The Adventures of a Calamari Queen
Christian, Wife, Mommy, Homemaker, Retired nurse, Fur-mama,living a simple and minimal life!
Hello Friends! Happy Sunday:) This is what we ate lately for dinners this last week. I hope you get to eat and cook dishes that you’ve been wanting to eat! Have a wonderful Sunday evening, I’m about to watch a Korean drama with the hubs (we are watching Beating Again). It’s been a while since we’ve watched a KDrama here! HA!
We also ate out a few times over the weekends!
Hi Friends! Hope you’re having a great weekend:) I wanted to share a Filipino dish that I cooked early this week, Kare-Kare. It’s an oxtail dish with a thick peanut sauce. Now a days, in Filipino restaurants and homes they use beef, seafood, and other kinds of meat instead of oxtail (I personally like Oxtail). I rarely make this at home (I think this is my second time to make Kare-Kare (but I always order this if we’re in a Filipino restaurant). It’s a comfort food for me! I watched a couple of youtube videos (just searched for Kare-Kare recipes) and checked some kare-kare recipes online too for inspiration. I used my crockpot to tenderize/cooked my oxtail meat (just to save gas, instead of the stove). It was cooking for 7 hours then I finished it in the stove to make the peanut sauce. Traditionally, you mix all the veggies in at the end together with the sauce but I decided to plate them separately this time. I sautéed the eggplant and steamed the green beans and bok choy. The Hubs and I prefer it this way. Last year, when we visited Manila, I remember we had Kare-kare and the restaurant presented it this way too.
I sautéed some minced garlic(3 cloves) and chopped onions(1 medium), then added the cooked oxtails and broth (approximately 6 cups). You can add more broth for a thinner sauce;let it simmer. I added the peanut butter (1/2 a cup) and stirred until it dissolved. In a small bowl I added 1 teaspoon of achiote powder mixed with 1/2 cup broth,once the powder dissolved I added it to the sauce. The achiote is the ingredient that will give the dish that classic orange color. I then seasoned the sauce with salt and pepper. I didn’t use a lot of salt though because Kare-kare is always paired with shrimp paste when eaten.
Happy Cooking and eating Friends!
Hello friends! It’s been a while since I last posted here. Life got a little hectic. I’ve been wanting to share our dinners since last week but I wasn’t able to. Here’s our meals for the last 2 weeks or so. I’ve been cooking most nights but on the weekends we go out or have take out. I hope you’re all having a good week and happy cooking!
My husband had banana blossom for the first time when we visited the Philippines last year. He really liked it and he’s been NAGGING me to try cooking it for him. We got the blossom at the Asian market and I found the recipe on youtube (panlasang pinoy). He liked it and said I’ll have to make it again(we’ll see!).
we also had take outs and dine outs for the last couple of weeks:
Hi Friends! Happy Monday:) One of our “goals” this year is to really be intentional with our family budget. I’m responsible for budgeting, paying bills, getting groceries, and making meals while the hubs earns the money! We’ve already talked/made plans this past weekend about our financial goals for the year so I’m glad that is taken care of. Anyways, I wanted to share our dinners last week (after Christmas) and our menu plans for this week. I did the grocery shopping this week and came under budget (YES!). We have well stocked refrigerators right now and I plan to use what we already have for the coming weeks. Here’s to saving money and cooking at home!
Here’s our meal plans for the week:
M: Leftovers (we had beef caldereta; it’s a filipino version of beef stew)
T: Pasta with truffle butter (Ina Garten recipe),salads
w: Pork chop, rice, green beans
Th: Leftovers
F: Take out/Pizza
S: Chili
Sun: Salmon,veggies
*Our breakfast are usually :coffee and toast,yogurt,cereals,oatmeal then sandwiches and leftovers for lunch.
My groceries this week. The fridges are already stocked so I only bought produces that will be good this week, and I got some meat that was on sale that I can freeze for consumption in the coming weeks. Meat prices are getting ridiculous so I try to save money this way.
Hello friends! Just a quick chat here..can you believe it’s almost 2016? Time flies so fast! It’s been a tiring and relaxing kind of day here. Tiring because I did some cleaning and relaxing because I took a nap after! We will have a quiet NYE here at home. We are thinking of just ordering chinese food and watch the Space needle celebration live on TV. Have a great and safe NYE celebration friends!
Cleaned our closet using the KonMari method!
Hi Friends! Happy Monday! It’s been a while since I’ve posted “what we ate lately” and I’ve been meaning to post most of my dishes here but Thanksgiving and the Christmas season was happening! Anyways, I cooked 70% of the time, the rest we did takeout (especially during the weekends). This may seem like a lot of food but remember we had these meals over 2 months. Happy cooking and eating friends!
Steamed clams in white wine with spaghetti!
Korean beef ribs,kimchi, roasted brussel sprouts,rice
Left overs from Thanksgiving!
Ham, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts!
Mushroom risotto!
Lobster tails,kale and brussel sprouts salad!
Thai food takeout!
Sushi takeout
Shittake mushroom and green beans
Grilled tuna
Buffalo wings (my husbands fave)
King Crab legs
Grilled lamb,steak,baby potatoes
Hi friends! Merry Christmas Eve eve! Just wanted to share my Christmas decorations this year. We got a new Christmas tree for this year which was on sale last year. We like it, but we know nothing beats a real tree. We’ve experienced having a real tree before and personally it’s not worth it for me (maybe that will change next year!). The old one I put in our master bedroom. I simplified our decorations this year (aside from the new tree, all are old decorations). I skipped decorations on our stairs, and kitchen. I did put a santa figurine in the kitchen and a little frame in our coffee area and that’s about it. My Mom In Law Kathy also gave us Zach and Julia’s (my Sis IL) old toys and toy box from their childhood. I think these toys we’re 20-25 years old. So many of them, but I decided to only put half of them out because Riley thinks they are his toys and he keeps on trying to get them.
My nativity set that my Mom In Law gifted me years ago.
My nutcracker figurines on display in our little extra room.
Riley about to attack the toy box here!
Riley being a naughty schnauzer!
Our old Christmas tree I put in our master bedroom!
Coffee area!
Hello there Santa!
Our Christmas card 2015. Merry Christmas friends! We pray for Joy, Love, and God’s Peace on you this time of year!
For to us a CHILD IS BORN,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, PRINCE OF PEACE. (Isaiah 9:6)
Hello Everyone! It’s been a while since I posted here. November was hectic for us with our birthdays and hosting Thanksgiving so I decided to slow down a little. Next thing I know December is here! The Christmas season is always busy, so I always try to be intentional with our day to day lives. I try to focus on Him during this season, since Jesus should really be the focus! I try to minimize the chaos that surrounds me this time of year, thus, less social media, activities, and stress. I put up some decorations in our home. The tree is up and the mantle is done. The Hubs wants me to decorate the stairs but I’m not sure if I will do that this year.
I watched the Nutcracker ballet with my In laws last week. It’s one of my favorite holiday traditions with them since moving here from the Philippines. The show didn’t disappoint! So good! If you have the chance to watch it, GO, you will love it!
Watching the Rockettes show on netflix!
Panera dinner with Hubs!
I hope you’re having a good week during this holiday season!
Hello friends! I hope you’re having a good Monday. I’ve been menu planning for the last couple of months now and it’s been a positive thing for me as a homemaker. No reason for me not to do this because I don’t work outside the home. Saves me time and money, that’s always a good thing right? Here’s my meal plan this week:
M: Left overs (Pizza, Filipino Chicken soup/tinola)
T: Tuna Steaks,veggies,rice
W: Chicken wings,salad
T: Frozen meal for me (maybe tomato soup); Zach will have a dinner at his Office
F: Mushroom Risotto;salad
S/S (weekends): Eat out/take out/left overs
I don’t include Breakfast/lunches in my menu planning because we always have the same thing most of the time. We typically have cereals, oatmeal,yogurt,eggs,toast,fruits,coffee:)
Here’s some of our dinners lately:
Grilled Hamachi Collar
Braised Pork shoulder
Sautéed baby squid
Potato hash with eggs/bacon
Sushi dinner when we visited my Sis In Law in her place!
Beef teriyaki (from my fave Vietnamese place)
Chinese take out from Safeway (Zach was out of town last week for 4 days; I wanted cheap chinese food:)
Stir fried beef and veggies while the Hubs was out of town!
Dried fish,eggs,rice (perfect brunch!)
Grilled Halibut,rice,veggies
A special treat! King crab legs and steak last Friday (when we had my In laws for dinner)
Saturday night: Pizza and salad
Sunday dinner: sushi from Uwajimaya
Happy cooking and eating friends!
Hello Friends! Yesterday was Halloween here in the states and this is the first time that we didn’t have that many trick or treaters. The weather was mainly to be blame because it was just so bad. Raining and windy is not an ideal time for cute kids to be out and about ( we had a blackout Saturday morning that lasted 2 hours). Kudos to the brave parents though because they were still out there last night! The Hubs and I don’t really do anything during this time of year. We make sure we have candies though because we live in a neighborhood with lots of kids:) We watched the world series (Go ROYALS!) and NBA games, football (me specially, the hubs is not that into watching sports). Friday evening my In laws had dinner with us because our local seafood market had fresh King crabs legs (FRESH, flown from Alaska Friday morning) so we took the opportunity to have some because it’s very rare to get fresh king crab. It was such a special treat. It was so GOOD! We also had steak to go with it. Have a great week friends!
How cute is my Mom In Law?hehe
Crabby fights!
So GOOD!
Beechers cheese bread!
Thank You Generator for the 2 hours of electricity!
Napping every weekend is his fave!
