Peach Jam – Almond Crumb Bars

Posted in Breakfast, Sweets by Put a Ring on Annie

If you follow me on SnapChat, you might have seen that a few weeks ago, I snapped about tons of fresh peaches from my family’s tree, and snapped a story where I was making peach jam. That peach jam failed…since I didn’t have enough pectin and was too cheap to buy more at the time. However, my dad and sister, seeing that it was an absolute fail, and that I reused old jars, set out to re-make my failed jam. They bought new canning jars and my sister cooked the recipe. Now she is legitimately a Jam Queen. She has made 15 jars of jam (since we had SO much super ripe needed to be eaten peaches). Also, it is grape season here in Lodi. This year, due to the hot, dry weather, the grapes ripened early. Since Lodi is full of wine grapes, my dad went to go pick some and now, my sister has made grape jelly! Needless to say, we are a jam obsessed household now. My dad, being the French baker he is, has made croissants filled with jam (see picture below), and I can’t wait until the holidays, where I can make cookies!!! But since it’s summer, I figured crisps, and cobblers are the best to use our supply. I didn’t have an 8×8 pan, so I put the batter in cupcake tins. Turned out perfectly!!! So you can use either to get the same result – light, jammy, crispy, almond-y, and yummy. It’s perfect for breakfast!

Continue reading →

4Jun2014

Greek Yogurt Pancakes with Chia Seeds

Posted in Breakfast by Put a Ring on Annie

My parents came down for my graduation and since we went to Utah for family vacay, we spent all of our meals at restaurants. When we got back to San Diego, all we wanted was a simple homemade meal and breakfast. Since my dad is a fantastic cook, he ended up cooking 2 dinners at my place – tons of seafood like fish, lobster and shrimp. It was definitely super relieving and comforting to eat homemade food after like 12 consecutive meals outside and 2 buffets in Vegas. I made breakfast one morning and decided on some Greek yogurt pancakes with some chia seeds for some omega-3s and some berries for antioxidents. Simple and quick and so delicious!

Continue reading →

30Apr2014

Pitaya Bowl!

Posted in Breakfast, Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, Paleo, Sweets, Vegan by Put a Ring on Annie

HEALTH FOOD MEGA POST!!!! I love healthy foods as you all know- the weirder the better. I love the fascination with all this raw stuff lately and totally have toyed with the idea of going on a raw food diet for a week. Maybe when I am not about to study for finals and the bar. But anyway, if you haven’t heard, PITAYA has been popular for a year now – a very distant, more popular cousin in pop culture of the ACAI berry – but it is actually a DRAGON FRUIT! Dragon fruits are those pink crazy weird looking fruits you see at Asian supermarkets. My mom bought some once and eating the fruit inside of a real, fresh dragon fruit was totally meh. It was white on the inside with edible seeds, way slimy and lacked flavor. I had no idea that the famous pitaya was actually dragon fruit. The Asian ones however are white in flesh, whereas the Mexican and South American varieties have a red/pink hue. This is definitely a quality it shares with the acai berry: it has a big vibrant hue to it and is definitely the new craze of food health junkies. I tried a pitaya bowl for the first time a month ago at PB’s Rum Jungle and I loved it! The pitaya bowl is a lot less berry tasting, not sweet, and sorta has a slimy texture to it. Pitaya is normally paired with the same stuff as acai so they are both super interchangeable in terms of how you make them in smoothies and bowls. You can purchase pitaya packets at Whole Foods!!! Sprouts doesn’t have them yet (or at least at my local one doesn’t). I used to do a lot of those fun, fast facts about interesting food items so here are some about pitaya:

Fun facts:

1. Pitaya flowers only bloom at night so only bats and moths fertilize them. (kinda like how a bee polinizes flowers).

2. They originated in Mexico, but spread in popularity and cultivation in Southeast Asia.

3. There are many varieties- the Asian store bought ones have white meat with seeds dotted all over it inside; the smoothie pack variety is the pitahaya roja, which has a pinkish meat with seeds dotted all over it inside.

4. If you eat a lot of pitaya, your pee might turn reddish HAHAHA.

5. It has powerful antioxidents, calcium, magnesium, vitamin C, fiber and omega-3s. All awesome stuff to keep you healthy and sane.

Here is a pretty powerful pitaya bowl recipe that I used for my first homemade bowl! Acai and pitaya are fun in that it can be paired with anything fun and healthy and colorful in your kitchen. Try it today since it’s so hot outside!

Continue reading →