Every month I get together with fellow foodies here in Chicago to do a meal swap. We each prepare a meal of our choice, package them up in entree sized containers and pass them out to everyone when we get together. This has been a great and easy way to have several meals already prepared without having to put much effort in! It certainly makes it easy for us to pack up lunches for work and save a few dollars.

For the food swap tonight, I prepared a Filipino dish called menudo. This version of menudo is completely different from what you may be familiar with in Mexican and/or Texan cuisine. This dish is traditionally made of garlic, onions, diced pork, pork liver, various diced vegetables, soy sauce and tomato sauce. The main thing about menudo is that the ingredients are prepped to be roughly the same size. My parents often made this dish for their catering events and I had the wonderful task of dicing the vegetables. This is also a great dish because it gets better over time and can easily be frozen. It's best served with steamed rice.


2 lbs pork shoulder, pork butt, or pork chops
2 tablespoons canola oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, sliced
garlic salt & pepper to taste
1/4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 medium potatoe, peeled & diced
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1 package frozen peas & carrots
1 cup raisins


Prepare your pork (regardless of cut) by dicing pork in small bite sized pieces.

In a wok or shallow pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add garlic and onions.

Once onions have softened, add pork and season to taste; stir.

Add soy sauce, tomato sauce, water and potatoes; stir. Allow pork to cook in this sauce for 10 minutes to absorb flavors.

Add beans, peas, carrots and raisins; stir. Allow to cook over medium high heat for another 10 minutes.

Serve over steamed rice or allow flavors to meld overnight and enjoy the following day.