The great thing about cooking this salsa style dish is that it is very versatile and can be eaten as it is or with rice, salad, bread, even spaghetti! It is pretty simple to make too. First, you will need…

carrots, tomatoes, celery, onions, potatoes, bell pepper (capsicum), ketchup, balsamic vinegar, ready-made pasta sauce and

quinoa. I used red quinoa because it’s what I have. You can use pearl quinoa (the white quinoa) or black quinoa, whichever one you like. The cooking method for all types of quinoa is the same. After chopping up all the vegetables into chunks…

You will need to heat up a pot with some olive oil. First, you sautè the onions for a short while and then you add the carrots, tomatoes, capsicum, tomatoes.

After you stir it around for a minute or so, you add the potatoes, celery, sauces and water. Also add a sprinkle of dried mixed herbs for extra flavours. The quinoa is the last one to go in, after adding all the other stuffs. Then, you just leave it to simmer over low fire for close to two hours. If you don’t have the time, just dump all ingredients into the crock pot or slow cooker and leave it to simmer on low overnight. It will be ready the next day! And that’s it. Easy and so darn good, you may want to make it again and again!

So, here’s the recipe:

Wholesome Healthy Quinoa Salsa Stew

Ingredients

3 large carrots, cut into chunks

4 large tomatoes, diced

3 large onions, chopped

2 large potatoes, cut into chunks

3 stalks of celery, diced

1 – 2 capsicum (bell peppers), cut into chunks

1/2 cup red quinoa

5 tbsp pasta sauce

4 tbsp ketchup

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

1 – 2 cups of water (depending on how thick / watery you want it to be)

palm-sized chicken breast, skin removed and sliced thinly or minced. (if you want to add chicken or you can leave it out if you want a vegetarian one)

Instructions

1. Heat up a large pot with some olive oil.

2. Sautè the onions and then add the carrots, capsicum and tomatoes. Stir for a minute or so.

3. Add in the rest of the vegetables (potatoes and celery) and then stir in the sauces.

4. Add water and pour in the uncooked quinoa. Stir to mix the ingredients around.

5. Turn the heat up to medium and let it boil. Add the herbs, then add the minced chicken (or sliced chicken, whichever you like).

6. Turn down the heat to low and leave it to simmer for up to 2 hours. Remember to check on it and stir often to make sure it doesn’t burn.

7. If you are using the crock pot / slow cooker, then you can skip the sauteeing part. Instead, just dump everything in, add the sauces and water and leave it to cook on slow.

Special note: Water is important so you must not leave it out and it is important to add more as quinoa absorbs a lot of water and it needs a lot of water to cook. Here’s how to cook quinoa.

This quinoa recipe is great to go with any food. If you are cutting down on calories, you can eat this as it is with salad as I also like to call this recipe an all-in-one meal which contains vegetables, protein (quinoa is very high in protein) and healthy carbs (potatoes).

If you simply must have rice…

or if you prefer bread…

It is pack full of nutrients from all the vegetables and quinoa so it is not only low in fat (especially if you cook it without the chicken), it is very wholesome and best of all, so good you won’t even feel as if you are eating diet food!

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These are great with coffee, milo, hot chocolate, milk or just as it is! The great things about these cookies are that it’s easy to bake, use very few ingredients and it’s vegetarian!

You first beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Then you add in plain flour and use your hands to mix it in and knead into a smooth dough.

Then you roll it into a log / sausage shape. Place on a sheet of grease proof paper and sprinkle some brown sugar on the paper. Roll the dough over the sugar. Alternatively, you can use icing sugar, cinnamon powder, ground almonds, chopped peanuts or anything you fancy. You can then shape the log into squarish shape or even triangular, up to you.

Then you wrap it up and put it into the fridge to chill till firm. That should be about 30 minutes or so. In fact, you can make this and then keep it in the fridge till you are free to bake it.

Once the dough is firm, remove from fridge, and cut it into thick slices. Then, you can decorate it with chocolate chips, sugared hearts or leave it plain. Bake it for about 20 minutes at 160°C or till it turns brown at the edges. Remove from oven, leave to cool and then keep in air tight container. Keeps well for a week or so.

When I bake it, I shaped it into triangular shape and then after cutting it, I decorated it with sugared hearts. So pretty and nice to serve to guests. Or..

Use chocolate chips to press into the slices before baking and it will turn out just as nice. See?

The best thing about these cookies is that you can also add other ingredients like chocolate chips, chopped nuts, chopped dried fruits, raisins and various flavouring to jazz it up if you don’t want it to be too plain.

Here’s the recipe:

Crunchy Butter Cookies (vegetarian)

Ingredients

1/2 cup superfine sugar (or brown sugar if you like)

3/4 cup butter, softened and diced

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 1/2 cup plain flour

Instructions

1. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla essence.

2. Add the flour and knead into a smooth dough. If you don’t want it to be too plain, you can add chocolate chips or chopped nuts or chopped dates or candied cherries or grated lemon rind or ground cinnamon or almond essence, whatever you fancy.

3.Then roll it into a sausage shape. You can either pat the sides to make it a square log or a triangular log.

4. Sprinkle some brown sugar on a greaseproof paper and then roll the dough over it. Wrap up the dough and refrigerate it till firm (about 30 mins).

5. Remove from fridge, cut into thick slices. You can also decorate the slices with sugared hearts or chocolate chips.

6. Preheat oven to 160°C and bake the cookies for about 20 mins or until it browned  at the edges.

If you want it to be less sweet, you can also reduce the amount of sugar to 1/4 cup or use molasses for a healthier option.

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Imagine my delight when I found a low fat brownie recipe. OMG. I can be on a diet and still eat brownies. It is a life saver, I tell you. Now, this recipe may be low fat, it is not exactly healthy either. It still has sugar and flour and calories. So, do enjoy it but don’t sit right down and eat the whole pan of brownies no matter how tempting it is and no matter how long you’ve been on a diet. Trust me. It is damn tempting but will-power, please. If you finish it in one go, then there won’t be any left tomorrow, right? So, here it is. Just salivate over it.

The low fat chocolate brownies are low fat but the topping is not. It is very simple to make. Really.

Just sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder into the mixing bowl.

We need two eggs.

I used brown sugar instead of white sugar.

Then, add the yogurt, vegetable oil, vanilla and eggs (lightly beaten) to the flour and sugar mixture. Stir till very well mixed.

Pour the mixture into a prepared pan for baking. After about 20 minutes….

You get this!

Here’s the recipe proper:

Very Low Fat Brownies Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used blueberry yogurt)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the baking pan with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the mixing bowl. Add in the sugar.

3. Then mix in the yogurt, eggs, vanilla and vegetable oil. Combine well.

4. Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake for about 20 minutes.

5. Leave in the pan to cool.

Now, for the icing / topping. It is NOT low fat but damn good. If you are really on a diet, don’t use this!

Rich Peanut Butter Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

6 tbsp dark chocolate, broken into small pieces

2 tbsp butter

2 tbsp low fat milk

3 tbsp peanut butter

3 tbsp icing sugar

Instructions

1. Melt the dark chocolate and butter in the microwave for about a minute.

2. Stir and mix the dark chocolate and butter. Add the peanut butter, milk and sugar.

3. Combine well and you will get a smooth, chocolate paste.

4. Scoop onto the brownies and serve.

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It contains dates, almonds, rolled oats and chocolate chips, that’s why it doesn’t need that much sugar.

The actual recipe used chopped pecans and since I don’t have that, I substituted with almonds. All you really need to do is to beat the butter, sugar and egg together and then stir in the rolled oats, seeded dates, almonds and choc chips.

Then scoop spoonfuls of the batter onto the baking tray and bake. You will get these…

Here is the recipe:

Fruit and Nut Choc Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 cup self-raising flour (or use plain flour and add 1 tsp baking powder)

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped seeded dates

1/2 cup chopped, toasted almonds (or pecans)

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Beat butter, sugar and egg until smooth.

2. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly.

3. Roll batter into small balls and place on greased baking sheet. Flatten it slightly with a floured fork.

4. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes.

5. Stand for 5 mins before placing on wire rack to cool.

The cookies contain very little sugar compared to other cookie recipes BUT it is still quite sweet because of the dates and the chocolate chips. The rolled oats definitely added some texture to it and the toasted nuts gave it the extra crunch.

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I baked this cake quite a while bake and did not have the opportunity to bake it again. But still, recipes and pictures don’t grow stale, right?

It is rather easy to make and with quite few ingredients too. Preparation time takes about 20 minutes or so and baking time is about 45 minutes. The results are well worth it. After baking this, you won’t want to eat store-bought butter cakes anymore!

You will need to beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy. As shown here, I used brown sugar because it is healthier and I like the taste better than white sugar.

You will need to add eggs, vanilla essence and milk too.

Just add the egg one at a time and beat thoroughly. Then add the vanilla essence and fold in the flour, alternating with the milk. Then its ready to bake! Here’s the recipe proper:

Simple Rich Butter Cake Recipe

Ingredients

200g butter

1 cup sugar (caster or brown, up to you)

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla essence

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line cake tin.

2. Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy.

3. Add in the egg one at a time as you continue beating.

4. Add in the vanilla essence and mix thoroughly.

5. Fold in the flour and milk alternately.

6. Pour batter into prepared cake tin and bake for about 45 minutes or until cake is done.

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Anyway, the recipe isn’t my own. I found it here. It was actually a recipe for chocolate cookies with vanilla-cream filling. That’s what Oreos are. And the results are…

Homemade Oreos

Okay, so, they don’t look anything like the original Oreos but heck, these are homemade without any machines to shape it and put the logo on it. Still, the taste is absolutely spectacular…if I may say so myself. Ahem.

The steps to making it are pretty easy too.

First, you need to mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar together.

Then, you add the butter and the egg and continue mixing.

No need for elbow power. Just use the hand-mixer or stand-mixer or food processor to continue mixing the ingredients until you get this..

Then, you spoon out blobs of the dough and pat it into round shapes on the baking sheet like this:

Of course, the sizes are a bit uneven but that’s messy me. You can be as precise as you want using a cookie cutter or your very precise hands. Me? I don’t bother. After all, they are ending up in my stomach anyway. Who cares if they are not perfectly round shapes,eh?

Then, you pop these darlings into the oven to bake for about 10 minutes or so.

They are good to eat as it is without the vanilla cream filling. So, if you are not into cream fillings. You can just stop here. Okay, here’s the recipe for the chocolate cookies.

Homemade Oreos Cookies Recipe (Chocolate Cookies Recipe)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 large egg

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190 °C (or 375°F)

2. Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl using a mixer.

3. Add in the butter and then the egg while still using the mixer to mix it all together until you get a sticky dough.

4. Using a spoon, scoop up the dough and place on a baking sheet, about 2 inches apart (so that there’s room for it to spread) and flatten the dough using your hands.

5. Pop into the oven and bake for 9 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Easy, right?

Now, on to the vanilla cream filling which are even easier to make.

Then, using the mixer (again), beat it all together until real creamy like this:

And your vanilla cream filling is ready to be sandwiched! All you need to do is to add a dollop of it to the cookies and sandwich ‘em.

So, you then get these!

I know, I know, the shapes are uneven and they are not perfectly round. But heck, like I said, they are going to the stomach, who cares what they look like? What’s important is what they taste like!

Anyway, here’s the recipe for the vanilla cream filling:

Vanilla Cream Filling Recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups sifted icing sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Place the butter and shortening in the mixing bowl.

2. Using a mixer, beat in the sugar and vanilla.

3. Beat for about 3 mins until the mixture is light and fluffy.

4. Take a spoon and start helping yourself to the yummy sweet cream since there’s lots to go around (heheh..that is if you are into eating the cream from sandwich cookies)

After this, just simply start sandwiching your cookies with teaspoon blobs of the cream and pressing the cookies together. The cream is very light and fluffy in the beginning but will firm up later.

Now, didn’t I say it’s pretty easy to make your very own Oreos at home? Just don’t blame me when you can’t fit into your clothes. I can’t fit into my old clothes either.

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Ice cream sundae

All you need are some plain vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream. For the garnishing, you need chocolate sauce, marshmallow, chocolate chips and plain butter cake (or cheese cake, if you prefer). Just scoop the ice cream onto the dish, dribble on the chocolate sauce, sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and then add the marshmallows and the cake (broken into smaller pieces).

This really hits the spot on a hot afternoon. Or any time of the day. Definitely NOT a diet food. Heh.

Homemade Oreos

Do you know you can make your very own Oreos? Not the exact ones but close enough. I tried making them and let me tell you, it’s really worth the trouble. At least you know what’s in them.

Rich butter cake

I love the smooth, rich taste of butter cake too and the best part is that it’s pretty easy to make too.

What’s missing are some cherries and nuts but since I don’t have that on hand, it will have to do as it is.

Rich butter cookies

Butter cookies are also another simple recipe you can make and enjoy. Once you’ve made your own, you won’t want to buy those manufactured ones EVER. Amazingly, these cookies only need flour, sugar and butter. Easy. I use chocolate chips as decoration.

That’s it for this post. I will be posting up the recipes for the homemade oreos, butter cake and butter cookies pretty soon. Just remember to check back here.

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I had posted an apple and blueberry crumble recipe before this and also an apple crisp recipe, this recipe is almost similar but it is much simpler with less ingredients. It is a recipe where you just use very few basic ingredients and come up with absolutely delicious golden crumbly apple crumble.

All you really need are butter, apples, sugar and flour. Simple and easy.

The first step is to rub the butter into the flour and then add the sugar and mix thoroughly to come up with the crumbly, golden mixture above.

Then, you peel, core and cut the apples into small slices and bake them for about 10 minutes so that they are half-cooked and semi-soft.

After that, you pour the crumbly mixture on top.

Then, you pop it into the oven and bake. Simple, easy and no hassle.

Here’s the recipe proper:

Simple, Easy Apple Crumble Recipe

Ingredients

4 large apples

50g unsalted butter

100g flour

1 tsp baking powder

50g sugar

Instructions

1. Peel, core and slice apples into thin slices and place on baking pan. Bake in the oven at 190°C for about 10 minutes, remove and put aside.

2. While the apples are baking, rub butter into the flour until crumbly.

3. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.

4. Sprinkle the flour mixture on top of the baked apples until it fully covered the apples.

5. Place in the pre-heated oven and bake at 190°C for about 30 minutes.

Best serve warm or with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

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So, this year, I baked the regular plain mooncakes and a batch of chocolate mooncakes too. You can find the recipes in my recipes page. Again, this year, I bought the ready-made fillings of lotus paste, chocolate paste and red bean paste. No point wasting hours cooking the fillings when there are really good ones that we can buy. Besides, they even have sugar free lotus-paste  fillings which I could give to my diabetic grandma.

Anyway, this year, I went easy on the egg glaze and got really chocolatey and nice looking mooncakes.

See? A real improvement compared to last year’s horrid looking ones.

Baked mooncakes are a real time-consuming process as you have to allow for ‘resting’ time of about 10 hours for the raw ingredients before we can wrap the fillings and bake it.The first process is to mix together baking soda, golden syrup, alkaline water and oil in a mixing bowl and then let it rest for about 5 hours.

Then, I sift the flour and cocoa powder together and leave aside until the first ingredients are ready. After five hours, I add some chocolate essence and then fold in the flour into the brown liquid mixture to form a smooth, sticky dough.

Again, I have to let the dough rest for another 6 hours or so. Only after that that I divide the dough into small portions, flatten it and wrap it around the fillings into a ball. Then I push the ball into the plastic moulds I bought last year.

Then I pop those mooncakes into the oven for about 10 minutes. Remove and let it cool for 5 minutes and then brush on the egg glaze and then bake another 3 minutes.Then I get these:

Some of the sizes vary a bit because by the time I waiting 11 hours for the dough to be ready, it was already midnight and let me tell you, moulding mooncakes in the middle of the night is not exactly very accurate when it comes to the size.

Here’s the recipe:

Baked Chocolate Mooncakes Recipe

Ingredients A

400g golden syrup

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tbsp alkaline water

100g corn oil

Ingredients B

450g plain flour, sifted

100g cocoa powder, sifted

Other ingredients

1 tsp chocolate essence

1.5 kg of ready-made lotus paste/ chocolate paste/ red bean paste

Instructions

1. Mix ingredients A in a mixing bowl and let it rest about 5 hours.

2. Sift ingredients B together.

3. After 5 hours, add the chocolate essence to the ingredients A and stir will combined. Then fold in ingredients B. Mix it together until you get a smooth sticky dough. Set aside for another 6 hours.

4. Divide the dough into small balls, about the size of a ping pong ball or smaller depending on the size of your moulds, and then flatten it on a floured surface using a rolling pin. Scoop a generous dollop of fillings onto it and wrap the skin around it.

5. Push the wrapped dough into the floured mould and then gently push it out using the lever (if you are using a wooden mould, then gently knock it out).

6. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the moulded mooncakes on a floured baking pan and bake between 8 to 10 minutes.

7. Remove from oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Then, lightly brush it with some egg glaze to give it some glossy shine. Bake for another 3 – 5 minutes.

8. Once done, remove from oven and let it cool before removing from the baking pan.

Egg Glaze Recipe

Ingredients

1 egg yolk

1/2 tbsp water

a pinch of salt

Instructions

Mix it all together in a bowl and use a pastry brush to lightly brush it on the mooncakes.

Other Mooncake Baking Tips You Should Know:

1. Never over-bake your mooncakes or else it will go out of shape (as I also experienced that last year). So, if your oven is of a higher wattage, bake it for less than 10 minutes, maybe at 8 minutes and after putting the egg glaze, you bake it for another 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Never keep the mooncakes in an airtight container immediately after it has cooled down. It is always best to leave it out in the open, preferably overnight for the skin to soften. You don’t want dry, hard mooncake skin!

3. The golden syrup is important because it is what keeps the mooncake from becoming mouldy (as in fungi growth) too fast.

4. Even with the golden syrup, these are homemade mooncakes so they don’t last as long as commercial mooncakes which may contain added preservatives sp it is best to keep them in a dry cool place and don’t keep for too long.

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Considering I have been limiting my baking activities because I was not in the mood much nowadays, I thought heck, why not? A non-bake cake with loads of cocoa in it sounds simple and good enough.

The reason it’s called Batik Cake is pretty obvious looking at it. It looks like Batik pattern. I think it originated from East Malaysia, well, that’s what I found out when sifting through the numerous recipes available and custom-making it to suit my own taste.

As easy as it sounds, it actually turned out to be quite a lot of work too. But the end result told me it is worth all the work. The ingredient calls for rich tea biscuits (or Marie biscuits), sugar, butter, eggs, cocoa and fresh milk.

First, you smash up the rich tea biscuits into small pieces. This is a good time to let go of any frustrations or stress you have. Just imagine smashing the head of the person who had irritated you. What? The biscuits won’t feel a thing. It is a great stress reliever. Really…okay, if you are all serene and at peace with the world, you can always use the food processor to do the ‘dirty’ work.  Then set it aside for later.

Next, you pour the sugar (I use brown sugar but you can always use regular white sugar), eggs, milk and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine it all together.

Place a pan on the stove, dump the butter in and melt it over low heat. You don’t want to burn it or anything. Then, when it is all melted, you pour in the milk, eggs, flour, sugar and cocoa mixture. Let the mixture cook over low to medium fire until it has thickened. That should take between 10 to 15 minutes. Oh and remember to stir it all the while or else you may burn it.

It should thicken to this consistency. I know it looks lumpy but it is supposed to be like this. This is because the eggs are cooked, thus the lumpiness. But don’t worry, you won’t taste any lumpiness when you eat it later.

Then, you stir in the smashed tea biscuits. By that, I meant, really stir in. Mix it all up really, really well.

Make sure each tiny piece of biscuit is really covered in the thick cocoa mixture.

Then, you can spoon the thick mixture into a pan lined with greaseproof paper and pat it in. Don’t worry about hurting it. Really push it all in and flatten in. You want it to be compact.

To me, no chocolate cake, bake or non-bake, is complete without a nice chocolate ganache topping which I later add to the top. You can leave this out if you want to. After adding the topping, just put the pan into the fridge and let it set for several hours. It is best serve cold with a nice glass of milk. Yummm…

What does it taste like? Well, the tea biscuits gave it a slightly salty, biscuit-y flavour and the chocolate, oh, the chocolate is darn good. It’s like having rich chocolate covered tea biscuits, except better. Much, much better.

Now, here’s the recipe:

Batik Cake Recipe

Ingredients

200g rich tea biscuits (Marie biscuits)

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

250g butter

1 cup cocoa powder (optional: you can also use 1/2 cup cocoa powder and 1/2 cup Milo)

1/2 cup fresh UHT milk

Instructions

1. Smash up the rich tea biscuits and set aside.

2. Combine the sugar, eggs, cocoa and milk in a mixing bowl and mix well.

3. Melt the butter in a pan over low fire and then add in the cocoa mixture.

4. Cook the mixture until it thickened. Remove from heat.

5. Stir in the biscuits and mix it well to ensure the biscuits are all covered in the thick cocoa mixture.

6. Spoon the mixture into a pan, pre-lined with greaseproof paper (if you prefer), and press it all in firmly.

7. Spoon the chocolate ganache topping on top and spread it out evenly with a spatula or the back of the spoon.

8. Refrigerate the mixture for several hours, preferably more than 4 hours, and serve it cold.

Chocolate Ganache Topping Recipe

Ingredients

225g good quality dark chocolate, chopped

115ml heavy cream

60g butter

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a pan over low heat. Add the cream and bring to a boil, careful not to burn it.

2. Pour the butter-cream mixture over the chocolate and stir until melted.

3. The chocolate ganache is ready!

Since I don’t have heavy cream on hand, I didn’t add that but added some icing sugar with more butter and a tablespoon of condensed milk and it turns out pretty okay too. I mostly used non-sweet dark chocolate so the addition of icing sugar did not make it too sweet. However, if you want perfect chocolate topping, do use the heavy cream, it does makes a difference, especially teamed with the batik cake!

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