Cake Pops

I saw this Cake Pop thing from KidsDreamWork and LittleMissMomma. It sure looks easy enough and finally thought I should give this a try! Lil P's class had a class party on the last day of school before winter break and they asked the parents to bring a dessert so they could share it after their school lunches. So...I volunteered and made Cake Pops.

Singapore Noodles and Bentos

The holiday season is too hectic! I barely had time to cook or to blog! But I managed to make my own version of singapore noodles (aka curry vermicelli) yesterday. I love this dish and who knew I could do this?!

Leftover Turkey, Turkey Salad Sandwich Bento

Chicken Katsu Donburi, Katsu Recipe, and Bento

Last night I made Chicken Katsu Donburi for da fam. I have previously posted this recipe before. But yesterday I questioned myself as to why the restaurant ones looks better than what I have, as if they "baked" it. While I was making it last night it finally clicked! Instead of lifting the content and place on top of a bowl of rice, I'm supposed to loosen the content from sticking to the skillet, then FLIP the content from the skillet to the bowl of rice! I have made that change in my recipe here. I am now satisfied with my donburi making. domo! Does this look like restaurant material than my first post's picture? ...i think it's the same. hmmm...

Kim Chee Soup and Bentos

Ah, the never ending dishes you could do with Kim Chee...yes, I love Kim Chee, as you can tell in many of my recipes like Kim Chee Pork and Kim Chee Fried Rice, etc. So I will continue my Kim Chee recipes and Kim Chee Soup is on the menu today.

Beef Chow Fun

I purchased a packet of Look Fun (white flat chinese noodles, or "Hor Funn") a few weeks ago and I finally made it last night, for my first time. Lil P prefers chow mein and cake noodles over this. But Mr. P enjoyed it, with his chiracha hot sauce. =)

Maki Sushi and Sushi Bento

This past weekend I visted a garage sale and they were selling an assortment of sushi dishes, I thought I was in heaven! I found out that they had a japanese restaurant before and they just had them stocked and wanted to finally get rid of them. There were alot more that I wanted to get...but I don't have too much room in my kitchen so I just picked up about 10 assorted dishes (glass and plastic) and they were only US$8!

Because I went nuts with the dishes, I figured I should make some sushi tonight. This time I decided to make Maki Sushi with tamago, tuna, and imitation crab. I have previously posted sushi how-tos here if you want to learn how to make different types of sushi, including maki sushi. Below will be recipes to make tuna and tamago.



Canned Tuna Sushi Filling

1 can (5 oz) tuna (drained and finely chopped)
3 tsp sugar
3 tsp shoyu
3 tsp mirin

1) In a skillet, combine sugar shoyu and mirin and let simmer.
2) Add in tuna and mix until liquid evaporates.

Tamago

3-4 eggs
3 tsp sugar
3 tsp mirin
2 tsp shoyu
1/2 tsp salt

1) Beat eggs with sugar the rest of the ingredients
2) Pour egg mixture thinly on a greased (or non stick) skillet on medium heat.
3) Start from one end, lift and roll egg over until the eggs are fully rolled, making sure the eggs are cooked while rolling.
4) Push the "egg roll" back to the end you started with, then pour another dose of egg mixture thinly on skillet, wait for the egg mixture to set, then continue to roll to the other end of the skillet.
5) Continue step 4 until you are out of egg mixture, the roll should look like the size of an egg omlette.
6) Let "egg roll" continue to heat on low to cook through, remove from skillet and place on a cutting board.
7) Cut them into 1/2 inch slices.


It took me quite a while to get the tamago done. There are special skillet made especially for tamago making so you can look for those if cooking this way is too hard. While I was making this Mr. P asked if I was okay, since I was in the kitchen for quite some time. I told him I'm fine, and so he asked "are you having fun?", I quickly smiled and said "YES!!!" Ah...funny how cooking makes me happy. =)

Left over sushi goes into my bento box for lunch tomorrow.



















Bento box top tier contains 3 pieces of meatballs and caesar salad, bottom tier contains 6 pieces of maki sushi (3 are using brown rice, 3 using half brown half white).

Furikake Salmon and Hula Girl Bento

Happy Belated Veterans Day everyone! I had a great time with my family yesterday, starting off the morning by visiting Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. What a way to celebrate Veterans Day!

I am going to pull up an old recipe of Furikake Salmon since I noticed I haven't posted on this blog.

Beef Broccoli Cake Noodle, Lasagna Bento, How to Freeze Ground Beef

I didn't do any cooking this weekend...what a shock! But we were quite busy this weekend! Instead, I'll be posting an old recipe that I haven't added to this blog yet.

Shrimp Fried Rice Bento and Nutella-nana Wrap

I've got a few more pieces of Bacon Wrapped Shrimp leftover from Monday so I decided to chop it up and make another batch of fried rice (no kim chee this time). Lil P loves fried rice so that was his dinner with some popcorn chicken. To my surprise, he didn't finish, so I was able to pack the rest up for my lunch today.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp and Asparagus Kabobs

I had friends visiting from Las Vegas so we had a get together last night. Feast included Ahi Poke, Caesar Salad, Kim Chee Fried Rice, Kalbi, Bacon Wrapped Shrimp and Asparagus, pumpkin pie, and egg custard. The food was great but the company was even better!

Nightmare [on Elm's St] in Mrs. P's Kitchen

I had THE WORSE baking day E.V.E.R!!! You see the above cupcakes? yeah...let me tell you the story from the beginning...

Corn Chowder, Banana Bread

It is starting to get cold and it was rainy all day. Comfort food to the rescue! I love corn chowder because I LOVE corn and I LOVE potatoes. In this I have also added onions, turkey kielbasa and bacon. mmmMMmmm!

Surf & Turf dinner, Halloween Breakfast Bento

Last week I decided to do a Surf and Turf in an effort to use up my mushrooms and onions for sautee...only after dinner had I realized I forgot them!
























Surf is Garlic Shrimp Scampi. I have tried very VERY hard to master the shrimp truck shrimp over at Giovanni's in Kahuku. Seems like this time it is much closer than I've ever done before!

Kalua Pork & Cabbage, Salad & Fruit Bento

I haven't made my own kalua pork yet, but if you have a slowcooker, pork butt, hawaiian salt, and liquid smoke, you'll have a delicious kalua pig in a day. Here is my recipe here.

But if you live in Hawaii and you supported a Kalua Pig fundraiser, you'll end up with some in your freezer. You can do alot besides eating this with rice. One that I often do is Kalua Pork Quesadillas (another post). The other would be Kalua Pork & Cabbage, over rice.

1 cup of kalua pork
half of a small cabbage (shredded)
Hawaiian salt
black pepper
sesame oil

1) In a pot or skillet, cook shredded cabbage until soft, about 8 minutes.
2) Add in kalua pork and stir and mix well
3) Drizzle about a tbp of sesame oil and continue to stir fry.
4) Add in a dash of Hawaiian salt (not too much as pork should already be salty), and a dash of black pepper.
5) Serve.

Some people like it alittle wet so the sauce can cover the rice, some people like it drier. Depending on how you like it. If you want it drier, you can use a paper towel to soak up the cabbage water before adding in the kalua pork.

I try to serve this dish quite often as Mr. P loves Hawaiian food. Once in a great while I would even buy lauau, poi, lomi lomi salmon, and poke to make it a hawaiian feast!

I've got no leftovers for lunch the next day. So I packed myself salad and fruits in a Fit N Fresh bowl. Bottom tier contains: lettuce, olives, carrots, and mushrooms; top tier contains: apples, grapes, and sweet juicy korean pear. Added to "What's for Lunch Wednesday"






















There is also a baby gift basket giveaway by Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats. Since I don't have any luck what-so-ever in winning, why don't YOU try?

Soft Taco Bento

We had tacos for dinner last night. Lil P ate FIVE crunchy tacos! Yet we managed to get leftovers, so I've decided to put it together and bring them for lunch today. This bento consist of: cheese, olives, tomatoes in silicon muffin cups, flatout bread (below the silicon cups), lettuce and ground beef in...can you guess? it's in the moon cake containers! Glad i made use of it! haha...

Fall Bento

Today's bento consists of leftovers from camping weekend as well using Fit N Fresh 2-cup containers. Top tier: Short ribs, Guava Chicken, Corn on the Cobb. Bottom tier: Fried noodles with fall leaves (bell peppers) and sugar snap peas.

Think Pink Bento

A french bento blogger is hosting a special Breast Cancer Awareness Project. I have read upon this last week and hoped that I could be doing a bento especially for this cause. I have already seen many bento bloggers adding their "think pink" bento on their blogs, here, here, here, here, and here, and many more! So I decided to do mine today, and make this on the What's for Lunch Wednesday.

Potato Salad with Imitation Crab, Singapore Chili Crab

I made my first batch of potato salad when I was living in CA for a summer, nearly 10 years ago. Before I moved to CA, I have NEVER really cooked, my parents did all the cooking. But once I realized I'm on my own (despite having roommates), I need to start cooking. After moving back to Hawaii, I would make potoate salad for potlucks and gatherings. My friends' responses to my potato salad were very positive and they even request for it from time to time. I think that got me interested in trying different recipes. Well, that was just *part* of the reason, the other reason was Mr. P's inability to cook....but that's another story...

Honey Walnut Shrimp and Mongolian Beef

Lil P likes honey walnut shrimp when we go to chinese restaurant, so I told him I'll try to make it for him. Mr. P is allergic to shellfish so I made his chinese restaurant favorite mongolian beef.

Flat Out Pizza & Stuff

As mentioned in the previous post, this Flat Out bread is nothing but good news to me.
As stated in their slogan, it IS better than sliced bread. The one I picked up was the Multi-Grain, it's only 100 calories, and it has 8 grams of fiber, perfect for lil P.

Monkeying Around

Susan Yuen gave me another idea for lil P's snack bento. He has mentioned that he doesn't need any special "cutsie" stuff anymore but I can't help it! besides, he said he doesn't need it, doesn't mean he doesn't want it at all, right?

Snack Bento, Crab Salad, Miso Salad Dressing

The day has come! Lil P said he doesn't need anything special for his snacks anymore. I brought this bento to him and asked what he would like on top of the bran muffin, and he said "no need to put anything, i'm fine like this" and told me to leave it like this. I think this 9 year old is all grown up! No more cutsie stuff anymore! =( This snack bento contains Bran Muffin, grapes, and oreo cookies.

Nori Chicken

Nori Chicken is apparently the same as Mochiko Chicken added a strip of nori (dried seaweed). They added the strip of nori so that it would look like Kakimochi (or Arare, or Rice crackers), like this one. Don't they look alike??

Tender BBQ Ribs with OJ

Chocolate Mochi & Fish Bento

I opened up a can of evaporated milk only to drizzle on top of my jello and didn't want it to go to waste. So thanks to the evaporated milk, lil P got to try chocolate mochi!

Guri Guri - Orange Creme Sherbert

Guri Guri is a japanese term for a ice cold snack that has a consistency of sherbert and ice cream. This term was originated from the plantation days, where they were given as a treat called "goodie goodie" to the japanese workers but was pronounced "guri guri" by the workers due to their english speaking skills.

Chicken Noodle Soup, Salad Bento, and Sandwich

Mr. P is sick. For the strangest reasons, whenever he gets sick, he is 10 times worse than lil P or myself. Lil P got sick 2 weeks ago, only lasted 4-5 days, and I had a sore throat and was able to fight it off in just a few days. Mr. P on the other hand, he's been sick since Monday, and it's progressively getting worse. I think part of the reason he he isn't trying to fight it off. I tried to give him extra vitamins and zinc but maybe he just has a far worse immune system than lil P and I. (or that I take care of lil P more than him?!)

Crockpot Pull Pork

My husband LOVES the Waikaloa Hilton's Pull Pork. He can't stop raving about it when we went there on our family trip. He also said he'll "love me long time" if i could make it just as good. Yeah right! I decided to give it a try...

5 lb pork butt (aka pork shoulder...I still don't get it)

1 tbs hawaiian salt

3 tbs paprika

1 tbs brown sugar

2.5 tbs mustard (1 tbsp if dry, but i didn't have any)

3 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)

1 can of cola

1 onion (slice)

1 bottle of your favorite bbq sauce

1) rub the first 5 ingredients on the pork butt, marinate for at least 5 hours or overnight.

2) place sliced onions on the bottom of the crockpot.

3) place marinated pork butt on top of onion slices.

4) pour in a can of cola.

5) set crockpot on high for 5-6 hours, or until meat can be easily pulled apart by a fork.

6) remove pork and place into a big bowl, shred meat with two forks

7) discard the rest of the things in the crockpot, do a quick wipe and dump the shredded meat back inside, add your favorite bbq sauce, toss, and let it cook for another 30 min to an hour.

8) serve!!

I made a few mistakes while I was doing this recipe as I was trying to speed up the prepping 1) I didn't let the pork defrost all the way. 2) I didn't marinate for 5 hours. I really only rubbed the ingredients on and pop it into the crockpot right away *shame on me*. 3) I cooked it for only 4.5 hours. With all those mistakes, the pork ended up not fallen off the bones and I was having a very hard time shredding with my fork. I end up using my fingers to shred them. But still turned out delicious, even though I tried to speed it up. I served it with rice and salad the first night, with some pull pork nachos on the side. I still had alot of leftovers so I made pull pork sliders the next day. I packed them up last night and put them in the freezer. Will be using it to make quesadillas on a rainy day. (aka don't-wanna-cook day)

UPDATE! I just made this again and it is definitely WAY better when the pork is completely defrosted!! Woohoo!!

Salad in Fit & Fresh container

Haven't had salad in awhile. So I decided to make salad and pack it in my Fit N Fresh Lunch On the Go container. This container is pretty awesome, it actually comes with an ice pack that sits in the middle of the box so you can keep the bottom (the salad: lettuce, tomatoes, avocados, olives, soy beans, croutons) AND the top (nectarine and spinach/tomatoe/garlic bread) cool! Unfortunately I cannot show you the ice pack because I can't seem to find it in my freezer. But you can see it's fairly easy to pack even without the ice pack!

I have other Fit N Fresh products (Salad bowl, cereal bowl, 2-cup containers, chilled shaker) in my house and they all come with ice packs. I didn't realize how much of their products I have until I listed them!

The cereal bowl though, the ice pack ring gets thicker when it's frozen, so I did have some difficulties closing the lid. Most times i leave it out, or I let the ice pack ring chill a bit first before packing and putting the lid on. But it does come with a spoon that is fitted on top of the lid. how cool is that?

Overall, Fit N Fresh products are good. I have been seeing their kids line at the grocery store now. I am tempted to get them, but decided against it. Because they seem to have similarity with what I have, and I'm happy with what I have. :)

Tamale Pie

This is a very very simple yet delicious recipe. You get to bake an entree and cornbread all at once!

1 box of cornbread mix
1 can of cream of corn
1 lb of ground beef (with minced garlic and black pepper)
1/4 to 1/3 cup of Salsa (add chopped olives if you wish)
Cheese

1) Mix the cornbread mix with the cream of corn (omit cornbread mix instructions), and place it in a greased square or pie-shape baking pan, push the cornbread mixture to create a "crust" for the bottom and side of pan.
2) In a skillet, cook ground beef with minced garlic and black pepper, drain the fat.
3) Add in Salsa and chopped olives and mix with ground beef.
4) place ground beef mixture in the center of the cornbread crust, spread evenly.
5) Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until cornbread is cooked.
6) sprinkle cheese on top and cooke for another 5 minutes.
7) serve!

Grilled Pork and Fried Rice

I finally got a copy of Susan Yuen's 2nd Edition of Hawai'i's Bento Box Cookbook a few weeks ago. Although I'm not doing much bentos anymore, I am a HUGE fan of her recipes. This edition also has alot of delicious recipes, much like her first book. Her garlic sundried tomatoes butter is the bomb! She also has a good recipe of grilled pork! It was good, but it doesn't LOOK half as good as hers in her cookbook. :(


I realized i don't have a recipe for fried rice besides Kim Chee Fried Rice. So I'm going to share my recipe with you here.

1 cup of leftover cooked rice (microwaved warm)
1/4 cup of diced meat** (portuguese sausage, spam, chicken, pork, bacon, duck, etc. any meat from leftovers would work really well also)
1 egg
1/4 cup frozen veggies (peas, carrots, corn, etc)
1/4 cup diced kamaboko (optional)
1 tbp soy sauce (add more if desire)
2 tsp of sesame oil
dash of black peppers

1) In a large skillet (or wok), pan fry diced meat, push the meat to the side of the skillet. 2) Scramble the egg on the same skillet, try not to touch the meat (it's okay if you do).
3) Add in frozen veggies and toss the meat, egg, and veggies together.
4) Add in cooked rice, and continue to stir fry.
5) Add in soy sauce, and black pepper, continue to stir fry.
6) Drizzle sesame oil, continue to stir (this is where the smell comes in!!)
7) Serve!

There are many versions of fried rice. Some people add salt, some people add garlic salt, while others add oyster sauce. Fried rice variations are endless! It is best to put together using leftovers, it's a yummy transformation for leftovers! :)



**leftover beef or steak is probably not a good choice in fried rice...but I've seen it done...

Cookies and things

C is for cookies, it's good enough for me!

I used to bake alot, but not anymore. Lately I have been making various desserts for Lil P to compliment his dinner so I decided to bake some shortbread cookies to share with his cousins.

















Shortbread chocolate chunk cookies


1/2 c of butter, soften
1/4 c sugar
3/4 c flour
1/4 c cornstarch
2 squares of semi-sweet chocolate (I used Baker's), chopped


1) In a big bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy
2) Combin flour with cornstarch, then toss into the butter mixture
3) Add in chopped chocolates
4) Use your hand (with glove) and mix dough evenly
5) Use a spoon, (or a cookie scooper) and place cookies on a cookie sheet about 1.5 inch apart
6) bake on 325 degrees for about 25-30 mins


They're not too sweet, just the way I like 'em. Lil P also confirms that he likes them. His cousins, however, had mixed reviews. Couple of them did not like cookies that are crunchy. I guess I can't please *everyone*...


On another note, Lil P needs extra fiber to get him going, aside from his normal consumption of fruits and veggies. So I always have to add some extra boost each day. I give him an extra 9 grams of fiber each day, such as Pop-tarts Extra Fiber, Double Fiber bread or english muffins, Fiber One bar or cereal, and Target brand fiber bar. I don't give Lil P the same thing everyday. He actually enjoyed the fiber bars (chocolate chips, peanut butter, or caramel) in the beginning, but he's showing signs of getting tired of them because he always end up bringing the bars back home, most of the time it's smashed or flattened. I was quite disappointed because I need him to eat it when given to him and would ask him to "EAT IT!" But sigh, I can't always win. So instead of throwing away the flattened bars, I just recreate them into something he would eat. All I did was add some mini M&Ms on top and reshape them. Lil P is a sucker at M&Ms so whenever he sees them, he'd dive into them.



















Sure enough, he gobbled them all up!! So I guess it does the trick...for now. Does anyone have any other ways to load kids up on fiber?

Chicken and Dried Scallop Jook

Lil P has been sniffling and coughing started on Sunday. In an effort to get a speedy recovery, I have been giving him EmergenC twice a day, load up on orange juice, and acai blueberry juice. Couple times previously, I was able to catch him with the first symptoms of watery eyes, stuffy nose and gave him the same drinks and he was able to not get sick, but this time it was too late. :(

I wanted to make him chicken noodle soup last night, but he insisted that he doesn't want to eat all of the veggies that comes with it. So instead, I made him saimin (from S&S saimin packets). What he didn't realize is I used chicken stock instead of the soup base it came with and that I have pureed broccoli, carrots, and cabbage in the broth so that he is getting enough veggies needed to get him recovered faster. I have topped it off with slices of spam and grilled chicken. I didn't take a pic of it because it didn't look appetizing to be captured. :p

I decided to make jook (chinese rice soup) last night to get ready for tomorrow. Lil P noticed what I was doing and pleaded to me that he doesn't want that for breakfast. He's a rice lover but some odd reason he doesn't like jook! So I told him I'll pack it for lunch the next day for myself.

My jook recipe is not what you normally see in a chinese cookbook. To make jook taste good, authentically, you have to cook them for a long period of time. My mom use to leave the big pot of jook simmer for HOURS! I don't have that kind of time, so I have been making mine using cooked rice and chicken stock for years now. Coincidentally, Susan and I had the same idea. You can check out Susan's recipe here, or read below for mine:

Chicken and Dried Scallop Jook

1 cup of cooked rice

2.5 cups of chicken stock

1.5 cup of water

Chicken pieces

2 dried scallops

Place cooked rice, chicken stock, and water into a pot and let boil. Meanwhile, shred chicken and scallops and throw in pot (you may want to add a couple slices of ginger at this point, if desire). Lower heat and let it simmer until thicken. Add more water if it gets too thick. You can serve this with white pepper and a drizzle of soy sauce, then garnish with chopped green onions, and peanuts.

Leftover chicken is BEST. Like leftover Costco rotisserie chicken (you can even throw in the bones for extra flavors!) I actually take the rotisserie chicken apart and then freeze them for jook. Another good leftover to throw in Jook is roast duck. It makes it sooo yummy!

I am using my Fuel bento box for my lunch today. top tier I have nectarine and mangoes, bottom tier is my jook. The bottom tier is microwavable so I'm going to heat it up at lunch. I had totally forgotten to bring a soup spoon...looks like I'll be eating my jook with a regular spoon...small sips!! Am putting this on "What's for Lunch Wednesday" as I'm finally able to post one that is my real Wednesday lunch! :)

Hamburger Steak

I've been cooking alot more frequent lately, thanks to lil P's sports break. Last night I made spaghetti, but it's nothing out of the ordinary so I didn't post anything. This morning I knew exactly what I'm going to make-Hamburger Steak. But I didn't have any onions and needed to pick up at my nearest grocery store, Safeway.

I was very proud of myself for not spending any money at work this week, I have been bringing home lunch. So I was quite disappointed I needed to go to the store. And you know how it goes, once you go to the store, you'll *always* pick up something else. They had these Fuel containers right in the front by the produce section, how can I not look? It's a two-tier bowl container where you can put soup on the bottom and dry snacks on the top...so it says. It also says that the bottom tier is microwave safe. That means I can put whatever else I want in it. Yup, i got it. I guess it can go into my container collection (I am a fan of Fit N Fresh products). So...I guess they're consider bento collection too, right?

Top tier I have soy beans, carrots, and mangoes (my favorite!!). The bottom tier is hapa rice (half brown and half white rice) topped with hamburger steak, gravy with mushrooms and onions. Below you can take a better look at the hamburger steak.

I kinda winged the hamburger patty, but here is a jist of what I have in it.

1 lb ground beef

1 piece of bread end (since you don't eat that part anyway)

1 egg

2 garlic (diced)

half an onion (diced)

2 tsp salt

2 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp worchestershire sauce

3 tbsp of puree broccoli (optional, but great for kids)

1) Mix them all together with your hand (I used a disposable glove)

2) Divide them up into 4 equal parts

3) Shaped each into a ball

4) flatten with hand

5) Slightly indent the center of the patt (about the size of half dollar coin, or using the back of a tablespoon). Doing this will help keep the patty from forming a dome.

6) Put it on a skillet/grill and LEAVE IT ALONE until it's cooked halfway. (don't press it down to make the sizzling sound, this will push out all the juice from the patty)

7) Flip it and cook through

8) Serve it over rice, top with sauteed onions and mushrooms, drizzle brown gravy on top.

Of course, you can't end a good meal without a nice dessert. A quick cookie sandwich ice cream (chips-a-hoy cookies with chocolate moose track ice cream) made lil P VERY HAPPY!

Chicken, Olives, Bacon, and Broccoli Quesadillas

I didn't plan ahead on what I planned to make for dinner last night, so I didn't have a chance to defroze anything the night before. I also wanted to stop by the grocery store before heading home after picking lil P up from school, but lil P didn't want to go, so it was just another quesadillas night! And by lil P's request, I also made the dessert wrap he liked last week. The plate was *empty*!! :)

BTW, Sonoma Bento is doing a giveway on her 50th Bento post! I've entered in alot of bento-related giveaways in the past, but I never win any. :( Maybe you'll have a better chance? Go here to enter and good luck!

furikake fried salmon and tofu cubes

I don't normally cook on the weekends because we're always so busy running to and from sports. This weekend we had a fantastic weekend spent with the family without ANY SPORTS so I got to cook both lunch and dinner. I picked up some costco's Popcorn chicken from the frozen section the weekend prior so I made some "twister" wrap (popcorn chicken, lettuce, ranch dressing wrapped in my "flat Out" bread) for a quick lunch before we went for a surf session with lil P. No pic, they devoured it before I could grab my camera....

After surfing. we were all tired. We were planning on going out to eat, but decided against it. so I got to cook again! I couldn't figure out what to make, all i know is lil P wants saimin (dried ramen packets) and when I make that I need something else to make it healthy so I decided on salmon. Put my thinking cap on, and came up with fried furikake cubes of salmon and tofu, and went right on to my creation. I tasted the salmon, and it was crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside, the tofu on the other hand, wasn't as tastey on the inside, but I know it would go really well with the soup of the saimin...kinda like agedashi tofu. Lil P and Mr. P both had the saimin and I got thumbs up!

I didn't want saimin (plus I didn't have enough), so I made myself a salad with the cubes on top. Don't they look like croutons?

Fried Furikake Cubes

1/4 cup shoyu

2 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp sugar

1 garlic, diced

1/2 cup Cornstarch

1/4 cup Furikake

1 skinless salmon filet (cubed)

1/2 container of tofu (cubed)

oil for frying

1) Marinated salmon and tofu cubes (separately) with shoyu, mirin, sugar, and garlic for 20-30 min.

2) combine cornstarch and furikake, mix well.

3) dip cubes in cornstarch furikake mixture, then fry in oil until crispy.

4) Serve!

What to do with leftover Steak

Leftover steak...isn't everyone's favorite. It is especially true if it's already cooked to its doneness. I try to cook my steak on medium rare, in case we have leftovers and it won't taste so bad after reheating. There are, however, many other dishes you can reuse for leftover steak besides eating it the same way again. I have made myself a steak salad the very next day at work (unfortunately no pictures).

Contiue on my Flat Out bread. I made myself a Steak Wrap the next night with leftover steak, lettuce, avocadoes, and sundried tomaotes. I didn't want to add any more calories but typically you would want to put light ranch dressing.

Alternatively, you can make yourself a phillycheese steak using leftover steak as well. I've made this previously so I'm going to post a pic here.

Cut a hoagie roll in half, place thinly sliced leftover steak, top with sauteed onions & mushrooms and swiss cheese. It's really fast and simple!

My last leftover steak, per Mr. P's request, was made into steak and eggs last night for his "late night" dinner at 10pm. He has recently gotten a gift of a bottle of BBQ sauce of his favorite Budweiser beer so I drizzle the sauce over the steak. That bottle of BBQ sauce sure smells like beer! He said it's good....but then again, anything with BBQ sauce is good with him. so...who knows!

Nutella cookie crumbs and coconut flakes roll

I'm a sucker at Costco. Always makes me buy more than I need! I actually manage to put down the bagel thins, but then passed by this "flat out" tortilla looking thing and told myself I've got to have them. This "Flat Out" bread has good fiber and it also has flaxseed. So I know this is good for me and it is also good for lil P. He NEEDS extra fiber to get him *going*.























Last night I made steak, rice and broccoli for lil P but thought i could make a dessert and decided to make some cookies (craisin walnut cookies)...so I thought. I guess maybe I left the cookie dough mixture out for too long before baking that the butter had melted causing the cookes to go *pfff* flat and melted. I was quite disappointed, it looks alot more like...poop. I didn't even want to take a pic of it because it looked really disgusting, yet, I didn't want to throw it out. I took a bit of it and it actually tasted pretty good. Just gotta find a way to put it together. So I took as much of it out of the foil (they looked like crumbles of cookies) and placed them into a container.



Flat Out bread came to the rescue. So I took a slice out, spread Nutella on top, then sprinkle those cookie crumbs on top, then sprinkled shredded coconut on top. Then I put it in the oven to toast for a few minutes. Then I took it out and rolled it up, cut it into two pieces and served it to lil P after his dinner.



I was really scared lil P won't like it. But he took one bit and said "this is good!" and ate the whole thing! The package of the Flat Out bread also says it's great for pizza...so I will definitely try that next time!