Chili Black Bean Chicken

Sigh, it does come at a time when I have no idea what to cook anymore.  I like to try new things, cook new food instead of the same old same old.  Furthermore, I can't post the same recipe again in my blog so I had to be creative!  Colorful super-food will always be my priority in preparing my food, the above is just a usual home cook meal.

Lemony Lemon Brownies

When I saw this recipe shared on my Facebook page, I just had to make it.  My girls loved anything lemony such as my Lemon Sables, Crispy Lemon Cookies and Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins.  Needless to say, I have been making lots of lemony dessert lately.  This brownie got my girls approval too, is a change from the usual chocolate brownie, but I like the fudgy brownie better.  *wink*

I modified the methods in making this lemon brownie from the original version because I remembered I only needed a hand whisk to make the best brownie ever recipe.  So, I improvised and experimented with it and glad to announce that it worked!  So, you are free to use my lazy method or follow the original recipe.  I also cut down on the sugar and changed the glaze recipe, as the glaze recipe provided by the original poster yields too much runny glaze and hence resulted my brownie looking like the above.

Cocoa Almond Butter

As you know, I have been making my own jam/preserves and learning that making homemade nut butter is also very easy hence I set it out to give it a try.  My girls loved Nutella so I added cocoa powder into my experiment.  It didn't taste very good at first so I tried adding some brown sugar and gave it a taste.  It also felt a bit thick so I added a little peanut oil to make it smoother and the above was the result of it.

We really liked it and when I am out of the almonds, I might try it with peanuts since peanuts is a lot cheaper. I bet you can experiment with different nut for a different nut butter taste as well.  Happy trying!

Hijiki Seaweed Cold Side

I have to eat seaweed regularly to keep my Hypothyroidism under control.  2-3 times a week is sufficient for me.  The most regular seaweed that I consume is wakame, cook in miso tofu soup.  I also add wakame when I prepare my kimchi ramen, any chance I have for seaweed, I would use it.  When I am too lazy to make the miso soup, I will switch to Hijiki seaweed since this can be prepared pretty easily.  Right now, I would do a blood test once a year when I visit my OB/GYN to see if there is any changes.  I noticed that if the reason of your hypothyroidism is the lack of iodine, you can easily modify your diet to keep it under control.  For me,  the regular consumption of seaweed really helped.  It might not be for everyone but it works for me.

Turmeric Spiced Chicken

This dish was me trying on something new.  I was inspired by Phong Hong's Chicken Garam Kunyit and wanted to give it a try.  But knowing me, I didn't go and shop for the ingredients but just made use or substitute what I had at home, this dish came out looking nothing like the post that I was inspired with.  I think using the chicken breast in my part was a mistake as the meat didn't turn out juicy and tender.  For this dish, the skinless and boneless chicken thigh would be much preferred.  Oh well... Certainly learnt from my mistake.  I still want to thanks Phong Hong for the recipe though!  :-)

Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins with Lemon Glaze

I don't know, I love to buy lemon when it's on sale.  And if it is 3 for $1, I would buy 3 instead of 1 even though I only needed one.  Often time when that happen, I have no idea what to do with the lemons.  I just realized that I can just cut it into slices and put it into an air-tight container in the fridge and take each slice out for use in my water (to make it alkaline).

Anyway, for these 2 lemons that I was left with, I decided to make Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins.  I created this recipe because I want to make it into a recipe that is easy to make and less thing to wash.   No electric appliance needed, just a bowl and a hand whisk!  It turned out soft, lemony and delicious, even my hubby that normally doesn't eat sweet had 3 in a day!  Of course the rest my girls walloped it up, now I will need to buy more lemons to make more of these yummies.

Soft and fluffy with the flavor of lemon and the crunch from the poppy seeds!