Food & Recipes

Baon Plan #3 Plus a Recipe for Italian Meatballs

July 16, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan Leave a Comment

I’m back with another baon plan, and this time I’m armed with more photos! Woohoo! So far I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback about the lunchbox meal plans I’ve been sharing, and because of this I really want to make an effort for this to become a regular thing on this blog. So thank you to you guys who actually read and comment and tell me that you like my food ideas. It means a lot, specially since I really am a newbie at this.

Okay, here’s what was on the baon menu on our third week of school, July week 1.

MONDAY
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Snack: Cereal and yogurt
Lunch: Pork adobo (the one that I marinated and froze)

Baon-1 — Let this baggie thaw in the refrigerator overnight

Baon-2 — Pick out the cloves of garlic coz you’ll wanna brown these in oil first before you throw everything else into the pot.

Baon-3 — Once the garlic has browned nicely, brown the meat then throw in the sauce and everything else that’s in the baggie and boil until the sauce is nice and thick.

TUESDAY
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Snack: Cheese muffin and peanut butter oatmeal bar (Recipe here. Made from Monday’s leftover cooked oats.)
Lunch: Chicken fingers

Cheesy Chicken Fingers from the Magnolia Chicken Station

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Bar fresh from the oven

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast: Ham & cheese sandwich
Snack: Peanut butter oatmeal bar and banana
Lunch: Beef tapa and scrambled egg

Got this Beef Tapa recipe from my cousin

THURSDAY
Breakfast: Pancakes
Snack: Cereal and yogurt
Lunch: Minute steak and garlic butter sayote

My mom made the minute steak, I cooked the sayote

FRIDAY
Breakfast: Grilled PB&J
Snack: Cheese muffin and cracker sandwich
Lunch: Italian meatballs (Recipe here)

Baon-9 — I’d never made meatballs before, and it was much easier than I thought it would be. You just dump everything into a bowl and mix well.

Baon-10 — Then you shape everything into little balls and bake or fry. This is 1kg worth of beef meatballs.

I still have one container of meatballs in the freezer and I’m going to add them to my spaghetti sauce one of these days. Yum!

Next week’s meal plan is interesting because it’s from the week that I was sick. Half the time it was MrC doing the early morning cooking, so that next meal plan is something that anyone can do.

Baon Plan #2 + Things I Learned From Week 1

July 9, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 10 Comments

I’m back with another baon plan! *Happy dance*

I noticed though that I only have one post between last week’s lunchbox meal plan and this one. That seems to be a sure sign that I need to blog more often. How do I find the time to do that though? Well, Dainty Mom told me in this blog post that in order to find time to blog, you really need to make a deliberate decision to blog. As in you MAKE time for it. Yes, I firmly believe that she was speaking to me, please do not burst my bubble!

Today I am making time to blog about my second week in baon planning. For my friends abroad, baon, in Filipino, basically means something that you take with you. In this case, baon means packed lunch/snacks. Mmkay?

So, lessons learned first. Week two was not as tough as week one in the sense that it wasn’t that much of a struggle getting up at 5am anymore. But, like I often say, waking up and getting up is one thing. Functioning is another. To this, I am pleased to say that I have found an answer, and that is to have what I like to call a jump start routine. If this seems like common sense to you, well, to me it’s a whole new thing, and that’s why I seem overly excited over something that sounds so simple.

A jump start routine is basically something that you have to do everyday, as soon as you wake up. It’s such a regular and recurring thing that you don’t need to think about it much. To a certain degree it becomes a little bit mechanical. The logic behind this is that you actually start moving and getting things done while you are organizing your thoughts and figuring out what other things you need to do. That way, you don’t run around like a headless chicken, aimlessly going back and forth between the refrigerator and pantry collecting ingredients, with not much else getting done. Having a jump start routine buys me that extra time to think about my battle plan, so I make less trips back an forth from one area of the kitchen to another.

My jump start routine basically begins with sitting up right when my alarm goes off and NOT hitting the snooze button, no matter what. And then I follow these simple steps:

Wake up MrC and ask him to please get the coffee pot, rice cooker and frying pan which were left to dry overnight in our outside kitchen. Why do I need MrC to do that? Because honestly you can’t make me step out of the house before sunrise unless it’s to go straight into the car. That’s because we have a froggy friend who lives in one of the corners of our garden, and he likes to sing to me each morning. *Shudder*
While MrC is outside, take out all the pots and pans that I need for that morning.
Make coffee (unless MrC is in the mood to make it himself).
While the coffee is brewing, cook rice.

Once I turn the rice cooker on, I’m kind of already sure about what I need to get done and how I’m gonna do it. So yes, this whole jump start routine business really works.

Okay, moving on to the meal plan. On week two, I didn’t go to the supermarket until Thursday since we had so much food in the house. Oh, and I’ve decided to include breakfast in my menus since I do prepare it every day. Plus I think that anyone who can have breakfast on the table and a packed lunchbox ready by 6am is super, and deserves the recognition. Yes, I just complimented myself there.

Here’s what I managed to prepare on the last week of June using whatever we had in our fridge and pantry.

MONDAY
Breakfast: Pancakes
Recess: PB&J pancake (we had one left over from breakfast) and apple slices
Lunch: Steak with cheese sauce (prepared by Lola, left over from dinner the night before) and boiled corn kernels

TUESDAY
Breakfast: German franks and toast
Recess: Sandwich crackers and apple slices
Lunch: Chicken Drumettes (the Purefoods kind) with gravy

Wednesday's Breakfast — Wednesday’s Breakfast

WEDNESDAY
Breakfast: Grilled cheese pandesal
Recess: Two kinds of cereal (Little MrC loves munching on cereal)
Lunch: Breaded pork loin (1/3 of the pork I bought at the supermarket last week) and boiled carrots

Wednesday's Snack Attack — Wednesday’s Snack Attack

THURSDAY
Breakfast: Red Ribbon Mamon
Recess: Crumpy sandwich
Lunch: Pork tapa (the last of the pork from last week, click here for the recipe) and scrambled egg

FRIDAY
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Recess: PB&J Pandesal
Lunch: Rosemary chicken (which I marinated overnight) and potato wedges

I should really remember to take photos before I pack everything into the lunch bag, but sometimes you just forget. Oh well. There you have it, I’ll be back with another baon plan next week!

MrsC’s Tried and Tested Baon Plan #1

July 2, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 19 Comments

I wake up at 5am on weekday mornings and immediately head to the kitchen. I prepare breakfast for our family, and pack recess and lunch for my son. It’s a bit of a challenge figuring out what to make every day, especially where the packed meals or baon is concerned. Thing is, I really cannot falter because Little MrC’s grade level does not have access to the school canteen yet, and so he is stuck eating whatever he has in his lunchbox. So, I took this challenge head on from the moment school started, and I am now on my third week and doing okay so far.

I figured that I must not be the only mommy with meal planning woes. I’m also pretty sure that there are many early morning iron chef mamas out there who, like me, are in charge of making sure that their kids have a proper meal to eat in school each day. And so I’ve decided to share my weekly lunchbox meal plans, and also impart some kitchen wisdom in what worked, what didn’t and why. Sounds like a plan? Yes, a meal plan! Sorry, I know I’m too corny to function. Forgive me, I’ve been up since (you guessed it!) 5am.

Before you leave this page out of boredom from my corny jokes, I bring you MrsC’s Tried and Tested Baon Plan #1. This is what I packed for my son on the first week of school, which happened to fall on the third week of June.

MONDAY
Recess: Vjandep Pastel – First discovered in Cagayan de Oro, this time bought from Market Market.
Lunch: Purefoods Chicken Nuggets, boiled carrots and rice – Always a fave among the kiddies. Plus boiled carrots for added vitamins.

TUESDAY
Recess: PB&J Sandwich
Lunch: Breaded pork, corn & carrots, and rice – I used lomo (tenderloin) so it’s super soft.

WEDNESDAY
Recess: Strawberry Pop Tarts – Since we have a whole box from our Duty Free shopping spree.
Lunch: Pork adobo, banana and rice – My mom’s epic recipe. Best eaten with a ripe banana.

THURSDAY
Recess: Grilled Cheese Pandesal – Prepared in our trusty Big Boss Grill.
Lunch: Daing na bangus, chopsuey and rice – I buy the Century marinated and frozen bangus (milk fish). It’s pretty good and it’s boneless too.

FRIDAY
Recess: Voice Overload cracker sandwich and apple slices
Lunch: Tocino, scrambled egg and rice – I tried the CDO young pork tocino for the first time. It’s good for baon because it’s really soft.

So there you go! Hope you guys are able to get some ideas from this meal plan. Let me know if it helped you somehow. I’d love if you could share your meal plans and recipe ideas too. And please, come back next week, there’s more to look forward to then!

Fabulous Freezer Meals

June 28, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 13 Comments

I try to stay away from Pinterest as much as I can. That’s because whenever I’m on I tend to lose huge chunks of my day that could have otherwise been used for more productive things, like work and sleep. When I once in a while allow myself to indulge in an hour or two (or three) of mind-numbing pinning, I usually look for crochet-related pins, recipes, and travel ideas. Now that I think about it, I’ve never actually tried anything I’ve pinned except for a Martha Stewart Tres Leches Cake recipe. And the freezer meals came into my life.

Tres Leches Cake. If you like to bake, you should try making this!

Lately I’ve been obsessed with finding recipes that I can prepare for my son’s daily packed lunch for school. It was while searching for make ahead meals that I stumbled upon this treasure trove of prepare and freeze meals! I re-pinned my favorites, and this week I started on my fabulous freezer meal journey.

Sitting in my freezer right now are these three bags of yumminess. The first is a Rosemary Chicken recipe I found while re-reading my 2012 June Yummy Magazine. I whipped up a whole batch, then froze half and left half to continue marinading overnight in the fridge. This is what I cooked today for my kiddo’s lunch, and it smelled and tasted really good. I made very slight changes to the original recipe, and you guys will learn all about it when I launch my brand-spanking new blog feature very, very soon. Exciting!

I also tried out a Pork Adobo recipe that I found in a Filipino food blog called KainPinoy. I’m a bit intimidated by adobo because my mom’s is really unbelievable. It’s so good that some of our friends have started calling it Epic Adobo. But anyway, I decided to give it a shot, and I’m scheduled to cook this on Monday morning.

The last freezer bag holds a family Beef Tapa recipe that I am making for the first time ever. I really hope it comes out good. Pressure!!!

My freezer food research has taught me that the best and most space-saving way to keep all these make ahead meals is to place them in zip top bags, squeeze out all the air, lay the meat flat so that the marinade is evenly distributed, and freeze it this way, stacked one on top of the other on a baking sheet or tray. Once everything is frozen, you can then place them in your freezer like books on a shelf. It’s all amazingly compact and organized! Don’t forget to label your bags with the food name and the date that you froze them. Oh, and make your life easier by writing on the bags before you put stuff in them. 😉

I’ll be sharing more freezer meals with you from here on out. And that’s only one part of the fun new things that are coming to this blog, so I really do hope that you guys stick around!

What are your favorite prepare and freeze recipes? I’d love for you to share them with me so I can try to make them too!

My Favorite Crispy Corned Beef Recipe, As Told On Instagram

June 25, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 8 Comments

There are perks to following me on Instagram, like those mornings when I decide to share step-by-step instructions for preparing my favorite meals as I cook. I actually did that for the first time a few weeks ago, and I had a lot of fun with it. I prepared crispy corned beef for brunch that day, and I thought I’d share the recipe here too, in case you and I aren’t friends on Instagram yet. But yeah, we should be friends!

IMG_20130525_095408 — Step1: Straight from the can, no oil, simmer over low heat until all the liquid evaporates.

IMG_20130525_100328 — Step2: stir-fry until super dry and flakey. Move the corned beef around a lot or else it will burn. Remember, low heat.

IMG_20130525_102131 — You know you’re almost done when it starts to get stringy and flakey. It starts to smell toasty too.

IMG_20130525_103208 — Be careful towards the end coz there is but a fine line between toasted and burnt. Aaaand the crispy corned beef is done!

IMG_20130525_101226 — Crispy corned beef is best paired with garlic rice and pork and beans!

Yes, I know, this looks really unhealthy. And it is. But hey, it’s really great comfort food. Try it, and I swear you’ll understand what I’m talking about!

MrC’s Amazing Homemade Italian Birthday Feast

May 19, 2013 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan Leave a Comment

Just so you know, this post is really just me patting myself on the back.

For MrC’s birthday dinner, his one request was chicken parmigiana. This is something I’d never made before, so I turned to the Food Network for help and inspiration. I also had to look for a pasta dish to go with the chicken. I wanted to go with something light and that wasn’t too saucy and not too tasty.

I ended up choosing two recipes by Giada de Laurentiis. I thank God that I love watching cooking shows so much so I knew exactly where to go to find recipes! I of course failed to take proper photos like I always do. I posted these on my Instagram right before the dishes were devoured.

IMG_20130516_202151 — Tricolore Pasta with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Olives and Lemon

IMG_20130516_202454 — The Main Event: Chicken Parmesan

The pasta was based on this linguine recipe. I made some changes though, to suit my taste. I chose not to include lemon zest in the sauce, and I also used fusilli instead of linguine, as requested by the birthday boy. I also tossed everything in olive oil and garlic instead of just mixing the sauce into the hot noodles. Pasta needs to have garlic, as far as I’m concerned.

I did the chicken recipe exactly as it was written. I even made the tomato sauce myself. I got too lazy to blend the sauce after it was cooked though, so I ended up with a chunky tomato sauce, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The recipe makes a big batch of sauce and I actually still have some in the freezer. I’m planning to add Italian sausage and meatballs into the leftover sauce and serve it with noodles. Yum.

The meal was a total hit, and I now wish I had taken better photos because these just don’t do them justice. Oh well. There’s always a next time. I’ve already promised to make this for my next get together with the girls.

Do you have a show-stopping Italian dish that you make at home?