Non-bake Granola Bars

I have reached a milestone! I feel like I am on holiday now. I FINALLY finished the lab component of my thesis!!!! No more late nights and weekends in the poorly ventilated lab. No more standing for hours and hours on end, endlessly pounding apples and getting frostbites and weird brain freezes from liquid nitrogen. No more sniffing acetone and methanol. No more skipping meals because experiments take so long. No more!!!

Though oddly enough, as much as I disliked doing lab work, I feel like I will definitely miss walking around in my lab coat and safety glasses between levels 5, 1 and 7 of the Chemistry building. As much as I hated handling chemicals, I felt that through the past few months, I have actually come to terms with it, and I admit, towards the end, I actually quite enjoyed it. This could possibly be because the last experiments I was doing produced really awesome samples (Check out my Instagram). My pigments extractions actually looked really pretty! The vibrant green chlorophylls from Granny Smith peel, pastel yellow from Envy flesh and bright pink anthocyanins from Royal Gala are definitely eye-catching.

I feel like I've learned a lot from doing experiments. Not only the laboratory skills, I've also learned how to work with others. When I first started doing lab work, I think I was pretty selfish and self-centred. All I really cared about was that I had so much to do and I wanted to get everything done as soon as possible. But in real life, it doesn't really work that way. The lab isn't just for me. I had to work with lab technicians and peers, make compromises in terms of when to use the machines, sharing equipments and things like that. Certain times when I had to work at other people's lab, it was all on their schedule. Time management and planning became a huge part, especially when I had to plan my way around the few limited days that I could do the analyses and before my analyses I had to do so many lots of eight-hour-long extractions. And sometimes when you've spent days extracting your samples and they don't turn out good, that really tested your patience and persistence.

But I have to say, that few months, though exhausted as heck (and naturally, grumpy as ****), looking back now I wouldn't have done it any other way. There were times when I felt extremely lonely and questioning, when I was by myself desperately doing my work in the late hours on a Sunday night. Or that poignant moment when I bought dinner in between experiments and considered sitting down in the restaurant as a table for one. What was the point in working so hard? Why do I come in weekend after weekend, rejecting invites for late night BBQs or Mario Kart parties? But then I reminded myself, it will all be worth it when I FINALLY FINISH. When I finally start writing and start seeing my thesis slowly come together piece by piece. But gosh, seeing how hard everybody works, I can't complain at all. And friendships really are forged, when you drag your sleep deprived bodies into lab together, or when you share stories of how you accidentally pissed off the lab technician again, or when you just randomly rant about boys or admire girls with good genes that have time to go to gym and have super toned sexy legs. No, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

Though all these weeks I worked tirelessly, pushing myself to the brink of exhaustion, literally sometimes feeling like I could just keel over in between grinding apples, possibly knocking over that flask of liquid nitrogen, spilling it on my already dead hands, there was something else that I learned. That was to trust my intuitions. When that voice in your head says 'go home, don't start that experiment', you go home. Because chances are, you will screw up 50% of the things, you will make the stupidest mistakes and end up having to repeat again. Your instincts know best.

While doing my lab work, I more often than not ended up bingeing on sugary stuff which I convinced myself was good for the soul, despite my body sending out all these clear signals to STOP. Now that lab is over, I feel like a detox is definitely called for. I made these nut and oats bar as an inspiration from the lab I was tutoring and also to help me transition into a no-sugar lifestyle. And oh my gosh, these are SO GOOD!!! I should, but I actually can't stop eating them. They are so addictive. You won't believe that there's no refined sugar or anything added. The nuts provide the delicious crunch. All the natural ingredients - coconut, honey, olive oil, peanut butter, cocoa nib, they really do instill soo much flavour into the bar. And they are so so easy to throw together too! You don't even have to turn your oven on. They make a really nutritious snack and if you're like me, eat it for breakfast too. Definitely give it a go!

Non-Bake Granola Bars

Recipe inspired by Eat Well NZ

Makes 18 bars

Dried ingredients: *

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup red rice flour (or regular white rice flour)

1/3 cup pumpkin seeds

1/3 cup desiccated coconut

1/3 cup sunflower seeds

1/3 cup raisins 

1/4 cup walnuts, broken into smaller pieces

2 tbsp cocoa nibs

1 tsp cinnamon 

1/2 tsp Himalayan or sea salt 

 Wet ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 tbsp maple syrup 

1. Stir together all the dried ingredients. 

2. In a non-stick pan, dry toast the dried ingredients on medium heat until fragrant. Make sure to stir constantly. This is to lightly toast the nuts and to cook the rolled oats and rice flour. Also, the cocoa nibs, coconut and seeds will release their oils that will be instilled into the whole bar. Set aside. 

3. In a saucepan, stir together all the wet ingredients on low heat until melted and well incorporated. This will only take about a minute or two. 

4. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix well. 

5. Line a 9x9cm square tin with baking paper. Press your nut and oat mixture into the tin firmly, using your hands to make it level. 

6. Refrigerate your bars overnight or for 4 hours. 

7. Cut into 18 bars (3 x 6). 

8. Serve. 

*You can choose to use other nuts and seeds, anything that you happen to have on hand!

Cinnamon and raisin bread

Today I will just flood your feed with loads of pictures. Pictures of nice fluffy, cinnamony bread. It's comforting to make. It's soft as a baby's bottom. It brings alive your kitchen. It's nourishing to the soul especially when you spread on some floral honey. Honey, cinnamon and raisin, such a delicious combination. 

Recipe is taken from The Pastry Affair, with minor adjustments. I substituted half a cup of wholewheat flour into the bread flour and added some walnuts into the dough to give some contrast in texture. For the 'cinnamon swirl' I added nutmeg and roughly chopped walnuts. It's delish. 

Pretty Pot of Pink

Yoghurt. The trendy food. Over the past few years, Auckland has finally been bitten by the yoghurt bug. There are so many yoghurt stores in the CBD now that you'd have a hard time picking which one to go (that is, if you haven't tried them all and don't know which one is the best - yep that's me.) I remember only a few years back, there was only one yoghurt store in town. But to be frank, one was enough. Yogoberry! They served the best frozen yoghurt - creamy, refreshing, smooth, slight tang, not overly sugarified, yum! And even better, you can get their yoghurt in a cone, in a cup, with loads of fruits and sauce toppings, whizz it up in a smoothie, OR - the one that most people opt for, paired with freshly made waffles with loads of fruits and sauces. Delish much? Heck yeah. And what makes this store even more amazing is that it is manned (or shall i say wo-manned) by the Korean lady owner, who is friken amazing - taking orders, making all these food for a store full of people all by herself. 

Ok, I didn't mean to spend a whole paragraph advertising for Yogoberry. Couldn't help it though! It was that amazing and still is. I do however want to try some other yoghurt stores in town, espesh this one called White and Co. So many people have posted photos of their fro-yo which made me crave them for weeks, though i haven't even had them. But the thing is, their store is located quite some distance from uni and because it's not on-the-way-from-uni-to-my-bus-stop so if i want to get there, I have to take a big detour. And with test and assignment season fully in swing, me don't exactly have the time for that. 

So. Solution. Make my own. And here it is! 
I don't exactly have a recipe for it, since I pretty much just chucked everything in the blender. Bit of natural yoghurt, few frozen strawberries (ones that we hand-picked ourselves many moons back! Oh how i miss summer...), some honey AND a special ingredient, flaxseed or linseed oil. You can pretty much make it to your liking. Add any fruit that you have at hand, any form or sweetener in your pantry - agave, golden syrup, red sugar, whatever floats your boat. and the best part about that is, you can really taste the fruit - not some artificial flavouring from some store bought ones!

Anyway, before I run off (well, not literally) to continue writing my assignment, let me briefly tell you about flaxseed oil. And yoghurt. And cottage cheese. 

Well, we all believe that cancer cannot be cured right? Wrong. Dr Budwig, who hailed from Germany spent many many years studying this simple combination of cottage cheese (or yoghurt, because it has the same active compound) and flaxseed oil. And she found that if you blend the two together (in a particular proportion), they make the perfect solution to counter and fight those Nazi-fied cancer cells, tame them and make them into good cells again! Now, we all know that cancer cells are merely good cells gone bad, caused by lack of love, lack of care, lots of abuse and fouling. In a nutshell, it is karma. You've abused your temple and now it's all dirty and full of junk and holes and broken pipes and lots of pests and horrifying stuff. So how do you cure yourself of cancer? Obviously, the thing to do is to clean up your temple. Like truly, make it spotless and holy and serene. Dr Budwig's cottage cheese and flaxseed diet is like a super powerful detergent. So it speeds up the cleaning process. Now of course, I'm not making any claims about this miracle diet. Because I believe however great something is, it still depends on the individual, like their history, karma, how vigorously they've actually turned a new page in their life, how much effort they are putting in to heal themselves, etc. Also, it's not just about change in diet. There are many many other factors like the spiritual aspect of it, emotional side, like letting go of anger and greed and all the attachments, etc. Once you're free of all these pollution which are mostly created by yourself, your temple will then be tranquil. 

Haha, from yoghurt to temple. How'd that happen? 

Anyway, happy whizzing. 

PS. If you have time, you could whiz this up and chuck it in the freezer or ice cream machine and wait a few hours before consuming it and then you'll really have some homemade froyo! Coz obviously this is just yo. Minus its fro.

PPS. If you wanna know more about the cottage cheese + flaxseed oil diet, Google Dr Johanna Budwig. 

Russian Honey Layered Cake - Medovik

It was one of my friend's birthday about 2 months ago but due to an unexpected unfortunate event, he's had to cancel his birthday party and fly back to Taiwan. Two months down the track and we thought we'd throw him a surprise birthday dinner celebration. 

It wasn't hard coming up with what cake to make. There are three things that he absolutely loves (well, eating) and goes mental when any of it comes into his line of vision - bread, meat and honey. So what to make this bread meat honey monster? The answer is obviously a honey flavoured cake made of bread, with meat sandwiched in between, or featuring in any part of the cake. Being the vegetarian and animal lover that I am, of course I discounted the meat fraction of the cake. And not having copious amount of time to spend making this cake, I regretfully took away the bread portion too. 

The second thing that came onto my screen when I googled honey cake was this recipe. The layers look beautiful and the ingredients are those found in my pantry, so I went with it. 

This cake is much more simple to make than I expected. The results are impressive too. Especially when you cut out the first slice of the cake and nobody expected to see that multitude of UNIFORM layering. Expect some oohs and ahs if you serve this at a dinner party. To make sure the cake pleased the honey bear, I added an extra tablespoon of honey in both the cake and icing. 

This cake is basically a blank canvas and you can paint it with whatever flavour you like. You could replace the honey with other ingredients like maple syrup or golden syrup, or add cocoa powder or chocolate into it, or give it some tang with some citrus zest, or boost the good oil content and crunchiness of the cake by adding some nuts. You could even spike it with whatever booze you have lying around and give it that extra dimension of flavour. 

[Russian honey layered cake - Medovik]

Cake
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
50g butter
3 tbsp honey
1 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp vinegar
3 cups flour (I ran out of plain flour so I used a mixture of wholemeal flour, semolina and ground almond)

Icing
300ml cream
1/2 can condensed milk - caramelised
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp honey
zest of 1 lemon 
2 tbsp sour cream

Prepare the condensed milk first, as this will take the longest.
1. Put the can of condensed milk in a pot. Cover the can with water.
2. Bring to boil, then turn to medium heat to simmer for 2 hours.
3. Turn off the heat and let the can sit in the water for about 10 minutes.
4. Remove can from pot and let it cool to room temperature before opening. [THIS IS IMPORTANT!!! If you open the can immediately, it will explode all over you.]

Cake
1. Beat eggs and sugar together until thick (approx. 3 minutes). 
2. In a bain marie, melt butter.(If you are improvising with a bowl and a pan, make sure the bowl does not touch the water).
3. Add honey. 
4. Add beaten eggs and sugar. Stir with a whisk until fully incorporated, (about 2 minutes). Make sure the water is only simmering, as boiling water will cook the eggs. 
5. Add the baking soda and vinegar. Stir. The mixture will bubble and double in size.
6. Remove from heat. Gradually add in the flour and mix in with a spoon or spatula. 
7. Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 1 minute.
8. Divide the dough into 6. On a baking tray lined with silicon pad or baking paper, roll a piece of the dough out thinly. Place a flat plat or base of a spring-form cake tin on the rolled out dough and cut around it to make a circle. Bake for approximately 5 minutes until golden.
9. Repeat this 6 times. 
10. Bake the off-cuts for approximately 8 minutes or until crunchy. 
11. Cool all cake pieces. 

Icing
1. Beat cream and caramelised condensed milk on medium setting until incorporated.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and beat on medium setting until well mixed.
3. Beat on high speed so the mixture thickens and becomes more stiff. 

Putting it all together
1. Place icing in between each layer of cake. Make sure the cake is stacked straightly. 
2. Cover the sides and top of the cake with icing. Spread evenly. Refrigerate to harden the icing. 
3. Break the off-cuts of the cake into small pieces. Use this to decorate the cake. 
4. Leave cake for at least 6 hours or overnight so the cake absorbs the icing and soften. 
5. Serve.

Recipe adapted from leascooking.blogspot.co.nz