I am a big fan of peanut butter . I could eat them everyday , but i have to really careful with it since peanut butter is still high in calories , especially on fat . No matter how you look at it , yes nutrition wise , it is healthy , a better choice than eating Nutella . But if you don’t watch how much you put that peanut butter on your rice cake or bread , banana , apples , or anything , it adds up ! So , i have been thinking what would peanut butter powder do if we mix it with plain greek yogurt .…

Who needs Popeye’s red beans & rice when you can make them yourself at home . And with instapot making this red bean & rice is so easy and quick . No soaking beans overnight required and it only takes a little bit over an hour to get this to your dinner table . My family loves red beans & rice , and this time i make sure i blog about it before i forget , like i did the first time . I read somewhere to make an authentic red beans & rice , you need to use Camellia Red Beans , one of these days i will need…

The other day my husband mentioned about this chicken parmigiana , he said it’s been a while since i made them . Funny thing is he browsed through this blog , and found the picture , originally he said chicken with the red sauce . I couldn’t think of anything , until he showed me the picture that he found on this blog . I blogged about that years and years ago . This version is a healthier version of that chicken parmigiana . The one sure way to make this healthy is by using boneless skinless chicken breast . I have to admit that chicken thighs are still my…

Sometimes eating chicken breast everyday can be pretty boring , that’s why a good spice mix is highly suggested . I have a drawer in my kitchen full of spices . From blackened spice rub , taco spice mix , to jerk seasoning , ras el hanout , and yesterday i made shawarma spice mix . I was browsing some light and healthy cooking ideas before i ran into this chicken shawarma . Funny enough , i’ve heard and seen the food is offered to many places i’ve been to , middle eastern restaurant . But i just never had them . I mixed some spices , which is pretty…

When i was younger , my mom and I used to go to this one famous bakery in our hometown . The name was ‘Toko Oen’ and from the looks of it , it still the same from the outside . This bakery is a dutch influence bakery , they are very famous . They had all kinds of pastry , bread , ice cream and sandwiches . Although i hardly had any of their sandwiches , my mom’s favorite item to get from this bakery was Roti Kismis . Which is Raisin Bread . Unlike here in the United States , a lot of bakery in Asia , sells…

Do you know the simpler the food you prepare , the better and healthier they are for you ? The more complicated the ingredients , the more chances it has higher calories and probably not so macro friendly . I love simple food , easy and quick to fix . Great for busy nights . I used to love to prepare complicated food , well , i still do , once in a while , it’s fun. But quick and simple food is probably what we all want to do after a busy day . Especially when you need to cook every single day. Leading vending machine service provider in…

The past couple years i’ve made a lot of these little muffins , which is great for snack anytime of the day or when i had to drive my son half an hour away for school , an hour back and forth , i brought this in the car with me for a workout boost . Basic recipe is similar to banana muffins , i added peanut butter powder in here , less egg and replaced part of it with liquid egg whites , to lower the fat . Still using old fashioned oats in the batter . Easy and quick , when you have those overripe bananas laying around…

Who doesn’t love chicken sandwich ? You know that kind like fast food chain .. the famous fast food chain we all love . I am talking about chick fil a chicken sandwich . During the lockdown , obviously we weren’t able to go out and get our favorite chicken sandwich . Which was a blessing in a way because since then i haven’t been eating out at all . We ordered for the first time just couple of months ago but we haven’t been eating any fast food stuff . So back during lockdown , i was busy baking and cooking , making the sandwich buns which led me…

Of course everyone loves cinnamon rolls . My family always enjoy them . Unfortunately i don’t make it often like i used to . Not these past several years . Since we’re eating healthier , i still allow myself to make treats , just not that often . My teenage son loves cinnamon rolls . I don’t think i ever bought cinnamon rolls from cinnabon . Why would i when you can make your own cinnamon rolls . On top of that .. the macros on these rolls are much easier to fit into your daily meal . Yesterday i made one batch of cinnamon rolls because i had intention…

We love pho noodle , but it has been months since we had it . To be exact it’s probably been 7 months , and since we haven’t been eating out since the lockdown , we decided , if we can’t go to our favorite Vietnamese restaurant for pho noodle soup , i supposed i can learn how to make it and bring it to our own dinner table . After all , it shouldn’t be too hard to make , although i was told before it takes hours to make the good broth . And it was , it was about 5 hours or so . The Asian market…

Cornbread is always good to go along with bean soup . But even to eat it alone is good too . So easy and no mess , and quick . You can always use a square pan for this , but i thought it’d be easier to track the macros per piece by putting it in a muffin pan . This cornbread batter makes about 12 muffins , and you can add any kind of topping you want or leaving it as a plain one too . I used jalapeno the other day , you can use corn too i suppose , this is not really moist cornbread , it’s…

Beef and noodles is one of those favorite comfort food that we like to eat often but probably we shouldn’t . They’re good , and easy to make , as they’re comfort food , and loaded with carbs . Nothing bad of course with carbs , but you know how hard it is to eat one serving pasta ( noodles ) ? yes .. it’s hard , you’d be surprised what one serving is in pasta world . So anyway , i have my old recipe of the Amish Beef and Noodles , and i am just going to update a little bit in this entry . The original older…

New year’s day and black eyed pea soup is in the menu . I love bean soup , all sort of bean soup . Back when we were living in Houston , our neighbor told us about this black eyed pea soup is a must eat for new year’s day . No wonder around new year’s day , the grocery store was displaying black eyed peas bag everywhere . I like to add ham , or some kind of meat into the bean soup . Usually i would have leftovers from spiral ham , except this past year we only bought ham once during Easter and we only had turkey…

Another food that reminds me of my childhood , especially around holiday , my Grandma’s house would be full of people , everyone was in charged either to bring something or to cook something . One of my uncle , my grandma’s youngest son in law at the time , would be in charged to make Ca Yen , it is deep fried chinese meatballs . In the US , when you think of meatballs , it’s mostly meatballs and spaghetti . But these meatballs are made from pork and shrimp , with eggs , tapioca and cornstarch , soy sauce and fish sauce . It is a messy business…

Nasi Goreng is the most common food you can find in Indonesia . Everyone knows how to cook Nasi Goreng , or as we know it over here , Fried Rice . It’s a little different with Chinese Fried Rice , the Indonesian uses shallots , garlic , tomatoes , etc while the chinese fried rice mainly uses soy sauce . Growing up in Indonesia , we used to have this street vendor during dinner time , selling all kinds of food , maybe it’s satay ( grilled chicken on a stick with peanut sauce ) , fried rice , fruit salad , meatball soup ( bakso ) , all…

Usually we like to have taco on Tuesdays , but this morning i mentioned about why not trying to make our own burritos . How hard can it be ? The filling shouldn’t be easy to make , the way i look at it , it’s like making a huge enchiladas anyway . So it was just a last minute thing when i decided we’re having burrito for tonight . I thought it would be a better idea making our own too , thinking about how much my family loves burrito , the boys love to order burritos when we used to go our favorite mexican restaurant . I usually…

I don’t think i ever made any rum balls before we moved to Tennessee . I am sure it was already popular back then , but just never thought of making them . The first year we’re here , i made them , i remember how my stylist was really enjoying them , she kept raving about how yummy the cookies especially the rum balls . The year after i think i skipped making them . Until last year i started making them again and took them to my friend’s christmas party . There was a funny story about this . She had a slow cooker full of hot cocoa…

I love sweet bread , ,such as conchas , the mexican sweet buns . I also happen to love Japanese Melonpan , the two are quite similar . One bread dough using condensed milk , the other just using powdered dry milk . One bread has sweet cookie like topping . So , why not mixing them together , i think they turn out pretty delicious together . If you’re looking for my original conchas , recipe , click here . And if you’re looking the Japanese Melonpan , it’s also here . They both are older posts . The recipe below are mix between the two sweet buns .…

A cold night deserve a yummy , delicious and warm chili . There are so many version out there . I even made several different ones . When i am short on time and suddenly i want chili , i make the quick beef / turkey chili . When i do have time , the slow cooker chili is the way to go . Or i can use dutch oven and waiting for it to be cooked for the next couple hours , yes , i’ve done this too . I even put bacon in that dutch oven chili . But this recipe i adapted from NYT , loads of…

Tiramisu is my son’s favorite dessert , yes it is Italian dessert . The good thing about this is that it is practically no bake dessert . The ingredients are pretty much easy to get and it tastes super delicious . It is also one of my favorite sweets . If you like coffee stuff , this probably would suit your taste . There are the raw egg yolk version out there , but this one is actually my older recipe , and it has no raw egg yolks , instead i used custard , which is made from yolks too . Just like when making the filling for eclairs…