Coconut Cupcakes

I have been into baking a lot lately, was concentrating on perfecting my banana bread and I have since received good reviews from different people. Baking is some form of art and I enjoy it and love trying out more of the different recipes out there.

Today I decided to go back to the cupcake baking and I tried out the coconut flavored cupcakes.

Here are the ingredients:

It took me less than 10minutes to mix up the ingredients and baked them for 20-25minutes.

Below are pics of a coconut flavored and frosted cupcake

Green & Black

Had a Young Women's Meeting at the end of the month April and we all had to introduce ourselves and tell our favorite color. I jokingly said GREEN was my color for now but its coming to pass as the color that has caught my eye of late.

Anyhow some friends and I decided to go try out a Persian Restaurant and this is what I wore. Cazba is a Persian Restaurant located somewhere in North Vancouver. Place was packed but it was worth the wait.i

  I had Boned Chicken Kabab

Chelo Kabab Bhakiatri

Chenjeh Kabab

 The other pics show what the other diners and I tried the steak and enjoyed the burnt tomato.

The prices are affordable, ambiance is great and they have good customer service.

African Fusion

A friend was celebrating her birthday and we decided to celebrate it by going to enjoy some Kenyan food.(She's Kenyan too but hadn't visited Simba's Restaurant located in Vancouver downtown.

Happy Birthday Miss Kenya(beautiful smile)

(decided to wear my recent African attire)

It was kind of chilly hence me not removing my knee high jacket,also decided to pair my skirt with a different top instead of the matching top.Love the pink and green combinations on the skirt and the pleats too.

Day was kind of packed as we kicked it off by attending the mid morning church service, went to the Science World to watch the 3D Arabia movie. Lastly we met up with a bunch of other friends and we went to Simba's for dinner.

 We call it Sadza in Zimbabwe but in Kenya they call it Ugali

Chicken Kebobs, Rice and Salad

Enjoyed the food and enjoyed the live singing we had throughout the dinner. Tried out the Rose petal ice cream which does taste and smell like the rose too.

Shrimp & Pork Chops

Didn't think I would say it out loud but the pork eating and barbecuing I had when I went back home for Christmas kindah affected me when I came back Vancouver. For the past four months I didn't have pork chops so last Friday I decided to go back and have my tasty meal. 

Grilled myself a tasty pork chop,coconut shrimp sauce, brown rice and tomato and red pepper salad. 

Enjoyed my colourful meal

I'm more of having a colorful meal as this just pushes me to try out what I'm looking at.I made sure I had everything of everything (my protein, carbohydrates and veggies).

Family Day Weekend

The sis and sis drove over from Calgary for the weekend,such a long drive for them but I enjoyed having them around. They arrived on Friday morning so \i gave them some time to rest and early evening we were ready to hang around Vancouver.

First stop was Banana Leaf Malaysian Cuisine place where we enjoyed different mouthwatering dishes.

We had Steamed Mussels in ginger and cumin sauce as our starter.

For the main meal we each ordered a dish, sides of roti with peanut sauce and rice.

 Mixed Seafood

 Lamb Shank

 More Seafood

Roti

Enjoyed the meal and I will definitely visit go back to these restaurant. After our hearty dinner we went and watched the movie Safehouse starring Denzel Washinton.

Birthday Dinner at Glowball Grill

My birthday dinner this year was celebrated at The Glowball Grill located in Yaletown. Reservation was 7pm but we were fashionably late ,Better late than Never. Our waitress for the night was Erenee(hope I spelt it right) and she was just good from the get go. A total of ten people attended the dinner which was good and we had baby TJ too. We ordered our starters which were five different satays and enjoyed them.

 I ordered Jumbo Tiger Prawns with greens. The prawns were really huge I must say and delicious too.

Jumbo Tiger Prawns

A number of people ordered Lamb Shank ,some chicken and some steak. The meals were good and of a sizable amount. And my neighbour had some pasta with prawns ,this was really good too,could taste the oregano in the food which gave the food a whole different good taste to it.

Linguine(tiger prawns,oregano,olives,capers stewed tomatoes & tomato)

Then it was dessert time and they sang for me and I got Chocolate Bailey's Pudding with a candle on top.

Oh my ,never tasted such a good pudding like this,it had chunks of crunch chocolate in it,sauce to top it up. The dessert was D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S I tell you.

All in all it was an enjoyable night but it didnt end there more info coming up soon.

Wild Fruits::Berries

Hehe Saskatoon berry picking

 Wild Strawberries

Fine Dining

Enjoyed myself the other day ,when I had dinner with friends visiting from far and wide. With good food,talking and a revolving restaurant you are rest assured of a good night. We had our dinner at Cloud 9 where you are able to see Vancouver,Stanley Park,beautiful views as far as North and West Vancouver,the snow capped mountains and more.I had baked escargots as my hearty starter,followed by a mediteranean roasted lamb t-bone paired with fresh vegetables and a new york cheesecake as the dessert. I'm not so much of a dessert person but i enjoyed the cheesecake.

Baked Escargots with Garlic Bread

Mediteranean roasted lamb t-bone paired with fresh vegetables

Cheesecake

I think you should try it out,good prices,good service,good views from up above on the 42nd floor. Oh by the well they are two revolving restaurants so when you do book make sure you are going to the right one as we ended up at the other instead of  Cloud 9 but the people were good enough to call and inform them we were making our way to the booked restaurant.

Bellini Tuesday's

Summer is here and the Bellini Tuesday's are back.Well there have always been there but every Tuesday I had classes so I couldn't quite enjoy them and it was cold. This summer I'm taking the time to enjoy every bit of sunshine we get by paying the few restaurants I know around Vancouver that offer the best Bellinis.These are http://www.cactusclubcafe.com/,http://www.joeyrestaurants.com/ just to name a few. They offer the best bellinis and even better at a good price every Tuesday. Oh the restaurant serves a mouth watering delicious JD burger ,my oh my did I enjoy myself.

What better way to spend your Tuesday afternoon ,sitting by the patio enjoying a bellini...

Oysters

How I love my seafood.Went to the beach last week and decided to order myself an oyster. I usually have them fresh .raw and cold and just have them slide down my throat..refreshing food there. So this time while at the Fish n' Chips place I ordered the flour covered oyster and did I just enjoy myself..

Note to myself beach time = Seafood in the picnic bag

Magnum Ice Cream

So the other day it was a bit on the warm side and that was my cue to have an ice cream.I'm not a big fan of ice cream meaning I don't usually have it. There was a wide variety but I decided on having the Magnum Almond ice cream and believe me I did not regret my choice. I liked all the almonds ,the vanilla and chocolate effect of the ice cream. The vanilla just tastes so good melting in your mouth,the chocolate melts away and I just enjoyed my ice cream.

So I told a friend to try it and he loved the almond one too then I found out another friend tried the Caramel one and she loved it too.But we all got a slight problem this Magnum brand is not found in many grocery stores,I'm sure the corner stores/convinience carry them at a higher price and grocery pricesmight be good on many pples pockets.

Don't let summer end before you try out this new brand on the market...

Easy Bread Pudding Recipe

I have been doing trial and error on my bread pudding recipe and today I nailed it.Yeap I nailed it and realized my recipe was missing one ingredient.Well with the help of my friend/taster that ingredient was pudding and it sure changed the whole bread pudding taste.

So if you want to make a tasty or rather a mean bread pudding here are the ingredients:
-Eggs
-Milk
-Caramel pudding
-Left over bread
-Butter

1.Preheat oven to 350,put on Bake
2.Heat butter,mix milk and caramel pudding and eggs
3.Cut bread into halves
4.In a casserole dish place bread halves and pour mixture over bread halves
Bake for 30minutes and serve as desired

Chow Mein Chicken Fried Rice

When you get home and just feel tired and all you want to do is rest here's a meal you can prepare in a short time and enjoy it too. Its way healthier than ordering a box of pizza and leaves one with an opportunity to experiment in the kitchen. I always have the same chicken fried rice with some greens to accompany my meal but the other day I decided to add chow mein noodles to the meal.

Here are the steps to follow:
-Cut chicken into cubes and fry till it browns
-Fry onions with chicken to incorporate flavor
-In a different pot boil your choice of vegetables,boil rice in a separate pot
-When all is ready boil chow mein noodle for 3-5minutes
-In a large pot mix greens,chicken,rice and noodles together. Add soy sauce too.
 Meal is ready to serve.. Yo can also add cashew nuts if you like.

Dinner & Dessert

(Brown rice,mixed veggies,chicken & fried plaintains )   (Bread pudding Casserole)

hehe decided to cook a lil' bit of this and that and try out the plaintain( after trying it out at a friend's place).I also remembered how I used to enjoy bread pudding in boarding school so thought of preparing it in my small kitchen.I prepared brown rice and steamed mixed veggies to accompany the plaintains and I certainly enjoyed myself. For the bread pudding I mixed milk and sugar together in a bowl,cut slices of bread into four,layered the bread in a casserole dish ,poured the milk and sugar mixture together and continued layering tll the casserole was full.Placed the casserole into the oven for 35minutes. Let it cool for a bit and again I enjoyed my dessert.

Plaintains can be purchased at Superstore and most African grocery stores.