Simple Soup

Simple Soup Receipe

I have been cooking Bee's Basic Baby Porridge for months now! I actually enjoy eating it. It feels healthy and light. Bee says this is very versatile and just learning a few techniques can open new doors. So this time instead of porridge I used the same general idea to make soup.

Simple Soup Receipe

Ingredients:

4 cups chicken broth
1 medium size white potato
1 medium size sweet potato
1 carrot 
21 salute/salt to taste (optional)

Directions:

Wash and peel potatoes and carrot.
Cut into smaller chunks.
Add all ingredients to pot.
Set the heat on high and bring to a boil. Then cover low heat for 30 minutes. 
Add 3 dashes of 21 salute or a bit of salt.

Wah lah soup! It's perfect for a babies and adults alike. My husband was actually the one to gobble this pot up. Now I feel like a budding cook again! He ate it w/ saltine crackers.;)

spinach rice

Made yam rice minus the yams. It was pretty easy. Tasty too. Fried shallots, onions, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice, chicken stir fried and placed in rice cooker then cooked same way you'd cook normal rice. Rasa malaysia and little teochew have nice detailed recipes.

Recipe: Instant oatmeal cookies

Recipe: Instant oatmeal cookies
3 packages of instant oatmeal (I used 2 packages of apple cinnamon and 1 banana walnut)
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees celsius. Mix dry ingredients. Add milk and oil. Mix. Scoop and form small rounds. Make 9-12 cookies. Place on baking sheet. Put in oven for 15 minutes.

Tip: Perfect for breastfeeding moms. Supposedly oatmeal helps increase milk supply. Plus eating cookies is faster than eating a bowl of oats. ;)

Recipe: Peanut Butter Sesame Noodles

Recipe: Peanut Butter Sesame Noodles

Adapted from (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Peanut-Sesame-Noodles-106572)

Ingredients:

1 package of wheat spaghetti pasta
1 cucumber

Dressing:
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of warm water
2 tbsp of rice vinegar
2 teaspoons of honey
1 tbsp of red hot pepper flakes
1/2 cup of chunky peanut butter
1 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil

Directions:
Place all dressing ingredients into a food processor and pulse until it's smooth. Cook spaghetti according to directions. Rinse under cold water. Cut up cucumber into thin slices.

Place peanut butter sesame dressing on the noodles and add cucumbers. According to Epicurious don't let the noodles sit in the sauce for long. Just toss it together before serving.

I've been meaning to make this dish forever. Yums. It usually cost about 5-6 dollars at the noodle house I've been too.

Too bad my husband doesn't like cold noodles or cucumbers. But I made it for me and the little baby in my tummy! ;) I'm currently on maternity leave. :D 9 days till her due date.

Fish sauce salted eggs over rice

Boil the eggs, add a little salt, and a little fish sauce. Eat on top of white rice. Yummy. It reminds me of home. It's very similar to the fancy braised pork dish (thit kho) dish. However, it's quite simple. I remember my mom sometimes making it for my dad's lunch.

Did I say we liked hot pepper paste?

We just went to the new H-Mart at the Diamond Jamboree Plaza in Irvine . We got this tub of hot pepper paste for only 5.99! It's huge! It's 6.6 pounds! It makes me laugh.

Broccoli + Chicken Curry

I bought a kitchen aid knife set and a new bamboo cutting board. I have a glass cutting board but had seen on Good Eats that glass dulls your knife! No wonder. So to test out my new knives I bought a whole chicken and chopped it up for dinner. It was my first experience in chopping up a full chicken. ;) Pretty tough. I should of read some instructions. I mixed the chicken w/ curry from trader joes. And cooked up some broccoli. Yummy! My hubbie ate two servings. You know you've done good when that happens. :D (clap clap clap)

Japanese Ground Chicken Soboro

Recipe: Ground Chicken Soboro

1 pound of ground chicken
6 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp mirin

Place all ingredients in pan saute until the moisture has evaporated. Serve over white rice. I served this w/ broccoli.

I basically followed this recipe.

I only used half the amount of sugar the recipe called for though. I've cooked this recipe a couple of times once with ground Turkey. I'm quite fond of ground meat and trader joes (that's where I got the meat). :D If you have watched Sweeney Todd you might not be. ;)

Recipe: Japanese Miso Chicken MeatBalls

Recipe: Japanese Miso Chicken MeatBalls

Ingredients:
Meatballs :
1 Cup Miso
1/4 milk
2 Cups of Ground Chicken
1 Large Onion, Chopped
1 1/2 Cups Corn Starch
Chinese 5 spice powder
oil for pan fry

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in large bowl. Mix about 100 times with hands. Add some oil to a pan and pan fry until brown on both sides. (10 minutes or so) Smash it down a bit. Preheat oven for 350 degrees. Place meat balls into oven for 10-15 minutes until cooked. Flip over about half way through. I adapted the recipe from Bright cove. Pat 5 spice powder on them. These little guys are strong in taste so we ate them over rice. Enjoy!

Dinner Mash

Recipe: Dinner Mash
1 can of salmon
1 can of black beans
handful of sweet corn
5 red potatoes
2 carrots
2 eggs
garlic
red pepper paste
-------

I wanted to try to make a patty of some sorts but I didn't have bread crumbs. So I baked some potatoes and carrots in my little red pot in the oven for 450 degrees for 40 minutes. I mashed all the ingredients. Then mixed in some eggs as a glue. I tried to pan fry them. I probably didn't add enough oil. It didn't seem to come together. So I just threw it onto some rice and wah lah dinner. I thought it tasted like food. :d

Asked Mr. Budding cook: "How do you like it?"
His reply: "It's ok."
Me: "It's ok that means you don't like it! Wah."
Mr. Budding cook: "I don't like the consistency. It's too dry on rice."
Me: "Wah that means you don't like it."
Mr. Budding cook: "You could add that red sauce."
Me: "Red pepper paste? If I add it you'll have to eat it."
Mr. Budding cook: "Ok."
Me: "I was thinking maybe a tomato paste of some sorts?"
Mr. Budding cook: "The red pepper paste makes everything taste good. And it could be like spicy tuna."

So I added the red pepper paste. It made the dish taste like.... red pepper paste. You could no longer taste the potatoes, corn or anything. :( I packed some up for lunch. I'll see how it will taste tomorrow w/ a reheat. Budding cook mishap #85.

My food addiction

What's your food addition? The food that once you start eating you just can't stop. My food addition is cheez its!!! White cheddar, hot tabasco, regular, parmesan. Ahhhhh....There was a sale where if you buy 25 bucks worth a specific brand you get two movie tickets and guess what we bought? And guess what I've been eating for the past couple of weeks? I think I will try to go cold turkey and ween myself off this bad habit. :D

But if I were lost on a desserted island ....

Bunny Creates

Introducing:

Bunny Creates

I created a new blog for my little creations. :)

I still will be cooking of course...

-the little budding cook

Recipe: Oyakodon

Recipe: Oyakodon

3/4 lb chicken thighs
1 onion
1 2/3 cups soup stock (dashi) - used Gen En Dashi no moto 1 tbsp mixed w/ 1 2/3 cups of water
7 tbsp soy sauce
4 tbsp mirin
3 tbsp sugar
4 eggs






I made oyakodon!
I made oyakodon!
I made oyakodon!

Oyakodon is a Japanese chicken and egg bowl. I've been wanting to try out this recipe forever and I finally did!

I got the recipe from About - Oyakodon. I pretty much followed this recipe using the powder form of dashi to make the soup stock. I sliced the onions into thin slices, cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Then I mixed 1 tbsp of dashi mix w/ 1 2/3 cups of water in a pan. I mixed the soy sauce mirin and sugar then I poured into the soup base. The oven was on low heat. I placed the chicken pieces in the mix and covered the pan. After about 15 minutes I added the onions and covered the pan. I also snuck in some broccoli florets. When everything was cooked I cracked the eggs and mixed them in a bowl. (in a video I watched it said not to mix them to well). Then you are supposed to turn up the heat boil the soup and pour the eggs over the mixture. I messed on this part and didn't boil first. But I allowed it boil after the egg mixture was placed in the pan. I prepared two bowls of rice and poured the mixture on top. It was soupy and quite delicious. It smelled so familar to me. It tasted like Japan. I ate two bowls of it! I was pretty happy with the recipe and very amazed I could make it. :)

I also watched this video Oyakodon video - Cooking with Dog (:D well he's not cooking the dog just with him :) haha ) .

Recipe: Red Hot Pepper Turkey

Recipe: Red Hot Pepper Turkey

Ingredients:

1 package of ground turkey

1 onion
2 tablespoons Hot Pepper Paste (Gochujang)

1 tablespoon of oil

Directions:
Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil. Saute the onions. Add the package of ground turkey. Brown it then pour out the excess liquid. Add two heaping tablespoons of hot pepper paste and mix it. Serve over white rice.

This is one of Mr. Budding cook's favorite dishes. He loves it. He is in love w/ hot pepper paste. It taste hot and sweet. It's a budding cook original. ;) So this is one more dish you can use your tub of Gochujang for.

Related Recipes:
Korean spicy hot tofu stew pot

Shrimp pork paste bread

Grandma's Birthday

My grandma's birthday was this past Tuesday. My mom told me to arrive at my grandma's at 2-3 on Sat. I rushed of the Trader Joe's and bought avocados and mochi ice cream (two of her favorite treats) and arrived at 4. I wanted to show up fashionable late (everyone is always late). When I arrived though there was nobody in sight. My grandma was shocked as much as I was. After much confusion calling my mom, who called my aunt, my grandma called my aunt, who then talked to me - we all figured it out and it was supposed to be a suprise at 5! Oops! Everyone started arriving at 5:30. We ate Costco pizza, KFC chicken, strawberries and ice cream, vietnamese pork and bread and pound cake. Everyone brought a dish. My grandma was slightly upset that she couldn't cook but she always takes too much effort in cooking and it was her birthday party. :D Above is a dish we get usually on special occassions like Thanksgiving. It's soooo dreamy. It's a shrimp and pork paste spreaded on sliced pieces of french bread and fried in oil. The pictures were from this past Thanksgiving...

Happy Easter

Happy Easter... Well it's tomorrow but I had some time to post this up. Guess what the above picture is depiction of. :D Hint: He is the reason for this season too. You can click on the picture to enlarge it.

I drew this w/ my waccom tablet. Not. :D

-budding cook

Hot Tofu soup w/ broccoli

With some leftover veggies from the steam, I made my hubbie some *hot* tofu soup. :) He ate this w/ rice. When I told him I what I would make him, he exclaimed "I could eat that everyday!". I think he likes it. Hope he feels better.

Here is the recipe, the diary of a novice cook also made it from a recipe from none other than me! I got so very excited to see this post.

Veggie Alert!

What can you do w/ all of this?



This is what I did: I steamed the broccoli and squash. Chopped up tomatoes and sauteed them w/ soy sauce and onions. Then after the steaming was done, I mixed the two. It tasted pretty good to me. The broccoli wasn't overcooked or undercooked. Mr. hubby thought it tasted too healthy maybe because it was!

feeling a wee bit content

i'm feeling a wee bit content. it's been a little stressful of late and finally i feel like i have a handle on things.. so this is how i'm feeling right now. wish i could feel like this always.. but with no lows there can't be highs. :D

weekend bliss

I made stamps this weekend on Sat. It was so peaceful and calming. I really enjoyed it a lot..Guess which one is my favorite? I drew the stems, and bodies.. :)