Summer is officially over and the rainy days are coming ahead. Cold and gloomy days are ahead, and you might be too lazy to go out of your own Bria Home, but for sure, it is still a good time for warm and delicious comfort food for the rainy days. A mouthwatering home-cooked meal that warms not only the stomach but also as well as the heart is satisfying. It is not easy to prepare a meal on a lazy day trying to cook it up within the comfort of your home or condominium unit.
The Philippines, like other countries, has developed its cuisine from various cultures, resulting in a very distinct set of meals. More than its culture, Philippine cuisine is distinct because of its people’s creativity and resourcefulness, resulting in flavorful dishes. The country has a wet and dry season, which influences how every Filipino household prepares its daily meals.
So we listed down home-cooked Filipino comfort foods for rainy days:
- Coffee and PandesalA typical Filipino Breakfast favorite in any kind of weather! Most families enjoy this Pinoy breakfast combo. Classic plain pandesal (a bread from flour, egg, yeast, sugar, and salt) dipped into your favorite coffee or hot chocolate (for non-coffee lovers). Pandesal is eaten by everyone regardless of their social status. It is served best when freshly baked from the local bakery.
- Champorado
Another breakfast comfort Filipino favorite is made in rice porridge cooked in cocoa powder or cocoa bars topped with milk. It is best to use the malagkit na bigas (glutinous rice or sticky rice) to keep its porridge consistency. The saltiness of tuyo (dried salted fish) complements the sweetness of the champorado! It is indeed a perfect combination on a gloomy day!
- Sopas
An easy-to-cook hot creamy soup to make you feel warm coming up! This flavorful soup is usually served with macaroni pasta with shredded chicken and milk. Just mix and let it boil to your preferred creaminess.
- Lugaw or Arroz Caldo
Lugaw is the general or basic term for the rice porridge dish. However, there are different variations to it. It is rice porridge with ginger-based broth and meat. There go the differences – on the meat or the add-on’s. For Goto, it is the beef version, for arroz caldo, it has the chicken pieces. Sometimes, a whole egg is added to it too.
- Bulalo
Another Filipino comfort food is suitable for rainy days! Famously native to Southern Luzon, especially in Tagaytay where it has cool weather. Bulalo is a beef dish with its bone marrow cooked in a broth that keeps you warmed up inside and out. Vegetables are added to it to keep this dish healthy and more soothing. It is quite an accomplishment too whenever you slurp out the bone marrow.
- Sinigang
Sinigang is a slow-cooked sour-broth with meat (you may choose pork, beef, fish or shrimp, or any seafood) to include in vegetables such as gabi (taro), and labanos (radish) and kangkong (spinach). No hesitations, this is best paired with rice. Important ingredient is the souring agent which is usually (tamarind).
- Ginisang Munggo
Healthy and nutritious comfort food on a rainy day. Boiled munggo beans mixed with sautéed meat, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and fish sauce. And add bittermelon leaves (ampalaya leaves) and cook for 5 minutes.
- Tinola
One of the popular Filipino comfort food that can soothe a gloomy day. This is (usually) a chicken cooked in ginger broth. dish A ginger-based soup with chicken or pork paired with green papaya or sayote and chili pepper leaves (dahon ng sili). This is ideally a slow-cooked meal to naturally bring out the chicken’s natural flavor mixed in the rest of the ingredients.
- Instant Noodles
Just add hot water, wait for a few minutes, and voila: You already have a bowl of instant noodles on the table. Health experts say that eating instant noodles is not healthy, you can try adding vegetables to them. Nevertheless, enjoy this on a lazy rainy day.
- Ginataang Bilo-bilo
Ginataang-bilo-bilo is made of sticky glutinous rice balls, fruits such as saba (banana), langka (jackfruit), sweet potatoes, tapioca pearls, and gabi (taro) served in a thick coconut milk base. Often served as a merienda. Some say that this could be the hot version of “halo-halo”.
- Eating a healthy and satisfying meal that is appropriate to the weather is a form of self-care. A satisfied stomach leads you to become more productive and more efficient as a person. Whatever the weather is, it is important to have a healthy meal that energizes you throughout the day. Equally important as the daily meals, is choosing the best home for you and your family. A home shelters you and protects you from hurricanes. Bria Homes offers you affordable house and lot packages and condominiums that may just be for you and your family.
Home-cooked meal preparation can save you a lot of time, money, energy, and even food while enjoying the food that you eat with your housemates. Here are some guidelines to help you efficiently prepare the comfort food that you have prepared for a rainy day.
Plan out your meal.
It is up to you how long would you want to plan out your meal, will it be for a week or a month, or every 2 weeks. Suggest doing a mix and match of the viands to keep the meal interesting. Make sure too to include vegetables, proteins, and fruits. Try to keep each meal healthy and tasteful. Also, try to plan out your meal based on your budget and based on the needed nutrients.
Stick to the grocery shopping list.
Once you have an idea of what to prepare, say for a week or a month, it is easier for you to list down necessary items, such as seasoning, condiments, sauces, etc. for grocery shopping. Creating a grocery shopping gives you efficient time to do other errands and other more important activities than grocery shopping. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables in season on the wet market instead of having them in the grocery. With this, you can somehow, check if it’s overripe or not.
Storage Tips
If you have limited storage space, make sure that the home-cooked meals that you prepare well just enough for the people who will eat. This is to avoid any leftovers that may be spoiled and eventually thrown out. Suggest placing leftover food in the refrigerator to maintain the cold temperature so and can be heated up the next day. Try to divide them into small containers in a way that they could fit the refrigerator. Meals that are kept in the refrigerator should be consumed within 3-4 days. Note that Meat, fish, and poultry are to be consumed and cooked after 2 days after the purchase. Red meat, can be cooked after 3- 5 days.
Cooking Tips
When preparing meals before cooking, it is critical to ensure that vegetables are cut to the same size so that they cook at the same time. Smaller cuts cook faster than larger ones. Should there be leftovers, try to be more creative and resourceful to create a new meal out from the leftovers.
Written by: Marico Badig
