Tuesday, April 27, 2010

I love pineapples!!!

As a child, I instinctively craved for fruits and veggies more than other kinds of food. I hated milk (as far as I can remember), and I wasn't really happy with the typical Filipino dishes of adobong manok o baboy (chicken or pork), bangus (milkfish) or tilapia, beefsteak and such...Besides, fruits are expensive so we didn't have as much of it as we wanted.
Now my family is more blessed when it comes to fresh fruits, because we are able to harvest our own! But I'm still not so happy because it is only me that really eats enough of the fruits. It is not easy to convince others to eat as much fruit.
For now, we have pineapples! I have waited for several months since I first saw the fruits grow from the plant, to its maturity. These were planted in our small farm in a nearby province. Though I have one pineapple plant here at home, which my brother gave to me upon seeing my delight for this beautiful creation.


Here's my previous post on how to easily make fresh pineapple-orange juice at home.

As an added bonus, when I serve pineapples, I save the cut leaves on top and use it to decorate my home. It lasts for a long time ;)


Friday, April 2, 2010

Three Veggies Stir-fry

This is my favorite way of cooking veggies. I hardly have the patience to cook elaborate dishes, but I also don't want to eat packaged or canned foods. Sometimes I do include a canned vegetable, when I'm in a hurry or when I wasn't able to buy it fresh from the market.
I limit the ingredients when I cook, to make it simpler but not to sacrifice the taste or nutrition. I used to overdo it when I have just stocked on veggies, and then I realize that I have few left to cook another dish or add to my fresh salad. So my rule for myself is to have 3 kinds of vegetables in my stir-fry, no more - no less. This does not include the garlic and onions, which are the basic ingredients and the herbs if I have them.


For today, I have some broccoli, red bell pepper and canned mushrooms. I'm also using leeks instead of white onion.


I saute the garlic first in 4T olive oil and 1T sesame oil.
Then I stir-fry the veggies, adding the broccoli first since it takes longer to cook. I don't really follow an exact procedure or recipe everytime I cook. After the veggies are done, I add the spices (oregano, basil and salt) and some Kikkoman soy sauce.