Basil & Tomato Sandwiuch

This recipe is a real healthy yummy treat! It was shared to me by my dear friend Emma and since then, I'm already friends with basil leaves :)

To prepare Basil & Tomato Sandwich, you will need the following:

Basil - I prefer the fresh leaves
Tomatoes
Olive oil
Cheese
Bread
A Grinder -  Some blenders has this attached which looks exactly like from below photo. This grinds the leaves fast and easy.

  

 

Quick Preparation:

Grind the basil leaves, set aside.
Chop tomatoes, set aside
Toast the bread to minimum level.
Add a little olive oil to your ground basil leaves, the oil holds the mixture and makes it smooth to spread on your bread.
Next is top your basil-spread-bread with tomatoes and cheese.

That's it! Simple, quick and healthy alternative for breakfast and snacks. Enjoy!

Aratiles and the sweet old days...

How much these lil' fruits mean to you? Are there any flashback memories of your younger years?

Well I'm proud to say I grew up with these fruits called "Aratiles" or I call it "Alatires" when I was young. To harvest a small bowl of these red cherries is a challenge because you have to climb its tree which the branches are quite not tough. And even more challenging if your climbing at your neighbor's tree that has a dog guarding its yard, my friends and I are really praying for luck every time.

One day my husband brought home some of these fruits. Although I'm not fond of eating them anymore, I decided to take photos to relish my sweet childhood memories.

Have some please...

Breakfast Ideas: French Toast :)

After a night shift work today, I decided to pass by a neighborhood bakery and bought some freshly baked tasty breads. I'm going to make my version of French Toast which my kiddo loves to eat these days. 

While the original recipes of french toast need to soak the bread to a liquid mixture of milk and egg, I don't. My quick and humble version just needs a bread toaster to have it done.  So for this recipe, you just need to prepare the following:

• tasty bread
• butter
• powder sugar
• and a bread toaster :)

 

• Insert 2 loaves of bread in the toaster, you can adjust timer from seconds to minutes, you can toast both sides but in the toaster I have, you need to toast the other side after the other. I prefer to toast it a bit longer since I want it well-toasted and just one side of the bread.

 

• Spread it with butter, make sure the butter melts to cover the toasted portion.

 

• Sprinkle it with sugar and serve.
• You can proceed toasting the other breads while you do the above procedures.

 

• Best serve with hot coffee :).

 Time to wake up my boys and enjoy breakfast before I take a doze off. :)

Some extras for my son's snack while he watches TV. Make sure to keep it in a food container with well-tight lid, here I used a tupperware food keeper :).

Fun night at Barcino

I remember it was one of the boss’s birthday and only dear friends were invited to the celebration which is held in Barcino in Julia Vargas, Ortigas. My first time at Barcino was awesome because the food tastes great plus wines are overflowing courtesy of the boss of course. 

With Marix on my left (the birthday boss) :)

Barcino is a cozy and quiet place where interiors are similar to what I see in Spanish bars and restaurants advertise in lifestyle cable channels. I just find it so cool to see oak barrels used as dining tables plus lots of wine bottles lined up everywhere you look.  Truly, the place made me feel I was in another country’s Tapas Bar.

However, the serenity of the place quickly banished when the loud people, friends, work colleagues (including myself) came altogether to celebrate with the lady boss’ special day and the night became super awesome.  Well I just realized people can be super funny and loud too even without being drunk, all you need is great people to be with.

Grabbed photos from a friend’s flicker account :)

Cara Mia's Gelato for a perfect sweet treat!

My appetite is kind of weird today.  It's raining and typhoon Juaning is just yet out of the Philippines and I'm craving for some ice cream.  A pint, a half gallon, in a cone or even Mamang Sorbetero's DIC would do.

I want some, please...

I'm sure DH won't give in to this request, but if he will, I'll make the most :) I will force him to buy me some gelato and to make it more fun, I'll have him try Amici Cara Mia's gelato cakes too since I love their gelato and cakes, they truly satisfy my sweet cravings.

What’s good about Cara Mia's gelatos, the prices are uber affordable for heavenly-tasting flavors. Plus they got awesome varieties for their gelato and cakes. For less than an hundred bux, you get your gelato topped with mix of fresh fruits or chocolates, wafers, broas and fully covered with either chocolate or caramel soup. The same goes for their gelato cakes.

My last visit in Amici - Mega Mall branch with friends, we had mango sans rival,  choco sans rival and choco tartufo (my favorite) which unfortunately I wasn’t able to take picture because it was gone in minutes.  Desserts gluttony, my friends said, is acceptable for the last flavor I recommended to them.

Soon I'll buy a box of their gelato cake and have a feast myself, sugar overload indeed. Hay, I can't wait :)

North Park Greenfield District is now open!

Just a couple of weeks ago, two of my bosses treated me for a dining experience at North Park’s newly opened branch in Greenfield District. The place is just near my work place so my colleagues are excited to frequent the place.

 My first time in North Park and an exclusive date with my boss Cham :)

I didn’t really order anything because I don’t know what North Park serves best; I just based my order on Cham’s recommendation, she also preferred to get the quick food from the NP’s menu.

I had Soy Sauce Chicken for myself while she got Nanking Beef. We enjoyed our lunch over sharing some recent office chika but my verdict for the food I had is like 6/10. I don’t know but I don’t really understand the taste of the chicken’s sauce or the soy sauce for that matter. It’s quite bland for me plus I’m expecting to have quite a good taste of marinated chicken but this one tastes bland too. Maybe it’s just me but I would still want to taste the usual North Park faves like the mami and dimsum which I told myself I should have ordered instead.

Well at least their dessert “Fresh Mango Tapioca” is great plus I had some bottomless hot tea :)

One thing I appreciated more about N.P from my first dining experience is the look and feel of the place - I like their interiors and furniture:). 

I will definitely visit the place again, and hopefully their service will improve by then, my second time at N.P was terrible in terms of service time and accuracy of food orders, a colleague even walked out when his food wasn't delivered for over 30 minutes. I guess the staff get overwhelmed with the number of guests they had that day, everyone seems to be so confused but I believe they know what to do next time.

Paella ala Filipina - Yum Pinoy style :)

One of Global Academy's respectable Chefs - Cheff Terrence Feraday cooked for us the best Paella I've ever tasted.  This flavor-rich Spanish origin cuisine featured our very own smoke fish or better known as "tinapa". I swear the tinapa add-ons gave the best gustatory in this Chef Terrence's signature dish - "Paella Ala Filipina".

 

The experience is winner! Especially to us who waited patiently. I was a bit shy to ask for more but didn't bother my shyness so I check if there's more and to my surprise, the server plate is empty. :)

 

 

"stock"

yummy!