No frills meals

Since the start of the school year, one of the new 'challenges' I have to face is preparing lunch for my kids. My younger son has to take his meal by 11am so that he will be ready by the time the school bus comes over to pick him up. On the other hand, my elder boy will not be home before 1.30pm. So lunch not only has to be simple and easy to prepare, but also be able to keep well or at least when I reheat it for my elder boy, the taste or texture will not be compromised too much.


One of the lunch meals that I prepared last week was these Maki Sushi Sandwiches. I have been keeping this recipe which I took from a magazine for months. I am glad that I finally tried it. It was really a very simple meal to put together. There wasn't any cooking involved...I only need to cook the rice! The rest of the work involved layering the rice with pork floss, seaweed and canned tuna. The combo was surprisingly tasty! Even my elder boy finds it delicious as he doesn't quite like tuna. There was no issue with my younger boy too as he loves rice balls! The good thing about these rice sandwiches is that I don't have to reheat it before serving :)


I cooked this easy Seafood Marinara pasta for dinner on one of the weekday nights. It was my second attempt...the only difference is, this time round I managed to get some clams from the market. I used ready-made pasta sauce as I doubt I am capable to make the sauce from scratch! I didn't follow any recipe...the meal was put together simply by stir frying some prawns, squids and clams with some minced garlics, before adding the sauce. This is another no frills, almost fool-proof dinner dish...simple and yet delicious.


Maki Sushi Sandwiches

Ingredients
(serves 3)

1.5 cups rice & 1.5 cups water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar

filling:
3 sheets of seaweed
1 can of tuna spread
some pork floss
some rice seasoning (furukake) for topping.

Method:

1. Add rice vinegar to cooked rice and mix well.
2. Spread half of the rice onto a serving dish and press down firmly. Shape to form a square shape the size of the seaweed.
3. Spread pork floss over the rice and layer with a sheet of seaweed. Repeat with tuna spread on the next layer, and pork floss for the third layer. Spread remaining portion of rice and press down firmly.
4. Sprinkle rice seasoning on top of the rice. Cut into pieces and serve.

(recipe source: adapted from Simply Her magazine)