Cooking in Japan--Dinner

This list is a work in progress! I love to try new recipes but only do it about once a week. Luckily, most of the recipes I've tried have been good. Ditto on the Japanese cooking--I am still learning to work with a lot of new ingredients while making do without my usual American ingredients. When we moved here, we brought a stash of lentils, black beans, and split peas, so I am leaving those out of this list, since they can't really be found here (although you can order black beans from Costco).
A lot of these recipes have chicken that you can substitute with tofu. Fox usually only eats chicken.


Chicken Pot Pie Crumble-- This is really good and a great freezer meal! It doesn't call for pie crusts or cream of chicken soup, which you can't get here. Perfect!

Spaghetti, meatballs, and green beans--A popular meal with the kids, and you can get everything here for pretty cheap. The meatballs we get are called "chicken dango", so I think they are a mixture of tempura batter and chicken. The kids love them!

Pizza--Of course! Here is the crust recipe I use, but I add only 2 Tbsp. of oil. We make variations--Barbecue Chicken Pizza (bbq sauce can't be found here, but you can order it or make it from scratch) with chicken, sauce, and green onions. I like Pesto and Roasted Red Pepper pizza--pesto for the sauce, and I roast the red peppers on our fish grill. Red Peppers are cheap here! The kids like ham and pineapple.


Cajun Chicken Pasta--I brought our cajun seasoning, so this is an easy, quick recipe. I swap out the lemon pepper and tomatoes for sun-dried tomatoes (from my precious stash!--they're hard to find here)or red pepper and green onions. I also have the recipe but keep the noodle amount the same, since I don't like it drenched in sauce like that.


Corn and Potato Chowder--Super cheap and super yummy! The boys love theirs with bacon on top.


Thai Peanut Saute--I love this recipe, and I just found the chili sauce here. Yay! I add tofu and make it less spicy. I really like this cold, too.


Orange Chicken-- If you have some uninterrupted time in the kitchen, this is a really good recipe. It will be inhaled!

Teriyaki Chicken bowls--Super easy recipe: 3/4 cup soy sauce, 3/4 cup sugar, some grated ginger and garlic or garlic powder. I pour it over frozen chicken breasts and bake and baste and serve over hot rice.

Yakiniku--This is basically thin steak sauted with onions and green peppers. About 1/4 each of worcester (what it's called here but worcestershire sauce) and soy sauce dashed on top when cooked and then serve over rice. The thin steak here is already sliced up, so I guess if you buy the thinnest steak and slice it up, it would be equivalent.

Chicken Penne Pesto--Another super quick and yummy chicken pasta dish! I found pesto here...hooray!

Tomato soup and grilled cheese--Allrecipes has good tomato soup recipes. We are big soup people!

Tuna stroganoff: Cash's favorite dish! I use plain yogurt in place of sour cream. I don't have an exact recipe--just cook noodles and make a roux w/ tuna and cheese, if you want. Add garlic powder, chopped celery, spices, etc.

Hamburg and mashed potatoes: Hamburg is a popular Japanese food--like a mini-meatloaf.

Cream stew: This is another version of Japanese curry rice, but it is a cream roux and you throw in whatever vegetables you want. Really yummy!

We also do: potato soup, curry rice, yakisoba, Italian chicken or fish (just marinated in Italian dressing).

I am realizing now that I need to be eating more tofu and fish. I'm still trying to find a good fish without too many bones here. Every grocery store here has a gigantic fish section that is quite overwhelming! Sometimes the fish are still alive, lying on their open packages, and sometimes the crabs are alive and moving. It really freaks me out.
Tofu here is 35 cents a block. Hmmm...any good tofu recipes?