Hellobee

Many of the foods Charlie and Olive used to eat regularly in New York aren’t available locally, such as salmon, tilapia, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms, and brussel sprouts. We’ve had to omit a lot of things we used to eat, which has been tough since my kids aren’t big eaters in the first place. Meats and seafood are also sold in open markets and not grocery stores here, so they’re not deboned or sold in neat little packages. This makes cooking much more time consuming since I have to do a lot of the butchering myself. I’m a super lazy cook so I’ve been slacking off with all the extra work that’s required — lots of pizza delivery nights. But the kids always eat better when I cook and my cousin just moved here from Korea, so I’ve been stepping up my game this week.

I bought 3 whole chickens, a kilogram of beef shank on the bone, and 4 kgs of ground beef this week. Since the market regularly sells out of things, we usually stock up on meat when we buy it.

Here are 13 dishes that are on the meal plan for lunch and dinner this week — a mix of American, Filipino, and Korean dishes!

Chicken Adobo – This is the most popular Filipino dish, and can also be made with pork. The combination of soy sauce, vinegar and sugar creates a savory/tangy crowd-pleasing dish most anyone likes — it’s Charlie and Olive’s favorite Filipino food!

Ground beef saute – I used to make this recipe all the time in New York, except with lots of fresh minced garlic instead of garlic powder. There is no such thing as too much garlic! I still make this in the Philippines, but without mushrooms since we can’t get them here (). I serve this over rice and Charlie adores it.

Baked meatballs – I think baked is the way to go to get the most moist meatballs. I make mine the same way as this recipe without the ketchup. They freeze great and they’re perfect for lunchboxes.

Spaghetti with meat sauce – This is one of the few “American” dishes my mom made growing up. I use Kraft Singles because it’s nostalgic for me (and only American cheese slices and mozzarella are available locally), but you can substitute any cheese you like. Every time I bring this meat sauce with a baguette to a potluck, people ask for the recipe! It freezes beautifully and it tastes even better the next day.

Directions: Saute 4 cloves (or more!) crushed garlic and 1 chopped onion in oil for 1 minute. Add 1 lb ground beef and chopped button mushrooms and saute. Add one jar spaghetti sauce, 1 tsp Italian seasoning, 2 bay leaves, 3 slices American cheese. Simmer for 20 min and serve over noodles.

Grilled Red Snapper – Olive loooooves whole grilled red snapper. We cook it with salt, pepper, and olive oil over charcoal and that’s it! Nothing fancy but the taste of the fish. You can add anything you like from lemon to garlic to herbs.

I cook a lot of Korean food, which has many brothy soup recipes served with rice. Brothy soups are great because they go down so easily. Miyuk gook (seaweed soup) and samgyetang (chicken soup) are on my meal plan almost every week. Since I bought beef shank this week, I’ll also be making dduk mandoo gook (rice cake dumpling soup) and galbitang (beef short rib soup).

Jjajangmyun (Noodles in Black Bean Sauce) and Tangsuyuk (Sweet and Sour Pork/Beef) – I just bought black bean sauce to make jjajangmyun, and it will be my first time attempting tangsuyuk! My kids adore these dishes (we used to eat them at a restaurant every Saturday in New York) so I hope I can do them justice.

Janchi gooksoo (noodles in anchovy broth) – I made this dish this week and everyone loved it! For the adults I like to add dried red pepper flakes to give it some spice.

Omurice (fried rice wrapped in omelette) – Basically this is fried rice wrapped in an egg omelette with ketchup on top, but kids love it!

.  .  .  .  .

What’s on your meal plan this week?