Today, I share with you this weekend’s nomnomnom’s!

This week’s theme: FOOD! (hahaha, what a surprise :P) I spent the weekend relaxing, occasionally working a bit, but mostly relaxing. Relaxing = cooking. Cute story: I was shopping at the local grocery store and was in the “mexican food”/”beans”/”rice” aisle, when this old man in his little straw hat came up to me to ask me if canned beans could be consumed without requiring a stove. His explanation was that he lives in an independent living community. We said our goodbyes. The next day, I started my first day volunteering at the Independent and Assisted Living home across from my building. There was a cute little concert happening and guess who was sitting in front of me? The same man! What a small world.

Arroz con gandules

Rice with pidgeon peas. I first tasted this when le significant other’s mom first made this. I’ve fallen in love with this rice ever since. I’m sure there are different ways to make this but I noticed that Goya has a recipe here. My recipe is similar except I leave out the green peppers (no need to be healthy :P) and cilantro. Don’t get me wrong, I love cilantro, but I like for this recipe to be simple.

Steak and Onions (to go with the rice)

This is a very simple entree to make… but it tastes so good! You’re going to be relying on the flavors of the onions and sazon. The main ingredients:

Steak (chopped into strips)
Onions (I like them in rings) – 1 whole onion or more
Olive Oil
Sazon Goya con Culantro y Achiote (1-2 packets)
Adobo with pepper
Minced Garlic

Heat a pan. Add oil, onions, and minced garlic. Pour the sazon packets onto the steak in a separate mixing bowl and cover the steak evenly. Add to the pan. Turn the heat down to low/medium and let it simmer for about 35-45 minutes. It’s perfect. You don’t even need to add water. The onions + olive oil will create the tasty sauce which is good with the steak and the rice.

A lovely meal! Nomnomnom

Eggs and Chorizo

A photo pour toi. If we were to use Charkie’s coffee mug (see her post here)… I’m sure this would match the milky coffee. For the scrambled eggs, to make delicious scrambled eggs…

Beat the eggs into a bowl. For every egg you have, add a pinch (or a shake) of one of the Goya Adobo products (preferably the one with pepper). Spray your pan with a bit of oil and turn on stove to low/medium heat. Add in your egg mixture to cover the entire pan… as if you’re making crepes. As you see the eggs start cooking on the bottom layer… start mixing the mixture with a spatula, slowly. As the egg starts to cook more, add in a slice (or more to your heart’s desire) of American cheese (KRAFT singles are the best). And voila! The tastiest scrambled eggs!

A simple but hearty breakfast. Only thing missing ? Grits with tons of butter.

Poha

This is a breakfast dish that I LOVED while in Udaipur, India. Poha is a flattened rice that is DELICIOUS when made the right way 🙂

264110_10150222339601531_5065173_n

A good friend of mine visited DC this weekend and brought with her a bag of poha. I eagerly went to the store to purchase the ingredients necessary to recreate my lovely dish. Unluckily for me, I did not find any curry leaves 😦 Sad. But it was still delicious. I’ll have the find the right ingredients next time! This is what it came to this time!

Poha
Oil
Mustard Seeds (black)
Ground Turmeric
Curry Leaves
Cumin Seeds
Chopped onions
Sugar, Salt, Pepper
Chopped cilantro
Lime
1-2 green chili (chopped)

Soak the poha in water for about 10 minutes. Drain. Heat a pan with oil, mustard seeds, ground turmeric, chopped onions, chopped green chili and curry leaves. I also added cumin seeds. Add the poha into this mixture. Add sugar, salt , and pepper. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with some raw onions and lime! 🙂

Wish I were on vacation now…

Some photos from my lovely friend from Thailand… makes me jealous….