Homemade Granola Bars

Oh my goodness! Homemade granola bars, a much yummier and healthier alternative than buying the crap in the supermarket! It's packed with organic oats, raw sugar, honey, butter, plenty of walnuts, dried fruits and seeds! I didn't have the dried apricot cos I didn't realize I ran out. I made these for Rhoda cos she's always going on about how I should pick up a granola bar when I'm hungry (cos I'm constantly needing a snack around 3pm)! I don't buy that crap in the stores so I decided to make some for work! So glad I did!!! Super good :)

Cinnamon Buns with Cream Cheese Icing

Tonite, I used the scone recipe and made cinnamon buns so I could use some of the cream cheese icing I made this afternoon for the market's cinnamon bun (we always miss the ones with icing). Gosh, my cinnamon buns turned out much yummier than the ones from the market! They were so good, I ate 2 1/2 buns - thank goodness they are small! So yummy and so easy to make!

Scones
4 cups of flour
5 tbsp of baking powder
1 tbsp of sugar
1/4 tsp salt (I always skip the salt cos I use salted butter)
1/2 to 3/4 cup of butter (softened)
Enough cold milk to bind, approximately 1 1/2 cups of cold milk - I use soy milk and it's just as yummy!

Sift together dry ingredients. Cut in butter until pea-sized. Add enough milk to form into a ball. Roughly form balls into the size of your palm and drop onto greased sheets. Bake in 350 - 375 C oven until done (about 15 mins). Best eaten warm with butter and jam. Add grated cheese for Cheese Scones.

Cinnamon Buns

Take the above recipe and roll batter into rectangular square on floured counter top. Cover with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon (raisins and nuts if desired). Roll into a log. Use thread to cut thru log and place swirl side up on greased pan. Bake in 350 - 375 C oven until done. (about 15 mins). When cooled, add icing sugar or homemade cream cheese icing.

Cream Cheese Icing
1 package of cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup of butter (softened) - you may use more butter for richer icing
3/4 cup to 1 cup of icing sugar (I always use 1 cup)
1 tbsp of vanilla

Beat the ingredients together until creamy. Unused portion should be kept in the fridge.

United Way Bake Sale!

I volunteered to bake up some muffins for the United Way Bake Sale tomorrow! Mmmm...the house smells so lovely with all this baking. I've made raisin bran muffins and chocolate chip muffins, hope they do well!

Pizza Pizza Pizza!

Tonite, we made homemade pizza and of course, I used our new Zojirushi Bread Maker which I finally received! We have been waiting for 2 weeks for this bread maker to arrive and we were so excited to use it that we had to use it to make pizza dough :) Wow, the dough turned out perfect and it's already paying for itself. It's an amazing little bread machine and altho it was a bit on the expensive side, it's def worth every single cent! Our dough came out perfect, I rolled it out and put it on our pizza stone, in the oven it went, crust was perfect. We used our leftover pasta sauce and added a bunch of veggies from the farmer's market on Wednesday. Basil, brown button mushrooms, garlic, onions and lotsa cheese! Sooooo yummy, pictures speak for itself!

Zojirushi Mini Breadmaker

I just ordered a Zojirushi bread maker from eBay! I have been eyeing this product for some time and trying to find the best price online. I finally found a great price on eBay, I love buying items off eBay almost always less expensive than purchasing it at a store! I can't wait to get this item, this machine is so awesome that not only does it make mini loaves of bread but it can make jam and pasta! It is a bit expensive for a bread machine but it's got some great reviews and it will pay itself off in a short time since we do enjoy eating bread, buns and pasta! Mmmm....fresh bread, I am so excited and can't wait!

Now I'm watching for the best price on a Zojirushi rice cooker.

Scones

I love homemade scones, they are so much tastier than store or bakery bought scones! These are super flaky and yummy! Plus very easy to make and bake =)

4 cups flour (I usually use 2 cups of unbleached white and 2 cups of whole wheat)
5 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup butter, room temperature (the more butter you use, the flakier the scones, I usually use 3/4 cups tho)
Enough cold milk to bind (I use organic soy milk but have done the recipe with 2% and buttermilk, usually takes approx 1 cup of milk to bind)

Mix dry ingredients.
Cut in butter until pea-sized.
Add enough milk to form into a ball.
Roughly form balls into the size of your palm and drop onto greased sheets.

Bake in 350 degree oven until done (about 15 minutes). Best eaten warm with butter and jam. Add grated cheese for Cheese Scones.

You can also use the above recipe for cinnamon buns.

Take above recipe and roll batter into rectangular square on floured counter top. Cover with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon (raisins and nuts if desired). Roll into a log. Use thread to cut through log and place swirl side up on greased pan. Cook in 350 degrees oven until done (approx 15 minutes). Once cooled, add icing sugar or cream cheese.

Enjoy!

Apricot & Pecan Flapjack

2/3 cup butter, diced
2/3 cup brown sugar, light
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 cups of rolled oats (I use quick oats)
1/2 cup pecan nuts, chopped
1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped

Variations: Walnuts can be substitute with pecans altho the nutty flavour won't be so intense and you can use any type of dried fruits in place of apricots but I think this combo is really super yummy!

1. Preheat oven 325F. Butter, sugar and maple syrup in pan and heat gently until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and stir in oats, nuts and apricots until well combined.
2. Spread evenly in 7inch square baking pan (lightly greased or lined with parchment paper), score the mixture into 10 bars. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until golden.
3. Remove from the oven and cut through the scored lines. Leave until completely cold before removing from the tin.

A real energy booster at any time of the day! Great for kids and adults alike!

Sala Thai & Baby Jacob

Tonite, we finally meet little Jacob, Tim & Kelly's baby boy! How much has changed in the last 4 months, wow they grow up so quickly. But he is def Tim & Kelly's baby boy! Looks like Tim & Kelly, can't tell who he looks more like. We alll meet at Sala Thai cos for some reason Tim thought that was more central to everyone. I think Basil in Burnaby would have been more central but oh well, it was still nice to head over to the Cambie Village. We order a few dishes to share and dessert of course, ST's coconut ice cream is the best! After a few hours of catching up, it was time to call it a nite! Rhoda and I came back to my place (she drove over and parked her car) and I decided to bake cookies! Tomorrow I'm going to make a cheesecake brownie, mmmm.....

Bran Muffins

I know it's a bit crazy to be baking in this weather but I need my bran muffins in the morning! Mmmm...bran muffins with raisins and chocolate chips!

Must Own Books

Lately, I have been borrowing books and dvds from the Vancouver Public Library cos it's free. Also, I get to "test" (read and browse through) the book before I decide to make it a part of my book collection. I have to say, the following books I most def. recommend:

One Smart Cookie by Julie Van Rosendaal
(Her websites: Julie, Dinner with Julie)
*Just noting that Kay and I have tried many recipes in here and we cannot believe the low cal content and how good it can still taste! Been meaning to blog about them but we eat the baked goods way too fast before we can take photos and post them! Sorry HonHon!!

Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano

Although, I have not read the Gorgeously Green book (wait listed to borrow), I have read the reviews and it seems like this is another must have book. A green book targeted for women, wives and mothers, being green can still be gorgeous!

Another book I am wait listed for is the 100 mile diet which is very interesting and they have a website with some really great and helpful info and reasons about why it is important to eat local. Wish I could use more local products in our diet but I don't know how well I would do without coffee for 365 days! Check out their "Local Resources" tab, there's a link (Certified Organic Associations of BC) which provides local and organic farms in and around Vancouver, BC. Good to know!

Baking

Today, I spent the day with Rhoda, my BFF :) It is always so nice to spend the day with her even though we see each other on a daily basis cos we work a block away from each other. But on the weekend, it's a bit more personal cos during the work week, we only get about an hour to talk and shop. In the afternoon, she had a dress fitting on Hastings street for Ash's wedding (she's a bridesmaid) and after she was fitted, she came by to pick me up and we headed off to Richmond Centre. She needed to pick up a few more items for the ring pillows, she is making those for Ash/Kent and Cho/Susanna 's weddings. We walked around Richmond Centre for a bit, she found some of the crafty items and we quickly stopped in to check out the awesome sale at Costa Blanca. Gosh, did we ever score some great deals! Lowest ticket price was an additional 50% off!! I picked up a dressy teal top and long sleeved black blazer for under $20!! After we walked around the entire mall, we headed over to Langley Farm Market (which is located outside, no access from the mall) to pick up some fresh fruits before heading back into Vancouver. I picked up another great deal, 3 ripe bags of strawberries for $3.00!! I didn't mind that they were ripe cos I planned on using them for baking and smoothies. Once we got home, I started dinner (quick stirfry with brown rice) and Rhoda went upstairs to visit my mom for a bit while I cooked. After dinner, we took a look over the strawberries and it seemed most of them were pretty solid, very few mushy ones. We chopped the stawberries and mashed some bananas and we made up a new muffin recipe! Strawberry banana muffins. Mmmm.. they were good except that I over filled the muffin tin, overbaked them by 5 minutes and need to add some spices to the mix. Overall, it was a wonderful day and I love baking esp with my BFF :) Enjoy the photos!

Pizza Pizza!

Before

After

Tonight, Kay and I felt like pizza pizza! I decided to make a pesto chicken yellow pepper pizza. Mmmm... it was pretty yummy except that we burnt the crust cos I don't think I added enough olive oil around the dough when baking it the first time. Also, I made it a lot thinner than usual or maybe I didn't add enough flour? Although, we couldn't eat the crust, the rest of the pizza was pretty delish! I googled "freezing pizza dough" and have decided I will have to try freezing it so we can have it during the work week! Enjoy the photos!

PS. What is the order of the toppings? How do you do it?!?! Kay and I disagreed on when the cheese goes on! Her way: pesto sauce, cheese, chicken, skip the peppers (as you can see she lost this one!), cheese. My way: pesto sauce, chicken, pile on the peppers, cheese! Who's right?!?!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Mmmmmm.....yummy! Although we didn't have any pineapple rings (mom gave us a can of pineapple chunks!), it still turned out pretty yummy. We are always craving dessert over the weekend and since I don't mind baking for dessert, we decided to try out the Pineapple Upside Down cake recipe we got from Rhoda. We cut the sugars in half and I used raw sugar instead of granulated sugar (I am trying to cut out white sugar from our diet) which turned out pretty yummy. Hmmm... I wonder how it would taste with whole wheat flour??!!?? Maybe we'll try again next weekend! But we'll be sure to pick up some pineapple rings from the grocery store. The cake did not have enough pineapples in it! Grandma loved the cake and we let mom (who's on a diet) to sample a small piece. Mmmm... delish!

Homemade Scones!

For brunch....mmmm.....scones.... with cheese.... with jam....

Homemade Cinnamon Buns

Tonight, Kay and I tried a new (quick and easy) cinnamon bun recipe from Desert Candy. Gosh, was it every yummy! It was our first time making them and even though we had a few mishaps, it turned out super delish and yes, it was quick and easy. I love the smell of baking in the house and the baking smells travels all the way upstairs. We were invited to join Mom and Auntie I. for dinner but Kay and I declined as we didn't want to eat greasy chinese food. Plus we had leftover (homemade) pasta sauce and (also homemade) mac'n'cheese. Around 8ish, Kay and I were craving something sweet so we decided to pull out the recipe book and see what we had. I found the cinnamon bun recipe sitting on top and remember, this was one I really wanted to try. We are so glad we did cos it def. hit the spot! When Mom and Auntie Ingrid came back from dinner, they couldn't help but come downstairs to see what we were baking. Enjoy the photos and thank you Mercedes for the recipe! We can't wait to add this to our weekend brunch menu :) Enjoy the photos and YES they look as delicious as they taste!

Cornmeal & Bacon Muffins

Another new recipe, yum yum! Very flaky (lots of butter) and great with soup! Not enough bacon though, next time, double the bacon!

Baking at Midnight

Couldn't fall asleep so I woke up and baked muffins! I have been manipulating this recipe quite a number of times and I think I've got it! Yum yum, super fresh muffins :)

Kwik E Mart and more....

Today, we finally headed over to the Kwik-E-Mart in Coquitlam, the only one in Canada! How exciting and although it was pretty crazy busy, it was worth it since this is a one in lifetime opportunity. The Kwik-E-Mart is only available until the end of this month and had opened a few weeks back so there wasn't any memorabilia left except for the Squishee cups and a Homer Key chain. I was hoping to get a package of Mmmmm pink donuts but nope :( We walked around and took a ton of photos (see my flickr account) with the Simpsons characters and we bought purple / grape squishees in the Simpson cups, I ended up buying all FIVE CUPS which were $2 + change per cup!

After the Kwik-E-Mart, we decided to stop over at Coquitlam Centre Mall, I haven't been there in ages! We did a bit of shopping, check out my "other" blog to see my awesome summer deals, and wandering around the shopping centre. I am a little bit excited about H&M opening up in Coquitlam Centre as I have heard they have some reasonably priced clothes and very trendy and chic. After our shopping spree, it was getting close to dinner time and we headed back to Burnaby for Nando's Chicken. The girls hadn't decided if they wanted to come to the nightmarket with us or not. Rhoda and I were meeting another friend, BQ, at the nightmarket coz his friend was in a fashion show or something at the nightmarket. Also, we wanted to walk through the stalls and see if there was anything new since the last time we were there. After dinner, the girls finally decided they didn't want to go to Richmond with us and wanted to be dropped back to our place so they could hang out with their friends at DP. That was fine with us as I figured the girls would probably be bored if they had to hang out with us at the nightmarket. Rhoda and I headed to Richmond and found parking really really far away but it was FREE! We found BQ and watched his friend strut her stuff on the "runway". Gosh, it was terrible, very amateur and most of these girls looked like they were asked to do this last minute. We didn't watch it for long as we were quickly getting bored, we decided to pick up some candy from the food fair and checked out the stalls. Still debating on the make up case but realized for $35.00 you are getting what you pay for and that is not a whole lot. I think I will consider spending a little more and getting a nicer one like the Japonesque Medium Train Case although it would be nice if I could afford a MAC make up case but those are a little too expensive for me and I'm not a professional make up artist. If I really had a ton of money, I would def. pick up a Louis Vuitton "Nice Beauty Case", so pretty :) After our walk around the nightmarket, we decided to head over to Tea Hut (our friend's BBT place) to have BBT but once we arrived, it was closed! Apparently, they close really early on Saturday so we went next door to a place called Sweet 23. It's a Hong Kong dessert place and boy do they have yummy desserts! After a couple of hours of eating and chatting, it was time to call it a night!

PS New milk chocolate chip marshmallow muffins!

Oh yes, one more thing, my bestest girlfriend, Rhoda made this! Didn't fit her so she passed it on to me :) Very comfy and pretty!