No-Bake Granola Bars

No-bake granola bars!!  Who wouldn't love it?  When I saw this easy no-bake granola bars, I just had to try it.  A healthy more natural piece of granola bar is selling for $1.80 or more in a grocery store.  That was pricey if you asked me.  With this easy recipe, you can make a batch and grab one on the go or as a snack, nothing beat homemade.  This would make a healthy school snack for my girls in the coming school year too.

These granola bars are delicious.  Soft and chewy with the taste of peanut butter and all the goodies I put in there.  I added chocolate chips because my girls loved it, but you can certainly omit it.

My Trip Back to Malaysia

My vacation back to Malaysia was always too short.  Three weeks were not enough as I had to split my time between my family and my in-law.  Since I have been living in the U.S., I have not seen my relatives and cousins often.  My girls missed out on playing with their cousins.  I remembered when I was young I played with my cousins and relatives all the times as we stayed pretty closed by.  But my girls hardly knew their relatives so when we went back, I made an effort for them to meet their relatives.  They also got to play with their cousins because we stayed at their house.  Almost the end of my stay with my in-law, I received a call from my mom that my dad was in the hospital for heart monitoring.  It was scary for sure as I never foresee it.  So, for the first couple of days when I reached home, my parents were in the hospital.  My husband was at my in-law's place and my sister does not drive.  So, who was going to take care of our meals?  Luckily, Foodpanda was there to help us.  It was a convenient online delivery service for someone like us, or who was too busy to cook, no time to go out, tired of take away, need food deliver at a certain time, for office party, etc.  The launch of Foodpanda's ios and Android mobile apps made the ordering speedy and easy, our food was just a few clicks away.  With that, my sister got me and my girls covered on those two days that my parents were in the hospital.  After that, my dad got discharged and took us out to eat.  My dad is fine now, he took a heart surgery later (after we came back to the U.S.) to fix the problem.  It is always nice being with my parents.  I hope they would come and visit us too.  Happy father's day dad and I love you!

Lotus Root Cold Dish

Root vegetables are really good for us, so make sure your diet consists of some root vegetables.  I bought a small lotus root recently but instead of making soup with it, I wanted to try something else.  I saw a Chinese cooking show before and they used lotus root to make a cold dish.  I never tried that before and really interested in giving it a go.  There are few recipes in my blog containing lotus root, such as in soup, stir-frying, simmering and even deep-frying, but not a cold dish.  The minced ginger, green onion and toasted sesame seeds gave this dish a great flavor and it was really fragrant with crunchy lotus root.  I loved this way of enjoying the lotus root too.  Give it a try if you haven't tried it this way!

Blueberry Cheesecake Cups

I eat fruit based on whatever fruit is on season, same with vegetable.  And when Whole Food had their one day 1 pint organic blueberries on sales for $1.99, I couldn't pass it up.  Did you all manage to get some too?  For the most benefit, it is best to eat it raw, without cooking or baking to get the most nutrients.  So, instead of baking with it, I used it as a decoration on these cheesecake cups.  The rest, we just washed and ate it by the handful.

I remembered my lazy cheesecake cups recipe that I did back in 2009 and this is another version revised from that recipe.  I used ginger snap cookies as a base this time and it soften up just like a crust.  Brilliant!

I did a no-bake cheesecake cookie cup in 2011 using the ginger snap as well if you are interested.
 

Spicy Eggplant with Chicken

Eggplant or aubergine is from a nightshade family of vegetables such as potato, tomato and sweet peppers.  It is a good source of vitamins and minerals and has phytonutrients which have antioxidant activities.  However, it is not suitable for people with kidney and gallbladder problems.

I do like to buy eggplant occasionally because I try to eat variety of vegetables with different colors.  I can't buy it often because my hubby and my girls are not a fan of this vegetable, so whenever I cook this, they only eat the chicken.

Are you someone who tries to buy different fruits and vegetables every time you go grocery shopping?  Since we shop at the Asian supermarkets, our selections are wider and there are lots of different green vegetables, root vegetables that we can buy.  Next time, try to vary your choice of vegetables instead of sticking to the few that you like.

Milo Chia Seed Pudding

Chia seed is so popular these days because of its high omega-3 fat and long shelve life.  Also, it doesn't have to be crushed (unlike flaxseed) to get the full benefits.  I have been added it in bread, waffle, pancake and muffin. But I also like to try new thing and chia seed pudding caught my eyes.  It seem easy enough, just add liquid and chia seeds and see it transform into a pudding like consistency.

I made a small batch to test it out and luckily my girls loved it too.  Just that we have to add more syrup to make it tasty.  Next time I would probably mix the syrup with the milk first before adding the chia seeds so that the pudding would be sweet.  I think it would be delicious in the Asian style sweet soy bean milk too.