BPC 119/365 Papaya

I grew up with natural remedies.  We don't go to the doctor for some minor health problems.  We always try natural or herbal remedies first for a while and sometimes for as long as we can manage.  Going to the doctor is somewhat a last resort.  Blame it to the bad health care system of the Philippines and our poverty.

I also grew up eating semi-ripe papaya dipped in vinegar/salt mixture.  This is what we usually eat when we have sore throat or tonsillitis.  It always work.  We also eat this for snacks.

Yesterday, I found some papayas in Walmart and on an impulse I bought one because I miss eating papaya dipped in vinegar/salt mixture.  No, I don't have sore throat or tonsillitis.  The papaya that I got tasted so good that I eat to my heart's content.

Andrea's Fruit Salad

Photo

My daughter loves to play with her plastic foods, fruits and vegetables. Playing them is part of our daily routine.

After our play time, she told me that she wants a healthy snack.  She wants a fruit salad.  Her fruit salad should be made of oranges, apple slices and raisins.  When I gave her this plate she said "This is perfect, thank you mommy"

So, fruit salad it is!  Fruit Salad - Andrea's version!

Zaxby's House Salad

This is a tasty salad that I ordered at Zaxby's.  We decided to eat at Zaxby's and I ordered this one.  I choose the lite vinaigrette dressing.  I didn't eat the toasted bread though as the dressing alone has enough carb content.  I love the taste of their grilled chicken.

Healthy Baking with Virgin Coconut Oil

I have heard so much about  Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil so I was excited to learn more about them.  My excitement grow more when I found out that this product is from Philippines.  I am excited and proud to know this.  I remember my younger years when we use to make coconut oil and use it for our daily cooking.

Using coconut oil remind me of the old days.  I love the aroma of the coconut oil.  When I got ahold of Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil, I used it on everything.  I used it to cook and bake.  Today, my daughter and I decided to bake Halloween funfetti and used virgin coconut oil instead of the regular cooking oil.

Now that I discover about Tropical Traditions Virgin Coconut Oil, I will make sure that I will never ran out of it. I love it!  And would you believe that using this oil when frying the "stinky" dried fish lessens the smell of the dried fish?  You should try it.  In fact, there are many uses of this virgin coconut oil that you will find no excuse not to buy them.

How Virgin Coconut oil is made? Watch this educational video below:
Virgin Coconut Oil: America's First Traditional Handcrafted Virgin Coconut Oil




Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.

How do you like your Pears?

I like pears. I like to eat them when they are not yet ripe. Freshly picked unripe pears for me taste like guava. I like to eat it dipped in a mixture of vinegar and salt.

Sometimes, I get lucky when our nearest grocery stores sell hard "unripe" pears. I love them!

How do you like to eat your pears? Do you prefer ripe or the hard ones?

Summer Salad

I am fortunate that I often get CARAPELLI OLIVE OIL. I have used this olive oil for over a year now and I love them. Here's one of their summer recipe:

Summer Salad with Grilled Shrimp and Pineapple in Champagne Vinaigrette


Ingredients:
1/4 cup Carapelli Premium 100% Italian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or sherry vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound peeled and deveined uncooked large shrimp
1/2 of a peeled and cored fresh pineapple, cut lengthwise into 4 slabs
8 cups packed mixed field greens or baby greens
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or tarragon leaves

Procedure:
Heat a grill to medium-high heat or have a ridged grill pan ready. For vinaigrette, whisk together oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Transfer 3 tablespoons of the mixture to a pie plate or shallow plate. Stir pepper flakes and garlic into oil mixture on plate. Add shrimp to plate; toss with oil mixture. Thread shrimp onto metal skewers or soaked bamboo skewers. Brush oil mixture from plate over skewers. Transfer skewers to grill; discard marinade on plate. Add pineapple to grill. Grill shrimp and pineapple (or cook shrimp in a heated ridged grill pan over medium heat and grill pineapple in pan after shrimp is removed) 4 minutes. Turn skewers and pineapple over; continue grilling 4 to 5 minutes or until shrimp are opaque.

Meanwhile, toss mixed greens with remaining vinaigrette; arrange on four large serving plates. Carve pineapple crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices; arrange over salads. Remove shrimp from skewers; arrange over salads. Top with basil. Serves 4.

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Are you ready to make this recipe? Visit CarapelliUSA.com and download a $1/off coupon for any 17 oz or larger Carapelli Olive Oil product.

A Reason to Celebrate

Good things are happening at hubby's work. We are very happy about it and we wanted to celebrate.

So, off we went to our favorite Joe's Crab Shack. When we got there there was a long wait. We didn't mind as while waiting, Andrea played in their playground. When, we got seated, we ordered right away and waited for our food.

Andrea busy coloring while waiting for our order.


Oh, by the way, we got a free appetizer because we signed up at Joe's Crab Shack.

Calamari

Dave and I both ordered Crab in a Bucket. It was delicious as always.

Albacore Tuna

Tuna is good for the heart, as what they say. It is also and easy fix when I get hungry. I bought a couple of cans and one of them is the albacore tuna.

I cooked with with bokchoy and it was delicious. For the recipe: click here

on Healthy Eating

I started eating healthy because of my health condition. I do crave for those food that I use to eat without limit. So far, I have manage to curb my rice intake which is really a good start. It was hard but at least I still get to eat all the vegetables that I like.

This was my dinner last night and I just ate this without rice. I also use lite coconut milk for this dish.

Sweet Craving

Hubby was craving for some cake. He asked me if do I mind baking a cake or do we just buy a cake from the store. So, we went to Walmart and check their bakery. There is no German Chocolate cake there. Hubby always prefers this kind of cake. We saw other cake which he would like but the price was just too much for me. A round cake is more than $10!

So I decided to bake a cake. I just bought the mix for $1.50 and the toppings for $1.50. The cake ingredients only require 3 eggs, water and 1/3 cup cooking oil. With little work, I made German Chocolate cake in less than 1 hour.

Here's my little girl enjoying a slice of it....

Photo Blog Challenge

Note: I made german chocolate cake 2 weekends in a row. I wonder what will they crave next weekend!

Tuscan Roast Turkey

Wow, Thanksgiving is around the corner. So, want to spice up your turkey this Thanksgiving? Why not try to cook Tuscan Roast Turkey.



Serving Size: 16

1 16-pound young turkey
Kosher salt, to taste
1 cup Tuscan Herb Paste
1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
2 teaspoons celery salt
3 fennel stalks with fronds, rough chopped
3 onions, large dice
1 stalk celery, small dice
2 1/4 quarts chicken stock
3 ounces all-purpose flour



Remove giblets from turkey’s cavity, rinse cavity and pat dry, set aside. Season turkey inside and out with Kosher salt.

Mix Tuscan Herb Paste with crushed fennel seeds and celery salt. Starting at the neck of the bird, slip your hand between the meat and the skin to loosen.

Rub half the paste mix under skin, and rub remaining paste inside the cavity and over the rest of the turkey.

Season all over with kosher salt.

Place two-thirds of the chopped onion and fennel stalks inside cavity. Truss bird.

Place turkey in a roasting pan. Roast at 400°F for 30 minutes.

Reduce temperature to 325°F and continue cooking the turkey to an internal temperature of 160°F, approximately 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Baste turkey often during cooking with juices from pan. If turkey begins to overbrown, cover it loosely with aluminum foil.

As turkey roasts, simmer giblets (neck, heart and gizzard), the other one-third of the fennel stalk, onion mix and diced celery in 1 quart chicken stock until tender, approximately 1 1/2 hours.

When turkey is done, remove from roasting pan and set aside to rest. Degrease roasting pan, reserving 3 ounces of fat to make a roux.

Deglaze pan with a small amount of chicken stock. Transfer stock to a saucepot, and add remaining stock and broth from giblets. Bring to a simmer and degrease.

Make a blond roux with reserved fat and flour. Add roux to the liquid, whisking well to prevent lumps. Simmer 15 minutes. Strain gravy through a fine-meshed strainer. Adjust seasoning.


This recipe was emailed to me and it is for me to share. Please also check CarapelliUSA.com for a $1 off coupon available for download.

Firing up the Grill

It has been a while since we last grilled but last weekend we fired up our grill.

Last weekend was a big one for us since we were anticipating the college football game of the century. We were getting ready for LSU-Alabama game. We are big fans of LSU so it was a big day for us.

Dave offered to grill and gave me a break from cooking. He grilled T-bone steaks, asparagus and mushroom & onion.

Grilled food and a winning team. It was a fun Saturday for us!

Sweet Temptation

There are times especially when hubby and I stays up for our movie nights that we just crave for something to munch on.

Few nights ago, we were in the mood for a sweet temptation. We opted to make an apple cinnamon crumble pie. It was awesome.

We had enough leftover that we ate 2 days later. The good thing with making this kind of pie is you can store the leftover in your fridge for up to 5 days.

Dig in everyone! This is yummy!

Filipino Breakfast

Can you imagine how much I miss this type of breakfast? I remember that buying "chorizo" is very easy as most wet market has this and wet markets in the Philippines can be found everywhere. Here in my place, it is hard to find this product and I am just lucky that when I went to the Asian store, I found a frozen cured pork sausage (chorizo). This one is spicy and I loved it.

I know that next time we will go to the Asian Store, I will look for this one. This is delicious. Even if this is frozen, it taste the same with the ones I used to buy in the wet market.

Breakfast @ Cracker Barrel

The Cracker Barrel chain is a Southern themed chain, and serves traditional Southern comfort food. Breakfast is served all day, though the breakfast menu is kept separate from the one for lunch and dinner. The outer porch of a Cracker Barrel store has rows of rocking chairs for guests to enjoy before or after eating, and there is usually a fireplace and a checkers table within the dining area for an added country feel; patrons are welcome to sit down for a game.

For the previous times that we ate at Cracker Barrel I was not impressed with their food. I would not go my way to eat at Cracker Barrel. But, the last time Mischa came, we have to find a place to eat for breakfast before she heeded home. We ended up agreeing to meet for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

This time I ordered a southern omelet which was really good. Mischa had french toast and the rest of us have the same order... omelet.

The breakfast date was great. We all had a good food for a change and we enjoyed each other's company.

Best Hamburger

This was the first time we tried to eat at Five Guys Hamburger and Fries. The place is known to have the best hamburger thus we want to see it for ourselves.

The place is somewhat cozy for a hamburger place. The price of their burgers are also expensive. A burger will cost almost $6. Just the burger. If you want a burger, fries and drink it will cost you over $10. Expensive right? But it is worth the price. They have the best hamburger so far. I love their toppings. I ordered mine topped with mushroom and grilled onion.

This is my model. Seriously trying to see how her drink tastes like. See that little pinkie? I guess who should know where she got that from... lol

Mexican Dining

We love Mexican dining. One of our favorites is the Villa Fiesta in Irondale, Alabama. Of course we love their cheese dip. All of us can't resist fresh chips and cheese dip. Obviously, Andrea got that from us that is why she always enjoys Mexican dining too.

For the first time we ordered her a kiddie meal. She loves "fry fries". She didn't like the popcorn shrimps so it end up in my to go box. We share a virgin mango margarita. We always like them.

Dining @ Caney Fork

For our Father's Day celebration last Sunday, we dined out at Caney Fork. It was great and their food was excellent! We really enjoyed it.

Fried Green Tomatoes for our Appetizer

My plate - Sirloin steak, grilled salmon, broccoli, mushroom/onion

Dave's Plate - 1/2 rack ribs, sirloin steak, fried okra and the fries (which he shared with Andrea)

A side of french fries... Andrea's fave

That was the first time that we dined in at Caney Fork and we are sure to come back. The price of the food are very reasonable and their service is really great.

Family pic while waiting for our food. Andrea sipping her strawberry fruit shake.

Dining @ Cracker Barrel

Cracker Barrel was the first restaurant that we dined in when I got here in the USA and I didn't like their food that is why we never get back to Cracker Barrel for a long time.

Anyway, we decided to try them again since I am used to American food already and this is what we had...

Homemade biscuits with gravy

Grits

Bacon, Sausage, Ham, Eggs

Part of the meal that we order has fried apples. We ordered coffee and chocolate milk for Andrea.

The same verdict that I can say, I still don't like the food at Cracker Barrel.

Dining @ Charley's

Last week we had a chance to dine at Charley's in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I opted to dine at Charley's because I have never dined there.

The restaurant was very nice and the food was good and affordable.

Dave's Order: Fried catfish and french fries

My order: Sesame Chicken over Rice Pilaf

Andrea had fish sticks and french fries. She didn't eat the fish sticks. She ate most of the fries and drank all of her strawberry milkshake