Pasta with Shrimp and Broccoli

Yes, this is a favorite of the family. We love its creamy texture and the crisp broccoli. My daughter can't have enough of this. :)

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

This is a very rainy weekend as reported by the weather bureau last night. We had soup the past days so we want something else. At least for us, the next best thing during a cold, rainy day would be stir fry.


Again I am not an expert in the kitchen but this passed the taste of my family. I cooked this from what I remember the last time I prepared this dish which was a few months ago.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry
1 big head of broccoli
1 kilo of beef
10 cloves garlic (we all love garlic in the house so we put in quite a lot)
2-3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
salt, pepper and sugar to taste (sugar is optional)

Wash beef and cut into thin strips. Size and how thin, your call. I tenderized the beef for easier cooking. Wash broccoli and cut into sections.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan, saute garlic. Add beef strips until seared and pour in oyster and soy sauce plus broccoli. Add salt, pepper, sugar according to taste. Check broccoli's texture. We want it crunchy.

A good lunch while it was raining cats and dogs outside.

***Feast on more food at Lasang Pinoy, Sundays.

Breakfast (Almusal)

I normally list down our food for the week - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Nothing grand but I just want to be sure we are having some balance in our food intake. This helps me also to have an inventory of what we have and don't have. I know if I need to replenish mid-week. We usually do the grocery on weekends.

(Nakagawian ko nang ilista ang aming menu para sa isang linggo - almusal, tanghalian at hapunan. Gusto ko lang masiguradong kahit papaano ay balanse ang kinakain namin at hindi paulit-ulit. Nakakatulong din ito sa akin para malaman ko kaagad kung kailangan ko nang mag-grocery kahit hindi pa weekend.)

This was what we had this morning. This was half of the last pack of cheesedog in the freezer. I mixed it with lots of onions and a few cloves of garlic. It went well with sunny side-up, bread, oatmeal, hot coffee for me and hubby and fresh milk for my daughter. Anything would go well in a rainy morning. :)

(Ito ang almusal namin kaninang umaga. Ito ang kalahati sa huling pack ng cheesedog na nasa freezer. Hinaluan ko na ng maraming onions at kaunting bawang. Bagay siyang kasama ng aming sunny side-up, tinapay, oatmeak, mainit na kape para sa aming mag-asawa at sariwang gatas para sa aking anak. Kahit ano yata ay masarap kapag umuulan.)

***More breakfast sharing at Litratong Pinoy.

Mung Bean Sprouts

It's a welcome surprise that my daughter is fond of togue (mung bean sprouts). She loves this better as lumpia (spring roll). If we have it as lumpia, I like it dipped in vinegar with soy sauce and lots of onions. It was raining hard almost the whole day yesterday and this was what I thought of preparing - togue mixed with carrots and tofu - to go with the grilled fish.

Quick to cook and very filling plus very nutritious. According to Sprout People, mung beans are reach in Vitamins A, B, C and E, calcium, iron, magnesium and potassium. From Associated Content, mung bean sprouts are free of cholesterol and has approximately 30 calories only per cup. Hail to the bean sprouts!

***More food sharing at Lasang Pinoy, Sundays.

Dinner, Quick!

I always think of shrimp if I want a delicious dinner but quick to prepare. I usually marinate shrimps with soda (Orange or Sprite) before I heat them in cooking oil. This time I just mixed them with garlic, onions, a dash of salt and steamed them in medium heat. Smells great and really yummy!

My husband loves shrimps dipped in vinegar with red hot chili peppers. My daughter and I love the taste of shrimps with its natural juice, no dip needed.

***More food sharing at Life Snippets.

Ampalaya con Carne

My daughter is getting to be a picky eater. Her pediatrician informed me it has something to do with hormonal changes. At times transition from childhood to pre-teens affects their diet. Their preferences change.

I want my daughter to eat her vegetables. I want to include veggies in our daily menu. It's a good thing she loves ampalaya con carne (bittergourd with beef). We haven't had this for quite some time.

Success factors for ampalaya con carne would be largely reducing the bitterness of the ampalaya. Oyster sauce is also my ally in preparing some vegetable dishes. It enhances the taste. The ampalaya slices were really crispy as they were dropped two to three minutes before I turned off the heat. The beef was really good. I did not tenderize them anymore but they're soft to the bite.

You may do the following to manage the bitterness of ampalaya:
1. Slice them.
2. Remove the seeds.
3. Scrub the slices with a generous amount of salt.
4. Soak in very hot water for a minute or two.
5. Squeeze the water from each piece.

That worked when I applied the technique.

***More food sharing at Life Snippets.

Milkfish Springrolls

Eats a Wrap for today's Lasang Pinoy, Sundays. Let me share what I recently cooked for our dinner.

One of my family's favorites is lumpiang shanghai but since we are abstaining from pork, I decided to use milkfish instead. Milkfish springrolls (lumpiang bangus) has basically the same preparation as shanghai's save for the main ingredient which is fish. I steamed then flaked the fish. I put in diced carrots and onions, a few cloves of garlic, a dash of salt and pepper, celery and egg to moisten the mixture.


Now comes the hard part. I have not mastered wrapping lumpia. I would have wanted lumpia wrapped seamlessly like how the cooks from Chowking do them, or how my aunts do them. Perfectly wrapped lumpia. Not that I let myself get too worked up wrapping them. Afterall, we're going to eat them as soon as they're cooked. But it's something nice to accomplish at least for me. :)


So far this is the best the best that I have done. I don't know if it's lack of creativity or patience or practice.


But I guess they are at par with the cheesesticks of Five Cows. :)


I don't know if I should feel elated with this, my daughter thought what I prepared is still lumpiang shanghai instead of lumpiang bangus. She loved it and she wanted more.

Chicken with Sweet Peas (Chicken Guisantes)

My daughter likes her packed lunch done this way - everything on top, rice topped with the main dish. She does not eat sweet peas but loves potatoes. She wants the chicken (or any meat) cut into bite size already. And just like me, she does not want too much sauce. This is her packed lunch - chicken guisantes, just like how she wants it prepared.

Like ninety nine percent of posts here under "newbie cook" category, this is another first time - first time I cooked chicken guisantes. Usually on weekdays, I prepare next day's lunch the night before. Like what I always say, if there is a will, there is a way. And I really want to get better at cooking. I love to cook for my family.

Chicken guisantes was fairly easy. I just have to make sure I put in the potatoes and sweet peas at the right time so they won't get overcooked. Right timing, this is one of the things I need to master if I want my cooking to be a success.

"What's in Your Lunch Box?" meme is hosted by Filipino Mom Blog. Come on over!

Egg Mayo and Wheat Bread

My dinner last night and hubby's was this - wheat bread, tuna with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber. He wanted it with carrots but unfortunately, there's no more in the ref.


Wheat bread expires today so I thought of having some for breakfast and bring along the last two pieces with me. I made myself an egg-mayo sandwich, mayonnaise of the lite kind. This served as my lunch and my share for this week's lunch box meme of the Filipino Mom Blog.



By the way, let me also share a good find - TakeAlongs from Rubbermaid. I love this as it is very flexible - microwave and freezer safe. They have just been taking space in my storage area from the time my mom sent them to me which was about two years ago. I have said that I am not into cooking nor preparing food before so I was not really aware of which is best for what - the different kinds of pots, pans, food storage...even the cutlery. Most of them were sent by my mother. Some my husband bought since he loves to cook even then.

I started making use of the TakeAlongs early last year when I ran out of sandwich bag for my daughter. I get to save a few pesos since I don't frequently use sandwich bag anymore. I usually use this for my daughter's sandwiches, cookies and for some leftover meals. This is not a paid post by the way. I wish it is. :)

Ube Jam

I have three of what I call personal traditions as I welcome the new year together with my family. We all wear red because it's such a vibrant color, full of enthusiasm and energy which I want us all to imbibe for the new year. Second is all lights in the house are turned on including the washrooms. Third is abundant food.

That's why it never fails. We always have left over foods at the start of the year. We don't actually cook for the next two days and there are cakes, leche flans, ube jams, fruits and other desserts for the next seven days or so. They last according to their shelf life fortunately.

The only food left from new year's eve is the last pack of ube jam. But this afternoon as I was preparing to take a picture of it for my entry for LaPiS (Lasang Pinoy, Sundays) I noticed molds are starting to form already. This should not be as this can last for two weeks. My big guess is someone did not properly scoop the jam so it was contaminated. Out it goes from my storage.

Breaded Chicken

Here is my attempt to make decent breaded chicken. I boiled the chicken wings until the meat is tender. I garnished with salt and dried rosemary sprig for a pungent flavor.


I just used a no-frills breading mix for the wings then deep fried each in a pan. The others look even but some wings seem burnt. Uneven breading is the culprit. I hope to make this better next time. I used my old trusty sweet-chili sauce as dip.


Happy new year to all and yes, you my fellow Food Friday blogmate! Cheers to 2009! :)

Milkfish Sour Soup With Miso

We have fish for our lunch and dinner for several days now. There was news about the Ebola-Reston virus in pork so the best way to be safe is stay away from pork in the mean time.

Unlike my husband, my knowledge of fish meals is quite limited - either fish in sour soup, steamed, fried, sweet and sour, and my all time favorite, sarciado. I don't like it grilled. I thought of cooking milkfish sour soup in miso (sinigang na bangus sa miso). I like the tangy taste of miso. It's a great flavor enhancer. Can you see the bangus belly from the picture? That's what I love best!

As a child I remember my mother set aside fried bangus for me because I don't like anything cooked in sour soup. I have acquired the taste for sinigang as I grow up. I'm what you call "pihikan" (choosy), but that was before. Nobody will believe me now if I tell them that. Anyway, you get to be with a lot of people, you go to a lot of places and sometimes you have no choice but to partake the food that is served to you. You also get curious why they seem to be so engrossed eating a particular dish. Best of all is having a husband who knows how to cook and is adventurous in trying different dishes. That helped a lot in my food evolution.

This is my first post for Life Snippets' Food Friday. Let me take a tour and check all other entries.

Chicken Pineapple

I had the courage to prepare chicken pineapple last night after dinner for our lunch on Monday. Everyone's out of the house on weekdays so I might as well finish this the night before.

I love how my father cooks this. It's very tasty, the sauce is more than enough to partner with my rice. I get full easily if this is our meal. My husband took one step different with the way he prepares this. He adds all purpose cream, well, to make it creamier. I adapted his style.

I marinated the chicken in pineapple juice taken from the pineapple chunks. I let it stay inside the ref for about an hour.


I sauteed onion and garlic and added the chicken pieces one by one. Sprinkled salt and pepper to taste. Once the chicken is half cooked I poured in the marinade and let it boil. I added the milk and pineapple chunks when the chicken's almost cooked and the all purpose cream last. It smells really good.


This is my daughter's packed lunch for today. :)



My other weekend snapshot is at The Mommy Zone, it's all pink. :)

My First Chopsuey

I am the one in charge of cooking on weekends and on holidays or at anytime that I am off from work. I took it upon myself to prepare our meal whenever I can. The past weeks I actually make time to do them no matter how busy the schedule is.

There's a Filipino saying that goes like, "pag ayaw maraming dahilan, pag gusto may paraan". That's true for me. I make time, squeeze time, if I really want to get something done. As long as it's humanly possible, I do that.

I was brave enough to try chopsuey. It's actually easy now that I put my focus on cooking. All ingredients in: garlic, tomatoes, onions for sauteing. Do I love the smell!


There are carrots, snow peas (sitsaro), young corn, chayote, red and green bellpepper, cabbage, chicken liver. I loved it that I need not dice the carrots but just have to cut them into little circles. Now snow peas I have to dip into a bowl of water and then cut the tip and pull out the string that runs along the side. I remember my mother said we have to strip it off so we can eat it without having to choke on it.

The young corn I just have to unwrap, cut into two those which are big for single serving. Chayote needs some effort, I have to peel them and dice them. It's a little slippery so better get a good hold of them while you're on the process of peeling them. The seeds of the bellpepper has to be taken off before cutting them into strips. I also cut the cabbage into small pieces. Chicken liver was the last to go. I was really careful while I let them cook. I was afraid to over or undercook. I guess undercooking is better since I can still adjust whatever I have to adjust afterwards. A dash of salt and pepper and a tablespoonful of oyster sauce for that added flavor to top the chopsuey.

It was a good meal. My husband, being more of an expert in the kitchen than I am, approved of the taste not out of pity but out of sheer happiness that at last I am starting to love cooking.

Horseradish Tree (Malunggay)

There is no doubt I love eating, I love food. But I used to shun away from the kitchen. I do not detest cooking but I am not at all happy with all the preparations - slicing, mincing, mixing, etcetera. I would rather do other things which I think are more productive. Oh yes, anything that has got to do with the kitchen I feel the help can very well do them. I'd rather review my take home work than sweat it out in the kitchen.

But it grew on me. Gone were the days that I cannot stay in the kitchen for even a few minutes. Now I love it! I really, really do. I may still be a mess but I take every opportunity to learn and actually do the cooking - from buying the ingredients myself to preparing everything. This is one of the activities I look forward to during weekends. It used to be a hit and miss but now I'm making good progress. The dishes I prepare for the past months actually taste like real food! Proof is the honest-to-goodness commendations of my husband and daughter. The more I get encourage to hone my latent cooking powers. :D

I also love browsing on food blogs especially those with great pictures attached to the post. It makes me marvel how they can do all these cooking so effortlessly, from simple to the elaborate dishes. And now I am participating in food memes. I would like to get to know more of what others share from their kitchen, what good finds they have which I can learn from.

For this week's Lasang Pinoy Sundays, I am sharing my own Green - malunggay (horseradish tree) which I used for ginisang monggo (mung bean stew with pork rind). Labeled as a poor man's dish, it proves to be very nutritious as the beans and malunggay are good sources of protein and vitamins. Go green!

A Hearty Dinner :)

One of the activities I look forward to during weekends or whenever I don't have work is experimenting in the kitchen. I have been doing this for a long time now. I have not mastered the pots and pans, the slicing, chopping, mixing, garnishing and all things related to a successful cooking or baking. But I enjoy every minute of it. It's tiring and I am a mess in the kitchen but it's fulfilling.

I have always dreamed of a spic and span clean kitchen while I am cooking in the same way as how we see it on television. Think Rachel Ray, Giada, Barefoot Contessa and Ellie Krieger. No sweat. I don't think I can talk much while I'm preparing ingredients and focusing on the simmering mixture. Oh how I love to be like these great ladies in the near future.

Later this afternoon I tried my hand on a recipe from Yummy Magazine - pork binagoongan sa gata (pork in shrimp paste mixed with coconut milk). I am not that confident as how it will come off. I just cooked the way it was directed.

I love the smell of sauteed garlic, onion and tomato. Adding bagoong (shrimp paste) made it all the more appetizing. I have to say that for some people I know, the strong pungent smell is repulsive. Making the coconut milk is what I found a little hard. This was the first time I squeezed the juice of coconut using a cloth. I wasn't sure if I was doing the right thing. I just squeezed and squeezed until there's no more juice to squeeze.

We still had dinner on time, a little past seven in the evening. It took me an hour to prepare everything. It was my first time to hear an honest to goodness praise in my cooking. Even my daughter liked it. :) And so that capped our Sunday. Everyone's resting now. My daughter is sleeping. My husband's watching a Mark Wahlberg movie over at HBO and I'm blogging about my successful dinner. :)

**********
Mood: Accomplished.
Music: Tell Me Something I Don't Know, Selena Gomez (from my daughter's music files)

Champorado and Cereal

Do you have a comfort food? I think I have lots judging by my weight. But what I really look for most of the time is your good old champorado. The very basic chocolate rice porridge made of glutinous rice and rich cocoa. I like mine swimming with milk.

I haven't eaten it with tuyo (dried fish) yet though I remember my grandfather won't have any champorado unless he has dried fish with it.

There's a classic story going around in our family about my special inclination with champorado. My Aunt asked me what food do I want on my eighth birthday. And without batting an eyelash I said champorado. That's been a running story and joke in our family. That everytime there's a birthday celebration, the champorado should not be missed.

I guess I love champorado because of the memories it hold too. Cooking it, preparing it is so simple but it's been one of my bonding moments with my mother. I love how she does it and how she gives me bowl after bowl whenever I ask of it. Living in the U.S. now, she tells me she still prepares it from time to time and serve it with my sister and brother.

Now I am doing the same with my daughter. Though lately, it's not champorado. She finds delight in this chocolate cereal with milk. She has to have it in the morning along side other breakfast and she has to have it in the afternoon when she gets home from school.

She loves cereals - Oreo's, waffle crisps and fruity pebbles with fresh milk. But this Milo cereal, she loves it with powdered milk diluted with water. Preferences, preferences.

Comfort food within the comforts of home having it with the person you love most. Bliss. :)
********** Mood: Calm
Music: Chasing Cars, Snow Patrol

Liver Spread Spaghetti

A week or so ago I thought of preparing spaghetti for dinner. I was supposed to email my sister how she does it with liver spread. I like the taste of it - the sauce a little coarse on the tongue but creamy. Well the cheese in the sauce made it creamier. I browsed for a second and landed to a recipe, Liver Spread Spaghetti, from Del MOnte Kitchenomics. I just added chicken livers. Thank you, thank you for providing a quick and easy recipe for women like me who eagerly wants to learn how to cook starting with something simple.

I only prepared just enough for us in the house. Normally there would be left overs around half full of plate but this time, there's none. My daughter even requested for it as her food sharing last Thursday for their class event. Same thing, it was a hit with the kids. :)

You may visit my other entry, Cupcakes at Everything and then Some.....
Have a lovely week ahead!

Penne Carbonara

It's pasta time again. I got a new copy of the ever reliable Yummy Magazine. As always, I check the easiest pasta to prepare. Easy meaning I have all the ingredients or they are easy to find in supermarkets. This one's no sweat.

This is my own take on Penne Carbonara I prepared yesterday. I just don't have green peas so the picture looks so plain. But hey, hubby and daughter liked the taste. :) See the presentation doesn't look appetizing because the hubby already got a plateful before I took the picture. I cannot anymore fix it the way I want it.


Let me share the ingredients and the procedure:
Heat:
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. olive oil

Saute:
2 tbsp. chopped onion
1 small clove of garlic

Add:
1/4 cup chopped bacon (I used my stock of Hormel's Real Bacon Pieces.)
1/4 kg. ground beef

Season with:
1 8g. Maggi All-in-One Seasoning
salt and pepper to taste

Pour in:
1 250ml. Nestle All Purpose Cream
1/2 cup water

Simmer for five minutes. Add:
1/4 cup green peas (No green peas here as I've said.)

Stir in 300g. cooked penne pasta. Top with 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese.

There! :)

Take a peek on some sweets in my other weekend snapshot at Everything and then Some..... Happy WS!

No Frills Chicken Pesto Pasta

We just stayed home after church and grocery today, Father's Day. I'd like to make a special post for the fathers in my life another time.

It's the first day of school for my daughter Andrea tomorrow so we opted to just stay home and rest the whole afternoon. Rest...not quite, I checked and prepared, together with my daughter, what she would be bringing to school tomorrow. I always get excited on the first day of school.

After which hubby and I prepared the chicken pesto pasta, his all time favorite pasta. Actually the chicken was supposed to be for our salad but we were not able to buy our avocado so we just made use of the chicken breasts for this pasta.

These two are staples in the house since we are all pasta lovers here. Bravo Pesto is available in most supermarkets. I buy Bravo for some of my deli needs. Check their website for some Italian recipes. You'll find they are quite easy to prepare.

Our olive oil is half-filled by now. I used to buy this at factory price when I was still in the food industry. Now I have to buy them at retail price.



The chicken pesto pasta with cheddar cheese on top. The chicken strips are there somewhere. We run out of parmesan. It should be in the list of staples in this household.

That's it, your no-frills chicken pesto pasta.
*Cook the noodles the usual way - remember al dente. Hubby prefers linguini over spaghetti. He likes the feel of it better.
*Boil the chicken breasts and sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
*Saute about two cloves of garlic in olive oil.
*Mix the noodles and pour in the pesto. Toss, toss, toss.
*Cheese on top.

Normally there should be cream and spinach but we made do with what we have in the house. :)

Before I forget there's the cake.

Today's occasion was a good excuse to have this mocha chiffon cake. :)

More snapshots here. I hope you all had a fun weekend too! :)