–Banana pumpkin bread–

Texture-wise, it is less dense than the GF chocolate chip pumpkin bread. I think it is because of the type of GF flour used (Bob’s Red Mill GF flour) and also I didn’t use much pumpkin puree this time. I probably shouldn’t mention “banana” in the title as you can hardly taste the banana.

For breakfast this morning, I had one slice alongside 2 scrambled eggs (topped with nutritional yeast) and a glass of milk

Lunch was very similar to yesterday — Chicken burger + mixed greens topped with mustard sauce + lentil

Yesterday dinner was at sis’ place and mum made “Daube de poisson”.  This pix from last week … playing with my niece

And singing too … Video from last week. Skip to 1:50 if you want to see the sweeeeet ending :P

Gluten Free Banana Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients (makes 10 slices)

• 1 3/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free flour
•  2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (you could toast the nuts lightly if you want)
• 2 tbsp canola oil (optional)
• 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 big banana)
• 1 cup Libby’s pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup raw sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, mashed bananas, pumpkin puree
3. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, cinnamon, dried raisins and walnuts
4. Combine both the wet and dry ingredients together without over mixing
5. Transfer to loaf pan
6. Bake for 1 hour
7. Let cool completely before slicing (best if  sliced the next day)

Makes 10 slices. Approx nutrition facts per slice

I used fresh coconut milk, cocoa powder, vanilla essence and some water

Date night ala Teppanyaki style on Tuesday

Followed by “Mango Snow Ice” dessert.  We’ve never had snow ice before, so it was a new-to-us ice texture.  We kind of prefer the normal shaved ice.

And nothing beats the Mango Pomelo Sago dessert

I’ve been seeing this pretty niece of mine quite often

Dinner at sis’ place tonight. XOXO.

***

Here’s a recap of my birthday celebration. Warning: Heavy pictures ahead.

Part I: First, on Thursday, we attended CODE:EDGE Dance Charity Gala Dinner at Raffles Town Club.

I tried to do a waterfall braid hairstyle (I followed this video) on my own hair that night. Didn’t quite get it right because my bangs are still too short and the top part of my hair is too smooth. I had to use some styling gel to hold the braid a little. By the way, I’ve been making my own hair conditioner using honey and olive oil. More on that in another post!

Yeah we have a a few water guns at home haha

Don’t have pictures to show you how yummy the food was.  I don’t photograph food when I’m around many people

The room

Throughout the WHOLE night we were entertained by dance performances. There were hip hop, break dance etc. performed by various schools in Singapore.

End of the gala dinner

After  dinner was over, they brought a birthday cake for me :)

With the husb

***

Part II of my birthday celebration happened yesterday. This time, it was among my dearest famille.

Dinner was almost very primal. We had spinach-cheese stuffed rolled chicken (get the recipe) and curry crab prepared by moi. Sis made a salmon-cod fish pie, bro brought chicken drumlets and pork ribs and the husband bought some roasted chicken from the coffee shops. Such a protein meat-feast night!  Lots of chicken consumed that night.

Sis baked blueberry muffins and brought some for us

My birthday cake was a ‘Chocolat Amer” from Bakerzin — we finished the whole cake the very same night! Something that rarely happens among us :P

Time to blow the two very christmas-y candles

[The way my niece is looking at the cake is so cute]

That night, we played a few Xbox Kinect games — from dancing to bowling to beach volley

Although I had a good time, I couldn’t not think about certain things …

My niece (who recently turned 2) also kept herself busy with her “La caze zouzou” .. I keep a cooking set at my place so that when she comes over, she can play with them

I also showed her my big exercise ball and she wanted to carry it hehe

She was also happily running around

My family means the world to me. They have been there for me through thick and thin and I’m forever thankful to have them.

Back to work tomorrow … enjoy the last bit of your Sunday!

Sis baked a nice birthday farm cake

Food? More than enough …

I made a mixed mango prawn bacon green salad (recipe coming up)

Sis made noodles (we eat noodles on birthday because long noodles represent long life hehe) and Jamie Oliver’s Chicken Pie

Bro brought baked chicken, sausages etc…

And mooncakes <– mid-autumn festival is around the corner … there were some with bakkwa filling, some with nut fillings.

Happy Birthday!

My late breakfast (or post workout food) was a protein pancake topped with peanut butter, cinnamon and cacao nibs (bought last year … whoops).

Yum

In the afternoon I went to my sis’ place to finish a scrapbook project

And played with my niece

She took ma picture!

The husband is down with flu… I’m gonna watch some TV now and munch on some seaweed snacks.

xoxo

Hugs and kisses from yee yee!

Related posts

• Claire’s 1st Birthday Celebration
• My First Sugar Cookies

This is the full 22 minute of Insanity Fast and Furious. Note: Don’t try if you have not exercised in a while.

Breakfast was blueberry buckwheat pancakes. They look nice but tasted a little weird. I ended up eating the blueberries only.

We went to China Square Central at China Town for a late lunch.

We eat there almost every weekend.

We always order Prawn Noodle

And “Chinese Rojak” — century eggs are all his as I don’t like their taste

We met sis and niece afterwards

Claire has grown up!

Sunday movie night … we watched Captain America, another superhero movie.

With niece at Great World City

Taking self portraits

Iced Kachang and Iced Blended Coffee (I have not had one in AGES)

Lunch with the husband at China Town

We had Chinese Rojak

Prawn Noodles (dried)

And the soupy version

Followed by a foot Reflexology at China Town

Heavy Downpour @ Nanyang Poly during All Comers Meet 3

View from a Food Court

With niece

Donuts on a Friday in Office

More Office Snacks – Pineapple Tarts

Lunch with the husband – Grilled Seafood Platter

Followed by dessert – Brownie

Mikey

Morning

High Tea at TCC

Mikey

Dinner at New York New York

Lunch at Thai Express

Lunch at Fish and Co

Seafood Platter at Fish and Co

Dessert at Fish and Co

A morning at the park with sis and family

Goodbye January, Hello February …

What did I do with these?

A quickie mushroom snackie.

I was all over Singapore on Friday! At the airport included, with sis and niece :)

Waffles from The Coffee Connoisseur at T3

I wish to blog more but I badly need to nap!

One year ago

And one year later i.e today …

Sis got her a Barney chocolate cake as she loves Barney.

Such a cute cake don’t you think!!

Time to cut the cake

The cake

And after the mini celebration we all headed down up for a wedding dinner!

Plus these. I am planning to make some granola bars with those dried apricots.

Mum made Croque Monsieur this AM. My camera is spoilt. Oh what a great timing! Please excuse the picture quality (you will see a lot of horizontal lines).  I am trying to get hold of another camera before heading to La Pirogue tomorrow! Can’t wait!! :)

I also made my breakfast protein pancake for breakfast – topped with nutella and peanut butter.

With mum and niece Claire

Yesterday I met two cousins for lunch at Le Patio. I had a Marlin Fumé Panini and a carrot-orange-ginger fresh fruit juice. Cuz, thanks for the lunch :)

At night, I met Angele and Lash for dinner at Black Steers. Thanks for the scrumptious dinner guys!

Our starter plate consisted of onion rings, calamari, garlic bread, chicken nuggets and some mozzarella thingy.

Angele and I each ordered a Filet Mignon (270g) and shared a Greek salad. The salad dressing was good :)

A mixed grill for Lash

Me and my steak

The place

Drink Menu

Enjoy the rest of your day :) Weekend is around the corner (for those who are working hehe)!

I started off my day with a short 4 km run just to sweat it out a bit. After I came back home and showered, lunch preparation began.

I started with spinach and cheese cannelloni.

I prepared the spinach first followed by the tomato sauce and lastly the white sauce

Layer 1: Basil tomato sauce

Layer 2: Filled cannelloni shells

Layer 3 and 4: White sauce topped with shredded mozzarella cheese

Voila! My spinach and cheese cannelloni! Unfortunately it wasn’t as good as my first (recipe there), probably because I used cream cheese + cottage cheese instead of ricotta cheese + cottage cheese. And also because I added the stalks of the spinach!  I should have just plugged out the leaves like I did last time! Bahhh

Side view … It does look tempting though, doesn’t it :)

Lunch also included Crispy pita chips with homemade jalapeno roasted garlic hummus. I think this was a hit. Good snack too!

How to make crispy pita chips: Slice the pita wraps (I used those sold at Fairprice as they are thinner)  into triangles, drizzle with some extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary herbs (or whatever herbs you prefer). Toast in the oven until golden and crispy! Be careful because they burn easily!  These were super crispy :)

And we also had baked sweet potato fries. They were not crispy anymore. Still delish though.

Lunch is ready

They were watching a movie (2012) and playing with baby niece Claire

Bro and Althea playing with Claire

Baby niece Claire

We had some snackies while watching TV. There were ton of fruits too (watermelon, jack fruit, guava).

Twisties, Cheezels and Homemade Apricot granola bars. I made them earlier today.

That’s the end of part 1 as this post is getting too long … Part 2 will include a last minute early birthday celebration for the husband.

I have a ton of things to blog — mostly food that I baked over the past weekend :)  Brownies, Muffins, sandwich rolls, pudding etc. Will update later. Have a good start of the week!