Double Chocolate Chips Cookies

Chocolate Therapy Cookies

My three girls absolutely love chocolate chips cookies but double the chocolate and they will have sugar rush for sure.  Well if you are craving for chocolate, this double chocolate chip cookie recipe will definitely satisfy that craving. 
You can make some changes in the recipe depending on your preference. Use brown sugar if you want to have a more soft and moist cookies. To preventing the dough from spreading to the baking sheet cornstarch may be added. But since I wanted my cookies to spread thinly and will have round shape, I did not add cornstarch to it. But if you want you may add a few teaspoon of cornstarch to this recipe. If I will be making this cookies for my kids, I will use the semi-sweet type of chocolate bar. And if I want to make it all for myself, since I love dark chocolates, I will use dark chocolates bars and chips for this recipe. But if you want this recipe to be more interesting, add different chocolate flavors. Use more than one type of chocolate. 

I drink hot tea without sugar when I eat these. Hoping to get at least a little of that calories from those tempting cookies. My husband and two daughters want it with milk. But guess what my youngest daughter wants to pair her cookies with, she would say in her cute voice. " Mommy, I want hot chocho (choco) please." it would be a triple chocolate treat for her then. but be sure to drink  a lot of water after eating these. 

You will need:

1 bar of chocolate (80z) chopped 
(any type of chocolate that you prefer)

6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup sugar (white or brown)

1 large egg 

2 teaspoons vanilla 

1 cup all-purpose flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1/2 teaspoon baking powder 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1 cup chocolate chips (6 oz.) 

(any type of chocolate chips that you prefer)

Steps:

For this recipe you will need a double boiler or 

you may use a large bowl set over simmering water. 

Melt the chopped chocolate bar in the double boiler 

for 5 minutes or until the chocolate is smooth and melted. 

Remove it from the heat and add butter. 

Let it cool for a while before adding the other ingredients. 

Using an electric mixer, whisk the sugar then the egg and vanilla. 

In another bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 

Then combine the chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients.

Form balls and flattened it on a lined baking sheet 

approximately 3 inches apart from each other. 

Add in the chocolate chips, I place it upside down to show 

the flat bottom of the chocolate chips. 

Bake it in a 350° oven for 10 minutes. 

Let it cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

Sotanghon Guisado

Sotanghon is one of my favorite noodle but my mother always cook it as a Soup dish with chicken. It has different names, sometimes it is refer to as cellophane noodles because of its transparent color when cooked. It is also known as Chinese vermicelli, bean thread noodles, crystal noodles or glass noodles. Most often it is mistaken with Rice vermicelli or Bihon. Rice vermicelli is different from the Chinese vermicelli/Sotanghon. Rice Noodles which are made from rice has a white color when cooked.

When I made this dish, everyone in the family love it. It was also their first time to try this recipe. We always cook this with lots of soup. This dish is guisado. Guisado means gisa or to saute. We call this noodle TANGHON in Bisaya. This type of noodle absorbs the liquid as well as the flavor. Best to cook sotanghon using chicken broth since it absorb so much of the flavor. The annatto water can give the noddle its brownish color. 

Pancit or noodles may originate in China and was introduced in the Philippines, it became the popular dish during birthdays and special occasion. 

You will need:

1/4 kilo sotanghon noodles 

1/2 kilo chicken 

1 cup baguio beans, sliced, 

1 cup onion, diced 

4 cups water 

¼ cup annatto water 

5 cloves garlic, minced 

1 teaspoon peppercorn 

1/2 cup spring onion, chopped 

2 tablespoons fish sauce 

½ cup carrots, julienned 

2 tablespoons cooking oil 

1 cup cabbage

1/2 cup red bell pepper

calamansi

Steps:

Boil water then add 1/2 cup of the onion, the peppercorns and the chicken.

Cook it for 60 minutes then remove the chicken and let it cool. 

Take of the meat from the chicken, discard the bones and skin and set aside. 

Strain the chicken broth and set aside. 

Soak the noodles in water for a few minutes then drain. 

Heat a cooking pan and add oil. 

Sauté garlic and the remaining 1/2 cup onions. 

Add the chicken and cook for 2 minutes. 

Then pour annatto water and chicken broth and bring to a boil. 

Add the carrots and baguio beans and cook for 3 minutes. 

Add the cabbage  and bell pepper then the noodles and fish sauce 

then cook for another 2 minutes. 

Transfer to a serving plate and top with spring onion

 and place calamansi slices on the side.

Tapsilog

TAPSILOG is a Filipino dish that stands for the three main ingredients that is TAPa which is a fried cured beef, SInangag or fried rice and itLOG  egg in english.  There are so many SILOG combination to choose from but this is probably my most favorite among the different Silog Recipes.  Tapa is a cured beef that is thinly sliced and is marinated with soy sauce and with different other spices for at least overnight. It is so good with fried rice and sunny side up egg. This is a very filling breakfast that goes so well with hot coffee or hot choco. Others would eat this during lunch or dinner. 

When you are living in a different country, most likely you crave foods from your place. That is one of the reason why I try to learn how to cook those foods that we crave. Going to a Filipino restaurant can be expensive specially with a family of five like us. I got this recipe from Panlasang Pinoy. 

TAPA Recipe:

You will need:

3/4 kilo  beef, thinly sliced 

5 tablespoons soy sauce 

3 tbsp minced garlic 

2 tbsp sugar 

¼ teaspoon salt 

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper 

Steps:

Mix soy sauce, garlic, salt, pepper, and sugar in a container, set it aside. 

Place the beef in the clear zip lock plastic bag.

Pour-in the soy sauce mixture in plastic bag with meat and combined well.

Marinate for overnight and place it inside the refrigirator.

In a pan, place 1 cup water and bring to a boil

Put-in the marinated beef tapa and cook until the water evaporates. 

Add 3 tbsp of cooking oil. Set aside

SINIGANG Recipe: 

You will need:

4 cups cooked white rice 

6 cloves crushed garlic 

3 tablespoons cooking oil 

salt and pepper

Steps:

Heat pan and add the oil. 

Saute garlic in a low to medium heat, 

Let it cook slowly until golden brown.

Add-in the rice cook for 3 minutes. 

Sprinkle the salt and pepper over the rice and continue mixing. 

Cook for another 5 minutes. 

Serve with tapa and sunny side up egg.

Sopas

Sopas is know as Chicken Macaroni Soup in English. This dish is best serve during cold and rainy weather. Moms would make chicken soups when their kids are not feeling well because of flu. This is because hot soup can help loosen congestion caused by colds and it also keeps them hydrated. Kids will love the flavor and wont mind to eat some of the vegetables in the recipe which helps them feel better. My version of Sopas has lots of cheese and I added mushroom to it. You can use any type of pasta for your sopas or add some of your favorite veggies like cauliflower or broccoli. You may add boiled quails eggs or sliced hard boiled eggs to this dish and chopped spring onions before serving.

You will need: 

2 cups macaroni 

 2 tablespoons butter 

 1 diced onion

 1/4 kilo diced chicken breast

 4 cups chicken broth 

 2 carrots, diced 

 2 potato, diced 

 1/2 cup cabbage, shredded 

 1 cup fresh milk 

 1 can sliced mushroom 

 1 cup diced cheese 

 1 bunch spring onion 

 Salt and ground black pepper to taste
boiled eggs (optional)

Steps:

Put butter on the cooling pot set on medium heat. 

Saute onion until translucent and add in the chicken. 

Cook the chicken for 5 minutes. 

Season with salt and pepper.

 Add the chicken broth and let it boil 

 (you may substitute water if you don't have

 chicken broth but add 1 chicken cubes) 

 Add the fresh milk and wait to re-boil and simmer for 15 minutes. 

Put the macaroni and cook for 5 minutes, stir it once in awhile. 

Add the mushroom, carrots and potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. 

Add the cheese and cabbage and cook for 2 minutes more. 

Turn-off the heat and transfer to a serving plate.

Garnish with spring onion.

Serve hot.

Pepperoni Pizza

Pepperoni Pizza is a classic favorite. This recipe is so easy to make since all of my ingredients are store-bought or ready made. What I did was to put them together and bake it for 10 minutes, and that's it. 

As much as I want to make pizza from scratch, when you are busy or sick and crave for pizza, instead of ordering one, you can do this recipe instead. It is more cheaper and you can choose how much cheese or toppings you want for your pizza. This will not take too much of your time and energy. 

You will need:

Pizza dough

Pizza sauce

mozzarella cheese (grated)

Pepperoni slices

Steps: 

Spread pizza sauce over the dough base with the back of a spoon. 

(If you cannot find a ready made Pizza sauce, you may use spaghetti sauce.)

 Scatter the cheese evenly covering the sauce as much as possible. 
I really like to use mozzarella cheese in my pepperoni pizza.

Arrange the Pepperoni on top of the cheese.

Put pizza on a baking sheet and bake for 8 to 10 mins until crisp.

Sliced, serve and enjoy!

Pancit Bam-i Recipe

We Filipinos celebrate the longest Christmas. Starting with the first day of September and even until the Three Kings in January. Let us not forget that Christmas is the birthday of Jesus Christ. In the Philippines one of the foods that are associated with birthdays is PANCIT. My all-time favorite Pancit recipe is Bam-i.  I love my mom’s cooking but my father cooks this dish a lot better. He even claims that this is his specialty. I agree with him. He cooks delicious pancit. This recipe is not from my father but I adapted this from Panlasang Pinoy. I can still recall the first time I cook Bam-I, it was 8 years ago. And from then, I cook it as often as my family requests it. 

You will need:

¼ kilo pork, sliced

¼ kilo chicken, boiled and shredded

5 pieces Chinese sausage, sliced

½ kilo shrimp,

(shelled and heads removed)

8 ounces flour sticks

(pancit canton noodles)

4 to 6 ounces rice noodles

(sotanghon soaked in water)

1½ to 2 cups chicken stock

3 cups cabbage, chopped

¾ cup carrots, julienned

½ cup dried wood ear,

(soaked in water and chopped) 

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup snow peas

½ cup shrimp juice 

½ cup soy sauce

1 piece chicken cube 

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

Salt and pepper to taste

2 to 3 tablespoons cooking oil

Chop suey

Vegetable should be included in the Menu for Christmas Eve. One dish I could think of is this colorful stir-fry veggies which is known as Chop suey.  The origin of this dish is from China, a popular dish in an American Chinese Cuisine. It simply means "assorted pieces". A combination of meat and vegetables. You can either use pork, chicken or sea foods like shrimp, and squid or even put them together in one dish. For the vegetables, it consists of crunchy veggies like the carrots, young corn, broccoli, cauliflower, snow peas, bell peppers and cabbage. I have tried many variation of this dish. For vegetarians, you may omit the meats and it taste just as delicious. Adding cornstarch makes the sauce sticky. One tip for this dish is not to overcook the vegetables to make it more colorful, crunchy and tasty.

You will need:

2 tsp cooking oil

1/8 kilo shrimp

¼ kilo chicken (cut into smaller pieces)

1 tsp garlic

2 tsp cornstarch

1 Tbsp oyster sauce

½ piece cabbage, quartered

1 cup sliced green bell pepper

1 cup sliced red bell pepper

1 small cauliflower 
1 small broccoli

1 cup snow peas

1 cup sliced carrots

1 cup diced onion

1 cup sliced chicken liver

Shrimp juice

1 ½ cup water

salt and pepper

Steps:

Place oil on a heated pan and saute the garlic then the onion.

Put-in the chicken and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the liver and leave it for another 3 minutes.

Pour in the shrimp juice the water.

Bring to a boil, you may cover the pot and

let it simmer for 5 minutes.

Put-in the shrimp.

Season with salt and pepper and add the oyster sauce,

simmer for 2 minutes.

Add the cauliflower and broccoli and let it cook for a minute or two

before adding the rest of the vegetables.

Simmer for 5 minutes until the vegetables are cooked.

Some wants their vegetable to be half cooked and

others want their vegetables to be fully cooked.

It’s all up to your preference.

Dilute the cornstarch in 1/2 cup of water then pour into the pot.

Combine well.

Serve hot.

Embutido

    The dish Embutido is a Pinoy version of meatloaf, serve in special occasions like birthdays and fiestas. You must include this in your Christmas dinner as an appetizer. Can be eaten cold, hot or fried. There are a lot of versions but my favorite is this recipe. It uses half ground pork and half ground beef. Substituting the flour with breadcrumbs can makes this recipe more flavorful. We had this last Christmas; I will definitely include this again on our Noche Buena. 

You will need:

½ kilo ground lean pork

½ kilo ground lean beef

2/3 cup sweet pickle relish

½ cup tomato sauce

2 raw eggs

2 cups grated cheese

1 cup minced red bell pepper

1 cup minced green bell pepper

1 cup raisins

1 cup grated carrots

2/3 cup minced onion

salt and pepper

2 cups bread crumbs

Filling:

4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced

5 pcs hotdogs, cut in half lengthwise

strips of cheese for filling

Steps:

Mix all ingredients together except for the fillings:

(boiled eggs, hotdog, strips of cheese)

You may use your hands in mixing the meat and other ingredients.

Put the meat mixture on an aluminum foil and flatten it.

Arrange the hotdog, egg and slice of cheese on the

middle of the flat meat mixture.

Form it into a cylinder by rolling the foil, lock the filling

(boiled egg, hotdog and sliced cheese) with the meat mixture.

Lock the edges of the foil by twisting it tightly.

Prepare the steamer.

Put enough water since you are going to cook it for an hour.

Let it cool before putting it inside the refrigerator.

Slice and serve. 

Chicken Macaroni Salad

During Holidays my mother will always make Chicken Macaroni Salad. It is one of her specialty. I remember back then when I was a kid, I would watch her prepare the ingredients. It is not because I want to learn how to make it but I would be there in her side just to eat some ingredients like the cheese that she already cut into cubes and the nata de coco which is my favorite. I was never interested in cooking during my younger age. I only learn to love cooking when I got married and be separated from my parents. I miss her cooking. She is a wonderful cook. Unlike me, I still need to measure everything and look for recipe guides. My mom would just use a dash of this or a pinch of that. She dips her finger to the ingredients before she cooks it to know if its ok or she might need to add more. Of course except for raw meats.
Back to the recipe, this Chicken Macaroni Salad is a Filipino version since Kaong and Nata de Coco are added to make it more colorful and adding sweet flavor to the sourness of the mayonnaise. The colors of Christmas are present in this dish which is green and red. Don’t forget to include this in your Noche Buena.

You will need:

400g elbow macaroni pasta, cooked

¼ kilo chicken meat, cooked and shredded it small pieces.

1 cup kaong (red), drained

1 cup kaong (green), drained

2 cup nata de coco, drained

1 cup pineapple chunks, drained

1 carrot, diced, boiled

1 cup raisins

¼ cup sweet pickle relish

1 tsp. finely minced onion.

1/4 cup condensed milk
1 cup all purpose cream

1 ½ cup mayonnaise

1 cup cheese, diced (I like the Eden cheese Brand)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Steps:

Cook the macaroni pasta according to the package instruction. 

Once cooked, rinse it with cold water, drain and set it aside. 

Boil the chicken, drain and shred it to small pieces then set aside. 

Cut carrots into small cubes, boil, drain and set aside.  

Prepare the other ingredients, strain nata de coco and kaong and 

pineapple chunks for half an hour or until 

almost all liquid has been separated. 

Slice the pineapple if you find the chunks big. 

Cut the cheese into cubes. 

Finely chop the onions.   

In a large mixing bowl, mix the macaroni, chicken, 

carrots, nata de coco, kaong, pineapple, raisins, 

cheese, onion and pickles. 

Pour the mayonnaise, cream, condensed milk, 

a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper and 

combine them together and mix thoroughly. 

Cover the mixing bowl with a cling plastic

 wrap and refrigerate for an hour. 

Serve!