Day 163: Corned Burger Surprise

Leafing through the pages of a six-year old "Smart Parenting" magazine yielded a great result for my "pambaon" blues with the kids.  It was a Back-to-School and Father's Day issue and one of the features was a set of easy-to-follow recipes for children's snack or lunch in school. 

For a budget-conscious Mom like me, this is a perfect treat to make as it veers away from the more expensive ground beef since it makes use of corned beef instead and has shredded potatoes as extender. 

CORNED BURGER SURPRISE

Patty Mixture:

500 grams corned beef (I used the "por kilo" kind instead of canned)

600 grams potatoes (peeled, shredded and drained of excess liquid)

5 tbsp. onions, minced

5 tbsp. flour

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. sugar

1-2 eggs (try one egg first as it might get too wet/soggy if too much egg is used)

cream cheese or ordinary processed cheese, sliced

for Sandwich assembly:

1-2 tbsp. canola oil for frying

burger buns

lettuce

tomatoes

mayonnaise or your choice of dressing

Mix together all patty ingredients until well incorporated. If mixture turns out too soggy, drain excess liquid on strainer before forming into patties.

Get a spoonful of mixture on the palm of your hand. Place a small piece of cheese in the center then add another spoonful of the mixture to hide the cheese and form into a patty.

Fry patties in hot oil. Drain on paper towels. Assemble on buns and serve.

Day 5: I Love Papaya!!!

Due to the incessant rains today, afternoon classes were suspended so I had to fetch Jarred from school at midday.

Upon arriving home, he checked out the fridge for something he could snack on and he discovered the papaya slices that were chilling inside. He quickly took a spoon and started to munch on this pretty healthy snack.

I told him that papaya is a rich source of Vitamin A which is good for the eyes and that made him even more excited to finish the plateful of fruit in front of him.

Day 305: What happens at midnight

Knowing that my brood are nuttyholics (including hubby), I always keep a stash of cracker nuts for those weekend midnight snack bonding moments. Aside from nuts, the entire family also enjoys snacking on "cornicks". It's a good thing these stuff are cheap compared to the usual chichirya fare available in the market. Want some?

Day 256: Yummy Tater Treat

We love potatoes - in whatever shape, form or style. French fried, mashed, cubed or diced in a dish or simply made into crispy chips. Little CeeJae attacked this heaping plate of thin and crisp taters with gusto, savoring each crunchy and delicious bite. 

Day 229: Golden Kernels

As I was exiting the school gate with my son today, these golden orbs attracted my eye. A local vendor with his "kariton" was busy arranging his fare when my three kiddos cajoled me into buying some for their afternoon snack. Well, gullible me gave in to the temptation as well, not being able to resist the smell of freshly boiled corn on the cob.

Well, I wasn't able to capture a photo of the remnants of our corn snack but suffice to say, even 1-year old CeeJae had a hey day snacking on these golden kernels.

Day 216: Childhood Comfort

Not many people like the taste of liver, let alone liver spread. I'm quite fortunate to be married to someone who shares my love for the stuff. I was quite surprised to find out that hubby knew about a food item from childhood that I thought was uniquely my own...

LIVER-MAYO SPREAD was something Mom would whip up whenever she ran out of stuff to make sandwich spreads with. In 5 short minutes, she can come up with a snack that eventually became a favorite (mine only as my two other siblings never quite got their taste buds to like liver). 

Fast forward to today, my entire family loves this humble spread/dip and it truly fills us up during breakfast or snack time. Do you have your own liver-mayo story?

Day 187: Kropek

On my way to pick up my son from school I crossed paths with a vendor selling old-time favorite Pinoy snacks. I hailed him to examine his inventory of goods. After careful thought, I ended up buying 5 packs of snack items consisting of kropek, pilipit and ampao. 

Long before Jack n Jill or Granny Goose came into the picture, children's snack time consisted of these simple favorites. I remember various occasions in my childhood when my sister and I together with cousins would enjoy these snacks whenever Mom would happen to pass by Chinatown in Binondo. 

These fun-filled childhood memories fill my mind as I munch on these crunchy goodies, after a customary dunk in spicy vinegar. Yum!

Day 173: Creamy Goodness

The love for ice cream is something my children inherited from their Dad. No matter the flavor, be it branded or the pinoy sorbetes type, the kids always look forward to have this yummy treat.

I do have a sweet tooth myself but my preference lie with cakes, pastries and chocolates. Of course, I wouldn't refuse a cone of ice cream if offered one (wink!!!).

Talking about ice cream kinda brings me back to my childhood days when my parents would bring my siblings and I to the Magnolia Ice Cream House along Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City (I believe it's now known as the Nestle Creamery). We spent many bonding moments there over bowls of creamy concoctions and glasses of sundaes.

Well, I can't give my kids the exact same cool experience but I can assure them that their childhood will be filled with wonderful family moments together over cones of their favorite "flavor of the road" (streetside sorbetes).

Day 170: Beat the Heat

With the rising cost of fuel, many of the things that we enjoy in life have also risen in cost. So the small luxuries we used to indulge in may now be too expensive for us. One such product is ice cream which is one of the family's favorite all-time heat and stress buster. Branded ones, including those packaged as promo "in-one" items are now proving to be too heavy on the pocket. 

Fortunately, a childhood favorite is still around and going strong. Remember the Celeste Legaspi tune "Mamang Sorbetero"? Well, it's good that in my city, there are still more than a handful of these peddling ice cream vendors roaming the streets offering cool treats to young and old alike. 

Of course, they're not as milky or creamy as the branded ones since their base is made from coconut milk instead but the flavors are amazingly creative and still gives that refreshing feeling of coolness. After all, the most important thing is beating this crazy hot weather, right?

Day 162: Sandwich

Sandwiches are a staple food item in my household. Whether for breakfast or snack, this simple treat warms our belly for some time. 

A family favorite is tuna spiced up with a slather of butter and cheese spread on toast. Hubby and I enjoy it more with pieces of lettuce and tomatoes.

Another popular sandwich variety at home is PB & J (Peanut Butter and Jelly) made more special by adding in slices of fresh banana. A filling that we learned to appreciate after watching an older season of Pinoy Big Brother is butter with maple syrup on toast since it looked so yummy on tv every time the housemates had it for their snacks. Now, it's one of the kids' fave sandwich style.

What's your sandwich story?

Day 158: A Mediterranean Treat

Apart from Japanese cuisine, another type of food that hubby and I share a love for is Mediterranean. We won't turn down any opportunity to feast on hummus, gyros/shawarma, kabobs or lassi. 

One of the more popular Mediterranean food fare that is readily available in the country is Shawarma. We like the combination of the meat, fresh veggies, garlic sauce and spicy sauce with the softness of the tortilla bread. A complete meal in itself, it is surely one of our favorites. 

Day 153: Yummy Takoyaki

Hubby and I are lovers of Japanese food. When we were still stationed in General Santos City, there was a couple of good restaurants there that served pretty good Japanese cuisine so we were always "belly-happy". Unfortunately, the case isn't the same where we live now. We only get to turn Japanese whenever we visit Cebu or Manila which isn't that often. 

The closest to a Japanese fix we can get is imitation Takoyaki from a food kiosk at the local mall. A set of 3 balls cost P20 so it's a relatively cheap snack to munch on. This is Wikipedia's definition of Takoyaki:

Takoyaki (literally fried or baked octopus) is a popular Japanese dumpling made of batter, diced or whole baby octopus, tempura scraps (tenkasu), pickled ginger, and green onion, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, ponzu, mayonnaise, green laver (aonori), and katsuobushi (fish shavings), first popularized in Taisho-era Osaka,[1] where a street vendor named Endo Tomekichi is credited with its invention in 1935 [2]. Takoyaki can be found in shops called issen-yoshoku, which roughly translates to "one-penny Western food" [3]. There is a similarly named dish called ikayaki but it is a broiled whole squid and bears no resemblance. Yaki is derived from "yaku" (焼く^?) which simply means "to bake or grill" in Japanese, and can be found in the names of other Japanese cuisine items such as teriyaki or sukiyaki.

I doubt if the ones we get here are really made out of octopus...maybe it's just batter, tons of shredded cabbage, some carrots and a combination of the spicy sauce and mayo. Well, I heard that real Takoyaki in Manila would cost about P100/order so that must be really good balls. In the meantime, I guess we have to satisfy ourselves with these yummy knock-offs of the real thing.