Breakfast Favorite

I love food. And between all meals, I don't think I can choose a favorite. But today is about breakfast. Only a few years ago I discovered the amazing-ness that is cottage cheese. When I can get it (not in Peru) I eat it alll the time. Especially for breakfast. Here's what I like.

cottage cheese! add some raisins, almonds or nuts, and a touch of cinnamon for a little sweetness. Perfect.

What's your go-to breakfast? 

Sesame Kale Chips

These chips are SO simple and tasty! My little 6 year old friend loves them too - he said he would rather have a boxful of kale chips than a boxful of candy. How sweet is that! 

How to make Sesame Kale Chips:

1. Wash and air dry kale

2. Mix in a bowl with olive oil, ground Himalayan salt, and sesame seeds

3. Toast in oven for 15 minutes on 325*F

4. Take out and eat 'em up! 

Tip: I found they're best when crunchy, kind of like a seaweed texture. So it's better to not put them in a bag because the moisture takes away the crunch. Just put them in a bowl and they probably won't last long either ;)

Candy Cane Vanilla Cupcakes {+ Holiday Photos}

Happy belated Christmahanakwanzika! Whatever you celebrated (or didn't) I truly wish everyone lots of love and joy this season. I am so so happy to be able to be back visiting my family and seeing everyone. Being away just makes it that much more special and I am so grateful!

Now, if you didn't catch the holiday flash mob post from Tuesday Tunes, it's worth checking out...This post is two part = double the fun, right?! First I'll be sharing a fun holiday cupcake recipe I whipped up the other day with my mom. And then some photos from these past few days of festivities! Let's get bakin' ~

Christmas is all about the flavors of the season, wouldn't you agree? So we decided to make some vanilla cupcakes with a peppermint twist.

Here's what we used:
~ box of cupcake mix (we totally cheated - it's better if made from scratch!)
~ 1 tbsp red food die
~ 4 candy canes crushed up (use a mallet or hammer and candy canes in a bag)
~ vanilla icing
~ sprinkles, candies, etc. for decorating
(if you really want them to be peppermint-y, add a few drops of mint extract. I preferred having crushed peppermint on the icing though.)

First, make your cupcake batter. Then separate about 2 cups into another bowl. Add the red food dye and mix really well. 

Now fill your cupcake tins about 3/4 full with white batter. Add a dollop of pink batter in each, and carefully swirl around with a knife/toothpick/fork. Try not to mix it much because the idea is to create a marble effect.

If you'd like, add some crushed peppermint into the cups.

Bake for about 20 minutes at about 350*. Let cool for a bit so icing won't melt. Then it's time for decorating. Get creative and go crazy!

My mom pulled out all her cake-decorating supplies and showed me a few techniques. It takes some practice, but my wreath-decorated cupcake turned out cute. We looked at pictures of all the cakes she's made in the past 25 years. Which was at least 30 cakes! She was quite the cake-baker and decorator! We had fun making them together :) And they are quite perfect with the peppermint flakes on top. Super delicious sugar-y treats!

Pretty lovely, huh? And some of the holiday photos I've been snapping...

Recycled handcrafted wrapping by yours truly.

Ps. we have some musicians in the family!

Christmas morning at Gramma's.

3 generations :)

Pumpkin Wantans

Wow, it's totally winter (north of the equator) I realize...But let's just rewind back a minute to fall and pumpkins. These pumpkin wantans are delicious, slightly sweet and would be great for appetizers, snack, or even main course. The ingredients are fairly simple, but the time to assemble them and boil can take up to 45 min. If you have some time, they turned out pretty nice for me.

The original recipe and idea is over here. And now for my rendition!

Yep. This is pretty much all you need: 

wantan wrappers (from Asian market) // pumpkin puree (recipe here) // a little water for sealing wrappers

If you put a pot of water to boil while you're putting the wantans together, it's more time-efficient. 

Moisten two sides of the wantans with water. 

A little dollop in the middle of the wantan and fold it over. Make sure you don't over-stuff the filling or it will be difficult to seal up. Take out some if it starts seeping out.

Tightly hold the folded sides together and use your finger to 'iron' over the corners. 

I kind of made up this method of wantan-folding. You can go with it or look for another way too! I fold the two adjacent corners into the center...

...and pinch with a dot of water to close it.

Lovely wantans ready to go!

When water is good and boiling, carefully slide in prepared wantans. When you first put them in make sure to give a stir so they don't stick to the bottom. You really want to take care of them in this stage because if they break or leak it's a sad story and you'll end up with empty wantans. So if you're just starting out, it may be a good idea to try this recipe with more solid fillings - I was very successful with broccoli and onion. Some others that would be nice: Spinach and garlic, cheese and bacon, sausage and broccoli, etc.

They will sink at the beginning and float when they are ready. And also change from white to an almost see-through color. Use a spatula with holes or a grid so the water can drain. They're kind of delicate, so I took mine out one at a time.

Now you've got some lovely cooked wantans! Add some soy sauce for a sweet-savory combo or sesame seed oil for a mild flavor. Yum, enjoy!

A Fall Smoothie: Pumpkin Pie

Hey fall faeries! I've got a few more pumpkin recipes to share - pumpkin bread and pumpkin wantons (coming soon!). Really, pumpkin puree seems to be the gift that keeps giving. Just freeze it and defrost when you've found a good pumpkin recipe {some ideas here and here}. Anyway, here's how to make this delicious Pumpkin Pie Smoothie.


Collect all your ingredients: pumpkin puree, bananas, milk, water, sugar, cinnamon, ginger powder, vanilla extract. (I would have liked to use nutmeg or pumpkin spice as well.)

Add a few ice cubes and blend it up!

All that's it: easy peasy, pumpkin-squeasy!

A smoothie in fall? I realize that's a little atypical. I still like it as a refreshing start to the day...but you can also leave out the ice cubes and it will be more of a juice, and still really good.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Hey there! I've been on the pumpkin kick for the last week or so. Maybe you've noticed it's been quite pumpkin-y? It's so awesome I can pretend it's fall here in Peru :) 

While looking for pumpkin pie recipes, I stumbled on this pumpkin cheesecake recipe over at The Crunchy Moose by Ashlee and I decided it was an even better idea! Her post has pictures of the steps so I didn't include those here. 

Ingredients

- 2 cups of vanilla cookies (or graham crackers)

- pinch of cinnamon

- 3/4 cup butter

- 6 oz. of cream cheese

- 2 tbsp corn starch

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 2 eggs

- 1 chia egg or an egg white

- 1/4 cup evaporated milk*

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 2 cups pumpkin puree

* The original recipe calls for heavy cream but I used evaporated milk and it still turned out. 

** These are approximate measurements

Prepping...

the crust

Blend cookie crackers well in a food processor until they're fine crumbs. Here you could also blend in some kind of nut, if you'd like. Mix in the cinnamon.Then melt butter until liquid and mix into the crumb mixture. Form crust evenly into an greased pie tin.

the filling

Mix the following in a blender: cream cheese, sugar, corn starch, vanilla, eggs, and chia egg. 

(In this step it's really important to make sure the cream cheese is went blended. I don't have an electric/hand blender, so I just mixed by hand. I learned that it doesn't melt into the cake, as I thought it would. You can see what I mean in the photos.)

Then hand mix the milk and puree into the mixture. 

Now, pour the filling into your pie tin.

Bake...in oven for about an hour. I'm not sure what temperature (our oven is only on or off. really.) but I imagine it would be around 350*. It should be lightly browned around the corners, the crusted baked, and the filling slightly jiggly. 

Let it cool for a bit, then pop in the fridge for an hour or 2 to finish it off. 

For my first ever cheesecake, it turned out pretty taste-y. The crust is sooo delicious! The filling was good too, but I learned that the cream cheese really needs to be blended well. Here are some photos:

Thanks for stopping by :) Have you made any pumpkin recipes this season??