Sibuyas Republic

Facebook has become the most ubiquitous thing for the past years. In school, at home, and even at the office, you will hear people talking about this social networking site. And anywhere, you would see people sneaking into their FB profiles if given the chance.

If there’s one reason people easily fell in love with Facebook is because it provided an easy and creative way to communicate with people. I say easy, because with Facebook, you can easily talk to friends and relative who may even be residing at the other side of the globe.

I say creative, because Facebook has also made way for the creation of alternative techniques in conveying messages in what is now known as the computer-mediated communication.

One example is the use of chat icons or MyEmoticons. These cute little icons provide a creative way to convey one’s emotion like being happy, sad, angry, excited, and even sexy. Using a combination of letters, numbers, and figures, you can already convey how you feel to the person you are talking to on the other line. And if the readily available icons on Facebook are not enough for you, you can easily use the facebook chat icons from MyEmoticons.

Indeed, Facebook is today’s norm. It has become so popular that people nowadays log in to their account daily as though it’s the morning paper. There’s nothing wrong with that, but you have to remember that everything in excess is bad. Use Facebook moderately. Do not let it curtail your daily activities, so that at the end of the day, you still become productive and pro-active.

Due to the increasing popularity of weight loss programs, food industries are creating newer foods that could promote weight loss. Foods that are equally tasting yet yields better health is invading the grocery shelves. And, more people are patronizing these product innovations.

One such product is the yogurt. Yogurt has always been a popular food as it is rich in protein, calcium and other elemental nutrients needed for better body functioning. But the more important reason of its popularity is its being more highly nutritious than the milk itself. Particularly for those people who are lactose intolerant. Their bodies can better tolerate yogurt than milk. Because of this, more people are choosing yogurt than any other dairy products.

There are diverse food recipes one can do with a yogurt. It can be eaten as plain or mix in with other fruits. Some cuisines added yogurt to make the taste more appealing. More than these, because of its lesser fat content, it’s a favorite among people who are promoting a healthy diet.

These are great reasons why there is a boom in frozen yogurt business. Promoting health nowadays with food in the market can be intimidating. The taste and the quality of the foods suffer that in the end, the product fails. With the versatility of yogurt, it is now considered as staple to diet advocates because of the many benefits one can get out of it.

Because of the growing demand for yogurt, there are more franchise opportunities offering free trial on frozen yogurt machine for those who are interested to invest in this kind of business enterprise. The frozen yogurt machines are vital in making healthy and variation of yogurts.

If one is interested, one can check out donper america for these types of machines. With the popularity of yogurt, it’s a no-brainer that it shall be profitable.

Another long weekend. Saturday started with a promising sunshiny skies in the morning. Yet, the afternoon came with the usual visitor, a heavy downpour. Good thing was, I already hauled off from the oven our afternoon snack…

So, as we watched the heavy rains from our patio, we savor the sweetness and crunchiness of this raisins/nuts-adorned Saturday treat…a GRANOLA.

It was our my favorite snack. Used to buy Nature Valley granola bars in the grocery shop. So, to save me few pesos, what else to do but try to make few bars at home…

There’s just too many granola recipes out in the net, but this one’s I did was inspired by Alton Brown’s recipe at FoodNetwork.com.

Here goes…

I use:

500 grams of quick cooking Quaker oats
1 1/2 cups of brown sugar
1 cup melted butter
2 tbsp. cinnamon powder
2 tbsp. vanilla extract
raisins
nuts (peanuts and cashew nuts were the ones I have here in the pantry)

Cooking procedure:

In a large bowl, mix in the oats, raisins and nuts. Set aside. While in a saucepan, melt the butter over low heat, add in the sugar and stir until fully melted, add the salt, the cinnamon and the vanilla extract. Stir until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Then, mix in with the oat mixture.

Transfer the mixture into a baking dish/pan (greased with butter) and bake (oven preheated @350 deg.F). Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

Allow to cool before cutting into desired size and shape.

Still hot but crispy, here’s my share…

After a couple of burps, I kept thinking what shall I be cooking for the next two days. Sometime….I would want to hate the long weekends. Because that’s when I get to stay longer in the kitchen, too.

Ciao for now…enjoy your weekend foodie.

Thank goodness, I have recently discovered that our favorite lettuce, romaine is way cheaper at Puregold Cabanatuan. For the smaller 4 romaine heads, I only paid 24.06 pesos. While the bigger 3 heads was priced at 36.35 pesos. Whereas at S____ , prices normally starts at around 30 pesos for a single head romaine.

Sayang. Because in as much as I wanted to buy more, I can’t store them in the fridge longer than three days. Even if I have to wrap each one in paper towels, the leaves will become wilted due to moisture. Hence, it will lose its crispness. The reason why we all loved romaine here.

Besides, those 7 heads will not have to wait that long in the fridge…as we enjoyed them at today’s dinner…a simple salad…

What you’ll need:

Romaine lettuce

4-6 slices of bacon

croutons (I prefer baguette which I usually purchased at N.E Bakeries)

salad dressing

Preparation:

• Prepare the lettuce. Clean each leaves in cool running water. Drain in paper towels. Break into bite sized pieces or as desired. Refrigerate to maintain crispness while other ingredients are being prepared.

• Fry bacon and cut into smaller pieces.
• For the croutons. Make diagonal thin slices on the baguette and brush with fresh garlic, cut into smaller cubes and pour in oil. Mix. You can either saute or bake (I prepare baking them so it’ll be crunchier) the baguette for a few minutes.
• For the dressing,  since the kids does not like the classic Ceasar’s (they do not like raw eggs, and the anchovies), I’d always go for this easy plain salad dressing.

There’s the salad at tonight’s dinner. Along with my own version of crazy tonkatsu which I painstakingly prepared…recipe later

Don’t forget to add some greens in your dinner meals…ENJOY YOUR DINNER FOODIES!

Thank God, another school week had ended.

Kids usually come home from school earlier every Friday. So, expect them to get hungry after two hours of eating their lunches.

No worries. I had bought these “saging saba” for the sole purpose of trying to cook “banana cue”. That saging in the stick which I normally bought at food vendors in the market area for 5 pesos a piece.

Why not cook some at home?

So, I did and here’s what happen…

Slightly fry the bananas. There were ten bananas. Only, I got tempted to eat the last one When fried, transfer to a plate. And, into the same pan (and oil), drop in 3 tablespoon of brown sugar. Continue cooking (medium to low heat) until the sugar’s caramelized. After which, using a thong, dip in one banana at a time until it becomes fully covered with melted sugar.

And, that’s it…Snacking time…

Hmmm, I’m wondering how would the kids react if I’ll replace the sugar with melted chocolate? As in “choco banana cue”. How’s that?

Try it first…

How often do you cook at home?

In an era where fastfood and restaurants have gotten very popular, more people are eating less and less at their homes.  Busy lifestyle and the intimidating preparation in cooking had been the excuse for eating out in restaurants. No cause for worries though. As dining out can really give convenience. And, as for health reasons, there are restaurants that are offering healthier menus. So better check out for those.

But, as in my family’s case, we try to eat more at home. Dinners and weekends are where there’s much traffic in our kitchen. The kids are always eager to know what’s cooking in the kitchen, and they are always happy to help out. I always believed that aside from promoting healthy relationship among family members, cooking and dining at home promotes healthier lives.

one of our family events: cooking and having the best of fun

Here are few benefits of home cooking.

Dining out versus home cooking.

Dining out in restaurants may be all-too convenient. Who doesn’t need convenience in our everyday busy lives? But, then again, think about what we pay for the price of that convenience. Because when eating out, we have these tendencies to order more foods. Temptations are high particularly when we get to see those mouth-watering foods displayed on the food menu. And, what does this means? More calories, more fat, more sodium. All have potential effects on our weight that will might cause problems with out health. While, when we try to cook at home, we are in control of all the ingredients we incorporate into every meals. We control the taste. Hence, it’s a better way to control what can be good or bad to our health.

Home cooking is learning.

By cooking at home, we get to personally picked the ingredients at the grocery stores. This is by far the most important aspect in home cooking, we get to educate ourselves starting from choosing the items to cook. Starting out from the meat. Through reading the labels, we can differentiate meats and discover which of those that are in the frozen that really yields protein and not fats. While at the canned goods or bottled food items, we can discover that processed foods are all but sugar and sodium. And, at the fresh produce, it will always be interesting to discover the many benefits we can derive at those fruits and vegetables. We may all know that they are rich in vitamins and minerals. Knowing and learning more about the role of every plant chemical -its role in the overall functioning of the body, in their ability to build resistance against diseases, and its role as a whole body cleanse to keep toxins out of our bodies.

Foster family relationship.

Cooking at home can be intimidating at times. But once every thing is planned out -the shopping list, the menu planning, and more importantly, the involvement of everybody in the family- cooking and dining at home can be a great experience. Not only can it foster lasting family relationship but it can have great effects in promoting family health.

This is a sponsored post for Xango, however, all the points and views are my own.

We arrived a little late last night after a trip to the grocery shop and some more errands. There were barely little time to prepare dinner though the whole gang is asking for one.

So, here’s a quick dinner fix I prepared last night.

Sauteed ground beef with diced potatoes, carrots, bell pepper, celery. Season with salt, ground black pepper and Worcestershire sauce.

Next, I prepared an easy salad using the romaine lettuce I bought at the grocery shop. It’s a favorite here in the house.

I love the versatility of the ground beef dish. It can be paired with rice or bread. Or when there’s leftover, it can be omelette filling for a morning meal. For me, I can enjoy both dishes JUST AS IS.

Here’s my plate…

For the trying hard foodie shot…

Notice that the sliced tomatoes were without its seeds. I took out the tiny seeds. I do not know. I am not fond of eating its seeds

Lastly, for the easy salad dressing, I just mix in minced garlic into olive oil, add mayonnaise, mustard, honey, salt and pepper to taste. Add tabasco if you prefer spicy dressing.

There’s so much salad dressing preparation around. As again, I always go for the easy preparation and the one whose ingredients are easier to find.

Enjoy your everyday meals.

Me and my little daughter made a quick trip to the grocery yesterday afternoon. Afterwards, we went to the arcade for I promised her she could play for thirty minutes only. While she goes off to play, I took a seat at the end row of tables and chairs which is very near a soda vending machine. It was a very clever idea for the arcade to place a soda vending machine very accessible to their patrons. Kids or adults enjoying the game need not go far to buy refreshments. We know how huge some malls can be. Finding a kiosk to buy food or sodas can be too tiring.

Vending service is a very innovative inventions, as there’s practically vending service everywhere that sells various food and non-food items. From sodas, to chips, to candies – they are strategically placed where most people converged -in train stations, airports, hospitals, large business offices- all ready to serve for whatever necessary needs the people might be.

This is the reason why perhaps soda vending machine is a very profitable business. Many establishments are placing these vending service with a cornucopia of items to vend. These machines provide convenient shopping for people’s emergency needs. I personally thought vending machine business will be here to stay. It is a lucrative business. With more innovation coming before us day in day out, the next time around, we will see cashless payments soon in vending machine business around establishments.

For anyone thinking about getting into the vending machine business, there are many websites that offer various types of machine depending on every needs and where to place the machine. You can always email these websites to ask for particular customs made machines and ask their prices. I am sure the will happy to serve every client.

For now, I am glad I had taken a seat near a vending machine because I felt the need to guzzle up an icy cold soda.

I caught up a televison advertisement of how to make scrambled eggs fluffier. The ad recommends adding mayonnaise into the beaten eggs. While we love some mayonnaise here in the house, I do not add mayo to either omelettes nor to scrambled eggs. No more additional fat

In some cases, I can add milk. You can really achieved a fluffier and more textured scrambled eggs/omelletes by adding milk. It’s a tried and tested recipe tip.

I shrugged out the idea of mayonnaise when I get to cook scrambled eggs this morning. I missed out on the milk also, because I wanted to add more vegetables into it – I wanted the flavors of the veggies to come out- and see for myself if I can achieve fluffier result.

Got me some of these..

3 eggs

tomatoes, bell pepper, celery, onions (obviously missing out on the photo^_^)

salt and pepper to taste

In a non-stick pan, add few drops of oil. Saute the bell pepper first. Just to squeezed out its flavor. I just so love the flavors of bell peppers. After a minute, add in the rest of the veggies. Saute for one more minute then add the eggs. No need to beat the eggs. Just drop the eggs onto the pan. Stir few times. This will help the eggs to break and mix in thoroughly with the veggies. Do not overcook. Two minutes is okay. The heat of the sauteed veggies will eventually helped cooked the eggs. Overcooking will make the eggs lose its liquid thus, it becomes a dry egg dish.

 Done…

Fluffier? I do not know how other define fluffier eggs. But, this one definitely is. And, because of the veggies -the egg dish is more textured and flavorful.

Healthy? Be the judge.