Groceries in Japan

I finally went to grocery shopping yesterday. My dad took me to a place where you can get everything.





I've gotta calculate how much everythig was. It was super cheap though!
Those cucumbers were ¥10 each. Which is like less than 10 cents. Those tofu were ¥33 each. So cheap I wish I lived here! :p

Here's what I made for my family last night.





All those cost me about ¥1000! more than enough food for 4 adults and a child. Hmmm... Let's see what else I can cook :)




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Wednesday - Hayashi Rice

Tonight's dinner we had...

Hayashi Rice
Salad
Veggies and hummus


Quick and easy tonight.
No recipe to share tonight, sorry!
I have 4 more days to clean and pack...
Well, I'm really behind on 'cleaning' part.

Our place is never really 'dirty' but you know, like dusty corners of furniture and floors, but mostly bathrooms.

I kept thinking that I need to clean, but I kept putting it off!
I really should do it.
My mind is spinning every day now.

There are things I need to do;

Like getting some Thank You cards and gifts to my son's preschool teachers (the end of school year is on Friday).
Making sure I've got enough souvenirs to my friends and family in Japan.
Meanwhile, I'm booking myself for appointment with a lactation consultant and several play dates this week.

It's good that I keep myself busy so I don't just sit and start to panic...because, I would do that. Being busy keeps my mind off from imagining how things going to be on the 11-hr flight.

Ahhhh...
This blog is becoming my murmur-log, and not so much of food-log. haha.
Bear with me ;p


Here's the picture of Bento for tomorrow:

Tuessday - Chicken stir fry

Tonight's dinner was...

Chicken stir fry
Orange roughy in ginger soy sauce
Green beans with balsamic sauce
veggies


My son didn't have school today, but I didn't take him anywhere since I had many loads of laundry to do. Thankfully though, he was being very good boy he entertained himself all day. Pretty much. He does this thing where he throws a football above him, then catches as he runs.
Our place is not very big, but not too small either, so just about enough (?) space for him to run and catch ball alone :)

Then he took a nap for a couple of hours without any problem! What a great son he was today!!! I was able to get a lot done. I finished all the washing (bedding always takes time) and packing! Now I feel a little less of a stress about the trip...just a little bit.


Here's the recipe of the day:

Chicken stir fry

Chicken thigh (or breast)---2 thighs
Cabbage---1/4 roughly chopped
red bell pepper---1/2 about same size as cabbage
mushrooms---1/2 pkg thick slice

*sauce 1
soy sauce---2tbs
grated ginger---1tsp
minced garlic---1tsp
potato starch---2tbs

*sauce 2
Oyster sauce---2tbs
water---1tbs
soy sauce---2tsp
agave---1/2tbs

1) marinate meat with *sauce 1 mixture (without starch). Then coat with starch.
2) In a large pan, cook meat both size until halfway cooked.
3) Put them onto a plate, put aside.
4) In a same pan, drizzle oil then cook cabbage, mushroom, and peppers. Season with 2tsp of Chinese soup stock powder, then add 2tbs of water.
5) When the veggies are halfway cooked, put the *sauce 2 mixture, then add back the chicken.
6) Mix well on a high heat.


We ate dinner without daddy tonight. SO the Orange roughy was for my son's dinner and his lunch (bento) for tomorrow. I was going to make a salad, but then realized that I will be the only person to be eating it. My son's favorite veggies are only carrots and cucumbers.
Less cooking, more time to relax for me :)

I think my son knows we are going to be away from his daddy for a long time soon, he's so lovey dovey to his daddy!

My husband is coming home really late tonight, but my son's trying his hardest to stay awake until he sees his daddy because he wants to give him a big hug.
It makes me feel bad that my husband won't be able to see our kids for a month... I'm so appreciative about his generosity about letting me go to Japan every year.


That's why I try my best to cook bento every day! ;p

Here are the bentos for my boys for tomorrow...

Monday - Spaghetti and salad

Dinner on Monday night was...

Pasta
Arugula salad


Initially I was going to make 4 dish, but I ran out of my motivation ;p
I made tonight's dinner in 20min. It's great to have some pasta and pasta sauce in the pantry for days like today. You can create your dinner in a short time.

I added some veggies and meat to the sauce to make it little more nutritious. And for the salad, added some bell peppers, black olives, cheese, tomatoes and cucumbers to make it little festive.

Not so much to share recipes today.
But I add something to pasta sauce for a fuller taste.
Ketchup, little bit of mayonnaise and a little bit of agave.
To me, adding ketchup makes it a fuller taste, I don't know why.


Anyways, I've gotta go do a lot of laundry and packing!



Picture of the day:

If you are living in LA area, you probably know what this is.
I don't even know what's this called. You can get this at a Mexican fruit stand you'll see almost everywhere in LA area.
It's got Mangoes, pineapples, melons, cucumbers, coconuts, lime juice, and some spicy peppers. They are SO GOOD!

Groceries of the week 6

Sorry my blog isn't efficient lately.  I hate it.  But can't do million things all at once right? ---so blog had to be the last thing on my list ;(

I'm going to Japan with my kids this Sunday.
Usually I get mental nervousness (anxiety) happens a month before the departure day because traveling with little ones on a 11 hour plane ride is just not ideal...especially when you are travelling alone.

But this time, I didn't get any anxiety until NOW!
I have about 5 days, I'm start to panic!
This time, I'm not so worried about my son since he understands why we are going to be on the plane, and what can do and cannot do on the plane, but most of all, he can communicate with me. 
The most of my concern is...a couple of days shy of 5 month-old daughter.


I'm just hoping that everything goes smoothly...meaning...she will not scream cry on the plane!
That would be the nightmare if she starts to cry non-stop when people are sleeping...

You see, I started to think about it and now giving me a stress already!  ahhhhhhhhhhh


OK.
Let's move on to my blogging.

So I have this week left until I go back to Japan.
I bought just a little bit of essentials for the week from the grocery stores (Trader Joe's and Fresh & Easy).

I hope I can cook this week...because I'm already getting so stressed out I don't have any energy to do anything in the afternoon lately. My stress is draining my energy!!!

Sunday - Tofu burger patties

Um..I am so behind on my blog updates.

I'm going to make this one really quick... ha ha


Well, I didn't cook dinner because my boys were both sleeping around dinner time.
I made bento for my husband for Monday lunch though~!


So here's the picture of the bento...

The menu of the bento was...


Tofu burger patties
Edamame rice
Tomato & cheese
Mixed veggies
Pickles


I made tofu burger patties because I had some tofu and ground meat left for the week. Not so much of leftover ingredients any more ;)
A lot of Tofu Burger patty recipes include ground meat, so if you are a true vegetarian, this is not for you.
I used half tofu and half ground meat (turkey) this time, but I will try to come up with a pure tofu burger patty recipe one day :)

These are the seasoning ingredients I used:

(left) Karaage (fried chicken) seasoning
(right) Chinese chicken stock powder


Here is the recipe....

Tofu---2/3 or 1/2 drained water really well
Ground meat---1/2lb

*Karaage seasoning---2tsp
*Chinese chicken stock powder---2tsp
*egg---1
*Potato starch---2tbs


1) Mix all the ingredients well together

2) Make a patty with palm of hands.
3) Spray some oil in a large pan. Put all the patties in and cook on a medium heat.

4) Cook until both sides are brown and crispy.

For the sauce...

Red wine---1/4cup
Ketchup---1/2up
Tonkatsu sauce---1/4cup
Agave---1tbs

1) Mix all together in a sauce pan until boiling.



I'm in a bit of a hurry to update another blog now!

Saturday - pupus

My husband said he was going to just snack on some food and drink beer while he enjoys World Cup on TV.

Since when American like soccer?


Although I thought America has no chance to score vs. England...
I was very wrong!
Even though US scored a point with a little help of UK's goalie's mistake, it was still a clean nice shoot.

I guess this game was as exciting to watch as US vs. Canada for Winter Olympic Ice hockey game...




Who am I kidding?



I can care less about sports, to be honest.
Because I have two sports loving boys in the house, I'm pretty much forced to watch with them!
Thank goodness we finally got another cable line into our bedroom! :p



Anyways, this is what I quickly fixed for tonight's snack/dinner.

5 layer dip
Yakko tofu
Cheesy turkey roll

Everything was done within 15min :)
I love it when I make easy fixing sometimes!




The picture of the day:

My son got hungry a couple of hour later, he ate a bowl of ramen noodles :)