Parchment cooking En Papillote did not fail me. This Asian-Style Steamed Cod Fish Fillets with Cordycep Flowers, Gojiberries, Woodear Mushrooms turned out wonderfully delicious.
Cordyceps Flower or Cordyceps militaris is a type of mushrooms in family Cordycipitaceae, and are usually cooked in soups.
Instead of steaming the fillets over the stove, the fish wrapped in "parcels" are "steamed"/roasted in the oven.
Happy 2026 and we hope your 2026 has been off to a great start!
The new year starts off with this healthy nutritious vegetarian/meatless bowl meal nicely balanced with a variety of cooked vegetables, roasted chickpeas/garbanzo beans, and black rice.
Never would I have thought that fried chicken would one day be featured in my bowl meals because fried chicken - KFC style, the fried chicken we grew up eating, is one of the last food dishes I would cook at home.
Out of sight, out of mind. Well, that was until this $2 off fried chicken coupon was sighted in my supermarket shopping account. And what can be better than using this discount to buy an item that I would never prepare/cook at home.
How about waiting for a double discount deal? That popped up in my mind. I will wait for a 5-dollar Friday - that's when 8-piece fried chicken goes on sale for $5 (vs other times, almost twice the price, about $9); then use this $2 discount on this 5-dollar Friday.Woot! 8-piece fried chicken (mix of fried drumsticks and thighs) for $3! (pardon the overuse of exclamation marks).
That's frugal living (did you know: our family also uses store-bought whole rotisserie chicken to prep the family's protein bowls); and planning ahead is part of frugal living including today's semi-homecooked bowl meal.
This is a vegetarian version of Shishito Peppers Protein Bowl, substituting chicken with tofu.
They are many ways to make delicious tofu including Chimichurri Tofu, Korean Spicy Tofu, or Chilled Tofu, Five-Spice Marinated Tofu. Instead of tofu, you can also use Tofu Sheets/Yuba - another great meatless high-protein option. Yuba/Fresh Tofu Sheets Salad is one of my favorite ways to enjoy yuba/fresh tofu sheets
If you going for a simple, no-frills tofu recipe, a little salt, black pepper and garlic powder also goes a long way.
A salad fit and mighty as a main dish protein salad bowl featuring shredded chicken, quinoa, red cabbage, Brussel sprouts, snow peas.
Quinoa is nutritious whole grain that can be easily added to vegetable salads and make salads a meal. Make Smoked Salmon Turmeric Quinoa Bowl, Broccoli Cauliflower Celery Quinoa Bowl, Biryani-Inspired Quinoa Pilaf, Asparagus Quinoa Bowl.
Besides salmon, mackerel, milkfish, hairtail ribbon fish, this high calcium smelt fish (oven-roast or pan-fried) can also be protein entree to these protein bowl meals.
Oven-roast or pan-fried, these smelt fish (also known as capelin or Japanese masagos) are deliciously crispy and makes protein bowls such a healthy delight to enjoy.
If you are not a fan of fish, you can opt for other seafood option or stick with chicken.
When there was leftover curry chicken, we made Curry Chicken Protein Veggie Bowl. But this time, only gravy remaining and no chicken leftover in the curry chicken! The frugality in me simply wants to "save" that precious gravy (can't waste the essence of curry chicken, right?).
The following day, two different leftovers: shredded chicken breast and curry gravy became good friends - combo created by adding leftover shredded chicken breast into the leftover curry gravy, then reheated to make this Shredded Chicken Curry Veggie Bowl.
Braised pork trotters is one of the Chinese New Year dishes enjoyed during this festive season as pigs are auspicious animals in Chinese culture and symbolize strength and good fortune.
This dish is prepared using store-bought boneless pork trotters, tossed with noodles symbolizing longevity equivalent to being in good health and paired with "lucky" vegetables combo.
Skip store-bought breakfast and make your own healthier version. This time, I improved on these breakfast sandwiches with egg frittata as sandwich fillers. These are great make-ahead breakfast sandwiches.
Our family enjoys egg frittata including Onion Egg Frittata, Gouda Cheese Egg Frittata, Pico De Gallo/Salsa Egg Frittata, Frozen Veggies Egg Frittata, Fish & Oats Egg Frittata (made with leftover fish!).
Make a batch, wrap up the extras and warm them up when required.
The idea of make-ahead is to save time especially when the day gets busy. However, you still have to fork out some time about 20 minutes or so, during less hectic days to make this happen; or more accurately, make the egg frittata happen. This is an easy version of entirely-oven-baked egg frittata, all for the sake of us, the busy humans.
Happy New Year 2025 to all. Hope 2024 has been great and 2025 will be better.
Always love a delicious duck dish come winter time, and Costco's Maple Leaf Farm Roast Half Duck has always been my family's favorite and go-to. Not only these ready-cooked duck make delicious duck protein bowls, they also make meal prep. a breeze. There is also no need to worry if the kitchen oven can fit and roast a whole duck.
I revisited one of our winter favorites - duck, brussel sprouts and sweet potato, and made this Duck with Roasted Asparagus, Steamed Gai Lan Chinese Broccoli and Purple Sweet Potato dish.
Whole fish tastes better when cooked on the bone; and whole fish, especially when it is still swimming in the tank, is probably one of the freshest!
No whole fish today but fillets of trout are used here; just because fresh fillets (not labeled as "previously frozen") were available from the market's seafood section. These fillets may well work into my favor today, as the
marinade will be readily and quickly absorbed into the fish, and
certainly makes cleaner and fuss-free food preparation (as with whole fish, comes an additional step to proper clean the inside of the fish).
No time? Season with a little salt and pepper. 2 minutes more? Prepare some spice seasoning as marinade. With 5 minutes extra-time to spare, mince up
ginger-green onions paste on top of the spice seasoning.
These bowl-meals are usually built in a few steps which include preparing the vegetables as the base and portioning the protein.
Protein feature in today's bowl is tempeh, and hard-boiled eggs (discover this Rapid Egg Cooker) paired with vegetable base that includes steamed broccolini, red cabbage, mushrooms (check this multipurpose Stainless Steel Steamer)
A few days away from daylight savings when we turn our clock back an hour. The days are getting shorter and temperatures are down to sweater weather.
A warm wholesome bowl of multigrain congee (this Rice Cooker /Multicooker will be useful) is a welcoming meal as we embrace autumn and winter. Call this Surf and Turf as shrimps (prawns) and ground meat (pork, chicken) are added to the otherwise plain bowl of congee made from brown rice, millet, quinoa.
Our family was never quite into tacos, burrittos, Mexican food and cuisine in general. However, this past year of occasional day-tripping and local travel opened up our travel food world to food trucks, especially taco trucks.
Though we prefer to have home-cooked food (these food storage containers will come in very handy), having to depend on prepared/store-bought food while travelling has become unavoidable. However, eating out past few years has become very expensive. When you are travelling on the road, what is your go-to for food?
For us, it's tacos - definitely not those fancy-schmancy $8 tacos in restaurants but traditional authentic basic no-frills meat tacos topped with onions and cilantro. We are always excited to discover and try great delicious $2-3 tacos on our road trips, and try to keep our meal budget under $15 (for two people).
Semi-homemade: carnitas tacos with pineapple salsa, cilantro
There comes a time to take matters into my own hands with semi-homemade tacos (check this best-selling taco holders) at home, getting some good quality pork carnitas from the store, then putting it together at home.
This thin-skinned, wrinkled-looking, mild- spicy East Asian pepper variety - Shishito Peppers is one of the easiest chili peppers to prep and cook.
When roasted, the natural "smoked" flavor of these blistered peppers make protein bowls extra delicious.
I could not wait to try this seaweed wrap hack since the tortilla wrap hack got into me sometime ago.
There are many options to fill the four quarters of seaweed nori sheets. Here is one with egg, cucumber, avocado and salmon.
Most of us yearn to enjoy warm and freshly prepared dishes - dishes which are cooked on the stove or in the oven, brought straight to the dining table; but we do not always have the luxury to do so. Those who meal prep lunch in the morning to bring it on-the-go, do you reheat/warm your lunch box (consider this Electric Steamer/Cooker) when you are at work? Our family usually does not reheat the food items especially when it comes to veggie protein bowls.
This Chicken Veggie Bowl is built from a base of cooked/steamed vegetables, then topped with steamed/stir-fried greens, shredded chicken (freshly cooked or leftovers) and pine nuts (our family enjoys nuts quite a bit and hoping to make our own nut milk in the future).
Edible Chrysanthemum/ Crown Daisy or Shungiku is a floral-fragrant vegetable. They are often added to hotpots and enjoyed like any other "hotpot- friendly" vegetables such as Napa cabbage, Bok Choy, cabbage.
This lovely great-tasting vegetable also serves as natural flavor enhancer in salad bowls and makes this delicious Edible Chrysanthemum Chicken Salad Bowl.
It can also be prepared as a chilled side-salad or appetizer-salad, make healthy sushi or Korean Kimbap/Gimbap or steamed with fish and/or tofu.
Made with in-season sweet corn, fresh crisp cucumbers and juicy tomatoes, this Sesame Chicken Salad is easy to put together and very delicious (addictive!) to enjoy especially in the summer months.
It is also the perfect summer protein bowl, created with everyday easily available produce and one the most versatile leftovers - chicken breast. Have you tried this 20-minute Leftover Chicken Breast Salad (and many of its variants) yet? Leftover shredded chicken can be easily reheated/warmed up using small kitchen appliances such as electric food steamers. These appliances including this rapid egg steamer are great kitchen helpers and save the busy cook a lot of time during meal prep.
What's for breakfast or after-meal dessert (have you tried this One-Ingredient Ice-Cream yet)?
We enjoy breakfast homemade rolled oats muesli (low-sugar muesli/granola option available) with milk (dairy or dairy-free) topped with fresh berries. Feast like a king for breakfast, there is always add-on peanut butter bread paired with coffee.
In the hot summer months (right now!), high fiber breakfast oats gets amped up with bountiful fresh berries and stone fruits. When it gets to cooler months, we comfort ourselves with warm breakfast such as Black Sesame Oatmeal.
