Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Solo flight cooking

Among my kids, Josh is the one who really wants to be a chef someday. So I always try to find recipes he can do by himself. Take note that he can already cook menudo and it's as good as the one his dad and I make! :)

Yesterday afternoon, while his kuya was attending a friend's birthday party and Daniel went biking, Josh set his sights on the pack of Blueberry muffin mix that my sister-in-law sent from the US. We have already cooked the Chocolate Chip flavored one a couple of weeks ago so he already knew the drill.


I just gave him instructions and watched him do everything himself. He mixed milk and muffin powder to make the batter, greased the small muffin foil cups (I'm glad to have found these at the grocery store at P60+ per 10 pieces) with butter, and poured the mixture into each cup.


We cooked two muffins at a time in our tiny oven toaster. We learned not to follow the cooking time in the package because the last batch we cooked almost burned. This time, I set the timer to less than 10 minutes instead of the recommended 15. We got nice muffins!


Here's a photo of the happy "customers" :) Yummy!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Snack Time ... Again!

After yesterday's pizzas, we still had enough leftover cheese to make some cheese sticks. So I asked hubby to buy some lumpia wrapper from the talipapa at the village gate.

After I showed him how, the little boy enjoyed finishing up wrapping the cheese ...



The tyke seemed to be enjoying himself immensely ...



... and of course, was the first one to taste his "cooking" :)

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Real Leaf Paparazzi: Bonding Over Pizza

My kids are growing up very fast and they seem to be always hungry! This afternoon, after they arrived from school, we had homemade pizza.

The kids volunteered to put toppings on the small doughs and they (the small one, especially) went at it with gusto. We used pizza sauce, ham, smoked pepperoni (which we bought from Shopwise at only P26 per 100g), sliced button mushrooms, and (supposedly) quick melt cheese. Too bad I forgot to buy canned pineapples.

I bought small doughs because we only have a small toaster oven. We cooked the pizzas two at a time for around 10-12 minutes each. I was quite disappointed that the Che-Vital Quickmelt Cheese (which we tried for the first time) didn't melt! :(

Expectedly, the first two to "attack" the first batch of pizzas would be my two hungry young chefs :p We brought out the Real Leaf Iced Tea bottles that are chilling in the ref and which were the perfect drinks to match with the food. Funny how each of us has his/her own favorite Real Leaf flavor. Leland and I like the lychee variant, hubby and Josh like the lemon one while Daniel prefers the apple flavor :)

Before the two guys ate their second servings (we made 10 which was perfect for the five of us), Mom, Dad and Kuya ate our first pizzas too. I like the thought that the activity also taught my kids patience on the side :)

Of course, James, our child with special needs (who hates camera flashes these days) had a "snack" of his own -- via his feeding tube! :)

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Food for Mortals?

If you happen to pass by a Kenny Roger's branch and see the Christmas muffins poster that advertises their "Food for the Gods" and "Fruit Cake" flavors ... KEEP WALKING AND DON'T BUY!!!


This happened to me earlier tonight. I saw the poster at the Festival Mall branch and, being a "Food for the Gods" aficionado, I excitedly bought a box of six muffins. Inside were three of my preferred flavors while the other three were Fruit Cakes. I was thinking that at P15 each, they are definitely cheaper than what are sold in Conti's or Mary Grace's. BIG MISTAKE. I shouldn't have bought one, let alone six! When I got home, my pastry-loving son immediately decided to sample one muffin.


The darn muffins were hard as a rock! I also took a bite and felt like I could have lost all my front teeth. My son even knocked one on the floor :( Only the very center was soft enough to eat and the taste was not even remarkable. It was too sweet. The muffin I tried to eat had only a piece of dried fruit and no sign of any walnuts whatsoever. I wonder if the Kenny Roger's staff do quality control of the food they sell. It seems like the muffins were literally baked way back last Christmas! What happened to the "tasty" and "fresh-baked" descriptions on the box? Are they only applicable to corn muffins?!


I am sooooo disappointed. What a waste of money :(


Monday, January 04, 2010

Freebie!

I grew up having Knorr's Chicken Noodle Soup as comfort food whenever I get sick as a child. I guess many moms, including mine, do believe in the "power" of chicken soup to somewhat ease the aches and pains that a fever or a nasty cold usually inflicts on a hapless patient.

I was in college, I think, when my younger brother and I got hooked on Knorr's Hot and Sour Chinese soup. So it's not surprising that it also became one of my son's favorite soup flavors. On the other hand, my youngest child prefers the Crab and Corn variant which, according to him, does not sting his tongue.

Needless to say, I usually buy two to three Knorr soup variants every time we go grocery-shopping. A couple of weeks ago, I saw that they brought back the free bowl promo for every three packs consumers buy.


We just got our second bowl last weekend. The bowls have nice designs and my kids like using them whenever we have soup with our meals. Two thumbs up for Knorr!