Chicken Tocino

Drying the chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo boneless chicken breast fillet
• 1 tbsp garlic powder or 3 tbsp minced garlic
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2/3 cup pineapple juice
• 11/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp oil (for cooking)

The marinade

Directions:

1. Pat the chicken breast fillets dry to avoid contamination.
2. Combine all the ingredients for the marinade. Mix in the chicken fillets. 
3. Transfer the chicken with the marinade into a container and keep refrigerated for a day or two.
4. Using a shallow frying non-stick pan, heat 2 tbsp cooking oil. Carefully place the chicken tocino and cook it for about 5 minutes or until it caramelizes.
5. Serve for breakfast together with garlic fried rice.

Cooked Chicken Tocino

French Breakfast on Love Day

Happy Valentine's everyone! :) Since it's Valentine's, I wanted to prepare special meals all throughout the day. I'm not so sure if we will be going out tonight, though. :/ But anyway, for starters I made Potatoes Au Gratin.  It's my first time to make this dish and I'm excited as to how it will turn out. I hope the whole gang would love it. 

Ingredients:

• 4 whole Russet Potatoes, washed and scrubbed
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup mozzarella
• ground pepper and rosemary

Directions:

1. Prepare baking dish by greasing it up. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Clean and scrub potatoes. Slice them about 1/4" and cut into fourths.
3. In a bowl, whisk milk, cream, flour, garlic powder, rosemary and pepper.
4. With the greased up baking dish, arrange 1/2 of the potatoes at the bottom and pour about half of the mixture. Repeat until potatoes and cream mixture are both used up. Top with half of the cheddar cheese.
5. Cover with foil and bake for about 30 minutes.
6. Remove foil and top with remaining cheese (mozzarella and cheddar) and bake for another 15 minutes or until potatoes turn brown and mixture is bubbly.

Have a hearty breakfast, everyone! 

Cheesy Mushroom Frittata

It's always a must to have breakfast to kickoff a busy day! Today, we experimented with frittata. I rummaged through our fridge and checked what stuff we can use for one. Since I have milk, mushrooms, and cheese, I opted to have Cheesy Mushroom Frittata.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs, well beaten
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup button mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese
• coarsely ground black pepper
• oregano and parsley

Have a slice to perk your day up!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease 8 inch baking pan. Set aside.
2. Beat the eggs, add milk and season with black pepper and herbs. Pour mixture in prepare pan.
3. Top with mushrooms and shredded cheddar cheese. Bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Pancakes for Breakfast

Things have been crazy this week. I got a job (yay!) and I was emotionally and physically ready for all the changes! Yes, I have been psyching myself up with the thought but it's different when reality kicks in. And I just had one day notice!! I was accepted Wednesday and was asked to report the next day. I was supposed to wear black bottoms for our uniform and as luck would have it, I don't have any black trousers here with me! Uh-oh. But anyway, I'm still glad I got the job. :) With these changes, I'd have to prepare almost everything the night before just so we will have a smooth sailing day for the nanny and my daughter at home.

I prepared the batter for my Buttermilk Pancakes the night before because I didn't want to wake up really early to make these. Here's what you need:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cups buttermilk
• 2 large eggs
• 4 tbsp butter

Add 1 tbsp of lemon juice, add more milk to make it 1 cup

Directions:

To make 1 cup buttermilk:

1. Take the one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into liquid measuring cup. 
2. Then add milk to make 1 cup. Let it stand for about 5 minutes.

To make pancakes:

1. In a bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. 
2. Carefully, add eggs, buttermilk and butter. Mix well until well blended.
3. Batter should have small to medium lumps just like the photo below.

A bit lumpy