Pork and Chicken Afritada

Having little picky eaters at home is no fun.  I'm mostly stressed planning menus for the week because I would have to consider what they don't eat.  Most of the time, I end up modifying menus online according to my kids preference.  But since I started cooking more frequently, I noticed the decline on their pickiness.  They became more accepting towards new food, and developed positive attitudes towards trying them even before saying no.  That is absolutely amazing!  Believe it or not, but my girl has learned to eat veggies one day at a time.  Her list of veggies are getting longer each week.  And my boy has longer lists of favorite dishes in 6 months now.  Isn't that wonderful?

Today I decided to make one of the traditional Filipino dishes I used to eat back home.  This is something that I've learned by heart.  I don't have an exact measurement for this because I've been cooking this by feel.  It's a tomato-based dish which my family loves.  It has pork, chicken, hotdogs, potatoes, chickpeas, bell peppers and fish sauce. Some add in carrots and green peas.  But I just used whatever I have in hand.  There wasn't even any single onion in this dish, but they were devoured magically. This dish made it to my children's most favorite list.  I was so thrilled because it was my first time to cook it for them.  And boy, they loved it!

Recipe:

1/2 lb chicken

1/2 lb pork shoulder butt, cubed

4-5 small potatos, diced

2-3 medium carrots, diced

2 bell peppers, red/green/yellow, cubed

3 pcs hotdogs, sliced

1 can chick-peas

1 can tomato sauce

garlic, minced

onions, cubed

Drizzle fish sauce to taste

Method:

1. Fry or grill potatoes and carrots till all sides are lightly brown. Set aside.
2. Saute garlic and onion on cooking oil. Add chicken, pork, and fish sauce. Let it cook till tender.
3. Add in hotdog slices, bell peppers, carrots, potatoes, chick peas, and tomato sauce.  Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
4. Sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper according to taste.  I skipped this step as the fish sauce made this dish flavorful already.
5. Serve it warm with white rice.

Enjoy!