The basic banana-oat cake I always make, in waffle form! I used a silicon waffle mold for this and it turned out surprisingly well. I had to remove the baked waffles from the mold and bake the other side further so the square holes cook properly, but this uses no oil so I don't mind the longer prep time.

I topped it with date jam (pureed dates), tahini, berries, kiwi and passionfruit. Also had yummy Yogi Caramel Apple Spice tea ^^

I think the banana-oat cake recipe is somewhere on my blog but I'm lazy to find and link it so here it is: Pulse about 1/3 to 1/2 cup rolled oats in a food processor until it turns into (coarse) flour. Puree 2/3 medium banana and stir it in. Add 1 tsp baking powder. Add non-dairy milk or water to thin it. Bake at 180 deg C for 10-15 mins (depending on baking pan/mold)

I bought the waffle mold from taobao (S$3.60 excluding shipping and fees) and I also got a stovetop waffle pan. The pan looks scary though. I might just stick to using this ^^;

Going to Tokyo tomorrow woohoo! I'll be back next month with lotsa posts on my trip - I'll keep the posts organised and consise and hopefully finish what I plan to write lol!

Purple rice sushi filled with avocado, carrot, celery, tofu, chili pepper and corn. I tried making the inside-out style rolls (uramaki) but it was such a fail because rice kept on sticking everywhere lol! Also tried hand-pressed sushi (nigirizushi) but also kinda fail because I don't know how to keep the nori from unraveling hahaha

I'll just stick to the normal rolls (according to allaboutsushiguide I think what I make is like futomaki) lol

I didn't add sushi vinegar as usual, nor did I use sushi/pearl rice, so I guess this is fake sushi ^^;

The purple rice is made with 1 cup medium grain rice (uncooked) and 2 tbsp black glutinous rice (uncooked). And it turns out so purple when cooked together - isn't it like magic?? Haha this is mum's discovery!

The toppings for nigiri sushi are: avocado - corn - carrot & chili pepper - avocado & tofu & chili - corn & avocado.

By the way Ikea tea light holders are good dishes for sauce :)

Also mum & I are going to Tokyo at the end of the month woohoo! Too bad we'll be missing the vegan festival (T.T) but there's still lotsa fun stuff to do and vegan food to eat ^^

When I was making this, in my head I was thinking what am I doing??

I wanted to eat zoodles since I haven't used my spiralizer in ages but I ran out of normal pasta ingredients, so in this dish there's:

1 zucchini

1 large purple sweet potato

1 piece tempeh

1/2 tbsp tomato paste

Soyaki

Unsweetened soymilk

Tanini

Olives

Strawberries

Nutritional yeast

I marinated tempeh cubes in Trader Joe's Soyaki (current favourite sauce!) and pan-fried it before adding it to pureed purple sweet potato. And then I mixed in tomato paste and soymilk to make it smoother.

I think the tomato paste was unnecessary but turned out better than expected!

I wouldn't mind making this again hehe ^^

Oatmeal and fruit is what I typically have for breakfast nowadays.

Recently I really like having coffee in my oatmeal. For mocha oats I use: scant 1/2 cup rolled oats + 1 tsp instant coffee + 2 tsp cacao powder + soymilk + sweetener of choice (optional)

By the way I won't be Instagramming for a while because I don't have the feel lol. Maybe next year or something when I'm in a new environment.

Have a lovely day ahead! ^^

Hello! Haven't blogged in forever! Didn't even finish about my New York trip lol. And it's not because I'm busy either - I don't know if I've mentioned it here before but I ended poly in Feb this year and I'll be going to QUT to study dietetics in Feb next year. 

I've been working a bit but not full-time so I'm still home a lot of the time.. watching shows. Lol I can almost feel my brain rotting. The most study-ish thing I've done is the eCornell Plant-based Nutrition course (I'll blog about it in a later post). And the next most thing that makes me use my brain is watching The Genius (Korean reality game show) lol.

You've probably noticed that my blog design has changed. I did it 2 weeks ago using a template but the template's html is so confusing I don't know how to change things. -_- Like I have at least 5 different fonts and the Latest Post section is weird when you click the next button. And when you click on a picture in a post it blows up and takes up the entire screen. I really can't fix it so I shall live with it lol. Maybe I'll change to Wordpress or Tumblr next time.

Oh and my blog header is done by my friend Amanda! Isn't it lovely?

(haha I was inspired by her to try hand lettering/calligraphy so I bought a Copic marker.. but it's been sitting in a drawer ever since)

The food in the picture is pretty self-explanatory.

That's all for this post! I'll see if I can post at least twice a week haha. Too bad I missed the Vegan MoFo sign up or else I'd have the motivation to post 5 days a week lol ^^;

Who needs magnums when you can have these.

If you're shocked to find that these brownies are made of beans, then I'm shocked that you've not heard of them before. They're as common as cauliflower crust pizzas. Or chickpea blondies. Or kale chips. Lol. Anyway, you really don't taste the beans, trust me! :)

I've made black bean brownies quite a few times before, and they always turn out moist and fudgey! Previously I always used banana in the batter, but this time I used a very ripe pear and more medjool dates. If you have a food processor or blender, making it will be a breeze. This time I used a food processor (which I didn't have back then) and I didn't need to use as much liquid to get the blades turning. But the blender version is still good! ^^

View this post to see my other black bean brownie creations!

For these brownie pops, I simply poked a ice cream stick into each piece, froze it overnight, and added the toppings the next day. The drizzle of homemade chocolate hardens in to a crackly hard-shell once it touches the brownie. ^^

This first one on the left is topped with blueberries and strawberry bits. As you can see. Haha. The tartness of the berries complements the brownie well!

The middle one has banana bits, raw tahini and hemp seeds. Banana and chocolate is always a great combination; banana, chocolate and tahini is even better!

The third one is with a small scoop of Soyato's green tea ice cream! The ice cream tastes not bad, but my favourite will still have to be the Wickedly Chocolate flavour.

I feel so pleased with how my watermark (?) fits so perfectly on the ice cream stick. LOL.

I can't decide which my favourite topping is! They're all so easy to prepare too. :) Maybe I'll try a savoury topping next time hmmm.

Black Bean Brownies
Makes about 18 brownies

• heaped 1 1/2 cup cooked black beans (a 15 ounce can should work fine too, though I've not tried it)
• 1 medium (ripe) pear (or 1/3 cup applesauce or 1 medium banana)
• 8 large medjool dates, pulsed into a thick paste (add 1 tbsp water if needed)
• 3/4 cup black bean 'soup' (the water the beans are boiled in) or non-dairy milk or water
• heaped 1/4 cup raw cacao (or unsweetened cocoa)
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup oat flour (rolled oats pulsed in a food processor)
• Optional: chopped nuts/dried fruit

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C. Lightly oil an 8x10" pan and set aside.
2. Combine all ingredients, except oat flour, in a food processor and blend until smooth.
3. Add in oat flour and continue blending. Add nuts/ dried fruit (if using) and pour batter into pan. 
4. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
5. For frozen brownie pops, poke half an ice cream stick into each slice before placing in the freezer overnight. Top with desired toppings and enjoy.

I love buying from iHerb! It's an online shopping haven for (almost*) everything vegan, organic, raw and much more! There's discounts and good shipping rates (I also usually receive my package in 5-6 days). It's also really convenient because it's easier to find items that I can't readily find here in Singapore! 

*I've not been able to find vegan-certified rainbow sprinkles and marshmallows (I've even recently dreamt about Freedom Mallows omg). :(

So far, I've purchased from iHerb 5 times. I usually buy what I need, and some sale/trial products. ^^ They also have this wonderful Rewards System where you get Rewards (..duh) - they can be used for extra discounts, when people use your Rewards Code. For a first-time buyer, you can get $10 off an order over $40, or $5 off an order under $40, when you use a Rewards Code (mine's MPF483). So it's a win-win for all! :)

Now, here's a list of my favourite kinds of things to buy (in random order):

1. Hurraw Lip Balm

My absolute favourite brand of lipbalm!! Hurraw is organic, vegan and raw. Also, the scents and textures are all (at least as far as I've tried) really good, plus it's relatively cheap - what more could you ask for?

I started using Hurraw a few years back, when it was sold at West Coast Plaza's Watsons (it isn't sold there now T.T). I've been through two tubes of the Night Treatment Balm - which says a lot since I never finish my lip balms. I slather it onto my lips before bed, and then in the morning I wipe off the dead skin from my lips and my lips are really soft. Sorry if that's TMI haha. My lips don't crack anymore - and they'd always used to. What's more, it's like applying chocolate to your lips - it's really smooth and it smells of vanilla and cocoa. Heavenly.

You'll smell the scent/flavour as you apply it, but not much after!

As for the other flavours,

Black Cherry Tinted: I like the red. And it isn't the awful fever medicine kinda cherry. ^^

Sun Protection: This is the only one with SPF. It's tangerine flavoured, not bad. But I've been using it since my first tube of Night Treatment Balm and I've yet to finish it, so I guess the flavour isn't that enticing.

Chai Spice: Smells exactly like masala chai tea!! Yum.

Lemon: Like the Strepsils Lemon flavour, but more zesty and less fake. Really refreshing!

Chocolate: It's chocolate-y, but not chocolate-y enough. I feel that it's missing something.
I use Lemon and Chai Spice the most often.

2. Raw Cacao products & Chocolove Dark Chocolate

Whenever I see a display of chocolate, I'll check the ingredient list of the dark chocolate to see if it's vegan. Tell me that every vegan does that. Haha.

I've always been wanting to try Chocolove chocolate, and finally I did! Only their dark chocolate is vegan. It's not vegan certified, but according to what I've read here, they "take every measure to assure that milk chocolate is kept away from dark chocolate". And that's good enough for me!

This time, I got 3 bars. It's all ridiculously delicious. Why haven't I bought them before??

Almonds & Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate (55% cocoa content): The chocolate is sweeter that what I usually eat (85% and above), but the little bits of salt granules nicely balances it out! It's also generously filled with crunchy almonds.

Extra Strong Dark Chocolate (77% cocoa content): Way less strong than those I usually consume, but it's actually quite a just-nice kinda sweetness. And it's so smooth.

Cherries & Almonds in Dark Chocolate (55% cocoa content): I don't often like cherries in food, because they are usually reminiscent of fever medicine (that awful milky pink syrup), but this was wonderful! It's filled with crunchy nuts and chewy, slightly-tart dried cherries - you can taste them in every square.

Other than chocolate bars, I also like raw cacao nibs and raw cacao powder from Navitas Naturals. The cacao nibs add a delightfully bitter crunch to my oatmeal and desserts, and the cacao powder makes smoothies and nice-creams even more rich and delicious! I also use cacao powder to make raw chocolate.

3. Stevia

I find that Now Better Stevia (bought them at USD$1 each and later saw that a health food store here was selling it for over SGD$20 omg) tastes quite awfully fake. But the NuNaturals one is great! :) I'm increasingly not having much use for it though heh. Because I don't really bake much anymore, and I'd much rather eat dates, sweet fruit and coconut sugar. It's handy to add to teas and other drinks though!

4. Gluten-free Flours
Coconut flour, quinoa flour and peanut flour! They all smell heavenly and add a different texture and taste to baked goods. I like to use peanut flour in savoury salad dressings. It's good as a thickener too!

5. Sunblock

I really like Aubrey Natural Sun SPF 30 Tropical Scent Sunscreen (you can see it 2 photos down). I decided to buy this because it was on sale, and I'm glad I did! Other than being vegan and cruelty-free, I also love the scent and how moisturizing it is. I don't use it really frequently, but it makes it into this list because vegan-friendly sunblocks are quite hard to find here I believe. 

More about my hauls and other good products:

I like hemp hearts because they add a nutty taste to food and look good as a sprinkle. 

The coconut oil is good for cooking, but mostly I use it for making chocolate (note that this one from Jarrows is in liquid form at room temperature so the chocolate melts quite fast in your hand).

I think I've only used the raw nori once. Can't bear to use it LOL. Tastes and looks more or less the same as normal nori.

Sometimes I'll add 1 tbsp of the raw coconut vinegar to 2 cups of water and drink it in the morning. I don't feel any benefits but it makes me feel healthy hahaha.

The taste of the maca powder takes some getting used to. I bought it because it's supposed to help regulate menses but nope. Still, it has other health benefits and you can add it to smoothies and oatmeal etc. (But actually it's sitting at the back of my cupboard.)

The Himalayan black salt is so atas. Hehe.

The organic molasses can be found quite easily in supermarkets here, but I think it's cheaper from iherb. I bought it because it's kinda high in iron. Good in oatmeal and cookies.

The vitamin D3 is a freebie and it's not vegan.

Here's the stevia and peanut flour.

It's quite worth it to buy nutritional yeast from iHerb! Plus this is definitely fortified with B12.

The Go Raw Pizza Flax Snax is AMAZING. How can something so healthy taste like pizza?!?!?! You have to try it!!!

The coconut sugar is so good too. Smells like COOKIES. Low GI. Great for baking.

Most of the items here are impulse buys from my Rewards points lols.

The B12 lozenges taste quite awful (kinda tutti frutti). But it's a tiny lozenge so I don't mind. What I don't like about this is that it's a high dosage (16667% RDA) which makes me feel like I don't need to take it every day. And when it's not a daily habit, I'll forget to take it. Also, it doesn't do very well with moisture. Putting it in the fridge isn't good because moisture will rush in and condense once you open the bottle - that's what happened to my previous bottle, the lozenges got all soft and crumbly ugh. And you can't put it in a pill box either, unless it's really air tight. ._. So just keep it out of the fridge, in a cool place, and handle with dry hands.

The Midori Greens superfood blend was on sale so I bought it. Hehe. I like to add a scoop to a cup of water and drink it in the morning. Makes me feel so healthy and clean inside LOL.

The Argan Oil is nice to use on my hair! I have really awfully frizzy hair (I blame Singapore's humidity) and this is probably the product that's the closest to taming it without making my hair clumpy. And it's 100% oil so no chemicals! :)

Why did I even buy the Organic Spirulina pills. Lols maybe I'll take it when I feel sick. Or maybe not.

Botanique by Himalaya Toothpaste. Why did I buy this too? Haha. It's not as minty as I'd have liked it to be, but it's fluoride free, saccharin free, sodium lauryl sulfate free and gluten free. 

I hope that this post has been useful. Took me a super long time to type this. I think I started in April. :x What are your favourite iHerb products? :)



P.S. If you were wondering why I've been so MIA on Instagram and here the last week or so (especially since it was the school holidays)... I guess I just didn't have the mood. And I've been busy going out and being engrossed in reading and procrastinating projects and stuff. Meh. I guess lose interest in things quite easily. But I still love my collection of glassware and wood stuff. I think it's either I start posting very simple, fuss-free things on Instagram or else I'll hardly be posting at all...

A super simple twist of my usual 3-ingredient banana cake! :) I just added in fresh blueberries and chocolate.

Oil-free and gluten-free.

These are really tiny two-bite muffins! 

I used Droste dark chocolate pastilles. It's much sweeter than I'd like it to be, but it's a good sweetness for baking I guess! I like the pastille shape though - I wish there was a more bitter version.

Usually my fluffy 3-ingredient banana cake is made with 1/2 cup oat flour, 2/3 medium banana and 1 tsp baking powder. These turned out slightly denser though, perhaps because my oat-to-banana ratio is higher.

I used both chopped dark chocolate and cacao nibs (only in the batter), but you can use just dark chocolate if you'd like. I added cacao nibs because I was lazy to chop more chocolate lols. But they gave the muffins a nice crunch! ^^

Easy to make... and easy to finish hehe.

Blueberry Banana Choc Chip Muffins

Makes about 10 two-bite muffins

Ingredients

• Scant 2 cups oat flour (rolled oats pulsed in food processor)

• about 1 1/2 cup banana purée (about 3 medium bananas)

• 1/4 cup blueberries

• 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate + cacao nibs

• 2 tsp baking powder

1. Mix flour and baking powder together.

2. Mix in banana purée until flour is evenly moist. Dough should be very thick. 

3. Fold in blueberries and chocolate.

4. Press into mini muffin cups. Top with more chocolate if desired.

5. Bake in a preheated oven for 10-12 mins (depending on size) at 180°C.

6. Cool and enjoy!

These Sweet Potato Pizza Bites make for a good meal or snack! They are quite easy to whip up, since there's no need to make a dough for the base, and the sauce is just made with 3 ingredients. :)

And they look so pretty omg. Okay this is like self-praise, but I was super happy while I was editing these because they are so colourful and the lighting was so good! Hahaha

The sauce is made with red bell peppers, tomato and dried cherry tomatoes. This is what it looks like after excess juice has been drained out. Rolled it around in the sieve and it turned into this ball lols.

In the midst of spreading the sauce on the 'base'!

Top with your favourite veggies (or fruits, no one's stopping you) and eat!

These are softer in the middle and crispier at the edges. There are tiny burnt spots on the edges of the sauce, but they can be easily picked out if you mind them.

For an even crispier alternative, you can bake sweet potato chips (no oil needed, 180 deg C, 30-40 mins) and use the pizza sauce as a dip. Yum yum.

3-ingredient Pizza Sauce

Makes twice the amount shown above

You can add in herbs/spices too if you'd like!

• 1 1/2 medium red bell pepper
• 1 medium tomato
• 15-20 dried cherry tomatoes, chopped

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients together in a food processor.
2. Pour mixture onto a sieve (placed over a bowl).
3. Shake the sieve until the juice drains out and the sauce thickens. It's ready to use.
4. Keep the juice to add to soup or smoothies!

Sweet Potato Pizza Bites
(Rough recipe)

• 1 extra large or 2 medium sweet potatoes (I used the Japanese variety)
• 1 batch 3-ingredient Pizza Sauce
• Desired toppings: sliced button mushrooms, onion, corn, carrot, alfalfa, sprouts, nutritional yeast, cracked black pepper

Method:

1. Wash sweet potatoes and slice them thinly (there's no need to remove the skin). 
2. Lay slices on parchment paper.
3. Spread sauce on the sweet potato slices.
4. Bake at 180 deg C for 30 mins - at the 15 minute mark, I added mushrooms and onions.
5. Remove from oven and add other toppings. Enjoy!

I'm finally done with selling my jars of quinoa granola!! I really didn't expect so many orders - I was thinking that it'll be great if I sold 5 jars or so, but I ended up selling 23! (The 24th one was a backup in case I broke any hehe. :x ) And wow, it was so much more tiring than what I'd expected! Taking orders, arranging meetups, jar decor and making the granola all sucked up my energy lols. For the past two weeks, I was making granola almost every weekday morning.

Okay, it sounds like I hated selling my granola, but no, I really liked it! It's like a similar feeling to... exercise (at least for me it is). When you decide to go for a run later, you're excited - not for the run, but for the outcome. But during the run it's awful and you're constantly thinking "Why am I doing this to myself?! D: ". And then, after the run, it's great! You feel accomplished and happy. Similarly, this granola selling thing was fun during the planning stages, and I feel great that I've completed something I've been wanting to do! :) Like crossing out something on a bucket list - not that I have one. Plus it got me out of the house - I would have watched kdramas the whole day if not for this!

I think that some of you are expecting that I'll be selling more granola soon (sorry to those I've turned away because I ran out of jars ☹), but I don't think I'll have the time to once school starts! (I will be selling a variety of mason jars though!) So... you can try making it for yourself by using the recipes at the Popular Posts on the left. ^^

Oh yes, if you chose mulberries as one of your dried fruit - I rationed out the mulberries because I didn't anticipate that so many people would want it (and I couldn't find it at a health food store), so it's there... but probably not easy to find since its brown and looks like granola. :x I did make up for it with more of the other two ingredients though! Also, surprisingly few people chose raisins!! :O Okay, if it was me I wouldn't have chosen raisins too because it's so ordinary and common compared to the other choices of dried fruit. Goji berries were also unexpectedly popular!! The most popular combination (out of 35 combinations) was Goji berries - Medjool dates - Coconut flakes.

Every jar was a little different, because I baked the granola in small batches. Which means that some are more chaota and some are less chaota. o_o Hopefully the level of chaota-ness of your jar of granola was good for all of you who bought it!

Perhaps this was a 亏本生意 - I might have lost money doing this hahaha. Since about half of my ingredients were organic. And nuts are expensive too. I couldn't be bothered to calculate the actual cost of each jar (filled with granola) though. But no matter - even if it is I'm glad that I did this, and sold it at a reasonable price! ^^  

I've received lots of positive feedback. :') I also didn't expect for so many people to buy the set of two jars and request for two of the larger jars! I mean, what if you tried it and decided that you didn't like it? I'd like to believe that it's because you all trust me & my cooking so much. Aww.

LOL.

Anyway here's some of the feedback I've received. I hope no one minds me sharing it anonymously!

• "I've just tried it and it's really good! (Honestly I expected it to be pretty bland hahaha) If you're ever going to sell it again I'll definitely buy more!"
• "Omg they're soo good! ... Hahaha I really wish u had a bigger jar T.T You should sell more :)"
• "Just wanted to let you know that your granola is really good, I love it! :) It's the best I've tried so far, in fact I've already finished half of each jar oops. It's a lot faster than expected haha. Please do continue making more, will definitely support you again (and buy more)! :) And thanks for the lovely packaging, it was a really sweet touch!"
• "Serene, it's yummy! I doubt the 2 bottles can last thru the weekend and thanks for the personalised label :)"

Aww I feel so touched :') <3

You can also view my hashtag #EYRgranola on Instagram to see what some had to say! ^^ Though much fewer people than expected posted it on IG LOL.

Next time, if I decide to sell my granola again, I'll probably set a fixed timing and place for collection on the weekends. And also... probably only one flavour and one size of jar.

Thanks once again for your support!! ♡♡♡

I'm going to Taiwan tomorrow with four of my friends!!! So excited YAY! I'll be back next Tuesday. Meanwhile, I have a blogpost about baby food scheduled for Thursday and I'll be updating my Instagram with yummy food in Taiwan - hopefully! Haha.