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A few months ago, Sara of Amazing Taste sent us packets of their seasonings to try. To tell you the truth, we haven’t really entertained the idea of having prepared packet seasonings, and the only thing I can remember that we had was the gravy packets from IKEA for the meatballs (sorry, food snobs, but it is our once a year guilty pleasure). So why not go for something new, eh?

The first thing that we tried was their burger seasoning. For test purposes, although we were very tempted to add our own things into the mixture, we stuck with the recommended recipe for the burgers to see how good they are. We baked them in the oven to demonstrate just how ‘lazy’ we can be!  Haha. I really like the subtle flavor of this one. It’s nothing complex, but it works. It’s tender and juicy, and just enough flavor.

We also tried the Malibu seasoning is a “zesty blend of garlic, onion, black pepper, and paprika” seasoning to meat, poultry and seafood. I just rubbed the chicken with it, poked it with a fork and marinated it for an hour before frying it.

These seasonings weren’t too salty and they do not overpower the flavor of the meats. I find the Malibu one wasn’t as tasty as the burger, but it’s possible that I didn’t put enough. Between the two, I’d pick the burger. We still have the rest of the flavors to try, by the way.

Overall, I think they are nice to have in the pantry. They’re better alternatives to getting fast food on busy days: just get your choice of meat, poultry or seafood out, mix it and cook. For those who want to prepare a home-cooked meal without the fuss of mixing their own seasonings and figuring out flavors, this would be a blessing. It’s also recession-friendly at a price point of $0.99 each.

Thanks, Amazing Taste, for letting us try your seasonings!

Disclosure: We were sent the packets to try, but are not paid for this post.

Aloha! We’re back from our vacation and we’re slowly easing into reality. The luggage bags are half-unpacked. That in itself, is a great feat. It’s hard to wake up again in hot Arizona, staring at the ceiling and doing rock-paper-scissors to see who needs to get up first (just kidding!!!). We were so spoiled with homemade meals from morning till evening by our friends in Hawaii. In fact, not only have we expanded our food selection (steamed artichokes with mayo, papaya with lemon juice, strawberries with agave nectar, etc.) but also our waistlines! Hahaha.

When I found my cooking mojo again, I made this chicken stew-ish dish that I grew up with in the Philippines. I would ask for “tinola” and stake my claim on the chicken legs with the skin. I was not concerned about extra weight then, obviously. These days we’re trying to be healthy. So instead of chicken with all the delicious skin, I cooked chicken tenders. I used soy sauce in place of fish sauce, but I would always recommend using the latter when you have it in your kitchen. All in all, it was close to the real thing and Dan liked our evening viand:

It’s a nice combination of the texture of chicken and that of chayote, and this is perfect with rice. Dan has never eaten chayote before this and I’m glad he liked it. :-)

Here’s the step-by-step cooking photos:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

It’s really a super simple dish to make so please, help yourself to the recipe!

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I could use a bowl of this right now:

It shifts from cold to hot here in Vancouver. “Would you like the cold for breakfast? Sweltering heat for lunch? No problem!” That kind of thing.

I made this a couple of months ago when Dan and I found some super sweet corn from Whole Foods. I think I even cooked this on a hot day in Arizona. Whether it’s a hot day, or cold day…this is good. I love corn soup! It’s basically just chopped onions sauteed with chicken, fresh crushed pepper and salt. Then fresh sweet corn and spinach leaves added right after you turn off the heat. Easy-peasy!

In Manila, our helpers used to cook this at my request. Instead of chicken chicken bits, they actually shred the chicken. They didn’t use spinach leaves, but some slightly bitter leaves (I think they were chili plant leaves). And it was a nice contrast to the sweet corn. It was delicious. I could eat it for days!

I have a bag of leeks and potatoes here waiting to be made into potato leek soup tonight. That’s another easy and tasty soup to make.

Now that it’s starting to cool up, I’m ready to make more soup! Do you have any (easy) soup recipes? Let me know!

I love Chicken Piccata — so much that get it each time when we’re at the Cheesecake Factory. Or Maggiano’s. As much as I like it, I’ve never made it before this. Yup, first time. It’s bound to happen somehow, eh? And I had my Duh Joy! moment when I realized how easy it was to make. My ’sign’ was in the free, promotional issue of Cuisine at Home, right there on page 8. Did you get this magazine in the mail, too? All I know is that these marketers sure know who to lure. We are practically magazine haven and I shouldn’t admit that because I’m trying to be more environment-friendly, remember? Having a collective of magazines to rival a salon’s is shameful. But I digress. Here’s the short of this long story:

It was delish but it could’ve been better if the reducing wine didn’t burn. I was struggling to open the chicken broth can when it was a minute before I needed to pour it in, and it wouldn’t budge. Oops. That’ll teach me to get that out of the way before cooking.

On the subject of Lemons, there was a feature on the news the other night about the lemons you get from restaurants. They tested them and one sample had salmonella! Others had fecal bacteria. Atrocious! Watch out for those lemons when you eat out!

Of course, after grossing you out I’m giving you the recipe to the Chicken Piccata. Classy me. Enjoy the dish!

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I’m here in Phoenix all by myself until the end of the month, so that means I need to feed myself. The first thing I was thinking of was a spicy chicken dish and noodles. Instead of trying to find a real receipe, I thought I’d try making something of my own. You may try this recipe if you want, but I assure you, I have some warnings.

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