One-Week Food Diary

Been trying to entice Jiale to eat more and to eat more healthily, so I am trying out new recipes. To be honest, I had been very lazy in cooking for the boys because Jiale hardly ate anything anyway and Jiahe ate almost everything :p But I realised we couldn't continue like that forever.. I have to risk wasting food in order to find out WHAT on earth Jiale will eat! Hopefully I will be able to find more things which suit his appetite AND are healthy.

[About bento recipe books: I have quite a few such recipe books. But I realised that though the bentos really look very nice, they are often very complicated to make as they comprise of many different ingredients &/or side dishes in order to complete the 'picture'. In addition, the food is not exactly healthy most of the time... e.g. it is very common to use processed foods like ham and hot dogs and even food colourings. I have tried making nice-looking bento-meals for Jiale before, and it is difficult to compromise what he does eat and the aesthetic effect of the bento. And the worst is that while he might admire the product, he might still not eat it! So this time round, I am focusing on the food itself, and going for only simple decorations such as using cookie cutters to cut cheese etc into animal/letter shapes to put on the sandwich.]

Monday breakfast: Cheese toast, kiwi, fried egg

Jiale: Didn't eat the bread at all.... Ate some of the egg... Finished his half of a kiwi.
Jiahe: Finished almost everything on his plate.

Monday lunch: Steamed threadfin, garlic asparagus

JL: didn't eat any of the fish and asparagus.. boo hoo... Ate a little rice...
JH: Tried everything but didn't eat a lot in total (wanted to go and play too when Kor Kor said he was full)

Monday dinner: Soboro beef, apple corn pork soup

(It's supposed to be apple corn chicken soup but I made a mistake and thawed pork instead. Both boys were coughing and the soup is supposed to be good for coughs.)
JL: Didn't eat the beef. Finished his soup and asked to eat the corn.
JH: Finished his beef plus half of kor kor's portion. Drank half his soup then wanted to join kor kor to play.

Tuesday breakfast: Blueberry waffle, hot dogs, sunny-side-up egg

JL: Only ate the hot dogs.
JH: Finished the hot dogs. Ate some egg and waffle.

Tuesday lunch: Kabocha with shitake mushrooms & pork, sesame spinach

JL: Said the pork was nice and ate quite a lot! : ) Didn't try the spinach (said he didn't want veg).
JH: Loved the pumpkin (he seems to love all orangey vegs & fruits). Didn't try the spinach (repeated what kor kor said. Sigh.)

Tuesday dinner: Chicken tofu, luohanguo pork soup

(The luohanguo soup is also supposed to be good for treating coughs)
JL: Liked the chicken! But didn't want to eat the tofu. Tried the soup but didn't like it.
JH: Liked the chicken tofu. Drank quite a lot of the soup.

Wednesday breakfast: Ham & cheese sandwich, scrambled eggs, cherries

JL: Ate almost all his sandwich (2 slices of bread)! Didn't eat the egg and cherries at all.
JH: Ate some bread and took out the rest of the ham & cheese to eat. Finished his and kor kor's cherries. Ate a little egg.
Also gave them a Laughing Cow cheese wedge each but both boys didn't like it.

Wednesday lunch: Panfried garlic butter salmon, garlic asparagus

(Didn't realise both dishes were garlic till it was almost lunchtime.. As an amateur cook, I didn't have the expertise to modify the menu at the last minute. Shall be more cautious while planning meals in future.)
JL: Ate some salmon. Didn't try the asparagus.
JH: Finished his portion.

Wednesday dinner: Chicken yakitori, orange vegetable fish soup

JL: Finished his chicken and soup.
JH: Finished his portion including the carrot and pumpkin in the soup.

Thursday breakfast: Tuna sandwich, grapes, oranges

Both boys finished all (2 slices of bread each) in school.

Thursday dinner: Garlic butter shrimp with mushrooms, papaya corn chinese yam soup

JL: He loves prawns so he enjoyed this as expected. But didn't eat the mushrooms at all. Finished his soup.
JH: Finished his portion.

Friday lunch: Cheesy alfredo pasta with minced beef

(Had swimming lesson in the morning so I only cooked a simple lunch.)
JL: Ate about half his portion of pasta. Didn't want to try the beef : (
JH: Ate about half his portion.

Friday dinner: Panfried pork chop, papaya fish soup

JL: Finished his pork chop and said it was nice! Finished his soup and ate a lot of the fish!
JH: Finished his portion.
(but I think the pork chop was too tough. Shall use chicken next time.)

My thoughts after one week:
Many of the recipes came from bento books, and they use a lot of shoyu (Jap soy sauce) and sugar! That means the food was salty and sweet.. and often looked dark brown.. not a very appealing colour.. I shall endeavour search for more recipes.

The boys often eat steamed fish, so after Jiale rejected the steamed threadfin, I googled and learnt that I probably steamed the fish for too long and it became too tough. Shall keep it to about 10 minutes since I don't use a whole fish or very big piece of fish (only for the boys to eat). 

The pasta dish was not very balanced as it did not include any vegetables. Shall improve on that. (Though it probably won't make a difference to Jiale, I guess it's still my responsibility to provide. Will also give them a 'angmo' soup to go along with the pasta. Try try.

Since Jiale seems to be adamant about not eating vegs, I shall let them try salads and coleslaw. I am not very optimistic about it, but just give it a go anyway.

Cut down a lot of processed food this week! No seafood tofu or seaweed chicken or chicken nuggets or fishballs at all! Used to include this type of food at almost every meal to entice Jiale to eat. But I decided to get tough - eat rubbish then might as well don't eat. And it seems to have worked, comparing he refused to eat at all on the first day and was quite willing to try the meat/fish dish by the third day. As long as he is at least willing to try, I am happy, as it allows me to find out what he likes to eat. Shall repeat the dishes he likes and put aside those which he doesn't. So lucky that Jiahe is not a fussy eater! : )

Oh ya, this is where I got all the above soup recipes - http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/children-soups/

Urmm, some of the photos are in the wrong direction cos I only realised it after I uploaded and was too lazy to upload again :p

My Saturday lunch at Batam! Haha!