I fell out of a wagon once again ;(
Well, I got my son's sick I guess. I was ill all day yesterday and just slept in bed---sorry to my son and baby girl.
My darling husband came home early so he could take care of our children, and order some food for us to eat.
Thanks to my thoughtful family, I'm all well and back to usual me again :)
Here's tonight's dinner...
Nikujaga (Meat and potato)
Sesame Chicken (my version)
Komatsuna soup
I went over to my friend's house with my daughter this afternoon until dinner time, so I prepared Nikujaga before I left. And made everything else after I got back home with my son in the evening.
Recipes of the day:
Nikujaga
Potato---4 (medium size)
Ground meat---1/2 pound
Onion---1
Carrots---2 (or 1 big size...although I forgot to put in tonight)
Ito Konyaku---1pkg *optional
*water---2cup
*Soy Sauce---3tbs
*Sugar---2tbs
*mirin---1tbs
*sake---1tbs
*Dashi powder---2tsp
I used pressure cooker today.
1) Cut veggies in chunks. In a pressure cooker, put Onion, Konyaku, carrots and potato (in order).
2) Break off ground meat with hand as putting them to the pot.
3) Add *sauce ingredients.
4) Close the lid, and cook on a high heat until pressure cooker starts to make spinning noise.
5) When the sounds get crazy, turn off the heat. Let it hang out until it cools down (20min or so).
If you have to go errands, do it meantime :)
When you come back and start to get back to cooking for dinner, open the lid, and this is what you'll see.
Mix carefully, and heat up again before serving.
Nikujaga tastes better when it has more time to hang out in sauce for longer periods of time. Highly recommend to prepare this ahead of time for a better result.
Sesame Chicken
So this is my healthy version of infamous sesame chicken :)
Chicken---2 breast
sauce 1
*soy sauce---2tbs
*grated ginger and garlic---1tsp each
*potato starch---3tbs
sauce 2
*soy sauce---4tbs
*water---100ml
*Sugar---4tbs
*mirin---2tbs
*sushi vinegar---1/2tbs
*potato starch---1/2tbs
sesame---garnish
1) Cut chicken in bite size, then in a medium bowl mix chicken with soy sauce, ginger, and garlic. set aside for awhile (or if it sits longer, use fridge).
2) Coat chicken with starch with hand.
3) In a large pan, put 1tbs of oil. Cook chicken on both sides until golden color on a high heat.
4) Mix all the sauce 2* ingredients, then pour into the pan. Then turn off heat.
5) Stir well to thicken sauce.
6) Sprinkle a lot of sesame for garnish.
This version of sesame chicken contains very little amount of fat (oil) compare to the real ones at Chinese restaurants. They are usually fried before coated with sauce. This dish, to me, a guilt free :)
So, did you watch American Idle finale tonight?
Well I did.
And I knew Lee Dewyze would win even though Crystal Bowersox is a 100x better singer (sorry Lee, but it's true ;p).
I think Lee's got a really cool voice and he's pretty cute.
The only thing he should do is to NOT talk.
Seriously.
When he's talking, he's SOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRIIIIIINNNNNG.
He's charming when he's NOT talking.
Have you notice that?
So anyways, my prediction is that Lee's career is going to last for about a year or so. Hopefully longer than the last year's winner ;p what was his name? EXACTLY.
Probably Mamasox is going to sell way more records just because she's just awesome.
GO OHIO! WOO HOOOOO! :) (I went to Colleg in Onio :D )
Sorry, I just had to get it off my chest :)
Here's the bento for my birthday boy tomorrow!
Yes, it's his birthday tomorrow and he said he won't be home until 8pm---working late :( Oh well. I wish him a great birthday anyways!
Picture of the day:
When you wash lettuce, try washing with ice cold water.
Makes lettuce 10 times more crisp! (Little trick I learned from my mom)
