Review: Mission Wraps - Chicken Wraps ala Fajita

A lot of times when it comes to meal times for Capt'n Hook and I, we would usually go simple especially when we're not fans of rice. We would opt for noodles, sandwiches, wraps or just salad.

I've discovered Mission Wraps some time back and seems like it is getting easier to get them these days. I've seen them at most supermarkets and hypermarkets. Retailing around RM7+ and there are promotions now where you'll get a bag of Mission Tortilla Chips with every 2 packets of wraps purchased. So I would look for such promos before I buy them :p and the last I saw such promo again was last week!

These wraps comes in a few flavours and I think I have tried Wholegrain, Potato, Garlic and Onion & Chive. The thing I like most about Mission wraps is it's resealable ziplock packets as we usually can't finish all 8 pieces in one go. So I'll just ziplock the bag and chuck it into the fridge. At times, when it comes out from the fridge, it can be quite dry. What I do is just sprinkle both sides with a little water and warm the wraps gently on a frying pan, a couple of minutes on both sides.

Another great tip I would like to share is... wash, dry and keep the resealable plastic bags! I know, sounds like a hoarder I am but I dislike wastage and being NOT environmental friendly. Since the bag is quite sturdy, I've used it to marinade meat. Other time, I've stored leftover homemade capatis in one, perfect size, I tell you. I can think of many other ways to reuse such bags :p perhaps I shall share that in another post.

Most times I will just sprinkle some salt & black pepper on a piece of chicken breast and grill it on a grill pan or simply fry it on a frying pan. Both work just as fine. Let the meat cool down a little before slicing into strips before using in my wraps or sandwiches.

After a while, I sort of like give a little variety on the marinade. This particular marinade is something like fajita and I've used chicken fillets hehehe yeah the lazy in me, don't even need to slice them up and use them whole in the wraps.



As for the accompaniments, you can use any combinations of fresh lettuce leaves, shredded carrot/jicama/cucumber, avocado slices, tomato or even kiwifruit salsa, etc; sour cream or yoghurt; at times I just squeeze Kewpie mayonnaise over the veggies; you got what I mean now... the combinations are endless, just use your imagination. Actually quite a good way to clear up the fridge.

Chicken Wraps ala Fajita(Enough for 4 wraps)

350 g chicken fillets (about 8 pieces), pat dry with paper towels

Marinade:
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt (I've used Himalayan but you might need to adjust the amount as Himalayan is not as salty)

Mix all the ingredients for the marinade in a mixing bowl. Add in the chicken fillets and mix evenly. Cover and leave in the fridge to marinade, about 1 hour but longer is nicer.

Remove chicken from the fridge and let it get to room temperature. Pan fry fillets in frying pan with a little oil on both sides till cooked. Shouldn't take long... maybe around 6 - 8 minutes on medium heat.

Remove fillets to a plate and cool down a little before assembling the wraps.

Vegemite CheesyBite Spaghetti

Ok I know, this is kinda lame cos there's simply no recipe in this recipe :p

I saw this recipe on Nigella Lawson's but her version used Marmite, the very English version of a savoury yeast extract spread. Since I have a bottle of CheesyBite (a spinoff by Down Under brand Vegemite that contains cream cheese), I decided to use that instead. In Kuala Lumpur, you should be able to find Vegemite and Cheesy Bite at Cold Storage, Village Grocer or Jaya Grocer.

Just cook spaghetti until al dente, drain (reserve some of the water) and toss in some CheesyBite and a little of the reserved water. Since CheesyBite is not as salty as Vegemite alone, don't be surprised that you might need quite a number of teaspoons. Adjust the saltiness by adding a little by little of the CheesyBite and taste as you go along. Finish off with some grated parmesan. Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, I got love in my tummy!



Erm when it comes to Marmite/Vegemite, it's either you hate it or love it!!! So tell me whether you love or hate it???

Oh and I just realised this is good for a meatless Monday!

"Emergency/Rainy Days" Dishes

Not sure about you but during my childhood days, my mom would usually have some canned food and rice grains stashed up, she says... it's for rainy days or at times for emergency cases. Can't blame her when she have experienced 13th May incident.

Those days as I recalled there isn't much frozen food unlike now when it's so convenient to store ready-to-eat where one just heat up with a microwave oven. Just like her, in my larder I would usually have a can or two (err may not have all at the same time though) of the following stuff for rainy days when I did not manage to go to the market and too lazy to go out to eat.

Tuna Fish: I usually have both in spread or in brine. The spread is convenient for snacks and sandwiches. Can be toasted with some grated carrots and cheese. Jazzing up by topping a piece of toast with tuna spread with homemade tomato sauce (based on Marcella Hazan's recipe).

Baked Beans: I loved baked beans!!! Yes I really do. I liked mine cooked rather than straight out of the can. Can just simply stir fry with celery and carrots as a dip for English muffins or cooked with scrambled eggs (yikes how come I haven't posted on this??? Let me go find the photo first!). I've even tried braising pork ribs with it!

Corned Beef: This comes in handy too to stir up some quick snacks by using onions, capsicum, corns, eggs... the possibilities are endless.

Fried Dace with Salted Black Beans: Loved this with congee (rice porridge) but when fried with kai lan... can dress it up to another level!

Luncheon Meat: I hardly have these but once in a long long while I would get a can. Very handy to just slice and fry, at times lightly coated with egg dip. Most times it can turn into a delicious fried rice.

Preserved Olive Leaves: Great with congee (rice porridge) too. If you have some minced meat stashed up in your freezer, you could come out with more variety of dishes such as Minced Pork With Preserved Olive Leaves. Packed a punch too when use it to fry rice.

Sardines in Tomato Sauce: Before tuna fish came in with a bang in the 90s, sardines no doubt IS the only ever ingredients people ever use in their sandwiches for parties or picnics!!! I remember helping my aunties making them on many occasions. Chopped shallots or onions are a must into mashed sardines and just seasoned with a squeeze of lime before spreading on buttered white bread. Capt'n Hook introduced me to fry rice with sardines and seriously this is good stuff too!

One dish that I'm sure you can find it on your dinner table is sardines that are just simply stir fried with onions! This dish is so simple to cook up, all one need to do is fry sliced onions in oil till slightly soften, add in sardines (I liked to remove the bones and internals first) and stir, mash up a little along the way depending how chunky one like the sardines. Just need to season with a bit of lime juice or in this case I've used lemon juice. Simply served with hot rice or in between 2 slices of bread and it's good to go.

Well, of course there are eggs and frozen goodies but those are reserved for another time ;-)

I Chowtutted Last Week

Sorry for not updating, I've no mood for it since I received a horrible news on Sunday that my colleague had passed away suddenly. Totally unexpected and I'm very saddened by it. Well, just to move along, lemme post something that don't need to use much of my brain juice and energy.

Well, I chowtutted# last week with a wedding dinner on Fri & Sat, family dinner at Zun Kitchenette on Sun, a crawl along Changkat Bukit Bintang on Wed followed by a lavish buffet at Paya Serai, PJ Hilton on Thur (post will be up once I come out from my comatose).

So this week, I've been having salads for lunch. Monday was just a plain salad of leaves, carrots and roasted bell peppers (capsicum) with a simple dressing of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar plus some sea salt and sprinkling of freshly grounded black pepper. Sounds and look pathetic horrr? What to do, I don't have a wife who can make me a sauteed mushroom salad :p



Got busted though with a small slice of Apple and Cinnamon Tea Cake at 5pm! Yesterday I had Ipoh Sar Hor Fun at a kopitiam at The Weld, considered quite light. Managed to tide me till 7pm.



Today, my salad errrm seems very lavish as compared to Monday's. I just dunk in whatever I could find at home. Some butterhead, carrots, orange slices, chunks of pear, one hard boiled egg and roasted bell pepper. Invented a dressing of extra virgin olive oil, about 2 tbsp lemon juice, pulp from one passionfruit, seasalt and black pepper. Surprisingly this dressing rocks, gah if only I can get passionfruit at the snap of my fingers!

# CHOWTUT [chow-tut]
- noun / verb
An excessive dose, especially of food or alcoholic beverage
"Wahhh! Last night I chowtut at Changkat!"
"That fella sleeping la... he chowtut for lunch"
(definition by Integricity employees)

Technorati Tags: salad

Savoury Oats With Chicken Floss

I usually have my oats sweet, with milk and sugar or in cookies, but never in my life I had them savoury. I was lamenting how boring it is eating oats the same way albeit with different toppings ie fruits, raisins, dried fruits, nuts etc. Hence, my friend suggested to cook them in stocks, add various toppings like deep fried ikan bilis (anchovies), onion oil, chicken bits, meat floss yada yada yada... but I never got round to make them as he recommended.

One night, I was home alone and was too lazy to go out to get some dinner, I rummaged thru my larder and found a handful of quick cooking oats (not the instant type), so I decided to use them for my dinner.

Dumped the oats in a saucepan with enough water and let it come to a gentle boil. Since I don't use stock cubes at home, I poured in some oyster sauce to taste. Tossed in lots of black pepper and some onion oil. Dished up and served with chicken floss. Here was the result...



I'm surprised this bowl of oats did tasted good. The onion oil brought the oats to another level as it impart a very nice fragrant to it and went well with the oyster sauce flavour. Since then I've used Marmite/Bovril as flavouring as well. So if you think oats is boring, try them this way ;-)

Technorati Tags: oats

PBBT

Hehehe a code used by Dafthamsta and myself, guess what it is??



It has been a long long time since I last have this with Dafthamsta and the rest of the gang, more like every since Oliver Super Sandwich has closed most if not ALL its branches. The sandwich place (Super Sandwich I think) that replaced it really can't be compared with the then Oliver Super Sandwich.

PBBT... got it?? No?? It's actually stands for Peanut Butter Banana Toastie!!!!

I made those in the picture using a sandwich maker. Simply place one slice of bread on the sandwich maker. Spread peanut butter on the open side. Next, place sliced bananas around the indentation. Sprinkle with some optional sugar or cinnamon powder or both. Place a second slice of bread with peanut butter side over the banana layer. You may also butter the sides of bread touching the plate of the sandwich maker to achieve a golden brown toastie. Latch on the sandwich maker and let the light go off. Stand by the sandwich maker to absorb the wonder aroma wafting thru...

Eat it while it's warm and watch out for the HOT fillings!!!

Hamsta, enjoy the PBBT virtually :D

Technorati Tags: peanut butter banana toastie + PBBT

Ways With English Muffin

Gee I hoped everyone had had a wonderful time ushering the new year. May the New Year bring you happiness and peace, and the strength and courage to follow your dreams. May you forget the weight of yesterday and focus on the path ahead, guided by your heart and the light of hope. May you find beauty in everything and goodness in every heart. And may you always remember that you are blessed.

Life has been hectic both at home and work. I have very little time catching up with all the postings by all the food bloggers, so I'm kinda pretty lost and out of touch of the blogsphere. I have thousands and one pictures (back from December) but sad to say I don't have much time to process them, let alone writing them up here. So, updates here gonna be sporadic. Gosh... and Chinese New Year is coming along pretty soon too!!!!

Anyway, I got grounded at home sometime last month for having sore eyes. I managed to have some "alone" time catching up on my sleep (I sleep very little these days... I usually knock off around 1.00am or later and wakes up around 6.00am) and reading up blogs that I've missed. Knowing very well that I'll be grounded all alone, I got myself some English Muffins from Meidi-ya Fresh Bakery. I've no idea if this Meidi-ya is related to the Japanese store but all I know this bakery bakes loads of cottony soft Japanese breads and pastries. I'm sort of addicted with their breads since they first opened in Kuala Lumpur way back in the mid 80s. I can claim that ALL (better don't put this, just to be polite hehehe) most of their concoctions are delicious down to the last bite and they do not stinge with their fillings or toppings.

These English Muffins were introduced a few months back and I was rather happy to say they tasted utmost delicious. I got the wholemeal ones but they have the plain ones too. Surprisingly to know that English Muffins were originated from America hahaha yeah... you can read them all here and here. There are 4 muffins in one pack (sorry forgot the price) and here are some quick and easy ways I went round to feed myself.

After going thru my larder and fridge, I found a small can of baked beans which is near expiring and some celery and carrots (for my juicing). I stir fried the chopped celery and carrots with some olive oil before adding the baked beans and some water. Dished up and topped with some freshly ground black pepper. Woooshhhh... delish OK, but then again I might be biased cos I simply loved baked beans in any style. I served this with buttered muffin.

For my next meal, I checked up my larder (yes, I have a pretty large one, 4 tiered tall pull-out cabinet filled to the brim with foodstuff, kekekeke like magic only, anything also can be found inside) and I took out one can of TC Boy Tuna with Mayonnaise. I kinda like TC Boy's tuna with mayo cos it's not too creamy and sweet, best it has some corn bits in there and I forgot what else that I liked. Buttered my muffins, spread some tuna mayo and topped with grated carrots plus a slice of cheddar cheese. Heh, another way to devour the muffins.

Next, I spread the tuna mayo mixed with grated carrots on the muffins. Topped with grated cheddar cheese and toast it using a mini oven toaster. Mmmmm another tasty way with the muffins.

Well, this is the lazy person way of taking care of her meals at home alone even though restaurants, hawker stalls and 7-11 are merely a stone throw away hahahaha but seriously speaking, I loved bread so much that I can just eat them all the time even for all my meals :p Anyone up to making me a sandwich???