Banana and Strawberry Baked Oatmeal Casserole

If you haven't noticed on my Instagram or my Twitter account, I've been experimenting a lot lately with cooking and baking.  Not sure what it is but my inner Martha Stewart seems to have this desire to learn and try something new, even if I have this gut feeling, deep down inside telling me that whatever I am making won't be appetizing at all.  I think the sudden urge to throw and mix random fruits and seasonings in a bowl and hoping for the better is what excites me.  What's even better is knowing that what I've made actually is edible and worthy for anyone who dares to try it!

With that being said, I'm happy to say that the banana and strawberry baked oatmeal casserole that I made last night was actually satisfying.  So far I've gotten the approval from two very important people in my life.  The casserole might have turned out a bit dark and mushy-looking, but once you take a bite of it, it's actually not that bad.

Now that you've seen some of my photos, it's your turn to try this recipe out yourself!

What you will need:

• 1 Cup Walnuts
• 2 Cups Milk
• 2 Ripe Bananas
•  2 Cups Rolled Oats
• 1 Large Egg or 2 Small Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 1/3 (Brown) Sugar
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Cups of Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 2 Cups of Strawberries - Any berries can be used for this recipe!

First things first, go ahead and preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Then spray the interior of a baking dish with a cooking spray.  This will help prevent your dish from sticking to the cooking dish itself.

Then mix the walnuts, rolled oats, chocolate chips, sugar, salt, strawberries, and the baking powder in a large mixing bowl and then place it in your baking dish.  With the thinly sliced banana pieces, place them on top of the mixture and evenly distribute them by leaving some space in between.

In a separate bowl whisk the milk, eggs, vanilla extract, and the melted butter until it becomes a unified yellowish color.  Then gently pour it in your baking dish and gently move the baking dish in a back and forth motion to evenly distribute the liquid.

Finally place it in the oven and wait for about 50 minutes or until the top looks golden brown.  If you want the dish a little bit sweeter, feel free to sprinkle on some brown sugar and serve!

Thanks you Inspired Taste for posting the recipe.

So I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did!

Bon appetite!

<3 Lina Chen

Happy Harbor Dim Sum

If you've never had dim sum you are missing out!

So what is dim sum?  It's essentially Chinese food served in bite-sized pieces in rounded, steamed containers or on small plates.  Depending which dim sum place you go to, they may serve your food via cart.  This is where multiple carts are circulating around the restaurant allowing customers to freely choose what they would like.  Other dim sum places will provide you a slip form to fill in your order and eventually the dishes come out one by one from the kitchen when they are ready.

Often dim sum is served in the mornings and brunch, but of course there's exceptions such as the ones in Vegas.  

I really liked Happy Harbor.  Probably would give it a solid 4 star review.  They are in a shopping center off Gale Ave. and Nogales St. in the Rowland Heights area.  Not too shabby.  Interior is gleaming with bright lights and has a clean, cut look and feel.  All of the waiters sort of look like butlers because their attire reflects that of one. 

My boyfriend and I went there to celebrate his cousins' birthday and had a good time surrounding myself with good people and good food.  

Some of my favorite dishes are the...

1.  Steamed Pork and Shrimp Dumplings

2.  Shumai

3.  Spareribs

4.  Steamed Beef Noodles

5.  Har Gow

6.  Luo Buo Gao

7.  Lime Green Red Bean Buns

8.  Baked BBQ Pork Bun (which is heavenly!)

9.  Egg Tart

10.  Mango Pudding (even though it wasn't as sweet as I'd hope it to be).

A few snippets I took at the restaurant:

That's it for now!  See you guys next time!!!

<3 Lina Chen

1015 Nogales St.,  Rowland Heights, CA 91748

626.965.2020.

Brunch @ Sweet Maple

Today I decided to go to Burma, a restaurant that served Burmese dishes, recommended by my good friend Kelsey.  Unfortunately, I accidentally typed in the wrong address on my GPS (good job Lina) and ended up at Sweet Maple (another restaurant Kelsey recommended) instead.  I decided to stick around since 1.  driving around downtown San Francisco is a nightmare, 2.  finding a parking spot is difficult, and 3.  I already paid for parking.

Why I wasn't too excited for Sweet Maple:

Breakfast foods do me no good.  Honestly, breakfast isn't my thing.  Even though it's the most important meal of the day, I usually skip it.  I don't like eggs because they get me a bit on the gassy side.  I'm not lactose intolerant but I might as well be if I can't handle a glass of milk (unless if it's complimented with dessert).  French toast and pancakes can be too sweet and bacon...well bacon is probably my favorite breakfast foods, but even then it's a little greasy to start the day.

HOWEVER, I'm glad I decided to try this place out.  I ordered the Norwegian Eggs Benedict which consisted of smoked salmon sandwiched between an English muffin and a poached egg smothered in their specialty Hollandaise sauce.  The salmon was nicely complimented with capers and spinach.  Every ingredient used in this dish tasted unbelievably good especially since I'm not a breakfast lover.  The spinach was a little slimy, but, you soon forget about that ooey-gooey feeling after taking a bite.

The dish came along with a medley of roasted potatoes.  For me, the crispier the potatoes, the better.  Unfortunately, some of the chunks on my plate were big and tasted a bit mushy and uncooked.  The smaller pieces had more flavor too since the seasoning complimented the potatoes and not the other way around; which I wasn't a big fan of.

When the dish itself came out, it was nicely presented so I give this place an B+ for taste, A for presentation, and a B+ for the atmosphere.  It's a lovely place for brunch and/or take time to enjoy the day by yourself.

<3 Lina Chen

2101 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94115

415.655.9169.   www.sweetmaplesf.com

You SNOOZE, You Lose.

Went to Snooze an A.M. Eatery, off of Colorado Boulevard this morning with my lover.  Craving to try new foods, we decided to go here since it was close by and I've heard excellent things about it.  The line of people inside helped validated what I read in the reviews too.

As soon as we got there, we put our names on the list and waited about 20 minutes of so.  They had a small table with fresh brewed coffee and water for people waiting to get a seat.  It was quite nice.  You don't often see that in restaurants.  The atmosphere is absolutely warm and the place is modern yet chic.  The room is filled with bright orange walls, with a splash of soft yellows, light blues, and greens.  They also had a patio, which was encased in a plastic rectangular bubble, only to keep the area warm enough for customers to eat in the winter.

Minutes after being seated, we ran into my good friend Erica and her boyfriend Son and we all had a lovely brunch together.  It's wonderful catching up with great friends and eating delicious foods.  They say food brings people together and surprisingly, it did.

Snooze has four pancake dishes.  They have a fifth option called the Pancake Flight where you can mix three of the four different pancakes.  Erica decided to go with the Pancake Flight and got the pineapple-upside-down pancake, the Red velvet pancake, and the pancake of the day which looked like it was made with Funfetti batter topped with a light cream cheese frosting and strawberry jam.

Out of the three I was able to try the Red Velvet Pancake and it was an orgasm in my mouth!  The cream cheese frosting topped with pecans and the espresso infused butter all complimented one another.  One would think the Red Velvet pancake would be too sweet, but it wasn't, it was perfectly balanced, taste-wise.

My lover Eric got the Upstream Benny.  According to their menu it's a "honey smoked salmon on house-crafted bacon-jalapeno spoonbread, topped with Niman Ranch poached eggs, cream cheese hollandaise and chives."  Eric being the carnevortarian that he is, he substituted the hash browns with corned beef hash.  Honestly, the corned beef hash wasn't worth the extra $3 substitution, but hey, like I said it wasn't my dish.  The Upstream Benny though was good and I'd definitely recommend it if you are looking more than just the usual eggs, OJ, and toast/pancakes.

Now I love pot pie so it was only natural for me to go ahead and order the Breakfast Pot Pie.  There was a fluffy, flaky pastry smothered in gravy and topped with an egg (sunny-side up of course) and hash brown on the side.  The Breakfast Pot Pie was equally mouth-watering as the other two dishes, but I would have to say that the Upstream Benny is the absolute winner.




A delightful meal to start the day. Afterall, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Confessions of a Fatty.

<3 Lina Chen

700 Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO 80206.

303.736.6200.   www.snoozeeatery.com