Pina Colada Yonana

It has been almost a year since I owned my Yonana maker and I am still loving it.  It is always cool to have a new recipe to try.  When I saw the Pina Colada recipe posted at Yonana's Facebook page, I just wanted to try it.  This recipe was posted by Gerry Quesinberry and thanks Gerry for sharing this fantastic recipe.  I made one quart (more than the recipe stated) to freeze so that I can have few scoops a day.  I always like to make a big batch so that I can freeze for later, also I don't have to wash the Yonana maker every time I feel like eating some.  *wink*

Yonanas Review!!

This is another kitchen gadget that I got to have when I saw the infomercial.  As a health conscious individual this is right up my alley.  We loved ice-cream but the saturated fat content, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil and the long list of ingredients scared me.  I had been drastically cut down on buying them at the supermarket and wanted an alternative.  Then, I saw this and this was the answer.

The Yonanas machine above priced at $50. Easy to install, easy to use and easy to clean.  Came in 5 pieces, except the base engine, the rest are dish washer safe or just wash with warm soupy water right after use.

Ingredients I used here were 2 frozen bananas (got to be the one with dark spots so that it would be sweeter) and 1 cup of frozen blueberries, thaw for 5-7 minutes.  (There are tons of recipes in the recipe booklet that came with it)

Turn it on and push the fruit down with the plunger and we have this creamy and healthy blueberries banana ice-cream.

Eating a bowl of ice-cream never felt this healthy before.  It's just plain fruit, no cream, milk, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, saturated fat or any artificial ingredients added.  There are more recipes in their website.  This is not a paid review so I am not sharing a link here, but you can easily find the website via search engine.  I just wanted to share this product with my readers who would love a healthier alternative to ice-cream.

One downside is if your fruit is sourish or tart, then the ice-cream would be sourish instead of sweet.  You can add chocolate kisses or top it with homemade chocolate or strawberry syrup, caramel sauce should do the trick.  I top mine with Gula Melaka syrup!  ;)

Disclaimer:  This is not a paid review and I received nothing from Yonana.  Just me sharing a kitchen gadget that I bought recently.

Cold Mixed Watermelon Rind (凉拌西瓜皮)

I saw this recipe while watching a healthy eating Taiwanese cooking show and it intriguing me.  Thus far, I only used the watermelon rind to make cooling soup and have yet to try anything else with it.  So, of course this fast and easy cold salad interested me.  They said this is good as a side for drinking too.  I shared my measurement with you as that show didn't provide the measurement (You will have to buy their cookbook to know it).  It tasted surprisingly refreshing and delicious and my friends also gave it a thumb up.  I will share with you what I did with this salad as well (like as seen on that TV show) because I just wanted to know how it would taste like.  Stay tuned for this surprising upcoming dish!

When cutting the watermelon to eat during Summer, save some of the flesh between the rind and red flesh of the watermelon for this cold mixed salad.  Don't cut it too close to the skin as it would be hard.  I have a picture to show you how I cut it in the recipe page.  I also freeze some to make soup (recipe already posted in my blog under Soup).  It can freeze for months.  But for this cold mixed salad I won't recommend using the freeze one.  It is best when freshly sliced.

Party Food: Toothpick Fruit Mix

Dhanggit is hosting her first blog event in celebration to her precious girl's 1st birthday party and her event theme is "Perfect Party Dishes". I wanted to create a dish that is easy to prepare, stress free and easy to eat. So, I thought of this toothpick fruit mix on a melon, in this case a cantaloupe. Any melon can be used as a base and any fruit in season that won't turn brown like apple can be used as fruit on a stick. You can use decorative toothpick (like me in this case) or bamboo sticks.



What do you think? Easy party food (fruit) that guests would love right? You can use more fruit variety (play with different colors combination) if you are using a bamboo stick. In my case, I cut the cantaloupe in half, scoop the filling out with a melon scoop (I don't know how to scoop the melon out in round shape at all, *sad*) and use the red grape as contrast. I used decorative toothpicks and alternate the fruit in the toothpick and just stuck them onto the cantaloupe. Sorry for my ugly attempt, I tried.



I would love to submit my toothpick fruit to Dhanggit "Perfect Party Dishes" event as an idea to her (I bet anyone would make a prettier one than me). Do check out her round-up during the week of Aug. 15th.

Persimmons!

It's persimmon season again! I remembered my mom used to buy it from Singapore when I was little. We stayed in J.B. during my primary school days and always drove to Singapore weekly to shop. Now it's the other way round huh? I simply love this fruit and would definitely buy some every year when it's in season.

Guess how much I paid for the above? I was shopping at the Asian grocery store and spotted this persimmon on sales for 68 cents/pound and grabbed a pack without exactly knowing the total cost of it. I have nine persimmons total and it only costs me $1.44!! What a steal considering I always paid 88 cent each at WalMart. Now I know where to buy my persimmon already and definitely not WalMart or any of the angmoh retail store (always $1 each!!). :P