Gourmet Pancit Canton

When I'm running out of ingredients in the fridge and pantry, and the only food that's left to eat is a pack or two of instant noodles, I try to make it special and healthy as much as possible. They taste so good that I've started craving for them at least once a month. When this happens, I take out 2 packs of Lucky Me instant pancit canton from the pantry and turn it into my own gourmet pancit canton.

So as usual, the noodles are cooked by soaking them in boiling water for a few minutes then draining them out through a strainer. While waiting for the water to boil, that's when I do the rest of the "magic".

Scrambled Vegetables and Eggs

One egg a day can prevent breast cancer in both men and women by 24%. This is why I try to have one egg everyday. The manner of cooking doesn't matter. It could be sunny side up, scrambled, poached or whatever.As long as we eat one egg a day, we're helping ourselves get rid of breast cancer by 24%. So today, for brunch, I made scrambled eggs with vegetables.

Ingredients:

• sliced onion
• sliced bell pepper
• sliced tomato
• sliced garlic
• 3 tbsps. of canola cooking oil
• Italian seasoning or herbs
  
• a pinch of salt
• a inch of pepper
• 2 eggs (for two servings)

Macaroni in RAM Spaghetti Sauce with Mushrooms, Onions, Bell pepper and TomatoesPlus Cacciatore Chicken

I was craving for my hubby's red sauce pasta that he was sweet enough to make me some in the middle of the night. I still have some left over and that's what I'm having for lunch today.

For this particular pasta, he used macaroni coz we ran out of the spiral ones. And instead of using the usual Clara Ole tomato sauce, he used RAM spaghetti sauce instead and added mushrooms, tomatoes, lots of bell pepper, red onion and garlic plus Italian herbs.

While the pasta and the sauce were cooking, he also boiled some chicken thighs which he later mixed them with the sauce.

Everything tasted delish once finished!

Bon appetit!

Pasta in McCormick Creamy Garlic Sauce and Tuna

I personally think that instant food is awesome. A lot of times, with just the slightest bit of effort, you can easily punch up something instant and come up with a really nice dish. One of our favorite instant food ingredients is McCormick's line of instant powdered pasta sauces. Granted, you can simply follow the instructions on the packet and you'd end up with something ok. Or you could try out the following recipe instead. It's really yummy and it only takes about 15 minutes to prepare.

Here's how we did it...

Pinakbet By Accident

I rarely have the time these days to really cook. Add to that the fact that I am becoming more and more conscious about my health. So most of the time, I'd just chop some raw vegetables, dash some herbs and spices, pour a little vinegar and olive oil, and voila --- that's my meal for the day!

But one time, I was really craving for rice and some flavorsome dish. So while I wait for my rice to get cooked, I just started putting some chopped vegetables on a pan. I didn't even measure them. I just used my instinct.

Pan Roasted Chicken and Potatoes In Red Wine Reduction

Here are the ingredients of this very tasty chicken dish:

• one large onion chopped
• 6 or so cloves of garlic chopped
• a cup of baby potatoes, sliced into thin medallions
  
• 1 cup of spaghetti sauce
• half a cup of wine
• 3 chicken thigh fillets
• 3 chicken thigh fillets
• half a cup of wine
• 3 chicken thigh fillets
• dried herbs (basil, rosemary and thyme)

Once the ingredients are prepared, all you have to do now is follow these procedures:

Fried Chicken Liver in Butter and Honey + Tuna Adobo with Veggies

After a looong break, I'm back!


Should you wish to find out what have I been doing lately, just head over to SEXYNOMAD, my main personal blog.

Anyway, vacation is over, I'm back to doing 2-3 jobs at a time, which I love by the way, but I still want to make sure that I can find a window in my busy schedule to practice cooking (and food photography too!). For this week, I was able to cook twice --- first was yesterday when I just prepared an old potato dish I already blogged about. Then the second one was earlier this evening. I was craving for some Tuna Adobo and Chicken Liver and I thank the universe that I still have the ingredients inside my fridge. I need to do some groceries soon though so I can start experimenting with other recipes. Hopefully, I can prepare something from one of my cook books rather than just going by my gut feel just like what I said in my personal projects site, TheJenAdamsProject. ^_^



Anyway, here's what I cooked a while ago. Please take note that when I did this, I didn't measure my ingredients. I just went with my gut feel. Hihihi.



Fried Chicken Liver in Butter and Honey

I dried my chicken liver parts a bit using tissue paper. Then I dashed them with pepper and salt to taste. I set them aside for a moment.



I put my old sauce pan on the stove and turned up the heat. I placed a thin slice of butter and some honey on the pan. As they were melting, I put my chicken liver. I fried them until they were a bit burnt by the simmering butter and honey. I like it that way.

Once it was fried the way I liked it, I set it aside.

Peter's Holiday Dishes

My hubby, Peter, is currently on a long holiday break. He seldom cooks for me anymore due to his work schedule so now that he is at home with me, I let him take over our kitchen and in the process, I learned how he did some of his wonderful healthy dishes:

Grilled Tofu in Onion and Mushroom BBQ sauce

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/8 cup water
• 1/8 cup vinegar
• 1/8 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 clove garlic, minced fine
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 200g button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 packs of firm silken tofu, cut into cubes

Grilled Angus Rib Eye Steak with Sweetened Vegetables and Fried Baby Potatoes

My sister is currently staying with us. She has never tried any of my cooking so I wanted to impress her a bit. I prepared my favorites for her --- grilled rib eye steak, sweetened mixed vegetables and of course my fried baby potatoes.

The trick to making the perfect rib eye steak is to thaw the meat properly, wipe it with a clean cloth or tissue afterwards so that it will brown well, dash both sides of the meat with lots of pepper and salt and grill each side of the meat on a nice oiled hot grill pan for four minutes each. This amount of time would be enough to brown the surface, keep the meat tender while keeping the inside pink and medium rare.

Potato and Vegetable Medley

During the middle of the week, I was running out of things to eat at home. There were a couple of days when I just had toasted wheat bread with herbed cream cheese, banana, kiat-kiat and cinnamon rolls. After a while, I'd crave for something more filling. And since I haven't done my groceries yet, I looked at what's left inside the fridge and tried to make something scrumptious out of it.

I still had baby potatoes, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic.

So this was what I did:

Chicken Breast in Herbed Tomato Sauce

I was craving for something that's "tomatoey" this particular weekend. Since we had chicken in the fridge that needed to be cooked and we always keep several packets of tomato sauce, we decided to have chicken in tomato sauce one Saturday.

After the chicken has been thawed, we dashed it with pepper, salt, basil, thyme, sage, and rosemary; we wrapped it in foil; and then we popped it in the oven toaster for around 20 minutes. This way, the chicken did't get burnt while it's baking. The foil also helped retain the natural fat juices of the chicken and helped in absorbing the flavors of the spices and herbs much faster even if it was not marinated the night before.

Beef Stew in Spaghetti Sauce

The moment I woke up today, I started working on the Christmas decorations of our house. Once I got into it, I didn't stop except for bathroom breaks. After almost 8 hours (whew!) I was finally done. And to reward myself, being so famished and all, I made myself some beef stew. I was going to consult one of my cook books but as you can see, I was so hungry and I didn't have the patience to study the recipe anymore. So, I just did what I know best... JUST COOK! FOLLOW MY GUT FEEL and COOK!!!