So Soya

I am a Soya Milk addict, just like eating taho drinking soya milk is one of my most favorite activities. When I was visiting Noel in Singapore I had my OVERDOSE of Soya Milk because they just had abundant supply of Soya Milk in their groceries, you can choose different brands with different range of flavors, there are non fat soya milk and 100% soya milk they even had chocolate flavored ones, and I so envy my husband for having Soya Milk at 1 liter cartons at his disposal.

When I came back home from Singapore, I missed my daily Soya Milk supply, because Filipinos seem to not favor the Soya Milk products as much as Singaporeans do. We can barely find any store that sells Soya Milk even at 250 ml containers. I often find some in mini stop and thats about it. But today must be my lucky day. I went to Pure Gold Jr. to buy some supplies for my daughter - her favorite Lemon Square Cheese Cup Cakes, her favorite Chocolate cupcake, some chewy candies and the strawberry flavored Potchi. I also bought her Nido 3+ milk and some food for the house - bread, hot dogs, vinegar and soy sauce. And as I was browsing through every isle of pure gold jr. and was contemplating on buying nike cartons of Bear Brand Strawberry Milk drink and Chocolait I saw it, they finally have a plain unflavored 1 Liter carton of Soya Milk and I almost jumped from delight. I immediately grabbed 3 cartons, which I hope would last atleast a week, but knowing my love for Soya Milk, it would probably only last a maximum of 3 days.

I chilled 1 carton of Soya Milk as soon as arrived home and watched some of my newly discovered TV Series. And after a few hours remembered I had it and was excited to try. I poured myself a glass of the Soya Milk and was ready for my first gulp.

Heaven! I just love the natural flavor of the soya milk, just like taho only its not chunky, it has a smooth texture that fits well with its light flavor. It definitely met my expectations. I am so happy to finally have a Soya Milk in the market and would definitely be buying more of this delicious and healthy goodness in a box.

Now that I have shared this wonderful new discovery (atleast in the Philippine Market) let me share a few important words that I got from Wikipedia regarding Soya Milk.

Soy milk has about the same amount of protein (though not the same amino acid profile) as cow’s milk. Natural soy milk contains little digestible calcium as it is bound to the bean’s pulp, which is insoluble in humans. To counter this, many manufacturers enrich their products with calcium carbonate available to human digestion. Unlike cow’s milk, it has little saturated fat and no cholesterol. Soy products contain sucrose as the basic disaccharide, which breaks down into glucose and fructose. Since soy doesn’t contain galactose, a product of lactose breakdown, soy-based infant formulas can safely replace breast milk in children with galactosemia.

Soy milk is promoted as a healthy alternative to cow’s milk for reasons including:

• Source of lecithin and vitamin E

• Lacks casein

• It is safe for people with lactose intolerance or milk allergy

• Contains far less saturated fat than cow’s milk.

• Contains isoflavones, organic chemicals that may possibly be beneficial to health.

Read more about Soya Milk in HERE.

And if you are excited about Soya Milk as much as I am, right now I can only recommend going to Pure Gold Jr. to look for the product, I am not sure if they have it in SM Groceries or others but its definitely worth taking a look. Also this brand Soyfresh offers them in a whole range of flavors that you may want to try.

Delicious Bangus

Lately I have discovered two delicious bangus (milkfish) dishes that I have fallen in love with, both are boneless and cooked so much differently from one another, even my daughter loves them both.

my dad introduced me to the deliciously char grilled bangus of Pixie’s sinugba. (I will upload my own pictures the next time I buy one) the cost more or less PHP 190 Pesos for one whole grilled bangus that is perfectly deboned and grilled with tomatoes and onions.

Photo Taken From: ClickTheCity

When you order the Inihaw na Bangus make sure to order the one without the “kaliskis” or Scales so that you will able to eat the dish without problems. And make sure to order the freshly grilled one, if you have to wait, wait, because the freshly cooked ones are the most delicious ones, besides if you order one that has been sitting in the store for a bit, it might not taste as good as it should. Enjoy this whole Bangus with a soysauce with calamansi (small citrus fruit) or patis (fish sauce) with calamsi, and you sure will eat a ton.

The next Bangus dish that I have recently started falling in love with is the Century Bangus Tocino which was introduced to me by my cousin who posted pictures of her daughter enjoying a hefty meal with rice and tomatoes with the fish tocino.

Photo taken from: STYLEBIBLE.PH

I have been so intrigued at how this fish will taste like after it has been made into a tocino. We are all very familiar with Pampanga’s Best’s Pork and Chicken Tocino that we have grown to love over the years, but a fish that is made into a tocino is a new concept. So I tried it and lo and behold loved it.

My daughter also loved the fish most especially with a bowl of sliced tomatoes to go with it, and it wasn’t fishy tasting at all, it tasted like any regular tocino and it was really good. It was not too sweet and it was well balanced in flavor in every way and tastes like what tocino should taste like. Although not all groceries around the metro has this in their freezer, you will have to go to bigger groceries like SM Hypermarket or Pioneer Center or other bigger groceries, because I tried puregold and they don’t carry the product - at around PHP 110 Pesos for 1 pack of 1 Kg Bangus Tocino it is definitely worth the effort.

Korean Beef Stew

I Promised myself last week that this week I will cook Korean beef Stew and Today I did. It took me three hours to stew the beef to become soft and tender but I am loving it!

Ingredients to make a pot of Korean Beef Stew:

Beef
1 Cup Soy Sauce / kikkoman
3/4 Cups Sugar
1 Whole Bell Pepper
1 Whole Onion
1 Whole Garlic
1 Chunk of Ginger - Skinned
1 Bay Leaf
Leeks
Sesame Seeds 

Start Boiling the beef in low heat into a pot filled with water, once its boiling (make sure to scoop out the blood that is formed during the cooking process) add the soy sauce and sugar and allow to boil. Once the mixture is boiling add the whole bell pepper, onion, garlic, ginger and bay leaf, and let the mixture boil until the stew is ready.

The Sesame seeds and chopped leeks will be added as garnish and color to the dish once its cooked. Make sure to fry the sesame seeds until its golden brown, and the leeks should be washed and chopped in fine pieces

The sesame seed does not just make the dish look pretty it also add it own unique flavor to the dish, so I think it is really important to have the sesame seeds when cooking a pot of Korean beef stew. Same goes for the leek. :)

Now that I shared my delicious dinner, Bon Apetit!

Quick Fix: Healthy Dinner

Repolyo Guisado - Sauteed Cabbage

Ingredients:
A clove of Garlic - Skinned and finely chopped
2 Small Red Onions - Skinned and finely chopped
1 cabbage - Chopped into smaller pieces
3 Tomatoes - diced
1/8 kilo of ground pork
1 cup pork buillion / 1 know pork cube 

Fry the garlic, onion and tomato on a hot pan with cooking oil. Once the mix is cooked add the ground pork and continue frying until the pork is cooked. Add the 1 cup pork buillion and let boil. Once boiling add the cut cabbage and continue cooking in low heat until the cabbage is cooked to your liking. Serve.

This is an easy to do, budget friendly, healthy meal that can be served at dinner or lunch, I love the “guisado” taste and like I said its healthy both for me and my daughter.

Muchas Gracias Mary Grace

Yesterday my college friends and I decided to meet for a movie date. I met becky at around 1 PM at Red Ribbon near their house, then went on our way to Alabang Town Center. We got our Salt Tickets for the screening at 3:15 PM and decided to eat something while waiting for our other friend (Cess) to arrive. Becky said, do you like cakes? Of course I liked cakes LOL :) who doesn’t right? She said she can’t wait to show me a slice of heaven.

We walked from the Movie Ticket Concierge to the front of the Alabang Town Center. I asked her if we were eating the slice of heaven in starbucks, she said no. As we were around the starbucks area, instead of going right to starbucks we turned left and entered a wonderfully decorated and charming restaurant called Mary Grace.

We were seated at a cozy table just beside the side window and browsed the Menu, Becky already knew what she wanted to make me try, so I said we should order something else like a pasta or a sandwich just to have variety on our pallets. Then I decided on ordering the Seafood Pasta (PHP 244 per plate) - A medley of fresh clams, shrimp, squid, mussels, and cream dory which lend their flavors to a tomato based sauce which is enhanced by herbs, olives. and mushrooms. Sounds delectable right? It truly is, I only forgot to take a picture of the wonderful dish, because I got excited to eat it as soon as the plate was set on our table. The pasta is really good and the noodles is really very well prepared, my only problem with the dish is that I hoped there would be two pieces of shrimp. I guess they weren’t telling alie when they said in the description - A medley of clams, SHRIMP, SQUID, mussels, etc. It really only had one shrimp and 1 slice of squid. But the dish is really good, Becky and I were able to finish the whole dish.

After eating the plateful of pasta, Becky and I dove in to her slice of heaven that is called Chocolate Truffle Cake (PHP 194 per slice). When it was first set on the table I thought it looked like any ordinary cake. I tried a piece and it was really heaven. The Cake was served to us initially before the pasta arrived, which made a bit of sense because cake takes a shorter amount of time to slice than to prepare the whole pasta dish. We set it aside for a while to eat the pasta, so the cake was sitting on our table for a bit before we finally devoured it. But to my surprise at first bite of the cake, the slice always seemed cool on my mouth, and every bite you take will make you appreciate the goodness of the cake because it melts in your mouth. The cake is very moist and very balanced in a way that the chocolate flavor doesn’t over power the truffles and the truffles doesn’t over power the chocolate, and the sweetness of the cake is just right - not too sweet not too bland.

This is a real treat for me, being able to spend a fabulous day with my college friends, and experiencing a new and exciting restaurant that I would surely love to visit again.

Photo taken from Mary Grace Cafe Facebook Fan Page

Who's Joey Pepperoni?

Image from: Joey Pepperoni Facebook Fan Page

Today I spent the day with my daughter. We went to SM Southmall just so Nike could enjoy a full day of fun, rides and slides. I initially took her to SM Storyland, and contemplated on just buying her two tickets for two rides for PHP 80 or buying her a ride all you can ticket for PHP 250. You can guess what I chose, ofcourse I wanted my daughter to enjoy the day so I bought her the unlimited pass. When she got tired of riding the rides at Storyland I took her to Kids Village (a play and slide place) at the 3rd level of SM Southmall its like a small play gym with a wooden children’s play house a wooden slide and ball pool and a few toys and rockers. I also bought her the unlimited pass that she used to spend 2 hours full of sliding and playing, she even got bullied by a little boy who kicked her back, and threw toys at her, but Nike remained calm and composed, she just ignored the mean boy, she didn’t cry and she just continued playing.

So after a tiresome afternoon both Nike and I were HUNGRY and thirsty. While walking I saw this advertisement of Joey Pepperoni indicating that they had these 99 peso meal with drinks and a buy 1 take 1 pizza for 250 pesos so I got intrigued and the picture looked really yummy. So Nike and I made our way to Joey Pepperoni.

Nike pointed to the first thing that she saw that has rice, The Chicken Strips with Rice and it looked yummy enough so I ordered it and I ordered an 8-inch The works Pizza - It is called the works because it had mushrooms, pepporoni, olives, bacon and all the works. We were asked to wait for 20 minutes for our order, probably because thats how long it usually takes them to cook a meal to order so I agreed, I told them it was okay.

After the 20 minutes was up, we received our orders, and wow, was I disappointed. Not only was the Chicken Strips Dry-Looking it was overcooked, dry and it was not presented well. I forgot to take a picture of the food after it was delivered to us, because Nike was already hungry. But it was an ultimate disappointment. Even the rice was dry, it felt like it was heated from the microwave, it had an unnatural hotness to it. To top off the disappointing look of the dish, the garlic that was meant to be part of the chicken strips was BURNT, it wasn’t the crunchy golden brown garlic that you would expect from a restaurant. It was really burnt, giving the dish a burnt taste to it.

Image of the burnt garlic

Thats what I can say about their 99-Peso Chicken Strips with Rice meal. I do not recommend it at all. But the pizza was okay, it wasn’t the best pizza I have tasted but when you’re hungry it would be a good enough pizza to eat. It tasted normal and it was not burnt. Of course I wasn’t able to take a picture of the whole thing when it was delivered because I was really hungry, but I was able to take a picture of a slice.

The whole pizza was good enough to finish, although it wasn’t something that I would go out of my way of to buy.

We were able to quench our thirst and hunger, but it was not an experience that we are happy about, I probably would not be eating in Joey’s Pepperoni again soon, but I will definitely try them again, someday - because I remember I already ate there before probably around 2 years ago, and the experience was not as bad as this one, but their food is just average tasting. 

Italian Chicken Pasta

The Full Bowl Of Italian Chicken Pasta

A Closer Look at Yumminess

Individual Containers

Yummy Grated Cheese

The Herbs and Spices

The Delicious and Rich Sauce

The Perfectly Cooked Swirly Pasta

Cheese and Pesto Bread from Pugon

Italian Herb Chicken Pasta

I made a decision yesterday that today, Saturday July 24, 2010, will be Italian Pasta day. I want to recover the reputation of my Italian Pasta after cooking a disastrous pasta in Pasig. NOT MY FAULT, my cousin used the pasta sauce I was going to cook and I ended up using TOMATO sauce which is a really, really bad idea, Anyway today, the meal was delicious, Nike enjoyed every bite, and I was glad that I was able to bounce back after such a sour disaster =P

t was really delicious, even my daughter finished her plate full of pasta, and our Nanny enjoyed a really full bowl of it. Yummy!

Hunger Buster

This Afternoon I am feeling really good, maybe its the vitamins that I started taking or maybe its because I was able to wake up at 7 AM this morning :) But I decided to Bust my Hunger with a 5 minute quick fix meal that is oh so delicious! Nike and I prepared a meal to share :)

My Buttered Pan Grilled Cheese

The Ingredients:



2 Slices of Walterbread Weight Control Sliced Bread
3 Slices of Eden Melt Sarap Cheese / 2 Eden Cheese Singles
1 Teaspoon butter

The Process:



Melt the butter in low heat and place the 2 slices of bread to toast and absorb the melted butter. Flip and turn to have an even toast on both side of the bread.



Once toasted place the cheese on top of one of the sliced bread.



and cover it with the other bread to form a SANDWICH! :) Continue toasting the bread for a few seconds, to melt the cheese. Once perfectly toasted.



Slice the Buttered Pan Grilled Cheese into half or cut them into small animal shapes or fun shapes using a cookie cutter.

And then serve with Ice-Cold MILO! :)

Yumminess!



Doesn’t that just make you want to eat? :)

My Experiment: liseron d'eau

liseron d’eau is the french word for a Filipino favorite vegetable known as kangkong, in English it is known as swamp cabbage or river spinach which sounds very unappetizing and I think does not do justice to the delicious vegetable that kangkong really is, so for the sake of this article I’d rather use the Filipino term or the french term which sounds so sophisticated LOL :)

Anyway, I am a food fanatic, I told my husband before, that I would rather use our credit card to buy delicious food to eat a sumptuous meal, than to buy any clothes or shoes or bags or whatever. Thats usually a topic we argue about because I love eating, and my husband does too, but when it comes to spending money he would rather buy something tangible rather than buying a hefty meal.

Today budget is really tight, I only have a few Pesos left in my wallet that I need to stretch till the end of the month, and I hate being on a budget because it ruins my desire to buy tons of food. So today, being on a budget and all, and craving for vegetables I decided to buy the ever so cheap liseron d’eau otherwise known as kangkong.

I wanted to eat kangkong, but I don’t want to do the ordinary kangkong with bagoong, nor the adobong kangkong. I wanted a liseron d’eau dish that tastes different but will taste somewhat familiar enough for everyone in my household to love. So I decided to use only 4 additional ingredients to go with my liseron d’eau.

I used:

2 Cloves of Garlic - Skinned and minced
2 Teaspoonful Salted Butter - I use Magnolia
2 Tablespoons of Sesame Oil
5-6 Tablespoons of Oyster Sauce - you can use more if you prefer

and ofcourse

2 rolls of Fresh liseron d’eau - cut the leaves and some of the softer stems

The Technique:

I boiled around 2 liters of water, and when the water was boiling hot, I dropped the liseron d’eau to boil for around 2 minutes, drained the water and washed the blanched liseron d’eau in fresh running water until it is no longer hot.

I set aside the liseron d’eau and prepared the “sauce”

On a hot pan I melted the Salted butter and sautéed the minced garlic until its crispy and golden brown, added the 2 tablespoons of Sesame Oil and the 6 tablespoons of Oyster Sauce once the mixture is slightly cooked I added the blanched liseron d’eau in the mixture and cooked for 3-4 minutes. If the sliseron d’eau still seems a bit dry you can add more oyster sauce and sesame oil until you feel it is the right amount of sauce for your liking.

And this is how my Garlic liseron d’eau in Sesame Oil and Oyster Sauce dish looked like after cooking.

   

I was a bit nervous to try the dish at first because I didn’t taste it while I was cooking but once I did I thought it was delectable and delicious, I couldn’t stop eating. Even our yaya loved it and we finished the whole dish. And now I am stuffed and blogging about a great new experience.

A DOME-ful Delight

I had the opportunity to try out a new cafe today, I saw it when I was browsing through books and magazines at Powerbooks SM Megamall, the name of the Restaurant was NERO by Dome and what intrigued me most is the picture of Churros on their Small Tarpaulin which you will see when you are about to exit Powerbooks. I love Churros and I told myself that my daughter and I will be eating some Churros before heading home.

When we went there the place was almost empty - probably because its almost closing time, we arrived 8:15 PM. Or maybe because the Cafe is not very notice-able outside powerbooks, unlike other Cafe’s and Resto’s where the Neon lights will make their presence known, Nero by Dome is just force hiding in the shadow.

My daughter and I were seated in a comfortable coffee table - coffee chair. I looked at the menu and saw the Tuna Nicoise and went to order that as well, it looked delightful in the menu pictures and I didn’t want to just order dessert without having dinner first.

The first to arrive was the delectable Giant Raspberry Iced Tea:

I wanted to try a different flavoured Iced Tea since most restaurants only offer Lemon Iced Tea. Although this is not the first time I tasted Raspberry Iced Tea, it was still Deliciously different. And they said it was Giant, it really was. Although I was really thirsty from playing and walking the whole afternoon so I emptied my glass with no problem.

Then the PHP95.00 Churros came, it was really hot from being cooked to order. Each Churro was perfectly cooked and crispy from the outside and soft on the inside, just like all Churros should be. The chocolate dip was so divine, it was not melted Nutella (like some that I experienced from being a frequent Churro buyer) It was real melted Chocolate, it was not just sweet but you can taste a quality chocolate flavour. If I had not been stuffed by the Tuna Nicoise I ordered I would eat this heavenly Churro to the last crumb.

Ahh the amazing Tuna Nicoise, at first I thought I wasn’t hungry, but when I saw this dish on my table I wanted to munch it to the last bite. The Chips that came with it I believe was not home-made (I might be wrong though) It was flavoured Sour Cream and Onion, but it was delicious and complimented the Tuna Nicoise perfectly. I had my first mouthful of the Tuna Nicoise the moment the platter was laid down on the table (of course after I took a picture of it) and it was a real mouthful, the panini was stuffed with so much Tuna, Olives and all the works that you cannot take a bite and not spill some stuffing everywhere. But the first was really heavenly, it was hot and delicious, the olives complimented the taste of the tuna and the onions, the scrambled eggs were perfectly cooked. Once you take a bite of this sandwich it will be hard to stop, and I didn’t. I finished the dish (of course my daughter took a few bites) without hesitation.

I can’t wait to go back to Nero by Dome and try other food from their Menu, and I am sure I will be coming back for more, because its not just the food thats delicious, their ambiance (they offer free wifi) and the waiters are really friendly and nice.

Food Crazy - Crazy Food

I slept early last night, well earlier than I usually sleep, but woke up still very late — What can I say, I love sleeping. So when I woke up I thought this was gonna be an ordinary day, and lo and behold it was. LOL. My family and I decided to eat out for lunch at Max’s Restaurant where I saw tons of pastries that I can’t help but buy lots. I usually have this cravings when its almost that time of the month. But I hate these moments of the month, I tend to ate tons of food that just slips to my thighs, my already bumpy tummy, my flabby face and my large arms ugh, I just hate being fat.

So today I bought a box of macaroons, a box of caramel bars, and a box of cream cheese brownies that I can’t stop chewing and eating, and I love eating them! I just can’t stop. Help me stop! and I hate myself every time I eat because when I see other peoples sexy figure I just want to start running 100 miles then and there. But the next moment I see delicious food I grab it and munch munch munch.

Ugh Food! I love it and hate it! Ugh! Help! I’m going grazy!

Confessions of a "Poor Woman"

I have never been so emotionally defeated by money before, and I also have never been drastically affected by the word OFFLINE either, until today. I woke up knowing that the only money I have left that I have been waiting to clear in my unionbank bank account finally cleared last night. I saved the only 15 pesos I have left to be able to commute from my home to the nearest bank this morning, knowing that I will be coming back home with an adequate amount of money to buy food until pay day on Thursday, but I could never have been more wrong.

I woke up and got ready to go to the bank this morning in a cheerful mood, I even brought along my daughter to accompany me. My First Stop - RCBC Savings Bank ATM - through the very unclear monitor of the ATM my first attempt at withdrawal failed. OOPS, RCBC Savings is not linked with Megalink, My bad. So I went inside RFC to go the BPI ATM and viola the machine is currently Broken, stuck on a page where it said, please take receipt. Then I went to BDO ATM, finally a machine that was working perfectly fine and with a readable screen, I tried to withdraw and the machine told me, Account Temporarily Inaccesible Please contact your Bank. So that’s when I decided to spend another 8 pesos that I was able to rummage from my bag and go to Unionbank. As I was heading to the ATM the words OFFLINE flashed in front of my eyes, and I feel so inconvenienced I was ready to retaliate. I asked the guard how long the ATM will be offline, and he said they don’t have an idea. I asked if it affects all ATM transactions and not just this machine, they said its a network Offline, so I cannot withdraw from ANY ATM. I went inside to ask if I can do an over the counter transaction instead, they said NO, because all systems are OFFLINE. I asked them if they were able to give out NOTICES to all their Customers about this, because like me, a person counting on that particular money, on that particular day, to be able to buy food to cook and to eat may be heavily inconvenienced. They said NO, they only knew about the System OFFLINE this morning. I was ready to cry.

There I was, holding my daughters hand, it already started raining outside, no money in my pockets, and this bank personnel telling me that I can’t withdraw the only money I have left to buy food and to commute home. I felt defeated, stressed and distressed, but there was nothing I could do. I sat down a little bit and rummaged through my bag, perhaps I could find more coins to allow myself and my daughter a comfortable tricycle ride home. I found the 10 Singapore Dollars that Noel gave me as a souvenir when Nike and I were leaving Singapore. A blessing it truly was. Nike and I walked from Unionbank back to our original destination RCBC Bank - Crossed the Street to BDO and just beside that A money changer, Our savior, the 10 Dollars was exchanged to 300 pesos.

I have never felt so bad in my life, the way that I felt during that time. I felt helpless and all I could think about was where will I find the money to buy food? Are we going to walk from here all the way home? I was penniless and frustrated. I felt angry at unionbank that they would have me go through this, I had money. They have it, unfortunately it was OFFLINE — with no real notice for the inconvenience they are causing the life of their customers.

Thanks to the souvenir money I was able to buy food, it will only last for the whole day, so I have tomorrow to worry about. I hope tomorrow I can get my money from the bank.

Steak and Clothes

Sunday is usually a special lunch day here in my Parents house, and today being sunday is no exception. The only difference is that I was the one assigned to cook the meal. My mom prepared everything and all I needed to do was grill it. Today was Steak day! Oh so Yummy! I woke up earlier than I usually do so I can prepare myself from the heat that I was about to endure. It has been really hot here in the Philippines lately and doing some grilling / barbecue just makes it even hotter. But the food turned out great and everyone was so happy with my Medium Well steak!

After lunch one of our family friends came over and had a bag of goodies for me, I decided I will start selling stuff in MULTIPLY again. And I busied myself the whole day taking pictures of the clothes and editing the store website.

hope you can drop by and see the clothes I have for sale at my SWEET ARTICLES STORE.