Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!
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!
We also ate out a few times over the weekends!
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.
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.
Happy Cooking and eating Friends!
Hello friends! It’s been a while since I last posted here. Life got a little hectic. I’ve been wanting to share our dinners since last week but I wasn’t able to. Here’s our meals for the last 2 weeks or so. I’ve been cooking most nights but on the weekends we go out or have take out. I hope you’re all having a good week and happy cooking!
My husband had banana blossom for the first time when we visited the Philippines last year. He really liked it and he’s been NAGGING me to try cooking it for him. We got the blossom at the Asian market and I found the recipe on youtube (panlasang pinoy). He liked it and said I’ll have to make it again(we’ll see!).
we also had take outs and dine outs for the last couple of weeks:
Hi friends! I wanted to share a very simple recipe from Ina Garten. I watched her show last month when she prepared this dish and it was so easy and looked good. So when my Dad InLaw went to Seattle during Christmas week we asked him to stop at Dilaurentis ( a specialty store in Pike place market) to get me some truffle butter. Truffle butter is so inexpensive compared to truffles themselves. This is a quick side dish and perfect for a busy weeknight dinner with family. Zach was raving about it! Happy cooking friends!
Basic ingredients!
We had a simple salad to go with the pasta.
Tagliarelle with Truffle Butter (Ina Garten from Foodnetwork online)
*I didn’t have the tagliarelle pasta that Ina used, I only have spaghetti so that’s what I used instead.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy cream
kosher salt, ground pepper
3 ounces white truffle butter
1 (8.82 ounce) package Cipriani tagliarelle dried pasta or other egg fettuccine
3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
3 ounces Parmesan, shaved thin with a vegetable peeler
Directions:
Add 1 tablespoon salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile, in a large (12- inch) saute pan, heat the cream over medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Add the truffle butter, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, lower the heat to a very low, and swirl the butter until it melts. Keep warm over ver low heat.
Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes, exactly. (If you’re not using Cipriani pasta, follow the directions on the package.) When the pasta is cooked, reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water, then drain the pasta. Add the drained pasta to the saute pan and toss it with the truffle-cream mixture. As the pasta absorbs the sauce, add as much of the reserve cooking water as necessary to keep the pasta very creamy.
Serve the pasta in shallow bowls and garnish each serving with a generous sprinkling of chives and shaved Parmesan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve at once.
Hi Friends! Happy Monday:) One of our “goals” this year is to really be intentional with our family budget. I’m responsible for budgeting, paying bills, getting groceries, and making meals while the hubs earns the money! We’ve already talked/made plans this past weekend about our financial goals for the year so I’m glad that is taken care of. Anyways, I wanted to share our dinners last week (after Christmas) and our menu plans for this week. I did the grocery shopping this week and came under budget (YES!). We have well stocked refrigerators right now and I plan to use what we already have for the coming weeks. Here’s to saving money and cooking at home!
Here’s our meal plans for the week:
M: Leftovers (we had beef caldereta; it’s a filipino version of beef stew)
T: Pasta with truffle butter (Ina Garten recipe),salads
w: Pork chop, rice, green beans
Th: Leftovers
F: Take out/Pizza
S: Chili
Sun: Salmon,veggies
*Our breakfast are usually :coffee and toast,yogurt,cereals,oatmeal then sandwiches and leftovers for lunch.
My groceries this week. The fridges are already stocked so I only bought produces that will be good this week, and I got some meat that was on sale that I can freeze for consumption in the coming weeks. Meat prices are getting ridiculous so I try to save money this way.
Hello 2016! How was your New years day friends? Ours was relaxing, the way I like it! NYeve we had Zach’s parents over and we ordered sushi and Chinese food. We watched the times square celebration on tv and then called it a night! This was the first time we missed the Space needle countdown celebration. It was just a long day for us. I’ve been having a cold for the last couple of days (I’m sleep deprived lately) and Zach did some errands with his dad most of the day yesterday. This afternoon, we had a little family walk. Riley loved it and had a blast. I hope you’re having a great 1st day of the year so far!
Hello friends! Just a quick chat here..can you believe it’s almost 2016? Time flies so fast! It’s been a tiring and relaxing kind of day here. Tiring because I did some cleaning and relaxing because I took a nap after! We will have a quiet NYE here at home. We are thinking of just ordering chinese food and watch the Space needle celebration live on TV. Have a great and safe NYE celebration friends!
Cleaned our closet using the KonMari method!
Hi Friends! Happy Monday! It’s been a while since I’ve posted “what we ate lately” and I’ve been meaning to post most of my dishes here but Thanksgiving and the Christmas season was happening! Anyways, I cooked 70% of the time, the rest we did takeout (especially during the weekends). This may seem like a lot of food but remember we had these meals over 2 months. Happy cooking and eating friends!
Steamed clams in white wine with spaghetti!
Korean beef ribs,kimchi, roasted brussel sprouts,rice
Left overs from Thanksgiving!
Ham, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts!
Mushroom risotto!
Lobster tails,kale and brussel sprouts salad!
Thai food takeout!
Sushi takeout
Shittake mushroom and green beans
Grilled tuna
Buffalo wings (my husbands fave)
King Crab legs
Grilled lamb,steak,baby potatoes
Hello friends! We hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Christmas this year. Ours was a simple one full of family time and going to Church on Christmas eve. For our tradition, we always spend Christmas eve dinner at Zach’s grandmother’s house ( his mom’s side) where we have dinner and exchange gifts (white elephant). We had Mexican food this year and everything turned out great. We bought some skirt steak and made carne asada and guacamole. It was a big hit! Zach helped a lot with the food, so thank you Ga!
We went to Church before going to grandma’s house:
Christmas Eve dinner:
On Christmas day, we “hosted” at home and had my In laws the whole day. We had breakfast, read Jesus’ birth story, opened gifts, watched Christmas movies, my Parent In laws walked the dogs, then we prepared dinner (mostly seafood and Zach made Lobster Mac and cheese), he used Ina Garten’s recipe and it was great!
Christmas Breakfast was Cheddar cheese popovers,Bacon,Bread pudding,fruit salads!
Lobster Mac and Cheese (recipe:Ina Garten)
King Crab Legs!
Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie
Thanks to our families for all the gifts and goodies we have received this year! Thank you for thinking of us and your generosity is so appreciated! Happy Birthday Jesus!
Riley got a new toy!
I got like a 3 month supply of Kcups!
Tory Burch York bag from Hubs!
Hi friends! Merry Christmas Eve eve! Just wanted to share my Christmas decorations this year. We got a new Christmas tree for this year which was on sale last year. We like it, but we know nothing beats a real tree. We’ve experienced having a real tree before and personally it’s not worth it for me (maybe that will change next year!). The old one I put in our master bedroom. I simplified our decorations this year (aside from the new tree, all are old decorations). I skipped decorations on our stairs, and kitchen. I did put a santa figurine in the kitchen and a little frame in our coffee area and that’s about it. My Mom In Law Kathy also gave us Zach and Julia’s (my Sis IL) old toys and toy box from their childhood. I think these toys we’re 20-25 years old. So many of them, but I decided to only put half of them out because Riley thinks they are his toys and he keeps on trying to get them.
My nativity set that my Mom In Law gifted me years ago.
My nutcracker figurines on display in our little extra room.
Riley about to attack the toy box here!
Riley being a naughty schnauzer!
Our old Christmas tree I put in our master bedroom!
Coffee area!
Hello there Santa!
Our Christmas card 2015. Merry Christmas friends! We pray for Joy, Love, and God’s Peace on you this time of year!
For to us a CHILD IS BORN,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, PRINCE OF PEACE. (Isaiah 9:6)