Last week

was buys with all the build up to Xmas, so I can't really remember what we ate the other nights. It has been pretty simple stuff tho, and after Xmas has been an attempt to clean up the turkey!!

Mon 21st Dec: アジの干物 and some other 和 stuff.

Tues 22nd Dec: toasted cheese and ham sandwiches (trying to keep it light before our Xmas lunch on the 23rd)

Thurs 24th Dec: Turkey sandwiches

Fri 25th Dec: Turkey pasta soup

Sat 26th Dec: Lunch - くら寿司
Dinner at "Bois Bois", Shiodome. J had 打合せ for K and T's wedding (in March next year) and they shouted us all to dinner after. It was kinda izakaya or tapas style (so woulda been nicer if I could have enjoyed the Argentinian red everyone else had with dinner, lol).

Sun 27th Dec: lunch ramen down the road, dinner turkey pasta soup

Mon 28th Dec: turkey pasta soup (just k and me. J s "over" it already, lol

Xmas 2009

We bought a 5kg turkey at Costcos around Thanksgiving time, and it has been sitting in the freezer waiting for its turn to shine. And that it did on Xmas!!

Since 23rd was a public holiday, we invited PIL over for lunch (I realised a few days before that J and his parents had assumed we would be doing dinner, which is what they seem to do in Japan, but since it was a public holiday it made more sense to do lunch. And we have ALWAYS done Xmas lunch (in Aus), so even tho it was 2 days in advance, we were doing lunch this year too!! lol.

I had thought of a few different things for lunch, but since it was only the 4 of us, decided that we should try to keep it a bit simple - cooking the turkey, a first for us in the new steam oven was going to be enough of a challenge, I reckoned anyway!!

So:

roast turkey with roast potatoes, steamed beans and honey glazed carrots, gravy and apple sauce (since left it to late to find cranberry sauce)

pressed salmon sushi

tabara crab (for the IL's. personally crab doesnt do much for me, esp. tabara which I find a bit watery always.)

pumpkin salad

christmas pudding with custard and whipped cream


and individual strawberry shortcakes for dessert for usand xmas pudding (Japanese style) for K

the 5 S's

1. Strawberries - served on top of fluffy pancakes for breaky on Sat morn!


2. Soba - noodles for lunch with PIL before Xmas shopping for K
3. Sushi - after shopping, at Midori Sushi. Delish as always, but really, lining up in the cold for an hour at 4:30pm for dinner when we had to sit seperately anyway was a bit silly....
4. Sausage - hot dogs from Ikea for Sunday lunch. Another day of furniture shopping, and doing the rounds of furniture shops. At least this time we actually bought bunk beds (I caved, couldn't face ANOTHER day of shopping for beds).
5. Spaghetti - well, fettucine to be precise, but 4 S's and an F just didn't sound as cool a title. J threw this together when we got home, chicken, spinach and fresh tomato-cream sauce and we all ravished it.


Another big weekend of being out and about and shopping. And despite the tiredness that sweeps over me in the afternoon, I am finding myself having difficulties getting to sleep at night again. arrgh.

this little piggy....

Just a repeat of the pork dish that Nay shared a while back. We have heaps of tomatoes in the fridge, so made a fresh tomato and onion whiteish sauce to go with it. Served with mash potato, steamed carrots, cabbage and snow peas, and pumpkin/maitake left overs.

So simple yet so yummy - nice comfort food. No way I am gonna keep to a 2kg preg. weight gain for the next month either.....oh well!

nira-tama success!

salmon (grilled) and asparagas spears

pumpkin and maitake (recipe comes from the supermarket). It seemed to be a bit plain, needing more flavouring, hmm. bust still ok.

かぼちゃとまいたけのガーリック炒め

* まいたけ　100g
* かぼちゃ　1/4個
* ベーコン　2枚
* にんにく　１かけ
* オリーブオイル　大2
* 塩　少々
* こしょう　少々


1) cut maitake up
2) remove seeds of pumpkin, wrap in cling-wrap and microwave for 4mins. Slice into 1cm thickness
3) dice bacon (I used that roll ham-sausage meat stuff)
4) slice garlic
5) add olive oil to frypan and cook garlic and bacon. Add pumpkin, cooking on both sides.
6) Add maitake and cook through, add s + p to taste.

にら玉, using this recipe. turned out very very nice. my first ever time at にら玉...thanks for suggesting it for nira leftovers, kel.

湯豆腐

leftovers of milk soup from Tues night

and a few other leftovers like chili prawns and the rest of the 八宝菜

using up the prawns

Chinese tonight, finally.

海老チリ just using Cook-do. Again, it has been a while since I used this packet, and I must admit that the time I made it from scratch, it tasted a lot nicer, although a bit more time consuming (making the sauce).

八宝菜 this recipe, with whatever veges I had, plus pork, prawns and some squid J had bought, and prepared for me (in the freezer!!) was good.

fried rice

filling and yum. K had about 2 refills of fried rice, lol.
Always forget how last minute time consuming making Chinese is - everything has to be done at the last minute, so no photo tonight.

J got off work early, so bought Mr Donuts home for desert for us. Spoilt, aren't we.

forgot to push the publish button...Tues night dinner

vege milk soup . I have never tried a milk soup per say before, but it was pretty good -K had 2 bowls of it, and I really enjoyed it. J, of course, thought it could do with more flavour...

sweet potato in mayo and wasabi. Nice idea, but I only had half a サツマイモ、as I realised half way through that the others were 紫芋, lol. Heating the julienned sweet potato in the microwave left it sticky together, and chewy, I think it would be better if the sweet potato was cooked up in a fry pan.

にんにくの芽と肉 from the supermarket. Maybe it was my preggo tastebuds, but it didn't taste all that fab, ok, but I don't think I would bother buying it again, even though it was supposed to be an easy meal, maybe not worth it

もやし from the shop, I like these namul type flavoured ones, and ate almost the whole lot myself!

egg and spinach ほうれん草の卵とじ . K lapped this one up. She has been eating egg and spinach combinations well - maybe it hides the spinach taste??

and some edamame to round it off.

cottage pie

Recipe here.
well, the title and the photo basically say it all.
except for the fact that the brocolli was crap - and it was one we got from the 道の駅 and the bread in the background was our home baked rye french bread. yum.

not chinese

When J rang at lunch time he was on his way to the Chinese restaurant.....so I had to quickly re-think my dinner plans (which *were* えびチリand八宝菜 - as it turns out, it was a good thing, because although I *thought* we had bought a 白菜 at the 道の駅 on the way home from Gunma, turns out we didn't so, it would have been freak out stations at 6pm when I realised there was no cabbage!)

In keeping with frugal friday (only because I couldn't be bothered going out in the rain) our menu was with stuff in fridge/freezer:

大根と牛筋の煮込み

　焼き長ネギ with 梅肉　sauce

spinach and egg drop soup

salad with 大根, red and yellow capscium　and 和風 dressing.

salmon roe on rice for K - at 2 years old, I know!!

The negi was yummy - like something from an izakaya. Soup - really good too! And daikon and meat was good, but could have used more タレ and time 煮込んで-ring. Still, tender and good.

pasta bake

I nearly had a fit when J rang to say he WOULD be home for dinner... thought he had to go out with customers but it wasn't necessary at the last minute, but luckily I had enough of the pasta bake to go around - whether he would enjoy it or not, so not my problem as I was cooking for MY tastebuds tonight, lol.

I realised as I was melting the butter for the white sauce that I only had about half a cup of milk left in the house, but I battled on, upping the amount of chicken stock, and it came out fine, thank you very much.

I have never really made a pasta bake before, and so simply followed the recipe, but it sorta turned out like a mac'n'cheese. Now, I like my cheese, but have to admit that just this as the main dish was bit too much. Maybe would cut down on cheese next time, or really need to have something on the side to counteract it. Gee, I feel old saying that, lol. That being said, I had another serving of it when J got home, so that there is hardly any leftovers.


It was different to last night's alfredo, but I was really looking for a different recipe for the chicken and mushrooms, more like a dark casserole, will have to find a good one to try next time I come across button/field mushrooms cheap again.

chicken and mushroom pasta

Chicken and mushroom alfredo sauce spaghetti.

I had to stop myself after a few minutes when I realised that me, the 33 year old Australian (not the 2 year old Japanese) was SLURPING her spaghetti. My, my how things change...when I first came to Japan I physically couldn't make the slurp sound while eating noodles, let alone pasta. lol.

I was gonna make a pasta bake, but as always, couldn't be bothered waiting for the thing to bake, so just made pasta instead. Tomorrow I will use the left overs to make this.

Tuesday 和食 and fish

　金目鯛の干物

nameko miso soup - we bought a big bag of nameko at a 道の駅 on the way home from Gunma on Sunday

---

cabbage, carrot and tuna. This was quite nice, the honey was a surprise, but I did eat a bit of this.

spinach, with 昆布つゆ would have like to sprinkled かつお節 on the top, but can't find it/may have run out of it

　brocolli and tomato salad, with seasame dressing

サツマイモと人参のきんぴら. I enjoyed this again

pickles

---

　カリカリ大根. Not impressed at all, it lacking something, and overpowering with garlic and ゴマ油 flavours. 残念

rice

I felt good about tonights dinner, using up stuff in the fridge, trying a few new side dishes, even if the daikon one didn't work. But I personally didnt eat that much of it - got full on less than half a bowl of rice, a few bites of fish, but did eat a fair amount of the cabbage/tuna dish.

weekend in gunma and monday girls at home

Saturday lunch - くら寿司 (25 plates!!! K had 5 for herself, plus a 茶碗蒸し.... We are gonna hit the 3000yen mark for kaiten sushi soon the way we are going!)
night - hotel dinner (away for weekend for 忘年会 with friends) I can't remember what it all was, but it involved individual nabe and konyaku sashimi. K shared mine, which worked out the right amount for me. I also had 2 bowls of rice with it!!!

Sunday breakfast - the full monty at the hotel. K had my natto with rice for breaky. I enjoyed the pickles, and a bowl of rice, followed by some onigiri!
lunch - てんぷらそば
night - I wasn't feeling so well (perhaps from the oily tempura and long car ride?) and K had eaten in the car all the way, so K had onigiri, and J had ほっともっと from around the corner when we got home.

Monday lunch - baked beans on toast for K and me (yum)
dinner - K had tricky pasta leftovers from the other night as again not feeling hungry. Might have some snacky stuff later on, or another piece of toast.... J is at a work dinner/drinks.

fabulous frugal friday

J has his work Xmas party (end of the year party) tonight, so it was just us gals.
I think I may have whipped up the most delish pasta dish - so simple and tasty (although if J was here, he would probably have said it was not a strong enough taste..)

And it was a veritable rainbow of colours, all cooked in one pan to boot with:

green beans

red capscium

yellow capsicum

eringi mushrooms

spinach

and macaroni pasta
I simple fried a bit in olive oil, then added the spinach and water it had been soaking in, then added the pasta and a stock cube and voila it was simple dinner tonight.

For K's I actually did it seperately, chopped up all the ingredients really teeny-tiny (added some carrot too) and then added a hamburg we had in the frezer. Squirted in a bit of tomato sauce and simmered it down to make her dinner, and enough for 2 more meals (emergency freezer food!)
She made me take a photo of hers too, so here it is:


She didn't even know she was eating healthy veges, and had 3 (THREE!!) serves of pasta. I think the fact that she likes to add the parmesan cheese on it helped her appetite along too, but man, it looked like she hadn't been fed in days.



All in all, a fulfilling meal, and got to use up a lot of veges before we go away for the weekend.

nice rice

J had a 研修会 followed by a 懇談会 with 立食. K and I (well, probably just me) were buggered from a bug day at playgroup Xmas party, so I heated up some チンrice (packs in the microwave) and K had natto rice. I had left over 雑炊 which J also had a bowl of when he got home too.

failed thai

I thought I would try out a new recipe to go with our Pad Thai, but searching the net for Thai recipes, they all needed lots of ingredients that we DON'T have. So I figured if I bought some fish sauce, which is pretty easy to get here, and some fish (got たら）then I could attempt some Thai Fish Cakes.

My gosh, what a disaster. I was gonna follow this recipe, (it has cornstarch as an ingredient) but it didnt have any comments about mashed potato, so I went with this recipe instead. I also wanted to crumb them, but couldn't find the bread crumbs....

Anyway, they didn't hold together or form well. And that is after I added mashed potato to them. Before they were a liquid in a bowl!! And I *may* have mistaken my salt for my sugar and overloaded them with　しおっぱさ Oops. Overall a disaster. I didn't have the kaffir limes or chili paste to add to them, but I don't think it would have amde any difference, not with that amount of salt, yuech!

The Pad Thai was as normal. Althought I couldn't finish my serve, I think my tummy is getting fuller faster, which is good as I need to slow down on the weight-gain.

Tuesday night nabe

J forgot his mobile at home this morning. I did a mad dash (well, as much of a dash as an unfit pregnant woman can do) up the road to try catch him, but he was already well out of sight. The thing is, he usually rings when he is about to hop on the train to come home, so I know that he will walk through the door about 25mins later. Although he is usually home about 7-ish, it can be earlier or later, and having a hot meal ready and waiting for 30mins, OR having to rush around putting it together when he walks through the door is not my idea of fun.

So today I decided we should have nabe, which can be cooked right then and there. It also helps me use up：

leftover rice from last night (as 雑炊)

長ネギ that through another one of those crazy mixups, both J and I bought on the same day at different times, AND he bought 2, so we had a total of something like 9 stalks of 長ネギ！

なべの元, the miso flavoured one

that bloody head of cabbage that is still floating around the bottom of the fridge. Even after cutting it up, I still have about 1/8th left...

carrots, again, both J and I bought packs. It was all because the new supermarket opened up down the road, and i went out in the morning to the shops, but J wanted to check it out after he got home from work, and so he went down just before it closed and bought up all the really cheap veges!

So nabe again tonight it is.　

a sharp sword to swallow...

swordfish in teriyaki marinade, garnished with finely juliened long onions and white seasame seeds (J's concoction! I was not so keen on the swordfish, felt it has a strong aftertaste. Might be just preggy tummy talking

red and yellow capsicum, button mushrooms and sashimi leftovers cooked lightly in marinade sauce leftovers

tofu with melted cheese, topped with soy sauce and black pepper - this was yummy!

carrots and cabbage, namul style. This was a good little side recipe, will be using again (prob next time I am stupid enough to buy a WHOLE head of cabbage, lol!)

rice

edamame

イクラ (leftovers)
and of course a cupcake for dessert ;)

Tacos party (part 2)

Had some friends over in an impromptu "lets do tacos" type moment. We still had some tortillas, picante and mince so it was easy to just whip it all up. Friends brought yummy cupcakes along with them, so it was a very yummy, very filling dinner!t

Birthday Dinner

The photos pretty much speak for themselves, but we had

手巻き寿司:

マグロ

洋食マグロ

ホタテ

金目鯛

うに

いくら

avocado









with 煮付け金目鯛 and しじみ　味噌汁

















followed by a Fruit platter with:

melon (yum!)

persimon

strawberries (K ate all of these, lol. actually, you can already see her hand in the photo, grabbing a strawberry)

kiwi fruit

apple

papaya (bit bitter, unfortunately)

and rounded off with Mr. Donuts, since they have re-introduced the "golden chocolate", my ABSOLUTE favourite!

Is that 33 different foods for my 33 years? lol. It was a yummy meal,and quite enjoyable with J, K and PIL here to celebrate with me.

get some pork on ya fork

I went down to the new Sanwa supermarket this morning - new as in grand opening day. The hoards of people lining up to get into the big shiny new shopping centre put me right off though, so I stuck with the small supermarket down by the station , that disappointed me by not having any chicken carckasses. But I did get some pork, and 牛すじ and a few cheapie veges, didn't go overboard.

Anyway, being Frugal Friday and all, I used up leftovers to go with the pork, following this great recipe from Nay. I had to adapt it as had no cream, so made up a little white sauce and used up the half leftover tin of diced tomatoes from the other night. J even commented on how nice the sauce was, bonus!!

Dinner:

pork chops with creamy tomato sauce

steamed cabbage

mashed potato

I seem to be making more 洋 dinners recently, not sure why. I may have come to an impasse with my Japanese food repartee...will have to search out some more/new recipes next week, maybe BEFORE I go shopping to make sure I have the ingredients to make them. Hey that's a good idea - menu planning!

frugal Thursday

the titles are getting repetitive. So is the frugal theme apparently. Tonight J suggested that next time I make a cream stew, I add prawns, scallops, squid and mushrooms. 豪華やね～. Well, yesterday was payday, so I can go out shopping again to restock the fridge!

Lunch (@ playgroup) : onigiri in the shape of a dog and rabbit for K, regular for me. Last night's rice leftovers. K also had ham, cheese, eda-mame.

Dinner: cream stew, with chicken, carrots, onion and potato. Served with "French" bread, made in home bread maker. The "french" bread was the same shape as regular loaf of bread, so we were a bit weary as to what it would be like, but the taste was yummy. J reckons his favourite bread so far. It was very hard to cut, though. I think next time I need to cook on the middle setting, rather than light(colour) setting.

frugal Wednesday (on a roll!)

Still only using what is in the house:

cabbage and ham soup

chicken and eggplant

さつまいもとにんじんのきんぴら

rice (the old one, cooked up with 備長炭 of course

left over いくら

kimchee






(do I need to mention that while the rice and soup is my individual serve, the chicken/eggplant is a shared dish? don't wanna look like a piggy, hehe)

and in the process, I learnt the kanji for mirin (味醂）ha!


Even prepared tomorrow night's chicken cream stew while I was at it! yay for me, lol.

frugal Tuesday

Still trying to save pennies and use up what is in the fridge and cupboard rather than keep buying bits and pieces. So today was a mish-mash of left over vegies:
* eggplant
* shiitake mushrooms
* enoki mushrooms
* broccoli
* onion
* bacon

served in a tomato sauce with spiral pasta.

We made bread again today, so K and I took egg s/w (the last of the 2 eggs!!) for lunch on our playdate.

long weekend round-up

Sunday Lunch: Maccas
Sunday Dinner: ramen, at home

Monday breakfast: Brown rice with fish and miso soup (J only haha. Although K did eat almost half a fish, and that was *after* her weetbix breakfast! I settled for a cuppa tea)
Monday lunch: くら寿司. I enjoyed my yuba and あぶりチーズほたてsushi followed by caramel chocolate cake
Monday Dinner: left over costco chicken pizza

fresh bread for breakfast

yuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmm! freshly cooked out of the bread maker bread for breakfast. I don't think there is anything better.
There were even a few slices left for K's cheese s/w for lunch.

PIL dropped by this evening with a box of mikan (they had another 18boxes in the car, to give out to people, like a mini-o-seibo I guess). As we had only about 15mins notice, there was nothing for dinner, so J suggested the new Chinese place down the road, beside the 焼き豚 place. He rang up and booked, so we got in (lucky as by the time we left at 7pm there was still a line up of people trying to get in).

But it was very dissapointing - we won't be going back. Expensive, small serves (even for Chinese) and just average taste (should have heard MIL go on about how the 酢豚 was too sour, haha. And all we ordered was:
* subuta
* chicken and cashew nuts
* fried rice
* prawns in sweet sauce
* mixed entree (which had pieces of chashu pork, 1 pitan egg cut into 1/4s, about 5 slices of tomato and some shiitake mushroom slices and cost 2300yen!)
* and a 焼きそば
and it came to nearly 9000yen (no drinks as we were PIL were driving home)
Very dissapointing.

Feels like we are on a chinese food boom, but it was just random, and last minute that the PIL came. I am guessing we won't be having chinese for a while now.

Friday night surprise

So I had in my mind that I was going to make a quiche, but realised half way through the day that, surprise, surprise, J had used all but 2 off the eggs in his egg roll last night. So no quiche possible. Worked out well, as I hadn't made the pie crust yet (am having trouble getting motivated to make it again).

So it was a quick change of plans to:

spag bol

salad (lettuce, 水菜, button mushies, tomato, cucumber)

えのきbacon巻き

broccoli

K is just waiting to dig in!

Anniversary meals

J took the day off work (unbeknowns to me) for our wedding anniversay....We did some fun stuff like banking in the morning, then went out to lala port for a look around, since we haven't been there before.

We had a yummy and filling buffet lunch at a chinese restaurant - the 酢豚 was yummy! And the tapioca dessert good too.

A bit of a look around the shops - J bought ties for work, I bought a maternity/nursing top, K cracked a wobbly when we tried to leave the amusement centre "conveniently" located next door to Akachan-honpo - honestly(rolls eyes)

Dinner is going to be いくら丼 with マグロ - J's choice. And K nearly ate half a tunafish the other day, so I am guessing she will devour it again tonight, raw of course!! Dinner will conclude with some cake to celebrate 4 years of marriage!

****edit******
Dinner was 漬けマグロ、イクラ、アボカード丼　with なめこ汁 and 玉子焼き (using 4 eggs). j makes his egg roll with dashi and sugar and a touch of salt, and it was very ふわふわ。 I m gonna try to 真似 the way he makes it (although I prefer a more savoury egg roll, made with こんぶつゆ, but I did like the way it was really fluffy)

almost chinese

I had decided that I was not going to go to the supermarket to supplement for the rest of the week, even for something small - only gonna use what is actually in the house!

So, with a head of cabbage and chicken thigh meat, what does one make but "Cabbage and Chicken saute" which turned out to be a poor effort at a Chinese chicken chop suey dish. I have been dissapointed before when using English languge/western recipes for chinese meals. They just never seem to "cut it", seem to be missing something. This time was no exception. Actually, at first I really didn't expect the recipe to turn out as a Chinese meal......although I guess my take on it, using しめじ, 長ネギ and 鶏がら soup as the "mushrooms" , "onions" and "chicken stock" helped on the way to a chinese feel. I also cut back on the garlic - surely 5 cloves of garlic is just wrong, no matter how you look at it???????

Anyway, it was nice, but not ground breaking, and I won't bother using this recipe again. I will look for a Japanese language chinese food recipe next time I have cabbage and chicken to use up. How weird is that? lol.

Veges to ward off a cold

Nabe with:

shrimp balls

cabbage

shiitake mushrooms

enoki mushrooms

shimeji mushrooms

carrots

tofu

konyaku (the black one... I know, I know, a bit wierd, I thought so myself when I got it out tonight, but for some reason in the supermarket yesterday it seemed right...)

miso flavoured 寄せ鍋 soup.

まぁ、 it was average. I think the miso flavoured soup didn't do much for me.
Finished it off with 雑炊 which was yummy.

Had to laugh when J asked what the "main" was, "oysters, pork, what??" - I was like, we have shrimp balls with it. He shut up for a while, then as we were eating I said "you know, sometimes, we just have to slum it a bit" haha.

Monday curry

J is home today with a headache, probably cold-related. We bought up some condiments at the supermarket on saturday as they were having a closing down for refurbishment sale, and it was all 30-50% off, so we bought a whole heap of curry too. Apparently he had it in his mind that tonight was going to be curry, so, who am I not to indulge a man-with-a-man-cold, so tonight is pork curry, with rice that has been cooked with some 備長炭、bincho charcoal thrown in (saw it on tv last night!) to make the rice taste better (or some crap like that, hehe. actually we have some "old" rice that i have to admit is not tasting so nice anymore, so hopefully this will improve it)

Lunch was a mix- pasta and miso soup for J, curry and rice and miso soup for K and ham and cheese s/w for me. Left overs, and packet stuff. Didn't realise J wanted curry for dinner, so K will probably have to have natto rice or something like that now instead for dinner, as 2 meals of curry in a row doesn't sound like a good idea to me......

Also made some mochi in the bread maker! Boys and their new toys, hehe.

****Edit*****
wow. more power to the bincho. the rice was NICE! Def different to the last time we cooked it regularly. Very cool.

Party

Saturday
Saturday was a housewarming party with J's friends, so we indulged in:
* corn chips
* dip (from the three threes pickles hp, introduced to me by my Auntie E!, yum!)
* french bread
* french cheese (not for me)
* spanish olives - yum yum yum! thanks to K for bringing those along - I think i ate the whole can of them myself
* salami
* carrot and cucumber sticks (my attempt at pretending to be healthy)
and that was just for appetisers!

dinner - tacos with
* lettuce
*guacamole
* taco mince
* refried beans
* tomato
* cheese
* salsa

dessert - caramel creme pudding (J made it in the oven)
and supper - fresh bread in our NEW BREAMAKER!!!! woo-hoo - it was a housewarming present from the gang.

Sunday
Sundy breakfast with the hanger-on-er-ers:
* french toast (use up those eggs) with maple syrup and/or capilano honey
* bacon
* eggs sunny side up

Lunch - sushi for J and K from supermarket, and tuna-bread from bread shop for me
Dinner - went to try new Chinese joint down the road, but it was full, so went into 焼き豚 (?) place beside it, and had ￥2000yen p.p. course menu which was more than filling and 100yen yuzu sherbet to finish off.

All in all and over-indulgent weekend in every way, but boy was it enjoyable!

懐かしい

Nagasaki champon for dinner.

I have never made it before, but figure it can't be too hard - it comes like an instant noodle mix. I probably could have even made it from scratch, oh well.

I lived in Nagasaki (sasebo) for a year when I was on high school exhange, and my host family used to take me to Ringer Hut for champon. I never ate it at home - I guess Ringer Hut is so nice and cheap that even Nagasakiites don't bother making it at home. J and I used to go to Ringer Hut a bit, when we lived near his parents as there was one close by, but we haven't been for ages. I always end up ordering 皿うどん when I go anyway, hehe.

But since we had the prawns, pork, chinese cabbage, and carrots in the fridge, all I need i s J to bring home the snow peas and squid and we have an a Nagasaki champon to rival Ringer Hut!

A touch Korean

A BIG day out at a playdate, and we didn't get home until close to 4pm, both uf us utterly buggered. All the way home I was wondering what I could do for dinner - K was asleep in the car, so I didn't really have the option of stopping off to pick up anything on the way home either. Well, a bit of serious thinking cap action later and I came up with (da-dah!):

牛肉キムチ炒め (although we didn't have any コチェジャン, there was 豆板醤 and テンメンジャン though, hehe. it was lacking a bit of flavour coz of this)。And as luck would have it, the recipe requires nira, which we have left over from our pad thai the other night! yay, fridge-clean out to boot. I was sooo wondering what I was gonna do with that other half a bunch of nira - it always happens that I end up with it sitting there for ages only to throw it out, since I no longer bother trying to make home made gyoza (it was a disaster the first time, and not much better the 2nd or 3rd times - so NOT worth bothering I decided), the only other recipe I know that calls for nira, lol!

So using only what is in the house/freezer/fridge, I am going to scrounge up yet another meal. I feel like I am making progress on my plan to reduce the もったいない in the house, and where possible cut down on spending in regards to food. So, yay for frugal friday on a Thursday.

Will add the left over 牛すじトマト煮こみ (for me and K, probably to eat before J even gets home we all ate this together tonight) and some rice, salad (lots of lettuce still), miso soup for J, flavoured bean sprouts (like Korean style) that I must have bought yesterday with tonight's dinner in mind, like a premonition, and, well, surely that is enough? Or maybe even make an egg roll if I am feeling in the mood. We DO have about 3 doz eggs to use up (after a miscalculation at Costcos - not realising that we still had almost a dozen in fridge at home, oops!!). (edit: made an impromptu zucchini champuru that sort of toned down the korean)

Actually, all this thinking about kimchee has got me craving 石焼ビビンバ! And yaki-niku.....

Golden Eye, 007

Plans for tonight's dinner are:

金目鯛 (干物), cooked in the oven - wonder how that turns out?

pad thai left overs （具 only really) was gonna make a zucchini champuru but realised that that was basically what these leftovers were!

牛すじトマト煮こみ left overs, like as a soup not needed with all the other stuff

rice

natto, if needed　(K had this for dinner with brocolli as J was late comig home. She then had some of ↓ this and some 金目鯛 when J came home too.)

湯豆腐

salad - lettuce, tomato, button mushrooms

塩辛 that j made on the weekend because J didn't have ↓he didn't want ←

beer XXXX for J, and a Kirin "Zero" for me!

and brocolli with mayo

And ha! just googled 金目鯛　and it turns out its english name is the "splendid alfonsino!" . Reminds me of something out of Happy Days.

tie me up

When my friends and I were young and carefree and went to discotheques* (hehe,) we used to love to dance to the song "try me out" but for some reason we thought she sang "tie me up". It was always a bit of fun.

What ahs that got to do with anything? well, tonight was Thai night!

pad thai
using up the prawns and pork from costcos in the freezer, and eggs in the fridge. Had to buy some nira, moyashi and 厚揚げ which we did when killing two birds with one stone one our morning walk with R.

tapioca in coconut milk.
which we didn't actually have, as it was still cooling in fridge. We had ice cream for dessert instead.

*Speaking of discotheques, I remember when I was in Mongolia (2002) this is actually what they used to call the clubs. So very 70s. I also went to a Boney M concert in Mongolia. And drank lots of vodka. And ate lots of lamb. And "dried milk products" like aaruul. Ah, 懐かしい。

牛すじ

Found some 牛すじ (beef sinew?? There must be a better word to describe this so it sounds appetising?) at the supermarket on Friday, so thought I would give it a try. We used to buy 牛すじ at costcos, and it was really good, meaty and yummy. But they stopped selling it about a year ago, and it is hard to get in regular supermarkets, well they have it but it is usually rather expensive or in super small lots.

Was going to make a curry (no roux) or casserole (brought a few hot-pots home from Aus) but decided to use up the tomatos in the fridge and make a トマト煮, which I guess is really just a tomato based stew anyway. Or a tomato-ey flavoured 肉じゃが. Or a minestrone soup even....right?!? (J actually said he wished I had put quinoa in it, lol!)

Anyway, it was yummy, following this recipe, and adding a few more stock cubes, and some cheese at the end. Oh, and since I didn't have any red wine (or any red wine I was willing to open and then leave left undrunk!) I used sake instead. Turned out ok.

Served it with plain bagels, since the bread shop near J's work was already sold out of french bread when he stopped by on the way home from work. 残念.

Oh, and the 牛スジ was a good batch: that supermarket is now officially the best for chicken carcasses and beef sinew- what an honour for them!

o-dear, o-den

Saturday J was in charge of meals all day, which meant:

Breakfast: pancakes, with maple syrup
Lunch: Ramen, with moyashi, carrot, pork, wakame
Dinner: Oden with egg, chicken meatballs, duck meatballs, daikon, konyaku, mochi in little astuage bags, hanpen, chikuwa, surimi (fish puree or slurry, haha! so true! man I hate the stuff!)

And miles of mikan!

Sunday we left PIL's before lunch, and got to Costco around noon, but instead of hitting the food court, we did the shopping first - good idea as there was so much sampling going on, we got a full meal without K even leaving the trolley for the whole 1hr and a half we were at Costcos!!
Lunch: half a hot dog, shared with K
Dinner: BBQ chicken pizza, costco of course.
Supper: Costco poppy seed cake, yum yumm yumm! And a cup of pu-erh tea, before my heart started pulpitating, and a google later I realised that pu-erh tea was probably not a good thing to be drinking while pregnant. So a drink of water instead. Oh, and another mikan.

attempt at veges

Dinner tonight is chicken soup with carrots, long onions, and celery. Not much variety, but plenty of volume of veges in there. Will pump up the volume with left over rice, and also some yummy bread rolls from train station bakery before we got on train to come home after our big shopping/library/bank morning out.

Left home a bit later than usual this morning when going for a walk down to the station, so "Forest" was open - stopped in to get some bread for the walk, but there was not that much there even when the shop had just opened. Strange bakery. Ended up getting the same mini-sauasage in a roll for K, and a chicken teriyaki pizza slice for me (which was yummy). Lunch was maki-sushi for K, but she dropped all of them, so went lunch-less. I had 2 oinari-san. Why do they get a -san on them, hmmm? I think our bread was filling enough that we didn't need much for lunch.

just waiting for the rice to cook....

I couldn't have gotten more bleedingly stereotypical today if I had tried:

Pregnant (although simply fat looking to the outside world at this stage) 外人 with toddler in tow, pigging out on Maccas for lunch! Oh, I can hear the critisism already, lol. But I was craving a cheeseburer (low standards, easily pleased) from the time we stepped off the train on the way to playgroup this morning, and there was nothing I could do but satisfy that craving for lunch. And K ate 3/4 of a cheeseburger, wow! I am always surprised these days at how much she can eat.

Tonight, is another slap bang job, unfortunately, as I have still yet to go shopping (am thinking of maybe heading out after dinner, see how we feel):

curry and rice for K

taco rice style ensemble for me (not enough for both K and me)

and a big hatena mark over J, but as he will probably be home late again with work, I figure as long as I have rice, we can throw together something out of our "emergency" cupboard foods, which we are reallly working our way through lately! So much for my starting healthy cooking- tomorrow, for sure.

Last night was cupa soup corn soup with left over tomato pasta and chicken from Sunday night - yep, the leftovers are being well and trully put to use this week too, lol!

和, 豪 and 伊

So it turns out only FIL came today, and when J went shopping last night (after K chucked a tanty and thus I pulled the pin on her and me going) he couldn't find any nice meat for a nabe, so he made 豚の角煮 instead. I haven't had it for ages, and it was pretty yummy!! K ate two whole eggs out of it, but didn't like the daikon, which I can understand as it is a bit bitter. So lunch went well.

I also made some anzac biccies for afternoon tea, but as the first time in the new oven, it took a bit longer than I thought, trying to work out how to use it etc, so they came out of the oven as jiji was ready to leave, so he had it hot - obviously not the way Anzacs are meant to be, oh well. K, J and I had some after they had hardened up a bit, and they were delish, although perhaps a bit too buttery?? This time I used actual golden syrup that I had brough back with me, and as always cut the amount of sugar down to half that of the recipe. Oh, and they seemed to spread a lot more than they ever did in the old crappy microwave oven, so I guess next time I will have to consider that while making them.

ANZAC BISCUITS

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar (I only use half a cup to make them, I think it is enough)
3/4 cup coconut
125g (4 oz) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup (I have used manuka honey and kuromitsu successfully as substitutes in the past)
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon boiling water


Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut.
Combine butter and golden syrup, stir over gentle heat until melted.
Mix soda with boiling water, add to melted butter mixture, stir into dry ingredients.
Take teaspoonfuls of mixture and place on lightly greased oven trays; allow room for spreading.
Cook in slow oven (150ｰC or 300ｰF) for 20 minutes.
Loosen while still warm, then cool on trays.
Makes about 35 according to the recipe, but I have never gotten any more than about 2 dozen out of them.

For dinner, J whipped up a tomato and onion pasta sauce which we served with oven baked chicken breast. Just as the smell of hot, crispy chicken was wafting through the house, I thought how perfect it would be to have some baguette to go with it, so jumped in the car and drove to bakery No.2 (the one near the 100yen lawson) and YES they were open and YES they had baguettes (at only 250yen) and YES it was yummy!!! Finally, some luck with the bread! I even managed to control myself and not overeat at dinner time.....which I reckon means that when the bread cravings come later tonight, I can act on them without feeling guilty♪

焼きうどん?

I am unsure about what to. do..tomorrow the PIL are coming over, and J suggested we do nabe for dinner (or lunch??I am not sure when they are coming actually) So do I use up the pork and chinese cabbage I have in the fridge tonight for dinner, only to have to buy more for nabe tomorrow OR go out shopping now for something for dinner, and again for nabe goods when J gets home or tomorrow morning (as I am not going to be in charge of picking the meat for PIL they are picky about food, and I am sure to get the wrong one!! Leave that to J!)

Dilemma.

As it stands, I can make yakiudon out of stuff I have at home now. Can't really think of anything else I can make without having to buy something to add to it. And I don't really feel like hitting the supermarket today - after all, I have to clean the house, hehe. Oh, and catch up on some US sitcoms online...oh and procrastinate on the internet....oh and lie on the sofa doing not much. Monday's are SO the new Sunday in my world!

Actually, come to think of it I probably dont have enough udon. Hmmmm. Might have to do a cupboard search too and see if I can't come up with another idea.

To be continued.....
**********************
It's 5 to 12, and I am back after R's walk, which was via the 100yen lawson, where I picked up another packet of udon (and some pickles!) - problem solved, dinner decided. May even have some kind of mini-donburi type thing on the side. gonna see what I can rustle up.

I would like to say that I am back about to tuck into some yummy bread for lunch, but low and behold, the bakery near 100yen lawson is closed on Mondays AND the bakery the other side of train station, which I walked all the way back especially for took a special day off today. So no bread. Freezer foods to the rescue for lunch today.

********************
sometime after 10pm....

So dinner turned out like this:

yakiudon,
kinda following this recipe for 味付けat least, using only the veges we had.
and 炊き込みご飯 using this can (which has nothing to do with strawberries) I didn't eat it, as the smell wafting out of the rice cooker was too much for me (should have been forewarned by the blurb on the can "enjoy the ocean rock and seaweed frangrance")
to turn out like this

weekend eat outs

Saturday and Sunday were spent almost entirely in home centres looking for furniture. So meals were on the run (not that that is anything different to a normal weekend - I tend to avoid standing in the kitchen on weekends or public holidays, and either eat out, or let J whip something up!)

Saturday
Lunch : Sushi-ro, our favourite 100yen sushi train!
Dinner: No 18, the chinese shop down the road. I made J drive there as I was sooooo worn out from standing and walking all day. I think it took us longer to park the car, than it did to drive there from our house, that is how close it is!! The lady was happy to see us - second time in less than a week. Bet she thinks she has got some new regulars, lol. I had the 八宝菜 からあげ set, that comes with rice, pickles and soup. J had noodles and gyoza, and K had wantan soup. It was good.

Sunday
Lunch: Gusto, as it was the only place we could find after leaving one home centre, en route to the next one. I don't think I have ever eaten at Gusto before, so I was a bit dissapointed that the didn't have any bread sets, only rice and took me ages to decide on the menu(ended up having "cheese-in-hamburg" but hey, it is cheap family restaurant with drink bar so it did the trick. And K got an Anpanman lunch so she was happy too.
Dinner: J whipped up a lovely pesto pasta, served with salad. After the heavy/greasy lunch it was perfect. K had shirasu with her pasta, and yes, she lapped up the pesto pasta. She has had it before, when visiting a French friend of J's - their kids ate it, so K did too, seems that she is now a fan.

I feel like I ate too much and am still bloated this morning. I think I need to be more careful with my eating or else I am gonna explode, seriously! I am not worried about putting on weight per say while pregnant. but my body is usually pretty good at telling me when to slow down, I just feel off if I am eating too much on a regular basis. So more healthy, vege-centred meals and less snack (boo-hoo) for a little bit I thinks.

to all the fans I've loved, before♪

Wow - I have to apologise to Kel: I had so assumed that my daily dinner blog was far too boring for anyone to read, let alone comment on, and had never even seen the comments you left until you pointed them out to me. Ooops.

So, thanks for the comments, and yep, えのき were the long white mushies I was thinking of but couldn't remember the name of. And I am glad to hear I am not the only one who fell for the bigger eel scam, lol.

As for the fridge and how we chose it, well, truthfully it all came down to one thing: price. Well, actually 2 things: price AND the fact that we have semi-spiral stairs that will only accommodate a 60cm wide fridge at the narrowest point, so we had to get the Yamada denki guys out to measure up the stairs to see if the fridge would fit in or not (in which case, we would have to bring it in over the 2nd floor balcony - at an extra 30,000yen). There are soooooooo many fridges out there, we really had no idea what to look for - all their fancy-schmancy features just got me so confused I sort of zoned out every time we went to Yamada. So when they said we need to measure up the stairs anyway, we thought we should chose the biggest one we thought might ぎりぎり fit、and we could always work backwards from that to find one that did fit. As it turns out, the Panasonic did fit, and it was an "outlet" item - it had a slight scratch (that you totally cannot see) on it as it was a 提示品, and also they were trying to get rid of it before the new models came in - so we got a bit of a discount. And that is why we bought that one. It is funny how quickly a big fridge starts to get smaller...it was 3/4 bare when I moved everything out of the old fridge. It is now filled to the brim, lol!

With all that food in the fridge at my dispoasl, you would think I could be more creative with my dinners......maybe next week!!

thursday and friday on review

J wrote an email to say that he had to go out with clients for dinner on Thursday night, so we just had the left-overs of the chicken soup, K also had some しらす with rice, her fav at the moment.

After a big day of Halloween party at playgroup, and a night before where I had about 2-3 hours sleep max, topped off with a massive headache, I was wasted and went to be wih K at 9pm before J even got home.

Felt a bit better today after taking it easy. Went to go buy bread for lunch, only to realise that the carseat was still out of the car, after a toilet accident a few days ago (it had been washed, but not put back) so we flagged the fresh bread and had spag on toast for lunch.

Dinner tonight was a success:

potato bake, with a delish white sauce touched up with some maggi stock cubes, oh,, the flavour!! and bacon, onion and carrot hidden in amongst the potato, you know, for nutritional value (and a frugal friday-ing type empty the fridge move)

steak

yellow and orange capsicum and eringi mushrooms, stir fried in butter and seasalt

salad - sunny lettuce, tomato and avocado

and the best part - J brought home a French stick!! so we devoured that with the French butter! yum.

bread and butter!!!!!

So, as it turns out, the biggest eel is not always the nicest. Actually, it is usual the toughest. Doh! So there goes my theory of bigger is better, lol. So last night's dinner was a bit of a fizzer.

But yesterday, I found a supermarket down at T-station that has the bestest chicken carcasses ever. At 190yen, the carcass had heaps of meat on it, and made a really nice stock - much better than the 130yen crap from Itoyokado. I threw in some carrot, long onions, zucchini (was a bit unsure about how this would go in the soup, but it did come out very nice), potato and quinoa and served it with a YUMMY batard from Kobeya. Unfortunately, there is no Kobeya bread shop close by, and I got it while out on a play date at a train station about 15mins away, but it has fulfilled the yummy french bread craving for the meantime, so all is good. I reckon we (I) ate half a...half a....half a what of French butter? Half a pound? Half a block? whatever it was, it is now half gone. And so is the batard, which is a shame, as I could go another piece of bread and butter about now.....

unagi

J will be late home from work, so K and I were going to eat first...until for some reason the よやくswitch on the rice cooker didn't work, so the rice is still not cooked. As in, I just flicked the switch now (oops.)

May have to pre-eat last night nabe and noodle left overs before the main event which will be:

unagi-don

niku-jaga

probably some pickles

I think that is all. Boring, only 2 dishes, but it will be enough. And when it is late, I am not that worried about making something spesh, as I can't judge what time J will be home, so figure it is better to have simple and hot and freshly cooked as opposed to been sitting there for the last hour waiting.

first nabe of the season

So tonight, nabe it was.
Kimchee nabe with

pork

tofu

chinese cabbage

eringi mushrooms

those long white mushrooms that I can't remember the name of at the moment

carrots

long onions
and

udon noodles to finish off.

It was yummy, and I even got a bowl left over for my lunch tomorrow.

It was almost a non-event though, as J was late coming home from work - didn't get in until after 8pm, omg!! So K had some rice, sausages and eda-mame earlier, followed by a プリン which I also had too.

I was gonna make J just a single serve of nabe, but decided to humour him, and ate most of it myself anyway, lol! (K even got in on the act, and ate some non-kimchee special 煮込みうどん I made just for her). I am looking forward to more nabe this winter.

The start of a new week

Now that my husband is back (yay) I guess we have to eat some proper meals, which I guess means I have to properaly prepare said meals (not so yay, lol).

So I decided to start this week with a bit of menu-brainstorming, based on stuff we have in the house:

うな重 (don't have this in the house, but after 2 weeks of 出張, I figure J could do with a stamina boost.

pad thai

french bread, potato bake

肉じゃが

kimchee なべ

Not the most inspiring list of dinner ideas, but it will do for a start.

So now I just have to fluff it out and see what I come back from the supermarket with this morning.

the last supper

before J comes home (yay!)

Lunch was peanut butter sandwiches.
Dinner was penne pasta with 市販 cream pasta sauce which apparently had mushrooms and chicken in it. I counted three thin slices of champignon mushrooms and half a sliver of chicken. So I beefed it up with some carrots and broccoli and a chicken breast straight out of the freezer, and grilled under the IH grill - it came out lovely, too!

It hit the spot.

Have also been working our way through the most delicious cake that E brought over yesterday - a Jewish apple cake. The BLTs went well, but the 市販 pumpkin soup was average at the best - I really should make the effort next time to always make my own soup... it was just the thought of pulling out the blender that stopped me. Next time I won' be s lazy.
Anyway, as for the apple cake, man it is good! She gave me the recipe too, so I guess I should post it here before I lose it:

Jewish Apple Cake


INGREDIENTS
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 apples - peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 10 inch tube pan.
Sprinkle sliced apples with 5 tablespoons white sugar and the ground cinnamon. Toss to coat and set aside.
Mix the flour, eggs, 2 1/2 cups sugar, baking powder, salt, vegetable oil, orange juice and vanilla until well blended. Batter will be fairly stiff.
Pour 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan. Place the apple mixture over the batter then pour the remaining batter over the top.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 to 80 minutes. Let cake cool in pan.

Friend's note: "The only difference I made is I put in 6 apples instead of 3, and mixed them up with a LOT of cinnamon and sugar and a bit of lemon juice, then let them soak for about an hour. Then I made the cake with 3 layers--batter, apples, batter, apples, batter, apples, and dumped all the leftover apple-cinnamon-y juice on top. Also, I think it says cook for 70 min., but 90 minutes at 170 worked better."

too tired to bother

Wednesday and Thursday have been write-offs:
heating up leftovers of all sorts (curry/chicken soup), lots of toast and bread, onigiri lunch today on the way home from playgroup etc. May have used up some of the leftovers to give me some room in the fridge. Although, as from Saturday, I am not going to have to be worried about room in the fridge as the new 475L monster arrives YAY YAY and YAY!

Tomorrow is another day of ぷちentertaining, but as I have no umph to do anything except sit on the sofa drowning in my sorrows (feeling a bit icky the last couple of days - rediculously fatigued/headachy/crampy/easily wound up by all the things K is doing) we are keeping it very simple.

Friday lunch entertaining will be:

B.L.T.s on baguettes

french fries on the side and

pumpkin soup
and that is it. I had wanted to try some new ideas for lunch that don't invlove quiche or lasagna, but it will have to wait until I am feeling more energetic.

"doing" lunch

Had a friend over for lunch, and since
1) the oven is still in the lounge room
and
2) I don't even know how to use it
I decided to branch out, be brave, expand my repartee and step away from my standard quiche or lasagna and try a new kind of entertaining. I am not sure if it succeded or not, though!?? I was sort of aiming for something else (better) but this is what happened:

chicken and vegetable noodle soup (carrot, long onion, chinese cabbage, celery)

croissants and cheese and sesame seed bread rolls (toasted under the grill)

salad (baby leaf lettuce, yellow and red capsicum, three beans mix, cucumber)

tomatoes in sea salt and virgin olive oil

and yakitori

And for dessert, cuppa tea/coffee with matcha castella, to remind us of our time in Nagasaki together on exchange.

I wanted to have foccacia with the soup, but trying to find some nice bread in this area just about did my head in yesterday - one bread shop I wanted to try was closed (I can never catch them open!!), the bread shop at Daiei was crap, as was the one in Sotetsu Rosen. Ended up buying at Itoyakado (yes - three supermarkets and a bread shop later I finally bought bread, although it was still not what I was after). I really hope I can find a better bakery around here soon. Of course, once I get my little bread maker, it will be so much fun making our own BROWN bread - ahhhh, drooling at the thought of it.

beanz meanz heinz

We were out and about today, so ate out for lunch. I feel a bit jibbed though - ended up lured by the square shaped hamburgers of Wendy's for lunch. But it was.....average. K had udon noodles, and about 3 cups of ice.

Dinner tonight is about to be baked beans on toast. I am not sure how K will go with it, so it might be natto rice for her. Sort of similar meals in the end, really!

Btw, I use SPC baked beans (♪for hungry little human beings♪) but do like the ol' heinz catch phrase too!

....an hour later: Yes! K loved the baked beans. I knew she would!

another weekend

Saturday was busy, shopping for sofas and fridges, so we ate accordingly: Ikea hot dogs for lunch, and Kura-Zushi sushi train for dinner (located right beside Yamada Denki).

We haven't been to くら寿司 for a while (actually had only been to it once before where it didn't leave much of an impression) but this time we were quite impressed by the 100yen standard and range of sushi - it beats 100yen Kappa-Zushi, or even non-100yen Bikkuri-Zushi where we went last weekend and never got half the things we ordered, as the old guy keps on saying "yep" but never making my sushi. I enjoyed the ゆばsushi this time. Oh, and the caramel cake (he-he-he). The system at Kura-zushi is pretty cool: there is a little slit at the end of the table where you put your empty plates and it counts them up automatically for you. For each 5 plates that you eat, you get a "spin of the wheel", and if you win, you get one of those toys in plastic egg cases. There is a mini touch panel screen at your table that you can order food from, and when your order is getting close to you on the conveyor belt, the touch panel starts beeping at you to let you know to take your order off! Very cool.

Sunday night was back to just K and me, so we had left-over curry and rice. I don't mind doing left-overs when there is at least a day of something else in between.

Family meal

Tonight night J is back (for 2 nights at least, before heading off again)) so a bit more of a real meal happening - if you can call curry a real meal. Hey, pre-prepared this morning to let the flavour sink in, and also because my house was taken over by repairmen most of the day, and J gets in about 6:30pm so I thought all ready done was the way to go. And a curry now and then always goes down well.

last night of just the girls for this week

A big lunch at TGIF after playgroup (their "world famous hamburger" ) meant that I wasn't that hungry for dinner anyway:

* corn soup (once I get a taste for something these days, there is no stopping me!)
* yakitori
* and rice for K.

sounds so boring written down, but hit the spot anyway (for me at least, don't know about poor K! lol)

mr potato head

lunch: corn soup with potato wedges

dinner: mashed potato, pumpkin and japanese weiner sausages (with tomato sauce)

I am kinda loving the simple life!

freezer foods

no motivation to cook for just K and me, so it is leftovers (actually not-used-overs?!?) from stuff I bought for friend's visit on Sunday night but never used:

* fried rice
* yakitori
* soy beans

all about to be heated up in a flash.

doesn't hurt once in a while to have a tv-dinner(or the japanese version of that, lol), surely!? and it is a freezer-clean out to boot!

いただきま～す

start of a week of hubby away

J is away on a business trip - so simple meals for us.
Kicked off with (tinned) spaghetti on toast. Noice!

Last night we had friends over dinner/sleep-over, and I made a simple lasagna with salad. I grated some pumpkin into it, as last time I did that it made it so nice and creamy. And it didn't dissapoint this time either. I was a bit apprehensive, because it has been so long since I made a lasagna, I was not sure how it would turn out, but everyone had seconds, so it couldn't have been too bad! After dinnner we (I) overdosed on heaps of snacky stuff - cheese, olives, crackers... it was great!!

cleaning out the fridge before the weekend

And that is what our dinner amounts to - frugal friday I guess:

* Salmon
* spinach egg roll - I am gonna try this one out, see how we go!
* tofu - still haven't actually put it out once this week, as keep on forgetting at the last minute! Tonight is definately 冷奴
* asparagus spears sauted in butter
* some inari-zushi I bought for lunch but didn't eat
* noodle soup (just from a packet)
* salad, of course
* left over eggplant and mince stuffing, probably gonna give this to K with rice
* pickles
* eda-mame
I think that is about it, hope I remember to put it all out. Nothing exciting, but hopefully the number of different foods will make up for the lack of volume in each. And of course, we need to leave room for MR. Donuts for dessert anyway!!

early menu planning

wow, not even 10am and I have tonight's dinner on my mind!


* Eggplant with mince and cheese a.k.a. "stuffed eggplant"
* Potato something (bought a 2.5kg box from Itoyokado last night for 398yen....instead of the 6 for 158yen. So plenty of potato cooking coming up!)
* Chicken soup (made from chicken carcass) with carrots, onions, celery, what else can I put in it?? oh yeah, some quinoa, and probably potatoes, haha
* Salad - still miles of lettuce and tomato around.

just the girls

J has a work dinner with clients, so just K and me. And since K has come down with a cold, and has only eaten natto and rice (and only snippets of it at that) since dinner last night, I am not getting too excited over making anything. Gonna pull out the tin of spaghetti I brough home from Aus and slather it over a slice of toast.

Actually, come to think of it, that *does* sound pretty exciting!

buri

MIL brought some rice over on the weekend - it had been sent down from someone in Miyagi. I was going to keep it, but J made a comment last night that the rice we are using is starting to taste あまり美味しくなくなった　- when we ordered it 10months ago in the big 10kg bags, they sent a second bag out free, so we have had it for a while. Anyway, thought I would be nice and cook up the 新米 tonight for him.

* 新米
* ブリ大根　（without the daikon) 煮る the buri in 100ml dashi, 50ml sake, 25ml soy, 25ml mirin (if I had any) and some ginger....hope it turns out ok.
* tofu that I forgot to put out last night
* snake gourd in へちまの味噌炒め　using dried scallops reconstituted in boiling water
* salad - still some lettuce, cucumber, avo, tom, red cabbage left to use up
* also still have eggplant, so will just fry it up and serve dressed with 昆布つゆ

dessert should be the plethora of fruit we have including nashi, apples, red seedless grapes, あけび and guava!

Akebia is also known as chocolate vine, or so the dictionary said.

luffa gourd ヘチマ

how interesting.

MIL brought around a zucchini-looking-goya-looking vege yesterday. I thought she said it was called へじば　but googling came up with nothing but references to じじばば so some serious detective googling and I realised that it is in the gourd family, and it is actually called ヘチマ or luffa....yep, just like loufers you use to scrub dpwn dead skin cells! ha! how cool is that. Is also used alot in okinawan cooking, apparently.

Anyway, am going to find a recipe for it to use tomorrow night, as tonight is:

* salad - lettuce, red cabbage, avocado, tomato, cucumber.
* bbq meat （市販タレ付き焼肉）that J had in the freezer.
* pumpkin soup (gotta make that now)
* rice
and perhaps some natto too.


oh and some tofu - 冷奴.
and the soup has turned our just fantastic (added a maggi stock cube to it), if I do say so myself. Gotta love pumpkin soup! Just gotta add some cream to it before serving.

busy weeekend

Saturday- trip to costcos followed by house warming for N and S, so lots of junky food, and all-day eating!

Lunch
* hot dog with soft drink

The rest of the day (everyone brought along a dish to the housewarming)
* pizza
* green olives
* french bread with pate
* okinawan soba
* kfc (thanks Y!)
* salmon carpaciao
* scallop rice with salmon roe (K gobbled this one down, haha)


Sunday
Ramen for lunch as PIL were over to help with doing up the back yard

Dinner-
A trip to Ikea for furniture meant Ikea meal for dinner. How cheap is it (ok, not the most amazing meals, but still)!
J - vege curry for 498yen
T and K - shared a 295yen pasta
T - almond cake for dessert - yummy!!

chinese on IH

After dinner last night we went out to the supermarket to get some supplies and came back with pork, eggplant, pumpkin, milk, bread, roast beef, ham, cheese, mitsuya cider and iced green tea (for some reason I was dying to drink it!!)

So today's lunch was:

Roast beef and cheese sandwich for K (using the last of the bread after we both had 2 slices of toast for breakky, with vegemite on it no less!) and a roast beef, tomato, sunny lettuce salad for me. How good am I! Well, I had it with mitsuya cider so not *that* good, lol.

Dinner:

Pork stir fry (substituted veges in recipe for: eggplant, carrot and long onions and it came out delish! also, have no cooking sake in house so used sherry kept for trifles instead and, yay, it worked!!)Nice and tasty recipe.

fried rice (with left over rice from last night, when I cooked up 3 cups - usually we eat 2 cups, but I overestimated that last night I would be so into my rice that I would have refills, which I didn't)

Again I had issues with the IH hotplates. Using the IH-designated stainless steel fry pan to cook the pork (even in half a bottle of oil) ended up in the bottom of the pot being burnt to smithereens, so I had to change to the teflon fry pan anyway. I hope this IH cooking gets easier.

Also hope I can find my way around the kitchen better fast - spend half the time searching for when I put things away, over a month ago, hehe.

first wa in a month

First dinner back home on Thursday night:

salmon
rice
egg roll
wakame miso soup

How Japanese can you get? I also know realised that I have to learn to cook everything again.....our new house has an IH hot plate, so things like the egg roll turned out pretty average, since I am used to making it over a gas burner. Also couldn't work out the griller menu, so it was taking forever to cook the salmon, until J came home and showed me how to work it (set it to "cook fish"). *sigh*

I am gonna sound all Japanese here, but I was kinda looking forward to a meal with rice, after a month away. how sad is that. K shoved it into her too, hehe.