Blueberry Yogurt Pancake 藍莓乳酪班㦸

INGREDIENTS:

(make about 10 -15 pancakes)

5 Eggs

1 cup Milk

1 cube Yogurt (I used strawberry, but vanilla or plain is fine)

2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract

1/2 cup Butter, melted

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

20 Blueberries, flesh

2 cups Flour

DIRECTION:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs together. Add in milk, yogurt, vanilla, and melted butter; mix again.

2. Add baking powder and flour. Gently mix until it becomes batter. Do not over mix it; otherwise the pancakes come out too hard.

3. Add the blueberries. Gently mix it again. Leave the batter for about 10 minutes.

4. Heat up a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add a few spoonfuls of the batter. Let it cook until there are some bubbles forming on the surface. Flip the pancake over and cook for another 3 minutes. Transfer it to a plate. Repeat the process until the batter finished. Serve the pancake with the syrup or jams of your choice.

*Since we add the butter to the batter, there is no need to add extra butter when cooking the pancakes. As long as you heat up the pan before adding the batter, the pancakes won't stick to the pan. 

Scrambled Egg with Green Onion 香蔥炒蛋

Another budget friendly recipe that is perfect during pandemic. Because now we will only do grocery  biweekly, we need to think wisely about what type of vegetables we purchase, of which have a longer shelf life. Napa, broccoli, carrot, kale are on the list. For sure, green onion is also one of them. With you wrap the green onion with a damped paper towel, it can stay green and fresh for more than a week in the fridge. I use the green onion to make scrambled eggs, adding a little fibre and green to the diet.

INGREDIENTS:

5 stalk Green Onion

8 Eggs

1/3 teaspoon Salt

1/3 teaspoon Sugar

1/3 teaspoon White Ground Pepper

3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

DIRECTION:

1. Whisk the eggs together; cut the green onion into rounds.

2. Heat up vegetable oil over high heat. Add green onion and fry it for 30 seconds.

3. Add the egg. Scramble until the egg coagulates. Turn off the heat. Serve it with steamed rice or sandwich bread. Or just as it is.

Maple Strawberry Breakfast Oatmeal

My husband and my son prefer sweet thing for breakfast, and oatmeal with fresh fruit is always their top choice. This oatmeal takes less than 15 minutes to make. You can cut the fruit the night before to quicken the cooking time the next morning. I used white sugar in the recipe, but feel free to substitute it for all maple syrup.

INGREDIENTS: 2 servings

1 cup Oatmeal

6-7 Strawberries, hulled and cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons Sugar

1/4 teaspoon Salt

3 tablespoons Maple Syrup

DIRECTION:

1. In a pot, combine oatmeal, milk, sugar, and salt together; stir well.  Bring it to a boil over medium heat; stirring constantly.

2. Add the oatmeal starts bubbling, reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue to cook until the oatmeal is soft and the consistency is thick enough to your liking. Turn off the heat.

3. Stir in maple syrup and add strawberries. Serve immediately.

Acorn Squash and Date with Quinoa in Milk

INGREDIENTS: (4 Servings)

1/3 Acorn Squash, peeled, deseeded, and cubed

2 cups Quinoa

1.5 cups Water

8 Dried Dates, pitted

1/3 cup Pumpkin Seeds

2 cup Milk (to serve)

Honey (to serve)

DIRECTION:

1. To cook the quinoa, rinse it under running water until the water runs clean and not foamy; drain well.  Set the quinoa in a pot with 1.5 cups of water.  Bring it to a boil over high heat.  Once it's boiling, turn the heat to the lowest, cover the lid, and continue to cook for another 15 minutes or until the quinoa becomes fluffy.  It is always better to have a taste test.  Fluff the cooked quinoa with a fork and allow it to cool.

2. Meanwhile, boil another small pot of water.  Add cubed acorn squash.  Cook over high heat until tender; about 8-10 minutes.  Depends on the size of the cubes.

3. To serve, combine quinoa, squash, dates, pumpkin with milk.  Drizzle some honey for the additional sweetness if preferred.

The Fluffiest Vegan Pancake

Vegan pancakes don't have to be tasteless and hard.  These pancakes are super fluffy, and even fluffier than the non-vegan ones.  The key is in the small amount of vinegar and Flaxseed "egg whites".  Try to make your own version by playing around with the seasoning.  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup All Purpose Flour

1.5 tablespoon Baking Powder

1.5 cups Almond Milk

1/4 cup Coconut Nut Oil (Odourless), melted

4 tablespoons Flaxseed "Egg White" (1 tablespoon Flaxseed + 4 tablespoons Hot Water)

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

1/2 teaspoon Apple Cider (or White Vinegar)
1/3 cup Raisin (optional)

1/3 teaspoon Salt

Maple Syrup (to serve)

DIRECTION:

1. Mix 1 tablespoon Flaxseed and 4 tablespoons Hot Water together to create "Egg whites"; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk all wet ingredients together.  Add all dry ingredients into the wet mixture; mix it to combine as batter.  Leave it for about 10 minutes before use.

3. Heat up a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add a large spoonful of batter.  Patiently wait until the surface of the batter starts to bubble and slightly firm up.  Flip the pancake over and cook for another 2 minutes.  Turn down the heat if the pancakes brown too fast.

4. Repeat this process until all the batter is finished.  Serve them with maple syrup.

Apple Waffles

In the previous post I mentioned that I make waffles every weekend for the upcoming week as breakfast.  And this week, I used the apples that we freshly picked from the orchard yesterday.  They were delicious!

INGREDIENTS:

1 Apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped

3 Large Eggs, beaten

1/3 cup Butter, melted

1/4 cup Sunflower Seed Oil

1 cup Milk, 2%

3 tablespoons Vanilla Extract

1 cup Pastry Flour

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 tablespoons Cinnamon Powder

1 teaspoon Pumpkin Spice Powder

handful of Flaxseed (optional)

1/3 teaspoon Salt

DIRECTION:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs, butter, vanilla extract, milk, and the oils together.

2. Add all the rest of the ingredients.  Mix until they are totally incorporated.  The batter should be very thick and sticky.

3. Heat up the waffle machine to medium heat.  Add two spoonfuls of batter in the centre and cook until it is done according to the machine indication.  Serve with maple syrup or chutney.

Goat Cheese, Sun Dried Tomato, and Spinach Mini Quiche

These mini quiche are quick and easy to prepare, and you can't go wrong with the classic combination of goat cheese, tomato, and spinach.  They are a healthy grab-and-go breakfast.  Be sure to make a large batch to last for the whole week.

INGREDIENTS: makes about 9 muffins

7 Eggs, large

1/3 cup Milk, 2%

1 cup Baby Spinach, fresh

1/3 cup Goat Cheese

5 pcs Sun Dried Tomatoes, cut into small pieces

1 Garlic Clove, minced

1/2 teaspoon Sweet Paprika

Salt and Pepper to taste

DIRECTION:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 360F.

2, In a large bowl, beat the eggs until smooth.  Add the rest of the ingredients; mix well.

3. Brush the muffin pan with vegetable oil.  Pour the egg mixtures into the muffin pan, and make sure to distribute the ingredients evenly.

4. Bake it in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the egg is set. 

Zucchini Chocolate Bread | 義大利青瓜巧克力麵包

In Summer, we always try to include zucchini in the menu since it is abundant and inexpensive.  Most of the the time we put zucchini in salad, eating it raw like cucumber with balsamic vinaigrette.  But we also enjoy sautéing it with lots of garlic as a warm salad.

This week, I tried something new, using zucchini to make this quick bread for our breakfast.  It turned out very moist and filled with cocoa aroma.  Although you will not taste any zucchini in the bread, you will still see strings of zucchini in the bread that makes you feel good about including vegetable in your breakfast.

  

INGREDIENTS:

1 Zucchini, shredded (about 2 cups)

4 Eggs, beaten

1/2 cup Milk, 2%

2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup Bread Flour

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 tablespoons Baking Powder

1 handful of Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

2 tablespoons Poppy Seeds (optional)

pinch of Salt

材料：

1 條  義大利青瓜，刨絲 (約兩杯)

4 隻  雞蛋，打勻

1/2 杯  牛奶，2%

2 湯匙  雲呢拿香油

2 杯  全麵麵粉

1 杯  高筋麵粉

1 杯  棕糖

2 湯匙  泡打粉

少量  牛奶巧克力粒

2 湯匙  罌粟籽 (可省略)

少撮  鹽

DIRECTION 做法:

1. Pre-heat oven to 360C.

2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and milk.  Add shredded zucchini; mix again.

3. Sift in whole wheat flour, bread flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add poppy seeds.  Mix until the mixture becomes batter and it is well incorporated.

4. Lay parchment paper in a baking container.  Pour in the batter and slightly drop the container on the counter a few times to get rid of the air bubbles.  Sprinkle the chocolate chips.  Bake it in the oven for about 30 minutes.

To check the doneness, insert a toothpick in the middle of the bread.  If it comes out clean, the bread is ready.  Allow the bread to cool before slicing it.

1. 預熱焗爐至360F。

2. 在一只碗內，加入雞蛋、棕糖、雲呢拿香油、和牛奶；攪打至均勻。下義大利青瓜絲；拌勻。

3. 全麵粉、高筋粉、泡打粉、和鹽。下罌粟籽；拌勻至變成麵糊。

4. 焗模內舖上焗紙，把麵糊倒入。把焗模在臺面上敲打數下以去取麵糊內的氣泡。灑上巧克力粒。放入焗爐，焗若30分鐘。

要測試麵包焗好與否，可把一支牙簽插入麵包中間再取出，如沒麵漿黏著便是焗好。

How to make simple crepe

Crepes are something that look very elegant on the plate and always gives an impression to people that it's difficult to make.  In fact, making crepes are as easy as making pancakes.

There are so many different recipes out there which claim to make the softest and best crepes.  I will not say mine is one of those, but my crepes are soft and delicate, and still retain the softness after keeping them in fridge for a few days.

The ratio to make my style of crepe is 1:2:1 for 1 cup of flour: 2 cups of milk: 1 egg.  The melted butter is for greasing, so don't need to measure it too carefully.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you will try this recipe.

Simple Crepe Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Flour

2 cups Whole Milk

1 Egg

4 tablespoons Butter, melted

1 teaspoon Vinilla Extract (optional)

a pinch of fine sea salt (optional)

DIRECTION:

1. In a bowl, whisk the egg.  Add the milk, butter, and vanilla extract and whisk again until it is well combined.

2. Add flour and salt.  Gently mix until it becomes a thin batter.  The batter should resemble to the texture of melted ice cream.

3. Heat up a small non-stick pan over medium heat.  Add a small ladle of batter in the pan while swirling the pan.  Continuously swirl the pan until the whole surface is covered. 

If you don't swirl the pan, most of the batter likely will just sit in the middle and the crepe ends up becoming uneven, with thin edges but thick centre.

4. Wait for about 1 minute and then shake the pan.  If the crepe is loose it means that it's ready to be flipped over. 

The freshly made crepe
5. Toss the pan to quickly flip the crepe over and then cook the other side for another 30-45 seconds. 

6. Transfer the crepe to a plate and loosely cover it with plastic wrap.  Repeat this process until finishing the batter.

You can make strawberry crepe by adding whip cream, halved strawberries, and icing sugar.  Or, you can add sliced banana and Nutella.

Sometimes I serve it with ham and cheese for brunch.  This crepe is wonderful to pair with both sweet and salty.  I hope you will enjoy it.

My son was excited to have crepe for breakfast, especially with the fresh strawberry he picked the day before. 

Rilakkuma Banana Pancake | 鬆弛熊香蕉熱香餅

Do you have any overly ripe bananas sitting on the countertop? If so, you can turn them into banana pancakes.  My son loves banana pancakes, so we always purposely buy extra bananas and wait for them to be "spotty".

Two bananas are sufficient enough to make a stack of pancakes of ten.  If you want to give your bear a little more "honey skin tone", you can add a little sugar in the batter.

Rilakkuma Banana Pancake

鬆弛熊香蕉熱香餅  

INGREGIENTS:

1 1/4 cups Plain Flour

2 Eggs

1 Banana, soft or ripen

1 cup Milk

1/3 cup Butter, melted

DECORATION:

1 Banana

Chocolate Chips

Strawberries (optional)

材料：

1 1/4 杯   麵粉

2 隻   雞蛋

1 條   香蕉，半熟或熟透

1 杯   牛奶

1/3 杯   溶牛油

裝飾：

1 條   香蕉

巧克力粒

草莓 (隨意)

DIRECTION:

Basic Whole Wheat Waffle | 基本全麥窩夫做法

Having planned to buy a waffle machine for a while, I finally found one on sale on Amazon, although it wasn't the Belgian waffle style I originally looked for.  It was okay.  The waffles still made my husband and my son so happy.

The waffle batter is very similar to the pancake one, but the waffle batter doesn't have milk and is slightly thicker.  Since I don't need to stand at the stove and wait to flip them, I would say making waffles are much less work than making pancakes.

It was a very nice day with blue sky and breezes.  We'd planned to go on a hike on the bruce trail near Milton.  But my son was throwing a big fit for a long time just because he did not want to brush his teeth.  After things settled, it was already too late to go.  He was so upset.

Luckily the next day also had fine weather, so we decided to go to the park nearby to fly a kite.  My son was beyond excited (because before I told him the consequence for his fit yesterday was staying home).  He didn't expect he could fly a kite.  But he apologized and behaved very well afterward.  He got changed at his highest speed and grabbed bubbles and a football to go with him.

I never knew that my husband was really good at flying a kite.  It seems that when he threw the kite, it automatically climbed up to the sky.  My son laughed loudly in excitement.  He kept running left to right along the wind as my husband told, and let the string go loose.  The kite became a small dot in the blue sky.  I was watching them while resting on a bench.  It was nice to just sit and enjoy the sun. It was all I needed after the whole week of hard work.

Yesterday I spent lots of time finally cleaning up our garden. I planted radishes, carrots, and potatoes and my husband helped me set up the nice flower planter.  My son picked this yellow cactus to add to our garden; he said yellow is his favourite colour and cactus is one of his favourite plant.  My son always has so many favourites of something.  But the cactus indeed looked special so I also got a pink one for my mother in-law as a belated Mother's Day gift.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy this little story and the waffle recipe.

INGREDIENTS：

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

pinch of Sea Salt

2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract

2 Eggs

1/3 cup Butter, melted

DIRECTION:

1. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, beat together the rest of the ingredients.  Then, add in the flour mixture; mix well until it becomes smooth batter.

3. Preheat the waffle machine and set it to medium-high heat.  Add two spoonfuls of batter and cook until it is well set and slightly crispy.  Serve it with maple syrup.

Basic Cornbread | 玉米麵包

Cornmeal is made of a type of corn called dent corn. Unlike the sweet corn we usually use for salad or barbecue, dent corn has little sweetness and contains higher starch. After drying and various grinding processes, dent corn becomes cornmeal that is fine to coarse in consistency, depending on the range of grinding. Cornmeal is widely used for making cornbread, polenta, or tortilla, and it comes in yellow or white colours.

Actually, cornbread originated with Native Americans. Before the European settlers set foot on America, the Natives had already had a long history of using the dried cornmeal to make cornbread as their staple.  But the original recipe is very basic, combining just cornmeal and water, or sometimes lard.  So the taste was rather bland. Later the Europeans adopted the recipe and added milk and butter to make it more flavourful.

We should really thank the Native Americans.

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup Butter

1 cup Milk

2 Eggs, large

1.25 cups Yellow Cornmeal

1 cup All Purpose Flour

1/2 cup Sugar

2 tablespoons Baking Powder

pinch of Sea Salt

做法：

1/4 杯  牛油

1 杯  牛奶

2 隻  雞蛋，大

1.25 杯  黃玉米粉

1 杯  多用途麵粉

1/2 杯  糖

2 湯匙  泡打粉

小撮  海鹽

DIRECTION:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.  Melt butter in microwave; let it cool.

2. In a large bowl, whisk two eggs.  Add melted butter and milk; whisk again until it is combined.

3.  Add all the remaining ingredients.  Gently mix until it is incorporated.

4. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.  Pour the mixture into the tray and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon.

5. Bake it for about 15-20 minutes, or until the corn bread rises up and is firm.  Let it cool completely on a rack before slicing them.

做法：

1. 預熱焗爐至350F 。 用微波爐熱溶牛油；放涼。

2. 在大碗內打勻兩隻雞蛋。下牛油和牛奶；攪打至均勻。

3. 加入剩餘材料；拌勻成麵糊。

4. 焗盤上舖上焗紙，倒入麵糊，用匙背舖平。

5. 焗15-20分鐘。取出，置架放涼。

Honey Oatmeal Quick Bread | 蜂蜜燕麥無酵母麵包

I often make a big batch of pancakes, muffins, or granola for our breakfast that is enough to last for the whole week.  Since I was so busy, I didn't continue this practice for quite awhile.  My son began to complain about it.  Well, he sounds a little spoiled here, but I am glad at the same time that he likes my cooking so much.

Usually my son doesn't pay much attention on what flavour of quick bread I make because I just bake often enough that he has the rotation.  But this time, after months of just munching on the store-bought cheerios, he said he had something to say.  "I want cinnamon and pumpkin," he suggested.  We negotiated and talked about the flavour of four seasons, and finally we both settled on the honey and cinnamon flavour for spring.

It is only a little piece of our funny story.  I hope you enjoy the recipe.

Honey Oatmeal Quick Bread

蜂蜜燕麥無酵母麵包

WET  INGREDIENTS:

3 Eggs, large, beaten

1/3 cup Milk

1/4 cup Butter, melted

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil

1/2 cup Raw Honey

DRY  INGREDIENTS:

2.75 cups Whole Wheat Flour

1 tablespoon Cinnamon, ground

1.5 tablespoons Baking Powder

pinch of Salt

濕材料：

3 隻  大雞蛋，打勻

1/3 杯  牛奶

1/4 杯  牛油，熱溶

1/4 杯  菜油

1/2 杯  蜂蜜

乾材料：

2.75 杯  全麥麵粉

1 湯匙  肉桂粉

1.5 湯匙  泡發粉

少撮  鹽

METHODS:

1. Preheat the oven to 360F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, add all the wet ingredients; mix well.

3. Add the dry ingredients. With a spatula, gently mix until it is totally incorporated and becomes a sticky batter.

4. Pour the batter in a baking tray that is lined with parchment paper.  Transfer it to the oven.  Bake it for about 30-40 minutes, depending on the thickness of the batter.

5. To test the doneness insert a toothpick into the bread.  It is ready if the toothpick comes out not sticky.  Allow the quick bread to totally cool before slicing it to prevent it from breaking apart.

做法：

1. 預熱焗爐至360F。

2. 在一只大碗內，加入所有濕材料；拌勻。

3. 倒入所有乾材料；拌勻至濃稠麵糊。

4. 焗盤舖上焗熱；倒上麵糊。 放入焗爐；焗約30-40 分鐘，在乎麵糊厚度而定。

5. 要看麵包焗好沒有，把一支牙簽插入麵包。如取出牙簽沒有麵糊黏任做成。把麵包完全放涼後才切件，避免散開。

Pumpkin Almond Granola | 南瓜果仁燕麥片

Pumpkin Almond Granola | 南瓜果仁燕麥片

Ingredients:

Mashed Pumpkin:

2/3 cup Fresh Pumpkin

1 cup Water

Granola:

4 cups Old fashioned Oat

1/2 cup Pumpkin Seeds

1 cup Cranberries

1/3 cup Mashed Pumpkin

1/2 cup Sweetened Coconut

1/2 cup Sliced Almond

150 gram Honey

1 teaspoon Pumpkin Spices

1/3 cup Canola Oil

2 tablespoons Water

DIRECTION:

Egg Salad Sandwich | 蛋沙津三文治

Egg Salad Sandwich | 蛋沙津三文治

Ingredients: (yield 2 portions)

4 Boiled Eggs

1/3 cup Mayonnaise

1/4 teaspoon Poppy Seeds

1/8 teaspoon Sea Salt

1/8 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper

Sandwich Bread to serve

材料：（二人份）

4   水煮蛋

1/3 杯   美乃滋

1/4 茶匙   罌粟籽

1/8 茶匙   海鹽

1/8 茶匙   黑胡椒粉

三文治麵包

DIRECTION:

Mixed Fruits and Seeds Granola | 純素乾果麥片

Mixed Fruits and Seeds Granola

純素乾果麥片  

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Agave Syrup

3 cups Oats

1.5 cups Dried Fruits (I used cranberry, blue berry, and fig)

1/3 cup seeds (I used black sesame, white sesame, flaxseed)

1 teaspoons Cinnamon, ground

1 teaspoon Ginger, ground

1/4 teaspoon Salt

DIRECTION:

How to make Soft Boiled Egg

A soft boiled egg is an egg with a custard-like egg white and a yolk that is warm and runny.  It requires only water to cook, the technique, however, needs some time to experiment and practice.

In my experience, the cooking time for a soft boiled egg can vary.  It depends on the thickness and the material of the pot, the style of the stove, or even the hardness of the egg shell.  Generally, the cooking time is within 4 minutes 30 seconds to 6 minutes over medium-high heat.

This recipe will illustrate the process of making the eggs in a small batch of one to three eggs. If you need to add more eggs, a longer cooking time will also be needed.