Oatmeal-Yogurt-Berries Breakfast Parfait

Summer is in full swing and it is hot, hot, hot!  In fact, the weather bureau has announced a weak El Niño that is likely to exist until June or July!  The heat index is nearing 41 and several areas have been declared as drought areas, with farmers suffering as their crops and fields are damaged by the extreme heat and lack of water.

I have not used the oven in a month!  It really is too hot to bake!  The last time I baked, the kitchen felt like a sauna.  We don't even cook long, because even with an exhaust system, it is JUST TOO HOT.

So, how to cool off?  Well, I have been making tons of ice cream... so far, at least once a week!  And I'm learning to appreciate the so-called ice-box cakes (like this tiramisu), with my next project being a mango refirgerator cake (if I can find sweet mangoes, that is).

Anyway, because of the heat, I served hubby a cool breakfast...

Of course I made it with my homemade Greek-style yogurt... (I discovered another use for my coffee filter/maker!  Definitely takes up less space in the fridge.)

And the wonderful thing about this parfait?  No cooking at all!  And it's super chilled!

1/2 cup instant whole oats, raw
1/3 cup milk
1/2 to 1 tablespoon chia seeds

3/4 cup Greek-style yogurt

150 to 200 grams frozen berries (or any combination fruit as preferred)

mascarpone cheese, optional

Mix together the oats, milk and chia seeds.  Let stand in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or until the mixture is thick and goopy.

Using a parfait glass, or in my case, a short and wide-mouthed tumbler/drinking glass, spoon a layer of oatmeal at the bottom, top with yogurt then frozen or fresh berries.  Repeat the layering.  Chill overnight, or do as I did (because I made it early in the morning, about an hour before hubby returned from the gym), stick it in the freezer!  Just before serving, dollop a tablespoon of mascarpone on top.  (Hubby opted out of this.)

Enjoy!!!!

(If you notice there is no sweetener added to this recipe.  Hubby prefers it that way; he says that he likes his breakfast parfait on the tangy side.  Sweeten according to your preference.)

Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

I've been making yogurt at home again!  And I purposely made a lot so that I could have an excuse to make frozen yogurt.  With strawberries still available in the market (although dwindling of late), strawberry frozen yogurt was the natural choice!

I decided to follow David Lebovitz' recipe, the one in his book "The Perfect Scoop" (page 91) except that I did not have an ice cream maker so I just made do with Mr. Lebovitz' suggestion for when you have no ice cream maker.

This particular experiment utilized regular, whole milk yogurt, and it produced a rather icy froyo (I also forgot to macerate the berries).  I will make another batch, and for that next experiment, I will use Greek-style yogurt (and remember to let the berries stand with sugar) and see if it makes for a less icy (hence, creamy) froyo...

In any case, it was really yummy!

Strawberry-Mango Jam

A couple of years ago I ventured into making a no-pectin, low-sugar "jam".  I wanted to try again, especially since I've been seeing a lot of strawberries in the market lately. 

But I wanted try a bit of variation.  In an attempt to use even less sugar, I decided to sweeten the "jam" with ripe mangoes (similar to the pineapple mango filling for the tarts last Chinese New Year).  So I used the basic recipe, substituting the pineapples with strawberries and using only 1 tablespoon of sugar to macerate the fruits with, and 2 tablespoons of honey for sweetness.  Of course I skipped the mixed spice and used some Tahitian vanilla extract instead.

The finished jam was quite thick and only a bit chunky.  But it was delicious!  The lingering flavor was that of strawberry, with only a slight hint of mango!  The yield, however, was less than the pineapple-mango.

It was deliciously divine with cream cheese and toast bread!

Who needs a bagel?

Strawberry Vanilla Bundt Cake

which the little girl re-christened as "Crown of Strawberries Cake"... (note that she was the one who requested a strawberry cake!)

The cake is really a lemon pound cake, using a whole vanilla pod and fresh strawberries, baked in a half bundt pan.  It's topped with Vanilla-Bourbon Sauce and Strawberry-Vanilla Syrup, then garnished with fresh whole strawberries.

The whole process starts with butter, lemon sugar and caviar from a vanilla pod.

It ends with diced, fresh strawberries folded in...

The recipe should have baked in an 8 to 10-cup (regular) Bundt pan but I wanted to try out my new half-Bundt silicone pan.  I got a cake, 2 cupcakes and a dozen "half" cupcakes (using a muffin-top pan).  The non-stick silicone pan made unmolding the cake a breeze!

Here's a small "half" cupcake topped with Vanilla-Bourbon Sauce.  See the lovely flecks of vanilla?

Here's the cake topped with Vanilla-Bourbon Sauce.

And, here's how it looks inside!

Happy Birthday, A-te J!

Until next year...

Healthy Smoothies!

Hubby is always requesting healthier foods... breakfast specifically.  I'm used to a heavy breakfast of rice, egg and some form of meat (usually processed... not good, I know!  I know!) but hubby is just fine with yogurt or granola or oatmeal...

We have frozen strawberries and frozen blueberries that my brother got for me just last week.  And hubby just loves bananas (we froze some bananas just for this), so for breakfast yesterday morning, this is what he had...

The recipe is really simple... here are the main ingredients - 6 big pieces of frozen strawberries, a handful of frozen blueberries (about 1/4 cup more or less), a couple of frozen bananas, 1/2 cup low fat yogurt and 1/2 cup low fat milk.

Give everything a whirl in the blender and breakfast is served!  No sweetener required, since the bananas are sweet enough.

Today, he's having more of the same, sort of...  There's still strawberries, bananas and blueberries, but this time dried cranberries, cherries and golden raisins were thrown in to the mix.

The smoothie was definitely sweeter, due to the raisins.  But the mix made it more complex too.  Either way, it's good!

I've done this using all milk and it still turned out thick and creamy.  Maybe next time I will try it using all yogurt.