Food this week – The Adventures of a Calamari Queen

Whole30

Hi Friends! Hope you’re having a great weekend! The hubs and I started Whole30.

Basically you eliminate certain food groups in your diet for 30 days. We are entering our 2nd week and hopefully we’ll be successful! I totally miss my coffee creamer in the morning and my rice, while the hubs misses his milk consumption. I’m so impressed with him though because he hardly complains about missing his favorite drink, unlike me! HA. He just decided to join this with me for “moral support” haha! I’ve been thinking about doing this since February (since I got the whole30 book) and decided last week, to try the challenge and just do it!

Since starting this challenge, we’ve been to 5 grocery stores (not in the same day though)! Trader Joe’s, Safeway,Winco, PCC,Whole foods! I just want to make sure we have fresh produce always:) We both feel good and are looking forward to finishing this challenge. I’ve already had my meal plans this week. You have to prepare as much as you can so you will not be tempted to just give up when you’re in that “hangry” time of day!

Grocery Hauls from Trader Joe’s

Trader Joe’s again! They do have a lot of whole30 complaint products!

I’m tired of prosciutto this week, so I’m happy we found a sugar free bacon at PCC! expensive but its really good!

Some of the meals we had during our week 1:

Chicken Adobo with mashed sweet potato (recipe from the whole30 fast and easy cookbook). We really liked this one,and will make this again.

brunch:eggs,prosciutto,salsa,plantain chips

roasted sweet potatoes, grilled shrimp and pineapple,grilled steak

chicken wings (clarified butter,franks hot sauce)

The fresh guacamole and grilled skirt steak was such an amazing combination!

Chicken Adobo!

Hello Friends! I’ve made the world famous Filipino Chicken Adobo. A Filipino comfort food for sure! I love this dish because it’s so simple and quick (max 45 minutes). The original recipe (Panlasang Pinoy blog) calls for marinading the chicken for 1-3 hours. I skipped that part! The result was still good!* I also added more pepper because I love pepper. I used chicken wings and legs,because wings are my fave part! Mia loved it too based on the sounds she was making when we had dinner the other night!

This is the recipe I used (Panlasang Pinoy):

Ingredients

2 lbs. chicken, cut into serving pieces
3 pieces dried bay leaves
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp vinegar
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 to 2 cups water
¼ cup cooking oil
½ tablespoon white sugar
Salt and whole peppercorn
Cooking Process:
1. In a large container, combine the soy sauce and garlic then marinade the chicken for at least 1 to 3 hours
2. Place the cooking oil in a pan and apply heat
3. When the oil is hot enough, put-in the marinated chicken. Cook all the sides for about 5 minutes.
4. Pour-in the remaining marinade and add water. Bring to a boil
5. Add the dried bay leaves and whole peppercorn. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the chicken is tender
6. Add vinegar. Stir and cook for 10 minutes.
7. Put-in the sugar, and salt. Stir and turn the heat off.
8. Serve hot. Share and Enjoy!

Roast Duck!

Hi friends! I wanted to share this very simple roast duck recipe I found. I’ve read a lot of duck recipes but most of them called for a sweet style kind of glaze that I have to constantly brush on the duck. Not a big fan of that myself, because I like mine to be less complicated. I decided to just have it roast at 350F for 3 hours but I have to flip it every hour. It turned out great! We got the duck from Whole Foods market, it was pricey to be honest ($32), but worth it because this would have been triple the price of what we paid if we ordered it from a restaurant. My hubs made an amazing gravy (it’s red wine gravy), he couldn’t stop talking about it! In fairness, it was delicious:) I love this kind of recipe, so simple (although took 3 hours) but so tender and flavorful. I cannot wait to make this again!

What’s for Dinner?

Hello friends! It’s been a while since I posted some of our dinners that we’ve been enjoying. I’ve cooked every now and then but for the last 2 months we’ve been ordering/take out off and on. I really need to step up because I want to save more money when it comes to our grocery budget.I plan to do that this July! Wish me luck!

This may seem like a lot of food in one post( I even forgot to take pics of some of our dinners), but these are some of the dishes we’ve had for the last 2 months (May and June) excluding some of our dinners out. I plan to make a separate post about that! Happy eating friends!

mung bean soup and green beans adobo (filipino dishes)

seafood feast at home! grilled hamachi collar,baby squid in adobo,leftover clam soup

pork milanese,mashed potato,roast brussel sprouts

Some of our take out food lately:

Mexican food from our fave local taqueria:

We had dinners with friends and family too:

Vancouver Eats!

Hello friends! This post is a continuation of our Vancouver trip. We had a quick getaway so we weren’t able to dine at some of the restaurants we wanted to try (poor planning on our part too).

Our first night we had dinner at Lupo Restaurant (it’s an Italian resto) and just walking distance from our hotel (so convenient for us). According to our research it’s one of the top 5 places to dine in Vancouver. So off we went! We ordered Burrata and it was amazing! So creamy and out of this world goodness. We loved it so much that we asked our waitress where they get it (so we can go to that store and hoard burrata for ourselves), she said they get it from a supplier which gets it directly from Italy! It crushed our burrata dreams! We ordered ravioli and gnocchi (for the hubs) it was good food but pricey!

2016_05_01_DSC_7394 — Burrata with fresh tomatoes and balsamic glaze.

2016_05_01_DSC_7396 — Ricotta Gnocchi with pork cheeks (this sauce was pretty acidic)

2016_05_01_DSC_7398 — Mascarpone Polenta

2016_05_01_DSC_7399 — This was their special that night, ravioli with short ribs!

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2016_05_01_DSC_7405 — ambiance was cozy, feels like you’re having dinner at a friends house!

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Nero Belgian Waffle Bar

We had brunch in this small waffle place located at Robson Street. We kinda get lucky because the line wasn’t crazy when we got there, once we were seated the line got really crazy! If you’re in to waffles this place is a must! Just be ready to wait and be patient because this place is amazing and people line up.

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2016_05_01_DSC_7454 — I had the Banella waffle

2016_05_01_DSC_7458 — Brie Cheese waffle with walnuts and honey!

Cafe Crepes

The Hubs and I also wanted to eat some crepes before checking out Gastown. The crepes are tasty here, but the service took forever. I don’t understand why, it’s not like they’re serving steaks or complicated dishes. Good thing the crepes were really good!

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We also visited a Japanese restaurant that I honestly forgot the name of:

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Had Ramen one late night!

Tried Vancouver’s best cheesecake:

2016_05_01_DSC_7439 — the famous Soft Peaks at Gastown!

2016_05_01_DSC_7443 — I kinda agree that this is one of the best cheesecake I’ve had!

Footo Croissant and Tim Hortons before coming home!

Till Next time Vancouver!

What’s for Dinner?

Hello friends! It’s Tuesday evening ( almost midnight) but I can’t sleep because it’s so windy and it’s freaking me out! I decided to just post our meals for the last couple of weeks in the month of February. Can you believe it’s already March? Where did the time go?! Anyways, back to our meals. I didn’t go to the grocery store in the last week of February but I got some Smith brothers delivered. I’m under budget this month (not by much though), so this made me happy. A little savings is always good!

We’ve already consumed the clam chowder and chocolate milk!

Crispy pata (deep fried pork hocks) a Filipino recipe

we did a couple nights of take out these last two weeks (especially Friday and Saturday nights). Chilling out with good food and watching some good T.V. / Netflix is one of our fave weekend things to do. We got a generous gift card from my In laws to one of our fave local sushi places so we used that. We also had Italian for dinner, courtesy of the In-laws. Thank you God for such a generous family!

Vitos in Seattle! My In laws treated us!

Whats’s for Dinner?!

Hi Friends! How’s your day going? I hope it was a great one. Mine was awesome! I did my grocery shopping today, I usually do it after my Ladies Bible study on Tuesdays but it’s winter break this week at our local school (the church follows the school district schedule, so no study for us this week). I got some good deals at the grocery store but the cashier forgot to scan some of the coupons (I only noticed it when I got home) that were on the products. $6 worth of savings 🙁 I’m not really sure if it’s worth going back to the store tomorrow, we’ll see. Anyways, the first 2 pictures are of my grocery hauls last week, I’m thinking that I probably don’t need to go grocery shopping for the rest of the month because we’re pretty stocked up. Maybe I’ll just buy some fruit (we have frozen veggies that I really want to use) and we’re good. I’m excited because if I’m going to stick to my “plan” I will be under budget this month. It’s always a good thing when I’m under budget with my grocery money! Happy cooking, eating and savings friends!

Meal Plans this week:

Tuesday/tonight: Lobster,asparagus

Wednesday: Roast salmon, veggie fried rice

Thursday: Beef stroganoff (and egg noodle)

Friday:Not sure (maybe Pizza or Take out)

Saturday: Not sure/out with friends

Sunday: meatballs and spaghetti

Meals/Dinners last week:

Filipino breakfast (for dinner). Dried fish, eggs,rice

eggplant omelet (we had this for lunch last week)

roast chicken (plenty of leftovers for lunch this week)

What’s for Dinner?!

Hi Friends! How’s your Friday night going? The Hubs and I are watching a Filipino show (On the Wings of Love), I’m so sad it’s going to end soon:(. We’re also watching some NBA games, and maybe Netflix later! We are staying home because the weather is crappy tonight. Windy and raining and Riley is not loving it.

Anyways, I wanted to share my groceries this week. I’m really trying to save in this area because food is getting expensive and if I don’t monitor this it’s so easy to blow the budget in this area. So far our January food expenses have been under budget. I want to continue this trend in February.

Our groceries this week! I also got some milk that I put in the fridge right away.

Tomato soup,grilled cheese and Pork belly with shrimp paste (Filipino dish)

Home made version of Chicken bowl burrito

Was out and about this week and I stopped at Ross and found these Skechers shoes. I have a similar slip on pair like this gifted by my sister and it’s really comfortable. Once I tried them on the shoes had to go home with me! I’ve been wearing them nonstop!

so comfy (it’s like you’re wearing flip flops made with a yoga mat!)

I got a new rug for our dining table from Overstock.com!

I’ve been watching the Gilmore Girls on Netflix this week. I’ve seen the first 2 seasons years ago (I was still in the Philippines). So far I’ve been enjoying it.

Have a great weekend friends! Happy Superbowl weekend too! The Seahawks are out so I will be rooting for the Denver Broncos.

What’s for Dinner?!

Hello Friends! Happy Sunday:) This is what we ate lately for dinners this last week. I hope you get to eat and cook dishes that you’ve been wanting to eat! Have a wonderful Sunday evening, I’m about to watch a Korean drama with the hubs (we are watching Beating Again). It’s been a while since we’ve watched a KDrama here! HA!

Spaghetti and meatballs (we also had a salad that I forgot to take a picture of)

meatballs in the crockpot! easy peasy dinner!

Chicken curry (I sort of followed Pioneer Woman’s recipe)

Left over kare-kare (cook once, eat twice, kind of dish!)

Taco Night! we also had sweet potato fries with garlic aioli (homemade! it was delish)

We also ate out a few times over the weekends!

Red Robin last night for a casual saturdate with Hubs! used a giftcard for this dinner!

Dinner at RAM (this place is just 4 minutes drive from our house!)

Friday Lunch date at chick fil-a! I LOVE their spicy chicken sandwich and iced coffee. The hubs likes their chicken nuggets and milkshakes! We’ve been there twice this last week!

Kare-Kare!

Hi Friends! Hope you’re having a great weekend:) I wanted to share a Filipino dish that I cooked early this week, Kare-Kare. It’s an oxtail dish with a thick peanut sauce. Now a days, in Filipino restaurants and homes they use beef, seafood, and other kinds of meat instead of oxtail (I personally like Oxtail). I rarely make this at home (I think this is my second time to make Kare-Kare (but I always order this if we’re in a Filipino restaurant). It’s a comfort food for me! I watched a couple of youtube videos (just searched for Kare-Kare recipes) and checked some kare-kare recipes online too for inspiration. I used my crockpot to tenderize/cooked my oxtail meat (just to save gas, instead of the stove). It was cooking for 7 hours then I finished it in the stove to make the peanut sauce. Traditionally, you mix all the veggies in at the end together with the sauce but I decided to plate them separately this time. I sautéed the eggplant and steamed the green beans and bok choy. The Hubs and I prefer it this way. Last year, when we visited Manila, I remember we had Kare-kare and the restaurant presented it this way too.

This is my new crockpot and I’ve been using it a lot lately!

I sautéed some minced garlic(3 cloves) and chopped onions(1 medium), then added the cooked oxtails and broth (approximately 6 cups). You can add more broth for a thinner sauce;let it simmer. I added the peanut butter (1/2 a cup) and stirred until it dissolved. In a small bowl I added 1 teaspoon of achiote powder mixed with 1/2 cup broth,once the powder dissolved I added it to the sauce. The achiote is the ingredient that will give the dish that classic orange color. I then seasoned the sauce with salt and pepper. I didn’t use a lot of salt though because Kare-kare is always paired with shrimp paste when eaten.

My kare-Kare (sprinkled with chopped peanuts).

Happy Cooking and eating Friends!