Coconut and Macadamia Puffed Cereal/Granola

This is a Somae Foods recipe from the family whom Kim nanny for. My kids are not big granola fans but are cereals lovers. So I replaced the oats and WW flour with puffed grains and it was a hit: lightly sweetened crunchy grain puffs with bits of coconut fakes and chopped macadamia nuts. The last time I made the cereal, we finished the batch in less than 8 hours. I made it again the following morning and we ate them all again in less than 8 hours. I can snake on this cereal all day!

Wet Ingredients:

2/3 cup pure maple syrup

6 Tablespoons coconut oil

1 teaspoon real vanilla

Dry Ingredients:
pinch of salt
3/4 cup chopped macadamia nut

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut flakes or shredded coconut

12 cups of puffed grains; Arrowhead Mill makes puffed corn, kamut, millet, rice, and wheat with no added sugar, salt, and preservatives. We usually use a blend of corm, kamut, miller and rice.

In a sauce pan melt the coconut oil on medium heat, remove from heat and add the rest of the wet ingredients and stir to mix. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and then add the syrup/oil mixture. Mix until the cereal are coated evenly with the syrup/oil.

Spread the cereal mixture onto two or three large baking trays lined with parchment paper. Bake each tray for 21 minutes; turn or stir the cereal every 7 minutes. Cool completely before serving and store in airtight container.

Original Recipe
4 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
3/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
salt to taste
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
6 Tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon real vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Blend the oats, flour, coconuts, nuts and salt together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together maple syrup, coconut oil, and vanilla until well blended. Stir in oat mixture. Place the mixture on a large baking tray lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes. Turn or stir granola halfway through baking to avoid burning. Cool completely before serving. Store in airtight container.

Goldilocks Bike Ride 2011

http://www.goldilocksride.com/

We did it! We rode 42 miles at the Goldilocks ride. It was truly a learning experience for Kim & I.

Neither one of us has been on a road bike before. I just purchased a new bike two weeks prior and Kim does not have a road bike so we had to borrow one. For various reasons: rain/cold/snow weather, she was away at school, I was working a lot of extra hours in April & May, we did not get a chance to try out the bikes until the night before the event. We "fixed" a few minor problems that night. First of all, the borrowed shoes did not fit Kim so she & I had to traded shoes. I was not used to the borrowed shoes and could not clip in or out and fall over. Skinned my right knee and bruised my thigh. (It was a good thing that I am used to falling over on a bike, happened quite a few times last year, and usually just a little bleeding at the knee with no major damage.) It turned out the clips were installed incorrectly to the shoes so I was able to fixed it. 

On Saturday May 7th we headed out early in the morning and the episode of the shoes/clips issues last night turned out to be a small problem. I still had a little trouble clipping in, but it was manageable and minor compare to what was ahead of us. 

As soon as we got there to pick up our packets, we realized that we did not have any spare tiers or tools with us. It was too late to do anything about it so we prayed and hoped that we would not have flat tires.  Our biggest problem came when we started the ride. Kim could not keep up! Imagine that, the half-marathon runner had a hard time staying up with the almost half a century old mom; we were going down hill and I was hardly paddling. At first I though it was because she did not know how to use the gears efficiently. Eventually, I traded bike with her and immediately realized that there was something wrong with the bike. It was more work to ride it than my heavy mountain bike. We pulled over and figured out that the rear break was off center and was rubbing against the tire. No wonder she could not keep up; she was riding with the break on. Since it was the first time she rode a road bike, she had no idea what a road bike should feel like. Of course we had no tool and could not fix it. I finally lift the little lever on the break that is used when you want to remove the wheel to fix a flat tire. I made sure the rear break would still work for her and we moved on. I instructed her to pull over when she see a support vehicle to have them help her fix the break issue and went ahead. Anyway, while I spotted a support vehicle and pulled over to wait for her, she missed the car and me and went ahead. Anyway, we were separated because I thought she was still behind me and keep waiting for her at the rest stops while She thought I got impatient and left her behind. We did not see each other again until the end.

We come up with  list of things to be aware of for first timer of a biking event.

• First of all, make sure your bike works properly.
• Carry a spare tier and some tools. We were lucky that we did not have flat tires. After the Goldilocks, I went straight to the bike shop and purchased a seat bag and some tools in case of a flat tire or a broken chain.
• Adjust the helmet to fit properly; my helmet kept sliding backwards, it was such a bother.
• Each riders needs to carry a cell phone - this is not only important when you get separated and need to contact someone, it is also very important if you have a flat tire,  get injured, or experience a bike malfunction that you need to be picked up from the side of the road. Kim did not want to carry her cell phone with her from her long distance running experience, but it was a mistake for biking event.
• Each rider needs to carry the little map provided by the even organizer - when I pulled over to the support vehicle, a lady had to call her family to come get her because she rear rim was bad and could not continue the event. If you don't have the map, it's harder to give you location. The map also had event organizer contact phone numbers that could come in handy.
• Eat, eat, eat, and drink, drink, drink. Stop at every rest stop to eat and drink even if you don't think you need to. I rode to the turn around point which was about 28 miles. It was after a long uphill ride so I rested, ate, drank, refilled my water bottle, had a potty break, rested some more, and was ready to head back. Now it was a nice long down hill so I was feeling great. I arrived at the 3rd stop in very little time. I was worried about where Kim was and decided to go ahead and skip the rest stop and ride to the end. BAD IDEA!!! I was "bonked" when I was about 5 miles from the finishing point. According to Infinite bike shop, in endurance sports, particularly cycling and running, hitting the wall or the bonk describes a condition caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles, which manifests itself by precipitous fatigue and loss of energy. I have never did anything long distance before and did not realized that I need to eat weather I think or feel that I need it or not. 
• Each rider should carry some food, preferably sugary food in the pocket. When I started to feel the huger and lost of energy, I stopped when I feel I had to but I only had water to drink. Soon I ran out of water and I was so hungry. I went on. At the very last hill, and it was just a little hill, I had to stop again and I was shaking.  I had to walk my bike about 15 feet to the top of the hill. When I felt that I could continue, I was in such bad shape that I barely had enough energy to lift my leg over the bike. I could not clip my right foot in to get started. I managed to lift my foot to try to clip in again and simply toppled over onto the ground. Talk about precipitous fatigue! Only if I had some sugary food with me; I could of avoided all of the un-necessay sufferings.
• Last but not the least: apply sun screen to every exposed face, arm and leg area. We both forgot to sunscreen and we were sun burned! Kim was in better shape because she had been out in the sun more often than I. My poor thighs and the back of my legs was burn pretty bad and I was in pain for days. My sister-in-law who is an experienced long distance biker said that she carries a small tube of sunscreen in her seat bag so she will always have access to some sunscreen; smart!

Despite all of our inexperience and troubles, we had a great time and immediately went and signed up for next year after we had a chance to eat. I wondered why after all my "sufferings", I was so ready to do it again? Kim also wonder how in the world I got these markings on my legs; they weren't just grease marks, I had cuts and bruises and one of the bruise mark looked just like the bike chain mark. Yeah, I think I won the klutz award. 

  

Crossing the finishing line was exhilarating; it was all worth it. And the only way to get there is to RIDE ON!!! I bought this necklace before we even started the ride; I guess I knew what I needed to do to finish.

Cassidy's Prom 2011

Cassidy turned sixteen and was ask to prom a week after her birthday. Kimberly was the sweet big sister; she came home from BYU to dress hunting with us and then came home again to do Cassidy's hair and makeup. She was so excited to help to sent Cassidy on her first date. Here are some photos of preparing to go to prom.

Cupcakes with Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Kimberly and Cassidy wanted to bake something during the winter holiday so I suggested trying out the recipe "My Favorite Cupcake" from The Kind Diet. I loved the cupcakes; it reminded me of the light, springy, and not very sweet cakes from my childhood. However, Kaydn did not give a favorable review of the cupcakes. He was all excited when he saw the cupcakes with the pretty frosting, but after he took one huge bite he declared that it was the worst cupcakes he had ever tasted. "It is not sweet at all!" he said. A neighbor asked me about my blog one day and a couple of days later Kaydn told me that he feel sorry for his friend because his mom is going to cook some vegan food and it was all my fault. I had a great laugh about it; I seemed to always get into big trouble with the kids (mine and other people's kids) when I start to talk about healthy eating.

Since I "mess around" with recipes all the time, I can't help but increase the ww flour/flour ratio and replace the original frosting recipe with a chocolate cream cheese frosting that I derived form my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe.

Dry ingredients:
2/3 cup all purpose flour
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Wet ingredients:
2/3 cup hemp or soy milk
2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
2/3 cup maple syrup or agave nectar
1/3 cup safflower oil
2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:
3 oz Tofutti milk free cream cheese
1/2 cup vegan butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
          
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside. Combine the milk and the apple cider vinegar together in a medium size bowl and set aside for at least 5 minutes, the mixture gets a bit lumpy.  Add the rest of the wet ingredients to the milk/vinegar mixture and stir to mix. Add wet ingredients to the dry mixture and mix well until there is no lumps. Pour the batter into lined muffin tin (the batter makes 12 cupcakes) and bake at 325 F for 18 - 20 minutes or until a inserted tooth pick comes out clean. Set on a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:
Whipped all ingredients together until fluffy.
This frosting is not very sweet; the original cream cheese frosting recipe called for 2 cups of powder sugar so the sugar has been drastically reduced. If a sweeter frosting is desired, increase the agave nectar to 2/3 cup or add some powder sugar. For a frosting that taste milk chocolate rather than the dark chocolate, increase the agave nectar to 2/3 cup, use 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder and 1/3 cup non-fat milk powder or soy or coconut milk powder for non-dairy frosting.

Brownie with Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Since I become lactose intolerant and pretty much stop eating milk products, this dessert has become one of my favorites. It's quick and easy and not too sweat so I don't have to feel guilty about eating it. Roland can eat a whole pan by himself in one evening; I think he must believe that low in sugar + whole grain = no calorie. The original recipe is called "Coffee Fudge Brownies" from The Kind Diet. Since I don't like coffee flavor of anything, I modify the recipe to be just brownies and changed the glazing to a less fattening chocolate ganache glaze. I was going to call it "Healthy Brownies" but healthy and brownies just did not sound right together.

Dry ingredients:
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
3/4 cup brown rice flour (I grind the rice flour in my wheat grinder but I am sure you can get them in the health food store)
1/2 cup unsweetened coco powder
3/4 cup date sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

Wet ingredients:
3/4 cup rice milk or coconut milk beverage
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup safflower oil or other types of vegetable oil

Optional:
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Chocolate Ganache Glaze
1 1/2 cup grain sweetened chocolate chips
1/4 cup rice milk or coconut milk

Preheat the oven to 325 F and oil a 8x13 baking pan.
Mix all dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside. Mix wet ingredients and add to the dry ingredients. Stir and mix well and then add the walnuts if desired. Pour the batter into an 8x13 pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until a a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out clean. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool.

Melt the chocolate chips and the rice milk using a double boiler, stir continuously until the chocolate chips have melted the the sauce is smooth. Spread the ganache evenly over the brownies and let cool completely. If you don't have a double boiler, you can use a medium sauce pan and a large glass or stainless bowl. Bring one cup of water to a soft boil in the medium sauce pan. Place the chocolate chips and the rice milk in the glass bowl and set on top of the sauce pan to make the ganache.

My favorite alternative for the ganache during the Christmas holiday is to use the chocolate truffles dusted in coco powder from Costco instead of the chocolate chips ( about 24 truffles with 1/4 cup of coconut milk). Yum!!! My kids wanted to eat the truffles but I hid them deep in the freezer so I can use them on my brownies a little longer.

Cassidy's Sweet 16

Valentine's Treat

Kimberly and I wanted to make some treats for our friends for Valentine's day so we made these cute white and dark heart brownies from smitten kitchen /http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/02/white-and-dark-hearted-brownies/. It was really fun to cook with Kim; I never thought she would turn out to be so interested in domestic affairs; I mean the measuring, the mixing, and cutting duties. She was always interested in helping so she can sample her way through the cooking process. ; - )

It was not so easy to cut the brownies into the exact same size; we wonder if the smitten kitchen had rulers and squares rulers on hand to measure and cut. I also decided that we need a "thicker"heart shape cookie cutter; our cookie cutter is not quite as tall as the thickness of the brownies and it was a trick to cut all the way through and remove the cookie cutter from the middle of the brownies. However unevenly our brownie squares were, they turned out pretty cute. The kids love the brownies; I did not have any since I am not suppose to eat milk product or cane sugar. It was fun to give these Valentines away!

Chinese New Year

I love Chinese New Year celebrations; probably because it always bring me memory of great Chinese dishes of my mother. For the last few years, we got together with my friend Chris's family and cooked a lot of food and did a lot of chit-chatting for the Chinese New Years dinner. Last year a few of Kimberly's friends came to the dinner and this year she invited even more friends. In stead the usual 10-12 people we had about twenty. I put them to work as soon as they arrived to wrap the egg rolls and make pot stickers and it was a lot of fun. 

Cashew Chicken - 腰果雞丁

Cashew Chicken in Taiwan looked and tasted very different than the ones in the United States. My kids like the American version since they are not too excited about cucumber or celery. This recipe is loosely base on the cashew chicken dish from the Mandarin Restaurant in Bountiful, Utah (from Good Things Utah on Channel 4). I heard people rave about this restaurant but have never ate there. We did ordered take-out once while we were at some kind of family gathering in Bountiful, but I was not particularly impressed. I should give the restaurant another try sometime; but it is just hard to drive more than 30 minutes to get dinner when I "think" I can produce pretty good Chinese food in my own kitchen.

Chicken

2 chicken breast halves cut into 1" pieces
1 teaspoon cornstarch
pinch of white pepper
2 teaspoon of brown sauce (see the blog about Stir-fry Seasoning or use equal parts of soy sauce and water)
Marinate chicken pieces with corn starch, white petter & brown sauce for 15 - 20 minutes in a bowl.
Sauce - mix all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside

1/4 cup of chicken stock or water
1 tablespoon of ketchup
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon of brown sauce
1 teaspoon of mushroom soy sauce

Spices & others ingredient
a pinch of chili pepper flakes (optional)

1 clove of garlic, crushed, and chopped

1 teaspoon of ginger, grated

1/2 cup of cashew, roasted, unsalted or lightly salted

2 teaspoons of cornstarch + 2 teaspoon of water mixed in a small bowl

Vegetables
1 small or medium onion, cut into 1" cubes
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1" cubes
1 small carrots, thinly sliced
a handful of water chestnuts, cut into large slices
a handful of sugar snap peas or snow peas
3 - 4 asparagus, cut into 2" pieces on the diagonal (optional)
I usually stir fry the vegetables separately. Kimberly always complain that this make the dish more oily. Alternate way is to blanch the vegetables briefly, strain, and then stir fry them. Be careful not to blanch them too long since each vegetable requires different length of time to reach the desired tenderness/crunchiness.

Heat wok to med-high, add 2 teaspoon of safflower oil and coat the wok evenly with oil. Sauté the chicken until almost cooked. Remove the chicken to it's original bowl. Lower the heat to medium, wipe the wok clean, and add 2 teaspoon of oil to coat the wok evenly. Sauté chili pepper flakes, garlic, and ginger for 10 seconds and add the onions. When the onions start to soften a bit, add the red bell peppers and stir fry for 1 minute, and then add the rest of the vegetables. When the vegetable are almost done, add the chicken and the sauce and stir gently to mix well. Add the water/cornstarch mixture and stir until sauce thickens. Add the cashew to the wok and stir just until cashew is mix in. Transfer to a bowl or serving plate and serve.

You can adjust the vegetables depending on your preference or what is available. The two vegetables I always use are onions and red bell pepper; the others I add them if I happen to have them.

Beef and Broccoli - 芥蘭牛肉

Even though this is a highly praised dish from my friends and family, I never can guaranty that it would turn out exactly the same every time. The official instruction from my trusted Chinese cookbook always give instructions to blanch the vegetables for the stir fry. I never bother with this step unless I am making a big batch for a party. I just sauté the vegetables with a little bit of oil and add a little water if needed until the vegetable is cooked to the desired tenderness.

1 bundle of broccoli, or 1 pound of broccoli crown, cut the floret into smaller pieces

Blanch broccoli in boiling water, remove, drain and rinse in cold water, drain, and set aside

1/2 pound flank stake, slice across the grain in 45 degree angle

1 teaspoon of corn starch

2 teaspoon of soy sauce

2 teaspoon of water

Marinade beef in the above ingredients

1 1/2 tablespoon Oyster sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

Heat wok to medium-high heat and add 2 teaspoon of safflower oil. Coat the wok with oil evenly. Sauté the marinated beef for a few minutes until it's almost cooked. Remove beef and set aside. Sauté the broccoli for a minute or two until the desired tenderness. Add beef back to the wok, add the oyster sauce and sugar and stir until beef is cook. Do not over cook the beef so it does not get tough. Transfer to a serving plate and serve.

Spareribs Cooked with Rock Sugar - 冰糖排骨

Since February 3, 2011 is the Chinese new near, I thought I'd share the recipes of a few of our favorite Chinese dishes this week.
Everyone in the family loves this dish; I have to confess that these ribs alone can persuade me out of wanting to be a vegetarian. Kimberly always complain that it's kind of fatty, which Cassidy usually echos, but we never have any leftovers. . .
Spare ribs is usually less expensive than back rib but it's a little more fatty and less meaty. According to the Wikipedia, the spare ribs is more tender than back ribs because of the fat content. I used to ask the butcher to saw the ribs into two or three sections and then I cut them into "riblets" at home. Nowadays I'm too lazy or too busy to ask the butcher to cut the ribs so I serve "longs ribs" instead of the shorter ribs you see in traditional Chinese dishes.

1 1/2 lb. pork spare ribs (side ribs) or back ribs, cut into riblets
2 tablespoons rice wine or cooking wine
2 tablespoons or 1 oz rock sugar (can substitute with regular sugar)
3 tablespoons of rice vinegar
4 tablespoons of soy sauce

Wash the ribs and pad dry. Place them is a medium pot and add the all of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and then cover with lid and turn the heat down to low to simmer for about 40 minutes or until the liquid has almost completely evaporated. Stir occasionally to prevent the ribs from burning. If the liquid has not almost completely evaporated after 40 minutes of cooking, turn the heat up to high and stir until the liquid has almost completely evaporated.

Simply Cioppino

I had forgot about this delicious and simple soup for a long time. It was from the April 1994 issue of Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications - Low Calorie Recipes. Kaydn went snowboarding with his school on Tuesday and it was a cold cold day. He had a great time snowboarding even though it was his first time and he loved it.  I was surprised that he snowboard the whole day!!! When we went skiing, he was ready to be done for the day at 11am even though we started at 10am.  Any way, when he came home, he wanted soup for dinner and I had to think of a soup that was yummy and can be made in a very quickly. Needless to say, this soup saved the day. Kaydn loved the seafood and the flavor, not so much the peppers and tomatoes, but the rest of us enjoyed every byte of it.

4 oz fresh or frozen cod, thaw if frozen, cut into 3/4 in cubes
1 14 1/2 oz can Italian style stewed tomatoes
2 table spoons prepared pesto
1/2 of a medium green pepper, cut into thin bite size strips
6 oz peeled, deveined fresh or frozen medium shrimp

Stir together tomatoes and pesto in a medium saucepan. Stir in green pepper, shrimp, cod and 1/2 cup water. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 2 to 2 minutes or till shrimp turn pink. Serve in bowls. Make 3 servings.

Mango Chutney

4 pounds fresh mangos, ripe but not too soft, peeled and dice to 1/4" pieces
2 table spoons olive oil
1 teaspoon chile flakes
2 1/2 cups red onion, diced
1/4 fresh ginger, minced
1 cup red bell pepper, dice to 1/4" pieces

Seasonings: combine and set aside.
8 oz unsweetened pineapple juice
4 oz cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons mild curry powder, can use hot curry if prefer spicier chutney
Ssalt and ground white pepper to taste.

In a saute pan with medium heat, heat the oil and add the chile flakes for a few seconds to flavor the oil. Do not burn the chili flakes. Add the onions and cook until onions are soft. Add the ginger and bell pepper and saute for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the mango and cook for 1 more minute. Add the seasonings to the pan and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a simmer and reduce for about 30 minutes. Stir frequently. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

This recipe make about 3 - 4 cups of mango chutney. I store the extra chutney in my freezer. I use this chutney in my curry tofu salad. When I googled how to use Mango Chutney, here are some of the suggestions:
Serve as topping to vanilla ice cream
Serve over chicken or fish
Mix with mayo on chicken or turkey burgers
Serve on top of rotisserie shredded chicken in a pita
Serve on top of smoked pork lion
Serve with chicken or lamb curry
Serve with grill lamb
Mix with mayo, curry powder, salt and pepper for curry chicken salad and sweet and white potato salad.