What makes a muffin, a muffin? The light and fluffy texture? The shape which takes after a cup-shape in the muffin tin?
As we moved towards using less flour and replacing that with rolled oats in these oatmeal cups e.g. Banana Oatmeal Cups, Dragon Fruit Muffins, Pineapple Oatmeal Muffins, these blueberry muffins are your perfect Blueberry Multigrain Cereal Oatmeal Cups - breakfast, snacks, or perhaps anytime you want?
These Dragon Fruit Muffins are adapted from my Homemade Muffin and Bakes category. The red hue is coming from red dragon fruit puree.
Basically, I used a foundation oat muffins recipe for this Dragon Fruit Muffins. Instead of mashed ripe banana that is usually added as natural sweetener, dragon fruit smoothie pack (100% dragon fruit puree) is used instead.
What's for breakfast or after-meal dessert (have you tried this One-Ingredient Ice-Cream yet)?
We enjoy breakfast homemade rolled oats muesli (low-sugar muesli/granola option available) with milk (dairy or dairy-free) topped with fresh berries. Feast like a king for breakfast, there is always add-on peanut butter bread paired with coffee.
In the hot summer months (right now!), high fiber breakfast oats gets amped up with bountiful fresh berries and stone fruits. When it gets to cooler months, we comfort ourselves with warm breakfast such as Black Sesame Oatmeal.
Fresh whole shrimps/prawns (heads and shells on) are most flavorful when cooked in a dish; but when time is not on our side, peeled deveined frozen version brings the convenience one would wish for without much sacrifice to the flavors.
Bring in another convenient ingredient - a good quality free-of-preservatives store-bought sauce, and a delicious shrimps/prawns stir-fry is less than 30 minutes away.
Certain fruits (and its natural juices) bring tangy-sweet acid brightness to a dish. Not all fruits are created equal. For example, stone fruits e.g. peaches and nectarines tend to be on the sweet-side while kiwi on the tangy-side. Pineapple, to my preference, is one of those tangy-sweet candidates that makes a dish more mouthwatering, and tantalizing such as Mixed Vegetables and Pineapple Curry, Tofu, Pineapple, Bell Peppers Stir-Fry and Sweet and Tangy Tofu.
What did you have for breakfast this morning?
Our family, we enjoy homemade rolled oats muesli with milk (dairy or dairy-free) topped with fresh berries. Feast like a king during breakfast, so there is always add-on peanut butter bread paired with coffee.
In the hot summer months (right now), high fiber breakfast oats get amped up with bountiful fresh berries and stone fruits. When it gets to cooler months, we comfort ourselves with a warm breakfast such as Black Sesame Oatmeal.
How about lunch and dinner, my friends? We go big with salad bowl meals or lighter with sandwich/wraps.
These delectable and nutrient-rich deep purple superfruit mulberries have some of the highest iron and calcium content compared to blueberries, raspberries blackberries; and a great source of Vitamin C. We had the opportunity to pick them fresh from the trees in a farm recently.
The owners and team of the farm spent four years in various areas of research and development and another fours years to propagate the precious trees.
Eight years later, their hard work came to fruition with fresh Himalayan mulberries to harvest.
A typical breakfast oats may occasionally look like this - rolled oats with nuts, seeds, fresh berries;
and other times, like this - rolled oats with chia seeds, berries, banana, dragon fruit.
Raise your hand (or both hands) if you consume those banana fibers inside of the banana skin, and if you scrape the dragon fruit from the inside of the skin to get fiber to the max. Say yes to zero waste kitchen, and say no to rising food prices. Some frugal fiber does not hurt our health and wallets.
A turkey lunch or dinner plate with all things "Thanksgiving" - turkey, green beans, Brussel sprouts, pomegranate, persimmon, sweet potato. These ingredients are all in-season during the month of November.
Honestly not much effort (oh, isn't that all we want ? ) putting together this meal plate, so that we can all enjoy delicious food without breaking any sweat. Besides ready-cooked turkey breast that was store-bought, the vegetables and sweet potatoes were prepared and cooked at home - veggies steamed, and sweet potatoes roasted.
Type "tiktok tortilla hack" in the search box and be overwhelmed by so many savory and sweet ideas, so many that you will soon run out of tortilla (whatever is already sitting in your kitchen pantry) to cover all grounds. To start with, I belong to one of those who did not even have readily available tortilla in my kitchen when the trend started few months ago; and I am also not one of those who will go out of the way to get tortilla solely for this purpose.
But guess what? I have my regular pita bread, so I am going to conveniently do this experiment. Sweet!
This is not apple pie because there is no butter bottom crust. It is also not apple cobbler because it has no butter crumble topping.
Following this autumn-worthy Winter Squash and Apples Chicken Salad Bowl , let us continue autumn footsteps with a light and refreshing salad with antioxidants-packed persimmons and pomegranate.
Round-shaped Fuyu persimmons are preferred for this salad as they are sweeter and able to maintain a little firmness and crispness when ripe; compared to the elongated Hachiya persimmon which needs to be absolutely ripe to be sweet (soft when gently pressed on the exterior, sometimes to the extent of being mushy when ripened).
How is everyone doing? Wherever you are, I hope you are healthy and staying healthy especially in these unprecedented times due to the pandemic.
Here in California, our "shelter-in-place" or "stay-home" order has been in effect since middle of March and looks like it's not going to end anytime soon. Routines have changed and we are all adjusting to the new normal. A lot of us are finding ways to stay sane especially when we have to stay home most of the times.
Baking is definitely an activity that some of you find therapeutic. So let's bake the blues away with these Pineapple Cacao Chocolate Oatmeal Cup Muffins. They are perfect for breakfast, snacks or during these times - DESSERTS ! that lift up your mood!
As always, I've kept baking very simple; adapting from my very own homemade healthy bakes such as Banana Cacao Oatmeal Cups and Banana Bran Muffins.
Many times, I find store-bought baked goods overly sweet for my taste buds (also because I don't have a sweet tooth). Typically, muffins and cookies from big-box stores are laden with processed ingredients we all want to avoid e.g. sugar, corn syrup, fructose. Even if natural and healthy bakes can now be found in specialty artisan bakeries, the bakes usually do not come cheap. $4 for a healthy muffin? Two such healthy muffins can be equivalent to a take-out meal! I will not splurge on baked goods unless there is a reason or occasion to do so.
Now, all fingers pointing towards - making (baking) my own!
It is still banana-based sweetened muffins today, with the success of these Bran Buckswheat Banana Muffins. Banana, because it is a convenient choice as we always stock up on bananas at home. You can also use apple puree or apple sauce) or sometimes dried fruits (e.g. raisins, dates) as natural sweeteners instead of using sugar or syrup.
The Banana Cacao Oat Muffins/Oatmeal Cups today are basic yet classic, just so because I love dark bitter chocolate (so much so that 85% dark works way much better on me than 72%). Instead of melting pieces of dark chocolate, I am going to use 100% raw cacao powder to up the "chocolatey" flavor in this recipe.
High-fiber-and-protein, low-fat low-cal snacks such as these No-Bake Protein Bars and Buckwheat Quinoa Flour Bran Banana Muffins are great on-the-go workout snacks.
Today's convenient and portable bite-size snack (or sweet) is Seeds-Stuffed Dates. Though walnut-stuffed dates are widely-seen as the similar, seeds are definitely a feasible (stuffing) alternative.
Besides bananas, Medjool and Deglet Noor dates are also good sources of potassium and a form of simple sugars that can be easily consumed after exercise to quickly replenish energy in the body.
Besides bitter melon and eggplant, okra is another vegetable that falls under the "Love-it-or-Leave-it" list. Quite different from bitter melon which some dislike due to its bitter taste, it is the texture of okra (likewise for eggplant) that puts some people off - mushy eggplant and slimy okra. If I have just one choice, I pick okra over eggplant.
Besides, it is okra season, is it not (and apples too!) ? Sometime in late August till October, farmer's markets are blessed with freshly harvested vibrant-green and tender-plump okra; unlike those sad brownish bruised-and-dull-looking okra usually found in the grocery stores other months of the year.
Steamed okra, beets, kale, broccolini, red bell peppers, snap peas, topped with apple
While okra performs well in a stew- or braise-like dish e.g. Pumpkin, Green Bean, Okra Stew, I also enjoy 5-minute steamed okra in warm salad bowls.
Due to precise measurements involved, I don't usually bake. Unlike baking, I use my taste buds to adjust the flavors of the dish in the cooking process; and rely on palm-, fist-, sometimes finger-size, as a guide to estimate the quantity of ingredients - for example, vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower florets, sliced cabbage are, added by "handfuls" into the pan or pots.
Such a cooking-style does not apply to baking. This beginner/ newbie/ noob gets it. Therefore, when I bake, it ABSOLUTELY has to be basic, simple, and easy. A good example of simple and easy baking is the low-calorie, high-fiber, protein-packed Bran Buckwheat Banana Muffins.
There is not many breakfast variations in my family. Believe it or not, it's almost the same breakfast everyday but it's not boring. We enjoy it and look forward to our breakfast bowl early morning before the day begins.
Our breakfast bowl is typically built up from homemade muesli mixed up with chia seeds, ground flax seeds, or superfood powder blend depending on what is available, then topped with fresh (sometimes frozen) fruits depending on what is in season.
In summer, our Summer Berries Breakfast Oats is loaded with immune-boosting antioxidants-loaded fresh berries e.g. blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and stone-fruits e.g. peaches and nectarines; making this a must-try breakfast in any healthy home.
Though breakfast is kept a constant, our lunch veggie or grain bowls are varied with many options (see Veggie Bowls and Grain Bowls).
The tangy-sweet pineapple and tart-sweet cranberries balance the bitter-sweet kale in the most perfect way, not only in flavors and texture but also scientifically.
Studies have shown that a teeny weeny bit of citrus or Vitamin C helps our bodies better absorb the non-heme iron (vs heme iron present in meat, seafood) in leafy greens such as spinach and kale. For example, you can squeeze some lemon over these greens or like what I have done today - toss some thinly shaved pineapple with kale.
And do you know that the hard core of pineapple which we often find hard to chew or bite (then discard), actually contains much of the nutrition present in the pineapple? Preparation tip: If you thinly sliced/shaved the pineapple with its flesh and core, the "fiber" in the core is being further "broken down" somehow, so you will not find it hard and fibrous to chew anymore, so much so that you can enjoy the core with the flesh.
Atop the bed of gently steamed bean sprouts, broccoli and cabbage sits this healthily prepared steamed duck breast, topped with sweet mango, crisp cucumber and colorful bell peppers.
This warm Sliced Duck Breast Salad can be enjoyed as a side-dish; yet also satisfying as a one-dish salad entree.
It is personal preference to either cook the bean sprouts and Napa cabbage or keep them raw. Even when the bean sprouts and Napa cabbage are cooked, they are only gently steamed, so their inherent crisp and moist textures are not compromised. At the same time, the steamed vegetables bring a little warmth into the salad (that is how I prefer) when tossed with the sliced duck breast.
Do you know? Avocado is not only a good source of healthy fats, it is also rich in carotenoids - lutein and zeaxanthin which help protect our eyes and skin from the sun harmful UV rays.
There are definitely more reasons to enjoy avocado as salad toppers in grain bowls (e.g. Shrimps Quinoa Bowl), veggie bowls (e.g. Asparagus Potato Salad), creamy avocado dressing, sandwich/wraps fillers and avocado dips.
And how can we forget everyone's all-time favorite guacamole.
The perfect guacamole should be creamy, with some soft chunks for a nuanced texture when enjoyed.
