Back in the Saddle

Life's been pretty hectic but I am not complaining this time around. I guess not that hectic because here I am posting some of our recent food adventures :D

balsamic glazed steak rolls

Before our schedules have gotten crazy, I was able to prepare this Balsamic Glazed Steak Rolls for hubby's birthday lunch. I immediately pinned it to family favorites on Pinterest because it was soooo good! Again, I don't follow recipes diligently, I like to tweak the recipes depending on what ingredients I have. I normally forget to buy what I need, hence the tweaking (haha!) For this one I think I didn't have carrots and green onions so I just used bell pepper and zucchini. What I'm saying is, it's not the end of the world when you don't have all the ingredients of a particular recipe you want to try, just substitute.

Since my kids love bread, we try to buy different kinds every once in awhile because they get tired of just the plain loaves. Most recently was a huge bag of ciabatta buns which we used for various sandwiches.

leftover pork chips turned into sandwiches

homemade cheese burger

chicken sandwich

I mentioned about having crazy schedules that's because I am now working (yay!) which meant I have to have meals prepared in advance (ideally) but I normally don't. We are making it work though, even the kids are on board with this huge change in our lives. Leila's probably the one having the hardest time but she does help quite a lot in feeding the boys and maintaining some order in the house (haha!)

beef broccoli

pork stir fry

canned tuna with cherry tomatoes and bell pepper

vegetable salad topped with shrimp popcorn

vegetable salad with spicy chicken breast

Stir fry dishes, salads and canned goods are my best friends lately. I was up 'til 3am last night googling slow cooker recipes and other easy recipes trying to come up with a menu for this week.

slow cooker ribs

grilled veggies for the pasta salad

garden pasta salad

So I guess life is really hectic these days especially when I think about chores (laundry, cooking and cleaning), preparing the kids' lunches and their clothes the night before and mentally preparing myself for work. Days off have become something to look forward to even if I have to spend the whole day doing laundry. I miss my kids so much that I sometimes surprise them by picking them up in school. I did get to prepare a special late night dinner for hubby the other night too.

Lance's yogurt parfait

fried chicken wings with honey soy dip and creamy cucumber salad

24 hours may not seem enough but it's all good. I'm lucky to have found something that I love doing and yet have enough energy left when I get home for my usual chores :D

Something's Fishy

I'm trying to post regularly hence the shorter posts. We craved for fish and breaded pork and when we crave for something it's gotta be on the table ASAP!

The recipe for the breaded pork came from a friend of ours. I used pork loin instead of pork belly (next time I will use pork belly). Marinade consisted of fish sauce, lemon juice and garlic. Breading used was a mixture of cornstarch, flour and crushed potato chips. I tried two versions, the first one I used both cornstarch, flour and BBQ potato chips. The next one I only used flour and plain potato chips. I prefer the first batch I made, using BBQ potato chips adds more flavor and using both cornstarch and flour makes it crispier.

cornstarch, flour, bbq potato chips

breaded pork

The fish sauce is probably the surprise ingredient there. I wouldn't have used it for marinades but flavor wise it's awesome (just ignore the smell!)

pinaputok na tilapia

Speaking of fish...I made broiled stuffed tilapia  for a change and chanced upon butterflied milk fish so I marinated them in vinegar, salt, garlic and ground pepper paired with boiled spinach, chopped tomatoes and onions seasoned with fish sauce and lemon juice.

daing na bangus w/ boiled spinach salad

Now, if only I can open some windows and get rid of the fishy smell :D

Our Pre-Holiday Food Adventures

Cheers!

Wow, it's been more than a month since my last post. I have been too busy yet again obviously. So before I babble about my not so boring life, here are some of the food we have been eating lately. This is going to be one long post again :D

Let me start with some BEEF dishes. Well, mostly meatball dishes. We bought a huge bag in Costco and I had fun throwing them into several dishes. Believe it or not, the bag still had tons left. I love beef because they are easy to cook and flavorful. They taste great in almost everything, soups, stir fry, etc. Here goes my experiments!

beef with mixed veggies and sour cream

our favorite Pho with meatballs

stir fry beef with oyster sauce, vinegar and bell pepper

meatballs cooked in mushroom soup with mixed veggies

meatballs, canned tomatoes and vermicelli

ground beef sauteed in garlic, onion, cherry tomatoes, bell pepper and egg

We have been cutting down on meat mostly PORK which makes me sad, really really sad. Hubby has been craving for Lechon Paksiw for the longest time. And when he craves, he bugs me no end. I made several attempts using porkloin, pig's head and pork belly.

porkloin

roasted pig's head

oven broiled pork belly

Finally found the squid we like and cooked it in vinegar plus I made bagoong rice as well. Not much Filipino cooking lately except for the Lechon Paksiw.

Adobong Pusit

Bagoong rice

We haven't eaten as much rice and meat in the last few weeks. In other words, I'm dying haha! I told hubby time and time again, we have to eat more healthy food, more fresh veggies, etc. and we really are trying to. The kids are loving the variety of food we are having lately except Leila maybe, who loves to eat rice and pork every single day. Here are some of the food we eat aside from our usual rice and meat.

sushi night

egg potato salad

roasted veggies with feta cheese

hubby's creation: canned tuna with curry

soup, salad, sandwich night

Greek salad

hubby's :)

mine :)

Leila's snack in school--prosciutto salad

kids' snack and lunch in school

cheese wrapped in prosciutto

Leila enjoying s'mores and strawberry banana pudding

monster pancakes

Leila making her own salad

kids enjoying their soup and crackers

grilled soft taco with shredded cheese

cheesy french toast

Since the holidays are coming, eating salad won't work for me unless it's fruit salad. Maybe after the holidays we will go back to eating it again or maybe not. My family loves food period.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Post Summer Vacation Diet

I have mentioned that hubby and I gained weight during our vacation. We vowed to go on a diet the moment we come back. We did, for a few days I think and then we forgot we were on a diet haha! Here are some of the food I prepared during our 'diet' :P

squash in coco milk with shrimps

marinated boneless chicken thighs, mushrooms sauteed in lotsa butter and garlic

garlic butter mushrooms

perfect together!

My friend Jocelyn let me harvest fresh veggies from her garden when we came back. We got carrots, tomatoes, celery and beans. Perfect for our 'diet' :P

used fresh carrots for Caldereta

tomatoes, carrots and celery salad paired with fried chicken wings

my fave! sweet tomatoes with bagoong

my other version of pork adobo

There goes our cheat 'diet' haha! Believe it or not we cut down on rice for a bit and ate bread as much as we could but of course, hubby wanted his sandwiches loaded :P

Leila's new fave, bread dipped in sour cream

ham &egg sandwich

i love orange marmalade used as glaze for the ham

me being frugal, ends of bread used for pizza bread

Few weeks into our 'diet', we went back to eating our favorites. During our US trip, we ate at a Vietnamese restaurant and had the best Pho soup and pork chop. We tried two Vietnamese restaurants here but we weren't satisfied plus I hate wasting money on eating out. I decided to try cooking it at home and it was a success! We've been eating it almost every single day :)

sweet porkchop

Saturday brunch (Pho, bacon & waffles)

Vietnamese Pho

Pork Tonkatsu and cheesy omelette

scrambled egg cooked in a lot of chopped tomatoes

Egg Sarciado

To be honest, I haven't weighed myself to check if I lost any weight. I won't be surprised if I didn't :D