Chai Hsin with Shiitake Mushrooms

Shiitake mushrooms, a symbol for longevity in Asia, and also for sizing opportunities in the new year.  Green vegetable symbolizes close family ties, so this is an auspicious dish to serve in the Chinese New Year.  Another easy way of serving delicious greens for your CNY menu.  Of course if you can't find the fresh Shiitake mushroom, you can also use the dried one (might have to adjust the cooking time).

* I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover*

Butter Custard Cookies

This Butter Custard Cookie is a spin off of my Custard Cookies that I made in 2011.  That cookie was delicious and I wanted to make it again this year, but when I looked through the recipe again, it has cornstarch in it.  I threw away my cornstarch a while ago and have no plan of using it again, so here's the spin off!  I like this cookies a lot as it is very fragrant, it's buttery, custardy, and also smell of vanilla.  It is light and crispy.  Both my girls loved this cookie and told me they could finish all the cookies in one day.  Hahaha... 

You are welcome to double the recipe as this cookie will go fast.  Maybe doubling and make a few batches if you intend to give it as gift.

* I am also submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover* 

Peanut Butter Oat Squares

When I saw this recipe at Go Bold with Butter, I wanted to try it.  The reason being it has rolled oats and some of my favorite ingredients in there.  Not sure what happen but mine came out looking different from their photo.  Nevertheless, it is still crispy and crumbly like they described.  I think it would taste even better with chocolate chips, flax seeds and possibly walnuts in it.  I would probably play with the recipe when I make it again.

* I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover*  Well, a change from the traditional Chinese New Year cookies!  Actually it is quite similar to the cornflakes cookies without flour except this one uses oats.  So, I think instead of bar squares, you can also do it in a pretty mini paper cups.

Pan-fried Salmon in Special Sauce

This was just a regular salmon dish at my house, except I was trying on a new sauce.  Because the sauce was sweet, slight hint of sour and savory, I didn't bother to season my salmon.  I didn't flour it either just to cut down on the refined flour intake.  When you flour your meat, poultry, seafood to deep-fry or when you add cornstarch/potato starch to thicken the soup/sauce, do you know that you are actually adding refined processed white flour into your diet?  You probably didn't know right?   I didn't notice this small little detail until I heard it from a healthy eating guru in some healthy Chinese cooking show.  It made me aware of this fact, with the knowledge, I would try to cut down on it as much as possible.  It was hard as lots of Chinese dishes need the thickening starches to make a dish palatable.  Just look at my sauce above, it would certainly look more appetizing if the sauce is thick instead of watery.  Also, the fact that all of the egg drops soup and hot and sour soup in the Chinese restaurants are laden with thickening starches, it does make me think twice when ordering it.  Wonton soup is definitely a better option I guess.

Now you are aware, it's up to you to make the right choices!  Again, moderation is the key!

Ching's Chili

I have been reading the Super Immunity book and bean is one of the high-micronutrient super foods that was advice to consume regularly.  Frankly I don't cook beans often as I often used the green and red beans to make sweet Chinese dessert soup.  Black and Soy beans to boil Chinese soup and that's about it.  The only bean that I used in cooking is garbanzo beans and that was when I cooked the Japanese curry.  So, after reading that book, I wanted to incorporate more beans into our diets.  Since the weather is getting cold here, a warm bowl of chili came into my mind.  And just when I was thinking of that, the organic brand of beans and tomato sauce were on sales for $1 each.  And that just about made up my mind.

This is Ching's Chili, or my chili as I used ground chicken, tri-bean blend, onion, celery, tomato and corn (for more fiber and additional micronutrient intake) and my own way of seasonings.  We all loved it and I am going to head out to buy more of these tri-bean blend and organic tomato sauce while it is still on sales.  Looking forward to more Ching's Chili in these cold weather.  Feedback to me when you give my chili a try yeah!

This tri-bean blend has organic dark red kidney beans, organic pinto beans and organic black beans.  I was just happy to find three different colored beans in a can.   What a great way to get the nutrients from these beans (What a bummer!  The last few trips I went to KS and they were out of this Tri-Bean Blend!!).

I am aware of the resin linings of tin can and more so from the tomato sauce, but what did I do when my organic tomato sauce came in a tin can instead of a glass bottle?  For this, I just pour out the tomato sauce and didn't bother to scratch the can clean or add water to rinse everything out, so there was still a lining of tomato sauce left on the can, that's the best I can do in this case.  Or else, I would have to make my own tomato sauce.  Luckily I don't depend on can food, I get most of my micronutrients from whole natural food.

Baby Bok Choy with Minced Chicken

I made this for a potluck dinner the other day.  I just want to show you a picture of how I plated the baby bok choy.  In the middle, I stir-fried some minced chicken with chopped fresh shiitake mushrooms and garnished with chopped scallion and crispy fried shallots.  You can also make it vegetarian by omitting the ground chicken and use an assortment of mushrooms.

You can serve this during a Chinese New Year dinner.  I think it's beautiful!

* I am submitting this post to Chinese New Year Delights 2013 hosted by Sonia aka Nasi Lemak Lover*