Roasted Pig or Lechon Baboy

I want to go home for the New Year but I can't. I miss my mother's homemade food and all I can do is to prepare different dish that reminds me of home. I am thinking of cooking noodles (pancit), egg roll (lumpia), humba, fruit salad, and look for 12 different fruits for the New Year.

My Mama already told me that they will be having a whole roasted pig for the New Year and other dishes. I miss eating lechon baboy. This picture is killing me, lol. I got this picture from my Uncle's profile in FB. Lastly, I would like to greet each one of you out there a very prosperous New Year! God bless us all.

Al Pastor

Al Pastor is one of my husband's favorite Mexican foods. Every time we crave for Mexican dish hubby always order the same dish. Al Pastor is a dish developed in Central Mexico and it can also be compared to a Shawarma who were brought by Lebanese immigrants in Mexico.

The meat is marinated up to three days with a combination of dried chili's and is slowly cooked with gas flame. The meat is tops with fresh pineapple, dice onion and cilantro leaves. The meat is put in a freshly made corn tortilla.  Here is a picture of the dish below! Try this out folks and you will never regret at all.

Pepperoni Pizza

Hubby decided to order some pizza for lunch and oh wow I super love Pepperoni Pizza. I have some Pork adobo left over from our dinner last night and I decided to eat one slice of pizza only and eat the rest of the left over all by myself. I am really pigging out, I have never been this hungry for a long time!

Sweet and Sour Pork

Well, it was about two weeks ago when I made the sweet and sour pork for our dinner. My friend Lexy visited us from out of town that is why I decided to cook the sweet and sour pork. Here are the lists of ingredients and procedures below.

Ingredients:

1 pound pork sirloin, cut them into cubes or bite size
1 big carrot
1 green bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1 medium size red onion
1 piece of egg, beaten
2 servings of sweet and sour sauce
1/2- 1 cup flour
2 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/2-1 cup of corn starch
cooking oil
water

Steps/Procedures:
1. Marinate the pork in a bowl with soy sauce. Marinate the meat for 30 minutes to 1 hour it depends on your choice.
2. Put the cooking oil in a pan and heat up
3. Mix the flour and corn starch in a plate
4. Dip the marinated meat in your cornstarch and flour mixture
5. Fry them in the heated cooking oil until brown. Set aside
6. In another pan, place the sweet and sour sauce
7. Place the carrots together with the heated sweet and sour for about 5 minutes and simmer
8. Place the onion, green bell pepper and red bell pepper into the pan together with the sweet and sour and carrots. Simmer for another 5 minutes or so
9. Make sure to add extra water to the sauce if needed so it won't dry up
10. Lastly, place the fried meat together with the sweet and sour sauce, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, onions and carrots
11. Cook for another 3-5 minutes
12. Serve with hot rice

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

I made the easiest dessert to make ever about two weeks ago when I have my visitors from church. I got this idea from a friend at work that  had made this before during lent. The ingredients are as follows:

1 pound of strawberries (about 15-20 strawberries with stems)
4-6 ounces of chocolates, chopped
1 cup of Baker's Dipping Chocolate (optional)

Procedures:

• Wash the strawberries and dried them well
• Put the chocolates in a heat proof bowls. 
• Fill the pan with water and bring to a boil.
• Put the chopped chocolates over the boiling water to melt
• Stir the chocolates thoroughly until smooth, remove from the heat
• Put a parchment or wax paper to a tray
• Dip the strawberry by the stems to the melted chocolate
• Repeat the procedures with the rest of the strawberries
• Refrigerate the chocolate covered strawberries for 10-15 minutes
• Serve cold

 Enjoy folks!

Biko

I always remember that my grandmother and my mother cooks Biko or Sweet Sticky Rice when we celebrate special occasion in the Philippines. Cooking Biko is easy. Here's my simple Biko recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups of sticky rice or glutinous rice
2 cups brown sugar
4 cups coconut milk
1/2 tsp salt
1  1/2 cups water

Cooking Procedures:
1. Combine the sticky rice and water in a rice cooker and cook until the rice is ready. You can also add water (when needed).
2. While cooking the rice, combine the coconut milk with brown sugar and salt in a separate pot and cook in low heat until the texture becomes thick. Make sure to stir constantly.
4. Once the rice is cooked and the coconut milk-sugar mixture is thick, add the cooked rice in the coconut milk and sugar mixture then mix well. Make sure that all liquids are evaporated but don't overcooked.
5. Transfer the Biko into a big plate and flatten them.
6. Serve hot!

Nilagang Baka

There are many ways on how to cook Nilagang Baka in the Philippines. My mother taught me how to cook this delicious meal at a tender age of nine. Well, here is my own recipe.


Ingredients:

1 pound of beef (cut into cubes or bite size)
2 big potatoes (cut into bit size)
3 small potatoes (cut crosswise)
celery (optional)
1 small size cabbage
soy sauce or fish sauce
scallions (optional)

Procedure:

1. Boiled the beef meat for 1 to 2 hours (until meat is tender)
2. When the meat is ready add the potatoes and carrots. Simmer for another 15 minutes or until vegetables are cook.
3. Add soy sauce or fish sauce to taste
4. Add cabbage and scallions
5. Serve hot.

Enjoy everyone!

Pork Afritada

Pork Afritada is one of the many popular dishes from the Philippines. I have made my Pork Afritada earlier this evening for our dinner and ta-dang.....it was a success. Below is the complete list of the ingredients.


Ingredients:

2 lbs pork, bite size
1 big potato, cut into wedges
1 big carrot, cut into wedges
dried bay leaves (optional)
2 can tomato sauce
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 ½ cups pork broth
1 big bell pepper, diced
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 cup onion, chopped
2 tbsp cooking oil
Salt

Procedures/Steps:

1. Heat the cooking oil and sauté the garlic and onions
2. Add the pork and sauté until the outer parts are cooked about five minutes or so
3. Add the bay leaves and tomato sauce then simmer for 5 to 10 minutes
4. Add the ground black pepper then pour-in the pork broth. Simmer for 40 minutes or until the meat is tender and cooked
5. Put the potato and carrots then simmer for another 7 minutes
6. Add the bell pepper and simmer it for another 3 minutes
7. Add salt to taste (optional)
8. Serve with rice or any side dishes of your choice.

Bistek Tagalog

 My first attempt to cook the Bistek Tagalog was a success. I would like to thank Panlasang Pinoy for the great recipe you share online to all the Filipino out there like me. Below are the ingredients that you need if you are interested in cooking this delicious dish.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 lb beef sirloin, slice thinly
• 1 piece lemon or 3 pieces limes
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 large onion, (slice into rings)
• 3 tbsp cooking oil
• salt (if needed)

Procedures:

1. Marinade beef in soy sauce, lemon (or limes), and ground black pepper for at least 1 hour. I marinade mine for 2 hours
2. Heat the cooking oil in a pan then stir fry the onion rings until the texture becomes soft. Set aside
3. In the same pan where the onions were fried, fry the marinated beef (without the marinade) until color turns brown. Set aside
4. Saute the garlic  for a few minutes
5. Pour the marinade back to the pan and let it boil
6. Put the fried beef and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until meat is tender. 
7. Add water as needed
8. Add the fried onions and some salt to taste (if needed)
9. Serve hot with rice

Humba

Humba is a popular dish that most Filipinos cook during special occasions such as fiesta, Christmas, birthdays, New Year and more. Listed below are the ingredients that you will need to have when you make this delicious meal called humba.

 Ingredients:

2 lbs pork belly
1 cup Pineapple juice
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons salted black beans
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 ½ tablespoons brown sugar
2 pieces dried bay leaves
1 teaspoon whole peppercorn
dried banana blossom (optional)

Procedures:

• Heat the cooking pot then brown the pork belly

•  Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are soft

• Put-in the soy sauce, peppercorn, bay leaves

• Pour-in the pineapple juice and let boil. Simmer until the pork is tender. You can also add water as needed.

•  Add the vinegar and wait for the mixture to re-boil. Simmer for 3 minutes

• Spoon-in the salted black beans and brown sugar then simmer for 5 minutes

•  Add the dried banana blossoms and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes (optional)

•   Transfer to a serving plate and serve with steam rice.

Ginataang Manok Sa Piña

 Actually this is my first try to cook Ginataang Manok sa Pina ( Chicken with Coconut Milk and Pineapple). I really love the result and I got the recipe from Kitchenomics.


Here are the lists of ingredients that you will need:

	1 piece large chicken, cut into bite size serving 1 can pineapple chunks (reserve the syrup) 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 medium onion 1 laurel left 1 piece green papaya 1 medium bell pepper, cut into stripes 1 cup coconut cream  1/2 teaspoon salt Steps: Marinate chicken in a mixture of pineapple syrup, garlic, onion, laurel left and 1/2 tsp iodized fine salt for at least 10 minutes. Place in a casserole or a pot. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the  papaya, bell pepper, Pineapple Chunks and coconut cream. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve hot or pair it with steam rice

Banana Pepper

 While strolling in the mall yesterday, I decided to eat at Subway. I have the $5 dollar foot long meatball bread and ask the lady to put pickled banana peppers on my bread. Actually, that was my first attempt to eat banana peppers and wow it's delicious.

Banana peppers are usually yellow in color but it can be also orange or red. They are typically sweeter compared to other type of peppers. I will definitely have banana peppers from now on.

I got the picture from Google image.

Foods that Contains Iron!

Iron is very important for our body because it will help creates red blood cells, muscular tissue and of course healthy bones. Iron also carries a life oxygen for human blood cells. Here are the lists:

• Soy Beans- it contains 4mg of iron in one half cup.

• Oysters- I eat oysters a lot and did you know that they contain 10 mg of iron for three ounces?
• Pumpkin seeds- it contains 4mg of iron per serving. So if you like eating them? Start it today.
• Spinach- I love my spinach salad so don't forget to get them every time you dine out. They contain the most iron.
• Cereal- it contains up to 21 mg of iron per serving. Make sure to start eating cereal either hot or cold today.

Got the image from Google search.

Mango Shake

My husband's folks will be here tomorrow from out of town and I am more than excited to treat them with my home made mango shake. The procedure is really easy and the ingredients aren't expensive. The ingredients are as follows:

4 ripe mango
4 tsp sugar (optional)
1 cup of milk (condense or evaporated)
crust ice


Steps:
1. Peel the mango, cut them into big cubes and put them on the blender.
2. Pour the milk and the sugar and grind them.
3. Serve chill.

Papaya

Papaya is one of my favorite fruit while growing up. There are many things that you can do with papaya. Papaya is not only a fruit but it can also be used as a vegetable. I remember that my mother always put papaya especially if she is cooking stew, curries or we also eat papaya for dessert.

The seeds are also good as substitute for black pepper. My aunt on the other hand, use papaya leaves to have a smooth and healthy skin by grounding the papaya leaves and rub against her body every time she took a shower.

Papaya is a great help if you have a problem with your bowel movement.