Spaghetti is Yummy

Yuzu is Watching Becoming Jane Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith

After church on Sunday, I swung by the grocery store to pick up some ground beef, onions, grape tomatoes and basil (the only ingredients I was lacking at home) to cook spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. I've only made homemade tomato sauce a few times, and I find that using a good jarred sauce saves so much time and tastes just as good. I didn't even use a recipe for the meatballs — I just eyeballed all the ingredients as I tossed them into the large bowl to mush the meat with my hands. The eyeballing worked well, because the meatballs were juicy and delicious!

©2008 Yuzu Eats

I bought a large container of fresh basil leaves and totally went crazy with it when I fixed my bowl. I took a few leaves and tore them over my warm pasta. I know basil has quite a strong, peppery flavor and is probably best used moderately. But I always put a lot of freshly ground pepper on everything I eat anyway, so what harm is there in adding even more peppery goodness?

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Master Chef

Last year I blogged about a game for the Nintendo DS entitled Cooking Mama. That was the game that made me actually go out and buy a pink Nintendo DS Lite. I still play the game every once in a while, but only if I'm completely and utterly bored. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty fun game, but after I've cooked so many dishes on there, I'm worn out. ;P

©Imagine | Ubisoft

Imagine just released a new cooking game today called Master Chef. The game play is very similar to that of Cooking Mama in the sense that you use the DS's stylus to do various kitchen tasks, i.e., chop, peel, slice, knead, stir. But it goes beyond all the cooking mini-games by including features like kitchen challenges and cooking quizzes, and even the ability to customize your kitchen with appliances! Sounds like a sweet game to me. Now if only it was as low in price as Cooking Mama was.

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Mac 'N' Cheese Soup

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I left work after only a few hours today because I was feeling kind'a queasy all morning. I hadn't eaten anything for breakfast because I just wasn't feeling hungry, but I munched on half a muffin while I was at work. As soon as I got home I started making myself some soup. I normally make chicken noodle soup when I feel crappy, but I wanted something else. Something that's been a comfort food since I was a kid — mac 'n' cheese! I made a bit of a grown-up version in the form of a veggie mac 'n' cheese soup.

©2007 Yuzu Eats

If you're interested in a 'soupy' soup, this one isn't it. It's got a creamy texture, so it's kind of a cross between macaroni soup and traditional baked mac 'n' cheese.

Mac 'N' Cheese Soup
1 can (14 oz.) reduced-sodium chicken broth
¾ cup small elbow macaroni
1 cup broccoli florets, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
¾ cup nonfat milk
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
ground black pepper (optional)

In a medium saucepan on high heat, bring chicken broth to a boil. Add macaroni, stir and let simmer over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes. Add broccoli and carrots and cook another 5 minutes.

Mix flour and milk together in a bowl until it's well combined. Slowly add it to the macaroni mixture, stirring until it's got a relatively thick consistency. Add small amounts of cheese at a time, stirring it around until it's melted, until all the cheese has been added. Season with ground black pepper if desired.

Serves two.

I ate the soup out of my Le Creuset petit casserole

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Back From Hiatus...and With Lots of Bento!

Yuzu is Listening To Call Me Irresponsible Michael Bublé see related

First off, allow me to apologize for not commenting on your blogs in the past month or two. I didn't expect to be away from food blogging for so long — sorry about that! I kind'a took a little break there for a while. Went on vacation to a couple of Hawaiian islands last month and ate Japanese food almost every day (and loved it!). Work has gotten so busy, leaving me too tired when I get home to cook or take worthwhile pictures of food. But I wanted to check in with you guys real quick and post some of my recent boxed lunches from the past week.

Shrimp fried in butter, garlic & pepper fried rice, seasoned mixed veggies


Chicken cutlet with tonkatsu sauce, edamame,
steamed mixed veggies & extra sauce (in the little tomato)


Pizza, seasoned mixed veggies, edamame
(pretty much a combo of the two previous bento, but with pizza!)


Panko-breaded shrimp, scrambled eggs, sweet cherry tomatoes,
flower-shaped Portuguese sausage patties, SPAM musubi and
(hiding behind the musubi) a carrot bottle w/soy sauce

©2007 Yuzu Eats

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Shrimp, Tomato & Basil Pasta

I hadn't really cooked in a while. We've been ordering a lot of takeout at home. Quick, yes. But it can really add up. Yesterday my sister and I went to the grocery store so I could buy some fresh ingredients to make a light pasta for the family. I looked through my old Everyday Food magazines because I recall seeing a recipe in one of them that I'd wanted to try. It was for shrimp, tomato and basil pasta. And I loves me some shrimp, tomatoes and basil.

©2007 Yuzu Eats

I do enjoy a good, hearty pasta dish. But I also like to eat light pasta dishes once in a while. This one definitely tastes light, but surprisingly it sates the appetite just fine. Here's the recipe, with a few minor adjustments.

Shrimp, Tomato and Basil Pasta (from Everyday Food by Martha Stewart)
1½ lbs. medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, with tails removed
course salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 can (14.5 oz.) diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 lb. linguine
1 cup lightly packed fresh basil, torn into small pieces

Season shrimp with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat 4 tsp. of extra virgin olive oil over high heat. Add shrimp and cook until opaque, turning occassionally (about 2-3 minutes). Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

To make the sauce, add remaining 2 tsp. of extra virgin olive oil and the minced garlic to the same skillet. Cook the garlic over medium heat for about 30 seconds, until they're fragrant. Add canned tomatoes, with the juice. Add 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occassionally, until the tomatoes have softened and are saucy. Remove from heat and add cherry tomatoes.

While the sauce is simmering, cook linguine in a large pot of salted water according to package directions. When cooked, drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Add sauce, shrimp and basil. Season with a little salt & pepper and toss. Garnish with additional torn basil leaves, if desired. Top with freshly grated Parmesan if you like. Serve immediately.

Serves 4-6.

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Cooking Mama

I'm not much of a gamer. The last gaming system I bought was a Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP several years ago. But a new title from Taito might push me towards the electronics store to buy myself a Nintendo DS Lite. It's a game called Cooking Mama, in which you test your cooking skills and get judged/scored by Mama. You use the stylus and touchscreen to prepare meals from start to finish — chop, slice, knead, mash, grate, peel, strain, etc. You can even blow into the mic to cool down food that's too hot! Whoa — what a neat concept! Click on the full link to see more screen shots, courtesy of IGN.

Chop the tomatoes!


Coat the chicken (or whatever that's supposed to be)!


Knead the dough!

Plate it up and show it to Mama. :)

©Taito

Oh my gosh, this is just too cute for words! You can watch a trailer of the game here on You Tube (a longer, Japanese version is also up for viewing here). The Japanese version is already available, but the U.S. version won't be available until December 31. In the meantime, I could start setting aside a little bit of money from each paycheck for the "Nintendo DS Lite/Cooking Mama" fund.

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Tilapia Bento

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I cooked dinner for the family last night, and it was pretty yummy. =9 There was a teensy bit left over, and my mom said I should bring it to work. So I packed it into a new bento box I bought recently in Little Tokyo. It's a pretty, red two-tiered plastic box with usagi and sakura on it, and it came with its own matching kinchaku.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

I just love two-tiered bento boxes!


Lemon 'n' basil tilapia filet, steamed rice w/carrot & basil flower garnish


Apricot jam-filled 'ravioli' cookies I baked for last night's dessert


Pandan sponge cake (from the Filipino market)

I've been eating fried tilapia ever since I can remember. It's one of the dishes my parents often cooked when I was a kid, and still cook to this day. Take a couple of whole tilapias and fry them in a pan — heads 'n' all. Crispy and tasty! The tilapia is becoming more popular now, not just in Filipino cuisine. Now I see tilapia filets at standard super markets, and they even serve it at the café at the office sometimes. I baked these tilapia filets instead of frying them. I seasoned them with kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, fresh basil leaves and freshly squeezed lemon juice. And I added some butter to the tops so they'd stay moist in the oven.

The recipe to the ravioli cookies can be found here.

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I ♡ Carrot Flowers

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I haven't used my Leaflet box in a while, so I decided to break it out and fill it up with delicious food. I made this food for dinner, but there was a small bit left over — the perfect amount to fit into this bento box!

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Breaded chicken tenders with mini carrot
flowers on a bed of fresh basil leaves


Seasoned roasted red potatoes


Crunchy green beans seasoned with garlic salt, pepper
and melted butter...with more mini carrot flowers

Here are the recipes. As with a lot of the cooking I do, I don't really measure things exactly, so just kind of eyeball it if you try these recipes:

Chicken Tenders
1 lb. chicken breast tenders
¾ cup vegetable oil (I used 100% cholesterol-free canola oil)
1 large egg
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 to 1½ cups bread crumbs

Heat up a medium-sized skillet on medium-high heat. Add vegetable oil to the hot pan, and let it heat up. Beat egg in a small bowl. Season chicken tenders with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Dip each tender into the egg wash, and then roll each one in bread crumbs, making sure to coat them completely. Place the breaded tenders into the hot oil, cooking each side for about 1-2 minutes. Since chicken tenders are thinly sliced, you don't need to cook them for very long. When they're a deep golden brown, they're done. Drain and serve.


Roasted Potatoes
6 or 7 medium-sized red potatoes
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
cracked black pepper
garlic salt
dried herbs (parsley, basil, oregano)

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Rinse the potatoes and chop them into ¾-inch cubes. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil into a baking pan lined with aluminum foil. Place the chopped potatoes into the pan. Sprinkle cracked black pepper, garlic salt and dried herbs over the potatoes, then use your hands to rub the seasoning onto the potatoes, lightly 'tossing' them around the pan so that the other sides get coated with the olive oil. Put 'em in the oven and bake for about 40-50 minutes until the edges of the potatoes look nice 'n' brown.


Crunchy Green Beans
½ lb. fresh green beans
freshly ground black pepper
garlic salt
1 tbsp. butter or margarine (optional)

Fill a medium-sized saucepan with water, and bring it to a boil. Snap (or chop) the tips off the green beans. I chopped them in half to fit into my bento box, but I prefer them full-length. Boil them for about 7-8 minutes. Drain immediately and place the beans into a large bowl of cold water. This will stop the cooking process and allow the beans to remain crunchy, yet cooked. After a minute or two, remove from the cold water. The beans should still be slightly warm. Sprinkle some garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper on them. For more flavor, add the butter and let it melt over the beans.

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Healthy Fruity Bento

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Happy first day of June! The weather has been so sunny and warm. I'm ready for summer! Summer is great because there are so many yummy fruits in season. Today's bento is made with fresh, ripe, fruity ingredients.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Linguine in a lemon basil sauce with sliced grape tomatoes,
Italian parsley, lemon zest and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano


Sweet, ripe banana slices shaped like flowers

I didn't use a recipe for the linguine, but it's almost identical to the lemon spaghetti I cooked on Mother's Day a couple weeks ago. The only difference is that I added freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and citrus zest to the lemon juice/olive oil mixture before I tossed the noodles in it. The lemons I squeezed for this meal were picked by yours truly from a little lemon tree in my parents' backyard. They were so yellow and ripe! The juice was just perfect when I mixed it with extra virgin olive oil and the rest of the ingredients to make the sauce. The lemons also made for pretty, vibrant citrus zest to top the pasta.

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Italian Bento

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As you've noticed from previous entries this month, I've been enjoying cooking & eating Italian food more than ever before. I thought I'd combine my love of Italian fare and bento making to create this tasty Italian bento, consisting of caprese salad and fusilli pasta in sundried tomato alfredo sauce with Italian sausage and fresh thyme, plus a grape tomato & basil flower for garnish.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

The alfredo sauce came from a jar. The bottom tier is probably my favorite cold antipasti. There's nothing quite like the combined flavors of balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, vine-ripe tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and crisp basil leaves - it's so delicious.

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Bento Fit For a Kid

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I haven't posted any bentos in a very long time. Give me some time to get back into the swing of things. I'm trying to rack my brain for some cute bento ideas. I actually have some ideas, but I've yet to implement them. In the meantime, here's a very simple bento I made for my lunch today using foods I loved as a kid (and still enjoy).

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Two little octopuses atop a bed of Kraft™ Macaroni 'n' Cheese, with flower-shaped carrot slices and parsley (for garnish). I really had to improvise with these octopuses. I have no mini weiners, so I used a regular-size hot dog and cut it in half to make two little weiners. I didn't have an octopus-shaped weiner cutter either, so I used a small sharp knife to cut the octopus shape on each weiner before cooking 'em. The mac 'n' cheese is the new Thick & Creamy variety from Kraft. It tastes so much better than the regular mac. Yummy!

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Mother's Day Italian

I hope you mothers out there had a fabulous Mother's Day yesterday. We went to church in the morning, ate Japanese food for lunch, shopped at the mall, and then I cooked dinner for everyone. I'm really digging on Italian grub (as you can tell from my last post), so I made some more Italian food for Mother's Day.

Look at these vine-ripe tomatoes – gorgeous!

Chicken Parmesan served with lemon spaghetti
and fresh greens w/balsamic vinaigrette

©2006 Yuzu Eats

I know chicken Parmesan is usually breaded, but...I don't know how to do that. ;P And this way seemed healthier for some reason. The recipes can be found here at my Live Journal.

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Yummy Farfalle

I haven't been making any pretty bentos lately, frankly because I've been kind'a busy. But I have had a chance to cook for dinner recently. Below is an Italian dish I made last week using farfalle (Italian for "butterflies") pasta. I didn't really have anything specific in mind while I was making it. I kind of just threw some ingredients together, and viola!

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Here's the quasi-recipe. I didn't measure everything exactly, so these are approximations:

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp. finely chopped onion
2 14½-oz. cans of diced tomatoes
1 tsp. chopped basil
¼ tsp. thyme
¼ tsp. rosemary
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
ground red cayenne pepper, to taste
1 tsp. white wine
1 16-oz. package of farfalle pasta

½ tsp. extra virgin olive oil (and add'l to prevent pasta from sticking)In a large skillet, heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and chopped onions to the skillet and cook until slightly brown. Add the lean ground beef and keep stirring until the meat is cooked all the way through (no red!). There should be very little to no fat drippings if you use lean beef, but drain if necessary. Once meat is done, add the canned tomatoes and blend well. Toss in the basil, thyme and rosemary. Sprinkle a little bit of ground black pepper and red cayenne pepper (just enough to to add a little bit of a 'kick'). Then add the white wine. Keep stirring so that the herbs will distribute evenly throughout the sauce. It will be slightly thin. Let simmer over a low heat so that some of the 'juice' will evaporate.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add several drops of extra virgin olive oil to the water and add the pasta. Cook according to the directions written on the package. Drain and serve immediately with meat sauce on top. Garnish with parsley, if desired. I used regular parsley here because I didn't have any flatleaf parsley on hand.

Serves 4 healthy portions.

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Shrimp Calzones

I'd never made calzones before, so I thought I'd give 'em a try. I was a bit nervous about making pizza dough. I think the last time I attempted to make bread was when I was in elementary school, and we had to bake bread with different types of yeast for a science project. If I recall correctly, the bread didn't turn out so well. I'm happy to report that this time the result was much better.

The pizza dough as I kneaded it

The pinched edges on the calzones came out kind'a nice

©2006 Yuzu Eats

The inside was stuffed with shrimp in a homemade white-wine tomato sauce

Here is the pizza dough recipe, which I borrowed from Giada De Laurentiis:

½ cup warm water (105-110ºF)
2 tsp. active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading
1 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. olive oil, plus more for bowl

Mix the warm water and yeast in a small bowl to blend. Let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. Mix the flour and salt to blend, then blend in the oil. Add the yeast mixture and blend until a dough forms. Turn the dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large oiled bowl and turn the dough to coat with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm area, away from drafts, until the dough doubles in volume (about 1 hour). Punch down the dough and form into ball. The dough can be used immediately or stored airtight in the refrigerator for 1 day.

I served these to my family for lunch, and they liked them. I think that's the best part of cooking — seeing others enjoy what you made for them. :) Gives me the warm fuzzies.

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Zuppa Toscana

My dad made Zuppa Toscana for dinner last night. We'd never had this soup at home (usually at Italian restaurants). I like my dad's better than the restaurant kind. =) It was so super-yummy, I had a giant bowl of it!

©2005 Yuzu Eats

Zuppa Toscana
16 oz. (1 pkg.) spicy or smoked sausage
2 potatoes (cut into ¼-inch cubes)
¾ cup chopped onion
6 slices of bacon
1½ teaspoons minced garlic
2 cups kale – washed, dried and shredded
2 tbsp. chicken soup base
1 qt. water
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 300ºF (150º C). Place sausage links onto a sheet pan and bake for 25 minutes, or until done. Cut links in half lengthwise, then cut at an angle into ½-inch slices. Place onions and bacon slices in a large saucepan, and cook over medium heat until onions are almost clear. Remove bacon and crumble. Set aside. Add garlic to the onions, and cook for 1 additional minute. Add chicken-soup base, water and potatoes. Simmer for about 15 minutes. Add crumbled bacon, sausage, kale and heavy whipping cream. Simmer for several minutes.

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Baked Salmon & Garlic Fried Rice

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I cooked dinner for my mom, dad, sister and brother-in-law last night. I seasoned some salmon with cracked black pepper, garlic, dried parsley, basil, oregano and lemon juice. Then I put it into the oven for baking. On the side, was sticky Calrose rice that I fried with garlic seasoning and ground black pepper.

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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