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How to cook "with visual instructions" "using familiar ingredients from your local grocery stores" healthy, traditional and delicious Japanese dishes!!

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My mother’s “Keema Curry”

This is my mother’s original “Keema Curry” recipe which she made for us as kids when we couldn’t handle spicy food. It is a little different from authentic Keema Curry, but its great for the whole family.

We label this dish as a “Dry Curry” in Japanese because there is no soup. “Keema Curry” basically means a curry dish using ground meat. In Japan, Curry is very popular especially among kids because we can eat it with steamed rice.

I used “Curry Powder.” The ingredients in the powder are: paprika, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and saffron. It is very nutritious and is high in vitamin E, vitamin K, iron, beta-carotene, potassium, magnesium and so on. These helps increase our metabolism and also have antioxidant properties.

Additionally, this dish is great for mothers and fathers who have children who are picky eaters because you can mince and add various vegetables and cook with ground meat. The curry taste helps cover the taste of most vegetables so even picky eaters can get a lot of good nutrition.

Enjoy this curry dish with steamed rice or your favorite bread!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 lb. Ground Chicken

½ Eggplant

1 Carrot

1 small Onion

3 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

2 tsp. Curry Powder (ingredients: paprika, garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, black pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and saffron)

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Black Pepper

15 dashes Worcestershire Sauce

½ Tbsp. Ketchup

½ Tbsp. Soy Sauce

Steamed Rice, for serving
(Recommended Dried Rice) Nishiki Premium Rice

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Keema Curry

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Bacon Millefeuille Nabe

Nabe is a traditional Japanese simmering dish. We simmer sea food or meat with various vegetables in Dashi stock seasoning with cooking Sake and soy sauce.

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At home or in restaurants we usually set a cooking pot on a countertop range on the table and share it as cooking the dish. The dish and the cooking warm us and the room up so it is common to have Nabe in winter.

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Today I will introduce you to bacon (I use turkey bacon, but you can use any kind) and Napa cabbage millefeuille Nabe, which requires that we set bacon and Napa cabbage leaves alternatively in a pan and simmer in Dashi stock. This time I used Kelp Dashi stock, but you can use any kind of stock you want.

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We add many kinds of vegetables to Nabe but Napa cabbage is a must-have vegetable. 95% of Napa cabbage is water so it is easy to eat for everybody because of it’s tender texture. The cabbage water also makes Nabe juicy even when simmering for a long time.  Napa cabbage also has great nutrition. It is low calorie and high in vitamin C, potassium, iron, magnesium and so on.

Juicy, tender Napa cabbage and bacon makes your Nabe very delicious! I hope you will like it!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

1 head Napa Cabbage

20 slices Bacon

1 cup Kelp Dashi Stock (any kind of stock is okay)
(Recommended instant bonito Dashi powder)Ajinomoto – Hon Dashi

1 Tbsp. Cooking Sake

1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce

Here is my recipe in PDF (5 MB): Bacon Millefeuille Nabe

Here is “Kelp Dashi stock” recipe in PDF: Kelp Dashi stock


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An idea for quick and healthy breakfast!!

This is an idea for a quick breakfast recipe. It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and it is also delicious and healthy!!

To make the dish healthier, I cook scrambled egg with canned tuna. Also I add steamed edamame to the plate. When you season the edamame with butter and salt, it becomes like a side dish of corn.

Edamame is high is vitamin B1, vitamin C, protein, fiber, iron, potassium, and so on. Because of the protein and the iron, edamame is a great ingredient for breakfast.

As for the tuna, my mother always said “You can be more smart and do great on tests in school if you eat fish”. She stretched a story about DHA to make me eat breakfast but it was not totally a lie. DHA increases blood vessel elasticity and improve the function of red blood cells so people say it helps make your brain more active.

I hope this recipe will be one of your favorite breakfast recipes!!

{Ingredients (1 serving)}

2 Eggs

½ can of Tuna

¼ cup Frozen Edamame

1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Healthy Breakfast


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Chicken Tenderloin with Delicious Plum Sauce! (Gluten-Free)

This is a very easy and tasty traditional side dish. Mainly we eat it in the summer time because it is cold and contains pickled plum.

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Pickled plum (Umeboshi) is a Japanese traditional healthy food. The recipe for pickled plum is to salt fresh plums and then dry them under the sun. Pickled plum has protein, calcium, iron, vitamins and so on. We eat it very often, but especially when we feel tired, we have a sore throat, and most importantly when we want to prevent heat stroke while outside in summer time. Pickled plum also has antibacterial effect so we sometimes put it on rice in our lunch box to keep the rice from going bad.

This plum sauce contains sesame seeds so it is a very nutritious and flavorful sauce. You can use this sauce for other meat or fish dishes. And if you add olive oil to the sauce, you can use it as a dressing for your salads.

Chicken tenderloin has great taste and nutrition. It doesn’t take much time to cook but if you over cook it, the meat will be hard. In this recipe, I show how to get tender chicken tenderloin. If you use this method, you can always get good tender chicken for any of your  dishes.

Enjoy this divine chicken dish!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}

3 pieces Chicken Tenderloin

3 Pickled Plums

2 tsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

1 tsp. Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

1 tsp. Cooking Sake

Boiled Water (for boiling tenderloin)

Here is my recipe in PDF (4 MB): Chicken Tenderloin with Plum Sauce


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Quick and Delicious! “Tofu Salad with Sesame Dressing” (Vegan/Vegetarian/Gluten-Free)

Sesame dressing is very popular dressing in Japan. It tastes great and is of course extremely healthy.

This is White Roasted Sesame Seeds I used in this recipe.

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Sesame is high in arginine, oleic acid, linoleum acid, sesamin, and it has great quality protein, iron, niacin and vitamin B. Sesame has high antioxidant properties due to vitamin E and linoleum acid. This means sesame may improve our immune system. Another important ingredient in sesame is Lignan. Lignan helps liver function and cholesterol depletion. I highly recommend to have 1 Tbsp. of sesame per a day. Of course, having it in this salad dressing is a delicious way to eat sesame.

In this recipe I will also introduce you to Tofu Salad, which goes great with sesame dressing. It is quick, delicious and very nutritious! When you want to add more protein, vitamins and minerals to your meal, please try this easy quick delicious salad!!

{Ingredients (servings 2)}
*Click BLUE TEXT to link to the product on Amazon*

2 Tbsp. Soy Sauce
(Recommended Gluten-Free Soy Sauce)Soy Sauce REDUCED SODIUM [Gluten Free] (Organic)

2 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar

1 Tbsp. Pure Sesame Oil

1 Tbsp. White Roasted Sesame Seeds

12 pieces Grape Tomatoes

½ cucumber

3.5 oz. (¼ pack) Firm Tofu

Here is my recipe in PDF (3 MB): Tofu Salad with Sesame Dressing