Month: July 2013

B’s Easy Home-made Peanut Butter

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So I finally tried to make home-made creamy peanut butter.  It was awesome!  The creamy texture was incomparable to the store-bought peanut butter.  B had to add it to her recipe blog index!  It was that good and that easy!  Not to mention, obviously a healthier alternative to store-bought peanut butter which contains preservatives.

First step:

ImageBlend ingredients together for around 5-10 minutes depending on the power of your food processor.

Final result is a creamy-to-die-for-texture:

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It was simply delectable.  I really loved the texture of it and was amazed how it turned out.  I was skeptical as I saw it blending as it started off grainy.  I couldn’t help but wonder how this texture would be achieved.  HAHA!  I’ve read that peanuts release their own oils after being blended for a long time – I guess seeing is believing!

B’s Easy Home-made Peanut Butter

Makes:  1 small bowl

Ingredients:

  • 90g Peanuts
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

  1. Blend peanuts and oil in a food processor.
  2. After a few minutes scrape down the extras to ensure even consistency.
  3. Blend for about 5-10 minutes depending on the power of your machine!

Note:  You can store this for a few days without refrigeration.  However, if you are in a hot country I would eat it up fast! LOL.  Remember that unlike store-bought peanut butter this has no preservatives so it doesn’t last as long.  It taste so good that it anyways won’t last so long in your kitchen!

B is exiting her kitchen for the day! More in B’s Kitchen to come.

xx

B

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Technology Tuesdays: The Guy I Married – Amit Bajaj is working on his own APP!

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Hello everyone!  I’ve dedicated this post to my husband as it’s his birthday today!  We are both born in July – mine was on the 19th (FYI) – in case you missed it. I absolutely love birthdays.  I am very much excited about birthdays more than the birthday person!

ImageThis was his surprise birthday brekky!  He loves a good old fashioned British Traditional Breakfast.  I’m completely aware of how unhealthy it is, but a birthday is a birthday 😉

My husband and I are currently working on our app for the last few months.  Now it seems to be building up into a proper layout where he is implementing the user interface.  We are hoping for his programming and IT skills to integrate well with my creativity.  Hopefully this will result in a fantastic app!  You can check out his blog here. 🙂  I will keep you guys updated about our APP once it is 50% done.  At that stage I would welcome any thoughts/suggestions to improving our app as we are novice!  After our first app – I will definitely want to do an APP on FOOD and on TRAVEL!  As I love both!

The feeling of having our own app in the App Store will be one that I can’t put into words.  Although it’s going to be a free app – the reward will be priceless.

Just wanted to share this on my blog!

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE HUSBAND!

xx

B

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B’s Easy 3 ingredient Ice-cream : Banana, Nutella & Peanut Butter

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The title gives away the whole post 😉  I’ve made Frozen Banana Ice-cream before (just blend the frozen banana – I’ve blogged about it here).  It’s a simple vegetarian ice-cream with added flavours.  Delectable. Today I wanted a tiny bit of Nutella and Peanut Butter in it… I got started on whipping this up! 😉

Got my ingredients ready:

ImagePut it in the food processor with a bit of milk and the additional flavourings:

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The end product – creamy yummy… delish… HEALTHY… Well relatively healthy, much better than an ice-cream scoop!  So here it is… The end product:

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Nice creamy texture…photo (11)

This one has more chocolate! 🙂

B’s Easy 3 ingredient Ice-cream : Banana, Nutella & Peanut Butter

Makes:  One Scoop

Ingredients:

  • 1 Frozen Banana (cut into pieces prior to freezing)
  • 1-2 tbsp Milk
  • 1/2 tsp Nutella
  • 1/2 tsp Peanut Butter (home-made it better, check out my recipe here)

Method:

  1. Blend frozen banana pieces in a powerful blender or food processor.
  2. Add a bit of milk if needed.
  3. Add Nutella and Peanut Butter.
  4. Keep blending till smooth consistency is achieved.
  5. Serve immediately (Yes immediately!  Do not underestimate the melting power of frozen banana! haha)

Hope you enjoy it!  It’s helping me overcome this terribly hot weather in London.

xx

B

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B’s Eggless Oven Pancakes with a Mexican Quorn Minced Twist

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ImageDoesn’t the picture speak for itself?  😉  So I have left-over El Paso Fajita Sauce (about half a bottle).  Was thinking of using it for lunch but didn’t have tortillas at home!  So I came up with this idea 🙂  It actually worked really well.  I used my Eggless Oven Pancake Recipe and topped it up with minced cooked in fajita sauce and cheese.  A vegetarian easy mexican meal!

Got my ingredients ready:

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And started baking the pancake base first.  This took longer than my recipe as I doubled it.

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Till its golden, and the tooth-pick comes out clean.  You’re ready to go!  Start topping it up!

B’s Eggless Oven Pancake Topped with a Mexican Quorn Minced Twist

Bakes: One pancake for 2 people

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 cup milk + 1 tbsp vinegar (for the buttermilk)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • A bit of butter to butter the tray 
  • Quorn Minced (1/3 packet)
  • Fajita Sauce (1/2 bottle) + 1 tsp Tomato Puree

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 210 C.
  2. Pour a bit less than 1 cup of milk in a measuring cup.  Add 1 tbsp of vinegar to it and let it sit for 5 minutes.  This becomes your buttermilk.
  3. Pout milk in a bowl and mix in the flour and salt with a whisk.  
  4. Don’t overmix as it will lose its fluffiness as a pancake. (Just FYI)
  5. Pour in a greased pyrex dish.
  6. Bake for about 40-45 minutes till it’s golden (you can put a foil over it after 30 mins).
  7. Cook mince in the fajita sauce, a bit of water and 1 tsp of tomato puree.  Let it simmer till mince is cooked.  Stir occasionally,
  8. Top the pancake with the mixture and cheese and grill in oven till the cheese is melted.

Note:  Serve with a salad to balance this meal 🙂

Hope you enjoy it!

xx 

B

 

Review: Tastecard + Tastecard App

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One of my favourite perks about living in London is the affordable prices of eating out.  Eating out often is often seen as a luxury in many countries.  In Japan, Australia and Singapore – all the countries I’ve lived prior to my move here had a common thread.  Eating out in restaurants were expensive.  A night out with friends in an average restaurant would cost about 30 SGD per head.  If we take this value as a dollar-to-dollar value not accounting for difference in currency value, it is astoundingly high!

Eating out in London with the tastecard is very reasonable.  You can walk out a meal paying just 8-10 pounds per head.  The tastecard gives you either a 50% discount or a 2 for 1 deal in thousands of restaurants across UK.  This even works in Dublin, Scotland, Wales.  I’ve used it in all those countries.  It makes travelling across UK more affordable as your daily budget factors less money to food.

Tastecard has an app which makes finding restaurants near your radius simple.  Often we try new restaurants based solely upon the fact that there is a 50% discount.  That proves to be an incentive to try an unknown restaurant.  We have discovered many hidden gems this way.  I’ll be reviewing must-eat restaurants in London that are part of the taste card group!

This is the home screen of the app:

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It allows for easy reference to history, recent search and allows you to search.  I’ve recently searched for afternoon teas – as you can see!  I love good afternoon teas!

If you click on the search tab below, the screen would look like this:

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This allows users to make specific searches.  It helps me narrow down restaurants to the cuisine that I feel like eating 😉  (A girl needs what she needs!)

I strongly recommend this app to anyone who has tastecard.  And if you do not have tastecard and live in the UK – you should get an annual subscription now.  It’s usually 30 pounds (on offer).  One of the best inventions in UK!

VERDICT FOR TASTE CARD:
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY:  TO BUY!
I will be reviewing restaurants that accept taste cards!  I’ll be reviewing them with my Verdict: TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT.  If you discover a restaurant for me to check out, be in touch! x

B’s latest buys – Haute Couture.

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In the weekend I went shopping to Bicester Village Outlets to buy birthday gifts for me from the husband! 🙂  Guilt free brand shopping is a therapy. To get your hands on little haute couture goodies is a blissful feeling.

In Dublin,  my Dior sunnies were stolen.  It was really tragic at that point.  In all honestly, I still feel sad about it even while typing this!  Funny how attached we get to materialistic things… What can I say?  I am guilty as charged.

I went searching for a replacement as I had gone to Westfield to see current models but they don’t compliment my face shape as much.  Bicester Village has older models that suit me more.

Roberto Cavalli:

ImageThis was rather chic and the color was vibrant.  it just suited me!  I had to get it.  🙂

My next gift was a Burberry.  Since I have a Burberry jacket and a Burberry bag it was time to get a different merchandise.  I was thinking wellies!  Boots!

The sun aint going to shine forever in London no matter how optimistic we might be!

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I’m looking forward to winter again, just so I can wear these 🙂

xx

B

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B’s Birthday!

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Had a fantastic day as it’s my BIRTHDAY!

I get terribly excited a few days prior to my birthday.  I do a mental countdown, which makes everyone feel I’m sort of mental.  I absolutely love my birthday ever since I was a child.  I let that exuberant child in me live forever and celebrate my day (which should be a public holiday!) hahahaha!

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A beautiful balloon my husband got for me 🙂

xx

B

Travel Thursdays: Dublin

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B travels.

In Ireland do as the Irish do!  Wear a leprechaun hat, just because you want to.  Walk around in green the whole day because you want to celebrate St. Patricks Day but are just a few months late.  Just.. HAVE FUN!  That’s what we did!

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Just because I am a serious person who takes life far too seriously. 😉  HAHA! I actually try to adhere to the aphorism “Don’t take life too seriously, it’s not like we’re going to get out of it alive anyways.”  I’ve met some people who are far too gloomy and make the sunshine seem grey.  Really not my sort of thing! Try to put LIFE in LIFE and LIVE.  I did that in Dublin.  Walked around like a looney and had tons of fun! Ok, so many people assumed I was drunk. It happens when you try to be high on life.

Dublin is a bustling city with surrounding beautiful nature.  I was there on a family trip with cousins, aunts, and my husband.  It was a nice mix of company and ambience.

We stayed at Louis Fitzgerald Hotel (4 Star) and very reasonable priced from lastminute.com.  I would highly recommend it as the rooms very comfortable, there was free wifi and it was air-conditioned.  However, my cousins would disagree as they argued with the manager (long story).  So I won’t get into the technicalities of that as it had to do with noise control.  We were a tiny bit noisy. 😉

Places to see in Dublin:

  • Main city centre (very much like London actually)
  • Ha’penny Bridge over the Liffey River – beautiful for pictures.  There are many love padlocks here to symbolise undying love of a couple. You can put one too! Though I didn’t!
  • Trinity College – pretty college to stroll along.  It’s near the city centre so you can simply walk there.  We met a friend from that college to show us around.
  • Temple Bar- the bar that holds a Guinness World Record of 114 hours and 30 minutes of guitar playing.  You go DAVE!  Yes, so we went there to see this famous bar.  It was bustling.  I don’t drink but it was worth seeing the atmosphere.
  • Day tour from Dublin – I highly recommend to do one! You get to experience nature like never before.

We did the Connemara Day Tour.  We left the hotel really early as we had to be in the city centre at 6.30 am.  This is an early start, especially for someone like me.  I stress about waking up early.  All my university classes were always late as I simply could not do early mornings.  Therefore, if someone like me is highly recommending waking up early, it must be completely worth it.  The tour lasts 12 hours in which you pass through Galway to make your way to Connemara.  A boat tour is also included in the tour package of around 38 Euros per person.

This was the breath taking view of Connemara (the place where the romantic movie PS. I LOVE YOU was shot):

ImageIt resembled a beautiful postcard.  The photography-freak in me could not help but keep clicking pictures.  Some on our DSLR camera and some on my iPhone to whatsapp my family and friends who were missing out.  The view was really breath-taking.

We stopped in Galway and were free to roam around for an hour in the small town.  We grabbed something to eat and were back on the coach.

All in all, it was beautiful.  I even saw a beautiful sunset!  I love sunsets – there’s just something about the sun setting that gives me peace.  The beauty it exudes lights up the sky and then in a moment it’s dark.  Sunsets are mystical in my opinion.  There’s just something about them that I can’t describe as words do not seem to do justice to it.

ImageThis was taken on my iPhone and was edited with just one filter on Instagram.

Like any holiday, it becomes a memory that is etched in your heart.  The adventure that it entails is a story for one to always tell.

Dublin was a wonderful memory!

xx

B

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