Steak Omelet, Asian Style (Omurice)

This is a pleaser of a dish, though easy to create and suitable for all skill levels. To create Omurice, a Japanese nickname for omelet rice, simply serve over rice. I prefer sushi rice as I mentioned before, it has a lovely nutty flavor. Traditionally Omurice is served as a plain omelet over rice, drizzled with ketchup, but I prefer this asian influenced spin using tonkatsu sauce instead. Tonkatsu is a savory, sweet sauce, much like Worcestershire sauce, but thick and complex. We use it on everything.

Serve simply, or with all you favorite fillings.

Basics: What you need

2 whole eggs per person (or egg substitute)
1 teaspoon milk or water per egg to thin the mix.
dash of salt
pepper
butter

What makes it better:

Thinly sliced steak - room temp
thinly sliced green onion
sesame seeds
tonkatsu sauce
Shredded Mozzarella cheese
1/4 tsp or so Garlic powder

Whisk egg, water, and seasonings (yes, garlic too). In a medium hot SMALL nonstick pan, with a pat of melted butter. Pour the mix and immediately scramble until eggs are half cooked, this ensures a very fluffy omelet. Then slowly swirl the uncooked eggs to fill in the gaps and up the sides a little. Turn the temp down if its not cooking very quickly, browning the omelet it tasty, burning is not. Once the eggs are loosely set, sprinkle shredded cheese onto the entire surface. You may then start laying the strips of meat quickly onto one half of the omelet, add more cheese if you wish, and some green onion. Slide the omelet out of the pan onto a plate and as you are ejecting it, use the edge of the pan to fold in half. Drizzle the Tonkatsu sauce onto the top, sprinkle with sesame seeds and green onion, serve.

If you would like to add sliced veggies to the omelet, slice and cook them first. They will not cook sufficiently from raw inside the omelet. You would place them on top of the meat before serving and folding.

Serve on top of 1/2-1 cup of sushi rice for a deluxe breakfast. Rice and egg were made for each other.

Pudding Parfait

This simple Parfait can be made for family, company, or just yourself. You can also use any kind of flavor pudding you want.

You need:
1 Chocolate graham cracker per parfait (reg if you prefer)
chocolate Sugar free pudding
lite whipped topping
Chocolate friendly fruit such as strawberries, raspberrys, bananas. or cherries.

Simply layer there ingredients, alternating between textures.

Example starting from the bottom and building up:
Crumbled Graham half
half of pudding serving
whipped topping
Rest of Graham crumbled
fruit sliced relatively thin or chopped
Rest of pudding
Whipped topping
add more fruit to top

This ratio can be tweaked and adjusted as you please, it's very difficult to mess up.

Depending on the size parfait you want, figure on 2 people per small box for a large parfait, 4 people for a small. Because we are using sugar free, and low sugar items, this is fairly low in calories, and used in moderation, low impact on your daily calorie intake.

Simple Stirfy

If you are like my family, you love stirfys, like love love them. The problem of course is that getting a good stir-fry usually involves a takeout place. Which is bad for you. And expensive. Then there are the "other stirfrys" The ones that come in a box, or a bag, and then there's that thing you mom makes. "Cue horror scream" Some of these options taste ok, and are usually fairly easy and quick. But they are super high in sodium and have god knows what in it. Pink slime anyone? (seriously, go read this, or look up the term yourself.)

I prefer to make them myself. No creepy ingredients, no tipping, and no Clinton Era Moo goo gai pan. Simply choose your protein, compatible veggies, flavoring, and get cracking.

Pork and veggie stirfry

Serves 2-4 people use a wok if you have it, or at least a good nonstick pan. Stove on high.

Veggies
Oil or butter

I chose:

8 large white mushrooms destemmed, quartered
8 stalks of asparagus, chopped into 3rds
2 small zucchini sliced into 1/4in coins
1-2 stalks of scallions, chopped
1 tbsp Sesame seeds
1 tbsp Garlic-minced
1-2 tsp lemon juice
ginger powder to preference
1 tsp soy sauce more if you prefer
(sugar or honey if sweetness is desired)
oil
sesame oil

put oil in pan, then garlic once almost smoking. Keep it MOVING. burnt garlic is terrible. After 30 seconds or so, toss in veggies. If there isn't a light coating of oil on most of the veggies, add a touch more. Take the pan off if it's to hot, control your heat.

Add soy sauce and lemon juice. Keep it moving or it will burn. Do not walk away. If wok smokes at any time, take pan off and keep food moving until it calms a bit. If the pan is drying out and the veggies arnt cooked yet, add an ounce or so of water and cook it off. this should get veggies to crisp doneness. add any other flavors, and the seeds stir, then put in bowl.

On to the meat - rinse pan and wipe if reusing.

1 lb thinly sliced meat, I used pork. (butchers, and asian food stores often carry it pre-sliced paper thin.)
pat of butter, or preferred cooking oil medium.
some sesame oil
flavoring sauce of choice, I used a THICK honey teriyaki glaze.
garlic
scallions chopped, thick parts slivered
sesame seeds

quickly drop small batches into pan and shuffle them around to cook 1-3 minutes depending on meat and thickness. Don't over crowd or you will simply stew the meat. You may have to add a little more oil as you cook and remove your meat for the next batch. Keep food safety in mind.

use the meat drippings to simmer the garlic in for 30 seconds or so.
place all meat back in pan and add the sauce. Don't over do it, they are usually concentrated. Also do not add salt. add seeds and scallions. Toss around for a minute until incorporated, taste test. If the meat is sauced well enough, serve.

Serve with a chewy short grain rice such as sushi rice, or something like Jasmine rice, not gooey squishy american style rice. That tastes like cardboard and adds nothing to the party except starch and carbs. My preferred go to rice for EVERYTHING is Kokuho Rose new crop sushi rice. You can find it cheaper at an asian food store, and sometimes the grocery store. It's wonderful.

Eat it stacked together, or seperate, it's up to you. :)

Cheating when reheating

Most of us have a few leftovers in the fridge, usually less then a week old, though a few of you might have some stuff left over from the Bush administration. o.O' ew. One of the common reasons people leave their leftovers to an uneaten fate, is because most don't realize you can make it taste like the day you cooked it (Or brought it home). I hate the taste of reheated food, but I hate to waste anything, so I started experimenting. Oh, and toss store bought leftovers after day 3, home leftovers, after about 5. Use common sense. :)

Lets start with the basics.

Pizza - Common method of reheating:
Microwaving, nuking, zapping, and other wise ruining EVERYTHING wonderful about pizza. The downside is obvious. It's fast, but it's scalding hot, but cold in spots. It also ruins the chewy crust, turning it into a handle to be discarded or repurposed into a dog bone, ugh. Not to mention the soggy bottom that was once so wonderfully crisp is now gone.

Baking in oven. Better, but takes forever, and usually dehydrates the whole pizza, and tends to either zombify the crust, or burn it. The main issue here though is time. Most of us don't want to wait 30 minutes or less for the pizza AGAIN.

Alternate Method - My way.
Use the best of both worlds. Turn on your ovens broiler to high. Then take out your pizza and microwave for about 45 seconds to a minute per 2 slices (warmed but not hot). Then lay on a small piece of foil (crisper crust), or a oven safe pan. You might want to put a touch of cooking spray on it before you put your pizza on it, because the cheese will likely glue it down. Stick pizza under the broiler for 2-3 minutes or until preferred doneness is achieved. Your pizza will be much like the night before, crispy, gooey, and tasty. (if broiler isn't hot yet, increase time to about 5 min, you be the judge.)

Other Uses:


This method works wonders for all kinds of things, left over fried food, hotpockets, freezer dinners, even potato products. (seriously) The trick is keeping an eye on the food so it doesn't burn, and using a lower broiler temp on more complicated or starchy foods. You can of course use a toaster oven if you prefer, but the short amount of time you use the oven isn't much of an energy waste. If you think I'm crazy, look at many stouffers meals now. for the last few years they have said the same thing, but to use the oven, not broiler. They are correct of course, the broiler works too quickly on that kind of volume. Give your broiler a try for other things you want crisp, it's very underused. :)

Some foods can't be saved, such as a chinese stir-fry with a deep fried item in it, like sweet and sour pork, or General Tso's chicken. You can still bake it, but nothing is bringing back that crispiness. Best method is just to nuke it. However you CAN maximize the microwaves effectiveness. Place your stirfry on top of the rice, and nuke for 3-5 minutes depending on type and volume of stirfry. Make sure you cover it though, so that the food steams and heats evenly. Leave it sit for a few. This allows for the steam to penetrate the rice, and to refluff the starches. This is a great way to avoid the tooth breaking kernels of rice that often happens. If you have a soggy stirfry that has a lot of liquid and you don't want soupy rice, heat separately. Just sprinkle the rice with a little water and cover. Let both sit to equalize temp and avoid boiling freezing food. Stir and heat more of course if you have too, just try not to completely torch it.

Lastly, if you are a pasta lover, store the sauce and noodles separately if you want it to be similar to when it was fresh. Storing it together leeches the water out of the sauce and makes the noodles soggy and gross. Just mix and nuke when hungry. If you have a particularly sticky noodle, lightly toss with a tiny amount of oil before storing. This will waterproof your pasta and keep it close to al-dente. Once heated through, let it all sit for a bit.

For the no guilt sweet tooth...

I've got a diabetic, carb, and diet friendly dessert for you, especially if you love chocolate. We just did a taste test a few minutes ago and even my husband liked them and he dislikes cream cheese. Very low calorie, carb, and fat.

3 wonton wrappers per person, sprayed with cooking spray and baked at 325 for 7-8 minutes. 

Mix
1 8oz container of fat free cream cheese
3 tbsp of coco powder
2-3 tbsp of honey to taste
1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Mix until smooth, let sit in fridge for a few minutes to allow coco to saturate.

Serve
Layer wontons and a generous dollop of chocolate mixture like a layer cake, but don't put any chocolate on top of 3rd wonton. Drizzle a little honey on top, then sprinkle cinnamon and put sliced strawberries on top. I added a bit of lite Whipped topping as well.


I got this idea from a Diabetic Cookbook, and adapted it slightly for my families tastes and needs.

Welcome to my food blog...

This was once a blog for Anime and Japanese culture, but I decided to start anew. This is now the home of my culinary explorations. I like to invent and adapt recipes, for flavor, ease of cooking, and cost. I love the challenge of taking a high end recipe and figuring out ways to reduce the cost, fat, calories, and steps. I also like to morph food into the unexpected, but in a friendly way.

I hope when you visit, you will find great ideas to inspire you to cook, and to skip out on those nasty store bought meals and trusty drive-through atrocities. (not that I'm not guilty of it occasinally, but still...)