At Home With MrsC

Raising a family, making a home.

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Recipe: Baked Fish in White Wine Butter Sauce

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Another week, another meal plan!

This week is going to be a busy one for me, and so I’ve chosen meals that are easier to prepare (as in, can be made or marinated ahead,) especially where baon is concerned.

I also have a lot of leftovers sitting in the refrigerator and freezer, and I really have to make sure to use these up before my next grocery trip. At the moment, I have no room to put in anything new. Time to get creative with recycling, and mixing and matching. Sigh. Small fridge woes.

mrspcuyugan
2016 Meal Plan #2

 

If you’ll notice, Saturday is “assorted leftovers for lunch day” again, just like last week. I often find myself with small containers of random things, like a piece of fried chicken, 3 slices of tapa, tiny portions of corned beef, etc. and this is my way of making sure none of them go to waste. We sometimes call this our weekly Tupperware buffet.

Speaking of last week, I made a really nice, super easy baked fish dish for a potluck dinner party with the family over the weekend. Here’s the recipe for that, in case you guys wanna try making it at home, too. 

Baked Fish in White Wine Butter Sauce
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Ingredients
  1. One pack of fish fillets (You may use sole, dory, pangasius or tilapia)
  2. Salt
  3. Pepper
  4. Parsley or thyme
  5. Paprika
  6. Olive oil
  7. 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
  8. Half a head of garlic, minced
  9. 1/4 cup White wine
  10. The juice of half a lemon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375F.
  2. Season fish fillets with salt, pepper, parsley or thyme, and paprika. Arrange in a baking dish and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil.
  3. In a small sauce pan, melt butter. Once melted, add the minced garlic and cook until it is as toasted as you desire. Add white wine and lemon juice. Allow to simmer then remove sauce from the heat.
  4. Spoon sauce over the fish fillets. Bake, uncovered, for 25 to 30 minutes, or until flakey. Serve hot.
Notes
  1. The sauce may be made in the microwave by simply placing all the ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl and nuking it on high for a minute or two.
  2. If you don't have an oven, this dish may be prepared on the stove. Make the sauce in a deep-ish pan, then once cooked, arrange the seasoned fish fillets over the sauce. Cook, covered, over very low heat.
Adapted from from a Pinterest pin that I can no longer find
Adapted from from a Pinterest pin that I can no longer find
At Home With MrsC https://blissbysam.com/

 

So, on to this crazy week, then. Wish me luck! And while you’re at it, maybe you could share what meals you prepare for your families on hectic days and weeks. I’d love to have more ideas for my future meal plans.

Have an amazing week, everyone! 🙂

Recipe: Crunchy Biscoff Muffins

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Fact: I’ve been enjoying spending quiet weekend afternoons in my kitchen, baking muffins.

If I remember right, muffins were the first things I ever baked, ever. Granted they were instant muffins from a box, but at least they helped me conquer my fear of the kitchen. 

I love eating these bite-sized treats as snacks or a quick breakfasts with coffee. The boys have been enjoying having freshly baked muffins at home, too. One batch doesn’t last more than a few days in our house. 

Crunchy Biscoff Muffins
Crunchy Biscoff Muffins

 

My latest muffin experiment involved Crunchy Biscoff Spread, simply because I had a jar of the stuff that was expiring soon. I couldn’t imagine having to eat Biscoff sandwiches all day every day for a week, so I thought I’d be creative and mix some into my muffins.

The result was a nice, cinammon-y insta-breakfast with just the tiniest bit of crunch in it.

Crunchy Biscoff Muffins
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Ingredients
  1. 3/4 cup brown sugar
  2. 1 large egg
  3. 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  4. 2 tsp baking powder
  5. 1/4 tsp salt
  6. 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  7. 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  8. 3/4 cup milk
  9. 1 tsp vanilla extract
  10. 1/3 cup crunchy Biscoff spread, microwaved for a few seconds until it becomes melt-y
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line your muffin tin with the cutest paper muffin liners you have.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together sugar and egg. Add flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Mix until combined.
  3. Add the vegetable oil, milk and vanilla.
  4. Pour the melt-y Biscoff into the bowl and stir to combine. Do not overmix. It's okay if your batter is lumpy, and if the Biscoff isn't completely mixed in. Swirling is a good thing.
  5. Using an ice cream scoop or a spoon, fill each muffin cup about 3/4 full with batter.
  6. Bake for 30-35 minutes (or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean,) rotating your pan half way through.
  7. Cool on a wire rack before serving.
Notes
  1. Super yummy with a cold glass of milk or a hot mug of coffee!
Adapted from Biscoff Swirl Muffins by bakerstreet.tv
Adapted from Biscoff Swirl Muffins by bakerstreet.tv
At Home With MrsC https://blissbysam.com/

If you decide to try this recipe out, let me know how it goes, alrightie? 🙂

Recipe: White Adobo

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Fact: Meal planning ain’t easy!

Call me spoiled, but I’m not the type who can eat the same food three meals straight. I know some people cook a big batch of something, then that will be lunch and dinner today, and lunch again tomorrow. That just won’t work for me. It’s a good thing that I’m the one in charge of food at home.

I really make an effort to plan our meals out at the start of the week because it makes life so much easier. I know what I need to get when I visit the supermarket, and I am able to make the most out of whatever space I have in our small refrigerator and freezer.

White Adobo
Adobo, but not the usual.

Because I like variety in my meals, I make sure that I have small portions of food ready in the fridge in case my plan for lunch and dinner doesn’t work out. Like today. Adobo saved me again today. I was going to cook something new but I wasn’t able to thaw the meat in time. So leftover adobo it was.

I like adobo because it doesn’t spoil easily, and it actually gets better the longer it stays in the fridge. It’s great for last minute lunchbox packing, too, on mornings when I don’t wake up early enough to cook.

I already shared my chicken adobo recipe before, which has quickly become a family favorite. Last night, I decided to change things up a bit with a version that doesn’t call for soy sauce based on an Adobong Puti recipe by Nancy Reyes-Lumen that I found in The Adobo Book.

White Adobo
Adobo, but not the usual.
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Ingredients
  1. 500g pork adobo cut
  2. 250g pork cubes
  3. 1 cup white vinegar
  4. 2.5 cups water
  5. 3 tsp rock salt
  6. 1 tbsp whole peppercorns
  7. 1 head of garlic, split into cloves and crushed with the skin on
  8. 4 bay leaves
  9. 4 tsp brown sugar
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and continue to simmer, covered.
  2. Cook until pork is tender, about 45 minutes to an hour, and the smell of the vinegar has mellowed.
Notes
  1. Best served the next day. Have extra rice ready!
Adapted from Adobong Puti na Pata by Nancy Reyes-Lumen
Adapted from Adobong Puti na Pata by Nancy Reyes-Lumen
At Home With MrsC https://blissbysam.com/

It was interesting. It tasted like regular adobo but not quite. I like the simplicity of this version, and I think that it’s a nice change to the soy sauce-flavored kind without veering too far away from the adobo that we know and love.

We’ve had this twice now, and it does taste better the following day like the recipe promises. Give the dish a try and tell me what you think!

Recipe: Bangus Ala Pobre

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It’s been a while since I have gone food shopping, simply because I’ve decided to use up whatever’s in the fridge and freezer before I buy anything else. Thing is, my mom keeps buying stuff in small batches (thanks, Ma!) so we never run out of food. Now, because I’m making do with what’s on hand, I’m forced to be creative with what I cook. Luckily, with the addition of a brand-spanking new bottle of Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce to our pantry, I had all I needed to make one of our family faves, Bangus Ala Pobre.

Lea and Perrins1
This dish wouldn’t be complete without you, Lea & Perrins!

 

This is a perfect early morning quick baon recipe because you don’t need to marinate it for very long, and it cooks real quick too. Everything can be prepared the night before and placed in the refrigerator so that you aren’t scrambling for ingredients before dawn. If your fish is frozen, make sure you move it from the freezer to the fridge before you sleep so that it’s thawed enough when you wake up.

Soaking up all of the flavor
Soaking up all of the flavor

 

All you need to do is mix 10 cloves of minced garlic, a tiny bit of calamansi or lemon juice, salt and pepper, and 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce in a bowl. Pour the marinade over 2 boneless bangus bellies and let it soak for 15 minutes or so. During this time, I wash and prepare my rice then turn on the rice cooker.

Yay for freezer meals!
Yay for freezer meals!

 

One belly is enough for the boys and I (for now), so I put the second one in a handy dandy GLAD Freezer bag and pop it in the freezer for another day. Don’t forget to label your food keepers or zipper bags so you know what you have on hand, and when it went into the freezer. Once you’re ready to cook, simply heat up some olive oil in a pan and fry the fish. Be careful coz this pops! 

Lea and Perrins4
Ta-done!

I like to fry this skin side down first, then flip it to get the belly and the garlic bits all nice and toasty. Serve immediately with hot rice, and vegetables or scrambled eggs on the side. 

Bangus Ala Pobre
Serves 4
Made with Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
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Ingredients
  1. 2 pcs Boneless bangus belly, unseasoned
  2. 1 Tbsp Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce
  3. 10 Cloves of garlic, minced
  4. The juice of 1 calamansi
  5. Salt and Pepper to taste
  6. 1 Tbsp Olive oil for frying
Instructions
  1. Make the marinade by combining the Worcestershire sauce, garlic, calamansi juice, salt and pepper.
  2. Pour the mixture over the bangus bellies. Marinate for at least 15 minutes.
  3. Heat oil in a frying pan. Fry bangus skin side down until the edges are golden brown. Flip the fish and continue to fry until the garlic bits and fatty portion are toasted.
  4. Serve immediately.
At Home With MrsC https://blissbysam.com/

Recipe: Banana Swiss Miss Muffins

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Have you ever tried baking with Swiss Miss? As in the hot chocolate mix? Me neither, until yesterday.

Banana Swiss Miss Muffins

  

I decided to make peace with our 20+ year old oven by attempting to bake a nice snack treat for Little MrC. Since it’s exam week, he’s home way before lunch time, so this week is filled with more mommy time than WAHM time. I could see he was getting bored with his usual afternoon cartoons. Blame it on him being stuck at home with a fever over the last 5 days. Because Cartoon Network and Toonami weren’t doing their usual magic, I had to think of a quick activity that we could do. And so, I went ahead and cranked up the heat on our old-timer oven. Bahala na if the temperature on the right is hotter than the temperature on the left. Lol.

Making this kid work for his food!

 

I got the little boy all excited about mashing bananas, put an apron on him and set him to work. I realized too late that I should have checked that I had everything we needed in the pantry before I involved the little boy. The original plan was to make choco banana muffins like these ones by Nigella, but using tablea instead of cocoa powder. Toinks, my stash of tablea apparently went bad in the freezer during that Glenda storm, and my mom had gotten rid of them already. We also didn’t have any cocoa powder. I could have just gone with plain banana muffins, but I already said chocolate (the magic word) to the little boy. I had to think fast. I decided to use Swiss Miss. The dark kind.

“Mom, are they done yet?”

 

They came out yummy. There’s not a lot of sugar in the recipe, so the sweetness comes mostly from the bananas. The riper the better. I like to use the nearly rotten ones for baking. Those are the best. The end result was not as chocolatey as it would have been if I used proper cocoa, but for a quick meryenda fix, a fun bonding afternoon with my kid and quick snack box fillers for today, these are more than good enough.

“Time to get a plate?”

 

Banana Swiss Miss Muffins
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Ingredients
  1. 3 overripe (as in borderline bulok) bananas
  2. ½ cup vegetable oil
  3. 2 large eggs
  4. ½ cup brown sugar
  5. 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  6. 1 packet Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate Sensation
  7. 1 tsp baking soda
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. The cuter the better!
  2. Mash the bananas to baby food consistency.
  3. With an electric mixer on low (or by hand), combine the mashed bananas and vegetable oil. Add in the egg and sugar.
  4. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, Swiss Miss and baking soda.
  5. Gently add the dry mixture to the banana mixture. Do not overmix! It's totally fine if your batter is lumpy.
  6. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups. I use an ice cream scoop for this so that I get relatively uniformed muffin sizes.
  7. Bake in the preheated over for 15-20 minutes. These should rise significantly and become a nice shade of cocoa brown when done. Cool the muffins slightly in the pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
  1. This tastes super awesome topped with fruit preserves or with cream cheese frosting.
Adapted from KITCHEN Recipes from the Heart of the Home
Adapted from KITCHEN Recipes from the Heart of the Home
At Home With MrsC https://blissbysam.com/

Recipe: Perfect Pork Steak

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As you know, I am one of those home cooks who likes to make meals ahead and freeze them. Whether it’s a marinate and freeze dish or an extra container of soup or stew, you are sure to find quick to cook or easy to reheat meals packed away in my freezer. Yes, takot ako magutom, and this is proof!

I love marinating meat ahead and then freezing it in portions that are just enough for our family. I find that dishes really do end up tastier this way, and for me, tastier is definitely better. I also prefer to put things away in exact serving portions already to minimize leftovers. I get to maximize our refrigerator space that way.Since we share fridge space with a whole lot of people, it’s best to keep things at a minimum.

This week, I decided to make a batch of Pork Steak for the boys. We’re a small family, so 1/4 kilo of pork loin is actually good enough for 2 meals for us already. Tipid! I have a feeling that this won’t last long, though because Little MrC is slowly but surely starting to eat like a big boy. 

Pork steak was something that I got to eat at MrC’s family’s house more often than my own house. I know for a fact that he misses his family’s homecooking, and so I thought that I’d try to make more of the food that I’d eaten there before. So we started this week off with a yummy, soft pork steak that I am actually pretty proud of. 

Pork Steak by MrsC
Pork Steak by MrsC

 

Pork Steak
Serves 4
A quick and easy pork recipe. Perfect as a marinade and freeze meal.
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Ingredients
  1. 1/4 kilo pork tenderloin aka lomo
  2. 1 tbsp calamansi juice
  3. 3 tbsp soy sauce
  4. 2 tbsp water
  5. 1/2 tbsp sugar
  6. A few dashes of cracked black pepper
  7. 1 small white onion cut into rings
  8. Garlic powder
  9. Vegetable oil for frying
  10. A pat of butter
Instructions
  1. Wash and trim the pork loin. Cut into 1/2" thick medallions.
  2. Make the marinade by combining the calamansi juice, soy sauce, water, sugar and black pepper.
  3. Arrange pork loin in a food keeper and pour the marinade over it. Marinade in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. At this point, you can transfer your container to the freezer if you are making this ahead.
  4. When you are ready to cook, heat some oil in a skillet.
  5. Once the oil is hot, pour in the meat and the marinade and allow to simmer until brown.
  6. Add a dash or two of garlic powder for added flavor, and a pat of butter to add richness to the sauce.
  7. If you prefer your pork steak to be more saucy, add water a tablespoon at a time.
  8. Once the meat is done, add the onion rings. Allow to cook until the onions are a bit wilted but still crunchy.
  9. Remove from the heat and serve over steamed rice.
Notes
  1. If you are marinading and freezing this, remember to thaw the pork steak completely in the refrigerator before cooking.
At Home With MrsC https://blissbysam.com/

 Oh hey, if you try this recipe at home, please let me know how you liked it okay? 🙂