Seasoned Burdock Root

 

Chinese health guru said root vegetables are good for us, so I am trying to eat more.  Root vegetable such as nagaimo (山药), burdock root/ gobo, lotus root, ginger, turmeric, etc.  Nagaimo is really good for us but I have not bought it often as I still have no idea how to incorporate it into our family meal besides making a dessert.  I bought burdock root occasionally to make soup;  even tried it in stir-frying once, but I found it to be quite fibrous and my family members didn't like it.  But I was glad to found this Ueong Jorim (seasoned burdock root) recipe on Pinterest one day.  This is surely a keeper for me, I guess by stir-frying and simmering, it makes it less fibrous that even my little girl likes it. 

Herbal Grass Jelly with Soy Milk

 

Feeling a little heaty lately so I made myself a glass of herbal gelatine grass jelly with soy milk and palm sugar syrup.  We have this drink in Malaysia and it is also known as Micheal Jackson drink.  Herbal grass jelly drink is very common in Malaysia, usually they just cut it into smaller pieces and simmer it with water and sweeten it with sugar.  Because my soy milk is less sweet and the grass jelly is unsweeten hence I sweeten it with Gula Melaka syrup/palm sugar syrup.  As you can see my soy milk is brownish in color.  This grass jelly has cooling properties and very popular in hot weather.  Other than making drink with it, you can also make dessert.  Just cut it into cubes and mix it with cut fruit, sago, red beans, cendol, coconut flesh, sea coconut and syrup.  Or whatever you can think of that would make a good match.

Samgak Kimbap Lunch Box

Samgak kimbap or triangle kimbap is the Korean version of rice balls.  This is another easy to make lunch box idea for your kids at school.  I used the same recipe as my post in making onigiri.  You can either buy the samgak kimbap seaweed wrap (it came with seaweed in a plastic wrap with sticker) at the Korean store or supermarket (I read that 40 pieces is about $10+) or you can use the ordinary kimbap seaweed and do as what I did below to keep the seaweed dry and crisp (and save some money).  My girl loves the extra hand on approach in wrapping the rice balls herself.  It is like she makes it herself and showing off to her friends at the same time.  :-)
 

Three Seed Bread

I always make our bread from scratch via the bread maker at home.  I am also happy to try out any healthy bread recipe for my family.  Recently, I am into flaxseed and chia seed, so I bought a packet of Bob's Red Mill flaxseed and at the back packet of the flaxseed, it included two recipes and one of it is this Three Seed Bread.  I decided to try this recipe because I have all the ingredients and it sounded great.  This bread indeed turned out delicious and soft and we loved it.  Hence, I decided to share it here with all of you. 

Flaxseed and Chia Seeds Waffles

You know I make my own bread/buns for breakfast right?  Sometimes I will make muffins or waffles as they freezes well.  My old waffle recipes used oatmeal and since I no longer buy oatmeal, I tried out a new recipe here.  I added flax and chia seeds simply because I have some in my pantry.  Next time I would buy the ground flaxseed  instead of  the whole flaxseed since it is easier for our bodies to digest.  (Update: I grounded my flaxseeds using a food processor and store it in a Ziploc bag in the freezer.)

I served my waffle with butter and Malacca palm sugar syrup and it was so delicious.  My girls asked me to make another batch of waffles after we are finished with this because they loved it a lot.  I used chocolate chips for them and raisins for us.

Onigiri Lunch Box

This lunch box is super easy to make since most of us have some leftover rice in the refrigerator or from the night before.  I stock up on pouch tuna when it goes on sales and that comes in handy.  If you have these two main ingredients, you can make onigiri!  Onigiri is Japanese rice balls and you can eat it with a piece of roasted seaweed too.  Korean have their own version and it is called samgak kimbap (triangle rice balls) and it is wrapped in seaweed (will do a post on this later).  Both of these make easy lunch box or picnic food and kids love them.