Another Monday rolled by with the grace of God, and here is yet another fresh list of low-budget yet highly delicious (and nutritious!) ulam recipe ideas for your pinoy loved ones!
If you are new to our website and this series, you can restart here for the past lists of weekly ulam ideas that will help you stay within your budget. Again our budget is about Php150.00 to Php200.00 for a main dish that could feed four to five adults. Of course the budget for the rice is not yet included 🙂
Anyway, without further ado, here is our list of budget ulam ideas for the week:
Budget Ulam Ideas for Week#2 of Sept 2023
1. Pork and Sayote Guisado. Some of us tend to forget about Sayote, and just remember it when it is time to cook Tinola. But this sweet and crunchy vegetable can be used weekly in our meals without compromising our food rotation. This week we can use it in Pork and Sayote Guisado! Here is a good recipe.
2. Chicken Katsu with Cabbage Salad. Use Chicken Breast or Chicken thigh that you debone (debone it yourself because it is cheaper than buying thigh fillet – just watch youtube tutorials it is easy). Flatten it by using a mallet or back of your frying pan. Season and then prepare from breading. Just buy a small packaging of panko bread crumbs. You can omit egg to save money and just use a flour-water mixture as your wet batter, then dredge the flattened chicken on the Panko or Japanese breadcrumbs. Fry and drain excess oil. As for the cabbage salad, just slice the cabbage thinkly like in tonkatsu restaurants and serve either with vinaigrette (olive-oil-sugar-and-vinegar dressing, thousand island dressing, or just whatever mayo you have at home. The kids will love this!
3. Storm Soup and Crunchy Tawilis. One of my good friends said that she makes storm soup whenever there are a lot of left over vegetables in her refrigerator. She said she learned it from her sailor husband who cooks this soup dish in their ship. Anyway, just gather all the left over vegetables in your chiller, steam and then osterize. Heat in a pot and season to taste. Add cornstarch slurry (1 tbsp cornstarch mixed in 2 tbsps water), then thicken. Serve the soup along with crispy fried tawilis or any favorite fish that is economical and in season 🙂
4. Lumpiang Hubad with Chicken Breast. I have always loved lumpiang hubad because it is delicious, nutritious and easy to cook. For this dish, just add up to 300 kg of bite-sized slices or minced chicken breast to make it more appetizing for the kiddos. Take a look at this recipe.
5. Tuna Patties and Chilled Cucumber Carrot Salad. This is easy to make and for sure, the kids will love it. I make it extra special by freezing the tuna patties a bit, and then dredging it in panko before frying, but that is just me. You can just follow this exact recipe. For the cucumber and carrot chilled salad, just slice the carrots thinly. Put some salt and set aside for at least 10 minutes. Wring off excess moisture. Thinly slice the cucumber. and then combine with the carrots. Refrigerate. The dressing is up to you – you can use a vinaigrette dressing, thousand island dressing, or miso-mayo. Life is good, choose whatever makes you happy!
6. Popcorn chicken and eggplant salad. We are of the idea that making popcorn chicken is complicated but it is not! Just slice deboned chicken thighs into bite sized pieces, season it and dredge in wet batter (either beaten eggs, milk, or water and flour mixture), and then dredge in cake flour seasoned with chicken powder, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper. Deep fry then set aside.
As for the eggplant salad, this is your usual Ilocano-style steamed eggplant with freshly diced tomatoes and onions, and then drizzled with vinegar. Yummy combo when paired with steaming hot rice!
7. Sweet and Sour Chicken-Tofu Meatballs. Pork meatballs is great, but chicken tofu meatballs are morre nutritious and economical. Just sub 1/4 of the chicken needed with a block of tokwa and tofu, and then follow this recipe.
So that’s it. Hope you can check out our new list again next week.
Food for the soul
At this point, may I share with you one of my favorite bible passages from the Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians:
“Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.” 2 Corinthians 13:11
Thank you for stopping by and till next post!