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.

Stir-Fried Woodear Fungus

Just like my easy stir-fried carrot dish, wood ear fungus has always been a side ingredient in a dish, hardly ever as a star in a dish.  So for this dish, I wanted to make wood ear fungus a star and used carrot and scallion as side ingredients.  I have told you about the benefits of wood ear in my previous post so I am not repeating myself again.  Both black and white wood fungus are good for our body but the black one has more nutrients.  The white one has also been known to keep one skin looking young and beautiful and people has called it a poor people bird nest.  Because bird nest is expensive and no many people can eat it everyday or few times a week for the benefit of looking young.  So the poor people use white wood ear fungus or snow fungus as a substitute as it is so much cheaper.

Pancakes from Scratch!

I used to make pancake from a box because I didn't know better.  When I started into baking, I started to wonder, why make it from a box (I don't want to name it here but all who made it from a box should know the brand name) when it's actually very easy to make from scratch as my pantry already have all the ingredients?  This recipe is a keeper recipe for me, never from a box again.

My girls were bugging me to make pancakes for them.  So, pancake is an occasional treat for them as they loved it.  I served it with cinnamon sugar and pure honey as I was out of maple syrup.  I could probably make my own brown sugar syrup to go with it too eh? 

Soft, light, fluffy and delicious pancakes from scratch!  

Stir-Fried Chili Sweet Potatoes

While shopping at my Asian market recently, I spotted a white flesh sweet potatoes.  It interested me because frankly I don't think I have eaten this before.  So, I bought 4 to try.  I used one to cook with my brown rice but I didn't really like it as it was not as sweet as the orange and purple ones.  So, I had to find another way of cooking it.  Since it's white, it resembled potato a lot, so I julienned it thinly and cooked it like people would do with potatoes.

Not bad I would say but a bit spicy with the dried chili pepper as I was suffering from sore throat so the chili pepper was a bad idea.  If not, it would be good with rice.  It's a bit crunchy.

White flesh sweet potatoes

Fast Kimchi

I admitted lots of time that I don't fancy kimchi.  I guess the kimchi that I tasted before were aged kimchi and too sourish or pungent for me.  However recently I tried a kimchi that was not too sourish and it was okay for me, in fact I quite liked it.  I have been reading a lot about the benefits of eating kimchi and since finding that there was a kimchi that I liked, I really wanted to make it myself because I could adjust the seasonings.

Kimchi is fermented vegetable that said to promote intestinal health by feeding the friendly bacterias that live in your intestines.  It nourishes them so that they can out number the bad bacteria that find their way into the gut.  Thus promotes gut health and increase your overall immune system.  It is also anti-oxidant and rich in Vitamin C and carotene.  You can do a search on the Internet to read more about the benefits of eating kimchi if you are interested in learning more.

This is a fast kimchi because I don't fancy aged kimchi.  I added sugar because I liked it sweet.  I also don't want to make too much because I am the only one that consume this in my household and also I don't like to keep it for too long in the refrigerator, even though kimchi should be able to keep for a very long time.  It turned out well for me and I couldn't resist to eat a little bit during lunch and dinner times.  I guess it won't last long in my fridge.

Meatless Meal

Another picture of my meatless meal.  I have stir-fried wood ear fungus/ black fungus, stir-fry white sweet potatoes with dried chili peppers and stir-fry baby bok choy.  Recipes of each dish will be coming up in an individual post later.

If you have any meatless meal picture, please do share it in my Facebook page as I would love to see yours as well. :)