Christmas Eve Dinner

I know it's already late, but anyhoo...Merry Christmas and Happy new year everyone!


Again, I've been very busy and I finally found a little time from my super hectic schedule to update my blog. Nothing special happened during those days, and I barely touched anything in the kitchen...well except for the utensils that I'm using to eat hehehe!


So, to rekindle my love affair with food, I volunteered to cook for our Christmas eve dinner! Tiring but happy! Coz I literally was the only one who prepared the food, no help period!


But it was worth it...really. 

Here are the pictures of our food. I prepared the lasagna (click here for recipe), which is now my official choice of pasta, the herb roasted chicken which I got from here with gravy from chicken drippings, and the cheesy vegetable, my family's all time veggie favorite!


The dessert, buko salad, not included in the picture was prepared by my mommy (oh yes, she helped pala). The sandwich, also not in the picture, with ham (that i preferred fried rather than just sliced straightly from the big circle of ham) went with the bread, some lettuce, tomato and a little mayo...simple but yummy!

Cheesy vegetables, (fried) ham slices, lasagna, roast chicken

a little of everything...

Of course, I enjoyed the night because I ate and spent time with my family. That's the most important thing right! The family that eats together, gets fat together! heheheh...


Again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Everyone! I wish you all the best and happiness in life!!! 


Cheers to the wonderful year ahead!!!

Baked Herbed Chicken Strips

Last Friday morning, on my way to the FX terminal, a neighbor (an old woman) greeted me good morning and casually said "tabachingching" (cutesie patootsie way of say fat). I smiled at her and jokingly said, "wala po kasi makain sa bahay heheh!" (I don't have anything to eat in the house e). And I continued to walk.

After 15 steps, another neighbor greeted me again and said "Kumars tumataba ka yata?" (You're getting fat?) Poor me, all i can do was to smile.

Before reaching the pharmacy, another person called me by saying "taba" (Fat)!

KABLAG! BOOM! OK enough! I quickly decided to go on diet again! For 3 people to say that to me on the same day, in 15 minutes, I confirmed that yes, I gained too much weight na!

Since I don't feel like going into Southbeach Diet now (I have cupcake projects coming up! and I have to taste them!), I will cut down my carb intake but I will make sure that the taste of the food that I'll eat will not suffer.

I browsed my books and the internet for the easy to make but still tasty recipes that at the same time will help me push my weight down.

For the first entry, I'll have the Baked Herbed Chicken Strips. Very tasty and easy to make. I just mixed all the coating in a plastic put the egg dipped chicken strips and broil them. They are done in 20 minutes! I found this wonderful recipe from this website. She used chicken tenders, a portion from chicken breast. What I used is just the whole chicken breast and then cut them into strips.

Here's the recipe for the chicken...


Ingredients:
2 chicken breast, cut into strips
Salt and pepper
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup panko or Japanese bread crumbs.
2 tbsps Italian herbs, I used McCormick
Salt to season the breading
2 tbsps olive oil

Procedure:
1. Wash and drain chicken breast. Cut into strips and then season with salt and pepper.
2. Combine the Italian herbs, bread crumbs and salt in a plastic bag. Shake well.
3. Dip the chicken breasts in the egg and transfer them into the breading mixture and shake them to coat the meat well.
4. Transfer the meat in the baking pan and drizzle with olive oil.
5. Broil for 15 minutes or until the coat turns brown.

Serve with gravy or with vegetable salad. You can also make a chicken sandwich with this recipe. Just put veggies, a lowfat mayonnaise, pickles and this chicken in wheat bread and you'll have you hearty and guilt free sandwich..

Enjoy!

Chicken with Pickles (Manok sa Pickles)

Mom brought out the chicken from the ref and asked me to cook tinola. But we just ate tinola 2 days ago! I asked her if we have pickle relish in the ref, she said yes..."OK teach me how to cook manok sa pickles!" 


It's official, I can now add this to my "I know how to cook that" list! heheheh!

It's like cooking pineapple chicken, but instead of using pineapple, we used pickles (of course!)

Best serve with hot rice! Here's the recipe.

Serves four.


Ingredients:
1/2 kilo chicken
50g sweet pickle relish (yes, I weighed it!)
1 medium sized onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
half of a carrot, chopped (optional)
fish sauce / patis (adjust according to taste)
pepper
small amount of oil


Instruction:
1. Heat oil, saute onion and garlic. Add carrot, chicken meat. Season with fish sauce and pepper.
2. Add the pickles. Stir fry for about 3 minutes. The meat will absorb the flavor of the pickles.
3. Add a cup of water, and then simmer until the meat is tender and the sauce is reduced to half. 
4. You can adjust the saltiness according to your taste by adding fish sauce or salt.


Bon Appetit!

Chicken Pineapple (Pininyahang Manok)

My betterhalf wants anything with pineapple...period. That's the reason why I made an effort to learn this dish. The main ingredient, pineapple, made this dish sweet but not cloyingly sweet. You can use the fresh fruit, but to cut the prep time, i used the canned pineapple. Traditional pininyahang manok includes potatoes, carrots, and some bell peppers. And since I'm a (feeling) purist (read: tamad), i decided to not include those veggies anymore.

Here's my version of the popular pinoy dish.

Serves 3.

1/4 kg chicken (adobo cut)
1 medium size onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small can of pineapple chunks or tidbits (syrup included)
fish sauce (patis), adjust according to taste
dash of pepper
about 4 tbsp of evaporated milk
2 tbsp canola oil

Procedure:
1. Heat oil. Saute onion and garlic. Add chicken and stir fry (sangkutsa) for a minute or two. Add a tablespoon of fish sauce and stirfry the meat until they're are no longer pink.
2. Add 1 1/2 cups water and the juice of the canned pineapple. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Season with fish sauce and pepper.
3. Add the pineapple chunks and simmer until the meat is tender.
4. Add the milk and boil for another minute.
Serve hot.

Enjoy!!!