Category: Lamb - feeding my ohana

What's Cooking This Week--No Travel!!

8/6/2015

Love summer tomatoes.

So far this summer, I traveled to Boston, LA, Washington, DC, Chicago, Ann Arbor, Madison, Portage, IN and Reno. At any given time, there were zero to sixteen children in our house. So much holo-holo, so little home cooking.

There was a lot of great eating, but now it's time to have just home food and stock the freezer. This week it's dutch-oven cooking.

Sunday was #MeatlessOneDay
For those of you on Instagram, you saw Sunday's afternoon project of homemade tomato sauce. We parlayed into from-scratch pasta sauce (swap out the jars) with our home grown zukes, tomatoes and basil. 3 containers worth mean one today, a bit for tomorrow and one for the freezer.

Monday Ad-hoc Chicken Soup
I had planned to make Japanese Curry, even chopping all the veggies and chicken in advance. All was going well as I start cooking. Then I went to the pantry for my block-o-curry, and discovered there are were none. Uh-oh. Thank goodness for a carton of low-sodium vegetable broth and some Za'atar spice. Dump in the a full carton and sprinkle in some Za'atar. I made a little slurry using whole milk and about 5 spoonfuls of cornstarch. Crazy, but it works. So much so, I'll do it again, but on purpose.

Tuesday was #MeatlessOneDay
It's summer and all manner of veggies are in season. Easy Eggplant Parmesan today using the leftover of serving one of the spaghetti sauce batch. Working parents means this was a family affair. Baby birdie pitched in to make the eggplant cutlets so that we can eat at a decent time.

Wednesday
Japanese Curry for real and we now have an abundance of curry blocks in the pantry. Big batch means leftovers for lunch, plus a batch to freeze.

Thursday
Steve's Grilled Lamb and roasted beets with goat cheese. Nothing from this meal will go into the freezer, because there will be leftovers.

Friday is #LeftoversRoulette
Curry rice omelettes. On Sunday, I made a cheddar cheese and ma-po tofu omelette. It sounds like it would awful, but it was awesome. Leftover curry from Wednesday mixed with rice is a little more traditional.

What baby birdie says is true. There is no place like home, and we're glad not to be flying for awhile.

What's Cooking This Week--Not Turkey, Yet

11/25/2013

Skipping meat this time.

My favorite holiday approaches and I can't wait! However, teenagers still need to be fed, so here's what's cooking for this short week.

Meatless Monday, Buy a Turkey and Start Chopping!
Yakisoba with veggies. A teeny bit of pork makes this very much richer, but it's still good sans animal. Would not recommend adding tofu in this case.

Turkey Saga, Day 1
If you haven't already done so, best to pick up a turkey today. We have been getting fresh Diestel turkeys for years now. It was recommended that we get a hen (girl) rather than a tom (boy). There is no difference in price, and I've not a clue why, but we went with what the Turkey Whisperer told us.

While I love the citrus brine, The husband is trying out a new brine with allspice, cloves, onion, garlic, brown beer ale. I guess the relatives now know they are human guinea pigs once again.

I am also trying out a new old stuffing, based on a Sam Choy recipe. Macadamia nuts, apples, raisins and either bacon or pork sausage. Plus our more traditional cornbread stuffing. Again, the relatives will surely weigh in here too.

Tuesday
Korean chicken soup. It's getting cold for California, so we need soup and a little kim chee to keep us warm.

Wednesday
Gyros. We've been on a Mediterranean kick lately.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

What Really Is Cooking This Week

10/22/2013

This week, we aim for homey-food, even with one eating out day, and this is only because no one in the household can resist discount days at Curry House.

Here's what is cooking at home this week. No fancy-shmancy restaurants this week.

Meatless Monday
Almost Alfredo Pasta with arugula and sun-dried tomatoes. This was a bit leftovers roulette using leftover packets of Parmesan and Gruyere cheese from quiche last week.

Kaiware spaghetti from Curry House

Discount Tuesday
Taking advantage of 20% off coupon from Curry House, and one of us extended to meatless Tuesday. Our local Curry House is also next door to Kee Wah Bakery so I had to get some sponge cake and taro buns.

Wednesday
From Scratch Pork Loin made into sandwiches. With the rest of the arugula from Monday.

Thursday
Mediterranean Lamb Stir Fry, while string beans and red peppers are still in season.

Fish on Friday
Furikake Salmon, My Very Own Namasu and Rice. All-purpose Japanese dinner. Or breakfast.

I'm looking forward to some creativity cooking and extras this weekend too, including
Furikake Chex Mix so I can lay off the potato chips and bring some snacks into work.
Sticky Rice with Mangoes, just because
I also saw a 'recipe' for sweet potato chips that I may try with Okinawan sweet potatoes.

There's no place like home! Especially the kitchen.

What's Cooking This Week--Going Global

4/8/2013

This week's menu goes around the world in 6 days--tofu, Alfredo and jambalaya. We are meatless x2 during the week with a bonus Meatless Sunday.

Be vegetarian, at least for a day.

Meatless Bonus Sunday
Tofu Steaks, edamame and rice. Can you say "soy"?

Monday
Basil Chicken. With tofu steaks last night, there is lots of extra basil.

Meatless Tuesday
Almost Alfredo Pasta, with broccoli instead of spinach.

Homemade gyros

Wednesday
Gyros, to use the last of the feta cheese from Grapefruit and Manoa lettuce salad.

Thursday
Jambalaya. Besides tofu steaks, we had Japanese Chicken Curry over the weekend and there is some leftover celery.

Meatless Friday
On the Fly Orzo Salad. Reasonably sure the husband will tolerate the third meatless day in a week.

Extras
Haupia from scratch. In this context, 'from scratch' not using the 'just add water' packet, but using coconut milk and cornstarch. It does not mean pounding coconut and arrowroot. I'm hoping for a smoother texture than the packets version. I may even make this tonight!

Li Hing Kettle Korn. My cousin told me I took Kettle Korn and made it even more addicting. If you see my relatives or me with the tell-tale red fingertips, you'll know why.

What are your favorite snacks?

What's Cooking This Week--Warm and Fast

2/5/2013

Rain and colder temperatures together with a busier-than-usual family and for for-hire client schedule mean dinner needs to be warm and made very efficiently.

Tortilla Soup. Fast, warm and happy.

Takeout Monday
I was in San Francisco with a client until 10PM last night, so it was El Pollo Loco chicken by request for my Mother-in-Law. There is no El Pollo Loco in Hawaii so when she visits, this is a must-do.

Tuesday
Tortilla Soup, using the leftover El Pollo Loco chicken. We haven't had this in awhile. We have some absolutely bee-you-tee-ful homegrown avocado from a friend, as well as pepper jack cheese for sprinkling.

No piggies here.

Wednesday
Mediterranean Lamb Stir Fry. A satisfying meal after a long day to get everyone over the mid-week hump.

Meatless Thursday
Pork-less PDQ Hot and Sour Soup. Just tofu and eggs this time.

Fish on Friday
Simple Salmon, Yaki Musubi and Okinawan Sweet Potato Fries. The oven is my friend. Comfort food for to start the weekend.

Have a good week!

What's Cooking This Week--No Wallet Monday

11/12/2012

Today's game was No-Wallet Monday. I left my wallet in my car. Not usually a big deal, except that today my husband is driving said wallet-containing car, and I barely ever have cash on-hand. So with $20 dollars scrounged up from around the house, the challenge was to get enough for Monday's dinner.

Here's what happened on Monday and what's cooking for the rest of the week.

Pillsbury Manapua

No-Wallet Monday
Fed the ohana for $11, plus char siu and edamame from the household 'freezer pantry'.
Pillsbury Manapua and an Edamame Salad that deserves a second look, using yuzu from a friend's yard. Bought the following: 2 tins of Pillsbury biscuits, 2 bunches of green onions, a bag of shredded carrots, 1 bunch of fresh mint, plus a cake of tofu for $11! Everyone is happy and full.

Tuesday
Should be a normal weekly shopping trip now that I've retrieved the wallet. Chicken Divan, at the request of the teenagers.

Fishy Wednesday
Mahi-mahi with tomato butter sauce. It's time to get this out of the Greenhouse and into a regular rotation. It's too good, too close and too easy not to finalize it.

Mediterranean Lamb Stir Fry

Meatless Thursday
PDQ Hot and Sour Soup. Skipping the pork and using only the tofu from the $11 purchase on Monday.

Friday
Mediterranean Lamb Stir Fry. We had takeout Caribbean food this weekend and tried curried goat. I may try to use goat instead of lamb, as it is the more locally raised animal, but we shall see.

Eat Well. Be Well.
Be grateful for those who defend our country.

What's Cooking This Week--Craving Hawaii

10/16/2012

My own private Waimea Bay. Sigh.

Someone very dear in my Hawaii ohana is making the big jump to the "Mainland". Wishing them good luck, and sending them off with a view of one of my favorite places in the universe--summer morning at Waimea Bay. As the song goes, it's my "pocketful of paradise". I did not get to go to Hawaii this summer, and Waimea gestalt is one of the many things I really miss.

With that, a mix of Hawaii and Mainland cooking this week.

Sunday
Steve's Grilled Lamb. We ate it with Spinach Bolani (Afghani flatbread) and fresh grilled eggplant that we got from the Mountain View (CA) farmers market that day.

Love my Daddy's Fried Rice!

Monday--Grandma's Birthday
All you can eat buffet, as requested by my mother-in-law for her birthday dinner. With strawberry chiffon cake from Whole Foods. The seasonal apple cake is also quite good.

Tuesday
My Daddy's Killer Fried Rice. For A LOT of leftover rice.

Wednesday
Tofu Loaf, inspired by Green Garden Restaurant, a long-closed and very local-style restaurant in Hanapepe (Kauai). In addition to an awesome lilikoi pie, they baked up a tofu dish with onions, shiitake and mayonnaise. This version also includes tuna, carrots, celery and cream of mushroom soup. It shall be a grand experiment.

Thursday
To balance out the Perhaps-Not-So-Great Green Garden experiment, I'll try a fancier Hawaii Regional Cuisine recipe. This one is Hoisin Linguine from Russel Siu, one of the co-founders of 3660 on the Rise. This also happens to be my mother's favorite restaurant, and by utter only-in-Hawaii coincidence, Mom used to go to water aerobics with the other founder. Very small island.

Meatless Friday
Taking the last gasp of summer with Roasted tomato pizza.

Baking Extras
Todd's Pound Cake. I grew up with Sara Lee Pound Cake, but I dropped her for husband-made. The 5 eggs and 1/2 pound of butter means it is should never been a weekly staple, but it's marvy as a once-in-awhile indulgence.

Go Giants. Beat Cal. Hockey Come Back!

Eat Well. Be Well.

What's Cooking This Week--Gluten Be Gone

7/16/2012

Several members of my New England ohana maintain gluten-free diets. This means wheat, oats, malt, rye and barley are off limits. No bread, pasta, panko, beer or beef barley soup. Rice, quinoa, corn, tamales and mochi are all OK. Spam also appears to be gluten-free.

I'm thankful to have learned so much about gluten-free cooking in such a short time. Wheat products, and wheat flour in particular, show up in unexpected items. For example, shoyu (soy sauce), oyster sauce, and cream of chicken soup all contain wheat flour and therefore, are not gluten-free. I suspect it may be used as a thickener for oyster sauce and cream of chicken soup, but I'm not exactly sure why wheat flour is even required for shoyu!

Coming back to my own pantry, Bulldog katsu sauce, mustard and Worcestershire sauce are gluten-free. I also found a host of gluten-free products, even organic, gluten-free shoyu stocked at Safeway.

This week menu is gluten-free in honor of my New England ohana. I picked these specifically because I think they are gluten-free as is. Last week's lobster in melted butter is also most certainly gluten-free!

Monday
Mediterranean Lamb Stir Fry. The one questionable item was the store-bought chicken broth. It contains yeast extract, but this is gluten-free.

Tuesday
Taco Meat--No Mix with corn tortillas, Laurie's Guacamole and Tropical Fruit Salsa. If it's difficult to get mangoes in New England, fresh peaches will work for the salsa too.

Wednesday
Clam and Cannellini Bean Soup. Perfect for the land of cherrystones, quahogs, steamers and littlenecks. It's supposed to be a little cooler in New England this week, so a nice light bowl of soup is in order. Eaten outside, of course!

Thursday
Salt and Pepper Shrimp, green beans and rice. The crisp on the shrimp is from constarch and not flour. In case you were wondering, the 5 spices in Chinese Five-Spice powder are cinnamon, anise, star anise, cloves and ginger. All gluten-free.

Friday
Tart-style Rat-pa-tooty. Summer veggies are in season! Peak-season tomatoes, zukes, and red peppers are good for all.

IMPORTANT NOTE
I am by no means an expert on gluten-free eating. So please make sure to check your own versions/brands of the ingredients listed to make sure they are gluten-free.

Like going vegetarian, going gluten-free is not as daunting as it seems. One family member even made a kid-friendly gluten-free cookbook to prove it. The food is simple and yummy.

It would be much more difficult to go potato-chip or ice-cream free.

What other gluten-free recipes and resources do you have out there? Send 'em in or post 'em.

What's Cooking This Week--A Break from Break

1/4/2012

Love the possibilities of the Year of the Dragon

I love the festive rush of the holidays, but when the New Year turns, it always feels like the right time to move on.

And while I don't exactly welcome the return to work and school schedules, it does provide a familiar track to move to. There is something very satisfying in the annual ritual of starting my brand-new, old-school paper datebook. With that, here's what I've dutifully written we're eating this week.

Tuesday
Costco chicken, Won Bok Coleslaw, using honeycrisp apples instead of nashi and pan-fried potato "chips." I sliced Yukon gold spuds very thinly and then cooked in olive oil, Hawaiian salt and cracked black pepper. After two weeks of rice and mochi, it was good to see Mr. Potatohead again.

Wednesday
My Very Own Chili, with fresh whole wheat bread. I've been making my own bread using a breadmaker for about a month now. I still can't believe how easy it is to make bread this way.

Thursday
Steve's Grilled Lamb, which will be oven roasted instead of grilled since it's still too cold and dark outside. Rounding this out with Roasted Tomatoes, Baba Ghanouj and pita bread. Maximizing the oven today.

Friday
Thai Chicken Curry. I'll cave to rice today, but it will be the fluffier jasmine rice.

Welcome to 2012.

Eat Well. Be Well.

What's Cooking This Week--No Food Gets Left Behind

6/6/2011

My husband made Crock Pot Kalua Pig and did some baking over the weekend (mango cake and zucchini bread), so we're starting out with leftover kalua pig, about a cup of crushed pineapple, and some errant zucchini. So this week's dinners take into account all the orphan food.

Monday--Plum Sauce Chicken, buying a roasted chicken from the Chinese market and using up the rest of crushed pineapple from the zucchini bread.

Tuesday--Panini, the vegetarian meal of the week. Maximizing the oven use by roasting eggplant, the leftover zukes, onions, tomatoes and corn (for Wednesday's corn salsa) in one fell swoop.

Wednesday--Kalua Pig Quesadillas with guacamole and fresh corn salsa.

Thursday--Huli Huli Chicken (a new addition of an old-time recipe, posting on Wednesday!).

Friday--Argentinian Lamb Chops with Fresh Mint Sauce (also new recipe, posting later this week).

What I'm using from the garden: mint, cilantro and parsley; rosemary from my neighbor.

What I'm buying pre-made: roasted chicken from the Chinese market (on the way to the 'regular' grocery store).

What I'm buying that's in season, but hoping to get from the garden later in the summer: tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapeno and fresh corn.

No orphan food gets left behind. Or forgotten. Eat Well. Be Well.