Homemade Chai Tea (Latte)

Homemade Chai Tea (Latte)

Ingredients
3 cups water
1 stick of cinnamon
20 cardamom pods
20 whole cloves
2 Darjeeling tea bags
1-2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/3 cup soy milk

Directions
Bring to boil water, cinnamon, cardamom pods, and whole cloves. 
Cover & simmer in low heat for 10 min.
 Turn off heat and add the tea bags, brew for 2 minutes.
 Remove the tea bags and mix in the sugar. 
If you're ready to serve, add soy milk and serve immediately. Otherwise, refrigerate the tea.

Chicken Stock / Chicken Noodle Soup

Simple Crock pot Chicken Stock / Chicken Noodle Soup Recipe

Ingredients
1 pack chicken breast (2 breasts)
3 Cups water
2 carrots, sliced
2 celery stalk, sliced
Dried herbs (oregano, parsley, basil, etc)
Salt & pepper to taste
Egg noodles (optional)

Directions
Place chicken breast, water, carrots, celery, and herbs in a crock pot.
Set crock pot at high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.
(To make chicken noodle soup:  Add egg noodles at the end for about 10 minutes.)
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Baked Onion Rings

one of my vice is onion rings.  when i'm eating out, and there is an option of ordering onion rings as a side, i don't even consider looking at other side choices.  if i didn't mind the "fried" smell that you get when you fry something at home, and if it wasn't so bad for you, i would eat it every day.

but alas, it's not so good for you, is it?

yes it is!  yes it is!!  or at least, there is a healthier alternative. 

Baked Onion Rings

Recipe adapted from Food Doodles

1 medium sweet onion

1/4 Cup flour

1/4 Cup Italian Seasoning Bread Crumbs

1/2 TBS finely chopped Rosemary

1 egg, beaten

1 Cup Panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Slice the onions about 1/2 inch thick.  In a large ziploc bag, add flour and Italian Seasoning Bread Crumbs and mix.  Add onion and shake well to coat.  

Put Panko bread crumbs into a large plate or bowl and set aside.  In a small bowl, beat egg and mix in some of the chopped rosemary.  Coat onion ring in egg mixture and then coat in panko crumbs.  Place the onion ring in a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until bottom edge turns golden, then flip the rings over and bake for 10 more minutes or until the rings are nice and golden.  

now, mind you, my pictures don't do justice, but if you go to Food Doodles link above, you will see BEAUTIFUL pictures of the onion rings.  and i mean, b-e-a-utiful.  

after i took the picture above, it took me about 10 minutes to chow down all the rings.  i cleaned up afterwards so my husband won't know that they even existed... hehe.  

Homemade Maple Almond Butter

one day, i had this wild idea of making my own peanut butter.  since we are in love with our Ninja Kitchen System, i figured i would give it a try.  needless to say, my peanut butter (honey peanut butter) was delicious.

so naturally (har har), i figured i would take the next big step and try to make the (*gasp*) almond butter.  i got the idea from Justin's Maple Almond Butter, which is sold in regular grocery stores.  Their almond butters have very basic ingredients, which is exactly what i prefer in any of my food.  so if you don't want to make your own almond butter, Justin's is definitely a great alternative.

aaaaaaaanyway, my first few batches were not so pretty.  they were yummy, of course, but it was very tough to spread.  to describe the end result, they were like... silly putty except they were thicker and tougher to spread out.  i didn't know what it could be until i read the ingredients on Justin's bottle again - they added Palm Oil!

of course!

Almond butter on its own has enough oil to keep it smooth; however, once you add salt and maple syrup, the butter "seizes up" and becomes putty.  but no worries, a little bit(?) of oil will help relax the butter and make it smoother, once again.  for this recipe, i used 2:1 ratio for oil to maple syrup.  i tried 1:1 but that failed... miserably. 1.5:1 may work if you want to use less oil.

below is the recipe that i used for my latest batch.  i may have to edit it a bit later, but for now, i think it works. and just as an FYI, we like our almond butter a bit on the salty & sweet side.  So if you prefer a regular almond butter, then you won't even need to add any of the other ingredients.  if you prefer less salty & less sweet, just cut the maple syrup & salt by 1 TSP and 1 TBS, respectively.  and if you cut down the syrup by 1 TBS, you can probably cut down the oil by 1 TBS as well.

Recipe for Maple Almond Butter



3 Cups Almond, toasted
4 TBS Oil  (i used Grape Seed Oil because i didn't like the Olive Oil scent in my Almond Butter)
2 TSP Kosher Salt (less if you don't want it too salty)
2 TBS Maple Syrup

Toasting the almond
Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spread the almonds in a large cookie sheet and bake for 10-15 min.  Remove the sheet and cool on a cooling rack to room temperature.

Making the almond butter
In your food processor (i used Ninja Food Processor), place toasted almonds and run on high (Ninja setting   3, "Crush") for 5-10 minutes, depending on the processor power, until the almonds have been turned into a paste.  Run the processor for few more minutes until the oils have been released.  (You will be able to see the gloss on the paste.)  Once the paste seems smoother & glossier (and turns into a "butter"), add the oil and blend until the oil is mixed in.  At this point, the butter should be nice and smooth.  Add the salt and blend until it is mixed in.  Lastly, add the syrup in low power. As soon as you add the maple syrup, you will probably notice that the butter texture stiffens ("seizes up").  Make sure the syrup is mixed in well.


my Ninja does all the work for me, and all i need to do is to watch the processor for about 10 minutes & add the ingredients towards the end.  it's one of the easiest things to make, but i just couldn't find a recipe for it anywhere other than a basic almond butter...  so i hope this recipe comes handy to whoever comes across my blog.  :)

Non-Dairy Veggie Quiche Cups

i realized that i am extremely grateful that my son, J, is not (highly) allergic to caseine (one of two milk proteins that causes dairy allergy).  It is very fortunate indeed, as so MANY good looking recipes involve... you guessed it... cheese.  And if you look closely at the ingredient list for any of the cheese substitutes (ie. soy cheese or rice cheese), they all contain caseine.  Oh so sneaky, aren't they?

Any local grocery stores sell at least one type of soy cheese, if not more.  If you have Whole Foods near you, they carry a lot more variety, which helps with cooking different recipes.  So i purchased a block of soy cheddar cheese to make some mac & cheese for my son.  Unfortunately, he wasn't too excited about it so i ended up eating them (it was actually quite good!).  But i digress.

Great thing about this quiche cup recipe is that i can make a batch of them and freeze them for a later use.  i really hope my little boy will like these, because i don't want to end up eating 12 quiche cups with soy cheese... i prefer the real deal.  heehee.

Quiche Cups with Egg, Onion, Roasted Bell Peppers, broccoli , and soy cheese

(Recipe modified from "Recipes under 400")

5 eggs, beaten

1 Cup broccoli, boiled and blanched

1/4 Cup roasted bell peppers, chopped

1/4 Cup onion, finely chopped

3/4 Cup shredded or chopped soy cheese

Spray a 12-muffin tray with cooking spray.  (i used silicone muffin cups and sprayed with my Misto spray.)  

Combine the veggies & cheese together in a large bowl.  

Add the eggs into the veggie & cheese mix and spoon them into the muffin cups.

Bake at 350 F for 20 minutes "or if it passes the "toothpick" test by inserting a clean toothpick into a quiche and it comes out clean.  Mine had to be baked for 30+ minutes.

it surely was yummy, so i hope J likes them as much as i do.

Crock Pot Chicken Stock and Quick Chicken Pot Pie from chicken stock leftovers

Chicken Stock 

[Modified from Ina Garten's Chicken Stock recipe on foodnetwork.com]

Ingredients
1 pack chicken breast (2 breasts)
1 large yellow onion, quartered
2 carrots, halved
2 stalks celery, cut into thirds
1 TBS dried parsley
1 TBS dried dill
1/2 TBS dried thyme
handful of garlic, peeled
2/3 TBS kosher salt
2/3 TSP pepper
5 Cups Water

Directions
Place everything in a large crockpot and set to HIGH for 4 hours (5 hours if using frozen chicken).
Strain or ladle the broth into a container and store in the refrigerator for a week or freeze for up to 3 months.
Yields approximately 32 oz (larger size container from below image found on google.com):





Now, Ina Garten's recipe says to discard all the contents.  Me, on the other hand, like to use up the stuff when i can.  So instead, i made chicken pot pie with the chicken stock leftovers.

Chicken Pot Pie 

[From leftover contents of chicken stock - Modified from Ina Garten's Chicken Pot Pie recipe from foodnetwork.com]

Ingredients
chicken breasts from chicken stock
32 oz chicken stock
2 chicken bouillon cubes (optional)
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup (raw) onion, chopped
1/4 cup flour
dash(?) of Soy Milk (or heavy cream if you can take dairy)
2/3 cup diced carrots from chicken stock
2/3 cup diced onion from chicken stock
1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed for 45 min or toasted slice of bread
egg wash

Directions
Chop chicken breast (from chicken stock) into large cubes.  Melt the butter in a large pot (Dutch oven) and saute onions until translucent, about 5-10 minutes.  Add the flour in low heat and stir constantly for 2 minutes. Add chicken stock and continue to stir for a few more minutes until sauce thickens a little more.  Add 1 TSP salt, 1/4 TSP pepper, and soy milk (or heavy cream).  Add chicken, carrots, peas, and onions and mix well.

Preheat the oven at 375.
For the pastry portion, i used a thawed frozen puff pastry, which is much easier than making my own. Once thawed, roll the pastry out so that it is big enough to cover your oven-proof bowls.  Or in my case, oven-proof Corelle mugs and bowls.  Brush the bowl sides with egg wash, then place the dough over each bowl and trim it to cover 1/2 over the bowls on each side.  Fold over the sides and brush the dough with egg wash and make 3 slits in the top.  Sprinkle with sea salt and cracked pepper.  Bake for 1 hour or until the top is golden brown and the filling is bubbly hot.


Unfortunately, i'm too lazy to thaw the frozen pastry sheet just to make it for lunch, so i topped the chicken pot pie with a toasted bread.  yum...!

Turkey Bolognaise (Crock Pot)

1/2 lb ground turkey
1/2 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
1 small can tomato paste
2 TBS olive oil
1/4 cup red wine
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup water (optional)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Directions
Heat a large pan with olive oil.
Cook carrots, celery, and onion until translucent, 3-4 minutes.
Add ground turkey and cook until brown, 4-5 minutes, and make sure to break up the meat as much as possible. Add red wine and cook for additional minute.

In a small crock pot, add tomatoes. Once the veggies & turkey is cooked, add to the pot.
Add tomato paste and rest of the ingredient. (add water)
Set crock pot to low and cook for 4-6 hours.