a little tour of asia week

pad thai from this week

i love travelling through asia. i've studied in northern thailand (nuad bo rarn - chiang mai thai yoga massage, and reflexology),
i've gotten sick in india (the formidable delhi belly beat my pants off...quite literally),
i've marvelled at the karst hills in southern china
visited sacred sites - as in yogyakarta - places i didn't know about
and several other asian countries.
oh the food - to be able to make food that was so simple in execution and rich in flavour.
am constantly striving to get there...

cooking a few meals at once

my list of dishes with recipes and pics in the links...

breakfast
omelette- pesto and cheese
yoghurt and fruit
fruit salad
rotate

snacks/lunch
cantaloupe
pears
bananas
coconut rice crackers
veggies and dip
leftovers - lots and lots of leftovers
salads
sorbet
apple slices with caramel sauce

suppers

• pad thai
• peanut/cashew beef lemongrass noodles - from leftover pulled bbq beef
• coconut/tomato curry chicken with rice
• chicken nuggets with peanut sauce in lettuce (for the boys
• lettuce wraps with lemongrass meatballs and peanut sauce
• non thai recipe - homemade hamburger helper style beef - 1lb lean ground beef (browned), 1.5 cans of condensed tomato soup, 1 onion chopped, 1/2 packet of taco mix - add these to ground beef and serve over pasta of your choice (i use rice pasta mini shells) serve with shredded cheese

i share my weekly meal plans at orgjunkie.com - you can find hundreds of meal plans on menu planning mondays there...helped me get back into meal planning.

coconut/tomato curry with rice

as it is a bit of a tour of asia this week - i covered more ground by blending flavours of 2 countries - india and indonesia. i love curries, and coconut milk and tomatoes and i always think of tomato/curry blend as indian and tomato/coconut milk as more indonesian.

so after lemongrass...bring on the curry!
most surprising about this recipe was how much my 3.5yr old and 1 yr old loved this! seriously shocked and delighted  by my little foodies.

ingredients

2-2.5lbs chicken breast in small cubes
2.5tbsp curry powder
1 small onion chopped
2 tbsp garlic powder
...these first ingredients get tossed in the skillet first...mixed around until all is well cooked
then add all of this in (you'll need a big skillet! i use my big iron-cast one)

1 can coconut milk
1 can diced tomatoes (i used hunts garlic and olive
1.25c tomato sauce (i used hunts herb and garlic
4 tbsp sugar (i used turbinado
2 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
---simmer on low for about 30-40min

rice
i use beef stock instead of water as that is what i had on hand
add last of tomato sauce (about 2 tbsp worth

this was all so good - sigh - if i had naan bread i would have weathered the heartburn i get from wheat gluten to sop up the sauce...so instead i ate too much rice but - mmmm - i think i may even try this in the slow cooker.

the boys enjoying curry and rice!

lemongrass meatballs and peanut sauce - thai inspired

top left is the peanut sauce (made a few meals at once)

 it's all about asian-inspired dishes this week. as i write this, i have several newly labelled containers in the freezer with a good 6 new meals stowed away for when i don't feel like cooking.

i have been in a lemongrass kind of mood of late, and a lot of ground beef in the freezer from a sale 2 weeks ago. hmmm...could the two work together?

apparently - yes!
i packed half of the meatballs away in the freezer along with a small container of the peanut sauce for dipping.

ingredients

lemongrass meatballs
1.25lbs lean ground beef
1 small onion very finely chopped
2 tbsp cornstarch
1.5 tbsp each of minced garlic, oyster sauce and frozen chopped lemongrass
1tsp each of salt and sugar (i used turbinado)
- all together in a bowl. i mix with my hands
- 350 oven for about 20 minutes
- makes 24 - 30 meatballs
...this works for those who love lemongrass. my 3.5yr old ate several of these plain. that is success to me. these went really well with the peanut butter dipping sauce i made.

peanut butter sauce (adjust and add more water if for noodles, less if for dipping)
1.5c peanut butter (i use unsweetened organic
2/3c coconut milk
2/3c water
1/4c lime juice
3tbsp low sodium soy sauce
2tbsp fish sauce
2tbsp sriracha sauce
1tbsp minced garlic
1/2c chopped cilantro
- everything in a saucepan except the cilantro on low, stir and reduce to desired consistency - add cilantro and continue on low for about 2min
...this is an easy, tasty sauce that freezes well

for a meal...just washed a few leaves of lettuce - peanut sauce, meatballs and topped with a bit of chopped green onion (the stems) and cilantro - DELICIOUS!

the bubs ate the meatballs plain, and dipped chicken breast strips in a bit of the peanut sauce.

the final result

slow cooker beef x 4 meals, and freezer leftovers week

just didn't want to go shopping this week so used what we had in the freezer - both leftovers and the ingredients for the slow cooker beef meals

now...
my list of dishes with recipes and pics in the links...

breakfast
omelette- salsa cheese
fried eggs and beans
yoghurt and fruit
fruit salad
rotate

snacks/lunch
a lot of cantaloupe
pears
bananas
coconut rice crackers
veggies and dip
leftovers - lots and lots of leftovers
salads
sorbet
pulled beef open faced sandwiches
suppers
from the freezer - slow cooker tostada lasagna 
from the freezer slow cooker tamale pie
from the freezer - dumplings and more dumplings and rice asian rolls (like spring rolls but rice-wrapped)
takeout night - cheap pizza (and as leftover lunches)
pulled beef - slowcooker as 3 suppers...

•  topping a caesar salad
• on nachos (fried up with black beans and with cheese and salsa on nachos
• asian style lemongrass beef in a peanut sauce topped with toasted cashews on vermicelli

and the non-food related recipe - deodorant recipe
i share my weekly meal plans at orgjunkie.com - you can find hundreds of meal plans on menu planning mondays there...helped me get back into meal planning.

leftover pulled bbq beef - reinvented as asian - lemongrass, peanuts, cashews and rice noodles

oh i love when leftovers are completely used in a new way. this was easy, involved the use of one of my fave asian ingredients - lemongrass - and all enjoyed it (3.5 and 1yr old included)

ingredients
about 1lb of pulled bbq beef
2tbsp soy sauce
1/4c fish sauce
1.5tbsp (or to taste) chopped lemongrass from frozen
1tbsp garlic powder
1c unsalted cashews (i chopped them up in small pieces and toasted them in the toaster oven
2tbsp sriracha sauce
1 package of rice vermicelli (any width noodle, but i like them sort of medium range)
3tbsp peanut butter
2.5-3tbsp demerara sugar or brown sugar

i boiled up and drained the vermicelli (al dente)

in a skillet i added all but the cashews and beef - so the sauce essentially - then added the beef and a few cashews

transferred to wok - slowly added portions of the rice vermicelli to blend the sauce.

topped with toasted cashews.
lemongrass - enhances leftovers amazingly well

easy slowcooker pulled beef

so easy i didn't bother to take a pic - sort of a slow cooking 101 type of meal. i remember when i first started really using a slowcooker about 4 years ago, it was a constant feast of pulled chicken, pork and beef.

so the standard recipe i use (and i usually just start from frozen
3-3.5lb beef roast - any cheap cut will do
1c water
1/4c soy sauce
a few drops of liquid smoke
1tbsp minced garlic
1 c bbq sauce (any will do but I like ones with a smokey sort of flavour)
all into the slow cooker - on high for 2hrs gets the roast defrosted, 5hrs on low, take two forks and pull roast apart - mix in the slow cooker and another 30min - 1hr on low.

this time i also added one large onion chopped for the last hour.

we used this for several meals.

the first night was topping a caesar salad
the second night was on nachos (fried up with black beans and with cheese and salsa on nachos
the third meal was open faced sandwiches with lots of toppings like olives, cheese, etc
the 4th meal is worth writing a separate post - asian style lemongrass beef in a peanut sauce topped with toasted cashews on vermicelli.