Sinigang na Hipon : Shrimp Soup

Sinigang is one of the popular dish in the Philippines.  When I was conceiving with my daughter, I craved for this dish every single day but I didn't want top cook so I would go to the food court in the mall and eat there.

Sinigang is a Filipino soup or stew characterized by its sour and savory taste. It is most often associated with tamarind, although it can use other sour fruits and leaves as the souring agent.  I used the tamarind sinigang mix packet that I buy from the Asian store since I don't have tamarind here.   It is so good to eat with rice, yum!

Over here, I can only buy frozen shrimp to cook so I only make it once in a while.  MY loves aren't fond of shrimp soup that much so I end up just consuming what I cook.

Anyway, this was last year when I was just starting to harvest some fresh veggies from my garden.  I grew some water spinach or kangkong and some  string beans (sitaw).  I hope the birds would leave my garden alone this year, I am not seeing any progress, the birds are relentless this year!

How about a bowl of rice and some sinigang?  Wanna try it?  It's delicious!

Pickled Beet Stems

I had so much beet produce last year and I had to look for ways on how to preserve them.  The leaves were good for sautéing with bacon and I found a recipe online on how to pickle the stems.

The rabbits got tired of eating beets so I couldn't let these go to waste.  

They turned out well actually.  I like how it stayed crispy and the pickling ingredients really gave it a pop of flavors.

I like eating pickled veggies when I am eating fried or grilled meat.  

I didn't have enough pickling juice but after a day or two, the juice from the stems kinda filled the jar so it worked out perfect.

Beets Goodness: Powdered, Pickled, Shake

I had a lot of beets last season so I was able to preserve some by pickling and dehydrating it and making it into powder.  In the process of making the powder,  I burned out our blender (wahhhh).  

I didn't get to grind all the ones I dried but it's okay, I put it in a sealed container maybe I can rehydrate it and use it for something else.

I never knew beets until I came in the states.  My husband made me love it/  He likes beets although he only eats it during holidays when the family prepares it but now that I do a lot of gardening, we eat it every planting season.  They are price in the store so growing it in our garden is the way to go.

For those of you who make powder of the things you grow, can you recommend a good machine to do it?

This blender did a good job but it didn't last.

I have a food processor that I was going to use but I realized that it is missing something and it won't work.

Speaking of which, I need to start making shakes again so I can use the beet powder.  I am wondering if I can make a soup and add the beets maybe?

Any ideas on what else I could use this beet powder for?  

I like bowling the fresh beets then blend it and make into a shake, it's delicious.

It's a really good drink after a good workout or after you're out in the sun gardening.

How about you, do you like beets?  Do you grow it in your garden?  What do you do with beets?  

Spaghetti Squash and More #Homecooking

Hubby is on a diet and one of the few food he can have is pasta which is one of his favorites. But to satisfy his craving, I made a spaghetti squash.   It was a lot of fun to make and I would prefer this kind over pasta anyway.  There’s a little crunch to eat when you eat.  Below is how I did it.

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Wash the squash then cut it in half lengthwise.  Remove the seeds by scooping it with spoon.  
• Put  some olive oil then sprinkle salt and pepper on it.
• Lay it facedown on a baking sheet and bake it for 30 minutes.
• Let it cool then use fork to remove the veggie spaghetti noodles.  This is my favorite part, seeing how it turned just like spaghetti is amazing.

I made the spaghetti sauce with our homemade tomato sauce with some ground beef, it was delicious!

Our son is into working these days so he is starting to eat a lot of protein.  I make him eggs every morniong.

Another favorite here at home is stuffed peppers.  Good thing about this dish is the left over is always the best.  

Sometimes when I am short in time in the morning, waffles always saves the day.  Waffles with fruits is always a good combo.  Both of my kids love mango.

I wish I couyld have my mojo back with writing , that way I could write more often.  It comes in waves these days.

Thanksgiving Feast 2021

 It's 2sday today (2/22/22) so I am trying to update my blogs, maybe  write 22 articles?  Nah, that's a far fetch and too ambitious lol.  Anyhow, here's the simple  feast we had during Thanksgiving last year.  We prepared some Filipino foods that we liked.

My daughter baked some pandesal.

Since it is Thanksgiving, we had a pumpkin pie also.  NO, I did not bake it, we bought it from the store.

I made some  puto (Filipino rice cakes).

All time favorite, lumpia or eggrolls.

I also made some  pansit bihon (rice noodles).

Fruit salad is always a must for our family.  I prefer this kind of dessert.

So that is it.  Looking forward for another year of being grateful.  I can't believe that February is almost over.  Time do travel fast!