Little Kitchen Adventures

Three square meters of kitchen space. That's literally all we have allotted for surviving hunger. In that tiny space, we have our refrigerator, sink, cabinets for food & plates, dish rack, electric stove, water heater, rice cooker, and convection oven. The last one is my favorite. I discovered this a few years ago when I was shopping for appliances for the first Pipino branch in Malingap. I was just looking for an alternative to a microwave, when I stumbled upon this: a (microwave-sized) convection toaster/oven/broiler in one!

One of the first things people ask when they find out that we've moved is, "What do you eat?!!??" Or maybe the concern is more towards PJ, since I'm veg, and he's not. I guess this blog post will allow those facial muscles to relax, because really, we're doing okay. A week has gone by since we moved in, and our cabinet dedicated for snacks is still almost full--proof that we get sufficient nutrition and don't find the need to snack on empty calories :P

Cooking takes up so much time (and energy); I salute all the stay-at-home women out there! There was a time I napped at 1pm, and couldn't understand why I was so tired, until I realized I spent all morning cooking! Also, I used to take so long in preparing the food that we'd eat our meals superlate (hence, not too many food pics because we just attack the food right away). But I'm trying to manage my kitchen time better now. PJ has been so helpful, cleaning up the dishes every time after we eat. (And when I got home yesterday, I found him sweeping the floor!) Three woots for domestication!

So far, cooking is my favorite condo chore. ;) These are a few of the meals we've shared in our first week here:

Probably my favorite thing to cook is this Kimpura-inspired fried rice (using organic brown rice, and without the meat). I also toss in whatever greens I have in the ref, like malunggay or spinach, plus the powdered turmeric that I got hoarded in Batanes. PJ had it with baked teriyaki chicken.

One breakfast morning, we had baked truffle eggs and hot chocolate.

For one lunch, I made falafels and hummus, with chopped fresh tomatoes and onions, served with (store-bought) toasted pita pockets. Yum!

And this morning, I baked biscuits!

I've been wanting to make this for a while now, and learned that it's super easy! I used whole wheat flour, sea salt, baking powder, and olive oil for this. Bakes in 12 minutes! Now I need to find a good vegan gravy recipe to go with it. :P

Happy Tuesday, everyone!