Treasure Jar

Hearty Meal Recipes from Dona Elena Cuisinera Club presented last January 30, 2010. Click here for more recipes.

Tilapia Fillets

For Tilapia Fillets:

• 150 – 200 g tilapia fillets (2 pieces)
• pinch of salt
• pinch of pepper
• pinch of paprika
• 1/4 c almonds, salted, crushed finely

Season tilapia fillet with salt, pepper and paprika. Coat with almonds and bake at 180C for 4 minutes.

Pasta

For pasta:

• 10 g butter
• 15ml Dona Elena Pure Olive Oil
• 30 g diced white onions
• 3 g minced garlic
• 50 g diced tomatoes
• 50 g (Dona Elena) capers
• 30 ml (Dona Elena) white wine
• 250 g spaghetti noodles

In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil and melt the butter. Saute the onions and garlic then add tomatoes and capers. Add the white wine and simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss the spaghetti in the sauce.

Sauce:

• 30 ml garlic sauce, reduced until thick
• 15 ml balsamic vinegar, reduced to a syrup

Serve using medium pan. Place pasta on one side and the fillets on the other side. Drizzle the fillets with garlic sauce and balsamic sauce.

Enjoy.

UPDATE: I made this last night (Feb3, 2010) though I still have to write a post.

UPDATE 2: here is the post as promised 🙂

Tags: almonds, baking, cooking, Dona Elena Cuisinera Club, Dona Elena Pure Olive Oil, fish, food, food and dining, food photos, fresh tomatoes, olive oil, pasta, Philippines, spaghetti, tilapia fillets

Chunky Chocolate Cookies with Dona Elena Pure Olive Oil?

I associate cookies with butter and not with olive oil because that is how I bake our cookies. Why not, this is the tried and tested ingredient for baked goodies. So when I saw cookies being prepared with olive oil, I was surprised.

I didn’t think I would be enjoying cookies with less guilt  😀

Here was how these cookies were prepared:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Dona Elena Pure Olive Oil

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 pcs large eggs, beaten

3 tbsp fresh milk

2 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup unsweetened dark cocoa

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

chocolate chunks

Continue Reading »

Tags: baking, chocolate cookies, Dona Elena Pure Olive Oil, olive oil

I wrote about  my son helping out in the kitchen in this post.

Presenting the finished product: our Jell-o No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake dessert:

Yes, it was a finger-licking, lip-smacking and two thumbs up dessert. What bliss!

After putting away their textbooks for the homeschooling lessons, the two kids are pretty much free to do whatever they like and sometimes they either go out and play or help out in kitchen/home chores. Cooking and the smells associated with it always draw them in the kitchen to offer a hand or two.

I bask from the compliments they freely give 🙂

Tags: children, cooking, family, food, food photo, Frugal Christmas, Photo Hunter

Premium Selection by Red Ribbon launches Chocolate Walnut Fudge with Hershey’s Dark Chocolate for the holiday season of 2009.

The description for this decadent cake:   a layer of creamy chocolate mousse on a bed of moist fudgy brownie, loaded with chopped walnuts and finished with dark chocolate ganache, sprinkles and long chocolate curls made with Hershey’s Dark Chocolate.

Presenting a sliced Chocolate Walnut Fudge with Hershey’s Dark Chocolate:

What are you waiting for? Go to the Red Ribbon branch near you and get a cake for PhP680.00. Cake will be offered till January 09, 2010 only.

Tags: cake, Christmas, dining, food, food photos, Hershey's Dark Chocolate, Photography, Red Ribbon

Home cooking is not only inexpensive but it sure guarantees safe handling of food. Home cooking is also a way to be creative in preparing healthier choices as compared to food prepared elsewhere.

If only most of our meals are prepared at home then I know we are eating better than the alternative.

Being creative in the kitchen enables one to experiment with different tastes, textures, flavors and adaptation to what is readily available in the kitchen.

Here is one alternative food preparation we did recently, introducing our homemade chicken shawarma:

Thinly sliced chicken strips (from chicken breast fillet) with oyster sauce, a bit of light soy sauce, and a little muscovado sugar, were cooked in olive oil.

I seasoned with salt and pepper.

For the vegetables, I sliced green bell peppers and cucumber (I removed the seeds). Lettuce is still very expensive so I skipped that.

For the dressing I used light mayonnaise.

I then topped these with grated cheese and voila, a homemade chicken shawarma for us.

The wrap consisted of store bought wheat soft tortilla wrap.

Yes, it was ‘sawrap”!

Tags: cheese, chicken, cooking, dining, food, food and dining, food photo, healthy eating, home, Photography, Purse Strings, shawarma

Kraft Eden Cheese aims to target having 5,000 Filipino dishes cooked to set a Guinness World Record on December 14, 2009 at the Araneta Coliseum.

5,000 dishes? Filipino food, a fusion of the many scrumptious concoctions from the different cultural influences we had for several centuries, have evolved and these definitely can mean uniquely extra-ordinary and uber delicious.

Foodies, chefs, people who love to cook, culinary arts students and kusineros and kusineras will be whipping up these 5,000 dishes using Kraft Eden Cheese on December 14, 2009 at Araneta Coliseum.

Be a YUMM (Your Ulam, Mas Masarap) member and contribute your cheese recipes at the Sarap ng Buhay website.

I am contributing this Cheesy Turon recipe, yipee!

Cheese is a must-have item in our home. There are times when we just munch on cheese slices. The children and hubby too love to put heaps of cheese on their pasta.

French toast for breakfast or afternoon snacks have cheese slices in it:

Sandwiches are like meals in itself, with cheese and tomato slices and greens. Easy to prepare and easy to bring when going to the workplace or doing chores outside the home.

If you want to be a part of history, be more creative in whipping up those yummy flavorful recipes and help promote Filipino dishes through this event.

Visit for more details!

Tags: cheese, cooking, dining, egg, food, food and dining, food photos, Parma, Philippines, Photography