Today’s lunch was: veggie pasta cooked through the microwave and salad

I was thinking of bringing lunch to work again but considering that where I am staying right now doesn’t have a stove, I had to find out other ways of cooking. Then I thought of cooking using the microwave! We don’t have a microwave oven at home so I never really had much experience cooking in it. I only searched for recipes online and how they did things then I went to the grocery the other night and got me some ingredients.

For the pasta, I used vegetable pasta. It tends to cook waaaay faster. Even faster than how whole wheat pasta cooks! Anyhow, I put some hot water in a microwavable container then put the amount of pasta I’d consume/fit in the container. I put the microwave on high heat for five minutes and when I took out the microwavable container, the pasta in it was already cooked! And it was the colorful kind of vegetable pasta so I found it really cute.

For the sauce, I put some tuna, oil, spaghetti sauce and mushroom bits in another container. I heated it for around 5 minutes. Then I mixed the pasta and the sauce and put them in my bento! Hooray!

As for the salad, I bought some greens and mixed in some tuna, mushroom bits, tomato slices and I had a small packet of thousand island dressing. It turned out nicely.

I can’t wait to prepare tomorrow’s bento!

Oh and look! I have a new bento bag

As usual, got it from Japan Home in Park Square 1

Corned Beef Sinigang!!!

Corned Beef Sinigang!!!

Originally uploaded by happyeclair.

I just have to blog about Sentro’s sinigang na corned beef My boyfriend and I finally got a chance to eat at Sentro the other night and we ordered sinigang na corned beef, Rated GG, their blend of gulaman drink and garlic rice. It was a fantastic dinner!

We had a really sour bowl of Sinigang. Maybe I should have asked if they could make it a bit spicier too Hehe. Anyhow, the beef was tender and the vegetables weren’t overcooked. As for the Rated GG, it was not very salty so I liked it a lot. An interesting dish to accompany the sinigang, I swear!

The gulaman drink was sweet but not sugary. They probably used molasses or something. Yummy! It was an absolutely satisfying meal

Yummy chicken with Veggies!

Yummy chicken with Veggies!

Originally uploaded by happyeclair.

Singkit is one of our favorite places to order food from. Singkit is basically Chinese food in takeout boxes. We work in Makati and there’s one in the area. Whenever we work late and feel like ordering food, it’s one of the considerations.

This is one dish that we had the other night. I really like it but I have no idea what it’s called. I wish I knew. And I would definitely love to try cooking it! It’s not too salty and I love the green peas and quail eggs so it’s something really nice. Aside from that, it doesn’t have much sauce so it’s also good for bento. Not much sauce to spill!

Bambino and dolce

Dolce, or sweets, are yummy and pretty-looking food all the time!

As they said in Bambino, there’s something about dolce that makes a person smile even he’s not particularly fond of them.  In the episode, Ban was assigned to help out Oda-san who had a biking accident so his arm wasn’t quite fine.  In any case, it was difficult at first but Ban was determined to learn from Oda-san and they actually got along eventually.  I love the ending of the episode but I won’t tell you what it is Just watch it!

The nice thing about episode 8 is that it shows us a greater appreciation for dolce. If you are fond of eating cake, you’d even notice how each bakeshop would have a different way of serving cake (sometimes with syrup), etc.  Also, the toppings on the cake could be quite amazing!  I recall last Friday, when we ate at Cheesecake Etc., I was amazed at how their Dome Cake looked like a gift!  A very pretty looking cake and it was yummy as well.  I could just imagine how precise the measurements are of that cake’s ingredients and the temperature involved in the process of preparing it.  I can’t help but smile

Bambino!

Now there’s a J-drama series called Bambino! which is based on a manga that chronicles of a young man who aspires to be a chef specializing in Italian dishes. Ooooh~! And the lead actor is Matsumoto Jun! *SQUEEEEEEEEE!*

Check out Bambino! on the d-addicts wiki.

I have watched 3 episodes already and I can’t help but love the show! Oooh! It inspires me to become a better cook. I know I am slow and may have unnecessary movements in the kitchen so this is awesome, awesome, awesome! Maybe it’s a good show to get ideas for bento

Veggie pasta with eggs

Veggie pasta with eggs – solo shot

Originally uploaded by happyeclair.
I saw some vegetable pasta in SM Supermarket last night. It was so colorful that I couldn’t resist buying them. Also saw McCormick Pesto mix and Garlic and Herbs. I bought the Garlic and herbs mix and used it with today’s pasta. I was supposed to put tuna instead of crabstick but I had to use the tuna for the rice balls. The crabstick’s taste is too mild. Next time I’d use chicken or tuna for the pasta.

I added egg slices so it wouldn’t look too boring.

Today I brought six riceballs. I put a bit of soy sauce and some tuna there. JP tasted one of them and he said that the taste of tuna was a bit faint so I need to add more.

Check out the riceballs here:

Chopsticks! a close up

Chopsticks! a close up

Originally uploaded by happyeclair.

The Kareshi got me chopsticks from Shanghai! Another set of chopsticks and it even has a matching case. Kawaii ne!

*huggles JM*

(Click on the image so you could see it better.)