Taters and Meatballs

So, it has been a while since I have posted anything. I have been a bit busy with other stuff and really didn’t get the chance to cook something yummy as much as I would want to and had just been munching on little things here and there to help me survive.

Anyways, I made Mash Potatoes and Meatballs!! It was so delicious. You can freeze them as well and use them in spaghetti and other recipes.

Meatball Recipe:

1 ½ pounds of ground beef

½ of a red bell pepper diced (you can use the whole thing if you want)

1 medium size onion diced

4 cloves of garlic diced

1 cup Panko bread crumbs

2 eggs beaten

½ cup of milk

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon seasoning salt (I used Johnny’s)

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (Silver Swan)

Put all ingredients in one big mixing bowl, mix and knead with your hand. Spray Pam on cooking tray. Make mixture into 1 inch size balls. Put them on the cooking tray, one inch apart from each other. Set oven to broil and cook it for about 15-20 minutes or until brown.

And waa-laa, you got meatballs!  I had to make two batches of them since I was using a medium sized cooking tray. It made up to about 40 lovely meatballs.

I would give you the recipe for the Mash Potatoes, since they were delicious as well, but I really wasn’t measuring quite much when making it and I don’t wanna give y’all the wrong measurements for the ingredients. So, tune in for the that one soon.

Have questions? Just let me know. 

No Meat Friday

So, for lent I decided to give up social networking such as Facebook and along with that, not having meat on Fridays except for seafood. I enjoy most dishes with meat in it so sometimes its hard for me to watch people grubbing on steak or chicken wings while I have to eat veggies and fish.

This last Friday I hung out with my friend Vicky. We had a fun night -- cooked, play Just Dance 3 (Yeah!!) and had a couple of beers. And since I wasn't able to have meat we went to the store and bought some salmon fillets and a box of Rice-a-roni Long grain and Wild Rice. It was nice and easy to make and amazingly delicious.

For the Rice-a-roni we just used the rice cooker to make it a little easier and just poured the rice in the pot along with the seasonings, 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of butter. Mix it up a bit put the lid on and press the button down to cook.


For the Salmon Fillets, I seasoned them by lightly sprinkling Lawry's Seasoning Salt, Cayanne pepper, Steak Grill Seasoning and Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime seasoning. I broiled them in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. And Ta-da!!! Dinner was ready in 20 minutes. It turned out delicious and we both went, noms.

Yay!! HOTPOT

So, usually every Thursday me and my friend Vicky get together to watch Grey's Anatomy. Last night was a rerun so we decided to have a movie night with our other friend Danielle. And for this lovely night we decided to have delicious Hot Pot for dinner. I know its not really a Filipino dish but it made us all go, noms.

I looked at a couple recipes for this dish and gave it a little twist to make it my own. I started out cooking the rice noodle sticks until they were al dente rinsed it with cold water then put it aside so its ready when the broth is cooked.

For the broth I used:

4 cloves of garlic smashed
1 onion chopped
4 cans of chicken broth
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
3 tablespoons of vinegar
1 can of coconut milk
2 sprigs of basil
10 sprigs of cilantro
2 tablespoons of red curry paste
3 stalks of lemon grass smashed
3 stalks of green onion chopped thinly
4 Thai chilies chopped thinly
2 tomatoes chopped
1 tablespoon sugar

To prepare the broth, I sauteed the garlic, onions and green onions for 3-5 minutes in a little bit of olive oil then I added the chicken broth, vinegar, fish sauce, red curry paste, chili peppers, coconut milk, lemon grass, tomatoes and sugar. Bring to broil for 8-10 minutes over medium-high heat. Add cilantro and basil; reduce heat to medium-low; simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the garlic, onions, lemon grass, chilies, cilantro and basil.

For all the goodies we got to dunk in the broth:
(You could put each item on their own individual plates or you could make a nice platter for the veggies, meat and seafood.)

12 large peeled and deveined
1 cup of thinly sliced beef
1 cup of thinly sliced salmon
1 cup calamari rings
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
2 cups beans sprouts
a bunch of bok choy
basil for garnish
cilantro for garnish

We didn't have an electric wok nor a hot plate to put in the middle of the table for the broth so, I used the amazing power of the internet and googled the alternative way to do it and used a deep fryer. It worked!

I had these amazing large Pho bowls I got from my brother-in-law that we used and added the cooked noodles in first then began the dipping using these small strainers that I found at Daiso . It was delicious. And there was only enough to feed the three of us so if you have a bigger party you might want to double this recipe. :) Enjoy, NOMS.


Have any questions? Feel free to ask.