Hellobee Boards

I have to do a couple of things this weekend, like bake a banana bread and an applesauce loaf for my son's snacks next week.

- Meatloaf to be had with a tub of store-bought mashed potatoes and some veggies/salad. I have a zucchini, asparagus, and a bag of salad that has to be used up.

- Cooking up a big pan of boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into chunks. I'll use it to make a quick Thai coconut chicken curry (Thai kitchen paste, coconut milk, bag of stirfry veg) over basmati rice and possibly another stirfry during the week with noodles. I have some random bags of Top Ramen for some reason and I figure I can boil up just the noodle part and toss it in with the chicken and veggies.

- Cooking a pork roast in the Instant Pot to shred up. Probably for Mexican food - enchiladas or tacos. I have a batch of Spanish rice in the freezer I can nuke and tortillas in the fridge.

Our plan for next week includes black bean burgers and fajitas. That’s as far as we are.

roasted tandoori chicken, cauliflower - http://www.thedefineddish.com/roasted-tandoori-chicken/
beef and kidney bean chili, almond flour biscuits
roasted salmon, sweet potato, and veg
homemade pizza, salad
spaghetti squash primavara, salad - https://www.skinnytaste.com/spaghetti-squash-primavera/
slow cooker honey sesame chicken, brown rice, and broccoli

@newlypregnantlady: Black bean quesadillas with the bird’s eye southwest blend is my go-to for an easy quick dinner!!

@gotkimchi: it honestly varies depending on what I have on hand and how much time I have. I typically don’t make authentic Korean food. I never add enough sugar and I always add a million vegetables to all dishes. Also I’m lazy with dishes! So lazy! It’s bad.

But this week this is what I’ll do: soak 1/2 package of the rice cakes in lukewarm tap water, sauté 1lb of chopped king oyster mushrooms in 1T butter (my local Asian market sells these for $3/lb) until deeply golden and add a ton of garlic (at this point I remove about 25% to put over plain rice/quinoa for my toddler and baby).

Then add 1-2T (to taste) of gochujang to the mushrooms and cook until fragrant. Then add a good amount of water or stock, plus 1/4 cup of soy sauce (more to taste), some sugar if I’m feeling like it. Stir the gochujang so it’s evenly distributed, add drained rice cakes, cover and let it bubble until the rice cakes are soft. Then I’ll add 1lb of enoki mushrooms and stir those in. Garnish with sliced green onions.

Some things I vary:
-the stock: if I have time/ingredients I’ll make a quick stock with kombu and dried anchovies. I usually also chop up the kombu and add it to the dish (but a lot of people find kombu kind of irony/minerally and don’t love the flavor).
-sometimes I make a mushroom stock from dried shiitakes, then chop and add those to the dish
-sometimes I add a little kimchi juice
-sometimes I’ll add kale or frozen spinach or whatever random veg I have.
-if I find fishcakes on sale I’ll add that.
-if I happen to have some hard boiled eggs I’ll add that.
-I’ve even added some spam sautéed in soy sauce (I grew up with spam so I love it, but rarely eat it because of the sodium and nitrates).

I’m not claiming this is authentic and I’m not Korean, this is just how I like it and for me it’s all about the rice cakes and mushrooms! So idk if a real Korean person would like this method! I’ve never actually made it for a Korean person, I don’t think.

@Mrs Lavender: I love it! I add it to eggs for a “Mexican” frittata, I add it to chili, salsa chicken, soups, to basically anything with tomatoes.