Breakfast

Multigrain oatmeal, flax seed and white peaches. And coffee.

My smiling breakfast - Cinnamon Raisin Wheat Bread (from Hawaii) and egg-white omelet with cilantro and a bunch of spices. Filipino Hot Choco.

I ate a smiley face for breakfast

Quinoa Soup

I had to use up some (not so fresh) spinach and egg beaters before they went bad. Got some quinoa, boiled it up, added chicken stock, spices, and all the spinach I could salvage. My cilantro was too far gone to be added into the mix.

It's actually decent.

Typical day

Breakfast:

Steelcut Multigrain Oatmeal
I mixed prepared multigrain oatmeal with steelcut oats. During weekdays, I usually cook it the night before, then reheat it in the morning adding soymilk so it won't be so dry. I add a sprinkle of walnuts and whatever fresh fruit I have. This week it's blueberries.

Lunch:

I love salad! I have prepacked Mediterranean mix, added in spinach, alfalfa sprouts, walnuts and cranberries, and topped it off with a dollop of hummus in place of dressing.
Hummus is so easy to make.
Can of garbanzo beans, 2-4 cloves of garlic, 1-2 tablespoons Tahini (sesame paste), 1 tablespoon Olive oil, and juice from 1 lemon. Throw it into your blender/food processor and blend well. I tried it with some basil, cumin, and italian seasoning and it is good. But of course, my taste is different from yours.

I might make eggwhite omelet for dinner. I usually put garlic, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and cottage cheese (whisked in with the eggwhite). And top it off with shredded cheese.

Oh, and yes, somewhere in between I savour a cup or two of ice cream. Right now, I'm into Breyer's 3 chocolate (white, dark, and milk) ice cream.

Paella a la Del

Hands down my favourite dish (second to Chocolate cake, or any dessert that involves Chocolate) in the world is Paella Marinara. I used to drag my ex down to Something Fishy in Eastwood so I could get my fill of their paella. I remember that it always took an extra 45 minutes, but it's better than having to call a day in advance prior to eating there (which is what most Philly restos serving paella require you to do).

I took a stab at cooking paella this evening after suffering another bout of serious paella cravings. I was able to find a place in Scarborough that served paella, but it tasted more like rice with oil and tomato sauce than actual paella. But I degress.

I'm told that the secret to paella is in sofrito. Made with a lot of onions, garlic, and tomatoes, it is sauted over low heat for about 2 hours.

4 medium onions with 1/2 cup of olive oil after 30 mins

Sauted onions for about 1 hour, then added 4 cloves garlic

Added 5 plum tomatoes and 1 can tomato sauce (I ran out of tomatoes) and cooked for another hour

For my meat, I used chicken, tofu marinated in teriyaki sauce, salmon (a last minute add) and shrimp. I cooked the chicken and tofu first, adding chicken broth and more olive oil as I didn't have oil and juice from chorizo and pork. Instead of arborio rice, I used brown rice. Bad idea. It took an extra hour to cook.

Long story short, it did work out with all the tweaking I had to make (place too much chicken broth as it looked more like soup, took out some of the liquid only to add it in when the rice wouldn't cook...) and yes, 4 hours of slaving over the stove was well worth it. Topped it off with diced bell peppers and sweet peas (which countered the saltiness - didn't account for the teriyaki marinated tofu being too salty and added more salt).


I'll probably add in more seafood (I saw a bag of mixed seafood at that Asian grocery on Washington st), use more plum tomatoes and onions for the sofrito, and be more patient when cooking the rice.

As is the case with everything I make, 75% of the dish better be veggies.

Burnt rice aka socorrat. Yes, good paella means burnt rice at the bottom of your pan.

Eat me

While I don't need another blog, I'd like to keep my love for food separate from my random ramblings.