At Home With MrsC

Raising a family, making a home.

Freezer Meals

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! 

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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: 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? 🙂

Fabulous Freezer Meals

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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.

Instagrammed!
Instagrammed!

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!

Rosemary Chicken
Rosemary Chicken

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.

Pork Adobo
Pork Adobo

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!!!

Beef Tapa
Beef Tapa

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!

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