Grilled Tilapia

Filling: chopped onions, garlic, celery, ginger, green onions, tomatoes
Garlic powder
Black pepper
Salt
Pepper flakes
Olive oil
4 tilapia fillets
Aluminum foil

Chop the veggies very small. Set aside. Place the tilapia neatly in the aliminum foil, top with salsa and cover with another fish. Fold aluminum foil and close tightly. Let it cook on top of a grill pan in medium heat for 15 minutes and open the foil and let the sauce dry up a lil bit for 5 minutes. Serve on top of spinach leaves.

Maja Blanca

2 cans coconut milk
1 can condensed milk
1 can cream style corn
4 tbsp whole corn kernels
3/4 cup skim milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
Crushed cashew clusters/peanuts (optional)
Or grated coconut or latik

Let the coconut milk boil in a pit and pour condensed milk and corn. Simmer for 8-10 minutes while stirring occasionally. While boiling, pour the cornstarch mixture (cornstarch dissolved in milk) and stir and fold to desired thickness. Pour in a tray immediately and flatten with a spoon. Sprinkle some crushed peanuts on top or latik or grated coconut or whathaveyou.

Result: Ayaw ko!! It wasn't as firm as I expected. I gotta do another recipe.

Asian lettuce wrap

1.25lb ground lean turkey
Onions
Garlic
Ginger
Red bell pepper
Sweet peas
Carrots
Potatoes
Raisins
Lettuce
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soysauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
A pinch of salt
A dash of black pepper
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sesame oil
Canola oil

Brown the turkey meat in a pan with garlic and some onions. Set aside.

On the same pan, sautee onions, garlic, ginger, potatoes and carrots. Don't overcook. Add raisins, peas and red bell pepper, hoisin sauce and soy sauce, add sugar. Put the turkey in the pan. Pour sesame oil. Put a lil salt sugar and pepper to taste.

Combine sweet n sour sauce with some rice vinegar for sauce.

Beef Salpicao

Black Pepper
Olive oil
Paprika
3tbsp minced garlic
1lb beef sirloin cubes
3 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1tbsp oyster sauce
Garlic powder
1tbsp sugar
Red pepper flakes optional
1 tbsp butter
Onions and green onions sliced diagonally

Mix beef, black pepper, paprika, minced garlic and garlic powder. Let stand for 10 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil. Place the mixture on a very hot pan and toss to cook evenly. After 3 minutes, add sugar, worcestershire and oyster sauce. Cook for 4 more minutes or until it dries up. Put onions/green onions and toss just before serving.

Mashed Potato Balls and Porkchops

Rol's Pork Chops

Stir-fry Korean beef

1 tbsp sambal or chili paste
2tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt
Pepper
1 tbsp soy sauce
Julienned carrots
Big slices onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 lb sirloin meat thinly sliced

Mix all ingredients and leave marinade in the fridge for at least an hour. Cook in hot pan in medium heat (pour a tbsp of olive oil for frying) . Cook for 5-6 minutes. The longer you cook it, the tougher the meat gets.

I got this recipe from youtube but as usual I got to change some ingredients. I added some soy sauce and cut the chili paste measurement in half. 1 tbsp of Chili Paste already burns my tongue....what more if I follow the two tablespoon? :-)

Banana Nutella Crepe

2-3tbsp nutella (microwave for 30 secs)
Banana slices

3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1tbsp butter
Pinch of salt
3/4tbsp sugar

Chill the batter for an hour before cooking. Cook in medium heat and when edges separate from the pan, it's time to flip. Makes 6 crepes.

Now I don't need to order this in a diner or a resto!!

Btw, Rol at first thought I made quesadillas... ;-(

Pansit Bihon (2nd attempt)

Ingredients

Pancit Bihon noodles (2pcs in a small pack)
10 pcs Fish balls
1/2 Chicken breast
Garlic
Onion
Beans
Cabbage
Carrots
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
(celery)
Black pepper
Chicken cube 1/2

Sautee onion and garlic, add fishballs and chicken, add water, soysauce, oyster sauce and let boil. Add veggies and cook for a few minutes. Get all the veggies and drain. Leave the sauce and put the bihon noodles (previously rinsed and drained). Put the veggies back to the pot and mix with the noodles.

While I was cooking the noodles, I noticed that it was soaking up all the sauce and they weren't enough to cover everything so I fixed it by making some chicken broth with soysauce and pour it on top of the noodles. I kept on tasting the noodles because it was just bland! Eventually I was able to get the desired taste.

Tokwa't Baboy

The sauce is made of:

Apple cider vinegar
a lil bit of water
soysauce
chili flakes
green onion
red onion
minced garlic

Arroz Caldo

Cook sweet rice in a pot. Add chicken broth (chicken bouillon diluted in water). 1 cup of sweet rice makes 6-8 servings.

In a pan, sautee garlic, chicken, ginger and onion in oil/butter and a little patis. Transfer to the sweet rice pot and mix.

Chicken Macaroni Salad

Kraft Mayonnaise
Salad Macaroni
Condensed Milk
Pineapple chunks
Diced carrots and potatoes
Raisins
Pickle Relish
Minced Onions
Salt
Chicken Shreds

Mom taught me how to make this. I don't use any measurement, I just go by how I remember the taste.....

Lumpiang Shanghai

Ground pork
Garlic powder
Salt & pepper
Green onions
Onion
Carrots
Egg

Bistek/Tapa

1 lb beef top round
5 tbsp teriyaki sauce
2 tbsp apple cider
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp brown sugar
Water
Marinade overnight

Let the meat simmer in its own marinade til it reduces and then remove meat to fry in another pan (fry onions in same pan early on/ set aside). Put back fried meat in the same sauce, simmer again til sauce is almost gone...

Hubby likes this last bistek, but I don't. It looks like tapa king to me. I have to add more sauce next time...

Sinigang

Labanos
Kangkong
Onion
Tomatoes
Beans

Rol's Chicken Parmesan

Chicken Breasts (flattened)
Mixed Panko Bread crumbs and Italian Bread crumbs
Salt and pepper
Egg wash
Flour
Mozarella and Parmesan Cheese
Italian Parsley to garnish.

Tomato Sauce and Marinara Sauce (or whatever spaghetti sauce)
Spaghetti Noodles

Sprinkle some salt and pepper to the chicken on both sides. Dip in flour, then egg, then the bread crumbs. Fry til golden brown.

Put all the fried chicken breasts on a tray drizzled with some oil. Pour marinara sauce on top and put mozarella and parmesan cheese on top. Bake for 15mins at 400 degrees (?)

Fish Balls

Fish Balls
Soy sauce
Vinegar
Brown sugar
Minced garlic
Red Pepper flakes
Cornstarch
Water

Chicken Barbecue

3-4 leg quarters
1/2 cup or less banana catsup
1/4 tsp black pepper
SALT is optional
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 lemon or 4 calamansi or less?
1 tbsp brown sugar

Let it cook in marinade for 10-15 mins.
Grill 8 mins each side.
Bake 375deg for 20-30 mins to finish.

Chicken and Corn Soup (fr scratch)

1/2 chicken breast
1/2 cup cream style corn
Carrots
Green onion
Garlic
Onion
Water
Egg
Chicken bouillon half

Ginataang Mais

3/4 cup sweet rice
Water
1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
Tapioca Pearls 1/3 cup
1 can of whole kernel corn
1/2 cup of cream style corn

So this is how I cooked my last adobo...

My adobo has been very inconsistent, but the last one I made was close to how I like it to taste. I want to stick to it.

Fry garlic in olive oil, add pork, let it brown, add pepper corn and bay leaves, add 1/4 cup soy sauce, add 1/2 cup water, after simmering add 1/5 cup vinegar, 1 tbsp brown sugar, and let boil n simmer to reduce liquid. add cornstarch mixture in the end if you want the sauce to be a little thicker.

XS: There is also another adobo which I really love, and that's my mom's adobo! It's simmered and all the remaining sauce just evaporates and the meat was like fried in its own oil. the toasted garlic in the bottom of the pan is just heaven!

Leche Flan Disaster

People make mistakes... and wannabe chef (like me) makes mistakes too... :-(

I totally ruined a leche flan made of 7 eggs! I learned my lesson! Do not attempt to use a makeshift STEAMER!!

Baked Steelhead Fillet

Dust a bit of salt on the fish fillets. Pour (Mayonnaise, pepper, lemon juice, onion powder) mixture. Sprinkle with minced garlic and italian bread crumbs and drizzle with melted butter. Bake for 30 minutes 400 degrees f.

Spam and Broccoli Omelette

4 eggs, milk, broccoli, mozarella and cheddar cheese, garlic powder, onions, tomatoes, diced spam.

The dishes we made back in 2011!

Two months back in 2011, Rol and I discovered that we both enjoyed our tandem in the kitchen so much!

Fresh Lumpia. We were trying to eat healthy, so, there!

This is my treat from Rol if I'm behavin'. Medium well T-bone steak! ;-)

Panda Wings. This is the yummiest we've ever cooked!

Pansit Bihon!

Spinach Salad with Feta Cheese, Cranberries & Raspberry Vinaigrette (Thanks Auntie Bing for the recipe)

Kare-kare!

Chicken Curry

Steak. The works!! Caramelized Onions and Sauteed veggies.

Honey-glazed Baked Ribs

Hamburger! The works! Home-made Onion Rings and Grilled Corn...and there's a bonus strawberry smoothie!!

Atherosclerosis in the making! LOL! The yummy and sinful SISIG!

Baked Penne Pasta

There's nothing special about this dish but it looooks soo good right? Me trying to copy a ziti but mine pales in comparison haha! If I knew the mozarella will make it more delicious, I should have added more.

No need to write down the ingredients here because this is just a basic meat sauce mixed with al dente penne pasta and topped with mozarella/ parsley/ and cheddar cheese. Baked for like 15-20 mins for 350deg.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Another first! Rol said it was good! Well, I think he's just biased? Cuz if he says otherwise, who else would cook for him? LOL

My spaghetti noodles was a Barilla brand ( i actually recommend this brand), a whole wheat thin spaghetti, cooked al dente for 7mins.

Meatballs:

1 lb mixed ground pork/ beef
Bread crumbs
2tsp worcestershire sauce
Salt
Pepper
Minced garlic
Grated parmesan cheese

Roll into balls and bake on a tray with aluminum foil for 15mins, at 400deg

Foodwishes style

1/2 cup plain breadcrumbs

1/4 cup milk

1 large egg

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tsp olive oil

1/2 tsp granulated garlic or garlic powder (not garlic salt)

1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons dried Italian herb mix

Oven Baked Chicken

First of all, I just want to say that the chicken I used to cook here was so cheap. I got it for a little over $3 for 12 pcs thighs and drumsticks. I got them from Ralph's sale when they were about to close, like almost all products are dirt-cheap. It was a frenzy for people trying to salvage the best deals. Imagine, steak for 50% off? I did my own litle panic-buying too where almost every day I was there! Ralphs is just a spitting distance from our apartment, lol!

Back to the chicken. Okay, I wanted to eat fried chicken but thinking that it isn't very healthy to eat something drenched in oil, I decided the less-evil way to do it is to bake them. The chicken skin is still intact, and I don't ever want to remove them, they're actually the reason why I love fried chicken in the first place. The crunchy, crispy skin with the juicy chicken meat! Yummmy!

Mine was a trial recipe, sort of like a lab experiment (which I'm verrryyy good at, but doesn't always end up successful). I saw several videos on youtube again but some seasoning were missing so I just created my own. I sprinkled little bit of this and that and followed some instructions like to use a wire rack to let the oil drip to the oven tray and to brush the chicken with butter-olive oil prior to baking.

This is my own-version of this oven-baked chicken which in my opinion tasted wonderful. I was just kinda scared when I was baking them as the oven got too hot, created a lot of smoke and obviously activated the fire alarm-- which alarmed me as well! LOL. Thanks to hubby dear for fanning the smoke alarm.

Ingredients:

Chicken Thighs and Drumsticks
(slice through the meat diagonally like twice each side)

salt (I sprinkled salt on the chicken first before drenching them with flour mixture)

flour mixture (all purpose flour, ground black pepper, chopped parsley, italian bread crumbs, cayenne pepper, paprika, onion powder)

Melted butter and Olive oil (brush the chicken before placing them on the oven---this will make the chicken crispier)

Bake 30mins each side for 400deg.
Make sure the chicken was proper;y thawed/ room temp prior to baking.

Soft Tacos by Rol

Using McCormick Taco Seasoning. Read package instructions.

Heat the tortillas on a crepe pan.

Filling: tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, cheddar cheese, beef

Dark Choco Chips Muffins

375deg for 20mins.

Dry Ingredients
1 3/4 flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup choco chips dark morsels
2/3 cup cocoa powder unsweetened

Wet Ingredients

Room temp okay!
2 eggs whisk til frothy
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk

Grilled Pork chops

The first time I ever used our new grill pan was for the Korean flanken-style beef short ribs. Now, it's time to grill pork! I used a simple marinade of soy sauce, vinegar, garlic and s/p. I removed the soy sauce marinade an hour later because it might make the meat tough? Salt n pepper were sprinkled right before cooking.

I also did a beef broth gravy afterwards. Make a roux (1tbsp butter 2tbsp flour) and pour in the beef broth and add water or more broth if the sauce becomes too thick. Whisk away!!

Twice baked potato

Clean potatoes and bake for 1 hr 20 mins at 375 deg.

Scoop out potatoes leaving some on the skin to maintain the shape of the shell.

Make mashed potatoes whichever way you please....sour cream, butter, milk, salt, pepper, bacon.....etc. spoon back the mixture, sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for another 20 mins.

Carrot Cake Muffins ko!

This is my carrrrrooot cake muffins cuz I made my own measurement with the help of 3 youtube videos! They turned out perfect! Theyre moist and very tasty.

Julidays carrot cake

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup crushed pineapple
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk if mixture is dry
2 cups grated carrots
2 large eggs
1/2 cup butter or canola oil
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2tsp vanilla extract

All dry ingredients mixed in a big bowl.
In another bowl whisk/beat eggs till frothy and add butter, milk and vanilla.
My carrots are finely grated (labor of love!)
Strain crushed pj to remove juice.
Combine everything in the bowl. Dont overmix!! Just enough mixing only make sure no dry flour is seen.
Bake 350deg for 20mins or til toothpick test is ok.

Cornbread Muffin

Fresh from the oven cornbread muffins!

I got this recipe from panlasangpinoy.com. I altered a little bit of the ingredients though and the way it was done. It's just so bad I had to redo the wet ingredients because I messed up with the butter getting all clumpy even with the use of an electric mixer. Shortly I will write about how I made my life simpler with the use of a melted butter (like almost liquid) and mixed with the eggs, milk and honey. Thanks to my husband cuz when he saw I was so down about messing up at first. he comforted me by simply asking me to do it again differently. I initially didn't want to waste my previous mixture and thought of just screwing it and who knows maybe the butter will just melt on its own. Eventually I figured out how to do it 'my' way.

If you watch the panlasang pinoy video, you'll see....mine was done differently but waaaay easier. I wouldnt have known that I will still come up with the same muffins anyway.

On my list I highlighted the ingredients that I didn't follow. I read that when it comes to baking, ALWAYS follow the recipe, but for me, baking or not...I never followed the whole thing, or maybe somehow I would but to make it a little unique ...I change it a lil bit. I just worry about the result later on. This is not the right way to do things,I know.

I watched 4 videos of cornbread muffins on youtube and I couldn't stick with one recipe. At the end, I decided to use mostly the one from the pinoy website because somebody said it tastes similar to Kenny Rogers Muffins. I would rather have the Famous Dave's recipe, but I couldn't find them.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
1.5 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
2 pcs eggs
1 tsp salt
1/8 cup honey

Mix all the dry ingredients well with the use of a whisk. Set aside.
On a separate bowl, mix the melted (almost liquid butter) with a ROOM TEMPERATURE milk or warm milk, 2 eggs and honey.
Pour the dry ingredients onto the wet mixture and mix until you don't see any dry stuff. Don't OVERMIX....they said doing so will make the bread tough or gummy.

BAKE 400deg for 18-22 mins. I did mine for 20 and do the toothpick test!

ENJOY!

Baked Manicotti (Chicken, Spinach and Mushroom)

Another pasta experiment that turned out beautiful and delicious.
I didn't follow the exact recipe from anywhere so this is totally MINE.
Pasta for me is the easiest to cook because you can always play around with the ingredients esp the cheese. ;-)

Ingredients:

FILLING:

10oz spinach leaves (blanched and dried on a paper towel)
1.5 cup ricotta cheese
small can mushroom
1 chicken breast (baked and sliced into tiny cubes)
2cloves garlic
olive oil
grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
mozzarella cheese

(i sauteed garlic, chicken breast and mushroom in olive oil. The rest of the ingredients just mixed em all in a separate bowl together with the sauteed stuff)

spinach can be replaced with pumpkin and parsley (Saw this on a cannelloni video).

TOPPINGS:

Cheddar cheese and Parmigiano-Regiano cheese
Mozzarella cheese is better
Ragu Tomato Basil Sauce or the 6cheese tomato sauce (I actually mixed both!) or you can also do your own tomato sauce. I know how to make one but it's easier to just get the bottled one.

Pasta:

Barilla Pasta Manicotti (whole pack about 400+ gms)
Cooked in Package instructions

Use a ziploc bag and tear a hole in the corner. The spinach mixture can be squeezed out from there...

Pour marinara sauce in the bottom of the tray and on top of the shells. Sprinkle with cheese on top.

BAKE 350deg for about 25minutes covered in foil. and maybe another 1mins uncovered. it depends. go by the instinct. ;-)