mini tuna pizza

I found this cute pizza crusts during one of our grocery shopping escapades. Bought one pack and here is what I did with it...tuna pizza! It is healthier as opposed to having meat as toppings. But still yummy!


1 pack of mini pizza crust
1 sachet of del monte pizza sauce
1 can of tuna, drained
cheese

Using the oven toaster, I cooked it for 4-5 minutes. Just be vigilant as it can toast pretty quickly. The last batch I made was overdone even if I timed it the same. Must be because the oven toaster was hotter as opposed to the first batch I made.
You can experiment and try other toppings whatever you fancy. It's more fun that way.

happy mother's day to my inang!

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love.
~Mildred B. Vermont


She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along. ~Margaret Culkin Banning


A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving

To my Inang happy mother's day to you! I love you very much!

organic farming

A couple of days ago I wrote about our backyard harvest. And in honor of Earth Day I am writing about organic farming.
Organic farming is technique used in farming without the use of any chemicals or synthetics. The aim of organic farming is to produce crops which have the highest nutritional values with least impact on nature.
There is no definitive study whether organic food is more nutritious than conventional food. Testing was done with animals only. And before you get all worked up no harm was done to the animals. They were just fed with organic food. And the animals that were fed with organic food appeared to be healthier and had better reproductive performance as compared to animals that were given conventional food.
Whether or not organic food is more nutritious one thing is certain, organic food definitely tastes better.
Here are pictures of our mini-organic farm:

cards and a massage

Since hubs' blood pressure is rising we've agreed that he should refrain from sleeping in the afternoons. And so to occupy ourselves we decided to play cards (pusoy dos) with the loser having to massage the winner for 30 minutes. Guess who won?
Me!


I so love having massages!

(btw, the woman in the picture, not me)

from our backyard

All of these came from our backyard.



Earlier in the year my mother, my husband and our helper started planting vegetables in our backyard. And in time all the watering and gardening paid off. If we need egpplant we just pick it off from the plant. Like here in this picture we harvested malunggay leaves, talong and tanglad. We also needed tomatoes but our tomatoes aren't ripe yet so we bought from the village talipapa.
We also have chinese kangkong, sili, kamatis, pechay, and mustasa. They also planted squash but no flower from it yet so we still have to wait before we can eat off of it.
I can honestly say we are eating fresh and organic vegetables. May mas fresh pa ba sa pagkapitas eh lulutin na?

love shopping...for groceries!

One chore I love doing is shopping for groceries. Really. And so I am looking forward to tomorrow because it's time to go to the grocery once more.
One brand I buy a lot of is Del Monte...tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato ketcup, fruit cocktail, fruit juices, and yes even fit n right (sometimes!)I am not getting paid to blog about them ha! I'm just sharing.


I usually do my grocery shopping at SM. Although I sense that their meats aren't so fresh. I like buying meat from Fresh Options Meatshop. For the fish, we usually buy at the market or from our neighborhood talipapa.

boracay again

On August we're going to Boracay! I know, Boracay again. But this time around hubs and I are not "alone" coz we're going there with our relatives. Yey! As of the moment there are 7 of us but this will increase as the date nears. Kami pa! Eh mga lakwatsera ang aming pamilya. Hehe!

Top 1!

The school year is over! I can finally get to sleep in during weekdays! Rejoice!
But the school year isn't all about me. For I am not the student. I am the student's mother. And I can happily share that I am very proud of our student daughter. For she topped her class once more! She also did during the first grading period, second grading period, third grading period and of course the fourth grading summary.



The only sad thing about it was hubs was unable to attend the recognition day for he couldn't get out of an important training session. But over all we were all ecstatic about V's achievement.

milo balls

Before the school year ended V had their class picnic (within the school grounds). Her teacher told each student to bring food that they can share to everyone. I decided to make desserts for the whole class. Something simple but tasty. So I made Milo Balls.
I remember this from when I was younger. But back then we would crush Marie biscuits to pulp. This time it's easier for there is crushed Graham crackers available in the market.
I just can't recollect the whole recipe so I improvised.

crushed graham crackers
condensed milk
milo
confectioner's sugar

I didn't use any measuring cup whatsoever because I just did it by "feel".
Mix graham crackers, condensed milk and a little milo. Make sure that the mixture is goeey enough to hold together. Form balls with the dough. Roll in milo and then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar. Refrigerate.

Fyi, I definitely remember when I was younger that we used dessicated coconut. But since this was not in our cupboard I just made do with confectioner's sugar.

Iceberg & Red leaf lettuce

Yesterday I blogged about the thousand island dressing I made. Now I'm sharing V's reaction to the vegetable salad.
But first a little background sharing.
Whenever we have fried food I try to prepare vegetable salad to balance things out. So when V came to be a part of our family it wasn't long before she had a taste of it. Of course being a little girl with no inkling as to what a vegetable salad is her reaction to it was both funny and endearing. She refused to taste it because "hindi luto ang gulay." An explanation was made and she hesistantly ate it. Slowly. Ever so slowly.
Fast forward to yesterday.
In my vegetable salad I usually use iceberg lettuce as it's more commonly available in the grocery. But this time around I added another variety of lettuce. Red Leaf lettuce.

So there we were all seated at the dining table when V blurted out, "mommy nasunog mo yata ang gulay?"
We adults looked at each other and laughed. Kids say the darnedest things!

thousand island dressing

Sunday = family day. That's why I always try to prepare something special for the family.
We had pork barbecue, cheesedog and vegetable salad. The dressing I usually prepare for our vegetable salad is vinaigrette but this time I decided to make another salad dressing. Thousand Island. So we had two choices on which to use. Maybe because this is "new" to us but my thousand island dressing was sold-out. Ubos na ubos.
I searched the internet for the recipe, experimented and made it my own.
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tbsp sugar
1 hardboiled egg, minced
salt and pepper
Mix the ingredients together.
That's it. Very simple but delicious. If you want a little bit of kick, add a few drops of chili sauce to it.

ang mga kaganapan sa Ocean View Beach Resort

Para sa birthday ni Tita Mel we all trooped to Olongapo to celebrate with her. At dahil mainit na go kami sa beach. Ocean View Beach Resort.

Una nga gusto ng mga thunders sa Kali Beach (cali? basta!) reminiscing of the past ang drama. Pero closed na nga ito. Pwede pumasok na parang wanted dahil pupuslit ka lang at ang sasakyan eh maiiwan sa labas ng gate nila. Eh since di naman namin gustong maging fugitives sa birthday ni Tita eh sa Ocean View na nga kami.

Ang mahal ng entrance ha! 180 na! At ang cottage nila na butas butas na ay 800. Simpleng cottage lang ha! Yung small.



O ayan na nga dahil di pa peak season ang daming choices. Aba ilang beses kaming naglipatan ng cottage. Choosy ang mga Samson! Mga ala-una na ito ng hapon ha. Kasagsagan ng sikat ng araw at gutom na gutom na kami! Eh dahil beach nga panay ihaw-ihaw ang baon namin. Ang tagal naman dumating ng ihawang tutong na sa pagkaoveruse na may rental fee pa na 150. Nakakahighblood! At ayan dumating na nga after 48 years. Sige ihaw agad para naman makapaglunch na kami.

Pag ganyang nakapwesto ka na attentive naman ang mga crew. Akala nyo para tumulong? Hindi ah! Para iverify kung nagbayad ba kami. Tiningnan ang headcount at ang resibo ng cottage. (hindi ito OR. malamang hindi sila nagbabayad sa BIR) May comment pa sya na ilang cottage ba nirerentahan nyo? Eh kase nga dahil halos solo naman namin ang beach eh dun sa katabing cottage naupo ang grill queen at king para magihaw. At dun sa kabilang cottage naman nakapatong ang cooler. Wala naman tao! At di naman siguro big deal yun di ba? Di naman kami nagkakalat sa ibang cottage. Hindi na namin masyadong pinatulan ang katarayan ng mamang crew.

Eto na. Para naman lumuwag luwag ang cottage namin (na kung tutuusin ay table and chair with butas na bubong lang naman) napagpasyahan na itayo na ang tent at dun ilagay ang mga bag. So sige go itayo ang tent!



Napansin agad ng aktibong epal na crew. Lapit agad sa amin. Naniningil ng 200. Dahil naglagay daw kami ng tent. WTF!!!!

Syempre diskusyon na ito! Wala naman sa rules and regulations nila yan ah! (may ganun?) Wala namang gagastahing kuryente yang tent na yan. Bat may bayad? Ganun daw talaga. Kanya kanyang ratatat na ito. Aba eh pamilyang war freak kami eh. Ang tahimik na resort ay biglang nagkaingay. Aakalain mong may isang batalyon na nagwewelga. Ako aba eh di syempre hinanap ko ang manager. Sabi ko papuntahin sa amin. Aba di daw lumalabas ng office yun manager. Bawal daw na magpunta sa amin. May ganun? Di ba ang manager dapat always available to the customers? Nakakapagpanting talaga ng tenga. Sabi ko nga sa kanya umalis ka na dito. Ayaw kitang kausapin. Wag ka babalik dito kundi mo kasama ang manager mo. Hala! May ganun? At eto naman ang hirit na Ateng Glo lumalayo-layo ka sa amin at baka ihawan kita! Hala! Brutal! Talagang nagmana kay Gabriella Silang ang mga kababaihan ng aming pamilya. Natakot yata ang epal na crew ayun umalis. (at hindi na bumalik)

May kasabihan nga tayo na igalang ang mga gutom. (May kasabihan nga bang ganun? O gawa-gawa ko lang yun?)

Hindi pa dyan nagtatapos ang aming Ocean View Escapades. Meron pa. Nung kami ay naliligo na natibo si Ateng Glo. Dahil low tide na nito mahaba ang dalampasigan (natural!) Napagpasyahan naming pulutin ang mga basag na bote sa harap ng cottage namin para naman safe kami at wala ng iba pang masugatan sa amin.



Ang picture na yan ay ang mga nakuha naming basag na bote/plato/baso at kung anu-ano pang babasagin. Lahat yan ay sa bandang harap lang ng cottage namin. Nakakaloka di ba? Ang dami! Di pala safe maligo dito sa Ocen View! Di pala naglilinis ang mga staff nila. (malamang dahil busy sila sa pangungulit at pangongolekta mula sa mga turista).

Ang Ocean View Beach Resort ay matatagpuan sa Lower Kalaklan, Olongapo City.

manila hotel valentine

Nakakaloka naman itong valentine offer ng Manila Hotel!

Mega Valentine's Day
for Php 1.4M
Availability : Feb. 13-14, 2010
Inclusions: Overnight stay at the MacArthur Suite, Room décor with flowers and pralines, Limousine pick-up and drop-off service within Metro Manila, Express check-in/out, 24 hours butler services, Special Treatment Package (Detoxification Package) for 2 (two) persons, “A night under the stars” special romantic dinner at the roof deck of the Manila Hotel, 1.5K diamond ring for the lady in the room, Unlimited wine service, Special room service breakfast & Free mini-bar.

Last valentine nAPO concert

There are a lot of upcoming concerts this month but the one that I am most looking forward to is Apo Hiking Society's Last Valentine nAPO concert.
The trio after 40 years in showbiz is retiring as a group. They have 131 songs that they themselves sang, 20 songs they composed, 20 songs they put the lyrics to and 2 songs they arranged. I grew up listening to them croon.
...Panalangin ko sa habang buhay makapiling ka, makasama ka yan ang panalangin ko...

The concert is on February 13 at the SMX convention center with ticket priced at gold (Php2675), silver(Php2140), and bronze(Php1605).

something sad, something good

Hubs aunt (V's real grandma) died last week, a day before his birthday. We were planning on an out of town beach trip for the family to celebrate his birthday but our plans had to take a backseat because of the sad incident.
V knows that her grandma is sick so she was kinda expecting this to happen. According to her, lola will lose her hair and eventually die. That's what she said when I talked to her about grandma's disease. Evidently the TV is a powerful media as she compared her lola to lola Getz (from the soap Tayong Dalawa). When we called on her for "the talk" she was steeling herself already. She knows. She did not shed any tears but she was quiet the whole day.
So last week was spent commuting between Laguna (where MIL lives) and Muntinlupa (where V's lola's wake was).
The good thing that came out of that week was V got to spend time with her sisters and brother.