Thursdays are always baking nights

This week on the menu: choco-pb chip, banana-oatmeal muffins!!! =)

Recipe-

1 3/4 cups oatmeal

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of salt

2 eggs

1 cup of skim milk (or whatever kind you want to use)

1 cup of canola or vegetable oil

3/4 cup of brown sugar

1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

large heaping of chocolate and reese's peanut butter chips

1 mashed banana

1. Put together the dry ingredients (the first five) in a large bowl and blend together. 

2. Put together the wet ingredients (eggs, milk, oil, brown sugar, vanilla extract) in a separate bowl. Whisk until ingredients blend together. 

3. Combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Whisk until everything is blended together. 

4. Fold into the batter the chocolate and reese's peanut butter chips.

5. Fold in the mashed banana last. 

6. Bake for 23-25 minutes at 375 degree F. 

Oh yeah, I forgot to add: 

These muffins are healthy (whole wheat baby!) and low in fat (only 1 cup of oil and no butter!). The crumb is moist, nutty, and flavorful. It's a definite must =)

Tofu disaster

So I bought these noodles the other day... They were tofu noodles, and I thought I'd give them a go. 

Huge mistake. HUGE HUGE mistake. I decided to make my stir-fried kimchi spaghetti with them, and the dish was an utter disaster. I literally made crap.

I can normally eat anything. I like to cook for other people, but not really for myself. So I skimp out a lot when I cook for just me, and I usually just eat the blandest, plainest foods ever. But this dish was one thing I really could not force myself to eat. The noodles' texture was really smooth, but once you chew them, they have a rubbery consistency. It's really gross. 

DON'T BUY THEM! THEY ARE NOT WORTH IT, even if they're labled as only having 40 calories per bag. 

Thursday night at 7D...

Today was a total baking day. I baked dark chocolate frosted peanut butter cupcakes, cinnamon-honey oatmeal cookies, and helped bake biscuits all from SCRATCH! Homemade goodies baby =)

Say hello to peanut butter deliciousness =)

....eeeyeahhh, my oatmeal cookies kinda expanded and joined to become one HUGE cookie...

Our prebaked biscuit babies.... sooo byoootiful =)

THIS MAKES ME WANT TO BARF.

I love tastespotting- whoever created it is pure genius!

Valentine Day Smores, cute... TOO CUTESY!

What should I make for Valentines....Hmmm....

restaurant or psychiatric ward?

On Saturday, Grace, Monica, and I found ourselves on our way to Aquavit, a Scandinavian restaurant located on E. 55th St, for lunch. 

The first thing that came to mind when we entered the restaurant was that the architectural style of the furniture was very sleek and minimalistic. Grace and Monica thought of a higher end version of an Ikea home display. Secondly, our hostess and waiter both were rather eccentric in their behaviors. They didn't help make us feel welcome, but instead gave off an impression that we were getting checked into a pychiatric ward. It also didn't help that the setting of the restaurant was very quiet and still. I almost felt like I had to whisper in order to not disrupt the stuffy silence.  

We all got the prefixe restaurant week lunch special comprised of 3 courses. Being a chilly day, we opted for the butternut squash soup and hot-smoked salmon. For dessert, Monica got the chocolate custard cake with caramelized banana and cashew ice cream; Grace and I got the artic circle, a goat-cheese parfait with passionfruit curd and black currant sorbet. 

The butternut squash soup was perfect to warm our bodies up from the cold wind that day. The soup was garnished with cardamom seeds and marshmallows, which simulated the feeling of drinking hot cocoa. Creamy yet not too thick, the soup had a salty tang to it that accentuated the flavor of the butternut squash. We were all satisfied. 

The hot-smoked salmon came next. It came with beets, potatoes, and orange-mustard sauce. Cooked raw-medium, the salmon was soft, flaky, and flavorful. With every bite I took, I could taste the smokiness of the juicy flesh. The fish complemented well with the mustard sauce and potatoes. 

Finally, it's dessert time! I wasn't sure what to expect with goat-cheese parfait, but I wanted to try it because it sounded interesting. I thought the texture would be similar to a yogurt parfait, so I was surprised when I saw a cone-shaped block come on the plate. The goat-cheese parfait was garnished with a thin wafer crisp with a dollop of black currant sorbet on it. The dessert overall was light and refreshing and ended the meal well. The goat-cheese parfait had a texture similar to ice cream and went extremley well with the passionfruit curd, while the black currant sorbet helped to refresh my palate. 

Overall, the meal at Aquavit was very good in taste, but I feel like any good restaurant can make the butternut squash soup and salmon. The dessert is the only thing that makes a visit to Aquavit worthwhile. Other than that, there is nothing extraordinary about the restaurant and the environment will definitely not be missed!