A complete meal

For the past few weeks I've rarely cooked any elaborate meal because hubby will be going on vacation soon hence he's super busy at work trying to get his work done before he leaves for vacation hence coming home pretty late every night. By the time he comes home he's too tired to care what to eat. Sometimes I would have already had my dinner so it would just him eating what ever that's available or when he would be home some what decent time we would just go out and grab something to eat.

Since I have a whole chicken in my freezer and the weather is so chilly this two days I decided I would make something to warm the house up. The night before I took the chicken out to thaw so that the next morning I could get it ready to use it. It was still frozen inside even though it has been out since last night!

This is what I made for dinner last night:
Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken
Carrots
Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Crockpot Rotisserie Chicken adapted from here

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, skinned (4-5 pounds)
2 tsp kosher salt (if you'd like it as salty as the ones in the store, add another 1 tsp.)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp black pepper
pinch of chili pepper (probably not necessary)

4 whole garlic cloves (optional)
1 yellow onion, quartered (optional)

Method

1. I used a 6 quart crockpot for a 5 pound bird. It fit nicely. Put about 4-5 aluminum balls in the crockpot. (You will put your chicken on the aluminum balls this is suppose to help make the chicken crispy)

2. Clean Chicken and pat dry with paper towel.

3. In a bowl, combine all of dried spices. Rub the spice mixture all over the bird, inside and out. Plop the bird breast-side down into the crockpot.

4. If desired, shove 4 whole garlic cloves and a quartered onion inside the bird.

Do not add water.

Cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, or on low for 8. The meat is done when it is fully cooked and has reached desired tenderness. The longer you cook it, the more tender the meat.

Glazed Carrots

Ingredients

4-6 carrots, peeled and sliced or baby carrot, whole
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Method
1. Steam Carrots (to retain the nutrition and moisture) until desire doneness.
2. Melt butter and brown sugar. Stir in ground ginger.
3. Add sauce to carrot and stir to coat.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients
2-3 baking potatoes (depending on how large your potatoes)
4-5 cloves of garlic
Milk (the amount of milk depends on how creamy you want your potato to be. More milk if you want creamier potato)
2 TBSP butter
cheese (I used one slice of cheddar cheese slice if you have others like shredded cheese you could use 1/2C of shredded cheese)
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Boil potatoes with garlic until potatoes are done or desired tenderness.
2. Add butter, milk and cheese and mash them up together. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. (I like to use seasoned salt)

The chicken was taste and moist. It literally fall off the bone yummy. Hubby and I ate almost half of the chicken. I forgot to add salt when I mixed the seasoning together so I just sprinkled some seasoned salt on the chicken after I put it in the crockpot.

The carrots and mashed potato was super yummy it went well with the chicken and was easy to prepare.

I deboned the chicken and froze it to make another dish with it some day. I'm so happy to be able to serve a complete, nutritious yet simple meal in a nick of the time.

The reason why I love my crockpot is because I can put everything inside and just let it do its thing and a meal would be ready when you want to eat. I use my crockpot all the time when I was working because I would have a meal ready after work and I've not use my crockpot in a long time since I have more time now. I think every household should have a crockpot if they have no time to cook.

Chicken Enchiladas

I've been craving for some Enchiladas for a few days and since I had some left over chicken from my potato roasted chicken and I had some homemade enchiladas sauce, homemade salsa and a tub of sour cream that I need to finish I decided to make some enchiladas thinking that hubs would come home for lunch since he had to work a little bit today.

Hubs didn't come home for lunch and I had a pan full of enchiladas. I was suppose to make potato roasted chicken again this time with two whole chicken because hubby invited one of his co worker home for dinner (he's single and he don't get to eat home cooked dinner often) and we were thinking of calling Uncle Richie and Aunt L over too. At about 5pm Uncle Richie came over and told me that they were starving and that they had ton of things too do so they won't be coming over for dinner. So I went in the kitchen and I saw the pan of enchilada and send them home to them with him so him and Aunt L can eat them since they were hungry then.

Ingredients
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1-1/2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
10 oz Enchilada Sauce
2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons chopped green bell pepper
1/2 clove garlic, minced
4 (10 inch) flour tortillas
16oz Salsa
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons shredded Cheddar cheese

Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium, non-stick skillet over medium heat, cook chicken until no longer pink and juices run clear. Drain excess fat. Cube the chicken and return it to the skillet. Add the onion, sour cream, Cheddar cheese, parsley, oregano and ground black pepper. Heat until cheese melts. Stir in enchilada sauce, green pepper, salsa and garlic.
3. Roll even amounts of the mixture in the tortillas. Arrange in a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover with taco sauce and 3/4 cup Cheddar cheese. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

Apparently I had more chicken than I thought so I had to make more. Since this is the first time I made enchiladas I didn't really know how to wrap it. Although it doesn't look that nice but I'm surprised it actually taste pretty good. Aunt L and Uncle Richie loved it and I told them to finish them before bringing home the pan :)..I will have to make some for hubs next time.

Potato Roasted Chicken

I was blog hopping one day and I came across Christine's Recipe I knew that I'm going to have to make this soon (it was summer) when the weather cools down. It was suppose to cool down yesterday so I decided to make this dish. I went to the store at noon yesterday to go get a chicken so I can make this dish for dinner. Hubby also bought a bunch of very huge baking potatoes a couple of weeks ago so is a good thing that I can use some of those potatoes up. Hop over to Christine's blog if you want the step by step on how to prepare this dish.

Ingredients:
1 bird Chicken
1 1/2 tablespoon Coarse Salt or Sea Salt
A good shake of Ground Black Pepper
1 teaspoon of Rosemary
1 teaspoon of Thyme
5 cloves Garlic
50gm Butter(I used 2.5tablespoon)
2 tablespoon Olive Oil

Potatoes
3pcs Potato
5 cloves Garlic
A good pinch of Fine Salt

Method

1. Rub coarse salt or sea salt all over inside & outside of the chicken, give a good pinch of ground black pepper all over inside & outside of the chicken. Keep in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
2. Preheat oven at 180c. Remove the marinated chicken from the fridge, again rub all over with rosemary & thyme. Stuff garlic into the chicken.
3. Place the chicken in the oven proof glass tray & pour olive oil all over the chicken. Place the chicken into the oven & roast for 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into 1cm in thickness. Fill the cooking pan with enough water, place the potato & garlic into the pan, boil it with high heat. When it's start boiling, boil for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat, drain off the water & leave aside.
5. After 15 minutes later, open up the oven door & place the butter on the chicken. Roast until the chicken becomes golden brown in colour, this process take about 25 to 30 minutes.
6. When the chicken has become golden brown in colour, remove the glass tray from the oven. Turn the entire chicken upside down & place the potatoes all over the glass tray. Again place the glass tray back to the oven & roast until the chicken become golden brown in color.

This is a really yummy dish..Hubby gave two thumbs up and he loves the potatoes. Since when I cook I don't usually measure my ingredients to the T my chicken was a little too salty and a little spicy from the black pepper but if you eat it with the potatoes it was just right.

Another reason why I made this dish is because I wanted some left over chicken so that I can make some chicken enchiladas for dinner sometime this week for dinner. I would make this dish again because hubs really love this dish. I love the garlicky taste in the potatoes even though we have garlic in the chicken you can really taste the garlic and the garlic is still crunchy. I prefer the softer garlic that was boiled with the potatoes. I will put more garlic with my potatoes next time just because I'm a garlic lover!

Chicken Mushroom Rice/Yau Mei Fan

There are days when I have trouble thinking what to cook for dinner. I run out of ideas sometimes but a lot of the time I want to cook something yummy and hubby would actually eat. Hubby wanted to have pizza Monday night while I didn't want to eat that. So I decided to just cook something simple for myself because I'm lazy :p.

Chicken Mushroom Rice

Ingredients
Handful of chinese mushroom (Washed and soaked with a tsp of sugar for at least 4 hrs)
Chicken pieces
Rice
Chinese Sausage - optional
Salted fish-optional
1 TBSP Oyster Sauce
2 TSP Dark Soy Sauce
1 TBSP of soy sauce
1 TSP of chicken stock powder

Method
1. Wash rice and drain. Add enough water from the mushrooms.
2. Put chicken pieces, Chinese sausage, salted fish and mushroom on rice.
3. Pour seasoning over.
4. Steam until rice and meat cooked.

* I'm lazy to cook the rice first so I just dump everything to cook. You can cook the rice in the rice cooker. Stir fry the chicken with the seasoning and put in the the rice cooker when the water from the rice dries.
**Some use claypot to cook this dish too. This dish is actually similar to clay pot chicken rice.

I omitted the salted fish because I didn't have any and I skipped the Chinese Sausage too just in case hubby wanted some and he don't care for Chinese Sausage. Another simple low budget meal. I froze some left over so I can just heat it up when I'm by myself.

Chicken wrap

Last Saturday I asked hubby if he wanted to eat rotisserie chicken for dinner since I didn't know what to make for dinner. I saw the advertisement for Krogers that they have rotisserie chicken for $4.99 which is such a good deal because it normally cost like $7.99 and the kiasu me thought that I could get that for dinner and use the left over chicken for something else like enchilada or chimichanga. Anyway when we got to the store we saw that the rotisserie chicken was so small. I think I could eat the whole chicken myself and we decided to buy their garlic and herb colossal chicken instead. Well it looked almost like the rotisserie chicken but just bigger and cost more.

We decided to come home and make some french fries (which was really yummy and will share the recipe the next time I make it again) to go with our colossal chicken. We were so disappointed when we dug into our chicken. The chicken was dry and tasteless! We didn't care for it at all but thankfully we had our fries to fill us up.

Hubby has been getting sick and tired of eating cold deli meat for lunches lately which I don't blame him because I would have gotten sick of them the first week. He's been eating out a lot lately and I think that fast food is not healthy for him plus it gets costly when he does it everyday. I have been trying to make different kind of sandwiches for his lunch so he doesn't get sick of them.

With the leftover chicken that we barely touched I decided to debone them and use half of the chicken to make some Chicken wrap for him for his lunch.

Chicken Wrap

Ingredients
1 cup of shredded chicken/2 (10 ounce) cans chunk chicken, drained and flaked
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/4 cup mayonnaise
4 tablespoons fresh salsa
salt and pepper to taste
6 (10 inch) flour tortillas
12 lettuce leaves

Method
1. In a small bowl combine the chicken, onion, mayonnaise, salsa, salt and pepper. Mix together.

2. Line each tortilla with two lettuce leaves, then divide chicken salad mixture evenly among each tortilla and roll up, or 'wrap'.

* I used homemade salsa which we love very much. I normally make a big batch of them and freeze it so that we can have salsa anytime we want. I will share the recipe the next time I make the salsa again.

Hubby liked his chicken wrap. He gave the rating 8.5/10. I am glad that he's enjoying the different sandwiches that I'm preparing for him. Hopefully I won't run of idea so soon and by the time I run out of idea he can go back to his deli meat I guess :)

Homemade Bread Crumbs and Ranch/Cesar Parmesan Chicken

On Saturday we went out for dinner for hubby's birthday celebration and since we ate out on Saturday we decided we wanted to chill out at home and work on the flooring or mow the lawn etc (We actually spend all day Saturday tiling the floor and we have almost half the living room done tiling now we need to grout and seal the tiles) on Sunday.

Anyway my initial plan for dinner was to make beer chicken on the grill since we have not tried this yet and we bought the rack to put the beer and the chicken a long time ago. It started raining on Sunday off and on and we decided that we should not grill out (We should not grill at at the beginning anyway since hubby is still a little sick). So I decided to bake the chicken instead (which is as bad as grilling therefore I made hubby drink extra glass of herb drink and eat water melon :P). Since it was a last minute change of plan on how to cook the chicken I needed some bread crumbs to bake my chicken and I only had a handful of Italian crumbs left thus I decided to make my own breadcrumbs. I rummage through my freezer and found some odds and ends bread and started making my breadcrumbs (I normally put my odds and ends bread in the freezer to make croutons or breadcrumbs).

Italian Breadcrumbs

Ingredients
1 cup plain bread
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon dried basil

Method
1. Put bread int he food process and blend till fine, toss the rest of the ingredients to blend thoroughly.

2. Store in an airtight container and use in any recipe calling for Italian breadcrumbs.

After making my breadcrumbs which only took about 5 minutes; I proceeded to preparing my chicken. I had to cut up the chicken before I could start coating my chicken.

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
1 cup dry Italian/Original breadcrumbs (even better, use panko breadcrumbs)
1/4-1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon seasoning salt
1/2-1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2-1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 Old Bay Seasoning
1 cup prepared ranch salad dressing or Cesar dressing (use bottled salad dressing, you might need a bit more dressing)
1/4 cup melted butter (no substitutes) *optional

Method
1. Set oven to 400° degrees (set oven rack to lowest position).

2. Put a cooling rack on top of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.

3. In a shallow bowl mix together the dry breadcrumbs with Parmesan cheese, seasoned salt, black pepper, old bay seasoning and garlic powder.

4. Dip the chicken into the ranch dressing to coat both sides (allow any excess to drip off).

5. Coat in the breadcrumb mixture.

6. Place in a single layer onto the cooling rack.

7. Lightly drizzle the melted butter over each breast (for low-fat option omit the butter or use a diet alternative) * I skipped this part because I don't like my chicken to be oily*.

8. If desired you can sprinkle black pepper over the chicken pieces .

9. Bake uncovered for about 30-35 minutes or until the chicken is cooked).

Everyone loves this dish including me but I think is a little too salty for me(I've adjusted the salt on both the chicken recipe and breadcrumbs recipe to reduce the salt but if you like your food saltier you could increase the ratio of the salt a little). I normally try to cook with what ever I have at home when I'm lazy to go out and since I had very little Ranch dressing left in my house I decided to use some of the garlic Cesar dressing I had at home.

Even though hubby is not a fan of Ranch or the garlic Cesar dressing but he still gave thumbs up for this dish. Amount of breadcrumbs and ranch dressing needs to be adjusted depending on how much chicken you have.

We made some onions potatoes and some steam mixed vegetables as our side dish. We finished off dinner with hubby's birthday cake. Sometimes yummy meals don't really have to be really complicated to prepare :)

Weekend

I've been meaning to blog about food that I've been making these past week but I've just been so busy. Two weeks ago Hubs and I started biking about 7 miles around our neighborhood weekends we would bike about 10 miles. Last Saturday the hubs, Uncle Richie, Aunt L and I biked 13.5 miles and then in the evening the hubs and I biked another 6 miles. Sunday we were planning to go biking again but we decided we should go check out flooring for the first floor of out house. We've been talking about changing the flooring even before we bought this house but we've not done anything. Finally we went to the store and found some tiles and bought a few boxes of tiles, mortar, and what ever needed to install the tiles.

L-Hubby cutting the tile for the corner R-The corner of the living room hub started to work on

We didn't get home until about 3pm hence the hubby wasn't able to work on the flooring a whole lot. If you are wondering people here in Houston usually have tiles/carpet for the flooring. I am not going to go with carpet because we currently have carpet and is just gross plus we have two dogs so is not wise to put carpet on the floor again. We could use hardwood flooring but we are planning to use hardwood flooring for the stairs and upstairs so we are not going to use hardwood flooring downstairs too. I am hoping that once we are completed with the flooring floor cleaning would be easier instead of the gross carpet.

Anyway I didn't help hubby with the flooring as I was getting hungry so I went and prepare dinner. I've been craving for some curry for a long time but have not made it so Sunday morning I told the hubs that I was going to make Apple Curry Chicken because I had some apples in the refrigerator that I wanted to use it up.

Recipe adapted here

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, cut into cube
1-2 fresh apple, cut into small cube (depending on the size of the apple)
2-Carrot,2-Potato, 1- big onion,2-eggplant (I used my homegrown and one from the store) , cut into cube
1bulb- Garlic (I love garlic!)
2 TBSP curry powder
1-1/2TBSP chili powder
1TBSP turmeric powder

Method

1) Mix the curry powder, chili powder and turmeric powder with water to form into paste.

2) Saute garlic and onion until fragrant, add in meat, carrot and potato.

3) Add water, then add own mix curry paste.

4) Simmer for about 15 minutes

5) Tasted with salt.

6) Add apple and eggplant

5) Cook and simmer for another 15-20mins.

I love this simple to prepare recipe! I might consider using yogurt, milk or coconut milk if I had in on hand instead of water. Even with the amount of chili powder I used hubby was able to eat it but then it was a tad bit spicy/hot for him. I guess that's one of the reasons why he got sick on the same night!

Tuesday Night Dinner

I could not think of what to make and I've been having cravings for Alfredo for the longest time. The reason why I haven't had it is because I am still trying to refrain myself from seafood after the surgery. So since hubby wanted to have chicken that night I decided to make Alfredo (although he doesn't care much for it but will still eat it). I could have just used the store bought Spaghetti noodles but then I've been wanting to try and find a healthier alternative to just the store bought noodles. I know they have whole wheat once out there too but I just never looked for it or haven't seen it at the store that I normally go too. So yesterday I decided to make homemade carrot whole wheat noodles. I'm still trying to play with the ingredients because I don't know how much whole wheat flour I can use without making it dry etc...I'm pretty happy with the first trial but I just want to make the ratio of whole wheat flour more than what I used yesterday.

It doesn't look orange because I coated it with loads of flour so it doesn't stick to each other.


At night I sliced some chicken and marinate it with some Cajun seasoning. The I used some butter in the pan to cook the chicken. At the same time I just cooked the simple Alfredo sauce.

Ingredients
1/4LB if sweet butter or 1/2 c of light butter or 1/2 c of margarine (butter taste much better)
1C of heavy cream/light cream/half and half/whole milk
3/4c or more of fresh Parmesan cheese(if your sauce looks runny just add Parmesan cheese to thicken it)
Salt
pepper
garlic (optional)

Method
1. Melt butter in a pan.
2. Add chopped garlic and saute until fragrant.
3. Pour cream and stir until slightly boil then add cheese.
4. Season with salt and pepper

Alfredo is not a very healthy sauce but I really love it hence I cannot consume this dish all the time. This is a very simple dish since most of the ingredients is available at home.

Coca Cola Chicken, Szechuan Eggplant and Stir fry vegetables

I've not been cooking much ever since PIL came and visit because FIL will do most of the cooking and I just need to clean up. Last week I barely cooked anything because I have not been to the grocery store and didn't bother to go by myself. So last weekend hubby and I went to the grocery store and did our groceries.
I've been wanting to try this coca cola chicken for a long time. One of my BFF that was studying in Australia at that time told me about this dish and said that it taste pretty good so when I found the recipe at Sinner's site and is even approved by her western hubby I was ready to try it too. I am not sure why but the color of my chicken is lighter than hers but hubby said it taste yummy so I guess I just have to play with it a little bit more.

L-R: Eggplant, Chicken and Greens

Coca Cola Chicken

Ingredients
1.5kg chicken pieces
1 can 355ml coke
2 Tbsp lemon juice
5 thin slices of ginger
2 clove garlic, chopped
4 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp dark soya sauce
1 red chilli deseeded
1 Tbsp cooking oil
sprinkling of salt to taste

Method
1. Marinate chicken with coke and lemon juice for at least 30 minutes.

2. Heat oil in a wok and sauté garlic and ginger until fragrant.

3. Pour the coke from the chicken into a small pot. Heat to boil and set aside.

4. Add chicken to the wok and stir fry for 5 minutes.

4. Pour the boiled coke and the rest of the ingredients to the chicken.

5. Mix well, cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. If there is still a lot of liquid, turn the heat up and boil to reduce and thicken the gravy. Season with salt to taste.

I love to eat eggplant and I love it since I was a little kid however I try not to eat too much because I know it takes a lot of oil to cook them and they absorb almost all of it too however I've not eaten eggplant in a long time and I came across My Kitchen Snippet's site and saw the yummy eggplant recipe and decided to buy one and cook it. I regret not buying more but then sometimes when I'm lazy I end up not cooking them hence wasting it but this time it did not have a chance to go to the garbage. The only thing I did different was omitting the chicken because I already had coca cola chicken.

Szechuan Eggplant
Ingredients
2 Japanese eggplant - cut into 1" length
2 spring onions - cut into 1" length
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 " of ginger - finely chopped
1 tablespoon hot bean paste
2 tsp of chili paste

Sauce:
1 cup Chicken Broth
2 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoons cornstarch

Method
1. In a small bowl combine all the sauce ingredients. Set aside.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is hot, add the eggplant. Stir-fry the eggplant until it is softened (about 5 minutes). Remove and drain on paper towels.
3. Add 1 tablespoons oil to the wok. When the oil is hot, add garlic,ginger, chili paste and hot bean sauce.
4. Stir-fry until aromatic.
5. Add in the sauce and bring to a boil, stirring quickly to thicken.
6. Add the eggplant and cook for a few more minutes. Check seasoning and lastly add in spring onions. Serve warm.

Lastly I just chopped some vegetables and fried it with lots of garlic and a pinch of salt. The eggplant and stir fry vegetables only lasted me for two meals whereas I freeze half of the left over chicken too. When I get to the grocery store again I will sure buy more eggplant to cook this again because I love eggplant!!

Budget Friendly Meals

I've been trying to cook healthy, easy and most importantly budget friendly meals. Hubby has been really good with trying and eating (especially Chinese food) different kind of dishes every since we got back from Malaysia therefore now I don't have to cook up a storm to hope that he will at least like a dish of two. All I have to do is cook what comes in to my mind and so far he's eaten everything I made but I figured if he really didn't like it he could find something else to eat too.

This packet of noodles just cost $0.70 and it lasts for a few meals!

Noodles with mushroom and pork plus stir fry vegetables

Pork and mushroom noodles

Ingredients
A packet of noodles
Pork
mushroom
garlic
oyster sauce
soy sauce
sugar

dark soy sauce-for noodles
sesame oil-for noodles

Method
Heat the wok/pan and drizzle some sesame oil.
Add garlic and cook till fragrant.
Add pork and cook till brown.
Add the rest of the ingredient in with the pork and cook till the pork is done.
For the noodles cook them following the directions on what ever noodles you buy.
Pour a dash of sesame oil and dark soy sauce on a plate then put the noodles on it and mix well. Scoop pork on the noodles.

p/s: I quick stir fried some vegetables to go with my noodles. Hubby apparently really like this noodle.

I know that instant noodles is not the most healthiest thing to eat for a meal but then if you put the right food in it and don't use a lot of the seasoning it can be a pretty healthy meal. A packet of ramen/instant noodles cost about $0.15(The one below is more expensive because is Korean Ramen but hubby said $1.00 for a packet is still cheap) and add some vegetables, meat and eggs it would only cost at most $1.00 a meal (Mine would probably be a little more but not much though)

Ramen/Instant Noodles

Ingredients
A packet of instant noodles
eggs
luncheon meat
vegetables

Method
Cook instant noodles according to direction and put in vegetables and seasoning. Cook until noodles and vegetables are done.
A. You can put in the meat and eggs (if you want eggy ie egg drop soup kind beat eggs before putting in the pot)in the pot with the noodles and cook until done
OR
B. You can cook the meat and egg in a pan.

Barbeques is another simple and cheap dish you can quick whip up and would last for days (depending on how many people eating it). You can eat it with bread or if you are like me that don't care from bread you can eat it with noodles too.

Barbeques
Ingredients
2# of hamburger (ground beef)- you can also use turkey or pork
1/2C of Ketchup
1/2 C of barbeque sauce
2tsp of chili powder
1 tsp of worchestire sauce
1C water
One packet of dry onion soup mix
Method
Cook hamburger with water then drain water and rinse hamburger (rinse the oil away).
Add the rest of the ingredients in and cook until it is moist but not wet.

Hubby don't really care for steam chicken (he thinks is tasteless) I like to steam my chicken because is really simple and if we have the right ingredients it can taste pretty good too. This chicken was a little spicy for hubby because I think I might have put a little more chili pepper since I wasn't using chili padi (birds eye chili) so I thought it would not be spicy but it was.

Rice wine chicken

Stir fry bak choy with garlic

Rice Wine Chicken

Ingredients
4 chicken drumstick and two chicken breast
ginger thinly sliced
3 red chili chopped
10 cloves garlic chopped (medium size)
6 tbsp Rice Wine
Oyster Sauce
White Pepper
Soy Sauce

Method
Marinate Chicken with the rest of the ingredients for about an hour.
Cover the bowl/plate with aluminium foil and steam until done.

p/s: I just served my meal with stir fry bak choy with garlic and white rice.

After trying these dishes I found out that yummy dishes need not be expensive and takes a long time to prepare. Healthy, simple and budget friendly dishes taste as good too. I also found out that you can save a lot of money by preparing budget friendly meals. I'm hoping to find more ways to be frugal and save more for rainy days..Any suggestions is also welcome :)

Chimichangas and Red Sauce

Our Thanksgiving turkey was not that big but because we had so much food on the table the turkey was barely touched. Yesterday I decided to make some Chimichangas with the leftover turkey. They are so easy to make and is really delicious too.

Chimichangas
Ingredients:
2/3 cup picante sauce or your favorite salsa
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
1 1/2 cups cooked chicken/turkey, chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 green onions, chopped with some tops (about 1/4 cup)
6 (8 inch) flour tortillas
2 tablespoons margarine, melted
shredded cheddar cheese, for serving (Optional)
chopped green onion, for serving (Optional)
picante sauce, for serving (Optional
Method
Mix chicken, picante sauce or salsa, cumin, oregano, cheese and onions.
Place about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla.
Fold opposite sides over filling.
Roll up from bottom and place seam-side down on a baking sheet.
Brush with melted margarine.
Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes or until golden.
Garnish with additional cheese and green onion and serve salsa on the side. (I pour red sauce on top to make it wet)


Red Sauce
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons flour
5 teaspoons red chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
6 ounces tomato paste
2 1/4 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
Method
Melt butter/margarine in a sauce pan.
Make a roux by browning flour in melted butter/margarine.
Add spices and tomato paste; stir until well blended into roux.
Add stock gradually, stirring constantly.
Heat until boiling.
Continue simmering and stirring until desired thickness is achieved.
Taste often to adjust spices as needed.
Pour over Chimichangas, Enchilada, Buritos etc before serving.

Apparently my Red Sauce was a little too spicy for hubby. I guess is because of the cayenne pepper. I made extra chimichangas and red sauce so if hubby wanted some he can just pop it in the oven to reheat again. I like this chimichanga because is not oily like the once you get at the restaurants.

Pie Crust II

Hubby lurvesss pies especially apple pie. Every time when we go to the store he'll want to buy an apple pie however he will refrain himself because he knows that I don't really care for it when he buy the pies at the store because is normally full of sugar and is always over priced anyway. I don't really do any baking in the Summer because is already so hot hence I don't really want to increase the heat in the house by baking. However I love to bake in fall, winter and spring because the heat from the over will help warm the house up. Since it's been pretty cool this few weeks I've been keeping myself busy in the kitchen. I've been trying to find/experiment with the pie crust recipes because I want to find a pie crust recipe that will work with sweet pies and meat pies. The reason is when I make my chicken pot pie I like to keep some of the gravy from the chicken pot pie but so far the pie shells (except the ready made once from the store) that I've made will absorb all my gravy thus making my chicken pot pie dry.

So far the Pie crusts have tasted pretty good but I do not dare to try making chicken pot pie with it because I'm afraid it'll be dry. On another note...I absolutely heart my food processor. I had been itching to get a food processor that I could use to make pie dough too and when we were up North after a very very long time of looking I finally decided to get one. I barely use my food processor at that time because I had a small kitchen when I was living up North. When I moved down here I finally decided to use my food processor to make dough but to my horror there was no dough blade! I was really pissed by then because I researched and researched on which food processor to get and I purposely got the Black and Decker Pro II so that I could make dough/pie crust (yes I'm dumb even though I have a KitchenAid mixer sitting on my counter). I was freaking out too because it's been like 1 year plus since I bought the food processor and I didn't think that they would replace the dough blade for me. I made up so many stories in my head so that when they ask me I can tell them smoothly a story but they just asked me some numbers and told me that they would send me the dough blade. At that time I was just relieved (lurvee Black and Decker customer service) but I did complain to hubby that they didn't even question me and I spend so many time thinking of all different stories to tell them and I didn't even have to use them!Anyway I really love how easy to make my pie crust with the food processor. I have been making up batches of pie crust or grinding food and mincing meat with my food processor. Is so convenient!!

Last weekend we looked high and low for little pie pan so that hubs can have little pies (like in the restaurants)

I decided to make a smiley.

Pie Crust
Ingredients
2 C of Flour
1/2 tsp of salt
2 tbsp of sugar (if making sweet pie)
1/2 C of shortening
1/4-1/2C of butter
1/2 C of ice cold water
1.Chill everything you will be using in the fridge/freezer.
2.(Because I'm using my food processor) Put flour, sugar and salt in the food processor and mix it.
3. Add shortening and butter.
4. Pulse it until it resemble like pea size.
5. Add water a table spoon at a time and pulse until it becomes a huge ball.
6. Separate it and wrap with cling wrap. Refrigerate it at least 4 hours or overnight (this process ease the rolling process).

* you want to work the dough as little as possible because the lease you handle the dough the flakier it gets.
** After pulsing several times if it still doesn't stick together I normally just take it out and knead it to a big ball.
***My second batch I didn't have time to refrigerate it and I did have a difficult time to roll it out. If you have a difficult time rolling it and putting it on the pie pan; roll it between parchment paper or cling wrap.

Hubby loves this pie crust but he loves all the pie crust that I've made so far so I would have to see if it works with the chicken pot pie. It's still a keeper anyhow! Everyone wanted a piece of the pie that I didn't even have time to take a picture of it after came out of the oven.

Busy Beeee

I skipped gym yesterday because I was busy...well...lazy...but I did however kept myself busy in the kitchen...

I started by making Braid Bread. I got the recipe from Chow Times. It's actually called Raspberry Braid but I didn't have Raspberry Jam.

Braid Bread

Instead of dividing it into two I made 4 from my dough

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 teaspoon yeast

Filling:

• 1/4 cup raspberry jam (or any Jam)
  
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted - cooled

Topping:

• 1 tablespoon butter, soft
• 2 tablespoons white flour
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Prepare the dough using the first 7 ingredients using your bread machine dough cycle setting. (I left the dough sit in the bread machine to rise for another 1 hour).
2. Roll each half of the dough into a 14″ x 9″ rectangle. Make diagonal cuts from outer edges one inch apart and three inches long.
3. Spread 1/4 cup raspberry jam lengthwise down the center third of the rectangle.
4.Fold alternate strips of dough over filling.
5.Place the braid on a greased baking sheet or parchment lined baking sheet.
6.Brush the braid with melted, cooled butter.Cover and let rise for 30 minutes or until double in volume.
7.Use a fork to mix the topping ingredients together until the mixture is grainy like.
8.Sprinkle half of the topping over each dough braid. Bake the braids at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

I used the Kaya that I made and Strawberry Jem because that's what I had on hand. I also skipped the topping because I was lazy.

Verdict: It turned out really pretty good (me)
: Uncle Richie loved it but not the Kaya one.


I had a craving for Chicken Rice this week and I knew that hubby would not care for the steamed chicken so I decided to make Roast Chicken instead. I got my recipe from Lily which turned out really good.

Roast Chicken

Ingredients:

5 - 6 LBS roasting chicken
3 tbsp margarine/butter - softened
1 clove garlic - minced
lemon juice for rubbing
5 spice powder/montreal steak/whatever rub you prefer
salt and pepper

Method:

Salt and pepper the inside of chicken and sprinkle with spice rub.

Cream together margarine/butter and garlic.

Turn chicken breast side up and work your fingers under the skin at the openings on each side of the breast. Continue into thigh and leg and make the skin as smooth as possible. Using fingers, spread margarine/butter mixture evenly under skin.

Rub the skin with lemon juice and sprinkle with more spice rub.

Place chicken, breast side up on rack and truss the legs.

Put the chicken in the oven for 450 degree for about 20 minutes and turned it down to 400 degree until cooked.

Then I made the Hainanese Rice

HAINANESE CHICKEN RICE

3 tbsp oil/margarine/chicken oil
1 tbsp chopped garlic and shallots
1/2 tbsp chopped ginger
3 cups rice, washed and drained
4 1/2 cups chicken stock(use the stock from the above)
1 tsp salt to taste

METHOD

Heat up oil, saute chopped garlic and shallot and ginger until fragrant. Add rice, salt and mix well. Dish into a rice cooker, add chicken stock and taste(add more salt if required). Leave to cook until dry and fluffy.

I made my Chili using Sinner's recipe because it was so easy

Ingredients for Chilli Sauce
2 tbsp Siracha chilli sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp chicken stock
1 tsp ginger juice

Method
1. Combine all the ingredients together
(I skipped the ginger juice because I didn't have any and I used this recipe for the chilli sauce because I didn't have any fresh chilli on hand).

Verdict: Hubby loved the chicken he doesn't really care for the rice as usual (he's not a rice person)
: I'm happy with my chicken rice..is simple and yummy..

I top off with some stir fried vegetables. I used the stock from the chicken to stir fry my vegetables and it was yummy too...We didn't have any cucumber on hand because normally cucumber is served with chicken rice.

p/s: I know I have to really really work on the presentation. My presentation is like F-!Sorry for not decorating my food...no mood to decorate the food just wanna eat it straightaway!LOL

Chicken Noodle Soup and Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

Since its cold and I had some chicken bones in the freezer I decided to make my own chicken broth so I can make some soup to warm up. I placed the chicken bones in a large stock pot and boiled it for about 12 hours. Add some salt and some chicken seasoning. Then by noon I started preparing and making my Chicken noodle soup.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

2.5 cups of chopped celery

2.5 cups of chopped carrots

1 big onion chopped

2.5 cups of shredded chicken

Chicken Broth

2.5 cups of egg noodles

Salt to taste

Method

1. Put vegetables in the pot with the chicken broth. Boil for about 2-3 hours.

2. Add shredded chicken. Boil for another hour

3. Taste the broth to see if it's tasty enough if not add salt or more chicken seasoning

4. Add egg noodles and turn off stove. Let it sit till noodles are cooked

I wanted to have dinner rolls like you get at the restaurant while waiting for your food. I wasn't sure if people ate their chicken noodle soup with dinner rolls. I asked hubby and he said make what I want. I didn't know whether it would go with the soup and I was contemplating for a little bit but I figure what the heck if it doesn't pair it doesn't but I wanted to eat some so I took my trusty bread maker and started dumping the ingredients inside to make the dough.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls

Ingredients

2.5 cups warm milk

1 cup of quick- cooking oats

3 tbsp butter

2tbsp yeast

1tbsp sugar

4 cups of all purpose flour (I mixed it with bread flour)

1.5 tsp salt

1/3 c packed brown sugar

Method

1. Put everything in your bread maker according to your manufacturer's direction. Press dough mode/button.

2. When it's done take it out of the bread maker and knead it a little.

3. Grease the pan with butter. Roll your dough into balls (I wanted mine a little different I took my rolling pin out and rolled my dough and cut it square/strips).

4. Cover and let it rise in a warm place/free from drafts for about 30 minutes or double in size.

5. Baked for 15-20 minutes of until done. When done spread some butter on top.

At first I thought I messed up the recipe because the original recipe was to actually knead the dough by hand etc but I didn't want to deal with it so I alter it. The dough didn't look like it was rising and after I put it in the over for it to rise the second time it didn't really rise and it was not double in size. I thought I messed up the roll and was getting disappointed so I figured I will just bake it. No harm done if it's already messed up I cannot imagine I'm able to mess it up more. I baked it and after 10 minutes it didn't look like anything was happening. I was starting to swear silently but decided to leave it in the over for another 5 minutes. It looked like it rose a little and the bottom was getting brown so I decided to spread some butter on top then take it out. I spread butter on a piece tried it while waiting for hubby to come out just in case it was horrible and I had time to discard it but to find out it tasted really good just like the once at the restaurant. I was then beaming with pride. Hubby then tried it and really liked it..*phew* it's important to me that he likes it because he will eat most of it and the reason why I make stuff from scratch it mostly because of him..A grandma once tell me a key to a man's heart is home cook food *wink*..

Chicken Pot Pie & Pie Crust

I made Chicken Pot Pie for dinner tonight. I even cut my nails really short so that when I make the crust it will not stick underneath my nails. It's a little more work, it taste yummy (kind off like the store bought kind with no preservatives) but then I think next time when I'm lazy I'll just use the easier method ie, use frozen veg and can soup..LOL..I even made my own chicken broth. I would still make my crust because I like the taste of it and it's not all that difficult to make..

Delicious Chicken Pot Pie

1 cup potatoes, diced
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup chopped carrots
1/3 cup melted margarine
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
4 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 pie crusts (either store bought or your own recipe)

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Saute onion, celery, carrots and potatoes in butter for 10 minutes.

Add flour to sauteed mixture, stirring well Cook one minute stirring constantly.

Combine broth and half and half

Gradually stir into vegetable mixture

Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly.

Stir in salt and pepper; add chicken and stir well.

Pour into shallow 2 quart casserole dish and top with pie shells .

Cut slits to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly and cooked through.

This is how it looks when it's done cooking

Shake-A-Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup Crisco shortening
1/2 cup cold water
1 dash salt

Put flour, sugar, salt and crisco in a plastic bowl with a lid.

Seal and wink (let the air out;-) Shake until it sounds like sand.

Add water.

Seal and wink.

Shake until it sounds like a rock.

Roll out for your favorite pie or pastries.

p/s: I didn't add the sugar in because I was making this dish but if you are using this recipe to make dessert feel free to add the sugar.

The finished product...

Chicken

Tried another new dish for dinner last night it was again yummy and most importantly simple. :)..It's actually more suitable as an appetizer but then I made it anyway for dinner..

Chicken Garlic Bites

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
1/2 cup olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper


Place chicken in shallow dish.

In small bowl, mix olive oil, garlic, and black pepper.

Pour over chicken.

Cover and marinate 30 minutes.

Drain.

Preheat oven to 475°F.

Mix bread crumbs and cayenne.

Coat chicken.

Arrange in a single layer on cookie sheet.

Bake 10 minutes or until brown