Frugal Lee

Kalamata Olive-Basil Pesto

2010-07-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

One of my husband's co-worker suggested that I combined olives and basil together. What a brilliant idea. Because I love olives, I love basil, and I love pesto!

The word pesto originated from Italy and it means "to pound, or crush". So any herbs with garlic, pounded in a mortar with a pestle...are called PESTO. Simple eh?

I have lots of sweet basil growing in containers out in my back patio.

Everyday I sit next to one of them and run my fingers through them.

The aromas they release, just by touching them, are absolutely heavenly.

This is a very interesting basil. It's called "Aristotle Basil".
They have small buds but are very strong in fragrance.
I usually use them as garnishing or to flavor cheese.

For the ingredients I have:

A hand full of sweet basil
1/2 Cup of olives
4 garlic cloves (I love pesto with a kick)
A slice of lemon ~1TBS lemon juice
1/4 Cup feta cheese
1TBS olive oil

I'm using a hand blender :-) But again if you want you could use a mortar and pestle.

Make it into a smooth paste and garnish with Aristotle Basil.

This is EXTREMELY delicious! Please try it out!

Tapenade

2010-07-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

Tapenade, doesn't it sound like a sophisticated food? But what is it? Here's Wiki's definition:

"Tapenade (pronounced tap-en-AAD) is a Provençal dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the provençal word for capers, tapenas (Occitan pronunciation: [taˈpenɔ]). It is a popular food in the south of France, where it is generally eaten as an hors d’œuvre, spread on bread. Sometimes it is also used to stuff fillets for a main course." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapenade

I normally don't measure. This is about...

1 cup pitted Kalamata olive

3 Tablespoon capers

1 garlic clove

Olive oil

Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl or large measuring cup.

Add 1-2 Tablespoon of Olive oil.

The more oil the smoother it will be, I used 2 TBS.

I used a hand blender because it's easy, but for the adventurous you could use a mortar and pestel.

Mix until smooth like this. I did not add extra salt because the olives are already salty.

Serve chilled is the best!

Tapenade on sprouted bread. Add as a side dish to your Greek salad...Yummm.

Vegetarian KimChi Rice Omelet.

2010-01-23T18:09:00.001-08:00

Hello fellow readers, sorry that it's been awhile since I've blogged. This year we are hosting an international student from South Korea, and with her staying with us she had introduced us to some very authentic Korean dishes. Today I will show you a dish that our student loves to make and its a dish she grew up with. It is called kim chi omlete rice. It is a simple recipe and a great way to use left over rice!

Ingredients:

1 c. Potaots--diced into small pieces

1 c. Onions-- diced

1 c. Carrots-- diced

1/2 c. Kim Chi-- diced

3 c. Left over rice

Oils

Salt and Pepper to taste

You can use any vegetables for this dish, but onion is a must.

On med-Heat add a little oil to your pan and cook the carrots and potatoes first. Cook until the potatoes are soft.

Then add the onions, salt, and pepper. Cook until onion is almost translucent.

Add the rice and cook for a few more minutes. For those who do not like Kim Chi they can stop here. Below is the Rice Omelet without Kim Chi.

Lets Continue.....

Next cut up some kimchi. Preferably home made ones.

Stir fry the kim chi in with the rest of the ingredients. Ta Da! Your done with the rice part.

For the omelet topping, heat up a small frying pay with some oil.

Beat up two eggs. Two eggs for each person.

Cook the eggs until done, then slide it on top of the fried rice.

Drizzle some ketchup on top and Enjoy!

Almond Granola Cereal

2009-10-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

Granola what is granola one who've never heard of it before may ask? Well granola consist of nuts, oats, honey, maybe rice, and maybe dried fruits. Check out the Wikipedia site if you are interested in reading the history of granola.

Our family likes granola, especially my husband who eats it for breakfast every day. To buy a pound of good granola cereal at the grocery store can be very costly. Especially if you buy organic. Today I will teach you a simple granola recipe that I've perfected for my family's taste.

I like to weigh the ingredients. Makes for a more accurate measurements.

0.5 lb Almonds ~2 cup coarsely grounded
1.5 lb Organic Rolled Oats ~4.5 cups (Do not use instant oatmeal, they'll give a bitter taste.)
1/3lb Honey ~ 1/3 cups

You can use any honey, I like our local clover honeys. You can also add more honey if you like your granola a bit sweeter. Experiment with them and have fun.

First coarsely ground the almonds. Or you can use a half pound package of Slivered almonds.

In a large cookie pan bake the rolled oats at 350 degree for 10 minutes. Stirring every few minutes so that it does not burn.

Remove the oats from the oven and put it into a large mixing bowl. Add the almonds and honey. Mix well with a wooden spoon, not with your hands. Be careful not to burn yourself.

Once they are well mixed. Put them back onto the large cookie pan and bake again at 350 degree for 10 minutes. This will make the granola crispy. Make sure to stir every few minutes to avoid burnt and large clumps of granola.

After 10 minutes of baking bring the granola out and let it cool completely. My husband does not like clumpy granola cereals, so as they cool down I'd stir them around and break up any large clumps. Then when they are completely cooled put them into an air tight container and enjoy! This makes 2 lbs of granola and it will last us about 1.5 week.

I like my granola cereal with a little milk and dried fruits. Yummmmm!

Servings: 20
Cooking time: 35 minutes.
Cost: $3.14

It's always cheaper to buy things in bulk. We have stores here in town where they sell organic grains and nuts in bulks. I'll always promote buying local especially if you have local organic farms. Next time I will show you how to make Raw granola bars, with sprouted seeds.

Nina's Pie Tops / Rhubarb pie

2009-07-16T08:10:00.000-07:00

We had Fika at one of our friends house a few days ago and she made for us these fruit pies with wonderful cake like crust on top. I fell in love with the pie tops so she gave me her recipe. I don't know if there is a different terminology to this type of pie but I've called the dough style "pie tops" instead of pie crust. These pie tops are more fluffy, when cooked, than regular pie crust and the dough is spread over the fruits. Let me know if there's a different terminology to this style of pie. You can use any fruit as the fillings. Here is the recipe..

Nina's Pie Tops:
100 g. Butter
1 1/2 dl Sugar
2 dl Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 egg

Dough's cooking time is 40-45 minutes at 150 Celsius.

1. Melt the butter.
You can melt it on a pan or if you are lazy, in the microwave for about 40 sec.
2. Mix the flour and the baking powder together.

Then you beat the egg and the sugar together.
Next you add half the flour to the egg and sugar mixture. Mix well.

Then add the butter...mix. And finally add the rest of the flour.

The batter should be thick and sticky.

FILLINGS: (I'm making rhubarb for this example)

For the filling I went out and thinned my mother-in-law's rhubarb plants.

Slice up enough rhubarb to fill a 10 inch pie pan.

Add sugar to your taste I like mine to be a bit sweet so I added 1 dl of sugar.

Spread the topping mixture on top. Then bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes at 150 Celsius.

It should come out golden brown and a bit crispy on top.

It is best with some vanilla sauce. YUM!

DECILITER 1 dl= 100 ml ~ 1/2 cup
MATSKED 1 msk = 15 ml= 1 Tablespoon
TESKED 1 tsk = 5 ml = 1 teaspoon
CUP 1 cup = 240ml
1 Celsius = 33.8 Fahrenheit (150 C = 302 F)

Swedish Pancake

2009-07-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

Have you ever taken an early morning trip to Ikea just for their breakfast? You know the inexpensive breakfast that they serve with thinly cooked Swedish pancakes and a dab of lingon berries to the side? Then one day when you got there, you where shocked by what had happened, things had changed. You suddenly don't get the free Swedish pancake anymore, now you have to pay an extra $0.99 for 2 pancakes. Well, maybe you don't remembered but I do and I remembered a few years back in the SF Bay Area how it used to be at Ikea. The good old days of Ikea breakfast is now- no more.

But not all is lost....at last I have found the perfect recipe for Swedish pancake courtesy of our good friends the Lindholms!!

So here is the secret to Swedish pancake. The ingredients are all dependant on how many eggs you use. Double the eggs double the recipe...Simple eh? For those who lives in a country that does not use metric I'll post the conversion at the end of the blog.

Swedish Pancake:
1 Eggs
Pinch salt
1 TBS Sugar
2 dl Milk
1 dl Flour (bread flours are best, if not all purpose flours will do)
Butter or Margerine for frying
Batter sitting time 25-30 min.

6 eggs...this is going to be GOOD. Combine all the ingredients together and whisk until there's no flour lumps. The batter should be very loose and not sticking to the whisk. Then let sit for 25-30 minutes before cooking.

Heat up a frying pan on Med-heat and melt some butter on it. Then pour a small amount of batter onto the pan and thinly coat the pan.

Flip the pancake over and cook for another minute. Ta-da! Done. You can serve it with a sprinkle of sugar or.....

If you've happen to be out in the forest and happened to have picked a bucket full of wild blueberries you can make blueberry Swedish pancake.

Hmmm...delicious!

DECILITER 1 dl= 100 ml ~ 1/2 cup
MATSKED 1 msk = 15 ml= 1 Tablespoon
TESKED 1 tsk = 5 ml = 1 teaspoon
CUP 1 cup = 240ml

Summer vacation in Sweden

2009-07-12T12:35:00.000-07:00

We made it to Sweden!! Imagine traveling with 2 young boys, a husband, and an 8 month old puppy.

Our family is currently summer vacationing in Sweden and we will be here until September 6th. We are staying in the South of Sweden about 45 minutes away from Gothenburg in a small town called Alingsas.

Alingsas is a very cute (and growing) town with many coffee shops and is surrounded by many lakes. I totally enjoy relaxing here especially outside one of the city's many coffee shops during "Fika" time...around 2-3pm. Fika means to drink coffee~Wiki translation. I will post reviews of restraunts/coffee shops I go to, so that if you ever come visit this area you'll get an idea of what to expect. Also just remember that I am Frugal and will try to find the best place for the best price!

In the summer time, Sweden is very beautiful and lush with wild edibles! You know me always thinking about hunting and gathering foods. Today we went to visit our friends who lives around the next lake over. After lunch we all took a long walk into the forest to pick some wild blueberries! Yummm! And of course I kept my eyes opened for Chanterelle mushrooms....

In my next post the most common sense thing to do is post recipe for Swedish pancake!

Thai Papaya Salad

2009-06-28T23:44:00.000-07:00

Papaya Salad is made with green papaya. Make sure that when you buy green papaya, for the purpose of making this dish, that the flesh inside is white. Most major grocery store chains do sell papayas but don't be fooled by their green colored skin papayas or the hardness of the fruits at those stores. Because the ones sold at major grocery store chains are already ripening. If you cut open a papaya and the flesh are already orange-yellow in colors, you don't want those! It can still be used but it will not taste as good. Green papayas do not have much flavors and it will take on flavors from the sauce it's soaked in. That is why when you use papayas that are already ripe or is ripening, the ripe flavors of the fruit will interfere with the sauce's flavors. So the best bet is go to an ethnic grocery store and get white fleshed green papayas.

There are many versions of this spicy Southeast Asian dish, depending on what country you go to. I mostly prefer either Thailand style-which is sweet or Laos style-which is extra spicy, sour, and pungent. Today I will show you how to make Thai style Papaya Salad.

First you'll need to prepare the young papaya by peeling it. Then washing it thoroughly, sometimes the young papayas have white sap that bleeds through the skin. Wipe dry with a paper towel. Then shred with a papaya shredder. You can find this at your local Asian Supermarket or online. They are cheap, about $3?

The ingredients:

1 Garlic clove
Thai Chili peppers--add to your spice level
2 TBS Palm sugar--1 TBS cane sugar as substitute
2 TBS Fish Sauce
2 TBS Lime juice
2 1/2 Cups shredded Papaya
3 TBS dried shrimps
2 TBS peanuts--roasted and crushed for garnishing

Also don't forget one ripe tomato (small). My tomatoes are starting to ripe, woohoo!

In a mortar crush the garlic and chili peppers. If you don't have a mortar and pestle you can use a food processor or hand chop them finely. The purpose for crushing them is to get the spicy oils and flavor out of the garlic and peppers.

Next add the fish sauce, sugar, and lime juice to the crushed peppers--mix them well.

Then into the mortar add the shredded papaya, tomato slices, and dried shrimps. Use the pestle to mix the ingredients into the papaya, this also bruises the papayas.

For those who don't have a mortar and pestle you can bruise the shredded young papaya by putting it into a bowl or cup and use a wooden spoon. The act of bruising the papaya will allow more sauce to grab hold onto each papaya strands. After you've bruised the papaya, mix in the sauce.

Before serving add the chopped roasted peanuts.

The papaya salad goes well with BBQ chicken and pork. Also fresh veggies.

Servings: 3 Adults, 2 Children
Cooking time: 15 min.
Costs: $0.80

Garden Vegetable Fried Rice.

2009-06-20T23:39:00.000-07:00

With weeks of neglect my garden had overgrown and my poor broccoli plants (which only have side shoots) were starting to bolt. Thus I was forced to harvest all the side shoots, this act is good because it'll allow for new florets to form. Good for the plants and good for the grower.

Today we will make some Garden Vegetable fried rice. I had about 3 cups of leftover rice and vegetables I picked from thinning out my garden.

Carrots, Broccolis, Snow peas, rice, and garlic.

Seasoning is to your taste add more if you like:

2 TBS Oyster flavored Vegetarian sauce
2 TBS Mirin (1 TBS sugar if you don't have Mirin)
1/2 C. water (to help cook the vegetables and break up the rice)
Olive oils--or any oil you have on hand
Chop up all the vegetables.

First fry the garlic in the oil on Med-heat.

1. Add the carrots first, fry it for a few seconds.
2. Then add the rest of the vegetables.
3. Add water and let the vegetable steamed for about a minute or two.

Add rice and mix it so that the grain of rice are not in large clumps.
Then add the seasonings. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Enjoy!

Servings: 3 Adults, 2 Chilren
Cooking time: 15 mins.
Cost: $0.80

Vegan Samosa.

2009-06-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've blogged. Sometime life just throw things at us unexpectedly and most of the times it can hit really hard. But no matter what we all need to learn how to quickly get right back up and charge forwards, grrrrrr.

Today we will be making my special Vegan Samosa. Samosa originated from South Asia, mostly a popular snack food in India. You can put just about anything in it with any variety of spices. If you haven't noticed yet, I like to make meals with recipes that can be varied with any vegetables or meats that you have on hand. The most important thing is the dough and that it gets deep fried.

Lets get cook'n again!

My garden needed major weeding, 2 weeks of neglect. The Cilantro (coriander) plants needed thinning badly as well. So, I picked some, washed it, and stored them in the refrigerator. They also freeze well too, if you have freezer space. I will use some to make our Samosas.

Here are the ingredients for my Vegan Samosa:

3 Large potatoes--(I used Russell potatoes because it's starchy.)
Cilantro--(Coarsely chopped)
2 C. Flour
1/2 C. Water
4 TBS Oil--(2 TBS for dough & 2 TBS for fillings)
1 tsp. Curry
1 tsp. Garam Masala
1 TBS Fennel seeds
2 tsp. Salt to taste
Oil for frying.

First start by putting the potatoes into boiling water to cook. While the potatoes are cooking, prepare the Samosa's dough.

1. Add 2 TBS oil to the flour and mix them well. Make sure that there's no large clumps of oil.
2. After you mixed the oil into the flour add water and mix until it becomes a smooth dough.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for at least 15 min. or until ready to use.

Lets start on the fillings.

1. Heat up 2 TBS oil on med-high.
2. Add the Fennel seeds stir and wait until it starts to gently pop.
3. Add the rest of the spice stir quickly then add the cilantro.
4. Cook the cilantro until it wilts then turn off heat.
5. Drain the water from the cooked potatoes and add it to the hot spice mixture.
6. Mix them together well. I like to mash my potatoes but some people likes them chunky.
7. At this point you can add anything else you like...peas...cooked ground beef...other cooked vegetables?

Let the potato mixture cool a little before filling the dough with it.

After the potatoes had cooled down a bit.

1. Break the dough and roll them into small balls, you should get about 6-7 equal sized balls from the dough.
2. Roll out the ball into an oval shape, about 7 inches long and 4 inches wide.
4. Cut the dough in half and wipe water around the edges of the one half.
5. Pick it up and wrap the cut end together to make a cone shape and press to seal the seam.
6. Hold the coned dough like an ice-cream cone with the seamed part in front.
7. Begin to fill the cone with the potatoes. Gently press down as you're filling it, don't worry if the cone stretches a bit. As long as the dough does not break you're fine. :-)
8. Once you're done filling the cone. Take the flap from the back, pull it over and close the cone. Press the dough together and seal.

Lay the finished Samosa on it's bottom, it should sit up right. This recipe makes about 12 Samosas.

Heat the frying oil on Med-high. Then add the Samosas bottom side first and fry until the Samosas are golden brown.

Ta-Da!

Serve the Samosas with sweet Tamarind sauce. Or any chutney sauce you like.

To make my sweet Tamarind sauce you'd need:

1/2 C. Sugar
2 TBS Seedless Tamarind
1 1/2 C. water
1/2 TBS Corn starch

1. Boil 1 cup water with the tamarind and sugar. Let it boil for 3 minutes.
2. Mix Cornstarch with 1/2 cup water.
3. Pour the cornstarch mixture in with the boiling tamarind & sugar mixture. Boil for another 2 minutes.
4. Strain out any pulp from the tamarind and ... here you go.

Sweet Tamarind Sauce.

Servings: 3 Adults, 2 Children (12 Samosa)
Cooking time: 45-50 minutes.
Costs: $2.60
(The cost mostly came from the frying oil)

Tempting Tempura (Vegetarian and Seafood)

2009-06-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

My son had been asking me all day today for Tempura. He tells me that he's dying to eat it. I thought about it and agreed that I too would like some. I went through the refrigerator to see what vegetables needed to get eaten. Tempura can be made from any vegetables or herbs you have available around the house. My family like Shrimps and I was lucky to still have half of a 2 pound bag in the freezer from last week's meal.

I was told that Shiso make excellent tempuras. So I went out to the garden and picked a few red and green Shiso. Then I saw some nasturtium flowers growing close by and thought, "Ah! This will also make excellent tempuras."

Batter ingredients: There is no measuring here.
All purpose flours
Eggs
Water
Bread crumbs--optional.
Salt & Pepper
Shrimps
(You can use any vegetables or herb you like. These are left over vegetables that we had in the fridge.)

Here are the steps:
Make sure you have 3 bowls, eggs, flours, and bread crumbs in each bowl.
1. Cut up the shrimps half way and fold it up so that it is long like "Step 1" picture. This is to get more coating on the shrimps and to help it cook faster.

2. Beat the eggs and add about 1TBS water to loosen the egg. For easier coating.
3. Add a little salt and pepper to the flours. Dip the shrimp into the flower one at a time and gently coat.
4. Lastly transfer to the bread crumb bowl and coat. Then fry in a sauce pan.

On med-heat cook the shrimps. Done!

For the Vegetables I skip the bread crumb steps. Just dip them into the egg mixture, coat with flours, and fry.

With the flowers and this should be the process for any flowers you use. Dip gently into the egg, then coat with flours, hold by the stem and dip the crown into the hot oil. Fry the flowers for only a few seconds. Done!
I held the stem with my fingers but you can use a tong or chop sticks. I just like to live dangerously. *wink*

Next we have the Shiso leaves. Hold the stem of the leaves and swipe the leaves on the egg mixture a few times. Then swipe on the flours, this gives it a thin coating and fry.

Doesn't this look mouth watering? Serve with Frugal Lee's Tempura sauce.

Frugal Lee's Tempura sauce:
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/8 cup water
1/4 cup Mirin--or 1/8 cup sugar

Servings: 4 Adults, 2 Children
Time: 50 mins. --That's because I made a lot. For a single serving I'd say less than 30 min?
Cost: ~$7.00 (This meal cost more because of the shrimp. I bought a 2lb bag for $13 and used half.)

Tuna Fish pasta.

2009-06-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

Today was a nice and sunny day, so I took the opportunity to pick some Oregano to dry for storage. That's when I thought about a tuna fish dish that my mother-in-law made (many times) for me in Sweden. I'd make this dish once every few weeks, even though my husband despise it.

My Oregano plants that I grew in a large pot along with two other herbs. Don't be discourage about gardening if you don't have a yard. You can still do container gardening and you'd be surprised at how much food you can grow in them.

Ingredients for Tuna fish pasta:

1 can Tuna fish
1 can diced tomatoes--(or 2 cups fresh tomatoes)
Two sprig of fresh Oregano--(1 tsp. dried)
1 Leeks
Thin Spaghetti Pastas

Boil the pastas.
Chop the leeks and oregano.
In a non-stick skillet cook the leeks and oregano on Med-high. I don't use oil, only 1 TBS water to cook the leeks, a healthier option. But you can fry it in a little olive oil if you like. The oil will bring out more of the leeks strong onion-garlic flavors.

After the leeks are cooked add tuna fish, tomatoes, and salt to taste. Mix them well, cover, and let it simmer for a few minutes. While the tuna sauce is simmering check on your pasta, drain, and plate them.

Sprinkle with some radish flowers and some Tabasco sauce, for a little kick!
I've let some of the radish plants bolts. I like to use them as garnishing, plus they are tasty too. They produce beautiful purple/white flowers which are a little spicy just like the radish bulbs.

Serving: 3 Adults, 2 children
Cooking time: 15 min.
Costs: $1.73

Breakdown.
Spaghetti pasta: $0.40
Canned Tun Fish on sale-when these goes on sale I stock pile them in my food storage: $0.50
Canned Diced tomato sale-stock pile these in food storage: $0.50

Leeks bundle of 3 for $1 sale, I used one: $0.33
Oregano : $0
Total: $1.73

Soy sauce Pork Stir-fry (Tofu stir-fry for Vegans).

2009-06-07T19:57:00.000-07:00

I've been studying Masanobu Fukuoka style of agriculture. I love this quote:

"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,
but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."--Masanobu Fukuoka.

Lets go out and see what's ready to get picked from our backyard garden, shall we?

Broccoli: I have four broccoli plants and I've already harvested one large broccoli heads from each of the three plants. This is the last plant with one large head and we shall take it. The cool thing about broccoli plants are the many harvest you can get from the side shoots. Tomorrow I'll go back and start picking side shoots from previously harvested plants.

Baby Carrots: My carrot bed needed thinning and my kids love to eat baby carrots. Especially right after they've been picked and washed from the garden.

Snow peas: I love peas and my family likes to just go out to the garden and break off some pods and munch! Awesome snacks for the kids. I planted 12 pea plants and three long bean plants. Today I've only got harvests from the snow pea plants.

Here we are with vegetables that survived munching little mouths.
1/2 lb. Pork
Carrots
Broccoli
Snow Peas
1-2 Cloves garlic (I forgot to put it in this picture)
1 TBS Soy Sauce
1 TBS Mirin
2 TBS Water
Olive oil
(Vegan replace pork with Tofu.)

While the rice is in the rice cooker or in a pot on the stove top, prep your ingredients.

In a skillet on med-high grill the pork with some olive oil.
Vegan: Do the same with tofu, turning them carefully to not break the tofu form.

When the pork turns a little brown, add garlic. Then add the mirin, and soy sauce, mix well. Add the vegetables and water. Cover and let the vegetable steam for 2 minutes or until soft. Your done.

Ta-Da! Easy?
Garnish with freshly opened nasturtium flowers. Nasturtium flowers have a radishy flavor.

Soy Sauce Tofu stir-fry. My vegetarian son really likes this dish.

Servings: 3 Adults, 2 Children
Cooking time: 30 min.
Costs: $2.30

Lets Break it down:
Rice : $0.38
Pork I bought these on sale $0.99 per lb I used 1/2 lb.: $0.50
Tofu $2 a box. I used 1/3 box: $0.67
Garlics: $0.05
Sauces & Oil: $0.70
Vegetables: $0
Total: $2.30

Vegetarian Bibimbap.

2009-06-06T23:43:00.000-07:00

Bibimbap is a Korean dish translated as: Mixed rice. Does this mean you can add just about anything to your rice bowl, mix it, and say "Bibimbap"? If only it was that easy (ehem! It is). There are two main ingredients that distinguishes Bibimbap from other rice mixture. That is the use of raw/or gently cooked eggs and Gochujang (hot pepper paste).

Ok, ok...you can omit the Gochujang, but you CANNOT omit the eggs. Alright...yes you can even do that too *sigh*. I've included a non-spicy sauce in this recipe as well. Since my kids don't like spicy and my husband don't like Gochujang.

Here's what I like to put in my Bibimbap. My bowl will always have these vegetables: carrots, green onions, and spinach...everything else will be what ever I have on hand that day.

I like to make it buffet style, by cooking up all the vegetables. Then let everyone pick their own vegetables and sauce to mix into their rice bowl. There is no measuring here...just dabble a little here and there. Don't make it salty though, because you have the sauce to go over them.

While the rice is cooking do the prep work for your dish. Chop up all the vegetables, cook and drain the spinach, cook the bean sprouts with a little sesame oil and a dribble of soy sauce.

Add maybe about 1 TBS soy sauce and half the sliced green onion to the spinach. Mix them well and put them along side the bean sprout. This will be our buffet plate, it's a BIG plate.

On high heat cook the carrots with a little sesame oil, before the carrots burn- it's done. Put them along side the spinach and bean sprouts.

Cook the rest of the vegetables individually on high heat and transfer them to the buffet plate. There is no right or wrong way to cook the chives and mushrooms. Rule of thumb...remove them before they're burnt, simple?

For the non-spicy sauce:

Green onion sliced--the rest of the onions.
3 TBS soy sauce
2 TBS Sesame oil
1 TBS sesame seeds
1 TBS sugar

Next fry some eggs sunny side up or if you are adventurous. You can try the traditional way and use raw eggs. For the kids I cook their eggs well.

Here's how you put everything together. First add rice to bowl

Then add the cooked vegetables on top of the steaming hot rice. Leave the center open to exposed the hot rice.

Crack an egg on top of the hot and steaming exposed rice. Then add Gochujang, mix well before consuming. I'm the only one who eats it with raw eggs in my family.
Best eaten with a side dish of homemade Kim Chi's.

Servings: 4 Adults, 2 Children
Cooking time: 30 Min.
Costs: $4.57

Vegan Jab Chae.

2009-06-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

There is a new fad going around. Some are doing it secretly and some are doing it openly but everyone is doing it. And that is comparing prices and bargan hunting! We all want to know the price of everything don't we? Especially now in this recession we want to get the most out of our buck. I like to keep track of how much my meals are each day. If I were to read a cooking/gardening blog like "Frugal Lee" I would like to know; how many people will that meal feed and how much will it cost?

Thus I've decided that at the end of each recipe. I'll break down the costs of the meal and how many people it will feed. Now keep in mind that I like bargains and most of my meals are dependent on 2 main factors...1. what's on sale this week or at the discount rack?
2. What's ready to get harvest from the garden?

Alright, today we are going to make Jab chea... which is a Korean noodle dish. You can add grilled meat if you have to eat meat with every meal, but today we'll be making the Vegan version. Eating a vegetarian meal once or twice a week will save you money, good for you, and the enviroment too.

Green onions (3)
Onion Chives
Large Carrot
Garlics
Mushrooms
Spinach
Sweet Potato starch noodle
Bean Sprouts (1/2 bag)
3 TBS Sesame oil
Some Olive oil
4 TBS Soy sauce
1 TBS Sugar
Sesame seeds for garnishing

Boil the Spinach and rinse with cold water, then sqeeze as much water out. This makes about 1 cup cooked Spinach, then slice it to make small pieces.

It does takes a while to cook the noodles, so while it's boiling I'd suggest you spend that time doing the prep work on the vegetables. After the noodles are cooked, 15 mins. or so, drain and put in a LARGE mixing bowl. With a kitchen shear cut into them, this is to make mixing and eating the noodles more managable.

First add the spianch.

On a hot skillet with a dab of olive oil stir-fry the carrots. The trick is to Cook on High heat and fast.

When the carrots are done pile it ontop of the noodles.

On the same skillet, still on high heat, grill the green onions and garlic chives. Do Not add oil. When they starts to burn transfer them to the noodle bowl.

After you transfered the onions and chives. Add a little olive oil to the skillet and cook the mushrooms. When the mushrooms had shrunken by half pour it into the noodle bowl.

Now turn the heat to medium and add the bean sprouts and garlics. Cook only until the bean sprouts wilts...2 min.? Add to the noodle bowl. Lastly add Soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. Blend them all together.

Before serving sprinkle it with some roasted sesame seeds.

Servings: 4 Adults, 2 Children
Cooking time: 35 Minutes
Costs: $4.81

Breakdown of costs:
Carrots ($1/bag of 3 large carrots) I used one : $0.33
Green Onions one bunch : $0.45
Spinach from garden : $0
Mushroom on sale: $1.49
Garlic Chives $1 a bunch I used 1/3: $0.50
Garlic : $0.05
Sugar : $0.05
Soy sauce 1TBS= 0.5 oz...1 bottle of soysauce is 33 oz. @$4 : $0.24
Sesame Oil 16 oz. @ $5 : $0.93
Olive Oil : $0.10
Noodles pkg. of 3 @$2.00 on sale : $0.67
TOTAL: $4.81

Before we moved from California, during the winters there, I would make a weekly trip to our local farmers market and haggle with the farmers. They are a bunch of VERY pleasant people and soo much fun to haggle with. Each week I'd only spend maybe $20 for my fruits and Veggies, for our family of four. In the spring and summer the cost was less because we had a garden....be it a very small garden...8'X3', it gave us 6 tomato plants, 10 sweet pea plants which grew up along the fence, 4 squash plants, 3 cucumber plants, various herbs, and spicy pepper plants. This is our first spring in Oregon and I've started a medium sized garden. I've gotten some harvest from it already, which had saved us a lot of money, especially the herbs.

I am frugal but not cheap (there is a difference :-P), when we have parties at our house I'd go out, spend a little more, and if need to...I'll buy non-sale stuff... ;-)

Give me Kim Chi.

2009-06-02T15:49:00.000-07:00

Kim Chi is a spicy Korean fermented dish. It's a love or hate type of dish, some people won't even touch it because of the smell! I for one, likes stinky food. I like stinky and sticky Natto. I like stinky blue cheese. I even like stinky Durian fruits. Does that make me a Stinker? LOL.

You can make Kim Chi out of just about any vegetables. I've made it with carrots and bok choys before pretty good. I love Kim Chi even though making it is a long process. I only make it once in a while or when I really crave for it. Plus when I do make a batch (I make BIG batches at a time) they'd last me for a good long while. I've made many varieties of Kim Chi's using many recipes. But my favorite recipes are from Maangchi, I love her! She had taught me how to make many other Korean dishes as well. Thank you Maangchi! In this post I will show you how to make Vegan style and regular style Kim chi.

I've only made Nappa Cabbage Kim Chi today. I've got about 10 lb of cabbages, using half for regular style and Half for Vegan style. Cut the Cabbage in half then into quarters--you can cut the quarter pieces all the way down or just half way, halfway will make it easier to cut up when you're getting ready to serve it.

Then you rinse the cabbages well.

Afterwards you'd want to coat the cabbages with salt by making sure each leaves gets a coating of salt. I used iodized salt and almost a whole container. Once you've got the cabbage coated with salt, let it sit for 3 hours. Check and turn them every hours. You do not have to sit around for the entire 3 hours while the salt do it's work. :-) This is the same process that Laos people use to make a dish called: Som Pak. But that's for another post.

After the 3 hours rinse the cabbages well and squeeze out the excess water and let drain.

While the cabbages are draining lets start on the Kim chi sauce. Here are the ingredients for 10-12lbs of Cabbage:
1/2 c. Mochiko Powder (Sweet rice powder)--you can use all purpose flour
4 c. water
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. Fish Sauce
Peppers--to your spice level
2 heads of garlic
1/2 med. Onion
6 green onions--it's hiding behind the sugar bowl
Daikons
Asian Chives
Raw oysters (6 pieces)-optional if you are alergic or scared of using raw seafood
gingers
(I normally don't measure this because I like gingers. Maybe 3 inches worth of ginger roots? More is good but not less, to me.)
VEGAN: Omit Fish Sauce and oysters--replace with 1TBS salt.

Food process the gingers, garlics, and half onion. Because my food processor broke today. Of all days it had to be my big Kim Chi making day! I resorted to the Laos & Thai old fashion way of food processing. Using a MORTAR & PESTLE. Took me a good 5-10 minutes of pounding. Phew. I don't recommend this method. But the things I do for KIM CHI.

Next you mix the water and Mochiko powder together and heat on medium heat. Continuously stiring it so that it does not stick to the pan or burn. It will take a while until it begins to bubble. Once it bubbles add sugar and stir once again. Stir until the bubbles pops and creates a bubble hole. Pour the mixture into a large bowl. Add fish sauce and chili pepper and stirrrrrrrrrrr.
(For Vegan add chili pepper and salt then pour into a large bowl.)

Yes... finally everything chopped up, pounded, and cooked. Phew. Let the warm rice mixture cool a little then add the rest of the ingredients...and Stirr some more.
Next comes the messy part.

Place a head of cabbage in the bowl of mixture and rub every single leaves with the Kim chi sauce. Then place into a container to get fermented.

Ready for firmentation and storage. How do you know when it's done? First smell it...but that normally can be decieving...Second check if there's bubbles, good sign...Third taste it!

For the Vegans and Vegetarians in our lives. A mildly spiced Kim Chi.

I hope you guys enjoyed this and please try it out.

Don't you Yucky! My Yaki-soba.

2009-06-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

Today our International student made for us some Yaki-soba which means in Japan: Stir-fry noodles. All it is is soba (noodles) stir-fried with some vegetables with/without meat, and slobber them with Yaki-soba sauce. Simple recipe and quick to make...less than 15 mins. if you have a slicer like this...

I bought this one at a korean store, while we were still living in Silicon Valley, a few years ago..and it's awesome. Haven't need to get it resharpend! I love the different attachments that came with it too, cutting my prep times by more than half. Alright I'm starting to sound like a commerical...but I love this slicer!

Here are the ingredients: Cabbage, some olive oil, Yaki-soba sauce, fresh soba, carrots, green onions, sliced beef, and bonito flakes.
**For vegetarians omit the bonito flakes and meat**
I will show you how to cook the vegetarian dish and our student will show you the meat dish.

Heat up a little bit of olive oil in a sauce pan and fry the beef until you see no red. Then add the vegetables and let them steam cook in the pan. Add ground black pepper to taste if you like the peppery taste.

Vegeterian version, stir fry the vegetables with olive oil until it sweats and on the verge of burning. At the last minute I went out to our backyard garden and picked some broccoli to add more vegetables to this dish. Then add black pepper if you like.

Add soba (noodles) and mix well on med-heat. The noodles are already cooked and all you need is to heat it up. Then add the Yaki-Soba sauce, just pour all around, add more or less to taste.

For the meat version you'd want to add bonito flakes before serving. Yumm!

Vegetarian serve without Bonito flakes.

I think everyone enjoyed this dish. Yummy Yaki-Soba.

NEXT : How to make Kim-chi!

Oh! Onigiri.

2009-06-01T15:06:00.000-07:00

Lets be honest here! We all want to cook a meal that will accommodate all our hunger needs, simple to make, and will never disappoint us when we serve it. I'm pleased to tell you that there is such a dish and it's called Onigiri.

I'm a big fan of "simple to make, simple to eat food". Especially when we're a family that's always on the go-go-go. The kids love this Japanese dish called Onigiri--which means rice balls. You can put just about anything in them or nothing at all. You can wrap them in some Nori or roll them in sesame seed seasonings or put nothing at all around them...so simple! And so very accommodating to Ones needs. You can shape and mold them into anything you like; balls, triangular shapes, oval shapes, heart shapes...whatever YOUR heart desire. What would be really good to put in them are left over BBQs.

Here I have three different kinds. The triangular shaped Onigiri are filled with pickled plum called: umeboshi. Ball shaped Onigiris are filled with smoked salmons. The cylindrical shaped Onigiri has no fillings, just a dab of sesame seeds with bits of nori on the ends. I think the only reason my kids like this dish is it's simplicity in taste and you get to eat it with your fingers. Just like the Laos sticky rice.

Here's how you make these wonderful Onigiri!:

To make this Onigiri dish happen you'd need to use Japanese short/medium grain rice. It's sticky, fluffy, and sweet tasting. Any other kind of rice like jasmine, basamati, instant rice...etc. won't work. Well it will but won't taste as good or stick together as well.

For today's Onigiri I'm using smoked salmons, salted Japanese plums called Ume, and sesame seed with some small sliced nori. Japanese rice (of course!), salted water to wet your hands with while rolling the rice, and Nori to wrap around the rice balls.

First let the cooked rice cool to a temperature you're comfortable working with.
**Careful not to burn yourself with HOT rice**
Roll the rice into a palm size ball, my hands are small so its about two adults bites worth? I make them palm size because it makes it easier for the kids to eat. If you're going to make it for going out on a picnic you can make it larger. I like to make one shape for one kind of fillings. The round balls will have smoked salmons.

Then you press an indentation on the rice ball with your thumb and put a small filling in it. Then close the rice into the indentation and roll to make a smooth rice ball.

For the small balls (giggles!) I cut the nori in half.

Wrap the halved nori around the rice ball. Yeah...one down many more to go.

Next we will make the triangular shaped Onigiri with Ume inside. It is the same process as for the salmons above. But you'd want to use the whole nori not the halved nori...then you put them between your fingers and thumb and shape it into a triangle.

Ta-Da!!!!

We are hosting a Japanese student this spring semester and in this picture she is showing you how to make the Large Onigiri triangles. You put the large ball on a palm of your hand and you press down with the other hand ontop. Keep on rotating and pressing down until you get a tight structure.

YIPPIE! So Pretty. Looks like the rice ball is wearing a Kimono.
I forgot to mention, you'd want to use two sheets of Nori for the Large triangle.

I've opted to not show you how to make the plain cylindrical Onigiri, assuming that you've got the idea. Have fun making this and Enjoy!

There's no Pun about it.

2009-05-31T10:42:00.001-07:00

In Laos there's a dish called "Pun" it means--lettuce wraps. This is a fun, light, and cool dish to eat on a warm day. You can put just about any vegetables and herbs on your Pun. The trick is you need to have these main ingredients. Lettuce of course, a sweet dipping sauce, and vermicelli rice noodles. Then you can mix those main ingredients with just about any varieties of herbs, vegetables, and a protein dish (meat, tofu, fish..etc.). Today I've made stir-fry beef and eggrolls. I've also made a vegetarian Pun as well with stir-fry Tofu.

For the stir-fry beef you'd want:
1/2 lb. beef
1 TBS Mirin
1 TBS Oystersuace
2 Garlic

1. Thinly slice the beef and marinate it with Mirin, oyster sauce, and garlic.
(If you don't have Mirin you can use 1/2 TBS sugar)
2. Then on a hot frying pan fry the beef. On high heat until done.
For the vegetarian version replace the meat with tofu. Also replace the oyster sauce with either vegetarian oyster flavored sauce or dark soy sauce.

This Pun has sweet dipping sauce called "Nam Jeem" with grounded roast peanuts, I will post recipe at a later date. The sauce is surrounded with stir-fry beefs, eggrolls (I'll post recipe later), Vietnamese cilantro, regular cilantros, mints, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, and cooked rice vermicelli noodles. Of course this dish is called Pun so it won't be complete without lettuce to wrap up all the ingredients!
**Herbs and lettuces are from our backyard garden**

The proper way to eat it is to take a bite size piece of lettuce leaf. Pile in small bits of all the ingredients on top of it. Then wrap it up and dip it into the sauce and Enjoy!

For those who are lazy like my Husband. You could mix them all together and pour the sauce over the dish. This would be something similar to the Vietnamese version of Bun (pounced: boon).

For those vegetarian we have stir-fried tofu that we've marinated in our mirin, garlic, and dark soy sauce. My son does not like the sweet sauce that I made for this dish, because its got fish sauce in it. So he just eat it like it is now with no sauce. Still yummy!

Macho Nacho & Hamburger.

2009-05-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Don't we all have those days when we just crave for a certain food? Well today was that day for me. I had a huge craving for some Nachos salads, my husband didn't want any and neither did my kids. But I want it!! And I wasn't about make two separate meals without an excuse. What to do? What to do?

In desperation I stuck my head into the refrigerator and pulled everything that looked edible out. Searching for left overs or simple meals I could just heat up for the family and then have the excuse that there's not enough food and that...Oopse I guess I'll have to make myself a Nachos salad.

Ah..ha! I found some beef patties that needs to get eaten, and only enough for two people! I searched the freezer to see if I had any buns...and yes I do. This is what I made.

Grilled beef patties with salt and pepper as seasoning. Melted cheese, lettuce, cucumber slices (my kids don't like pickles), onion slices, tomatoes, and smother the burger with lots of curry ketchup . Served with carrot strips.

Oh yes! Nachos salad! Nachos topped with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, black beans, cheese, thinly sliced carrots, sour cream, and pickled jalapenos!

My six year old vegetarian son did not want to eat Nachos...so he ended up just eating: Carrots, cucumbers, cheese, lettuce, and sour cream salad?

I'm not a Hobbit.

2009-05-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

I'm assuming most of us had read the book by J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit"...either in high school or in middle school. I fell asleep a few times while reading it, because of the authors long narration of simple events. Maybe I should re-visit the book and see if my view now differs?

Anyhow, I brought this up because today I went out foraging for some wild lemon balms. Every time I go out to gather herbs to dry for tea I think about the first few chapters from the book "The Hobbit". I run the sequence of when Bilbo Baggins is in his kitchen making tea for Gandalf. Of how he takes the lose tea and puts them in a tea bag and pour hot water over them to steep them. Why? I only wish I knew! The memory of these scenes just pops up every time!

I've picked a small lunch bag full of Lemon Blams and I'm going to dry them along with some of my garden mints. Then I'll store them for later use. Also I will brew up a cup of Lemon Blam-mint tea and have a nice cold ice-tea, that would be lovely on this hot day.

Behind our backyard is a very nice park away from the street with a small trail. Lots of wild edible plants grow along the trail.

Oh yeah! A large batch of Lemon Blam plants growing under a tall tree.

Please take note that before you ever go out to forage for edible greens. Make sure you can 100% identify the plant in question.

I dry them on the Food Dehydrator tray, but I won't use the machine. Since it's nice out I'll let them dry naturally. Saves energy and money! Very important!

Here's how you make Lemon Blam-mint ice tea.
1. Bruise the leaves by rubbing them together.
2. Boil hot water and steep the leaves for a few minutes.
(or you can use 1/2 TBS of dried mixed leaves.)
3. I use Agava as sweetener, but you can use sugar or honey.
4. Let the tea cool for a bit then pour over ice.

Ahhhh! A Refreshing afternoon tea!!

First Blog.

2009-05-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! This is my first blog and I don't really know what to write about. I've been bombarding my friends and families on facebook with my gardening activities and cooking postings. Then I figured I don't want to annoy them anymore. Thus I've created this blogspot and those who are interested can come here to read all about it. This also gives me the opportunity to go into extensive details about my many frugal projects. This will also give me more room to post recipes and step by step instructions, from my many food dishes that people's been wanting. Yes I have MANY things going on in my life. :-)

I love cooking, eating, and trying out different ethnics food. My favorites are Korean, Laos/Thai, Vietnamese, and Indians. Note they are all spicy foods. :-) We also have picky eater in our house my husband and 2 year old son...and one 6 year old who had decided to be vegetarian. Our vegetarian son decided a few weeks before he turned six that he don't want to eat meat anymore...and so far he's been a vegetarian for over 4 months. I'm proud of him and his decision especially at how responsible he is about it too...he has no problem with refusing foods with meat in it. So this makes my cooking a little bit more interesting. I also like to have colors in my dishes and I've been experimenting with different type of edible flowers. i.e. flowers from these plants...radish, broccoli, mustards, violas, pansys, apple blosom, cherry blosoms, arugula, various rose varieties.

In this picture we have one of my dinner dishes. Spinach Quiche (spinach from the garden) topped with my fast growing radishes (these guys matured in only 1 month!). Freshly picked salads sprinkled with some daikon flowers, arugula flowers, and mustard flowers. Yumm! Add my famous sesame dressing and you're in heaven. :-P

I'm new to gardening and I absolutely LOVE it! Every time I talked about gardening I get really excited and can go on about it forever. I also love listening to people as they talk about how they grow their own foods. I believe people are starting to see the light and are taking a step back in time. How did people survive without a grocery store back 200 years ago? I think everyone should have the knowledge to live with the land, even if we don't need to use it. It'll make us more secure to know that if we do need to, we can do it. I'm also an advocate for organic gardening and had been studying Masanobu Fukuoka style of farming. As a mom I am very concerened about what goes on my family's dinner table. And at the same time we are a single income family and it's not very frugal to buy all things organic and greens.

I have lots of pictures of my garden..from late February to now. I don't know if I should blog about how the garden began or my past food postings from Facebook? It might be too repetitive for some, but if you guys are interested I could post pictures of them and talk about it a little? Or we can just start it all fresh and new now...:-)

So....here we go...ENJOY!