Braised Lamb Shoulder with Mixed Spices

I came up this recipe on my own on a whim. When you didn’t have anymore decent emergency protein handy, gotta improvise a bit. Feel free to adjust the seasonings accordingly. I didn’t really measure them exactly, just whatever spices combo that came in my mind when preparing the marinate. Of course, feel free to use any kind of protein of your choice.

Braised Lamb Shoulder with Mixed Spices
Ingredients:
2 lbs of lamb shoulder – chopped (mine was pre-cut already)
2 Tbs peppercorn
Dash of caraway seeds
Nutmeg
Coriander powder
1 white onion – chopped
4 whole cloves
1/4-1/2 cup coconut aminos
Salt
Handful of fresh lime leaves
1 Tbsp butter

Directions:
1. Mix the seasoning (except cloves, onions, lime leaves and butter) in the bowl.
2. Using a gallon size zip lock bag, marinate the lamb shoulders for about 2 hour or overnight.

3. Heat the pan in medium heat with 1 Tbsp butter
4. Saute the chopped onions, fresh lime leaves, whole cloves until fragrant
5. Pour in the lamb shoulders – including the marinate
6. Cover and cook for about 1 hour in medium low heat or until the lamb is tender (I used pressure cooker so I cooked it under pressure for about 20 minutes, turned off the heat and let the pressure came down for about 15-20 minutes)
7. Serve!

 

Chaotic Sunday Cooking

On Sunday morning, I got up a little later than usual and I had a bunch of things to do.

So many that I even had to write them down to keep my sanity.

On the list:
- Five Spice Baked Chicken – marinate DONE!
- Cream Broccoli soup
- Butternut squash puree
- Dumplings
- Marinate tofu – press first
- Vacuum/cleaning
- Ab-tastic Exercise Challenge

Obviously, I didn’t finish everything on one day.

Here what I managed to do:
- Five Spice Baked Chicken – baked
- Cream Broccoli soup
- Dumplings
- Ab-tastic Exercise Challenge
- Pressed the tofu

K was kind enough to do the vacuum and cleaning

Five Spice Baked Chicken (Primal)
Ingredients:
- 2 cornish hen
- 1 white onion -sliced
- 1 Tbsp honey
- 3-4 Tbsp tamari soy sauce
- 2 tsp salt
- 3-4 tsp five spice powder
- 3-5 garlic cloves
- 1 inch of ginger

Directions:
1. Mash garlic and ginger with mortar pestle or food processor
2. Mix with the tamari soy sauce and five spice powder

3. Line the sliced white onions on the baking dish
4. Place 2 cornish hen and rub the seasonings generously

5. Marinate for about 4 hours or overnight.
6. Bake for about 1 hour or until done in 425°F – turn it over once (I reduced the heat to 375°F towards the end b/c the onions start to get burn)

Not quite pretty but taste very very yummy! It has similar taste to those char siu sauce. Who needs a sodium, msg, processed sugar and chemical added store bought char siu sauce when you can make it your own? The onions gave the sweetness and nothing beats the smell of caramelized onions! Hmmm….

Next…
After I saw Zuzana from Bodyrock.tv posted her Broccoli Cream Turkey Breast recipe I couldn’t wait to try it. As usual, I always HAVE to tweak the ingredients. For some reason I just CAN’T stick to the recipe to the “T”.

The recipe should be very simple but since I don’t like do good with milk, I used my homemade almond milk. I spent at least 1 hour to make the almond milk prior making the dish. But fresh almond milk always taste the best

Cream Broccoli Soup with Chicken (modified from Bodyrock.tv) – Primal
Ingredients:
About 1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts -cubed
3-4 broccoli crowns
About 2 cups of almond milk
Freshly squeezed lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
Salt, pepper
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 white onion – minced
2 shallots – minced
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp avocado oil

Optional:
- chopped walnuts
- shredded carrots

Directions:
1. Heat up the pan with 1 Tbsp avocado oil in medium high heat
2. Saute onions, garlic and shallots until translucent – add in the butter
3. Pour in the almond milk- bring slowly to boil – don’t over boil – just simmer is enough
4. Once it simmers, add the chopped broccoli

5. Season with coriander, salt, and cumin to taste
6. When the broccoli is soft, turn off the heat and let it cool down
7. While waiting, heat up a pan with 1 Tbsp avocado oil in medium high heat
8. Lightly pan fry the cubed chicken meat until brown
9. After the soup has cooled down, puree it in your food processor

Serve!

Instead adding the chicken into the soup, I decided to keep it aside and add them in when consuming it.

Option: Add grated carrots and chopped walnuts or any other nuts for extra crunch!

The cream broccoli soup might not look appetizing (it reminds me of baby food LOL) but it taste AH-mazing!

Still with me? One more: Dumplings!

Pork Dumplings/ Meatballs (not quite primal due to the gluten in dumpling wraps)
Ingredients:
- 2 lbs ground pork meat (I picked a meat cut and asked the butcher to ground it. I don’t like buying pre-grounded pork)
- 1-2 jicama – minced
- 1 egg
- 3 green onions – chopped
- 1-2 cups of shredded cloud ear fungus
- 3-5 cloves of garlic
- 1 inch of ginger
- 1 white onion -minced
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 3-5 Tbsp tamari soy sauce
- 1/2 package of dumpling/wonton wraps (to keep it primal, skip the wraps and just make meatballs)

Directions:
1. Mash garlic and ginger (I used mortar pestle)
2. Soak the dried cloud ear fungus until soft
3. Mix all ingredients (mushrooms, mashed ginger-garlic, chopped jicama, chopped green onions, egg) – season accordingly.



To taste, boil a little bit meat piece in microwave.
4. Wrap in the dumpling skin

place the meat in the middle - not too much

wet the edges with egg white wash or water

fold diagonally

connect the corners together

5. Boil a pot of water
Good ones – boil for about 5 minutes – until it’s floating

Badly wrapped – steam for about 7 minutes or more

Dash with sesame oil – serve!

I froze the rest of the meat mixture for another time. Next time I might just steam the meat

Remember the homemade chicken broth I made?
It came handy to make this super simple vegetable soup!

tomatoes, carrots, some Asian veggies – yummers!

After all those chaos, I still completed my workout of the day!

Do you always stick to the t when following a recipe?
I can never make same dishes exactly the same. There’s always something a bit different from the last time I made it. Baking on the other hand is the ONLY thing that I usually do it consistently.

How do you and your significant other or roommate divide the house chores?
I usually do most of the cooking and some cleaning, K does most of the cleaning and dishes.

 

Homemade Almond Butter with Flaxseeds

When I saw my local grocery store sold their dry roasted raw almonds for $3.99/lbs, I know I just had to grab some! Most places I’ve seen are selling at much higher price! Besides they sell it in a bulk bin so we can scoop as many as we want. I got total 3lbs of almonds.

I bought a bag of Roasted Golden Flaxseeds from TJ a while back and it had been sitting in my freezer forever. An idea popped in my head: Why don’t I make Almond Butter with Flaxseeds instead?

Super Easy Homemade Almond Butter Flaxseeds
Ingredients:
1 cup of dry roasted raw almonds
About 3/4 cup Roasted golden flaxseeds – I’d reduce it to 1/2 cup next time

Directions:
1. Blend flaxseeds in your food processor until mostly grounded

2. Next pour in the almonds

3. Blend at high speed for about a minute – occasionally stop and scrub the sides. – at this point you got almond meal

4. Keep blending until it becomes nut butter

Like this!

VOILA!

Hmm…the smell of the roasted flaxseeds sure heavenly!

Store in a glass jar and refrigerate.

Use it for dippings, make raw almond cookies etc.

Super easy!

 

Cocomania Primal Dishes

After I received my iHerb order, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer to start cooking with them!

Just like the title, I used Nutiva Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil and Coconut Secret Raw Coconut Aminos.

Minced Meat & Mixed Veggie Quiche (inspired from Nom Nom Paleo)

Ingredients:
1.5 lb ground pork (or any other meat)
1/2 onion – minced
1.5 cup shredded cloud ear fungus (you can find this in Asian market -usually they’re dried – has to be soaked in water before use)
1 shallot – minced
Broccoli slaw (I made my own using my food processor – shredded broccoli stems with carrots – the amount is up to you – I like mine with lots of veggies
1/2 fresh jicama – minced
1-2 Tbsp raw coconut amino (or tamari soy sauce or regular soy sauce if you’re not into Primal/Paleo)
6 small eggs (or less if you use large eggs – lightly beaten season with some salt – not too much)
1/2″ ginger – peeled and minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil

Directions:
1. Heat up non stick skillet in medium heat – put in the coconut oil -it was solid in this cool temperature.
2. Once the oil melted, saute the onions, shallot, ginger, and jicama until onions are translucent.
3. Mixed in the ground meat, stir
4. When the meat is half cooked, pour in the broccoli slaw and the shredded cloud ear fungus
5. Season with salt and pepper accordingly (don’t go too overboard with the salt)
6. Pour in the coconut amino acids/soy sauce
7. Remove from the heat and pour in the meat mixture into a baking pan (already lightly greased with oil or butter)
8. Preheat oven to 350F
9. Pour in the beaten egg and bake for about 30 minutes.

Easy Seaweed Medley Stir Fry (Vegan)

Ingredients:
1/2 onion – minced
1.5 cup shredded cloud ear fungus (you can find this in Asian market -usually they’re dried – has to be soaked in water before use)
1 shallot – minced
Broccoli slaw (I made my own using my food processor – shredded broccoli stems with carrots – the amount is up to you
1/2 fresh jicama – julienne
1-2 Tbsp raw coconut amino (or tamari soy sauce or regular soy sauce if you’re not into Primal/Paleo)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 Tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
2 cups of soaked seaweed

Directions:
1. Heat up non stick skillet in medium heat – put in the coconut oil -it was solid in this cool temperature.
2. Once the oil melted, saute everything
3. Season with salt and pepper accordingly (don’t go too overboard with the salt)
4. Pour in the coconut amino acids/soy sauce

Easy peasy healthy quick fix meal

Tropical Citrus Chicken

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken breasts (boneless & skinless) – cube cut
3 ripe tomatoes – diced
1/2 onion – minced
1/2 ginger – julienne
3 garlic cloves -minced
1 shallot – minced
1 cup fresh pineapple chunks
1 cup of fresh orange juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Marinate the chicken meat with salt – set aside for 15 minutes
2. Heat up the non stick skillet to medium heat, add 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
3. Lightly pan fry the chicken meat until light brown – set aside
4. Heat up 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
5. Sautee the garlic, onions, shallots and ginger until the onions translucent.
6. Mix in the tomatoes and the pineapple chunks, stir until everything incorporates together
7. Pour in the orange juice and cover the skillet for 2 minutes
8. Season with salt and pepper to taste
9. Mix in the chicken meat, mix until everything incorporates together
10. Increase the heat to medium high to thicken the sauce a bit
11. Remove from the stove and serve!

This taste ahmazing! With a slight hint of coconut oil mix and the citrus juice it gave that fresh taste. Not to mention the citrus juice tenderized the chicken meats.

I love coconut oil and I love how much healthier it is. It got bad reputation because of the saturated fat and cholesterol but those are NOT TRUE! This article and this explain it well.

So does the chart below (source)

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of blogs that talk about this Primal/Paleo. The more I know, the more interested I am into this.

One quote I like:
“Primal is not a diet, it’s a lifestyle.”

The main thing about being Primal is you eat whole foods (veggies, meat, fruits and nuts) and avoid grains/gluten/starch and sugar as much as possible.

I saw this post about being vegetarian can be primal as well.

Since last week, I’ve been totally primal (finally I cut out grains/wheat from my diet) and I’ve been feeling great! Before I usually had wheat toast for b-fast and always got super hungry before lunch time, or there was time I ate a bowl of oats and I felt way too stuffed (not in a good way).

Ever since I changed my breakfast menu to more primal (protein, fat, fiber and some fruit occasionally) I notice I could last all the way until lunch time. I feel full in a satisfying way, not overstuffed.

I know I’m not a strict Paleo/Primal as I still enjoy my dairy (greek Yogurt, cheese) and there might be time that I have to dine with friends and relative, which not quite Primal/Paleo approved. The point is if 90% of the time I stick to Primal/Paleo, 10% won’t hurt. Afterall we gotta enjoy our life to the fullest, right?

More info about Primal/Paleo can be found here and here.

Whatever your diet/lifestyle choices are, do you consider yourself to be strict on it or you can be flexible?

 

Challenge Accepted!

Recognize the title? It was Barney Stinson’s quote from “How I Met Your Mother“.

How’s your week been so far? As for me, it’s kinda hard to get back into the grind after 2 consecutive short weeks *sigh* But at least I still managed to stay true to my workout schedule, except Monday.

Monday
I took a complete day off from working out, which was something I haven’t done for a month or two I think? Even though I am working out everyday, mostly they’re only 30 minutes max and on some days I only do short mini workouts which only about 15 minutes. All thanks to Zuzana’s workout style

Yesterday
I got a complete brutal workout which left me totally drenched in sweat despite the chilly morning. It always makes me feel good whenever I got good sweat from my workout.

However, the b-fast wasn’t quite great. I whipped out 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats with 1 cup of homemade almond milk and a dollop of homemade almond butter, remaining Kashi Go Crunch cereal crumbles and nuked it for about 4 minutes.

The oats turned out to be a little too thick and creamy (might be from the creamy almond milk?) After I consumed the whole bowl, I felt a little too stuffed, not in a good way.

I much preferred Monday’s b-fast

A glass of creamy unsweetened almond milk with 2 banana pancakes I made days ago

I made a bunch of tea eggs again on Sunday night and this time I used 4 Lipton tea bags, 2 star anises and a bit more salt. Results? More flavor! Love it!

And I had 2 of these!

Since I didn’t workout prior to the meal, I stick to non grain/starchy carbs and it made me felt great!

Anyway I’ve been obsessed with Banana Nut Squash! Yesterday I made b-nut squash soup with mixed veggies (carrots, cabbage, onions, garlic sprinkled with dried parsley) and with only couple dash of salt, that soup was super yummy!
Taste so good especially eaten in this chilly weather! Hubby loved it too!

So I made another batch of b-nut squash soup for the remained half. This time I pureed them in my food processor, resulting this creamy soup- without any cream at all.

Lately, I’ve been trying to cook without using sugar other than from fresh fruit juices and so far so good.

Braised Sweet and Sour Chicken
2-3lbs chicken breasts – cut in cubes/bite size
2 red apples or any apples – puree in food processor/blender
1-2 tsp salt to taste
1 bell pepper -diced (I used yellow color)
2 very ripe tomatoes -diced
1 inch of ginger – julienne
3-5 cloves of garlic -minced (or more if you are big garlic fan)
3-5 cubes of fresh pineapples
2 scallions -minced (separate the white and green)
1/2 apple – chopped

I pre cut this to save time for the next day

Directions:
1. Marinate the chicken with pureed apple and salt for 4 hours or overnight

2. Heat non stick pan with cooking oil of your choice – lightly pan fried the chicken meat

I got lazy and was in short of time so I just sauted them instead. Not much time left to cook for dinner after you got home from work!

3. Saute the garlic, ginger and peppers until fragrant. Add in the remaining veggies.

4. Frankly I added 1/2 chopped apples (peeled) to give more taste. Add salt and apple cider vinegar accordingly.
5. Stir in the cooked chicken meat
6. Cover the pan in medium low heat for about 5 minutes.
7. Serve with veggies of your choice

with the puree b-nut squash soup..yum! I had 2 bowls of that!

This dish came a bit watery and doesn’t look pretty, but taste good! I love it (and so does K)!

So far I’ve been stayed true for not using any sugar in my cooking and it’s quite a challenge. I might wanna experiment with different fruits like pears, orange or even pineapple!

Another challenge that I’m doing is to not looking at myself into the mirror for 30 days! What it means I won’t trying to look at how much tone my arms/ how much more flat my abs need to be. I will only to look at the mirror if I’m combing my hair, adjusting my shirt and that’s it! This way I’ll be more focus on my work out and diet and I won’t let my physical appearance ruling my life.

Have you challenged yourself for something?

Do you watch any TV shows?
As lame as it sounds I watch “Desperate Housewives“, “How I Met Your Mother” (Neil Patrick Harris Doogie Howser MD was my childhood idol:P) and recently “No Ordinary Family“. Strangely though I never watch these on TV. I don’t have time to commit myself to watch them on their scheduled time so I usually watch them online later. And I don’t own cable TV (not even the basic one) nor TiVo.

Do you like to cram your to do list in one day?
I’ve made 3 doctor’s appointment in one day couple weeks from now. LOL. So glad I finally could cram those in one day so I only need to take 1 day off from work and no need to go back and forward!

Have a great week!

 

Chicken Patties

As I promised, here’s another recipe that I made recently.

Chicken Patties (adapted from Zuzana’s Chicken Patties)
Ingredients:
2 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts
Chopped cabbage (about 3-4 leaves?)
1/2 jicama – chopped into small cubes
3 garlic cloves – minced
2 carrots – coarsely chopped (I used food processor)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 brown onion - minced
2 egg whites (reserved the yolks for other thing)

1/2 jicama

Chopped cabbage, onions, jicama

Directions:
1. Heat a non stick skillet in medium heat, pour 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.

2. Lightly saute the chopped veggies until the onions turn translucent. This to drain all the water from the vegetables so the chicken patties won’t be mushy.

3. Turn off the heat and let the veggie mixture cool down

4. Cut chicken breasts into small pieces. Then use your butcher knife and pound the chicken meat until evenly ground.
Good workout for your arms eh?

(Option: You can buy pre-grounded chicken meat from the market, but I am skeptical about pre grounded meat because I don’t know how fresh the meat is)

5. Pour in 2 egg whites into the ground chicken meat. Mix until everything incorporates.

6. Mix in the saute vegetable mixture to the ground chicken meat mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

7. Option 1: You can lightly pan fry the patties for more color

But make sure to use medium low heat. Apparently they browned so quick!

8. Option 2: You can bake them in your oven in 350°F for about 20-30 minutes (depends on your oven -mine needs about that)
Lightly grease the baking sheet with extra virgin olive oil. Shape the chicken patty mixture into palm size.

I personally like the baked version better. It’s juicier, no burned parts and the appearance reminds me of shrimp patties. Probably the orange colors from the chopped carrots?

Happy New Year’s Eve!

 

Being a little overactive lately and New Year

Hey everyone, how’s everything? Are you ready for the New Year yet? Any plans?

I don’t have one and am not planning for one either. My plan would be just chill and stay home. New Year’s Eve is the WORST time ever to go out. Traffic jam, crowded places, drunk drivers etc, you name it. So I prefer to have a nice, calm and safe New Year’s Eve.

We got another rain yesterday and it’s been FREEZING and blowing. I’m currently freezing in my room while typing this post.

Anyway, on Sunday we planned to have lunch at Ka Shabu Asian Fondue because I wanted to use Groupon that I got.

But bummer, they closed for lunchtime on that day. Special holiday hour, I guess.

So we swung by to this one instead: Sushi on Fire

we decided to get lunch specials

K ordered this Crunch Rolls - was ok..I only had one...just like California roll topped w/ tempura batter and drizzled with teriyaki sauce

nothing beats complimentary miso soup in the cold weather!

Lil bro ordered a bowl of ramen...that guy really likes ramen as much as rice

ramen came w/ salad

hubby's bento lunch - chicken teriyaki

Mine - New York steak - I felt like having meat that day..and for some reason they forgot that I asked for extra salad in place of the rice

apparently they were kind enough to give me that extra salad!

I gave all the california rolls, rice and the fried gyoza to the boys. I only ate the steak and the salad (with very minimal dressing)

So what does the title of the post mean?

Well I’ve been pretty active in my kitchen experimenting cooking simple stuffs yet healthy and want to share them with all of you!

Basic ingredients that I used in the following recipes:
Half of jicama – shredded (I used my Cuisinart food processor)
Bell peppers
Carrots
Cabbage
Garlic
Salt and peppers to taste

Stuffed Bell Peppers (Vegan)
1 package of firm tofu – pressed and drained – I used Furama tofu brand
Curry paste
5 bell peppers
2 carrots
2 cloves of garlic -minced

I love colorful vegetables!

Note: I drained 2 packages of tofu, but actually I only used 1 (4 tofus total)

Directions:

Coarsely chopped carrots in your food processor

Same thing w/ the cabbage

Blend tofu in the food processor until smooth

Mix the mashed tofu, carrots, minced garlic and cabbage together until everything incorporates

Put about 1-2 tsp3 of curry paste - don't put too much or it'll has some bitter taste. Mine turned out that way..lesson to learn

Mix until everything incorporates. Also salt and pepper to taste

Slice the bell peppers horizontally, remove the stems

Stuff the bell peppers with the tofu mixture

Preheat non stick skillet medium heat and greased lightly with extra virgin olive oil.

Pan fry the stuffed bell peppers with the tofu mixture side down in medium heat

You could cover it to speed up the process

Flip and taa daa!

Serve them over a bed of steamed cabbage

Delish!

I had extra ingredients left so I made another batch of Cauliflower Fried Rice cooked with a bit of butter. This time it tasted even better than the first time I made it! Guess the extra veggies gave it more flavor. Hubby surely loves it!

I have one more recipe to share but this post is already long enough so I’ll post it next time

The year 2011 is upon us and we heard lots of people making New Year resolution/goal/intention/plan etc etc.

Personally, I am not a New Year resolution/goal/plan etc type of gal. For me it’s just another year and I don’t usually try to make a resolution or a goal or anything like that. I can always set my goal anytime, doesn’t have to be around New Year. I’m just hoping the year 2011 will be better than this year and the economy will pick up.

How about you? Do you have any New Year resolutions/goal/plan/intention etc?

Happy New Year!

 

Dashing through the Rain, Kitchen Adventures, Simple Gift, and an Upcoming Facelift

It’s ALMOST Christmas and we’ve got LOTS OF RAIN here in Los Angeles!

Los Angeles sky has been like this since Friday!

Been raining NON STOP since Saturday! Weather forecast said it’ll be like this until this coming Wednesday.

I don’t mind rain, actually but just hate it when I have to go out and drive! I’ve seen accidents and road closures.

Parents just left last night (changed of plan from Thursday because my brother suddenly felt nausea (I called this Nausea Breakdown Syndrome).

He had been having nausea on and off before (digestion problem) and it might occur again because he’s been on a lot of TB meds for the past 6 months. Good news is the doctor finally reduced the meds from 4 to 2. 4 more months of treatment and hopefully he’ll be FULLY recovered.

I gave my parents a little Christmas gift: Wrote a Christmas card telling how I appreciated their help all this time here and also our differences in the beginning since I have been independent for the past 10 years. Plus a small Godiva Dark Chocolate truffles and our pictures with them while they were here.

Simple gift yet full of thoughts. I wrote a lot in the card. Hopefully they like it.

My co worker gave me and my fellow colleagues a box of cookies!

These are SINFULLY good! Not too sweet, yet crunchy and sort of melt in your mouth cookies! I only had ONE. These cookies are not from here btw. They travelled all the way from Hongkong homemade bakery according to her.

I’ve been a little adventurous in the kitchen lately.

Like this Cauliflower “Fried Rice”.

3 Ingredients:
1/2 of cauliflower (pick the most white and big looking one!)
3 garlic cloves – minced
3 stalks of green onions-chopped (separate the green and white part)
Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
1 Tbsp olive oil/butter/lard/coconut oil or whatever oil you like!
Optional: curry powder for a little kick, paprika etc the choice is ENDLESS!

Steps:
1. Chopped the cauliflower and ground them in your blender/food processor until they look like this

2. Minced the garlic and green onions (reserve the green parts for later use)

3. Heat up the non stick skillet with 1 Tbsp oil (I used olive oil)

4. Saute the garlic and the white part of the green onions until fragrant

5. Mix in the ground cauliflower

6. Seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

7. Mix in the green part of the green onions

8. Ready to devour!

Cauliflower Fried Rice!

It's healthy, grain free and nutritious!

Finally, after reading so many raw/vegan cookies on the blogsphere, I decided to try making them my own:

Raw Almond Cookies!
(vegan and gluten free)

Ingredients (I didn’t measure everything exactly)
1/4 cup raw almonds
1/4 cup raw walnuts
1/2 cup golden roasted flaxseeds
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
2 cups of raw almond butter (I used my homemade almond butter- super easy!)
2 pitted medjool dates

Directions:
1. Lightly toast the almonds and walnuts in your oven for about 4 minutes

2. Put all ingredients in your blender/food processor and grind until the nuts are coarse (not too much or it’ll become nut butter)

coarsely grounded

3, Mixed the grounded ingredients with the almond butter

4. Shape into whatever you like! I didn’t have any cookie cutters so I just shaped them into flat cookie.

5. Chill them in the fridge so they’ll harden a bit

Optional: Bake the cookies for 15 minutes (I might want to give this a try)

These cookies are VERY RICH, so be mindful of the portion size.

Oh not to forget I also made Vegan Tofu Eggplant Stir Fry.

In the mix: tofu, eggplant, bell peppers and button mushrooms

Super easy and healthy! You can always customize this and turn it into a different kind of stir fry! I LOVE STIR FRY!

On another note, I have a BIG plan for this blog and it might take me quite sometime to actually put together. A little hint, I might merge my other blog content into this one. We’ll see how things go.

Last but not least, I really want to win this iHerb Giveaway!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!! Be safe and be merry!

Question:
What’s your latest cooking adventure?

 

Big thank you, recipes and staying positive

First of all, I’d like to say a BIG THANK YOU for the great and supportive comments on my last post. I definitely felt better after reading those. It’s strange in some ways even though I don’t know the readers in person, sometimes I feel they could understand me a bit more than people who’ve known me in person. I know it sounds strange but maybe that’s why people blog, right?

It’s almost weekend and for those who live in the US, it’s Labor Day weekend! Woohoo!! Anyone has plans?

As my current situation, I don’t think we have any plans at all. Mainly just regular weekend stuff, got stretched over a bit..haha. But I do feel a bit envious of one of my friend, who’s going to celebrate her 1 year wedding anniversary for going out of town with her hubby. They mentioned Las Vegas but then she asked my suggestion and I suggested her to give Terranea Resort at Rancho Palos Verdes a look.

View of Terranea at Rancho Palos Verde

Hm, I wanna go there on our 5th year wedding anniversary. We are not big in celebrating stuff (anniversary, birthdays etc) but for 5 year or 10 year wedding anniversary, I think it’s worth it.

Moving on, my throat been bothering me since yesterday afternoon. It was hurt and scratchy. Ugh!! So I took a quick action: Vitamin C overdose Infusing lots of Vitamin C to my body.

full cup of fresh squeezed grapefruit - drank this right after dinner

followed by a fresh squeezed lemon juice mixed w/ warm water and some honey

Went to bed quite early last night, sometime before 10pm? Had to help dad scan some stuff, took a while to install the software on the laptop, downloaded from the manufacturer’s website, found out I downloaded the wrong driver, tried again, wireless went down, had to restart the laptop, still not working, blah blah. Finally I had to turn on my desktop computer which hasn’t been on since ‘rents are here (they took over our computer room), then scanned that sucker. Phew. Originally I planned to sleep around 9pm but got dragged until 9:40pm. Oh well.

Woke up this morning, throat was really sore, especially when swallowing. Had a bit of phlegm (sorry TMI). I’ve been having cough drops and LOTS OF H20 to hydrate myself. A bit dizzy. Man, hopefully I didn’t catch a cold! Gotta exercise later after got home to sweat it all out!

Btw, last night I experimented making a gluten-free, vegan friendly banana muffins, inspired by Averie’s Vegan Banana Nut Muffins. This is a super easy. All you need is a measuring cup, a bowl and a spoon. No mixer, no blender!

Vegan friendly, gluten free banana muffins:
3 medium ripe bananas
1/2 cup ground flaxseeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup oats (I used quick oats since that’s what I had in my pantry)
about 1 Tbsp brown sugar
a dash of salt
some dried cranberries

1. Mash all bananas until smooth then pour in the rest of the ingredients.
Mine looked like this:

2. Divide the mixture evenly into lined muffin pans. Mine perfectly filled 2 of 6 muffin tins.

3. Bake at 375°F for about 20 minutes. I had to bake one tin at a time cause they won’t fit into my convection oven.

4. Enjoy!

Done!

Texture wise it's not as fluffy and airy like typical muffins since there wasn't any gluten in there. But still good. Kinda chewy. My mom tried it and she said it was pretty good. Not overly sweet either. Most of the sweetness came from the ripe bananas.

I’m planning to add a bit of dark chocolate chips next time to mask the banana flavor, also put more seeds and coconut flakes to make it crunchier, and less oats.

Also sometime last week when bro was still hospitalized, he requested to have stir fried rice noodle. Mom didn’t quite know how to make those so asked me to do it. I said, okay and voila:

Stir Fried Rice Noodles
Ingredients:
1 package of dried rice noodles (make sure it’s rice noodles, not rice vermicelli- they’re different) – A must

You can always alter any of these ingredients (vegans/vegetarians just omit the animal products )
1 carrot -julienne
1 package of button mushrooms – chopped
1-2 green onions – julienne
2 -3 eggs – scrambled – vegans/vegetarians can omit this and use lightly fried sliced tofu instead
A dash of white pepper
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce (adjust for taste)
1-2 Tbsp oyster sauce (adjust for taste) – vegans/vegetarians can use mushroom sauce instead
Canola oil for stir fry
2 stalks of celery – julienne
1/2 pounds of peeled and deveined shrimps

Directions:
1. Soak the dried rice noodles in cold water until it’s soft – the longer you soak the softer it becomes. Don’t soak it too long. Drain the water, cover and set aside.
2. Scrambled the eggs until cooked, set aside.
3. Stir fry all the veggie and meat mixture until cooked – set aside
4. Stir fry the soaked rice noodles – might want to divide it into 2 steps. Too much rice noodles at once will be hard to stir.
5. Pour in half of the veggie mixture to the noodles, keep stirring with medium heat.
6. Mix in the soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, pepper and adjust for taste.
7. First batch done. Repeat Step 4-6 for second batch.

Hopefully the direction won’t be too confusing..hehe. Anyway, bro, parents and hubby liked this!

Sometime last week I tried this Asian style burrito for breakfast. It was ok, but a bit greasy for my taste. I only ate the inside part and only half of the wrap.

Long weekend is coming and I strive to keep a positive attitude around my parents. Smile more, talk more to them and just be happy. And hopefully my sore throat will heal SOON!

Later!

 

Why time running out so fast?

It’s almost Friday, can’t believe it! This week has gone fast and before we know it, June is almost over! We’re already halfway in the year 2010. Time flies so fast! I feel I just celebrated Christmas and New Year not too long ago! Does anyone else feel this way or am I just a weirdo?

Anyway, I had a pretty good sweaty workout with P90X Kenpo X. I almost wanted to skip today’s workout and called it a rest day. But I prefer to have my rest day tomorrow so I’ll be fully charged for my weekend beach run/jog. Btw, remember I was going to do overnight oats? Well it didn’t turn out as I expected. I think I added a bit too much almond milk in there so it was quite watery.

before

After. I added some strawberries, a generous amount of yogurt and a dollop of peanut butter ( can't see it but it's there!)

I am not giving up. I’ll try it again later! For sure I won’t add too much liquid.

Speaking of which, I just found out that my little point and shoot digital camera has a lot more functions in it! All this time I only use the automatic setting. Some of the setting choices are: night shot, digital macro, kids & pets, portrait and even manual. I can also adjust the white balance settings, color settings, resolution settings. Within the main settings, there are some sub functions as well. For example, for kids & pets, there are choices of indoor shot, fireworks, outdoor etc. For color settings, there are black/white, sepia tone, color swap, and spot color. I could even have control of what type of lights that I am going to take the pictures. Wow, can’t believe my little Canon point and shoot camera compacts these many functions! Gosh, such a noob!

So after my little “discovery”, I started to experimented more on my food picture taking. After fiddle around with it for a bit, I decided to use the manual setting.

Shrimp stir fry

I do notice the colors are more vivid and the focus is better as well than using automatic settings. Of course, taking the advantage of natural light is the key of taking a nice and sharp picture. Btw, this is the super easy shrimp stir fry. Just  some tomatoes, celery, stir fried with the shrimps, added some salt and a bit of black pepper and ketchup, you’re DONE! Simplest dish ever. The only catch is use frozen cleaned shrimps instead of the fresh one. Ha!

some mango salsa from last time

One can never have enough yogurt with fruits as after dinner dessert!

Too bad my little camera ran out of battery so had to recharge and can’t fiddle around with it more. I never really consider myself as “technologically impaired”, but I guess that’s not quite true. Oh well, at least now I don’t have to keep looking at Amazon for the nice digital SLR camera which costs at least $1,000 something!