Cabbage Salad
Topic: Salad
I'm always a big fan of plain salads without heavy dressings, I like it very natural that's why whenever I made salad, I only add few dressings on it. Cabbage is one of the first vegetable salad that I learned to eat since childhood, I always made it whenever we have no enough time to cook vegetables.

Ingredients:
1/2 head of cabbage, chopped, not shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
1 small green bell pepper, cubed (very small cubed)
1 tomato, sliced thinly
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. Italian Dressing
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Sprinkle few salt to the chopped cabbage, lightly squeeze, add some water and drain.
2. Combine cabbage, onions, tomatoes and green bell pepper in a salad bowl.
3. Add the lemon juice, olive oil, Italian Dressing, salt and pepper.
3. Mix well and serve.

Spaghetti
Topic: Pasta
Spaghetti is an Italian word means "thin string", the dish is orginally Italian but very common in many countries nowadays. It is one of my favorite recipes to cook since I was in high school and my friends liked it so much. I tried many ingredients already, sometimes I cooked it with shrimps and chicken but the former is always the best for me. My husband was not fond of spaghetti before we were married but now it is one of his favorites. I always add sugar, soy sauce and oyster sauce whenever I cooked one, these sauces will make a big difference to the classic spaghetti sauce and neutralized the sour tomato taste!

Ingredients:
500 g spaghetti, cooked
1 1/2 cups ground beef
1 carrot, shredded
2/3 cup baguio beans, sliced very thinly
2 onions, minced
2 ripe tomatoes, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 tsp. ginger powder
1 1/2 cups traditional spaghetti sauce
1 cup tomato ketchup
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 1/2 cup beef broth or more
1 tsp. white sugar
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
grated cheese

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a pan, saute garlic until brown, add onions and tomatoes and saute until the tomatoes are very tender.
2. Add the ground beef and bay leaf. Cook until the meat is done. Add carrots, beans and broth, season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
3. Pour in the spaghetti sauce, ketchup, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and ginger powder. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Turn off the heat and adjust the seasonings.
5. Transfer to a bowl separately from the pasta.


Tips: Serve in 3 containers, the pasta, the sauce and the cheese. Let everyone mix their own to suit their personal taste of combining the mixtures.

Garlic Bread
Topic: Snacks
Why pay more for a very simple garlic bread when you can do it at home? Here's the basic recipe, you can adjust it depending upon your taste. You can add some herbs like parsley or oregano to add more taste, but I always prefer the plain one. This is what we always cook at home when we ate spaghetti or some noodles.

Ingredients:
1 baguette bread, sliced diagonally 1/2 inch thick
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
grated mozzarella cheese

Directions:
1. Combine butter, sugar, salt, garlic powder and fresh garlic.
2. Brush each side of the bread with the butter mixture.
3. Arranged the bread in an oven dish and bake in a preheated oven for 3 minutes.
4. Take out from oven, flip the bread and put some grated cheese on it.
5. Return to the oven and bake for 1 minute or until the cheese melts.

Serve with Spaghetti or Pancit Canton

Pancit Canton
Topic: Noodles
Pancit canton or sauteed egg noodles is a Chinese dish which is very popular in the Philippines. It is usually cook with meat, chicken or shrimps and varieties of vegetables. Here in Kuwait, it is very hard to find good fresh egg noodles, some are very oily and salty that's why I preferred to buy the dried one. It taste almost the same, it depends upon how you cook it. It usually served with toasted bread, siopao, etc. but we usually ate it with Garlic Bread.

Ingredients:
200 g Cantonese Noodles
2/3 cup beef, sliced into strips
2/3 cup chicken breast,sliced into strips
2 chicken franks, sliced
1 small head brocolli, cut into flowerets
1 medium carrots, slice into strips
1 cup snow peas
2 cups cabbage slice into strips
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 cup black fungus, soaked in water and sliced
1 tbsp. fish sauce
3 tbsp. soy sauce
2 tbsp. oyster sauce
1 tsp. black pepper powder
3 cups water
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. sesame seed oil
chopped green onions for garnish

Directions:
1. Boil beef and chicken in 3 cups water until done. Remove from the pot and reserve the broth.
2. Heat oil in a pan, saute garlic and onion.
3. Add in beef, chicken and chicken franks, stir. Stir in the black fungus, fish sauce and black pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Add the reserved broth, carrots, brocolli and soy sauce. Bring to a boil.
5. Add noodles, snow peas and cabbage and cook until done.
6. Season with oyster sauce, sesame seed oil and pepper. Garnish with the chopped onions.

Fish Flakes Pinakbet
Topic: Vegetables
Pinakbet is a Filipino traditional dish and popular among the Ilocanos. Basically, it is a combination of vegetables like, squash, bitter melon, string beans, okra, eggplant, and tomato. Shrimp paste or bagoong is usually included but I never include it whenever I cook one, I'd rather used pounded dried shrimp instead of it. As usual, there are many cooking variations like sauteing the spices first in hot oil or others are boiling the vegetables first, etc. and additional ingredients like carrots, squash flower, chicken, meat or seafoods and sauces.

In this recipe, fish flakes are used, bitter melon was also omitted since my hubby sometimes don't eat that bitter vegetable.

Ingredients:
1 eggplant (big/round variety), sliced
2 cups sliced squash
10 pcs. young okra
1 cup sliced string beans
1/2 cup fried fish flakes
1 cup chicken broth or more
1 medium ripe tomato
1 onion, sliced
1 thumb size ginger, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sugar
2 tbsp. cooking

Directions:
1. Heat oil in a skillet and saute garlic, onions, tomatoes and ginger until the ginger is aromatic.
2. Add the fish flakes, stir. Add in the squash and broth and simmer until the squash is tender but not soggy of course.
3. Add the remaining vegetables, soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Season with black pepper powder if you like.

Serve.