Snow peas, Chicken & Carrot Stir-fry

Last night's dinner was Snow peas, Chicken & Carrot Stir-fry.  I just made a trip to the grocery in the morning so I got all my veggies on hand.  I was lucky to find a good bargain.  I bought the following:

• snow peas for Php 8.50
• carrots for Php 7.05
• onions for Php 11.63
• 1/2 kilo of chicken breast for Php 101.40.

This dish has it all--protein, carbohydrates,vitamins, minerals, etc.  Also, it takes only about ten minutes to cook this dish.

Snow peas, Chicken & Carrot Stir-fry with Quail Eggs

Here are the ingredients for Snow peas, Chicken & Carrot Stir-fry:

• garlic, minced
• onion, sliced
• snow peas
• carrots, julliened
• 2 pcs. chicken breast, cut into small pieces
• quail eggs, boiled and peeled
• salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce or "patis"
• a little butter

Marinate the chicken for 15 minutes in:

• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• a dash of pepper

In a wok or non-stick pan:
1.  Heat oil.  Saute garlic & onion.  Add marinated chicken and cook thoroughly.
2.  Next add carrots and snow peas.  Add the marinating sauce.
3.  Add the quail eggs and a little butter and mix well.  Cook for a few minutes.  Serve with hot rice. Enjoy.

This is one way to enjoy veggies and chicken.  You can also try it with noodles.

More dishes coming! :-)

Grocery Geek

Yesterday was one of my favorite days, it's grocery day! I would call myself a "Grocery Geek" because I enjoy going to the grocery and discovering new products that are available there.  I also enjoy going to the wet market or "palengke" , but its been quite a while since we last made a trip there.

With a budget of eight hundred pesos, we were able to purchase the following:

• chicken wings
• chicken breast
• ground chicken
• 2 pcs pork steak
• 1/4 kilo sukiyaki cut pork
• 1 pc boneless bangus
• 2 pcs chicken balls
• 2 pcs pork tonkatsu
• onions
• cabbage
• potatoes
• kalamansi
• carrots
• snow peas
• broccolli
• red bell pepper
• sayote
• kalabasa
• cooking oil
• Gardenia white bread

grocery receipt
TOTAL Php 797.65

Of course we brought with us our own "blue bag", our eco bag, since plastic bags are no longer allowed in the City of Bacoor.

Our refrigerator will surely bring back the smile in its "face" now that the groceries and supplies have been replenished.  Our pantry will again be a "Happy Pantry".  As for me, I will have more reasons to cook up something special for dinner since I have all my supplies ready ans waiting to be cooked. :-)

This girl loves mangoes!

Eversince I was little, I have been in love with this yellow sometimes green, sweet sometimes sour, half-moon shaped tropical fruit called the mango.  I remember the Indian Mango tree up in Indang, Cavite where we'd spend our weekends hanging out picking fresh fruits from the trees that are abundant there.  My dad also use to bring us to his kumpare's farmhouse in Trece Martires.  There we'd enjoy our choice of fruits, grilled "tilapia" for lunch while playing with our Barbie dolls in a small nipa hut.  The air was fresh and nibbling on green mangoes and "bagoong" was my favorite past time.

Green and ripe mangoes

As I grew older, I still continued to love this fruit.  I couldn't imagine how many kilos of mangoes I've already consumed in my 32 years of existence.

sliced mangga at bagoong at asin

For a couple of years when I got diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, I stopped eating mangoes.  My mom believed that it sort of triggers my stomachache so I stopped eating mangoes for a while.  As I got better and learned to manage this illness, little by little, I was able to eat sour and citrus fruits again.  I started eating mangoes again!

Every now and then I would go to the market to buy green mangoes and "bagoong".  Sometimes I would ask my husband to buy some for me.  On occasions when we visit places where there is a mango tree, I ask for permission from the owner if we can get some from the tree.  Like on one of our visits in my husband's aunt.  They have a big "Apple Mango" tree in their backyard.  So we immediately asked for permission, looked for the "panungkit" and enjoyed picking mangoes from the tree.

my husband with the "panungkit"

I'd also say that we Filipinos are lucky because we have the best mangoes in the world.  I have yet to try the mangoes of Zambales, they say its the best there is.

huge apple mangoes

My love for mangoes will never falter. As long as I can, I'm gonna eat 'em!

I LOVE MANGOES!

Chicken & Bacon Rollups for Christmas

For Christmas Eve, I chose to cook this dish for the first time, Chicken & Bacon Rollups.  Sounds easy, but it took me a while to finish this dish.  But the results are quite impressive because everybody loved it.

Chicken & Bacon Rollups

I saw this recipe from Pinterest and did my version of it with the ingredients that are affordable and available in the grocery.  Also instead of cooking it for 8 hours as the original recipe stated, I cooked it for 45 minutes instead. That is minus the preparation and searing of the meat.

So here's the recipe for the Chicken & Bacon Rollups:

10 bacon slices
10 boneless and skinless chicken breasts
garlic, crushed
onions, diced
1 pack Knorr Cream of Mushroom Soup, yes soup!
1 pack Alaska Crema
1 small can button mushrooms, pieces and stems
salt and pepper to taste
water

1.  Season chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Wrap bacon around the chicken breasts.
2.  Put oil on a pan and sear the bacon & chicken roll until slightly brown.  Set aside.

seared chicken & bacon 

3.  On the same pan, saute garlic, onions and mushrooms.
4.  Meanwhile, dissolve the Cream of Mushroom soup in 1 cup of water.  Add to the pan and let simmer. Stir occassionally.
5.  Add Alaska Crema and mix well.
6.  Transfer the mixture to a bigger caserole.  Put the chicken & bacon rolls and make sure that it is fully immersed in the sauce.  Add a little water.
7.  Let it cook for 45 minutes.  Serve and enjoy while hot.

Leftover sauce from this dish can also be used as pasta sauce.  Just cook up some ham and pasta and toss everything with the sauce in a pan!

ham & leftover sauce pasta

the cook

The first time I cooked Kalderetang Baka for my husband

Beef is one of my husband's favorites.  His most favorite is the Nilagang Baka or the Bulalo.  I was surprised when he requested me to cook Kalderetang Baka for the New Year.  So I did, for the first time!

Kalderetang Baka

I can say that I'm an expert at cooking chicken dishes.  Beef? Well, it needs hard work and the help of a pressure cooker!

For this dish, I decided to cook the beef in the pressure cooker first for 30 minutes before actually cooking the Calderetang Baka.

Kaldereta is cooked!

I also have two secret ingredients for this dish.  This I learned from my dad.  My dad used to cook Caldereta when I was younger.  So I copied his secret ingredient--cheese and liver spread.

Now here's what I used to magically cook up this sumptuous dish...

garlic, crushed
onions, chopped
1 kilo of beef short ribs
1 small can of liver spread
potatoes, cut into chunks and fried
carrots, cut into chunks
bellpeppers, sliced
laurel leaf
1 pouch Del Monte Gourmet Spaghetti Sauce Tomato & Cheese
2 tablespoons Tomato paste
grated cheese, half

Procedure:
1.  Cook the beef in the pressure cooker for 30 minutes.
2.  Saute garlic, onion & beef until slightly brown.  Add liver spread, stir then add the beef broth about 1-2 cups and simmer until tender.
3.  Add Del Monte Gourmet Spaghetti Sauce Tomato & Cheese, potatoes, carrots, laurel leaf, salt & pepper to taste.  Cook for 15 minutes.
4.  Add bellpeppers and cheese and continue cooking for another 45 minutes or until the beef is really tender.
5.  Serve with hot rice and soda! Enjoy!

Not only did my husband like it, he loved it and told me to save a lot for him.

Big Smile

We brought my Calderetang Baka to our New Year's Eve dinner at my parents house.  They all loved it.  My sisters loved it.  Mochi loved it too.  My mom placed some sauce on Mochi's dog food and he immediately finished it!

Mochi our little boy Yorky