Make ahead meals

September #BaonPlan

September 1, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 21 Comments

Hello, September! I can’t believe you’re here. It’s been a full and eventful 2014 for me so far. It feels like the end of the 3rd quarter is coming around so quickly, and yet it also feels like this year is such a long one.

September, just like the months that came before it, is gonna be a full one. MrC and I are celebrating our anniversary in 10 days. This month also marks my 3rd blog anniversary, and I’m thinking of a nice give-back giveaway for my mommy blogger and WAHM friends. It’s the 4th month of school, and a start of a new term for the kiddo. The third grade has been quite challenging, but it looks like we’re doing okay. I have a bunch of blog events and activities on my calendar also, and that’s sure to be fun.

I have to admit that between mommy-ing, homemaking, MrC time, and writing for work, it’s becoming a challenge finding time to blog. I really want to continue posting often, regradless of how busy I become. Guess I just really have to make time for it and streamline my writing process. Or something. One adjustment that I’m making as of this moment is instead of 2-week baon plans, I’m going for a monthly post now. I feel that this will allow me less writing time and more cooking time, which is something I need.

I’ve made sure to put a hyperlink on all the recipes that I took from the internet, whether they’re from this blog or elsewhere. It’ll make recipe searching easier on all of us! And, just like before, if I get to try a recipe that I particularly like, I’ll make sure blog about it so that I can share it with you guys. Oh, and I also hope to make use of my newly acquired bento skills. Sana.

So, here we go with September’s Baon Plan. I included a pasta dish each week, and I’m extra excited about those. You know how pasta is my happy food. I also added lots of baked stuff as snacks, since my oven and I are now friends again. Hope you guys like the dishes I put together!

Recipe: Perfect Pork Steak

August 6, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 16 Comments

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

2014-08-05 21:39:21

Serves 4

A quick and easy pork recipe. Perfect as a marinade and freeze meal.

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Ingredients

1/4 kilo pork tenderloin aka lomo
1 tbsp calamansi juice
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp water
1/2 tbsp sugar
A few dashes of cracked black pepper
1 small white onion cut into rings
Garlic powder
Vegetable oil for frying
A pat of butter

Instructions

Wash and trim the pork loin. Cut into 1/2" thick medallions.
Make the marinade by combining the calamansi juice, soy sauce, water, sugar and black pepper.
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.
When you are ready to cook, heat some oil in a skillet.
Once the oil is hot, pour in the meat and the marinade and allow to simmer until brown.
Add a dash or two of garlic powder for added flavor, and a pat of butter to add richness to the sauce.
If you prefer your pork steak to be more saucy, add water a tablespoon at a time.
Once the meat is done, add the onion rings. Allow to cook until the onions are a bit wilted but still crunchy.
Remove from the heat and serve over steamed rice.

Notes

If you are marinading and freezing this, remember to thaw the pork steak completely in the refrigerator before cooking.

By MrsC

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? 🙂

Class Suspensions and Lazy, Rainy Days + Baon Plan #4

August 1, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 18 Comments

Like I said last week, I adjusted my baon plan posting by a week because we had almost a whole week without school thanks to the crazy storm that was #GlendaPH. If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen that our place was a cross between Jumanji and Jurassic Park, sans the large animals.

Thankfully, apart from having no water for 2 days and no power for 4 days, we were all okay, safe and dry at home. Our only casualty was the rear windshield of my dad’s trusty old Nissan Vanette, which had an acacia tree fall on top of it, breaking the glass. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Mom’s car and my sister’s car under some branches. Thankfully, these weren’t hit hard.

This Week’s Featured Recipes and Baon Plan

After the storm, life got really busy for me with back to back projects and work galore. And of course this is great, but it also means that I’ve had less time to prepare meals. This baon plan is perfect for hectic or busy days, because it requires very little thinking and not a lot of effort either.

I have three featured recipes this week. One is a Honey Balsamic Pork Chop recipe that’s actually my Glazed Tuna Recipe but with pork chops instead of tuna steaks. There’s also a Beef Tapa Recipe that my cousin shared with me, based on my grandmother’s tapa. This is a dry kind of tapa, sort of like a jerky. The last featured recipe is for Longganisa, which I got from Market Manila. I cook this giniling style so that I end up with crispy, garlicky bits.

Here's a quick peek into the lunchboxes for Baon Plan #4 — Here’s a quick peek into the lunchboxes for Baon Plan #4

Click here to download this week’s baon plan. To check out my past lunchbox plans from Grade 2 and Grade 3, click here.

Promise to share another baon plan in a couple of weeks, and hopefully a new recipe before then. Here’s to an awesome August for all of us!

Steak With Cheese Sauce + Baon Plan #3

July 10, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 15 Comments

Confession: This post is dated Thursday, July 10, but I am writing it on Tuesday, July 15.

July has been good for me so far, where my WAHM Life is concerned. That means though that time management has been a challenge. I’ve not been able to find time to write, mostly because my days have been full. When I did have a couple of hours or so to spare over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been either napping or reading because my brain has been too tired to think. Today, though, classes are suspended in the Muntinlupa mountains, and so I basically have no responsibilities – no baon to prepare, no school bus driver duties, and no homework. Yay for me! I just really hope that this typhoon (which has yet to be felt) is not as strong as they say it will be, especially since MrC is off to work today.

I thought I wouldn’t have time to write today, but it seems like the kiddo is more excited about the prospect of catching his weekday cartoons over spending extra time with mommy, so while he’s glued to the tube, I’ve decided to blog. Yay for me, and yay for lazy, pajamas-in-bed kinds of days. I’d make hot chocolate but so far it’s still too hot and humid for a hot drink.

A sneak peek into what’s on this Baon Plan

Among all of the things listed on my queue, which sadly has pending posts from February pa (I know, so irresponsible), I’ve decided to work on my baon plan first. I love that I’m actually able to help out a few moms by posting what I pack each week. I also love that my mom friends and blogger friends recommend my baon plans to other mommies. I must be doing something right, right? 🙂

Okay, moving on.

Last Week’s Test Recipes

I didn’t get to make Parmesan Chicken Fingers because I forgot to buy breadcrumbs. Instead, I made a quick an easy Chicken Popcorn using Del Monte Quick N Easy Breading Mix. I just cut up some filleted chicken thighs into 1″ cubes, dumped them in a plastic bag with the breading mix, shook it up and fried in a bit of oil. The kiddo really loved this.

For the Balsamic-Honey Glazed Pork , we used pork chops instead of pork loin medallions. It was actually my mom who prepared this, and we had it for dinner at home instead of baon. I liked it, but the little boy wasn’t that happy. I guess this appeals to more mature taste buds.

This Week’s Featured Recipes and Baon Plan

This week’s baon is based on what I actually packed for the boys over the last two weeks. You can even see some of them in the first photo in this post, and on my Instagram feed. While I still think that planning ahead helps, especially when it’s grocery shopping time, I also like to prepare food that I feel like making on that particular day. That explains why I sometimes deviate from my own baon plan. Lol.

Featured recipes from this blog are my ever-so-reliable Breaded Pork Chops and my Chicken Menudo . I also have Bangus Belly ala Pobre on the menu. I used store-bought bangus for this, and the brand that I like is Sea King. But I really want to start marinading my own from scratch. I think I will try this recipe from Casa Veneracion because it looks so simple. I also am sharing with you the easiest steak recipe ever with cheese sauce to match. This is one of Little MrC’s favorite dishes. The cheese sauce makes it super kid-friendly.

Lola Terry's Steak With Cheese Sauce

2014-07-14 22:51:20

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Ingredients

Beef tenderloin
Knorr Seasoning
Salt and Pepper
Oil for frying

For the Cheese Sauce

1 cup Fresh milk
1 small bar Quickmelt cheese, grated
Knorr Seasoning
Pepper
Pan drippings from the steak

Instructions

Rub salt, pepper and Knorr seasoning onto each side of the steak. The amount of seasoning you use will depend entirely on your taste. Let the meat sit for a few minutes to marinade.
Heat oil in a skillet and cook the meat to your desired doneness.
Transfer the meat from the pan to a serving plate, and let it rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Lower the heat on your stove and slowly pour in the fresh milk, stirring as you pour to prevent curdling.
Add the grated cheese. Simmer until melted, stirring occasionally.
Adjust seasoning with Knorr and pepper.

By MrsC

Adapted from Lola Terry's Homecooking

At Home With MrsC https://blissbysam.com/

Click here to download this week’s baon plan. To check out my past lunchbox plans from Grade 2 and Grade 3, click here.

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll have another lunchbox menu ready for you in two weeks.

Penmanship Problems + Baon Plan #2

June 27, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 8 Comments

It’s officially the end of our third week of school. Yay! I wish I could say that I look forward to sleeping in over the weekend, but soccer camp is back on and so Saturdays and Sundays find us on the field bright and early. I do have the luxury of afternoon naps, though, so it’s all good.

Tell me about your kids’ first few weeks of school

Did everything run as smoothly as you thought they would? Here at home, weekday afternoons are super busy, with homework and review time taking up a good chunk of what used to be free time for us. I keep reminding my son that the third grade is now part of the “Upper Grades” in school, which means that things are now pretty serious, academically.

One major challenge I’ve been having to deal with is my son’s note-taking. He’s been showing me a lot of incomplete and misspelled notes in his assignment notebook and in his subject notebooks, too. These are things he copies off the board, and that’s why I have a hard time understanding why there are so many errors. The bad thing is that his excuse is consistent, each and every time. He says he does it in a hurry because he runs out of time to copy his notes. When prodded, he admits that he wasted a lot of time talking before he actually started writing, and that’s why he was unable to copy properly. Every day. Every single day this week. I’m still figuring out how to deal with this.

There’s also been a bit of drama where the lunch box is concerned, because he recently discovered the joys of buying pizza at recess time, and not eating the food that mom prepared for him. No, he doesn’t have an allowance yet, just to be clear. He has some money saved up from random gift-giving sessions with aunts and grandparents, and that’s what he’s been using. Maybe this is a challenge for me to up my game where baon is concerned? Something to think about for sure. In the meantime, here are some photos of lunches from the last two weeks, as posted on Instagram.

Just a few lunch boxes from the last two weeks

Last Week’s Test Recipes

I was able to try two new recipes last week, a beef tapa one from Yummy and Once A Month Meals’ Cheesy Tuna Mac. MrC loved the tapa. It was garlicky and sweet and salty with a hint of sourness. It reminded me a lot of carinderia tapa, covered in a sticky sauce that nicely coated the meat while cooking. I still have one more container in the freezer, ready to be cooked for brunch one of these weekends. The Mac N Cheese was well-received by the little boy. In fact,of all the food I packed for him since school started, this was one of the few that he really finished. As in, no leftovers! I also froze some, and I think I’m gonna snack on one of the containers this weekend while watching the World Cup games.

This Week’s Featured Recipes and Baon Plan

I feel pressured to make sure that everything I prepare is extra yummy this week, because like I said earlier, I’m now competing with cafeteria pizza. Ugh. I have my sure-win Pinoy Spaghetti on there, and my Beef Salpicao, too. I’m also trying out this recipe for Parmesan Chicken Fingers, and this Honey Balsamic Glazed Pork one. Plus, for recess, I’m gonna be baking a batch of cheese cupcakes. If I never get around to baking, I know I can get good pastries from Le Coeur de France. Buy 1 take 1 on weekends and after 7pm on weekdays, yay! I really hope that the kiddo finishes his food from here on out. I’d like to think that the adjustment period is over already.

I’ll let you know how these new recipe experiments turn out. In the meantime, please download (and enjoy) my Baon Plan for June 30 to July 11! And make me kwento about your first few weeks of school, okay?

Welcome to the 3rd Grade + Baon Plan #1

June 13, 2014 by MrsC | Patricia Cuyugan 27 Comments

The little boy and I are so ready to conquer the 3rd grade. Same as last year, I’ve prepared myself for lots of early mornings in the kitchen. This year, we adjust our time a little bit earlier because school starts half an hour earlier as well. The good news is that the FIFA World Cup starts on the first week of school, so I have more than one reason to wake up way before dawn.

I know some of you have been looking forward to these lunchbox plans, and I’m really so happy and thankful for the appreciation and support. I’ve decided to make just a few changes this year to my posting, too. First, instead of a weekly plan, this is going to be bi-monthly. I think it makes for easier grocery shopping and meal planning (and blog posting, actually). I will also include at least two featured recipes per plan – one mine, and another I’ve found on the internet or from a cookbook. Disclaimer, most likely the recipe from the net is something I’m also only trying for the first time, so this has sort of an adventurous feel to it. At the same time, I promise to be sure to post feedback on the following week’s lunchbox post.

One last thing. I don’t have a shopping list yet this week because I still have a bunch of things from the summer that I need to use up. I also am pretty sure that what I’ve purchased from my trip to the supermarket this week is missing so many things, but I’m not sure what they are yet. Winner. Promise to make it up to you.

So, anyway. Featured this week is my ever-reliable chicken adobo recipe. Why? Because it’s the first batch of baons for this school year and I need to go for something familiar, reliable and comforting, that’s why. I also decided to try this Cheesy Tuna Mac recipe from one of my go-to references for make ahead meals, Once A Month Meals. I’m excited about this recipe coz it looks so easy! Another new recipe I’m trying out is one for a garlicky Beef Tapa that I found in the Breakfast! book special of Yummy. I actually marinated some already yesterday and split them into two batches, ready for freezing. Can’t wait to tell you how these two new recipes turn out.

Download the baon plan HERE, and I’ll be back with another one in two weeks.

What have you guys been packing for your kids? I’d love to get new ideas from you!