Simply Belle

There should be no reason why people should go hungry these days. Absolutely no reason! We all have small portion of land in our yard that we can turn into vegetable garden except, of course,  for people living in the apartments and condos.  The only hard part of  gardening is the preparation of the soil and beds, but it is a breeze once the hard part is out of the way.  All you need to do is add compost to the soil once a year. Veggie gardening doesn’t raise water bill that much if drip irrigation is installed.  It is fairly reasonable rate. They say that for every dollar you invest in the garden, you get $4 dollars back.  Pretty good return of investment I must say.

Have  you noticed how expensive vegetables at the grocery store nowadays? Several months ago, I bought 3 huge tomatoes and it cost me about $5.  Expensive, huh? It has something to do with the supply and demand. If there is more demand than supply, then what happens?  Obviously, the price goes up.  Even if it was against my will to spend that much money on tomatoes, I had no choice.  I needed them in my cooking.  I forgot to mention that the tomatoes I bought were hot house tomatoes. They were fed commercialized fertilizer made from oil. And they didn’t taste as good as the organic ones grown in our garden, not to mention how nutritionally deprived they were being that they were grown in oil.

And with this price of produce nowadays, most college kids would rather opt for for fast food rather than a wholesome meal because they simply can’t afford it. Need I say why people are sicker these days?

Anyway, I thought I would show you how small plot in your backyard can bring in so much produce for at least 5 months – year-round for people with moderate climate.

Prolific zucs

Tasty tomatoes

Fruits of different varieties

Delicious green beans

Last but not the least, the ever-nutritious saluyot

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Per Joe’s and Ching’s request, I am posting a recipe of the pancit bihon complete with photo illustration.

Begin by boiling a whole Cornish game hen (gives more flavor to the broth than regular chicken) to produce about 2 1/2 cups of broth. I then shred the cooked meat to use in this recipe.

Soak the rice stick noodles in lukewarm water for 5 minutes at the most, and drain the noodles.  Set aside.

See photos below, by the way.

1. Slice the veggies and meat into thin strips according to your preference. Cabbage, green beans, carrots, and snow peas are recommended for this recipe. You can use chicken, pork, shrimp combination or you can use one type of meat only. Like my daughter, Steffi, she likes to use shrimp only. Also, chop up 3 to 4 cloves of garlic finely and onion, coarsely.

2. Saute garlic and onions in 3 to 4 tablespoons of olive oil for a minute or two until translucent. (I like to use oil generously)

3. Add the meat to the pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Add about 4 to 5 tablespoon of soy sauce depending on your taste.

4. Add 2 1/2 cups of broth to the meat (this measurement is for the whole package of noodles = 16 oz.) Bring to a boil.

5. Add the veggies to the boiling broth, and blanch them. Remove veggies and meat from the broth. The broth stays in the pan.

6. Add the noodle to the broth and keep stirring for 5 minutes. Add more soy sauce if needed. Add a good pinch of sugar, a tablespoon of oyster sauce and a tablespoon of fish sauce (oyster sauce and fish sauce are optional.) Add a pinch or two of chicken bouillon powder (also optional.)

7. Then add the cooked veggies to the noodles and mix them all thoroughly on medium heat. This is when I add the snow peas because I like them cooked al-dente. If the noodles are not fully cooked this time, add a small amount of water at a time and cover the pan. Turn the heat on low while you are doing this. It shouldn’t take long anymore, the most is 3 minutes as you don’t want a soggy noodles.

8. Transfer noodles into a big serving dish. Garnish with slices of hard-boiled eggs and chopped-up green onions.

9. Enjoy. Oh, try squeezing a tad bit of lemon on your noodles before eating.

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