Cocoa Almond Butter

As you know, I have been making my own jam/preserves and learning that making homemade nut butter is also very easy hence I set it out to give it a try.  My girls loved Nutella so I added cocoa powder into my experiment.  It didn't taste very good at first so I tried adding some brown sugar and gave it a taste.  It also felt a bit thick so I added a little peanut oil to make it smoother and the above was the result of it.

We really liked it and when I am out of the almonds, I might try it with peanuts since peanuts is a lot cheaper. I bet you can experiment with different nut for a different nut butter taste as well.  Happy trying!

Hijiki Seaweed Cold Side

I have to eat seaweed regularly to keep my Hypothyroidism under control.  2-3 times a week is sufficient for me.  The most regular seaweed that I consume is wakame, cook in miso tofu soup.  I also add wakame when I prepare my kimchi ramen, any chance I have for seaweed, I would use it.  When I am too lazy to make the miso soup, I will switch to Hijiki seaweed since this can be prepared pretty easily.  Right now, I would do a blood test once a year when I visit my OB/GYN to see if there is any changes.  I noticed that if the reason of your hypothyroidism is the lack of iodine, you can easily modify your diet to keep it under control.  For me,  the regular consumption of seaweed really helped.  It might not be for everyone but it works for me.

Turmeric Spiced Chicken

This dish was me trying on something new.  I was inspired by Phong Hong's Chicken Garam Kunyit and wanted to give it a try.  But knowing me, I didn't go and shop for the ingredients but just made use or substitute what I had at home, this dish came out looking nothing like the post that I was inspired with.  I think using the chicken breast in my part was a mistake as the meat didn't turn out juicy and tender.  For this dish, the skinless and boneless chicken thigh would be much preferred.  Oh well... Certainly learnt from my mistake.  I still want to thanks Phong Hong for the recipe though!  :-)

Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins with Lemon Glaze

I don't know, I love to buy lemon when it's on sale.  And if it is 3 for $1, I would buy 3 instead of 1 even though I only needed one.  Often time when that happen, I have no idea what to do with the lemons.  I just realized that I can just cut it into slices and put it into an air-tight container in the fridge and take each slice out for use in my water (to make it alkaline).

Anyway, for these 2 lemons that I was left with, I decided to make Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins.  I created this recipe because I want to make it into a recipe that is easy to make and less thing to wash.   No electric appliance needed, just a bowl and a hand whisk!  It turned out soft, lemony and delicious, even my hubby that normally doesn't eat sweet had 3 in a day!  Of course the rest my girls walloped it up, now I will need to buy more lemons to make more of these yummies.

Soft and fluffy with the flavor of lemon and the crunch from the poppy seeds!

Baby Bok Choy Kimchi

When I went to a Korean BBQ buffet, there was one vegetable kimchi that I really liked and that was bok choy kimchi.  I was surprised at how good it tasted and I always want to make it in the back of my mind. This is a short cut version as no glutinous rice paste was used as well as no food processor.  So, no onion, no apple and no pear.  As you know, I am famous for the short-cut version.  However, adding fruit and onion would provide additional sweetness to the dish.  I heard that the glutinous rice paste is to give the kimchi extra shine.  Anyway, I am too lazy to make those today so I am settle with this.

Verdict:  I would try adding an apple or sweet pear next time.  I bet it would taste better with the additional sweetness from the fruit.  I would probably use 1 Tbsp. of fish sauce first and if it is not salty enough, at least you can add more and season to taste.  Otherwise, if it is too salty, then it would be harder to adjust, just have to eat it with lots of rice.

Homemade Strawberries Jam without Pectin

Hey, it's Spring, with the abundance of cheap strawberries on sale, what are you going to do with it?  You can make strawberry jam that last through the summer!  I used to spend a ton on organic jam but not anymore!  I have learned to make my own jam by following the simple rule of 1 lb.of fruit to 1 lb. of sugar (almost 2 cups).   However, I do cut down on the sugar depending on the sweetness of the fruit, not a whole lot but some since we need the sugar to preserve the jam.  If you click under my label on Jam/Preserve, I have since made kaya (Malaysian coconut jam), clementine marmalade, orange marmalade, pear jam, blueberry jam, blackberry jam and raspberry jam.  Now adding to the collection is strawberry jam!  I should stick to 2 lb. of strawberries next time, since it was my first attempt, I have no clue how much it will yield.

3 lb. of fresh strawberries yield almost 7 jars of strawberry jams for me.  Sweet and oh so yummy!