fiddery's blog

I have been watching a lot of solo living vlogs lately which has inspired me to make more food at home (well, I’ve already been doing that, haha). I’ve also been really into making sure I have cute dishware and cute place settings as well. It’s become one of my favorites way of self care.

Speaking of dishware, I found this Japanese brand at a small boutique gift shop in town, and look forward to adding more plates to my collection (but I will have to curate them). I used to think that I would want multiple place settings for a table (when I used to work at furniture store), but decided that my current lifestyle means I won’t be hosting any dinner parties anytime soon haha. Instead, I have been shifting to collecting single plates/cups that fit an aesthetic I like.

Cooking food, for myself, every day

This feels like the most daunting task always. You have to make a meal for yourself, every day, forever, lol! And it never stops.

I feel like I’ve already had the mindset of “eating at home” to begin with - growing up Filipino in America meant that we always ate meals as a family, and a majority of that food was always home cooked/prepared. Also, the formula for a Filipino silog is one of the easiest simple meals to prepare if I’m feeling lazy - rice (sinangag/garlic fried rice preferred), egg, and a protein.

All this to say: eating at home can be as easy or hard as you make it.

Things that I have found helpful:

• Ingredient prepping rather than meal prepping (particularly vegetable prep) so that I can feel like I'm having new meals
• Premade side dishes
• Eating less red meat as I don’t like preparing them
• Always have cheat/easy meals for the days that I feel lazy or am struggling
• Having a "set formula" for a meal has been a game changer. I love presenting my meal in small plates rather than trying to be more economical and one-plate or one-pot everything.

Also, I’ve had varying “goals” for eating in. Saving money and being mindful of what I eat is a wonderful benefit. My current goal is to minimize food waste, especially veggie waste. I have been getting better at estimating how many veggies I can buy before they go bad - but ultimately I have been resorting to making a stop by the store on my way home to buy veggies as needed (which only adds a few minutes to my already long commute).

To be clear, I eat in most of the time for dinner unless I am going out to eat with my friends. However, lunch is a different situation, and I buy lunch more than I'd like haha.

Meals from April - June

I’ve been documenting my meals in my photos/journal. Posting some of the highlights here of my favorites.

For viewing purposes I have photos under a cut.

Souped up instant ramen (used noodles only and saved the seasonings for another dish). Corn, egg, and green onions added.

Sides: Korean Corn, Egg, Pickled Radish (made by me), Pickled cucumber (storebought).

Japanese Egg Salad Sandwich using 85C Milk Bread. I have been enjoying splurging on this bread.

Chicken Sausage (a Costco buy recommended by my sister), Fruit, Side Arugula Salad

Tteokbokki (I don't have a set recipe for this and eyeball the sauce recipe so the flavor has changed every time). I've found that 8/9 tteoks (or less) is my ideal serving size as these do not reheat very well.

Kimbap! This month I had a goal of getting better at rolling kimbap. I've learned that you need to stuff more than you think and to make sure you press evenly and firmly as you roll the kimbap. Also having a sharp knife is essential, and I have since invested in a ceramic knife rod.

Carrot salad sandwich using milk bread. A totally DIY "recipe". I bought organic purple carrots on a whim and prepared them by slicing on a mandoline (very very carefully). The leafy tops turned into a carrot pesto that I couldn't finish in time. But it was delicious. This sandwich was very strange but I liked it.

Breaded tilapia over shredded cabbage, rice, with side dishes of potato croquette (already made), more pickled veggies, and eggs.

More Tteokbokki! I ended up making cabbage fritters because I had too much cabbage.

Japanese curry with Tofu, Cabbage Salad, and Enoki mushrooms. I tried to make a smaller curry portion as I've learned that I never revisit frozen extra portions (ie everyones recommendation with meal prepping) and would rather eat something new.

Another souped up instant ramen - with added bulgogi, enoki mushrooms, carrots, green onions, cucumber, and soft boiled egg.

An easy breakfast of milk bread toast with a fried egg in a nest of green onions. I saw this method from the vlogger that I follow, and its such a nice way to elevate a fried egg. The other toast has a quick strawberry jam made from the rest of my strawberries. Chicken sausage.

Croissant bread I was curious to try. This time I made a french toast inspired dish. I made powdered sugar (which you can't see because of the syrup lol) using white sugar and cornstarch blended together. It's kind of amazing to be able to problem solve ingredients that way.

Eggs with green onion on the croissant bread, with a spicy cabbage salad. The cabbage was shredded and mixed random things in my fridge (jiri anchovy, parmesan cheese, my DIY garlic gochugaru chili crisp, and kewpie mayo). Basically the salad was mixed with components that typically are available in caesar dressing.

Zaru Soba - It is getting hot now that it is June. I had Naengmyeon the other week when I was eating with friends and wanted to look up other cold noodle recipes. After researching I realized that Zaru Soba is usually accompanied with tempura but I didn't want to make that, haha.

This was nice as an easy dish to prepare.

I made berries and cream. I saw someone that had a cute parfait style with fruits and thought this would feel very sweet and refreshing (I was right). I accidentally used too much sugar so it felt extra decadent, and next time I would like to make the presentation look cuter.

Tonight I plan to have Zaru Soba again (I have one last bundle of noodles).

For dessert I made a lemon posset based dessert (over a crumbly graham cracker crust). I had a half opened package of graham crackers from a different recipe that I need to use up, lemons, and heavy cream. It's topped with blueberries.