One of the most empowering steps you can take towards achieving a good life is to begin cooking for yourself rather than relying on restaurants, takeaways and packaged foods. Honestly, I am not really a good cook, but I prefer to cook our own food than ordering foods from outside. Cooking is one of the most empowering things you can do for yourself. It lets you connect with your food directly because it allows you to choose and prepare the foods you know will make your body happy. When you cook wholesome meals, you are nourishing yourself, both in body and soul. And when you cook for friends and family, you are giving them a gift of nourishment and love. Most of all, cooking should be fun. It is a journey, an activity you can share with your friends, family, and your children (if you have). You can also share your specialty to your friends on Facebook. :-)

Have a great day everyone! All the best! :)

What is our breakfast today? Oops! Not a breakfast anymore because we woke up late, and it’s almost lunch time, so this is what we called a brunch, a combination of breakfast and lunch. Anyway, I made this so easy to prepare brunch for us. I made grits, ham and hard-boiled eggs, plus a milk chocolate "Ovaltine" and a coffee (combination of the two).

I like grits because it is very easy to prepare, and it is really good, especially when it is still hot. Anyhow, do you know that the white corn grits contain more calories, protein, carbohydrates, fiber and fats than the yellow corn grits? Nevertheless, both grits are good for our health. And I'm glad I have that two: white (rice)and yellow (corn) grits. The fiber and other contents which can be found in grits, help us to feel full longer periods of time and it helps to promote regular digestive functioning. In addition, grits contain almost no sugar and mainly consist of starches. So, if you are trying to reduce weight, include grits in your diet. It will also flatten your stomach if you eat it at least three times a week.

Good luck and all the best (in the dieting journey)!

All the food we eat, whether it’s a snack or a meal, should be very tasty and gratifying. If we choose delicious foods every time we eat, rather than trying to choke down foods we don’t like but think are good for us, we will be much more satisfied. And if you are always satisfied with your food choices, you are much less likely to obsess about food. Fortunately, there are literally hundreds of delicious and nutritious food choices out there, including many varieties of fruits and vegetables that you have probably never even tried.

Going shopping for food and cooking for yourself, rather than simply picking up a meal at the local fast food restaurant or heating up a frozen ready-meal are proactive ways to stop food obsessions. Not only do they make you more conscious of your food choices, but they also give you a sense of accomplishment. The simple act of preparing a meal also helps you to take time to nourish and provide for your soul.

Bitter-melon or bitter gourd, is what "ampalaya" is.
Anyhow, here are the ingredients of my simple Ampalaya con Carne Norte.

Ingredients:
1 pc. Large ampalaya
1 ¼ cup chopped onion
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 pc. Medium-sized tomato, sliced
1 small can of carne norte or corn beef
2 eggs, lightly beatin
And salt and pepper to taste.

Preparation:
1. Blanch ampalya in boiling water, then immediately rinse in ice water. Strain and set aside.
2. Saute onion, garlic and tomato, and then add corn beef. Allow to simmer for about 2 minutes.
3. Add ampalaya, and then season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Pour in beaten eggs before mixing everything lightly.

Enjoy!

Do you like arroz caldo?

I seldom prepare this dish, but when I am craving for it, I will just make it at home because there is no arroz caldo at the nearby restaurant. So, here’s how to prepare this soupy rice.

Ingredients:

• Chicken thighs or drumstick 
• 2 cups of sticky rice (uncooked) 
• 1 qt. of chicken stock 2 knobs of ginger (peeled, chopped) 
• 4 cloves of garlic (chopped roughly) 
• 1 onion (chopped) Green onion or onion leaves (chopped into small size) 2 tablespoon patis or fish sauce (optional) 
• Salt and Pepper

Procedure: 

• Get a big hot pot, add some olive oil and brown the chicken, the salt and pepper. 
• When you flip over the chicken, add the chopped onion and let it sautee until the other side of the chicken browns.
• Add garlic, give a quick toss and add uncooked rice. 
• Mix the rice and add fish sauce (optional). Add ginger. 
• Mix around and chicken stock. 
• Cover and bring to simmer to stir. Making sure rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Continue to check the tenderness of the rice. If mixture is getting too thick, loose with lukewarm water.  

Ciao!

When the holiday season starts, people tend to make a lot of excuses and pretend to be always hungry in order to try all the sumptuous dishes being served in the dining table. It is going to be an endless adventure of munching for the entire week. This is going to be fun but just imagine the amount of calories that you’ve been accumulating. You’ll just be surprised when you get to bond with the weighing scale when the season ends.

As much as possible, discipline yourself not to over eat during the entire season. It’s okay to taste everything but make sure that everything is in moderation. After all, when the summer season arrives, there is a need for you to shed off extra fats to be able to fit into your gorgeous bikinis. Do yourself a favor, if you could maintain your slim figure, much better. This isn’t just for looking sexy but for health purposes as well. Obese people are more prone to diseases compared to the physically fit ones.

"Health is wealth" , please remember that. 

Our body needs proper nutrition to keep us alive, strong and healthy. The different parts of our body work well when we eat the right kind and amount of food. It is important to consider the different nutrients we get everyday from the food we eat. Eat food rich in protein to help the body grow big and strong, carbohydrates and fats provide the body with heat and energy, and food rich in vitamins and minerals to make the body free from diseases and illnesses.

Eating a balanced diet helps maintain a pleasing personal appearance and good health. Always eat three meals in a day. Have a complete breakfast to give you the fuel needed by the body for the whole day activities. Eat green, yellow and leafy vegetables, and fresh fruits. Drink milk everyday. Avoid eating too much candies, chocolates, and junk food. They are not good for the body.

A day before the third day backwards from today (yeah, just on this week), I never thought I encountered a vegetable called "red spinach" which is far way different of what I expect of what it is after I heard from a co-blogger friend told me that she always bought it from their market in Norway. She said it's what we called an  " alugbati " vegetable in our birth country Philippines. Then, looking back the day I saw the label red spinach in the market where I shopped (yeah, last Wednesday this week) I immediately felt the giddy feeling that after how many years I can now eat one of my favorite leafy vegetable ("alugbati"). To my dismay, it isn't apparently. But still, I got it to try and test its taste. I am looking forward of cooking mixed vegetables in coconut milk ("ginataang-gulay") after this. I can just imagine the excitement journey. Ha!

I have a complete leafy vegetables of sweet potato tops, swamp spinach "kangkong" and that red spinach to go with the taro root "gabi", purple eggplant "talong", bitter melon "ampalaya" along with its spices like ginger, onion leaves, bell pepper (orange, red and green), lemon grass and tomato. Yay! I can't wait. Now, am hungry. Ha!

Pizza is the easiest way to eat when you are in a hurry and this is most light food whenever you go. Before, I do not like eating pizza but now I am used to this food, actually it is now one of my favorite foods. Pizza has a lot of flavors but in my taste every flavor gives different taste and I can do accept it all. After giving birth of Sam, I need to watch out my weight. So far, I maintain my figure not but still I am really very careful on what to eat and drink. I am not super health conscious but it is better to be safe right?

Anyway, if you live here in United States pizza is available everywhere! This serves as the food for everybody but just to tell you, I am loving with rice still, haha! Rice is forever be the main course in a day. You can call me a rice girl, I will not complain about it! Wink.

Time to have pizza . Let us eat and have some slice of pizza. Yumm!

Two days ago, I had a friends get-together for the four of us, here in our place. We had it specifically in downtown. We had food trip and of course, the laugh trip. Ha! It is a great moment. The first time being together for the four of us, after more than six months. My second time went-out without my infant with me. And so, the highlight of the food trip was eating in "The Boiling Crab" restaurant, my first time.

The mild cajun dungeness flavor of the shrimps, taste really great! You would forgot that you are in the restaurant. Well, all the people there have their plastic bibs because it is a shell seafood restaurant. So, it is not a shy moment since all eats that way.
And because I cannot get over with the shrimps, I order a pound weight the next day! I eat it in the house with a little share for my DH (he don't like shrimps much). Yay! Happy me! :-)

... from my husband point of view. It is an "in-demand" at the  moment. It has been how many days successive which my DH bought chicken in the market and let me do the frying. He said he likes the taste of my cooking than in the famous food chain like KFC, Mc Donald's, pollo loco and such. Forgive me big food chains but this is just a home-made ones. Yours are great too but DH likes to have home-made ones especially from his wife's cooking. Smile. But yes, he likes my deep-fried chicken. And I have no problem of cooking it for him. In fact, I am very much happy serving his one of his favorite home-made ones cooked by yours truly. Now if you excuse what my DH brag, I am going to unlock my secret of how I cook it. Aside from a hot oil (yes, put and take-out only chickens from stove pan in a hot oil), my secret ingredients of frying a chicken ala Cacai M. is: cooking oil (I use olive oil), meat tenderizer, seasoned salt, ground pepper and flour. One thing too is: I made cuts in the pieces of chicken since it is urgent (can't marinade anymore). It is a choice if you like to take the skin or leave it on. I like to leave it on, the crispy skin makes it more yummy. And that's it! The procedure? After gathering the ingredients, you have to: (1) Wash pieces of chicken, (2) Put oil in a pan and let it boil, (3) make "cuts" of the pieces of chicken using knife, (4) put the meat tenderizer, seasoned salt and bell pepper just enough to taste, (5) coat it of a flour, (6) then fry in a hot oil and again, only take-out the last batch in a hot oil (not that you will take it out only after it is a little bit cold. That's it! Enjoy the "ala Cacai M. fried chicken" ! Whew! ;-)

Or is it just reheating it? Which is which, cooking or reheating? Ah, either way. Ha ha! And my kitchen journey continues.

I used to cook a canned corned beef not just reheating it. I use cooking as a term when it involves cooking oil, garlic, onion, salt and a pan. While I just use the term "reheating" when I just poured-in a canned corned beef in a heated pan without putting anything. Now, if you ask me which is better, I have to say cooking the canned corned beef, well, at least to my taste. Who would have to eat after all, right? I don't know about you, maybe you prefer just reheating it up than cooking or making it a mix to a sauteed potatoes and carrots with bell peppers adding to the ingredients. I also love that recipe to which until now it doesn't taste monotonous unto my taste. Yummy as can be! Wink!

How about you, do you like cooking or reheating the corned beef? And how do you like eating it, by making it a viand unto your rice or put it in a bread? For me, I love both for the latter question. What about you?

It's not a date sandwich, that such term use when there's a legal holiday which falls on the last weekdays of work, but a common term of a food or snacks. Do you love eating sandwich? Or how do you like doing or preparing it for your kiddos, spouse or anyone? Or to sell it on your cafeteria or store?

Alright, yours truly is just a mere homemaker (and a mommy-to-be) who enjoys homemaking as my full-time career. I love cooking and preparing foods which my husband love to eat. One food he likes me to prepare is the sandwich. He let me prepare it for his snacks (but he call it "for lunch") at work. And it is already a routine for me when we get-up at 5 a.m. in the morning while he fix for himself to get ready for work and me, doing the ironing and preparing his sandwich to put in a brown paper lunch bag together with another sandwich bag of potato lays or pringles on it. 

I used to put pickles and lettuce on his sandwich but currently he don't want me to include in the ingredients so I just follow what he said, after all, he's the one will eat it. His sandwich includes: 2 slices of bread, sandwich spread, turkey slices and top with a single cheese. To prepare it, (1) I just put the sandwich spread on one side of the slice bread then followed with the turkey slice and the single cheese. (2) Then put the other slice of bread on it. (3) Wrap the sandwich beautifully with a paper towel and put it in a plastic sandwich bag before putting it up on the brown paper lunch bag with the other bag of  classic "lays" potato. That's it! One of my creation in my kitchen journey. :-)