Boneless Sweet and Sour Pork

This dish takes a while to prepare but it's totally worth it! If you have a good recipe, homemade dishes are always ten times better than restaurant ones and this dish is a proof.

Meatballs with Vegetables

Whenever possible, I try to sneak in some vegetables. After watching so many documentaries and reading up from various sources, I agree that a plant based diet is a healthier choice for men, but I am just not ready to go vegan (yet?) So adding as many vegetables into my family diet as possible is my mission.

Pumpkin Salad

Haha, by looking at the picture it's hard to tell what kind of salad this is. Can you tell?

Green Tea Red Bean Creme Brulee

I bought a new little kitchen blow torch, so of course I have to try it with my creme brulee recipe. 

Orange Mac 'n Cheese

It is hard to understand why kids like Mac n cheese so much. It's so plain and heavy and it's such an unbalanced meal, but my kids like it. So I try to make it more nutritionally balanced by adding vegetables and protein - butternut squash and Edamame beans. Not a change in taste from the traditional dish and my kids finish it quick, but I'm still not a fan of it.

Green Tea Waffle with Red Beans and Green Tea Whipped Cream (updated)

My waffle maker has been collecting dust in the basement for months. The waffles I used to make were too hard and dry that I had been blaming on my waffle maker, until recently I finally figured out a recipe that is crispy on the outside and moist in the inside. Luck that I did not donate my waffle maker!

Green Risotto

I always order this dish whenever I see it on a menu, but making it at home usually doesn't taste as good. Even so, I still give it an attempt in my kitchen once it a while. This time I am trying it with asparagus and bacon and added some beans for more protein. I personally would prefer it without the bacon but the kids think otherwise. 

Crepes

This is a fool-proof recipe and a special cooking method that my dear friend left for me. I can whip this up easily for a weekend brunch without looking at the recipe. I am passing this to my kids, hoping that they will keep this to use one day.

Purple Oatmeal

Since we started juicing, I became more cautious of what's in my diet. Not aiming for losing weight, but for a more healthy diet that involves minimal processed food and refined grains.

Homemade Chewers for Dogs

Our dog Coco's diet is a lot healthier than ours. He is no longer eating any processed food. Occasionally we buy store bought treats for him, but those are only dried liver or sweet potatoes with no other added ingredients.

He is not a big fan of chewing. If he is given a piece of dried food, he will hold it in his mouth to moisten it then swallow it whole as soon as it is soft enough. But we really want him to chew on something to keep the teeth clean, as he doesn't exactly find teeth brushing fun. So I made him these chewers with beef tendons.

I can only find theses tendons from the Chinese supermarket. Cook them whole first as they shrink a lot. Sometimes I cook them using the broth left from cooking his foods for added flavor. Here is how:

Ingredients

6 pieces of beef tendons

How

1. Put all the tendons into a big pot and try to lay them flat in little layers.
2. Fill the pot up with water, or homemade broth if available, up to half of the top layer of the tendons.
   
3. Turn up the heat and bring it to a boil. Then turn down the heat and let it simmer for 20-30 minutes with the lid on, and stir occasionally. The bigger the tendons, the longer it should simmer, but don't cook it for too long as we don't want to boil out the nutrients.
4. When done, remove from heat and drain off the water. Then dry them using one of the methods described below.
5. Once the tendons are dried, let them cool to room temperature. Cut them into smaller size if you like. Then store them in ziplog bags in the freezer or fridge. 
6. To serve, if stored in freezer, thaw in microwave before serving.

To dry the tendons, I tried the follow two ways and they both work for me:

Baking: Bake the tendons single layer in an 375F oven for 30 minutes.

Air dry: Leave the tendons on a cookie sheet in single layer. Let them sit on the counter-top for 24 hours.

The weather here is now cold and dry so the second method works fine for me. But if you are concerned, stick with baking.