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!

Chicken Cutlet Curry with Chicken Tsukune (Chicken Meatballs)

I wanted to make curry last night for dinner. Lil P loves curry. Normally I would dice up chicken breast and put into the curry but this time, I decided to use chicken cutlet.

Chicken cutlet is the frozen ones I bought from Costco. It's breaded but chicken is still raw inside. All I gotta do is pop it in the oven and let it bake til crispy. While waiting for the cutlet to cook, I cooked some chopped onions in a small pot, then add in frozen peas and carrots (I realized I didn't have any potatoes, but it's okay, lil P doesn't like them anyway). Then followed the instruction on the package of the curry block to finish the veggie curry sauce.

put rice in a bowl, then top with chicken cutlet, then top with curry.

Chicken Tsukune is something new. I've read a few chicken meatball recipes, some asks for cabbage, some asks for flour, eggs, bread crumbs, or potatoe starch. I didn't have any of them, so I just decided to make my own.

1 lb ground chicken
3 tbsp oyster sauce
2 chopped shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup of chopped onions
salt & pepper

mix all the ingredients together, grab some of the mixture in your hand, and squeeze it so that the meat mixture comes out of your thumb and index finger to a ball size. Put the meatball in a skillet with olive oil and cook until golden brown.

I did a handfull of the meatballs and realized it's too messy. So I end up making small patties in the end.


















I tasted the first meatball to see if it is tasty enough before frying the rest of them. It was sooooo juicy and delicious! I can't believe I have never made this before! It was simple, yet delicious! (and a bit messy)

I also asked Lil P what he thought of his dinner last night (first picture), he had two thumbs up and finished the entire bowl!

Flat Bread Creations

Flat Breads are everywhere! So I thought maybe i should try incorporate different sandwich options for my diet.

"Whack-a-tuna"
Guacamole Tuna Sandwich with Sundried tomatoes

I wanted to make a tuna sandwich, but didn't want the mayo. I thought about making tuna with slices of avocado but instead, thought of something abit more extreme. Guacamole. I heard it somewhere, about 10 years ago, that guacamole is pronounced "wa-ka-mole-e" because "GUA" is pronounced "WA". But the first time I share my guacamole with my coworkers several years ago, they stopped me and said "how do you pronounce it? Wakamole? HAHAHAHA" I got laughed at and they think I have a problem pronouncing it. I told them I heard it someplace but they didn't believe me!!

Anyway, that's why I called it "Whack-a-Tuna" because i mixed guacamole with tuna and I pronounce "gua" as "wa". It might seem odd, don't believe I have seen anyone mixing tuna with guac before, but it tastes pretty good. I figured, tuna is fish, goes well with lemon juice which is in the guac, and tuna goes well with onions, and we eat tuna sandwich with tomatoes. So....why not use guac? so i did. and topped it with sundried tomatoes. End result was that I didn't taste the guac, because the tuna's flavor was too strong. I dunno if it's because I was hungry, or the sundried tomatoes made it taste good, but it was good.

"Avocado Sundried Tomatoes Pesto Sandwich"

This was actually really really good. I spread the bottom of the flat bread with pesto then top with fresh slices of avocados and chopped sundried tomatoes. It was REALLY GOOD! better than the Whack-a-Tuna. :)

Miso Yaki Onigiri

I LOVE crunchy rice. My fist time trying it was when I was in HS and my friend's dad made us crunchy rice balls from the bottom of an old rice cooker. He'd put oil, then layered rice, then sprinkle salt. you could even hear it cracking inside the rice cooker. Then he scrapes it up, put it in a ball, wrapped it in foil. It was the yummiest thing since chips!

Since then, whenever I see crunchy rice on the menu (ie: stone pot rice, yaki onigiri), I just need to order it, even if it's $6 per onigiri at a japanese restaurant!

After reading a whole bunch of japanese cookbooks, I realized it isn't every difficult to make this. In fact, i could save myself couple bucks by doing this at home!

Rice
teriyaki sauce
miso sauce
nori strip (optional)

I used leftover rice to make mine, since I made extra couple days ago.

1)microwave rice til hot.
2)place 1/3 cup of rice on a sheet of siran wrap
3)drizzle some teriyaki sauce on top and mix into rice
4)wrap rice with siran wrap into a ball, then shape it into a triangle (you don't need to use siran wrap, it's just easier to manage. you can use a pair of wet hands to shape it into a triangle)
5)unwrap rice then wrap nori on the bottom of the triangle (or however you want to wrap it)
6)place shaped rice on a greased cookie sheet and broil in toaaster oven until the top is slightly crispy
7)turn over and broil the other side
8)take out onigiri then spread miso sauce on top of rice, place it back and broil it until golden brown
9)turn over and do the same with the other side.

Voila! I took a bite and see how it tastes...was soooo good I ate the whole thing in seconds! Note to self: do not make just one onigiri to try. should always make more!!