Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
After watching the Great British Bake Off last week, I really wanted to bake biscuits so badly! Due to the summer holiday and busy weekend, I decided to make this super easy Oreo biscuit cupcake! This requires only three basic ingredients and Oreos, of course. If you don’t have Oreos, you could also use crackers.
Love Christmas? Why not try making Christmas dinner in summer? Recently, you may have seen on Twitter or Facebook a trend of people sharing Christmas in July which reminded me that we’re over halfway through the year and so Christmas is not that far off now! It is always a holiday I look forward to because it is a day that is usually filled with laughter with families. Anyway, I am going to give a twist to this Christmas dinner I made. It is a kind of Asian fusion meal with a summer twist!
When you think about Christmas, you will think about Turkey! So sticking with tradition, I am using Turkey meat. However, that’s where the similarities end as I wanted to use my Asian background to make it a fusion between the two cultures.
This summer holiday, we have been very busy whisking, mixing and baking! Both of my children love helping me in the kitchen and making a lot of mess! Rarely a day goes where my kitchen is not filled with mess!
After successfully baking the butternut squash muffins and butternut squash & raspberry traybake, this week we have baked the carrot cupcake ice cream cone. This recipe is very simple and as you add in grated carrot into the mixture, you get the hidden benefit of eating some veg! Both my children enjoyed it even thought they knew there was carrot in it. They didn’t taste any difference to any other cake. Another success of hidden vegetables in a cake recipe!
Earlier this month, I had a wonderful opportunity to try two different types of healthy range foods. First was the SkinnyLicious range of healthy Glorious soups and then there was Uncle Ben’s new range of wholesome, great-tasting Rice & Grain varieties!
Introducing the SkinnyLicious soup range of Glorious Soup which is perfect for those seeking a guilt-free, healthy indulgence. Each SkinnyLicious soup is less than 2% fat and under 150 calories per portion. They are suitable for vegetarians, and others in the range are suitable for vegans and those with gluten allergies. For the past few weeks, I have been to Tesco and Waitrose to stock up. I am pleased that both supermarkets stock different ranges of flavours and I was able to try them all out!
A few months ago, I tried to bake Jamie Oliver’s Butternut Squash Muffins and it was a great success. I am not a big fan of vegetable cakes like carrot cake but I love the idea of hidden vegetables in cake. Ever since I tried the muffins, I’ve loved it. So I decided to make a Butternut Squash & Raspberry traybake for my Lichfield Mandarin Club’s party. This was my first time baking it and all the children and parents loved it. They all couldn’t detect the butternut squash. The only let down was that the raspberries were slightly sour!
Last weekend, I invited a few friends over for a drink and a catch up but unfortunately I was ill. They all turned up but I didn’t get chance to take many photos. I made this super easy cheesecake that does not require baking. All you need to do is mix!
I have used Oreo biscuits for the base and it can get quite sweet. If you prefer less sweet, replace it with digestive biscuits instead. To make the base, I always use these measurements in these proportions: 100g of biscuits mixed with 50g of melted butter. This is what I used for my no bake Chocolate Cheesecake.
These few weeks I have seen people post Wimbledon themed cakes and I decided to make some too! This is a classic Victoria sponge recipe but instead of vanilla essence, I have swapped it with rose water.
Last week, Dennis The Menace’s fun factory opened its doors to the public at the Redhill Brewers Fayre. This was our first time visiting Dennis The Menace’s fun factory. We were very impressed with all the Dennis The Menace decorations and high standard of soft play facilities. Both our children enjoying sliding down the long curvy slide, climbing over the obstacles and through tunnels.
Did you all have a picnic last week for National Picnic Week? We did! We were blessed with nice weather and so we were able to go to Beacon Park. The pollen count was high too. Mr K and I suffer from hay fever but luckily we had prepared for the worst!
Once again, Warburtons have not disappointed me with their products. Yet again, they have brought out another innovative and quirky sandwich! Sandwich thins shaped in Cat and Van designs! What a clever idea to add fun into our food. These designs give us so many ways to be creative and to make the sandwich look more appetising!
Recently, I came across Tg Green Teas via Twitter and have had the opportunity to try them out. I am an iced tea lover and bought a ton of ready to drink (RTD) tea from Waitrose! I always wished that the UK market stocked more green tea or other healthy flavour iced teas. It is difficult to find RTD tea in corner shops or even at Boots or WHSmith.
Warburtons Thin Bagel was such a great hit in this household that we had it for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Last week, we had been trying out Warburtons three new bagel flavours: Cinnamon & Raisin, Sesame, and Plain.
As many people know, bagels are usually very dense and chewy. Warburtons new bagel is very much different! It has the same authentic bagel taste and texture but just thinner which is so much easier to eat.
As many of you may know, the brand new Minions movie hits cinemas on 26th June 2015! We can’t wait to watch it now! To celebrate, Green Giant is challenging bloggers to create the ultimate Minion-inspired summer snack.
So I created these Minions sweet corn steamed cakes! I can understand that it might sound weird for some people but in fact, in Asian countries, sweet corn is used in many recipes. We even have sweet corn ice cream, sweet corn jelly and not forgetting the popular chicken with sweet corn soup as found in many Chinese takeaways and restaurants.
Most children love cake! But not all children love vegetables! By combining these two together, we made sweet corn cakes! Sweet corn is naturally sweet, healthy and nutritious!
This is my second month reviewing this Degustabox. Yet again, another interesting set of food and drink products. This time around, the theme is BBQ. I’m afraid to say that the weather has been too terrible for BBQs. Nevertheless we have had our own ‘BBQ’ chicken cooked in the oven over the bank holiday!
Before I go into more detail, let me recap on what is Degustabox? It is simply a monthly subscription food & drink box. Each month, you will receive 9 – 14 different types of food & drink products and many are completely new to the market. You only pay £12.99 including delivery. There is no commitment and you can cancel any time. If you do like this idea, use this code 35SRB to give you a £3.00 discount when registering! If you don’t drink alcohol, you can opt to receive an alcohol free box!
Opening the box, all the items were neatly packed even through transit. Plenty of bubble wrap is used to protect those breakable items. They also included product information and a flyer/recipe. The flyer has information to help you to understand where the foods have come from and the RRP. On the back of the flyer is the recipe.
I am not a fitness fanatic nor a vegetarian! But green juicing is no longer just for them. Green juices are great if you are keen to improve your overall health, well-being and physical appearance as well as helping to reduce your weight in a controlled diet.
I have recently come across the Clean & Green book from Parragon. I love the sound of the book and look forward to trying many of the recipes.
My son has been watching quite a lot of video on YouTube and one of the videos he saw was about unwrapping a food box and trying out the snacks in it. So he asked my sister who happened to be working in Japan at the time to make him a box.
I asked her to get us a small box of candies and I was so surprised to receive a huge box of Japanese goodies! Some of them are my favourites too! I have been to Japan three times for holidays and I am totally in love with the place and their cute ‘kawaii’ foods/snacks. They place emphasis on the emotive packaging and pay extra attention to detail. It makes the food so appealing!
