suprisingly good

tuna and spinach "doria" loosely based on this and another recipe for au gratin, plus 2 and a bit tablespoons of sour cream (=yoghurt in this household). HAd about 1 cup of cooked rice left over too, so it fit perfectly in my half -quiche dish and enough for the three of us since J had already eaten something light at a work mixer. Super easy and quick.

turkey

turkey, turkey and more turkey - with gravy and cranberry sauce

Roasted a 5kg or so bird for Xmas (actually, on the 23rd) with whole potatoes and pumpkin and green beans on the side.
wish I had taken a photo....

Xmas cake was cut up and served for afternoon tea, together with mince pies and some fruit.

For the past few days we have rehashed the turkey into sandwiches and on toast for breakfast!
YUM gobble gobble!

just eating (continued)

Oct 17-23 : J on business trip to France/Spain so nothing special to write about food wise


Sun Oct 24: dinner at kura-sushi ;)
Mon Oct 25: salmon, rice, 牛蒡きんぴら, soy beans with hijiki, nameko miso soup
Tue Oct 26: cream of celery soup, eggplant, zucchini and eringi mushroom gratin served with pork chops and mashed potato
Wed Oct 27: ハムバーグ with green beans, rice
Thurs Oct 28: leftovers for me; かぼちゃ煮物、マーボーなす, rice,
Fri Oct 29: chicken and bacon with carbonara pasta sauce, fresh bread (baking now!!)

Sat Oct 30-Fri Nov 5th: J on a business trip to Thailand....so don'T expect anything from our kitchen for a while.

just eating (and introducing "urizun")

Friday 8th - hot pasta salad with sausages

Sat 9th - lunch was at the non-100yen a plate sushi train, coz we left it too late to get to kura sushi and it was a 95min wait when I took my ticket in line at 11:40am (sigh)
- dinner was ramen

Sun 10th - pancakes for breaky ;)
- lunch is a blur, but I remember dinner being beef suji stew

Mon 11th - J decided AFTER our sleep-in/lazy morning that he wanted to try out "Bills" the Aussie restaurant that is famous for its scrambled eggs and pancakes. Of course, by the time we got to the Shonan restaurant at 11:15am there was a 3hour wait!!!! so we stopped off at a random restaurant instead.
- dinner was at Saizeria on the way home from an impromtu visit to Y and his family

Tues 12th - アジの干物, stirfry eggplant in miso, shijimi miso soup, and some vege from okinawa or something that I cant remember the name of, stirfried in some weipa (sp? the chinese chicken stock powder stuff that everyone uses in Kansai) and a bit of soy I think.

hey - just found the vege "urizun" and it is called 四角豆 in japanese, or so J says ;)
It has a good texture, but to tell you the truth, I couldnt tell you what it tastes like as the flavours in the sauce were all I could taste :)

eat those veges

when J rang up after work, and asked what was for dinner, I said veges. I wasnt joking:

* salad with lettuce, mizuna, red and yellow capsicums, tomato, avocado, cucumber and carrot
* brocolli with egg/mayo/shirasu topping (grilled under the toaster)
* mushrooms, asparagus and bacon in butter/soy
* tofu
and rice

ok not totally vege, but you get the drift...no main meat dish.
Even K enjoyed her brocolli ;)

Still got those couple dozen eggs to do something with aaarrrggghhhh!! quiche tomorrow, maybe??! lol

long live the packet mixes!!!

Saturday - lunch at sushi-ro with the PIL. My first sushi in over a month (bar the "attempted" sushi roll I made at home for AFL grand final day, that when I said to J I was making roll sushi he LAUGHED at me - I realised while making it why he had laughed, lol!!)
- dinner was okonomiyaki (the only other Japanese meal I made at home, since my family always seem to like it. Next time I must remember to take the okonomiyaki mix from Japan tho, as it was a bit tasteless making it from scratch, even following the recipe...)

Sunday - ブリの照り焼き　（thanks J)

Monday - (start of inernational week part 2)
- Pad Thai, an old favourite ;) Had been to costco during the day to pick up the packet, and some frozen prawns

Tuesday - Indian Hyberdad chicken curry (packet from home) and ready-to-eat paneer curry from a packet, served with naan bread (packet mix that had been sitting in the cupboard for years), and rice, and rati(is that what it is called, the yoghurt and cucumber side dish that I had to pour into the curries to "cool" them down!!)

Wednesday - Ni hau! Chinese cream of corn soup and 中華丼; maybe some (frozen) gyoza since J is always partial to them.

Thursday and Friday - I have miles of fresh and frozen ingredients that really need to be thoughtfully used, so I am gonna have to think about those dinners. Also we will be camping over the weekend so I want to use up as much as possible to avoid a "mottainai" moment. All I know is I have half a bunch of nira and about 2 doz eggs so I can see a nira-tama comin' on. ;)

first night back home

and dinner was a boring heat-in-the-packet pasta sauce with spagghetti.....SOOOO just couldnt bring myself to actually cook anything. Hope this isn't a sign of what I can expect (of myself) to come (lol). But since I did bring back some curry mixes and other random stuffs from Aus, maybe I could try a bit harder from now on. fingers crossed xx

Oh, and what did we eat while in Aus - the usuals: bbqs, snags and mash, gourmet pizzas, rotisserie chicken (yum!!), roast lamb (thanks BIL for a FAB roast last sunday - I ate so much, I actually gorged myself on it, so couldn't eat a thing on monday, lol!!), meat pies, beer-battered chips, apple pies, lamingtons, bundaberg peachees (ok thats a drink), lots of cheese and biccies and dips and kabana, cherrios (lol).....yep enjoyed our food while back home. now gotta start workin it all off - AGAIN ;(

wow, got 2 weeks to review (the pressure!!)

So obviously lost my cooking mojo, with days ranging up to 37degrees, I can't be expected to feel like eating, surely, let alone cooking!

9th - M came over during the day, and since I couldn't find the discount pizza coupons (turned out J had thrown them out, probably about 2 seconds after I said I would like to order a pizza when friend comes over, sigh) so we had salad and somen for lunch, with some frozen yakitori ;)

Seriously can't remember what we had then for Dinner on the 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th.

13th - goya champuru

14th - bbq while camping out at Doshi-mura.

15th - sushi at the expensive(r) sushi train, since kura-sushi was jam-packed! It was actually kinda nice for a change, at ttytt, only cost 3500yen for us all, compared to our regular 2500-2900yen at sushi train.

16th - after a big day out at the amusement park for K, we came home for dinner: すぶた thanks to J!

17th - salmon, rice, wakame miso soup and vege tomato stir-fry

18th - Curry rice

19th- left over curry rice ;)

20th - tried something new to use up the plethora of goya I have (PIL gave me MORE on Wed!!! Even tho I gave the neighbours some, still had a big one left)

This "goya fry" was not worth trying again - from now on, even if it means eating it 3 times a week, I will only cook goya champuru with my goya.

Also tried a sweet style eggplant and mince dish, rather than my usual マーボーナス tonight and it was good!! Served with rice, pumpkin soup, half-pickled carrots (as in, I didn't put them in early enough so they were not quite done) and some tomatoes.


Been having issues with K and meals lately too - I think it may be the heat, tiredness and going through "a stage" on her behalf too, but it really takes all the fun (if there ever was any) out of meal times, and everything to do with it. sigh.


Bring on the weekend and J's turn in the kitchen XD

cant think of any titles for my "getting more boring every post" food blog

Thurs 5th Aug - salmon, rice, hiyayakko (with momen tofu, accidently bought instead of silken "kinu" tofu. J had like one bite, fussy bugger that he is... lol)

Fri 6th Aug - spag bol, loaded with veges and in home-made 適当 sauce, frenchstick and french butter ;) and tofu salad (gotta use up that hard tofu!!)

Sat 7th Aug

breakfast was french toast with scrambled eggs for K (loves her eggs)

lunch was somen, after J took K to the doctors for a possible corn on her foot:(

dinner was hawaiian pizza (new menu!!) at costco for me, hotdog for K, followed by yakitori at the local summer festival that we saw going on when we got home, and J then had maguro-don

Sun 8th Aug hmmmm, wonder what we have in store for today? breakfast was coffee with costco poundcakes - great way to start the day, right?!?! Its already past 11am tho, so I dont think we can make it to kura-sushi before the lunch time rush either....

havin' a ball.....

Mon Aug 2 - J had a work dinner, and I caught up with a long-lost cuz (travelling thru Japan, we hadn't seen in each other in something like 15years+)and went to yakitori, where I found out he was vegetarian, so vege-yaki all 'round ;)

Tues Aug 3 - Takoyaki. Hundreds of the little buggers. Well, we probably made about 80 balls, and there were 2 doz left, which I froze (hmmm, not sure how that will turn out) so I must have eaten at least 30! A bit of salad on the side, and some corn on the cob, but really it was all about the takoyaki.

Wed Aug 4 - J texted to say he would be lateish home, so start without him. So we made it simple: rice, salmon, three-beans, and egg roll (J got himself an egg/yamaimo rice concction. yech!)

still searching for my cooking mojo.....(sigh)

Wed Jul 28:
* tonkatsu (instant shaker type tonkatsu coating!)
* mashed potato
* carrots sauteed in maple syrup and butter
* asparagus spears
* white bread
*

Thurs Jul 29:
* squid and vege stir fry in oyster sauce
* tofu
* rice
* ししとう
* gyoza

Fri Jul 30:
* fried rice (I seem to be eating less rice, so we are having leftovers every night again even though I only make 2go of rice....the freezer is getting overloaded with rice!!)
* mabo nasu
* left over squid vege stir fry
* salad

beating the heat

Sun 25th - an early unagi eating fest at home with JAPANESE eel (wow, going all out! talk about breaking the bank) and shijimi miso soup. a 定番 menu to beat the 夏ばて (I hope)

Mon 26th - chicken, red capsicum, green beans and mushroom alfredo sauce (out of a jar) pasta with brown bread (homemade). Had to russle up something quick after not getting home until after 5pm after picing up L's passport, and taking K to a trial ballet lesson (that she looooooved, even tho she did all the moves from the sideline right beside me ;)

Tues 27th - goya champuru AGAIN!!!!!
(got another 2 goya from PIL over the weekend. was gonna make goya soup or deep-fried goya, but by the time I got my arse into gear, I really couldnt be bothered!still have a whole goya left to make something with later this week anyways) and 牛蒡金平 which I havent made in ages (wonder if the gobo eaten this wasy is as good for me as making tea out of it - apparently the new wonder diet, just saw it on "The music hour" tv program, of course (!?!?), miso soup using new miso, differnt to what we always buy, and after I made it I found out that it doesnt have the dashi already in it (like the one we usually buy) so it was very tasteless, lol. Only K and I had this as J was late home, so I resurected it with dashi b4 he had dinner.

Wed 28th

This week in review

Tues 21st: 肉じゃが　
Wed 22nd: eggplant and mushrooms with salted salmon steaks on the side, rice, salad, wakame soup
Thurs 24th: curry rice (all from the freezer - how easy!!) and salad
Fri 25th: will be goya chanpuru (had to buy the atsu-age for this otherwise frugal dish), and shirasu-tofu. Cool and summery, just what we need on another hot day.

twas a frugal friday

* shirasu (those teeny tiny little white-bait fish), ate them for calcium
* tofu
* wakame miso soup
* vege stir-fry (eggplant, zucchini, green beans. yellow caps, 2 types of mushrooms, onion)
* rice
* natto
and a cleaned out fridge!

midweek eats

Wed night dinner -

アジの干物

potato salad with tuna and brocolli

ゆば

side salad

rice

miso soup with nameko

pickles

and I feel like there was more, cos the table was pretty chock a block, but cant remember what it was....


Tonight -

mushrooms (have about 3 diff types to maybe ホイル焼き？) ＊ended up making this in the oven toaster with the shiitake - was pretty yum too!

somen (topped with shiso leaves)

bok choi in oyster sauce

salad

and left over thai curry.
Sounds like an easy way to get out of tonight's cooking!!

Thai food

tonight: Pad thai, with 小籠包, and side salad.
tomorrow night: is gonna be thai green curry. got the eggplant and zucchini aaaaallllllllll ready for it, yum!

getting hotter every day

Tues June 29th - can't remember but J was out with clients, so it wouldn't have been anything special, that's for sure!!

Wed June 30th - hot pasta salad (zucchini, button mushrooms, sausages, onion, tomato sauce) with french bread

Thurs July 1st - butter grilled cod, rice, tofu, salad

Fri July 2nd - hmmm, got rice, veges (asparagus - grilled, serve with mayo?, pak choi - in oyster sauce?), will probably do a nira-tama to use up some eggs, age-dashi tofu, and just found some salmon and squid in theh freezer, so grilled squid, and salmon sashimi or carpacio to go with it. Sounds almost like a feast?!? haha

***J actually commented that maybe I should have ditched one of the dishes as too MUCh food tonight. Ended up going with:
rice, grilled asparagus, nira-tama, atu-age tofu in nira-tama sauce, avocado, s+p grilled pumpkin (forgot about that one in the fridge), marinated squid, salmon sashimi, and shijimi miso soup. And poor J ended up having to cook up half of it since L woke up just as J rang to say he was on his way home, so I got nothing done (although had actually prepped most of it tho, as K had already eaten..)

lotsa pizza

Sun - Saizeria, on way home from day out. Meat Doria (me), bacon and salami pizza (K), cheese foccacia(me), minestrone soup(me), hayashi rice (J) all-u-can-drink bar.

Mon - costco combo pizza leftovers from lunch :=D

too hot to be bothered

Fri - somen, stir-fry veges (carrot, beans, mush, cabbage in butter/soy), pastrami and salad

Sat - tuna and scallop sashimi donburi, asari clam miso soup (courtesy of J). this was hot on the heels of a fab pig-out lunch of 石焼ビビンバat 焼肉joint down the road.

keepin' on eatin'

Mon - 冷やし中華
Tues - chips, hamburger steaks (in demi-glace sauce, topped with melted cheese), salad
Wed - oven roasted chicken, stuffed with shiso and umeboshi; yuba rolls (お土産 from PIL), grilled たけのこ and ししとう (both from PIL), tomato and cucumber salad, rice
Thurs - にくじゃが, あじの干物, bean salad, green salad with boiled eggs, sauteed zucchini, rice

not so riceless

Wed - brown rice, with goya champuru (seriously, it is becoming a wed night regular lately), salad, and there was another dish but I cant for the life of me now remember what it was...
Thurs - mashed potato with casserole. the real stuff (a.k.a. packet of continental savory casserole base: comfort food)
Fri - unagi, edamame tofu, salad, stir-fry enoki mushrooms with bok choi, wakame miso soup and frozen rice!!

Unfortunately all the easy meals are best served with rice.

J away over the weekend so leftovers, freezer clean out and frugal eating for K and I - just in time for a possible trip to Costcos on Mon so we can blow the budget and fill up the freezer again.

riceless is nice sometimes too

Realised on Fri night that we had run out of rice. As in, i used up the last of it for dinner! And since we forgot to buy any when we went shopping on the weekend, we are gonna tuff it out until Sat when there are 5* points at the supermarket.
So this week is going to be pretty much riceless (I still have enough frozen for probably one dinners worth). I am ok with a riceless week, of course, but if last night was anything to go by, J will be eating cup ramen for midnight snacks all week (you know, Japanese people are never "full" unless they have eaten a bowl of rice, ROLLS EYES)

**************************************

Mon: Oven-roasted herb chicken fillets, with mashed potato, pumpkin, cabbage and asparagus wrapped in bacon. YUMMY asparagus, from Hokkaido.

Tues: Pasta. eggplant, bacon, mushroom, capsicum in tomato-mushroom sauce. Served with side salads (green salad, three beans mix, tomato/shiso/cucumber). Corn on the cobb (forgot to serve it last night). Possibly with french stick, if I can get to talk to J before he goes past the bread shop on his way home from work.

Japanese - the new international cuisine?

so international week sort of lost its umph - 和食 just seems so much easier sometimes.

Thurs: K as super hungry by 6pm, when I went to get some rice to throw natto into for her, I realised that I had set the timer on the rice cooker for 6:30AM.....this happens a bit, actually. So I had to "チン" some rice for her, and I had the left overs of the quiche. J got home only 30mins later, and he had a simple meal of natto-rice too.

Fri: 金目代の干物, miso soup, 冷奴, salad

Sat: hot dogs - freezer clean out ;-)
Sun: Kura-sushi. They have all these new items on the menu, esp some stuff for World Cup so I had a big blow-out here trying all the new stuff, as well as my usual favourites. K had 5 plates of sushi herself, including 2*salmon!!!

luv-ya goya

WED: goya champuru, mabo nasu, salad, rice, miso soup.

Hmmm, can I call this okinawan and chinese? lol

For someone who couldnt stand goya a few years ago, I am a true convert now ;-) I ate most of it myself tonight!!

Int food week : Italianesque

TUES: minestrone soup (bacon, onion, carrots, cannellini (white kidney) beans)) with french bread; brocolli quiche. yum.
Only thing is, if I call this meal Italian, does that mean I cant make any pasta later on in the week??

International food week begins

Sun: JAPAN >edamame tofu, somen, squid (sashimi style and with olive oil/s&p). we had lunch at sushi-ro, just to keep with the theme ;-)
Mon: THAILAND > Pad Thai

lets see if I really can go a different country each night this week, lol.

fri night = steak night!

Wed - goya champuru, rice, vege soup, salad.

Thurs - total write off, thanks to BIG day out. LEft over pasta, and pizza for K and I. J even gad to get his own meal as I thought he would have eaten already after a day trip to osaka for work, but he got home early and un-eaten (? for want of a better word) to nothing!!

Fri - steak with hot pasta salad (mushrooms, onion, eggplant, yellow capsicum, snow peas and pasta spirals in "prego" tomato and mushroom sauce), dinner rolls from costco. Am looking forward to tonight's dinner☆

starting over

A biggish shop on the weekend, and a bit more settled into the whole baby routine, so hoping that we can get back to some real meals from now on.

Tonight:

unagi on rice

miso soup (wakame and tofu)

egg roll

青梗菜 and mushrooms in 昆布つゆ

冷しゃぶsalad - leftovers from last night.

Ok, nothing fancy, but the theme at the moment is still "volume" and "quick and easy"

Remember me?

My kitchen doesn't seem to - it has been a while, I guess.....

While I did cook up most nights while my parents were here, it was my first time ALONE IN THE KITCHEN since L was born. While he is usually fussy this time of night, tonight he obliged with falling sound asleep around 5:30pm, so I did a "carpe diem" and came up with the following:

miso soup with wakame (and tofu, if J remembers to buy it on the way home)

rice

pork 西京焼き (pre-marinated stuff from the freezer)

green salad (shiso, lettuce, mizuna, tomato, cucumber and avocado)

ふわふわ egg roll

青梗菜 and carrot in butter/昆布つゆ
and gonna throw some natto, 梅干 and anything else that might be festering in the fridge to the mix.

Ok, so not a meal to really write home about (or really blog about) but kinda feel good that I have been able to put this together. Of course, J rings up to say he is gonna get his haircut on the way home, so now we have to wait for him. Bet little L wakes up in the meantime, and it all goes pear shaped, but for now, I am giving myself a little pat on the back, lol!

baby day 3: and gratuitous baby photo!

posting from my mobile (accidently to my food blog - oops obviously forgot to change post to settings, haha!)
thanks lulu, nay and kel for comments here and gaijin wife for mail and comment on other blog.so the vote was 7/12 for a boy @_@ apparently my mum and mil thought boy too, as well as half of playgroup too(*^^*)

had busy day with visitors yesterday and unsettled baby boy (maybe i have to make up a nickname to refer to him -"vanilla ice" maybe?) from abt 11pm for a few hours- just as my tiredness was peaking!) but after a midnight snack (for him) he slept thru past his 4am feed until 530 so i got a bit of rest and am feeling good again (^-^)

talking abt food....just waiting 4 lunch now- food is average. VERY small portions (or maybe I just still have my piggy appetite. rice 4 every meal getting boring but I guess at least i dont have to cook it. and i have smuggled in heaps of treats to keep me going

welcoming our own little volcano

that waited and waited then couldn't wait no more!(a little story of major ironic proportions)

 

 

Wed afternoon:skyped with J in paris who was abt to visit the eifel tower- about 10mins after hanging up he rang bak to say he just had a phone call from ana and would get on a flight that night!!u beauty!

 

Thurs am(just after midnight): j rings to confirm he is getting on the plane and coming home : yay!(he missed out on sightseeing tho,  zannen!)

I spend whole day on couch to avoid jinxing myself or baby in any way. J gets home around 6pm and we head out for celebratory kura sushi(where i have a major pigout)! ge home and J has a bath with kyla and then i have relaxing bath, and put on 2 loads of washing (nothing left in laundry basket). head to bed round 11:30pm but cant sleep so play space invaders type game on keitai. 

 

Fri april 23

12:25ish - finally fall asleep only to wake up minutes later feeling odd, followed by a small popping sound and the slightest feeling that i had wet myself. freak out that it might be my waters breaking so wake J, call hospital(1250), then begin to doubt self as no running brooke, not even a trickle,  but in for check anyway.

 

130am: check shows faint positive of broken waters, so I am hospitalised. J sent home as no contractions, and still only 3cm so it could take days!

 

145am:shown to bed in labouring room, put on baby moniter.a bit of tightening tummy but nothing out of norm.

 

215am: bumped from labouring room as 2 new cases coming in (with real contractions!)get put on drip for gbs.

 

245am:drip finished, go to loo

 

300am: start to feel dif, like a wave of period pain. easy to breath lightly thru it. seems to come again in 15mins so start to time it.

 

400am: tell nurse abt 15min contractions that seem to have mini-contractions at half-way point. go to loo a few more times.

 

457am: painful contractions(can still breath thru alone tho) start coming what seems every 3mins, wtf? figure must be timing wrong. go to loo again.

 

515am: back from loo and gripping on to side of bed for dear life during contraction: no more doing this alone!. manage to do a nurse call. she gets narky at me when I have a contraction and tell her I wanna do poo half way thru. she tries to tell me it is a sign baby is coming . 

 

520am: midwife comes to ask how I am - measures me at 5cm and decides to call J to come bak. I wonder how am gonna get thru another 5cm as already the pain is killing- start wishing for drugs.

525am: try to get a quick sms to J to remember camera but can hardly even write 5letters「忘れないで」 in so much pain.

 

532am: nurse has returned to check me as am writhing like a possesed mad woman but decides we go straight to birthing room (turns out it is the operating room as nowhere else free!)manage to walk the 4m to or before another contraction hits.get up on bed (aka operating table) 

 

5:42am: i am now 8cm dialated but it is decided that the baby is coming so lets push

 

push thru 3 maybe 4 contractions(this was the easiest part)

 

548am: baby slipped out.measures  3286g and 49cm.  

552am:  j arrives at hospital only to be told that his son was born justminutes ago!

 

so ironic!!!

 

 

So in the end our little baby boy was born in quite a rush. We are both doing well &  feeling fine, and now trying to come up with a boys name!!  I have to keep fending off J's suggestions,  like "Ice". Hope we come up with something more suitable soon. 

 

in the meantime i am getting bored in hospital - talk about 暇! and that is even with baby boy rooming in!

 

i cant believe it is a boy!!!!!  wonder what the final score on my poll was? congrats to everyone who voted correct- u get to share in my sleep deprived blog dribble here for,  oh the next year or two haha!

 

 

The week in meals

Mon 12th night - chinese chicken & cashew nuts and mabo nasu, egg roll at mum's request :-)
Tues 13th night - mum's famous hot pasta salad with sausages. very nice.
Wed 14th night - curry; leftovers frozen for post-baby quick meals
Thurs 15th night - made my folks suffer through 和食 with salmon, rice, pickles, egg roll with nira, mushrooms and spinach in butter/garlic/めんつゆ sauce, side salad and dad's soup! (they thought it was a veritable feast with so many different dishes, lol)
Fri 16th night - quiche and mashed potato
Sat 17th night - since I have so much pie crust left (why this time I have enough for three, when I usually only have enough for 2, I donU't know, but it is a VERY GOOD pie crust - I may almost be tempted to say I have found my pie-crust groove!!) am going to make a shepherds pie for dinner. yum!
Wow - never done so much cooking while J is away, lol. And making bread most days - breadmaker working hard!

April Wed 7th -Sun 11th dinners

Wed Apr 7th - Japanese night: natto rice for K and J, rice with spinachおひたし, zucchini chanpuru, miso soup
Thurs Apr 8th - creamy chicken& mushroom pasta
Fri Apr 9th - Yakiniku on home gas burner
Sat Apr 10th - vege soup, thanks Dad!
Sun Apr 11th - chicken meatballs in gravy (yum), with mash potato, pumpkin and bok choi in butter/soy

In general, a lot of western style food, and trying to keep the cooking times down so simple all the way!! And I am getting better at cooking for 4 (well, 3 adults and K, now that J is away this week). I figure we may as well cook at home while I am here, then once baby arrives, we can do more take outs and get mum and dad to cook more.

This week's dinner ideas include:

chinese chicken & cashew nuts and mabo nasu

quiche

mum's famouse hot pasta salad (got a great zucchini to go in it)

curry (once I get a block of beef somewhere...having trouble finding one in the shops at the moment for some reason. And we usually use either 牛筋 or block of pork, but mum can't eat pork so need to find a block of beef - as I don't like the pre-cut chinks of curry meat they sell, and dad wasn't so keen to use the thinly sliced beef..)

almond cookies (ok, not dinner, but would like to make some for mum to try)

cooking for 4

Apr 1st: (first night my parents are here, and I am hit with a mix of allergies and fever and headaches....) Dinner: chicken, 青梗菜 and mushroom alfredo sauce spaghetti

Apr 2nd (Fri): K's 3rd birthday party at home. Lunch was yakiniku (we remembered as the meat came out that it was Good Friday, oops). Redeemed ourselves (?) at dinner time with 手巻き寿司

Apr 3rd (Sat): Flounder ムニエル with baby potatoes and エリンギmushrooms, salad for mum and me. Wa-style sea mackeral 煮物 for dad and J. (J's idea to cook it like that ;-))

Apr 4th (Sun): Chinese at home, thanks to J. Fried rice, ふかひれsoup, 青梗菜 in oyster sauce, mabo nasu

Apr 5th (Mon): Asparagus, bacon, onion and spinach quiche (pie crust was one of the best I have ever made, yay! may have gotten my pie-crust "mojo"?? FMIO: 5eggs used with about 1 cup milk and it made a nice consistency, cooed at 180deg for 25mins, then another 10mins before serving), salad and pumpkin soup (with some onion/carrots/potato/garlic thrown in too - this was yum!)

Apr 6th (Tues): planning to have mash potato, pumpkin, zucchini, corn on the cob, and steak. Just like being at "home"

I am not used to making meals for 4, so this is an interesting challenge - to have enough for everyone to eat!! And to be able to make enough without being stuck in the kitchen all night. Getting lots of help from J over the weekend, and Mum too so am grateful for that :-)

Sat 27-Wed 31 Mar dinners

Trying to keep standing in the kitchen time down low with meals that require close to zero prep:

Sat - easter picnic (store bought bento lunch), dinner was

Sun - lunch K and J had noodles, while I was out to it with a headache. Dinner was yummy 肉じゃが, rice, pickles, thanks to J.

Mon - 肉じゃが leftovers, rice, HUGEなめこ and tofu in miso soup, salad, salmon and ひじき煮物

Tues - Pork 西京焼き steaks, 冷奴、nameko-miso soup again, grilled asparagus spears, salad,ひじき煮物, and にら玉 with あんかけ

Wed - and tonight we are having Pad Thai.

My parents get in from late tonight (after dinner) so will see how our menu changes ;-)

Mar 24 wed- Mar 26 Fri dinners

Wed night - J had dinner with a customer after work, so K and I had maze-gohan or the like.

Thurs night - Rice with あじ干物, egg roll, moyashi miso soup, pickles, snack end beans.

Fri night - Nagasaki champon with whatever leftovers I had, like cabbage, mizuna, moyashi, carrots, but no meat, but did have prawns, so not a total poor mans dish. Served with gyoza.


Things have been simple for dinners, as lots of other stuff going on a the mo that is stressing me out, so am not at all focussed on food. Am kinda surprised that we have managed to eat at all the last few days :-)

what we ate (round up)

A pregnancy brain moment and I posted last week's dinners on the other blog. oops

Thurs night's dinner

Friday night's dinner

The weekend was spent out and about and away.

Sat lunch - usual 回転すし this time at すしロー

Sat dinner - Maccas, on our way to PIL's holiday house

Sun lunch - やきそば for K and J, I had meatloaf leftovers

Sun dinner - rice, natto and okra, salad, spring rolls (don't ask me why, but J bought them!!)

Mon lunch - hot dogs at costcos - now at the reduced price of 200yen each, including drink!

Mon dinner - seafood pizza from costcos

Tonight J has to go out drinking for work - it is a tough life, haha. Actually, he is not keen to go, but hasn't been since Nov last year, so should make an appearance. Was going to make curry (at J's request - I always think it is funny that he requests curry, but I guess it would be kinda like me requesting a casserole, right?!), may still even do this so it is ready for tomorrow night. But K and I will probably make do with something simple (especially after I have just gorged myself now on choc muffins from costcos with my afternoon tea ;)

Still waiting for K to surface from her nap so we can have some strawberries for a snack.....and wouldn't you know it, she just did wake up and is calling out to me. Must be mental telepathy or something.

soup, pasta and chicken

Cabbage soup, kinda following this recipe, but with about 1/3 of ingredients. Also ended up blending the cabbage/celery mix to make a smooth soup, and it was very very nice! Admitedly, J couldn't work out what it was (he thought it was potato soup) but he did say it was very nice!

hot pasta salad. I always try to immitate mum's "famous" hot pasta salad, that is always served at bbqs at home, but I never quite get it right. Still it was nice, for me.

herb baked chicken breasts

J is not a fan of chicken breast, so he wasn't so impressed with dinner. Bugger him, I ENJOYED it immensly, thank you very much! And enough pasta salad and soup and chicken left for lunch!

Kinda back into it

There was not much to post about while J was gone - lots of scraping things together. Although, looking over what we have had since he was back, there is not much to post about here either (lol)

Sat night - Kura sushi (J's request after a week in China!)
Sun lunch - ramen
Sun dinner - big spulrge out at "Red Lobster" on the way home from Olympic shopping for dog food for R.

Mon night - curry, using up the suji from Hanamasa, which was pathetic, like bits of skin, won't be buying that again (prob wouldn't anyway as Hanamasa is a fair way away)
Tues night - fish (sawara) fried in butter, served with brocolli and atsuage and moyashi in nam pla (Thai fish sauce), some miso soup with CABBAGE (pre-cooked in seasame oil), pickles, lotus root stuffed with mince (leftovers to clear out the freezer) and natto, and half brown half white rice - last of the white rice until it gets delivered Thurs, (so tomorrow night is gonna be a pasta.) I quite enjoyed the brocolli/atsuage in nam pla, ttytt, but J was not that impressed.

hoto nabe and week in review

Wed - went simple after the Chinese debarcle of the night before.
Salmon, rice, miso soup, egg roll and cabbage and other vege stir fry
Thurs - ほうとう鍋, a speciality of Yamagata oops, that would be YAMANASHI, right, haha!
It is like thick and flat udon noodles in a big vege hot pot. MIL had passed on a packet of the noodles and miso flavouring for it that they got at a relative's wedding recently, so we gave it a try. It was ok, but J said not really the real McCoy. It DID taste nice the next day - apparently hoto noodles don't のびる the same way others do and are better the next day, I have to agree!! Also think the pumpkin in it "makes" it! And we got to use up some CABBAGE with this one too, ;)
Fri - Miso flavoured stir fry Eggplant, and carrots and cabbage. This tasted like a real Japanese food, but was soooo simple and yummy that I will def. make it again! J was home late, so served it with ungai for him.

Sat - We had a friend's wedding at 1:30pm,which was an absolute feast! I was still so full that I didn't need any dinner. Bought some sushi packs for PIL, who came over (and stayed over!) to look after K for us while we were out.
Sun - fresh bread for breaky, then J was gone by 11am (to China this time), so lunch was sandwhiches for K and me (peanut butter) and dinner was vege soup with chips (french fries)
Monday - playdate at our house this morning.Made a yoghurt mushi pan (mainly for the kids) for morning tea.
Lunch - simple spag bol, with hidden veges. Not much effort put in today, sorry friend, but that was about the best I could manage!!

About to have natto rice for dinner in the start of yet another week of just k and I being lazy frugal and simple!

Chinese night (big rant included)

I decided to make 八宝菜 to use up the cabbage (I am gonna get a dig in at J every time I use the word cabbage in a post, lol) and make a chinese night of it. Of course it is a night when J is gonna be late home. Not sure what time yet, but K has already eaten anyway now. oh and now my feet are aching from standing in the kitchen for so long doing all the prep , again, I repeat "CHINESE TAKES SO MUCH TIME" I don't think I am gonna make it again anytime soon......

Anyway,waiting to be finished off when J rings to say he is on his way is:
* chicken and cashew nuts with celery (can't find my usual recipe, oh no! so borrowing from the internet, hope it comes out ok)
* broccoli in a garlic-oyster-y sauce thing (just regular as no chinese broccolli, and J bought 2 heads of broccoli on the weekend too, dig, dig!)
* fried rice (although I am tempted to just wait until J gets home as I made it for K, and it was average - J def. makes a better fried rice....
* spinach egg drop soup
* and of course the happosai

and tapioca in coconut milk for desert - if we ever get to eat dinner, that is.

***edit****
Again, why the hell do I try to make Chinese, and so many different dishes at that, with only 3 hotplates to balance the pots and pans on. As it turns out, J came home as K was on the loo, then nutted out because that is what she does lately when J gets home (as in tanty time erupts), then J found the moulding ponkan and started to get into me about how did that happen (maybe if he didn't buy double of everything they would get eaten before going off,..although they were only there for 4 days, so it was a bit wierd ttytt) and then got into me about why I "let" K play with r's water dispenser. Because of course standing in the kitchen for over an hour and a half preparing chinese, getting K's dinner ready first, then going back to cook up the rest for J so he has a freshly made hot meal on the table when he gets home means that I "let" her do these things, as oppsed to maybe I can't SEE her when I have my head over the IH!! END RANT

So we flagged the fried rice and just had regular rice with it, eating in around a very tense table until I cooled off. But I swear I must remember not to make Chinese again until the kids are at least in college and I can concentrate. If only I was more multi-functional in the kitchen, but alas I am not, therefore I will focus on slightly simpler meals from now on.
And it was all because I KNOW that I was out of my league, trying to juggle so many chinese dishes, and was just buggered by the time J got home, so my patience was wearing thin, and I was tired and cranky. Sorry J. Better luck tomorrow, I guess

"Yo" night

To use up the cabbage (I just remembered when I was cracking up at J about this, he threw out the stellar "but I thought you liked cabbage" gotta laugh) I made a yummy vege soup. Had actually planned on this soup for a few days, after I got a lovely bunch of leafy celery.

* vege soup (cabbage, carrots, onion, celery and a couple of potatoes thrown in for good measure). Pureed up half of it to freeze for future comfort food/soup base usage.

* spag bol, with "hidden" spinach and carrots

* herb bread (basil, rosemary, paprika, oregano).Unfortunately I forgot that the "french bread" setting takes 6 and a half hours, so when I put it on at 1:30pm, it meant that it wouldn't be ready until 8pm, but I was hedging my bets that J would get home around that time anyway....of ccourse last night he was home at 7:30pm haha. I enjoyed the bread for "supper" anyway, and today for breakfast for K (with peanut butter on it - it is not that herby) and me with soup leftovers for lunch.

Also just made up a batch of lemonade scones, which I am gonna have with whipped cream and jam for afternoon tea and I cannot WAIT!

Notes for self:
* converted plain flour to sr by adding 2teaspoons of baking powder per cup of flour.
* always forget how sloppy this is, as only using regular cream. Maybe I should whip all the cream to try thicken it, and use it whipped instead next time?? Of course, the scones still turn out LOVELY!

Wa repeating itself

Thursday night dinner (the first real cooked meal in a while in the TJKR household, but still simple since trying to use up what I can in the house coming to the end of the month (=the end of the monthly money!),lol)

* 金目代の干物
* 牛蒡きんぴら
* ふわふわ egg roll
* salad (lettuce, sweet corn and tomato)
* natto


Friday night
* mandarin style marinated chicken drumsticks, with a bit of asparagus, eringi mushrooms and 長ネギ
* なめこ汁 (can of nameko, so really really slimey! lol)
* leftover fish
* かぼちゃのカレーミルク煮　(recipe from Kel's blog - this WAS yummy! thanks!!)
* カニクリームクロッケ with shredded cabbage

Saturday - out shopping in the morning (my suitcase wheels broke while J was using it on his business trip, so had to get a new suitcase) so stopped by the Ringer Hut for lunch ー　ちゃんぽん！

Dinner at PIL for ひなまつり - yummy!!

Sunday- lunch at Kura-sushi...I made the mistake of asking J what HE wants ;( Although the tempura whiting and squid they have there is quite tasty (I still would have preferred pizza, lol!!)

Sun Dinner - J rang up after the gym to ask if I needed anything from the supermarket, like milk, so I said, yeh grab some milk....he came home with 3 shopping bags. I couldn't control myself and blew up, saying that if he had bought another cabbage I WOULD shoot him. Low and behold, a friggin cabbage appears. (there is still half a regular cabage, and about 1/3 chinese cabbage in the fridge.) I was this close to shoving the cabbage where the sun don't shine....all this time I am trying to 節約 and be frugal using up food we have first....ok, so we just weren't on the same page, but I think after my ranting and raving last night, we are finally close to the same page at least, lol (and I doubt J will be buying any cabbage anytime soon).

Anyway, Sunday night dinner, courtesy of J was:

* 親子丼 (I used to eat this all the time at a Japanese take away in Bris, so to me it is actually 懐かしい - I never think to make it myself though)
* cabbage (lol) and potato miso soup
* natto and spinach
and strawberries, banana and apple for dessert.

you say frittata, I say frittata

Nothing spesh in the food department lately, really just using up whatever we have. Although I did do a supermarket run last night, as I thought I was having a visitor today for morning tea, but they had to cancel, so I have enough stuff now to make lemonade scones in a pinch.....

Anyway, K and I ate a SALAD for lunch. I know- crazy wacky people that we are. She even ate raw carrot, when I bribed her she could have another piece of ham is she did ;) And while I felt good after eating the salad for lunch, I couldn't resist the afternoon urge to toast up the last remaining raisin bagel and smother it in cream cheese spread for "afternoon tea".

Dinner tonight was potato, spinach and corn frittata (or spanish omelette...not exactly sure how they differ). Would have taken a photo but of course I mangled it trying to get it out of the fry pan..... K had 3rds(!!!) and I still have some left over for either dinner or lunch tomorrow.
I used this recipe as inspiration, but tweaked it to the following measurements:
4 eggs
about 1/3 cup milk (Japanese measurements)
2 big potatoes

I can't see J eating it for dinner, but I guess it could be a good side dish for a lunch menu (if I can learn to flip the bugger out of the frypan without massacring it)

J gets home late tomorrow night, so Thurs will be the first REAL MEAL for a week - am going with 和 after his week away, I figure he will be happy to have fish and rice and miso soup!

got the hotsies

These ready-to-eat curries have been sitting in the cupboard for a while now, since before we moved, I am pretty sure. We had one, once, and I found it far too hot, and apart from that, J found it pretty tasteless まずい. So every time I try to fob them off on him (there are still 2 left) he resists my efforrs. So they have sat and sat for ages, untouched, until tonight when I decided they needed to be braved. But since it is so spicy hot, I needed to tone it down with alomst half of those big yoghurt containers (like,. 250ml of yoghurt!!!) or else I can't physically eat it. I guess it was good to get rid of the yoghurt, too.

K had "Winnie the pooh" curry, with added 大豆, which she was calling なす for some reason?!??

For lunch she had udon, but nothing at the cafeteria near playgroup excited me, so after K had finished, I did the unthinkable and went for KFC, lol.

Last night K had the rest of the ひじき煮 with rice, but didn't like the "tuna" in it (i.e. コニャク）Gee she has some mixed up ideas about what food is what, lol! I meanwhile enjoyed my umeboshi with rice - I am gonna turn into an umeboshi myself the way I am going. Gee, we are really eating away at our frozen rice supply....tommorrow night might need to be pasta, lol!

unagi energy

Of course the day before a business trip (o/s) J is late home (finishing off things in the office before being away for a week) so I planned well - with simple heat and eat unagi (energy for his trip) and some asari butter, together with some ひじき煮 (which I haven't made for ages! yummy), rice, miso soup, and other randoms.

K and I ate earlier, clearing up some leftovers in the fridge.

I have also cooked up 3go of rice both last night and tonight, and since I am eating minimal amounts of rice (for some reason just not that into it recently, unless it is served with three of those yummy umeboshi) there is a lot left over, so I have managed to freeze several servings of rice, which should mean that I don't have to use the rice cooker at all while J is away. Oh, and it is also a semi-attempt at puchi-節約, since they say that cooking up 2go or 5go takes about the same　amount of energy, so you are better off cooking more at once, and freezing the left overs. Iam not game to try cooking up 5go (sounds huge) so thought 3go would be suitable enough for starters!

About to have some baum kuhen (sp?) for late dessert with J, after he gets out of the bath.

I doubt there will be anything exciting to post for dinners the next week or so, but I hope to come back with a vengence in March!!

I'm too boring for this blog

I have been very lazy and boring with cooking the last few weeks. I feel like I have lost interest in food and cooking, and seem to randomly throw something basic together at the last minute, with no forward planning. I have seen how this has affected the fridge - leftovers have increased, and this has led to food being thrown out on rubbish day - もったいない!

J is away from Wed this coming week, so I hope that by the time he gets back, my cooking mojo will have returned too. Until then, it will probably be simple meals for K and me for a week anyway, hopefully using up some pantry and freezer goods, so I don't have to buy too much in the way of groceries, as there is no much left in kitty for this month either....

Anyway, here is a round up of the last few days of boring dinners. The weekend was full of noodles, starting with Fri night dinner.
Fri 12th
* Nagasaki ちゃんぽん
* Gyoza (frozen)
* spinach おひたし


Sat 13th -
Lunch くら寿司
Dinner 中華18番 (880yen set menu dinner, I had 八宝菜, J had マーボー豆腐set, K had ラーメン)

Sun 14th - Lunch
*corn soup （市販）
* pasta　with cabbage and sausages (J made)



Dinner:
I had left over corn soup
J had そうめん
K had a bowl of natto rice (with carrot and spinach hidden in there, lol) AND a bowl of そうめん This kid is gonna have noodles for legs!

Mon Feb 15th -
* shiso in egg roll
* spicy pork and cabbage, with green capsicum
* salmon
* rice
* miso soup (wakame and tofu)
* salad
* しらす in daikonおろし


And a photo with everyone's hands and K's dishes in it too, lol!

kinda chinese, quiche and cookies

Another couple of days of pure laziness - I left the camera in the kitchen, and couldn't be bothered getting up from Kotatsu to get in once I was settled (it is also getting harder to get up from the Kotatsu, lol)

So, in review:

Tuesday night Dinner
* brown rice/white rice mix
* Chinese style daikon and Chicken recipe, borrowed from Kel ;) I think I marinated the chicken too long, and didn't cook it long enough (tried to pre-cook the veges first, then chicken at the end as were out late at 29week check-up) as still a bit of sake flavour to the meat, but otherwise nice! (and it was even better the next day just on rice for lunch)
* Potato salad, with special guest, broccoli (another cookpad recipe); no tuna used but it was nice enough without!I don't usually go for potato salad so much, but it was ok. I think perhaps the egg in it made it nice.
* cabbage egg drop soup hmmm, average.Only did this as didn't have any spinach to make a spinach egg drop soup (which I think would have been nicer)
* big salad! daikon, carrots, avocado, tomato
and * left over fish from the other night.


oh and for dessert - bread and butter pudding, made in the bread maker (steam setting), served with honey YUM!

Wednesday night Dinner:

Although I had said that I was lucky I didn't have to faff around in the kitchen making a bug dinner, as J had to go out for work (someone's retirement) I actually ended up faffing around like crazy in the kitchen, making a quiche (bacon, mushrooms and spinach) with the pie crust left over from Aust. Day pies (it was easier to handle after having been frozen, and I used a whole heap of flour when rolling it out this time).

FMOI (for my own info, the quiche was 3eggs and 1cup milk, and it was the perfect amount for the small oval pie dish - must remember that!)


I also tried some innovative/fusion cooking, and put the remainder or the daikon/carrot/chicken dish into a small pie crust and it came out quite nice, a surprising match. (I don't think I would make it from scratch like this, but it definitely gave the daikon dish a new life, lol!)


As for the faffing, I figured since I already had the oven on, I should bake cookies, the almond cookies from my to-try list. They came out really nice, despite my failed attempt at creaming the butter and sugar (butter was still too cold, so all that happened was it kept on getting caught up around the beaters. I need to be more patient). Also, I have never really made biscuits before, so I wasn't sure what kind of consistency the dough was supposed to be, and was a bit surprised (scared) when it was so crumbly - what did I do wrong?? But after letting it settle in the fridge for a bit, it came together better, and I was able to cut out heaps of cute patterns with the cookie cutter. We gave some biccies to Jiji and Baba today when they came over as a Valentine treat from K, and even gave some to 3 of J''s friends he has gone out dinner with (they are discussing their up coming wedding, where J will be MC at the 2nd party), and still have enough for me to have a pig out on the tomorrow, so yay! I really liked these biscuits, not too sweet, and the almond taste was good. Will definitely make again!

you can even just see little "swiper`s" fingers trying to swipe the cookies (Dora reference - we have been watching it too much, K is obsessed!!lol) She has also spent the afternoon saying "Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!"
Thursday Dinner:
So tonight K and I cleaned up the quiche - she doesn't even baulk at the mushie or spinach in it, yay. We ate out at the yakiniku joint again and enjoyed a big bowl of 石焼ビビンバ and heaps of 焼肉 so I really shouldn't need too much for dinner, lol.

Cornbread and sausages

J made cornbread on the weekend (the costco packet stuff) and since there was still some left, I wanted to use it up tonight. Most people seem to eat it with chili, but we had already eaten spag bol on the weekend, and I didn't have beans to make a chili con carne, so decided to go with:

♣ german sausages
♣ boiled whole baby potatoes
♣ green beans, like last time
♣ tomato soup (kinda following this recipe, but with milk instead of cream, no marjoram, and no canned tomato sauce - what is this? tomato puree? ketchup? not sure., no cheese on top, and I fiddled with the quantaties so it was all a bit random, but came out nice)
♣ and cornbread

J in the kitchen all weekend

The weekend courtesy of J (as I was still feeling sick, stuffed up, sore throaty, scratchy eyed and STILL GRUMPY!!)

Sat Feb 6th
Lunch: Spag Bol
Dinner: Homemade pizza (yeh, there is a hole in the dough, but it tasted great anyway. Dough made in bread maker)


with a very GREEN salad


Sun Feb 7th:
Lunch: Gyoza with rice
Dinner:

Teriyaki style buri (yellowtail)

Spinach おひたし

Salad

揚げだし豆腐 with vege　あんかけ




Thanks, J!

attempting easy meals

With K sick, and me feeling off (and grumpy) I didn't want to do too much for dinners, esp nothing that needed time for prep, so attempted to make some easy meals for the rest of the week.


Thurs Feb 4th: Dinner

While I had planned on pasta, I remembered there was some soba that we didin't eat at NY, so decided to get rid of that first. And also, my first attempt EVER at making かきあげ....hmmm?!?

Soba noodles with かき揚げ　(carrots, onion and cabbage)


Weiner and Shiso in wantan wrappers - borrowed from Nay (I have been wanting to try this for ages!! It was yummy, but I almost fried the bejesus out of them by putting them in the tempura oil (trying to save on dishes and oil, yikes!! )



Fri Feb 5th: Dinner

The umeboshi we are totally taken with at the moment - how YUMMY are these! I can eat 3 at one sitting, if J let me.....We buy these for about 400yen at the local supermarket, but apparently (well, according to J) the proper Kishu Umeboshi are at least 1000yen a pack, or more.


More leftovers and easy bits including:
* もずく
*　冷奴
*　鮭の西京焼き(the other pieces I defrosted the other night but diidn't feel like eating myself)
* 肉団子 with sweetish sauce (leftovers from our nabe party ages ago - had to be used up!! Nice! I don't recall ever having eaten these before, def. not at home.)

Simple meals while K is sick

Last night was simple wa and bits. K has been sick, I was starting to feel not so good last night either, and although I had thought of Chinese for dinner, J told me at lunch that he was off for 500yen chuka lunch - who can beat that?!? So I simply threw together some pieces like:

* salmon 西京焼き
*shiso, cuc, tomato salad : it is from my "to try" list, but I just realised I had already made last year, and thought the same thing again "would be better with more vinegar in the dressing" lol.
* leftover salmon roe, squid, egg roll, avocado
* miso soup
* rice

and I had 梅干 on rice - am a bit taken with this at the moment, and since I wasn't feeling too hot, didn't want the fish, it did the job for me.
K had miso soup and rice with furikake, keeping it simple for her while she is under the weather too.

Really don't feel like making a big production number tonight either, so maybe just a simple spag bol or the likes. Might put some bread on to go with it while I remember.....

back to life....

back to reality!

Tonight is back to our common ways, with a hearty beef casserole, based on this recipe.

I used 500g of beef 牛肉モモブロック, half a tin of tomatoes, but kept the 1/4cup wine, 1 cup beef stock, then thickened it slightly with some flour and potato towards the end. (The meat could have been a bit more tender, so will have to slow cook for longer next time. Wish I had 牛筋 to make this one too....)

Served with mashed potato, pumpkin, brocolli and freshly baked french rye bread. Delisimo!



I don't know why, but I have always shyed away from trying to make a casserole perhaps it just seemed too difficult, or I didn't want to ruin my "taste of home", but this recipe is def. a keeper - so easy and so yummy and SO much tasting like a casserole from home that mum might make. Guess what I am having for lunch tomorrow, lol!

monday night seafood extravaganza

Kaisen-don
MIL had given us some salmon roe a few weeks ago, so I pulled that out of the freezer, to use up with the smoked salmon. I told J at lunch time what we were having, and he said he would bring some tuna home (I *SO* knew he was gonna say that, lol) but he ended up coming home with ミル貝 (pacific gaper clam) and squid to go on our 海鮮丼. SO it was another day of　贅沢.... (very yummy tho!)



Served with egg roll; daikon, 油揚げ and wakame miso soup; green salad with cucumber (yay, have been craving cuc for a while actually - prob simply because it was something ridiculous like 79yen EACH! Finally found them for 39yen each on Saturday); spinach　おひたし, extra avocado and pickles.

weekend eats

Saturday - a semi impromptu trip to Kamakura and hours of walking around trying to find somewhere to eat, we ended up having "pain de campagne" (カンパーニュ） for lunch baked in a 石釜 at Jyomyoji 浄妙寺, followed by german sausages (from the 鎌倉ハムshop）in a soft bread roll for 400yen each down 小町通 a little later.

Sat dinner was: sukiyaki!! Haven't had it for ages so was nice. Washed it down with a beer (of sorts)for me and a chu-hai for J

Sunday:
☆　pancakes for breakfast
☆　onigiri (with flaked salmon, and with 梅干) for lunch
☆ teriyaki chicken drumsticks, rice, salad with smoked salmon, 魚の煮物, egg + にら for dinner






see a pattern?? we eat 豪華 when J is in charge of the kitchen.....also means we overspend at the supermarket with both the fish and the chicken being used in one meal! not to mention the smoked salmon in there. *sigh* so much for this week's budget again......

lasagna

Made a lasagna for lunch, and there was leftovers (which J couldn't believe - he asked me "didn't they like it" lol, but we had already had a delish cake my friend brought over for morning tea less than an hour before hand)

Also some salad leftovers, so that was dinner!

Lasagna- meat with grated pumpkin, carrot and spinach (recipe below)
Salad - lettuce, tomato, green beans, carrots and mushrooms in one and lettuce, SD tomatoes and daikon in the other.

I had the leftover pasta from last night, and mini meat pie.

K had peanut butter sandwhiches (she wanted bread and I wasn't in the mood to argue!! She had a good lunch, tho)

********* (edit)
I don't really have a recipe anymore for Lasagna - this is one dish I can now cook without having one!! But I got the original recipe from GaijinWife, for her ラブラブlasagna, about a year ago, and now I usually tweak it depending on what I have in the fridge.

This time this is what I did:
400g pork/beef mince
1/8 pumpkin, grated
1 small carrot, grated
several leaves of spinach, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
lasagna sheets (dry, not pre-cooked)

Brown the mince, remove from frypan
In same pan, add a bit of oil if necessary then fry off the onion until translucent in colour, add pumpkin, carrot and cook until tender. Add spinach and cook for just a few minutes.
Return mince back to frypan, and add meat sauce flavouring (I use Rumic, a powdered flavouring) and just a bit of water

White sauce:
40g butter
2TBS (heaped) of flour
2&1/2 cups(?) milk

Meanwhile, melt butter on low heat in saucepan, add flour and mix well until glubby. Slowly add milk a little at a time, stirring constantly until it starts to get a bit glubby at the bottom while stirring. Allow to come to a bit of a simmer, then turn off heat.

Layer a dish that fits in the oven with meat and vege mixture, lasagna sheets (not cooked!! this is what makes this recipe so simple), then たっぷりwhite sauce, repeat. make sure the top layer is well covered with white sauce. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.

microwave for 20mins
Then in oven at 150deg for 20min or until top is golden brown with melted cheese!!

I still think I am layering たっぷり with white sauce, but sometimes even not enough and the bits of pasta sticking out at the top get hard in the oven. Next time - more sauce!!!!!

the grated pumpkin in this makes it nice and creamy!

barefoot and pregnant but not wanting to stand in the kitchen

While I was all full of energy (well, at least not on my last legs) when I got home from playgroup, about 30mins after K went down for her nap, I just about passed out from exhaustion! So I went up and joined her, and we slept until nearly 5pm (yikes) which meant that there was nothing prepped for dinner, and I couldn't be bothered fart-arsing around the kitchen for hours on end tonight! A quick search showed that I didin't have a cream stew roux, and couldn't be bothered making one(seeing a pattern?) so I pulled out the jar of alfredo sauce and grilled the left over chicken to make chicken, mushroom, green beans and onion alfredo spaghetti with wa-style salad (lettuce, daikon,shiso, mini tomatoes and 和風 dressing).



As it turned out, I also pre-made the lasagna for tomorrow's lunch (friends coming over) at the same time, so I guess I wasn't *that* unproductive.

And I wasn't barefoot inthe kitchen either.

Also managed to put a loaf of bread on before passing out, so we had fresh rye bread with dinner, yum! Recently I have been enjoying my bread with cream cheese spread. oooooh it tastes so guuuuuuuuuuuuuud!


************edit, a few hours later***********
I just realised that I may have used up my "get out of jail free card" for the week by making the simple meal tonight - now I have to think about something for friday night dinner. With people coming for lunch, I dont think I will be wanting to do a big production for dinner tomorrow night either. damn it.

Q for kel: you talked somewhere about menu planning - do you plan for the week in advance? just interested....

うめ～梅！

since I knew J was gonna be late home today, and he usually rings to say he is on his way home just as K and I are in the bath*, I wanted to prepare stuff that could be easily heated up at the last minute, so this is what I did:

＊　chicken 梅シソ (only had chicken breast, as J bought it when shopping on the weekend, and when I said to buy chicken, he thought I meant for me only, so he bought breast.Haha, now he has to eat it too - he doesn't like it, reckons it is always ぱさぱさ). I have made this recipe before, with sasami, but this was just as good, I guess since it is steamed it keeps the breast meat moist. The 梅干 were big plump ones done in honey, and delish! I just love de-stoning them, coz I get to eat the flesh left around the stones. I still have a lot of shiso left over, as bought one of those trays for 99yen (must have about 8 bunches of 10leaves each.) so tomorrow I am shiso-ing again. But I really like shiso too, so this is good!

＊　brocolli with tuna/mayo/cheese/egg topping this was yummy, will bookmark this to use again.


＊　豆腐のねぎ炒め, since I had some tofu about to go out of date. This also was good, kinda like a poor man's (as in simple version)　マーボー豆腐

and rice (1/3 玄米 2/3 white rice, since I actually remembered to soak the brown rice from this morning!) and pickles, leftover squid marinated in mirin to round it off.


*of course, we could have an earlier bath, but this afternoon we went to the neighbours for a play in the afternoon, so there wasn't much time after, and K had to eat (brocolli, chicken 混ぜrice)

Happy Australia Day

I feel like glossing over the fact that we had maccas for lunch, but this blog is really meant to be nothing more than a food diary for my own benefits, (and hiding the maccas wrappers would feel like cheating on a test) so I am fessing up! Even remembered at the counter, just before ordering that I should check my keitai for mail coupons, and got a happy meal for 290yen (that is a 200yen discount!) for K with chicken nuggets, and a cheeseburger and choc thickshake for myself. We had spent the morning shopping/fighting/tantruming/stressing so I felt I deserved a simple lunch. And the smiles are free at maccas, right?!?

Came home and went about making meat pies for dinner. I went against my better judgement and used this recipe for the pie crust....now, I know that Ihave had trouble in the past making a nice pastry, so it may not be all the recipe's fault, but I found it far too wet and sticky, which meant I had trouble rolling it out, which meant I probably overworked it, which meant that it was "tough". I wasn't too impressed.


My pie filling was great though, using a recipe out of Women's weekly (I save clippings sometimes, even in this day and age of searching on the net for recipes, lol) I am very ahppy with the filling, and hope to use it again IF I can ever perfect a pie crust (big ため息）It was so simple - just fry off some mince, then fry up 1 chopped onion, 2 crushed garlic, add 2tbs flour, then add 1cup beef stock and 1tbs worstershire sauce. Tasted just like a meat pie from the shops. I used puff pastry for the lids, which was a good idea in the end, considering my failure with the short-crust pastry.

I ended up making party pies for K, in silicon muffin cases, and single serve pies for J and me - in the gratin dishes, the best thing I could find, and I think they did the trick!! Served with mashed potato and a big glass of milk for both K and me!

Anyway, here is the pictures of our Australia Day pies - slather a bit of tomato sauce on it, and you beauty mate!

Baked beans

J is away on business trip, and I am satisfying another craving (how many things can I crave, honestly!?!?) with baked beans on toast for dinner.

Lunch was yesterday's leftovers, so an easy day in all.

Nabe party

Sat lunch was, as always (!?)　くら寿司. It is like a tradition. I was happy tho, as we got some yummy ゆば, and they now have てんぷらイカand てんぷらキス which was yummy too.

Got home, and gave the house the big one-over for J's mates and our もつ鍋 party (starting at 8pm or later!!). I am not that keen on motsu myself, so I had some onigiri with K when she had her dinner, but I also had some nabe later on when every one came. We also had yummy cakes and chippies and salami and cheese and crackers to nibble on all night. Everyone was up talking until 2am, so it was a big night.

Somehow managed to sleep in until just after 8am, then got up and made some coffee for everyone, and although J had said he was gonna make pancakes, but I guess his hangover got the better of him, and we just had バウンクーヘン with coffee (bad hosts, are we!) No one seemed to mind though, some more chatting and then everyone headed off.

I have been itching for some 石焼ビビンバ for a while, so on Sunday after everyone left at about 11am, I suggested it - and J remembered the 焼肉 joint (chain restaurant) down the road, so we headed there in the hope they do lunch and have 石焼ビビンバ. We were lucky on both counts! I got the 石焼ビビンバ and 焼肉 set, and J had the 国産牛2種盛り set for 1180yen each (大盛り210yen extra for J). K ate most of my meat, and a fair bit of J's too, lol.

I ate it so fast, all I could take a photo of was the empty bowl!! It definately satisfied my craving. Am hoping we can go back there when my parents come too.

We got home and passed out, absolutely buggered after our big night, then J got into the kitchen and whipped up this:

for dinner on Sunday night.

☆　鮭の西京焼き (pre-marinated fish from the supermarket)
☆ marinated squid
☆ 厚揚げ with carrots and snack end beans
☆ rice, pickles and mso soup for J
also had to include K's bowl of rice in the photo, lol