Smoothie Time

I've been craving a smoothie all week but every time I went to make one it was almost dinner time and too late in the day. To change that, I decided to have it for breakfast instead. I find that smoothies don't always keep my full until lunch but I had to have one today. I have to use frozen fruit, because it is still hard to get some fresh fruit here. You could obviously substitute all fresh fruit in this recipe.

Smoothie Recipe

1 cup frozen mango
1/3 cup frozen blueberries
1/3 cup frozen strawberries
1/4 cup plain organic yogurt
1/2 cup skim milk

I threw everything into the vitamix and let it blend! Having breakfast out of a fancy glass is always fun so I put it in my wine glass and topped it with some puffins, chia seeds and a little honey! It was so good. Hopefully it gives me enough energy on my morning run!

Happy Wednesday!

I think starting the day with a buckwheat bake is the way to go! They keep getting better everyday!

I had high hopes of being able to get to Insadong today, but with all the errands I had on my list I never made it. Instead, I ran around and baked some cinnamon sugar flatbread crackers. They are almost like graham crackers but healthier! I didn't make mine flat enough but they were still really good. Just a reason to try and make them again!

Cinnamon Sugar Flatbread Crackers

from How Sweet It Is

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons warm water

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons sugar + 3/4 tablespoon cinnamon for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Combine flours, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a bowl and mix well. Add water and olive oil and mix until a dough forms, using your hands at the end. Form it into a bowl.

Dust a baking sheet with flour and roll the dough as thin as you can with a rolling pin. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture all over top and cut with a pizza slicer into small or large crackers. Bake for 10 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Let cool completely.

After the baking, it was time to head out on the town. Living in Itaewon has a lot of benefits!  One of the great things about living in the city are the restaurants. Going to a new restaurant every night would keep us busy for at least year! We actually try and go out about once a week so our list is continually growing. Tonight we went to an Austrian Restaurant, Chef Meili, with some friends to try something new. I was a little hesitant at first but was decently surprised. I wasn't too hungry so I had Tomato Soup, but Rush really enjoyed his meal. The weather was nice enough to sit outside on the roof so it made the night even better.

I'm still reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and really enjoying it! I can't wait to finish it and move on to the next book, Unbroken.

Blueberries and Lemon

I'm warning you about this post in advance. Get your grocery list and make sure you have all the ingredients to make this recipe I'm going to share with you. I promise you won't regret it!

Blueberry Lemon Cake

from Heather's Dish

1/2 cup plain nonfat or greek yogurt

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar (plus a reserved 1/2 cup sugar for glaze)

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

zest of two large lemons (juice the lemons and reserve liquid for glaze)

2 tsp water

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 pint blueberries (frozen or fresh)

Preheat oven to 350.  In a small bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large bowl beat together the yogurt, melted butter and sugars.  Add the eggs, one at a time.  Add vanilla and lemon zest.  With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until just combined.  In a the same small dry ingredient bowl, toss the blueberries with 1 Tbsp of flour.  This keeps them from sinking all the way to the bottom during the baking process.  Add the blueberries to the batter and gently fold until evenly distributed.  Coat a 9×5 loaf pan with nonstick spray.  Pour batter into pan and spread evenly.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 5 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Immediately pour hot glaze (recipe below) over the hot cake.  Let cool completely in the pan before removing.  Serve and enjoy!

For the glaze:

During the last 15 minutes of baking, combine the juice from the lemons (no seeds please!) with 1/2 cup of sugar.  Stir, over low heat, until the sugar has dissolved and the liquid has taken on a syrupy consistency, about 10 minutes.  Set aside until cake is done.

I couldn't even let it cool before I tried the cake. Rush even asked for seconds so it must be good. 

I knocked a few more miles off the total today. There wasn't a lot happening here in Seoul, but the highlight was having company on my run tonight. Running with Rush is always more fun and he definitely tries to keep me motivated. I'll be doing some exploring tomorrow so I'm excited to see something new! 

I'm off to keep researching Graduate Schools. The hunt for a Masters Program that I'm interested in has turned out to be really hard. Everything I find has ridiculous pre-reqs so hopefully something turns up soon.

Monster Cookies

 

Since the move to Korea, I haven't really been into baking/cooking as much as I normally would. Part of it is because I'm not in the kitchen I'm used to and I don't have very many tools here. No Kitchen Aid mixer, no large bowls, no ocean to look at as I bake. Plus, the ovens here are very small and they don't even fit a normal size cookie sheet! I finally decided it was time to get back in the kitchen and have a little fun. I wanted something that was a little healthy, but still sweet at the same time so I decided to try out monster cookies. Of course, I tried to make them as healthy as possible so I changed some ingredients.

Monster Cookies

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup applesauce (substituted this for butter)
• 1 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used chunky because that is all I had)
• 2 cups instant oatmeal
• 2 cups flour (I know most monster cookies don't contain flour, but I didn't have enough oats)
• 1 cup chocolate chips (1/2 white chips, 1/2 semi-sweet)
• 1 cup M&M's

Instructions: Beat the eggs in a very large bowl. Add sugars, applesauce, vanilla, baking soda, peanut butter and mix well. Next, add the oats and flour until they are mixed in well with the wet ingredients. Hand mix the add ins. Use a large spoon and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for about 10-12 mins or until a little brown.
I was thinking they were going to be too healthy for Rush, but he didn't seem to mind because of all the chocolate involved! Get creative and put in whatever additional chocolate or nuts that you like! Enjoy warm with a glass of milk!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

I haven't been in the kitchen for awhile so I thought I would have some fun today. Hopefully Rush enjoys them when he gets home!

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 40 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; set aside.
3. Cream together the butter, sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla and milk. Add the flour mixture; mix well.
4. Shape into 40 balls and place each into an ungreased mini muffin pan.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately press a mini peanut butter cup into each ball. Cool and carefully remove from pan.