Showing posts with label Snacks. Show all posts

Stella May I what just warms you up every time you eat it? Red Oil Wontons

Of course you may. This is a little different than the traditional wonton soup in that it's packed with way more flavor! It's not as oily or spicy as you would think (well that's what I thought the first time). Today I want to share how to prepare Red Oil Wontons. Come back next week for how I make the just the wontons!
 What you'll need: Spicy Chili Crispy Oil (This brand is Lao Gan Ma), Soy Sauce, Chinkiang Vinegar (it''ll bring a sweetness to the dish and cut down that oiliness), sesame oil, and plain ol' sugar.
Mix together: 4 tablespoons of the chili oil, 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, 3 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil, and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Let it sit and marry while you prepare the wontons.
 How cute are these little wontons!
 I like to fold/pinch them in a little spoon shape to better scoop the sauce. See all those little nooks and pockets? Perfect for sauce!
All lined up and ready to be cooked.
 Gently boil until they float and then cook on a simmer for another 3 minutes.
Almost there.. Now just strain the wontons out and spoon on the sauce.
 Finally top it off with some green onions or scallions and you are ready to eat.
Can you just imagine how warm you will be? I end up wanting more sauce to really dunk the wontons in. I find Red Oil Wontons (also called Sichuan-style Wontons) more of a snack or a appetizer to a main meal. Enjoy and show me pictures if you try out the recipe!
DIY, Food, Recipe,
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Stella May I know how you make spam musubi?

Of course you may. Spam Musubi is a meaty snack that I used to get all the time. (There was Dollar Musubi deal every Tuesday.) These days there isn't an L&L close to me, so I have decided to make it at home. The concept it simple. Lay a slice of browned up Spam over fresh rice and wrap it in seaweed. Well I didn't have seaweed and I don't have this handy musubi mold. For today's Tutorial Tuesday post, I will be showing you how I made Spam Musubi (with a mold and seaweed).
First off I know there are so many other flavors out there, but this 25% less sodium one was the only one on sale at Costco and that's what I will be working with. (today and for like a few months.)
The aroma coming out of a freshly opened can of Spam is so strong! Oswald came over for a whiff but moved on to the blankets soon after this picture.
Back to the Musubi making. As I worked on the Spam, Mister worked on making a mold with the Spam can. He first used the piercer function of the multi-purpose scissors and pierced a hole.
Then he used a can opened and just opened the can on this side.
It doesn't cut open ever crevice but most of the "bottom" is almost released.
So Mister just grabbed some scissors and cut that open.
Ta-da! The mold is born. This is clearly not a very safe option to making the mold, but it's all we have.
 Back to the food part. Slice up the Spam. I like about 8-10 slices with each can. If you like it with more meat then make less slices!
 Then into an ungreased pan, brown and crisp up the Spam slices. On both slices.
Then after the Spam browns, sprinkle on a light layer of sugar.
Then just a splash of soy sauce. (Not too much as Spam is already very salty. Even the less sodium kind.)
And a splash of water. Just until it's covered. (No precise measurements here, as pan sizes and how thick you have sliced the Spam varies.)
Then back to the mold. The only little con is with our make shift mold is you can't really tell how much rice you have squished down. You want to pack the rice so the whole musubi will hold together when you hold it. (if you do decide to also cut open the bottom of the Spam then please be careful with the raw edge of the can.)
You wan to have the rice ready so when the spam is all ready, you can quickly place it on top of the rice so the rice can soak up all that flavor. After you placed the spam on top, the spam acts like a weight to hold down the rice. If you had the seaweed you would place that underneath the mold and rice, then after you pull off the mold you can just wrap up the musubi and eat!
So how did I wrap it? Since I have a ton of rice paper leftover, I used the rice paper to wrap the whole  musubi package. It's a little weird to have rice on rice, but it worked out pretty well to hold every thing together. (We did get the seaweed when we picked up that seaweed snack I raved about earlier this week.)
Food, Oswald, Recipe,
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Stella May I know why you like the Strawberry Pocky? Pocky Day

Of course you may. Today, November 11, is Pocky Day. Mister seems to think that it's because when written out numerically, 11/11, the "1's" look like Pocky! For today's Pocky Day, I want to share why I like the Strawberry flavored best. (& there are so many flavors out there.) 
This is the special strawberry one with little crunchies on it. (Still artificially flavored though.)
 And unfortunately it only comes in two packs.
But besides that the biscuit sticks are heart shaped! How cute is that?
What is your favorite Pocky flavor? Are you having Pocky today?
Days, Fiddle-Faddle Fridays, Food,
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Stella May I know your go to sweet autumn snack is?

Of course you may. I remember a few years ago now when cookie butter (or speculoos) was super popular and I wasn't able to get my hands on it. Now I see it as a Steak n Shake shake! Not to mention the varieties Trader Joe's now offers. There smooth (which used to be the only one), crunchy, and not with a cocoa swirl. After picking up my annual chocolate advent calendar (come back tomorrow for that post), I spotted this and got reminiscing with Mister. When we first got this, we managed to finish an entire jar in within the week! Since then we haven't had it, so 
Here I spread it over some brioche toasts for a snack. Crunchy cookie butter atop a crunchy toast. 
Cookie butter is a very decadent treat of pulverized spice cookies with a butter/oil, flour, and sugar until it resembles a nut butter consistently. You can just imagine how bad that is for you, but there is something about he spiciness that just reminds me of the holidays. It must be the cinnamon. It's a nice treat for cuddling up to a book with a nice hot cup of tea. I think I will just have to make this after I post today! 
Other ways to have cookie butter? spread it over your pancakes or waffles, mixed in with rice Kristie treats, as a dip with apples, or even heat it up a little (maybe thin it out with some milk/cream) and have a cookie butter fondue party!

Have you tried cookie butter yet? What is your favorite way to eat it? Just off the spoon is probably mine.
Food, Seasonal, Snacks
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Stella May I ask what is that nori (seaweed) you are snacking on?

Of course you may. This is a new, well new to me, seaweed snack product I found lurking at the market. (This was at an Asian supermarket.) There was a whole wall dedicated to them! So I got to thinking, if the market was going to stock a whole wall shelf unit, then it must be somewhat popular and since I am a fan of seaweed I thought why not try it. Today I am sharing with you the Tao Kae Noi. The Thai seaweed snack.
When you first open it, it's more like a bag of chips. There are strips of seaweed (about 1½ inches wide) inside a mostly air filled bag. The Tao Kae Noi is unlike the Korean seaweed snack as it's much thicker and there for more crunchier. It's like if the Korean one is like biting into cellophane, while this Thai one is like munching on thicker wrapping paper. I know neither of them sound tasty, but I want to emphasize that these are much thicker and not as transparent as the Korean kind. (You know, the kind that come in little plastic trays and are normally greasy?)
I imagine that this are a fried treat so I probably wouldn't want to have it every day, but they are tasty and light enough for a once in a while snack. I keep comparing it to the little tray kind since I think that the most popular kind of seaweed snack. The Tao Kae Noi are more flavorful, crunchier, and less greasy.
The flavor I have here is the hot and spicy one. There are so many others though! Original, Tom Yum Soup, Squid, and even Tempura. I think I want to try the Tempura one next.
That zip close feature is nice, but me and Mister polished the whole bag in one sitting. Have you tried Tao Kae Noi?
Food, Review, Snacks
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Stella May I know if you have tried Red Velvet Chips Ahoy!?

Of course you may. Last month I shared that I had found Red Velvet Oreos, and now look what I found! Red Velvet Chips Ahoy! These are new and I think better than the Oreo version.
I mean both are made by Nabisco (which did you know was short for National Biscuit Company?) and both are very clearly labeled as Artificially Flavored. Which I think most Red Velvet flavors are artificially flavored. They even use the same cake image! So I got to thinking that they must taste similar right?
Look at all those Cream Cheese chips! Here you can see that the Chips Ahoy and Oreo are similar in color and size too. I don't know why I always thought that the Chips Ahoy cookies were larger than Oreos.
What I like better about the Chips Ahoy is how it tastes. The Red Velvet-ness seems to be better conveyed in this cookie than the Oreo. Maybe it's that the Chips Ahoy is softer than the Oreo or its that the Chips Ahoy starts as a mellower cookie so it's able to add in the Red Velvet flavor better. But it's probably because it has a Cream Cheese center! So if you like Oreos for their creamy centers than definitely try these out. They also have a creamy center.
You get 18 of these cookies in each package. (24 in the Oreos)
Have you tried these Red Velvet Chips Ahoy yet? What other special edition flavors have you been seeing lately?
First-trys, Food, Snacks
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Stella May I know how you make puppy chow? My little tips for Muddy Buddies.

Of course you may. Puppy chow or muddy buddies are kind of like a classic afterschool snack. It's like rice krispie treats. Quick to make and not a lot of ingredients. So like the other cereal treat, there are tons of recipes online for puppy chow (there's one on the back of the Chex box!). For today's Tutorial Tuesday, I'll be showing you my version of puppy chow or muddy buddies or reindeer munch.
 What you will need: Chex cereal (it doesn't really matter corn or rice, whatever your preference is), peanut butter, vanilla extract, chocolate chips and powdered sugar.
This nifty contraption is really nice for measuring sticky ingredients. & there's a line for ⅜ cup, which if you read it down below in the recipe is a little funky, I know. But nothing here in this recipe needs to be exact. It'll be about two times the chocolate to peanut butter (or almond butter or NUTELLA!)
Look how easy it is to scoop out!
Place the chocolate chips and peanut butter in a microwave safe container and zap it for 30 second intervals. Taking it out and stirring the mixture between each round of microwaving.
Just until it's all smooth. Also to note you don't need to make it with chocolate chips, you can also just chop up some chocolate bars you laying around (I don't have that, but maybe you do?) It's also an ingredient you can swap out to make it fancier or themed! Try it with white chocolate and mix with cookie butter?
So I chose the corn Chex, because of the crunchy factor and because Mister has a thing about how puffy it should be. It's doesn't really matter which Chex (or Crispex).
To use only half a box I used a scale and for it precisely half the box. (The box was 12 ounces and I poured out 6 ounces.) But again this recipe doesn't call for any precision. Just roughly half the box.
Set the cereal aside and check on the choco/pb. Remember it should just be smooth. Then add in the vanilla extract (or almond? lemon? peppermint?) The choco/pb mix doesn't need to be so melty that it becomes a liquid. I find that over heating it to the super liquid stage lends itself to making the cereal soggy.
In fact as you can see I almost cool it until it's just about solid. I would describe it like peanut butter texture. Don't worry about not being able to mix it all together!
Just start slowly and mix gently.
It will slowly come together.
 Then before you know it, it's all coated!
 Time sprinkle in the powdered sugar. (This is clearly not enough, I don't know what Mister was thinking.)
 I like to spoon in spoonfuls of powdered sugar until everything is basically white and the puppy chow can't be coated anymore. (The powdered sugar will start to gather at the bottom of the bowl.)
And you are done!

This recipe is for half the box of Chex. If I had the room I would have the whole box, but refrigerator space is precious in a tiny kitchen and I find that half a box is plenty for just me and Mister. Also this is a slightly different recipe than the one on the back of the box. It's omits the butter (not needed and makes it a little soggy imo) and a lot more chocolate/pb compared to cereal. I find that it should really coat every piece of Chex.

Puppy Chow
Ingredients: 
½ box of Chex (about 6 ounces)
¾ cup of semisweet chocolate chips
⅜ cup of peanut butter
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2-3 cups of powdered sugar
Directions: 
1. Place half a box cereal in a large bowl. 2. Place the chocolate chips and peanut butter in a microwave safe container. Microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval, until the mixture is smooth. 3. Stir in the vanilla extract. 4. Make sure the mix is warm enough to the touch and pour the mixture into the cereal. 5. Gently stir and mix until the cereal is coated with the chocolate and peanut butter. 6. Pour in the powdered sugar starting with 1 cup and mix. Keep adding powdered sugar until the cereal can't be coated anymore or if everything is just white. 7. Enjoy!
(Storage: airtight container, I like to stick mine in the fridge, although that's not necessary.) 
Autumn, Dessert, Food,
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