Mixed Berry Smoothie

中文：草莓水果冰沙

I don’t usually make fruit smoothies because they are always too sweet for my taste.  But I like to stock up all kinds of berries to make mixed berry smoothies.  They are refreshing, nutritious, and packed with vitamins and great berry flavor.  O(∩_∩)O~ 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 to 2 pounds strawberries
1/2  cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen raspberries
1/4 cup frozen blackberries
1/2  frozen banana
1/3 to 1/2  cup apple juice /water

Remove strawberry calyx, cut into quarters.  Add strawberries into the vitamix (AMAZON this one), along with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and banana.

Add apple juice / water, and cover with the lid. 

Turn on Vitamix (Amazon linl).  Gradually increase speed from 1 to 8 or 9, and then switch to high. Blend for another 30 to 45 seconds. You might need to use the temper to push fruits down. 

Deep Green Smoothie

中文：绿色蔬菜水果沙冰

My husband always says March is the most depressing month in Michigan, because everywhere else is warm and flowers are starting to bloom but Michigan’s winter shows no sign of leaving.  I can’t agree more. O(∩_∩)O~

I can’t do anything about that, but I can eat more fresh vegetable and fruits! Deep green smoothies have been a breakfast stable.  They are healthy and nutritious, and more importantly, they are quick and fast too!

I always keep deep green mix in the refrigerator. 

Ingredients：

1 pack green mix (5 oz)
1 grapefruit
1 orange
1/2 banana
1/4 cup crushed ice

Directions:

Peel the grapefruit, orange and banana, and cut into bite sizes.  Add to VITAMIX (Amazon link) container.  

And then add crushed ice and vegetable mix. 

Turn on Vitamix.  Gradually increase speed from 1 to 8 or 9, and then switch to high. Blend for another 20 to 30 seconds. You might need to use the temper to push vegetable down. 

Here you go, healthy and delicious in a bottle! O(∩_∩)O~

Spinach Cavatelli Noodles with Pork and Dried Daikon

中文菜谱: 菠菜猫耳朵面

There is about 1/3 bunch spinach left in the refrigerator.  It is not enough to do any stir frying, so I make some spinch cavatelli noodles out of it.

As a matter of fact, in Chinese there is another cute interesting name for noodles in this shape: cat’s ears.  Those pointed tips do look like cat’s ears.   

Ingredients:

1/3 bunch spinach
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cup bread flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup water
boiling water and a pinch of salt (for blanching spinach)

Directions：

Fill a large bowl with water and ice.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add a pinch of salt and spinach.  Get the spinach out as soon as the color turns dark green, and shock it with iced water.

Drain the spinach.  Place it to vitamix (from amazon) container; add water and blender until smooth; the smoother the better.  

Add flour, salt, spinach mixture and oil to a KitchenAid mixing bowl (from amazon).

Turn on stand mixer, and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. 

Place dough on a board dusted with flour; shape it into a ball; covered and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes. 

With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch in height. Cut it into thumb nail sized squares. 

Divide them and dust with flour again.

On a gnocchi paddle (from amazon), push down those tiny dough squares and push forward at the same time. You will get those little cute cat ears with marks. 

Dust with flour so that they won’t stick together. 

Every time I make them, that sensational scene from Godfather comes to my mind.   Vincent Mancini and Mary Corleone were making gnocchi.  

It is really nice to cook and enjoy a lovely dinner with your loved one, isn’t it? 

Ok, let’s get back to our cat ears.

Ingredients:

1 piece pork shoulder, (3 to 5 oz) , thinly sliced
a handful of dried chili pepper, cut into halves
1/2 cup dried daikon (available in Asian grocery store), diced
1 teaspoon Sichuan pepper
2 to 3 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
2 gloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced or minced
2 to 3 chicken stock or water
freshly ground black pepper
1/4  teaspoon sugar
salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoon oil for cooking
water (for boiling noodles)

Directions:

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add a pinch of salt and spinach noodles.  Cook until they float, about 2 to 3 minutes. Drain them well.

Heat a wok over medium high heat; add oil, garlic and Sichuan pepper corns.  When garlic turns color, add pork, salt, black pepper and rice cooking wine.  Stir fry over high heat until the pork is golden brown.  Add spinach noodles, salt, soy sauce, sugar to taste.  Stir in chicken stock, and cook together for another 1 or 2 minutes. 

Serve immediately. 

Freeze any extra raw noodles and store them in a sealed Ziploc bag. 

Just love the color and taste.

Almond Milk

 中文菜谱:  生磨杏仁露

I don’t remember when exactly I became a fan of almond milk.  All I remember is that in college we pretty much ordered almond milk as our drinks every single time when my boyfriend took me out on dates. He now is my husband.  We still enjoy a cup of almond milk from time to time when cuddling on couch. 

Ingredients:

2/3 cup blanched almond (skinless almond would make better looking almond milk.  I am fine with whole one.)
2 toasted or pan roasted sweet rice
2 to 4 tablespoon sugar (or to personal taste)
1rolled oats (optional. It makes silkier, smoother almond milk )
3 cup water

Directions:

Soak almond and sweet rice in water for 20 to 30 minutes. 

Combine almond, sweet rice, sugar, rolled oats and water in vitamix.  

Turn it on, gradually raise speed from 1 to 10, and then grind at high speed for 5 minutes.  

In 5 minutes, you have hot tasty freshly made almond milk!

Enjoy!

Homemade Honey Peanut Butter

中文版菜谱：蜂蜜花生酱

I posted before about how to make peanut butter with a coffee grinder, (http://www.yankitchen.com/blog/2014/10/18/-2-1).  Coffee grinder is good for making small amount of peanut butter.   I want to make more this time, so I go with vitamix to grind about 2 pounds of peanuts.

Peanut butter is so widely used in my home cooking that I always have peanuts and peanut butter handy.  It goes great with toasted bread, dessert, and it is also an important ingredient in Asian noodles, and salad dressing. 

Ingredients:

2 pound dry roasted peanuts
4 to 5 tablespoon honey
1 to 2 tablespoon peanut oil (optional)

Direction:

Place all the ingredients in to vitamix container, turn it on, raise the speed gradually to 7 or 8, and grind for about 1 minute.  Use the tamper to press down the peanuts when grinding.   

Plain dry roasted peanut is always my number one choice if I don’t roast them myself. 

Seconds after vitamix is turned on, peanuts are grinded into big pieces. 

And then those pieces become smaller pieces. 

In about 1 minute, wa-lah, we have smooth and creamy peanut butter! (Please be careful when grinding peanut butter.  If you smell anything other than peanut’s aroma, stop the machine!)

Grind a little bit longer if you prefer creamier peanut butter.

Stored in an airtight glass jar, it can last a couple weeks, longer if kept refrigerated.  But I always keep it room temperature.  

The fresher peanut butter, the better it smells and tastes.  

ESSENTIAL TOOLS