Chocolate Hazelnut Muffins anyone?

Making some right now. I used the same idea that Maki used for her Earl Grey Muffins. Can you tell I'm a sucker for her recipes??

Omurice Revisted!

This time I followed everything Maki said! And my Omurice actually turned out how it is suppose to look. I folded one of my omlettes then just pan fried the one in the image.

Tomorrow I'm going to make Miso-Soy Tilapia. A creation of my own inspired by this recipe. I'm not a fan of sweet food so instead of the honey I'm subbing Miso.

For the New Year when we get up in the morning (hopefully the house party doesn't go to crazy!) I'm going to make Azuki beans and rice for the first meal of the new year and I'm getting a new couch! Thank whatever cause I'm sick of the old one!

Sopa de Fideo

Not a Japanese recipe but one I found during my time in San Antonio. I ate at this great Mexican Resturant and they had this soup which was the only Vegetarian thing on the menu besides Frijoles. So I said I will take that! I feel in love with it at first bite so I had to find the recipe to bring it back with me to Tucson for dinner here. We had it for dinner last night and it really worked out well. I think we are turning into soup people or maybe it's just soups are so damn easy to make!

Things you need:

1/2 a bag of Fideo noodles you can get them pretty much anywhere that has a hispanic food section.
Celery I used too big stocks.
2 small carrots or you can used the already washed one and dice them in a food processor.
1/2 an onion.
1 TBS of butter don't use margarine there is nothing good in there for you.
6 cups of water otherwise it dilutes the tastes of the soup.
1 can of Kidney or Pinto Beans. (I used Pinto Beans for this example)
8 tps of boullion chicken or beef which ever takes your fancy.

I cooked the celery, carrots, and onions all together until the onions were transluscent. Then add everything else but the Fideo. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes. Add the Fideo for 6 minutes or until the Fideo is tender. Serve with a roll of French bread.

Miso Salmon

Good Morning a couple of days ago I tired this Miso Flavored Salmon. It was actually really good. My tips for this is to make sure your water is boiling hot before you put the aluminum foil wraps in the pan because it takes a lot longer for them to cook. I couldn't find any Enoki Mushrooms even at the Asian markets, so I just grabbed more Shittake and then a some regular mushrooms. I added more Miso than the recipe asks for because I love the taste of Miso. Over all I would try this again! It was really filling and I added a bowl of Miso soup just to give it more flavor. I was almost filled up before I got to the Miso Flavored Salmon.

Ramen and Zucchini Miso

For the Ramen I went to Ramenlicious and got a Imperial Veggie Ramen recipe from them. I used Chuka Soba from Fry's or Kroger's depending on what part of the U.S. you are from. You can pretty much find it anywhere else. I've seen it in Safeway as well. Cook according to the directions on the package otherwise your noodles will be over cooked! Like mine! I for some reason was in an extreme rush and thought that cooking everything together would be a great idea. Needless to say it wasn't! I added some roast beef to my husband's bowl which is displayed here. It was okay. But next time I will cook the noodles last and then add the pour the broth on top. Make sure you use Dashi no moto you can buy it instead of making it like the recipe asks you to do, it's a lot easier.




Here yet again I used the Just Hungry Recipe! I love Maki's recipes! I always get good food out of them and so far I think I've been hitting the bull's eye just right. I cut my Zucchini differently from Maki. I wanted whole Zucchini so I just chopped it up. Make sure you peel it. For some reason I always forget right before I'm about to put everything into the pot.

Another FYI Dashi no moto is not Vegetarian or Vegan Friendly. So if you still want to make it on the link I posted Maki has a way you can make it Veggie friendly. Since I'm a Pescatarian I'm not overly worried about it.

It tastes almost ten times better the second time around after it's been sitting in your fridge over night! Trust me!

Cucumber Salad

This one is really easy. I got the idea from my Mother-in-Law. All you need is one good sized cucumber, 1/4 cup vinegar (try to get regular white vinegar. All others taste really strange but I imagine balsamic vinegar would tastes great with it.) 1/2 Tbs of Pepper.

Peel and cut the cucumber place in a serving dish. Pour your vinegar on top of the cucumber sprinkle on your pepper and then toss.

You have a super, quick and easy salad to go with any meal with out having to have the hassle of making salad dressing and you have no oil so it makes the salad a pretty healthy choice!

Starbucks Power Breakfast.

The Holidays are coming in full force, which means more cooking and less time wasting time online!

Ideally, the amount in the picture could be shared between two people. I originally got this from Starbucks. If I can make it early enough, Starbucks sells these little power breakfast meals that consist of a hard boiled egg, a bagel with peanut butter spread, cheddar cheese and sliced apples. I took it one step further and make the meal a little bit bigger. Just because there are those days I don't have time to go to Starbucks or I'd rather not spend $4 on a tiny little meal when I could make this at home for myself.

So, I boiled a couple of eggs for about 10 minutes. Then I took four pieces of cheese and spread them on my plate. Cut up a whole small apple. Got a plain bagel and spread peanut butter on it. It's really simple and it could be a much better purchase than going and hoping to find it at Starbucks.

It can also be used as party food, minus the bagel or cutting up the bagel into much smaller pieces according to how many guest you may have.

Nice way to spice of your breakfast without having just eggs and bacon or tofu in my case.

Spinach and Feta Sandwich.

Here is my Spinach and Feta sandwich. I got help with the idea from here. However I changed a lot of things and added things to the sandwich.

First off you need some French bread. I got mine fresh. I love fresh baked French Bread because it's still nice and soft and toasts really well, some spinach either fresh or canned I prefer the fresh kind, one green bell pepper, Feta Cheese crumbled, one Roma Tomato, some Kalamata Olives unpitted, any kind of cheddar I used mild Cheddar, and a little bit of cooking oil.

Cut the green bell pepper however you like as long as the pieces are small. Saute it and the spinach in the small amount of oil until the spinach becomes limp or if canned just saute until the bell pepper is done.

Meanwhile broil your French bread with a slice of the cheddar on top of each piece. I broke my cheese in half and popped it into the oven until the cheese melted.

Once all that is done be sure to drain the spinach and bell pepper well, before putting it on top of one of the slices of bread. Then slice up the Roma tomato and put two slices on top of the spinach/bell pepper. Then sprinkle Feta Cheese on top of that. Slice up the Kalamata Olives and put them on top of the pile. The left over olives and tomato as a side. The sandwich is complete and very nice Veggie Lunch at that. ^_^

Omurice and Miso Soup.

I made Omurice last night in a hurry for dinner once again. I got so distracted playing videos games, that I lost complete track of time~! ^^;; Anyway I once again followed a Just Hungry recipe for Omurice which is an omelette with rice. I would want to call it a staple in Japanese cooking because you see it everywhere from Dramas, to Anime and even fast food places in the malls. Instead of cooking the egg fluffy I scambled it. This was my first attempt. Sadly I neglected what the recipe said to do with the eggs. But I think it still turned out great even though it is not covering the rice in the prefect fashion of other Omurice.





This time I followed what the recipe said but I changed it. I wanted to cook the egg quickly and the recipe says to leave the egg a little runny, but I was a little worried about the egg not being cooked all the way. So I folded it and fried it some more. Both came out great. Next time I would add extra things to the rice besides just onions and ketchup.



Here I made Miso soup. I followed Maki's recipe. I added Nori and onions to mine. (Don't use red onions they taste really weird in Miso.) The key to Miso soup is the Dashi no Moto. Make sure you've got that in there because that really makes the taste. I got mine at G&L Market here in Tucson and I found my Miso at the Sun Oriental Market. Mine is Korean but it works just the same and still creates the same great taste. Miso can be stored for a day or two at the most so if you make it make sure to eat/drink it quickly.



I yet again used a Just Hungry Recipe for my Onigiri. I didn't take any liberties with this one. I just followed it word for word. My only problem was my rice balls were kind of big so it was harder to shape the triangle. I stuffed some of mine with Albacore Tuna which my husband gladly takes to work with him. Over all it was a success but I think I need to use less rice to form the rice balls.

My breakfast this morning

A cup of coffee, some Miso soup, a couple of eggs and a blueberry muffin with pecans to top it off.

Intro and Tamagoyaki/Ochazuke

I am making this blog in an attempt to chronicalize, my dealing cooking period. I may not always make it right but when I do I get the Husband seal of approval. I'm a Pescatarian just trying to make it through life one dish at a time.


Today I made Tamagoyaki which is basically fried egg. Usually you'll see them in O-Bento boxes for lunch or breakfast and also in Sushi. For this instead of following the recipe word for word I didn't put layers of egg. I just simply made little rolled up eggs on the wok and fried them until they were done. This is my preference of course and I think I'd like to spice it up by adding a tomato or something other veggie later. I put it on a bed of spinach. I got the original recipe from Makiko Itoh's webiste Just Hungry . The picture of it is above. For me the taste was too sweet. I know that it is suppose to be sweet but I'm still going to omit the sugar. Over all the reaction from my husband was top notch! He really enjoyed it and asked me when the next time I'd cook it. I told him tomorrow but then I got up really late so that went out the window. ^_^;;

No picture of the Ochazuke but I also got the recipe from Just Hungry. Pretty much it's a quick way to get dinner on the table. If you just got home after a very long day at work and you don't feel like cooking at all. Assuming you either have rice already made or you've got a rice cooker that cooks up to three cups you can make this in under 20 minutes. Cook some rice or re-heat it, while the rice is cooking or re-heating brew some green tea. Make as much as you want cause you can use the left over to drink as a digestive after the meal. Once both are done put some rice into a bowl add some toppings like arare (which can be found in any Asian Food Store.) The pour the green tea over the rice and enjoy! I made ours quickly since we were both hungry. I only had the rice and green tea. I didn't have any arare. So this time around it was rather bland. But over all it was filling and got the job done. We ate it at our little Kotatsu and in a way it had an almost nostalgic effect on us. Reminding us of the cold winter days in Northern Japan, where we watched the snow pile up on the porch of our apartment. We enjoyed a cup of hot tea to wash it all down. No desserts in this house!

I'm a Pescetarian for medical reasons so all the trials of my food will only showcase meatless meals (except for fish). All of these of course can be adapted to have meat in it.