Pancit Bihon Guisado

My niece Vernice turned 10 months old today and I decided to cook pancit bihon and chicken afritada to celebrate. After I cooked, my siblings and their families came to eat and we ate the foods that I cooked. Pancit is always cooked when somebody celebrate her/his birthday and you know what, my pancit were all gone and nothing was left for me this morning.

Ingredients:

1 8 oz. pack pancit bihon noodles
1 cooked chicken breast, shredded
3 1/2 cups of chicken broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 cabbage, sliced into strips
1 onion, peeled and sliced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
2 carrots, sliced into strips
1/2 cup shrimps, shells removed
3/4 cup diced celery
1 cup sliced green beans
soy sauce
black pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
cooking oil

Directions:

1. Grease a pot and saute the garlic and onions. Add the shrimps and chicken and cook for a couple of minutes. Add 1/2 cup chicken broth and 1 chicken bouillon cube. Add all the vegetables and season with soy sauce and black pepper according to your taste.

2. In a large pan or wok, put the 3 cups of chicken broth. Add 2 tbsps of cooking oil, soy sauce, 1 chicken bouillon, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and let it simmer. Add the pancit bihon noodles stirring constantly and cook it till the noodles are tender and had absorbed all the broth. Then add the vegetables and mix it altogether.

It's Been A While

Well, it's been a while since the last time I updated my blogs. The main reason is we had no internet connection since the typhoon destroyed the phone lines in our place. The sad thing is there were only 2 span damaged and unfortunately, we were the ones affected. Right now our phone line is not yet restored so I'm here in the internet cafe. I don't know when will we have our phone and internet connection back. I hope it will be soon. I miss blogging really.

Vegetable Lumpia

Lumpia is one of my specialty. I used to make a lot when we were in Texas. During my citizenship party last year, I made more than a hundred pieces. Most of the time I make Shanghai lumpia (I used ground beef, chicken or turkey though) because hubby prefer it than veggies. I removed pork from our diet a few years ago because my nutritionist told me that pigs are scavengers and pork is not good for my health. I also make vegetable lumpia sometimes and still hubby likes but not as much as he likes the meat lumpia.

During my nephew's birthday a couple of weeks ago, my sister made vegetable lumpia and it turned out good but my hubby said that my lumpia taste better. I got a fan here, LOL!

Here are the ingredients for vegetable lumpia of my sister:

bean sprouts ( as many as you want)
1 small bowl ground beef or any meat that you prefer
1 carrot
1/4 baguio beans
salt and pepper
1/4 cabbage
Onions
garlic
3 squares tokwa - diced
oil for frying
lumpia wrapper

How To Prepare:

First, sautee garlic, onions, tokwa and ground beef in oil.
Add the vegetables( bean sprouts, carrot, baguio beans and cabbage) if beef is ready.
Add salt and pepper to add flavor.
Set aside if ready.

Next, let the sauteed ingredients to cool before wrapping it with lumpia wrapper.
After which, set the frying pan, heat oil and start frying!
Use a paper towel to remove excess oil.
Serve hot!

My Nephew's Birthday

We had some yummy foods during my nephew's birthday. We were in Baguio so we celebrated it there. My sister and her hubby had cooked foods like spaghetti, pancit palabok and vegetable lumpia. While the lumpia was being cooked, my hubby and I had already eaten quite a few. It was really good. We didn't have much sweets because both my brother-in-law and his dad are diabetic. So we just drink iced tea after we ate. Anyways, we enjoyed the simple celebration.

Pancit Palabok

My hubby had been tired eating pancit bihon because I always cook that when we were in Texas. It surprised me though when he tasted the pancit palabok that we ordered from Tea House in Baguio because he loved it. It tasted different from the pancit bihon that I used to cook. I haven't tried cooking pancit palabok yet but my brother-in-law is very good in cooking this. In fact he cooked it during my youngest nephew's birthday the other week. Here's the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

500 grams pancit noodles ( rice glass noodles)

100 grams shrimps, peeled, deveined, and chopped (save heads for shrimp stock)

300 grams tinapa (smoked fish), fried and flaked (take out the bones!)

200 grams pork, sliced into bit-size pieces

4-6 eggs, hard-boiled and sliced

1-2 cups pork cracklings, pound or grind in food processor

1/2 cup green onions, chopped

1 med size onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

salt, and patis (fish sauce) if you wish

2 packs Mama Sita Palabok Mix

water

2-3 tbsp cooking oil

calamansi (Filipino lime)

DIRECTION:

1. Soak shrimp heads (and mash with a spoon if you must!) with 1 cup boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain and set liquid aside. This is your shrimp stock.

2. Cook glass noodles according to package instructions. Set aside.

2. In a large pan, heat oil. Saute garlic and onions over low heat. Add pork, continue stir-frying until cooked. Remove pork and set aside.

3. Saute shrimps in the same pan only til they turn orange. Remove from pan.

4. Dissolve Palabok mix in cold water (follow package instructions). Pour dissolved mix and shrimp stock into pan used for sauteing. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring once in a while. Simmer until sauce thickens. Season with salt and patis (fish sauce).

5. Arrange noodles on a plate, and top with sauce, pork, shrimps, smoked fish flakes, pork cracklings, green onions and sliced eggs. Squeeze calamansi juice over your plate of pancit palabok if desired. Enjoy!