No war.
Anytime.
Anywhere.
All naturally colored.
Blue: Butterfly pea flower powder
Yellow: Turmeric
I made the jam a while ago and froze them.
I was glad that I remembered them!
I enjoyed the jam with my freshly baked bagels.
This is my husband’s new toy.
I wasn’t sure if that was a good purchase, but I quickly realized how cool this little gadget was.
You can design and print from your iPhone.
There are many fun pictures to choose from too.
He made these pretty labels for me.
These were both so good.
I had craving for bagels for a while, and finally I found time to make some.
The Bagel require an extra step (boiling) compared to other kinds of bread, but still, it’s so worth it!
For the toppings, I simply used white and black sesame seeds.
They turned out really great this time.
Very smooth, without much wrinkles.
I wonder if that was because I added more sugar than usual when I boiled them.
I should remember that.
The ingredients are so simple, yet homemade bagels are the best.
They taste so much better than the store-bought ones for some reason.
I really should make them more often.
This was not planned, but when my Instagram friend told me about a new vegan bacon, I had to check it out.
She said it was the best vegan bacon she had ever had.
I’ve never tried store-bought vegan bacon, but with the strong recommendation I thought it would be fun to try.
It was pretty convincing.
It smelled and tasted good and like bacon.
And it got crispy.
I liked that it was not too salty.
Parsley bread.
I got lettuce and tomatoes for my BLT sandwich, but when I got home I realized I didn’t have the type of bread I wanted to use for the sandwich.
So, I decided to bake one quick.
This is my favorite Boule bread, but this time I baked it in my Le Creuset Dutch oven.
I did it because the dough was a bit loose, and I didn’t want it to be flat (I wanted a nice height for the sandwich).
This trick did work, but it also ended up creating a nice soft crust, which I didn’t expect.
I liked hard-crusted Boule too, but this was actually perfect for a sandwich.
Homemade cheese spread, romaine lettuce, mayo, tomato, and bacon.
And everything is vegan!
Air fryer Japanese sweet potatoes.
I love my air fryer (I know you’ve heard me saying it so many times now!).
I know coating them with more oil would have made them “look” better, but it was perfectly tasty without the extra oil.
I’ve never been a big hotdog person.
Even before we chose the plant-based diet, that was something I didn’t need in my life.
But this got me interested.
Last week we went to Ikea after avoiding it for several years (due to COVID19), I was pleasantly surprised at the number of plant-based products they now carry.
This was one of them.
One thing I really like about Ikea products is their ingredients.
Yes, they call it “dog”, but it’s packed with various vegetables, and quite different from the regular hot dog, which is perfectly fine by me.
You can actually see the bits of veggies.
Another reason I never really liked hotdogs was the quality of the bun.
Often times hotdogs are served with low-quality buns.
In my opinion, buns are as important (or even more important) as the hotdog, and it’s a shame to serve your good hotdog in not-good buns.
So I had to bake my own buns.
Trust me.
It makes a huge difference!
I was super happy with this lunch.
I will definitely buy these hotdogs again.
Now we have to talk about my new toy!
I know I’m so late to the party, but I finally got an air fryer.
It took me several years to go back and forth between “I want it” and “No I don’t need it”.
The major reason why I hesitated was my belief that the convection oven I have was supposed to do the same thing as the air fryer does.
I think I read it somewhere.
But I wasn’t super happy with the convection oven when it comes to trying to get the “fried” texture.
Yes, I could get pretty close, but that I had to use quite a bit of oil to achieve the crispiness, which I did not like.
Then, I found an article that said the air fryer does a better job than the convection oven to crispiness.
That was it for me.
We picked potatoes to try our air fryer for the first time.
This was cooked at 400F for 15 minutes.
This was cooked for another 10 minutes.
So what do I think of the air fryer?
Well, I think I like it.
First of all, it’s very quick for it to preheat, which was expected but still great!
It got the crispiness like the one you will get from deep-frying.
And I didn’t have to use a lot of oil.
I already have a few other ideas for using my new air fryer, and I can’t wait.
The storage was a concern, because it’s a nice size (although I wouldn’t go smaller than this for our household), but I was able to make a spot for it by moving things around.
Now it looks like it belongs here.
I didn’t know much about Irish Soda Bread.
But I wanted to make Irish breakfast, so I googled for recipes.
https://www.theconsciousplantkitchen.com/vegan-irish-soda-bread/
This vegan recipe looked good, and I followed the recipe except that I doubled it to make two loaves.
I didn’t even know that it is not yeast bread, and it took no time from start to finish!
It turned out great!
I like the texture and taste both.
It has a very unique taste which I have a hard time explaining except for saying it’s tasty!
I was going to give one of the loaves to a friend, so I didn’t put seeds on that one (she does not like her bread with nuts, seeds, or fruit).
Now I know Irish Soda bread is easy and quick to make and it’s super tasty.
I’m sure this will be part of our bread rotation.
I’ve been quite busy at work lately.
Since we came back from our long winter vacation, I’ve been really enjoying being productive.
I like the feeling, but at the same time I haven’t had a lot of time to cook or bake at home.
Finding the right balance between work and home is absolutely important, but also hard to do.
This morning I made time to make breakfast instead of just making a toast.
These cinnamon rolls’ main ingredients are tofu and oatmeal, which makes them perfect for breakfast.
Just out of the oven.
I’m not a big fan of smearing icing or frosting on my cinnamon rolls.
I mean they are good, but they will instantly turn them into a dessert instead of a breakfast food.
So this time I lightly spread some vegan butter.
Then I realized that my husband’s friend just recently gave us this beautiful homemade blueberry jam, and I thought it would be fun to drizzle it over the cinnamon rolls.
Doesn’t this look great?
It was nice to sit down and enjoy a hearty homemade breakfast like this at the end of the week.
With a cup of coffee.
I haven’t had time to make coffee in the morning all week, and I needed it!
This is my go-to crusty bread.
I use the Boule recipe from “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day” I bought many years ago.
I have adjusted the recipe a little because I usually make two loaves instead of four, and now I don’t have to look at the book or my note anymore because I’ve made it so many times.
It’s such a versatile bread, and you can add any flavor you like.
It turns out great every single time.
This time I decided to add this cherry blossom tea.
I used my grinder and ground the tea before I added it to the dough.
The kitchen smelled amazing!
The tin box is so pretty!
I love Haney and Sons designs.
I smelled and tasted wonderful!
It’s a special type of bread because how often you can find “cherry blossom tea” bread at a bakery?
My husband and I like this bagel so much that I decided to triple the recipe this time.
I wrap each with plastic and freeze them so that we can microwave them when we want to eat.
They are good any time of the day, but they are really perfect for breakfast because you can get the nutrition like carbs (we need carbs for energy especially in the morning, everyone!) and protein.
This time I made plain and curry bagels with three toppings, black sesame, white sesame, and parsley.
I forgot to mention, but another reason why these are perfect for breakfast is because it has a nice dense texture, just like regular bagel, and it’s so satisfying.
I said that the five aprons I have had were enough and that I was refraining from buying any more, but I just recently found several more I had bought a long time ago and forgotten about!
I definitely can’t go apron-shopping for a while.
By the way this is one of the aprons I had bought and forgotten about for years.
It’s a shame, because I really liked it.
The colors suit the spring season, too.
I thought it would be pretty to have two-tones, white and pink.
The pink color turned out to be much more vivid than I anticipated, but I think they are still pretty.
16 white balls and 16 pink balls.
Here is a unique thing about this recipe.
These rolls are baked in a pan.
The pink color is not beets.
This is one of my favorite rice flour bread recipe ↓
https://www.instagram.com/p/CamcXMhP9JP/
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*I also have an Instagram account. ↓ There I post some pictures and videos that you don’t see here at the blog. If you followed me there as well, I would love that! When you stop by, say “hi! I would love to hear from you. Thank you.
https://www.instagram.com/culinarytribune/
