I made tuna noodle casserole before, but I decided to revisit it. I hadn’t made it since that last post, and after cooking it again, I will definitely include this meal on a more regular basis.  It’s easy to make, and it’s a pretty inexpensive meal to make as well!  You can probably buy all the ingredients and it’ll end up to cost less than $10.  I also added the full recipe below from Campbell’s Kitchen, and you can print it straight from the blog! 

Here are the ingredients I used:

Here’s how I did it:

Heat your oven to 400 degrees!

To me, tuna noodle casserole is a comfort food.  Its even good the next day too!  Yum yum yum.

The first time I had a chicken teriyaki bowl was at Whole Foods.  It became one of my favorite lunches to get there, as it was wholesome, healthy and not to mention, delicious!  Because the Whole Foods that I go to that makes it fresh to order is far from I live, I decided to make it myself, and it’s become a favorite dish in our household.

It’s so simple, and its so filling!

Ingredients I Used:

Brown rice
Chicken breasts
Salt and Pepper
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Steamed Brown Rice
Scallions
Teriyaki Sauce
Sesame seeds

How I Made It:

Brown rice takes a long time to cook, so I started that first.  Thank goodness for a rice cooker.  I followed the directions on the package.

Then, I spiced the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.  Then, I heated a pan and put some EVOO on it to prevent the chicken from sticking.  I cooked the chicken for about 15-20 minutes and then cut the cooked chicken into strips.

While the chicken was cooking I cut up the scallions. Depending on how much you like scallions you can use one or two. I used two since it was a dish for me and Glen.

Once the rice was cooked, I put the rice in separate bowls, followed by the chicken, teriyaki sauce, scallions and topped with sesame seeds. That’s it!

End Result:

A simple, dinner that can be cooked in less than an hour, and delicious too!

Today’s my mom’s birthday!  It was a simple birthday celebration at my parent’s house.  I had offered to buy dinner and bring it home, but she had insisted on cooking herself.  In the Filipino culture, birthdays are celebrated by cooking a dish called pancit, which is a noodle dish with vegetables and some kind of meat.  My mom chose to put chicken it it.  She even grilled some spare ribs!  My sister bought this delicious chocolate cake.

Of course, I had to take pictures of the food, and especially the cake.  It looked beautiful and was delicious.  Now that I think of it, I wish I had taken some home when my mom had asked!  Oh well… I’m trying to lose weight, and the cake won’t help! Hah.

My mom blowing out the candles on her cake.  See the flowers?  Glen gave those to my mom, how sweet!   I’m holding my nephew, who looks like he wants a piece of that cake!

And also, we celebrated our dog Lex’s birthday too!  We think he was born around November since he was 2 months when we adopted him.  He’s 4 years old now!

Ever since November started, I’ve been thinking a lot about Thanksgiving. The food, the desserts, the turkey! Glen had an interesting idea… lets cook our own turkey and other Thanksgiving food… this weekend! We got a small turkey, about 12 pounds and pretty much winged it. After thawing the bird for about a day, we were able to cook it in the oven today. It came out well!

Things I learned about a turkey:

• A turkey needs a LOT of time to thaw.  A LOT.
• It’s best to marinate the bird in water and spices for the best flavor – not that our bird wasn’t good, it was, but it could have been better.
• Make sure the gizzard is out of the bird, as we had found it after carving the turkey, in a plastic bag.  It was deep in the turkey’s butt?   We thought they take that out before packaging the turkey!

Of course, we had to make stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.

As dessert, I made candied yams!  This is a really easy dessert to make.  Seriously.

I used 1 big can 40 oz. of Bruce’s Yams, 4 teaspoons (1/2 stick) of butter, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and crushed ginger and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg.  I mixed it up in the Kitchenaid mixer and then added it to a rectangular pan.  I topped it with marshmallows and placed it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.  Done!

And this was my plate of delicious Thanksgiving-esque food.  I couldn’t even finish the bit of turkey I had!  At least we have leftovers!  …for days.

At least we get to enjoy Thanksgiving again in a few weeks, and I won’t have to do a thing!  Maybe I’ll bake something and bring it to the Thanksgiving dinner we will be going to!

For some odd reason, I was craving hot dogs today.  I used to live in NYC and you really couldn’t go wrong with a $2 hot dog, which you could pretty much find on any NYC street corner, and they were quite tasty!  Since NYC is now far far away, I had to settle with just buying some hot dogs at the grocery store with buns, but then my fiance, Glen suggested we make chili cheese hot dogs with chopped onion.  Definitely made the hot dog a bit more, sophisticated than your plain dog.

Ingredients I Used:

• 4 Beef Jumbo Hot Dogs
• 1 Can of Hormel Chili with Beans
• Chopped Onion
• Shredded Cheese
• Hot Dog Buns

This is considered a pretty budget friendly meal, since everything above cost under $10 altogether!

How I Made It:
First, I boiled the 4 beef hot dogs in water for about 10-15 minutes. Then, in another small pot, I heat up the chili, and while that was heating up, I chopped half of an onion, toasted hot dog buns and that was it. Brought the hot dogs, chili, chopped onions altogether, with cheese on top and done!

End Result:

This is a totally simple recipe which just consists of boiling, cutting and putting ingredients together… so it really didn’t take a long time, and all that food definitely gets you full fast! We both had 2 hot dogs each and I got only 1 and 1/2 eaten. LOL.

I also made some oven fries as a side, but by the time they were done, I was too full to eat them… I guess I can save them for lunch tomorrow!