Banh Mi Wanna Be (Vietnamese Baguette Sandwich)

The original Banh Mi uses French baguette because this is a fusion of French and Vietnamese cuisines.  However, for my home version, I just used the bread I have at home.  I never thought of making Banh Mi at home but it just so happen that I have all the ingredients at home and my girls loved it and I had to make lunch for them so I made this.

My friend introduced me to Banh Mi so I had a chance to try it.  If not, I would never thought of buying it to try.  The one I had was a lemongrass flavored chicken Banh Mi.  It had a yellow color sauce on it and pate along with sliced jalapeno, cucumber, cilantro and pickled radish and carrot on a French baguette.  The lemongrass chicken was surprisingly fragrant and it tasted delicious. 

Stir-Fried Baby Bok Choy

This is another easy stir-fried baby bok choy recipe.  Instead of par-boil it in water, I sometimes stir-fry it because I think it's easier and faster this way.  I just learned that this veggie is good for the eyes just like carrot.  So, for picky eater kids who don't like carrot, you can use this as a substitute.  And because it is like carrot, it is also better to stir-fry it in a little oil to bring out the nutrients.  How interesting eh!

Pumpkin Buns/ Bread

I have two cans of organic pumpkin puree waiting for me to use.  I always store some when it went on sales during Christmas holidays because I simply adore pumpkin cake.  However, since I have to make buns for our breakfast, I figure pumpkin buns would be a nice change from pumpkin cake since it's contained less fat and healthier.

I knew I bookmarked Lily's sandwich bread recipe a while ago but have yet to try it.  So, this was the best time to give it a try.  I actually over baked the buns because I was multitasking.  Nevertheless, the resulted buns were still soft.  A little harder crust on the outside but soft inside.  One can of pumpkin puree can make this twice.

I got the recipe from Lily's Wai Sek Hong:  Sandwich Bread.  Slightly changed it and made it into buns because it was easier for us to eat. 

My second batch of pumpkin buns with added black sesame seeds.

Watermelon Rind Fried Rice

Surprise, surprise, surprise!  Who could have thought this was possible?  I didn't; that's why I had to cook it to believe it.  This fried rice used the cold mixed watermelon rind that I posted earlier.  Got to say this fried rice was really interesting and it tasted pretty good too.  The cold mixed watermelon rind actually gave this fried rice its taste as it was flavorful.  All I used for this simple fried rice were eggs, soy sauce, cold white rice, white pepper, a little sugar and the cold mixed watermelon rind.  If you make the watermelon rind salad, save some to make this fried rice and see for yourself!

Spicy Tempeh

My version of spicy tempeh.  I used my homemade sambal tumis, if you don't have one, a great substitute would be the shrimp paste in soy bean oil and a little fish sauce.  When I made my sambal tumis, I made a bunch and freeze them in individual small size containers.  So, each time I only took out one container that usually lasted for a week or two, either in cooking or as a condiment.  This one definitely goes well with rice,  but might be too spicy for children.  My Edda loved the none-spicy version but won't touch this spicy one.  My hubby and elder daughter are not a fan of tempeh, but they would still eat it if I cook it. 

Picture of tempeh

Yonanas Review!!

This is another kitchen gadget that I got to have when I saw the infomercial.  As a health conscious individual this is right up my alley.  We loved ice-cream but the saturated fat content, high fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil and the long list of ingredients scared me.  I had been drastically cut down on buying them at the supermarket and wanted an alternative.  Then, I saw this and this was the answer.

The Yonanas machine above priced at $50. Easy to install, easy to use and easy to clean.  Came in 5 pieces, except the base engine, the rest are dish washer safe or just wash with warm soupy water right after use.

Ingredients I used here were 2 frozen bananas (got to be the one with dark spots so that it would be sweeter) and 1 cup of frozen blueberries, thaw for 5-7 minutes.  (There are tons of recipes in the recipe booklet that came with it)

Turn it on and push the fruit down with the plunger and we have this creamy and healthy blueberries banana ice-cream.

Eating a bowl of ice-cream never felt this healthy before.  It's just plain fruit, no cream, milk, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, saturated fat or any artificial ingredients added.  There are more recipes in their website.  This is not a paid review so I am not sharing a link here, but you can easily find the website via search engine.  I just wanted to share this product with my readers who would love a healthier alternative to ice-cream.

One downside is if your fruit is sourish or tart, then the ice-cream would be sourish instead of sweet.  You can add chocolate kisses or top it with homemade chocolate or strawberry syrup, caramel sauce should do the trick.  I top mine with Gula Melaka syrup!  ;)

Disclaimer:  This is not a paid review and I received nothing from Yonana.  Just me sharing a kitchen gadget that I bought recently.

Seasoned Tempeh

Tempeh has been a staple in Indonesian diet for over 2000 years.  After knowing about the benefits of tempeh (fermented whole soy beans) for a year or two, I finally introduced it to my girls.  I heard about it but never tried it until last year my friend cooked it and let us tried it.  She cooked it in sambal so my girls didn't try it but my hubby and I did.  My hubby didn't really like the nutty taste but I thought it was not too bad.

I prefer to slice mine thinly so that it would be well seasoned.  I made this non-spicy version for my girls using half of the tempeh shown below and the other half I made it with my sambal tumis.  My Edda loved this non-spicy tempeh a lot and even requested to keep some for the lunch box the next day.  The tempeh took the flavor of the marinade and actually quite delicious.  I can see this being sandwich in bread and make a good burger.

Picture of tempeh

Don't freak out if you see black spots on your tempeh.  It is still edible, just that it is more ripen and age more than the white one.  I read that the flavor might be more intense as well.  But if you see color other than black and white, discard or refund it.  Another indicator that it is spoiled is that it becomes slimy and smell bad.

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. :) 

Instant Korean Jjajang Noodle

I like Korean Jjajang noodle or Jajangmyeon.  I made it several times using the recipe here.  But I found a quicker way to enjoy the jajangmyeon that is to use the instant jjajang noodle.  The instant one tasted just as delicious.  Just add extra fresh ingredients to make it more nutritious.   I bought this at H-mart and I think you should be able to find it at any Korean supermarkets.

How the package looks like.

Stir Fried Pea Sprouts

I loved pea sprouts!!  This veggie is not cheap if we were to order it in a Chinese restaurant.  It costs about $12 per plate.  Other veggie is about $8.  It is more expensive then other vegetable.  I paid $3 to $4 for a box and it served one plate like the above picture.  So, instead of ordering this veggie in the restaurant, I usually cook it at home for less than $5.

I usually cut the sprouts in half with a scissor as I found it to be easier to cook and eat.  It also need quite a bit of oil to stir-fry this veggie, or else it will leave you with the unpleasant raw taste.  If you master cooking this veggie at home, it can save you some money.  :-P

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.

Meatless Monday Dinner

I am showing a picture of my meatless Monday meal so that you will have an idea of what to cook for your family.  Sweet potato rice (recipe coming up next), mapo tofu with carrot and scallion, asparagus with homemade sambal and pear, carrot and onion soup (recipe posted).

Losing weight is empowering so I might do meatless weekdays and on Tuesday and Thursday to include fish.  We still eat meat on Sat. and Sun when we eat out and probably have cheat day if my hubby go buy some chicken wings.  Will have occasional Chinese herbal chicken tonic soup as well.

I want to do this and start juicing and then go get my blood test to see the effect of this on my body.  I am my own experiment and I am curious about the result.  I just came back from Malaysia and have gained 8 pounds.  After 1 week, I lost about 4-5 pounds.  Still have 3-4 pounds to lose to become where I was before.  But my goal is to lose another 5-10 pounds on top of that, then it will be the weight before I got pregnant or when I first came to the U.S.

Healthy Juice

I used to juice years ago.  At that time my mother in-law was into juicing and she encouraged me to juice for my health.  I juiced for a little while and then in my pantry it went.  I took it out recently and started juicing again but not everyday as it can be pricey as I do recommend using organic produce to juice (The best is to juice everyday and drink it in the morning).  Frankly fresh juice is delicious, I had tried the common carrot + apple, carrot + apple + celery, carrot + celery, carrot + pear + celery, pineapple + mango, carrot + cucumber and this.  As you can see, usually I have carrot as a base.  I am not quite adventurous in my juicing (as thus far no green leafy green or sprout as I eat that in my stir-fry) but I will sure to add some veggie (mostly just carrot, cucumber and celery) into the mix.   Fruit juice alone would be too sweet so my juice would be vegetable base.   Had a glass of this for late afternoon snack and surprisingly it's quite filling.  It made 1.5 glass, my Edda had the other half.  :)

I saw a documentary where a man juice for 60 days to detox and lose weight.  In these 60 days, all he ate/drank were juice from fresh vegetable and fruit.  He also exercised during these 60 days.  At the end of 60 days, not only he lost weight, looked healthy but he was indeed healthier that he no longer needed a long list of medications.   All his numbers were at normal range.  This documentary is called "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead", pretty interesting!  This lead to an interesting point, my thought of this is if people are open minded, willing to change their life styles and the way they eat, all the prescriptions for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetic would go down leading to less obesity, heart problem and other diseases.

Added Later: 
I heard that carrot is not suitable to mix with fruit when juicing because it will prevent the absorption of vitamin C.  So, it's best to separate the veggie and fruit when juicing.  Carrot and apple are the only interchangeable items that can be mixed into fruit or veggie juice.  So that our bodies can best absorb the nutrients.  Luckily the above is the most extreme that I had used.  I would suggest my readers to read more about juicing before you start.

Pear, Carrot & Onion Soup

Pear is a cooling food and usually in Chinese cooking, they used Asian pear to make tonic soup.  But for me, I find that the Bosc pear resembled Asian pear the closest as it is crunchy, sweet and juicy and I loved to use it as a substitute.  This soup is made without chicken bone/ drumstick/ pork bone so it is a healthier version without the grease.

Since it is a cooling soup, it's suitable for people who feel heaty or have a cough.  As it is good for soothing the lungs.

Meatless Thursday Dinner

A view of my meatless Thursday dinner.   I only started doing this about 2 weeks ago and I am dropping pounds.  Not much, only 1 or 2 pounds but it's dropping.  I didn't start this to lose weight but just want to eat less meat, so this was a welcoming surprised.

Turmeric garlic brown rice, asparagus with carrot in XO sauce, tofu with frozen mixed veggie and imitation lobster and Chinese fried eggs seaweed anchovies soup.  I believe most recipes already posted in my blog.

Easy Stir-Fried Carrots

Carrot is better if stir-fried it with a little oil.  It is also better if you don't peel it with a peeler but scrape it with the back of your knife and then rinse it.  Just like gobo/burdock root (outer layer is packed with nutrient too).  Since I started to plan meatless meals for my family twice a week, I need to come out with more vegetarian dishes.  Carrot has always been a side ingredient in my Chinese cooking but I wanted to make it a main ingredient so I created this easy dish.  It's really easy and only used garlic and carrot, not to say simple to make too.

Meatless Monday Dinner

I am really trying to eat healthy and prepare healthy and nutritious food for my family.  So recently I started meatless Monday and Thursday meals.  I started cooking meatless meals twice a week, the rest would be fish (twice a week) or white meat chicken.  We eat out on Sat. and Sunday so I am more lenient on the choices.

Meatless meals can be satisfying as well as delicious.  So try it!

Healthy Rice (Black, Brown, Barley and Millet)

I was cooking barley brown rice for my family for a while now.  And then I read that black rice is also good for us, including all the black things like black bean, black woodear and black sesame seeds.  I also bought some millet because of the health benefits that I read.  So, I decided to mix all these grains together.  Chinese believed that barley can aids in beauty like have beautiful skin, reduce heatiness and detoxification, black rice aids kidney, bright eyes and millet aids stomach, etc.

I also read that not everyone can eat millet especially for those that have hypothyroidism or problem with thyroid.  Since I had it before, I definitely watching what I eat.  I would probably use the rest of the millet to make bread or buns instead.  Small quantity is fine, just not everyday.

Now I am alternating barley brown rice, turmeric garlic brown rice, sweet potato brown rice and black brown rice for our meals.  You can find the recipes under Rice.

Korean Red Pepper Sauce (Goit-Chu Jang)

I was fascinated while I was reading the Dok Suni cookbook.  In her book, she mentioned that her mother used to make the red pepper sauce, then store it in a jar, refrigerated, and used it in cooking or served as a dipping sauce.  This red pepper sauce is a staple seasoning for many Korean dishes and it is made with red pepper paste.

I didn't know there was such thing as red pepper sauce, I always thought it was the red pepper paste that was served a the dipping sauce.  My bad!  Anyway, as I was curious I wanted to make it and tried it myself.  I thought it was kinda bland so I added sugar and sesame oil.  You can experience with the first four ingredients and do a taste test and see how you like it, if you think like me then add the sugar and sesame oil.  :)

I used this in my Korean BBQ meal.  Take a piece of red leaf lettuce, add a piece of grilled chicken, add some seasoned radish, seasoned beansprout, soy sauce anchovies and top with this red pepper sauce, wrap it nicely and in the mouth it goes.  How good is that?  I also used this sauce in my bibimbap.  Yummy!

Lemon Honey Drink (蜂蜜檸檬水)

I saw in a Chinese article that this lemon honey drink can aid in weight loss, detox and beauty (美容排毒減肥).  The method is really easy so I would share it here.  All I know is honey and lemon are good for us so this drink should be safe to drink.  I drink one glass a day (or skip a day or two) if I have the supply in my refrigerator.  Honey is antiseptic, antioxidant, has cleansing properties for our body and health, fights infection, aids tissue healing, reduce inflammation and scarring, great beauty and skin care product for ladies and more.  The benefits of eating or drinking lemon juice are great as well such as control high blood pressure, aid in weight loss, good for stomach, detox and more.

This drink is sourish and sweet at the same time and quite refreshing!

Caution:  Not all people are suitable for honey drink.  My hubby gets upset stomach whenever he had some honey.  Don't drink it first thing in the morning without breakfast.  Better drink it after lunch.
 

Spicy Cucumber Salad (Oye Moochim)

While I was reading the Dok Suni cookbook, I saw a picture of this cucumber salad placed in a table setting with some BBQ raw meat and a few banchan and had a urge to try it.  The recipe was fairly easy and I had a English cucumber at home, so I made it.

I think I didn't do a good job in straining the salted cucumber as my middle was not as crispy.  I served it with my Korean BBQ meal.  I probably won't make this again as I couldn't mix this in my bibimbap and can only serve it as a side.

Mochi (Peanut Coconut Filling) 麻糬

I guess you can call this a Chinese style mochi or 麻糬.  I  remembered when I was in Malaysia, I ate this with peanuts and sugar filling (long long time ago).  Over here in the U.S., we have the similar filling too but with added coconut flakes and often time made by Vietnamese Chinese.  We can easily buy this snack at the Asian market so often time I won't be bother to make it myself.  Today, since I have the mood, I made this for my family.  This microwave mochi was very easy to make and took less than 30 minutes.  Evy loved it and wanted to learn from me, but perhaps when she is older as the dough has to be handled when it is still warm and I don't think she is up to it yet.

Sharing with you my peanut, coconut and sesame filling and hope you like it!

Sweet Potatoes Rice (地瓜飯)

Sweet potato is one of the healthiest food one can eat.  It contains vitamins A, Bs, C, manganese, potassium, dietary fiber and some iron. It improve immune system, preserve eye sight, fight infections, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and has low glycemic index.  But for people with kidney and gallbladder ailments, consult your doctor before consuming.

I have a combination of orange and purple sweet potatoes for my rice simply because I love the different displayed of colors.

This is one healthy and delicious way of eating the sweet potatoes.  You can make it complete with a fried egg (sunny side up) on top for a more balance meal.  Or you can serve it with lean protein and a veggie side dish.