Summer Blossom

Hi All – long time no see, how’s your summer ?

It has been a while since my last post (actually , it was my guest’s post :-P).  Being lazy for quite a long time, now it’s time to pick it up. I remember, researching and posting recipe is FUN!!!

Before I get into the food business, I would like to share with you the beautiful summer I saw. Hope you enjoy it!

small town has its own way for the summer blossom, Carmel

Hearst Castle, the garden

What’s more tranquil than this?

Want some wine to pair with this gorgeous summer ?

Enjoy! Hope summer is treating you well!

Guest Blog: Healthy Snacks for a Healthy Lifestyle By Jackie Clark

Dear All, Jackie Clark would like to share with you guys her insights in healthy snacks – which I think is really helpful 🙂  Please enjoy this article , and don’t forget to say Hi to Jackie at her inspiring blog 😀

_____________ By Jackie Clark_______________

Healthy snacking is one of the first steps to managing weight and living in good health. Nutrition is the most important factor in a healthy lifestyle. Healthy snacks can help stabilize blood sugar, provide energy, and act as cancer fighting agents.

Cancer treatments can cause unwanted side effects leading to difficulty eating which can cause unwanted weight loss. Side effects such as dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, sore throat and trouble swallowing can decrease the desire to eat, and this can decrease energy rapidly. Medications can also cause increased appetite and weight gain. These healthy snack ideas will keep your energy up, help manage weight, and add nutrition to your diet.

Increasing the protein in your diet can provide much needed energy. Greek Yogurt contains about twice the protein of regular yogurt, and it is easy to consume and digest when having unpleasant side effects. Other healthy snack ideas for protein include smoothies, frozen yogurt, sorbet, instant breakfast drinks, or trail mix. Add nuts like pistachios, or sunflower seeds to your yogurt for extra protein and healthy fats.

If you are undergoing cancer treatment and trying to keep weight on, try healthy snacking as a way to manage weight while still eating nutritiously. Add granola to pudding, custard, and ice cream. Add dried fruit to muffins, bread, or add to trail mix. Try string cheese, cottage cheese or dips made with beans for extra fiber. To reduce fiber intake, try vanilla wafers, ginger snaps, graham crackers, and angel food cake.

According to the American Cancer Society, flaxseed oil has anti-cancer properties. Some research studies have shown evidence that flaxseed prevents the spread of cancer and tumor growth. It is also used for helping constipation, abdominal problems, sore throat, and many other side effects associated with cancer treatments. It can be found in cereals, breakfast bars, multigrain breads, and muffins. Here is a quick and easy recipe that is nutritious for the whole family.

Chocolate Pumpkin Flaxseed Muffins
1 box (18.25 ounces) chocolate cake mix
1 can (15 oz) pureed pumpkin or pumpkin pie mix
Ground flaxseeds

Directions:
Spray muffin pan or use muffin cups
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix the cake mix, pumpkin, and ground flaxseed until evenly blended together.
Pour in muffin cups and bake 15-20 minutes or until cooked in the middle.
Makes approximately 20 to 24 muffins.

Flaxseed has many health benefits for proper nutrition including Omega-3 essential fatty acids, lignans, which have antioxidant qualities, and soluble and insoluble fiber. Flaxseed can be added to almost any healthy recipe. Proper nutrition and healthy snacks can increase your energy and help you feel better no matter your health situation.

 

Hope you like this blog post shared by Jackie. You can reach her at: jclarkmca@gmail.com.  

Have a great weekend, my deal blog friends!

Pumpkin Night

Carving pumpkin with plastic knife??? I am suspicious….

But Getting a pumkin  carving set in the kid’s aisle? I definitely feel growing younger!!

Alright, based on my zero pumpkin carving skill, this is a big difficult…

So I end up with this two ghost…

Not bad for a first timer, yeah?

🙂 as for the pumpkin / halloween night, I also cook up some weriodo~

Beer Quail Eggs!

Ok. They are basically small eggs, has all the necessary nutritions from the regular egg, while not blow your cholesterol away. Plus, they are really cute.

Ingredients :

Beer (of course), soy sauce , boiled quail eggs, and an air-tight lock&lock container (we are going to marinate this in the container for 2 days, so have to avoid all possible bacteria growing)

It taste very good after 2 days. Makes a perfect appetizer!

Have you tried something ‘weird’ on halloween?! :))

California!

Moving to California is a BIG project.  Living in a NEW area is a bit intimidating.  Blending in NEW environment can be challenging. Squeeze exercising into BUSY schedule can be difficult. Yet compared to what I gained  , it was nothing.  It has been sunnyall day long, with  temperature around 75F for almost 3 months. Especially when Maryland is expecting a snowy weekend, and San Jose is full of pleasant sunshine, I feel it totally worth the effort !

Just some snap shot from the beautiful weather:

 

Weekend has been fun. I have been to the mountains:

San Francisco:

Winery:

Beaches:

For a day trip out in the nature, I always prepare the picnic so I can fully enjoy the scene without worrying about stopping in the city:

This picnic ‘bento’ box (from Lock&Lock) has been my best friend .

See where it ends up:

However if I have a day trip in the city, gotta enjoy the local cuisine!!

There are still lots lots of places waits to be explored. So, California story to be continued….!!!

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Sometimes Simple Food = Yummy Food

I have never been a big fan of potatoes….it is starch, takes forever to cook, and hard to me to swallow. However, this one , with ‘baby potatoes, has become the staple on my table:

Total Cooking Time : 12 Min

It is about 1 lb potatoes from TJ. Rinse it well, and use this lock&lock pot with lid (by far the most useful thing I ever got from them).

Add about 1 cup of water, Microwave for 8 min or till you can poke it through with a fork.

In the mean time, mince some green onion, prepare the spice:

salt, pepper, cayenne  pepper, cumin.

then, heat up some oil, and sautee the potato. Tip : press the potatoes with a spoon so it gets really nice crusty potato skin .

I have to say this is really delicious!! try it when you have time, my dear blog friends 🙂

My Little Basil !!!

Finally….I settled down in my new apt . It was a lot of work! The best thing ever happened to me , as a chef, is that I now have  a balcony! (maybe most of you have a large back or front yard 🙂 ) To fully exploit my little balcony :
I grow some sweet basil , jalapeno pepper, banana pepper, Arugula , and green onion! can you believe it only take 4 weeks for the basil to grow this big?! It makes me feel I am an expert ! haha:)

can’t wait to enjoy it !

With tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, grapeseed oil, pinch salt and pepper.

M’mmmmmm, freshness that I can smell!

and, save the rest of the basil leaves in this air-tight container from Lock&Lock:

 

and….if it is not too late ~ Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all my dear blog friends!!!  this time, with real moon cake !

With salty egg yolk, and lotus seeds puree:) sweet and salty – just like the one I remembered!

My Very First Peanut Butter Cup

Do you want a peanut butter cup made of : “Milk Chocolate (Milk Chocolate contains Sugar, Cocoa Butter, Chocolate, Nonfat Milk, Milk Fat, Lactose, and Soya Lecithin and PGPR (as Emulsifiers)Peanuts, Sugar, Dextrose, Salt, and TBHQ and Citric Acid (to Preserve Freshness)”

Or you want a peanut butter cup made of: “cocoa, cane  sugar, milk, butter, and roasted peanuts “?

Yeah, I want something simpler. So here it is for my sugar fix:

1. melt chocolate chips, and 1tsp of butter, in a bowl over a pot pan of boiling water (alright. I still only have one pan from lock&lock🙂 it is kind of multi-tasker now).

Till you just want to scoop it out and eat directly from the bowl.

carefully distributed them into the cups:

then, spoon your favorite type of peanut butter ( e.g., TJ’s salty and creamy)

apply another layer and melted chocolate. Then store them in the fridge.

Be Patient.

Then Enjoy!

One-Pot-Meal

Seriously. Because I only have one pot (pan) now. I have moved from east coast to west coast, and all my furnitures choose to stick with hot and humit Maryland…Even though I find my new apt,  without the accompany of my good old furniture, I feel like living in a hotel!!

The new kitchen is fully equiped. however, no pans, no pots, no plates, no bowls. Thank goodness, the second day, a miracle package appeared in front of my door. Wow it is a new pan from Lock&Lock!! It not only saved me from eating tacos every day, but also saved my $$ to splurge a new pan to pair the new kitchen!

it is beautiful blue:

So, with one pot pan, I am being very creative!!

I use it to make rice:

I use it to boil rice noodles and sautee them with veggies and TJ’ spicy chicken sausage:

I use it to make penne with all kinds of left overs:

 

Better than tacos !!

Just when I think I can survive with one pan, the moving company called and said that the furniture will be here next Monday. Awesome!! I miss all my kitchen gadgets!!

Hope all is well , my dear blog friends!

I am bold enough to deal with the Pork Rib!

It always sounds scary to bake a big piece of meat – although I don’t mind eating big piece of meat.

I am not a fan of slicing meat, neither do I have the patience to marinate the meat for more than 24 hours. Not to mention having the oven on for 2 hours in the hot hot hot summer.

However, I feel to the need to show my talent in cooking meat in front of my friends.

So here it comes: My Very First , Oven Roasted, Pork Ribs (that receive 5 stars from my friends)

To my surprise, it wasn’t that much labor involved. I searched several receipts online , and come up with my own version , given the limited ingredients I can find in my pantry.

So there are two steps:

Step one: Dry Ingredients:

Salt, Pepper, Chipolet (mild) sauce, brown sugar and Chili powder, . The ratio is about 1: 1: 1: 2: 3

Wrap the rib in a aluminum foil , put in the fridge over night.

Step two: wet ingredients: 

Soy sauce, honey, cooking rice wine, (about 1: 1: 1), makes about 1/2 cup.

pour the web ingredients in the tightly wrapped pork rib, and marinate for another 4 hours. Don’t skip the honey /brown sugar – they are very important to generate a nice caramelization on the rib.

Ready to Roast!! I used this lock&lock glass pot, and cover it with another piece of aluminum foil.

Since it will be in the oven for 2 hours, it is very important to keep the moist : first, wrap the rib tightly, second, cover the pot. As you can see, after two hours, there is still some liquid inside the wrap:

Be patient for 2 hours. And it is done:

M’mmmmm ,  the meat is so tender and falling off the bones. It tastes a bit spicy, with nice tough of honey. It is so easy to make and it will earn you a big chef title!

Enjoy!

FAST FOOD

No no no, I am not talking about big Mac and Fried chicken.

I am talking about home-made fast food , ready in 15 min!

Like this chicken fried rice ( sounds familiar – Trader Joes’ fans? :-))

and this chicken fried noodles:

I was never a fan of frozen meat – I felt they all made of mysterious ingredients if you ever watched the Jimmy Olivers show. But Tyson Grilled&Ready Chicken kinda of changed my impression of frozen food.

I got a free sample of this chicken stripes from foodbuzz taster maker program, FYI,  Tyson also made beef stripes and chicken breast if you are intersted.

the nutrition info looks not bad:

in this bag, 80% of them are really big pieces of chicken stripes , and 20% are smaller , which is ideal for chicken fried rice or noodles:) I am surprised that these chicken stripes are PERFECTLY SEASONED according to my palate.

The chicken is actually cooked already, so it shortens the cooking time:

steps:

1. using a non-stick frying pan (this is the one from Lock&Lock, super cute!) , heat a bit oil

2. scramble the eggs, then veggies;

3. add already cooked rice / noodles, add about 1/2 cup of water, as well as the frozen chicken stripes, let it simmer for about 5 min, stir occasionally;

4. Done – EAT!

It takes less than 15min, and tastes like a 40 min’s work! 🙂 Enjoy , my dear friends!