New Recipes

It's been ages since I posted about recipes although I haven't stopped in my quest to collect a cookbook full of easy, yummy, kid-friendly recipes. I decided to do a little research at the end of my working day and I came upon two promising dishes. Here they are.

FABULOUS FRIED RICE

Ingredients

* 2 tbsp. (30 mL) vegetable oil
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1 onion, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, crushed
* 2 cups (500 mL) diced raw or cooked vegetables (see suggestions, below)
* 2 cups (500 mL) diced cooked meat or fish (or vegetarian meat substitute)
* 3 cups (750 mL) cold leftover cooked rice
* 2 tbsp. (30 mL) soy sauce
* 1 tsp. (5 mL) sesame oil
* 4 green onions, sliced
* Fried rice veggie ideas:
* Sliced, diced or shredded, raw or cooked celery, green or red pepper, mushrooms, carrots, bean sprouts, broccoli, zucchini, green beans, peas or snow peas, cabbage (regular or Chinese)

Cooking Instructions

1. In a wok or a large skillet, heat 1 tbsp. (15 mL) of the oil over high heat. Add egg and cook, stirring, until egg is scrambled. Remove scrambled egg to a plate.
2. Pour the remaining oil into the wok. When it is very hot, add chopped onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 2 or 3 minutes or just until onion is softened. Add raw vegetables first, followed by cooked vegetables (the first ones into the pan should be the veggies that take longest to cook, like raw carrots). Already-cooked veggies should be added last. Now add cooked meat, stirring to mix well and heat through.
3. Finally, add rice, stirring constantly to break up the lumps of rice, mix it with the other ingredients and heat thoroughly. Add soy sauce and sesame oil and cook, stirring and tossing, for 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in scrambled eggs and green onions and stir-fry for one more minute. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

BAKED BREADED TILAPIA FILLETS

Ingredients

* 1 cup (250 mL) bread crumbs
* 1 tbsp. (15 mL) grated Parmesan cheese
* 1 tsp. (5 mL) oregano or Italian seasoning
* 1/2 tsp. (2 mL) salt
* 1/4 tsp. (1 mL) black pepper
* 2-3 tbsp. (30-45 mL) vegetable oil
* 1-1/2 lbs. (750 g) tilapia fillets (or other white fish fillets, such as sole, cod or haddock)

Cooking Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375° F (190° C). Lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. In a plastic or paper bag combine bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, oregano (or Italian seasoning), salt and pepper. Hold the top of the bag shut and shake to mix everything together.
3. Pour vegetable oil into a small bowl. Working with one fillet at a time, brush both sides with a little of the oil, then drop into the bag with the bread crumb mixture and shake to coat well. Remove from bag and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining fillets.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, turn fillets over and continue to bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the fish flakes when you poke into it with a fork.

The reasons I picked these two dishes is because they require the least amount of canned ingredients but are still easy to prepare, they are filling, and my hubby and kids love both rice and tilapia. It was really easy to decide to try these out. I am looking forward to making them over the weekend. I hope the family likes them!

Christmas Rush

I tell myself every year that I will start my Christmas shopping early to avoid the mad rush near the 25th. I tell myself and I never follow. This year, I am rushing again. But I am pleased that I have almost all my shopping done- and this by buying a little here and there along the way. I am even more pleased that my budget this year fit almost everyone I wanted to give gifts to and yet was not exorbitantly huge. There are things to be happy about. Yippee! I am also happy that I am finally feeling the Christmas spirit. I think I am really trying to focus on the good things here and I'm trying to deal with the not so good ones one at a time and slowly. So far, so good. I hope this stays this way.
My biggest dilemma at the moment is what to get the hubby. He wants a PSP but that is just too expensive. I was thinking clothes since he has a lot of t-shirts but not a lot of going out shirts. But it seems too practical to be a gift. I don't know. I want to maximize my budget, however small, and still give a gift he will like. This is hard. Suggestions?

Off

I've been feeling kinda off lately. Not angry, not depressed, just...off. I know I am usually better at articulating things but I can't seem to put my finger on this. I don't know if it's a cyclical thing, since I seem to feel odd at certain times of the year (I haven't pinpointed if it's every month). It's annoying.

I feel like nothing really is fitting the way it should. Not at work, not at home, not alone even. I feel overworked when talking about what I am doing now, except what I am doing now is only a little more than half of what I used to do. I feel out of sync when I get home, like I am not doing everything I should be doing, like the house is disorganized and I don't see my kids or hubby, and the rest of the time I feel like I'm invisible because I spend so many hours away from home. When I'm alone, my mind wanders to places known and unknown but not very useful. It's indescribable at the moment.
Is it restlessness? it is dissatisfaction? Is it psychosis?

Signposts

I was out with the hubby last night in Tiendesitas, winding down for the day over beer (for him) and coffee (for me), and we got to talking about careers. I told him how, when I was much younger, my favorite movies were Working Girl (with Harrison Ford, Melanie Griffith, and Sigourney Weaver) and Baby Boom (with Diane Keaton). For those who are not familiar with these movies, they share one theme: women who become high-powered corporate big shots, with careers they love and work hard for, on their terms. I recall in the last scene of Working Girl, Melanie Griffith sitting down and relishing her new, big, corner office in a multi-national company. I also remember thinking to myself that one day that would be me. Fast forward to today and that is the farthest picture from my reality. So I asked my hubby if, somewhere down the road, I missed a sign or a turn to that corner office. It's not that I don't like my job. In fact, my job works well with my personal life at the moment. It's just that I'd always wanted that corner office. I still do. And these days, it feels like I am just getting further and further away from it.
The conversation turned to other people and their fast-paced careers and I told him that what I observed from these people was the sole, focused drive to reach that goal, sacrificing a lot on the way there. I realized that I might have gotten to that office faster if I had been more willing to do away with even just half of my concerns. The biggest concern is, of course, my kids. Enter, mommy guilt. I told him that I had decided that I wanted to spend as much time with them as I could and that I didn't think that the sacrifice of that time was worth it. Not surprisingly, he told me to focus on my career and not to worry about the kids. I will always be their mom, he said, and they would understand when they are older, why I needed to spend some time away from them. He said that I needed to do this for myself if a career was what I really wanted.
I don't know. I don't know today any more than I knew last night. I am stuck. I want the office and the kids. The quintessential "everything" a woman supposedly cannot have. What do I do?
If there were or are signposts, I hope they show themselves with bright neon lettering. Because I need some help, and the clock is ticking.

Entourage is GREAT!

This show has been on since 2004 and I've seen it on 2 different cable channels but I have to admit I didn't stop to watch it until last night. Somehow the idea of watching a show about guys hanging out and being guys didn't appeal to me. I mean, come on. I have an older and younger brother so, suffice it to say, I have been surrounded by guys (their friends included) all my life. I thought, no mystery here.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The show is actually very funny. I know, I hear snorting. My brand of humor is not the popular type. It actually most of the time isn't the intelligible kind either. But this show is great! It's about this up and coming actor Vince and his life in Hollywood with his childhood friends and brother, who also happens to be an actor (albeit an older, struggling, more washed out one). It is funny, funny, funny! Yes, they are guys being guys. But they aren't a*$h*!@s. They aren't condescending or patronizing, nor do they play any of the other stereotypical guy roles. The show really focuses more on the friendships and how this plays a very important part in the way events unfold. I like to think of it as a guy Sex and the City because of the friendship part (not the sex or the city obviously). Another good thing is a guy will actually watch this show. Well, at least my hubby did. And he found it funny. (Now his sense of humor is more recognizable so this has to count for something). I recommend this show for those lazy nights with the hubby or the boyfriend, over a bowl of buttery popcorn, or even steaming mugs of coffee/tea/chocolate. And watch it from the first season so it makes more sense.

Long Weekend Coming

It's been a good past 2 days. Yesterday we celebrated my son's 3rd birthday. Imagine that. 3 already. How fast time flies! After much thought, we decided to keep the celebration simple. My husband and I brought him to the zoo for a birthday tour. Loving all things that are new and have to do with going out, my son had a lot of fun. We didn't bring our daughter as I was afraid she would catch something (being less than a year old).
Here's a photo of us feeding the rabbits. It's amazing how such a simple activity could bring so much enjoyment. It kind of makes you want to be a kid again. Ok, sometimes.

Today we threw him a small party at his school with all his classmates. He attends Toddler's class still so there weren't a lot of students in the class. He didn't notice this, of course. He had his classmates, presents, music, food, his sister, mommy and daddy. He was super active and having so much fun again. It kind of turned out to be a double celebration, when you think about it. Since the number was small and the kids were young, I served homemade spaghetti and chicken lollipop. For his cake, I baked chocolate cupcakes with sugar icing and candy sprinkles. I arranged 18 pieces in a round serving dish and placed 3 candles in the middle, one candle per center cupcake. It was quite successful! It looked like a Cupcake Cake. And of course, he loved it. Plus, this was much less expensive compared to even the ordinary but good cakes around. I wanted to place an actual picture here but I could not figure out how to zoom in on the cake and keep just the dish in the picture.

Instead, here are 2 pictures of cupcakes serving as birthday cakes:



These are pretty similar to what I did actually. Just imagine a much prettier, blue and white, round dish and the chocolate, candy sprinkled cupcakes arranged as they are on the picture to the right. Then I had just 3 candles for 3 cupcakes in the middle. Fantastic huh?

Well, the long weekend is coming up and I can't think of a better way to welcome it than with warm memories of my son's 3rd birthday. Now time to plan my daughter's 1st birthday coming in a few months. Waaaaaaah!!

A Thick Silver Lining

Ok, so I've been hobbling around on this sprain for 2 weeks now and I can say I abhor the fact that I cannot do the things I normally do- mundane things like doing the grocery or fixing the meal. I can't even visit my son's room as often as I would like because it's a whole extra flight of stairs up, and this is bloody difficult on crutches. But there have been some surprisingly pleasant things that have happened over the weekend that made me forget (ok, just for a few hours anyway) just how handicapped I am at the moment.

Saturday evening my sister-in-law celebrated her 39th birthday with a big party. My son, having just recovered from a cough and fever, was excited to be able to join the festivities for the night. He was bouncy and lively and chirpy. The funniest moment was when we were called to start getting food. He came up to me and said (complete with zealous arm gestures) "Come on Mommy. Let's go Mommy." I answered and said "Ok, can you please help mommy? Can you give Mommy her crutches?" These were leaning against the sofa. He nodded and said "ok mommy". Then he marched his 2.11 year old self to where my crutches were standing, held them by the sides and gave them to me with a big grin. Then, he waited for me to position myself before he started walking to the buffet table beside me. Isn't that just too cute and sweet? Really.

Next pleasant event. I usually do the groceries twice a month and I have a very strict budget. If I go over the budget, I have to make instant decisions about which item(s) to remove from my shopping cart. Usually, I think about what I currently have, if this is enough to last through to the next period, or if I no longer have, it can I do without it for the meantime, etc. Obviously this entails knowing more or less what you have and don't have. This has always been my arena. Not that my husband never showed interest. It just seemed easier and more natural for me to take control of it since I'm more detail-oriented and the one who does the shopping in general. Since I am currently on crutches, my hubby had to do the groceries this weekend. To prepare him, I told him that there was a strict budget and that if he should go over this he would have to make instant decisions as to what to leave out. I also gave him a detailed grocery list. He brought his 13 year old niece with him, spent roughly 2 hours in the grocery, called me about 10 times to verify certain items, but came home p450 under the budget!! I was so proud. And, despite his comments about how lost he would have been without his niece and how long it took to park and how long the cashier lines were, I think he enjoyed the experience.
The cherry on my Sunday happened in the evening of the same day. I had to put my daughter to sleep as her yaya was watching my son, whose yaya had to leave for a few hours to attend to family issues. Unfortunately, this happened at the same time as dinner- and I had not prepped anything. Imagine my surprise when my hubby says "You want me to cook?". Of course I acted as nonchalantly as I could (he's not very big on making big deals out of things) and told him to go ahead. He prepared fried rosemary chicken and Nido soup. His niece helped again but the effort of defrosting, marinating, frying, setting, everything that goes into creating a meal, which he hardly ever has a hand in, was a very big deal. Snaps for my hubby!!

The positivity was plentiful over the weekend.

Of Children and Husbands

I read a post from http://www.livingorsurviving.com on why we love the person we love and it really took my breath away. Let me outline the points I found particularly interesting and why.

When we’re little, our mother is the center of our attention, and we are the center of hers. So our mother’s characteristics leave an indelible impression, and we are forever after attracted to people with her facial features, body type, personality, even sense of humor. If our mother was warm and giving, as adults we tend to be attracted to people who are warm and giving. If our mother was strong and even-tempered, we are going to be attracted to a fair-minded strength in our mates.

The mother has an additional influence on her sons: she not only gives them clues to what they will find attractive in a mate, but also affects how they feel about women in general. So if she is warm and nice, her sons are going to think that’s the way women are. They will likely grow up warm and responsive lovers and also be cooperative around the house.

Conversely, a mother who has a depressive personality, and is sometimes friendly but then suddenly turns cold and rejecting, may raise a man who becomes a ‘dance-away lover.’ Because he’s been so scared about love from his mother, he is afraid of commitment and may pull away from a girlfriend for this reason.

While the mother determines in large part what qualities attract us in a mate, it’s the father–the first male in our lives–who influences how we relate to the opposite sex. Fathers have an enormous effect on their children’s personalities and chances of marital happiness.

Just as mothers influence their son’s general feelings toward women, fathers influence their daughter’s general feelings about men. If a father lavishes praise on his daughter and demonstrates that she is a worthwhile person, she’ll feel very good about herself in relation to men. But if the father is cold, critical or absent, the daughter will tend to feel she’s not very lovable or attractive.

I have 2 kids; a son and a daughter. You can imagine why this excerpt was very interesting to me. I knew even before I had my kids that parents affect their future relationships in many ways. But the difference is the reality that now I am a mom and what I do, how and who I am, can directly affect my little boy. This is scary, very scary. I am not the most easygoing person. Neither do I think I am particularly extroverted. I can be exacting as well. And I am a self-confessed nerd, bookworm, geek. I often place a lot of weight on knowledge and logic and reason. But I try not to judge people as best I can, and I am working everyday on seeing the positive in the situations I find myself in. It is scary to think that my son can use me, and all my neuroses, as a benchmark for what he would want for his future wife/mate/partner or that he can turn out as a reaction to who and how I am. For my son, I would hope for a woman who would bring out the best in him, inspire him, and love and be faithful to him. I would also like for him to love knowledge but to be open to experiences that could give him knowledge books never could, to be more sociable and not so uptight when he grows up. Gosh, I hope I am not damaging him in any way.
My daughter's development is of equal concern to me. My husband is very extroverted, not much of a bookworm or an academic even, very free with rules and ideas, and has a tendency to lean on self-centerdness and selfishness. Now, this is in no way meant to bring him down. But naturally, for my daughter, I would want for her to grow up with a thirst for knowledge and pushing the boundaries to become anything she wants to be, to have clear limitations, clear ideas of what would acceptable and unacceptable to her, and one who would be capable of loving greatly. As for an ideal mate, I would hope for a person with much the same qualities as the person I wish for my son- someone who would inspire her and bring out the best in her, someone who would love and be faithful to her. I hope my husband inspires her to be these things.

Or as George Burns, who was Jewish and married the Irish Catholic Gracie Allen, used to say: his marriage was his favorite gig, even though it was Gracie who got all the laughs. The two of them did share certain social similarities–both grew up in the city, in large but poor families. Yet what really drew them together was evident from the first time they went on stage together. They complemented each other perfectly: he was the straight man, and she delivered the punch lines.

This excerpt was what spoke to me the most. I believe my husband and I are rather opposite in most our ways but that these traits not only make the relationship interesting but also make us complement each other in our own unique way. Even if he sometimes wishes for more commonality, and I sometimes agree that some arguments would be easier resolved if the just automatically agreed, I still end up thinking that they way we are and who we are is what makes "us" work the way we do. And that differences aren't necessarily bad. And that there can definitely be beauty in discord. I am hoping that I am showing and convincing my husband of these points every day we spend together and every time we work to make our relationship better.

Happy Birthday Hunny!

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY HUNNY!!!

It's my husband's 30th birthday today. Wow. I met him when he was 21! It's funny how fast time flies. And amazing how we've been able to spend so many years together, despite all the trials and challenges. I hope that he spends some time reflecting on the next decade of his life and how he can do and be a better person on the whole. I know he will come to his own realizations and I know that these will have meaning.
On a different note, I ended up giving him an overnight bag. A really nice one that fit my budget. I'll post a picture of the bag soon. Hopefully, we'll have a chance to use it and go out of town sometime this year. I think it would be great for us to have some alone time together as well. But that's a different topic altogether.
So, Happy Birthday again Hunny! Kisses!
picture

Gift Ideas

Now that my birthday has come and gone, it's time to focus on my hubby's birthday. I am a lover of gifts so I usually want to give people really good gifts as well. Unfortunately, my budget is minuscule this year. Which is depressing. I did get some great ideas from my friend, Jo, who lives in the States. This one I really liked. It's apparently one of Oprah's favorite things this year. It retails at $385 which is about 17k in pesos. Not bad for a good watch but still way out of my budget. If I did have the budget though I would definitely get this for him, even if he doesn't like wearing watches in general, because I think it would look great on him.
For anyone interested in ToyWatch, you can check out the other styles offered here.

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to us! We've been through a lot of a relatively young couple and still we are together. Here's to staying that way! Cheers!

(Image found here.)

Anniversary

We're nearing our 3rd year anniversary. I wonder what the plan will be for that day. We will have been married for 3 years and together as a couple a grand total of 9 years! It seems like yesterday when we met and got together. *sigh

Near Valentine's Day

It's near the day of hearts and anyone who knows me knows that this is one of my mandatory 4 days in a year for celebration and gifts. I know, I know. A lot of people find this day so commercialized and consider it a money-making day for establishments more than anything else. Frankly, I don't care. I really believe I have a hopeless romantic hidden somewhere deep inside of me and that hopeless romantic looooves expressions of love and romance. And so I am hoping my hubby does something for me. It really doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant. It could be the simplest thing just to be romantic. Let's keep our fingers crossed!!

(By the way, the picture beside looked like how I want my hubby to be on Valentine's.)