Pork Tenderloin with Stir Fry Vegetables

                   Pork tenderloin is considered to be the most tender cut of pork. It’s typically sold packaged in pairs. The tenderloin is about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter and from 10 to 12 inches long. It has little fat so will it dry out quickly if cooked too long. The quick cooking of stir-frying is ideal for tenderloin. Since tenderloin is somewhat expensive, serving it with stir-fried vegetables stretches the meat further. Last night I marinated the tenderloin with a bottle of Lawry’s Teriyaki. Just to add some more flavor to it. And here is what I came up with.

 

Pork Tenderloin with Stir Fry Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 1- 1 1/2 lb Pork Tenderloin, cubed
• 1 medium onions, sliced
• 1 Red Bell Pepper, julienned
• 1 can of Water chestnut
• 1 can of Baby Corn
• 1 cup of frozen Broccoli
• 1 cup frozen Fava Beans
• 1 cup Snap Peas, trimmed
• 1/2 cup Carrots, julienned
• Salt
• 1/4 cup Lawry’s Teriyaki
• Black Pepper

Preparations:

1. Heat the pan with 2 tbsp. cooking oil. Brown the Pork. About 10 minutes.
2. Put the onions. Stir fry it for about 2 minutes.
3. Add all the vegetables.
4. Add the Lawry’s teriyaki. Seasoned with salt and pepper.
5. Stir-fry it in medium heat for about 10-15 minutes.
6. Serve with white rice or just this!
7. Enjoy!

I added a little of water because I wanted to have some sauce to put in my white rice! This is one version of my stir-fry. And I will share some more recipes for the stir-fry!

 

Taco Salad

I supposed to post this yesterday. But I got caught up biking! It was really nice out yesterday. And it’s officially spring! Yay! Yesterday is 83° F. We went to the store to look some palm trees. I want to start planting. But there’s really a few selection of plants and flowers. I saw a lot of daffodils and tulips.  Here is some pictures I took yesterday!

Yesterday for dinner I made some Taco salad. The taco salad is a Mexican inspired dish, with many variations. The salad is often served as a fried flour tortilla shell stuffed with shredded iceberg lettuce and topped with diced tomatoes, shredded Cheddar cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. The salad is topped with taco meat (ground beef) or seasoned shredded chicken. The salad may also have a base of refried beans on the shell before the lettuce is added.

Variations include a similar salad served without the tortilla base and a “bowl” of Spanish rice and refried beans dressed out with similar ingredients. The taco salad also takes a twist in many American homes. Instead of using a tortilla or a bowl of Spanish rice as a base, the meal is based on top of crushed tortilla chips, making the dish very similar to the Mexican dish of nachos, just with added lettuce . Taco Salad comes together easily. This is my version of the Taco salad. I think I do this backwards.

Taco Salad

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1lb Lean Ground Beef
• 12 pcs cherry tomatoes , cut in 4 pieces or you can use 4 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 small red onions, diced
• 3 cups shredded iceberg lettuce or romaine , whichever you prefer
• 1/2 cup Black Olives, sliced
• 20 pieces Thin Tortilla
• 20 pieces Tortilla
• 20 Pieces Nachos Doritos
• 1 Packet Taco Bell Taco Seasosing
• Taco Bell Sauce
• Taco Bell Salsa
• Guacamole
• Sour Cream
• 1 1/2 cup Grated Cheddar Cheese or Mexican Mix Cheese

PREPARATIONS:

1. Brown the meat in the skillet.  About 10 minutes. Then drain. Pour in the Taco Bell Seasoning.
2. Mix together the diced tomatoes and sweet red onion together. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put some oregano or fresh cilantro.
3. Then, assembles the 3 types of chips in the bottom of the plate.
4. Sprinkle some cheese on the chips.
5. Turn on the oven on Broil.
6. Put 1/2 cup of the ground cooked meat on the chips.
7. Put 2 tbsp of Guacamole and  2 tbsp of Sour Cream
8. 2 tbsp or more depends on your liking, of  the salsa
9. Top with 1 1/2 cup of the shredded lettuce.
10. Tops with sliced black olives and tomatoes and onions mixtures.
11. Put 1/2 cup of the cheese .
12. Put the plate in a cookie sheet. Broil it for 1-2 minutes or until the cheese is melted.
13. Serve and it!

EEnjoy!

 

Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Cranberry and Apricot Sauce

After being in the hospital for awhile and I doesn’t have so much energy to do things. Just laying in bed. Wasting another beautiful day.
I noticed that Spring is already here in Wisconsin. We have the record high of 81 degrees today! The grass are turning all green. Every morning I hear the birds chirping again.Enjoying the beautiful weather. The breeze that gently caress your skin. When it starts to get hot I don’t cook a lot heavy meal. I always prefer a very light meal. Salads! Pasta Salad! I grill a lot! So today I decided to cook a pork roast but I don’t want to turn on the oven. It gonna heat up the whole house. So I grabbed my slow cooker and put the roast in there. Here is the recipes for today.

Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Cranberry and Apricot Sauce

 

 

Ingredients:

• 3- 4lbs Pork Roast
• 1 can Whole Cranberry Sauce
• 1 can Apricot (save the juice)
• 6 small potatoes cut in halves
• 1 medium onions diced
• 5 pcs dried apricot
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp dried ground mustard
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp oil

Preparations:

1. Brown the pork roast in the pan. Spray some oil in the bottom of the slow cooker.
2. Put the potatoes halves in the bottom of the cooker.
3. Mix the cranberry sauce, apricot with the juice,dried apricot and onions. Mix it well until it looks like a relish.
4. In  a small bowl mix all the dried ingredients. Salt ,black pepper, dried mustard, cayenne pepper.
5. Sprinkle the dried ingredients on the cranberry mixtures. Mix well.
6. Put the roast on top of the potatoes.
7. Pour the mixture on the roast.
8. Cook it for  7-9 hours  on low, depends on your cooker.
9. Serve and Enjoy.

The longer you cook the roast, the tastier it gets. And its really worth of waiting! And the smell of the cranberries and apricots in the air made me hungry. It always amazed me that when I cooked, it always take a long time, and they will finish eating it in less than 10 minutes! You can serve it with steam vegetables or you can mashed the potatoes and pour the sauce on top! Hope you enjoy it. Happy eating!

 

 

 

Wasp Stung! oOOh boy it hurts!

Awwww…. If you have noticed that I’m MIA on my blog this past few days. For the reasons that I got stung by a wasp. This is my first time that I got stung, and boy it hurts. I don’t know if I’m allergy or not, but soon enough I noticed that I can’t breath. My daughter called the 911. And she helped me put some ice and alcohol. I still can’t believe it that I got stung by a wasp. They kept me for 5 days at the hospital. Just to make sure that I’m fine and the yellowjacket venom was out of my system. And thank God I’m fine now. But I just wanted to update my blog and share whats going on. Russ took a pictures of the wasp. I thought it’s a bee the first time. So looking back when it happened, I was wearing a bright orange t-shirt! So I thought maybe the wasp thought that my back is a flower! LOL…. I’ll be back to share my daily cooking and activities!

With a wonderful weather outside, I’m laying down in bed trying to get some rest. Enjoy the nice weather!

Chili Corn and Red Capsicum Soup

Two weeks ago, my family got a flu! All of us was suffering from cough and cold. And I don’t feel like doing anything. I don’t have the energy to cook. But I need to. So inspite of being sick. And I want to cook some soup and something light. So I raid my fridge and see what stuff do I have on hand. I found a bunch of red capsicum, corn, eggplants, okra, green beans, cilantro, etc! I figure I can make some corn soup, but corn soup is not really inviting my appetite. And I finally decided to try to make some Chili Corn and Red Capsicum and let me tell you in my opinion is a success! Very easy it took 30mins to cook or less! This recipe yield 4 servings. And  the cooking time is 30mins.

Chili Corn and Red Capsicum Soup

Ingeredients

• 2 Red Capsicum (bell pepper) ,dice
• 4 corn on a cob or 2 cups of frozen corn
• 2 tablespoon fresh cilantro, finely chopped  or 2 dash of dried cilantro
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups vegetables stock
• 2 cups water
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 small red chili, finely chopped or
• 2 oz of butter
• 1 cup of shredded mozzarella (optional)
• 1 tablespoon flour

 

Preparations:

1. Cut the kernels off the corn cobs.
2. Heat the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the corn kernels, red capsicum, onion and chili and stir to coat the vegetables in the butter.
3. Cook covered over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
4. Increase the heat to medium and add the  cilantro. Cook , stirring, for 30 seconds or until fragrant.
5. Sprinkle with the flour and stir for a further minute.
6. Remove from the heat and gradually add the vegetable stock, stirring together.
7. Add the water and return to the heat.
8. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmered covered for 10-15 minutes or until.
9. Cool slightly.
10. Ladle about 2 cups of the soup into the blender and puree until smooth.
11. Return the puree to the soup in the saucepan, pour in the cream and gently heat until warmed through.
12. Poured the shredded mozzarella.
13. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
14. Sprinkle with cilantro leaves to serve.
15. Serve with grilled cheese or pitta bread.

                                                    

I’ve been writing this blog since the other day. And I finally finished it! I’ve been out doing some grocery shopping for the last 2 days. I’m trying to stock up on some essentials items that my family need! With the price of gas going up, I don’t need to go to the store more often than I should!

Have a great day everyone!

 

 

A Fruitful Day

I’m so sleepy when I got up this morning. I found out that the daylight saving time took place. We lost another an hour sleep. Inspite of being sleepy and tired I need to get up and make some breakfast and get ready to go to church. I was at church at 8:55 am normally I’m still sleeping that time. Church is an hour long. And after the service I attended a small group that is discussing the Purpose driven of life. And there’s a lot of things I discovered. It really stands out the question ” why on earth I’m here for?” I don’t know really my purpose in life, in this world. It got me thinking. So after an hour I went back home. I’m still tired. I lay down in the couch and starting watching the race. But I can concentrate on what I’m watching. I decided to read more on the book of the purpose driven of life. And I’m in a deep thought. Im asking myself why I’m here? What is my purpose in my earthly life? And I can’t answer that. Do you ever asked yourself these questions? I decided to do the 40 days spiritual journey and find what are the 5 purpose of my life here on earth. With all the things going on in our world. Im afraid. Not only for myself but also for my family. For the next 40 days I’m gonna share to you guys my spiritual journey.

” You were made by God and for God, and until you understand that, life will never make sense.”

Busy Day

Today was a busy day for me. I started to do some spring cleaning. I did clean my pantry. Organize it a little bit. And I clean the patio. Put the chairs. And I did put the plants outside, outside is warm and sunny. And you can tell that spring is coming soon. Last fall I didn’t plant some tulip. I wish I did. But schedules is so hectic and I didn’t have time to plant some. So I’m gonna figure out what flowers and other plants that I’m gonna plant. I was sitting on the patio, while sipping some Brachetto, is my favorite red Italian wine grape variety grown predominantly in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. I love the sweetness taste of it! Looking back in time. Remembering some of the good memories. Here I am 2 years ago in front of the Colesseo.

I made some Bruschetta to go along with my red wine. Bruschetta is an antipasto or appetizer. It  consists of roasted bread rubbed with garlic and topped with extra-virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Variations may include toppings of spicy red pepper, tomato, vegetables, beans, cured meat, or cheese; the most popular recipe outside of Italy involves basil, fresh tomato, garlic and onion or mozzarella. Bruschetta is usually served as a snack or appetizer. This is very easy dish. And I know you gonna love it!

Bruschetta

• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 whole cloves of Garlic
• 5 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
• 1 pint Red Grape Tomatoes, Halved Lengthwise ( I used Roma tomato, because that’s what I have on hand. But I usually make it with Grape tomato)
• 1 Tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
• 10 whole Basil Leaves ,chiffondale
• Salt And Pepper To Taste
• 1 whole Baguette
• 6 Tablespoons Butter

Preparations:

In a small skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic and stir, lightly frying for about a minute, removing before the garlic gets too brown (it can be golden.) Pour into a mixing bowl and allow to cool slightly.

Add tomatoes, balsamic, basil, and salt and pepper to the bowl. Toss to combine.

Cover and refrigerate for an hour. The longer the better. It will worth a wait.

Cut the baguette into diagonal slices to allow for the most surface area possible. Melt half the butter in a large skillet and grill half the bread on both sides, making sure they’re nice and buttery. Cook till golden brown on both sides. Rub the whole garlic into toasted buttery bread. To add a little more flavors.

Repeat with the other half of the butter and the other half of the bread.

To serve,

Stir the tomato mixture again. And put a generously amount.

Serve on a big platter .

And enjoy!

Fresh Spring Roll

Spring is coming! Yay! And I’m so thrilled about it. Sun shining, warm weather. Ohhh how I love spring. So today I made this wonderful and very light dish. You can eat it as a snack or dinner. Fresh spring rolls or Lumpiang Sariwan in my native tongue is a  vegetable dish composed of different vegetables with a soft (unfried) wrapper garnished with sweet sauce and crushed peanuts. Some popular variations of this dish are made with heart of palm. Heart of Palm is very hard to find here in my area. So I substitutes the heart of palm to Jicama, that is easy to find. My local store carry it all the time. So it’s very  handy.  The crunch and sweetness from Jicama, add another texture  and flavor to the dish. And its really blended to all ingredients. And the touch of the crush peanuts on top of the sauce add another great taste. I really love this dish. And I hope you will too! 🙂

Try this delactable Fresh Spring Rolls.

Ingredients:

Filling:

2 cups cabbage, shredded

1 ½ cup carrots, julienned

1 whole Jicama, julienned

½ cup water

½ cup peanuts, crushed

6 pieces Lettuce leaves

½ lb chicken breast, strip about ¼ inch

1 pack extra firm tofu, sliced in strips (optional)

1 cup shrimp, shelled and deveined

2 cups green beans,sliced diagonally

1 medium sized onions, chopped

3 tbsp garlic, minced

2 chicken cubes

1 package of Spring Rolls Wrappers, you can find this on the Asian store. (or recipes as follow.)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Wrapper

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 pieces raw eggs

2 tbsp cooking oil

½ tsp salt

1½ cups milk

Sauce

1 tbsp soy sauce

½ cup brown sugar

2 cups water

1 tbsp garlic, minced

2 tbsp corn starch (diluted in 4 tbsp water)

Preparations:

 Cook the Filling

 In a heated pan, pour-in the cooking oil then sauté the garlic and onions. Add the chicken breast and cook until color turns light brown
Put-in the pork cube and add ½ cup water then simmer until pork is tender
Add the shrimps and sweet potatoes and cook for 5 minutes or until potatoes are soft

 Add the tofu and cook for a few minutes

 Put-in the carrots, and string beans then mix with the other ingredients
Add the cabbage and let cook for 5 minutes
Set aside

Make the wrapper

In a mixing bowl, crack the eggs and beat
Add the milk while beating

Put in the salt and all-purpose flour then mix thoroughly

Add the vegetable oil and mix well
Turn the stove on to medium heat and put the non-stick pan in place
Spray the pan with oil or grease with butter
Pour-in the wrapper mixture (about half a cup) and tilt the pan to distribute the liquid evenly
Cook until the top part of the mixture is dry (about 2 minutes)
Using a spatula, remove the cooked mixture and place in a flat plate. Set aside

Make the sauce

In a saucepan, pour the water and bring to a boil
Add the brown sugar
Put some salt and soy sauce then mix well
Dilute the cornstarch in water and pour in the saucepan.
Cook until the sauce becomes thick. Set aside.

Wrap the filling

Place the wrapper in a plate then place a lettuce leaf in the middle top part of the wrapper.

Put some of the julienned Jicama at the same height of the lettuce leaf.
Spoon the filling and place in the middle of the wrapper (over the lettuce leaf)
Close the wrapper by folding the lower part first then roll the sides until the filling is sealed

Pour the sauce over the Fresh Spring Rolls and garnish with crushed peanuts and minced garlic.

Serve. Share and Enjoy!

Pasta with Shrimp Scampi

Over the course of my stay in Italy. I learned a lot of things. Cooking simple meal that doesn’t require fancy ingredients. Pasta is one of my favorite dish.  Shrimp is one of my favorite food. I could say, I can eat shrimp everyday.  I decided to make Shrimp Scampi with Linguine smothered with butter and garlic sauce. The Shrimp scampi is really easy to make and it came it together in no time.  The little heat from the red chili pepper really helps and adds a lot of flavor to the dish. The touch of lemon and parsley makes it very light and fresh. And I made some bruschetta too! My family love this appetizers. And I’m sure you do too! So sit back and relax and let me share you what I made for tonights dinner!
Pasta with Shrimp Scampi

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Spaghetti ( I don’t have linguini pasta)
• 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced ( I added 2 more cloves because we love the taste of garlic)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoons lemon zest.
• a pinch of red chili pepper flakes
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Salt to taste

Directions:

• Start cooking the pasta as directed on package.
• Heat the oil and melt the butter in a pan over medium heat.
• Add the red chili pepper flakes and garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
• Add the shrimp and saute until cooked, about 1-3 minutes per side.
• Remove the shrimp from the pan.
• Add the wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil.
• Simmer the liquid until reduced by about half, about 3-5 minutes.
• Add the butter, wait for it to melt and turn off the heat.
• Add the shrimp, pasta and parsley and toss to coat.
• Salt and Pepper  to taste.
• Serve and Enjoy

Succulent sauteed shrimp in a buttery lemon and white wine sauce that is surprisingly quick and easy to make. Enjoy!

Pork Empanadas

Moving from the Philippines to Italy 13 years ago started my adventures in my life. But I left behind a lot of things that I’m accustomed to. The simple way of living, FOODS that I love! I was in Italy for 10 years and I learn a lot of things. Their culture. The way of  living. And I love it. But then I needed to move out again. And settle here in the US. For 3 years now  I lived here in the US and there’s a lot of things that I’m still learning. So during the course of my moving I’m craving to a lot of foods that I usually eat! And one of them is Empanada, from my hometown. I remember when I was a kid, there’s a store near our house, who always has a hot fried empanadas. And it’s the best!

For those who’s not aware about the Empanada here’s a link to Wikipedia.The actual process of making the empanadas, though, is not overly difficult. The dough, for instance, comes together quickly and requires no resting time.  Similarly, the filling of pork, potato and spices cooks quickly, but it does need time to cool. So we must be aware of this. Before making empanadas. And remember, Empanadas is not for a quick meal. There’s a various stages of preparations. If you use this recipe to make Empanadas, I suggest to roll the dough thinner than you thought it need to. So this is a Filipino Pork Empanada. A Spanish influenced dish that always been a favorite in parties and as a snack. Filippino empanadas can be sweet or savory and usually deep fried because most of Filipinos doesn’t have an oven at home.

PORK EMPANADA

FILLING:

• 1lb ground Pork
• 1 medium onion minced
• 3 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 1/2 cup of Potatoes diced
• 1 1/2 cup of Carrots
• 1 cup of Green Peas
• 1/2 cup of Raisins
• 1 tsp of Salt ( or more , it depends on how you like your food)
• 1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil
• 4 Hard Boiled eggs cut in 8 pcs
• 1 tablespoons Chicken Granules
• 1/2 cup of water

CRUST:

• 3 cups Flour
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• 6 tablespoons water, cold
• 1 piece raw Egg
• 1 cup Butter, cold
• 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt

PREPARATIONS:

COOKING THE FILLING

In the heated pan, pour the cooking oil and allow to heat-up. Saute the garlic until golden brown and fragrant. Add in the onions. Add the ground pork and cook it until the colors turns brown. About 5 minutes. Then add the potato, and carrots. Saute for 2 minutes and then add the chicken granules and the 1/2 cup of water and let it simmer  for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add the greens peas, raisins, and sugar and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Sprinkle salt and pepper. Turn off the heat. Drain the excess liquid and set it aside. Let it cool. At least 1 hour.

So when you know that the filling is cold. You can starts making the dough for the crust.

MAKING THE DOUGH

In a mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients. Flour, sugar,baking powder and salt. Then mix well. Cut the butter into small thin pieces place in the mixing bowl with the dry ingredients.(the butter should be cold and solid before doing this).

Add water gradually and mix all the ingredients thoroughly until a dough is formed. You may use a pastry blender to easen the process.

Divide the dough into individual pieces by grabbing a piece from the whole mixture and rolling it in your hand until a spherical shape is formed. Set aside in a cool place for at least 20 minutes

Flatten the spherical dough py pressing it with your palm against a flat surface. Use a rolling pin to flatten it fully while creating a round shape.

Place 1 1/2  tablespoons of filling at the middle of the flattened dough. A piece of hard boiled eggs. Fold the dough so that opposite ends meet (you should have formed a half moon shaped dough)then press the edges and seal.

Crack the egg and separate the white from the yolk. Beat the egg whites and add some water. This is our egg wash, if we are baking them. Glaze the crust by brushing the eggs wash.

Put wax paper on the baking tray  or grease it. Then arrange the empanadas in to the pan.

Pre-heat oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Bake the sealed doughs for 25 minutes at the same temperature.

If you decide that you want to deep fried it. Just make sure the oil is hot. And deep fried it until golden brown.

              So the first time I made the Empanadas, I baked it. And then, the following day, I made another batch and I deep fried it. And I like the deep fried version the best. The flakiness of the crust really came out. And it melts in your mouth.

I hope you guys enjoy this recipes as I did. And thanks for stopping by.