Monday, November 11, 2013

Good Tasting Avocado Honey Lime Smoothie

The last few time I went to the Viet-Namese noodle house, I ordered this smoothie made of Avocado.  It tastes really good.  I don't know if they use the real avocado or powder, as many of the Asian Bubble Drinks today is made from Powder mix rather than the fresh fruits like they did.   So, I decided to make one for myself at home.
The first one didn't turn out well, it became slushy drink rather than smooth.
This one turned out pretty good.

By the way, when you buy Avocado in a bulk, and they are ripening all at the same time, Cut them up and Freeze them.  If their purpose is for the smoothie, they will be perfect for that use.  And they stay fresh green until use.
Serves:  2
Tools:  Blender, Long stem spoon, spatula
Ingredients:
1 to 2  Medium Avocado, just starting to ripen, peeled, and sliced
1 to 2 medium size Apple.   Fuji or Granny or any ones you like - peeled, cored, and sliced
1/2 C Apple juice
1 lime - juiced
1 Cup crushed ice
1 to 2 TB local Honey

One or two avocado or apple depends on their size, but I am sure the extra will be enjoyed by anyone.
Place them in a blender and blend till smooth.
Serve.

Freeze with Avocado Pit in the Heavy Duty Freezer Zip Lock Bag.
 Blended Avocado will look so smooth and delicious!


Healthier Texas Bourbon Pecan Almond Bars

There are so much energy calorie packed ingredients in this recipe that I am always tempted to cut sugar or butter out.  This time, I added home made coconut flakes and Organic Hemp Hearts as substitute filler.
Then, I made half Almond and then the other half Pecan to offer choice to friends who may be allergic to almond or pecan or their like or dislike.
It turned out pretty good.
INGREDIENTS and Procedure:
Crust:
1-1/2 Sticks Butter
1/2 C Brown Sugar
2 C Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
 
Filling:
8 eggs
5 C Brown Sugar + 1 C Truvia
1/8 C or 1/4 C Bourbon -- depending on your family's taste
6 TB melted Butter
1 TB Vanilla
1 C Flour
1 tsp salt
1 C coconuts flakes, home made  
1 C Organic Hemps 
1 C Pecan halves, broken
1 C Almond slices, broken
Use Paddle attachment, beat butter, 1 min; add sugar, beat 1 min; Add flour & salt; mix slow till crumbly.
Line the bottom of the 12x17" baking sheet with buttered parchment paper.  Press the mixture down to the sheet. Roll down gently with the rolling pin like the ones in this picture would do also.  
Bake at 350'F, rotate the pan at 5 minutes.
While the bottom crust is baking till light brown for 10 min, mix the filling.   I didn't want to bake the bottom crust too long because I noticed the last couple of times when I baked them in my large gas oven, the crust tasted a bit too done.
Whisk eggs & sugar in a large bowl until blended.  In a separate bowl - Stir in Bourbon, butter, vanilla, flour, salt, coconut.  Pour them into blender bowl and mix well - or by hand with rubber spatula.
  Crush the nuts slightly so they are broken.  Set them aside to sprinkle on top of the filling later.
 Crushing the nuts a bit helps cutting the bars out more smoothly.
 I don't like the store bought coconut flakes because they are waaaaay tooooo sweet for nothing.
1 C coconut flakes
 1 C Organic Hemp Hearts
 Mix them all into the butter sugar, flour, and egg mixture, Except the nuts.
Fill the baked crust and sprinkle with nuts.
 Sprinkle half with pecans, the other half with almonds.
 Press the nuts gently down a bit to cover with the filling.
 Bake until set.  350'F
Cool at least 30 minutes before cutting with Pizza cutter.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween 2013 LEGO Medusa Cake

I didn't want to wait too long to post this one.  But it was fun and challenging to make this cake.   After baking my grandson's birthday cakes for the past few times with this LEGO cake mold, I realized that to make the cake 3-D to stand up, the cake batter needs to be much firmer or dense cake in order to hold all the weight from Fondant draping over it.  Regardless, the cake is basically for the show.  You bake extra Chiffon cake to enjoy on the side or as a base of the figure cake.    I baked this cake for our office's Holiday party fund raiser last night.  I couldn't see it being sold to someone else, except for my grandson, so I end up donating the cash and kept the cake for my grandson.   Hope every one had a enjoyable time with your family tonight.   I think I can do the LEGO Frankenstein the next time.... :-)



I added extra half cup of flour to make the cake batter thicker to cause the cake to be dense to support buttercream frosting.
Cake Ingredients:    Creaming method
3 eggs  - separated and whipped with 1/4 C of sugar with egg yolks and 1/2 C with egg whites
1 Stick butter softened - whip up till pale with 1/4 C of sugar
1 cup sugar (- divided as above for eggs and butter)
1-1/2 C shifted flour
1 tsp baking powder with no aluminum (even though this cake only for the display)
 Rice Krispies treats - 1 batch- Add 1 C extra Rice Krispies to make firmer treat.  Shape into Medusa's backside body shape.

 Pre-make marshmallow fondant with green food color.
 1 batch Buttercream Frosting - follow the instruction on the back of powder sugar package.  Add few drops of green food color.

 Wrap the rolled out marshmallow fondant on bodice.
 Slice off the back side of the cake to make it flatter.  Frost the back and press the bodice together.
 Frost the cake and attach "octopus" sour gummy onto the head section.  Cut one section of red gummy with scissors to make eyes.  Use chocolatier tool sets or something sharp to poke eye sockets and insert cut eyes into them.

 Use Black and red Gel frosting with sparkles.   Have fun!



 "Be Ware!!! Do Not Look into the Eyes!!"