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Archive for the ‘Food & Recipes’ Category

Christmas is over. New Year is next. That’s another week of dining sumptuous meals and drinking some wine. Soon afterwards, many people will be seeking ways to lose weight fast to eliminate all those calories gained during the holiday season.

MSN has provided a list of 50 ways to cut 500 calories a day and each could be effective in one way or another. Among the listed items, my favorites are as follows:

Don’t eat in front of the TV – Whenever I eat in front of a television, I end up eating more – slowly but continuous.
Use smaller plates – My mom and dad did this when I was young but did not see the impact since I was a kid then. Whenever I go home and see the same plate that we used years ago, I realize that it takes me 2-3 platefuls to satisfy my hunger. Note that to make this effective, discipline is still the key.
Play a game of touch football or basketball – Having any sport that helps burn fats and would require physical activity is a good alternative, as long as you keep those muscles moving.

Picnic is one of the traditions that most families honor year on year. Many families actually plan this for at least a week to make sure everything is in place. Their list include items such as picnic mat, grill tool sets, outdoor pillows, outdoor games, foods, first aid kits and a lot more. The idea is to have fun with the family members while dining out on picnic grounds.

One of the items that parents focus on is the kind and quality of foods to bring. Picnic foods don’t have to be extravagant. In fact, most people look for easy picnic recipes because there are other things to attend to when planning having a picnic.

Here are ideas of food to bring and some suggested easy picnic recipes.

Finger Foods
At any point during the drive to the picnic grounds on the picnic itself, family members look for something light to eat. Chips, cookies, nuts and candies are ideal for this category.

Salads
Salads are ideal to those who avoid meat and those who are having some sort of a diet. There are different kinds of salads available, and here are a few of the easy recipes available.

• Coleslaw
• Potato Salad
• Caesar Salad

Bread, Butter and Spreads
Home made sandwiches are easy to prepare. This could be as simple as bringing a pack or two of loaf bread, butter and other kinds of spreads – tuna, cheese and others. Of course, there are more complex types of sandwiches but generally, it needs time to prepare.

You can visit sandwich.org for the easy recipes for the picnic that you’re planning. Some of the sandwiches include: -

• Italian Turkey Sandwich
• Club Sandwich
• Tuna Salad Sandwich
• Deli Sandwich
• Egg Sandwich
• Egg Salad Sandwich
• Finger Sandwich
• Fish Sandwich
• French Dip Sandwich
• Goat Cheese Sandwich
• Grilled Salmon Sandwich
• Grilled Sandwich
• Ham And Cheese Sandwich
• Ham Sandwich
• Honey Mustard Chicken Sandwich
• Hot Dog Sandwich
• Ice Cream Sandwich
• Italian Sandwich

Grilled Burger, Barbeque
Perhaps, the most popular kinds of food during picnics are barbecued meat chops and grilled burgers. The secret is preparing them the night before the picnic day especially if needs to be marinated. You can visit the following sites for easy recipes for picnic.

• http://www.bbq.co.uk/bbq-recipes/index.htm
• http://bbq.about.com/od/barbecuesaucerecipes/Barbecue_Sauce_Recipes_Recipes_for_every_kind_of_sauce.htm

Side Dishes
Side dishes are great partners to the grilled burgers and barbecues. Vegetable varieties are the ideal ones, though there are others kinds such as corn, beans and pasta. You can check on some easy picnic recipes for side dishes here.

Desserts
Fruits are the ideal desserts for picnics because of the ease in preparation.

Ever since I was a child, I’m fond of drinking chocolate drink. Milo and Ovaltine are the usual ones I drink in but occasionally, I also sip Swiss Miss and Nesquik. Today however, I’m looking for a chocolate drink suitable for young adults that gives and opposite effect to diet pills like Fastin. Yup, I want to gain weight but not that much.

So far, I have tried Ensure, Sustagen Premium and Appeton

Among the three, Sustagen Premium tastes best. However, based on some readings, it seems that Ensure has more vitamins and minerals, though I’m having hard time dissolving it in water. Appeton guarantees the most effective formula to gain weight. Their prices are almost the same – all are quite expensive – so this is not a deciding factor.

There is no chance for me to mix the best qualities of each product, so that means I have to choose one. Right now, I’m leaning towards Sustagen Premium primarily because of its taste. There’s no way for me to appreciate the effect of other products if I’m not willing to drink it heartily.

The Stackers Burger at Eastwood City is one of the newest restaurants that opened this year. Their specialty of course is burger but it’s offered in lots of varieties. Aside from this, other dishes include chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks, fried chicken, salads and more. One thing for sure if you plan to frequently visit this place – you need to have those fat burners ready.

The café is 24 hours open, so this is good news to those working on night shift, party goers and those who stay up late at night.

I am saddened to know that one of my favourite cafe, the Java Man in Powerbooks Greenbelt, has closed. Perhaps the news came late to me because the last time I visited the place was more than three months ago. We intentionally went to Makati today just to dine there, only to see the bare area once occupied by the coffee shop. I was able to talk to one of the bookstore’s crew and he said that Java Man’s contract with Powerbooks has ended and that they did not renew.

This is bad news to Powerbooks visitors, especially to those who frequently go the place and to those who use the cafe as venue for short meetings, breaks and relaxation. We were once regular customers of the coffee shop, but our visits were lessened because we transferred to a more distant home and workplace. I just wish Java Man will open a new branch soon.

Frozen yogurt idea isn’t that attractive to me, until I tried Red Mango today. I thought at first that I’d rather gobble on a cup of ice cream or drink a cold latte, but I’ve never tasted a frozen yogurt before, so we gave it a try. We ordered Blueberries & Cream waffle and a medium sized original frozen yogurt, with three toppings – crushed graham, chocolate flakes and mango. I give it a rating of 5/5. Two thumbs up!

I’m not sure if the yogurt provides any fat burning features, but I think it’s a great substitute for ice cream and a supplement to top weight loss pills.

Two weeks ago, we had a dinner at Il Pirata in Eastwood. It’s our fourth time to dine there and I really liked the food. I love Filleto Alla Griglia Gorgonzola (Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Gorgonzola sauce served with baked potato or fries) but we decided to try something else. We ordered Penne Alla Matriciana, Pizze Morgan and Filleto De Pollo Gratinato (Baked Chicken Breast Fillet topped with vegetables & Mozarella Cheese).

This time was different because a group of musicians were serenading the customers in each table. I thought that wasn’t a good idea, but when they started to play, we were really impressed. At first I thought it was only a recording. They asked what songs we like. We don’t have anything in mind so we just chose from what they offered – ‘Til There Was You’ and ‘Ikaw ang Miss Universe ng Buhay Ko’. Marlon even joked that he should have worn one of his silk ties to match the ambience.

For those out there needing the contact number of Yellow Cab branches, CLICK HERE FOR THE LIST. I made a separate post for this because the list is very long.

The last time I was in Baguio, in our ‘home sweet home’, I stayed at my brother’s bedroom because it’s been 7 years since I last used my own room and I felt scared sleeping there all by myself. Since Harvy, my cousin, visited us, we let him sleep in my room instead. Every 9:00 P.M. my mom would command us to sleep since she doesn’t want to hear any sound that will wake her up. She has difficulties in sleeping. The 9 PM curfew seemed hard to obey because we’re night owls. My room is beside my parents’ room in the 2nd floor and Harvy is always escorted by my mom so she can be assured Harvy is not going to play around and stay up late. Carlo and I would then wait for a few minutes waiting for our parents to be sound asleep. Once we hear the snoring, we’ll sneak up in my room and ask Harvy to go downstairs in Carlo’s room so the three of us can chat and watch movies until early in the morning. This has been a routine. The three of us would chip in to have pizza delivered, usually by Pizza Volante.

On the 4th night of this routine, we decided to order from Yellow Cab instead. Carlo and I counted the coins from the bottle which Mom won in the Christmas party and we used that to pay for the pizza. It was our gift to Harvy because it’s his birthday. However, on this night, we were caught by my mom still watching movies at around 2:00 A.M so she scolded us and Harvy was asked to return to my room. After a couple of minutes, Carlo and I were calling him a million times on his cell phone so he’ll get up and have his share of pizza but to our surprise, he is already in deep sleep. Since we’re having a hard time waking up Harvy, Carlo went outside the house so he can knock at the window of my room still determined. My room was in the second floor so it was really much of an effort for Carlo to go there. I was laughing all night because all the dogs in the neighborhood went barking when Carlo climbed up. After that, he returned unsuccessful, Harvy still snoring.

We just ate up all the pizza and hid the box inside the oven so mom won’t even know it.

the Menu:

A week ago, Harvy, Marlon and I had a dinner at Dad’s Saisaki/Kamayan Ultimate Buffet in Glorietta. This is my third time to dine in this restaurant. I visited Dad’s years back on two consecutive days, first with my HP friends and the next with Marlon and my grandmom. Those were the days when I’m still taking in Ling Zhi Chuang Yao Wan. That explains why I was able to consume all those foods, even more than what Marlon can. I remember gaining weight so fast that I somehow thought of stopping using Ling Zhi and take in a few diet pills.

This time though, I’m completely medicine-free. I only felt the natural hunger – no craving caused by Ling. We arrived at the restaurant at 9:00 PM and were informed that it will close at 10:00 PM. We only have one hour to devour our food, so we wasted no time. We took our first set of meal from Saisaki, the Japanese food buffet. The next round, Marlon and Harvy gobbled on the Filipino dishes. After that, Marlon was full. Harvy took another round of assorted meals. As for me, I ate pasta next. Marlon and I had finished the dinner with ice cream and some desserts. We left the place very full, but not totally satisfied. The food was great – yes, but we did not get our money’s worth, and I blame it to the time frame we have. It should have been better if we started earlier, we would have more time to savor all the dishes.

I was begging my brother Carlo for a gift this Christmas and he said he already prepared one for me. I was surprised when I arrived home seeing a small dining table for two all set and adorned with paper flowers made by Tobbie. The table was nestled in a corner of our living room. Instead of a menu card stands a Christmas card with Carlo’s warm greetings. At the center of the table was a candle and it really burnt beautifully because of the fine glitters mixed in its wax. When I asked him where he bought the candle and I am planning to buy one, he said “That candle is yours. I got it from your room. Mom said you’ll be happy to use it instead of just keeping it forever there. Hehehe!”

To match the Quoizel lighting, he played good instrumental music in the background.

He prepared a four-course meal for Marlon and me. The starters were garlic bread and special cream of mushroom soup. The main course was Carlo’s signature steak in gravy and broccoli. The dessert was his own version of banana split. He really planned everything beforehand. Although the dishes were quite simple, it was really amazing that he was able to put this all together.

It has been an evening of good food and fun dining!

Here are some pictures: