It's the time of the year where all the pumpkin-related food appear! #rhyme-y

I've made Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Cups before, and these are similar. It's really a breeze to make, and it uses just 5 basic ingredients!

Awkward hand shot lol.

Oh yeah and I did henna on Saturday for the first time! More about that below.

I filled some small silicon cups (from Daiso, as usual) with a layer of liquid chocolate, that's made of raw cacao powder, coconut oil and maple-flavoured golden syrup (because I didn't have any maple syrup on hand :x ).

After leaving the chocolate to harden in the freezer, I added on roasted pumpkin puree and chopped pecans. I made the pumpkin puree without adding any water or other ingredients, so it's really thick - somehow it was even thicker than the one I used for my pumpkin pie-in-a-jar! You can add spices to the pumpkin if you wish (eg. Cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger).

And then, I poured on more chocolate before placing it back into the freezer.

And it's done! ^^ They're definitely larger than Reese's.

I used coconut oil (Jarrow's brand) that's liquid at room temperature (bought the wrong one -_-) so it melts super fast here in sunny Singapore. Which means that you need to eat it immediately after removing it from the freezer/fridge. It'll probably be better to use coconut oil that's solid at room temp, though there's an additional step of having to melt it before adding the cacao!

It's reallllly high-fat, but it's a once-in-a-while treat so it's fine I guess!

P.S I still have one chocolate PB cup from last year in my freezer....................

It's kinda messy when you bite down into it, since the pumpkin doesn't freeze as well and it's still soft. :x Leaving it longer in the freezer might help!

I had quite a bit of leftover chocolate, so I used these silicon chocolate moulds (also from Daiso). Bought these over a year ago and finally used it!

Each cavity is filled with about 1.5 tsp liquid chocolate. I still had enough leftover chocolate to fill up one silicon cup up to the brim!

LOOK! SNOWFLAKES. From my freezer.

So cool!

They look so cute!

Maybe next time I'll make them with dried fruit and sea salt (and hope that it turns out something like Chocolove's)!!

Super Simple Dark Chocolate

Recipe adapted from Veggienook and my previous try at making chocolate

Ingredients 

• 70g coconut oil, melted

• 40-45g raw cacao powder 

• 2 tbsp or more maple-flavoured golden syrup (or maple syrup)

Method

1. Stir in cacao into the coconut oil, tablespoon by tablespoon. Start with 40g cacao. 

2. Add in the golden/maple syrup. Mix well. If chocolate is too thin, add in more cacao.

3. Once desired consistency is reached, pour into molds or a tray and freeze for at least 10 mins. Remove from freezer and enjoy!

Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Cups

Makes 4 large cups

Ingredients

• about 1/3 batch of Super Simple Dark Chocolate, melted

• 3 tbsp roasted pumpkin purée 

• chopped pecans

Method

1. Pour about 3/4 tbsp melted chocolate into small silicon moulds. Freeze for 10 minutes.

2. Remove from the freezer. Spread about 3/4 tbsp pumpkin purée onto the chocolate. Sprinkle on chopped pecans.

3. Pour on more melted chocolate until pecans are covered.

4. Freeze for 15 minutes or more. Remove from freezer and enjoy!

It's Deepavali this coming Wednesday, so I went to an Indian pasar malam (market) kinda place opposite Mustafa on Saturday!

It was like super humid! There's many henna stalls around and we decided to go for this one, which is kinda cheaper than the others.

I wanted to get this $5 design on one hand..

But the henna person (what are they called?) gave me this other one instead. She didn't follow the patterns my friends gave too ._.

The process takes a couple of minutes (wow the henna people earn a lot, especially since most designs are above $12), and then it takes about half an hour or more to dry completely.

It looks orange-y after removing the dried henna bits (which look like chocolate shavings lols).

Hehe our hennas and my friend's extra hand. Their hennas were priced at $12 or $15. More costly designs are more intricate and go further up your arm heh. 

It gets darker on the second day; I woke up and it looked like this. Hmm I think it'll be nicer if it didn't go all the way up my finger! Oh well, it was a fun experience nonetheless. ^^ I applied Axe oil on it after I came home, which makes it last longer, according to my Indian friend. So this should last for two weeks!

I hope I won't get sick of it. Though I think I will LOL. 

O'bean is a vegetarian restaurant specializing in soy-related food. I went there with my parents on Friday night and it was PACKED when we arrived at 7pm. WOW. I didn't think that it'll be so popular. My dad was surprised at how many 'young people' there were. We had to wait for about 10 minutes before we got a seat. And that was only because we chose to sit at the table outside. So yes, MAKE A RESERVATION. But even if you have one, you might have to wait a while.

They have quite a wide variety of food! They do have eggs and milk in some of them so it's best to ask before ordering. I went there specifically for the kway chap. Haha. I didn't even like eating it before. Because I don't usually like eating salty brown dishes - as in those soaked in soy sauce.

Btw, my photos turned out horrible and were so difficult to edit :x

Here's the Signature Soya [small] ($1.80 each). There's an option of how much sugar you want and both here are 25%. They're made from powder and it's a little bit grainy, but I like the thickness and the soy fragrance! The other soy drinks are pricey, starting at $4.00 for a large cup. But I might try one of them next time! 

Their shop front shows that their soy powder is free of purines, which means that people with gout can have them too! :) 

Mum had their Signature Soya Porridge [Regular] ($6.20), without egg. Kinda expensive for a bowl of porridge, but I tried it and it was GOOD. It was so thick, creamy and nicely savoury. Other than what you see on top, there was also mock prawn and mock cuttlefish inside. 

Here's my Soya Kway Chap Set ($6.80), without egg. The portion of the kway teow was okay, and the soup was nice enough that I drank most of it. The kway teow was nice and smooth. It came with a small dish of chili which was nicely spicy! :)

There were quite a lot of sides - beancurd, tau pok, braised peanuts, preserved veggies, you tiao, mock pork belly and mock pig skin. The pig skin was scary because it's my first time having the mock version! At first bite it was freakishly similar to how I remembered actual pork skin to be. o_o But mum said that it's very different. Okay. I still find it gross though.

I like the beancurd and braised peanuts the most. I think the sides go better with plain porridge though. Because the sides are salty & there's liquid and the noodles are salty & there's liquid too. No wonder I didn't use to like it! LOL

Dad got the Bailing Mushroom Rice ($9.80), which comes with egg (optional). Bailing mushroom is supposed to resemble abalone btw. There were other mushrooms too and altogether they were delicious! And it was quite a big amount (though that's rightfully so, since it's pricey). The soup was nice too, but after drinking my soup it hardly tasted like anything lol.

Mum was surprised that there wasn't an option for brown rice. But the thing is, O'bean's concept is soy, and not healthy.

The Black Marbles ($5.60) were good. We probably finished it in under 2 minutes flat. LOL. They're softer than the usual glutinous rice balls you find at the frozen section of the supermarkets, and the peanut filling is fragrant and quite generous!  

Yum yum.

In total, our meal for 3 was $35.40, including 10% service charge (they don't charge GST). Quite reasonable.

O'bean is somewhere that I'd like to dine at again! Service was a little slow and it was hard to get the waiters' attention (partially due to the fact that we were sitting at the only table outside), but I like that vegans are spoilt for choice there. Next time, I'd like to try their... curry rice? mini pot? ramen? pasta? burger? Haha! Oh yes, and I wanna sit inside next time. ^^

O'bean Organic Soya Store

83 Tanjong Pagar Road (walking distance from Tanjong Pagar MRT)

Singapore 088504

Phone: 66364656

I heard of Boneless Kitchen quite a while back, and I finally went there for dinner last Friday with my parents! I was really looking forward to it because vegan Korean food is rare. It's quite out-of-the-way; you'll probably need to take a bus there. I met my parents at Queenstown MRT and my dad drove us all over.

It was quite empty when we entered at about 6.45pm but it was more crowded after 7pm. By the way, it's located just beside another vegetarian eatery.

They're more well-known for their Korean food I think! Most of the other patrons I saw there were eating a bibimbap or stew. 

They have symbols showing which have egg and dairy, and none of the items have garlic and onion. 

Other than Korean and Oriental, there's also Italian food! Only the Mushroom pasta and Aglio Olio are vegan though :(

So we ordered items that were vegan. Dad also got the Honey Citron/ginger Tea, and the cashier said that it wasn't vegan. It's nice to know that they know ^^

First up was the Kimchi Pancakes ($3). It was crispy outside and soft inside, with bits of kimchi everywhere. The menu gave it one 'chili' but it was hardly even spicy. Still, I enjoyed it! No idea how this compares to others though; its my first time having kimchi pancakes :x

This is the Dolsot Bibimbap ($7.50). There's a choice of 5 sauces, 4 of which are vegan. We got the tom yum one.

It's topped with carrot, corn, beansprouts, cucumber, mock meat strips, purple cabbage, baby spinach, seaweed and white sesame. Kinda pricey for rice + veggies + sauce, but that's the normal price for hot stone bibimbap I guess.

Dad mixed in almost all the sauce. It was quite difficult to mix actually. Maybe because the sauce was dry!

Taste-wise, I found it weird initially because the tom yum paste made it sour. But it tasted better as I ate more heh. My parents enjoyed this the most! They said that it really tastes like tom yum.

The Sweet Potato Noodle ($6.50) looked so different from the picture. Haha. It tasted fine but I didn't find it memorable. 

I thought that the Mushroom Pasta ($7) was not bad. It was creamy enough without being too oily, but I'd have preferred it if there was more mushrooms in place of the mock meat (which seems to be in almost all dishes).

My parents didn't like it lols. My dad thought that the noodles were too fat (as in thick). I think it was slightly overcooked but generally okay. My parents both ranked the bibimbap first, then the sweet potato noodle, and then the mushroom pasta last. LOL. I found them all equally good (or bad, whichever way you see it).

We shared these 4 dishes and it wasn't enough, so we ordered another one. Portion sizes are a little on the small side. I think one person with a normal appetite can easily finish one main + one side.

This is the Kimchi Stew with Ramen ($7), without egg. My first time eating instant noodles in a long looooong time (and for a few years of my childhood I had instant noodles with ketchup every Sunday for breakfast lol). This made me feel like I couldn't remember why I liked instant noodles. :x 

The menu gave this two 'chilis' but it wasn't like really spicy. Still, the soup was not bad; it was 'kimchi' enough. I drank most of it and it was salty but not too salty. (But I was quite thirsty after and I downed a litre of water at home lols.)

Overall, I found that the food here was just a little above average. It made me feel like my tastebuds have spoiled because I didn't find anything to be fantastic. Or maybe I don't know how to appreciate Korean food or good kimchi. :x I'm sure that my parents like the bibimbap, sweet potato noodles and the kimchi stew though, so if you like Korean food this might be a good place to visit since vegan Korean food is quite difficult to find! It would be wonderful if there were more options without dairy and egg though. I liked that it felt like a comfortable and homey place, and the people running/working at the restaurant seem nice and friendly. If I were to come back (which is unlikely since it's not at a very convenient location) I'll get another flavour of bibimbap and try the kimchi dumplings. 

P.S. Try saying Boneless Kitchen. Like without reading the words. Am I the only one who says boneless chicken like half of the time?! -_-

The Boneless Kitchen
Blk 11 Jalan Bukit Merah #03-4458 S(150011)
Phone: 90232725
Tues - Sun 11:30am - 9pm (last order 8:30pm)

I was bored one day at work last week and I chanced upon a Buzzfeed post on things to do with jars. JARS!! I have so many of them. So of course I had to read it. Hehe.

And I actually found something useful! Like after reading tons of articles and lists from time-wasting websites, this was the first idea I've actually used. LOL. This recipe for Single Serving Pie in a Jar from Our Best Bites looked so cute! I didn't exactly read it before I tried this though, the pictures were informative enough.

Plus I have so many jars that I've been too lazy to continue selling.. though if you still want to buy any from me you still can. ^^

I'm using 4 oz (120 ml) jars!

For the crust, I used leftover vegan puff pastry. The corners and unwanted bits.

This puff pastry tastes SO GOOD. Like SO GOOD. 

I've used it in Curry-Seaweed Twists and Chia Tarts.

I mixed the dough together before re-rolling it out, because I thought that the dough will rise. But now I know that even if I used fresh sheets, it wouldn't rise much since the fillings are so heavy and moist.

All you need to do for this step is to pinch off bits of dough and flatten it onto the inner walls of the jars. It's like playing with clay or playdoh hehe! There's not really a need to poke the base of the dough, though I did try to minimize the air bubbles.

After baking, the crust kinda stuck to the jar, especially the upper edge near the rim! Oiling the jar first might help, but then the dough wouldn't stick properly. Maybe having a thicker crust would help? ...or you could always scoop some ice cream into the jar as you eat and it can help to soften the crust. ;)

Some of the fillings for the pies! I chose to go with three flavours - Apple, Pumpkin and Blueberry Pear. Next time I'll try making savoury ones!!

Btw the amount of blueberries you see here is what went into one jar.

For the pumpkin pie I filled it with roasted pumpkin puree. I roasted about 300g of pumpkin in the oven for 40 minutes at 180 deg C, and then pureed it with 1/4 tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

I didn't add any water or milk so it's really thick and concentrated! :)

Now for the assembly!

The apple pie mix has raw apples, oat bran, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. 

The blueberry-pear pie has alternating layers of blueberries and pear slices.

I ended up adding more pumpkin puree for the pumpkin one.

I didn't have enough defrosted dough to make a proper upper crust, so I made shapes and my very first lattice! Lols the widths are very uneven because they were really the last few long bits of dough I had left.

So handy to store for another day.

It's good to label them too!

The pumpkin pie turned out well! I'm glad that my lattice kinda survived heh. The top was crispy and the insides were smooth and thick. Nextime though, I'll add something else to the filling so that there'll be different textures. Maybe raisins, dried cranberries, nuts or pumpkin chunks.

This was the only pie that expanded..

Meh my apple pie sank. It looked quite good in the oven but it went down as it cooled. -_- Maybe I should pile on the apples next time.

This pie actually rose a lot in the oven until it was bubbling over, but after cooking it sank substantially. I guess that this really needs an upper crust then!

Still, mum really enjoyed this!

 She was surprised that all I added to the filling was blueberries and pear, because there was so much 'sauce'! Yum yum it was like blueberry jam!

The apple pie was good too! The apples got nicely soft and the oats added a nice texture. ^^

These pies were fun to make and I'll definitely try them again! It wouldn't hurt to make them in a larger jar too - that just means more filling yum yum!

Pie-in-a-jar

Ingredients
frozen vegan puff pastry, thawed OR other pie crust dough

Apple pie (enough for 3-4 4 oz jars)
- 1 medium apple, chopped
- 2 tbsp oat bran/ roughly pulsed rolled oats
- ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger

Blueberry-pear pie (enough for 2-3 jars)
- about 1/2 of a 150g box blueberries
- 1 small very-ripe pear, sliced

Pumpkin pie (enough for 4-5 jars)
- 300g thick pumpkin puree
- 1/4 tsp each ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger (or more)

Method

1. Press pastry dough into jars (all the way up to the top) until the inner walls are completely covered.
2. Prepare the fillings. Just mix the ingredients above together!
3. Add in filling to the top of the jar (and more for the apple pie if you don't intend to freeze it). 
4. Top with more puff pastry if desired. Remember to poke some holes for steam to escape if you intend to cover it completely.
5. Store in the freezer, or bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 40 minutes. I froze mine and left it to defrost slightly for 30 minutes on my kitchen counter before baking at 180 deg C for 45 minutes in a non-preheated oven.
6. Leave to cool slightly (careful you don't burn your fingers off - the jar will remain hot for quite a while even after taking it out of the oven) and devour.