Mon's Kitchen: Bailey's Affogato

Coffee and ice cream, two of my favorite things in this world~ ♡

Bailey's recently came out with new ice cream and popsicles (at least I think they are kinda new...), I bought their ice cream because I tried Haagen Dazs' a long time ago and I loved it.
I have to admit that this one wasn't exactly my favorite so I decided to make affogato with it and it was totally worth it. I enjoyed it a lot more than eating the ice cream alone.

For those who don't know what Affogato is, it's an Italian coffee based dessert. Pretty much ice cream topped with hot coffee. It's something super simple, yet delicious.
Once the ice cream melts, it gives a creamy texture to your coffee, along with sweet foam. The combination is just too good!!
I just think they serve a lot less coffee when they make real affogato, my version has a full cup because, I love coffee.

I couldn't picture the ice cream before melting because, it happened
way too fast, hehe

For my affogato, I used the Starbucks house blend americano by Nescafé Dolce Gusto. This one was not espresso but, is one of the stongest they have.

I've had vanilla and chocolate affogato before but the Bailey's ice cream gives it a liquorish taste without having any alcohol. Perfect for those who don't or can't drink alcohol.

This is a super easy to make drink/dessert I've been enjoying lately. The fun thing is, you can make it using your favorite ice cream, as long as it's milk based. (I think).

I kinda want to try with choco-mint ice cream now~~~~

Mon's Kitchen: Spring Rolls

Quarantine has given me the time to practice my cooking a little more and take my time with it. My latest dish, and one I am really proud of, is Spring Rolls.

I know most of them are filled with vegetables and, as much as I like them, I wanted to include some kind of meat so, I made my own filling. Hehe. Then I saw many delicious things you can use to fill them. I wanna try them all! Haha.

Here are the ingredients I used:
Keep in mind I mostly use ready-to-cook or frozen ingredients... hehe

✦ 300g of minced chicken breast
✦ 500g of frozen veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and corn)
✦ Morimoto Rice Paper (package comes with 10 rice sheets)
✦ Blue Dragon Stir Fry Sauce
✦ White rice

To make the filling, I first cooked the chicken breast and seasoned it with some salt and garlic, then added the defrosted veggies to cook them a little too.

This amount was enough for the 10 rolls. I actually had some leftovers.

My favorite part was definitely making the rolls. It was my first time attempting to make them so I had no idea of how to use the rice paper. Instructions were very simple and easy to follow tho.
You just dip the sheet in water for a couple of seconds to make it softer, it also becomes sticky. Once it is soft, you put the filling and start to roll. The stickiness will help you to seal the rolls.
It was a lot of fun.

When your rolls are ready, you can eat them like that but, I decided to fry them. I thought they'd stick to the pan and tear but surpisingly, they didn't. For some reason, I was expecting them to become a bit golden brown after frying but I guess that happes when you use some other kind of sheets.

Rolls before frying

I chose white rice as a side dish but guess it was too much rice...? Idk.
The stir fry sause gave them that little extra something. They were really good.

I think they came out a little too big but considering it was my first time making them, they were not bad at all.
😋

Mon's Kitchen: Chickpeas & spinach with tomato sauce.

Hi!
Lately I've been feeling a little inspired to cook thanks to my friend Lu. She likes to use different spices and different ingredients which has helped me to experiment a little more when it comes to cooking.
This dish I recently made was a recipe my mom gave me but, I added a few things we already had at home and I am proud to say, it came out really good. Practice makes perfect, right?

〰 Ingredients: (for 3-4 people):
2 cans of chickpeas
1 bag of Spinach (I used the frozen ones)
Chopped onion (to your liking)
Green tomato sause (you can always go for red tomato but, green was the one I had)
Pepper & lemon seasoning

I added some broad beans and carrots leftovers we had as well as white rice because, everything goes well with rice, hehe.

〰  Prepping:
I fried(?) bits of onion with some seasoning for a while before adding the sause, once I felt they were nicely mixed I incorporated the other ingredients.

It is a very simple recipe, and it took me like 20 minutes to finish it. Along with the rice it became a very complete meal and it looked kinda healthy!! At least to me...

I'll be trying more recipes every now and then and I'll try to share them here. At least the ones that work for me.
Hope you guys enjoy this and let me know if you decide to try this recipe!!

Mon's Kitchen: Jell-O Creations Dessert Kit: Princess Cups

Hello lovelies!

I have a fun, quick and easy-to-make dessert for you guys. (If I can call it a recipe...)
I was grocery shopping with my mom the other day and found this cute kit. I am a big dessert lover and if it's cute and fun at the same time, it's a must try for me!
I gotta say, this would be a lot of fun to make if you have kids at home! (yup, that's the preschool teacher in me talking.)

I chose the princess kit, which is the strawberry one but they also had a vanilla beach themed.

The kit includes:
* Princess Gummies (which are super yummy!)
*White cookie crumbs
*Pudding Mix

What you need:
3 cups of cold water
Plastic cups.

Let's prepare!
Step 1. Beat the pudding mix and milk in a medium bowl.
Step 2. Layer about 1/4 cup with the pudding, top with 2 tsp of white cookie crumbs and repeat the layers.
Step 3. Top with some princess gummies! Serve and eat!

It only takes like 10 minutes to prepare and I have to admit it was fun!
It says you can get 6 cups of it but I have to say the cookie crumbs were not enough. It'd be fun to use different kinds of crumbs, including chocolate to add different flavors!

Taste is good, presentation is cute...I'll definitely buy the beach one next time!

Mon's Kitchen: My favorite breakfast at the moment

Hello there lovelies!

It has been a while since I wrote something food related. Truth is, I've been cooking a little more often now to practice and improve my cooking. So hopefully I'll make some new cooking posts in the future.

For now, I want to share with you my favorite breakfast at the moment. And I mean, favorite. I've been obsessing over it for a while now.

Bagels are not something new or weird, I know. But we kinda made our own recipe for a quick, easy-to-make and yummy breakfast. When I eat breakfast I usually need to eat something salty, something sweet and of course...my beloved morning coffee.

All you need is:

♥ Bagels (we usually go for natural ones but, guess it's up to you)

♥ Manchego cheese

♥ Italian tomato sauce (usually buy Hunts' or Prego)

♥ Nutella

♥ Coffee hehe

Cut bagels in half, one will be the sweet one and the other half the salty. The sweet one will stay natural for now and on the other one we put some tomato sauce and a slice of cheese on top.

We put them both in the electric oven for about 10 minutes (depends).  I usually like to wait until the cheese gets a little toasted(?).

Once they are ready, we apply some nutella on the natural one and...that's pretty much it! A sweet bagel and a salty one.

I honestly love how the toasted cheese tastes with the tomato sauce. It is such a yummy mix!

As for my coffee, I've been loving the Necafe Vanilla coffee. I think it's limited edition but, I've seen it at walmart for a while so, hopefully it'll last longer. It is really good, taste and smell. Sometimes I like to add some cream from coffee mate. They are super cheap, really good and add that extra something to my morning coppie!

And, that is it for my fave breakfast at the moment! I find it easy to make, fast and yummy.

If you give it a try, let me know how you like it! What's your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

Mon's Kitchen: Jello Brains~!

Hello zombie babies! 

It took me a while to finally use the brain mold I got earlier this month from Wal-Mart, I was especially excited about it because I wanted one for a long time now.
So, the recipe is super simple! I bought a package of strawberry jello and a 1lt. of milk. I wanted to use milk jello because it'd give it a more realistic brain color but, you can use any color you want.

Instructions:

1. Heat the milk, once is hot enough add the jello and mix.

2. Pour the mix into the Brain mold and let it cool for lika an hour or so.

3. When the jello was cool and firm I removed the mold using some hot water at the top of it to help the jello slip out of the mold.

Ta Da! Now I have a brain!

To add an extra something to my brain I used some strawberry syrup, I think it makes it look a little bit more real~ hehe

Since the mold is small, I had some jello miz leftover, so I just filled little jars and decorated them with skull candy bones to give them a Halloween look.

Super quick and Halloween-ish dessert!

Mon's Kitchen: Bean thread with chicken and veggies.

I bought a bag of bean thread noodles a while ago and I've been meaning to cook a traditional Chinese meal with them but honestly, I didn't had the time to look for a recipe. So last weekend I decided to do some cooking and use them. Even though my last minute recipe was kinda improvised, it turned out really good!
I never tried bean thread noodles before so I didn't knew what to expect. I could say they don't really have a taste but, trying them with other flavors makes a good mix.
I went for something simple, chicken and Oriental mix veggies.

Ingredients:

* Chinese Bean Thread Noodles (or Cellophane noodles)
* Broccoli
* Mushroom
* Water Chestnut
* Red Pepper
* Chinese beans
* Chicken strips
* Soy Sauce

Let's start with the chicken, since it took the longest to cook. I waited until they were fully cooked to chop them into small squares and added a little extra flavor using some soy sause and an other seasoning thingy we had at home. Then I let them fry a little. (I don't know why I always want things to fry~~~)

Moving on to the noodles. You need to pour boiling water over the noodles and soak them for 5 - 10 minutes. Drain the noodles as they turn soft.

The bag had 4 small packages of soup. Each was enough for one person. 

This is how the noodles look before cooking.

Boiling, boiling~~~ ♪

Ready!

Once the chicken and noddles were ready I put everything together and added some veggies.
It was an easy to make and very light food for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
I'm definitely planning on cooking a real Chinese recipe using this noodles but, it was a good way to try Bean thread for the first time.

xox

Mon's Kitchen: 炒面 (Chow Mein)

I love Asian food, and for a while now I've been wanting to make some home made Chow Mein. My first dish this year! I should be ashamed, I don't really cook often!
Last weekend I finally had some free time to cook and I was very happy with the results! I cooked for 5 people and they really liked it!

This was my first time cooking pretty much everything so, it took me a while to finish. (I usually buy everything pre-cooked hehe) But, I enjoyed the experience!

Ingredients:
* Chow Main style Noodles (I used Sapporo Ichiban Noddles, I love them!) 1 bag for each person.
* Slim slices of chicken breasts
* Broccoli
* Mushroom
* Water Chestnut
* Red pepper
* Chinese beans

Here we go!

First I started with the chicken, which I forgot to take out of the freezer~ maybe that's why it took longer to cook and stuff. I had to defrost it first in the microwave and then move on to the pan. At first I thought they were overcooked because they looked golden-ish but they had a great taste.
Once the chicken was done, I made the noodles, one by one. Instructions are on the back of the package so, it's pretty easy. It doesn't take much time.

When my noodles and chicken were ready, I cut the chicken into small pieces and mixed it with my noodles and then I did the same with the veggies. To finish it, I added some dried seaweed to the top of my dish.

I'm curious to try Chow Mein with some sea food, I may try that sometime soon.

享受你的食物！
吻

Witch's Kitchen: Pumpkin Frappe.

Last year I really wanted to make a Pumpkin related drink during Halloween season. Pumpkins are main part of Halloween so I came up with the idea of making my own Pumpkin frappe.

The recipe is super fast and easy to do, ingredients are also easy to find.

What you'll need for this "potion":
* 1 can of Milkmaid sweetened milk.
* Sweet pumpkin. (I don't know the exact name of it, I bought it that way)
* Milk
* Ice

What I did was pretty much mix the ingredients in a blender machine. I made itfor 5 people using half glass of milk, 3 spoons of sweet pumpkin, 2 spoons of milkmaid sweetened milk and some ice for each portion.

I bought cute pumpkin straws to match the drink. Hehe.

Enjoy this Holiday drink!

Witches in the kitchen: Vanilla cookies.

Hi guys!
Last weekend was all about Halloween and horror! I went to (finally) watch Insidious 2 with my girls a.k.a. My Halloween team, we also did some yummy Halloween candy shopping and to finish the day my sister and I decided to make some Holiday cookies. Halloween was definitely in the air. It was fun!

So here's our easy recipe for vanilla cookies.

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 cups of flour
* 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 spoon of vanilla extract
* 2 eggs

Let's start!
First, preheat the oven at 180 C.
Beat the butter and sugar till it's creamy, now add vanilla and some flour. Keep beating until you get a soft dough.
Make small balls with the dough and flat them, then cut them into the shapes you want. We used some Halloween shapes I bought at Walmart.

Bake them in the oven for 15-20 minutes, let them cool for about 5 minutes and start decorating!

To decorate we used:
* Betty Crocker Rich & Creamy Vanilla
* Betty Crocker Decorating Gel Orange
* Betty Crocker Decorating Gel Black
* Betty Crocker Decors "Ghoul Mix"
* Betty Crocker Decors "Monster Mix"
I'm in love with those "Decors" mixes.

There are lots of fun things to decorate cookies with. We are definitely not the best at it but we had a fun sisters time doing it.

xox Witches M&M's!