Cooking for One (part 2) and Lunchbox Plan for One Week

Cooking for One (part 2) and Lunchbox Plan for One Week

Apr 10, 2019

I didn't go home this weekend so that I can focus on getting some posts done on my blog, thoroughly review my New Year's resolution and do whatever possible to get some of those resolutions working or at least makes a definite to-do things so that I do things. One of the things that I just have to get it done is this cooking post and also this lunchbox plan in order to eat healthier. Talk about being productive.

and by this weekend, I mean last weekend, because this post is scheduled to be posted sometime next week.

This "Cooking for One" is one post that I have put behind for almost two months. I knew that I'm going to need to move out so I make sure to not buy a lot and focus on finishing stuff that I already have. Yet there is still about five eggs and some cabbages that I have thrown away. There were plenty of goodbye feasts and night shifts as well so I just don't cook much.

Okay. First thing first, the groceries. Apparently, I forgot to take pictures of my groceries but it isn't that important so I'm just listing it here plus the things that I already have in the kitchen.

1. Broccoli 
2. Tomatoes - 4 medium sized ones
3. Kam Heong chili paste
4. Some eggs that just never finishes
5. Some dried noodles that took forever to finish
6. About 300g of meat

slow fry a tomato that has been cut into smaller pieces until it becomes some sort of paste and then put the meats and cabbages. season with salt and some kam heong chili paste. use the leftover paste on the pan to stir fry the noodles.

fry some onions and eggs (i always made the scrambled eggs into slightly bigger chunks). add some meat. season with oyster sauce, black pepper, and salt. I just melt some butter (i kept some for my bread) and fries the broccoli until it becomes soft. serve with noodle.

I have finally finished the noodles and the meat was still plenty so I decided to just cook all the meat left. this is actually a lazy recipe that we do at home. just cuts tomatoes into small bits, in this case, it is the last two medium sized tomatoes, and when it turns into a paste, adds meat. seasons with oyster sauce and salt. we always saute some onions first but I was lazy that day.

I think there were two more dishes but I can´t find the picture since I have changed to a new laptop. But it is more or less the same. The Kam Heong chili paste is amazing. If I have chickens or meats, I don´t have to add anything except for salts. It would taste great with rice but cooking rice for one person is too much work.

and now let´s move to my lunchbox plans 

I wanted to do a proper lunch box for works just for the fun of it and also to train myself not to gobble lots of rice with high-calorie gravy. For this first time, I wanted to do a sandwich/bread based dish. Why sandwich? Cause I don´t want to spent too much time to prepare the food.

So roughly, I´m thinking to buy some eggs (can also serve as side dishes), some salads and tomatoes, probably one cucumber (also can serves as side dish as well), chicken breast for my proteins, some mayonnaise or cheese or mustard sauce or something cause I don´t like chili sauce on my sandwich, a papaya (I´ll be eating papaya for the whole week lol) and of course bread. So maybe it can be something like -

• Monday - sandwich with slices of chicken breast (seasoned with black pepper and oyster sauce) with salad and tomatoes. Probablymayonnaisee or mustard sauce. 
• Tuesday - typical eggs with mayonaisse sandwich and cheese (for added proteins)
• Wednesday - repeats Monday recipe
• Thursday - typical roti telur but made into a sandwich with cucumbers
• Friday - sandwich with slices of chicken breasts and cheese.

The everyday sandwich will have papaya and cucumbers as side dishes. If I feel like the sandwich is too plain, I need to add cheese or chicken or eggs so that the extra protein can fill me up. I´m also going to keep some milk at work or else I´ll make another cup of coffee or simply wants buys some sugary drink. Milk helps me to put those urges at bay lol.

That´s all. Long live sandwich.

Roll On: Cooking For One For One Week With One Grocery Shopping

Roll On: Cooking For One For One Week With One Grocery Shopping

Dec 6, 2018

So, the title is either genius or simply frustratingly confusing.

In welcoming my after PRP life and the revival of Crack Culture - we are living healthier!

I love to cook. However, cooking for one is such a big hassle and it is just not the kind of hassle I need during PRP. Now that I have finished my PRP, we can put more effort into cooking.

Most importantly cooking and eating healthier.

So, my big problem with eating is that

1. I tend to eat more rice
2. I snack a lot. Like a lot, lot

Living stressfully have also been very conducive to make me eat more. 

Now, I'm not doing this to lose weight but I'm doing this because I want to re-program my eating pattern. What I'm doing is that I got this new project where I planned my grocery shopping to last for a few days (most ideally to last a week) and try to cook simple-no-rice meals. I'm doing only lunches at the moment because I'm afraid I'll get bored easily and then turn back to eat like I used too. 

It has happened before guys so we are taking this slowly.

Before we start to talk about what to cook - we have to get the technicalities prepared first. You will at least need a (1) stove (if you don't have one, maybe try to invest on those portables ones). A (2) non-stick pan, medium sized is more than good. Since we are cooking for one, you don't really need ladle and stuff. Spoons will work (I only use spoon since the portion is small). A (3) knife (a medium-sized and sturdy knife, not that cute thin ones). (4) Chopping board is also important. I know some might get that thrifty idea to just cut stuff on a table but please get one. A small one is good enough.

i'm having such a big problem at how seokjin loves to cook and looks so comfortable in the kitchen.
this screams relationship material for god sake!

Now, let's talk groceries!

Firstly I bought two pieces of chickens breast. If you know groceries, you know how a chicken is sold according to parts. I chose chicken breast since it has the least fat plus easier to work with. Keeping a tray of eggs is good too. Actually, I should have bought one piece of chicken breast and a medium sized mackerel tuna. I got bored rather quickly with the chicken breast and mackerel tuna is the only fish I like to eat not fresh. 

I have a weird palate. 

I can't eat a not-freshly caught fish. 

I swear I'm not being picky.

I'm just programmed this way.

Actually, if we got more choices here, I would just buy tuna blocks. It's much more fulfilling and can be cooked easily but still tasted good. Plus, if I actually got the time to go to the wet market, I would have bought squids too.

Now come the fun part, vegetables! Since I'm not eating rice, vegetables are needed to make me feel full. The trick is to have different kinds of vegetables. At least one leafy ones  (the lettuce) and one crunchy one (the capsicum). For this time, I also got myself mushrooms and tomatoes. It is a good choice due to the structure and thus the variability of taste which is important so that I'll not get bored easily. The sweet potato is also important because I still need some sort of carbohydrate and plus, it tasted good too! But these are actually more than I need for a week. The broccoli and half of the capsicum gone bad actually. I also bought a small loaf of Gardenia's wholemeal bread.

Now comes the important part - getting that good flavor. First of all, you have to buy onions. At least buy a few cloves of garlic and a handful of onions. Next are those fellas in the pictures above. I know I'll need to at least stir-fry the vegetables and maybe grill the chicken. These four ingredients (plum sauce, oyster sauce, roughly grinded black peppers and dried rosemary leaves) are good enough to marinate your chicken and to be made into a simple sauce. Saute some onions and put oyster sauce is good enough to stir-fry vegetables. These will last you more than a month actually.

So what did i cook?

I don't want to spend a lot of time cooking so it must be simple menus but at the same time, it needs to have good flavors and some sort of variety. Mind you, I have a very simple palate, so if you guys need stronger flavors, I can suggest some things but it may or may not meet your satisfaction. Plus, the use of more colors (different vegetables) will work wonder to make foods look more appetizing.

1. Fried noodles

Onions, chicken, mushrooms and some oyster sauce. I put oyster sauce instead because I don't one to use the instant noodles seasoning. This is an experiment of some sort. So the vegetables and chicken gives out flavor to the noodle too. I don't want to use the seasoning because I want to buy the instant noodles only, not the ones with seasoning and stuff. this way I can choose healthier noodles. But if this is too bland for you, try adding some chili paste and some soy sauce. You can try buying actual noodle but this is once a week plan so dried noodles is my best choice. there are plenty of choice, just looks for the ones with lesser calories

2. A simple stir-fry

Just stir fry some vegetables and to make it more fulfilling - add some carbs and proteins. I used scrambled eggs but eggs tasted so bland, I should use chicken instead. I put some crouton-ish into this too. I simply did some oil-less fry of one slice of wholemeal bread and cuts it into smaller pieces. You can try to put potatoes instead but I decided it was too much work. For the flavoring, I put oyster sauce and black pepper. This is a very simple dish so I'm not quite sure what you can do more to make it more appetizing.

3. Proteins and funs with vegetables

I also did a mix of things and plate it this way. Since the ikan tongkol is fried and thus is flavorful enough, I just toss some freash lettuce and cherry tomatoes. The sweet potato slices were fried with no oil. I thought I cut the sweet potatoes too thin but these end up being so filling.

The chicken was supposed to be made into a sandwich since I keep some of my grilled chicken for that purpose but I didn't feel like eating a sandwich and made this instead. Then green leaves are actually spinach. A friend of mine gave it to me. I did a quick fry of the spinach and the tomatoes with plum sauce. Totally loving it.

Kinda a grilled chicken but I did on my nonstick pan. I just turn it into slow heat and put the lid on. I marinated it overnight first with some black pepper, dried thyme, oyster sauce, and plum sauce. I also put some onions which are actually optional. I just wanted more taste with the use of onions. When I finished cooking the chicken, I use the same pan and fry the mushrooms and sweet potatoes. I add some more oyster sauce and plum sauce so that I have a bit of sauce to go with the chicken.

4. Sandwich

wholemeal bread just give better taste profile and I did way too much filling~

I fry the ingredient a bit while cooking the chicken (I didn't make the grilled chicken yet) because I don't feel like wanting to eat everything so fresh. 

I still cook but I didn't actually go for one-week grocery shopping since I currently keep on taking few days off from work. I have lots of time off to be used so I didn't need to buy much groceries to cook for one week. I still cook though. If I got enough menus, I'll write another post. And probably takes a good landscape sized photo instead.