Small but Powerful: blueberries!!!

“I've tried it on, like, twenty Oompa-Loompas and each one ended up as a blueberry. It's just weird!” - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Violet turned into a blueberry! hahaha, I love the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story! It is one of my favourite books! I loved Johnny Depp in the movie. Oompa-Loompas are kind of scary though! haha

Blueberries are one of my favourite fruits. I think it would be my #2 since banana is #1 ... YUM!! I always loved blueberries; they are so cute, nice in colour, and most of all they taste so good. I could eat handfuls of blueberries anyday. They are the best snack too! I remember saying before blueberries are liars... why? because they look purple to me, well I suppose it's outside is a dark blue-purple, but it definitely has purple juice colour that comes out.

You can say, the best things come in small packages, which is very true when you refer to blueberries... and short, little me too =P haha. Why are blueberries so awesome? Well they have many super health benefits. They are antioxidant rich, which I said before is good for your body because it fights off those bad free radicals, which in turn help with reducing the risk of diseases. Next, they are high in vitamin C, which is good for your immune system. For a tiny little berry it is full of nutrients ranging from folate, iron, and manganese. Blueberries also contains fibre, which is good for you, because we all need some more fibre in our diets! Some research has even shown that blueberries are good for the brain; in animals, blueberry extract has improved memory, coordination, and balance. (WOW... I should definitely eat more blueberries, since my memory is horrible!) I could go on and on about the health benefits of blueberries, but you would be reading for a while, so just
know that blueberries are really good for you! Go grab some fresh blueberries while they are in season!

In the last few months, I have made a few blueberry treats! Way back in the beginning of the year, I made blueberry cupcakes. Then blueberry tarts. Then blueberry muffins!

... Go on read more for recipes & blueberry results.

“You sold us a bad batch of hash brownies!” – Eurotrip (2004)

hahaha… okay these are not hash brownies, but remember in the movie Eurotrip, when Scott and Jenny, went to the bakery in Amsterdam and they thought they ate a plate of hash brownies, and started acting crazy, when it was just regular brownies? LOL Here’s a little reminder:

Scott: You sold us a bad batch of hash brownies! You're a bad, bad Rastafarian.
Rasta Waiter: These are not hash brownies.
Scott: ...what was that?
Rasta Waiter: We do not sell hash brownies here, we are simple Dutch bakery! Now put your clothes back on, white boy!

hahahaha

I made these brownies a while ago for a dinner party because the recipe seemed very convincing of how delicious they were…

… read more for results & a SURPRISE!

You’re such a peach!

One of the great things about summer is the summer fruits!!! I forgot my love for peach until I took a bite out of one a few weeks ago. It was like sweet bliss, so sweet, juicy and succulent. However, for my brother who was sitting beside me did not enjoy my loud slurps from trying to keep the juices from dripping down my chin, but whatever, it was so yummy! I LOVE PEACHES!

In my family, I am the dessert girl, but I hardly make any dessert for dinner, because usually we get really full from the actual dinner one and… I’m kind of lazy especially when I’m hungry… haha So one day, with my peaches in hand & dinner almost starting, I decided to quickly whip up this french dessert, called “clafoutis.”  Plus I saw Anna Olson do it easily on her show, Fresh with Anna Olson, the week before, so I thought why not. She used plums, but I just used peaches.

… go on, take another bite & read more

Pretty Please with a Cherry on Top :)

Hey everyone! Sorry I been away for almost 2 months :( I have been quite busy with everything (a wedding (not mine’s of course), vacations, work & just living life), but I didn’t stop baking, I made a few things during this time. So I’ll be blogging about these little baking adventures within the next week :) I’m back in full force!

Every year around June, I get bags of cherries so I try to make something with cherries (last year I made super mini cherry pies). This year I found “Cherry coffee cake”. I couldn’t pass up trying this recipe because 1) it was simple 2) I love coffee cake 3) it incorporates my huge supply of cherries.

Cherry trees are the one of the first fruit trees to ripen in North America. The peak season for cherries is SUMMER, which is now! So I suggest to go cherry picking with a lover, a friend, or anyone that loves cherries or FUN =P haha
What’s so good about cherries anyways? Well they are SO PRETTY! They remind me Vegas, cause of those slot machine with the cherries, haha… But on a serious note, tart cherries provide us with the mighty antioxidants (which are fighters against those pesky free radicals in our bodies which reduces many health risks like cancer… basically they fight off bad guys so they don’t do bad things, such as leaving garbage in your body!) More specifically, the antioxidant that cherries provide are called, anthocyanins, which have powerful anti-inflammatory properties and research state that it helps with pain relief in joints; some studies state it helps inflammation more than ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, etc). Lastly, the darker the cherry is, the more anthocyanins there are.

... go on read more ;)

Is your dad a baker?

Because you got some NICE BUNS! hahaha okay that was totally lame… but funny right, right? hahaha

A few weeks ago I made Cinnamon buns/ rolls… and they were awesome! But I have been quite busy so I haven’t blogged about my baking, and I haven’t baked that much either. Hopefully that will change after this week, because I have a lot of baking goodies that I am looking forward to try out.

I love the smell of cinnamon in anything… it’s just so addicting & makes you so happy, because it has a energizing scent that has been found to increase alertness. It one of the best spices out there. After trying to find some information on cinnamon, I found that recent studies have shown that adding cinnamon to food can help with blood sugar control by lowering blood sugar, which is great for people with diabetes. Cinnamon also has antioxidants effects (because it has polyphenols), which helps with reducing cardiovascular disease.

So cinnamon has health benefits which is a good thing, but I know, adding it to a baked good kind of conflicts right? But think MODERATION & you can always add the cinnamon to other things, like oatmeal… Plus I think the cinnamon rolls I made are non-artery-clogging… unlike cinnabon (sorry guys… those are heart-attack buns, did you ever see them spread the margarine/butter/fat onto those babies? It makes me cry a little…)

I love cinnamon rolls… I remember when I was little, I would go to this store, I forgot the name, but it was in Yorkgate mall, and I would get these amazing cinnamon buns with apples in them & they were so GOOD with the icing & when they were warm. YUM!

... go on read more ;)

{Cinnamon Rolls}

Recipe from Coleen's Recipes

2 CUPS BUTTERMILK
½ CUP VEGETABLE OIL
½ CUP SUGAR
1 PKG. DRY ACTIVE YEAST (I use 1 tablespoon)
4½ CUPS ALL PURPOSE FLOUR (DIVIDED)
½ TEASPOON BAKING POWDER
½ TEASPOON BAKING SODA
1½ TEASPOONS SALT

FILLING (mix together 1st 4 ingredients)
¾ CUP LIGHT BROWN SUGAR
2 TEASPOONS CINNAMON
PINCH OF TABLE SALT
1 CUP CHOPPED PECANS
2 TABLESPOONS BUTTER SOFT

Mix the buttermilk, vegetable oil and sugar in a saucepan and warm this mixture to just before the boiling point…remove and cool to lukewarm (see note). Remove from heat let it cool down then stir in dry yeast. Let this mixture sit for a few minutes to let the yeast bloom.

Add 4 (of the 4½ cups) of flour to the buttermilk mixture and stir well (no need to knead, just mix well). Dough at this stage will be extremely sticky and more like a thick batter. Cover dough with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm place for an hour.

In a small, separate bowl, mix the final ½ cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. After the sticky dough has rested/raised for an hour, stir it down and add this final half cup flour mixture. Mix until well incorporated (by hand or electric mixer)...just takes a minute.

Turn batter (which will still be quite soft and sticky) out onto WELL-floured counter and roll the dough around a few times, coating the surface with flour so it is not so sticky. Roll (or pat) dough out into a rectangle that is about ½” thick. Spread dough surface with 2 tablespoons butter then evenly spread on the filling ingredients and top with nuts (pat the nuts into the sugar a little). Roll up, jellyroll style, keeping it as tight as you can. Pinch the seam shut tightly. Cut 1½” slices and lay them, cut side down, in a greased 9x13 baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake in pre-heated 375F oven for about 20 minutes or until golden and they sound hollow when you tap on them. Drizzle with glaze while the rolls are still hot.

MAPLE GLAZE
1 + 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon maple extract
2 OR 3 tablespoons milk

NOTE: For the first step, I warm the buttermilk-vegetable oil mixture up in the microwave. I don't find it necessary to bring the buttermilk to "near boiling" like the instructions tell you to. I just microwave it until it feels good and warm (not hot) when I put my finger in it.

 

RESULTS: The cinnamon buns were amazing! They were light and fluffy & delicious with the frosting I made. The recipe asked for maple extract for the glaze, but I didn't have any, so I substituted for maple syrup & it still tasted awesome. I used like about 2 tbsp of maple syrup, because I made double the glaze amount, to make the cinnamon rolls extra yummy! But I suggest making the glaze to your taste. When pouring the glaze, make sure you pour tons on the sides of the buns (around the pan) because that is where the less soft parts of the cinnamon rolls are & in between each roll. I also didn’t use the pecans, because I like simple & plain cinnamon rolls. Although, the cinnamon buns took a bit of time… it was well worth it! They taste best when warm or reheated :) I would definitely make these again!

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

Simple and Easy Non-Frozen Lunch

I could have either 1) sit on the couch, watch TV and then go to sleep and wake up and go buy a microwave frozen lunch at Metro before work OR 2) Take an hour and throw some ingredients together and make a fresh pasta lunch and go to sleep knowing that I have a good lunch tomorrow.

I went with choice #2 and enjoyed a yummy lunch. Not only that, it was a big enough portion to fill me and I didn’t have to spend $4-5 on something that has lots of fat and who knows what else.

With cooking, as I said before, there is no need for a recipe. If you have a few simple ingredients, you can have a lunch, if you don’t eat it all when you finish making it =P

... go on read more ;)

So here’s my little recipe, alter to your preference or what you have:

Chicken Pasta with Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:

any kind of pasta, small piece of chicken breast, Olive oil, Thyme, Salt & pepper, Onion, can of diced tomatoes, Green peppers, Sugar

Directions:

Cook pasta as directed (I like my pasta on the softer side). Preheat oven (350°C). Meanwhile, cut the chicken breast into smaller pieces, 1 cm thick. Then in a bowl, mix some olive oil, salt & pepper, and thyme together with the chicken and then place it on some foil on a baking sheet (** tip, make the foil into a box, so you don’t have to wash the baking sheet after **). Grill the chicken for about 10 minutes, but it should cook fast since you cut into smaller pieces.  Dice some onions, sauté it with some olive oil in the pasta pot (to save dishes to wash, haha) until translucent. Then add some canned tomato sauce (depending on how much pasta you have), green peppers. Then add some sugar to help with the acidity of the tomato sauce. Add salt and pepper and thyme as desired. Lastly, add grilled chicken and pasta back in and toss!

Cool and pack up your lunch :)

P.S. The cooking time was around 30 minutes, so take some time and avoid those frozen lunches.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

Happy Birthday- BANANA STYLE ;)

One of the things I like to do when someone’s birthday comes up or at special event is give them some love in the form of something baked, something DELICIOUS!

So I chose the BANANA cake from Bite Me which I made before and it was super awesome and definitely my favourite banana cake ever… (for recipe click here to my previous banana post).

It is best to use ripe bananas for this cake because when the bananas ripen, it will get sweeter. The starch in the bananas turns to sugar… bananas have three natural sugars – sucrose, fructose and glucose. So the cake will get better as the days go by because the bananas will get to work…

So today, instead of me writing another results of the banana cake, because I will totally go on and on, my best friend who I made the banana birthday cake for, will give his opinion on it :)

T’s RESULTS: Mmmmmm the cake was friggen AWESOME.  I ate it continuously for 3 days and each day it got even better.  It was so moist and the icing made it so much better.  It was probably a bad idea to make this for my birthday because it looks like you're going to have to make it for me every year because anything else would not compare.

hahaha well happy birthday again, T! love ya!

Totally random fact: Oh, did you know there is something called banana beer in Eastern Africa? It is a beer made from the fermentation mashed bananas. That is so cool… I wonder how it taste!

Now go and bake some love this week! And enjoy some sunshine!!

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

A Bridal Shower Brings May Flowers

Aren’t these cupcakes so pretty? Pretty food always taste better!! This Sunday was my sister’s bridal shower and I wanted to make some cute cupcakes. To decorate them I was inspired by Alice from Savory Sweet Life again. She had this online video to show you how to make these pansy-like flowers and I wanted to try it. Go to her site for the tutorial.

Waking up at 8am to make buttercream isn’t the most enjoyable thing to do because I’m totally not a morning person. But once I put the purple colour into the frosting, I was wide awake and was quite excited to try some piping, because it was so pretty!! The first 12 cupcakes were okay looking, but after I got the hang of it and they turned out really nice! Maybe not as good as Alice, but I think I did a pretty good job for the first time. I can’t wait to try to learn other piping skills.

... go on, read more ;)

Here’s the buttercream recipe I used. Well it’s not really an actual recipe, but more of a general guideline. I find that with buttercream, it’s dependent on your taste & the consistency you need.

Buttercream Frosting

Makes enough frosting for 30 mini cupcakes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of unsalted butter (softened)

2 cups + some more of SIFTED powdered sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

2-3 tbsp of milk

Directions:

Cream the butter in an electric mixer for a few minutes on medium speed until creamy and fluffy. Then decrease the speed to low and add the powdered sugar, (low speed you don’t get covered in powdered sugar). Then mix on medium speed then add the vanilla extract and enough milk to make the consistency you need to pipe frosting. If you want a thin consistency add more milk. If you added more milk, add more sugar.

** CAUTION: frosting will be really sweet… try not to eat the whole bowl before you use it =P

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I decorated the cupcake with little purple sugar that I got from bulk barn for really cheap. It gave the cupcakes a little crunch and made the cupcakes even prettier :)

I love, love these pictures! They are so pretty and nice. I took these pictures outside that morning. I love natural sunlight pictures. I should wake up early to bake things from now on… yeah right… haha maybe one day!

Oh and look at this cupcake holder I got it’s so awesome to carry my baked goods. It so cute and compact and I just love it! I got it from Macy's in buffalo [ thanks T ;) love ya ]. It’s so versatile too! I love it so much!

These things make me love baking even more. I should just become a pastry chef. *sighs* I’m in love, haha.

... I know, I know. I'm in Nutrition and Food. I'm supposed to "healthy" right? I should know what's good and bad, blahblahblah. So me + butter = friends... :O are you gasping? Don't hold your breathe, because butter will always be my friend. Yes, sometimes I cringe at the thought of how much butter I put into these goodies I make, but I try not to think too much about it, because... ignorance is bliss? =P But when I do, I want to change the world!!!! I want desserts to be something people can eat without feeling guilty or bad about their selves, I want desserts to be "healthy" and not a fear because it's "bad" or "fattening". Oh, a girl can dream...

So here's my little tidbit on butter. Butter is an animal fat, sorry fellow vegetarians and vegans! Yes butter contain that "bad" fat... saturated fat and some trans fat. These pesky fats just had to be in butter :( ... but it is these fats that help with the textures and flavours in baked goods that make it so tempting and give it the melt in your mouth feeling... Those evil little things! These fat raise your bad cholesterol level (LDL-cholesterol) and increase your risk of health disease, but guess what I just found out? Saturated fat not only raise your bad cholesterol level in your blood, but it also raises the level of your good cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol protects you from heart disease)... how interesting!!! (health canada). So the fat that is good for you is unsaturated fats, which can be found in canola oil and olive oil. Canada Food Guide recommends that you include a small amount (2-3 tbsp) of unsaturated fat in your diet everyday whether in your cooking or not.

Live life... A little fat doesn't hurt ;)

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

I can’t keep my hand out of the cookie jar!

Before you go on you read this post… you must go listen to this song… Gym Class Heroes (feat. the dream)- Cookie Jar. (click the link)

HAHA. Did you enjoy that? It’s a catchy song and gave me a good laugh, because they are obviously not talking about actual “cookies”. Cookies = girls… hahaha the baked good references made in this song was just too funny to me (example: “oatmeal raisin asians” HAHA). “double stuffed or thin mint, it don’t matter, you gettin’ it” hahaha.. okay onto my post!

Chocolate Chip Cookies… you can never go wrong with these cookies. They are the original-go-to-cookie. It’s a simple cookie that pleases a lot of people & one of the best cookies out there. Best with a glass of milk!

Tonight I made these chocolate chip cookies (once again from Alice from savory sweet life. There are so many good recipes from there. Check out her blog). I made these cookies because I had one of those moments where I fantasized about eating a warm cookie fresh out of the oven while grocery shopping. My original thought was oatmeal raisin cookies, but I’m saving that for Sunday.

Okay each time I bake cookies, I always end up with two shapes. Either small, puffy cookies or flat cookies. The small cookies (1st picture below) was made by dropping the cookies directly onto the cookie sheet with a ice cream scoop (for even cookies). The 2nd cookie was scooped the same way, but before I put them into the oven, I flattened them with the back of a spoon. Do they make a difference?? YES they do!!

... go on, read more ;)

Small and Compact

or

Big and Flat????

RESULTS: Okay, so I totally loved the flat cookies more. I found they were better than the small and compact one. Because they were less crunchy and I found the flat ones were chewy and just had the perfect cookie texture and taste to them. My brother agreed on this important matter, haha. Plus the flat ones had a nice, clean look to them. The small ones were wrinkly little cookies. Overall, great chocolate chip cookie recipe. Simple and tasty! A keeper!

I want to say something about nutrition relating to these cookies… but I can’t think of anything interesting. OHHH! I said these cookies are good with a glass of milk. As you all may know from school and those milk commercials, milk contains calcium and you should drink milk. Calcium is essential for your growth and bones. Did you know that 99% of your body’s calcium is in your bones and teeth? COOL EH? I think that’s super cool, hahha I got all excited for a second. Just in case you were wondering, the other 1% is in your extra and intracellular fluids.

So drink lots of milk (or consume other dairy products throughout the day). Depending on your age group, you need 2-3 servings of milk and alternatives per day.. 1 cup of milk (250ml) = 1 serving. Keep yourself strong and healthy. Also, try to consume skim milk or 1% milk which contains less fat. If you don’t like milk or are lactose intolerant, try soy milk- there are so many flavours out there now!

So drink a cup of milk or two… and have a cookie or two ;)

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

P.S. What's your favourite cookie? Leave a comment & maybe I'll make your favourite cookie one day soon :)

The Depression…

 

hahaha… okay I’m not depressed, but this cake is called “Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake” and I got the recipe from a food blog called Savory Sweet Life. It is a really awesome blog by a lady named Alice and there’s lots of good recipes that I will be making in the future.

The name of this cake came from the Depression era. Because at that time egg, milk and butter was expensive and not easy to find. So the cake is vegan- friendly!!! It is really, really easy to make. I literally put everything together in less than 10 minutes.

... go on, read more ;)

{Chocolate Wacky Depression Cake}

Recipe from Savory Sweet Life

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup cocoa powder

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 cup water

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a medium mixing bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together by hand.  Add all the wet ingredients until well combined.  Pour into a 8×8 pan which has been prepared with non stick spray.

Bake for 30 until done.  Allow to completely cool before serving. Cake is even better if eaten the next day.  Enjoy!

RESULTS: It was a good chocolate cake. It was moist and was really addicting to eat. I could have ate the whole cake if I didn’t have some self control… haha. Since the cake lacks the traditional cake ingredients such as milk, eggs, butter and vanilla extract, you can say it is a bit plain. However, if there was icing or frosting, I think this would be an awesome chocolate cake. I would make this again, because it was so easy to make. I only had to use one mixing bowl!!! It’s that fast and easy. I basically measured out all the dry ingredients and then pour all the wet ingredients in, then I mixed to combine and poured it into a pan. *** It is important to sift the cocoa because it tends to have lots of lumps ***

Oh yeah I added a tsp of vanilla extract because I didn’t want it to be too plain. I also reduced to the sugar to about to 3/4 cup of sugar but that’s because I don’t like things to sweet. =P I only baked it for 25 minutes and it was done, so remember to always check 5-10 minutes before the suggested cooking time, because your oven may be different.

So next time you want some cake but don’t have all the ingredients, except the basics, I would recommend trying to make this cake! It’s a no fail chocolate cake.

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

"this s*** is b-a-n-a-n-a-s"

Doesn’t that look lovely? I love this cake stand that I got for Christmas from my brother. I believe he got it at Homesense. It reminds me of those coffee shops! :) This is how I lure my family to eat my bake goods… display it where they can see whenever they enter the kitchen and they can’t help but grab some goodies! Oh, you can see my kitchen kid mixer in the background that I got for my 21st birthday from my best friends (thanks E & T). =D

One of my favourite fruits are BANANAS. I think I have always loved bananas. They are so damn GOOD! Maybe I was a monkey in another life... haha. But I don’t like those mini bananas… they don’t taste the same! Don’t you love smelling a banana? Sometimes in class, someone would be eating a banana, and the smell is so recognizable and fragrant…. yummm!!!

So what's so good about bananas? They are full of potassium. Say what? I say potassium, you hear *!$!*$)!#&0 ... well, potassium is a mineral (K on the periodic table =P yes I still remember some chemistry!) and it is needed for normal cellular function. Potassium helps with muscle contractions in your body and vascular tone. Eat those bananas and contract those muscles!! RAWR! They also help with nerve transmissions which are messages from one part of your body like the brain to your muscles.

... go on, read more ;)

Do you ever find yourself with ripe bananas sitting on the counter and don’t know what to do with them??? What you should not do is THROW them away! SHAME ON YOU if you do. You can always freeze these ripe bananas in the freezer if you are not in the mood to do anything. But if you are… you can BANANA BREAD!

RESULTS: The banana bread was good, but they weren’t super moist as I was expecting… because 1) I baked them in another oven that I don’t usually bake in 2) I totally didn’t look after them while they were baking because I was eating dinner 3) I totally over-baked them because the recipe said 70 minutes, but I should have known that was too long, I should have checked them at 60 minutes, but refer to #2. So because I baked them for too long, the outside was really crunchy and a bit hard :( and it wasn’t that moist! But I find that banana bread always taste the best the next day when you have covered them. They definitely tasted better the day after. Also I omitted the chocolate chips, because I like regular banana bread. Overall, I would make them again, but watch the baking time. Oh yeah, I reduced the sugar to a little more than 3/4 cup, but it still tasted good!

Since this is a banana post. I’ll also show you another banana baked good:

This is banana cake! It is the best BANANA dessert I ever made! It was so moist and so good… it was banana heaven!

RESULTS: SUPER DUPER YUMMY! I went to this restaurant in New York City called sushi samba and for dessert they had this warm chocolate banana cake (with maple butter, banana chip, vanilla rum ice cream) and omg it was so delicious and ever since then I dreamed of eating it again… and this recipe made my dream come true, HAHA! So it was so good and got even better as days passed by. It tasted the best warm or reheated a bit. At sushi samba their banana cake was warm… so good!!! For this recipe, I adjusted the sugar content to a little less than 1/2 cup of sugar (I made only half the recipe, but it made a large amount). The half recipe fits in a 8x8 pan. I would definitely make this over and over again! =D

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Recipes are from one of my favourite books, Bite Me by Julie Albert & Lisa Gnat. Buy this cookbook, you won't regret it, trust me... Would I lie to you?? =P

Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread

Yields: 14-16 slices

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar (I used a little more than 3/4 cups instead)

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups ripe banana (3-4), mashed

1/2 sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 kosher salt (I used regular salt)

1 1/2 cups chopped semi-sweet or milk chocolate (I omitted this, but add it if you love chocolate)

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350°C and coast a 9x5 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.

2) Using an electric mixer, cream together sugar and butter on med. Speed until well blended, about 1 minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add mashed bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Beat on low speed until blended, about 30 seconds. With a wooden spoon, stir in flour, baking soda, salt and chocolate chunks just until moistened and the flour has disappeared. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

3) Bake 70 minutes, until lightly browned on top and cooked through. Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing to cool on a wire rack.

-----------------------------------

I made half this recipe, so see above results for the adjustments I made.

Sara Lisa’s Iced Banana Cake

Serves 12

Ingredients:

Banana Cake

2 ½ cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp kosher salt (I used regular salt)

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup buttermilk

4 medium- size ripe bananas, peeled and mashed

2 tsp fresh lemon juice

Banana Icing

¼ cup butter, softened

½ cup mashed bananas (about 1 banana)

½ tsp fresh lemon juice

½ tsp vanilla extract

3 ½ cups icing sugar

Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 350°C and coast a 13x9 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

2) In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

3) Using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time and then add vanilla extract. Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk until combined. Stir in mashed bananas and lemon juice. Pour batter into prepared baking pan and bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes.

4) For the icing, in an electric mixer, beat butter, bananas and lemon juice on medium speed until well combined. On low speed, slowly add icing sugar until a smooth consistency is reached, scraping down sides of the bowl once or twice. Spread icing on cool cake.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

P.S. GO BANANAS! :)

The No Carbs Diet is pure insanity!!

Being home on a Saturday night and all I can think about is what am I going to eat for lunch tomorrow at work? Every time I have work, this is my only thought, (not omg I have work tomorrow… hehe I love my job- most of the time). Usually I bring leftovers or buy some frozen foods before work. But today, instead of laying on the couch all evening, I decided to make lunch for tomorrow. I was feeling like some pasta.

One of my favourite food is pasta! I don’t think life would be the same without pasta. It is just SOOOO GOOD!

... go on, read more ;)

This semester in school, I learnt about celiac disease. It is the disease where you cannot eat foods with gluten and let me tell you, it is no easy disease. Their diet is really strict so things such as breads, cookies, pies, tarts, bran, and PASTA are big no-no’s! Reading food labels become really important with this disease, because many things that you think have no gluten in it, does… for example, gravies and sauces. So as my prof said… when an Italian person hears they have celiac disease, they are quite devastated… I could only imagine.. c’mon a life without pasta? JUST INSANITY! It is even more INSANE when people choose to go on the no carbs diet… WHY? WHY? WHY? I rather be FAT, HAHA

Anyways, my point is PASTA is amazing! I could eat pasta everyday. Not to mention there are like so many different types of pastas you can use, from spaghetti to those swirly pastas. You can put any sauce or anything in pasta and it will probably taste good.

Tonight I made, fettuccini pasta with tomato sauce and red peppers and grilled chicken breast. The great thing about cooking is you don’t need a recipe, you can throw anything in there you want. It is quite the opposite of baking which involves exact measurements.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RECIPE… Sorta, Kind Of. Make up Your Own PASTA recipe :)

For the chicken breast, I grilled it in a 350 degrees oven for about 15 minutes each side. Seasoned with salt and pepper, thyme and some olive oil.

For the sauce, I sautéed some onions in olive oil, then I added a half a can of diced tomatoes. Then I added some sugar to help the acidity of the tomatoes and add a nice flavour. I also seasoned it with salt and peppers and some more thyme. Then I added my red peppers. Turned off the stove and added my pasta and chicken and tossed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I can’t wait until lunch tomorrow! :) I had some pasta already and it tastes great!

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

Do strawberries have seeds?

When I worked at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair this past winter, I worked at the Functional Food booth and there was this game where kids could play. One of the questions I asked kids was, “Do strawberries have seeds?” Many kids answered in hesitation, thinking it was a trick question. If I was a kid, I would hesitate as well, because in general, when you think of seeds, you think, it is something in the inside of a fruit or vegetable right? Well, strawberries are special. Their seeds are visible are on the outside. The answer to that question was…. yes, strawberries do have seeds; on average, they have 200 seeds! Isn’t that fascinating? =P They are the only fruit that carry their seeds on the outside.

So I had a box full of strawberries in the fridge and when I came upon this recipe, I thought it would be perfect to try out and use up the strawberries before they go bad. I made strawberry bread.

... go on, read more ;)

{Strawberry Bread}

2 eggs
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups fresh diced strawberries

Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease an 8 x 4″ loaf pan.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and baking powder in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until the evenly yellow (but not frothy). Stir in the yogurt, oil, and vanilla and stir until evenly mixed. Pour into the dry ingredients and mix until there are no longer traces of flour. Gently fold in the strawberries, then pour into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then run a sharp knife around the bread and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RESULTS: So when I first looked at this recipe, I was contemplating its use of whole wheat flour, because my family doesn’t really eat whole wheat desserts and I didn’t want to make something they wouldn’t eat or like. However, I still wanted to try the whole wheat flour out because it is healthy! So I decided to do 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and 3/4 cup all purpose flour and see how it would turn out. In the finished product, you could not taste the whole wheat flour, which was good, because it was like tricking people who would never eat whole wheat! HAHA =D Evil?? I wouldn’t say so, cmon, I’m helping you have the best of both worlds! Something sweet and healthy at the same time! Plus, FIBRE is good for the HEART <3

Anyways, the strawberries bread were okay. I wouldn’t say it was amazing. But I felt it was missing something… maybe like some additional flavour? Like maybe some cinnamon would have made it better… And I cooked it for much longer because the middle wasn’t cooked after 40 minutes so it made the bread kind of dry. I am definitely sticking with my banana bread next time!

By the way, strawberries are a great snack food if not used in desserts. They are packed with Vitamin C, potassium, and antioxidants. GO BERRIES & their antioxidant powers!!! They fight off the bad free radicals in our body. Strawberries and berries may be small fruits, but they provide many nutrients and are powerful fighters! Sometimes, great things come in small packages. (Berries and ME … hahaha!!!)

Oh yeah, one very important thing, when baking anything in a pan, like this strawberry bread I made. When putting the mixture into the prepared pan, for the middle part of the mixture in the pan, use a rubber spatula and have less mix in the middle, so that the whole thing will cook evenly and you won’t have an uncooked middle later. I always found this helped me, but maybe that’s just me. I totally forgot to do it this time, thus having to cook the bread for much longer. If you didn’t get what I meant that, here’s a little diagram:

The dent/ movement of the mixture doesn’t have to be that big at all.. just a little bit. I’ll take a picture next time I do this, but hope that helps you out in your baking!

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

"Easy white chocolate, I wouldn't want you to melt" (White Chicks, 2004)

So I was watching Fresh with Anna Olson. I love Anna Olson (I met her twice so far… hehe). She actually inspired me to start baking again a few years ago when her show "Sugar" was on. So on her new show, FRESH with Anna Olson, was on at 3:30pm on my favourite channel... THE FOOD CHANNEL, and she made these Butterscotch White Chocolate Brownies and they looked so good! My brother wanted them too, so off I went off to the grocery stores to buy the ingredients- toffee bits and white chocolate!

... go on, read more ;)

{Butterscotch White Chocolate Brownie Bites}

Recipe adapted from Food Network

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 6 ounces white chocolate, chopped
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 1/2 cup light browned sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup Skor toffee bits

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-x-13-inch pan and line with parchment paper so that it hangs over the sides of the pan.
2. Over a pot of barely simmering water melt butter for 1 minute, then add chocolate and stir gently until melted. Remove chocolate from heat to cool for 5 minutes.
3. Whip eggs with sugars using electric beaters until thick and frothy. Add in vanilla and mix. By hand, stir in melted chocolate.
4. In a separate bowl, stir flour, baking powder and salt, then gently stir into chocolate mixture.
5. Stir in Skor bits and spoon batter into prepared pan.
6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a rich golden colour. Cool to room temperature before removing from pan.
7. For a fancier treat, melt white chocolate and dip each square halfway and chill to set.

RESULTS: The brownies were really sweet to me, so I decided not to dip the brownies into white chocolate. But they were chewy and I loved how the toffee bits were scattered around the brownie. Oh, I did use 1/6 cup of the white sugar and a little less than 1/2 cup of brown sugar and I still thought it was sweet. But that’s all due to the white chocolate and the toffee bits, so if you are going to make them, I suggest don’t put that much sugar. Overall, it was a good chewy brownie that I would make again :)

White chocolate was used in this recipe. What is white chocolate? Well white chocolate is not really REAL chocolate, because it is not made with cocoa. Rather white chocolate is made with cocoa butter, sugar and milk. It is sweeter than dark chocolate. Also, when baking, you have to be careful with heating the white chocolate, because it melts at a lower temperature.

Bon Appetit,

Jenny

An Apple A dAy keeps the doctor Away

Can you believe how many different types of apples there are out there in this world? At the grocery stores, you can find so many different ones… granny smith, macintosh, golden delicious, just to name a few. My favourite apple at the moment is organic ambrosia apples. These apples are crisp, sweet and smell good. They are also PRETTY- a multicolour apple, pink & a creamy colour! So I did some research on these ambrosia apples and found this great pdf all about it: (http://www.bctree.com/pressroom/downloads/AppleNewsletter-1.pdf). So if you want to know more, click the link. Oh, want to know something interesting? These apples are great for baking! Why?? Because they keep their shape when cooked so if you are making a pretty pie that would look awesome! Also, you can use them in salads like fennel and apple salad (omg it's soooo delicious), because they don’t brown fast. Cool right? Okay, maybe that's not cool to you, but I think it is really cool! haha

So I recently baked, Strudel topped Apple Muffins. I got the recipe from the book, Bite Me. (This book is awesome and so easy to follow- I totally recommend buying it, especially if you are a beginner to cooking/baking.)

RESULTS: these apple muffins were good! They were moist (well more moist the day after I put them in my cool cake stand container thingy haha). They had bits of apples throughout and had a little crunchy top because of the strudel topping. I would make them again!

So next time you want a snack, pick up an apple to keep the doctor away or just put them in some muffins :)

Apples provide great health benefits, such as fibre… and fibre helps you with cholesterol, cleaning out your blood vessels, like a broom. Apples also provide vitamin C which help with your overall immunity and antioxidants which help you your cells from damage from these nasty things called free radicals. And many more benefits. YAY APPLES!! =D

opening the oven

Hello fellow foodies!
So I finally decided to start blogging. After months of posting my baking/food pictures on facebook, I decided to start a blog to talk more about my baking & cooking adventures. It is not always a success story with food, but that's the fun of it- learning what to do and what NOT to do. And when it is successful... oh gosh, it is so good & satisfying like the last bite of that moist, piece of cake. What I know is... food is my savior. Whatever emotion or feeling I get, I can always trust food to lift my spirits. I know, you know, what I mean. We all had those days, where we just put on those sweatpants, go out to all you can eat sushi and stuff our faces until it hurts, haha. Okay, maybe that's just me being greedy and trying to be an all-star at all you can eat sushi and eating my money's worth. But we use food everyday whether it be for a special occasion or not- birthday cakes for birthday celebrations, drinks for those nights we want to let loose & go a little crazy, going out to dinner to hang out with a friend, etc. etc., but you know what I'm talking about! Food brings people together, food makes people happy. So I want to share with you my relationship with food. As a nutrition student, I have become more conscious of what I eat. Nonetheless, it does not mean I don't indulge sometimes... it's all about moderation people! Food is your friend. Embrace it, love it & share it.
So this is me, opening up my oven to you & letting you get a sniff and taste of what I create and eat.

bon appetit,
Jenny