Pumpkin Rice

Pumpkin Rice

One-dish meals are busy Mums' (or any other busy person's) best friends.  Pumpkin rice is one such meal.  I love this dish for a number of reasons:

1. It's healthy and nutritious
2. It is easy to prepare
3. It can be cooked ahead of time and kept warm till it's time to eat
4. Ingredients can be easily substituted with anything you have in the fridge

Without further ado, let's proceed to the recipe:

Ingredients:

Uncooked rice, washed and placed in water as per rice cooker's instructions

Lean pork, cut into strips

Pumpkin, washed and cut into cubes leaving skin on

Dried mushroom, soaked and rehydrated, stem removed and sliced

Garlic, chopped

Onion, diced

Cooking oil

Dark soy sauce

Black pepper

White pepper

1. Start cooking rice in a rice cooker
2. Wash and/or prepare all other ingredients
3. Season the pork with some dark soy sauce and black pepper
4. Heat up frying pan and add a little cooking oil.  Add garlic and onions and fry until fragrant.
5. Squeeze water out of prepared mushrooms and add to the frying pan.
6. Add seasoned pork, then pumpkin to the frying pan.  Add a little water and cook for a few minutes.
7. Add dark soy sauce to the pan with a little water and mix.  Turn off the fire.
8. Once the water in the rice cooker has started to boil, add all of the frying pan's contents into the rice cooker and give it a good mix.
9. Now, wait for the rice cooker to inform you when it's done.
10. Serve with a little white pepper.

Quick and Good for Busy Mums

For all mums out there looking after babies, you'd know how much work there is to be done, especially if you are home alone during the day.  There are baby's needs to tend to, housework to be done... do you still have time to cook?  But as a breastfeeding mum, can you afford not to eat?

For times when baby is not cooperative, I have a back-up plan -- Instant oats!

Instant oats - a life saver for busy mums!

For desperate times, you could just add hot water to instant oats and drizzle on some honey.  But, I like adding in an egg for a little more nutrition.  It'll only take about 5 minutes of "cooking" time:

1. Start boiling a little water in a saucepan on high heat
2. Grab an egg and crack it into a bowl and beat lightly
3. Get ready to pour instant oats into saucepan once the water boils (this shouldn't take long as only a little water is needed)
4. While stirring the oats, pour in egg (I like streaks of egg)
5. Pour your meal into a bowl and drizzle honey to taste and you are done!

For those who don't like washing up (just like me!), there are only a few things to wash:  Bowl (for egg), saucepan, bowl (for eating), spoon (for stirring while cooking and eating), fork (to beat egg).

So there you have it:
Cooking time - 5 minutes
Washing time - 5 minutes