Random Photos

We were busy on weekends but baking has been a neglected activity in the house. Last week, we tried cookies. We cheated. We used a pancake mix. And here's the result:



cookies look too pale for me.




Here's the batch of cookies that we had.

and the "cheat"



******

Yesterday I tried bento. Since there is not much leftover in the house, I came up with a fruit bento.





I'll try a real bento next time.

Adventures in Bento Making

As a child my Grandmother always prepare me lunch box for school. Whenever I wake up late and charge out of the house hurriedly, my Grandma would come after me and show up in school with my packed lunch and we would share the lunch together. My lunch would be composed of fish or chicken, rice, vegetables and mango slices. I would asked her to buy me a soda to down all the good foods she cook for me.

Those were the happier days that made my childhood a memorable one. For years to come, I have exchanged the lunch box with fast food. And when my Grandma died, the joy of bringing a lunch box to school was forgotten until I came across kaoko's blog : Kitchen Cow. Although Kaoko's is not the first blog on bento that I have browsed and read, her nationality and location gave me the idea to reinvent my lunchbox and unleash the creativity within.

I have to admit though that my accessories and staple is limited due to the lack of time to find bento tools and the lack of culinary skills. But internet make things possible. Bloggers that focuses in bento provided all the things you need to know about simple cooking and even tricks on food safety so I might as well say that I am doing well with the bento making.

And I might as well cite here that Kaoko is helping me out to get the things for my bento making. And this entry is one way of showing my gratitude for helping me and accommodating my request.

Thank you, Kaoko. First for the inspiration and now the help to buy the things for my bento. :)

Chocolate for Good Health

Yes. Chocolate is good for your health.


photo source: acupojava on flickr


The past few weeks has been a very busy one for me and I have been always on the run waiting for instructions from my employer on what to do next. And even if the job looks easy on the outset, a busy schedule can be stressing. And I would crave at the end of the day for something to eat, my guilty pleasure: chocolate.

And if you are worried about the bad effects of this yummy food then think again. Study shows that dark chocolate can lower blood pressure therefore combats heart related diseases. But there is a catch: you should take dark chocolate alone. It should not be milk chocolate or eaten with milk. Yes, to reap the good benefit of chocolate you should not drink milk right after you have enjoyed the dark chocolate.

So, take a bite and enjoy the health benefits of dark chocolate.

Another Bento Box

For today's work, i brought along another lunch box. P will be attending a training so i have plenty of time to prepare mine.





My bento box content: I will still have apple and oranges. I am also having tuna sandwiches and beef patty for lunch. I squeezed in two s'mores (grapes and orange fillings).

For my drinks, I will have my favorite green tea. (not shown)


Yum. :)

Taking the limelight : My first Bento Box

This is not the first bento box that I brought for lunch. But this is the first to be shown online. :)




My lunch is composed of the following:

1. apples
2. oranges
3. slices cucumber
4. apple-cinnamon bread
5. 1 Dunkin' Donut's munchkin
6. potted pork
7. some jell-o

I wish I was able to add some vegetable but I don't have much time to prepare one since I also prepared P's lunch box. Both have the same content so I did not post any picture here.

Dangers of Microwave Oven

One of my older colleague left me staring at her with amusement when she told me that her microwave oven in their house was seldom used. And to tickle my humor further she accounted how the microwave radiations leaks into the food and contaminate it. According to her, this will lead to cancer.

Is it true that microwave oven causes cancer?

I pored over my books on cooking and found one that specifically discusses microwave. According to the book, microwave oven is a broadcast network with shorter range. If you are familiar with the radio waves on broadcasting networks, this one is pretty the same. Their difference is that microwave's range is less than 2 inches while radio waves can go for miles. And instead of transmitting voice, it converts the energy to heat.

Surprisingly, it it used also to transmit phone calls and even data. And weather forecast are transmitted through microwave on Doppler radars.

I told her that heating or cooking your food on microwave do not increase your risk on having cancer. And it does not increase your electric bill as well. Microwave oven compared to other oven (i.e., toaster and conventional) does not require heating of its other parts. The food is the only thing that should be heated in the microwave oven, so there is no warm up/heat up -what so ever that are usual on cooking appliances.

And if someone understands how microwave works, they can maximize the benefit of this science.

Bento, Bento, Bento Boxes

My day did not exactly started right with all the traffic that is very typical with Monday. And with P still on diet, I am worried that he may not find the lunch I made palatable. So, as I let the fumes go down to its normal temperature I browsed the net for more bentos that I can use for P's lunchbox. Later, I was gaping at all those cute presentations of bento photographs that I was really really inspired to make my next bento a great one. By midday, I found myself searching for cute lunchboxes that I can use for my bento. I can't find a masculine one for P but I found twin bento boxes that I really like. Although I have to resort to online buying if he find the loots I had is not good enough for his liking, but for now I have to keep in mind that P is more of the functionality-kind-of-guy than a gender-biased person. I can't wait to show him our bento boxes.

the twins, not exactly of the same size.



the two tier is definitely mine..uhmm..since I ate more than him..






above is the cover of the two-tiered box

His, wider but one-tiered:





the picture on the cover:

Dragon Fruit

I never heard of this fruit until I found one in our pantry at work. It looks like a flower bud and i was really curious because it has a beautiful shade. When I asked my office colleague what kind of flower is it, she told me that the boss brought them from one of the local University. Few days after I was called in for a meeting and finally I was able to get more information about this fruit.

The fruit is from the cactus family and and also known as Rose Cactus. Out of curiosity, I took a bite on the slice that my colleague handed me. It does not taste anything. It's like eating a mouthful of grainy tasteless papaya without the smell.

According to those who tried cultivating this fruit, the ones found in other Asian countries taste sweeter than those planted locally. When I asked what are the uses of this fruit they showed me some goods where it was used as a sugar substitute, flavoring for some drinks and pastries and best eaten when chilled.


(IUnfortunately I was not able to take any photos)

I don't find any liking with this fruit though but there is this big possibility that it can offer loads of nutritional benefits for the body.

Overdue: Cakes and Birthdays

Some photos of cakes last year that were stored in my cellphone that should see the light:

my 2007 birthday cake:



after someone took a slice:



Julia's first month birthday cake



i can't remember what month (still Julia's)



Dad's birthday cake

Bottled Balut: A Philippine Exotic Food

...is now in a bottle. With the initiative of the balut producer from Pateros, the exotic food that people of the Philippines eat heartily though some have to close their eyes when eating, can now be bought in bottles. The good thing about this is that you will surely enjoy a gourmet balut 24/7 with the assurance that it undergo quality assurance and have a shelf life of two years.



It comes in three flavors: in brine, afritada and caldereta.

The innovation on this Filipino food was made possible by the support of the Philippine government through the Department of Science and Technology.

Stashed Away

Since I started the day talking about food, I might as well post here some of the things that I've enjoyed the past few weeks.

During my best friend's twins' first birthday celebration, I stuff myself with good foods from Don Henrico's:

I had pizza,



and tasty chicken:



then on my trip to Romblon I enjoyed the feast and the place:

Dessert

I just had my lunch and I am craving for a delicious sweet treat. I had a Halo-Halo flavored ice cream earlier and still want for more:






dippin' dots have more to offer.

yummy!

Long Life

This is not a food blog but I have to admit that when weekend comes the busiest part of our home is the kitchen. I am not a cook but I am a hearty eater and I love to discover new foods.

During my University days, when I have to stay at the dorm when I am broke I used to chow on any ramen I can find in my food stock. But my love affair with ramen did not start there. As early as grade school. my grandma would cook ramen when I came home from school. One of my fond memories with grandma is walking home from school with her and stopping by that ramen house located around the local grocers vicinity.

Unfortunately, I did not learn how to cook ramen at home. Well, except if you count these off the rack ramen noodles that you buy from the grocery store. I was browsing earlier for recipes when I came upon this weird ramen.. I am not sure though if my adventurous taste bud is willing to try it:



I am not sure if i want my ice cream dunked in my bowl of ramen. :)

Japanese Bento Box

I have been searching the web on how to make bento. Today is my lucky day because finally I found a blog that I am looking for: bento and recipe. Well, Min min did not exactly wrote the recipe there but at least she identified the content of the bento box and sometimes she gives a brief how-to on her post.

Want more? Visit her site and have fun.

Food Trip

This is out of topic, but i will post it as well:




With nothing to do during the weekend, we fill our tummy with loads of different dishes that are not fat and calorie free.



Have a great week everyone. :D

Pastel Colors

I found the color combination above in one of my Internet surfing.

It reminds me of the good times I had with my best friends back in the University after our gym class. I can still remember the aroma wafting from that Dunkin Donut store in the corner of the street were we used to hang out during our fresh man years. I wonder if the place still exists.




Have a bite.

Weekend Snapshot

diet....not. :P

We had our fill of burger and fries from our fave fastfood restaurant this weekend. After awhile, I had my favorite salad greens topped with egg. yum!

Breakfast on the Run

I woke up around 4:30 AM today and have to rush for my morning bath. It was freezing cold so I have to wait for few minutes for the hot water (we do not have hot shower). While waiting, I indulge myself with last night's creation. P asked me to prepare him some tiramiso cake. So I ate a slice of the forzen tiramisu (topped with strips od mango and caffeine free) while I sip a mug of hot tea...

Dig in your spoon

Summer is near, going out and soaking under the sun is one of the best thing to look forward to. But there are other things that I always look forward to aside from staying under the sun..

a big glass of halo-halo...



you will love the combination of crushed ice, sweet beans, bananas, and other sweet surprises.

Badmouthing Thyself and Others

I once suffered from depression when I was on my early twenties. It's like having a mood swing that goes on and off. But I never, ever badmouthed other people on my daily rants. I usually find myself forcing to hate that part of me that seems to enjoy sulking while the world keeps on revolving but I never tried to blame other people with my loneliness.

Today, I find it silly how much I've wasted of my youth on the depression thingy. Nobody deserves to feel melancholy but other people allows this thing to happen.

I don't know..maybe the secret of surviving that kind of crisis is accepting the way the world works for you.

I still have my daily crisis, mostly work related and I have cried twice because of frustation but it never made me feel bad about myself. It took me a week to adjust and recreate a new self-defense against this person. But certainly, you can never do anything to change another person just because she is digging her elbow on your ribcage. How in the world can someone cope with this kind of untangible thing? Try this:

Have a taste of something different for your taste bud..



fresh spring rolls from Max's Restaurant

They are great, comfort foods, believe me...and their fried chicken....yummy!



I don't know if I can stick to my diet resolutions..however...small portions wont hurt that diet. yeah, it wont and it is also great for your mental health.