Broccoli Parmesan Fritters

Got the recipe from Smitten Kitchen website. I'll copy paste it for you :)

You need:

8 ounces (1 small-to-medium bundle, 225 grams) fresh broccoli (3 cups chopped)

1 large egg

1/2 cup (65 grams) all-purpose flour

1/3 cup (30 grams) finely grated parmesan cheese (or to taste)

1 small clove garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, plus more to taste (or to taste)

A pinch of red pepper flakes or several grinds of black pepper

Olive or vegetable oil for frying

How to make:

- Prepare your broccoli: Separate the florets from the biggest stem(s). Cut the florets into 1-inch chunks. To prepare the stems, then slice them into 1/2-inch lengths. You should have about 3 cups of chopped broccoli total.

- Steam your broccoli until tender but not mushy. Drain the broccoli, then set it aside to cool slightly.

- In the bottom of a large bowl, lightly beat your egg. Add the flour, cheese, garlic, salt and pepper. Then, add the somewhat cooled broccoli and, using a potato masher, mash the broccoli just a bit, 1/4- to 1/2-inch chunks that you can press a mound of the batter into a fritter in the pan. Once mashed a bit, stir or fold the ingredients together the rest of the way with a spoon. Adjust seasonings to taste.

- Heat a large, heavy skillet over moderate heat. Once hot, add a good slick of oil (I usually use a mix of olive and vegetable oil), about 2 to 3 tablespoons. Once the oil is hot (you can test it by flicking a droplet of water into it; it should hiss and sputter), scoop a two tablespoon-size mound of the batter and drop it into the pan, then flatten it slightly with your spoon or spatula. Repeat with additional batter, leaving a couple inches between each. Once brown underneath, about 2 to 3 minutes, flip each fritter and cook on the other side until equally golden, about another 1 to 2 minutes.

- Transfer briefly to paper towels to drain, then to a serving plate if you’ll be eating them shortly or a baking sheet in a 200 degree oven if you’d like to keep them warm for a while until needed. Repeat with remaining batter, adding more oil as needed. Serve with some of the suggestions listed in the head notes, above.

To serve:

With 1 cup plain yogurt, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tiny minced clove of garlic, a bit of zest and salt. It would also be good with this homemade ricotta, with or without additional lemon juice. They’re also good simply, with just a squeeze of lemon juice. I think I’d also enjoy them with a little crumbled feta on top. Oh, and of course, you can put a runny fried egg on top of it 

Nutella fudge brownies

I found this recipe from some newspaper, I forgot. It's super easy and it's with Nutella :D And you can make it with your kids too. All you need....

1/2 cups of Nutella

1 egg

5 tbsp of flour

All you have to do....put your oven to 180-200C....and then blend the nutella and egg in a bowl, mix it well. Then put flour, whisk it. After that, I put them into a small mini cupcake pan. Put it into the oven, wait for 12 - 15 minutes. 

 And it's done!....I got 12 minis nutellat fudge cupcake. Eat it while it's still warm, you can eat it with Nutella spread on top or with vanilla ice cream....or just plain. Easy peasy right? enjoy :)

Roast Veggies

Got this one from Jamie Oliver's web. I'll copy paste it for you with a bit of changes :)

Ingredients:

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• zucchini, peeled
• paprika
• carrots, peeled
• beets, scrubbed
• ½ a bunch of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
• ½ bulb of garlic, broken into cloves, unpeeled
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon runny honey
• good-quality balsamic vinegarz 
• eggs
• herbs

How to make: 

Heat the oven 180-200C. Bring three pans of salted water to the boil. Cut all the veggies. Place them in one of the pans and parboil for 5 to 10 minutes, or until half cooked. Drain them, then leave them to steam dry. Return the potatoes to the hot pan and shake it around to chuff up the edges, do not shake them around after leaving them to steam dry.

Scatter them with the rosemary, half the garlic cloves, a drizzle of oil, and season with salt and pepper, then spread them out evenly in a roasting tray. Toss the zucchini, carrots with the honey, a lug of oil and season well with salt and pepper, then add them to the tray, spooning over any remaining juices. Toss the beetroot with a lug of balsamic and oil, and season well with salt and pepper, then add them to the tray too. Scatter over the remaining garlic cloves and roast all the veg in the hot oven for about 20 to 30 minutes, giving them a jiggle every so often, or until everything is crispy, golden and delicious. Keep and eye on them and rotate the tray for even cooking.

Then I eat with brown rice and srambled some egg with herbs.....nyummm! :) 

Light fluffy low fat Chocolate Cake

Got this recipe from my friend Echa :) It only took 15 minutes to make and 10 minutes to bake!

The ingredients are: 

100g milk chocolate (Colatta)

4 tbsp flour

4 egg whites

How to make:

Preheat the oven to 200-220 degrees celcius. Put your chocolate in a bowl then put the bowl in a pan with boiling water. Heat the chocolate until it's melted. Mix the flour spoon by spoon and don't forget to sift your flour so you don't have lumps. You will have a thick chocolate dough

Put the egg whites with a pinch of salt, in the mixer and mix until hard.

Slowly incorporate the egg whites into the chocolate dough. Slowly...you want the mixture to be fluffy. Put your mixture in a pie plate, about 15 cm in diameter (smaller than the usual pie plate)

Bake for about 8 to 12 minutes. Check with a toothpick, when it comes clean, your cake is ready :) 

It's nyummy and light, the kids would love it too :)

Homemade Cereal Bars

Got this recipe from my good friend Puan. It's easy and healthy. Even for your kids' snack too. I changed it a bit.

All you need:

85 gr butter

85 gr brown sugar

3 tbs honey

1/2 tsp salt

110 gr oats

30 gr cereal Rice Krispies

50 gr sultanas (or to taste)

50 gr dried peaches (or to taste)
(You can put chocolate chips too if  you want to)

A sprinkle of cinnamons never fails me for the last touch :)

How to make:

- Prepare the oven 180 C.

 - Prepare a baking container, layered with baking paper.

 - Put the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, and salt in a saucepan. Heat and stir occasionally until all melted. Then cool it down a bit.

- Combine oats, cereal, shredded coconut, and raisins in large bowl. Pour butter mixture into it. Stir well.

- Put the mixture into a container and squeezes until solid. Bake until it's golden/brownish.

Sprinkle some cinnamons on top ( i just loveee cinnamons hehe).

Of course you can eat it with vanilla ice cream for desssert or plain yoghurt for breakfast. Or just make snack bars :)

Enjoy :) 

Carrot puree with boiled spinach and roasted chicken

Hello sunny sunday! Makes me want to make some colorfull food, of course with their natural colors :)
So we did....with spinach & carrot...and chicken too! Got the recipe for mashed carrots from this site  (we usually call it puree in the family). So here it is...

Don't you just love the color...it's healthy , light and good for kids too!

All you need:

6-8 medium-size hot boiled carrots

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened to room temperature

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Pinch nutmeg or mace (optional)

1. Place warm boiled carrots in a bowl and use a potato masher to puree the carrots by mashing them into a smooth paste. Add salt, butter, heavy cream and nutmeg to the mashed carrots and blend in using a wooden spoon or fork. You can also place the boiled carrots in a blender or use an electric hand beater to puree them at a high speed.
2. As for the chicken, just roast it in the oven. Before that, put a bit of butter and thyme inside the skin. Just leave it for a while.
3. And for the spinach, you just boil it.

Put the carrot puree, boiled spinach and roasted chicken on a plate, and sprinkle some parmesan, rosemary, oregano on top. Easy right? :)

Homemade Chicken Milanese w/ slow roasted cherry tomatoes, arugula & pasta

Weekend is here and it's raining. We're thinking to eat some easy comfort food and it suits the kiddos too. We got the recipe from Gwyneth Paltrow's cookbook.

All you need:

- 4 Boneless chicken breast

- 1 cup milk

- 2 cups plain bread crumbs with pepper and salt

- 1/2 cup olive oil

- some herbs too maybe, oregano

Place the chicken breasts between two pieces of baking paper. Pound the chicken breast until they're thin. Put the milk in a shallow bowl and the bread crumbs on a large plate. Dip each of chicken into the milk and then dredge it in the bread crumbs mixture (salt, pepper, oregano), tapping off the excess. You should have a thin, even coating.

Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet big enough to hold 2 pieces of the chicken in a single layer. Cook for about 4 minutes on the first side or until evenly browned and crisp. Flip and cook for and addition 2 or 3 minutes or until the other side browned and crisp and the chicken is firm to touch.

Wipe out the skillet and repeat with the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil and the remaining 2 pieces of chicken.

And for the slow roasted cherry tomatoes & arugula:

- 2 cups of cherry tomatoes

- 2tbsp extra virgin oil

- 2 cups arugula

- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the tomatoes in a small baking pan and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally until they're split and blistered and super sweet.

While the chicken is cooking, toss the arugula with the remaining tablespoon of oil, the vinegar and a pinch of salt. Fold the tomatoes into the arugula.

For the pasta, just boiled it with a pinch of salt.

There you go! Try it, it's light and easy. And you can eat the chicken milanese with baked potato or mashed potato too for sure :)

Simple Tomato sauce recipe (without beef/meat)

Wanna try this simple recipe? It's light because we don't use beef or meat. It's kinda nice if you serve it warm. With this rainy season, you need some comfort food for you and your kids hahaha...and it's healthy too :)

All you need:

Cloves garlic (or according to taste)

1 can tomato paste (for the color)

6 chopped tomatoes 

...and another 6 tomatoes you blend it until it is smooth...
(basicly how many tomatoes...it's up to you to taste)

Salt, pepper, sugar ( or according to taste)

 thymes

oregano leaves

Salads

Olive oil & balsamic oil

Spaghetti

Parmesan (to taste)

How to make:

Boiled the spaghetti first, with water and a bit of salt. Then while we're waiting for that, we can make the sauce. Sautee the garlic with olive oil, and then toss all the tomatoes and tomato paste. Then put salt, pepper, sugar, thymes, and oregano leaves. How many? it's up to you to taste. I like the smell and taste of herbs, so we put more of that :)

Everything is ready? here it is....

Serve it warm, with salad, balsamic and olive oil as the dressing...and top with parmesan :)

December Cookies :)

December is here...welcoming christmas (and my birthday :p)...makes me want to bake cakes and make cookies. I just love to make random cakes or cookies and give it to my family and friends...it feels nice :)

Got this cookies recipe from Real Simple's website and the icing from allrecipes' website...but we changed it a bit....all you need...

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

 

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and granulated sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, then the vanilla and salt. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined (do not overmix). Shape into a 1-inch-thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hours and up to 2 days. Heat oven to 200° C. On a floured surface, roll the dough ¼ inch thick. Using lightly floured 2- to 3-inch cookie cutters, cut the dough into shapes, flouring the cutters and rerolling the scraps as necessary. Place 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with decorating sugar, if using. Bake, rotating the baking sheets halfway through, until the edges just begin to brown, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool slightly on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

For the icing: 

2/3 - 1 cup confectioners' sugar (it's up to you...as for me, I don't like cookies that's too sweet)
8 teaspoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup (we changed it with honey, check the substitute sites for cooking).
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
assorted food coloring

In a small bowl, stir together confectioners' sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in honey and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. If icing is too thick, add more milk. 

Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity, be carefull with the coloring, 1 tiny drop is enough. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush. 

The fun thing about making cookies...you can decorate it whatever you want to. Mine was not as pretty as the cookies in the shops/bakery as you can see :p But it's fun, easy and you can do it with kids too. I'm so gonna make this with my students :) Go have a try and...Happy December!

Seasons: A Meditation on Change by French Illustrator Blexbolex

Seasons: A Meditation on Change by French Illustrator Blexbolex
 by Maria Popova

French artist Blexbolex has charmed the world with his playful cartoons and illustrations, to which he brings his wonderfully eclectic creative background — classically trained as a screen-printer in 1980s France, inspired by the whodunits of the 1950s and 60s, and having directed a German art studio in the 1990s, he blends elements of cartoons, graphic novels and soft watercolor painting into simple yet endlessly whimsical artwork.

In Seasons, he contemplates the fluctuations of seasonality with his signature retro-inspired minimalism. Four spreads depict the same landscape during each season, with a single word or phrase in bold block-letters on each page. But don’t breeze by the seeming simplicity of the concept — many of the thoughtful pairings on the beautiful double-page spreads give you pause and make you wonder why and how the two words go together, gently nudging you towards a philosophical meditation on the seasons, change and impermanence.

Seasons comes from Enchanted Lion Press — an utterly charming, as-indie-as-they-come, family-owned independent publisher of (mostly) children’s books, located right up the street from my studio in Brooklyn. It’s such heart-warming joy to see good people doing wonderful work, driven by nothing more than genuine passion for what they do — if every neighborhood could have more of that, the world would be a better place.

via brain pickings

Nutella Peanut Butter Cookies with or without Cornflakes

Wanna have some nutella peanut butter cookies? with or without cornflakes? :p

Got the recipe from this blog. I made a view changes from the original recipe...

All you need:

1/2 cup butter flavored shortening (I changed the shortening to 1/4 cup butter)

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup Nutella

1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp vanilla

1 egg

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

3/4 tsp baking soda

A cup of cornflakes

How to make:

-Preheat oven to 180-200C.

-Combine butter, Nutella, peanut butter, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat with electric mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended.

-Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended. If you want to use cornflakes, just mix it with spatula.

-Prepare some baking sheet. You can make balls or you can press down firmly with the bottom of a glass.

-Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until set and just beginning to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove cookies to cooling racks to cool completely.

I like the one with cornflakes better :)

Go have a try!

Nutella Cookies

 I love nutella, and i love cookies that's a bit chewy...need to say more? :p

All you need:

1 cup Nutella
1/2 cups sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 whole egg

How to make:

Preheat oven to 180-200 C. Blend all ingedients together well. 

Form into balls. Place on a cookie sheet.

Press down firmly with the bottom of a glass. 

 Bake 7-8 minutes or until set.

 Let it cool.

 It's easy right? Try it :)

Stir-fried Pakcoy with Tofu and Soba noodle

It's my 2 weeks off from my Kutakatik Art&Craft class, we're going to start again this early August. So now for my 2 weeks off, I feel like trying out more recipes at home...and i'm planning, hopefully to have a little getaway too hehe.

Anyway, back to this recipe...with my favorites ingredients, soba noodle, tofu, pakcoy and ginger :)

 All you need:

Soba noodle, pakcoy, tofu, ginger, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, salt and pepper.

(The amount is up to you, I think you just have to taste it...)

What to do:

1. Cook soba noodles following packet directions, drain and rinse under cold water until cold. Place into a bowl, add ginger, soy and sesame oil and toss well

2. Cook the Pakcoy with sesame oil, garlic and ginger.  

 3. Cook the tofu with olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper.

Arrange soba noodles, pakcoy and tofu in dishes and serve with the prepared sauce (soy sauce, sesame oil and ginger). As for me, I love ginger, so usually I put more hehehe :)

Easy peasy right? and it's healthy too :)

 Anyway, got the pakcoy from YUM's organic farm. Like I've said before, got lots of veggies only for Rp.55.000,- from them...nice right? Check the pics here (scroll to the bottom) if you want to see the package, it's nice.