Wonton in Hot Chili Sauce

My mom makes the best wontons. Her filling is different all the time, depending on her mood and what's available at the moment, so I've taken to doing that as well. K only likes the wonton wrappers and Hubby likes it all meaty with some shrimp. I love them with shitake mushrooms and pork or pork and shrimp. Sometimes my mom will even put in some diced choy.

Hubby probably loves his wontons best this way rather than the traditional wonton noodle soup. I can't blame him. The man does love his spice.

There are so many ways to wrap a wonton. I've always wanted to wrap it the way my mom does it with her chopsticks, but I can't. I just end up smushing the thing into something totally unrecognizable. It's crazy awesome though. She just uses her chopsticks to put the filling in the middle of the wrapper, and then use it to help pinch the ends together to make it into a tiny meat pouch that looks so pretty too. It's similar to how this person does it.


Wonton in Hot Chili Sauce
(makes about 100 wontons)

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs lean ground pork
• 1 lb raw shrimp, finely diced (or 7 rehydrated shitake mushrooms, finely diced)
• 1 Tbsp ginger, grated
• 6 garlic cloves, minced and divided
• 6 Tbsps soy sauce, divided
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch
• 4 tsps sugar, divided
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce paste
• 2 tsps canola oil
• 2 tsps sesame oil
• 1 tsp chili oil with some of the chili
• 1 red chili pepper, finely diced (optional)
• 1 green onion stalk, diced
• 1 1/2 lb (about 100) wonton wrappers

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine together pork, shrimp/mushrooms, ginger, 4 cloves of minced garlic, 4 tablespoons of soy sauce, cornstarch, 3 teaspoons of sugar, canola oil and 2 teaspoons of sesame oil until mixed well.
2. Line 2 large plates or baking sheets with wax paper. Set aside.
3. To make the wontons, hold the wonton wrapper in your left hand so that it's diagonal (e.g., each corner pointing top, right, bottom & left). Spoon 1 teaspoon of filling into the middle of a wonton wrapper. Bring the bottom corner up to meet the top corner with your left thumb and middle finger. Then using both index fingers, push the left and right sides up, squeezing out all of the air from the pocket and lightly scrunch the top to make a neat little meat pouch. Lay the wonton down on the wax paper lined plate. Continue until you run out of either wrappers or filling.
4. At this point, you can freeze all the dumplings for 2-3 hours before transferring them into bags for easier storage until you're ready to eat them.
5. To cook, bring a pot of salted water to boil. Gently drop in 16 or so wontons into the pot of boiling water and cook for 8-12 minutes until wontons are cooked through. You'll know they're done because they'll float up to the surface.
6. Meanwhile, make the sauce in a small microwaveable bowl by mixing together remaining soy sauce, remaining sugar, remaining minced garlic, remaining soy sauce, soy sauce paste, chili oil and red chili (if using). Cover with saran wrap and heat on high for 30 seconds. Uncover and mix in green onions.
7. Using a slotted spoon or spider ladle, transfer cooked wonton to a shallow rimmed plate. Spoon sauce over wontons.
8. Serve with tea.

Note: If you want to turn this into a meal, just use the salted boiling water after cooking the dumplings to cook some wonton noodles and then mix them into the remaining sauce after you've finished eating the wontons. Or mix the noodles in with the wonton and sauce to eat together.

Garlicky Celery

You know how if you go to Korean restaurants and order certain dishes, there'll be little side dishes to go with the meal? Apparently if you order some set meals from Taiwanese restaurants, you can sometimes get these small side dishes too.

One day I got this cold garlicky celery side dish with my beef curry and rice meal. It was very cool so I decided to so it at home. It's crazy easy and an easy way to add more veggies to a meal. I dare say that it's even an easy way to use up any uncooked Chinese veggies (aka choy) leftover. Although I'd probably cut up any choy into bite size pieces so I can just have it as a snack. :D

Garlicky Celery
(serves 2-3)

Ingredients:

• 4 celery stalks, sliced into 1/8 of an inch thick pieces
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp canola oil
• Salt, to taste
• Water (optional)

Directions:

1. In a medium nonstick pan, heat up oil over medium high heat. Add in celery and cook for about a minute or until the celery starts softening a bit.
2. Add in garlic and cook until garlic is fragrant and celery is tender crisp. Season with salt. Add a tablespoon of water if needed to prevent celery from browning.
3. Serve hot as a side or chill in the fridge for an hour or so and serve cold as a side.

Smoked Sausage, Tomatoes & Mushrooms Penne

I haven't really wanted to cook pasta for a while. It's mainly cuz now I'm in this frame of mind where I feel like it's a chore to dirty another pot and strainer JUST to cook pasta and sometimes it takes longer for the pasta to cook than it does for me to make the sauce. Weird and probably very lazy, since it's almost the same as just making rice for any other dishes. HAH.

Regardless, I had the ingredients to make a pretty easy pasta dinner, so I made myself do it! I'm glad I did though. It was pretty good. :)

Surprisingly it wasn't that filling though. I ended up having to have some leftover lasagna as an "after dinner snack". Lol. Maybe I just needed to have a bigger portion. :P


Smoked Sausage, Tomatoes & Mushrooms Penne
(serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups dry penne pasta
• 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3 smoked Italian sausages, sliced
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 red chili pepper, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a medium to large pot, cook pasta in boiling salted water until al dente.
2. In a large skillet, heat up oil over medium high heat. Add in mushrooms and cook until they start to get some colour.
3. Toss in onions, chili pepper and sausage. Cook until onions soften and sausage starts getting browned at the edges. 
4. Add tomatoes and garlic. Use the tomato juice that secretes out to help scrape off any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
5. When pasta is cooked, drain, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water.
6. Toss in cooked pasta and stir in Parmesan cheese. If the pasta gets dry, add a little pasta water to loosen up.
7. Serve with a side salad and soup.

Quick Breakfast Wrap

Believe it or not, this was easy enough for me to make during a weekday morning. I'm sure it's not THAT difficult to get yourself and a toddler ready in the morning and then cook breakfast and feed the pets at the same time. For most people. But I'm not most people. One of the most "elaborate" breakfasts I typically make on weekday mornings consist of sunny side up eggs with pre-cooked bacon that I can just nuke in the microwave. Teehee.

But this wasn't bad...I left the ham and peppers to cook on the pan while I took K to the potty (we're potty training and it's just oh so much fun) and luckily nothing burnt. YES!


Quick Breakfast Wrap
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 10 inch flour tortillas
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 leftover ham steak, diced (or equivalent to about 1 cup of diced ham)
• 2 green onion stalks, finely diced
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp canola oil
• Salsa (optional)

Directions:

1. Heat up oil in a pan over medium high heat. Add in ham and cook for about a minute so the sides start to brown up a bit. Toss in peppers and cook until peppers are tender crisp.
2. Mix in beaten eggs and stir until eggs are almost no longer runny. Toss in green onions and season with salt and pepper. Take the pan off the stove.
3. If you have a gas stove, just lay the tortilla over the gas and let it warm up the tortillas. It'll only take about 3-5 seconds per side, if even that, so keep an eye on those tortillas.
4. When tortillas are warmed, lay them on two separate plates. Divide the filling in half, spooning half onto the center of each tortilla. Top with some salsa, if desired. Tuck in the ends and roll into a wrap.
5. Serve with coffee or milk.
6. If you're taking it to work with you, just use aluminum foil that's been lined with wax paper and wrap. It'll keep the wrap warm for about an hour or so.

Quick Cream of Chicken Soup

Oh leftovers...They're usually pretty great. But when you have something like 3 tablespoons of chicken pie filling, it's hard to figure out what to do with it. I figure I'll just make a quick soup for Hubby. Weird as a breakfast item, but MEH! His throat was sore and I wanted to get rid of it. TEEHEE. :P


Quick Cream of Chicken Soup
(serves 1)

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsps or so of leftover chicken pie filling
• 1 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups milk
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a small pot, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour until all the flour has been absorbed by the butter. Mix in leftover chicken pie filling and combine well.
2. Slowly whisk in milk until the soup is a little more liquidy than you'd like. Heat through while stirring occasionally to prevent soup from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
3. Season with salt and pepper. The soup will get thicker as it cools, so making it a little more liquidy than you'd like will usually yield the consistency that you like by the time it's cool enough to drink.
4. Serve with toast.

Creamy Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal

I haven't made any oatmeal for K for a while. He used to have it every day for 4 months or so when he first started eating. But now I make it for him way less. He just gets sick of the same foods so easily. He won't eat the same thing more than 3 days a week. And don't even try giving him the same thing more than once a day! Unless it's cookies and fruit. Those, he can eat 24/7 if we let him.

The kid loves raisins and we're running low on frozen blueberries (which he loves to put in his yogurt and oatmeal), so I thought I'd just make him cinnamon raisin oatmeal. Why not? They make cookies out of this stuff! ;)


Creamy Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal
(serves 3 adults)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 3 cups whole milk
• 1 small pinch salt
• 1 cup raisins
• 1-2 Tbsps brown sugar
• 2 tsps ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Bring milk to a gentle boil in a pot over medium heat. Add in remaining ingredients. Turn heat to medium low and cook until oatmeal is thick and creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally with a spatula to prevent oatmeal from sticking to the pot.
2. Serve with fresh fruit.

Omuraisu (Fried Rice Omelette)

I've always seen this in Japanese and sometimes Korean restaurants, but never thought to try it. Honestly, it doesn't seem that interesting to me. But I do love having ketchup with my fried eggs, so why not? It's also an excellent use of leftover or fresh fried rice. I think having it with Kimchi Fried Rice is the best though. ;)

Rolling the omelette off the pan and onto a plate can be kind of tricky with such a thin omelette. You can always use more oil to help it out. Or, just make a dome out of the rice and then cover the dome with the circular egg and top with the ketchup. The presentation will be different, but it's all the same in the end. :)


Omuraisu (Fried Rice Omelette)
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs, beaten & divided
• 2-4 Tbsps ketchup
• 2 cups fried rice
• 1 Tbsp canola oil, divided
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat up fried rice, if necessary, by adding 1 teaspoon of oil to a small hot skillet over medium heat and stir frying until heated through. Transfer to bowl and wipe down the skillet.
2. Return skillet to the heat and add another 1 teaspoon of oil. Let it warm up a bit over medium low heat before adding 1 of the beaten eggs in. Tilt the skillet to ensure egg is evenly distributed in the pan to make a very thin omelette. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 cup of rice in the middle of the omelette. Fold one of the sides over to partially cover the rice. Gently roll the omelette over (the half with the rice onto the non-wrapped part) and off the pan and onto the plate to make a rolled omelette. Top with half of the ketchup.
3. Repeat the process with the next omelette.
4. Serve hot with soup or coffee.

Smoked Sausage & Peppers

I really love smoked sausages. Probably cuz I love hot dogs...but I didn't feel like heating it up with some jar pasta sauce with pasta.

I actually wanted to have some rice. I haven't really had white rice with a side dish for a while and I was totally going through withdrawal. That being said, I just made this quick sausage and peppers to go with my rice. I could've just had canned fried dace with black bean sauce (drool) or pan fried spam (more drool) but Hubby doesn't like either one, so I had to make real food. (K already had steamed egg to go with his rice, so I didn't really have to worry about him.)


Smoked Sausage & Peppers
(serves 3)

Ingredients:

• 3 links smoked Italian sausage, sliced into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 bell peppers, any colour, cut into strips
• 1 medium onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat up a large skillet with the extra virgin olive oil over medium high heat. Toss in smoked sausages and cook until the edges start to brown.
2. Add in onions, peppers and garlic. Cook until sausages are browned, onions and peppers are fork tender, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Serve over rice or with plain pasta coated with extra virgin olive oil.

Kimchi Fried Rice

One of my favourite foods in the world for sure! I love a runny egg with almost anything. Seriously. And I love fried rice. And have you TRIED kimchi paired with rice and a runny egg? OMG it's to DIE FOR.

You could make this vegetarian or with any kind of protein. I made mine with leftover diced deli ham, but I've tried it with diced spam. HELLO...loving it. But I do love my spam, so meh! :P

This really is an awesome dish to use up leftover kimchi and leftover rice. You can even make it using leftover fried rice, which makes this dish even easier than it already is. :D


Kimchi Fried Rice
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup kimchi, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups leftover cooked rice
• 3 Tbsps kimchi juice
• 1 heaping Tbsp gojujang
• 1 Tbsp water
• 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 lb diced spam/ham/cooked chicken/beef strips/bulgolgi/firm tofu etc.
• 2 green onions, finely diced
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 2 tsps sesame oil
• 2 eggs
• Toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large pan, heat up 1 teaspoon of canola oil. Add mushrooms and cook until caramelized. Add kimchi and stir fry until heated through.
2. Add in protein and rice. Using a spatula, break up the clumps of rice, while stirring everything so it doesn't stick to the pan too much.
3. Pour in the kimchi juice, gojujang and water. Stir until well combined. 
4. Drizzle in the sesame oil and add in green onion. Stir to loosen up everything. Take off the heat and place into 2 bowls. Set aside.
5. In a small skillet, heat up the remaining canola oil over medium low heat. Gently break the eggs into the pan and cook until almost cooked through. Season with a little bit of salt and continue to cook until all the whites are cooked through. Cover the pan with a lid if you want to cook it faster.
6. Slide one egg each over the bowls of kimchi fried rice. Garnish with sesame seeds, if desired.
7. Serve with a side of seaweed salad, pickled radishes or alone as is.

Ham & Egg "McMuffin"

I do love my breakfast sandwiches. I especially love the sausage and egg mcmuffins from McD's (fast food wise). It's not hard to make, so sometimes I just make them at home when I make my breakfast sausage patties. But when I don't have those, I just use ham from the deli or bacon. To make my life easier though, I'll make the sandwich with a plain omelette rather than frying an egg the way McD does it. I don't have a ring mold and don't feel like cleaning it anyway. :)


Ham & Egg "McMuffin"
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 English muffins, split and toasted
• 2 slices process or Cheddar cheese
• 4 slices black forest ham
• 2 eggs, beaten
• Salt, to taste
• 2 tsps canola oil

Directions:

1. In a skillet or omelette pan, heat up oil over medium low heat. Pour eggs into the pan, shifting the pan so that the eggs cover all of the bottoms. When almost no longer runny, sprinkle a pinch of salt and flip. Split round omelette into two. Fold one of the omelette halves into half and put it on top of a toasted English muffin slice. Repeat with the other half of the omelette.
2. Place the ham slices onto the pan to warm up.
3. To finish assembling the sandwiches, place 1 cheese slice on top of each of the eggs. Then top with heated ham, then the top of the English muffin.
4. Serve with coffee or milk.