Filipino Pancit

Well, I'm about to re-enter the workforce next week which is simultaneously thrilling (a schedule! earning money!) and a little bit sad. Even though I haven't enjoyed not earning any income or having a reason to shower each day, I have enjoyed the freedom of being able to dedicate more concentrated time to blogging, photography, and cooking/baking. My "desk" is the kitchen table and I get to sit here most of the day, with the screen door open, letting the breeze come in and watching the birds hang out on our back deck while typing/editing--it's pretty ideal. And I get to practice staging food in prettier ways and taking advantage of mid-day lighting options. I have more time to do photo-editing, which is the hardest part of keeping up a food blog: not finding the recipes, not making the food, and definitely not the writing, but the photography! It's going to be bittersweet to say good-bye to the flexible days that made me feel like I was a "professional" blogger, since that was usually one of the few things on my to-do list!

However, before my time gets sucked into a black hole of work, working out, and wedding planning, I do have a whole slew of recipes to share! We'll start with this gem: Filipino Pancit. I found this recipe on Pinch of Yum and it's based of the experiences the blogger, Lindsey, had in the last year living in the Philippines working at an orphanage. She's doing a special food series/showcase and sharing Filipino recipes she learned while there, on her blog. So this was one of them and it seemed to be straight-forward, simple, and like it would produce a large portion of food. These are all qualities we are striving for as the semester gets into full swing for Will, because our dinnertimes often overlap with other activities/class, and we (mainly Will) don't have the same amount of time to cook on a few weeknights, as we're accustomed too. When a recipe like this one suggests it feeds 12-16, we jumped on it and decided halving it would be good enough for us, to last through the T-W-R evening class schedule of Will's. Well, despite thinking we were halving it, we didn't get through it all until Saturday! And it was a simple enough recipe that we enjoyed trying different sauces/spices/flavor additions throughout the week. So if you have a busy week coming up, consider making this recipe to get you through!

Cooking Notes: We actually ended up halving only the noodles, not the veggies, which worked out fine. We also couldn't find pancit noodles the first time we made this, so we chose to use Yock-A-Mein Chinese noodles, since they looked similar based on pictures. The recipe called for pork bouillon, but we went with veggie since it's what we have the most of on hand. Lastly, we added some fresh grated ginger into the cooked portion of the recipe; for toppings we added sriracha, soy sauce, and fish sauce, or some combination of those.

Filipino Pancit (adapted from Pinch of Yum; serves 6-8)
1 lb. pancit or yock-a-mein noodles
4 cups sliced mixed veggies: cabbage, carrots, bell peppers and green onions
1 lb. lean pork, cut into very small pieces
1/2 cup oil
1 onion, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 inches fresh grated ginger
1 vegetable bouillon cube
6 cups water




Cook noodles according to package directions, cooking a couple minutes less than estimated finish time, to allow for later cooking (ex: package says cook 10 minutes, you cook for 8). Brown the pork in the oil with the soy sauce, garlic, ginger and onion. Add the water and bouillon to the pork mixture and bring to a low simmer. Add the veggies and cook for 5-10 minutes. Add the noodles, simmering over low heat for a few minutes, until noodles soak up broth. Top with sriracha, soy sauce or fish sauce for additional flavor.

Recipe: Pinch of Yum: Filipino Pancit

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