~ Pear Salad

Adapted from:

-

Description:

Cheesy fruit and veggie salad with a tinge of carroty sweetness~

Ingredients:

100 cream cheese, softened
1 carrot, boiled and mashed
1 pear, skinned and diced
2 tbsp diced red and green peppers
1 tbsp diced celery
2 tbsp corn kernels
2 lettuce leaves, shredded

Directions:

1) Mix mashed carrots and cream cheese together.
2) Toss all except for the lettuce with the cream cheese mixture together.
3) Chill for half an hour before serving on a bed of lettuce.

Remarks:

A casual salad made in a haste to make breakfast more nutritious :)

~ Thin and Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from:

Cookie Madness

Description:

A crispy cookie affair with chocolate chips~

Ingredients:

100 g butter, softened

180 g granulated sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 egg

140 g flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 C chocolate chips

Directions:

1) Cream butter, sugar and vanilla till fluffy.

2) Beat in egg till well-mixed.

3) Whisk flour and baking soda together in a bowl, and stir into the butter mixture till blended.

4) Add in chocolate chips.

5) Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a lined baking tray and bake in preheated oven at 175 deg for 12 min, or till cookie edges are brown.

6) Let the cookies cool on the rack for 3 min before lifting them off the tray. Cool completely and store in airtight container.

Remarks:

On one hand, I kept advocating on the necessity to eat healthily, and now on the other hand, I baked a batch of 68 sinful cookies that can send a diabetic to a hypergycemic state and a heart-compromised person to the stroke clinic! Such irony in Mankind! *in deep thought*

Anyway, the cookies were really crisp and thin, but not as thin as those wafer-like discs you can see from the original recipe source. This was attributed to the fact that I've added less sugar than what the original recipe called for. I didn't have enough butter on hand and my egg's a teeny winny smaller than a large one. Salt was omitted as salted butter was used, and brown sugar was replaced with granulated sugar instead.

The batter was split into 1/4 and 3/4 parts so that I can do some experimenting with flavours. I've added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the 1/4 batter to produce 12 humongous cinnamon cookies which were crisp on the outside and caramel-like on the inside! The remaining batter had chocolate chips added to them, and they turned out crispy throughout as I had baked them smaller compared to that of the cinnamon ones. Overall, I find that the cookies can make do with more vanilla as they weren't as fragrant as I'd expected them to be and that they are a tad bit greasy, but boy, they are sweet and crispy!

Do make it a point to leave enough space for the cookies to spread; if not, consequence is as follows:

I had fun peering through the oven door to see heaped towers melting down, fanning out into puddles of sugary batter, and eventually hardening into a golden, delicate cookies:

~ Curried Avocado Tuna Sandwich

Adapted from:
Channel News Asia

Description:

Toasted bread sandwiched with tuna salad in curried avocado base~

Ingredients:

1/2 avocado, mashed

1/2 can tuna (~90g), drained and flaked

1 tbsp diced celery

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp curry powder

Salt and pepper to taste

2 slices of bread, toasted

Directions:

1) Combine lemon juice, curry powder and avocado.

2) Add in the tuna, celery and adjust taste with pepper and salt.

3) Spoon a generous amount onto toasted bread and serve.

Remarks:

Yet another simple dish to use up the avocado half from Tuna-Stuffed Avocado Tapas! This recipe seems akin to a tuna mayo salad, just that the mayo fat is being replaced by healthy avocado fat without compromising the taste. A wise move indeed for the health-conscious!

However, the avocado taste seemed to be overwhelmed by the curry flavour and the salad was too tangy for my taste. Bring in less spices please! Anyway, I had left over lemon juice from both recipes so I added some honey to it to make a honey lemonade:

After stripping the avocado bare of flesh, what do you do with the seed? Plant it of course! But first you would have to let it germinate in water or soil first. Spot the cute little stub of root at the bottom end of the seed:

~ Tuna-Stuffed Avocado Tapas

Adapted from:
Allrecipes.com

Description:

Tasty heart-healthy appetiser!

Ingredients:

1/2 ripe avocado

1/2 can tuna (~90g), drained and flaked

25 g cream cheese, softened

1 tbsp diced bell peppers

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Black pepper and salt to taste

Directions:

1) Mix cream cheese, bell peppers and lemon juice together before adding the tuna.

2) Season with black pepper and salt and spoon the tuna mixture into the avocado to serve.

Remarks:

Interesting and easy combination of ingredients for surprising and elegant dish. Feel free to add in more cream cheese or mayo if the mixture is too dry, and never hesitate to add in whatever you deem fit - you might get a surprise.

This dish is truly an eye-pleaser:

~ Poached Pears in Rum

Adapted from:
Epicurious.com

Description:

Poached sweet pears in buttery rum sauce~

Ingredients:
1/3 C rum

1 tbsp rum

3 pears, skinned and sliced into wedges

1 apple, skinned and sliced into wedges

1/2 C + 1 tbsp water

2 tbsp honey

1/2 tbsp butter

Directions:

1) Combine 1/3 cup rum with the rest of the ingredients in a heavy skillet and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

2) Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until pears are just tender, about 10 min.

3) Remove the lid and set aside the apple slices. Boil mixture, stirring occasionally until the liquid is reduced to a syrup, around 10 min.

4) Stir in the remaining rum and serve.

Remarks:

A change from the usual raw fruit (which is better in terms of nutrition of course). The aroma of the sauce when it was boiling was heavenly-oh so rummy and buttery! However, the taste of it wasn't really that amazing. In fact, I found it rather bland, and it could do with some more rum or spices. The sauce didn't really thicken as I used honey in replacement for the sugar.