Experimenting with other cuisines thanks to the inspirational website, Justbento.com I am obsessed with getting my children to eat nutritious meals. Our big girl likes to tote PB&Js and Cheese sandwiches to school with a banana or apple. I know she can do better than that, so I am looking forward to practicing "Deko-ben" or anything else I can possibly do to get her to eat healthier during the day.
One recipe we experimented with was
SOBA NOODLES (cold)
1 lb soba noodles
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons rice or cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chili oil (which I omitted)
1/2 cup sesame seed, toasted
1 cup green onion, sliced
It couldn't be easier. I just mixed everything up and poured it over some cool soba noodles. I served it up with some edamame. Next time I'll try some egg or tofu.
Rating: Little girl - thumbs down
Big girl loved it (for one day). Said she would totally take it to school for lunch. We shall see...
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Filipino-American and Southern Traditions
It's my favorite time of year. Candy corn waving hi to greet me at the cashier check-out. The scent of apples are wafting at all local bakeries. The mums have found a temporary home in a hollowed out pumpkin. Winter squash is in season and reminds me of my childhood comfort food, "Dinuy-duy." Excuse the spelling. It's Ilocano for what the Tagalogs call "Gulay." But my Mom and Nanang (Lola) cooked it differently - with less greens, more tomato and garlic, and simmered until the squash almost disappears into a soup. Time to break out the big ol' pot because it's time for some low country Filipino cooking and some southern flair.
Dinuy-duy
1 Acorn or small butternut squash (I prefer the latter)
3-5 cloves of garlic (to taste)
1 small onion
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, chopped up
1 lb of pork cut up into bite sized pieces
Veg oil
A good shake or two of patis
Line a pot with about 2 TL of veg oil and sautee onion until translucent. Then add garlic until fragrant. Add pork pieces and sautee until brown, then shake in some patis (about 1-2 TB should do). Add chopped tomatoes and sautee until tomato is cooked down. Add some water and heat on medium heat until pork is tender. Add just enough water to cook the pork, then add squash. Cook squash to desired level. If you want to add other veggies (such as green beans), add it just after squash is cooked. You may add more water depending on the consistency desired.
Rate: Only Therese ate it. Clare hates squash but is growing to accept the pork.
asado
Beef Asado (Courtesy of Joe's Great Aunt)
Gotta love Tita Claring. She's such a wonderful lady and a generous and thoughtful cook. I am not a big beef fan, but I look forward to eating this when I see her (among the many other dishes she cooks). I am so thankful she was able to share this with us.
It is key to get this beef tender and flavorful, so we usually :
Boil 1-2 lbs of beef in a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce and lemon juice or kalamans juice (more authentic). We continue to boil this in a pot until it's tender. We prefer leaner cuts, so 1 hour to 90 min should do. A pressure cooker could probably cut the time in half.
In a larger pot, sautee:
2 medium onions, minced until opaque, then add
3 large cloves of garlic
I have also added 1-2 plum tomatoes, guisaed
Once the tomatoes are cooked down, add beef cubes and sautee to seal the flavor. Add the soy-lemon broth and 1 SMALL CAN OF HUNT'S TOMATO SAUCE (unsalted, unflavored) and boil for 10 minutes to add flavor.
Once the boiling is established, I add potatoes, carrots, peas and green pepper (at the end-they cook fast!)
Rating: Both girls ate it.
Sio pao (variable using certai dough)
Still experimenting with this. Used a filling base of shredded chicken, scallion, onion and HOISIN sauce. My girls were not fond of it. I also realized I had to steam the buns on HIGH and nothing less, or else the dough would sink and not poof up. Oh well... Valiant effort, but not a hit among Joe and the girls.
We tend to eat a lot of chicken in the house. It's the meat of choice among 3 of us, versatile and fairly inexpensive. My game plan is to boil the equivalent of one chicken in a pot on Sunday and make a mess load of meals for Monday-Thursday. Still tinkering with the planning since we have three kids now. So in addition to sio pao, and arroz caldo, chicken divan works well in the shredded chicken category. I ran out of cream of chicken, so made my own:
CREAM OF CHICKEN
Melt 2 TB of butter and add 2 TB of flour, mix well with whisk to form a roux.
Once flour is evenly cooked in butter, add about 2 cups of chicken stock. Boil. Add about the same amount of milk. Boil. Flavor as you wish. Salt, pepper, etc. My broth was already salted, but I added 1 tsp of dried mustard for some kick. Cook it down for 20 min, stirring occassionally or until thickened. You may want to add more flour to thicken it up.
Once cooled, add some mayo (about 1 cup). Reserve.
Place frozen broccoli at the bottom of the casserole pan. Then top with a layer of chicken. Layer with the mayo-creamofchicken mix. Add a layer of cheddar cheese (if you're into that sort of thing). Then add a layer of buttered bread crumbs. You can add the bread crumbs, then melted butter on top. Or, you can melt the butter in a pyrex glass then add some crumbs to it, and swish it around, then top.
Bake in the oven at 350 for 30-45 min until crust is brown. Yum.
Rating: Whole family eats it.
VITAMIN C IDEAS
Big Girl doesn't get enough vitamin C in her diet. She hardly eats fruit or vegetables. And the only fruits she seems interested in are mangoes (fresh, frozen or dried) and bananas smothered in chocolate.
Mango Lassi:
1 part frozen mango
1 part unlavored yogurt
Splash of Calcium and Vitamin D fortified OJ
Puree both in a blender. Yay. Mango lassi.
If you make a big enough batch, they make great popsicles too.
Fruit Crisps:
In a baking dish, layer the bottom with cut peaches, frozen blueberries and any other fruit you can think of. Then, top with oat crust mixture:
I estimate everything here and just play around with the ratios.
1-1/2 cups of oats
1/3 c brown sugar (or less)
1/4 cup butter (or 1/2 a stick of butter). You could probably substitute extra virgin coconut oil here too.
I tend to throw in whatever else I can find in my pantry too. A handful of wheat germ here, some flax seed there, and almonds here.
Use your hands to crumble and combine everything. The butter just works as a "glue". Doesn't have to be perfect. Just keep playing with it until mixture resembles bigger crumbles.
Bake in oven at 350 F for 30-40 min or until browned. Hooray for Vitamin C.
And for our
POWER BREAKFAST:
Banana-Nutella Crepes
It's hard to believe these suckers were selling for $8 a pop for a teeny weeny crepe that probably only costs 20 cents each to prepare. Leave it to the French to mark up everything ;)
For the crepes, mix:
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
1 c flour
1 T oil or melted butter
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
Beat well to a smooth consistency. Heat up a pan and spread a thin layer over medium/med-high heat. Cook both sides (yes there is flipping involved).
Fill in with any fruit, cream, jelly, etc that you wish. Big girl likes banana and nutella (I put a small amount just for taste since I am not a huge advocate for chocolate breakfasts). Big girl doesn't eat much for breakfast, but she will easily down 2 very filled crepes and be satisfied until lunch. She also gets the potassium she needs for PE in the afternoon. We could seriously work on protein more protein though.
Rating: BG loves it. LG will eat the filling, but not the crepe.
Dinuy-duy
1 Acorn or small butternut squash (I prefer the latter)
3-5 cloves of garlic (to taste)
1 small onion
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, chopped up
1 lb of pork cut up into bite sized pieces
Veg oil
A good shake or two of patis
Line a pot with about 2 TL of veg oil and sautee onion until translucent. Then add garlic until fragrant. Add pork pieces and sautee until brown, then shake in some patis (about 1-2 TB should do). Add chopped tomatoes and sautee until tomato is cooked down. Add some water and heat on medium heat until pork is tender. Add just enough water to cook the pork, then add squash. Cook squash to desired level. If you want to add other veggies (such as green beans), add it just after squash is cooked. You may add more water depending on the consistency desired.
Rate: Only Therese ate it. Clare hates squash but is growing to accept the pork.
asado
Beef Asado (Courtesy of Joe's Great Aunt)
Gotta love Tita Claring. She's such a wonderful lady and a generous and thoughtful cook. I am not a big beef fan, but I look forward to eating this when I see her (among the many other dishes she cooks). I am so thankful she was able to share this with us.
It is key to get this beef tender and flavorful, so we usually :
Boil 1-2 lbs of beef in a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce and lemon juice or kalamans juice (more authentic). We continue to boil this in a pot until it's tender. We prefer leaner cuts, so 1 hour to 90 min should do. A pressure cooker could probably cut the time in half.
In a larger pot, sautee:
2 medium onions, minced until opaque, then add
3 large cloves of garlic
I have also added 1-2 plum tomatoes, guisaed
Once the tomatoes are cooked down, add beef cubes and sautee to seal the flavor. Add the soy-lemon broth and 1 SMALL CAN OF HUNT'S TOMATO SAUCE (unsalted, unflavored) and boil for 10 minutes to add flavor.
Once the boiling is established, I add potatoes, carrots, peas and green pepper (at the end-they cook fast!)
Rating: Both girls ate it.
Sio pao (variable using certai dough)
Still experimenting with this. Used a filling base of shredded chicken, scallion, onion and HOISIN sauce. My girls were not fond of it. I also realized I had to steam the buns on HIGH and nothing less, or else the dough would sink and not poof up. Oh well... Valiant effort, but not a hit among Joe and the girls.
We tend to eat a lot of chicken in the house. It's the meat of choice among 3 of us, versatile and fairly inexpensive. My game plan is to boil the equivalent of one chicken in a pot on Sunday and make a mess load of meals for Monday-Thursday. Still tinkering with the planning since we have three kids now. So in addition to sio pao, and arroz caldo, chicken divan works well in the shredded chicken category. I ran out of cream of chicken, so made my own:
CREAM OF CHICKEN
Melt 2 TB of butter and add 2 TB of flour, mix well with whisk to form a roux.
Once flour is evenly cooked in butter, add about 2 cups of chicken stock. Boil. Add about the same amount of milk. Boil. Flavor as you wish. Salt, pepper, etc. My broth was already salted, but I added 1 tsp of dried mustard for some kick. Cook it down for 20 min, stirring occassionally or until thickened. You may want to add more flour to thicken it up.
Once cooled, add some mayo (about 1 cup). Reserve.
Place frozen broccoli at the bottom of the casserole pan. Then top with a layer of chicken. Layer with the mayo-creamofchicken mix. Add a layer of cheddar cheese (if you're into that sort of thing). Then add a layer of buttered bread crumbs. You can add the bread crumbs, then melted butter on top. Or, you can melt the butter in a pyrex glass then add some crumbs to it, and swish it around, then top.
Bake in the oven at 350 for 30-45 min until crust is brown. Yum.
Rating: Whole family eats it.
VITAMIN C IDEAS
Big Girl doesn't get enough vitamin C in her diet. She hardly eats fruit or vegetables. And the only fruits she seems interested in are mangoes (fresh, frozen or dried) and bananas smothered in chocolate.
Mango Lassi:
1 part frozen mango
1 part unlavored yogurt
Splash of Calcium and Vitamin D fortified OJ
Puree both in a blender. Yay. Mango lassi.
If you make a big enough batch, they make great popsicles too.
Fruit Crisps:
In a baking dish, layer the bottom with cut peaches, frozen blueberries and any other fruit you can think of. Then, top with oat crust mixture:
I estimate everything here and just play around with the ratios.
1-1/2 cups of oats
1/3 c brown sugar (or less)
1/4 cup butter (or 1/2 a stick of butter). You could probably substitute extra virgin coconut oil here too.
I tend to throw in whatever else I can find in my pantry too. A handful of wheat germ here, some flax seed there, and almonds here.
Use your hands to crumble and combine everything. The butter just works as a "glue". Doesn't have to be perfect. Just keep playing with it until mixture resembles bigger crumbles.
Bake in oven at 350 F for 30-40 min or until browned. Hooray for Vitamin C.
And for our
POWER BREAKFAST:
Banana-Nutella Crepes
It's hard to believe these suckers were selling for $8 a pop for a teeny weeny crepe that probably only costs 20 cents each to prepare. Leave it to the French to mark up everything ;)
For the crepes, mix:
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
1 c flour
1 T oil or melted butter
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
Beat well to a smooth consistency. Heat up a pan and spread a thin layer over medium/med-high heat. Cook both sides (yes there is flipping involved).
Fill in with any fruit, cream, jelly, etc that you wish. Big girl likes banana and nutella (I put a small amount just for taste since I am not a huge advocate for chocolate breakfasts). Big girl doesn't eat much for breakfast, but she will easily down 2 very filled crepes and be satisfied until lunch. She also gets the potassium she needs for PE in the afternoon. We could seriously work on protein more protein though.
Rating: BG loves it. LG will eat the filling, but not the crepe.
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