A Glimpse of Things to Come

I've been a little busy with the day job lately but I have a heap of recipes and food-related stuff that I intend to post here as soon as the job-related TTDs (things-to-do) are done.

I have always felt that, like baking and cooking, writing about baking and cooking is a happy vacation from what I really do for a living. So keeping this blog is like me taking brief mini-vacations every now and then.

So here's a glimpse of the "vacations" I have planned very soon:

Recipe for the most recent birthday cake I baked

This unusual cupcake recipe which I got from the back of a food package

Recipe for this addictive treat which I've had in my "cookbook" for ages!

This popular fudgy kid-pleaser

Looks like I'm going to go on many "mini-vacations" very soon. All the greater motivation to get the things-to-do done.  Keep posted to see recipes for these yummy creations!

Juicing, Anyone? (Consuming your Fruits and Veggies the Liquid Way -- and Enjoying Them, Too)

Let’s admit it– in this day and age, living in this toxic world can be hazardous to your health. 
Chemicals are everywhere, from the food we eat (love instant noodles? processed meat? corned beef in lead-laden cans?) to the very air we breathe (surveys reveal that people who live in the city are more at risk of getting cancer and other diseases compared to people living in less “developed” areas). these days, even if one doesn’t smoke or drink or abuse drugs, doesn’t mean s/he is spared from the risk of getting gravely sick.

So how do we protect ourselves? In my case, as a 34-year-old working wife and mother, with a 3-year-old daughter and parents who need me as breadwinner, it’s imperative that I live long and stay healthy. Vitamin supplements are cool but they’re still synthetic. Veggies and fruits are our best bet, but i’m not a fan of those. And then i discovered the smart art of juicing.

Juicing, quite simply, is turning solid fruits and vegetables into liquid juice with the help of an electric juicer/ juice extractor.

To be honest, i first got into it because i had wanted to lose weight, but along the way i realized that beyond those 3-day juice-only crash diet programs, juicing can actually become my lifelong healthy habit. it’s the perfect way to protect myself and my loved ones from this toxic, carcinogenic world. and the best thing about it is that, when turned into a juice mixture, fruits and vegetables ACTUALLY TASTE GOOD, even if you’re not a fruits-and-veggies lover.

And just to convince you a bit more, here are the BENEFITS OF JUICING, according to one juicing website i’m following:

• improves metabolism
• reduces hunger pangs
• reduces body fat
• with faster metabolism, less hunger pangs, and more burned body fat, HELPS YOU LOSE WEIGHT (yipee!)
• detoxifies your system
• balances hormones
• controls blood sugar
• reduces inflammation

 Juicing has been kind of a fad these days, with celebrities turning on their juicers and going organic. Personally, I’m glad that I have influenced my husband and mother-in-law to get into juicing. Now I make juices not only for me, but for members of my family, too. (And I plan to buy my parents their own juicer soon so that they, too, can enjoy natural juices at home).

DETOX WITH LEMON!

I include LEMON in all of my juices– the pectin fiber in lemon reduces hunger, as well as detoxes the colon. Buildup of wastes in the colon can contribute to the risk of colon cancer. Lemon helps do “house-cleaning” by helping flush out the waste out of your bowels with greater frequency. I found that adding lemon to any recipe doesn’t affect the overall taste (it even enhances it!).

Many like their juices “pure” and concentrated, but I add water to mine. For economic purposes, yes (there’s three of us drinking and only so much juice! water becomes an “extender”. haha), and also because water combined with lemon helps do the colon-cleansing action better.

i’m sharing a few recipes i have grabbed from my favorite juicing websites, one of which is THIS, with a few tweaks and personalized additions. I have taken up a 30-day challenge to drink at least a glass of natural juice every single day for the next 30 days. i actually plan to go beyond 30 days. i want to drink juice every single day for the rest of my life. and i really hope more people will, too.

So here are four of my favorite beginner juicing recipes. Happy juicing!

APPLE CRISP

Ingredients

• Apples – 5 medium (3″ dia) 
• Celery – 2 stalks, large (11″-12″ long) 
• Oranges (peeled) – 2 fruits (2-5/8″ dia)  
• Lemon (peeled) – 1 fruit medium

Directions

• Process all ingredients in a juicer, one ingredient at a time.
• You may add a 1/2 to 1 cup water to the mixture. If you want it concentrated, omit the water.
• Stir very well or shake. Put in the chiller or add ice cubes.

My notes

• At first I had thought adding celery to fruit juice would taste horrible. But I was wrong! This is actually a yummy basic recipe, with the the apples and oranges giving it a prevailing sweet taste, and the celery giving just a little bit of a tangy taste to it.  1 glass won’t be enough!
• Aside from lemon, you can also add ginger for a stronger punch (if you like ginger). I almost always add ginger to juices because of its antioxidant benefits.

BEGINNER GREEN

Ingredients

• Apples – 3 medium (3″ dia) 
• Celery – 4 stalk, large (11″-12″ long) 256
• Ginger Root – 1/4 thumb (1″ dia) 6
• Lemon (with rind) – 1/2 fruit (2-1/8″ dia) 29
• Orange (peeled) – 1 large (3-1/16″ dia) 184
• Spinach – 5 handful 5g

Directions

• Peel everything except the apples and lemon.
• Slice up the ingredients and put in the juicer.
• Stir or shake well. Add ice cubes or put in the chiller
• You don’t have to peel the lemon, but make sure you peel the orange. The orange’s skin is very bitter and can ruin the flavor.

My notes

This is one of my favorite green recipes. You can add malunggay (moringa) and/or parsley to the gang for an extra dose of supernutrients (the more antioxidants, the better for me). Don’t worry, the added green taste will be offset by the sweetness of the apples.

TOXIN KILLER

Ingredients

• 3 apples
• 1 stick of celery
• Half a cucumber
• 1 handful of spinach
• 1 handful of lettuce

Directions

• Peel the cucumber. Keep the apple unpeeled (there’s a load of nutritious stuff in them!).
• Slice up all the ingredients. Put in the juicer one at a time.
• Stir well or shake. Put ice or put in the chiller.

My Notes

• You will notice that the ingredients are almost exclusively veggies except for the apples. The apples will provide the “yummy” factor; the veggies (especially the leafy greens!) will give you the nutrients that you need.  Try adding ginger to it– it gives an extra tangy taste, which I personally love.
• This recipe is best for those who are looking to detox. Add 2 whole lemons for more detox action — lemon helps cleanse the colon.

RAINBOW BRITE

Ingredients

• Apple – 1 medium (3″ dia) 182g
• Carrots – 5 medium 305g
• Cucumber – 1 cucumber (8-1/4″) 301g
• Ginger Root – 1 thumb (1″ dia) 24g
• Lemon – 1 fruit (2-1/8″ dia) 58g
• Pear – 1 medium 178g
• Spinach – 2 handful 50g

Directions

Process all ingredients in a juicer, shake or stir and serve.

My Notes

I added parsley to the artillery. It gave the drink more green punch (which gave me the feeling of being full) plus the extra benefits of having more greens. Also experimented with malunggay on this. Not so bad! You ought to try it!

 More recipes to come as I continue my 30-day juicing journey!

Chewy Chocolate Chip Macadamia Cookies Recipe

Nothing like homemade! The first time I tried this recipe which I got from Sally, 
I was instantly in love.  Soft, chewy, thick, and rich in chocolate chips, 
it’s every cookie lover’s dream.

Made an addition of macadamia nuts to add to the chewy choco chip cookie experience (if you don’t like nuts, you can simply exclude them from your recipe), and instead of chocolate chunks I used mini chocolate chips (you can use either or BOTH, for extra yumyum points!).

Using REAL butter is a MUST for best results (when you’re buying, read labels carefully–  skip the butter compounds or worse, the margarine. But if you absolutely have no choice, use them. But this recipe works best with real butter). And the proportions of the ingredient must be accurate (less butter / less vanilla extract will result in harder, drier, less chewy cookies).

I’ve passed this around friends and co-workers– it’s a crowd favorite. I kept getting requests to bake these again, and at least one or two have volunteered to pay for them! Ain’t that cool? :-)
So without further blah-blah, here’s the recipe! Enjoy, fellow bakers!

CHEWY CHOCOLATE CHIP AND MACADAMIA COOKIES

Ingredients:

• 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch (this adds chewiness to the cookie!)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar, loosely packed (dark brown sugar will also do)
• 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk (the extra yolk add to the thickness)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup (180 grams) chocolate chips or chocolate chunks
• 1/2 cup macadamia nuts, chopped

Directions:

Toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a medium size bowl, whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together until no brown sugar lumps remain.

Whisk in the egg, then the egg yolk. Finally, whisk in the vanilla.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft, yet thick.

Fold in the chocolate chips and the macadamia nuts. They may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to have them evenly dispersed among the dough.

Cover the dough and chill for 2 hours, or up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory – it makes the dough extra thick.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and allow to slightly soften at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 325F degrees (150 deg C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper/wax paper/glassine/silicone baking mats. Set aside.

Roll the dough into balls, about 1-2 Tablespoons of dough each. The dough will be crumbly, but the warmth of your hands will allow the balls to stay intact.

Roll the cookie dough balls to be taller rather than wide, to ensure the cookies will bake up to be thick. But balls of cookie dough can also work, depending on the texture of your cookie dough

(Sometimes, with less butter than what is required in the recipe, the dough will come out a bit harder and crumblier than desired– by rolling them tall, you might end up with literally tall, cylindrical cookies. To flatten, simply roll the dough into balls so that when they bake they will come out flat)

Put 8 balls of dough onto each cookie sheet. Press a few more chocolate chips/chunks on top of the dough balls for looks, if desired.

Bake the cookies for 7-9 minutes. The cookies will look very soft and underbaked. They will continue to bake on the cookie sheet. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cookies stay soft and fresh for 7 whole days at room temperature. Cookies may be frozen up to 3 months. Rolled cookie dough may be frozen up to three months and baked in their frozen state for 12 minutes.

*Room temperature egg + egg yolk are preferred for even disbursement.  Typically, if a recipe calls for room temperature or melted butter, it’s a good idea to use room temperature eggs as well.  To bring eggs to room temperature quickly, simply place the whole eggs into a glass of warm water for 5 minutes.