Category Archives: Breakfast

Berries and Tofu Smoothie Bowl (Vegan)

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Over the past year, I have been trying to eat less meat and more plant-based proteins. I was never a big meat eater, so the transition was pretty easy. To me, the change has been beneficial, especially for my gut. I have a lot less indigestion and heartburn. Trying to cooperate these ingredients in recipes has been fun too. Tofu is my favourite, I mostly use it in savoury dishes or soups, but I can also make it into a simple and nutritious sweet treat, like this smoothie bowl ! You can use any berries and toppings of your choice. For a thicker smoothie, freeze some of the berries first. Look at the beautiful and vibrant colours ! It’s definitely a treat for your eyes and your tummy !  

Makes one serving

  • 150 g mixed berries (I used fresh raspberries, frozen blueberries and blackberries)
  • 150 g soft tofu
  • 1 tablespoon of maple syrup to sweeten (optional)
  • Toppings of choice (other fruits, seeds and nuts)

Blend all ingredients together then add toppings 

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Lemon Coconut Muffins

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My friends often ask me how I come up with recipe ideas. Most of the time is seasonal, like using berries in the summer and pumpkin in the fall. Sometimes it’s just sort of random and use whatever I have at home. The other day, I was cleaning up my pantry, I found a bag of shredded coconut, some coconut oil and a few leftovers that I’ve only used once or twice ! Then I remembered I had  some coconut milk in the fridge too ! (Wow…didn’t realize I love coconut so much…..) So, I came up with these very “coconuty” muffins ! I added some lemon juice and zest to add fresshness and balance the flavour, and I just love that golden crust on top ! So, if you have some extras lying around, don’t waste them ! Create your own recipes ! You may come up with something really delicious ! You never know !  

Makes about 8-10

  • 200 g all-purpose flour
  • 3 g baking powder
  • 3 g baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 100 g granulated sugar
  • 120 mL unsweetened coconut milk
  • 80 mL buttermilk
  • 60 mL coconut oil, melted and slightly cooled
  • 5 mL pure vanilla extract
  • 30 mL lemon juice
  • Zest of a small lemon
  • 30 g unsweetened shredded coconut + more to sprinkle on top
  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF
  2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, side aside
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar and egg
  4. Mix in coconut milk, buttermilk, melted coconut oil, vanilla extract and lemon juice
  5. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredient, mix until just blended
  6. Stir in lemon zest and shredded coconut
  7. Spoon batter into muffin tins lined with lightly greased muffin cups, about 3/4 full
  8. Sprinkle top with more shredded coconut
  9. Bake for about 18-20 minutes

Dark Chocolate Granola

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Happy New Year ! My first post of 2019 ! Do you have any new year resolution ? I am sure eating healthier is on everyone’s list, especially after the holiday indulgence…..but wait…..I still like my chocolates ?! So……let’s start with a recipe that has chocolate but also healthy and good for you ! How about granola ? It is easy to make and you can pretty much put whatever you like in there, nuts, seeds, dried fruits…..and yes, CHOCOLATES ! Use darker chocolate if you don’t mind the bitterness as it’s healthier. I used 85%, but if that’s too dark, you can use 60-70 %. Normally, I weigh all the ingredients in my recipe, but granola is very flexible, you can easily adjust the amount to your taste. 

I hope everyone is off to a good start this year ! Stay healthy and be happy !    

Makes about 2 cups     

  • 1 cup quick oats
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 1/4 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 tablespoon chia seeds
  • 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 50 g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used 85 %) 
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil 
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
  1. Preheat oven to 300ºF
  2. Mix together all dry ingredients 
  3. Add maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla extract, mix well
  4. Place a thin and even layer on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper
  5. Bake for about 20 minutes, stirring once
  6. Cool and store in air-tight container for up to 2 weeks

 

 

Mini Apple Walnut Loaves

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When my kids were younger and were still in Scouts, we used to sell apples to raise money every September. It takes quite a bit of courage for a 6 and a 9-year-old to go up to strangers and ask for donations. It was such a good experience and I was so proud of them. Now that their interests have changed and we are no longer in Scouts, I really miss those years of fund-raising, camping, hiking and all the other activities that we have done….  

Fall is the apple season and there are so many different kinds of apple. Gala is my favourite ! It’s not too big, it’s sweet and has the perfect texture for eating or baking. And I made these mini loaves with walnuts the other day. They taste best when warm….and even better with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream ! I like to make them in mini loaves as you don’t need to bake them as long and can freeze them very easily for later.  

Makes 4 mini loaves (dimensions of pans: 5.75 x 3.25 x 2.25 inches)

  • 360 g all-purpose flour
  • 10 g baking powder
  • 4 g baking soda
  • 2 g salt
  • 3 g ground cinnamon
  • 100 g granulated sugar
  • 100 g demerara or brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 180 mL vegetable oil
  • 150 g sour cream
  • 10 mL pure vanilla extract
  • 400 g diced apples, about 3-4 apples (I used Gala, washed, peeled and cored)
  • 120 g coarsely chopped walnuts
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. Lightly oiled and floured 4 mini loaf pans
  3. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon, set aside
  4. Whisk together eggs and sugars until frothy, mix in oil, vanilla and sour cream
  5. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mix until just cooperated
  6. Stir in apples and walnuts
  7. Pour batter into 4 loaf pans and bake for about 35-40 minutes

 

Tools that I used 

Chicago Metallic 59440 Commercial II Non-Stick Mini Loaf Pans, Set of 4

You can get the mini loaf pans through the Amazon website by clicking the above link. I will receive a small compensation if you purchase the item. 

Coffee Cake Muffins 

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The past month has been super busy! Kids were on spring break, we went for a mini vacation to Portland with my parents. I came back to start a new pharmacy job, meanwhile trying to prepare for 3 Spring markets….. I was basically working 14-16 hours a day! It was exhausting but I had so much fun doing the markets. I love to share my baking passion and people’s responses are very positive and encouraging. I also love meeting and talking to other artisan vendors. It makes me really appreciate the time and effort that they put into their art, whether it’s food related or not. So go visit your local artisan markets and I am sure you will discover some very amazing local vendors and their products.

This is a recipe I did a while ago. I usually try to have one or two “spare” recipes so I can keep posting when I am busy. It’s a very simple muffin recipe but the crumble makes them taste so good! It’s a perfect afternoon snack with a cup of coffee! And definitely need it on my 16 hour-day!

Makes about 12 

For the muffins

  • 360 g all-purpose flour
  • 10 g baking powder
  • 4 g baking soda
  • 2 g salt
  • 200 g granulated sugar
  • 180 g unsalted butter, melted
  • 60 mL canola oil
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 300 g sour cream
  • 10 mL pure vanilla extract

For the crumble

  • 60 g demerara or brown sugar
  • 90 g all-purpose flour
  • 2 g ground cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • 60 g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F
  2. To make the crumble, mix together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt
  3. Rub in cold butter with fingers until resemble wet sand, set aside
  4. To make the batter, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda
  5. Mix in sugar and salt
  6. Add eggs, vanilla, sour cream, melted butter and oil, stir until just blended
  7. Spoon half of the batter, then half of the crumble into lightly oiled and floured muffin tins
  8. Layer with the remaining halves
  9. Bake for about 25 minutes

Recipe adapted from Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins with Streusel Topping at www.justataste.com

Chocolate Peanut Butter Overnight Oats 

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Happy New Year ! This is my very first post of 2018 ! Hope you all had a good winter break. So, what are your New Year’s resolutions ? I bet eating healthier is one of them. For someone who loves sweets like myself, it can be a little tricky. I don’t want to refrain myself from sugar totally, but yet feel guilty at times having too much sugar. Everything in moderation I guess…..I do cook and bake at home as much as I can, trying to avoid the unnecessary additives. Luckily my kids, especially my daughter, also enjoy cooking. One day during her winter break, her friend came over and they made lunch together ! Not just a simple sandwich, but some impressive cheeseburgers, fettuccine Alfredo and Caesar salad from scratch ! And they didn’t need much of my help, I was just the cleaning lady ! The food tasted fantastic and the girls had so much fun. That’s a way better activity than playing video games ! 

Getting back to my “trying to be healthy” recipe…..Chocolate Peanut Butter Overnight Oats ! It’s yummy and super easy to make ! See this picture……..

That’s all you need ! So enjoy ! (BTW, my daughter and I were so excited when we found out how to do this illustrative picture ! We learned something new again !)  

Makes 1 serving 

  • 1/4 cup quick oats
  • 2 teaspoons chia seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder 
  • 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter 
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup 
  • 1/2 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
  • 1/2 banana
  1. Mix all ingredients, except banana, in a mason jar
  2. Refrigerate overnight 
  3. Place banana pieces on top just before serving 

Baked Cinnamon Doughnuts (with Butterscotch Glaze and Toasted Walnuts) 

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Another school year has just started ! I can’t believe my son is in high school ! He is certainly excited to move on and become an official teenager, and I am happy to see him growing up and becoming more independent. But as a mom, I would never stop worrying about him ! Is he doing well at school, is he making new friends, and are they good kids, etc….Luckily, my kids and I are very close, and we would talk about almost everything…..I am sure there are things they don’t want me to know !

Since the kids are back to school, I finally have a little more time to work on my recipes. These cinnamon doughnuts are nice surprise ! I was trying to make some cinnamon apple waffles but they didn’t turn out right. So, I switched and made doughnuts instead. And I am so glad  I did ! They are so soft and tasty even without any toppings. But hey, why not kick them up 2 more notches ! The butterscotch glaze is heavenly ! No kidding, my daughter would have “drunk” the whole bowl if I didn’t stop her ! The toasted walnuts are really nice too, they add extra flavour and crunchiness. Pecans would also be a good alternative. You can refrigerate the extra butterscotch sauce for up to 1 week. Rewarm and drizzle it on some vanilla ice cream, and you’ll have another dessert !  

Makes about 12 doughnuts     

For the doughnuts

  • 300 g all-purpose flour 
  • 6 g baking powder 
  • 3 g baking soda 
  • 2 g salt 
  • 6 g ground cinnamon 
  • Pinch of nutmeg 
  • 30 g brown sugar 
  • 30 g granulated sugar 
  • 2 eggs (slightly beaten)
  • 300 mL buttermilk 
  • 60 mL vegetable oil 
  • 5 mL pure vanilla extract 

For the butterscotch glaze  

  • 60 g unsalted butter 
  • 120 mL whipping cream 
  • 120 g brown sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 5 mL pure vanilla extract

You will also need about 90 g walnuts 

  1. Preheat oven to 325ºF 
  2. Toast walnuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about 10 minutes, let cool and crush into small pieces
  3. Turn oven up to 350ºF
  4. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, add both sugars
  5. In another bowl, mix together eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract 
  6. Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mix until just blended 
  7. Pour batter into lightly greased doughnut pans and bake for about 12 minutes, let cool
  8. To make the glaze, cook butter and whipping cream in a small non-stick pot over medium heat until butter melts
  9. Add sugar and salt , stir continuously until thicken and smooth  
  10. Add vanilla, let cool slightly
  11. To assemble, dip one side of doughnuts into the glaze, then the crushed walnuts, best to serve immediately

 

Butterscotch sauce recipe adapted from Mark Bittman, “How to Bake Everything” 

 

Books and Tools

 

How to Bake Everything: Simple Recipes for the Best Baking

Wilton Nonstick 6-Cavity Donut Pan

You can get the doughnut pans and the cookbook through the Amazon website by clicking the above link. I will receive a small compensation if you purchase the item. 

Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

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I haven’t been blogging actively. It’s been such a busy summer and we were on vacation last week. I make this zucchini loaf all the time and I have been hoping to share it since May ! Somehow just never got around to it. Last week, the mom of my daughter’s best friend gave me a few gigantic zucchini fresh from her garden ! So I made this again and finally put the post together. It’s one of those sneaky recipes in which you can hide the vegetables ! My son doesn’t like sweets nor zucchini, but he would come back for more of this. I guess that means it tastes pretty good ! If you prefer, you can put them in muffin tins instead, just remember to adjust the baking time to about 20-25 minutes. 

Makes 2 mini loaves (dimensions of pan: 5.75 x 3.25 x 2.25 inches)

  • 120 g shredded zucchini
  • 180 g all-purpose flour
  • 20 g unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1.5 g baking powder
  • 1.5 g baking soda
  • 2 g salt
  • 50 g brown sugar
  • 50 g granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 180 mL buttermilk
  • 30 mL vegetable oil
  • 2.5 mL pure vanilla extract
  • 60 g semi-sweet chocolate chips 
    1. Preheat oven to 350°F
    2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt
    3. Add both sugars
    4. In another bowl, mix together egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla
    5. Add wet ingredients into flour mixture, stir until just blended
    6. Fold in chocolate chips and zucchini (batter will be slightly runny)
    7. Pour into lightly greased and floured loaf pans
    8. Bake for about 40-45 minutes 

Tools that I used 

Chicago Metallic 59440 Commercial II Non-Stick Mini Loaf Pans, Set of 4

You can get the mini loaf pans through the Amazon website by clicking the above link. I will receive a small compensation if you purchase the item. 

Buttermilk Scones and my day at Vista D’Oro Farm 

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A couple of weeks ago, on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I had the opportunity to participate in a jam making workshop at Vista D’Oro farm in Langley, B.C. It was organized by Appetite by Penguin Random House and Food Bloggers of Canada. Lee Murphy, the owner of the farm, also the author of the cookbook, The Preservatory, patiently taught us her techniques of making artisanal preserves from fresh fruits. We cooked and created some very special blueberry and rhubarb preserves. We then had a tour of the winery with Lee’s husband, Patrick, enjoyed some wine tasting and a yummy snack platter at the patio, with cheese, bread, sausages and jams of course ! It was a wonderful experience and we all went home with a big box full of jams and The Preservatory cookbook !

I also brought home with something else….. something that I saw in Lee and Patrick. It’s the love, the enthusiasm and the passion that they put into their farm, their preserves and their wine. And I truly think that’s what make their products unique. Being able to do what you love and love what you do is a blessing, and I think we should really embrace those opportunities in life and make the best out of them.

So……to make the best use of the jams I got, I made these buttermilk scones. They match perfectly with the fruit preserves. They taste best when they are fresh and warm. So if you cannot consume the whole batch, you can save part of the dough in the freezer.

Makes about 16 scones

  • 180 g all-purpose flour
  • 180 g cake and pastry flour
  • 15 g baking powder
  • 3 g baking soda
  • 1 g salt
  • 100 g vanilla sugar granulated sugar plus more for sprinkling
  • 120 g cold unsalted butter (cut or grate into small pieces)
  • 2 eggs (1 for dough, 1 for egg wash)
  • 150 mL buttermilk
  1. Preheat oven to 400°F
  2. Sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt
  3. Mix in sugar
  4. Rub in cold butter with fingers until resembles coarse crumbs, there should be small lumps of butter in the dough
  5. Lightly beat 1 egg and buttermilk together and add to dry ingredients, mix until just combined 
  6. Transfer to a generously floured surface, gently knead and press until dough just come together, handle the dough as little as possible 
  7. Roll flat to about 1/2 inch in thickness
  8. Cut into discs, about 2 inches in diameter, and place on baking trays lined with parchment paper
  9. Beat the other egg with about 2 teaspoons of water 
  10. Brush top of discs with egg wash and sprinkle with vanilla sugar or granulated sugar
  11. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden
  12. Serve warm with your favourite jam 

Lee Murphy’s new cookbook, The Preservatory, is a wonderful resource for making and using preserves. The book is divided into 2 parts. Part 1 includes recipes for preserves using seasonal fruits with the addition of spices, herbs and wine. Part 2 contains recipes using the preserves, it covers everything from an appetizer to a dessert. Wow ! Jam is a lot more than a PB&J sandwich ! Lee also has a wonderful scone recipe in her book, which is slightly different from the one above, but her scones were super tasty too ! 

 

The Preservatory: Seasonally Inspired Recipes for Creating and Cooking with Artisanal Preserves

You can get this beautiful cookbook through the Amazon website by clicking the above link. I will receive a small compensation if you purchase the item. 

Overnight Oats with Chia Seeds

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After indulging myself over Christmas and New Year, I guess it’s time to make something a little healthier! Chia seed pudding has been on my “to make” list for quite a while, but I’ve been pushing it back. Somehow I associate the word “pudding” with something soft and creamy, not seedy and chewy.  So I ended up making this overnight oats.  It was really yummy, and to my surprise, my daughter loved it ! This is another recipe that can have so many variations. My ratio is roughly, 1 part oats, 2 parts milk and 1/4 part chia seeds, then add sweetener, and toppings.  It makes a great breakfast, or for me, a snack after my morning run !  

Makes 1 serving

  • 1/2 cup unsweetened milk of choice (I used almond and coconut milk)
  • 1/4 cup rolled oats
  • 1 tablespoon chia seeds
  • 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
  • toppings of choice, e.g. banana, berries, shredded coconut, almond slices, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds etc
  1. Combine milk, oats, chia seeds and sweetener in a bowl or a mason jar  
  2. Stir well, cover and refrigerate overnight
  3. Add toppings when ready to serveOvernight Oats with Chia Seeds