Trying out Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins today....we'll see how it goes!

Vegetarian Pancit

So my husband is from the Philippines. When I was a meat eater I really enjoyed the flavors of Filipino food. It's very savory and rich in home cooked love. My favorite dish is Adobo...I'm still working on how to make that a veggie dish. I might just try it with a fish and see how that goes.

So the idea popped in my head to make Pancit which is a famous rice noodle dish. Usually would would put chicken in it but I subbed it for Tofu!

I got the recipe here.

Recipe

1 (12 ounce) package dried rice noodles
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups diced cooked chicken breast meat
1 small head cabbage, thinly sliced
4 carrot, thinly sliced
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 lemons - cut into wedges, for garnish
Directions
1 half block of Tofu diced

Place the rice noodles in a large bowl, and cover with warm water. When soft, drain, and set aside.
Heat oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until soft. Stir in chicken cabbage, carrots and soy sauce. Cook until cabbage begins to soften. Toss in noodles, and cook until heated through, stirring constantly. Transfer pancit to a serving dish and garnish with quartered lemons. Don't forget to squeeze your lemons on your Pancit to create that sour flavor!

Works so well and if you pair it with rice it's pretty much the best thing every! (Haha!)

It tastes just like chicken Pancit and I imagine someone could be fooled with the flavors if they didn't know any better.

Creole Kidney Beans and Rice

I was on a mission looking for Kidney Bean soup. So I got to my local exchange and look for kidney beans. I find them and there so happens to be a cool recipe on the back of the can of beans. I'm a big time can food eater. I try to keep it to minimum with salt by washing the veggies after I open the can to take away some of the salt and I try to buy low sodium and no salt added when I can. Anyways this one is a keeper that's for sure!

The only thing I took out was the cayenne pepper because I don't like spicy foods but the flavors that remain still make it like mom used to make. Creole and savory! My mom is actually from Louisiana so I grew up with gumbos and Creole food so I had to try this one to see if I could create the same flavors. Think it could use a little tweeking but over it was great

Recipe:
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 large onion chopped
2 stocks of celery chopped
1/2 green pepper chopped
3 garlic cloves chopped
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper and several dashing of hot pepper sauce
1 1/2 cup of vegetable broth
3/4 cup cooked rice
1 can of kidney beans
1 bay leaf

I cooked my rice before hand because I prefer the taste of freshly steamed rice rather than pan cooked rice.

Heat up the oil in a large saucepan. Add onion, celery, garlic, and pepper. Saute for about two minutes then add the remaining ingredients. Don't forget the kidney beans. (My dish was almost complete and I notice the most important ingredient was missing!) Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes or until the most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

Serve over rice.

Asparagus and Cashews

Wow it's been a little bit since I posted something here huh?

Well this time I went with a tried and true recipe Asparagus and Cashews.

It can be a little bit salty if you add too much soy sauce and the cashews can add more salt if you buy the pre-salted kind. I used them for this recipe because I couldn't find the ones with out salt at Safeway. Overall if I've got nothing in my pantry this what I always run to because I've always got rice, soy sauce and sesame oil. I guess it's got something to do with the asian cooking I do so much in my home.


So you need:

4 cups of cooked rice

For the sauce you need:

2 Tablespoons of cold water
2 Tablespoons of corn starch (Any kind will do)
1 1/2 cup of vegetable stock or water
3 Tablespoons of soy-sauce (The low sodium works the best but you can use regular)
1 teaspoon of minced ginger or ground ginger.
1 teaspoon of sesame oil. You can use the dark which makes it nutter if you can't find the light one.
Dash of pepper to taste.


For content

2 Tablespoons of canola oil
3 cups of asparagus or one can
4 medium scallions but onions work just as well
1 small can of mushrooms
1/2 teaspoon of mince garlic
1 cup raw cashews

Cook the rice while your getting everything together.

Stir in the water and cornstarch in a bowl until smooth. Then add the remaining items and set aside.

Heat up the oil in a nonstick skillet or wok over medium heat. Add asparagus, scallions, mushrooms and garlic. Cook for about 5 minutes stirring constantly.

Then reduce the heat to medium and stir in the sauce. Cook for about a minute or until it begins to bubble and thicken. Fold in the cashews for another minute.

Then serve over white rice.

I got this recipe from The 15 Minute Vegetarian by Paullete Mitchell.
The recipe calls for red pepper flakes and red bell peppers. I don't like spice so I omitted it and I didn't have any red bell peppers so I used the mushrooms instead it still makes a great dish no matter what you put in it.

Miso/Soy Marinated Tilapia w/ Asian Inspire Asparagus and Rice.

No picture this time. But I tried this recipe last night. It was really good. I changed the Honey to Miso and doubled everything since we had guests over that I was cooking for as well. It came out really great and flavorful. I think because I let it marinade for longer than 20 minutes like they say. I was on three hours or so before I started cooking it.

So you have

4 Tilapia Filets
6 T Miso Paste
6 T Soy Sauce
6 T Balsamic Vinegar
2 Clove Garlic minced


Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix last four ingredients in a shallow dish. Add fish filets, and let marinade in fridge for at least 20 min (I marinaded mine for 3 hours). Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes.

I paired it with an Asian Inspired Asparagus. Of course I changed the recipe.

I added a lot more soy sauce than the recipe asked for and added rice to put under the whole thing that the end. It was a really good dinner over all and I think I will try it again.

No cooking tonight going to have a date night with the hubby. For the future I think I'm going to make Mushu Gai-Pan. It's not Japanese but it sounds really good and Pancit when I finally get a chance! :)

Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins anyone?

Making some right now. I used the same idea that Maki used for her Earl Grey Muffins. Can you tell I'm a sucker for her recipes??

Omurice Revisted!

This time I followed everything Maki said! And my Omurice actually turned out how it is suppose to look. I folded one of my omlettes then just pan fried the one in the image.

Tomorrow I'm going to make Miso-Soy Tilapia. A creation of my own inspired by this recipe. I'm not a fan of sweet food so instead of the honey I'm subbing Miso.

For the New Year when we get up in the morning (hopefully the house party doesn't go to crazy!) I'm going to make Azuki beans and rice for the first meal of the new year and I'm getting a new couch! Thank whatever cause I'm sick of the old one!