Vanishing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Meet my mother: self-proclaimed health nut and proclaimed-by-me graduate level nutritionist. She's the one who introduced me to oats. Oats- nutritious, full of fiber, and probably the hardest thing for her to get me to eat. I mean, come on, how can anyone enjoy the slimy breakfast porridge made from oats... Or maybe that's just how it was for me, but let me just say, the breakfast table might have been a war zone for a while.

I decided to try to find a way to actually enjoy eating oats that would please both me and my mother. A recipe on the lid of the box of oats looked tempting enough - oatmeal and raisin cookies. Replace the raisins with chocolate chips and you have a recipe for "healthy" cookies that wholly satisfied me. Warm these cookies for a couple seconds so the chocolate is all melty and the insides of the cookies are all soft and chewy, grab a cup of milk to dunk it in, and you have a fool proof method to get anyone to eat oats. The best part is that my mom enjoyed the cookies too!

Vegetable Fried Rice

Chinese fried rice is such a crowd favorite, I don't even need to give it an introduction. It is probably the most popular item to order at Chinese restaurants. I know I can't resist ordering fried rice at a Chinese joint.

What people don't know about it is how easy - and convenient - it is to make yourself. Chinese fried rice is like the Mexican frittata - a delicious way to use up day old leftovers from vegetables and meats to rice. All you have to do is use a couple ingredients and you've got a delicious meal in 20 minutes.

Ginger Chilli Chicken

Happy (belated) Chinese New Year's everyone! Gong Hey Fat Choy!

Ever since I was really young, I've been fascinated with all aspects of Asian culture. Growing up in a neighborhood that was 90% Asian only helped in fueling that interest. Listening to conversations in Mandarin, watching the Korean moms haggle in the stores, and hanging out with the elderly ladies who practiced tai chi in the park was the norm for me. It was also inevitable that I started to love Chinese food.

Chicago Skyline Egg

Hello everyone!

If you've been following my blog for a while, you'll know that I paint ostrich eggs as a hobby. Ostrich eggs are my unique take on a canvas. Most of the eggs I painted in the past have geometric patterns on them, like this one and this one. For this egg, I decided to take a different approach and paint the Chicago skyline.