July 20, 21,22

* Raisin and craisin toast for breakky this week! yummy stuff ;)

Wed July 20th

refreshing summer eggplant side-dish. (yummy)

fried enoki mushrooms in ponzu (average)

salmon

rice

garlic shallots with egg in chinese sweet sauce (nira-tama)

Thursday July 21st

mashed potato

pumpkin

butter sauteed carrots and beans

pork tenderloins with Onion and zucchini really yummy!!!!

Friday July 22nd
Am thinking spaghetti Bol or lasagna with pumpkin soup.....(edit: ditched the pumpkin soup as didn't have enough milk in fridge so just hidden veges Spag Bol with freshly baked bread. Yum yum yum!!)

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"

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 :-)

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

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!

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.

at J's request

うなぎ
with

長ネギ with 梅肉 sauce

きんぴら牛蒡

a selection of pickles

egg roll

大根、大葉、tomato salad (that no one touched in the end coz we were so full already!)

rice

wakame miso soup

Didn't take a photo of the unagi as it was too big for the donburi bowl, so it didn't look pretty, so J said "don't take a photo of that" lol.

I really like the　長ネギ with ume, it makes me feel like i am in an izakaya, so tonight I even whipped out the beer (Kirin Free of course)....but I am kinda regretting it now, coz it has filled me up, and even given me a 偽headache. I might be getting a 偽hangover the way I am going...aarrggh.

And while J and I were having dinner (since he got home a bit later that usual, K had already eaten), K set up the kids in the living room,like this (lol)

nira-tama success!

salmon (grilled) and asparagas spears

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

かぼちゃとまいたけのガーリック炒め

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


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

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

湯豆腐

leftovers of milk soup from Tues night

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

not chinese

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

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

大根と牛筋の煮込み

　焼き長ネギ with 梅肉　sauce

spinach and egg drop soup

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

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

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

Anniversary meals

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

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

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

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

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

first wa in a month

First dinner back home on Thursday night:

salmon
rice
egg roll
wakame miso soup

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

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