Simple and Lazy Style Food

Haven't update my blog for a while, was kind of busy lately. Recently make a bunch of simple dishes, good to cook when you feel lazy and just want an easy and delicious meal. It takes very little time. Check out the following dishes:

Stir fried chicken udon

Banana oatmeal

Stir fried rice with seafood

Steamed dimsum

Steamed chicken mushroom sticky rice

Chicken mushroom stick rice close up

Family pic of food

Family pic :)

Egg and Cheese Tacos

Made egg and cheese tacos for breakfast. Flavored the eggs with a bit of soy sauce while cooking it, when it's done, layered a few pieces of cheese on the eggs and let them melt. Finally, assemble the egg/cheese with soft and warm tacos :) I made two different kind of flavors, ketchup and ranch. You can also top it with dice tomatoes, onions or any veggies you like. It's really simple, make it however you like it.

Prosperity Cake

Chinese New Year is coming up this weekend. My mom is already preparing for the holiday. Got a bunch of new year goodies and also started to make prosperity cakes, also known as "fa gao" in Chinese.  It's basically steamed sponge cake and it's sweet. Like the name suggested, the prosperity cake is a good luck symbol.  The muffin like prosperity cake has an open top similar to a flower, the more open the top is means more luck and good fortune.

Below are my mom's beautiful work :

Five Benefits of Sweet Potatoes

Just had sweet potato as a snack at 11pm, to make myself feel less guilty, I decided to write about the benefits of sweet potatoes.

1. Good source of fiber, help to promote healthy digestive system
2. Abundance of vitamin A and vitamin C
3. Lowers blood sugar and cholesterol
4. Help to prevent chronic inflammatory arthritis diseases  
5. Provides soothing to people with stomach ulcers

For more information, check out the link below. I find this article informative and helpful.

Health-benefits-of-sweet-potatoes

Roti Paratha

Found this at my local supermarket, it's delicious and also easy to cook.

So similar to Chinese scallion pancake, but thinner. I got the onion flavor and love it.

The package and my cooked version of paratha

What it looks like raw

Pan fried it on a non-sticky pan with oil and medium fire

Finished product on cookie sheet to absorb any excess oil

Close up of the paratha

Bake Pork Katsu

Made my version of pork katsu, bake. Not a fan of pork, but once in a while my brother buy pork katsu from the Japanese restaurant down stair. Founded some pork cutlets in the freezer, so decided to make it for him. Doesn't look pretty, some coating fell off when I flip it, but taste good according to my brother :)

Ingredients: 

Pork cutlets, 1 egg, Lee Kum Kee's Korean BBQ sauce, rice wine, Worcestershire sauce, bread crumbs, soy sauce, salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Wash the pork cutlets and clean it thoroughly

2. For each pork cutlet, use the back of the knife and pound the entire surface evenly or use a meat pounder if you have one

3. Mix the BBQ sauce, rice wine, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, salt and pepper all together in a big bowl ( I eye measured everything, so put what you think its appropriate)

4. Put the pork cutlets in the sauce bowl and let them marinate for 10 to 15 minutes

5. On a separate bowl, put in a raw egg and beat it

6. On a plate, pour out some bread crumbs

7. Dip the marinated pork cutlet into the egg bowl to coat it evenly with egg, then dip it into the plate with bread crumbs

8. Make sure the pork cutlet is coated with bread crumbs evenly on both side ( repeat the same steps for each cutlet)

9. On the baking pan, put on a layer of foil paper, spray it with cooking oil ( you can skip the foil paper and spray  the oil on top of the pan, I am just lazy to clean)

10. Put the pork cutlets evenly on the baking pan and spray more cooking oil on top of the cutlets

11. Put the baking pan with pork cutlets into the oven

12. Set the temperature to 380 degree and it should be done after 30 minutes

13. Flip the the pork cutlet after 15 to 20 minutes to make sure both side are crispy

(As you can see, I didn't do a good job of flipping, some of the coating fell off )

14. Serve it with ketchup or just eat it as it is

15. It goes well with rice and curry dishes 

Note: you can marinate your meat with what ever sauce available at home, it should come out fine. Rice wine kind of get rid of the meat smell and make it taste better

Hot Pot with Long Time Friends

I was feeling so tired and no energy to do anything last night, skipped on a lot of works and everything is piled up for today. Still haven't start anything yet. My lovely friends came for a visit and just left. The last time they were here was a year or two ago, enjoyed girls talk and great conversations. Now half of my friends are married or close to being married, it's kind of hard to get them out of their house.

This week has been long and busy. Hung out with three groups of people for my birthday, it's was lots of fun.  I really appreciate family and friends spending time with me,  make life so much better. For the past few days, I had Thai, Mexican and Chinese hot pot. Everything was awesome.

Yesterday was an emotional roller coaster for me, don't want to get into the details. But I am fine now, more worried about my friend. Let's hope everything gets better. Tomorrow will be a better day :D

Simple Ramen Recipe

Directions:

1. Boil appropriate amount of water in a pot
2. When the water boils, put in the ramen
3. Add in imitation crabmeats, shrimps or the meat of your choice, if vegetarian, then skip this part
4. Add in the vegetable of your choice
5. Cover the pot for a minutes to cook the ingredients and to soften the noodle
6. Crack an egg and let it cook uncover, don't stir the egg
6. Put in the ramen sauce
7. Stir a little and it's done