Banana Oat Walnut Buns

I created this recipe because I needed to use up my over ripe banana.  Before I would make a banana cake with it but these days I make my own bread for breakfast and just so that on that day I needed to make a new batch.  I didn't use whole wheat flour for this because I thought it would be better with bread flour alone.  However, I also wanted to make it healthier so I added oats and walnuts.

I loved the result, it's soft and fluffy with a tint of banana fragrant.  I could also taste bits of chopped walnuts in each buns.  The buns can be eaten as it or spread with your favorite jam.  As you can see from the above picture, this recipe yields one square pan, one round pan and one loaf pan of buns for me.

I am also submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers # 8 and this month theme is "Bread Seduction" hosted by Sweetylicious.

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Glaze for Father's Day!

I want to wish all the dads a "Happy Father's Day" especially my dad.  Dad, I love you and may you have a wonderful time on Father's Day.

We are going to celebrate Father's Day with a bunch of friends (dads) tonight so I made this simple and yet yummy cake to bring along.  I made this cake before on Edda's first birthday and really liked how soft the cake was.  Instead of cream or frosting, I chose glaze instead since in my mind it was healthier.  :-P

 

This recipe made two round pans cake.  My girls wanted to put sprinkles on the cake and I obliged, I thought it would make the cake more colorful.  Instead of chopped walnuts, I used peanuts instead.  My girls loved this cake as they couldn't wait to taste one of the cakes and requested I make this on their birthday for them.

Newtons Fruit Thins

Mmmm...mmmm....yum.....yum.....

What was my little Edda eating that was so delicious?  It was Newtons newest product!!  Newtons Fruit Thins is made with real fruit and packed into a thin and crispy whole grain cookie.  It has 8g of whole grain per serving (three cookies) to strike the perfect balance between sweet treat and wholesome snack.  My girls liked to enjoy it plain and as for me, I liked it with a cup of coffee.  :-)  This cookie definitely has the thumb up from me except it was sort of pricy, so I would buy it when it goes on sales or when there is a $1 off coupon (which was recently in the smartsource coupon in the mail).

As a tastemaker of Foodbuzz, I received the Cranberry Citrus Oat Newtons Fruit Thins to sample.  We could taste pieces of real dried cranberry in each cookie with a great citrus taste.  What's best for me was it has zero gram of trans fat and no high fructose corn syrup and made with real fruit. It came in three other flavors as well such as Chocolate Raspberry, Blueberry Brown Sugar and Fig & Honey.  I am eager to try them all.  Have you tried it?  Do you like it?

Stir Fried Long Bean with Minced Pork

I created this recipe with the Malaysian side in me.  Have you ever seen such a dark color vegetable dish before?  Haha...  First I wanted a dark color dish, then I tried to match it with a sauce that will guarantee it to be delicious.  And this dish was created!  Besides long bean, you can use green bean or french bean as well.

If you are too busy to cook, this dish makes a great one dish meal as well because it has meat and vegetable in one.  So, you get a balance meal in a bowl, of course for me, it is best to pair it with brown rice that was cooked with minced garlic and ginger.  You can read more about garlic rice here, these days I only cook brown rice and also added minced ginger as well.  Since both are super food so why not right?

Stir Fried Zucchini with Dried Small Shrimps (炒西葫芦和虾皮)

This is another way to enjoy the dried small shrimps or 虾皮.  If you want to learn more about 虾皮, click here.   This is a delicious stir-fried zucchini dish that even my picky hubby and Evy turned out liking.  They don't like to eat zucchini, but if I sliced it thinly like this and stir-fry it, they turned out liking it.  With the garlic, dried small shrimps, this dish was really flavorful with just a touch of salt and sugar.

Dried Mussels with Chicken and Mushrooms

Another dried mussels recipe from me!  The one packet of dried mussels can actually make with few dishes, I still have half a packet left.  I had tried it with Lotus Root Soup and Chap Chai and now tried it with chicken and mushrooms.  But I would probably say it would taste better with pork belly or drumsticks.  But if you are health conscious, then just use skinless chicken breasts like me.   Perhaps I will use the dried mussels in a vegetable soup next.