easier. Most of the time, I can easily prep dinner in just under 45 minutes. And you know what? Kids are the most wonderful diners- they are appreciative and forgiving.

There is another reason why I cook for them. Cooking is my way of showing my love. It is an obvious way of showing that I hear them and will make an effort to prepare something for them after their long day attending school, showing up for CCAs. Every other day, on the way to school, I will ask them what they would like to have, make a mental note to buy the ingredients and 'show up' with the dish. They know, and they will remember the taste of the dish. In an ideal situation in the future, I want the kids to know that there is always me, E, waiting for them at home. No matter how hard it gets, I will be cheering them in my Ajumma way. I recognise how hard school is, how they are overcoming new challenges. In my very small way, I want them to know that their efforts are not unseen and unrewarded.

On a random side note, I enjoy making soups for the kids. Gosh, they are so simple and prep takes at best 15 minutes and you leave them to boil and simmer. A punch of salt and a dash of pepper. The kids love them and they have them on their own or with rice. They always tell me that I make the best soups when really, they are nothing special. No special ingredients at all.

If you have any concerns about cooking for school-going kids, let me know and maybe we can exchange some good advice/tips/recipes!

Signing off,

Ajumma

#workingmom

#Postin3

#cooking

#Recipe