La Belle Boulangerie: Homecooking 101 --- Real. Simple. Dinner.

Ever wanted to come home to a piping hot meal without turning on the stove? Of course you do, that's why you order take-out every night.

But that's not the way your Mom would let you it - not even if you are ordering salads every night (then again, why would you do that?).

So let's get some things straight - dinner can be whipped up in less than 5 minutes, but it might not be edible. If you want a proper dinner that quick n easy, you'll need at least 15 minutes.

Now if you have some frozen foods lying around, why not steam them up? Here's one example of a meal consisting of dim sums (frozen from the grocery store), some buttery veggies (also frozen from the grocery store) and an omelette.

Omelette is uber easy to whip up - break two eggs, mix it with some mixing utensil, heat up a frying pan (butter is best because it gives it extra flavor), then pour in the egg mixture, drop in your fav omelette fillings like mushrooms or onions, then carefully fold over half the omelette, turn it once and you're good to go. And yes, it has to be done in that order, or else. Remember not to overcook the omelette - once it turns past a mellow yellow is when you need to reduce heat or turn off completely. The eggs will continue cooking until you plate them.

Another easy thing to do with eggs is of course the classic tomato n eggs. Real simple - scramble some eggs, set aside, cut up some tomatoes, cook until it turns a dark crimson, mix in the eggs and season with a teaspoon sugar, some soy sauce and salt.

For carbs, heat up some rice. The above was some frozen rice from a package than you just have to drop into a heated frying pan. Here I seasoned it with some sweet bean sauce and pickled cucumber juices.

Another simple carb fix is noodles. I like to cook mine al dente, then drain and rinse with cold water before mixing in a ja jiang noodle sauce. The other dish in the above picture is carrots and sweet potatoes which I cooked by boiling the sweet potatoes until soft to reduce the cooking time, then flash boiling the carrots. Then I added in a sweet curry sauce to add texture and variety to their tastes.

This was a rice noodle stirfry with bell peppers and Chinese sausages. Also really easy to do and easy to make it flavorful as well.

This is a tofu and cucumber-like veggie (see below) that you can also quickly whip up. Simply chop up the veggie into thin slices, stirfry in pan until soft and drop in the tofu (available at any Chinese grocery store).

I'm not much of a meat person, but there are many simple meat dishes that you can whip up as well, like these pork chops down here:

I marinated these in the morning in sugar, soy sauce, and salt with some garlic and onions. Then when I got back home, I simply baked it at 375 F inside the aluminum foil I marinated in until it was tender.

This was a little overcooked, so I recommend you to take it out in 15 min or turn off the oven and let it slowly roast while you take a shower or watch some TV

Really, the possibilities are endless...