Pancake House

My friend, SM, was not in the good mood when he came in the office.  Something happened between him and his teammate the night before that ended up with exchanges of heated text messages.  You're asking what's the connection of this to the photo above?  Oh well, being the nicest friend on earth (that's me! :D), I treated him to Pancake House for a simple yet yummy lunch!  He had Tenderloin Steak (no photo.. :P), and I had Hamburger Steak Special Set. 

Mexicali

Thanks to Groupon Philippines for another wonderful treat from Mexicali.  I claimed mine at Glorietta branch and aside from the items in the photo, there is Bananas Caramel & Cream included.  I had Chicken Burrito (yummy!), Beef Tacos (which I decided to take away because I was already full with just the regular-sized burrito) and the dessert was even yummier! ;)   More to great deals from group-buying sites! :)

SPAM Tocino and Egg Sandwich

My dish of the month is........ SPAM Tocino and Egg Sandwich (as the title says :D) with BBQ-flavored French Fries on the side.  Unfortunately, no photos to upload because we were so hungry and excited to taste the latest Limited Edition of SPAM, our very own, Tocino! :) 

Maja Blanca

Spiral @ Sofitel

Thanks to my dear friend Tabel for sharing with us her Spiral voucher that gives us 50% off on dinner buffet.  So, as part of our quarterly meet-up and Nikki's birthday celebration, we had a sumptuous dinner buffet at Sofitel yesterday.

My verdict?  Hhmmm.... IMHO, the quality of food was superb, the selection was just fine and the rate was too much, yes, even at a discounted price.  Except for the foie gras, the rest of the dishes can be found in other buffet restaurants like Vikings and at a much lower price with similar taste.  But no regrets in trying it out, with good friends.. good food... it only means... good times :)

Red Velvet Chocolate Crinkles

Yeah, it was meant to be Red and Crinkled.  But they turned out still brownish and round.  Arghhhh!!!  I'm still figuring out what went wrong :(.

Cronuts

If my memory serves me right, Cronuts got its hype last year.   It's a combination of CRoissant and a doughNUT.  I'm not really sure who started it all, what I know is people went gaga over it for sometime and of course, I got curious as well but I didn't have the patience to queue up for so long just to get a piece of it.  So, after almost a year, I had a taste of it before my facial session.  I had Wildberry Kreme and Chocolate Cronut for snacks.

 

My verdict?  The cronuts tasted ordinary, nothing special if I may say but the Wildberry Kreme was superb! ;)

Pan-Grilled Mixed Veggies

Button Mushrooms, Carrots and Bell Pepper

Fruit Cocktail with Almond Jelly

DM Fruit Cocktail & Homemade Almond Jelly

Army Navy Burger + Burrito

Starting today, I'll post an entry about my first time experiences with any type and kind of food whether from a restaurant, kiosk, palengke and what-have-you :).  Just a disclaimer, I'm not an expert in food-tasting, I probably have the worst taste buds in the world.  For me, there are only 2 kinds of taste: bad and good :)  So, at the end of this entry, I'll just rate the food based on 2 things:  Experience and Food Quality.  Let me start with Army Navy Burger + Burrito in Glorietta.

Apologies if I don't have a single picture of what I ate.  I was too hungry to take one. :D  Anyway, I had their Classic burger which has a single quarter-pound patty with onions, tomatoes and lettuce.  Together with the burger is a regular-sized in-house freshly-brewed iced tea.  My verdict: 1-worst; 5-best

Food Quality:  3.5

Experience: 4

Puto

Dumplings: Failed!

There's always a next time :(

Homemade Hawaiian Pizza

As promised to myself, here's my first dish this month.  And since I have extra slices of bread, I made a healthier version of Hawaiian Pizza using whole wheat bread.

Diet-ing, the Second Time Around

Two months ago when I started planning to try something new on my diet. A month later, I found a way on how to lighten my food intake without totally giving up my usual cooking. No, I'm not overweight nor underweight, I just wanted to maintain my BMI at a normal level and eventually lose my unwanted fats and tone down my waistline. And so, apart from my weekly workouts, I decided to have a twist on my weekday meals:

Breakfast: Rice + any ulam + Iced Lemon Tea/Fruit Juice/Coke Zero/Iced Milk Tea + Gelatin with fruits (heavy huh!)

I usually prepare my breakfast the night before so I don't have to wake up so early in the morning. In this way, I can still cook my fave dishes: Adobo, Bistek, Kare-Kare, Sinigang na Hipon/Baboy, Picadillo and many many more.

Lunch: Gourmet Sandwich + Water + Any fruits

I'm very proud to say that I make my own Gourmet Sandwiches *wink*: Tuna/Mixed Ham /Sausage/Egg Sandwiches are just some of my tested recipes. I add on cheese, low-fat mayonnaise, mustard, pickles, lettuce, tomato and cucumber.. Yumm-oo!!! Many thanks to Subway and The Sandwich Guy for giving me ideas :)

Dinner: NONE. But if I do starve, I drink milk or a piece of fruit at least 3 hours before bedtime. Sometimes a cup or cereal of oatmeal will do.

But on weekends, no limitations at all... just have to eat a little amount of each dish that I crave for. Making sure that I don't deprive myself of anything :)

Am looking forward to a better me, in months time. :)

My Cooking Sucks

I don't know what's wrong with me that my last 2 dishes tasted awful. It wasn't the first time that I've cooked those that's why I've been wondering what went wrong. The sweet 'n sour pork last Wednesday and the macaroni soup this morning were the worst dishes I've ever cooked. Arrrggghhh!!!! Can't forgive myself. I guess if there is one lesson that I've learned with these experiences, that is : Never cook when you're not in the mood to do so. Yeah, that's the culprit.

Or maybe, I should take some time off from cooking and give myself a breather. And while in the resting period, I better search for more good foods to cook come next year. Why not? :)

Pinakbet

Just finished cooking my ulam for tomorrow, Pinakbet! This is my first time to cook this dish. Even when I was back home, I never attempted to try it unlike adobo or sinigang. So, tomorrow is d day! I'll partner this with Lechon Kawali. Yep! I also know how to cook this very crispy and crunchy dish. I have tried it a month ago and it tasted soooo gooood :) according to my housemate who had tasted it ;) Yummm... yummm..... can't wait.

Cafe Cartel

What I like most about Fridays is that I get to treat myself to a sumptuous dinner. Whatever amount I had saved for the week, I make sure that part of it goes to pampering myself with great foods. Last Friday, I had Chicken Chef's Salad for my dinner from Cafe Cartel:


But I just could not get enough of Cafe Cartel... Yesterday, I went back there and had this for lunch...

St Louis Pork Ribs

*photos grabbed somewhere out there :)