Green Tea

I am not a big tea drinker, but I always welcome a cup of tea whenever possible. One time, my friend Ria mentioned about Matcha Green Tea being the best in fat burning capabilities, so when her former teacher gave her packets of Green Tea, she decided to share it with sis and I. A little tea party!


Honestly, I don't know what's the difference between Matcha Green Tea to just Green Tea. At the supermarket, I can only see Green Tea, but Ria told me this type of Matcha Green Tea was purchased at the PX Store in Clark - store known for selling imported goods, where goods are priced by US Dollars, and shoppers will have to convert it to the exchange rate that day in Philippine Pesos.


Being a noob about preparing tea, we just followed what was written on the packet - boil water and steep the tea bag for 15 seconds. Next step was something we weren't able to understand: cut the packet and pour loose tea, something like that (I threw the packet already, sorry). Anyway, we just took out the bag after 15 seconds or so - time to enjoy the tea!


Of course, it tasted like any regular hot cup of tea, but five minutes after we had a small cup of it, we felt its calming effect - like we mellowed or something. Funny though, tea has caffeine and it's supposed to make people alert and alive, yet we felt we wanted to sleep already!

I am not sure if I will have a chance to see this Green Tea brand, but if ever I see one, I'd surely buy it as I once tasted the Matcha Milk Tea and loved it.

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Soft and Chewy Gluten Free Oatmeal Cookies

Didn't we have enough of the cookie gig at Christmas?  Well the truth is we do not purchase our cookies around here  The only prepackaged  cookie I can find around here is the vanilla cream with vanilla cookie sandwich and my children do  not like those!  It's okay, whipping up a batch of cookies is easy peasy!

My oh my oh my do I ever love oatmeal cookies.  The first ever gluten free batch of oatmeal cookies I ever made were spread across the pan with NO structure  The second batch had to be hand flattened!  LOL  These cookies are just right and oh so good! Plump but not too plump.  Soft but not so you can't hold them in your hand without falling apart.  They have Just the right amount of chewy.  If you like them crunchier no problem.  Just cook them longer.

This happens to be the recipe posted (for the most part) in my son's Cub Scout book.  It also happens to be the recipe (for the most part) inside the Crisco wrapper.  I suppose the recipe for oatmeal cookies have not changed much over the years.  I converted these recipes to accommodate my favorite gluten free flour blend and it works out great!  They taste so good, nobody at Cub Scouts even suspected that they were Gluten Free!

3/4 cup Shortening
1 cup Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup Almond Milk (or water)
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1-1/4 cups Gluten Free Flour Blend
1/2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
3 cups uncooked Oatmeal, pulsed a few times in the food processor (gluten free certified)
1 cup uncooked Oatmeal (not chopped)
3/4 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 cup baking Raisins (or regular soaked in 1/4 cup hot water to plump them back up)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

• Beat together the Butter and sugar until creamy.
• Add eggs, milk/water, vanilla and combine until creamy.
• Combine the remaining ingredients and mix until fully incorporated.
• Scoop out and drop onto ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake for 15 minutes for larger cookies, 10 to 12 for smaller (tablespoon) sized cookies.
• Cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet and transfer to a backing rack to continue cooling.
• Enjoy!

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Monday Plan Monday: Week of February 27th, 2012

My time is really chaotic right now, I'm getting ready for midterms and I do tend to panic.  I'm afraid that the blog is a bit on the back burner right now.  But this blog and my mission is never too far out of my mind.  I literally scrapped up a menu plan from what was in my deep freezer this week in order to save some money.

The weather has been so nice lately.  This past weekend we actually had an outdoor BBQ, the first of the year.

Monday:

Sausage's served on Udi's Rolls & Broccoli

Tuesday:

Fried Ham Steaks, Macaroni & Cheese, Green Beans

Wednesday:

Sauteed Chicken Breasts, Rice and Broccoli

Thursday:

Herbed Roasted Sirloin Tip, Baked Potatoes, Green Beans

(Can you tell I got a bunch of these on sale? ;-)

Friday:

Eating Out

Saturday:

TBD

Sunday: 

TBD

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Asian Culinary Tour at The Maya Kitchen

The very first time I tasted Hainanese Chicken, I couldn't stop raving about it, so knowing a renowned chef will be demonstrating how to cook this dish (and many more), I told myself I wouldn't miss it for sure.

Here's what The Maya Kitchen has to say about the event...

On March 3, Saturday, 1-6pm at The Maya Kitchen, Heritage Hotel Manila Executive Chef Alex Chong brings you on an Asian Culinary Journey as he demonstrates well-loved regional cuisine like Hainanese Chicken Rice and Laksa plus Grilled Prawns with Healthy Coriander Curry Sauce and Carabao Mango Mint Salad along with Nyonya Chicken Soup and Pork Dumpling and popular Malaysian dessert Onde Onde.

Heritage Hotel Manila is part of the Milleneum Hotels and Resorts Group and is one of the few places in Metro Manila that offers Halal certified cuisine.

The Maya Kitchen also has the following One-Day Lifestyle Courses: Restaurant Best Sellers Lenten Dishes, March 10, Saturday, 9am-1pm; Homemade Sausages, March 17, Saturday, 9am-1pm; Nego Kakanin, March 17, Saturday, 2-6pm; Sugar Free Desserts, March 24, Saturday, 1:30-5:30pm; and International Breads Workshop March 31, Saturday, 9am-3pm.

Certificate courses with hands-on are now offered both on weekdays (Tuesday-Friday) and weekends (Saturday) with the following schedules: Advanced Pastry Class, February 29, March 1 and 2, 9am-3pm; Basic Culinary, weekdays, March 6-9 and March 20-23, 9am-3pm; and weekends, March 3, 10, 17, 24, 8:30am-1:30pm; Fundamentals of Bakery Production, weekdays, March 13-16 and March 27-30, 9am-2pm and weekends, March 3, 10, 17 and 24, 2-6pm; Basic Cake Decorating March 30-31, 9am-4pm.

Enroll now and get early bird discounts for the upcoming Junior Culinary and Teen Workshops scheduled on April 10-13 and May 8-11 and April 17-20 and May15-18.

For more information on other courses offerings, log on to www.themayakitchen.com or e-mail contactus@themayakitchen.com or visit The Maya Kitchen Culinary Center every Tuesday to Saturday at 8F Liberty Building, 835 A. Arnaiz Avenue (Pasay Road), Makati City or call 8921185 / 892-5011 local 108.

Very interesting, eh? I will be there on Saturday. Hope to see you there, too!

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Cha Dao Tea Place Opens at SM Fairview

Cha Dao Tea Place

SM City Fairview

26 February 2012

It was sometime last year when I first tasted Cha Dao Milk Tea. It was a very pleasurable experience and my sister and I hoped to go back there again, but the branch at Don Antonio is still quite far from our place, and their branch at Fairview (near FEU Hospital) was a little out of the way even if it's the closest to our place in distance.

I am a fan of Cha Dao Tea Place on Facebook, so I am updated with the newest news about them, and when they posted that they just opened a branch at SM Fairview, I quickly told my sister about it and planned on to visit the branch the soonest possible time. She's now back at workforce, so it was just yesterday that we were able to visit the store.

It was just a little kiosk located between the old and new Annex sections of SM Fairview - right in front of Dulcinea and Office Warehouse. Though small, we found their kiosk very clean and organized, and three staff were coordinating with each other to ensure they provide good, quality service.

This being our second Cha Dao Tea Place experience, we wanted to taste drinks different from our first visit.

Classic Milk Tea (with Popping Bobba). Sister's choice. She really loves milk tea and she found this really good. It was able to calm her senses and she loved the popping bobba!

Chocolate Strawberry Yakult Blend (with Popping Bobba). When I tasted my sister's Peach Mango Yakult Blend before, I fell in love with it, so I told myself the next time I'd visit Cha Dao Tea Place, I'd go for their Yakult Blends. I am intrigued at how Yakult, Chocolate and Strawberry would go, so I went for this. I wasn't disappointed. I loved it so much - the blend of the flavors did go well together.

Both drinks had tube ice in it. It took a while before the drink's temperature changed, but even if the drink wasn't overly cold even when all the ice has melted, I enjoyed the drink. Maybe next time I'd go for another Yakult Blend.

Oh... since this is a new branch, they offer free upgrade to XL cup every time you order for an L cup. This will run until the end of the month, so you still have two days to visit the kiosk and enjoy a cup of Cha Dao Tea Place's drinks. My sister actually only paid p75 for her cup (p65 for the drink + p10 for the sinkers), but since they only offer XL cup for the Yakult Blends, I wasn't able to get discount really... but it's okay, I loved my drink anyway!

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So... what did you have last weekend? If you're new to the Weekend Eating meme, you can read the rules and get the badge codes HERE. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who joined last week.

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SM Foodcourt Dine and Drive Winners

I have so many fond moments at SM Foodcourt - during younger days parents would take us to the Foodcourt of SM Cubao and enjoy a cup of Icee (if you're my age or slightly older than me, you can relate to this). When I studied college, part of my ways of treating myself without spending too much of the saved up the daily allowance is to eat meals at either at the foodcourt of SM Cubao and SM Centerpoint (now SM Sta. Mesa). Even before restaurants and food kiosks sprouted all over, somehow all of us have our own SM Foodcourt story.

During the days between 21 November 2011 and 31 January 2012, food court diners were given the chance to win one of six Chevy Sparks. For every p200 purchase at any food court kiosk (dine in or take out), they were given a raffle coupon the Dine & Drive promo. Last Friday, I was witness to the awarding of the second set of winners - held at the SM City North EDSA (The Block).

Winners are:

Michael Adapon

SM City Marilao

Their family celebrated by eating at the SM Foodcourt. Their total bill was around p3500 (more or less) and since they received quite a lot of coupons, he and his wife shared the task of filling it up.


Maria Lourdes Jacob

SM Naga

I call her the luckiest of all winners - her family just went to SM Naga to celebrate one of her daughters' birthday and the birthday celebrant just wanted to eat squid balls that day. She only had one entry for this promo, but that one entry paved the way for her to win one of the six Chevy Sparks.

Alvin Mendezabal

SM Megamall

It was Friday the 13th when Alvin dined at the Foodcourt of SM Megamall. When he was handed his coupons, the pen he was supposed to used got no ink and when he finally found a working pen and filled up all the coupons, he couldn't find the drop box and he had to go around (back and forth) the Foodcourt just to find that elusive drop box. It would seem like an unlucky day, but fate rewarded him with a brand new Chevy Sparks.

A brand new car is surely a great prize to win! To you and to the other three winners, congratulations!

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After the awarding, winners (and their families), as well us bloggers who watched were treated to a very sumptuous lunch...where else? At the Foodcourt, of course! We were served:


Roasted Chicken. Moist and quite tasty!

Pork Barbecue. Something I didn't taste, but bloggy friends didn't have complains about it.

Pancit Canton. I love the big vegetable cuts - very crunchy!

Lumpiang Sariwa. I loved this... the sauce had the right sweetness, the veggies were crunchy, though I felt the garlic was a little overpowering.


Fish Sinigang. Another dish I didn't get to taste because the fish at the chaffing dish were quite too big.

Beef Caldereta. Not really spicy, but very tasty. The beef was tender, too!

Pork Lechon. Another dish I didn't taste, but this one's from Lydia's Lechon, so if you have tasted Lydia's Lechon, you'd know how this taste like.

Fruit Salad. My cousin and I would have some drinks at The White Hat after this event, so I decided not to eat desserts anymore.

It was a wonderful celebration. I may have shared the table with bloggy friends, but I also saw how winners and their families enjoyed the lunch.

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