there's nothing better than...

... a good piece of steak! Don't you agree? Here's what we had tonight, char-grilled steak with greek salad. Steak is seasoned simply with salt and pepper, then grilled to your preferred donenes. I prefer medium while the hubs like his medium-well. Greek salad is lettuce with olive oil, feta cheese, olives and splash of lemon juice. Yums!!

Medium done, nice and red :)

Breaded baked fish with homemade tartar sauce

Here's a recipe for quick and easy weekday dinners, by request of a girlfriend who's venturing into the kitchen. Good luck Annie and have fun cooking :)

Breaded Baked Fish/Pork/Chicken

What you need (feeds 2)
- 4 strips if frozen or fresh fish fillets
- 1 egg White
- 1 tsp plain flour
- some panko flakes (jap breadcrumbs)
- black pepper n salt

Let's cook!
1. Preheat oven to highest temp. Mine is 220 degrees.
2. Line in separate plates - flour, egg White, panko (seasoned with salt and pepper).
3. Pat dry fish fillets. Coat in flour dusting off excess flour. Then dip into egg White and finally panko.
4. Placed on grill lined with pan below. Drizzle some oil and place in oven for about 20mins or till golden brown.
5. Serve with homemade tartar sauce.

Homemade tartar sauce
- 2 tsp Mayo
- 1 big clove garlic, crushed
- lots of dill chips (pickle), diced
Mix all together and serve!

Same recipe can be used with chicken strips or thin pork fillets. Can either oven bake, shallow fry or deep fry. Here's a photo I shallow-fried with pork (katsu), served on a piece of toast with a sunny-side up yummy!

week of tanks, planes, fireworks and flags

It's our nation's birthday this week. But the only thing I appreciated outta the whole celebrations was the long weekend break hehe! Anyhow, since it's national day week, I decided to go Asian this week for dinner. Except for Tuesday, the rest of this week's dinners are Asian-inspired.



Monday - Red, White & Wow Fried Rice (in theme with this year's NDP)



Wednesday - Thai Grilled Chicken

spice up your weak-days — part 2

A trick to preparing fast weekday dinners is pre-preparation. You can either prepare all the ingredients or pre-cook some stuff, so that day itself, all you have to do is simply put it into the oven or over the stove and dinner will be ready in a matter of minutes! Planning ahead is equally important as you can save money by buying ingredients that stretches your dollar, meaning to use the same ingredients for various dishes throughout the week. That way no food is wasted. Here's what we had last week.



Monday - Grilled Beef Sandwich with Carmelised Onions and Cheddar



Tuesday - Crispy Salmon with Potato Gratin



Wednesday - Baked Fish Pie

P/S: Drop me a note if you are keen to try out any of these dishes yeah.

spice up your weak-days — part 1

Weekday dinners can be a chore if you have to eat out everyday. So why not prepare simple, easy to cook, yet yummy dinners to look forward to at the end of a hectic work day. As you all know I'm a sucker for food mags, especially Donna Hay. I can't believe I have so many mags and there are so many quick-fix dinner recipes in there waiting for me to try. So as of 2 weeks ago, I planned the week's menu in advance, went grocery shopping and whipped up exciting new dishes for our weekday dinners. Here's what we had 2 weeks ago.



Monday - Chicken Caesar Sandwich



Tuesday - Baked Pork Chops with Cheddar and Onions



Wednesday - Bacon and Crab Quiche

Forgot to mention no cooking on Thursdays cos' the hubs eats out with his soccer pals after his game, as well as Fridays as it's my day out with my pals :)

sawadee burp

I was getting a bit bored of cooking the same dishes night after night for dinner, so decided to explore other cuisines lately. One of our favourite cuisine is Thai. So naturally, I went head on looking up some easy to cook Thai food. This week, I tried Thai Grilled Chicken and Thai Lemongrass Mussels.



Both were "aroy" means delicious in Thai (something I picked up in my many travels to the land of smiles. But by special request and also just cause it is soooo bloody good, I'm going to share the recipe of the marinade for the Grilled Chicken. I downloaded the recipe from the internet but made some refinement on my own to make it more "Thai" :) It's so simple and tasty to perk up your weekday dinners. Do try it and let me know what your family think about it!

What you need (serves 2pax)

• 1/2 fresh chicken chopped into parts
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark sauce
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 3 tbsp sherry
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cracked black pepper
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 tbsp minced lemongrass
• 1 tbsp minced ginger

What to do

1. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir well to dissolve the sugar.
2. Throw the chicken parts and marinade into a plastic bag or ziplock bag, mix it around.
3. Throw it into the fridge to marinate at least 24 hours. Best for 48 hours :)
4. Take out from marinade place on grill skin side down at 220 degrees for 15mins. Then turn over and grill another 10-15mins or till skin is brown and the lovely aroma fills the house :)