Please La Makan!

So Hakeem enjoys playing this sick joke on me where he pretends to be starving to death and when I've cooked, refuses to eat even a single bite.

Today's lunch time was no different. After telling me he "nak makan," I proceeded to quickly cook up his lunch. Nothing too fancy or foreign -- just another plate of carbonara. He's had so many of those before. He can't possibly have a problem with it now, right? Wrong! 

So after trying many times to have him try a single bite, I gave up. 

I read somewhere once that to remove the stress of meal times with toddlers, it's best to just let them decide if they want to eat and what they want to eat by serving several things at once. And if they choose not to eat at all, they will just have to deal with being hungry for the next few hours until the next meal time. 

Great plan except I'm the one who has to deal with the crying toddler screaming for something, anything, other than what I've cooked, to eat. 

There goes another meal where all he has are grapes. A dark side of me wants to stuff it down his throat like a duck being primed for foie gras but quite thankfully for him, I'm just not that sadistic. (I won't do it, I swear.)  

Anyway, for those of you who'd like the recipe, here it is. It's great for kids, IF your kids are the eating type. *cries self to sleep*

*recipe adapted from the guesses I make in my head while eating. 

*Serves two adults and a toddler (provided one of the adults doesn't eat very much. Heheh)  

Ingredients 

Sauce 

2 cups milk

3 egg yolks

1 tbsp all purpose flour

Salt & pepper to taste 

Pasta

2 cups penne cooked in boiling water with a tablespoon of oil and a pinch of salt

Garnish

Streaky beef bacon chopped and cooked till crisp round the edges

Pinch of chilli flakes

Pinch of parmesan 

Steps

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk till scalding but not boiling (small bubbles will form on the sides and you'll know it's ready) 

2. While the milk is on, mix your yolks and flour. 

3. Once milk is scalding, take a scoop of the hot milk and pour into the bowl with the yolk and flour. Stir vigorously as you do so to prevent eggs from cooking. This is to temper the egg mixture so that they don't become scrambled eggs in your pan and the flour doesn't clump once mixed into the sauce. 

4. Transfer the egg mixture to the pan and whisk. The sauce will thicken slightly. 

5. Season with salt & pepper.

To serve, scoop some penne into the sauce Iver low heat. I like to add a dollop of butter at this point and stir before scooping the pasta into a deep dish. 

Top with beef bacon and sprinkle the chilli flakes and parmesan. If your little one doesn't eat spicy food, skip the chilli flakes. 

That's it. Enjoy!!!