丼 Donburi (Japanese rice bowls)
Donburi or Japanese rice bowls are one of my favorite quick comfort foods. It is a big bowl of rice topped with meat cooked in a salty-sweet savory broth. There are also donburi that include raw fish such as tekkadon (fresh tuna) and my personal favorite, negi-tori don (fresh fatty tuna with scallions). (Though I love to cook, I’d never make either of these two donburi at home. There are certain things that I will leave to the experts and raw fish/meat dishes are among those. 
)
Popular cooked donburi combinations include:
- 親子丼 – oyako don (literally parent/child rice bowl) – chicken & egg
- かつ丼 – katsudon – fried cutlet (usually pork)
- 牛丼 – gyuudon – beef bowl
Donburi is a quick meal for those days/nights that you want something filling and comforting with minimal effort. It is just a matter of stirfrying your ingredients, adding the sauce, simmering and then pouring over rice. I try to keep a supply of tare (the broth that the topping is cooked in) on hand in the freezer.
Donburi Sauce (Tare) 3 1/2 c. dashi (Japanese stock) 1/2 c. soy sauce 1/4 c. mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine) 2 tbsp sugar Mix to combine. HINTS
- If making ahead, pour into ice cube trays, let freeze and then pop out cubes and put into plastic bags for later use.
- Use instant dashi (dashi no moto) to simplify the prep. It can be found in the Japanese food section of your local Asian market. Low sodium chicken broth can substitute.
Here’s a concotion that I call 何でもいい丼 or the “Whatever You’ve Got is Fine Bowl” because, literally, whatever you want to add into your donburi is your choice.
- Prep your ingredients. I cut the veggies (bok choy and carrots) into little pieces. My beef was already in thin slices.
- Heat a small pot over high heat and stir fry your veggies and protein.
- Add broth (I use about 1/3 c. for one serving) and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Pour over rice. DONE!
Mobloggin
Testing out the WordPress iPhone app, complete with a gratuitous TLE photo. Have to test the photo feature after all 
This is fun! More when TLE isn’t messing with things she shouldn’t be…
The Twiddle Monster
The Little Empress has always been what you could call, uh, an acrobatic nurser. As she became more mobile, it seemed to be fun for her to turn nursing into some sort of infantile gymanstics event, twisting, turning and generally getting herself into some truly odd positions. She also has a habit of practically somersaulting from boob to boob, as though she’s trying to decide which side tastes better. As she’s grown, these gymnastics routines have been increasing in frequency and weirdness to the point that one of these days, I’m expecting her to nurse upside down, balancing a sippy on her foot. I’m sure that experienced toddler moms will assure me that this is, for all intents and purposes, all in toddler-day’s work.
As strange and gravity defying as these nursing routines are, they do not bother me. In fact, I welcome them because they show that The Little Empress is becoming more mobile and creative. (I had never really thought that “jungle gym” was in a mother’s job description; I guess I just never read the fine print.) Sure, there are days when I wish she would just lay there like the mostly-compliant lamprey newborn she once was but hey, it is a part of growing up.
What does bother me is the fact that TLE insists on twiddling whatever nipple she is not nursing on. Every. Single. Time. No matter how I try to cover up or protect myself, a free hand will come out of no where to twiddle. This is especially annoying in the middle of the night when she wakes up to nurse. No sooner than she latches on will that hand come up. In my head, I hear the Jaws theme as her free hand pats the boob, looking for her toy of choice and then… TWIDDLE! AAAAAAH!
Much to my annoyance, TLE is just a twiddler and try as I might, nothing will stop her from twiddling. Nursing necklaces offer no distraction — she simply eyes them, scoffs (I swear, she does scoff!) and then, with a maniacal glint in her eye, she goes after the nipple with even more gusto. A boob tucked securely into a shirt, bra, tank top or combination thereof, is also easily defeated. A hand shielding said nipple will get pulled at or otherwise she’ll try to force her hand under mine. A very persistent girl, TLE is. If I do not relent, the boob currently in TLE’s mouth will get chomped with enough teeth to injure before she moves on to bite the hand. OW!!
sigh At this point, I know there really isn’t much I can do to stop Ms. Twiddler. Something about twiddling settles her and like it or not, I think I have to just let it be. She’ll outgrow it. Maybe. At the very least, she will not nurse forever and someday I’ll laugh at it. But for now, all I can do is roll with the twiddles. Gyah.
Simple joys
After several weeks of feeling stuck in a rut, I decided it was high time to climb out of it by finding the time to do things I truly like. Today that included taking some photos while at our weekly playgroup and then finding the time to leisurely edit those pictures. Here’s a photo of The Little Empress from the playgroup shoot.
I even got to enjoy a cup of coffee and a brownie while I edited the photos. Aah, simple joys.
ADDENDA: I haven’t enjoyed a good cup of coffee in months. I had decided to cut it out in the spirit of being healthy but you know what? I missed my daily caffeine rush. So now I am more than happy to welcome coffee back into my life. It helps brighen my day. So YAY! Welcome back coffee!
Into overtime
I am so lucky to sit here with The Little Empress in my lap, having nursed herself to sleep as she has for the past 11 months. Mainstream recommendations to establish seperate sleeping routines without nursing down be damned — my daughter is happy and healthy and loves to be with her Mommy. In spite of the comical lack of propriety that only an 11 month old can get away with (as well as the utter lack of privacy since The Little Empress is ALWAYS with me), I am happy to breastfeed. I know that this relationship between myself and TLE is as precious as it is temporary and as a result, I treasure every moment of it. (Yes, even when she’s biting me.) Because I know that far too soon, she will eventually wean and the snuggles of a babe at my breast will be only a sweet memory. But just as importantly, I hope that this bond between her and I strengthens, to pave the roads of communication and trust that I know she will need when she hits her turbulent teenage and early adult years.
But enough with planning for the future — it is time to enjoy the present. As we approach the one year mark, there are many nursing mothers who would consider weaning their child if they haven’t already. Honestly, if I were still working, I probably would have weaned at 6 months though it would have pained me to do so. It wasn’t any secret that I hated pumping. It wasn’t the taking time out of my day that I hated but the fact that it made me feel inadequate as a mother. I never pumped well and after three daily pumping sessions, I was lucky to get a measy 5oz of milk for her which was barely enough for one feeding. I tried every trick in the book including looking at photos, bringing her clothes, massage, Mother’s Milk Tea, specialized pumping equipment, etc. Nothing worked. I am sure that had we continued, my milk supply would have slowly but surely dried up. As it was, during those few weeks, my daily supply began to diminish.
In response, TLE began to reverse cycle, taking more of her feedings at night when I was home. While this was good for our nursing relationship, this also meant that she began holding out as long as she could between bottle feedings during the day. By the last two days leading up to my leaving work completely, she had gone on a complete bottle strike. She simply would not drink from a bottle even though she was starving. It got so bad that after nearly 8 hours of refusing, The Hubster(tm) drove TLE 40 miles to my former workplace so that she would eat. On my last real day in the office, The Hubster ™ and TLE drove to work with me and sat in the parking lot all day while I ran out every 2 hours so TLE could nurse.
(Oh, the stories I will have to tell this child when she grows up I fully intend on embarrassing her in front of her friends with “When you were little…” stories. Isn’t that one of the perks of parenthood?)
Luckily, I was able to become a SAHM soon after and TLE has thrived on the Breastaurant ever since. For better or worse, TLE has never had a lovey unless my boobs count. I have the distinct feeling that TLE would bring my boobs with her, wherever she went, to snuggle on (or bite) as she sees fit. (Come to think of it, so would The Hubster(tm) however he has not been able to have quality time with the boob because, well, the baby is stuck to them. all. the. time.)
As we prepare to enter overtime (by American standards, at least,) I find myself thinking back to the first few weeks when each nursing session was a challenge. She had a poor latch and a weak suck and was a very sleepy newborn. I remember going to the lactation consultant for the first time a week after she was born, revealing very raw, injured nipples due to her poor latch. It hurt so bad but I refused to give up. I am so grateful that I didn’t.
As TLE has grown, so has our nursing relationship. The days of the sleepy newborn are long gone, as are the nearly hour long nursing sessions. (Thank god!) These days, nursing sessions aren’t so much sessions as they are quick pops in and out on her part. Picking her up and putting her on my lap will reveal whether or not she wants to nurse. If she does, she’ll simply push up my shirt and help herself. And god help me if I don’t want her to nurse because she will if she wants to, even if it means throwing herself to the side and pushing up my shirt despite my attempts to keep covered.
Sometimes, she’ll decide that she wants a quick top off in the middle of playing, in which case I find myself doing this:
She’s well on her way to toddler nursing. I am so happy to have gotten this far and can’t wait to see how far we will get.
Menu Mondays – February 23, 2009
What needs to be used this week?
Eggs We were gifted with about 18 farm fresh eggs by my parents last week. Giving unexpected food to you is an Asian parents’ way of showing you that they love you. And we appreciated them though it would have been nice if they had asked first — we already had over a dozen eggs in the fridge! A few egg salads, baked goods and other egg dishes, we still have over a dozen of those eggs left. Need to use them. Pronto.
Ricotta, veggies I had planned to make a roasted veggie lasagna for my lunch for the week last week. I never got around to it so it will have to be done this week. The Hubster(tm) is not a fan of veggie lasagna so this is all for me. Woohoo! Lunch for a week and less groceries to buy overall.
Various leftovers We have some leftover steamed rice, squid adobo and other stuff from my parents’ visit this evening. The leftover squid will likely be my lunch tomorrow as The Hubster(tm) refuses to eat it.
What do we need to buy?
Rice Like most Asian families, many of our meals are built around rice and not having rice in the house is unheard of. The Hubster(tm) and I try not to eat a lot of rice but there’s no way we could cut it out completely so a 20lb bag lasts us quite awhile. Unfortunately, we’ve run out so I need to make a run to the local Asian market.
Here’s our menu for the coming week. Since I have to hit up the Asian market to replenish our rice supply, I decided to feature an egg-heavy menu centering around Japanese donburi dishes.
Baby’s Menu Yogurt, Cheerios, saltines, banana, carrots & peas, chicken, pork
Breakfast Choices Yogurt, cereal, peanut butter & banana on whole wheat, milk
Lunch Choices Leftovers (for The Hubster(tm)) Roasted veggie lasagna (for me)
Dinner Monday – LEFTOVERS: Beef mechado (Filipino beef stew) OR Meatloaf Tuesday – Omurice Wednesday – Oyakodon (chicken & eggs over rice) Thursday – Nikujaga (Japanese beef & potato stew) Friday – Yakiniku with stir fried veggies Saturday – Stir fried veggies & chicken Sunday – Tofu nabe with veggies
Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie
This post is part of Menu Plan Mondays @ OrgJunkie
Rut
I seem to have fallen into another creative rut again. Drafts of posts and other things have been piling up in my WordPress queue as well as on my computer. Snippets of ideas here and there, begging to be fleshed out and completed but still sitting unfinished. More often than not, I find myself staring at a blinking cursor and an almost blank page. Sadly, my rut is deeper than just my writing. My poor dSLR has all but been shelved for the past several weeks. A bag of material, destined to eventually become a meitai, has been sitting patiently in the closet while my sewing machine has gathered dust in the bedroom.
Bah. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll drag myself out of this rut in the next few days.
Review – Fuzzi Bunz One Size (overview)
One of the new trends in cloth diapering seems to be the one size diaper. Instead of having to buy the next size up of cloth diapers, the idea behind cloth is that you can buy one diaper that will last from the time your baby is a newborn until they are older. Great concept but how is it in practice? I made it my job to find out.
Fuzzi Bunz is one of the best known brands of pocket cloth diapers and is a favorite among parents new to cloth diapering due to ease of use and availability. Fuzzi Bunz make up a bulk of my own cloth diaper stash and I own diapers in the older style as well as the current style. I consider them an essential part of my cloth diaper routine and are my favorite brand of pocket diapers.
When I found out that Fuzzi Bunz had come out with a new one size style, I knew I had to try them. And here it is… the one size Fuzzi Bunz!
From the outside, it looks just like another Fuzzi Bunz brand diaper and it is made of the same materials as their previous types.
- Fuzzi Bunz one size diaper
Opening the diaper, it may be difficult to see what is different about the one size version but closer inspection reveals an adjustable elastic at the waistband and at the bottom and top of the legs.
Here’s an overview of the adjustable elastics pulled out for illustration purposes. The elastic has three button holes on each side, allowing a parent to either take in or let out various parts of the waist and rise as needed.
Adjustable elastics pulled out
The elastic ends tuck into the diaper for a more trim look which is nice — I’d rather not have elastics hanging out to possibly get gunked up with baby poop.
- Close up of elastic at top of leg band
- Close up of elastic at bottom of leg band
Though we received the diaper last week, this diaper hasn’t yet made it into our cloth diaper rotation since The Little Empress has been mostly sposie diapered due to being sick. (I prefer to cloth diaper but when juggling a sick baby, I’d rather not deal with sick-baby diaper laundry on top of it!) However, I’m happy to report that The Little Empress is feeling better now so check back next week for an update on our experience with the Fuzzi Bunz one size! 
Birthday Party
The Little Empress - 10 months old
Where has time gone? The Little Empress is fast coming up on her first birthday! I have to admit, I’m feeling a bit melancholy. I am finding it so hard to believe that a year has gone by so fast. Her newborn days were definitely rough but ever since I began my career as a stay at home mom, the year seems to have gone by in a blur. A happy blur but a blur nonetheless.
So now I’m considering what to do for her first birthday party. I’ve got a little over a month to plan and boy oh boy, I have no idea what to do. We don’t have a lot of money (does anyone these days?) so as awesome as it would be to have a huge blow out, it just isn’t to be. I feel a bit bad, like I should have been saving up for a huge birthday party for her. My parents always had big birthday parties for me and my sister (our birthdays are a day apart so we often had joint parties) and being unable to give that to The Little Empress is a little sad. But I also figure that she won’t remember this early birthday and we’ll make it a point to have big birthday parties at important ages like 4, 10, 13, 16, etc. If she wants to, that is.
I’m stumped what to do. Cupcakes? Cake? American food? Filipino food?
Drat. Planning parties gives me hives 
Leftover Makeover – Peanut veggie chicken stir fry
A new Smart & Final Extra opened up this week and one of their grand opening sale specials was whole chicken for 69 cents a pound. What cheapass budget minded mama could say no to that? So I picked up two and roasted them off for dinner on Thursday night.
I had planned on making some chicken soup but realized that I’d neglected to pick up celery. Oops. I didn’t want to make a chicken soup without the flavor of a classic mirepoix so I sat around for a bit, trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t want just chicken and rice. After awhile, I decided to make a quick peanut sauce for dipping. Then I realized that I had some frozen French green beans as well as some baby carrots on hand. So instead, I decided to make a peanut veggie chicken stir fry with stuff I had on hand.
Peanut Chicken & Veggie Stir Fry
Peanut sauce 1/2 c. natural peanut butter 2 tbsp soy sauce 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar 1 tbsp sesame oil 1 clove garlic 2 tbsp sugar 1 tbsp chili pepper garlic sauce (or more to taste) 1/2 c. chicken broth, warmed Toss everything into the food processor, except for the chicken broth. Pulse to combine. Add chicken broth until it gets to a smooth paste. Makes 1 1/2 cups peanut sauce
Peanut veggie chicken stir fry 1 c. frozen green beans 1/2 c. carrots, julienned 1 clove garlic, chopped 1/2 c. cooked chicken, sliced Olive Oil 1/2 c. peanut sauce 1/4 c. chicken broth (optional) Sautee the garlic in olive oil. Add green beans and carrots and sautee until tender-crisp. Add the chicken and sautee until warmed through. Add the peanut sauce, stir until well incorporated. If the peanut sauce is too thick, add chicken broth to loosen. Serve with white rice. Serves one.
This made a great, flavorful lunch. I’m a sucker for peanut sauce and often times wish I could just eat peanut sauce and rice when I go out to eat Thai food. This peanut sauce is loads better than the bottled stuff — it is sweet, salty and sour with just the right amount of heat. Great with chicken! Plus, the stir fry was quick and easy, especially since I just grabbed my green beans from the freezer.
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My name is Michelle. I write, I shoot and I mom, not necessarily in that order. I'm aware that 'mom' isn't widely accepted as a verb but I think it should be.I'm a self-professed geek and caffeine addict. (Some may argue that the latter is a requirement of the former.) I live with my husband and our daughter in the California Delta.
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