Tuna Casserole

It's Day 1 of Spring Break 2017 and I made it a cooking day to keep my girl occupied.  After having her breakfast of eggs & sausages, it was time for Kissy to help with my Tuna Casserole which was an easy recipe for an 8-yr old.

I worked on the recipe to make it suitable for a smaller pan because, frankly, the first one I made was way too much for just the three of us.  My husband grew tired of eating it after two days (LOL).  This recipe is good for a family of 3 - 4 for just ONE day :-)

To give me an energy boost , Kissy made me a Banana Blueberry Smoothie
 while I prepped the ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:
225 grams elbow macaroni (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup Panko
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil (EVOO); also, another 2 tbsps EVOO
1 yellow onion, diced
2 tbsps all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cup chicken broth
3/4 cup milk
2 cans tuna in water, flaked
3/4 cup green peas
salt and pepper to taste

Some of the ingredients I used. You can use freshly grated Parmesan
 (I didn't want to grate!)

Little Kristina helping me with some of the easier chores.
She did the panko mixture in a bowl.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cook your pasta leaving 2 minutes of cooking time so it's undercooked. Drain. 
3. In a small bowl, toss together Panko (breadcrumbs), grated parmesan cheese, and 2 teaspoons oil.
4. In another pot, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high. Add onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook until soft and translucent (no need to brown them), about 8 minutes. 
5. Add all-purpose flour and whisk to coat onion. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth. Whisk in the milk after. 
6. Stir constantly until sauce comes to a boil. Reduce the heat, simmer and stir frequently, until sauce thickens. 
7. Put in the elbow macaroni, flaked tuna, and peas. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
8. Transfer tuna mixture to a 5x9 inch baking dish and top with Panko mixture. 
9. Bake for about 10 minutes until sauce is bubbling and crust is golden brown.
10. Leave to cool 10 minutes before serving.

    

    Assembled on a smaller baking dish ready for baking.

Fresh off the oven.

My Tuna Casserole ready just in time for lunch!

Ting

Buttered Vegetables with Shrimp

Here’s a quick dish I did last night to go with my husband’s pork chops for dinner.  I wasn’t too particular with measurements this time since I was in a hurry and wanted to be stress-free. So here’s how I put it all together (measurements are estimates from what I can remember):

Ingredients:

4 tbsps butter

1 medium onion

Frozen mixed vegetables, about 2 cups

Cooked Shrimps

¼ cup chicken broth

2 pinches of dried oregano

Salt and pepper

Procedure:

1.       Melt butter in a pan.

2.       Put-in the onions and cook until the texture becomes soft.

3.       Add in cooked shrimps and sauté in butter and onion.

4.       Add the mixed vegetables. Stir.

5.       Pour the chicken broth and simmer.

6.       Add the salt and ground black pepper and dried oregano to suit your taste.

7.       Turn of the heat and transfer to a serving bowl.

8.       Share & enjoy!

Sorry, no pictures this time.  Was in too much of a hurry :-) 

Sipo Egg Recipe

Here is a new recipe that we tried the other day. I say “we” because it was a team effort with my husband doing the peeling, me doing the actual cooking and Kissy testing it out  ( of course, we passed with flying colors. It’s always “masarap” with her!)

This is a very easy dish to make.  I had purchased a pack of mixed vegetables which made the preps faster and easier since I didn't have to peel and dice each individual vegetable which would take time. The only tedious part was peeling the shrimp and the quail eggs so I had my husband help me with that.  Besides, I was hungry and wanted to get it done quickly. And can someone explain to my husband that I was just trying to delegate ;-) haha

For those requesting the recipe, here it is:

Ingredients
·         3 cups of mixed vegetables (carrots, green peas, green beans and corn)
·         1 cup singkamas (I thought I wouldn’t be able to find some but I did! They call them Jicamas here.)
·         1 lb shrimp, deveined and with the head and shell removed
·         4oz minced ham
·         18 - 24 pieces hard-boiled quail eggs
·         1 small yellow onion, minced
·         1 teaspoon minced garlic
·         ¼ cup butter
·         1 tablespoon cooking oil
·         ¾ cup water
·         1 can  cream of mushroom
·         1 can or ½ cup thick cream
·         Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 1.Melt the butter in a cooking pan and add the cooking oil.

2. Next sauté the shrimp until cooked then set aside.

3. In the same pan with the same butter and oil mixture, sauté the onion and garlic.

4. Put-in the mixed vegetables. Add the ham and cook for at least 3 minutes.

 5. Pour-in the water and let boil.

 6. Add the hard-boiled quail eggs and shrimp. Stir gently.

 7. Pour-in the cream of mushroom and thick cream. Stir gently until the ingredients are well distributed.

 8. Season with salt and pepper.

9. Serve and enjoy!

Thanks for your interest! 😉

XOXO,
Ting

Corned Tuna and Sausage Spaghetti

Ok. Let me just do this quickly before I forget and while I have time before I have to pick up Kissy at the bus stop.

I had no idea what to have for lunch today. I didn't want to have afritada again. The afritada is good, by the way, and I've been having it for lunch and dinner for about 3 days now. So, I thought I wanted something different this time and then decided to start on the spaghetti I had promised Kissy for merienda.

I was supposed to use corned beef instead of ground pork for the spaghetti sauce. But I had corned beef for breakfast this morning (in a sandwich) and I was thinking I could do something different. I quickly scanned the pantry and there were cans of corned tuna just sitting there. I had bought them weeks ago to try; heard corned tuna was healthier than corned beef and just as good. So, I decided it was time to find.

I had a corned beef sandwich with a cup of hot choco for breakfast.

In the process of making the sauce, I noticed it didn't look appetizing enough (from a kid's point of view)  and realized it lacked the usual hotdogs that kids love so much. But I was totally out of those super good all-beef hotdogs 'cause I used them all up for the afritada. Hmmm....another quick investigation of the pantry...and voila! Saw my cans of vienna sausages! There's my answer :-)

So, it became a corned tuna and sausage spaghetti which was totally delish! Here's how I put them all together:

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 small onion, chopped
1 small carrot, finely chopped
1 can (155 grams / 5.5 oz) corned tuna
1 can (135 grams) Vienna sausages
500 grams sweet Filipino style spaghetti sauce
salt and pepper to taste
3 teaspoons cooking oil
500 grams spaghetti noodles
Grated cheese

Procedure:
1.  Saute garlic, onion, carrots, corned tuna and sausages.
2. Add in the sweet style spaghetti sauce and simmer for 5 mins.
3. Add a dash of salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour over cooked spaghetti noodles.
5. Top with grated cheese. Enjoy!!!

Finished product.

Spaghetti with a glass of mango juice. It's lunch time!

Simple. Not messy at all. No tedious preparation involved. Go ahead, try it today!

Ting

Running For Terry

Today, September 19, 2014, my little girl participated in her first Terry Fox Run in school. I understand it was an easy run around the backyard of the school, though I don't know how many laps they ran or how long they took out there.

Of course, always the curious one, I had to find out who Terry Fox was, what the Toonie for Terry was for, and why the annual run?

I discovered this short bio online and found it very helpful in making me understand and empathize more:
http://www.terryfox.org/SchoolRun/legacy_story.html

In summary, Terry was a young boy of 18 who lost his leg to cancer. He endeavored to run across Canada with an artificial leg to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. He was successful in his goal but died when his cancer returned.

Today, his legacy lives on and Terry Fox Runs are held every year in Canada and several other countries in aide of cancer research. The kids in school donated a toonie each for the Terry Fox Foundation.

The article is a better source and more touching than this hurried roundup, believe me. I strongly suggest you read it.

I wish I had read up on him sooner. Maybe then I would have not been too lazy to go back and join Kissy in their run in school earlier today. Well, I'll get my chance next year. My running shoes will be waiting.

My little girl ran for JULIA + TERRY

The Terry Fox Run Logo

Beef with Mushrooms

Hi, all! I wish everyone were having a good day but I heard there's a typhoon over in the Philippines where a lot of my family and friends are, so I hope everyone is safe and dry and warm.

Anyway, I posted my lunch yesterday on Facebook and I've received a couple of requests for the recipe. It's quite simple, really and very easy to make.

I love mushrooms so I put Beef with Mushrooms on my menu list and finally got to do it. Here's how:

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo beef, cut into 1/2 inch cubes                                                                                

                    * I used beef stew cuts. If you want your beef tender, I think you should boil                                             beforehand. This is what I'm gonna do next time.)

• flour for dredging 
• 2 beef cubes in 3 cups water for the beef broth
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon parsley, finely chopped
• 2 stalks celery
• 2 cups of mushroom, sliced                                                                                                       

                    * I used Brown Mushrooms (it said on the packaging) for this recipe.

• Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in skillet ready for frying.
2. Dredge beef in flour and fry until brown.
3. Once fried, lower the heat and pour in all ingredients except mushrooms : onion, parsley, celery and beef broth.
4. Let boil and simmer till your beef is tender (about 30 - 45 minutes).
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Put in the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes more.
7. Serve and enjoy!

I couldn't help but enjoy a cup of rice topped with my beef and mushrooms! That was lunch. I had it again for dinner but this time I had bread with it instead. Still, yummy!

Sharing what I learned in the process of preparing this dish,  about differentiating Parsley and Cilantro. I opened the fridge and found 2 almost identical bunches of green leaves which threw me off a little so I did some research and asked how the "pros" could tell them apart.

Chicken Asado

Hello again!

I wasn’t that eager to post my Chicken Asado recipe since I felt, hmmm... it was more of a trial of sorts and it still needed some “polishing”. But, it came out good and a friend is actually asking for a copy (no secret ingredients here! Haha) so here it is now:

Ingredients:

§  1 kilo chicken

§  1/4 cup lemon juice

* I used the concentrated juice (see picture below) ‘cause it’s what we had in the fridge. If you do use the same, you might want to be a little conservative and try to start with a little first and then add on according to taste. I will take note of how much I use next time. J

§  8 tablespoons soy sauce or half a cup

* Again, I’m not too sure about this. I kept on adding so I’m guessing I put in about half a cup. As with the lemon juice, add according to taste.

§  1/4 cup butter

§  1 1/2 cup of tomato sauce

§  1 large onion, diced

§  2 pieces dried bay leaves

§  2 large potatoes, quartered

§  2 teaspoon salt

§  1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

§  3/4 cup cooking oil

Procedure

1.    Rub the chicken with salt and pepper and let stand for at least 30 minutes to an hour.

2.    Pan fry the chicken. Set aside.

3.    Heat a cooking pot or wok then put-in the butter.

4.    Sauté the onion in butter.

5.    Add-in the bay leaves and cook for a minute.

6.    Pour-in the tomato sauce and bring to a boil.

7.    Add the soy sauce and lemon juice. Stir and simmer for 5 to 7 minutes.

8.    Add the pan-fried chicken and simmer for 10 minutes.

9.    Place the potatoes in and continue to simmer for 7 to 12 minutes.

10. All done! Transfer to a serving dish.

For a small family like ours, 2 adults and 1 kid, this recipe was good for 3 meals.

The lemon juice concentrate that I used.

                                   

For newbies in the kitchen like me, I’m adding something new to learn.

Kitchen Vocabulary:

Pan Fry

       

Pan-frying is one form of frying characterized by the use of just a little or minimal cooking oil. You only need enough oil to grease the pan. Because of the minimal coverage, you must flip the food so both sides can be cooked.

Happy cooking!

Ting