first night back home

and dinner was a boring heat-in-the-packet pasta sauce with spagghetti.....SOOOO just couldnt bring myself to actually cook anything. Hope this isn't a sign of what I can expect (of myself) to come (lol). But since I did bring back some curry mixes and other random stuffs from Aus, maybe I could try a bit harder from now on. fingers crossed xx

Oh, and what did we eat while in Aus - the usuals: bbqs, snags and mash, gourmet pizzas, rotisserie chicken (yum!!), roast lamb (thanks BIL for a FAB roast last sunday - I ate so much, I actually gorged myself on it, so couldn't eat a thing on monday, lol!!), meat pies, beer-battered chips, apple pies, lamingtons, bundaberg peachees (ok thats a drink), lots of cheese and biccies and dips and kabana, cherrios (lol).....yep enjoyed our food while back home. now gotta start workin it all off - AGAIN ;(

"Yo" night

To use up the cabbage (I just remembered when I was cracking up at J about this, he threw out the stellar "but I thought you liked cabbage" gotta laugh) I made a yummy vege soup. Had actually planned on this soup for a few days, after I got a lovely bunch of leafy celery.

* vege soup (cabbage, carrots, onion, celery and a couple of potatoes thrown in for good measure). Pureed up half of it to freeze for future comfort food/soup base usage.

* spag bol, with "hidden" spinach and carrots

* herb bread (basil, rosemary, paprika, oregano).Unfortunately I forgot that the "french bread" setting takes 6 and a half hours, so when I put it on at 1:30pm, it meant that it wouldn't be ready until 8pm, but I was hedging my bets that J would get home around that time anyway....of ccourse last night he was home at 7:30pm haha. I enjoyed the bread for "supper" anyway, and today for breakfast for K (with peanut butter on it - it is not that herby) and me with soup leftovers for lunch.

Also just made up a batch of lemonade scones, which I am gonna have with whipped cream and jam for afternoon tea and I cannot WAIT!

Notes for self:
* converted plain flour to sr by adding 2teaspoons of baking powder per cup of flour.
* always forget how sloppy this is, as only using regular cream. Maybe I should whip all the cream to try thicken it, and use it whipped instead next time?? Of course, the scones still turn out LOVELY!

herb bread

K said she wanted pasta for lunch....so I compromised with her and said we would have it for dinner! Made a mushroom, chicken cream sauce spag like this:

»Fried off some chicken.
»Then Fried off some mushrooms and onion in:
»1/4cup sake, (since no dry white wine, but basically the same, right)
»1/4 cup chicken stock (鶏がら - chinese chicken stock, lol turning very asian style already)
»s, p, bit of garlic
»added some white sauce to it to thicken, added some ham and 枝豆 (for a bit of colour)

and that was it. Sort of followed this recipe, I guess.

Served with tomatoes in sea salt and olive oil, and lettuce/avocado/cheese salad.

Oh and the main event (despite being at the back of the photo) was my first attempt at HERB BREAD!! I managed to remember to put the breadmaker on just after lunch time, but I wasn't sure how much herbs to put in. One recipe said oregano and basil, but had no basil so went with
about 1/4tbs each of paprika, oregano, rosemary (ie, just less than a tablespoon of herbs). I think I could have added more - it smells very herby, but the taste is very mild. Will get some basil and try again I think. Was still good tho!!




While searching, I came across this Chicken, Ham and Mushroom squares recipe: now this looks NOICE! Once I get some pie pastry I am gonna have to try this one out for sure!

chicken and mushroom pasta

Chicken and mushroom alfredo sauce spaghetti.

I had to stop myself after a few minutes when I realised that me, the 33 year old Australian (not the 2 year old Japanese) was SLURPING her spaghetti. My, my how things change...when I first came to Japan I physically couldn't make the slurp sound while eating noodles, let alone pasta. lol.

I was gonna make a pasta bake, but as always, couldn't be bothered waiting for the thing to bake, so just made pasta instead. Tomorrow I will use the left overs to make this.

和, 豪 and 伊

So it turns out only FIL came today, and when J went shopping last night (after K chucked a tanty and thus I pulled the pin on her and me going) he couldn't find any nice meat for a nabe, so he made 豚の角煮 instead. I haven't had it for ages, and it was pretty yummy!! K ate two whole eggs out of it, but didn't like the daikon, which I can understand as it is a bit bitter. So lunch went well.

I also made some anzac biccies for afternoon tea, but as the first time in the new oven, it took a bit longer than I thought, trying to work out how to use it etc, so they came out of the oven as jiji was ready to leave, so he had it hot - obviously not the way Anzacs are meant to be, oh well. K, J and I had some after they had hardened up a bit, and they were delish, although perhaps a bit too buttery?? This time I used actual golden syrup that I had brough back with me, and as always cut the amount of sugar down to half that of the recipe. Oh, and they seemed to spread a lot more than they ever did in the old crappy microwave oven, so I guess next time I will have to consider that while making them.

ANZAC BISCUITS

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar (I only use half a cup to make them, I think it is enough)
3/4 cup coconut
125g (4 oz) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup (I have used manuka honey and kuromitsu successfully as substitutes in the past)
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon boiling water


Combine oats, sifted flour, sugar and coconut.
Combine butter and golden syrup, stir over gentle heat until melted.
Mix soda with boiling water, add to melted butter mixture, stir into dry ingredients.
Take teaspoonfuls of mixture and place on lightly greased oven trays; allow room for spreading.
Cook in slow oven (150ｰC or 300ｰF) for 20 minutes.
Loosen while still warm, then cool on trays.
Makes about 35 according to the recipe, but I have never gotten any more than about 2 dozen out of them.

For dinner, J whipped up a tomato and onion pasta sauce which we served with oven baked chicken breast. Just as the smell of hot, crispy chicken was wafting through the house, I thought how perfect it would be to have some baguette to go with it, so jumped in the car and drove to bakery No.2 (the one near the 100yen lawson) and YES they were open and YES they had baguettes (at only 250yen) and YES it was yummy!!! Finally, some luck with the bread! I even managed to control myself and not overeat at dinner time.....which I reckon means that when the bread cravings come later tonight, I can act on them without feeling guilty♪

weekend eat outs

Saturday and Sunday were spent almost entirely in home centres looking for furniture. So meals were on the run (not that that is anything different to a normal weekend - I tend to avoid standing in the kitchen on weekends or public holidays, and either eat out, or let J whip something up!)

Saturday
Lunch : Sushi-ro, our favourite 100yen sushi train!
Dinner: No 18, the chinese shop down the road. I made J drive there as I was sooooo worn out from standing and walking all day. I think it took us longer to park the car, than it did to drive there from our house, that is how close it is!! The lady was happy to see us - second time in less than a week. Bet she thinks she has got some new regulars, lol. I had the 八宝菜 からあげ set, that comes with rice, pickles and soup. J had noodles and gyoza, and K had wantan soup. It was good.

Sunday
Lunch: Gusto, as it was the only place we could find after leaving one home centre, en route to the next one. I don't think I have ever eaten at Gusto before, so I was a bit dissapointed that the didn't have any bread sets, only rice and took me ages to decide on the menu(ended up having "cheese-in-hamburg" but hey, it is cheap family restaurant with drink bar so it did the trick. And K got an Anpanman lunch so she was happy too.
Dinner: J whipped up a lovely pesto pasta, served with salad. After the heavy/greasy lunch it was perfect. K had shirasu with her pasta, and yes, she lapped up the pesto pasta. She has had it before, when visiting a French friend of J's - their kids ate it, so K did too, seems that she is now a fan.

I feel like I ate too much and am still bloated this morning. I think I need to be more careful with my eating or else I am gonna explode, seriously! I am not worried about putting on weight per say while pregnant. but my body is usually pretty good at telling me when to slow down, I just feel off if I am eating too much on a regular basis. So more healthy, vege-centred meals and less snack (boo-hoo) for a little bit I thinks.

start of a week of hubby away

J is away on a business trip - so simple meals for us.
Kicked off with (tinned) spaghetti on toast. Noice!

Last night we had friends over dinner/sleep-over, and I made a simple lasagna with salad. I grated some pumpkin into it, as last time I did that it made it so nice and creamy. And it didn't dissapoint this time either. I was a bit apprehensive, because it has been so long since I made a lasagna, I was not sure how it would turn out, but everyone had seconds, so it couldn't have been too bad! After dinnner we (I) overdosed on heaps of snacky stuff - cheese, olives, crackers... it was great!!

just the girls

J has a work dinner with clients, so just K and me. And since K has come down with a cold, and has only eaten natto and rice (and only snippets of it at that) since dinner last night, I am not getting too excited over making anything. Gonna pull out the tin of spaghetti I brough home from Aus and slather it over a slice of toast.

Actually, come to think of it, that *does* sound pretty exciting!