Pininyahang Manok

Pininyahang Manok for J's lunch on a Sunday (was supposed to blog about this yesterday but was too tired).

 

Pininyahang Manok

 

 Ingredients:

butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium sized onion, sliced
ginger,cut into strips
1 small tomato, cut into strips
1 medium sized red bell pepper, cut into strips
4 chicken breast fillets, cubed
1 small carrots, cubed
1 small potato, cubed
1 small can Alaska evaporated milk
1 can Del Monte Tidbits, drained (set aside syrup)
Magic Sarap
salt and pepper to taste

In a saucepan, melt butter then saute garlic, onion, ginger, tomato and bell pepper. Add the chicken. Season with Magic Sarap, salt and black pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes or until chicken is slightly brown or dry. Pour in the pineapple juice. Add the carrots and potatoes*. Cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes or so. Add the milk and pineapple tidbits and let it simmer for another 3-5 minutes while stirring. 

the finished product

* For most pininyahang manok recipes, they don't put carrots and potatoes but for this recipe I added them as meat extenders (#budget101). J super loved it.

 

BLW Day 1: More Practice

Von turned 6 months yesterday and today we finally introduced him to solids via Baby-led Weaning (BLW). For his first taste of solids we gave him avocado.

 
*Avocado is a great first food for baby as it burst with essential fats and nutrients that a growing baby needs. They are easily digested and well tolerated by most babies.

He loved the avocado. It was a hit. The only downside is that it is slippery so most of the avocado ended on the floor instead on Von's mouth. I think only a teaspoonful was actually eaten. Then I let him drink water from a cup. Overall, I'd say that our first day of BLWing Von was a success. We both just need to have some more practice.

Semi-Homemade Carbonara

With a new baby and all, I rarely step into the kitchen and cook the past months. I let our help do the cooking. But a week ago, J started complaining on the quality of our meals. It seemed to him that the food were not cooked with love and passion. He said and I quote "for compliance only meals". I know he just misses my cooking. We haven't had a house help before the baby so I do the cooking for him most of the time. So after several parinig about the food, I promised him that I will start cooking (for him) again. Day 5 in the kitchen, I decided I'll try to blog about some of the meals/recipes I made. We had Carbonara for our snacks. It is semi-homemade since I used both fresh and store-bought ingredients for this recipe.

Semi-homemade Carbonara

butter

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 bulb onion,chopped

bacon, chopped

1 can Century Tuna flakes in oil, drained

1 pouch (200g) Del Monte Gourmet Sauce: Carbonara

2 egg yolks

2 merienda pack (175g each) Del Monte Spaghetti

Eden cheese, grated

In a large pot of boiling salted water with oil, cook the spaghetti until al dente. Drain and set aside.

While the pasta is cooking, start the bacon. Cook chopped bacon until slightly crisp. Remove and drain onto paper towels / table napkins.

In a skillet, add a small size of butter. Saute garlic and onion. Throw in the tuna flakes. Cook for a minute then add the crispy bacon. Pour in the Del Monte Carbonara Sauce. Let it cook for a few minutes. Remove from heat and add the egg yolks while constantly stirring. Add the pasta, tossing constantly to coat. Serve topped with grated cheese (and a bottle of coke.hehehe)

Ready for Solids?

Von will be turning 6 months next week. Yey! We're so excited to introduce him to solid feeding and we've decided to try Baby Led Weaning (BLW). So what is BLW? It's simply letting your baby feed himself with age appropriate foods, having him lead his way into food (what he wants to eat, how much he wants to eat). You can read more about BLW here. [*Will hopefully make a separate post on BLW]

Our little boss is ready to eat solids. He's 6 months. He can sit on his own and has good head and neck control. He seem interested every time he sees us eating.

J and I am ready to introduce solids to Von. I've been reading articles on age appropriate foods, food preparation and ways to introduce food. J assured me that he knows how to perform first aid on a choking baby (just in case). [Found this article with video: Do-First-Aid-on-a-Choking-Baby]

Von's high chair is ready. Bought this at a bargain price from cirads sulitbabyshop.

Von's waterproof bibs/aprons are ready. Bought both from Baby Luxe Co. at a discounted price (P500 off regular price of P1060) thanks to Multiply's Discount Frenzy.

 

Ikea of Sweden Klad Prickar

 

Ikea of Sweden Mala

As for the other items, will have them ready in the next few days. So I guess we're almost set. I just hope I can manage to keep a daily log of our BLW journey. 

Balik UP

I miss UP. It's been more than a year since I last visited my alma mater. The last time J and I went there was a week before we knew that I was pregnant with Von.

Today, we finally had the time to visit UP again.

babywearing daddies J and Magnus with Von and Amber ---- (while waiting for cab)

Daddy Magnus wearing Amber in Ergo Options

Daddy J wearing Von in Ergo Organic PPB Evening in Innsbruck

J and Von at the Sunken Garden

would have loved to have our picture taken beside the big UP standee but were too tamad to walk

Food trip: monay, fried siomai, kwek kwek, squid ball, fish ball

Von and Plum fooling around while waiting for Mama Joicee who's auditioning for a role

Plum wearing Alva lady bug and Von in Modia Tools

  pretending to "para" the UP Ikot

happy, happy us

*so happy with my DIY teething pads ---- thanks to my kamsnaps

more happiness... finally after a year of craving for cello's cheese and oreo doughnuts

 

just got home and celebrated Plum's 4th month

wonderful week

* Beauty-full date with my best friends at Abe's, Trinoma

* Marion's  3rd birthday party

*J's finally home. We spent our Saturday at home so he can rest from the long flight. We went to church to attend mass early Sunday morning and then went to Megamall for my check-up. We had our baby's gender determined. J and I am having a son.

After the check-up, we had our first date (this homecoming) at Mesa.

We had crispy boneless tilapia with four sauces

and crispy baby squid.

Then did some shopping. 

* Dinner date with J and my good friends (Wena, Banuk, Aking and Agnes) at Seafood Island, Eastwood

 We ordered crispy sisig, ensaladang talong, lechon kawali pakbet, butter garlic clams, and crispy binagoongang baboy. While J and the girls had beer, I had red iced tea.

* Since J's home, I am inspired to cook because I have someone to taste and appreciate my dishes. Last night I prepared prawns in salt and vinegar (imbentong pangalan) for dinner.

Ingredients: 

12 pcs. prawns

6-7 tbsps. Del Monte Cane Vinegar (i am a fan, that's why)

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 onion bulb, quartered

1 tsp. white sugar

2 tsps. salt

 1 tsp. black peppermill

oil

vetsin (optional)

Procedure:

1. Thoroughly wash the prawns.

2. In a pan, combine vinegar, salt, peppermill, sugar and vetsin. Mix until sugar and salt dissolves. Then add garlic and onion.

3. Pour in the prawns and cook for 7-10 minutes.

4. Add oil. Cook for another 2-3 minutes then serve.

* After last night's dinner, while J did some net surfing, I did some art. If you can call it that.hahaha This is my first 'painting'. Since I am not much of an artist (as you can see), I chose to paint 3 flowers to represent our family portrait.hurhur

This one I made after breakfast. This is supposed to be a pizza square as seen in one of my recipe book collections but I'm not sure if it looks like one.

day-out

As a stay-at-home wife and expectant mom, I spend most of my days at home. Going out at least once every two weeks is really a treat. Not that I don't enjoy staying at home but a change of environment once in a while is quite refreshing. When I do go out, I usually have errands to attend to like grocery shopping, paying bills etc...

Today, I needed to go to the mall to buy Globe tipIDD cards. I only have a couple of cards left and I need to re-stock so I can keep calling my husband. We talk over the phone everyday. We really try to have communication everyday. In the morning, he'll wake me up with a missed call and I'll call him back. Then while he's working, we chat thru FB from time to time until he's off duty.

Usually the night before going to the mall, I list the things I need to do or buy (not the primary errand) so I won't forget something. It helps me save time and fare money. So instead of having several trips to the mall, I do it in just 1 trip. My list last night included groceries, toiletries, gtech refill, flowers and having lunch at Kenny Rogers. Since I wanted my trip to be efficient, I grouped my errands according to location of the shop. My first stop was at an ATM machine to withdraw shopping money. The nearest store from the ATM machine is National Book Store so I went in their first to buy the gtech refill. Being inside NBS and a bookworm, I couldn't resist the urge to take a peek on the shelves. And as always, when I went out NBS' door, I had with me these books:

And the bookworm that I am, I went a few floors up to look for this book: 

The Love Dare was featured in the movie Fireproof which I watched just last week. The movie was so inspiring that I needed to have a copy of this book. Here's what's written at the back of the book:

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE is eagerly promised at weddings, but rarely practiced in real life. As a result, romantic hopes are often replaced with disappointment in the home. But it doesn't have to stay that way.

The Love Dare is a 40-day challenge for husbands and wives to understand and practice unconditional love. Whether your marriage is hanging by a thread or healthy and strong, The Love Dare is a journey you need to take. It's time to learn the keys to finding true intimacy and developing a dynamic marriage. Take the dare!

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. - 1 Corinthians 13:7-8

Going to my next destination (GLOBE), the very reason why I needed to go to the mall, I passed by shoe shops and went window shopping. But as always, no matter how nice they look, I was able to resist the urge to buy. To help me resist such urges I always ask myself if I need those things right now and if the answer's NO then I don't have to buy. (It's different though with the books that I buy since I consider books as investments. I dream of one day having a big library in our home so as early as now, I am starting to collect books.) So after buying the cards at the Globe Center, I went to Kenny Rogers for lunch. Lately, I've been a fan of Kenny Rogers. Just last week, I also had my lunch there. It's maybe because I'm pregnant and I crave their food or it's possible that I'm just a creature of habit and I always eat in restaurants I've already tried. So anyway, last week, I had the High Protein Meal (1/4 Roast Chicken, Tuna Vegetable Salad w/ Italian Dressing, Steamed Rice and Regular Iced Tea). Today, I had the Lite & Easy Meal (Roast Chicken Sandwich, Chicken Noodle Soup and Regular Iced Tea) and Chicken Macaroni Salad. I also ordered Tuna Melt to-go for my snacks when I get home. 

After lunch, I went grocery shopping then went home. When I got home, I went online to inform my mahal that I arrived safely and then went to check if our purchases the other day are doing good. And I am so happy to see that they're performing well. If they continue to perform well then a bright and secure future for our baby isn't hard to achieve. Thank you Lord!