Monday Night Dinner

Every night I have to scratch my head and think hard on what to make for dinner. I told myself once that I should start having a weekly plan on what should we eat for dinner but my problem is we are very fickle minded and we don't know what we always want to eat. Sometimes we would just prefer to go out and grab something to eat or sometimes hubby would just prefer to snack on junk food for dinner.

Yesterday I asked hubby what he wanted to eat and of course he didn't give me anything worth while. All he told me was chicken. I asked him if he wanted to eat Asian or Western food and his answer is I don't know. So since it was up to me to decided I cooked Asian food and I did not cook chicken because I didn't know what to cook with chicken :).

I had a piece of tofu that I bought and decided to cook that. So I went to Lily's website and see what I could make with my tofu without needing me to run to the store to get anything.

Braised Tofu

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. oil

3 tbsp. soya sauce
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp. shaoxing wine
1/2 c. water
1 tsp 5 spice powder
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp sugar
Pepper
1 lb. super firm tofu, sliced 1/2 inch thick

Method:
In a shallow bowl or baking pan, combine all ingredients except tofu.
Mix well and add tofu, cover, and marinate in the refrigerator 4-5 hours.
Turn tofu slices several times while marinating.
After 4 - 5 hours, remove tofu and pour the marinate into a saucepan.
Bring to the boil and add in tofu. Cook until tofu is warm through.

Adjust taste and serve with a sprinkle of sesame oil and chopped spring onions.

This recipe looked so simple and all I had to do was marinate the tofu before hand. At noon I quickly marinated the tofu so that it will be ready for me to cook when hubby gets back. This is a simple, cheap and yummy dish. This dish goes well with either rice or porridge (congee).

I knew that hubby would not eat the tofu and he's going to need a meat dish. Since I was not planning on cooking chicken I decided to defrost some pork chops instead. I was going to making Asian pork chop rice but I knew I didn't have all the ingredients needed so I found Christine's website and decided to try her braised pork chop with onion recipe. This recipe looked so simple and I had everything I needed to make this.

Ingredients:

250 gm boneless pork chops
1 small onion, shredded

Marinade:

1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing rice wine
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon corn flour
a dash of sesame oil
a pinch of pepper

Seasoning:

3 tablespoons water
1/2 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershsire sauce

Method:

1. Rinse and dry boneless pork chops, then slice into pieces if you like. Tenderize pork chops with the back of a chopper and blend in marinade. Leave for 15 minutes.

2. Heat 3-4 tablespoons oil to fry pork chops till both sides are golden. Remove and drain excess oil.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons oil to sauté shredded onion until light brown. Pour in seasoning mixture. Put in chops again, and stir fry till sauce lessens. Dish up and serve hot.

Hubby loved the pork chops. I thought it tasted pretty good too. I would definitely make this again since this is such an easy dish.

I guess now I just have to decide on what to make for tonight's dinner. I love simple and yummy recipes. How do you decide what to cook for dinner?