Everyday Cooking: Spring Roll Wrapper Weekend

It was a Spring Roll wrapper weekend. 

Lumpia

Lumpia

Mix ground beef, egg, minced carrots, minced onions, salt and pepper for the filling. Put a small amount of the mixture onto a spring roll wrapper and roll. Deep fry. 

Very easy.

Chicken Tacos (using Spring Roll Wrapper)

Chicken Tacos Filling

Heat/ stir fry thinly sliced chicken breast fillet in little oil, salt and pepper. Set aside. Wrap cooked chicken and thinly tomatoes, onion, bell pepper and lettuce in cheese slices and spring roll wrapper. Bake for 10mins in 200C. Serve with hot sauce. 

Chicken Tacos

Everyday Cooking is my attempt on being awesome in the kitchen with my own versions of popular meals/ recipes using more or less 5 ingredients and simplifying the steps in my not so fancy kitchen. I do not count salt, pepper and water in the ingredients, which I assume, are ingredients that all kitchens have.  

Everyday Cooking: Arugula

I am not a vegetable eater. I just started to eat them regularly when I got pregnant. The need to provide the little one with important nutrients and vitamins prompted me to do the necessary -- loving to eat greens. Though I genuinely love broccoli.
So our grocery list would have at least 3 kinds of vegetables that I can cook in different ways/meals good for more or less a week. Always on our list is spinach. It is  packed with essential vitamins. So I don't mind if it is the only vegetable my little one eats. (I'll be over the moon if she finishes any meal with spinach) I also find it versatile and easy to prepare. I add it in soup,  saute it in garlic and butter, add it in pizza, mix it in meatballs, etc. Unfortunately, it has been almost a month that our local supermarket doesn't have spinach. I have to find an alternative for green leafy veggie. But since I'm no expert in vegetables (and unfamiliar with  language and local names of other produce), I'm just guessing what would be the best replacement to spinach from the choices of locally produced vegetables.

So I picked Gerger -- it's what the label says. (People will laugh if someone from my native land would hear that.) Without even looking it up on Google, I just add it to our usual menu like how I prepare Spinach. (I'm really clueless on these vegetable stuff. I need the internet to figure things out). If the meal turns out bad, we'll never gonna buy gerger again. Surprisingly, it is as good as spinach. Lucky me!
Gerger is actually the local name here for arugula or salad rocket. It is a nutritious green vegetable with Mediterranean origin. It is used in salads (raw), soups, pizza, pasta, frittata, etc. It is low in calorie has vitamins A, C, D and K, etc. According to Health and You,  arugula is packed with the B complex vitamins (thiamin, riboflavin, niacin) which is good for metabolic functions of the body. And it is also a good source of folate which is good for pregnant women to prevent neural tube defects in babies.It is safe and recommended to breastfeeding mothers too.

I got lucky in picking Gerger/ Arugula. I just found an alternative green leaf vegetable which has various use in cooking and also packed with vitamins my family needs.

Filipino Beef Stew in Clear Broth (my simpler version)

Filipino Beef Stew in Clear Broth (I used Arugula instead of Bokchoy  / Chinese Cabbage)

Boil beef cut into cubes in water, salt, few pieces of ginger and onion slices until tender, probably around 45mins.  You may add Knorr beef broth cubes to enhance taste. Add potatoes cut in cubes. Cook until potatoes are almost cooked. Add string beans and Arugula (or any green leafy vegetable of your choice). Simmer until all veggies are done. Add salt and pepper (preferably whole peppercorn). Done.

Everyday Cooking is my attempt on being awesome in the kitchen with my own versions of popular meals/ recipes using more or less 5 ingredients and simplifying the steps in my not so fancy kitchen. I do not count salt, pepper and water in the ingredients, which I assume, are ingredients that all kitchens have.  

Statement of Accomplishment: Child Nutrition and Cooking

Yay! Finally got a proof that I finished the course Child Nutrition and Cooking. (I'll download and print later)

I enjoyed this course so much and I look forward to cooking and connecting with people involved in this class. If you are interested, click the link : Just Cook

Child Nutrition and Cooking Homework 4: Homemade

I call this Taco Baskets (or Beds or Squares or Rectangles).  I've been craving for Tacos but there are no Mexican restaurants around where we currently live. So I'm making this one for our last cooking assignment.

You'll need:
(for the basket)
1 cup flour
1/3 cup water
1tbsp butter
1 tsp salt

(for the filling)
Shredded lettuce
Chopped onions
Chopped tomatoes
ground beef
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated/ sliced Cheese (for topping)

Mix all ingredients to make dough for the basket. Let the dough rest in fridge while chopping the veggies and pre-heating oven. You'll probably spend around 15mins for this.

Take out the dough from the fridge and flatten the dough into little rectangles as big as the baking dish you will be using. Grease lightly the baking dish and line it with the flattened dough. Bake for 10-12 mins at 200 C.

While baking the basket, cook ground beef in little oil for about 10mins. Season with salt and pepper.

When baskets are ready, fill them with the cooked ground beef, onions, tomatoes and lettuce. Top it with grated cheese.

You may put it back in the oven for another 8mins to make the cheese melt.

Serve and enjoy.

Child Nutrition and Cooking Homework 3: Dinner

I just realized, even without this online class I'm taking, I am already serving balanced/ healthy meal for my family. Though sometimes, when I'm lazy to cook or give in to salty and sweet cravings, we stir to the unhealthy direction.
Our cooking assignment this week is to cook a balanced dinner: at least one veggie, source of protein and carbohydrates. I was really planning to cook this for dinner: Broccoli with Shrimps in Oyster sauce paired with pan-fried tofu and steamed rice. So it was hitting 2 birds with one stone again -- homework and dinner done! 

Child Nutrition and Cooking Homework #2: Balanced Meal

Taking care of yourself and eating right should not be taken for granted as we just had another health scare this week. And incidentally, the topic for this week in my online class points that out. 

Our cooking assignment this week was to create a balanced meal (breakfast) -- protein, fruits and/or veggies and complex carbohydrates. Since the hubby was requesting this (ever since forever but I never made this one 'coz I am not a fan of it), I finally made omelet -- eggs with onions, tomato and bell pepper). It was actually good/okay for a first timer (to cook and eat it). I guess this will be on the menu more often. 

Child Nutrition and Cooking Homework 1 : Veggies

I made this for our first homework for an online course I'm taking. Our assignment was to cook a very appealing veggie feature dish. And this is what we usually have for dinner at least once a week. Sometimes, I use more veggies like, broccoli,  string beans, etc. But these are the only vegetables I have right now. I added shrimps too because we are trying to teach the little one to love seafoods. This recipe is similar to Chopsuey, a common vegetable dish in the Philippines.

Saute ginger, garlic and onion. Add shrimps. When shrimps are done, add little water (or broth). Add carrots and boil for a few minutes before adding the rest of the veggies. When the veggies are half cooked already, add oyster sauce. Simmer until all veggies are done. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bon appetit!