Healthy and better?? cooking...

So.  After tasting my friend's spinach smoothie and another spinach smoothie at the meeting on Healthy food (both were yummy, not the one w/tabasco!!), I was finally motivated enough to make my own. 
Here's what it is.

I liked it.  Maybe because I had a cold and couldn't taste anything.  haha  Anyway.  I put a handful of spinach(tip on how to freeze spinach, go here), one apple, and one banana.  Kids all had some and said it tasted like banana juice.  Great.  Maybe I will add some blueberries or something to make it more brown looking.  Is it more appetizing green or brown??  I don't know. 

I was talking to my mom on the phone and this is what she taught me.

They have this 8 categories they try to have dish from.  Kind of like acronym is used and here's the list.

Beans, Sesame seed, Dairy, Sea weed, Vegetable, Fish(meat), Mushroom, Potato group

She was trying to make every meal out of those 8 categories- at least she was trying hard to take one from each a day.  Forget it.  Here's my thought.

*Beans-I barely eat beans.  I guess Tofu will do some days. 

*Sesame seed??-  Sprinkle on rice.  I should eat more sesame seed dressing. 

*Dairy- we eat too much of (we like cheese),

*Sea weed- hmmmm...  time for sea weed salad!  (anyone wants to try it??  I really like it and is good with sesame seed dressings). 

*Veggie- we need to eat more of so the kids don't have a problem, 

*Fish(meat)- we are trying to eat less of,

*Mushroom- I like the small dried shiitake mushrooms my mom sent me.  They get reconstituted really fast so it's convinient when I make noodles. But mushrooms everyday??  My kids hate them... is it worth hearing them whine??

*Potato kind- well... french fries for snack everyday! (just kidding)  

Needless to say, I am trying to eat better and this is the list I am going to follow as close as I can(or believe)!  

Happy eating everyone!  

New Year meal

A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

This is what I do for New Year. I don't really miss my family in Christmas but I do around new year.


In Japan, we do a lot to get prepared for new year. We deep clean the house, go shopping and cook for a long time so we don't have to cook or clean for about 3 days when new year rolls in. We have a special meal called Osechi and supposedly, each dish has some meaning to it.


Here we have egg, cucumber, shrimp, Edamame, deep fried chicken, salmon wrapped in seaweed, and fish cake

Ozouni... soup with mochi (pounded sweet rice)Carrot(notice the flower shape??), shiitake mushroom, Nappa cabbage, and daikon raddish

This is what we had + a bowl of rice. This year it was earlier (because I woke up early) and ate around 9am. I didn't really cook after that-Enough cooking for one day already! I added the jigglers (jello) this year and it was a success. The kids LOVED helping me cut the shapes out!

Year of rabbit... I hope we will always "hop" right back no matter what ;)

Cooking something new!

Recently I had an opportunity to make dinner for a vegan family. When I said I would, I didn't know they were vegan. So when I found out, the excitement began.
I looked through recipe books and Internet and here's what I made.



1. Tofu Gyoza(pot stickers with Tofu)

I found the recipe on Japanese cooking website. The filling is made with Tofu, green onion, cabbage, and garlic. And of course some spices such as soy sauce, ginger powder etc. They were gooood!!!

This is what it looks inside. It is whiter-because of Tofu anyway. Kids ate them too. It went well with soy sauce as a dip.
These were a little drier than pork ones but really healthy.

Tofu is like a magic ingredient- I am planning on making a treat using tofu soon.


2. Three bean soup

I found this recipe here. I actually made it my own version by adding vegetable stock, rosemary, and basil. Also, I cooked it longer since I like softer beans which makes the soup thicker and more home style ( my opinion). I ate it with sour cream and it was so yum. I found new love for soup!

I forgot to take a pic until later so not much in the bowl...

3. Veggie skewers


This is our stable- should I say. My husband and I love the little tart flavor that come from lemon juice and garlic salt that goes well especially when those zucchinis are still crispy. When mushrooms are coated in the sauce, it gets very soft and moist so you get the flavor with each bite you take. This recipe is for grilling veggies. You just put them on skewers and grill them while basting with herb mixture often. It makes great camping dinner. I just decided to sometimes not put them on skewers but separate and cook them in oven. This goes well with any dish- or maybe I think so because I love them!!!

4. Mini apple pie


It's hard to tell from this photo but it is actually 3 pieces here. I have been craving for apple pie - aren't they just simply good and comforting? Anyway, I didn't want to do pie crust so I used the spring roll skin, divided into 4 pieces and put them in mini muffin pan then baked them in oven. Then stuffed the apple pie filling inside.
Here's another picture.

I actually had my 12yrs old bake the spring roll. He was very curious to find out how it turns out. He loved it! I like the puffy pastry bite mixed with apple pie filling also so this will be a good alternative once in a while. You can change the filling and make it any appetizer you like!

I was really grateful that I had this opportunity to make non meat, non dairy meals. Eating healthier is one of my goal for this year and I believe I'm having such a good start! Cheers to ME! Yay!

Daily Menu

Since many people ask me about what we eat as I am Japanese and my husband is American, I thought I would keep track of the menu and post it. Well, it is not quite as usual since I am expecting but you'll get a glimpse of daily menu. Come take a peek.

Sunday- Breakfast hash brown, broccoli, and oranges

Hash brown is actually quite easy to make from scratch. I found a recipe on Japanese cooking site and have been making it often. My gourmet son likes the store bought one better but other kids eat them just fine.

-lunch cereal

-dinner BBQ pork riblets, shredded cabbage, rice

Monday- Breakfast pancake with whipped topping and raspberry syrup

- lunch Mochi with soysauce and red azuki beans

- dinner Progresso Chicken noodle soup & toast

Since I was very exhausted and needed to lie down after taking the kids around
the stores, this is what I had in mind and what my husband followed. Thanks.

Tuesday-breakfast Spam musubi

Hawaiian food. Yum yum.

-lunch butter sandwich That's all I wanted and could eat.

-dinner baked potato(spam, sour cream, broccoli, egg, cheese, chives), alfredo fettucine

Actually my husband made dinner that night. I was very grateful.

Wednesday- breakfast chicken noodle soup(campbells chunky kind), toast

- lunch Sushi(cream cheese, smoke salmon, cucumber)

-dinner okonomiyaki(cabbage pancake)

This is typically more like lunch menu but since I like to have griddle on the table and cook with the family, we have it for dinner once in a while. The ingredients are shredded cabbage, flour, egg, tofu, seasoning powder, cheese and beef. Normally pork is used but I made it with beef yesterday because I had just bought a chunk. I sliced the top and fried it before pouring the dough on top.

Thursday- breakfast toast, sunny-side egg, cucumber, and strawberry

With these colors on the plate, it looked so pretty. Gotta get 30 items per day.

- lunch cream cheese pound cake.

I was craving for this and since I had enough eggs and was feeling good enough to make it, I made it in the morning. Yum.

- dinner stuffed double baked potato, left overs

Again, I was craving. The sad thing is that I couldn't add evaporated milk that the recipe called for. The one we had was bad... separated inside. My husband suggested to mix sourcream and milk in place and I did. It was better than expected but I still yearned for the certain flavor that evaporated milk gives.

Friday-breakfast my brain refuses to remember

- lunch did I have one??

-dinner Taco rice. Basically the topping for tacos.

Instead of the taco shells, we eat with rice. Yum.

Saturday- absolutely, no memory...

Yes! I am one step closer to food storage by keeping the daily menu! I think I will do the 2 weeks rotation thing my friend Crystal is doing. It seems like we ate more potatoes the week than we normally do. Well, looking at this, we eat about half Japanese and half American. I go through a cooking phase here and there so maybe next time I keep track, it could be better? Definitely more to come... Anyone is welcome to share theirs! It would be fun and inspiring. Please?