Quick and Easy Recipe Dishes for Daily Cooking

Every time we wake up in the morning we start to think about what the day will bring. Among the things that you will think about is work, your job, the commute to the office, your deadlines, and what to eat for breakfast. Yup, food is one of things that come to mind. It is only natural. You need something to fire you up for the rest of the day. There are several quick and easy dishes intended for daily cooking that you should learn yourself if you want to become independent from the unhealthy breakfasts beings served in fast food joints.

Let’s begin with some easy breakfast dishes. If you have several leftover potatoes from your dinner the previous day, you can eat if for your breakfast. What you do is pan fry the potatoes after you have already chopped them into bite sized pieces. You should add onions and some pepper to taste. Allow the potatoes to fry until a little crisp on the sides. This is a good, full breakfast meal. You can side it off with a serving of side salad and being washed down by a fruit shake or smoothie.

Or create your own sandwich. You can experiment with whatever slices of ham, sausages, or even leftover chicken or turkey. You can try using English muffins as your sandwich bread to make it a little different. Add egg and cheese to your filling including some tomatoes, romaine, mayo, mustard and ketchup. If this breakfast sandwich won’t keep you going the whole day, or just until the next meal which is lunch.

Beef pitas can be quite good for a lunch meal. Get some ground beef out of your fridge. You mix it with some yogurt, mustard, and bell pepper. You stuffed your pita with this mixture and you’re done. You can pack and bring this to your office.

If you’re fed up with sandwiches and even pitas for lunch, you can always go with some ramen. You can cook it in a microwave. It is fast and quite tasty. To make it heavier, you can always add some chicken, turkey or beef leftovers in it. And to have a healthier approach, avoid using the seasonings provided in the package. Try to make your own. You can easily make something out from lemon pepper and/or chili powder. Some soy sauce or even oyster sauce might do the trick.

If you’re a little bit weight conscious, you can pack some tuna pasta or tuna salads. All you need are some greens, balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, olive oil, and maybe some nuts or cranberries, and tuna. Just mix everything up, add some pepper if you like it and munch away. You can replace tuna with turkey or chicken. You have a good and fulfilling lunch right there.

You can have pasta as well. Prepare a sauce from pesto add some cheese and spicy Italian sausages and voila. Combine with some bread and you’ll survive until dinner.

If you have time before you go to work, you can already prepare some burger patties for a dinner meal. Your patties can be made from pork, turkey, or chicken mixed with breadcrumbs. Add some salt and pepper to taste and you’ll have pretty tasty burgers on your plate. Grill or broil the patties and serve with sauce, mustard or ketchup.

You see if you know some quick and easy recipes for daily cooking, you won’t go hungry. Plus you will have variety and you and your family will enjoy more of your every day meals.

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Homemade Sardines (Bangus)

Ing.
1 kg bangus(milkfish), fresh and small
(about 6 to 8 pieces)
½ c tomato sauce
½ c cooking oil*
2 c water
1 tbsp salt, iodized
2 pcs laurel leaves
1 tbsp pepper corn, black
2 pcs chilli pepper
* if intended to be stored in the chiller, substitute with corn oil or olive oil to prevent from solidifying

Instruction
1. Clean bangus. Cut into serving pieces.
2. Arrange bangus pieces in the bottom of the pressure cooker.
3. Add all other ingredients.
4. Cook for 45 minutes.

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Easy Peanut Sauce

Truly authentic peanut sauce is made from fresh peanuts, but you can still get that authentic taste without all that hard work and time. Here’s a simple recipe that can be ready within minutes.

Ingredients

•    1 cup crunchy peanut butter
•    3 tbsp brown sugar
•    2 cloves crushed garlic
•    1/2  cup water
•    2 tsp vinegar
•    2 tsp sesame oil
•    1/4 tbsp soy sauce

This recipe makes about 1 ½ cups of peanut sauce. 

Preparation

Simply add all the ingredients into a bowl. Use a bowl with an airtight lid if you are going to be storing your sauce.

At first, it may look like the ingredients won’t mix together thorough, but with a little elbow grease, it will come out smooth and creamy.

Serve with satay, Vietnamese salad rolls and more. Store any unused portions in the fridge. Just stir well when you’re ready to serve it again.

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Vietnamese Shrimp Salad Rolls

Salad rolls look fancy, but they’re really not that complicated. They use simple and mostly inexpensive ingredients and are served cold, so you can take them with you to enjoy on the road. The trick is in the rolling of the rice papers, but with some practice, it gets a whole lot easier. We’re still working on our technique, but no matter how the folding goes, the results are always delicious.

Ingredients

•    8 oz package of rice vermicelli noodles
•    ½ pound of cooked shrimp
•    1 julienned carrot
•    Iceberg lettuce
•    8 rice papers

This recipe makes 8 salad rolls.

Preparation

Cook the vermicelli according to the package directions. Then rinse with cold water and strain.

Peel and remove the tails from the shrimp. Then cut them in half lengthwise, so you have a flat bottom to each piece.

Get your julienned carrots and lettuce pieces ready.

Now fill a large skillet or dish with a few inches of water. The skillet or dish needs to be large enough to put the rice paper in as the water will soften the paper, so you can make your roll. Dip the rice paper into the water for a few seconds to soften. Don’t wait too long or the paper will be too soft and will break. After a few tries, you’ll know exactly how long you should dip the papers.

Put the wet paper onto a rolling surface (a cutting board works well) and top with vermicelli, lettuce, shrimp and carrots.

Take the sides of each wrapper and fold them inward.

Then take the bottom and fold it upward.

Then roll the wrapper closed. Serve with peanut sauce and enjoy.

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Beef with Oyster Sauce

Ingredients

1 ½      cups     beef sirloin, pounded with the back of a knife and cut into strips
1  soy sauce
1          cup       chicharo (snow peas)
2          tbsp      cooking oil
1          tbsp      garlic, crushed
1 ½      tsp        ginger, minced
1          pc        onion, sliced thinly
2          tbsp      oyster sauce
1          tsp        gin
2          tbsp      water

Procedure

1.     Marinate beef in soy sauce for about 30 minutes.
2.     Stir-fry chicharo in 1 tbsp cooking oil until golden brown.
3.     In the same pan, sauté garlic in the remaining cooking oil until golden brown.
4.     Add the ginger. Stir-fry.
5.     Add the onion and cook until transparent.
6.     Add the beef and cook until slightly brown. Add oyster sauce and gin. If the mixture seems to be sticking to the bottom of the pan, add 2 tbsp water.
7.     Add the reserved chicharo. Stir and serve hot.

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Fried Rice

Ingredients
4-5             Cups    cooked rice
¼         kl         ground pork
1          med      sized egg
1                      large onion
4          cloves garlic, minced
1          tsp        vetsin
salt to taste
3          tbsp      atchuete oil
1                      red bell pepper, chopped
2          tbsp      chopped spring onions

Procedure
Beat egg, add a little salt. Heat a lite oil in frying pan, spread beaten egg thinly and fry. Slice into thin strips. Set aside.
Sauté garlic till brown in atchuete oil. Add onion, when wilted add pork. Stir in 3 minutes. Season with salt and vetsin. Cook for 10 minutes.
Stir in rice and egg strips. Mix well. Fry for 10 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with chopped spring onions.

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Basic Tempura Dipping Sauce

One of the best parts of tempura is the dipping sauce and it’s a good thing that it’s very easy to make.

Ingredients

•    1 cup water
•    ¼ cup mirin
•    ¼ cup soy sauce

This recipe makes about about 1 ½ cups dipping sauce and can be stored for later use.

Preparation

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and serve with prepared tempura vegetables or seafood.

Sweet Potato Tempura

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Bamboo Shoots with Coconut Cream (Ginataang Labong)

Ingredients

2 cup strips pf bamboo shoots (labong)
1 big coconut, grated
100 grams small fresh shrimps, shelled
100 grams pork belly, cut into small cubes
 2 pcs long green peppers
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp vetsin (monosodium glutamate)
salt to taste  

Procedure

1. Soak labong in water for 1 hour. Drain. Squeeze out water. Set aside.
2. Add 1 cup lukewarm water to grated coconut, extract thick cream. Set aside.
3. Add ½ more lukewarm water to coconut; squeeze again. Put this 2^nd extraction immediately in a pan.
4. Add ginger, garlic, onion, pork, shrimps, pepper, and seasoning. Bring to a boil while stirring gently. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add thick cream, simmer until labong is done and sauce thickens.
6. Mince the green pepper if you want a hot and spicy dish.

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Kangkong Balls

Here’s another inexpensive yet nutritious and delicious recipe. I’m sure your kids are going to love this.

Ingredients:
2 bundle kangkong stems, finely chopped
2 pcs tokwa (tofu), shredded
1 pc onion, finely chopped
1 pc carrot, finely chopped
7 pcs kinchay, finely chopped
2 pcs egg
1 cup flour
½ tsp iodized salt
1 cup cooking oil

Procedure
1. Wash kangkong and drain.
2. Mix all the ingredients except the oil.
3. Take 1 tsp of the mixture and roll into a ball.
4. Fry in oil.
5. Serve with sauce or catsup.

Don’t throw the leaves. Use it in other recipes like Crispy Kangkong or for your sinigang.

Kangkong is also known as river or water spinach, swamp cabbage and water glorybind in English. Filipinos used kangkong as an alternative to spinach.

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Sweet Potato Tempura

This recipe is demonstrated with sweet potato, but you can substitute other vegetables like onion, carrot, beans, mushrooms and more. You can even do seafood like shrimp, carb and fish. Try a variety batch to see what you like best.

Ingredients

    Enough vegetable oil for deep frying
    2 sweet potatoes

Batter:

    1 egg
    1 cup flour
    ½ teaspoon baking soda
    ¾ cup ice water

This recipe makes about 6-8 servings.

Preparation

Fill your pan or deep fryer with vegetable oil. Heat the oil to 375 F.

In the meantime, peel and slice the sweet potato into ½ thick pieces.

Mix the batter ingredients in a large bowl, whisking until well combined. The batter should be fairly runny, but add more flour or water if you need to adjust the consistency.

Dip the potatoes into the batter and let the excess run off.

Carefully place the potatoes in the oil with a fork or tongs. Hold the potatoes above the bottom of the pan for a few seconds to prevent them from sticking. Fry until golden brown on all sides, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from the oil and allow them to drain on a paper towel. Serve with tempura dipping sauce and enjoy.

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