We are moving this Friday so this week the plan is to just make sure we eat something, anything, at each meal. We had take away on Saturday night so I didn`t cook so I still had the ingredient for hayashi rice left over so I will make that tonight. I plan to make bigger portions tonight and tomorrow and then not cook on Wednesday or Thursday so that I can pack up some of the kitchen.

So our menu for this week is a bit sad. WIll link up to orgjunkie later.

Monday- Hayashi rice (hashed beef, potato, carrot, onion, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes with a tomato demi glaze sauce base sauce)
Tuesday- Creamy tomato pasta with a ton of veggies (carrot, zucchini, onion, garlic root, spinach, capsicum, garlic and tomato sauce with cream cheese mixed through- this idea came from a friend on twitter)
Wednesday- Leftovers
Thursday- Leftovers
Friday- MOVE HOUSE (so hopefully this means we will just eat at the in-laws)
Saturday- Curry? I have no idea! I will cook something!

Last weeks meals were all successful- the gindara was great (done with soy, sake, sugar and toubanjan) and my Japanese cooking is improving (according to my husband!).

Kate from Kate Says Stuff is holding another recipe swap this week and she asked me to share something Japanese. I haven`t made up many Japanese recipes myself and get them all online, from recipe books and my MIL so I thought I would share something that I did make up although it is more of a Japanese fusion style dish but at least it would be easy to do in Australia or anywhere for that matter.

Lulu`s oven baked teriyaki salmon and veggies

This serves 4.

4 pieces of salmon
2-3 leeks
1/2 red onion
1 pack of shitake mushrooms (6-8 mushrooms)
1 pack of erengi mushrooms (3 in the pack usually)
3 piman or 1 green capsicum
Some garlic root (ninniku no me- this is optional)
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup mirin
1 tsp brown sugar

1. Wash the fish and put it in an oven proof dish
2. Cut up the veggies however you like (I usually cut the onion into 4 quarters, same with the shitake mushrooms and then cut the leeks into inch long pieces and the erengi long ways sliced quite thin. Please note that any mushrooms would be okay with this dish)
3. Chuck the veggies in around the fish.
4. Mix up the sauce and pour over top of the fish and veggies
5. Put in the oven at 180 degrees for 35-30 minutes (the fish I use is quite small- if using larger pieces you might need to cook it for longer)
6. Serve with rice and another side dish (I usually do it with moyashi/mung beans dressed with soy sauce and seasame oil)

I love this dish as it is so simple, easy to make and cook here in Japan but the ingredients are pretty to find anywhere. Plus the fact it only takes one dish and can be done in the oven is great.

No photos sorry. I have never taken one of this dish.

Shun takes a bento for work almost everyday- on the days he doesn`t it is because we don`t have any leftovers from dinner or he has a meeting off site and would prefer not to carry his lunch. So when I menu plan I have to think about making sure I make enough to make a lunch box for him.

Now I also have to think about what Noah will eat- he eats whatever we eat but there are some things that obviously don`t lend themselves well to a toddler. Like steak. He also won`t eat many veggies just by themselves so I have to mix them in his food so if we are having brocolli as a side for example then I have to mix it in with his rice/meat for him to eat it.

Noah & I eat lunch at home almost everyday so have to also of course by for that as well as some snacks, something maybe for baking, I don`t want to just eat sandwiches everyday so by writing down possible easy to throw together lunches I find it good as well. Dinner also has to be something pretty uncomplicated that I can make quickly otherwise Noah will create a giant mess or chuck tantrums before I am done so I cook fairly simple meals.
Japanmama recently wrote about tightening their purse strings and how she hoped menu planning in advance would help her.

I decided that for this week at least I will post our menu plan- I have been using this plan from Picklebums and finding it great. I have it stuck on our fridge and the one for next week (dinners at least) is already filled in and I just have to add lunches and write our shopping list to do on the weekend.

I also decided that having set “nights” for food would be good and make sure that we have a variety of food.

Mon- pasta

Tues- Japanese

Wed- Oven or slow cooker meal

Thur- Chinese (stirfries etc) or Japanese

Fri- Fish or seafood

Saturday- New recipe or family favourite

Sunday- Easy tea or leftovers (or something Shun can cook)

So our plan for this week-

Sunday- Sheperd`s Pie

Monday- Pasta carbonara, snap peas and salad (I am the only one that ate salad)

Tuesday- nibuta, moyashi with seasame and soy dressing, kinpira gobo (carrot and gobo salad?), rice and snap peas (We got a bunch of fresh snap peas off grandma on the weekend)

Wednesday- Pizza chicken with cous cous and brocolli

Thursday- Capsicum and pork noodle stirfry

Friday- Oven baked lemonmayo salmon (idea off Martha Stewart), asparagus, garlic and parmasen side and rice (depending of leftover veggies I might make a salad too)

Saturday- Mexibake

I am pretty lucky that my husband does not complain about the lack of Japanese food I cook- to be honest I think it is time consuming to make a lot of little dishes especially when you have young kids. I also am not a fan of a lot of Japanese food so it makes it hard. I think I could save money if I cooked more Japanese food though so I am trying to do a bit more.

We will be tightening our purse strings also in the coming months- Shun wants to take over the budget/money managing for a couple of months until after we are moved into the other apartment at least and I said fine. I doubt it will make much difference but hey, if he wants to try!

I am also really really really bad at writing down money I spend but will be making more of an effort- we want to save a fair bit while we are living in the cheaper apartment so that we can buy new things for the new house like a fridge, bed etc. Our current TV is also dead and would of stopped working in June or July anyway (because of digital) so we have to buy a new TV as well- not that either of us watch much and Noah only watches dvds but still, will be nice to have a nicer TV.

My goal is also to not buy any new toys/books for the boys for 2 months and no new books for me (I have heaps of unread ones anyway!). That is harder than it sounds! At least it will be for me!!! This is to cut back on my internet shopping addiction DD

So I made a bacon, asparagus and sun dried tomato risotto. I did take a photo BUT it is hard to make risotto look good in a photo so I am not going to post it because it doesn`t do it justice.

I made the recipe up, just based it off a normal risotto recipe. The cup sizes I used are Japanese cup sizes meaning 200ml.

Ingredients

2 bunches of asparagus

1 brown onion

1 handful of chopped up sun-dried tomatoes. I bought the kind not in oil but either would be okay.

4 garlic root shoots (this is an extra, if you are not in Japan/China it might be hard to find garlic root/にんにくのめ）

2 cloves of garlic (I used 2 teaspoons of pre-grated garlic from a jar but I guess that is about 2 cloves)

6 rashes of bacon

1600ml of water

4 chicken stock cubes

3/4 cup of grated parmesan cheese

30g butter

1 tablespoon of oil

1/2 cup of dry white wine (if you don`t have it, leave it out or a bit of Japanese sake might work)

2 tablespoons of parsley. Fresh is best but I just used the one from the spice rack!

2 cups of rice (I just used our everyday Japanese rice, and because it is starchy it works fine)

Method

1. Cut Asparagus and garlic root up and put in a microwave proof bowl with an inch of water- steam in microwave for 3 minutes
2. Bring water to boil on stove and add the chicken stock cubes- continue to boil for 5 minutes then turn off and keep covered.
3. Melt butter and add oil in a separate pan- fry the bacon, garlic and onion until soft
4. Add rice to pan and coat with the oil/bacon mixture
5. Add one cup of the stock and continue to stir until water is gone. Continue to add cups in batches until you have approximately one cup of stock left to add. Half way through this process I added the wine as well. Keep the heat fairly high and stir continuously.
6. Add the asparagus, garlic root and sundried tomatoes to the mixture and stir through. Then add the final cup of stock mixture and continue stirring until all water is gone. Turn down the heat to low. From start to finish this took me about 35 minutes but it is fine to do it for less or more as long as the rice is done and no longer hard.
7. Stir through the cheese, parsley and salt and pepper to taste and serve!

This made enough for us both (with Shun going back for seconds) and enough for his bento tomorrow and one other lunch. So basically 4 serves. If you are doing it for 2 people then just half the recipe!

Shun`s thoughts : Looks like baby food but tasted good. He went back for seconds!

My thoughts: So yummy for a change but I had forgotten how tiring standing and stirring the stock mixture through for 35 minutes or so can be.

Shun has asked if I can make a mushroom risotto next week so I might have to do that!

Hinamatsuri, also known as Doll Festival or Girls Day, is celebrated on the third day of the third month every year. People with daughters often display elaborately designed dolls on red, stair like furniture and depending on where in Japan you are from then the way in which the dolls are displayed is different! I ate Hinamatsuri cake at my private students house today after the lesson! And was given doll rice crackers! Cute huh?

It looked like this…

And while cutting food up in the living/sleeping area sounds a little strange it is often quite normal for those living in one bedroom apartments. And the end result was so good that i didn’t really mind much…

Trust me it tasted better than it looks….

Dinner was also a success….nice and refreshing to have salad and fruit for dinner cos it was so hot today!

Mind you, today shopping, for the fruit, salad ingredients + some tuna, bread and a kit kat (my three must haves after mandarins) it came to about $70 aussie dollars (6000yen)…So definitely not something i can do every week!

I totally forgot to take photos last night, but here are a couple from the night out…Can’t wait to go back!