just eating again.....

still trying to think of simple meals to cook during the "witching hours", lol

Tues: brown rice with oyakodon. My first attempt ever. It went very well if I do say so myself!!

Wed: Lasagna (after making it last Fri for friends who came over for lunch, I am a bit addicted again. And the fact that I only had one small piece then, and it was all gone so J didnt even get any meant that I could make it again in such a short turn around without feeling bad about cooking the same ol thing again ;)
And of course, L just LOVES his lasagna ;)

Thurs: Thai stir fry veges, and gyoza. Followed this recipe, however realised half way into it that we only had one tbs of nam pla left, so substitued with soy, AND we had NO garlic!! Arrgh. Still it worked out quite nice, so I must try it again with all ingredients accounted for, lol!

Fri: tonight is going to be "wa" our Friday night frugality. Rice with sanma (the lovely Pacific saury), still have plenty of chinese cabbage so something with that in it, and whatever I can scrape together at the 11th hour. My goal is to NOT give in and go shopping for "just that one extra ingredient" to make dinner.

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!!

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.)

bits and pieces maketh the meal

★　もやしのナムールレモン炒め
★　minestrone (type) soup with 大根、京にんじん(leftovers from NY)、cabbage, onion.
★　肉じゃが (there was a lot of it, lol)
★　かにクリームクロッケ (市販のもの）, served with shredded cabbage
★　冷奴 topped withしらす and konbuつゆ
★　egg roll, very ふわふわ, very nice! even got a comment from J about how ふわふわ it is,lol
★　rice, leftover chicken and 長ネギ,　塩辛

(yes, we have ANOTHER head of cabbage - J bought it. I actually almost ate half of it while prepping tonight, very sweet! I can see it gracing our table for a few more nights yet, tho)

and I actually had this post written last night, but couldn't publish as the photos was not uploaded - why? because I remember now to take photos, but then leave the camera on the dining table. Which is NOT beside the computer. So when I sit (flake out) on the lounge to blog, I can't be bothered getting up to get the camera to upload the photo. How lazy is THAT!

cottage pie

Recipe here.
well, the title and the photo basically say it all.
except for the fact that the brocolli was crap - and it was one we got from the 道の駅 and the bread in the background was our home baked rye french bread. yum.

nice rice

J had a 研修会 followed by a 懇談会 with 立食. K and I (well, probably just me) were buggered from a bug day at playgroup Xmas party, so I heated up some チンrice (packs in the microwave) and K had natto rice. I had left over 雑炊 which J also had a bowl of when he got home too.

just waiting for the rice to cook....

I couldn't have gotten more bleedingly stereotypical today if I had tried:

Pregnant (although simply fat looking to the outside world at this stage) 外人 with toddler in tow, pigging out on Maccas for lunch! Oh, I can hear the critisism already, lol. But I was craving a cheeseburer (low standards, easily pleased) from the time we stepped off the train on the way to playgroup this morning, and there was nothing I could do but satisfy that craving for lunch. And K ate 3/4 of a cheeseburger, wow! I am always surprised these days at how much she can eat.

Tonight, is another slap bang job, unfortunately, as I have still yet to go shopping (am thinking of maybe heading out after dinner, see how we feel):

curry and rice for K

taco rice style ensemble for me (not enough for both K and me)

and a big hatena mark over J, but as he will probably be home late again with work, I figure as long as I have rice, we can throw together something out of our "emergency" cupboard foods, which we are reallly working our way through lately! So much for my starting healthy cooking- tomorrow, for sure.

Last night was cupa soup corn soup with left over tomato pasta and chicken from Sunday night - yep, the leftovers are being well and trully put to use this week too, lol!

unagi

J will be late home from work, so K and I were going to eat first...until for some reason the よやくswitch on the rice cooker didn't work, so the rice is still not cooked. As in, I just flicked the switch now (oops.)

May have to pre-eat last night nabe and noodle left overs before the main event which will be:

unagi-don

niku-jaga

probably some pickles

I think that is all. Boring, only 2 dishes, but it will be enough. And when it is late, I am not that worried about making something spesh, as I can't judge what time J will be home, so figure it is better to have simple and hot and freshly cooked as opposed to been sitting there for the last hour waiting.

the last supper

before J comes home (yay!)

Lunch was peanut butter sandwiches.
Dinner was penne pasta with 市販 cream pasta sauce which apparently had mushrooms and chicken in it. I counted three thin slices of champignon mushrooms and half a sliver of chicken. So I beefed it up with some carrots and broccoli and a chicken breast straight out of the freezer, and grilled under the IH grill - it came out lovely, too!

It hit the spot.

Have also been working our way through the most delicious cake that E brought over yesterday - a Jewish apple cake. The BLTs went well, but the 市販 pumpkin soup was average at the best - I really should make the effort next time to always make my own soup... it was just the thought of pulling out the blender that stopped me. Next time I won' be s lazy.
Anyway, as for the apple cake, man it is good! She gave me the recipe too, so I guess I should post it here before I lose it:

Jewish Apple Cake


INGREDIENTS
3 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups white sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 apples - peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 10 inch tube pan.
Sprinkle sliced apples with 5 tablespoons white sugar and the ground cinnamon. Toss to coat and set aside.
Mix the flour, eggs, 2 1/2 cups sugar, baking powder, salt, vegetable oil, orange juice and vanilla until well blended. Batter will be fairly stiff.
Pour 1/2 of the batter into the prepared pan. Place the apple mixture over the batter then pour the remaining batter over the top.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 60 to 80 minutes. Let cake cool in pan.

Friend's note: "The only difference I made is I put in 6 apples instead of 3, and mixed them up with a LOT of cinnamon and sugar and a bit of lemon juice, then let them soak for about an hour. Then I made the cake with 3 layers--batter, apples, batter, apples, batter, apples, and dumped all the leftover apple-cinnamon-y juice on top. Also, I think it says cook for 70 min., but 90 minutes at 170 worked better."

beanz meanz heinz

We were out and about today, so ate out for lunch. I feel a bit jibbed though - ended up lured by the square shaped hamburgers of Wendy's for lunch. But it was.....average. K had udon noodles, and about 3 cups of ice.

Dinner tonight is about to be baked beans on toast. I am not sure how K will go with it, so it might be natto rice for her. Sort of similar meals in the end, really!

Btw, I use SPC baked beans (♪for hungry little human beings♪) but do like the ol' heinz catch phrase too!

....an hour later: Yes! K loved the baked beans. I knew she would!

last night of just the girls for this week

A big lunch at TGIF after playgroup (their "world famous hamburger" ) meant that I wasn't that hungry for dinner anyway:

* corn soup (once I get a taste for something these days, there is no stopping me!)
* yakitori
* and rice for K.

sounds so boring written down, but hit the spot anyway (for me at least, don't know about poor K! lol)

mr potato head

lunch: corn soup with potato wedges

dinner: mashed potato, pumpkin and japanese weiner sausages (with tomato sauce)

I am kinda loving the simple life!