Japan Pack-Off!

Hello again! Now for this entry, I will talk about what I bought and packed for our Japan trip.

It is always a good idea to create a packing list, so you know what to prepare and won’t forget anything. A neat trick I learned if you don’t want to cram-pack on the last day before the trip is to have your suitcase ready and just dump 1-2 items in it each day.

# 1 thing to check at least 2-3 weeks before your trip is the country’s weather. I use AccuWeather whenever I check what the weather will be on our travel dates. This is important since you need to know what items to pack. You wouldn’t want to have the wrong wardrobe for a different season especially for countries that experience the 4 seasons. Since hubby, R wants to travel during winter season it’s automatic that our clothes are for the cold weather. To get wardrobe inspiration or ideas, I suggest using Pinterest since it will show you various internet results of your search keywords.

Here’s our packing list:

1. Basics
   • Travel aids – anything that you might need for the long wait or long trip (reading materials, gadgets, snacks, gum, etc).
   • Funds – the type of financial funding you will need for your trip (cash, credit/debit cards, manager’s check, etc).
   • Travel info – all necessary documents you need for your travel (passport, visa, plane tickets, other valid ids, itinerary, hotel reservations, etc)
2. Miscellaneous
   • Documents – copies of travel docs, etc
   • Bags – back pack, hand bag, etc
   • Laundry needs – laundry bag, sewing kit, etc
   • Miscellaneous – umbrella, keys, etc
   • Contacts – impt contact numbers, etc
   • Technology – mobile phone, power banks, laptop, etc
   • Work – work documents, anything related to your work, etc
3. Clothes
   • Basics – undergarment, sleepwear, etc
   • Dressy – pants, sweaters, skirts, etc
   • Outerwear – jackets, coats, etc
   • Casual – shirts, jeans, shorts, ect
   • Footwear – athletic shoes, leisure shoes, etc
   • Accessories – belts, watches, jewelry, etc
4. Hygiene
   • Facial
   • Hair
   • Body
   • Medicine/First-aid Kit
   • 

I used to travel with just hand carry baggage since I didn’t like waiting for my luggage at the baggage claim area. It was a good way to get ahead of the taxi queue. Since we travel most of the time to cold places, additional luggage space is needed for your bulky warm clothing. Given that it’s bulky it gets burdensome to carry them too, thus I started to buy prepaid baggage space. Usually suitcases are just thrown in the baggage area of the plane (even with the Fragile sticker on it!), I suggest to get suitcases that are not made of plastic so it won’t break due to the impact of being thrown around.

That’s it for now. Happy packing! 🙂

Day 3, 4 and 5 Meals

I’ve shared so far the Tuesday and Wednesday meals I’ve prepared this week. I’ve challenged myself to cook daily even after work. I was successful! 🙂

Here are other dishes I cooked over the last 3 days. These are easy and quick-to-cook food that even the busiest person can manage to do. I add vegetables to what I cook and I encourage you to do so too. At this time and age, eating healthy food is very important. The greener, the better!

(L-R) Pork sinigang, mackerel kimchi stew and veggie side dish

Pork sinigang
(From Pinoy Food Recipe app)

Ingredients:

2 lbs pork belly (or buto-buto)
1 bunch spinach (or kang-kong)
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 bunch string beans (sitaw), cut in 2 inch length
2 pieces medium sized tomato, quartered
3 pieces chili (or banana pepper)
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 liters water
1 large onion, sliced
2 pieces taro (gabi), quartered
1 pack sinigang mix (good for 2 liters water)
* you may also add okra and eggplant if desired

Cooking Procedure:

1. Heat the pot and put-in the cooking oil
2. Saute the onion until layers separate
3. Add the pork belly and cook until outer part turns light brown
4. Put-in the fish sauce and mix with the ingredients
5. Pour the water and bring to a boil
6. Add the taro and tomatoes then simmer for 40 minutes or until pork is tender
7. Put-in the sinigang mix and chili
8. Add the string beans (and other vegetables if there are any) and simmer for 5 to 8 minutes
9. Put-in the spinach, turn off the heat, and cover the pot. Let the spinach cook using the remaining heat in the pot.
10. Serve hot.

Mackerel kimchi stew
(From http://www.beyondkimchee.com/mackerel-pike-kimchi-stew/)

Ingredients

1 can of Mackerel Pike, reserve 1/4 cup of juice and drain the rest
2 cups diced kimchi
1 teaspoon sugar, optional
1 tablespoon grape seed or canola oil
1 onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1-1/2 tablespoon Korean chili flakes
1-2 tablespoon Korean say sauce for soup
3 tablespoon kimchi juice
1-1/2 cup water, or more
1 of each green and red chilies, sliced, optional
1 green onion, chopped for ganish
Directions

In a small bowl, combine 1/4 cup of canned mackerel juice with garlic, ginger, Korean chili flakes, and soy sauce. Add the kimchi juice and combine well. Set aside.
Heat grape seed oil in a shallow pot over medium heat and fry kimchi for 5 minutes until they get somewhat soft. (Add 1 teaspoon sugar if your kimchi is too sour)
Add canned fish and onion to the pot and drizzle the chili garlic sauce over. Pour water to barely over everything. You might nee a little more.
Bring to boil and cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Taste the stew and season more with soy sauce if you need.
Add the chilies, if using, and cook for 1-2 more minutes. Garnish with green onion. Serve hot with rice.

Roasted Broccoli with Garlic
(From http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2006/02/weekend-herb-blogging-21-garlicroasted.html)
(Makes about 4 servings, recipe adapted from The Food Network.)

Ingredients:
1 bunch broccoli, about 1 1/2 pounds, cut into bite sized flowerets
2 carrots
3 T extra virgin olive oil
6-8 cloves fresh garlic (or more, I used about 12 cloves)
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Instructions:
Cut broccoli into bite sized pieces, and peel and slice stems if large. Slice garlic cloves, and cut slices in half if you want thinner pieces of garlic. (I don’t usually do that any more.)

Toss broccoli with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper, then roast in medium heat. Roast until broccoli is bright green and edges are starting to brown slightly, 20-25 minutes. Serve hot.

Enjoy eating healthy! 🙂

Newbie Cook!

I’ve been practicing my cooking for some time now. Since both my hubby and I work at night and spend more than 9 hours in the office, I become too tired to cook. Unfortunately, we end up ordering from the cafe in our village or worse order fast-food. I worry about the nutrients or lack of it from the food we eat and vowed to try my best to cook food. Hubby is so far happy and pleased with my cooking that one time I got too busy at work to cook, he said that he missed my cooking already. 🙂

I get cooking ideas from Pinterest. I pin recipes I want to try next time. I have tried recipes that I never thought I could do before. From Filipino to Korean dishes! I looked up dishes that can be cooked in a short time, since it’s ideal for someone like me who has little to no time at all.

Ever since hubby said he missed my dishes, I planned on cooking again even on weekdays after work. We went to the grocery last weekend and I bought ingredients for recipes I’ve decided to do this week. I have lined up in my list samgyeopsal, pork steak, sinigang, adobo, friend porkchops and a lot of vegetable side dishes.

Today I am sharing 2 dishes I’ve cooked for the last 2 days. Credits go to the Pinoy Recipes app and Pinterest that helped me cook these wonderful meals! You can make adjustments to the recipe and amount of ingredients you will use to your own liking. 🙂

Samgyeopsal
From: http://unitedkpop.com/2014/06/friday-foods-samgyeopsal/

Ingredients:

– 4lbs of pork belly, sliced
– sesame oil
– 6 tbsp soybean paste
– 4 tbsp hot chili paste
– 1 garlic clove, minced
– 1 spring onion, sliced
– a dozen perilla leaves (or lettuce)

Step 1: In a bowl, mix the soybean paste, hot chili paste, garlic, spring onions and 3 tbsp of sesame oil.

Step 2: Add sesame oil to a pan or grill and cook the pork slices, flipping it over to make sure both sides are cooked.

Step 3: Once the pork slices are cooked, place a slice onto a perilla leaf and drizzle the sauce (from step 1) onto the pork.

Step 4: Roll the leaf, and you’re ready to eat! If you don’t like the perilla leaf, then go ahead and use lettuce.

Pork Steak
From: Pinoy Recipe app

Ingredients:

4 to 5 pieces pork chops
5 tablespoons soy sauce
2 pieces lime or 1 piece lemon
1/2 cup cooking oil
2 medium onions, sliced
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking procedure:

1. Combine pork chops, soy sauce, and lime juice in a large bowl or container. Marinade for at least 1 hour.
2. Heat a pan then pour-in cooking oil.
3. Pan-fry the marinated pork chops in medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes per side.
4. Remove excess oil. Pour-in the remaining marinade and water and let boil. Simmer for 45 minutes or until the pork is tender. Note: Add water as needed.
5. Add-in the sugar, salt, and pepper then stir.
6. Put-in the onions and cook for 3 minutes more.
7. Turn-off heat and transfer to a serving plate.