Easy Fruit Salad 夏日雜果沙律

INGREDIENTS:

2 Mexican Mangoes, unripe

2 Kiwis, unripe

2 Bananas

1 big handful of Brazilian Nuts

1 tablespoon Chia Seeds

3 tablespoons Agava Syrup

DIRECTION:

1. Peel the mango; cut it into sticks.

2. Peel the kiwis; cut them into small pieces.

3. Peel the bananas; cut them into thick slices.

4. Roast the Brazilian nuts.

5. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients. Gently mix them together. Serve immediately.

Strawberry Banana Almond Milkshake

My son often mentions he wants to cook with me, and he said he is ready for more challenging work other than just spooning and mixing.  So last week, I bought a dog knife for him so that he can start to cut fruits and vegetables.

The Dog Knife literally took its name from its look. The blade is designed for young children so it's sharp enough to cut vegetables and fruits but not sharp enough to cut their fingers easily.  It still needs full supervision to be used.

My son was so excited to be able to have his own knife.  After learning how to handle a knife, he decided to make a milkshake with the fresh fruits we have.  He was so excited that he made this milkshake two days in a row.  His proud smile says everything.

INGREDIEMTS: (3 servings)

2 Bananas, peeled

8 Strawberries, hulled

2.5 cups Almond Milk, unsweetened

2 teaspoons Sugar (optional)

DIRECTION:

1. Cut the strawberries in half.

2. Cut the bananas into chunks.

3. Add sugar if desired.

4. Pour in almond milk.

5. With a wand blender, process until the mixture is smooth.

Yogurt Banana Muffins | 乳酪香蕉杯子蛋糕

Yogurt Banana Muffins | 乳酪香蕉杯子蛋糕

Ingredients:

Dry Ingredients:

2 cup All Purpose Flour/ Plain Flour

3/4 cup Brown Sugar

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Sea Salt

Wet Ingredients:

2 Ripe Bananas

1 cup Plain Greek Yogurt

2 Eggs

1/3 cup Coconut Oil

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

DIRECTION:

Baked Chocolate Banana | 香焗朱古力香蕉

Chocolate, banana, and butter, can never go wrong together.  They are the essentials for many delicious goodies worldwide.  I basically just put them together.  This dessert is so easy to make that you can prepare it in no time.  Serve it just as it, or accompany it with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream is always ideal.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Baked Chocolate Banana | 香焗朱古力香蕉 

Ingredients: (yield for 2 persons)

1 Banana

10-15 Chocolate Chips

1 teaspoon Unsalted Butter

材料：(二人份)

1 條   香蕉

10-15 粒   朱古力粒

1 茶匙   無鹽牛油

DIRECTION:

Bacon Wrapped Bananas | 煙肉焗香蕉

Bacon with banana? Yup.  It may sound a bit exotic to many people.  It did to me too the first time I heard of it from my housemate, who was from Malaysia.  She told me that it was a popular food people would grill on a barbecue or bake in the oven.  

Lady finger banana is the perfect kind of banana for this dish because it has a relatively firmer body that can go under a high heat of baking without breaking down to mush.  Also, this type of banana is much sweeter than the big ones.

My husband and my son certainly like this exotic flavour and they both are looking forward to the next time when I make it. 

Bacon Wrapped Bananas | 煙肉焗香蕉  

Ingredients:

6 Lady finger bananas

6 pieces of Bacon

1 extra Lady finger banana (for garnish)

材料：

6 條 皇帝蕉

6 片   煙肉

1 條   皇帝蕉 (裝飾用)

DIRECTION:

Chocolate and Banana Muffin ｜ 巧克力香蕉小蛋糕

One way to teach a child to value food is to involve them in cooking.  Perhaps I'm a cooking enthusiast, my son more or less inherits some of my genes in this way.  He loves to help around the kitchen, from breakfast to dinner.  If the television isn't on to distract him, he will often peek in to the kitchen and ask if he can help when I am cooking.  I've seen his interest in cooking grow through time.

I still remember my son used to love to smack things around the house with his toy hammer when he was so little.  He would crawl around the house and smack the floor, walls, or cupboard.  So on his 2nd birthday, I decided to make a non-baked chocolate cake for him and assigned him to smash the cookies crumbs for the ingredients.  He happily did his job for a good 10 minutes with lots of laugher with me in the kitchen.  It was the first time we became a team.

Now my son is five years old.  He is capable of a lot more cooking skills that he could actually cook a simple meal for himself, and making pancakes and muffins are two of the things he enjoys most, including his pleas to lick the bowl (by the way, I never let him to lick the batter since I am very conscious of salmonella or other similar risks).

The recipe below was made by my son and the muffins came out beautifully.  I hope you will also enjoy the recipe.

Chocolate and Banana Muffin

Ingredients:

1 Banana, ripe

2.5 cups Whole Wheat Flour

60 gram Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips

A handful of Oats

1/3 cup Milk

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tablespoons Baking Powder

1/8 teaspoon Sea Salt

1/3 cup Brown Butter

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

3 Eggs

DIRECTION：

1. In a mixing bowl, mash the banana with a fork until the banana is fine.

2. Whisk in eggs, milk, vanilla, and butter.  Then mix in the rest of the ingredients except chocolate.

3. Fill each muffin paper 1/4 full of batter.  Place a piece of chocolate onto the centre, and the fill up the muffin paper to eighty percent full.

4. Sprinkle the top with oats.  Bake them in a pre-heated oven at 350F for 12 minutes.