Ginger is Your Winter Survival Ingredient

Have you got a cold/ flu? Or have you got the symptoms? I'm just recovering from one. Not sure about you but I've never taken the flu jab because I don't like the idea of it and I try to avoid taking things that contains all sorts of chemical as much as possible. I prefer natural remedies and being a Chinese descent girl I am surrounded by herbal ingredients at home. 

Whenever I have a cold/flu, my cure is ginger tea. I swear by it! In a Chinese household you will definitely find ginger lying around in the kitchen. The Chinese use ginger in their cooking, sauces, drinks and to marinate food. 

This simple ginger tea recipe was introduced to me by my parents, it will help you beat the winter cold and reduce the suffering of a flu. It usually takes me about 2 weeks to get rid of a cold but taking this ginger tea daily has helped me get rid of the sniffles in a week. 

Ginger can also treat nausea and studies have found that it fight numerous diseases. Ginger contains vitamin B3, B6,C, E, folic acid, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, zinc, gingerol, phenols and volatile oil. Really this root is a superfood or super root. 

Lets get started....

You will need about 2 inches of ginger root.

Peel the skin and slice it

Put the slices of ginger into a pot of water. Bring the water to boil.

Once it starts boiling, simmer it for another 10 minutes over low heat with the lid on. It is essential to let it simmer for a little longer because this process brings out the flavour of the ginger, making the tea spicy. I love that kick it gives my throat, makes me feel that the ginger is dissolving the bacteria at the back of my throat. 

The tea is brown because I added muscovado sugar for a bit of sweetness. You can add manuka honey. Make sure it is not regular honey because manuka honey is the only type of honey that can resist high temperature. The minerals and nutrients in regular honey will be lost in high temperature. For an extra boost of vitamin C add a slice of lemon. 

This ginger tea is not only good for treating cold and flu but also good for warming up and an immune booster. For more ginger tea recipe have a look at  Aloha's Cranberry Ginger Tea. It's a good detox tea which is probably what everyone is looking for in January.  Aloha is a healthy lifestyle inspired company that offers many recipes that can really keep the winter blues away. They are loaded with superfoods and many natural ingredients that we need!. 

What are your cold and flu remedies? How do you have ginger and what do you use it for?

{Recipe} First Breakfast in 2015- Oatmeal Crepes

Happy New Year!! Hope you all had a good New Years Eve. Mine was boring because I wasn't feeling well and so went to bed after watching the fireworks on TV. Anyways this morning felt like making some of my healthy pancakes since I haven't made some in a while.

As I was getting all the ingredients ready I realised I didn't have any baking powder so I decided to make crepes instead. I opened the fridge and there was no milk!! Since I was in the mood of making pancake/crepes, there was no way I was going to scrap the idea. I wanted pancakes! So then I decided to try making crepes with water. In fact it turned out really well.


Ingredients (all measurements are an estimate):
- 1/2 cup of rolled out oats
- 300 ml of water
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tsp of cinnamon powder (optional)

Method:

Put all ingredients into a blender. I was worried the water will make the batter too runny so I added chia seeds to make the batter a bit thicker.

Heat a non-stick pan with a bit oil. Pour a bit of mixture into the pan. Cook each side for about 1 minute. Enjoy flipping the crepes!

This recipe makes about 8 crepes. The crepes are bit brown because I added cinnamon powder to the batter. I love cinnamon!

I felt like having chocolate spread with banana so I melted some dark chocolate on a double boiler.

Voila! Healthy oatmeal crepes was my first breakfast of 2015. What was your first breakfast?

{Recipe} Green Flourless Pancakes

You may have had green juice and green smoothies but have you tried green pancakes before? Some may think of pandan pancakes but no I'm talking about pancakes made with green leafy veggies. Doesn't sound very appetising but it is in fact delicious.

I drink green smoothies almost every morning and yesterday morning I decided to be a bit creative. Making green pancakes! Ok, I got to say I got the idea of green pancakes from a fitness Instagram account. They mentioned using spinach but I used kale as that was in my fridge. I think green pancakes are a great way to sneak in some greens for the children. It's fun and cool right! I mean look how delicious they look, who would say no to them? 

Kale is one of the best green leafy vegetables, it contains vitamin A, C and K, iron, calcium, powerful antioxidants and is high in fibre, low in calories and has zero fat. Apparently it has more vitamin C than an orange. I find that a bit strange because I always thought the more sour the fruit the more vitamin C it contains but kale isn't sour at all. It also has more calcium than milk. Kale is also a great source of vitamin K which is needed to help heal wounds properly and to build strong bones (NHS.com). Since the green leafy vegetable is high in fiber it is therefore a great detox food. Who would have thought pancakes can be healthy and detoxifying! You can definitely eat these pancakes without feeling guilty. 

These pancakes are made with oat, kale, banana, egg white and baobab powder. That's a breakfast with good carbs which keeps your metabolism running. It has plenty of fiber to help you stay full longer, potassium to help lower blood pressure and help your brain, nerves, heart and muscles function properly. Also the protein from the egg white is essential for healthy growth of all body tissues and good source of energy too. Baobab powder has numerous benefits which I can go on forever, check out my previous post on baobab powder here.

Moving on to the recipe..

You will need:

• 1 stalk of kale
• 1 medium banana
• 1/2 cup of rolled oat
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup of Greek Yoghurt
• 2 tbsp of milk ( I used rice milk)
• 1 pitted medjool date (optional) 
• 1 tbsp of baobab powder

Method:

1. Put everything into a blender and blend until everything is smooth. If the batter does get a bit too thick then add another spoon of milk. 

2. Heat a non stick pan with a bit of oil. You will only need a little bit of oil and if you're using a non-stick pan there's no need to add extra oil when making new batches of pancake. 

3. Cook each side for about 2 minutes. 

{WIAW & RECIPE} Vegetable Pancake

Hi guys, it's been a while since I've done a WIAW post as I've been instagramming my food instead. Follow me on Instagram @missyungquainth =)  The weather in the UK has been up and down, mostly freezing cold and now I'm feeling poorly. I've got a cold and a cough; my nose is totally blocked and runny. I can't believe I'm ill before going away. I'm going Hong Kong for two weeks next Monday and I hope I'll be better by then. I need my taste bud to be working properly as I'll be pigging out everyday and night!

Today's WIAW post won't just be about what I had during week but will also feature a recipe for vegetable pancakes. =)  This week has been an indulgent week for me, I've been eating a lot on Wednesday and Thursday night and I broke my vegetarian diet. lol. But only for two days.

On Wednesday, I went out with my brother for dinner at Cha Cha Moon. I bought a Groupon deal pay £20 for £40 worth of food. We ordered three noodles main courses and one starter.

The first one is Fujian style udon, it has fishcakes, prawns, squid, belly pork and choi sum. 

This is seafood ho fun made in a black bean sauce; scallop, prawn, squid, red and green pepper. They put a bit too much dark soy sauce making it too dark. 

This was our starter, marinated sticky chicken. This was really good. I had two small bits as I didn't want to have too much meat.

The lobster was tiny and it cost us £25. Not impressed with the price, the taste and quality. The noodles tasted a bit like soap, they probably didn't rinse the noodles after cooking it the first time. The lobster was a bit over cooked making the texture very rough.  

After the dinner, we wanted dessert and so we walked to Häagen-Dazs for waffles. On our way we actually stopped at Cinnamon buns and got 2 mini buns for £1. A starter to our dessert lol. At Häagen-Dazs, we shared a Belgian waffle with raspberry and chocolate ice-cream. 

Thursday night was a date night with my boyfriend. We did a lot of walking. We walked from Liverpool street to Brick Lane and found a chocolate shop, they sold different flavours of homemade chocolate truffles and hot chocolate made with REAL chocolate and NOT powder. You can actually taste the cocoa. I bought a cinnamon hot chocolate.

Then we went to a bagel shop and bought some freshly baked bagel with smoked salmon and cream cheese and a block of almond cake. We ate this when we got home. We then walked from Brick Lane to Haggerston to my boyfriend's old work place, Ribeira, and we got free food! Lol. The chef made us both a salami sandwich, it was delicious! The bruschetta bread was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, just perfect. We also ordered a smoothie like cocktail, was so refreshing.

This was just a snack before dinner. We then walked back to Kingsland Road for some Vietnamese, I ordered a bowl of pho with king prawns and my boyfriend ordered beef with ginger and spring onions and rice. Sorry didn't take a picture.

Sunday was my pancake day. If you're regular reader of mine you will know I love to experiment with my pancakes. On Sunday I decided to make some savory pancakes for lunch. The original recipe is from Shape Magazine but I adjusted a couple of things.

Ingredients (the following measurements are an estimate, I just went by my preference);
-1 cup of thinly sliced/shredded cabbage
-1 cup of carrots peeled like ribbons with a peeler
-1 cup or kale thinly sliced/shredded
-1/2 cup of spring onions shredded
-1/2 cup of diced mushrooms
-1/2 cup of all purpose flour
-3-4 eggs
-salt, pepper and other spices to season.

Method:
1. Cut up all the vegetables and then toss them together in a large bowl

2. Add the flour and toss well until all vegetables are coated

3. Beat the eggs and add to the vegetables and mix well. Add the spices to season.

4. Add a drop or two of oil into a non-stick pan and heat the pan. Once the pan is hot, turn the heat down to medium- low. Add about 2 spoonfuls of the mixture and use spatula to flatten it out like a pancake.

6. Cook each side for about 3-4 minutes or when its golden brown.

I served it with cottage cheese and it was a bad choice, I tasted better with ketchup. But if you seasoned it well you shouldn't need any sauce to go with it.

Thanks for reading!

{Recipe} Sunday Fusion Brunch

Hi guys, today I made a massive Sunday fusion brunch,  Chinese and Western food together. I obviously made pancakes because its Sunday! I also made some really light and fluffy scrambled egg white and some Chinese turnip cake. (The turnip cake is something Chinese people usually have during Chinese New Year and will give it as a gift to friends and family. But you can also eat it in restaurants that serves dim sum.) Since its so cold, I made a ginger tea/ water. In this post, I'm going share a few recipes from this brunch. :)

I think my brunch looks like a meal from the Breakfast Club (a really popular independent cafe in London), but a lot cheaper. If it's at the Breakfast club, I think this would probably cost almost £10. I know they don't do turnip cake, they have bacon or sausages instead. lol

Those pancakes where made from wholemeal flour so I can say they were healthy ones. They were extra light and soft today, I think it might because I put the batter in the fridge for about 30 minutes and it allowed the batter to settle. I left the batter in the fridge because I remember watching a cooking show in Hong Kong, they were making Japanese style pancakes (very similar to American pancakes) and the chef said to leave the batter in the fridge for an hour. I don't remember why, it was something to do with the bubbles. lol.
During the 30 minutes, I did some ab, butt, thigh and arm workout. I've been slacking with my workout lately, not good I know.

Wholemeal Banana Cocoa Pancakes (makes about 6-7 pancakes)

Ingredients:
-3 heaped tbsp of wholemeal flour
-3 tbsp of hemp milk (anything milk you like)
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp of baking powder
- 1/2 a banana (or a whole if you want)
- 1 tsp of vanilla essence
- 1 egg (for a vegan recipe, exclude this)
- 1 tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg (optional)

Method:
1. Sieve all the powder ingredients; flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and the spices( if you're using them). Mix them well.

2. Add the egg and milk into the dry ingredients and mix well. Add the vanilla extract and mix well.

3. Mash up the banana or pour the batter and banana into a blender and blend until smooth. I did the latter as it's a lot easier.

4. For the pancakes to be extra soft and light. Pour the batter into a jug or bowl or whatever and place it in the fridge to settle for at least 30 minutes. The longer the better. You can skip this if you want to eat them ASAP.

5. Heat a pan with a tiny bit of oil. Once the pan is hot, turn the heat to low and pour dollop of batter. I cooked each side about 1.5 minutes. I usually flip when the pancake starts to bubble and the sides are drying up.

6. Serve with your favourite toppings.

Fluffy Scrambled Egg Whites

Ingredients:
- 3 egg whites
- 1-2 tbsp of hemp milk (any milk will do)

Method:
1. While I was making the pancakes I was whisking and whisking the egg whites and milk together. When I finished making the pancakes, the egg mixture was really frothy.

2. Then I poured the egg mixture into the same pan that I made the pancakes, still on a low heat. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to season. Use a spatula and just gently stir, scrap and fold the egg mixture.

3. Once all the liquid has been absorbed your scrambled egg is done!

Ginger Water- This is something that Chinese people like to make during the cold weather. It helps to keep you and your stomach warm. Ginger is a superfood.

Ingredients:
- A few slices of ginger ( I used about 2 inches of ginger and just sliced it up)
- 4-5 cups of water (depends on how many cups you want to make)
- 2-3 tsbp brown cane sugar.

Method:
1. Slice some ginger and add them to a saucepan/pot. Add the water and sugar and bring to boil.

2. Once boiling, turn the heat to low and simmer for at least 10 minutes. This is to bring the flavour out of the ginger.

3. Serve it hot. You can always reheat it and refill some water. 

Chinese Turnip Cake

I will blog the Chinese turnip cake recipe next time, I need to ask my dad as he is the one who made it. :)

What did you have today? Did you make pancakes on a Sunday? What do you to keep yourself warm in the winter?

{How-To} Roast butternut squash seeds

Hey people! Another mini recipe I want to share. I'm not sure if this counts as a recipe as I'm just showing you how to roast seeds. I made roasted butternut squash for dinner the other night and saved the seeds. This is my second time roasting seed, first time was with seeds from a mini pumpkin.

Method:

1. Get a big metal spoon and scoop out the seeds into a bowl

2. Fill the bowl with cold water and then just separate the membrane and seeds. 

3. Dry the seeds with a paper towel. To speed the drying process up, I just patted them with paper towel and then toasted them on a pan for until the seeds were dry. 

4. Mix the seeds with a bit of olive oil and salt. 

5. Spread the seeds onto a baking tray and roast for about 12 minutes at 200 degrees. 

6. They should turn out golden brown and crunchy. They taste like popcorn. I used a bit too much oil as you can see below. I used a paper towel to soak the oil.

7. Eat and enjoy them or place them in a air tight container. They should last for a couple of weeks. 

Thanks for reading. If you liked this post please share! :)

Have you roasted seeds before? If so, what's your method and what do you add to it?

{Recipe} Quinoa Superfruit Pancakes

Hello my lovely readers and foodies. I know I've been lazy with blogging lately but not with cooking healthy food though. Sunday means pancake day for me! Last Sunday I made bulgar wheat pancakes, this week I experimented with quinoa. Initially, I made a pot of quinoa for lunch and dinner but then decided to make pancake with them.

I made the pancakes with wholemeal flour, I also added two superfruits, baobab powder and gojiberries, making them filled with antioxidant, vitamin C and potassium. The quinoa also makes the pancake high in fibre and protein. The pancakes turned out quite soft and delicious! I didn't measure the ingredients I just spooned them in according to how I felt. lol. I made 5 medium sized pancakes.

Ingredients for the pancake:
- 3 tbsp of cooked quinoa
- 3 tbsp wholemeal flour (you can use regular flour if you want)
- 1 egg
- 4 tbsp of milk
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp of brown sugar
- 1 tsp of baobab powder
- 1 tbsp of gojiberries

Method:

1. First cook the quinoa. I cooked 1/2 cup of quinoa with 1 cup of hemp milk and a pinch of salt. I usually cook quinoa with water but decided to try something different. Bring to boil and then half cover the pot with a lid and simmer for about 15 minutes. Once all water/milk has been absorbed, take off the heat, cover totally and leave to stand for about 10 minutes.

2. Mix the quinoa, flour, milk, baobab powder, baking powder and egg in a bowl. Add vanilla extract, baobab powder, mix well. Finally add the gojiberries- I would soak the gojiberries in hot/warm water for a minute or 2 first to soften them a bit.

3. Heat the pan and add a little bit of oil. Little meaning 2-3 drops.

4. Pour some batter into the pan. Fry each side for about 1.5 minute on LOW heat; the sides will have turned slightly brown and the middle will be bubbling. I found that 1.5 minute will brown the pancakes perfectly, see below.

5. Served with your favourite toppings. I served my with butter, maple and carob syrup, frozen blueberries and dusted some cinnamon powder on top.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading, I hope you liked this recipe and if you did please share! :)

Did you have pancakes today? Have you made pancakes with quinoa? 

{Recipe} Bulgarwheat Pancakes

Happy Sunday people! And that means its pancake day for me. I made a big pot of bulgar wheat on Saturday and I only managed to a have small bowl for dinner as an alternative to rice. When I go to bed, I tend to plan my meals for the next day and so I was thinking to use some of the remaining bulgar wheat to make pancakes for breakfast.  Talking about planning meals, I sometimes can imagine the flavour in my head. What I mean is, I can imagine whether the food will taste good or not. Am I making sense?

These bulgar wheat pancakes are full of fibre, protein and antioxidant. Bulgar wheat is an excellent source of fibre, the protein comes from the egg, almond nuts and hemp milk and the antioxidant comes from the gojiberries that I added to the batter. Ok, here's the recipe.


What you need: (Makes 10-12 pancakes)
- 3/4 cup of cooked bulgar wheat ( I added some 1 tsp of salt to it)
- 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup of white flour
- 3/4 cup of hemp milk or any type of milk
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tbsp of cane sugar
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of cinnamon
- 1 tsp of vanilla essence
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup of mixed nuts, seeds and dried fruits of your choice ( I used sunflower seeds, almond nuts and gojiberries)


Method:
1. Cook the bulgar wheat. I still haven't mastered cooking them yet so my method is not the best way at all. I put 1 part of bulgar wheat and 3 parts of water. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Once all the water have been absorbed, take off heat and stand for 10 minutes.

2. In a big bowl (make sure its big enough for mixing) place all the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar) and mix well.

3. In a separate small bowl, mix all the wet ingredients; egg, milk and vanilla essence. Then add 1/2 cup of  cooked bulgar wheat and mix again.

4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. As shown below.

5. Then add the nuts, seeds or dried fruits if you want to. Mix well again.

6. Heat a medium size pan and grease it with a tiny bit of oil. Drop a small scoop of batter and gently spread it out with the spatula. If the batter is too thick add a bit of milk. Once it starts to bubble its ready to be flipped over but I tend to wait for the edges to dry up a bit and turns slightly brown.

7. Serve it with whatever you like. I served it with some diced pear and sliced figs and drizzled some carob syrup. The pancakes tastes so good that they can be eaten on their own. 

The nuts and seeds gave it nice slight crunchy texture. Next time I want to try make cocoa bulgar wheat pancakes. Hope you liked it and if you do please share! :) 

Have you tried make pancakes with bulgar wheat or with other types of grains? If you try this recipe out let me know how it goes? :)