Decidedly Dumplings

Before work today, I cooked up some pork and cabbage dumplings. I boiled them for 7 minutes and then fried them in a pan for a bit with a bit of olive oil. While they were boiling, I also stir-fried some mushrooms, and napa cabbage. I laid these as the base in my lunch. I also mixed together a sauce with soya sauce, vinegar, garlic and sesame oil and a touch of sugar, and poured it over my dumplings at the last minute after I had turned off the heat, I let them simmer a bit in there and then scooped them out and into my glass container. I coupled this meal with a pair of my favourite chop sticks.

I put it all in this cute neko (cat) bag.

I am very excited to eat this lunch! I think know it will be tasty! Plus, the bag is super cute. I also included a bit of sesame dressing to dip things in should I feel inclined. This was honestly, a very easy lunch to prepare and I would say it probably took little over 10 minutes. My co-workers are always surprised when I tell them that I made my meal in the morning before work, but it doesn't take much time to create something interesting and tasty. You'd be surprised with what you can do in 10 or 15 minutes. If you don't work well in a time crunch, then there is always the option of preparing things before you go to bed. You only need to set aside some time when you find it most suitable, and you too can make a bento, or even just a nutritious lunch, versus buying a lunch. 

Until next time, Happy Munching!

Shepherd's Pie

While sitting at lunch with a co-worker today, she had shepherd's pie for lunch. I was inspired to try making it myself, since I had never done so before. I had eaten it before, of course, but never made it. 

On my way home, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few items for my pie, when I got home, I started working my magic on it.

First, I started by mixing together some ground pork and ground beef. I spiced it, added some bread crumbs, and mixed it together well, I began to brown it in a pan while I prepared the next layers. I sliced up some mushrooms, cafe and white button mushrooms, and I also chopped up an onion. I strained and microwaved a can of corn and combined it with some leftovers of corn and a touch of fresh salsa that I had mixed together for a meal the day before. Once the meat was cooked, I lined the bottom of a glass pan with it, and I began to cook up the mushrooms and onions. They were the next layer in my pie. I also did not want to waste 45 minutes making potatoes, so I admittedly used instant. I keep these on hand  because they are easy to use, and I buy the kind made from dehydrated potatoes and when I am done making them, they taste delicious. I added fresh chives and dill and some lemon juice to the potatoes, and I added the layer of corn on top of the mushrooms. I then added the thinest layer of cheese and began to spread out the potatoes. After the potatoes came more cheese. 

I baked it in the oven for a bit, mostly to melt the cheese because everything was still hot and was already cooked.

 When it came out, I couldn't wait to try it. I wanted to try to take a picture of the layers for you to see, but it wasn't easy.

I also served it with some sauteed rainbow chard on the side. I had picked this up from the farmer's market, and I had never tried it before.  It turned out very tasty.

While eating, I thought to myself that a great way to make this vegetarian could be to substitute the meat for something like spinach or chard, I think they would taste good together, you could really use any vegetable, or if you like meat, use any meat you like.

I really enjoyed making shepherd's pie, it was so delicious, I only ate it with a touch of sour cream because the flavours were amazing. Previously, I had definitely eaten shepherd's pie with ketchup, but it had never been like this. This is truly my own rendition of it. You can incorporate your favourite foods and flavours into shepherd's pie. Why not make it your own? Try it!

Until next time, Happy Munching.

Hello, Year of the Rabbit!

It is that time of year! Chinese New Year! We say good bye to the previous year, (the tiger) and hello to the new year, year of the Rabbit!!

Rabbit-Dragon Tissue Box Cover

I decided to have a little celebration with my fiance to welcome the year of the rabbit!

I decorated a little (unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the decorations on the walls) and I prepared a hot pot! A little information for those who wish to know, a hot pot is basically a form of table top cooking. We have an induction burner that we use for this purpose. One has a pot on the burner which is filled with a broth or soup of their choice. One can purchase lots of different bases to which they add to water only must add a few ingredients like garlic and green onions. Then one uses thinly sliced meats and cut up vegetables which are cooked in the boiling soup. Its very fun and social.

Here is a picture of the spread we had laid out! As you can see in this picture we had a few different types of thinly sliced meats (pork, beef, and lamb), lots of veggies (cabbage, carrots, cremini mushrooms, baby bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, and snow peas), udon noodles, rice, cheese cubes (old cheddar and havarti) and I prepared a small salad to start. We also had some lemon green tea. It was great!

This is just a little picture of my tea set that I purchased a few months ago and really wanted to pull out for this occasion. You can see that it has little rabbits on it. :)

 

We also had some treats for dessert! Those fish are Nian Gao which is a Sticky Cake, made of rice. (We didn't get a chance to eat them yet because we were so full from dinner, but they are sure to be interesting!) And we have a few different treats in that box! 

Here you can see that it is filled with some various candies, almonds and some sweet crispy fried dough and some dried yam. We tried a few treats and they were all quite tasty! 

Well that's all for now! I wish you all the best in Year of the Rabbit! Until next time, Happy Munching!