May 15th Lunch

May 15th,

I really wanted to eat a Japanese menu.

Maybe my stomach needed something gentle.  There's a lot of Japanese dishes that are delicious but are easy on the digestion.  Maybe the day after binging on junk food.  Also miso soup as part of your breakfast is good for mornings you have a hangover, it will help rehydrate you.

Lunch:

Tofu Salmon Stew, Cucumber Otsukemono (Pickled Cucumbers), Tamago Yaki (Japanese Style Eggs), and Miso Soup with Onions

Tofu Salmon Stew.  Very simple to make but very delicious.  The main flavoring I used was ginger which is also very good for you if you aren't at your 100%

Japanese style eggs, known in Japanese as Tamago Yaki (tamago = egg, yaki = cooked). It's basically scrambled eggs wrapped into a roll and cut into thick slices.  You see them a lot in Japanese bento.  There are two types of tamago yaki; sweet and non-sweet.  Sweet type of tamago yaki typically is plain but non-sweet type of tamago yaki can have various other ingredients mixed in with it such as fish like salmon and tuna, and veggies like carrots, daikon raddish, and sea weed.

Whether the tamago yaki is sweet or not depends on the preference of the maker, but in Sushi restaurants tamago yakis are typically sweet.

Of course, I have had tamago yaki since I was little but this is the first time I have ever made them.  The ones I made are the sweet kind, not too sweet.

My mom always made non-sweet tamago yaki for me at home with plenty of spinach.  I didn't particularly dislike spinach but it definitely made it easier to eat it.

May 12th Lunch

May 12th,

I dish I ate a lot as a kid but not as an adult: Sloppy Joes.

I loved sloppy joes and you can't really find it here so I decided to make it!

Sloppy Joe with Avocado and Egg & Carrot Oven Fries

It ended not being so sloppy as the sloppy joes I remember for my childhood but still I liked it.

May 9th Lunch

May 9th,

Oh spring, how I love thee.... If only I didn't have hay fever.

I've been watching these medical variety shows a lot lately because everyone's so health conscious.... I think I am turning into a hypochondriac.  Well, not really turn into so much as becoming more aware that I am.  I used to think I had a brain tumor when I was little because I would get migraines so often...  that's not a hypochondriac thing to think, right?

Lunch:

Mackerel Stuffed Peppers, Creamy Mashed Potatoes & Sliced Tomatoes

I used canned mackerel to make the filling for the stuffed peppers, which makes things so much easier because you never have to worry about under cooking things.  You don't need to cook it for long so that the peppers don't get too bitter.

May 7th Lunch

May 7th,

I think I'm in love with those Italian style burgers I made.  It's especially good with the garlic tomato sauce.

Cheesy Italian Style Chicken Burger with Tomato Sauce & Baked Pumpkin Chips.

Mmm... Cheesy innerds.

May 5th Lunch

May 5th,

Early this morning, we were hit with a pretty sizable earthquake.  Luckily, only 17 non-serious injuries.

Still was not happy to wake up at 5AM to an earthquake.

For lunch, I tried a new version of hamburger.

Cheesy Italian Style Chicken Burger with Tomato Sauce, Avocado Salad, Tofu Pumpkin Potage with Bread Sticks.

I mixed basil in with the ground chicken and filled the burger with melty cheese.  It's topped with a garlicky tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes.

Mmmm~... cheesy goodness.

May 4th Lunch

May 4th,

I used the leftover negitoro to make a sort of negitoro don.

"Don" or donburi is a bowl dish where meat, veggie, or fish dishes are served on a bed of rice.

It's usually very filling.

Negitoro Don with Avocado

May 3rd Lunch

May 3rd,

They were having a sale of one of my favorite things, negitoro!

Negitoro is a tuna pate that is used in sushi.  It is usually topped with chopped scallions.

I used it to make today's lunch.

Negitoro Cups with Kabocha and Tofu Potage

I toasted gyoza skins to make cups and filled it with rice then topped it with negitoro (which I mixed with a little bit of soy sauce and wasabi paste), minced tomato and cucumber.  It was like a Japanese taco cups.  I love it!

May 1st Lunch

May 1st,

Last night, it was raining so hard I thought my apartment would be swept away!

It's lovely today though.

Lunch:

Non-Spicy Japanese Style Mapo Doufu Don

Just used ground chicken, tofu and onion.  Instead of using doubanjiang (a tangy Chinese miso that helps give it its spice) I used regular miso.

April 28th Lunch

April 28th,

The weather is so~ nice these days.  Why can't the weather always be like this, sigh...


Anyway, I tried another new recipe for lunch today.

Baked Cheesy Tomato and Meat Sauce topped with Avocado & Focaccia

I made focaccia!  Since I don't have an oven I made my focaccia in a frying pan.  It was actually a lot easier than the naan I made.

The baked cheesy tomato and meat sauce topped with avocado was baked in my toaster oven.

I cooked the meat sauce with onions in a silicon steamer first (silicon steamers make life so much easier in the kitchen).

Layers are slices of tomatoes → meat sauce → melting cheese toast.  After you toast it top with fresh avocado slices.

April 26 Lunch

April 26,

Wanted to eat Indian food.

But!! Because I can't eat spicy food I have to make it if I wanna eat it.

And so my lunch today was this:

Tandoori Chicken Drumsticks, Yogurt Naan and Avocado Potato Salad


I used the left over drumstick and marinated them overnight to make tandoori wings!

And made Naan for the first time.

I used yogurt and cooked it in a frying pan.  What's great is that you don't need any oil in cooking either the Naan or drumstick in the pan (the marinate prevents the chicken from sticking to the pan).

April 25th Lunch

April 25th,

When seasons change and the weather's not so great... rainy and just ugh....

I always suffer such horrible migraine headaches.

So it's not good when the rainy season starts in the spring.

Oh well, we must soldier on.

Lunch:

Sweet and Sour Drumsticks with Hard Boiled Egg, Carrot Tofu Soup with Bread Sticks, and Cucumber Salad

Mmm~.

I love chicken drum sticks, but it is hard work getting all the skin and fat off when preparing the chicken... but so~ worth it.  Always good to cook boiled egg with your chicken, it's a yummy plus.

April 21st Lunch

April 21st,

Wanted pizza, but need to stay healthy and don't have money to get delivery...

So~....

I made this!!

Teriyaki Chicken and Guacamole Tortilla Pizza!!

It's a double decker; two tortillas with cheese in between for the crust.

I think I could have gone with a little less guacamole... but it was still yummy.

I made it in a frying pan, it was nice and crunchy on the bottom and gooey in the middle... I think I'm in love..

April 19th Lunch

April 19th,

The cherry blossoms in Japan are beautiful, no question.  But the problem is they don't last long because right after they come into bloom comes the rain and the rainy season...sad...

But, I guess that makes them more precious.

Lunch:

Miso Cheesy Chicken & Somen Salad with Ao Shiso Dressing

This is the second time I made Miso Cheesy Chicken.  I think I did it better this time.

Somen Salad.  Somen (so men)  is a very thin noodle made from wheat flour.

Somen is usually served cold.  There's a summer activity with somen called nagashi somen where you take a long flume of bamboo to make a sort of water slide for the noodles.  People stand along next to the bamboo water slide with a bowl of dipping sauce and catch noodles as they come down and enjoy.  It's a fun yummy group activity!

Slightly thicker noodles are called hiyamugi and then the even thicker noodles udon.

April 18th Lunch

April 18th

For surviving the winter in Japan, many people spend it sitting in a kotatsu.

What's a kotatsu.

It's basically a low table (where you sit on the floor) and there's a thick blanket in between the table top and it's base and there is a heater underneath so that the toasty warmness is trapped under the blanket.  It's heaven AND A TRAP!  Because you're so comfy that you don't want to leave, not to cook food, not to go to the bathroom, and not to got to bed.

I own a kotatsu.  But I just put it away because it's spring!  And wouldn't you know it, it gets chilly again.... but don't want to set it up again.

Anyway... lunch!

Chicken Chips and Panzella


I made my croutons for my Panzella out of English muffins.  It made it crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside.  I loved it but if you like your croutons with nothing but crunch maybe use another bread.

April 17th Lunch

April 17th,

Used the last of the carrot tofu burgers to make this delicious creation.

Tomato and Egg Tofu Rice Burger with Avocado Chips

Delicious!!

April 15th Lunch

April 15th,


Kind of windy today, but I like it especially since I did my laundry a little late.

And WOAH!! Quite a big quake just now... (earth quakes I'm used to here).

Lunch:

Carrot Tofu Burger with Bulldog Sauce and Mayo Mix

Japanese Style Clam Pasta

I used canned clams so it was really easy to make.

April 14th Lunch

April 14th,


I made tofu carrot burgers.

And I used this burger to make...

Teriyaki Locomoco Bowl!!

Instead of gravy sauce I used teryaki sauce as a healthy and easy alternative.

It was DELICIOUS!!

Definitely making this again.

One thing to note if you are a vegetarian and planning to come to Japan.  Just because it says "tofu burger" does not mean it's vegetarian.  Many tofu burger recipes include meat, usually ground chicken, to help the patty keep it's shape so be sure to ask if you do order the tofu burger.

April 10th Lunch

April 10th,

One of my recipes I'm addicted to.

Chicken toast with melty cheese and cucumber on top.

April 9th Lunch

April 9th,

Tried something new.

Rice burger!!

You can find rice burgers at places like Mosburger (a burger chain in Japan)

I made my favorite chicken meat sauce  instead of a patty.

It was delicious!!!

April 6th Lunch

April 6th,

Breakfast for lunch?

Chicken cooked in worcestershire sauce, scrambled eggs and tomatoes in a flour tortilla.

Breakfast wrap!

Always a yum decision to do breakfast.

April 4th Lunch

April 4th,

These days the temperature is at that indecisive point, are you going to need a coat or will just a jacket do?

I wish it would be just a TAD bit warmer, then it would be perfect.

Lunch:

Tried a new menu

No cream and no egg required!

Creamy Avocado Carbonara with Chicken.

Nice and creamy but very light and healthy!

April 2nd Lunch

April 2nd,

Keep forgetting to post.

Cherry blossoms are a-bloom here and it's so beautiful!

But isn't just the way, we've been getting some serious rainy days so who know how long these pretty petals will last.

Lunch:

Avocado Chicken Wraps.

Nothing special, but none the less yummy.

March 30th Lunch

March 30th,

It's so windy today, I thought I would blow away when I went out.

I hope it doesn't blow all the cherry blossoms away. 

They all just started blooming.

Anyway lunch:

Ginger Chicken with Onion

Avocado Toast

March 27th Lunch

March 27th,

I don't know if it's the bad weather, but I've had a horrible headache all day.

Very unpleasant.

Anyway, lunch:

The other day I bought tuna; the ara of the tuna.

Ara (or アラ) is the left over parts of the fish after all the main parts have been cut away and usually you cook it rather than eat it raw.  You can eat it raw if you are careful in the preparation and what part you use.

It can also have a more fishy smell/taste than other parts.  So I first boiled mine in a mixture of water and cooking sake before I cooked it nice and slowly in soy sauce and ginger.  Marinating or first boiling/steaming it in sake will help to get rid of the fishyness.

I also perfected the poached egg!  Finally!!

Beautiful, no?  I knew it would just take me practice.

I used it and the tuna to make today's lunch.

I call it my AraAra-don.

It was yummy~.

Poached eggs are golden gooey globs of yummy.

March 22nd Lunch

March 22nd,

Was window shopping today and they were playing that well-known song from "Frozen".

First, they played the original English version then the Japanese version.

Never watched the Disney movies in Japanese so have never heard the Japanese versions of the song.

I don't like watching dubbed movies.

Today's lunch:

Curried Codfish Soup

March 21st Lunch

March 21st,

It's finally turning into spring weather.

So lunch:

Caprese Style Toast and Basil Codfish with Carrots.

March 19th Lunch

Sorry, it's been a while.

Went with my Aunt to the airport, then my Mom.

Anyway lunch from the 19th.

Roast beef sandwich with cottage cheese and cucumbers, tomatoes, and avocado chips with yogurt dip.

Yumm... I love roast beef!

March 14th Lunch

March 14th,

Mom's over for lunch and I tried a new dish!

Chicken Banh Mi, Avocado Chips with Yogurt Dip, and a Simple Salad.

Banh Mi sandwich is a Vietnamese sandwich usually served in a baguette and usually includes things like cilantro, fish sauce, and pickled carrots.

The original Banh Mi recipe also uses hot sauce, but because I cannot eat spicy foods I used oyster sauce instead of hot sauce + fish sauce.  A very good decision if I do say so myself.

It was so yummy and my mom loved it too!

It's a success!

Must add it to the recipe list.