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.