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.

Flaxseed Pumpkin Cake

After seeing all the delicious cakes baked by fellow bloggers, it made me realized that I haven't been baking cake in a while.  But I wanted something that was easy and not too troublesome to make, like my one whisk and one bowl cake recipe.  I finally decided on this pumpkin cake recipe because I have some organic pumpkin puree stock up in my pantry.  This time I added ground flaxseed just to make it healthier, no harm in getting an extra omega-3 right?

This cake is best eaten the next day.  The texture doesn't look like the usual pumpkin cake yet it is dense, soft and moist and so good with my morning cup of coffee.  I could taste the flaxseed, pumpkin and spices in the cake. Delicious!

Easy Stir-fried Leeks with Beef

Cooking doesn't have to be difficult, this super easy stir-fried leeks with beef is an example.  Minimal ingredients used yet super delicious.  I used leftover beef here but you can use a small piece of beef and thinly slice it and marinate it to make this a quick stir-fry.

Leek is in the Allium family, together with onion and garlic.  Not only it is low in calories, anti-oxidant but it also provides lots of health benefits and vitamins and minerals.  I don't buy leek all the times because lots of veggies that we eat are also very nutritious but I certainly include leeks occasionally into our diet.  I am thriving for a variety of vegetables that have different health benefits and try to mix and match them every week.

Spicy Miso Buckwheat Noodle Soup

I loved this Taiwanese cooking show called "食在有健康", not only it teaches us what food to eat to make us healthier, it also uses that food and teaches us how to cook it.  I think the featured food here is mushroom.  I like that the chefs in that show always managed to create yummy food with easy cooking method.  I also like their theme 食在有健康, 吃出好健康!  Meaning eat healthy food so that you will have good health.  I agreed with it whole heartedly that's why I am a big fan of that show.

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*