Raisin Muffin with Chocolate Chips
Topic: Snacks
We were fasting yesterday with my hubby and we were late to go home from our work, it was only less than one hour left for Iftar time, therefore, we must have to cook whatever is easy and quick to prepare. I planned to make Spaghetti but I have to thaw the meat first, so I decided to make Spaghetti ala Pancit since we have some baked chicken leftovers and it would be a great flavor for that. My hubby said he wanted to bake muffins, I told him that we don’t have enough time for it since Iftar time was already near and besides I was already preparing some scrambled eggs as a fillings for the Pita bread that we had and that would be enough for Iftar but he still insisting. He said he can make it on time, I said okay do it if you can even though I knew that he will disturb me by asking how to make it perfectly, it’s okay. The original plan was just a plain raisins muffins but when I saw him mixing the batter, I remembered that we have some chocolate bars so I suggested to add chocolate chips on it by cutting the chocolate bars into tiny cubes and he agreed. He then said, what if we add chocolate syrup on it to have more chocolaty taste? He said that when he finished filling the muffin cups already, lol…! I said, okay next time we will make chocolate muffins Insha Allah. The muffins was done while were in the middle of our Iftar time.

Ingredients:
2 ? cup all-purpose flour
1 cup raisins
1/3 cup chocolate chips
? cup milk
? cup white sugar
? cup melted butter (any cooking oil will also do)
1 egg, beaten
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Grease muffins tins, or line cups with paper liners.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs and vanilla. Stir in milk.
4. Mix the dry and wet ingredients together. Fold in raisins and chocolate chips. Do not over mix. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter.
5. Bake for 25 minutes.

Tips: Do not smooth the top part when filling the muffin cups. Muffins should be lumpy. You can also add more chocolate chips if you like.

Our Home-Made Pizza
Topic: Snacks
This is our homemade pizza pie, we always do it at home and it was very simple and easy, even my hubby knows how to prepare it. We like it since we just have to choose what kind of toppings should we add on it. My hubby didn't like to eat black olives, so everytime we dine in at Pizza Hut, our orders are always the same, Hawaian since it has no black olives topping on it. One day, a friend brought 2 large Pizza Hut Meat Supreme at home and the toppings was full of meat and black olives, we are big fans of pizza but we did not able to eat even a half of it since all of the toppings are not our favorite one! We like meat but when combine with too much black olives, then it will lost our appetite. Our favorite toppings are chicken barbeque, mortadella, pepperoni, pineapple, cheese of course, seafoods, bell pepper and mushrooms. We've been cooking this at home long time ago but I have no chance to post it here since everytime we made it, I cannot take a photo out of it. Fortunately, we were fasting when I made this the other day and I took it out from the oven 5 minutes before the Ifar time, hence I have time to take picture on it.

Ingredients:
For the Crust:
2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. olive oil
Dried basil leaves (optional)

For the Toppings:
Pizza sauce
Use your favorite pizza toppings, anything you like:
Grated mozarella cheese
Mushrooms
Pineapple
Onions
Bell pepper
Pepperoni
Mortadella
Precooked bacon
Precooked Meat
Pre-cooked Chicken
Precooked Seafoods
Any

Directions:
1. Stir water, sugar and yeast together until dissolved. Add the olive oil and the salt. Stir in the flour until well blended. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
2. Pat dough into pan using fingers dipped in olive oil. If desired sprinkle dried basil leaves on crust.
3. Bake in a preheated 250 C degree oven for 10 15 minutes.
4. Take out from oven and top with your favorite pizza toppings and bake again for 5 minutes or until the toppings are cooked through. Serve.

(My way of adding toppings on it was spreading the pizza sauce first on the crust surface, then I add grated cheese, then the other toppings, then I sprinkle few cheese again on top)

Palitaw
Topic: Snacks
Palitaw is a native Filipino delicacies which is made of rice dough,formed into flattened balls, cooked in briskly boiling water, drained, then rolled into grated coconut, usually eaten with sugar. However, Muslim Filipinos had a different version of cooking Palitaw compared to the Palitaw made in the Northern part of the Philippines. The dough is made of plain glutenous rice flour and formed into balls instead of flats, they put some small cube of brown sugar brick inside the palitaw ball, hence there will be no need to dip or dredge it in sugar when you eat it. The brick of brown sugar melted inside the balls and it is very delicious to eat. One thing I love about Palitaw is it is very easy and quick to prepare, moreover, it is very yummy also. Donna made this Palitaw yesterday as our snack. Dessicated coconut was used since we don't have fresh one.

Ingredients:
3 cups glutenous rice flour
1 1/4 cup water (you can adjust the amount depending upon your desired smoothness)
1 cup dessicated coconut (used freshly grated coconut if you have)
brown sugar brick, cut into small cube

Directions:
1. Combine glutenous rice flour and water. Blend thoroughly until smooth.
2. Shape the dough into small balls, a little bit smaller than the size of an egg.
3. Flatten with thumb, then put a cube of brown sugar in the middle, seal it and form it again into balls.
4. Drop the palitaw ball in a briskly boiling water. The palitaw will float when they are cooked.
5. Take out the floting palitaw using a slotted spoon, roll it to the grated or dessicated coconuts. Serve.

Hubby's Moist Banana Cake
Topic: Snacks
This was cooked by my hubby late last night, the recipe is here that I posted few months ago, the only difference was the amount of milk used on it. My hubby increased the amount of milk to make it like a moist cake. He also used 2 eggs completely instead of 1 complete egg and 1 eggyolk.

Chicken Burger
Topic: Snacks
We were in hurry to prepare for our Iftar yesterday since it was almost time to break our fast and we did not able to cook yet, so we decided to make chicken burger (ready to cook chicken burgers)since it was the quickest to prepare that came to my mind. My hubby like the burgers to be fried but I prefer it to be grilled since I can do something while grilling it, so I can save my time, aside from that, I can also save oil! LOL :) I let my sis Jong prepare it while I was preparing for the Pasta with Tuna Balls. I let her grill some and fry 2 burgers for my hubby. As usual, she rubbed mayonnaise on inner sides of each burger buns, put cheddar cheese squares, tomatoes, lettuce and tomato catsup, cover it with another half of burger buns, heated it in microwave for 30 seconds, and that's it! Our Iftar problem was solved!