Takeout with the Tos #9

So this was totally unintentional, but I didn't go grocery shopping this week and ended up cooking a decent amount of food for us. Here's our take out for the week:

- Cucumber Salad: $9.99

- Seafood pancakes: $19.99

- Tofu Chicken Casserole: $29.99

- Instant Pot (Dry Rub) Pork Ribs: $22.99 

- Chinese Vegetable Stir Fry: $13.99

Take Out Total: $96.95

Tax: $8.00

Grand Total: $104.95

 

Cucumber Salad

 

I forgot to take a photo of this dish because I made it ahead and put it in the refrigerator to chill. By the time I cooked everything else, took my photos, and went on with the rest of my Sunday, the photo of the cucumbers was long forgotten. My kids ate quite a bit of it so what you see left in this dish is probably 1/3 of what I made to begin with. I had a recipe I followed a long time ago, but it's evolved to eyeballing the ingredients: soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and white pepper. I think sometimes I add a splash of vinegar but this time I forgot. This was about 1TB of everything except the white pepper for 1 large cucumber. 

Seafood Pancakes (right)

 

These came out more egg-y than pancake-y this time around. They're almost like a scrambled omlette in my opinion. I still like it. Easy to make, I practically make it by memory, and fast to cook. I've started cooking a lot more with my stainless steel wok, but this is the kind of recipe which still requires a good nonstick pan. It's just so much easier not having to think about the heating requirements and just putting food in and out as it cooks. 

Tofu Chicken Casserole

 

This is a first for this recipe in 2025! I was thinking to myself recently that I had started to repeat a lot of my recipes. Mentally, there are still some I'd like to share with you as dishes I've made which I love, but whether due to time constraints, ingredient prices, or simply lack of intentionality, I haven't made them. This is a recipe I learned from Woks of Life a while back. I saw them post it and immediately thought this would be a great recipe for me to make. One pot, easy ingredients, most that I have on hand all the time, and delicious. 

I made this recipe in the wok for the first time and it's great! Even if the chicken sticks when I'm browning it, I'm able to scrape it up later once the rest of the sauce components get put together and there's more sauce in the wok. The original recipe calls for shiitake mushrooms and peas. These are two ingredients my children complain about. Sometimes, I add them anyway and force them to eat it. Sometimes, I split the dish into two batches and add peas to one batch only. Other times, I add neither, like this week. Honestly, it tastes good however I choose to do it. So although the nutrition may change slightly, the overall integrity of the dish is kept. 

Instant Pot Dry Rub Ribs

 

We needed a protein dish this week and I couldn't think of anything else to do. We pulled out a pack of ribs from the freezer and my husband made the dry rub, stuck it in the Instant Pot, and let it cook. Super easy, super delicious. 

Chinese Vegetable Stir Fry (left)

 

I've only ever known the name of this vegetable in Chinese. If I literally translated the characters, it would be "oil vegetable." Not very enticing...I decided to look up what the actual English for this vegetable is. It's rape, also where rapeseed oil comes from. So while I won't be using the English terminology to name this vegetable...perhaps ever...I have now learned one new fact for this week. 

 Total Time Elapsed: ~2.5 hours

A Great Vacation

It's been a minute since I've sat down and typed up a blog at my computer. The last couple of weeks were a bit different from our normal routine because we had two spring breaks! No, unfortunately, this doesn't mean we had two weeks off of school or work. Instead, it meant my kid's spring break was one week and my students' spring break was the following week. Because of this, we couldn't really go out of town or do anything big. I didn't mind, but it meant finding other creative ways to have fun without going on an official vacation.

During the first week when my kids didn't have school, I took them out in the mornings for excursions. We visited IKEA, hung out with a neighbor, ate lunch with friends, and even had a sleepover one night! The following week when I didn't have to teach, we scheduled dinners at restaurants during the week we normally wouldn't be eating at because I hardly get to eat dinner with my family during the week. Honestly, not cooking is one of the best vacations I can give myself! It doesn't quite hit me as hard when we're away from home on a trip because we almost have to eat out every meal, but when I can relax at home and not have to cook, that's a real treat!

There were a few dinners during my week off where I made more extravagant meals instead of eating out because it was still tasty and slightly more cost effective than eating out.  

Sunday -  8z New York Strip Steak with broccoli 

broccoli not pictured.  this was very tasty. My husband had fun cooking steaks in his cast iron pans for the first time - he even used my fresh rosemary while basting with butter!

Monday - smoked salmon, cream cheese, bagel, side of kale salad 

Tuesday - Sausage Calzone and Chicken Parmesean

Wednesday - Chicken Curry with Rice

Thursday - Sushi

Friday - Pho 

Although a mixture of home cooking + eating out at restaurants, if I estimated the cost of all meals counted as restaurant cost, it would have cost us $250+ for six dinners.

I enjoy cooking for my family because it's a huge way I show my love for them. At the same time, cooking is work. A lot of work. Although I cringe at how much eating out can cost, it is really nice to sit down, be served food, and not have to do the dishes after. Or pick up the food my kids have slowly scattered all over the floor. So all in all, I had a great vacation, both from my salaried and non-salaried duties 😁.

Takeout with the Tos #8

I didn't cook too many things on Sunday because we did some cooking on Saturday as well. To keep consistency, those dishes will not be included in my take out total. 

Cabbage Cilantro Stir-Fry: $12.99

Tofu Noodle Stir-Fry: $20.99 

Snow Pea Leaves: $18.99

Beef and Green Bean Stir-Fry: $22.99

Take Out Total: $75.96

Tax: $6.27

Grand Total:  $82.23

 

Cabbage Cilantro Stir-Fry (top right)

I enjoyed this dish so much last week I wanted to make it again this week. I normally don't repeat identical dishes two consecutive weeks, but I really wanted to eat this dish again. I love cilantro but I realize some people don't share in this sentiment. 

Tofu Noodle Stir-Fry (bottom right)

This past week, I pulled out my scrapbook from my year living overseas. We flipped through it and I was able to share my experiences with them as well as reminiscing on them myself. In the back of the scrapbook, I did a few pages with photos of food I had cooked myself.  One included a dish made with strips of tofu. 

I had forgotten the use of tofu strips over the years, so this week when we went grocery shopping, I put it on the list and made this dish. It's similar to the vermicelli dish I've made in the past, but I just added the tofu strips in with the noodles. My sauce was a mixture of Chinese barbeque sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Snow Pea Leaves (top left)

These were on sale at the grocery store for the cheapest I've seen them this season - $2.99/lb. As always, we love these. Simple stir-fry with garlic, salt, and sugar. 

Beef and Green Bean Stir-Fry (bottom middle and left) 

This dish ended up being two containers because I ran out of my large containers. It's a bigger portion than I normally make. I didn't intend on using this many green beans but there was the tiniest bit left in the bag that was only 1-2 servings worth and I didn't feel I could do much with it on its own. I agree there's a lot of green beans, but I think the meat to vegetable ratio is still acceptable.

I can't remember which cut of beef I bought but I'm guessing it was a top round. My preference is for flank steak but prices have almost doubled since I first started buying them 6-7 years ago so I've found other alternatives. The key is to marinate in just a bit of corn starch to tenderize the meat. I've also learned the velveting technique with baking soda but it's not my preference because you need to rinse the meat to remove the baking soda before cooking. I find corn starch works well in small amounts because then you don't get goopy meat in your pan.

Honestly, the real star of this week's cooking adventure was the pan:

Our new wok.

 

We purchased a new stainless steel wok a few months ago and finally pulled it out to use. Stainless steel has always scared me for stir-frys because of the fear of food sticking. I think it scares a lot of people for the same reason. However, as convenient as nonstick pans are, the coatings wear down and eventually they lose their nonstick quality and need to be replaced. In the past five years, I've worn down over 3 nonstick pans. I agree: the better you take care of your cookware, the longer it will last.

When we switched to an induction cooktop 3 years ago, there was a new learning curve finding the right heat settings to cook what I needed in the pans I was using. High heat kills nonstick pans. This is a universal truth and even the instructions on the packaging say to use medium/medium high heat only. The feeling of cooking on a brand new nonstick pan is incomparable. It really makes me feel like I know my way around as a chef. The difference from cooking on an old nonstick that is on its way out vs switching to a brand new one is night and day. 

But the feeling doesn't last. Eventually, the nonstick pan will start to stick and need replacing. 

I've cooked minimally on stainless steel over the years. The majority of my stainless steel is for pots - soups, stews, and braises. Sometimes there's an occasional deep fry. But I've shied away from stir-frying in nonstick. I've watched cooking shows and looked up videos on how to cook in stainless steel to make it nonstick. There are various methods out there.

After cooking all 4 of these dishes in our new wok, I've come to the following conclusions:

1. Heating up the pan properly helps to keep food from sticking to the pan. This includes heating up the pan to where water "dances" on the pan instead of evaporating into steam. 

2. Add enough oil. Stainless steel cooking is not meant for the health-conscious. No, we're not trying to drench food in oil, but you need oil for food not to stick. Dry heat = sticking.

3. Our stove is flat. We don't have gas and we most definitely don't have a wok insert for a gas stove.  The wok is rounded. Even a flat-bottomed wok like what we have is still rounded on the sides. Therefore, the heat is strongest on the bottom and will taper as the sides go up. This means we will have cooking limitations even with the most skilled of chefs. 

After cooking our four dishes in the same wok one after the other, this is what it looked like on the inside:

 

I cooked the tofu noodle stir-fry last because I knew there was going to be a starchiness in my noodles which makes sticking more likely. With a delicate balance of changing the heat as I was cooking as well as monitoring my ingredients during the cooking, I was able to prevent a lot of sticking from occurring. As you can see, there is some food stick to the bottom of the wok, but it is not much at all. I didn't scrape the bottom at all to remove the food. This is what was naturally left. There was minimal scrubbing needed to clean this pan. Some hot water and dish soap did the trick easily. 

My conclusion for now is that this stainless steel wok is our best frugal option. It does a decent job cooking food without needing to purchase a $70+ pan every 2 years or so. I'm hoping to be able to improve my cooking skills in this wok so I don't need to rely on nonstick as much. If it doesn't happen....then at least I tried. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Takeout with the Tos #7

This week was another non-grocery week. I didn't blog last week's food but we did grocery shop a week ago. Similar to last week's ingredient breakdown, everything I used this week was either surplus, freezer, or shelf stable:

Dried tofu sticks. Dried mushrooms. Frozen edamame. Leftover cabbage. Leftover green onion. Cilantro from my garden. Frozen shrimp. Leftover eggs. Frozen green beans. Frozen ground pork. Frozen pork shoulder. Potatoes.

Here's what I made with these ingredients:

 - Tofu, Mushroom, Edamame Stir Fry: $16.99

- Cabbage and Cilantro: $12.99

- Shrimp and Egg: $12.99

- Green Bean with Pork: $16.99

- Dry Rub Pork (2.25lb cooked) : $22.99

- Mashed Potatoes: $9.99 

Take Out Total: $92.94

Tax: $7.67

Grand Total:  $100.61

 

Tofu Mushroom Edamame Stir Fry (top left)

I really enjoy the dried tofu sticks, always have since I was a kid. So as an adult, I'm glad it is a pantry item I can use to cook with at any time. Cooking them by itself gets boring - I have done it before - so I try to do a mix with something else in a stir fry. This week's lucky ingredients were shiitake mushroom and edamame. My kids don't eat the edamame so I don't overload it. But I like when my food has a mixture of color. Things like baby corn and canned bamboo are great choices, but they're all in the same color palette and it makes for a boring dish aesthetically. 

Cabbage and Cilantro (bottom left)

This was a dish I made up spontaneously. The leftover cabbage was sitting in my fridge for a while and I knew I had to use it. There's a version of salad we've done before with cilantro, scallions, and a vinaigrette dressing. We have a bottle of Kewpie dressing that's expiring in approximately 10 days so we did a version of the salad and used Kewpie. It was quite good. In planning vegetables for this week, I thought, why not stir fry the same cabbage and cilantro as the salad and then season like a stir-fry? So I tried it. It's not bad. I wouldn't say it's anything spectacular. But considering I got a vegetable dish without special grocery shopping and my kids will eat it, that's a win for me. 

Shrimp and Egg (bottom right)

I literally cooked shrimp, added scrambled eggs in, and threw in some scallion at the end. It's a very straightforward dish. While menu planning, we were trying to find another dish with some protein and this is what we came up with considering the ingredients we had on hand.  

Green Bean with Pork (top right)

I've made this before, but I tried a different sauce combination this time. I've always loved my hot pot dipping sauce I make. It's a combination of Chinese barbecue sauce which I mentioned in my first post, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and sesame oil. I thinned it down with water for this dish to mix with the pork and green beans. 

Dry Rub Pork

 

 

This is the second time we've made this recipe this year.  It's really easy because after you put the seasoning in, the whole cooking process is done in the Instant Pot. My husband really loves this recipe. I enjoy it but I think he likes it more than I do. It goes great with mashed potatoes in my opinion which is why we made some mashed potatoes!

 

I'm not about the froufrou food styling. These are what my mashed potatoes look like. They taste great.

 

The sauce from the pork mixed with a good from-scratch mashed potato makes a great pairing. I did reduce the sauce from the pork in a sauce pan, refrigerate overnight, and discard the congealed fat the next morning. 

 

Approx cooking time: 2.5 hours

Everything was so delicious from the menu this week, and it wasn't protein heavy. As a result, we were running out of a protein a little sooner than expected. My husband was telling me that our bread was about to expire soon so we needed to use it quicker. I told him I could make shrimp toast with it.

As you read this blog, there's a strong possibility I'm in my kitchen making it. There might be a mini blog on shrimp toast by itself later...

Basic

I remember being in high school and going to a friend's house to hang out. There was food - I think it was some kind of potluck but the specifics escape me now. One of my friends there whispered to me before we were getting food:

Don't eat what ****'s mom cooked. It's not good.

The dish was pointed out to me. As we piled food onto our plates, I took a bit of everything, including the dish my friend told me not to eat. After all, I was curious. How bad was this "not good" food? I ate the food on my plate and when I tried that specific dish, I remember thinking it wasn't bad. No, it wasn't restaurant food. It wasn't food to die for that I'd remember for years and years to come. But as a teenager who couldn't really cook for myself at the time, it was food I'd eat.

I grew up eating pretty plain food. I don't remember my mother being a fantastic cook. I don't actually think she was. I remember her cooking Chinese vegetables, spaghetti, sardines from a can, seaweed soup, peanut noodles, ramen noodles, something with hot dogs, tv dinners, and probably dumplings. My memory is definitely not complete, but this is the span of food I remember eating growing up. Compared to the dish made at my friend's house? Pretty consistent if you ask me. That's why I wasn't phased. 

I loved eating these "TV dinners" as they were called. I even remember the quintessential flattened look of the mashed potatoes from the plastic covering. This image is quite accurate when it came to the texture of the food. 

My friend wasn't a mean person, but he ate well. I have no doubt his mom cooked delicious food, perhaps even similar to what I cook now myself. I would assume he told me this about our friend because he felt like he was helping me avoid food he wouldn't eat himself. While kind in one sense, I think it slipped his mind that I grew up with food much more basic than him. I grew up with food just like the dish he told me to avoid.

My own cooking now is a luxury even to my own standards. I really hope my children don't grow up 20 years later and tell people all they remember eating is spaghetti, chicken nuggets, and dumplings. Unlucky for them, the internet exists and will continue to exist so there's a trail of proof as to how they ate as children in the year 2025. My kids eat everything on the spectrum from boxed macaroni and cheese to homemade dim sum. I wouldn't have it any other way because I want them to still appreciate simple food.

Takeout With the Tos #6

This week's menu is special because I didn't have to go to the grocery store to buy anything! This sounds too good to be true, right? It is and isn't. You'd be surprised how much you can cook from things that save well in the freezer, pantry, and even your refrigerator! Here's how I did it.

Ingredient List:

- Chinese broccoli: I bought these last week and didn't end up cooking them. Yes, they wilted a bit throughout the week, but I cut the ends off, rehydrate in water for about a half hour, and they plump back up like fresh greens. Toss out any leaves that turned yellow or started to spot.  

- Vermicelli: These are dried mung bean noodles from the Asian grocery store. I try to stock 3-4 packs of these in my pantry at all times. The link just shows you what it is. I don't advise buying from Amazon if you can avoid it. 

- Ground Pork: I buy this from the Asian grocery store or Wild Fork. Not sponsored. But their price is great! I keep these in the freezer and thaw overnight before I use.

- Edamame: I buy the bags of shelled edamame from the Asian grocery and keep in my freezer.

- Carrots: Bought these a week ago. Still good in my fridge. Storage tip: Peel and wash your carrots and then wrap in aluminum foil. Put back in your crisper bin. They will stay fresh for longer. I've done this before when I already have older carrots and we're about to go out of town. That way I'm not forced to use them super quickly.  

- Canned bamboo and baby corn: These are another pantry staple for me. I'm sad Walmart stopped selling baby corn or I didn't find it the last time I looked. I'll try to keep 1-2 cans of each in our pantry on hand for random dishes like this week!

- Tofu: I always have at least 1-2 packs of tofu in our refrigerator. 

- Chicken Tenders: We don't formally have a grocery budget. When I see meat on sale, I will typically buy it regardless if we are eating that meat during the week. When we don't eat it, I vacuum seal it and store in our freezer. I always make sure to label and date things so I can find them easily later. The chicken I used this week was from October 2024. Not too long ago, but definitely not recent. 

Takeout Breakdown:

- Chinese Broccoli: $12.99

- Vermicelli Stir Fry: $25.99

- Edamame, Baby Corn, Bamboo: $12.99 

- Teriyaki Tofu: $15.99

- Panko Chicken Tenders (23 tenders): $38.99  

Take Out Total: $106.95

Tax: $8.82

Grand Total:  $115.77

Chinese Broccoli (bottom right):

I've made this a few times now so I won't elaborate too much. This week's was blanched in salt water. I add about 1TB of salt to ~2qt water and blanch in small batches. That's my estimate but America's Test Kitchen did a whole study on cooking green beans in salt water and why you need the salt! I think their findings can be extrapolated in part to other green vegetables as well. Really delicious by itself! 

Vermicelli Stir Fry (top left): 

This dish is inspired by the Asian recipe Ants Climbing Up a Tree. Yes, that is the literal translation of the dish. I don't follow this recipe but the overall cooking method and flavoring runs along the same lines. My true inspiration was actually my friend's dad. I'd tasted some of his food and he makes a rendition of this dish. His is definitely better, and now I know why mine will never taste as good as his. 😂

Edamame, Baby Corn, Bamboo (top right):

If you're familiar with Asian restaurants, you'll know they name their dishes by the ingredients in the dish. Hence, the name of this dish. This is definitely a dish that was put together specifically because I knew I was cooking with ingredients I already had. As explained earlier, all of these are frozen or canned and easily available at any given moment as long as I've purchased it. I add chicken bouillon seasoning with water and then thicken it with a corn starch slurry to make a sauce. It turned out great. 

Teriyaki Tofu (bottom left):

This is another repeat dish that appeared in week 1. I think this one turned out more delicious than the previous time, but you'll see this dish pop up pretty frequently. 

Panko Chicken Tenders 

I've been making chicken like this for years and years. Originally, it started out as my chicken for chicken and waffles. Recently, I've changed up the marinade to be more Asian as a stand-alone protein to match the other Asian dishes I tend to cook. In this batch, I used soy sauce, cooking wine, salt, cornstarch, and battered them with panko. I shallow fry these in about a half inch of oil between 330-350F. Approximately 3 minutes on each side, 5-6 minutes total. I originally thought I went heavy on the salt, but after cooking, I realized I could have used some more. They're still delicious and I've been dipping them in Kewpie. My kids love this chicken and when they see me cooking it, they tell me they want to eat it. Words can't describe how much it warms my heart to know my children love my cooking. 

I don't think frying food is unhealthy if you follow the following guidelines:

- fry at the correct temperature to minimize oil absorption

- fry in fresh oil for best results

- drain excess oil - I've set my chicken in a strainer so the oil can run down and out

- have fried food as a rotation with other cooking methods (I cook fried food probably < 1-2x/month)

I hope this week's menu inspires you to try to cook a week's menu without going grocery shopping for anything specific! It can be done. 😃

Total time elapsed: ~3.5 hours

Takeout With the Tos: Store-Bought Freezer Filler Meals

With the recent exception of last week's menu, we typically don't have enough food from what I cook on Sunday to make it through the week. So both as addendum food and variety, we eat fillers throughout the week. Fillers are foods we eat which I don't batch cook on Sunday afternoon. This can be a combination of store-bought freezer meals as well as batches of frozen food from homemade meals. Keep in mind any cooking which happens during the week is much more simple. 

In this post, I'm going to go over store-bought freezer filler foods we eat periodically. I know I make a lot of homemade food for my family, but I'm not above freezer chicken nuggets or dumplings.

Random assortment of what's currently in our freezer. Not sponsored. 

1. Chicken Nuggets - We love chicken nuggets. If there was a way I could get chicken nuggets to not be soggy in a hot food thermos, I'd bring them for my kid's lunch. I haven't found a way to do this yet. I've seen some youtubers stick paper towels in the thermos to absorb moisture and keep them crunchy, but I doubt the true effectiveness. So we save chicken nuggets for home when they can be eaten right after cooking.

2. Corn Dogs - My kids enjoy corn dogs here and there. My husband and I enjoy corn dogs here and there. We've done both the corn dog on a stick and mini corn dogs.

3. Frozen Dumplings - this category is anything that includes any brand of dumpling (we eat multiple), soup dumplings, or tiny wontons. Depending on how specific you get, you could almost lump them all under the category of "dumpling."

4. Frozen Noodles - I keep a small stash of premade noodle servings with vegetables. If it's convenient and I have some on hand, I will try to add a protein in since most are made vegetarian. Otherwise, it's a quick microwave and eat type meal.

5.  Tacos/Mexican - We do occasionally buy mini tacos at Costco when they're on sale and keep them on hand in our freezer. Currently, I have a pack of tamales I found on markdown. So those are on deck for a time when we need some food in a crunch. 

6. Fish Sticks - My husband and I love fish sticks. There's a guilty pleasure about eating breaded, crunchy fish late at night as a snack with homemade tartar sauce. My kids will eat it occasionally, but we seldom give it to them because somehow they end up smelling like a fish stick, even hours after eating! 

7. Lasagna - occasionally we find the frozen lasagna on sale at Costco or Sam's. This one isn't really a quick meal though since it does take a couple of hours in the oven.

#1, 2, and 6 are items we (the adults) tend to crave when we see our kids eating them. I'm not sure what it is. Perhaps it's because they're not our everyday food so they are actually more like a special treat. There are other items which make their rounds through our freezer so this list isn't all-inclusive. I actually enjoy a freezer food "treat" here and there because we don't eat it often. A number of these also turn into my dinner #2, especially when I eat dinner before 5 pm most days. These have also come in handy if we all get sick or after coming back from going out of town. If I'm feeling fancy, I'll usually pair these with some side dishes: mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, or broccoli with the American items or kimchi/seaweed salad with the Asian items. It ends up being quite a tasty meal!

Anyone else have guilty pleasure frozen food? 😄

Takeout With the Tos #5

Here's the takeout for this week:

- Bok Choy: $12.99

- Egg Fried Rice: $12.99

- Egg and Tomato: $15.99

- Char Siu: $12.99/lb x 2.75lb = $35.72

- Seafood Vegetable Soup: $6/qt x 6.5 qt = $39.00

- Stir Fry Turnip Greens: $12.99

Take Out Total: $129.68

Tax: $10.70

Grand Total:  $140.38

Bok Choy (top right)

Bok Choy is on the menu again, but it's actually not the same vegetable as last week. Yes, they share the same name but it's a different variant of vegetable. The leaf shape is very slightly different and I think the taste is very slightly different as well. Think about it like different types of tomatoes: Roma, Beefsteak, Heirloom, etc. There's also different types of bok choy! You'll find that this one gets repeated every two weeks or so because it's a basic staple leafy green we like to eat with our Asian food. 

Egg Fried Rice (bottom right)

Egg friend rice made it on the menu again. My kids definitely eat this once or twice a week so making it multiple weeks in a row doesn't feel like a repeat. I had some leftover fat from the pork belly I made last week so that was used to make this fried rice. 

Egg and Tomato (bottom center)

This is such a simple, basic dish most Asian people have eaten or cooked once. It was self-taught for me in the beginning. I'd scramble some eggs and then throw in tomatoes. Add some salt. Done. As the years went by, I started to doctor it up. I add ketchup to my tomato and eggs. Some people frown on this. I've always liked it so that's how I continue to make it. My sugar is in my salt/sugar shaker already so I don't add it separately. For some people, sugar is their secret ingredient. After I got the Woks of Life cookbook, I looked up the actual recipe for egg and tomato. They add shaoxing wine to the scrambled eggs before cooking. I tried this once and it enhanced the flavor very slightly. I think it's one of those ingredients where if you don't add it, you won't miss it. But, if you do add it, you can taste the difference. So sometimes I'll pour in a bit of shaoxing wine to my eggs when I remember. And other times I still make it without out of habit. 

Char Siu

We make our own char siu when I buy large cuts of meat. Two weekends ago when I was working, I told my husband to pick the food menu for the week. He and the kids flipped through our cookbook and my daughter wanted char siu. My husband put it on the menu, but upon returning home, I told him we didn't have the right cut of meat in our freezer to make this...so it wasn't made. A few days later, I was at Costco and saw their pork shoulder on sale. Yes, it's an enormous pork shoulder. Yes, I buy it about once a year. So this was my once a year pork shoulder purchase. We spent 40 minutes processing and vacuum sealing 15 pounds of pork shoulder. One turned into the char siu we ate this week. Two turned into a freezer batch of char siu. One turned into a freezer portion for this recipe.  

The recipe we follow is by Made With Lau.  I made a double batch this time so we started with 4 pounds of meat. You lose about 25% of the weight cooking so the final weight shown in the cost breakdown is pretty accurate. (Yes, we weighed it.) Making homemade char siu is actually pretty simple. We marinate the meat overnight and then bake it on raised racks to allow the fat to drip off as it cooks. Alternating basting and baking in the last half of the cooking time is the most hands-on part of this recipe. Baking this char siu took about an hour. I think we overdid it slightly this time and probably could have taken 10-15 minutes off the overall time. Depending on your cuts of meat, it varies. I may have cut my pieces a bit too thinly this time and the cooking time wasn't adjusted accordingly. This is part of the cooking/learning/experimenting process. We just eat every batch, good or bad. 

Seafood Vegetable Soup

I was feeling another batch of soup and the weather cooled down as well this week to match. This pot of soup has: tofu puffs, sweet potato, carrots, cabbage, daikon, tomatoes, and mussels. I saw recently Woks of Life came out with a winter vegetable soup recipe. I didn't follow the recipe, but it inspired me to add cabbage to my soup. I don't typically think of cabbage as a soupy vegetable, but after glancing at their recipe, I decided to add it in. Honestly, you don't notice it. It cooks down and blends in with everything else. The seasonings I add to my soup include garlic, ginger, dashi seasoning, and dried shrimp. The vegetables add everything else and I may finish with some salt for a final taste. 

Stir Fry Turnip Greens (top photo bottom left)

This was a first for us. I've never done this before. But my freezer was filling up and I had to start using some of the things in it. I have bags of greens in my freezer because the local grocery store puts them on clearance when they don't sell after a while. The greens are still find, but the best by date is nearing. I buy them, take them home, and put them into my freezer where they continue to sit until I have a recipe to use them. There are some recipes which work better for these than others. I wouldn't recommend stir frying as my top choice, but it's the method of cooking I used this time. They're not bad, but because they are pre-washed and pre-cut in the bag, I cannot control what goes in or the size of the pieces. When I cut my vegetables for stir fry, I cut the leaves larger than the stems to accommodate cooking times. This way the leaves don't overcook and allow the stems to cook through without being overly raw. This pre-cut bag did not allow for that distinction, but it turned out okay. I actually enjoyed eating this throughout the week. I'll need to add it to my mental list of freezer vegetables which can pair Asian food. 

I'm proud to say I cooked enough food this week and at the posting of this blog, none of the dishes has been completely eaten yet. 😂 This does mean we have eaten a rotation of the same foods for 4 days now. However, don't forget that we do supplement with "filler meals" here and there. I've decided next week I will post about freezer filler meals so stay tuned.

Total time elapsed: ~3 hours

The Magic of Disney

We did an extended family trip to Disney over New Year's during last year's winter break. I was secretly dreading this trip for the longest time for reasons of my own, but about two weeks before we left, I made the decision to focus on my kids and make it an enjoyable trip for them as well as myself. Honestly, it was great. We had so much fun and the kids loved the rides at the parks. They were already asking us when we were going back....on the flight home. This was a true conversation I had with my 4-year-old.

Mommy, when can we go back to Disney? Maybe in like five years.

Is that 100 days? No...that's more like 1,500 days....

My kids each got one souvenir from Disney to commemorate their bravery riding some scarier rides they wouldn't have done otherwise. I got myself a souvenir as well. We did buy a family ornament from this trip, but this souvenir was completely for me. It was a last-minute decision and I bought it right before we left for the airport. 

Earrings are my way of feeling put-together. I don't spend much time on hair unless it's a special occasion or I feel like putting in the effort, and I don't wear makeup for the same reasons. But adding a pair of earrings can elevate my overall appearance. I've experimented at home in front of the mirror when wearing a t-shirt with my hair in a messy bun. No earrings = frumpy mom mode. Earrings = subtle chic.

Normally, I can't justify spending money on souvenirs like this. I like things to have purpose and meaning. I am working on appreciating items just because we like something for the "thing" it is. My last trip to Disney was when I was around 7 or 8 myself. My mother bought me a piece of jewelry. I was always drawn to the shiny things in gift shops. That's exactly who they're advertising toward - kids/people like me who gravitate toward the sparkles and the glitter. We were in one of the gift shops and I immediately saw the tower of birthstone rings and jewelry. The irony is I always loved the ones that weren't mine - especially March. March birthstone jewelry was always blue because of aquamarine. My mother told me she would buy me my birthstone. 

This one happened to be pink for tourmaline instead of the typical opal I always saw. I agreed and my mom bought it for me. I don't think I ever wore the ring. When I was younger, it felt too special to wear. I saved it in my jewelry box for years and years. My finger eventually outgrew the ring. Yes, it has an adjustable band, but now I choose not to wear it to preserve it. The plastic stone in the left ear fell out sometime in the last 10 years. I honestly have no idea how it happened. It was like one day I went to check my jewelry box and the stone was missing. Even if all the stones fell out, I'd keep it forever. 

My mother couldn't justify spending money on things like these either. But she did, at least this one time, for me. I don't often think about the ways my mom has influenced my life because all of my adult years have been spent independently of her. I've actually appreciated not having to factor my mom's opinion into the decisions I make, but knowing she indulged me decades ago allowed me to indulge myself now.

A reunion, of sorts.

Takeout with the Tos #4

I'm really excited about this week's food. In fact, one dish is already completely eaten as of the publishing of this blog. I feel like this week's dishes have a special place in my heart. Maybe I'm just weird like that, but I get excited when there's special meaning to items. Fun fact: we visited Princeton right before my brother was in high school and ate lunch in their cafeteria. I saved the toothpick from my sandwich for YEARS after that. Because it came from Princeton University. Don't worry, it's trashed now. 

- Bok choy: $11.99

- Stir Fry Mushrooms, Green Bean, and Pork: $18.99

- Mapo Tofu: $15.99

- Pork Belly: $25.99

- Ketchup Shrimp (14 pcs): $22.99

- Egg Fried Rice: $12.99

Take Out Total: $108.94

Tax: $8.99

Grand Total: $117.93

Bok Choy (bottom center)

Believe it or not these greens were purchased a week ago and sat in my refrigerator. Due to the wonders of technological innovations, leafy vegetables can stay fresh in the crisper bin for a week. Also, if you soak the vegetables in water before cooking, they rehydrate and are basically as fresh as straight from the store. Simple stir fry with garlic, salt, and sugar. Can't go wrong.

Stir Fry Mushrooms, Green Bean, and Pork (top right)

I combined two dishes together to make this one. I've done a green bean and pork stir fry before. This was part of our menu during week 1. I've also used oyster mushrooms before. This time, I decided to julienne the oyster mushrooms and add into the stir fry with the green beans and pork. The sauce I used to season was a mix of oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, rice wine, sugar, and salt. 

Mapo Tofu (top left)

Confession: my mapo tofu is not the same as what they make in the restaurants. It's not authentic at all. I just call it mapo tofu because that is where this dish evolved from. Originally, I started with a recipe. I made it a few times, but honestly, I wasn't in love with the way it tasted. Maybe I just don't like actual mapo tofu when I make it at home. However, once I mixed my own flavor profile for sauce, I really loved this dish. My seasoning blend is a mix of black pepper sauce and sweet bean sauce. I discovered this blend because the black pepper sauce by itself wasn't sweet enough for my liking. The sweet bean sauce by itself didn't have the umami kick. So I mix the two. This is the same sauce I use when I make beef and broccoli. Hoping that will make the rounds at some point this year, but beef flank is pricey and we don't eat it often. I do still thicken the sauce with corn starch slurry like the original recipe, but my seasonings are just different. I love cooking without a recipe though because I can do it so much faster. So although recipes are wonderful to get started, my preference is still to ad lib or do it by memory. 

Pork Belly (bottom left) 

I have to watch how much pork belly I eat because this is what trigged a very long GI/digestive issue/health problems for me for much of 2023. I still remember exactly what dish it was I cooked and I don't think I've made it in nearly two years because I'm traumatized. If you're curious, it's Thai basil pork belly.  I absolutely loved the flavor of Thai basil pork belly and it was one of my favorites, but I haven't been able to make it in years. This pork belly dish I cooked is just marinated in brown sugar, soy sauce, cooking wine, sesame oil, and pan fried. I do have to cook a lot of the fat out of it so it's not as moist as it could be, but I'd like not to feel sick for multiple months again. This is definitely still a rich dish, but it's very delicious, and as long as my body doesn't revolt on me, it will be in the rotation periodically. Some day I may try making Thai basil pork belly again. Maybe later this year if I'm brave.

Ketchup Shrimp (bottom right)

This was size 9-14 head-on shrimp. I love the big shrimp. My aunt who lives in the northeast would buy the jumbo sized shrimp (almost the size of a 40 oz Stanley water bottle lid) and cook it for us when we visited during the summer. My shrimp are not as big as those but as big as I can get for a reasonable amount of money locally. I honestly can't remember if I grew up eating this dish. My guess is I did. But over the years, I forgot about it. After my son was born, it was Covid. One of my auntie friends, whom I consider almost like a second mother, helped cook some dishes for us each week for four weeks and would drop it off on our porch. One week, she made ketchup shrimp. Eating it again brought me back to my childhood somehow, as if I'd tasted this flavor before. I absolutely loved it and told myself I would learn how to make this dish. And I did. I follow the recipe by Woks of Life. When I received my cookbook, this was the first recipe I looked for. I was very sad it wasn't included, but I realize 80% of the people who buy their cookbook probably wouldn't be looking for this recipe. So I'm glad it's on their website. My kids love ketchup shrimp. My daughter asks me to peel hers for her, and when I'm patient, I'll hold it out for her to suck the sauce off first. 

Egg Fried Rice (top middle)

I wasn't planning on making a fried rice on my cooking day. Normally, this becomes a filler dish I cook mid-week when we start running out of food. But when I realized I forgot to use the last cube of garlic I'd thawed, I figured I'd make some fried rice and throw the garlic in there so it wouldn't go to waste. My friend came over during high school (or was it a summer of a college year?) and taught me how to make fried rice. I had no idea you had to put the eggs in last. Silly me. I don't think the fried rice I make would be Uncle Roger approved, but it feeds my kids without complaint so I'll take it. I really hope egg prices come back down soon. 

I find a lot of joy in cooking for my family every week. Delicious food is a great plus, but I also love the stories that these dishes hold. I hope my kids will keep my stories and also have their own stories with our food and pass it down in years to come. 

Total time elapsed: 3.5 hours.

Takeout With the Tos #3

It's another week of food here on the blog! This week's food was a little different because we had leftovers shared with us so we didn't really need to cook a lot. However, I like to maximize my time so I ended up making two main dishes where I freeze extras for quick meals later. The costs are going to include the entire batch of food I made including what goes into the freezer. So although all of it is not being consumed this week, it's as if I ordered extra food from a restaurant to freeze and save for later.

- Snow pea leaves: $15.99

- Chinese broccoli: $12.99

- Chinese spaghetti: 12 servings @ $8.99/serving: $107.88

- Shao Mai: 55 pcs @ $1/pc: $55

- Homemade chips: on the house

Take Out Total: $191.86

Tax: $15.83

Grand Total: $207.69

Shao Mai

There's 55 total but this picture was taken before they were all made. I'm a really bad shao mai wrapper...so they're not aesthetically pleasing.

These are made from the recipe found in the Woks of Life cookbook. I've made this recipe 2-3x total and my kids absolutely love it. It's definitely a labor of love and I double the recipe to make enough to save a freezer batch or two. They're almost as good as the ones at the restaurant. This time when I made them, I subbed chicken bouillon for the salt. Although they tasted fine, it didn't add the "oomph" I had hoped for. Next time, I may try half salt half chicken bouillon because it was still missing some umami this time. 

I use both my food processor and my stand mixer for this recipe. If I had to chop and mix by hand, I wouldn't make it...ever. The right tools for the job make a HUGE difference. Just be extra kind to the person who washes the dishes. 😁

I don't use yellow wrappers so they're not pretty like the ones
at the restaurant, but they sure are delicious. 

Chinese Spaghetti 

My friend shared this recipe with me a while back and it's definitely a hit at our house. I just call it Chinese spaghetti because that's basically what it is. This sauce recipe is completely made in the Instant Pot and I double it to save batches in the freezer for later. There's quite a bit of prep work for cutting the vegetables, but the actual cooking is all done in the Instant Pot. You can definitely use frozen vegetables for this if you'd like to make it even easier. That's not something I stock so I do cut my carrots, onions, and celery by hand. Be warned if you're going to double the recipe you need at least the 8 qt IP. I maxed mine out the last time I made it because I beefed up the vegetable portions and added mushrooms. The sauce is what goes into the freezer and I just cook pasta to complete the meal for next time. 

Chinese Broccoli (Top right)

This is the first repeat dish I've done in four weeks. I'd say that's not bad! We used the steaming method this week since we already pulled out our steamer for the shao mai. Personally, I actually prefer the boiling method because I can boil in salt water and it flavors the vegetables nicely. Steaming isn't bad but I would definitely choose to eat it with some dipping sauce.

Snow Pea Leaves (Bottom right)

We love snow pea leaves. It's the special vegetable treat during the winter months when it goes on sale. Picking away the thicker stems is key to a pleasant mouth-feel when eating this vegetable. It elevates the dish significantly when it's all tender leaves and thin stems. One of my children was willing to try it! Stir fry in garlic with salt and sugar seasoning. Absolutely perfect. 

Homemade Chips (Bottom left)

These were a last minute decision to make. After wrapping the shao mai, I had two leftover wrappers. What was I going to do with two wrappers? I thought about just trashing them, but then I decided to cut it into strips, spray with oil, and stick them in my pan for a light fry. I seasoned them with Trader Joe's mushroom umami seasoning and they were a hit. I think I actually ate the least only having had one chip...

Food is always good when I look forward to it. It makes meals more exciting and honestly increases my overall appetite. There have been weeks before where I haven't been excited about anything in my refrigerator. This can be due to illness and mood as well so it's not always contingent on the food. I have to say this week's food is pretty enticing. 

Total time elapsed: 3.5-4 hours. 

The Blue Paste

I wanted to take a break from posting food this week to talk about something else just as important: cleaning! With the amount of cooking that happens, even if just 1-2 days a week, the kitchen sure gets pretty grimy. 

This is probably worse than normal from a batch cooking last December, but on any given week, our stove resembles this grease-splattered mess at least once. Stove messes are a catalyst for other messes because anything left on the stove will transfer to the bottom of my pans the next time I cook without wiping it down. 

I recently saw a cleaning paste made with three ingredients which I already had at home: hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, and baking soda. The recipe is written in a 2:1:1 ratio so I used:

1/2 cup hydrogen peroxide

1/4 cup dish soap

1/4 cup baking soda

Our dish soap is the blue Dawn dish soap, but if you wanted an all-natural alternative, I'm sure it could work just as well. 

This paste is my go-to for everything non-porous now. I use it on our stove top. I use it to clean our kitchen sink. I've even cleaned bathroom sinks with it. I should try cleaning the shower with it, too, but I haven't gotten that far. I love baking soda as a natural no-scratch abrasive. Our stove looks brand new after I use this cleaner on it.

There was a house for sale on our street a few years ago, and we went to the open house. Her stove was pristine. I want our stove to look like that whenever the time comes for us to move (or die). 

Our kitchen sink is another super gross spot which needs a deep clean about once every 1-2 months. I try my best to always rinse the food into the strainer so it doesn't sit in parts of the sink, but alas, the sink always manages to get dirty. This cleaning solution has made it much faster and easier than ever to clean my sink and the wire grate.

Would you believe me if I said it took less than 10 minutes to clean my sink?

Do you know what tool I like best to clean the sink with? A bottle brush! It's the only tool that's both flexible and strong enough to clean between all those little grates in my wire stand. I love having one of these so my dishes don't have to sit on the bottom of the sink with all the food gunk, but cleaning it sure can be a hassle. You'll still find me in the baby aisle at Walmart to buy the occasional bottle brush replacement....to clean my kitchen sink! 

If you're ever at our house and you see a jar of blue stuff sitting on the ledge above our sink with a pair of disposable chopsticks lying across the lid, that's the magical jar of paste that cleans all my non-porous surfaces and restores them to like-new. 😄

Takeout with the Tos #2

Half of us got sick this week so the cooking was not as elaborate as it can be. But we have some food to get us through this week as well as some leftovers from last week. I know for sure I'll need to cook more vegetables this week to supplement. I also cook filler foods throughout the week. Sometime in the future I will make a post just on filler foods. For now, here's our food haul this week.

- Bok Choy: $15.99

- Pork Ribs: $25.99

- Seafood Pancake (Fritters): $24.99

- Tempura Shrimp: $13.99

Take out total: $80.96

Tax: $6.68

Grand Total:  $87.64

Pork Ribs

I discovered this pork rib recipe a few years ago. My husband really likes it and it's very easy to make. It uses country style ribs but you can probably use spareribs if you wanted to. It's a great bulk portion of protein to eat with some rice and vegetables. 

Shrimp Tempura (Top left)

These are definitely freezer tempura I bought and fried. Now, let's be real, even some restaurants buy premade items and heat/serve at their restaurant. So I don't think this is cheating by any means. I still had to fry them up myself from raw. So it's food I cooked. Costco sells a giant pack, but I prefer the ones from the Asian grocery store. The crust on the Costco tempura shrimp is just too thick for my liking. 

Bok Choy (Top Middle)

We did a simple stir fry vegetable with garlic. I discovered the use of both salt and sugar in the seasoning to bring out the flavor of the vegetable even more. This goes for any stir fry leafy vegetable. I actually have a shaker with 50% salt and 50% sugar premixed just to cook my vegetables with. 

Seafood Pancake *Fritters* (Top Right)

I call these seafood pancakes at my house, but really they're fritters. Once upon a time I actually made seafood pancakes kind of like the Korean style pancakes. These were delicious and I got some to actually look really nice.

This was circa May 2021

Since then, I've gotten more efficient in my cooking. As a result, these pancakes now resemble fritters. Maangchi actually also has a recipe which resembles fritters. I find these so much faster and easier to make. These have a wonderful seafood flavor. My favorite add-ins are clams, mussels, and shrimp. Sometimes I'll add in crab, octopus, or squid depending what is in my freezer. I've made this dish so many times now I don't actually follow her recipe anymore. But it's a great start if you're making it for the first time! 

A simple steamed broccoli was supposed to make it into the rotation, but I didn't get it made in the same batch as everything else so it is not reflected in this take-out order. 

Total time elapsed: About 2 hours. There were two of us working in the kitchen so some parts went faster than when I do it alone. 

Takeout with the Tos #1

It's officially the first full week of the new year, and as is true of every other first week of a year, we need food! 

Please note for all these posts:

- I don't glamorize my food. Most of our serving dishes are the same containers I save leftovers in. I'm not trying to make things pretty. We also don't have space to store beautiful serving dishes or platters. I keep it real. 

- I batch cook one day a week. This doesn't mean I only cook one day a week, but it does mean 80% of my cooking happens on one day. I will supplement throughout the week as needed if there's not enough food, but those items will not be included in these posts for simplicity. 

- The prices you'll see are meant to jokingly reflect a restaurant-selling price. It might be much higher than you expect. No, I'm not actually selling my food. Please don't ask to order as flattered as I might be. 

- This blog series is not meant to share recipes. If I followed a recipe or used one as inspiration, I will link it. If there's no link, that means I made it up in my head or was inspired by a dish I'd eaten but never received instructions to explicitly make. You're always welcome to connect with me personally if you'd like more information on anything you see here which I've made!

This week's menu:

- Teriyaki Tofu: $11.99

- Beef and Turkey Pockets (并): 2 for $5. I made 18 so that's $45

- Scallop Mushroom: $9.99

- Chinese Broccoli Dim Sum Style: $12.99

- Pork and Green Bean Stir Fry: $13.99

- Vegetarian Soup: $5/qt. I made 8 qts total so that's $40

Take out total: $133.96

Tax: $11.05

Grand total: $145.01

Teriyaki Tofu (Above left)

I made up this dish a while back. Tofu is a healthy and affordable vegetarian option for protein. I now purchase firm tofu in bulk from Costco. I came up with this recipe after buying a giant bottle of teriyaki sauce from their business warehouse a few years ago. I would pan fry the tofu and then pour the sauce in at the end to coat each piece. It has become a staple in our house. I've also made my own teriyaki sauce before for this recipe. As delicious as it was, I haven't made it from scratch in a long time. So usually some sugar and soy sauce get tossed in at the end and that is what becomes my "teriyaki" sauce.

Scallop Mushroom (Above right)

This is a relatively new dish I started making in the last few years. It doesn't end up on our rotation as often, but it's another easy vegetarian option for protein. I remember watching an episode of a cooking show when they were talking about mushrooms. They likened king oyster mushrooms to that of a scallop texture. That's where I created this recipe. I cut them in rounds to mimic a scallop and cook them in the pan. For today's dish, I added a combination of oyster sauce and Asian barbecue sauce. 

Chinese Broccoli Dim Sum Style (Above Left)

I've always loved the Chinese broccoli at dim sum. It's simple. Usually just boiled, seasoned, and maybe with some sauce on the side. For home cooking, I just boil in salt water. Quick, easy vegetable. 

Pork and Green Bean Stir Fry (Above Right)

I started making this recipe because it was one of those easy-to-stock ones. I almost always have frozen ground pork in my freezer because I buy in bulk and freeze. Some stores also sell frozen vacuum sealed packs of ground pork. Wild Fork is a great store for this. I am considering getting all my ground pork from them in the future. The green beans I used for today's recipe were Costco frozen skinny green beans. I didn't know they would be so skinny when I bought them, but they're nice. Supposedly, Costco is discontinuing the item. I am never too sure. You can definitely try it with frozen green beans if not fresh. I'd probably stay away from canned as they are too mushy of a texture usually. I season them with sugar, salt, cooking wine, and oyster sauce. This is another dish I've been making for years at our house.

I gave roughly 3 QTs to my dad so the rest of the pot was left for us. 

Vegetarian Soup

I love making soup with Asian ingredients. I liken it to the equivalent of a "stone soup." You can essentially add whatever you want, some seasoning, and it's good to go. This particular soup has the following: carrots, shiitake mushroom, oyster mushroom, sweet potato, Napa cabbage, and fried tofu puffs. I've definitely added meat or seafood balls into a rendition of this soup. I just didn't this week. The base is beef stock as well as some soy sauce. 

Beef and Turkey Pockets (并)

These are definitely the star of the meal this week. Ever since I found out about Costco's uncooked flour tortillas, these are a part of our rotation at least every 2-3 weeks. They're definitely on the time-consuming side to make as I can only pan fry 4 at a time, and I made 18. Each batch takes about 8-10 minutes to cook including flipping. So that was nearly an hour just to make all of these 并. I actually portioned out my meat this time because I dislike having extra filling or extra tortillas leftover. So today's batch turned out perfectly. I used 2 pounds of meat, some cabbage, and seasoning. I don't follow a recipe for this either (sorry guys, I cook pretty spontaneously), but you can definitely look up a dumpling filling recipe to start with and then improvise from there as you're comfortable! This recipe is a good one to start with! I do add an egg and corn starch into my filling mixture to keep the liquids from getting too watery, especially with the addition of vegetables. 

Not pictured: rice

And there you have it. Our grand spread which will last our family of four roughly...8-10 meals. 

Total time elapsed: 5.5 hours. I made the soup on a separate day and that took about 1.5-2 hours by itself. Please note this is not non-stop cooking. Some of the time was spent waiting. I also normally only cook one dish at a time, hence using one burner on the stove at a time. It's not the most efficient when it comes to time but it definitely saves on the dishes.