Carrot and Fig Muffins (vegan)

Happy Good Friday! This Easter season has been filled with good food. The little nests and these muffins I made to get into the Easter spirit both taste amazing. My dad who has the "healthy food tastes bland" mindset really liked these! I didn't even ask him how they tasted and he was told me they tasted great which is so heartwarming hehehehe

Not only are they easy to make, but they're vegan friendly too! I do wish they looked better though. After exams I'm going to really focus on food styling and photography!

Vegan Spelt Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns hot cross buns one a penny~~

Easter is coming! If you guys have been to any grocery store lately, I'm sure you already know. However, I'm staying clear of the Easter eggs and bunny shaped peeps. Instead I'm gonna have these healthy, vegan, spelt, hot cross buns! 

Strawberry frangipane galettes (vegan)

Mm galettes for breakfast. Galettes are tarts but are made without a tart pan so the sides are just folded over to keep the toppings in. I filled these spelt flour galettes with frangipane, an almond cream, and some fresh strawberries. A fairly simple recipe to make, but that's what I always say :/ 

Took a while to get this up as I've been awfully busy with school work although it is the march holidays :( I still need to share the recipe for my sweet potato kimchi sliders and teriyaki tofu fried rice! 

Vegan Banana Berry Streusel Pizza

So I've been reducing my protein and increasing my carbs lately, because I want to eat less animal products. I was watching this YouTube video by freeleethebananagirl, and I saw how cruelly cows are treated. It was so horrible I literally cried. I'm eating more vegan meals now but I don't think I'll go completely vegan because that lifestyle isn't maintainable for me at the moment. 

Besides I'm actually eating more protein than necessary so it won't hurt to cut down. I want to watching "earthlings", a documentary about animal abuse stuff but I'm worried I'll be a huge sobbing puddle by the time the film is over.

Today's recipe is a wonderfully scrumptious vegan pizza. It has an oat flax base and is studded with banana coins and blueberries, sprinkled with walnut cinnamon streusel, drizzled with coconut cream and finished off with some freeze dried strawberry pieces. 

Food props: I am loving my cute little honey drizzling thing! I don't even really know what it's called haha. Found that little acorn by the pavement near my condo. 

For those who need photographic evidence that the pizza holds together when lifted up....

This was actually a really photogenic breakfast! :D I love it when the food makes my life easy by looking good. Sometimes I get so stressed taking food pictures.........

Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake

Happy Valentine's Day! Had a pretty boring one as I just got back from camp today and then I had school stuff :/ Didn't exactly feel the love. This cinnamon roll cheesecake is no bake and really so easy! When I say cinnamon roll, I mean cinnamon roll. It isn't just a cheesecake with cinnamon swirled through. 

((Omg on Instagram I said it was no bake but it's not! I DO bake this))

The twist: The base is made of bread. Or should I say, it is bread. Right now you may think it sounds crazy but if you think about it, this is kind of like a cheesecake over bread pudding. Sounds good to me lol.

Bacon wrapped sweet potato wedges

Made some simple baked sweet potato wedges wrapped with crispy turkey bacon! So good fresh out of the oven. Especially if you love sweet potatoes like yours truly. Turkey bacon may not be super healthy but it isn't too bad if you make sure it's low in fat, sodium and most importantly nitrate free. Besides its pretty delicious. 

Red Velvet Brookies!!!

Oh my goodness. These are good. And oh so healthy! The beautiful red comes from steamed beets not food colouring. Coincidentally, (or not) beets are also what keeps the brownie moist and dense! The the brownie part and the chocolate chip cookie layed over, are both made using oat flour, which means you can make this gluten free Ü 

Came across brookies (brownie cookies) on Pinterest and decided to healthify them ASAP because I wanted to get this post up before Valentines ❤ Day!! Hope you guys make this and try it out! Honestly it isn't too difficult and I think brookies, especially those that are red velvet AND healthy are pretty unique. 

Please use a measuring tbsp to measure cocoa powder so you don't add too much ^^ You want it to be RED. 

Healthier Baked Chicken Parmesan

Cheese. Definitely not healthy but so good! However I believe in moderation so a little cheese is acceptable in my books. As long as you don't go too crazy cheese is actually pretty good! It has lots of vitamins and minerals, and is a good source of protein :)

Made chicken parmesan for lunch the other day and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It was so moist and juicy ❤ I even made my own breadcrumbs. Here's the recipe. 

What you'll need

•1/2 a slice of wholemeal bread OR some wholemeal breadcrumbs

•1/3 tsp of any salt free seasoning (such as lawry's, mrs dash.....)

•1 boneless skinless chicken breast (190g) 

•1 egg white

•Organic pasta sauce (low fat and sodium) (I used about 1/5 of a 339g bottle)  

•2 tsp grated parmesan 

•1 slice of reduced fat cheese (cut into 2)

•Dash of black pepper

How to

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Tear bread up into small scraps. Bake for 10min or longer until crispy. Blend the bread and seasoning in a food processor to get breadcrumbs. Pour onto a plate.

2. Preheat oven to 180C. Spread a spoonful of pasta sauce on to a oven proof dish. 

3. Beat egg white in a bowl. Coat chicken breast thoroughly in egg white and then coat in the breadcrumbs. Place on top of the pasta sauce in the dish. Bake for 18min**

4. Remove chicken from the oven. Increase the oven temperature to 200C. Pour enough pasta sauce over to cover the chicken. Just use as much as you like ^^ 

5. Sprinkle parmesan over and lay the cut up cheese slice over. Sprinkle a dash of black pepper over. Bake for 10-15min until the cheese melts and turns slightly brown!

** If you use a smaller chicken breast you can bake it for a shorter time in step 3.

Healthy Nutter Butter Cookies

Happy belated CNY! Made some nutter butter inspired cookies this morning. I still have a few to let my relatives sample tomorrow yay! Peanut flavoured and shaped cookies filled with peanut butter cream! Mmmm. Have not made any successful CNY cookies yet so I guess these'll do :) Peanut is 花生 in Chinese and it represents health and long life! Make these for your friends and family, after all Chinese New Year isn't over just yet.

I'm so proud of these, they really are mega healthy. Dairy free, gluten free, egg free (for vegans), processed sugar free and so cute ~~~ 

I used buckwheat flour but you can also use a gluten free flour blend and leave out the tbsp of water! 

I was actually worried using chunky peanut butter would give me an ugly cookie but it turned out fine :) I still recommend creamy pb though. 

What you'll need 

Cookies:

2 tbsp creamy peanut butter 

2 tbsp honey (vegans: use any vegan liquid sweetener) 

1 tbsp water

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Juice from a small lemon wedge 

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup buckwheat flour 

Filling:

2 tbsp peanut flour

Water

How to 

1. Mix wet ingredients together. 

2. Mix buckwheat flour and baking soda together. Pour wet into dry mixture and combine well.

Preheat oven to 180C

3. Form the dough into 16 equal portions. Roll each portion into an oval and flatten. Make the middle part slightly thinner. Squeeze the centre to give it a peanut shape, use a toothpick to make the horizontal and vertical lines across the surface. 

4. Bake for about 13 min and cool. Mix 2 tbsp peanut flour with just enough water to get a creamy peanut butter consistency. 

Tip: Add water a little at a time! 

5. When cookies are cooled spread 1/2 tsp of peanut cream filling on the back of one cookie and top with another cookie :)

Enjoy!!

Ginger Longan Upside Down Cake

Delicious ginger longan upside down cake, topped with juicy mandarin orange slices. Perfect for the Chinese New Year season, and gluten free too! This cake wasn't made intentionally for Chinese New Year but my mum told me the flavours were rather suitable and suggested I topped it with mandarin oranges (:

I made this using buckwheat flour. The first time I baked it, it was very dense and heavy. I suspected it might have been the greek yogurt so I replaced a portion of the yogurt with coconut oil and voila — a perfect cake. I also took extra special care to beat the egg whites separately and sift the dry ingredients. 

Although the longans are only at the top of the cake (or rather the bottom) the juice kinds of diffuses through the cake and gives the entire cake a longan taste. 

What you'll need

3/4 cups buckwheat flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup plain greek yogurt

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/8 cup maple syrup

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg white

1/4 tsp apple cider vinegar/citrus fruit juice

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 cups longans 

How to 

1. Pit the longans. Grease and line a 5-6 inch round cake tin. 

2. Sift first 3 ingredients together into a bowl. 

3. Mix greek yogurt, coconut oil, maple syrup, egg yolk and vanilla extract together. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and combine well.

Preheat the oven to 180C

3. Beat egg whites and apple cider vinegar until frothy. Gradually pour in the maple syrup and continue beating until soft peaks, or mid way between soft and stiff. 

4. Fold half the egg whites into the first batter. Then gently fold in the other half until the mixture is one even colour.

5. Evenly distribute pitted longans across the bottom of the cake tin. Pour batter over. Tap in the counter top a few times to get the air bubbles out. 

6. Bake for about 50min. Cool slightly before turning out on to a plate. Cut off the rounded top (or rather bottom) of the cake and then flip it onto another plate so it is now upside down and the longans are on top of the cake. 

Remember to serve topped with some mandarin oranges :-))

Lemon Coconut Protein Crinkles

Made these cookies a grand total of 3 times. The first two times they looked more volcano like and were rather dry. Third times the charm I guess :) These make your kitchen and hands smell nice because of the lemon zest!

Crinkle cookies aren't very common in Singapore, where I live, so I made my own! They are sort of a cake-cookie, and have cracks across the top surface of the cookie! Instead of rolling mine in powdered sugar I used ground dried coconut! Definitely healthier :) This cookie is fairly low in fat but high in protein!

About 6 cookies:

What you'll need

1 scoop vanilla protein powder

1/2 cup oat flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup greek yogurt

1 tbsp honey or slightly more to taste

3 tbsp whisked egg/1 small egg

Lemon zest of 1 lemon

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

3 tbsp dried coconut 

How to

1. Combine the first 3 ingredients. 

2. Whisk together remaining ingredients, except coconut. Next combine both mixtures. Freeze for 1h or longer.

Preheat oven to 180C.

3. Blend 3 tbsp dried coconut as fine as possible. Get a tbsp of cookie dough, form into a ball, roll in coconut, place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat until dough is used up. 

4. Bake for 10min.

Chocolate Chip Bacon Donuts

This morning I got up bright and early just bursting with excitement to use my new mini donut pan. I bought it with some of my Christmas money the other day and it's been sitting in my kitchen cabinet begging me to use it ever since. 

Delicious donuts for me to eat! 

In case anyone of you asks, I got it from kitchen capers a wonderful little cooking shop along kallang bahru. I wanted the normal sized donuts but they were all sold out, so I settled for the mini donut pan! The donuts are smaller than they look in the pictures above. You'll see! 

Anywho I decided to make clean chocolate chip donuts, frosting with maple greek yogurt and sprinkled with crunchy little bits of turkey bacon! I basically used a pancake batter and baked it haha. 

You can sub the greek yogurt in the donut batter with cauliflower purée and use dairy free chocolate to make it dairy free. I just love the protein added by greek yogurt! 

I made 11 mini donuts and I ate 9 of them for breakfast. Not the slightest bit guilty because each donut is roughly about 35 calories INCLUDING TOPPINGS. I wouldn't mind eating the whole batch of donuts ;)

My process of frosting these cutie piess, or should I say donuts:

Now you know how small they are!

What you'll need

1/3 cup oats

1/4 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 egg white

1/4 cup greek yogurt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

1 tbsp chocolate chips

1/2 tsp coconut oil

1/8 cup greek yogurt

1/2 tbsp maple syrup 

1/2 strip low sodium turkey bacon

How to

1. Blend oats and baking powder into a flour. 

2. Beat egg, yogurt and vanilla extract together. Mix in dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips. 

Preheat oven to 180C.

3. Grease donut pan with coconut oil and pour the batter in until almost full! Bake for 10min. 

4. Remove donuts from the oven. While the donuts cool. Cook turkey bacon according to the packaging. Mix greek yogurt and maple syrup to get a frosting. Chop up cooked turkey bacon. 

5. Now frost the donuts and sprinkle them with bacon. Voila! Your yummy healthy donuts are served. 

P.S this can be made into cupcakes 

Quinoa Pizza Rounds

Another pizza post. Sorry I'm not sorry.

These are like pizza, minus the grease and carbs.

Gluten free too! Quinoa is also higher in protein than other carbs like rice :)

Going for a swim in pizza sauce. Actually I used pasta sauce but what's the difference haha.

I do realised I just spammed you guys with pictures but I can't short list them it's so difficult sigh. 

What you'll need

1/2 cup cooked quinoa 

1/3 cup shredded cheese 

1/4 cup chopped shallots

1 tsp minced garlic

Slightly under 1/4 cup parsley or basil 

1/2 tsp chili flakes

1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs (ensure there's oregano in there) 

1/2 tsp smoked paprika 

50g turkey breast, chopped up

1 egg

Serve with: pasta or pizza sauce

How to 

Preheat oven to 180C

1. Mix everything together except egg. Beat egg and combine with the other ingredients.

2. Divide into 5 greased muffin cups. Bake for about 18min. Cool slightly, remove from tray and serve with sauce!

Ps you can try less cheese and an extra egg white if you want.

Hasselback Sweet Potatoes

I love sweet potato. My favourite way to eat it has always been twice baked (recipe posted before). But this new method may be just as good if not better! This is great to serve at a party because the hasselback effect just looks really.. Cool. 

Usually I don't bake my potatoes with oil but I did use some this time. OMG it makes a huge difference. Like it gets all crispy and stuff :O Look!

I served mine with otah stuffed baked chicken. Just slit a chicken breast, stuffed some otah in the centre, sealed with toothpicks, seasoned and backed it :D 

What you'll need

1 sweet potato (150g ish)

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp butter extract

1/2 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp chopped parsley 

How to

Preheat oven to 200C. 

1. Slice sweet potato 3/4 way down into 0.3 - 0.5 cm thick slices. No need to be too precise actually.

2. Mix olive oil, butter extract, minced garlic and parsley together. Rub mixture all over the sweet potato and don't forget to get between the slices. It helps to use a butter knife!!

3. Bake for 45min. Fan out the slices with a butter knife and your hands. Curve the sweet potato back slightly to help the slices fan out! 

4. Bake for 10 more minutes and eat! If you want you can serve this with greek yogurt and chives :-)