Konichiwa Friends!

The summer before I started PT school Chad and I went on a vacation to Japan.  To date it was one of my favorite places.  Extremely clean and the people were incredibly nice.  We also had some amazing food.  Last week we were dreaming about the trip and started craving some Japanese food.  We scoured the internet to find a recipe for Okonomiyaki or Japanese pancakes.  

They are actually nothing like pancakes except for the shape.  They are primarily composed of cabbage mixed in a batter with other ingredients of your choosing.  In Japan they have little restaurants where you make them yourself on griddles at your table.  Above is a picture of our friend who introduced us to these after we had been out all night at a Japanese club (in Japan they are SERIOUS about their partying, but that is another story!)  Here is the recipe we settled on. Click here for the website.

Okonomiyaki

• 1 cup flour
• 2/3 cup chicken stock
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups shredded cabbage
• 1/4 cup tempura bits
• 1/2 cup shrimp, raw and chopped
• 1/4 cup shiitake mushrooms, chopped finely
• 1.4 cup red pepper, chopped finely
• 1 oz pickled ginger, chopped finely
• okonomi sauce (bought at the Asian market)
• Bonito Flakes (fish flakes)
• Sriracha

Wisk flour and chicken stock until smooth.  Add eggs, cabbage, tempura, shrimp, pepper and ginger and mix. Oil a griddle or pan and add the mixture.  Use a spatula to flatten and form the pancake.  After about 3 minutes flip over pancake and cook for 4  min. Flip one more time for about 3 min until browned.  Place on a plate and top with the last three ingredients to your taste. Serve with some sake bombers (most important part! 🙂 )

 

Case of the Mondays

Yesterday I totally had a case of the Mondays! Work Sunday night was brutal! Our computer system bit the dust so we had to go back to the dark ages of hand written tickets. Makes you appreciate technology when you have to hand write tickets for over 30 tables, for which you were the lone server. Needless to say I got home late but still got up early to get in a run before work.

Tonight I pulled together a pretty tasty little meal.  If you are stuck in the “chicken and rice” rut, try this out.  A while back I found a recipe for Peanut Poi Sauce in Natural Health Magazine.  Topped on grilled chicken it is delicious. This recipe makes a ton so I froze the leftovers which I was able to defrost on a day like today.

Peanut Poi Sauce

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 1/2 cup organic peanut butter
• 1/4 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 4 T agave nectar
• 3 T brown sugar
• 2 T fish sauce
• 2 T red curry paste

Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan over low heat. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, whisking regularly, until sauce is creamy. Serve over grilled chicken or a dipping sauce for chicken skewers.

I paired the chicken with something I will call Coconut Curry rice.

Coconut Curry Rice

• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 1-2 T red curry paste
• 1 cup brown rice

Bring coconut milk and water to a boil in a medium pot. Add curry paste and rice and reduce to a simmer.  I had to keep adding coconut milk and water to make sure it didn’t burn, so keep an eye on it.

And Ta-Da! A boring chicken and rice dinner gets some flavor.  With dinner I enjoyed a present from my brother-in-law.

Do you think that drinking from a Buddha bottle counts as meditating? I’m going with a yes 😉

Farewell To My Favorite Things

I’m pretty sure this is how Paddington got her smashed face. Although most pugs are considered Chinese in origin, Paddington is Vietnamese. I got her from a family that was raising money for their Vietnamese Christian Church. Chad says that is why she tends to not follow directions, because English is her second language.  I’m pretty sure that she is just stubborn. I posted this picture because my head felt like I had gone through that factory for three straight days. Migraine. Ugh.

On day two of this fun adventure Chad brought me breakfast in bed.  What a sweet guy huh? I think I’ll keep him around a little longer 😉 I finally gave in and went to our naturopathic doctor to get these things under control. If you are in the Phoenix area, check them out at the link above. She gave me acupuncture (I really should’ve gotten a picture!), a shot of magnesium, and some cranial manual therapy.  I am now on a magnesium supplement and on a strict diet. This last part, for lack of a better word, SUCKS! Let me just list a few things I am to avoid: nuts, nut butters, bread baked with yeast, olives, pickles, and… CHOCOLATE, CHEESE, AND RED WINE!!!!! As one of my friends kindly put it, “What’s next, no breathing?” I am to keep to this diet for the next three weeks.  We will then start adding things back in to see if one of these delicious things trigger my head to explode. If its one of those last three, I may just cry!

This was really good. I will miss you my friend!

So dinner last night had to be a bit modified.  Since I do most of the cooking, my family is going to go on this diet with me 😉 Here is a link to the original recipe for the Tamale Pie.  I changed a bunch of things so here is what I did (its healthier too):

Tamale Pie

• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 cup instant masa
• 1 cup boiling water
• salt and pepper
• 2 T butter
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 T corn oil
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 2 T thyme
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/2 T coriander
• 1 cup beer
• 1 can hatch chilis
• 1 can diced tomatoes with chilis
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar
• cilantro for garnish

1. in a med saucepan heat the milk on med-low. Whisk in the masa and boiling water. Continue to stir for about 10 min, It will get really thick.  Season with salt and pepper and stir in butter and honey. Remove from heat. 2. Preheat oven to 400* In a large oven proof skillet (I just cooked and transferred to a baking dish), heat the oil over med-high. Add turkey and cook until browned.  Season with thyme, cayenne, coriander, salt and pepper.  Stir in the beer to deglaze for about 1 min.  Add the chilis and tomatoes to heat through.  3. Spoon the masa mixture over the turkey mixture, spreading evenly.  Top with the cheddar (except for my piece 😦 ) Pop in the oven and bake for about 15 -20 minutes.  Garnish with cilantro and serve.

I’ve had a very busy morning teaching, marketing, and cleaning. Now it’s time to go to a BBQ to have one last relaxing weekend before I start my clinical rotation on Monday.  It’s springtime in Phoenix!

Free to Frittata

Holy moly! It’s been quite the week for me. I am sad to report that my new shoes have injured me 😦 This will not stop me because April is going to be a big month. I’ll divulge details later.

I have been buried underneath books studying for finals for what seems like forever.  But as of noon today… done with another quarter! In two weeks I embark upon another internship.  10 whole weeks pretending to be a real therapist. Little scary if you ask me.  But for now, I will enjoy my time off.  First on the agenda is to enjoy some cold beverages and quit ignoring my husband.

For dinner tonight I did not want to leave the house to go get something to cook so I searched the fridge and came up with this.

Red Pepper, Artichoke and Olive Frittata

• 1/2 Red pepper chopped
• 1 clove of elephant garlic
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 5 chopped artichoke hearts
• 1/2 cup of kalamata olives chopped
• 6 eggs
• 1 T of milk
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese
• 2 T of feta

Preheat the oven to 375* I started by sauteing the red pepper and garlic until the garlic was golden and the red peppers were soft.  I whisked the eggs and the milk.  Add the egg mixture, the peppers and garlic, and all the rest of the ingredients into a bake dish. Bake for 45 minutes or until it is cooked through.  Top with feta and serve.

This experiment was a success. Even my super-picky brother in-law had some! Well, I have just been handed a martini and think I will be making my way out to relax at the hot tub.  I’m not really a lush, I promise 🙂 Ahh it feels so good to finally have some free time!

guilty pleasures

I have a confession to make… Though I am trying very hard to stay on track there are a few things that I may never be able to cut out of my life.  Number One

Pumpkin Spice Heaven

Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  I had to go into the restaurant directly from school the other day and would not have made it through the night without some caffeine.  I did, however, make sure that it was non-fat milk and only two pumps of pumpkin instead of four.  Progress.

Last night for dinner I needed to make something that was fast, simple, and father-in-law approved.  That made the list of possibilities very small.  I ended up making this healthy dish.

The spaghetti is brown rice pasta.  The sauce was actually just a can of sodium-free canned tomatoes with basil, oregano, and garlic. I topped it with chicken that I seasoned with Tadpole Seasoning (something I picked up from a farmer’s market).  Now enter guilty pleasures number two and three: bread and beverages.  I had to pair our healthy meal with some garlic bread.  Had to. I also Had to stop by the store and pick up some beer.  They have lots of fun seasonal things out that I must try.  Sam Adams has Black and Brew which takes us back to guilty pleasure number one: coffee. 

Meltdown Makeover for the day:

“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries.  Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Matthew 6:33-34