Tried out a Moroccan seasoning

This recipe gave me the Moroccan spice mix which i used to grill the chicken breast in: http://m.finecooking.com/recipes/moroccan-spice-rub.aspx

Roasted pumpkin, carrot, eggplant and onions were added to couscous (with chicken stock) and tossed in the pan i cooked the chicken in to make use of any leftover fat/Moroccan flavours.
Splash of colour with spinach leaves thrown in the end, and voila--dinner was served.
A side of salad, beans and feta to add to the couscous as desired. Yum:)

Talk about racking

Racking your brains!!

The kids had been eating all day long it seemed--our first snack break was before 9:30am, and that set the pace for the day!! --bananas, cheese, popcorn, cereal, and even dunking biscuits in milk (copying my dunk in my cuppa)!!

Then all of a sudden it was 4:30pm and I had spent the last hour periodically checking the fridge and freezer in the hope that something would either miraculously appear already made or some idea for making dinner would jump into my brain.....finally a small bag of frozen pork and the bag of eggplants (from Fukuoka) and shiitake (from Nagasaki;) did prove to be inspiration enough, perhaps, to at least be able to scrounge something up for dinner:

* pork, eggplant, carrot, shiitake, onion and red capsicum miso-itame
* egg-drop soup with wakame
* natto
* salad
* rice

Followed by the most delish and juicy grapefruit (ruby, from Florida) I think I have ever eaten, and tinned peaches for the kids.

Hope I am more inspired tmr.

Weekend - picnics, parks and eating IN

Sat - hanami picnic day;)
Lunch - onigiri, and bento with sausages, tomato, cheese, eda mame, strawberries, tsubu-an dango (followed J's lead and stuffed strawberries into them to make ichiji-daifuku!!)
Dinner- Taco rice with home made salsa (not spicy enough but kinda flavorful) and last of leftovers....J went shopping afterwards to get milk, came back with 10,000yen worth of stuff;( Some we definately needed, but i swear he just doesn't "get" frugal!!!

Sun: J in charge
B'fast - eggs, bacon, toast
Lunch - yakisoba, followed by a lovely spring afternoon in the park riding bikes, frisbee throwing and running off lots of kiddie energy!!
Dinner - J suggested sushi-to, but I said we have so much in the way of groceries we should stay in!! Trying to dave money doesn't help if you buy the stuff then dont eat it, right!!
Soooo, we had ginger pork, saba, salad, tofu, miso soup (with onion and potato) and rice

Getting by without shopping

Thursday -- I could see brocolli, pumpkin and tomatoes in the fridge. What to do for dinner, arrgh??? Found some prawns in the freezer to come up with:
Prawn, brocolli, tomato garlic-cream spaghetti with pumpkin soup.

Friday -- I made the kids have cereal for lunch, really running the stocks down here lol. Dinner is very frugal freezer goods and bits and pieces:
* salmon (for kids, as only two serves left)
* leftover (frozen) oden for J and me
* salad (cucumber, feta, tomato, red onion and olives)
* eringi mushroom, piman and onion itame
* nira-tama (which always makes me think of Kyushukel, as she have me the idea originally a few years ago now;)
* umeboshi; kimchee
* rice, wakame miso soup

Scrounging up a meal -- Chinese

We are out of rice.
I am yet to buy more.
Bad wifey;)

Last night was chicken, carrot, potato and onion cream stew with bread rolls (worked out well;) but tonight still having not been to buy rice, I was almost at a loss for what to do until I found one lonely Tupperware container of frozen rice (a bit less than two serves of rice) and it was all clear to me -- chahan!

So tonight's dinner (scarfed into before I could take a photo) was frugal all out of the fridge/freezer Chinese:

* Fried rice (egg, piman, negi and sausage)
* brocolli and pork in mayo-oyster sauce (a nice twist) recipe from http://cookpad.com/recipe/1309085
* hiya-yakko
* shumai
The end. Kinda boring and simple but effective enough;)

F is for Friday....

Last night was simple, using up leftovers (pork, still!!) in a pork, eggplant, piman, enoki mushroom tomato sauce pasta (of which L ate all veggies!!) and chicken, carrot, potato soup (again, leftover chicken)
*****************
F is for Friday!!
Fish.
Frugal.
but kinda Fancy....

Those are going to be my Friday themes.
Tonight was hokke. "Arabesque greenling"(http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabesque_greenling)! Is that it's real name???
Served with:
* hiyayakko
* shirasu (to top the tofu, or rice)
* pumpkin (kabocha-nimono)
* eggplant -- yummy recipe from cookpad(http://cookpad.com/recipe/880838)
* salad
* feta and olives (that's the fancy part in case anyone is wondering;) leftovers from Sunday lunch when friends came over so not bought especially, hence frugal too?!
* rice, umeboshi, & kimchee too;)
Frugal because it was all 'in da house!'

Dance night dinner

K has been trialling dance classes the last two weeks, ballet and hip-hop. Monday was ballet which finishes at 6pm. Tonight was hip-hop, which finishes at 5:30pm, so dinner has to be quick and easy. Monday might we did udon when we got home(J was away, so simple;) Tonight I "planned" it, and J did all the hard work and prepared it: bibimba (shirasu-rice for the kids), Asari-butter, Korean wakame soup, egg roll.

Not sure what quick and easy thing we can do for tomorrow's ballet night...better get that thinking cap on.

Hang on, is this menu planning?? Lol

I just boiled eggs for egg sandwiches for lunch.
And decided we would have mashed potato and Veges with left over roast pork (from Sunday) for dinner.
And it's only 10am.
Does this count as the first menu planning I've done in like a year? Lol!!

Eating again:) Fish for Friday

It's been a while--both since I posted AND since I cooked dinner...for the last year J has prepared dinner over half the week, while I was out working. Now that I am back SAHM full-time, it's been up to me. The last week has been slip-slop-slap it together (Monday K had a ballet trial, and we dropped by sushi-ro on the way home, Tuesday and Wednesday were curry and last night was hot-pasta salad with roasted chicken legs) but tonight I feel like I finally pulled a meal together, simple as it is:
* grilled "Karei" flounder
* garlic-butter clams
* hiya-yakko
* egg-roll, heart-shaped;)
* salad-lettuce, mizuna, asparagus, snap-beans, broccoli, carrot, tomato, yellow capsicum, corn, beans and feta cheese
* miso-soup (tofu)
Followed by sweet seedless black grapes from Costco.