Kids Can Plan Birthday Parties

The weekend was very noisy and overwhelming. We had 9 nine-year old boys over to celebrate our son's birthday. As this was his birthday, we decided to let him help in the planning, which included preparing the invites (printed from our computer), games and food. A few lessons he learnt were:

Planning something takes time!
Don't be wasteful - buy only what you need for the party.
Choose games that everyone could take part in - we actually made it a "no gadget party", but one boy bought his phone with him! Drats!
Buy healthy food, and try to have it home-made

It was the first time we were having a birthday party at our home, and the first time we decided that we would prepare all the treats, rather than buy them. I think the main concern was the sugar rush that is often associated with kids' parties, and then the horrendous aftermath! I've been to one party where the kids just went wild and then there was a meltdown!  But seriously, I wasn't prepared to have that scenario in my home, especially when I know boys can get out of hand. 

We (we being, me and my husband) had planned the party so that the boys would alternate between eating and games / physical exercise (ie their favourite game of football in the park downstairs).  

We used the plastic reusable cups from IKEA -
different coloured cups so you could remember which was yours!

Here's the food that my son had planned for with my help. 

*Cheese and tomato pizzas

Egg mayo sandwiches

*Cherry tomatoes

*Strawberries

*Nuts

Biscuits (surprisingly, nobody touched these)
Birthday cake (a special request of homemade butter cake with lemon icing and sprinkles)

* denotes extremely popular!

Surprisingly, he didn't ask for sweets, which was good! We took this list and went to the supermarket together, and we even made the cake together too! It's activities like these that make the birthday a memorable experience. Will you be letting your children plan their next birthday party? 

How to Freeze Your Vegetables

Last week, we had friends from overseas stay with us, and being in Singapore, we always take our visitors on a food feast - roti prata, chow kwai teow, fish soup, laksa, bak ku teh, chilli crab, fish head curry ..... and the list goes on.  Our visitors will never go hungry!  On this occasion I forgot my friends were coming over and bought too many groceries for the week ie. BAD PLANNING. So, the meat and fish went into the freezer, but with the vegetables ... did you know you can actually freeze them instead of throwing them into the bin?  

DIY Frozen Vegetables

Before you put your vegetables into the freezer, they need be pre-cooked, but how long do you cook them for? I had no idea until I came across this extremely useful document on the web. It is a home guide from CPMA (Canadian Produce Marketing Association) on how to freeze fresh vegetables.

I tried to follow it as closely as I could. Here's what I got.

Getting Started

• Vegetables I had: cauliflower, zucchini and Chinese cabbage
• Large pot of boiling water (have this ready only when you have finished prepping the vegetables
• Ladle - a metal one is best
• Ice bath in large pot (have this ready only after the prep work)
• Strainer
• Clean towels [the guide recommends a salad spinner, but I don't have one]
• Containers for storage

Prepping

I shredded the cabbage, cut the cauliflower into 1inch pieces and cubed the zucchini.

Blanching

When the water was bubbling like hot lava, I put the vegetables into the pot and started the timer according to the guide. 

Shredded cabbage - 1min

Cauliflower - 3 min

Zucchini  - 2 min

Remember you are blanching them quickly but not for too long that the vegetables are thoroughly or overcooked.  The point of blanching is to destroy the vegetables' enzymes which are capable of altering the colour, texture and flavour of the vegetables. 

Note: A metal ladle will be very good in weighing down your vegetables in the pot once they are in the boiling water. It helps to blanch them all evenly.

Chilling

Once time was up, the vegetables were plunged into the ice bath to stop the cooking process.

I left the vegetables there for about 2 min before putting them in a strainer, and even used a clean kitchen towel to shake off excess water! 

Freezing

The chilled vegetables were placed into containers before freezing. I actually turned the containers upside down with the lid slightly open so I could get rid of any excess water that I had missed.  If the vegetables are too wet, freezing will cause them to stick together and this can be a problem if you want only a small portion to cook with.   I suggest separating the vegetables into portions before freezing. 

Cooking with Your Frozen Vegetables
So far, I have used the zucchini in my tomato spaghetti sauce, and cauliflower in a chickpea curry. No defrosting was needed, and because they were blanched, the cooking time was significantly reduced vis-a-vis using fresh vegetables.  Hubby has given the thumbs up too. Phew!

Have you tried freezing your own vegetables? What tips do you have?

Food waste

We all love food.  I bet a lot of us have enjoyed sumptuous meals and buffets and are guilty of gluttony. And, of course, have you ever ordered one dish too many? Chinese traditionally order A LOT of dishes to impress their guests with the wealth they have, and the guest, out of politeness always finishes everything in his rice bowl and will agree to seconds (btw, I don't know where on earth HSBC got the idea that its rude for guests to finish everything at a Chinese meal. I was definitely not taught that by my family). Anyway, you can imagine how much would go to waste.  Usually, we would "da bau" or "lik jau" ie. doggy bag it, but if you're not with family, it's difficult to do that unless you're thick skinned.

In Singapore, we produced about 0.6 tonnes of food waste in 2008 (source: zerowaste) and we also have our share of volunteers who distribute unsold food to the needy.  Food from the Heart, and Food for All are two of the most active ones. This is very meaningful.

IKEA Singapore does food waste recycling. Apparently, it sends its food waste to one of Singapore's food waste recycling facility IUT. The waste cooking oil is recycled at Alpha Biofuels into biofuel. I wonder what our supermarkets do? I know Cold Storage will always have a clear out section of food that's nearing it's sell by or use by dates.  Hmmm.... do you get confused by these dates?  In the UK, they are going to scrap them as they think that they mislead us folks into think that the food is not edible.