Homemade Cocoa Walnut meal saves the day!

Hey all,
Forgive me for this short post. I'm in the process of wrapping things up here in sunny California before I move to New York (exciting!) for the next four years of grueling education in medical school (equally exciting, but daunting as well). So to speed up the cleaning process I'm trying to use up as many ingredients as I can before I move. Especially the ingredients that will spoil in the shipping process - nuts, frozen goods, produce, the usual stuff.

A few weeks ago, I had made those delicious pancakes with the strawberry sauce and the main ingredient in the pancakes was hazelnut meal. That is posted here. Trust me, they are fantastic. In fact, I've made them religiously for the past several weeks, because they are cheap, delicious, and easy to make. When I ran out of hazelnut meal, I turned to the bag of almond meal in my fridge.

So imagine my reaction when I got up this morning only to find that the almond meal was all gone. I smacked my head in frustration. I wondered why the universe was plotting against me. Now what would I use as a dry ingredient that would be tasty (flour is not tasty by itself). The clock said that it was 7 am. Do I really want to wait for an hour for Trader Joe's to open to make pancakes? The answer was an emphatic NO.

Almond and Chocolate chip muffins (my second minor disaster)

Hey all,
So if you look through this entire blog, then you will notice one thing that is missing. All right, well several things, but one thing is muffins. Where are the quintessential little bite size munchies? How can I call myself a baking blog without muffins?!!

That little detail had to be rectified right away. So I went to the store and got myself a muffin pan and a box of paper liners. Proud of my step forward, I started planning what muffin recipe to make and usually I go to my go-to-guides - Joy of baking and 101 cookbooks to get some ideas. Usually all the recipes I'd seen thus far involved way too much sugar than I wanted in my diet.

Then I found THE recipe. Simple, straightforward and not too much sugar. I adapted it considerably and made the Almond and Chocolate chip muffins.

Little did I know about the trouble I was about to have....

Hazelnut Banana Pankcakes with a Strawberry sauce

Summer is looming... and it's glorious!

What do I think when I think of summer? I think of the beach, wearing sandals, drinking a mimosa, hanging out with friends, and the food. Sadly, there won't be any "Glee" during the summer, but now is not the time to dwell on that.

It's hard to believe that May has already gone by so quickly. I finally finished the medical school process and I'm going to Cornell - yes, this fall, I will be moving to New Yotk! But, that will be a story for another day. Apart from that, working day in and day out in the lab has been the norm.

I used to get up every morning and have some oatmeal or muesli and leave for work, until the moment that I was introduced to the simplest, easiest, and most delicious recipe. The bonus is that it's also quite healthy because it uses very few ingredients and takes 20 minutes to make everything, which means that you can stay from that oh-so-attractive donut.

That recipe was the hazelnut banana pancakes with a strawberry sauce....

Random Adorable animal pictures

Hey all,
So I've been away for a little while traveling to New York and I had the opportunity to make amazing friends on my trips there.

One of my (now whom I consider to be one of my) closest friends, Kevin, shared many a hilarious animal pictures with me. Being hungover that day, seeing hilarious pictures of cats and dogs helped lift my spirit as I munched on a greasy egg sandwich to fill my stomach.

A Crustless Spinach and Asparagus Goat Cheese Quiche

Remember when I said that I was going to balance out the sweet dishes with more savory healthy ones? Well I stuck to that promise. I'm not sure for how long that will last, but I'll try hard to stick to that principle.

Today I made something absolutely astounding - A spinach and asparagus goat cheese quiche. But this is no ordinary quiche - it is crustless.

Strawberry Panzanella - fruity goodness all over.

Hey all,
So I have a lot of catching up to do with the blog. I've made quite a few things but I didn't get a chance to write about each one until....

.... I fell sick. Yes, I hate falling sick. This morning, I got up feeling horrible with a sore throat and a runny nose. Ugh! Don't you just hate that feeling?

Great (I roll my eyes...) - what a time to fall sick - just when the weather was warming up and gorgeous outside and I had planned many fun activities this weekend. Instead, I'm stuck at home trying to recover. But, what means is that I can turn my attention to this blog. I love writing about food and this gives me comfort in these tough times (yeesh, here he goes again with the dramatic flair).

One of the dishes I made recently was a twist on a savory panzanella - usually made with tomatoes, cheese, herbs, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Well, it turns out that you can also make a dessert out of it. I came across a recipe in 101 cookbooks and I think Heidi just hit the bullseye. I just cut back a little on the sugar but that's kind of it.

Who knew that you could make a fruit-based bread salad? I certainly didn't until I tried it.

Healthy eggplant hummus, tomato, and spinach baked sandwich

So I was looking back at all of my posts and I noticed that almost 90% of my posts have been sweet desserts. Time to change that trend...