When we lived in Utah, one of our favorite places to eat breakfast was Kneaders. They are very famous for their chunky cinnamon French toast as well as their other delicious breads and deserts. We would go there usually on Saturday mornings and kick off the weekend with a delicious breakfast. I was very sad when I found out that they don't have any locations in Seattle area. So Saturday mornings would come and go and I found myself daydreaming about those chunky cinnamon French toasts. I could almost taste them. And then I decided to take matters into my own hands and tried to find the magical recipe. It was then when I found out I wasn't the only one having those Saturday morning's cravings. I modified the recipe a little bit (my syrup is a little different) and I really liked it this way too.
I have never been a big fan of fruits growing up. My mom had to always remind me to eat some kind of fruit a day otherwise I wouldn't. So I am sure this post will make my mom and mother-in-law very happy, since every time I talk to them, they ask me if I have eaten plenty of fruits. And then they go on and share with me some recent article they read about the benefits of eating a certain fruit. They are so nice and caring and I love their genuine concern for me, especially now that I am pregnant.
Well, this has become my favorite snack of the day. Apples, pears, tangerines, assorted nuts, cinnamon cookies with a touch of honey - super yummy but above all it's super healthy. Don't get me wrong, I do have those moments when I want to eat nutella all day long, but luckily, recently I've been craving more these healthy snacks and fruits of the season, especially tangerines.
Few days ago, preparing this snack and peeling all the fruits, brought back sweet memories from childhood. I thought of my dear grandma and her garden full of tangerine trees. She would always peel plenty of them and have them ready for me to enjoy. She would not just peel them, but she would make sure to carefully take off all the white little stems from them, leaving only the best part for me to eat.
So if you ever find my peeling tangerines and I have a smile on my face, it's because I am thinking of my grandma. Oh, I miss her dearly.
Yes that day, those tangerines tasted a little sweeter!
It's no secret that I love cooking for my husband and I. I try to cook a different meal every day but sometimes I lack ideas of what to make. On days like these, I try to keep things as simple as possible and make an effortless meal. I have found that these effortless meals turn out to be very tasty in the end.
For this meal, I used fresh salmon sauteed in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt & pepper.
I baked them for about 30 min.
Not wasting any time, I also baked asparagus for about 20 min also sauteed in olive oil, lemon juice and garlic.
In the mean time I boiled 4 potatoes, which after were done I peeled, cut and seasoned with salt & pepper and olive oil.
The final result was delicious. I will definitely make this more often.
The part that I loved was that it took me very little time to prepare this meal and still had plenty of time to do other stuff while the meal was cooking.
Today I am bringing to you a delicious recipe! Pasta is one of my favorite dishes and I always try to experiment with different kind of sauces and ingredients.
Usually I prepare my meals based on what I have in the fridge that day. I try to picture in my mind how the different combination of ingredients would taste together. The ingredients I used for the sauce this time were: 2 finely chopped zucchinis,
1 cup of chopped mushrooms,
1 fresh spinach bunch,
1 cup of shrimps,
olive oil,
wine vinegar,
half lime,
2 tbs butter,
2 tbs all-purpose flour,
1 cup half and half and
different kind of seasonings.
After preparing all the ingredients, I started by cooking the shrimps in a large sauce pan. I sauteed them in olive oil, lime juice, and seasoned them with garlic, salt and pepper. After the shrimps were cooked thoroughly, I added the chopped zucchinis and mushrooms. I added a little more lime juice and let them cook until soft, gradually stirring. When they were almost done, I added the spinach since it only takes it few minutes to cook. In another small pan, I prepared the white sauce by mixing together butter, flour and half and half ( you can also use milk if you don't have half and half)
After the white sauce was ready, I mixed it with the cooked shrimps and veggies.
I cooked the pasta and voila everything was ready.
It was delicious, exactly as I had pictured in my mind.
So first of all, I should say that I love sushi and I was so excited when one of my friends taught me how to make homemade sushi this past summer. Her name is Mia and she was so nice to invite me one day to make sushi with her. Since then I have been making sushi very often because it is so easy and so tasty! I am not an expert, but I am going to share what I know. In this post I am going to show how to make my version of California roll. But you can fill it anything you would like! Ingredients:
1 cup Rice
1 cup water
1/4 cup Rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Sugar
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
1/2 cup imitation Crab meat, finely chopped
Seaweed
1/2 Cucumber peeled and sliced in small pieces
Cream cheese
Step 1
Wash the rice in several changes of water until the rinse water is no longer cloudy, drain well, and place in a covered pan or rice cooker with 1 cup water. Bring pan to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cover the pan. Allow the rice to simmer until the top looks dry, about 15 minutes.
Step 2
Mix the rice vinegar and sugar in a small bowl until the sugar has dissolved, and stir the mixture into the cooked rice, until well combined. allow the rice to cool and set aside.
Step 3
Use a blender to finely chop the imitation crab meat and mix it with mayonnaise in a bowl.
Step 4
Prepare the cucumbers, carrots, cream cheese etc. After you have all the other ingredients ready, it's time to roll the sushi. To roll the sushi, cover the bamboo rolling mat with plastic wrap. Lay a sheet of the seaweed, shiny side down, in the plastic wrap.
With wet fingers, firmly pat a thin layer of the prepared rice, leaving 1/4 inch uncovered at the bottom edge of the sheet. At this point, you can choose to flip the seaweed sheet so the seaweed side is up. I prefer it down, so I am going to show my version, even though the real California roll has the seaweed sheet up.
Step 5
Now is the time to start filling with crab meat, cucumbers, cream cheese, avocado, etc. Place all the ingredients somewhere in the middle of the sheet.
Roll the bamboo into a long roll by first folding the bottom third in then roll it up. It should look like a tube of some sort.
Now remove the sushi roll from the bamboo and cut into small pieces.
