Thurs Feb 17th

B'fast - cereal for K (small bowl only)
- mango in yoghurt for L and me

Lunch - onigiri and anman

well, the story behind this is that K chucked a major wobbly at playgroup, screaming for udon about half-way through, putting her shoes on and attempting to leave.....not really sure why,, except maybe that I wasn't paying attention to her coz it my turn to run an activity. Oh, and maybe she was actually hungry, looking over what she had for b'fast, and no snack before playgroup, oops ;(. Anyway, we ended up with conbini bought lunch, eating it on the way home rather than our regular eat together after playgroup "date"

Dinner - Kimchi nabe for J and me. Pork, oysters, chinese cabbage, shiitake, shimeji mushrooms, tofu, leek and udon.

K and L had grilled chicken, pumpkin, carrot, asparagus; and udon noodles.

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.

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!

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

豆乳ゴマ鍋

In the fridge: cabbage AND 白菜, 京にんじん(still, they are big buggers),mushies, 大根, 春菊 from PIL's vege patch......it was always gonna be nabe one night this week, and tonight is the night (as J said when he rang earlier 出た！ Gonna give the soy milk broth a try, agian, 市販のもの. All I really had to buy was some more tofu, mushies and pork for the nabe. J just rang from close to Tokyo station, and is coming straight home, so he will be home about 7pm. Better chop-chop, literally and get it ready.

back into the swing of it

It's been a week since my last post - seems longer. In the world of daily dinners, I guess it is a lot. We were away at PIL for NY, and I was gonna take photos of sechi ryori, but my camera battery was dead so didn't really get a good one. Not that I particularily got for the sechi ryori anyway (I think the only thing I ate were the sweet black beans). We indulged on expensive (PIL taste) steaks, tonkatsu, sashimi, ad several serves of noodles of various kinds. Since coming home on Sun night, we have eaten left overs and bits and pieces as I hadn't been shopping until this afternoon.

Mon night J made up a curry (although he wouldn't eat the leftover curry in the freezer the night before GRRRR) and last night we had tacos.

Tonight was nabe night. Our neighbour had said she had some 白菜 and other veges for us from her parent's in the inaka, but when she and her kids came over for a playdate today, they forgot to bring the veges....so we went out shopping and loaded up tonight. I used to be so taken with nabe, it always seemed so yummy, lots of veges...but recently the nabes have been a bit flat. I think it is the broth - have to find a good one. Or a recipe for a good broth. I feel like a soy milk nabe actually so maybe next time.

Made a lemon slice (like this, except a bit flatter this time - think I got excited and brought out the bigger dish, but the mix was not enough) and yoghurt steam cake （蒸しパン) in the breadmaker which turned out ok (not much taste really), but good for kids. And how easy!! Definately be making that again, esp when kids come over, and to take as snacks for K when we go out!

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.　

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.

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.