Zest it up!

David Rocco's Dolce Vita is one of the most interesting tv food shows I used to watch. It is from him that I learned this very simple, refreshing and healthy pasta dish. So let me share it with you. This is my version of his dish.

For this pasta dish you'll need the following:

Linguine al limone

(good for 2-3 servings)

250g Pasta 

***You can use either Fetuccine, Spaghetti, Spaghettini or Linguine noodles. I prefer Linguine though, for this particular recipe, as it is just the right size for this tangy pasta dish.

1/2 a lemon for every 250g of pasta

salt and pepper for seasoning

add a bit of rosemary and cilantro, chopped

Olive oil

2 pcs garlic minced well.

Parmesan or Cottage cheese

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

1. Boil the noodles al dente. Saute the minced garlic in 1/4 cup of olive oil. Set aside.

2. When noodles are done, pour the olive oil mixture and toss the rosemary, cilantro and chopped walnuts. Squeeze the lemon onto the pasta noodles and just mix everything together. Add more olive oil.

3. Sprinkle generously with parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

Note: I use cottage cheese for this recipe, but what I do is use it as toppings on the pasta. Garnish with cilantro and a bit more of the chopped walnuts. This is sooo good and healthy too!

I hope you enjoy this delightful dish! Bon Apetit!

P.S.

Mama you can use this recipe this is safe for your heart. :)

A simple Thanks!

I recently signed up for LinkReferral, a site which has helped me promote my blog. It is such a wonderful site that introduces bloggers like me to other blog owners. And it is through this site that I was able to get a couple of reviews which I would like to share with you. So thank you too! It is because of you and my blogging friends that I continue to share my story, my recipes, and my thoughts. I would like to think that somehow, blogging has made countries separated by  race, culture, color, and language are brought together as one in the techno world of blogging where indifference holds no value.

Our Reviews "The story & experience are amazing & interesting & there is a difference, keep it up." Zen adv.justbeenpaid.com/?r=CYv5P7apmW "I like your blog! It is like coming to the comfort of home. Honest, simple and no pretension. I am just so curious about your recipes and your next subject. I really enjoyed my visit!" Turenne artpreneuredancequotes.blogspot.com/ "interesting...." mike linkreferral.blogspot.com "Welcome to Linkreferal! I really enjoyed reading your blog. Its neat, professional with a touch of homeliness to it with the bonus of having some excellent reading material. Looking forward into reading some more... " Abby abbiescookingkitchen.blogspot.com Get your own reviews, free traffic at click here

Roast it!

As part of my "journey to healthy living", I promised myself to use less oil (if I can help it), cook viands that was less creamy, and always include vegetables on my menu.  My family has always been excited about what they would have for lunch and dinner. My kids, most especially, would ask me what I was preparing whenever they see me in the kitchen. Often I'd get "wow!" and "oohs and aaahs" when am finally done cooking! :) One of the dish they love so much is Roasted chicken which I often pair with baked potatoes. This is such a versatile dish, I'll tell you in a while. Let me begin with this simple recipe.

For this dish, you'll need the following:

Roast Chicken

1 whole chicken (we normally use only half a chicken on regular days) 

   *half a chicken is good for 2 adults and 3 kids :)

Salt to taste

Ground pepper

No offense to chicken advocates but we jokingly
 call this Chicken Bukangkang 

Just rub salt and ground pepper all over the chicken, and roast it in the oven for about 45 mins or until golden brown. (Refer to the picture on how the chicken should look like before putting it inside the oven). Such cut is to ensure that the insides are cooked evenly. I watched an episode in Aarti Party once where I saw Aarti rub the inside of the skin (that space between the skin and chicken flesh) with butter. She mentioned that this will not only make the skin crisp but will add more flavor. However, this is something that I don't do. You'll notice how much better tasting food is when simply cooked. Besides, chicken skin itself is so saturated in fat, you would not want more oil targetting your heart, right?

I mentioned earlier how versatile this recipe is...why? Because just rub it with Rosemary Leaves and you'd have Rosemary Chicken. You can also use lemon grass which I normally put inside the chicken cavity, this will give it a "lemony" flavor or you can use a whole lemon. Just pierce the lemon skin all over with fork and place inside the chicken cavity, then proceed as normal. :)

Now for the baked potatoes. You'll need large ones :)

Baked Potatoes

3-4 large potatoes cut in half

salt and pepper to taste

cummin or rosemary

2 tbsp butter or olive oil

1/4 cup milk

1. Wash the potatoes thoroughly, leave the skin on. 

2. Scoop out the center of each potato halves with a spoon (this will leave the potato halves with pockets) and place the "scooped out potatoes" in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Rub the potato halves with salt and pepper and roast in the oven until golden brown.

4. While roasting the potato halves, boil the potato scoops that you've taken out and simmer in 1/4 cup of milk under low fire until done. Mashed the potatoes and season with a little salt and pepper (just a little as your potato halves are already salty). 

5. Once the potato halves are roasted, put the mashed potatoes inside the "pocket" of the baked ones. You can top this with cheddar, mozzarella or cottage cheese. and bake for about 2 more minutes.

For your veggies, you can prepare steamed vegetables or fresh green salad with balsamic or vinaigrette dressing. 

Now this is my plate :) Bon Apetit!

Buon Apetito!

Mama Mia

Nope am not referring to the movie played by Meryl Streep and Amanda Seyfried, besides the movie spelled Mama with 2 m's. :) Am actually referring to the recipe I promised to post today.

Except for the oil that I used to fry it, this dish should be very healthy. If you want a healthier way to cook it you can grill it ala burger patty instead of formed into meatballs. For this dish you'd need the following ingredients:

Mama Mia meatballs

***(Yields about 15 meatballs or 8 burger patties)

1 pc garlic, minced or you can put 1 tsp. garlic powder

1 small onion, minced or you can put 1 tsp onion powder

1/4 k. ground chicken

1 pc medium sized carrot, grated

1/2 cup mashed or grated pumpkin or squash

salt to taste

season with pepper and cayenne powder

a dash of cummin (optional)

2-3 tbsp flour or you can use 1 small potato grated (this will bind the meat mixture even without egg)

*Should you opt to use flour add 1 egg, using potato can save you 1 egg though :)

1. Mix everything together in a bowl. I use my hands wrapped in what I call "plastic hands" which can be bought in supermarkets.

2. Add the seasoning ~ salt, pepper etc... depending on your preferred amount. I usually start with 1 tsp of salt.

3. Roll into a ball and deep fry. If you have a deep fryer, make sure that you have it pre-heated so that cooking takes less time, which means, your meatballs will be soaked in oil for less time.

4. For the healthier option, you can roll it into a ball then flattened and grilled.

For the sauce ~ I always do 2 kinds. My children loves sweet and sour and my husband prefers garlic sauce.

Sweet and sour sauce:

Catsup (banana or tomato will do, but i prefer banana catsup)

2-3 tbsp sugar brown or white, but i prefer brown

ground pepper and salt to taste.

1/4 cup of water, add if necessary

Cook the sugar under mediujm fire. Once the sugar has slowly turned to liquid, add 1/4 cup of water, 1/4 cup of catsup. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer under low fire for about 5-10 minutes. The sauce will slowly thicken. 

Garlic sauce:

1-2 cloves of garlic, minced well

1/4 cup milk or heavy cream

1/4 tsp sugar

white pepper

dash of cummin

salt to taste.

Combine all ingredients and put in blender on high speed. Serve.

***The quantity depends on your serving size.

I paired this dish with Green salad :) For the salad you can combine either Romaine or Iceberg lettuce with mango slices (or any fresh fruit that you prefer). Philippine Mango is not available here so I use apples and oranges or grapes. You can also add walnuts for the salad. But for this particular dish that I made, I used what I have available in the fridge :)

My kids enjoyed this dish! Am sure yours would too! Enjoy!

Inay

"A grandparent has the wisdom of long experience and the love of an understanding heart."

I have always been very fond of my maternal grandmother...I still am. To me she has always been a beam of light to my dark tunnel...and to an extent she still is. She's long gone but I would like to believe that she constantly looks over me as she would occasionally appear in my dreams. I remember a lot of things about my "Inay Idang", this is how my sisters and I call her. She has doted on my youngest sister, but I never ever felt that she loved either of us more than anybody else. We all felt loved the same way. She was my "lifesaver" during my highschool days :)... You see I've never been too keen on projects that involved sewing, crocheting, or any other needle work. Whenever I had a school project that involved such, she would volunteer to do it for me. Once she caught me sewing a blouse and I got a scolding from her when she saw me sewing up the arm holes. From that time on she'd often hover over me when she sees me struggling with my mom's sewing machine. 

She was such a sweet old lady...my grandmother. She'd often travel from Batangas to Caloocan City (where we used to live) and then to Las Pinas (when we transferred in 1979) to visit us during her prime. Distance never really bothered her, I guess, just to be able to spend time with her children and grandchildren. And it was during such visits that she'd always bring with her all sorts of vegetables and fruits, sweets and live chickens even. She would get a bowl and put salt and a few grains of rice and I would excitedly follow her to our backyard where she'd "slay" the chicken she brought from the province. I was about 11 or 12 years old I think. While my squeamish sisters shied away from the chicken's "execution.", I'd be at my grandma's side watching her do the deed. And I learned from just watching her... I then understood why she needed the bowl with salt  and rice grains. It was there that she poured the chicken blood which was included in the wonderful soup that she made for us.I was more interested in cooking than sewing. I didn't care whether there was a little blood involved like cleaning fish or chopping meat...hence,  plucking, bleeding, and scalding a just slaughtered chicken, was never a problem for me. 

I also remember how I loved rummaging through her big hand bag...where I'd see a couple of biscuits, pieces of pandesal, and other goodies. She also was our "mail lady", as she'd bring letters that my cousin and I exchanged with each other during our youth. I remember a lot of things about her...she was there to wipe my tears away, she nursed me when I was sick. She was such a loving grandmother and I miss her so much up to this very moment. Oh and she supported and encouraged me with my passion for business. Once during our summer vacation, I asked her if she could buy me ingredients for halo-halo because I wanted to sell and earn money while school is out. And she came up with all kinds of ingredients, even going to the extent of preparing  the gelatin and saging na saba herself for my business venture. :) She's like that. 

It was also from her (I guess) that I "inherited" the love for horror movies. I recall one time when she tagged me along with my aunty and we watched a Filipino horror movie that stayed in my mind for weeks. I was sleepless for some time and always wary of the seemingly  "shadows" that surrounded me.hehehe

Then she fell ill. She was sick for a very long time. Her children (my mom, aunty and uncles) took turns in taking care of her. And, if my guess is right, she stayed with us longer. I saw how my mom took care of her. My grandma was no longer the picture of iron and steel. Sometimes she no longer remembers faces or names. But she remembers us, most especially my youngest sister. It was difficult for her to walk, but my mom would often press her to do so. I was more creative in encouraging her hahaha. I'd talk to both my sisters, and we'd pretend to fight with our youngest sister, who would then shout and ask for our grandmother's help. Our grandmother, on seeing this, would stand and walk towards us with slippers on her hand. She was ready to attack and shoo us away from our youngest sister. This would always bring us to tears laughing but feeling victorious that we were able to make her stand and walk.

Then one day, the Lord called her, though it was something that we expected to happen, it was still a painful realisation. No more warm hugs. No more trips to the ancestral home. No more jars of sweets. Only memories. And boy! Am I glad that she was so much part of my memory as we were all to her. I had this wonderful and unforgettable experience, less than a month after her demise. It was my first birthday just some weeks after her death. You see, a couple of days before my birthday, I prayed hard for her to visit me, in any form on my birthday. I was not disappointed. That birthday morning, as I awoke, the first thing I noticed inside my bedroom was a butterfly. How it got there? I would not really know. But I knew it was my grandmother,  the butterfly stayed inside my room the whole day.

It was her birthday last March 7...and found myself in nostalgia. My Inay may have left us long ago...but she will always stay inside my heart and will always be part of my best childhood memories.  I know we will meet again...."to infinity and beyond" (quoting from buzz lightyear)

"Grandmother-grandchild relationships are simple. Grandmas are short on criticism and long on love."

PostScript:
Happy Happy Birthday Inay! I love you and miss you terribly. Do you know that I keep dreaming about your bedroom in Rosario? I wonder what that means?  :)

My Journey to healthy living

I was diagnosed with stage 1 hypertension after giving birth to my youngest son 6 years ago and I've been on medication since. I was placed on a diet during my pregnancy due to GDM (gestational diabetes mellitus) and continued doing so even after giving birth. However, after about two years of eating only sardines and brown bread, I went back to the "pigging" loop with a vengeance. Although the merits of getting lean was faster, it also increased the risk of craving for normal food again. And that's what happened. 7 years in the call center industry and 175 pounds later, I still saw myself thin whenever I looked at the mirror. Back then I would always wonder whether Anorexia Nervosa had an opposite. Whereas, I see myself thin (as my mind perceives me to be) in reality I was already this glob of lard. Whaaa! (borrowing from Sen. Miriam Defensor) hahaha

I realised this when we went back to the Philippines for a vacation. We had a mini reunion with former officemates. And of course as part of the reunion, everyone brought their spectacular cameras. What I saw once they showed me our photo went me reeling. I was like "Whoa!!! Is that me already?!" Hence, I started slow and when we came back here, started buying more veggies and fruits. I also started eating less rice, less carbo. The sweets, well, have conveniently placed themselves in my food pyramid. But instead of eating 1 normal serving, my daughter and I split it in half.

I have already accepted and embraced the fact that cooking and baking is something I am very passionate about. But it can also mean that I am at the liberty of concocting and experimenting with food. I crave for healthy food these days. It is also one way of making sure that my kids learn the value of eating more veggies than carbo and red meat. 

So am sharing with you a dish which I made, that already has a little of everything but big on veggies. Am having trouble using the separate tab for my recipes. Hence, I am going to share it here on my main page. I call this recipe my "Dulce Amantes". For this recipe, you'd need the following:

Dulce Amantes

1 medium Butternut pumpkin, boiled and mashed

1 big potato, boiled and mashed

1/4 cup non fat milk

ground pepper

salt to taste

cottage cheese or any cheese of your choice.

For this dish, I was not able to use cottage cheese, as I have lots of unused cheddar. I melted the cheddar cheese with a little milk to make it easier to pour.

1. Boil pumpkin and potato until soft. This makes them easier to mash. 

2. Combine the two in 1 big bowl and pour the non-fat milk. Season with salt and ground pepper.

3. Transfer to a glass or baking tray, flatten it with a spatula and pour the cheese mixture over it. Top it with grated cheese and bake until golden brown. This is if you choose to use cheddar cheese, otherwise just top it with Cottage cheese and bake for about 3-5 minutes.

This is such an easy dish to make and am sure your family would love. My kids just enjoyed my Dulce Amantes. I call it such because of the sweet natural flavor of the butternut pumpkin and the potatoes. Like lovers embracing each other, both containing proteins and minerals that are good for the body.

Tomorrow, I will be sharing my recipe for my Mama Mia meatballs :)

The start of my "own" New Year

January 1, 2012 for me is a memory that I'd rather forget. While everybody was blowing their New Year horns, I was blowing my nose. Hence, I am starting my New Year this 1st of March ~ in this way, it will be a new beginning for me. I have lamented enough. I went through the phase of coping with feelings of shame, self-pity, anger, self-reproach, and have begun questioning my life purpose. Such feelings led me to be lethargic, I went deeper into my shell. For awhile I became an introvert...not wanting to see or talk to well meaning friends. I deactivated my FB, and bombarded my twitter account with quotes that were similar to how I felt. Whenever we went out to buy a few stuff in the nearby store, I always felt nauseous and badly wanted to go back home. Home and my bed were my only solace...the only place I felt safe. I went through the whole nine yards!

It was pretty bad for me. But it was my daughter who suffered most from my pathetic state. I was like a zombie going through my daily routine without a thought. And when triggered???, I was really piqued!  It was tough to hide what I was going through from my husband (of course). But all throughout, my loving husband held my hand and was able to convince me to spill the beans. I was not really comfortable sharing my thoughts with him, most especially after all he's witnessed on that particular New year morning. You see. I've always tried my darnedest to be perfect for the love of my life. He deserves only the best part of me. So, for him to hear and see stuff, was for me, very disquieting.

But I've pondered and wondered and that's over and gone. All through such a trying time, I only had my rosary and my husband's hands to hold. Then the afterglow...this gave me a glimpse of life's perfection. More things to look forward to. A loving family...a responsible, faithful, wonderful and caring husband by my side...wonderful children...they are my reason to live. The past should not hold me. And to quote part of the message sent to me by my youngest sister ~ "...never let anyone put a price tag on you. Only YOU can. Only YOU should. Not even families are given such a right. Or even more correct. ONLY GOD CAN put a price tag on you -- being the giver of our life, being our Creator who made us in His image..."

I will always be thankful to have come from a family with both parents present from day 1, with crazy but loving sisters. In this life, no one, not even families are perfect but we learn. We learn from how we were treated as individuals and use such experience to be a better person...a better wife...a better mother.

I've listed down my objectives for this year:

1. Continue praying. Teach my children how to pray from the heart.

2. Love my husband even more.

3. Stay fit.

4. Spread happiness and positivity by smiliing more, loving more and not sweating the small stuff.

(I've actually posted a sign outside our door that says: "Smile! Bawal sa loob ng bahay ang nakasimangot!" in English, "Smile! Frowning inside the house is prohibited")

5. Encourage more. Complain less. 

6. Be fair and forgiving.

7. Be patient.

8. Be humble.

9. No name calling. No comparing. Avoid demeaning. (Children will always remember what you think of them)

10. Be an inspiration to my family and to other people.

I'm not perfect, I know. But my God is. He will be my constant inspiration to be better.

"The most sacred place dwells within our heart, where dreams are born and secrets sleep, a mystical refuge of darkness and light, fear and conquest, adventure and discovery, challenge and transformation. Our heart speaks for our soul every moment while we are alive. Listen... as the whispering beat repeats: be...gin, be...gin, be...gin. It's really that simple. Just begin... again." ~ Royce Addington ~