~ Blanched Baby Kailan & Xiao Bai Cai

Taken from:

Kat's and Tiff's

Description:
Delicious greens with sealed-in vitamins and minerals, all in minimal effort!

Ingredients:

Baby kailan
Xiao bai cai
2 L water
1 tsp salt
Soysauce (to taste)
Sesame oil (to taste)

Directions:
1. Bring water to boil, and add in salt.
2. Submerge the veggies in the water for 2-3 mins.
3. Drain veggies and immerse in cold water for a few seconds to stop the cooking process.
4. Toss with soysauce and/or sesame oil or any other seasonings of one's preference. Serve.

Remarks:
Greens are meant to be GREEN, and yes they are! Blanching veggies seals in their nutrients and retains their natural crisp. The kailan was deceptively sweet while the xiao bai cai was at its peak of crunchiness. Good!

~ Mushroom Noodles

Taken from:

Kat's and Tiff's

Description:
A lovely garden of spinach noodles in clear mushroom and veggie broth!

Ingredients: (serves 4)

2 packets of enoki or golden mushrooms
1 can (425g) button mushrooms, drained
4 dried mushroom, soaked and sliced
Other assorted mushrooms, diced
1 1"thick ginger, finely sliced
1 large head broccoli, separated
1 stick of carrot, grated
4 packets of spinach noodles
2 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tbsp tapioca starch, dissolved in 1 tbsp water
Sesame oil (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
Parsley (for garnish)
Water

Directions:
1. Bring 1.5L of water to boil, along with ginger and all fungi except for enoki mushrooms. Lower heat to simmer for around 10-15 min.
2. Add in the broccoli, grated carrot and enoki mushrooms.
3. Once the broth is boiling, stir in the soy sauce and dissolved tapioca starch.
4. Cook noodles to al dente in another pot of water with some salt. Drain noodles.
5. Serve noodles either lathered generously in mushroom soup, or tossed well in your favourite sauces (e.g. chilli, sesame oil, soysauce, pepper) with mushroom soup as side.

Remarks:
Noodles were springy and every mouthful was bursting with the goodness of plump fungi! Simple, healthy and delicious!

~ Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Taken from:

Tiff's

Description:
Quick and nutritious snack for peanut butter and banana lovers!

Ingredients:
1 slice of bread
1 tbsp smooth peanut butter
1/2 banana

Directions:
1. Spread peanut butter on bread evenly.
2. Cut the banana into 0.5" slices and arrange on the bread.
3. Fold in half to contain the banana slices, and serve.

Remarks:
Being a fan of peanut butter, this treat made me excited as I sunk my teeth into the thick loaf. The banana slices oozed gooey paste which complemented the fragrant peanut butter, and the bread held the whole gastronomic experience together (though some of the banana slices dropped out of the bread shell due to the greediness of the author).

Previously in the morning, I whipped up a quick tomato peanut butter mush (like baby food as I gave up mashing the tomato into paste) using one boiled medium size tomato and 2 tbsp of smooth peanut butter. Whoa, that was one amazing concoction of smooth peanut buttery soup with tomato chunks that would satisfy a peanut butter addict! Nutrition-wise, this soup is choke-full of lycopene that's high in bioavailability, as boiling the tomato increases the lycopene content and that the oil in peanut butter dissolves the lycopene for better absorption. But beware of the calories from peanut butter, resist the urge to spoon a few more tbsp of peanut butter and stop at one serving =p There are recipes around that calls for such a base, why not try googling "tomato and peanut butter"?

~ Lime Konnyaku Jelly

Modified from:

Hollyfarm's Konnyaku Packaging

Description:
Healthy detoxifying jelly spiked with tangy limes, that's good to the gut as well to the palate :)

Ingredients:
1 package (150g) konnyaku jelly powder
500 ml water
5 limes

Directions:
1. Juice the limes and grate the peel of one lime. Add the grated peel to the moulds.
2. Boil 500ml of water and turn down the heat.
3. Stir in the konnyaku powder and stir for 5 min.
4. Stir in the lime juice.
5. Pour into prepared moulds and cool in the refrigerator. Serve cold.

Remarks:
Sweet lime jelly. They were wobbly as konnyaku jellies are, and I simply adore the grated lime peel inside which adds a great bite to the otherwise plain smooth jellies. Try not to let too much of the water evaporate, if not you'll end up with unfilled jelly moulds like I did (made 23 instead of 24). I would prefer more lime taste, perhaps can add 6-7 limes.

Side-notes: Banned from baking, so I guess I'll just be posting some simple dishes till the ban is lifted! =x

~ Persimmon Cookie & Biscotti

Modified from:

Allrecipe

Description:
Chewy persimmon cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C persimmon pulp
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C oil
1 egg
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 C almonds
3/4 C raisins

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 190 deg. Lightly grease or line one baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine dry ingredients.
3. Cream egg and sugar. Stir in oil and persimmon pulp. Add flour mixture and mixed till combined. Stir in nuts and raisins.
4. Drop by teaspoons, 2" apart, onto the prepared baking sheet.
5. Bake at 190 deg for 12-15 min.

Remarks:
Added batter by tablespoons onto baking sheet, and baked for 18 min, producing quick-bread-like cookies that are undercooked inside. Baked a further 10 min but the results remained. As the batter was too much and I'm a lazy person, I decided to bake the rest of the batter using a bread tin, hoping that the bread will be better. Unfortunately, it turned out the same as the cookies, cooked on the outside but very undercooked inside despite baking for 2 hours at 150 deg. The loaf was sliced up and baked at 175 deg for 20 min for each side of the slice, resulting in hard persimmon biscottis (the way biscottis are supposed to be, but a tad bit too hard to bite). Could have reduced the time to 15 min for the 2nd side of the slices as some of biscottis were charred and they were quite tough to chew. The biscotti turned hard and chewy the next days and are not really edible.