BANANA BREAD MADELEINES (GF)

Pretty Banana Bread Madeleines (gluten free)

How long can a working mom sustain this bento madness?

these madeleines were so much tastier with banana bread batter and stay moist so much longer!

So it's been 2 days of school lunches and I have tweeted my kids' bento lunches each day.  Zowee! on a roll!

Banana Bread madeleine (gf), Mini Coeur de Lion cheese, Ham between Pumpkin/Veggie Bread

I have been tweeking my gluten free banana bread recipe to the point of near perfection.  It has: coconut oil, free range eggs, 7 bananas, my hand-blended GF flour, lots of psyllium husks for fiber and brown sugar.  It tastes amazing.  Since I'm the only gluten intolerant person in this household, I have to make sure my baking is yummy enough for all to eat.  This one's a winner.  yummo!

watermelon in the mini lunchbots leakproof stainless steel container & lunchbot quad with banana bread madeleine (gf), coeur de lion mini cheese, strawberries & flower-shaped ham sandwiches using whole grain pumpkin bread

I decided to plop some of the batter in my madeleine pan to bake because the shell shapes would be perfect for the bento box Quadrant!  And it was.

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PNE Foodie Eats

Every kid has to experience those Mini Donuts at the PNE!  

This year did not disappoint for all things nostalgic.  I don't think I've missed many PNE fairs over my lifetime.  Growing up on the East side, a stone's throw from the Pacific National Exhibition, my parents always took us every year. Back then, I recall the smash'em up derbies at night and the lumberjack show. These things I think are no more, but ah well. 

My kiddos love to see the Superdogs and it's practically the first thing we catch after we enter the fair grounds.  This year, instead of the Peking Acrobats, we stuck around the barn to watch the pig races for the first time.  Um. No offense to pig lovers, but we won't be doing that again.  

Bebe bugged us relentlessly to go on the rickety old wooden rollercoaster.  I recall in my youth going on the rollercoaster 8 times consecutively. Hee. It was a teenage thing to do and there was absolutely no lineup so we really got a good adrenalin rush.  Since Bib's only 6, she and Stomach went on the kiddie rides.  It is my duty as the less centrifugally-challenged parent to go on all the big rides.  So we did.  It was fantastically quick but a wickedly great ride.  Afterwards, we caught up with them and spotted Stomach riding with Bib in the helicopter ride.  Lol. The look on his face.  

An outing out to the PNE is never complete without the requisite cheap, hole in the wall Chinese food to end the day.  We went to Penny's on E. Hastings (I can't count the number of times my parents had ordered out and eaten in here in my youth).  Not much has changed here.  The same red naugahyde metal chairs, the same humongous menus.  Stomach exclaimed after our meal of Bok choy with squid, scallops and prawns; Chow mein with gailan and beef; Vegetable egg foo yung (my fave childhood dish--comfort food!)..."gee, we should eat on the Eastside more often."  Yah. No kidding.  The portions are huge compared to the dinky West side or Richmond portions.  Read: *cheap*.

So we decided right then and there to make more frequent outings back to my Eastside roots on a regular basis for shopping and food.  My plan is to hit: Penny's or Koko's for grub, Gourmet Warehouse, Fujiya and Santa Barbara market on The Drive. 

Good times. 

The PNE is the signpost that Labour Day--the saddest holiday in the calendar--is around the corner and Fall is fast approaching. You can practically hear the collective wistful sigh of children and imagine the heave of relief of parents across the country.

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LUNCHBOX BENTO: Even a Kid Could Do It

Carrots and Ranch Dip, 1 mini flower-shaped Coconut Mochi, Flower and Leaf shaped ham sandwiches, Strawberries and Grapes

Sometimes we wish our kids would stay babies forever.  I was never one of those adults who fawned over newborns though (except mine lol!)

I always looked forward to the day my kids would grow up and be independent.   This year as Bebe (for my food blog she keeps the baby nickname ok?) turned 10 I have consistently pushed her to do more on her own.  Along the way, 6 yo Bib (her alias sure tells you how long I've had my food blog!) kind of started doing things her older sister has to do too.  

These beans were grown from one bean seed Bib planted in Kindergarten.  She brought home the little plant and we plunked it in our backyard veggie garden.  Bib actually ate her beans too!

Gradually, along with tidying up their own rooms and picking up after their toys everyday, I've added more chores.  Right after swim lessons both do the laundry.  I taught Bebe how to operate the washing machine and dryer and she does the towels.  Bib washes the swimsuits in Zero by hand and hangs them to dry.  Yes, Bib isn't strong enough to wring the suits dry enough so that sometimes the next morning they are too damp, but a mom's got to let go of things, right?

After watching me make their lunches in the lunchbot quad containers, they were able to make their own lunches today.  Yay!  Happy dance!  I intend to get them involved in the new school year with making more of their own lunches and snacks. Bebe already uses the microwave and can cook basic things supervised.  Hopefully this will pave the way for even more independence and teach them some mindfulness about food, responsibilities and to not take things for granted! 

I chuckled out loud in the past in the lunchtime hallways when I saw my high school students' freshly made lunches delivered hot to the school doors on ceramic plates covered with foil by their stay-at-home moms.  [OK, I'll come clean:  I'll still laugh and razz 18 yo boys who have their moms deliver their lunches to them!]  This will never be me or my kids.  I wonder about whether or not the values I am teaching my kids are getting through to them and am awestruck by how parents' love can be shown in such diverse and divergent ways.  There's no denying we love 'em.

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COCONUT BUTTER MOCHI (GF)

Coconut Butter Mochi cakes are gluten free additions to a school lunchbox. And they look cute in the mini flower shape.




Cut the mochi cakes small.  They are each probably like a kajillion calories but it's a little sweet treat that will put a smile on your face (and your kids' faces too).



Made of sweet glutinous rice flour (a misnomer because there is no gluten in rice), these little cakes are chewy and similar in texture to huge gummies.  Kinda. Well, actually they're like a hybrid gummy-cake texture. I think? The crust is the best part too. This recipe has both coconut milk and evaporated milk but can be adapted to be all coconut milk and you can definitely reduce the butter or substitute with other fats.  Let the adaptations begin!   However, I wanted a recipe that would taste like Hawaii so I didn't change anything.  This one tastes exactly like the mochi I had on our recent trip to Maui.

The recipe I used is from HERE.

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Lunchbots Quad Bento Lunchbox: Floral Fun

Ham sandwich flowers, baby carrots with ranch dip (in round container), blueberries,cantaloupe flowers watermelon flowers and a pineapple skewer.




Ok. Just practicing to see how long it would take to make a kind of healthy bento lunch for the kids.  Not bad.  everything was put together fast because I used the same cutter and foods were compartmentalized.  With the Lunchbox Quad it seems easier because I don't have to worry too much about variety.  The quad forces me to put in different things.

I used my metal flower cookie cutter to cut out the sandwich and fruit shapes.  That feels somewhat good because I haven't been baking much >.< and my bakeware has been sitting unused for a while.

I am thinking about making some other mini foods for the quad.  The gurlz love mini foods and I think making bento could re-invigorate my lack of passion for baking since going GF.

On my to do list:  mochi cakes, mini shortbread lavender cookies, mini scones, mini frittattas...

I'm getting excited thinking about it :)
Hope I can keep it up through crazy September!

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MOMMY, I NEED SOME GLUTEN COOKIES!

Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Nirvana Cookies

Guilty as charged.



I'm baking with wheat flour.  GF friends, avert your eyes!   My (almost) 10 year old approached me the other day and buttered me up with the statement that she really likes my baking and wished I would bake more often.  I asked her what she wanted me to make and she said "something with gluten!"

Well, yah. About that.  As you've noticed my food blog dedicated to my love for cake has morphed a tad over the last couple of years to include mostly Gluten Free baked goods recipes since my Hashi's diagnosis.  I'm the only one in the family who's gluten intolerant.  I figured that the kids wouldn't really mind if I didn't bake gluteny ever again.  Wrong.  Obviously they miss it.

So here I am making a huge batch of my favourite Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Nirvana Cookies (based on Jacques Torres' recipe) and dumping in the real thing: wheat flour. Yikes.  I know I won't be able to eat the cookies.  So I decided to refrigerate the rest of the batch and bake one sheet at a time because I hate to see good cookies go stale.   A sheet will last the two kids about 2 days I figure.

Also, I was intending to bake a fresh sheet of cookies for company during the summer.  You know, to accompany that tall glass o' lemonade while chatting with friends about how fast summer's passing while sitting on your deck.

Here's the recipe BELOW if you're inclined to make it (it's a winner!)


chocolate chunk nirvana cookies from Ms K on Vimeo.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Nirvana

makes 3 dozen ridiculously large cookies

adapted from Jacques Torres' A Year in Chocolate

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour [I used organic, unbleached]

2 t salt

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

1 1/4 cups plus 2 1/2 T granulated sugar [I used organic evaporated cane sugar]

3 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten

2 t pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 pounds bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bite-sized pieces [I used Lindt Dark(85%) chocolate bars and broke along the lines]

1 cup white chocolate pieces [I used Callebaut]

• Preheat the oven to 325°F. Have ready 2 nonstick cookie sheets, or line 2 regular cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Set aside.
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very light and fluffy. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat until well blended. Add the eggs and beat just until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture a little at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated. When all of the flour mixture has been incorporated, remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate.
• To shape the cookies, using a tablespoon, scoop out a heaping spoonful of the dough and, using the palms of your hands, form it into a 3-inch ball. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
• Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven, transfer the cookies to wire racks, and let cool completely.
• Store, in an airtight container, for up to 5 days.
• [cakebrained note: I keep prepared dough in their 3-inch ball shapes, refrigerated in a ziploc bag for a few days and bake as I need them. I only ever bake 6 cookies on a sheet at one time. This way you have a constant supply of fresh cookies. They're so good hot from the oven! Alternately, you can freeze the cookie balls too and keep them longer, but you may have to add a few minutes to the baking time]

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SUMMER FOODIE HIGHLIGHTS:DEHYDRATED KALE (GF) AND PORTLAND

Forgive me for I have sinned:  I ate this voodoo doughnut.  But when in Portland, one must indulge.  I love it when the red jelly oozes out of the centre of the chocolate frosting covered long-john.  fab.

Oh yah. Summer.  It's been a while since I've posted what with life, teaching and mentoring.  I am taking this summer off and really trying to de-stress.  So what's new? I've purchased a new Fuji X100S camera.  It's retro cool.  All the pics here were taken with it.  I haven't figured out how to use it yet...but that'll come with time and practice.

Portland Creme doughnut from downtown Voodoo Doughnuts

So this is a post about all the groovy foodie things I've experienced so far in July.  geez.  The month's only half over.  Highlights for me are cycling to the various local markets in Vancouver.  We've hit about 4 of them so far and I've fallen hard for the vendors' amazing produce and tasty tiny strawberries!

My fave: the Gaybar!  it's filled with pastry cream and topped with rainbow fruit loops

not my fave: I don't like soggy cereal on my doughnuts apparently.  This is Captain my Captain (crunch--not)

Also, we visited my fave U.S. city...Portland, Oregon a week ago.  We stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown Portland again because I just love the Art Deco building and the Happy Hour every day (along with the comp cooked to order breakfasts!)  As well, they are a mere 2 blocks' walk from Voodoo Doughnuts! and the Saturday Market! yikes! so much coolness--of course I had to indulge. Yes, I know...gluten.  I did my best to be GF for as long as possible.  I waited until the end of the trip to eat half a doughnut and see how my stomach took it (and in case I doubled-up in pain in the beginning of the trip...not a good thing).  It went relatively well; I ate the other half and brought the box up to Vancouver.

Maple Bacon: another fave.  You can't go wrong with bacon.

Yes, good things DO come in pink boxes.  I'm wondering why we don't use pink boxes in Vancouver, Canada?

But, what was better than Voodoo Doughnuts this time? well, we were wandering around Portland's Chinatown and came across this tea house called Red Robe Tea House & Cafe.  It was the cleanest and coolest place I experienced in this slice of the city.  Inside, there's dark wood and tea ceremony paraphernalia everywhere! I was in heaven.  Of course, they have bubble teas too (which my kids ordered).  I ordered a 2006 Pu Erh.  I don't know my Chinese teas too well but I know that good Pu Erhs are better aged...the older the better.  I also know that Pu Erh suits my constitution because some old Chinese guy told me so when I visited a tea shoppe in Vancouver's Chinatown.  I used to drink tons of green tea and it was too "cooling" since I'm hypothyroid and have Hashimoto's.  So he suggested Pu Erh (Bo Lay in Cantonese).  I haven't gone back to green tea much since then and have since learned of its benefits:  weight loss, vitamins B1, B2, C and E, potassium, magnesium, zinc which I need apparently because of my Hashi's, and a bunch o' others which I think you can google later (anti-oxidants, digestion, lowering cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, increasing metabolism, "blood cleansing"?)  if you want!  All I know from growing up is that my parents always drunk it...it was the default Chinese tea in the pantry.  My father always told me as I recall...that if you eat a lot of greasy food (i.e. dimsum or a huge bag o chips) you've got to accompany it with a huge pot of Pu Erh (Bo Lay) to counteract the grease.  It works.  Trust me.  You'll feel better.  Steep it dark.  Real dark.

Chinese Tea Ceremony with 2006 Pu Erh Tea at Red Robe Tea House and Cafe in Chinatown,  Portland, Oregon.

The service was so friendly and helpful and the waitress I think was the owner's daughter.  She was a cutie and very helpful with informing me about what to order.  The young lady's parents entertained my kids by showing them what the Chinese tea ceremony "tea pets" could do.  My kids wanted a little Yixing clay piggy but alas, I didn't buy it.  I should have.  One of the piggies squirted water when you poured hot water over it! that was so cute.  The resin figurines changed colour when you pour hot water over them.

tea pets: some are made of Yixing Clay (highly prized "purple clay" from China) and others made of resin

pouring hot water on the Yixing clay and resin "tea pets"

I'm hooked: fantastic tea that gives over a dozen or more infusions served in a tiny tea cup and with all the tea paraphernalia.  

You know me, as soon as the chinese tea ceremony started, I knew I wouldn't leave the shoppe without some sort of tea ceremony paraphernalia.  I purchased a few things I'll post about later.  heehee. btw, I already have a collection of a few Yixing teapots that are a few decades old.  As the pots age, they take on the flavour of the tea leaves that you've chosen to use in the pots.

Yixing teapot: one mini "purple" clay teapot is used to steep only one variety of tea.  Good reason to have several different teapots! They're so cute

In case you didn't know, a Chinese tea ceremony isn't anything like a Japanese tea ceremony where everything has to be precise and seems quite formal.  A Chinese tea ceremony in fact is more relaxing (you don't have to worry about the details as much) and can be just as zen-like.  

I found not too many good videos on youtube showing the Chinese tea ceremony.  Too many of them are Chinesey---i.e. I have no idea how to translate as I don't speak/understand Chinese.  Some of the videos are shot by tourists; thus the multiple flashes and also there's an air of the performance for the tourist, which to me is kind of meh.  So far, the best take on the tea ceremony I've appreciated aesthetically is this one:

Maybe I like this video simply because I'm addicted to the music, which I happened to go and purchase almost immediately for my ios devices:  the Green Tara Mantra.  I now have 3 versions of the mantra!  I sit out on my deck with my tea ceremony stuff and my buddha statue and loop the 3 songs.  It's so relaxing for me anyways...perhaps my neighbours aren't so happy about me blasting yoga music in my backyard :p

My daughter's fave is called "Mantra of Joy" by Xu Qing-Yuan (which is the one being played in the background in the youtube video I posted).  I also have "Green Tara Mantra" from Surya and "Mantra of the Green Tara" from Imee Ooi.  Sing with me if you've got the ear-worm now:  Om Tara Tuttare Ture Soha... (repeat that 108 times now!)  My 6 year old loves the song because she's memorized the words pretty easily.

By the way, if you're wanting some Chinese tea ceremony stuff and you're in Vancouver, I suggest you go visit The Chinese Tea Shop in Chinatown, Vancouver.  I purchased quality Pu Erh there and they also have the Yixing teapots and stuff too.  I posted about my previous purchase here.

fresh organic Kale...you know what I'm gonna do to you

Another highlight of my summer thus far: dehydrated kale chips.  Yah. I know, you've already had it and think it's great too! However, I had completely forgotten that I had a dehydration feature on my Wolf oven.  I had been baking them at 350 degrees F...which sometimes imparted a burnt flavour to some of the tinier leaves.  Now, I bake at 140 degrees F and they're perfectly dry in a couple of hours.  I like them dehydrated more than baked.  Even the kiddies love 'em and they DON'T EAT VEGGIES!  lol! they think they taste like chips!  *doing the happy dance*!

wash and spin you dry

I think it's important to buy organic kale if you're going to bother dehydrating kale.  I also bought a bag of nutritional yeast and like to toss that in with the oil to create a slurry and then massage the leaves with the mixture.  I find that this more evenly distributes the flavouring on the kale rather than drizzling on the leaves and sprinkling the dry ingredients later.

Mix a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with garlic powder, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper to taste.  Massage the flavour paste into the leaves and spread on parchment lined sheets

For me, one bunch of kale (a huge bunch!) makes 3 sheets of dehydrated kale.  They shrink down considerably after dehydration and don't last long in the house. The kids inhale the chips like they're junk food.

Dehydrate at 140 degees F for a couple of hours.  I use my Wolf Oven (which incidentally has the ability to go down to 85 degrees F if need be).  I stuck a wooden spoon in the door to keep the door ajar and waited until the leaves were shatteringly crispy.  

These were shatteringly crispy good.

The nutritional yeast gives it a kind of cheesy flavour.  The garlic powder is a must.  You can add a myriad of other seasonings but I like it simple.

July has been mighty fine thus far.  I'm hoping you're having a good one.  Since the doughnut incident, I've eaten GF clean since.  However, in the summer I also dabble in the Paleo lifestyle.  I can't go long without sugar though of course, so I do Paleo part-time but I've been back on the Fitocracy bandwagon almost every day since summer started.  Love that site.  great people.  Love my kettlebells too.

More exciting foodie experiences are coming up so stay tuned!

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