Smoothie: Flu-Buster Shake

How to know which smoothie to make today? I have a simple answer: check which fruits / greens would likely go bad first and then make up a recipe from there. 

Most days, as you would most likely see in my FB photo album, it's really an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink smoothie :D

OR.... check out some smoothie books like Smoothie Power: 80 Power-Packed Smoothie Recipes for Every Day and Everyone by Irina Pawassar & Tanja Dusy. My husband gave it to me as a gift/pasalubong from his Singapore trip last year. I like this book because it is straight to the point with the recipes & quantities, but still quite engaging because of the bright pictures. Like a look-and-do book! It literally shows you, in picture form, the approximate size, number of slices, what a handful is for them, etc. 

This is what I reach out for on days when I don't want to thumb through my other smoothie books teehee! :)

So Daddy A & I decided that with the fruits / greens stock that we have, what he would like was the Anti-Flu Shake. The citrus fruits packs on the Vitamin C while the ginger helps to strengthen the immune system. If you follow TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine, you'll find that ginger is one of the warming ingredients and is also good at fighting off viruses/bacteria. We did not add honey to this because it doesn't taste bad naman (also not bitter) and we're also trying our best to be more plant-based in our meals and drinks.

The original list of ingredients calls for the following:

• Juice of 1 lemon
• Juice of 1/2 of an organic orange with peel
• A couple of slices of ginger (to taste)
• One organic kiwi (with peel)
• 1 apple
• 1 tsp honey

We tweaked it to our liking and came up with this:

• 1 Orange with pith (but not the orange-colored peel)
• 2 thin slices of ginger
• 1 kiwi (without peel)
• 1 apple
• 1 mango
• 2 bananas
• handful kale, handful spinach, handful camote tops
• Maca powder
• Flaxseed meal

Post-grocery tip:

1. Bananas - they usually bruise easily. If you plan on making smoothies more frequently, you can peel some and freeze in bag. I like the large & semi-sweet variant, just not sure if it's Lakatan or Latundan. Bananas make smoothies more creamy so if we have it, most likely I'll add it to the mix even if not called for in the recipe :)
2. Spinach - try to plant some. Or can also be frozen in bag.
3. Ginger - Sometimes it already sprouts before I even get to finish a big one yikes!! You can also grate / slice some, freeze on a tray and then transfer to your freezer bag. When you need one, you can just take what you need from your freezer stash.

Cheers!!! :)

I use the Vitamix 5200 for our high-power blender needs :)

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Inspiralized Chili Boss Bowl Goodness

Hello friends! I made this chili bowl today from the Body Boss method cookbook and it seems a lot of my friends and family on social media are interested to know how it's done. So here I am blogging to share how I made it + the spiralizing part. (It really is quite easy to do) Hope you'll like it! :)

Whenever there are recipes from fitness sources, I would apply caution and not expect too much because they are usually not so tasty. Healthy, yes but the tasty part is still up for debate. Before deciding to make this, I checked first from the community page for reviews. And what do you know, it seems that this is one of the fan faves in the group! Of course I had to make it! Aside from the fact that it is included in the Week 1 menu plan. Hah! :p

INGREDIENTS:

2 onions, finely diced

2 large carrots, grated -- in my version, I spiralized it, it looks like carrot pasta - see video below

4 sticks of celery, sliced

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp smoked paprika

500 g lean beef mince

4 Tbsp tomato paste

800 g tomato puree -- I just use Spaghetti sauce

2 red bell pepper, deseeded & chopped

800 g red kidney beans, drained

2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved

a bunch of cilantro, chopped

200 g baby spinach leaves

1000 ml water

salt & pepper to taste

1 avocado, chopped

1 lime, juice only

2 Tbsp nut oil of choice -- I use almond oil because it's what's available now 

The "Trinity" of Cajun Cooking -- Onions, Celery and Red Bell Pepper

PROCEDURE:

1. Heat 2 Tbsp of your nut oil and saute the onion, carrot & celery for approximately 3 minutes, until softened. 

Obviously, I forgot to add the carrots during this step teehee... :D

2. Add cumin, paprika, beef mince and cook until meat has browned for approx. 5 minutes.

It looks so *EXTRA* hahaha..

3. Add bell pepper, beans, tomato paste and puree (or spaghetti sauce). Pour in 4 cups of water and let it simmer for about 30 minutes until thick.

4. Season with salt & pepper and add in the cherry tomatoes. Since I made a big batch, I didn't add the tomatoes right away for the entire thing..just for the portion I will.

5. Before serving, fold in the cilantro (love this!!) and spinach.

6. Divvy into bowls, add some chopped chili or chili flakes and avocado. Also a squeeze of lime juice if you so prefer.

7. Heap on top of veggies or brown rice. I prefer quinoa :)

That's it!!! :) You can refrigerate or freeze to be consumed for later. Or otherwise, feel free to halve the recipe :)

I love it, I've had 3 bowls today and it's really filling. Eat with steamed quinoa or veggies, or even toasted bread...ahhhhh, heaven! :)

About the Spiralizer

I'm using Cuisinart's CTG-00-SPI Food Spiralizer which I purchased from Lander's Otis. When I was still shopping around, I would much have preferred the Paderno spiralizer as it has more blades / spiralizing options but it was a few thousands more expensive and I was not willing to shell out more money that time for a device I wasn't sure I'd get to use often.

I learned to love Cuinart's spiralizer version because it's simple to use and not too cumbersome to clean up. Plus it also has a "catching bowl", if that's what it's called haha. The only thing is that it only has 3 spiralizing options - thick julienne, thin julienne, and ribbon. That's okay though because it covers what I need to do. 

I usually make "Zoodles" or zucchini noodles and use that as the "veggie pasta" for spaghetti or even simple pesto pasta concoctions. You can also spiralize cucumbers for an interesting looking salad. What I'd love to do next and I hope I get to do it correctly, is to spiralize a potato, similar to how they do it during parties, and then air fry it. But, no luck for now hahaha :)

Cuisinart Spiralizer

See how I do it in this short video. I used my phone's front camera so this video is showing the mirror image. 

Spiralized carrots using the thin julienne setting. It does look like pasta, right?

Affiliate Disclosure:

In order for me to support my blogging and social media activities, I may receive monetary compensation for links to products from this post, at absolutely no cost to you. However, I only recommend products that I personally love and use myself.

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Homecooking: 'Japanese' Baked Dory

I can't wait for dinner time so I can have me some of this dory goodness! :)

Been queued for months in my to-cook list and finally, today's the day the dory is baked. Let me make it clear, I'm not sure if there's really a Japanese dish like this but since there's a whole lot of Japanese Mayo (I used Kewpie) that went on to make this, then I guess we can call this "Japanese" 

＼(^o^)／

Of course, partly the reason I'm able to do more kitchen stuff -- the littlest boy can now be "back carried" Yay!! ☺️ #lilleletsme cook again, and I love the feeling :)

I know you want to try this out so here's how it's done (credit to: The Eating Room blog). I followed majority of the instructions, and just tweaked a little :)

Ingredients

2 Cream Dory fillets

2 Lemons (sliced thinly & de-seeded) 

3/4 cups Japanese Mayo

5 cloves Garlic (minced)

1 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp dried Rosemary

3 Tbsp Breadcrumbs 

3/4 cups Cheddar cheese

salt & pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350c. Season fish with salt and pepper. Freshly cracked peppercorn imparts better flavor, try it :) Set aside.

2. In a baking ware, bed  lemon slices vertically. Lay dory fillets on them.

NOTE: I bought my lemons from Rustan's supermarket, was surprised they have no seeds at all! :)

3. In a bowl, mix mayo (I used Kewpie), honey, rosemary and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. 

NOTE: Adjust rosemary quantity if using fresh herbs.

Don't panic! That's the manufacturing date :)

4. Top fish with mayo mixture. Sprinkle cheese and breadcrumbs on top. I used Panko brand for my breadcrumbs and Emborg cheddar toppings for the cheese. Guess you really can't go wrong with Panko, I've been looking for a long time and luckily found it in Lander's Otis :) The original recipe calls for Parmesan cheese, but the kids (and big kids haha) don't like it too much so I substituted with cheddar cheese.

5. Bake for 20 minutes or until cheese become bubbly hot. Serve warm.

NOTE: Adjust baking time / temperature if using a convection oven. 

VERDICT:

In my book, this is simply a winner! Quick, easy and sooo tasty! The only thing I should have done is to make 2 batches or 3! Hahahahaha...that's how yummy it really is. Serve with brown or black rice para hindi masyado nakaka-guilty if you end up going unli-rice with it :D

Mmmmmm....just blogging about it makes me want to do it all over again...aaaahhh!!!

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Recipe: Tuna Melt Sandwich

Since it was pretty much an overcast day, we decided that today's lesson will be devoted to home economics / food prep / cooking :) That's the beauty of homeschooling, especially for this particular age...we can be flexible as we want to be, play as much as we want while incorporating lessons - life lessons in the every day living :)

Lucky that my daughter was really interested to help out in the kitchen. Well, it makes it so much easier when she has her own kiddie-sized apron, her "own" tools (borrowed from mommy)..you get the idea! 

We started by making sure our hands and tools were clean. Of course to a 2-year old, this needs to be emphasized all the time while preparing, cooking and serving. She was very attentive the first 15-20 minutes when I was explaining what the tools/utensils are for, what ingredients we will use and who we will be making these sandwiches for. 

Glad she was still on standby mode by the time I finished chopping the celery and onions - she was still able to mix everything together..yay! :) After which she proceeded to do her own "cooking project". 

Things hopefully she learned/absorbed/taken an interest in today:

• Cleanliness - before, during, after..of ourselves, our counter, our food
• Proper handling of utensils - demonstrated and explained how to open cans, use knife and that she has to ask us for assistance in the meantime
• Measurement - that we can control for taste and nutritional value if we measure our ingredients. She was in charge of adding and mixing in the mayonnaise
• Healthy food choices - that we can make healthy and yummy snacks...and not always look to opening a pack of eggnogs!
• General awareness - I don't know how this should be classified but basically I hope this activity makes her a little more knowledgeable about kitchen / pantry items. That a tomato is called a kamatis, etc.
• Fun fact - I was about to explain what the green leafy stalk was until she yelled, "Mommy, that's the celery crunch ni Jesse Bear"...hmmm good job on our BFIAR Before Five in a Row readings *thumbs up!*

Okay so I guess some of you came here for the recipe. I won't say it's the best but it was really delicious!! :) I was originally looking at around 3 different recipes online but when it came to it, we just improvised as we went along hehe :)

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cans of (6 oz) Tuna in Brine - we like to use Century Tuna
• 1 jar (470 ml) Lady's Choice Mayonnaise
• 2 celery stalks chopped finely (or more depending on your preference)
• 1/2 onion chopped finely (or more depending on your preference)
• 2 hard boiled eggs chopped finely
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Loaf of bread
• Cheese slices - we used Quez-o, but you can use the Quickmelt variant
• Butter
• Optional: tomato slices, cucumber or lettuce

PROCEDURE

To make the sandwich spread

• Drain the tuna, set aside
• Add the mayonaise, chopped celery, chopped onion, eggs. Mix thoroughly
• Season with salt & pepper to taste
• Put in a jar / canister and refrigerate before use

To assemble the sandwich

• Spread a thin layer of butter on slices of bread and toast for 5-7 minutes
• Heat a skillet on low fire, scoop tuna spread ala patty and top with cheese. Let it "toast or cook" for a few minutes or until the cheese melts
• Get the bread slices from the oven and top with the "tuna spread patty" and finish with the other slice of bread
• P.S. You can add tomato slices, cucumber or even lettuce as desired

There you have it! I hope you enjoy your Tuna Melt Sandwich! Tasty, delish and really easy to make! :)

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Cast Iron Skillet: Cheesy Zucchini Omelette

Here's a quick, healthy, hearty and meat-free (not dairy-free, unfortunately) recipe for your first Friday of Lent. It is so easy to make and tastes really good too. Although, it is quite different from the usual flavors we Filipinos are accustomed to. 

A very simple dish that packs nutrients and flavors? Win! :)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup grated Zucchini
• 3-4 medium eggs
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbsp butter or 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small sliced tomato
• 1/4 cup cheese (we used left-over Quezo de Bola)
• salt and pepper to taste, other herbs of your choice like thyme or oregano

Directions:

• Heat your oven-safe skillet (we use Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron Skillet, 9-inch). Saute your onion and zucchini with the butter or olive oil, until it caramelizes a bit
• In a separate bowl, whisk together your eggs, add salt and pepper to taste. You can also add a dash of herb/s (your choice). Add this to your zucchini and onion, in the skillet. Cook over medium heat
• When eggs are completely set, add the sliced tomatoes on top and sprinkle with cheese
• Broil in a pre-heated oven for 2-3 minutes or until the cheese is melted or lightly browned.
• Cut and serve. Enjoy!

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