Beef Sukiyaki

We love Japanese! :) But Mr. T likes the sushi, sashimi, grilled meat side of Japanese food while I love the noodles, soups, ramen and the rest that's in a Japanese menu. And since I am the one in charge of cooking, I cook what I like. Lol.

For today's recipe sharing, I will share with you my own version of Beef Sukiyaki. See, I still take into consideration Mr. T's preferences even if I cook dishes that are really not up for his taste buds. I cook them in a way that he won't mind if I cook them again. Hah! And of course, this recipe is also BLW friendly for my darling daughter of course. :)

Ingredients:

500g Beef (Sukiyaki or Breakfast Steak cut)

2 medium-sized Onions

1 medium-sized Carrots

1 can Shitake Mushrooms

1 Chinese Cabbage (Pechay Baguio)

50g Sotanghon Noodles

1/3 cup Kikkoman Soy Sauce

1/4 cup Mirin

2 liters Water (or Light Beef Broth)

Pepper

Cooking Oil

How to Cook:

1. Sauté onion over medium heat. Wait till it's soft and cooked (but not browned) then put in the beef. Cook for about 5 minutes.
2. Take out (strain) the beef and onion from the pan and set aside.
3. With the beef broth still in the pan, pour in the water, soy sauce and mirin. Boil for about 5 minutes.
4. Add the beef and simmer for about 2 minutes. Then add the sotanghon noodles and let it simmer until the noodles are slightly cooked.
5. Add the carrots and mushrooms. Then add the cabbage and let it simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Season with pepper.
7. Serve and enjoy over a cup of rice. :)

*You can also add tofu to this recipe but unfortunately, I didn't have tofu available last night. The original recipe also calls for brown sugar but Mr. T doesn't like anything sweet for a main dish. The amount of soy sauce in the original recipe was at 1 cup (?) but since we're cutting down on salt for Ava, I reduced it to 1/3 cup instead. It's always fun to adjust recipes for you and your family's liking. Oh the joys of cooking. :)

In the Kitchen: Stir-fry Mung Bean Sprouts with Tofu

I recently tried cooking this dish and found out that my daughter loves mung bean sprouts (togue). We tried it again last night and she still ate it! :) Now, this is gonna be a staple dish for our family. :)

This is a very easy recipe I picked up from the net. Since we are practicing the Baby-Led Weaning approach in feeding Ava, I skipped some seasoning and made the dish more BLW friendly. :) Let me share with you my recipe.

Ingredients:

1 pack Mung Bean Sprouts (I got the packed ones from SM, 30Php per pack I think)

250 grams Tofu, 1/2" thick sliced

1 medium-sized Onion

1 medium-sized Red Bell Pepper

1 medium-sized Green Bell Pepper

2 medium-sized Carrots

1 cup chicken broth (please use real broth, not bouillons)

1 tbsp. Oyster Sauce

Garlic Powder

Ground Black Pepper

Cooking Oil

How to Cook:

1. Heat your oil in a pan over medium heat. Add your tofu and cook until brown on all sides. Cool down a bit then slice into cubes. Set aside.
2. While frying the tofu, you can slice your onion, bell peppers and carrots into thin strips (juilenne cut).
3. In the same pan, sauté onion.
4. Add the chicken broth (or you can just add plain water if you don't have chicken broths available) and the oyster sauce. Add the carrots and mung beans. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Then add the bell pepper and simmer for another 3 minutes.
5. Add the tofu, a dash of garlic powder and ground black pepper.
6. Simmer for about 2 minutes and then it's ready.
7. Serve hot and enjoy! :)

*Best paired with Fried Tilapia. ;)

Celebrating One Year of BLW

It was exactly on Ava's 6th month celebration when we introduced her to solids. Her first food was avocado. That was one year ago already.

When we started out with the whole parenting thing, we were basically relying on our doctors, parents and siblings for advises. That meant doing everything the traditional way. As we adjusted a few months later, we began to have a better understanding that we are already building a family of our own. I, particularly, wanted to break from my family's norm of raising up kids. Don't get me wrong, I am forever grateful to my parents and I respect my siblings' decisions in raising up their own kids. It's just that I think, our generations have evolved immensely and there are significant information that we didn't know back then that we know now. That's where our choice for Attachment Parenting (AP) came in.

Fambam Hits: Milky & Sunny

About a month ago, right before crazy November started, we found our little fambam in a small and cozy breakfast place called Milky & Sunny. This has been on my list for quite some time and I was happy to finally convince Mr. T to drive all the way to Kapitolyo in Pasig for our Sunday brunch that time. :)

A view of the whole place including my breakfast buddies. :)

Fambam Hits: Commune

Without the baby for today.

Mr. T and I don't get to spend lunch together that much even if our offices are just three buildings away because either one or both of us are too swamped with work. But last Thursday, Mr. T asked me out for lunch. :)

Instead of going to Pacific Star, I thought we could take advantage of these lunch dates and check out different places around our area. And on top of my list was Commune.

Commune is located at Liberty Plaza. corner of Dela Costa and Valero. If you're familiar with the area, it is where Binalot used to be. Commune is apparently a sister company of Binalot.

Fambam Hits: LōLa Café & Bar

There is no excuse for a late post so I'll just skip the whole part where I will tell that the reason of this post being a week too late was because I got sick for days and all that stuff. No I won't tell you that. I'll just go straight to blogging about our lovely afternoon visit at  LōLa Café & Bar.

Right before our errands two weekends ago, we went to visit  LōLa for some merienda. I'm gonna blame it on Google Maps for making us miss the place because the pin was very inaccurate. Like two blocks inaccurate. I was totally relying on it and didn't realize we already passed the place.

Good thing the place was located within the residential neighborhood along Sct. Lozano, going back didn't take too long. We found ourselves entering what felt like the house of your Tita who just came from the States and invited you over for lunch. Lol at the description but that's how it felt. I can also imagine this place after office hours, hanging out with friends over a few cocktails or cocktails would be fun in a cozy setup such as LōLa's.

The al fresco dining area

The upper level which is the dining area.

100 Days of BLW

Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is defined as:

Quite simply, means letting your child feed themselves from the very start of weaning.
* re ‘wean’. This is meant in the Brit sense, not the American. In the UK, ‘weaning’ means ‘adding complementary foods’, whereas in the States it means ‘giving up breastfeeding’.

I learned about BLW during one of the breastfeeding meetups we attended earlier this year. A was just around three months then. Then I started reading about it and introduced it to Mr. T as well. After reading articles, watching videos and more, I was finally ready and confident enough to do it. Yes, I had to build my confidence level and had to learn the difference between choking and gagging.

And as A turned six months on May 1 of this year, we started our BLW journey.

Our little foodie in training. Her first solid food - avocado. No, she didn't eat cake. Lol.