banana carrot loaf cake

The only thing I've been wanting to bake these days is bread. Bake a loaf of bread and you've got next-day's breakfast set and ready--which is why I love baking bread late at night :) Sadly, the oven is no longer stationed in my room :( so good-bye to falling asleep to the sweet aroma of freshly baked bread...

But that might just be a good thing--so my room won't infest with ants and all.

Anyways, instead of making bread at night like I usually do, I baked this banana carrot loaf in the morning! But that's besides the point. I'm really proud of this loaf of bread! Since I basically just threw a bunch of ingredients into a bowl and then mixed it all together, I'm rather impressed that my banana carrot loaf turned out especially well: moist, dense, spongy, and not too sweet :) Banana-based recipes usually end up with a overpowering flavor of bananas no matter what else you add in to the batter; but surprisingly, the shredded carrots have a natural tangy sweetness stronger than that of the banana, so this banana carrot loaf tastes, in a way, a lot like carrot cake!

the oven's back with a carob coconut loaf

Good news! Our shipment finally came! Two days ago to be exact :) And the first thing I did was unpack ALL of my baking equipment and set up my beloved convection oven in my new workspace a.k.a. my bedroom. My dad was skeptical about this at first, but I finally convinced him after showing him how far away I placed the oven from my bed frame and closet, so as to not accidentally set anything on fire...

I can't explain how happy I am to be baking again! It's been about four months since the last time I legitimately baked with the oven, so I was actually a bit hesitant to begin. The numerous recipe ideas I've bookmarked in my head didn't help the cause much either.

But the hesitation easily subsided once I set my giant bowl before me--my other gadgets and ingredients positioned off to the side, bordered along the edge of my peripherals. Even with the tabbed recipes in mind, I immediately dropped my initial plan for a banana-based recipe when I came upon a shelf stacked full of cans of coconut milk at the supermarket earlier that evening. I have been--and always will be--an almond milk-type person (even though they don't sell almond milk in Taiwan *cry*), so I never really got around to trying coconut milk. I already set my mind on using carob powder no matter what I was making, and well, coconut and chocolate do complement each other...

So a carob coconut loaf it was! I highly doubted the loaf was going to taste any good because I didn't add honey. Yeah I know--extra sugar and calories and all--but I approve of honey-use since it is a natural sweetener, and just a tablespoon or two enhances the mildly sweet flavor every tasty loaf of bread needs. So I opted to melt some dark chocolate instead, even though I expected the other ingredients would mask its sweetness.

happy valentine's and several unrelated recipe ideas

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone's enjoying their chocolates and roses and dates and dinners with candle lights and whatnot, and I'm guessing a chocolate post would be most appropriate but sadly, this is not a post about chocolate or Valentine's Day.

This is a post about recipe ideas that are very much unrelated to Valentine's Day.

:)

I haven't posted in a while huh? It feels weird, probably because I used to post almost every single day when I first started up this blog...well, times have changed!

So instead of celebrating Valentine's Day I've compiled a few simple and healthy recipes that I tested over these past few weeks.

national oatmeal muffin day: mini pumpkin butter oatmeal muffins

I love spreads. Almond butter, peanut butter, all nut butters, you name it. Recently I discovered a different kind of spread that isn't nut-based but just as delicious and--if not more--satisfying: pumpkin butter! Well in my case, kabocha squash butter, but anyways...I'm not sure if any stores sell pumpkin butter; I haven't thoroughly checked Whole Foods, but pumpkin butter is super simple to make yourself, and healthy too :)

This pumpkin kabocha butter is creamy, thick, naturally sweetened with honey, and versatile enough that it tastes great atop almost anything from oatmeal to toast, rice crackers, fruit, etc. etc. The smell of spices and the earthy fragrance of pumpkin fill your kitchen as you make this butter, reminiscent of fall when it's clearly winter. I'm still in the autumn mood; I yearn for fall flavors. For some reason it doesn't feel too much like Christmas. Maybe the lack of holiday decorations on my street and minimal Christmas songs in my life are the cause of this, but peppermint hasn't really caught on in the kitchen for me either. 

Oh and happy national oatmeal muffin day! The next food holiday on my pilates calendar is national eggnog day, but I'm not sure I want to make eggnog considering I've never had it before and it apparently takes 8 hours?!?! So I dunno. Anyways, I made mini pumpkin kabocha butter oatmeal muffins this morning! Again I winged the recipe, and it took a lot longer to bake than normal mini muffins should, so I'll probably attempt again and tweak the recipe a bit later on. The long baking probably resulted from adding too much almond milk: I aimed for a tiny splash but ended up spilling about 1/4 of a cup into the batter...

date cookies & quinoa edamame salad

I'm so eager--but at the same time lazy--to try new things. There's so many recipes I've been dying to try and it feels as if I've been cramming recipes onto this blog by making so many things in a day. But that's okay, right?

I've been feeling adventurous lately but I'm also a bit sad because my food-making and blogging might soon take a hiatus. Hopefully not too soon though, and I will try to squeeze in a few recipes before that :)

I got both of these recipe ideas from my online Pilates instructor, Cassey Ho. No I'm not actually taking classes but I do follow her blog and her workouts on Youtube, and I think I've said this before in a previous post but she inspired me to make a lifestyle change, starting with food.

vegan cocoa cookies

This was actually the first recipe I came up with all on my own when I first started my recipe book (which was like a week ago haha I made it sound like ages ago...). I'm pretty proud of these cookies, especially cause they're vegan, flourless, AND eggless :D

Yes that is the notebook I write my recipes in :)

The mixture and end product may look unappetizing due to its brown color and gravel-like appearance, but it's because they are filled with OATS and GROUND FLAXSEED my two favorite ingredients next to peanut butter :) Not only that but they're also healthier than your normal cookie AND they're pretty filling, so don't judge it by its cover!

peanut butter banana oat cookies & arugula swiss stuffed mini chicken breasts

LONG TITLE I know but this is my first recipe post and I did make two things today :)
So my health kick actually started a while ago (beginning of summer) but only recently have I been trying to alter and make my own recipes to make desserts healthier! Healthy and dessert don't really seem to go together in a lot of recipes but I'm trying to make it happen in my kitchen :) 

I LOVE peanut butter and I LOVE bananas and infusing them with oatmeal and ground flax seed and other stuff = fiber-filled delicious health cookie (except for maybe the peanut butter but eating it in moderation is not too bad! Peanut butter is a good source of magnesium and contains healthy fats :))!

Peanut Butter Banana Oat Cookies

 yields 5-6 mini cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 banana (mashed)
3 tbs oats (steel-cut or rolled would be best)
1 tbs ground flax seed
1/8 tsp baking powder
1 tsp brown sugar 
1 tbs peanut butter

Directions:

- Preheat the oven to 350° F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone mat (I avoid using foil because it requires butter or spray).
- Mash up the banana in a small bowl. Then add in the peanut butter and brown sugar and mix until incorporated.
- In a separate bowl combine all of the dry ingredients. Then pour the dry with the wet ingredients and stir until it becomes a smooth creamy mixture.
- Scoop the batter with a tablespoon onto the parchment paper or silicone mat and flatten into circles.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes until the top is no longer gooey to the touch. 
- Transfer to a wire rack to let cool, then serve.

I sometimes wish I were a photographer so I can take better food pictures.

I've finally made a dish my mom really likes, and it's arugula and Baby Swiss cheese stuffed mini chicken breasts! Arugula has a slight bitter herb taste that perfectly complements the Swiss cheese, and these mini rolls are easy to eat! Even my baby sister likes them :) though she's not a big fan of arugula.