Steamed Eggs with Clams

The only problem with this dish is the steamed egg sticks to the bowl; and that's always hard to clean even using a rough surface dish sponge. So, what's the trick to making Chinese-style steamed eggs and the steamed eggs do not stick to sides and bottom of the bowl?

Else, everything was relatively easy for this Steamed Egg with Clam Meat. All you need is clam meat (fresh or frozen, depending on availability) and eggs, plus minimal seasonings - a little soy sauce and ground white pepper. then garnished with thinly sliced green onions.

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Cottage Cheese Veggie Egg Frittata

Small yet mighty, eggs pack in dense nutrition for 70-80 calories. It's a staple in our family. Is it also a basic ingredient/food necessity for your family?

The whites brim with protein, while the yolks deliver Vitamin D, cholin, lutein and zeaxanthin. Vitamin D - essential for bone health, immune function and calcium absorption; Cholin - an essential nutrient to maintain muscle and memory; Lutein and Zeaxanthin - antioxidants to prevent age-related macular degeneration.  


Today's Cottage Cheese Veggie Egg Frittata is like any other frittata made before - just tweaked and improved with addition of cottage cheese to boost amount of protein; at the same time making the egg frittata more moist and fluffy.

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Shishito Peppers (Twist Chili) Tofu Bowl

This is a vegetarian version of Shishito Peppers Protein Bowl, substituting chicken with tofu. 


They are many ways to make delicious tofu including Chimichurri Tofu, Korean Spicy Tofu, or Chilled Tofu, Five-Spice Marinated Tofu. Instead of tofu, you can also use Tofu Sheets/Yuba - another great meatless high-protein option. Yuba/Fresh Tofu Sheets Salad is one of my favorite ways to enjoy yuba/fresh tofu sheets

If you going for a simple, no-frills tofu recipe, a little salt, black pepper and garlic powder also goes a long way.

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Egg Frittata Breakfast Sandwiches

Skip store-bought breakfast and make your own healthier version.  This time, I improved on these breakfast sandwiches with egg frittata as sandwich fillers. These are great make-ahead breakfast sandwiches.

Our family enjoys egg frittata including Onion Egg Frittata, Gouda Cheese Egg Frittata, Pico De Gallo/Salsa Egg Frittata, Frozen Veggies Egg Frittata, Fish & Oats Egg Frittata (made with leftover fish!).

Make a batch, wrap up the extras and warm them up when required.


The idea of make-ahead is to save time especially when the day gets busy. However, you still have to fork out some time about 20 minutes or so, during less hectic days to make this happen; or more accurately, make the egg frittata happen. This is an easy version of entirely-oven-baked egg frittata, all for the sake of us, the busy humans.

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Seaweed Avocado Egg Salmon Wrap Sandwich

I could not wait to try this seaweed wrap hack since the tortilla wrap hack got into me sometime ago.

There are many options to fill the four quarters of seaweed nori sheets. Here is one with egg, cucumber, avocado and salmon.

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Pan-Fried Leftover Gimbap with Egg

Nothing (or almost nothing) comes to waste when it comes to frugal-living cooking, even for that tricky leftover cooked fish. For example, leftover snapper fillets from last night dinner was transformed to egg frittata upgraded with veggies and rolled oats. Egg frittatas because our family loves egg frittatas e.g. Onion Egg Frittata, Chive Egg Frittata, Gouda Cheese Egg Frittata and Frozen Veggies Egg Frittata.

Today's leftover did not end up as any kind of egg frittata. But egg still made magic when it comes to leftover Gimbap transformation. 


You can also make homemade healthy sushi, then pan-fry them with egg, this same way.

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Shrimps, Eggs, Tomatoes, Broccoli Bowl

Shrimp bowl is one of my favorite bowls to make because it's quick, easy and delicious. Quick because it takes much shorter time to cook shrimps than chicken or fish. Easy because it just needs basics like salt and pepper to bring out its flavors. Delicious because IT JUST IS.


If you also enjoy shrimp bowls (be it shrimp grain bowls, shrimp veggie bowls), I hope you can find some quick inspiration.

Do you currently own an air-fryer? I do not and still using conventional oven or sometimes toaster oven to do all the baking, roasting and grilling.

While cooking the shrimps in the oven, make sheet-pan eggs or ramekin eggs at the same time in the same oven.

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Pico De Gallo / Salsa Egg Frittata

Egg frittata is my go-to for egg makeovers. Our family still enjoy our routine hard-boiled eggs and occasionally, sunnyside up sheet-pan style. But egg frittata is one of those clever ways to load up the eggs with leftovers, extras, add-ons - in short, "bonuses".

Adding on to this egg frittatas list of Onion Egg Frittata, Chive Egg Frittata, Gouda Cheese Egg Frittata, Frozen Veggie Egg Frittata, Leftover Fish Egg Frittata is this Pico De Gallo/Salsa Egg Frittata using leftover Pico De Gallo, idea inspired from a popular dish Asian-style fry tomato with eggs.




You may want to use salsa if you have leftover salsa but do take note, salsa is a more blended version of tomatoes, onions, jalapeno, so it tends to be more "watery" and liquid than Pico De Gallo (preferred) which is a mixture of fresh chopped tomato, onion, jalapeno, lime, and cilantro. 

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Vegetarian Rice Paper Rolls

Instead of making Korean Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps or Tuna Chickpea Lettuce Endive Wraps, consider these light, refreshing vegetarian alternatives such as Peas and Corn Lettuce Wraps or Tofu Salad-Veggie Rolls. 

I have not made rice paper rolls for the longest time ever since these Summer Rice Paper Rolls. Just like salads, these low-carb gluten-free rolls is quite the perfect summer food. Minimal cooking, fuss-free preparation to save you from stove-top cooking; yet refreshing and satisfying to enjoy on warm summer days. 


These rolls are quick and easy to put together with this tip/trick: Buy your favorite store-bought salad-box vegetables (Note: combination with leafy greens + finely julienned carrots, beets, radishes, bell peppers preferred) so that you do not have to prep (rinsing/drying/slicing) a variety of vegetables from scratch. Fill rice paper wrapper with rainbow veggies straight from the salad-box, add thinly sliced firm tofu (Note: needs to be firm or super-firm tofu to ensure minimum moisture that is preferred for wrapping) and this 15-minute healthy meal is ready before you even know it.

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Tortilla Egg Pancake DanBing 蛋饼

Besides 15-minute Flour Tortilla Chips, you can also make delicious crisp-outside soft-inside egg pancakes or Chinese DanBing 蛋饼 from leftover flour tortilla.


Enjoy the pancakes as-is or if you prefer, you can also fill them up just like how you would do to a wrap.

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Tofu, Broccoli, Okra Bowl

Besides bitter melon and eggplant, okra is another vegetable that falls under the "Love-it-or-Hate-it" list. Quite different from bitter melon which some dislike due to its bitter taste, it is the texture of okra (likewise for eggplant) that puts some people off - mushy eggplant, slimy okra. I am fine with that.

Steamed okra,  beets, kale, broccolini, red bell peppers, snap peas, topped with apple

While okra performs well in a stew- or braise-like dish e.g. Pumpkin, Green Bean, Okra Stew, I also enjoy 5-minute steamed okra in warm salad bowls.

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Meatless Mapo Tofu Protein Bowl

For those opting for low-carb meals (no pasta or grains of any kind), this Vegetarian Mapo Tofu suffice as meatless protein entree anytime you want a meatfree protein bowl.

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Braised Eggs, Mushrooms, Tofu Bowl

There are many possibilities to healthy, delicious protein bowls, only limited by imagination. Going beyond traditional pairing of Chinese Soy-Braise Eggs and Tofu with steamed rice or putting together Roast Chicken Quinoa Bowl, Smoked Salmon Quinoa Bowl, the journey today is East Meets West Soy-Braise Eggs, Mushrooms, Tofu Protein Steamed Veggies Bowl.


As a short-cut, I am using store-bought Chinese five-spice tofu nuggets, "borrowing" its braising liquid and flavors to cook with home-prepped hard-boiled eggs, store-bought firm tofu and fresh shiitake mushrooms. 

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Chimichurri Tofu

Originated in Argentina, this sauce is versatile as marinade, sauce, dressing and/or condiment usually alongside grilled steak. Today, we see chimichurri used as marinade in this Chimichurri Tofu.


Use Chimichurri Tofu to up the protein in Scallop with Quinoa or they are also mighty enough to stand alone as meatless protein entree in plant-based protein bowls e.g. Five-Spice Tofu Protein Bowl and Yuba Veggies Bowl.

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Yuba/ Fresh Tofu Skin Salad

There are already a couple of recipes in this same website featuring yuba/ tofu skins/ tofu sheets. However, that does not stop me from visiting and improving older recipes, for example this classic Yuba Salad.


The main ingredient yuba and sesame oil-soy sauce based dressing stays the same; with new addition of enoki mushrooms, edamame, and generous topping of cilantro. Albeit how simple this may sound, these additions impart much more flavors and textures when combined together - making it such a deliciously addictive side-dish appetizer.

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Leftover Fish Egg Frittata (+ Veggies + Oats)

Most of the times, there are no leftovers when it comes to cooked fish. Unlike leftover chicken, leftover cooked fish is trickier to deal with. But especially during inflationary times when bulk-buying groceries/produce/food items gets more bang for the buck - that's when you do buy more then usual, cook more than usual and THERE WILL BE leftovers.

Nothing comes to waste when it comes to frugal-living cooking, even for a tricky leftover cooked fish. There is always my beloved egg frittatas to turn to e.g. Onion Egg Frittata, Chive Egg Frittata, Gouda Cheese Egg Frittata and Frozen Veggies Egg Frittata.

So, the leftover snapper fillets from last night dinner were transformed to this Leftover Fish Egg Frittata upgraded with veggies and rolled oats.


Leftover cooked fish tend to be "dry", adding vegetables such as shredded carrots, or roasted zucchini helps re-introduce a little more moisture into the frittata. I also added (or sprinkled) some oats on top before oven-cooking the frittata, to make it texturally more exciting (plus it's added fiber too!).

Oh did I say? Though made into a protein bowl lunch here, these leftover fish egg frittata can be a great idea for a nutritious breakfast as well (yeah, that's rolled oats in there! right?)

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Five-Spice Tofu Protein Bowl

Besides Stuffed Yuba Rolls, Flat-Sheets Yuba Salad and Tofu Knots in plant-based soy protein bowls, store-bought marinated tofu are easy protein add-ons to the same bowls.

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Mushroom-Stuffed Tofu Skin Yuba Rolls

On a separate occasion, fresh tofu-beancurd skin/yuba were stuffed with enoki mushrooms to make Mushroom-Stuffed Tofu-Skin Yuba Rolls, perfect for this veggie bowl.


For vegetarians, omit the shredded chicken as the tofu skin rolls would suffice as plant-protein source. You can also make Yuba Salad which is much simpler compared to oven-baked rolls. I have actually made yuba salad many times, improving (and "perfecting") each time. 

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Meatless Vegetarian Mapo Tofu

Recently, there came an opportunity* to try out Meatless Farms mince/ grounds made essentially from pea/soy proteins which is similar to plant-based meat made by market leaders Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

It has been a long time since I made Mapo Tofu; yet today, seeking unfamiliar "grounds" (pun intended) with this new ingredient: meatless mince/grounds and roping in a long forgotten dish Mapo Tofu, making Meatless Vegetarian Mapo Tofu, essentially plant-based yet high in protein.


Start by frying/pre-cooking the mince with garlic and onions - this "fried" mince serves as "blank canvas" for other stir-fries too, not just Mapo Tofu.

If you have a little more time to spare, try making your own vegetarian meatless mince (Vegetarian Simmered "Meat" Sauce) from scratch with diced mushrooms and tofu. It is definitely healthier and taste more naturally delicious than store-bought plant-based mince which is still partially processed but  wins on convenience.

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Sheet-Pan Eggs Sunnyside Up

This oven-friendly method of making mini ramekin eggs was improvised using Sheet-Pan Eggs recipe. Right now, there are no ramekins/containers to wash, equaling the luxury of making egg frittatas: Frozen Veggies Egg Frittata, Onion Egg Frittata, Cheese Egg Frittata.


Egg frittata is a wonderful opportunity to include more veggies in your daily meals. Hard-boiled eggs is batch-cooking friendly, offers convenient protein add-on to protein bowls, but definitely not as quick and time-saving when there is a dozen to peel. Sheet-Pan Eggs is then the answer to quick, easy, no-fuss, batch-cooking sunny-side up fried eggs which are great for filling sandwiches/wraps and top up protein bowls.

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