PREPARING a healthy meal for a child is like getting a root canal. You know you have to do it but it's going to take a lot out of you.
You spend hours slaving over a hot stove preparing nourishing soups and stews, cutting up vegetables and fruits into fun, quirky shapes so your kid will at least attempt to put them into his mouth, and the usual reaction will be: "Why can't I have chicken nuggets?"
It's an exercise in frustration for sure but one that as parents, we have no choice but to repeat.
But cooking for children (and the whole family too) does become less stressful if meal preparation is made simpler and easier with all the ingredients made ready for you.
Sounds wonderful? Pandamart meal-prep kits, an experiential initiative by Foodpanda Malaysia, have been designed to make even novice cooks take on the kitchen with courage.
These meal-prep kits feature unique recipes curated by Foodpanda's chefs. Each kit comes with pre-portioned high quality fresh ingredients ordered off Pandamart as well as easy to follow recipes, empowering any novice cook to transform into a kitchen maestro.
There are five choices available and I opted for the fish and chips meal-prep kit since it would be appealing to my 9 year old daughter. Other options include a seafood pizza, beef spagendang, Korean Prawn Mac and Cheese and Korean Chicken Chopo with noodles.
When it was delivered, I was pleasantly surprised to see all ingredients nicely packed in individual containers and labelled as well.
The kit literally contains everything you need to make the dish, from the main ingredient (in my case fish fillets) to marinades, seasonings and even ingredients for side dishes like frozen fries and salads.
It certainly makes home cooking a lot easier because you're not hampered by the fact that you've run out of something to make a meal.
To make the fish and chips (my first attempt at making the dish), I just followed the recipe given. I marinated the fish fillets with "ikan bilis" granules, curry powder and mustard (all given in the kit) and then made the batter to coat the fish by adding an egg and bicarbonate of soda to the flour mixture given.
I only lightly coated the fillets with the batter as I was not planning to deep fry them.
I chose to pan-fry with less oil to make the meal healthier for my daughter.
Once the fish was done, I fried the frozen fries which came with the kit using my air fryer to reduce fat consumption.
They turned out beautifully and the meal could be served with a side salad of cherry tomatoes and butter head lettuce seasoned with caesar dressing (also included in the kit). There was even tartar sauce included for the fish.
All in all it took just 30 minutes or less to prepare this healthy and appealing after school lunch for my daughter and for busy, working mums, this will certainly be the meal-prep kit's winning point.
Time saved in the kitchen means more time for mums to tackle the multitude of other tasks on their plate and perhaps relax a little instead of stressing out over what to cook every day.