Whole Wheat Fruit Cake Mix Cookies

I am making my own cookies and bread for my family.  This is one of the cookies that I made for my girls.  My girls like this a lot and this is my second batch.  I will probably keep making this until I finish the container of the fruit cake mix that I have.  This recipe is almost the same as my whole wheat and oats cookies recipe except I added the fruit cake mix and needs minor adjustment.  Very easy, no mixer required.  Just a bowl, a hand held whisk and a spatula.

This cookie is crispy with a chewy bite from the fruit cake mix.  While baking with the fruit cake mix, I learned that you shouldn't over bake your cookie or else the fruit cake mix will become hard instead of chewy. 

If you have a container of fruit cake mix some where, why not give this recipe a try?

5 Spice Powder Ham Chim Peng (Asian Fried Bread)

I tried the sweet one with the red bean filling earlier but I had the soft spot for the savory 5-spice powder ham chim peng.  While looking through my recipes for the pumpkin cake recipe, I came across the red bean paste ham chim peng recipe and I immediately craved for the savory ham chim peng.   Reading through the recipe, I thought I could make it work with the savory ham chim peng.  My mind was set and I set to work the next day.

Glad to say that it was not bad at all considering the steps were very straight forward and easy.  Crispy on the outside and soft inside with hint of saltiness and 5-spice powder.  We had enough for lunch, snack and breakfast the next day.

Crispy on the outside and soft inside

Stir-Fried Tofu with Chayote

I fell in love with chayote once I tried it.  So, I have been buying it quite frequently because chayote is a nutritious veggie.  I mentioned about the nutrition in my previous or first post about chayote, please refer back to my old post (under vegetable) to read about it if you are interested.

The above dish is easy and super delicious.  I just substituted the chicken breast with tofu for my meatless meal.  All you need for this dish is a bottle of Lee Kum Kee's Chu Hou Sauce.  I just ran out of this sauce and I have been to two Asian supermarkets and couldn't find it.  *cry*  I guess I had to make another trip to a different Asian supermarket up in Denver to search for it.  I dislike how the Asian market here is not quick in restocking their products or sometimes they just stop ordering it.  *sigh*

Healthy Buns (Whole Wheat, Oats, Millet, Black Sesame Seeds Buns)

I started making my own bread again knowing that it would not have any artificial stuffs added to it.  I called this "Healthy Bun" because it is pretty healthy as I used whole wheat flour, a little bread flour, old fashioned rolled oats, millet, black sesame seeds, milk, butter, brown sugar, salt and yeast.  The ingredients that I am familiar with without any scientific name.

This bun is soft and remain soft.  Since this is homemade, it is best eaten within 2 days at room temperature (you have to check for spoilage after 3rd days) .  Otherwise, freeze it and just take out the amount you want to defroze it on the counter top.  Mostly 30 minutes should be sufficient to defroze it, or for faster speed, use a microwave.  I eat mine with organic jam and my daughters prefer theirs with Nutella.

This recipe makes about 21-22 buns, depending on the size you shape it.  I put out the amount we eat for breakfast at room temperature in an air-tight container and freeze the rest.  Just take out what I want the night before and have it the next morning.

Seaweed Salad (Miyeok Muchim)

I took out too much of the seaweed for my seaweed gochujang soup, so the best way to use up all the seaweed is to make it into salad.  I had a similar seaweed salad with cucumber and thought it was really refreshing.  My girls loved seaweed so they helped me finished this except the onion, the raw onion was just too pungent for them.  Not only for them but for me as well but since I was raised not to waste food, I had to finish all the onion.  You can omit the onion if you want.  I did another version here which uses sesame paste and sesame oil which we liked better.

Sweet Potatoes Brown Rice (红薯糙米饭)

In my list of 10 most healthy food, brown rice is number 1 and sweet potato is number 3, behind onion.  Sweet potato is also number 1 in detox, or getting rid of "poison in your body" in the Chinese saying.  This is another of my easy way to enjoy the sweet potato.  I just put it in my rice cooker and cook it with my brown rice.  For 2 cups of brown rice, I added 1 organic sweet potato, cubed and cook it like usual.  When it's done, I left it for 10-15 minutes before lightly stir it.  Be careful not to break the sweet potato as it would be soft.  It's okay if you mash some of it as well.   Sweet potato regardless of color is one of the super-food and I will make sure to eat it often.