Sweet potatoes are one of the best dietary sources of Vitamin A for our canine companions. Vitamin A promotes healthy skin, fur, eyes, nerves as well as muscles in dogs. It also helps prevent disease and infections. Sweet potatoes are also rich in fiber, Vitamins C and B6, iron, potassium and calcium. Some of the people that I know add a small amount of sweet potatoes into their puppies’ diet. I prefer to use them as a treat.

I usually make them in batches. I like to slice up one sweet potatoe and bake it at 200°F for 2 hours. You are not baking them to make them super crunchy, we just want to dehydrate them. I like to keep the dehydrated sweet potato chips in a ziplock bag and use them as treats throughout the week.

Definitely give this recipe a try, your little babies will appreciate them. I know as a parent that like to know exactly what are in the treats I feed Mylo compared to what I buy in the store.

-Until next time-

Here is another smoothie recipe. Since Victor left to Chicago, I haven’t really been cooking much, it is difficult to cook for one person. I used to think that cooking for two people is hard, I guess I don’t think its true anymore. I might not cook as much before but I still need to eat. These days oatmeal is definitely my best friend. Since I am only having oatmeal on a daily basis, I try to think of ways to incorporate fruits and vegetables into my diet.

One morning, while sipping on my coffee, I decided to look through the fridge and found a bunch of fruits and vegetables. I decided to blend them all and just go with it. At that moment, I had no idea if the smoothie is going to taste good. I just know what if I never try I will never know.

Carrots are notably rich in antioxidants, vitamins and dietary fiber. They contain a lot of beta-carotene and vitamin-A. Beta-carotene is one of the antioxidants that protect the human body from free radicals. Vitamin-A is needed by the human body to maintain good vision. I am sure all of us know about the benefit of having avocados – the good fats. Avocados contain heart healthy monounsaturated fat, and they have a smooth and creamy texture. Cantaloupes on the other hand contain both vitamin C and A. Alright, lets jump into the recipe, hopefully I was able to convince some of you to give this recipe a try.

Ingredients:

• 1 avocado
• 1 cucumber (peeled)
• 2 cups of cantaloupe (chunked)
• 1 cup of frozen mango chunks
• 2 medium sized carrots (peeled)
• 1 tbsp of grated ginger
• 2 tbsps of raw honey

Instructions:

1. Place all the ingredients in the blender and hit the power button. Blend all the ingredients on high for two minutes.

Don’t we all just love a recipe that is so quick and easy, and of course it has to be delicious too. Believe me, the avocado seems a little out of place in the recipe, but it makes the smoothie real creamy. It makes a huge different, if you guys give this recipe a try, leave me a comment below, I would love to hear what you guys think about this.

-Until next time-

When I was younger, I used to love to follow my grandmother to the fresh market super early in the morning. Why? Because that means I get to go to my favorite stall and get some of my favorite little snacks. I am not sure how many of you guys actually know about Kueh or Kuih? Kueh is actually a Hokkien term for little snacks in Malaysia, they can be sweet or savory. They are not confined to a certain meal, they can be eaten throughout the day. My favorite time for that is for breakfast, which is why I love to go to the fresh market with my grandmother early in the morning, those were good times.

Kuih Bahulu or Chinese sponge cake is one of my all time favorites. Today we are making the baked version instead of the steamed version. I love the steamed version too, but we will save that for next time. My mother used to make the steamed sponge cake while I was little, all these little snacks do bring me back to my childhood. Those were pretty awesome times compared to being an adult now.

Today is my first attempt of making Chinese sponge cake, I think they turned out pretty good. I figured why not try to make it since I can’t find any of these delicious snacks around here in the states. Why not try to learn how to make these little babies myself, so when I have cravings I can always make them. These are super easy to make with common ingredients that you probably already have at home.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of cake flour
• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 6 tablespoons of sugar (prefereably fine of caster)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of vegetable oil

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F
2. In your mixing bowl add in the eggs and sugar. Whip the mixture until light and fluffy. This would help if you have an electric mixer, if you are like us, you could place the mixing bowl over a pot of warm water while whisking. The entire process takes about 20 mins. (If you are doing this step manually, it will take some time, just be patient. You could also have your partner help you with the whisking process.)
3. Add in the cake flour, and use a spatula to fold it in until the flour and egg mixture is well combined.
4. Add in the oil next until it’s well combined.
5. Grease the muffin pan and add in the batter.
6. Bake at 350°F for 15 minutes, or until the top is slightly golden brown. (Make sure you fo not burn the sponge cake, if you did, the cake would be hard, it will not be light and fluffy.)

I hope you guys would give this recipe a try, its a great snack if you have some friends over, serve this with some coffee or tea, I guaranteed they will love this.

-Until next time-

How many of you guys have overripe bananas at home and you have no idea what to do with them? I know we have them pretty often in our house, usually I freeze them put them in my smoothie. Today, we have decided to do something else with it.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of unsweetened almond milk
• 3 ripe to overripe banana, mashed
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 tbsps pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp of kosher salt
• 1 1/2 tsps baking soda
• 3 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of crushed walnuts

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Mash the bananas in a medium bowl, set aside for later use.
3. In a large bowl combine soften butter with both sugars and beat it until creamy.
4. In a separate bowl mix together all purpose flour, salt and baking soda, set aside for later use.
5. Add in three eggs and vanilla extract to the bowl with the sugar and butter, mix until smooth. Remember to scrape the side of the bowl while mixing the mixture, to make sure it’s well combined.
6. Add in the flour mixture and almond milk in alternating additions. Remember to scrape the side of the bowl while mixing the mixture, to make sure it’s well combined.
7. Mix in the banana and crushed walnut until they are fully incorporated. Make sure you do not over mix the batter.
8. Coat the bread pan or muffin pan with non stick spray and evenly divide the batter into the muffin pan. Make sure not to fill the bread pan or the muffin pan all the way, only fill it 3/4 of the way.
9. If you decided to go with the bread pan, bake it in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes. If you decided to go with the muffin pan, bake it in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes. You can insert a toothpick or a wooden chopstick into the center of the cake, when it comes out clean, the banana muffins or banana bread is done.
10. Allow the bread or muffins to cool for 20 minutes before removing them from the pans and allow them to cool completely on the a wire rack of a marble board like we did.

Until next time.

For all of the avocado lovers out there, this might be the recipe for you. Avocados have a very unique nutrition profile as we all know. It is high in mono-saturated fats, contains a lot of fiber and it is rich in vitamins such as vitamin B, C, E and K. It also contains a lot of minerals such as potassium and folate. Some studies showed that consumptions of avocados has been associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.

We all know that avocado has a smooth and creamy texture, so why not add it into a smoothie. This recipe is another one of those that you can gather all your ingredients, and add it into a blender. As some of you know may know we love things that are quick and easy, what’s better than making a filling smoothie that you can take it to go when you are in a hurry.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 avocado
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/2 cup of frozen blueberries (or any berries you prefer)
• 10 walnuts
• 1.5 scoop of chocolate whey protein powder
• 1 cup of almond milk

Instruction:

1. Add all the ingredients listed above to a blender and blender the mixture until it has a smooth texture.

This smoothie is very filling because of the avocado and whey protein that were used. It is also incredibly nutritious and tastes fantastic. If you are adventurous enough to give it a try, let me know what you think about this smoothie.

Until next time.

Hello everyone! I hope life has been treating you guys well, it has been a pretty exciting month for the three of us. Victor got a job offer and will be moving to Chicago so we’ve looking for a house or townhome. We finally have some time to sit down and start typing away. I have not been consistent with the blog, I apologize for that. We are still getting back into the routine after the crazy two months of running around trying to get stuff done and falling sick doesn’t help either. To celebrate this new adventure, I figured why not bust out the lobsters?

Lobster – this large marine crustacean is probably everybody’s favorite when it comes to seafood. Processing live or even frozen whole lobster is probably one of the most terrifying things I have seen, especially one with the head still intact. The lobster that we got was frozen, but the head was still very much intact. Here is the time when Victor become the hero and try chopping up the lobster to impress the girlfriend. Trust me, I was just standing right outside of the kitchen the entire time while he was cooking this dish. Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious, I just wish the lobster came pre cut.

Ginger is a root vegetable that would helpsrelieve gastrointestinal irritation. During the cold weather, we love to make Ginger tea to keep warm. I am not sure how many of you have heard of a saying, Chinese people believe that ginger can warm the body from within. How true is that saying? I am not very sure, that’s just something that I was told growing up. Either way, the ginger and green oniones help bring out the flavor of the lobster.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of lobster (with the head removed, but leave the shell on)
• 2 tbsps of all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp of corn starch
• 1/2 cup of ginger (julienne)
• 3-4 scallions (cut into 2-3 inches piece, separate the white part and the green)
• 3 tbsps of Shaoxing wine
• 1 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp of ground white pepper
• 1/3 teaspoon of sesame oil

Instructions:

1. Cut up the lobster into smaller pieces, rinse and dry them in a bowl, pat dry with paper towel if necessary.
2. Mixed all purpose flour and corn starch in a separate bowl. Lightly coat the lobster with the mixture of flour.
3. Quick pan fry the coated lobster in a pan to seal in the juices, it also helps with not over cooking the lobster. Remember you still have to toss it back into the pan to cook it with the ginger and scallion.
4. In a separate bowl add in Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, ground white pepper, sesame oil and a couple teaspoon of water. Mix well, set it aside for later use.
5. Heat up a clean frying pan with 1 tbsp of oil, add in the ginger, cook the ginger until you can smell the fragrance of ginger. Add in the scallion stems (white part) and the lobster to the frying pan. Toss all the ingredients together using high heat.
6. Stir fry for about a min, add in the wine mixture that you made earlier. Once you add in the mixture, make sure you toss all the ingredients very well, turn down the heat to medium, and put a cover on. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes, add in the rest of the scallion, and serve.

In the previous blog post we talked about hot pot. When it comes to hot pot we usually go over board with the grocery shopping. We picked up some sliced lamb as well as some sliced beef, but we ended up just having the lamb slices during hot pot. What do you do when you have all those beef slices in the refrigerator freezer? Make another hot pot? If you run into the same problem we did, you should definitely look into this recipe. I find it really nice with beef or chicken.

I don’t really know a lot about Mongolian beef, what is an authentic version of the Mongolian beef? I am not sure, I haven’t seen this dish around, I don’t even know where you could order this dish. Victor decided to browse online and try to find some recipes that we could incorporate the beef slices. Lo and behold, he found this perfect Mongolian beef recipe. We didn’t really know how this is going to turn out, but we were willing to give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen if this dish went wrong? Let me tell you, it will just end up in the garbage can if this doesn’t work. My motto is you never try you never know.

Ingredients:

meat marinate

• 1 pound of beef slices
• 1 tsp of oil
• 1 tsp of soy sauce
• 1 tsp of sesame oil
• 1 tbsp of corn starch
• 1 tsp of dry chili flakes

sauce

• 1 tsp og minced ginger
• 3 tsp of chopped garlic
• A couple pieces of dry chili (*optional, depending on the level of spices you like)
• 2 table spoon of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 tbsp of cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp of water (as a thickener)
• 2 bunches of scallions

Instructions:

1. Marinate the beef slices with meat marinate listed above for about two hours in the refrigerator.
2. Lightly coat the beef slices with a little corn starch before pan frying. Lightly pan fry the beef slices until until both sides are golden brown with crusty coating. (you do not need a lot of oil for this step because we are not deep frying the beef slices.)
3. Make sure you absorb as much oil as possible after you remove the beef from the frying pan. Drain the rest of the oil from the frying pan, leaving behind about 1 tbsp of oil behind for the sauce.
4. Add in garlic, minced ginger, and dry chili into the frying pan over high heat, cook for about 30  seconds, add in soy sauce, water and brown sugar. Cook the mixture until the brown sugar is dissolved. Let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes before you stir in the cornstarch and water mixture. You sill be able to see the sauce started to thicken up after you add in the cornstarch and water mixture.
5. When you get the sauce to that consistency, add in the beef slices as well as scallion. Make sure all the beef slices are well coated, the dish is ready to be served.

p/s: we might not have a weekly post up for the next three week, because it’s the holidays season, we are traveling to the other side of the world. We might write some posts about that when we get back to the states. I hope all of you have a nice and wonderful holiday.

Until next time!

Chinese hot pot is a traditional Chinese soup containing a variety of vegetables, meats and seafood simmering in a prepared soup base at the dining table. The soup base is prepared ahead of time along with fresh vegetables, meats, and seafoods, when the soup is at a boil you place your ingredients in the pot and let me them cook, when they are ready you take them out and eat along with your favorite dipping sauce. With this setup, the entire family can sit around the table to spend some quality time together. Did I mention the fact that I love hot pot because you could walk into the house in the fall or the dead winter, you can gather around the dinner table to thaw, enjoying the company of friends while cooking and eating delicious foods.

Believe me when I say this soup is really easy to prepare, all you need is a big pot of water and a pack of soup base. I like to cook the soup base in a separate pot for about an hour before the guests arrived. I also like to add extra Chinese dates as well as goji berry into the soup base. Bring everything to a boil and then let it simmer on low heat for at least an hour. When your guests arrive, just transfer the soup base into the hot pot and you are ready to start the hot pot dinner.

As for ingredients for the soup I like use a variety of fresh vegetables of whatever I can find at the asian supermarket, in addition to greens I like to add lotus root. After you wash and peel them, thinly sliced the lotus root. Lotus root is like a sponge, they absorb all of the flavorful goodness when you cook it with the rest of the ingredients in your hot pot. Of course do not forget your favorite noodles, we prefer glass noodles or udon. Just make sure when you’re preparing ingredients that you will be putting them into the soup base, so when you’re preparing your ingredients try not to cut them too small. The reason being, if you diced them up too small you will have a hard time sifting through the soup base to get your food. I take the same approach to meats and seafood and try to find items that are fresh and not frozen, except fishballs, which naturally come frozen. As for the sauce I like to use a combination of sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, hot sauce, and some people like to add diced garlic, or cilantro, but you can use anything you like to dip food in, I do have friends that even like to use a little peanut butter in their sauce to taste.

You can put anything, and everything you like into the soup base while you are having hot pot. I am not sure how many of you actually heard of fishballs, those little fishballs are my favorite aside from tofu. What can I say? I love my soy products. Fish balls is a very common food in where I came from, they are made from pureed fish meat and then shaped into a ball of goodness. If you haven’t tried it before you should definitely give it a try. Typically you can find them in an asian supermarket.

I figured this is not a complicated dish, I figured we didn’t have to put down all the steps in this post. Keep in mind this is not an everyday dish, we only do this when we have guests around, or when it’s cold.

I hope you guys would give it a try, and enjoy it as much as we do.

Until next time!

Clay pot chicken rice is a very popular dish in Malaysia. The beauty of the dish is you can serve this dish in one pot, most families called this the “one pot dinner”. Traditionally, this dish was cooked in a clay pot over a charcoal stove which provides a very distinct flavor as compare to a regular stove top.

I used to make this dish with the rice cooker, but one day Victor came home with a clay pot from the Korean market in Chicago. I was overjoyed when I first saw the clay pot, this might not be the typical Chinese clay pot that you would find at the Hawker Stalls back in Malaysia but we made it work. We do use the pot for different type of soups and porridge on a daily basis.

Ingredient:

• 2 cups of rice ( I like to mix one cup of white rice with one cup of brown rice)
• 1 chicken breast (diced up)
• Ginger (based your own liking, make sure you sliced them thinly.)
• 1 cup of Chinese dried mushroom (Shiitaki) (Soak it overnight to re-hydrate them)
• 2 chinese sausage (*optional, I didn’t include in this dish)
• Green onion (*optional, chopped finely for garnish)

Seasoning for chicken

• 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil
• 1/2 tbsp of white pepper
• 1 tbsp of cooking wine

Seasoning for rice

• 2 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
• 1 cup of chicken broth
• 1 cup of water

Instructions:

1. Soak the dried mushroom overnight so that they have time to re-hydrate.
2. Marinate the diced up chicken breast with all the ingredients listed in the seasoning for chicken portion. Set in the fridge overnight.
3. Slice up your re-hydrated mushroom for later use.
4. Rinse the rice and add 1 cup of chicken broth and 1 cup of water into the pot, bring the rice to a boil. Add in the rest of the seasoning for the rice and turn the heat down to medium low for the rice to simmer while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
5. In a medium pan, heat up some vegetable oil and add in the marinated chicken, sliced mushroom and thinly sliced ginger. Pan fry all the ingredient until the chicken is slightly under-cooked.
6. Add the under-cook chicken on top of the rice when you see the rice is starting to dry up. Put the lid back on and continue cooking the dish until the rice and the chicken are completely cooked. This process might take about 10 to 12 minutes depending on your stove.
7. Turn off the heat after 10 minutes but leave the lid on and let the pot rest for another 5 minutes before serving.
8. Top the dish with the finely chopped green onions before serving.

This is one of the dish that reminds me of the time when I was still back home and the entire family will head to the Hawker Stalls to grab a quick bite. The recipe looks a little intimidating, it seems to have a lot of steps, trust me on this, as long as you have the ingredients all prepped the night before, the dish takes about 20 minuted from start to finish. I hope you guys enjoyed the dish as mush as we do.

Until next time.

The weather has definitely gotten colder here in Michigan, this is usually the time for me to pull out all the photos of us spending time in the summer under the sun together.

Grand Mere State Park located in Stevensville, Michigan is a beautiful, natural woods and sand dunes.This is one of the park that we have checked out in the summer when it’s nice out.  Victor and I are very outdoorsy people, we spent a lot of our time outdoor in the summer. We love to walk around the beach, hiking, spend time at the park, etc. The one thing we do not love about the summer are the BUGS. Just thinking about all the bugs makes my skin crawl. Some of you might be able to relate to that, we do not do good with bugs, they are attracted to us for whatever reason.

Another reason why we like outdoorsy stuff is because as I mentioned before, we have a puppy that needs a tons of exercise. We are a family of three, we would spend a lot of time together in the weekends outdoor. The reason being we do not get to spend a lot time with him during the weekdays because of work. The easiest thing to incorporate him into our daily activities would be outdoor.

It was a very very long walk for the three of us. The uphills were definitely challenging, especially when you have a puppy with you. Having a puppy is like having a little baby with you. You are constantly worrying that the weather might be to hot for them, are they thirsty and overheated, etc. As soon as we hit the beach, everything was pretty nice, except when we realized we forgot the sunscreen.

This park is definitely worth the hike, the walk was great, and it’s pet friendly. If you are around that area I would definitely recommend this park for a one day outing with your family. We enjoyed the entire hiking process a lot, the struggles are definitely real but in the end, we spent a day together. That’s all that matters.