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've not come up with any new recipes recently (though there's a sweet potato bread recipe that I want to try and a donut pan that I've yet to use..) so all you've been seeing here are food reviews. Which are not really applicable to those of you from other parts of the world.

I have quite a few more reviews though. :x 

So here's something of my own to show you. But if you follow me on Instagram you'd already have seen it lol.

This is Swissbake's Multiseed Gluten-free bread topped with:

➀ Sliced avo, Annie's organic ketchup, black sesame, cracked black pepper

➁ Curried mushroom tofu scramble (firm tofu, button mushroom, red chili, turmeric, curry powder, za'atar spice mix, spring onion)

➂ Peanut butter, banana, chocolate sauce (homemade), cacao nibs, hemp hearts

➃ Strawberry jam, kiwi, blueberries

I just love eating bread - if it was between bread and cake I'll most likely choose bread, based on taste alone. I'm weird and I like bread crusts and hard, dry, stale and/or refrigerated bread hehe. But the thing is that when I start eating it's hard to stop. So bread is my weakness. Lol. 

It was my first time having gluten-free bread, because it's not easily found plus it's usually quite expensive. I found this bread on sale and I was pleasantly surprised! I didn't know that Swissbake sold gluten-free bread. Other than this multiseed one, there's also a plain version. Original price is about $8 I think!

It was fluffier than I thought it'd be. I expected it to be rock hard haha. I don't exactly know how to describe it but it was like more brittle because it wasn't so chewy. There was also an odd, but not unpleasant taste. I'll definitely buy it again if I see it on sale!

Here's another one from a while ago.

➀ Smashed avo, strawberries, tahini, chopped pecans, chia seeds

➁ Tahini, banana, blueberries, cacao nibs, mint

➂ Strawberry jam, kiwi, hemp hearts

➃ Smashed avo + edamame, red bell pepper, alfalfa, nutritional yeast, lime juice.

You can see previous (more elaborate) versions of Sandwich Paradise here and here.

Hopefully I'll be back to making & posting new recipes soon! Have a great week ahead ^^

I've gone past this store in my dad's car many times before, but I've never tried it. Then, last Saturday, my parents and I were staycationing at Oasia Hotel and we walked to the cinema at Balestier from there (Dad said that it was super near but it was like 2km -_-). 

And we walked past this store on the way. I think Dad was feeling nibblish so we decided to get some piahs, though I was reluctant since I was still full from the buffet.

Oh and by the way, tau sar piah is a round pastry with a flaky crust and a sweet or savoury filling. Tau sar refers to a crumbly mung bean filling, but these piahs can be filled with a variety of ingredients!

We walked in and saw so many variations!

The interior was like old-fashioned factory-ish style. Yeah I don't know how to describe it. :x There's no sitting space; the food's only for takeaway.

Even though the front of the shop displays that the food is vegetarian, I was fully prepared to leave it empty handed. Since I was quite sure that butter is used in the crust. 

But the friendly old man behind the counter told us otherwise! It's made with vegetable oil. Yay it's vegan! ^^ 

So I was glad that we came in!

I chose durian ($0.80), mum chose sweet ($0.60) and dad picked pineapple ($0.70) and yam ($0.60).

We brought it into the cinema to eat hehe. They were warm despite the fact that they looked like they were sitting in the shelf for a while. They were not too sweet, and the crust was flakey, but not so flakey that the bits go all over your mouth & shirt and stick there stubbornly. It would go great with a mug of tea or coffee. ^^ Mum ate hers 2 days later, and it still tasted good.

It was nearing their closing time but there were still many piahs on display. I wonder what they do with them. o_o

It opens 8am - 7pm daily. You can see the address and phone number here:

Totally not related but we went to watch Interstellar. Before entering the cinema I had no clue what it was about... and after leaving I was like "?????". Mum didn't understand the fully either LOL.  Probably because the names and faces were hard to remember. It was 3 hours long and I think the development of the story could've been faster. Like halfway through I was almost feeling resigned that there wouldn't be a climax hahaha. And the jargon they used was confusing. (*spoiler alert*) And I was like ?? at the 'tesseract' and ??? the toilet-roll-tube 'planet' Cooper appeared on at the end. I only got it after reading Wiki's synopsis. LOL. But apparently I must be the shallow one because people my age enjoy it?? Or do they just enjoy being confused? Haha

My parents and I went to lunch at LingZhi for my mum's birthday! It's my first time at this branch at Novena. We went to the Orchard branch for my Dad's birthday earlier this year.. but I never got around to blogging about it hehe :x

We went for the Lunch Buffet ($24.80++). It includes a Mushroom Hotpot and a selection of Dim Sum items!

The design of the place was nice and bright, and I prefer this to the one at Orchard! We got this individual booth because there were no more plugs at the main area for the hotpot. (Yay took photos in peace LOL)

You can choose 2 soups for the mushroom hotpot. We got the Tom Yum soup and the Papaya Yam soup. 

It's called a mushroom hotpot and there were 5 types of mushrooms! They seemed fresh.

There are also quite a few other items: corn, baby corn, orange sweet potato, yam, tofu, tomato, black fungus, lotus root, taukee, 'fish' cake, instant noodles, chinese seaweed, huge bowl of veggies etc... BUT NO CARROTS. o_o

We asked the waitress and we were told that only the vegetable curry and the pork pastry has milk. Okay, it's quite expected for the pastry, but curry??? Curry???? They use both low fat milk and coconut milk in it. Why ruin a good dish -_- 

I was super pleasantly surprised to know that these Heaty Fried Things are vegan woohoo! These were my favourite out of the whole buffet!! More about them later!

The non-vegan Vegetarian Pork Pastry is the one at the top right.

Here you see the condiments table, the dim sum stacks and three dessert items at the back.

The one on the left is the Spicy Sesame Sauce. It wasn't spicy. Slightly bitter.

The other one is the Satay Sauce. It's yummy!! Goes great with everything! In fact, all the vegan satay sauces I've tried have been wonderful. ^^

There's also a Homemade Chili Sauce but I only saw it at the end because dad didn't scoop it lol. 

DIM SUM WOOHOO!!!!!

I have no idea what they're called and I forgot to try the siew mai. ._.

I didn't really like the green + yellow dumplings because I felt that the filling-to-skin ratio was too low. And the veggie buns at the to right tasted average too. The small round dumpling at the top left was quite yummy.

But I really like the char siew bun!!! Yum yum warm and fluffy! Mum thought that it wasn't sweet enough but I felt that it was just right.

There were 7 types of dim sum in total. I had this triangle shaped one which was interesting because there's corn inside!

Heaty fried things!!!

Clockwise from top: Yam Croquette, Spring Roll, Curry Puff, Vegetables Croquette and Carrot Cake. Other than the spring roll, which was average, everything else was SO GOOD! 

The yam croquette was so crispy and flaky on the outside and smooth on the inside. The curry puff was like baked - the shell was like a biscuit - and the filing was flavourful. The vegetables croquette had a chewy mochi-like exterior! And the carrot cake was our favourite - crispy around the edges and it's of just the right savouriness!! The crispiness depends on how fresh they are too though - we had a few more pieces (yes they were that good!) and not all were crispy.

On to the hotpot!

The tom yum soup was nearer to me so that's what I mostly ate from haha. It was sour, flavourful and spicy enough!! :)

The fried noodles were average-tasting. But add on the satay sauce and it's yummy! ^^

The rojak was not bad. I don't have anything to compare it to though; I don't remember eating the non-vegan kind. The you tiao (deep fried dough fritters) in this rojak were CRISPY LIKE COOKIES. Interesting. The apples and pineapple in this are the only fruit I had that meal lols. There was sliced watermelon at the condiments table though.

Desserts: Almond Jelly with Longan, Black Sesame Paste and Sweetened Almond Cream.

The almond jelly dessert was unfortunately the canned fruit cocktail kind. I was expecting pieces of almond jelly! The black sesame paste and almond paste were not too sweet, but I found them to be not rich enough. Hmm.

I find that it's a a bit too pricey for a buffet with this small spread. On the other hand, there's both dim sum and steamboat, and almost all items are vegan. Service was good too. I guess this is a good place for special occasions! I was like full until dinner. So yeah, go with an empty stomach and non-figure-hugging clothes hehe.

LingZhi Vegetarian

Velocity @ Novena Square

238 Thomson Road

#03-09/10

Phone: 6538 2992

Nature Vegetarian is a coffee-shop-style kinda restaurant, located right beside Boneless Kitchen. It was 初一 when my parents and I dined there for dinner, so it was quite crowded! 初一 is the first day of the month in the lunar calendar, and some Buddhists eat vegetarian on that day.

They have an extensive Chinese menu, and a small Western selection that I'm quite sure is not vegan. None of their dishes have egg, but some have dairy. Check with the cashier when you make your order.

They have a small retail area too. As with the items on the menu, all items are vegetarian, but not all are vegan so make sure to check! Some have dairy in them, such as the siew mai which has whey. :(

Nice quote.

You can choose dishes from here, but we got items from the full menu.

This is #724 Mini Wok Rib Noodle ($4.50). My dad liked it a lot; he said it tastes better than meat dishes! I didn't really enjoy this because the noodles were yellow.

#200 Watercress Soup [Medium] ($7.00). When this came I was like woah so much!! Because the bowl is huge. But actually, there isn't much ingredients; it's mostly just the soup. Which was oily. The corn was sliced so thinly too. My mum said that maybe ordering two small soups ($5 each for most) will be more worth it.

#108 Broccoli with Mushroom [Small] ($9.00). Expensive! I didn't like the starchy clumps, but the broccoli was crunchy and the mushrooms were really soft and smooth, so I guess it wasn't that bad.

This #501 Ma Po Tofu [Small] ($8.00) was my favourite dish of all! It was oily but I really like the crunchy fried bits and the sauce-soaked tofu! I didn't find it really spicy but maybe it's because I tried to drain the sauce away. I don't remember eating the meat version, but I asked my parents and they said that it didn't normally come with meat?? I googled and yes usually it's cooked with minced meat.

We also got 2 bowls of brown rice. The meal for 3 costed about $30, which is reasonable.

Nature Vegetarian is definitely not the place to go to if you're looking for healthy food. Most things seem to be oily and prices for some dishes are quite high. But I wouldn't mind eating there again; there's so many more dishes we've not tried! There was a couple beside us sharing a curry, another couple sharing a hill of fried rice, and a family with a mountain of it LOL.

Nature Vegetarian Catering Pte Ltd

Blk 11 Jalan Bukit Merah

#03-4462

Singapore 150011

Phone: 6897 7370

We got these braised meat buns from the frozen retail section of Nature Vegetarian. It's $4.00 for 6 pieces, and according to my grandma and my parents it's cheap.

The ingredient list says that it has: flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, gluten and seasoning. Doesn't sound very wholesome LOL. But the 'real' thing is worse so.

It's supposedly handmade.

I had this at a family dinner at my grandparent's house.

My grandma steamed them and it was so fluffy and delicious!! The inside wasn't really gluten-y; it seems to be made of mushroom stems. It wasn't too oily or salty, and we all like it! Even my mum, who dislikes the taste of mock meat! :)

So gooood I want one now

If you were curious, this is usually how family dinners go at my maternal grandparent's place. My grandma cooks a few dishes for me - other then the buns, there's also a tomato onion stew (the onions were SO sweet yum!), stuffed tofu puffs with a thick sauce, veggie & mushroom stir-fry and an unpictured bowl of raw cucumber. I had it with rice. 

I feel so blessed and thankful that my family and relatives are generally supportive. ^^