Take Home Goodies

It's my habit to bring home pasalubong to my daughter coming home from the office. I love the feeling that I take home something for her which I know she will appreciate. Nothing big. Mostly food she can munch on after dinner. Lately though I've been buying Donut Dips from Mister Donut. My husband was the first one to discover this. A lot of times for several consecutive nights he kept on bringing home Donut Dips to think he's the number one critic of Mister Donut. He doesn't like their donuts.

A bite of the donut dipped in chocolate is enough for me. This is patterned after churros which I love too.



If I may say this, menu boards of restaurants are more effective when they they are designed simply and clearly. The pictures of food in the well-lit menu board of Mister Donuts are very inviting. I bought their Baked Cheese and Tomato Pene because the picture looks so appetizing. And the picture did not lie. It's value for money. Delicious pasta at P60. Love it! My daughter and husband love it too.



Whatever happened to Dunkin' Donuts? I still love their croissant but it seems Mister Donut is way ahead of them now in terms of product development and building a more attractive store.


***More food sharing at Picture Clusters and Food Trip Friday.

Kimono Ken, After a Movie Date

My daughter and I watched How to Train Your Dragon a few nights ago. We both had fun watching it. It's the kind of film both adults and children will enjoy. We did not have dinner before seeing it because it was almost the preview time when we bought the tickets. We only had our share of popcorn and iced tea inside the theater.

She craved for her favorite chicken cheese roll (breaded chicken rolled with cheese and vegetables) from Kimono Ken as soon as the movie was done.


I am on a diet so I skipped rice and just had one piece of sakana-fry (crispy fried cream dory with tartar sauce).


Hubby had an appointment earlier so he just followed us at the restaurant. As usual, he ordered kani salad. This kani salad has a lot of greens compared to most kani salads from other dining places.


Good movie, nice light dinner and we're off to a looong weekend. Nice. :)

***More food sharing at Picture Clusters and Food Trip Friday.

Keeping Fit and Healthy

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of wellnessdaily.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

I have been going to the gym for more than a year now. I have seriously taken up working out as part of my health and wellness activity. Who would have thought that I will be enjoying going to the gym? I used to be lazy going up the third floor of my office. Now I even attend body combat, dance classes, body balance and yoga.

I lost a lot of unwanted fats already. It got me really motivated to achieve my desired weight. As I always share with my friends, I have no problem when it comes to working out. I look forward going to the gym even if my schedule is so hectic. But there is one thing that hampers my total weight loss program. It's dieting. That was my struggle.

Yes, was. Because now I am thankful I have disciplined myself when it comes to managing my food intake. I just told myself I have to do it. Just do it. If not now, when.

I would like to share what is working for me so far in terms of sticking to my diet and working out religiously:

1. I have set a monthly weight goal. I missed on the first month by three pounds but on the second month I achieved my goal. My morale was so high that it made me stick to my diet.

2. I refrained from weighing in several days in a week. I prefer to weigh in at twice a month to check my progress. Weigh yourself under the same circumstances on the first time you weighed in. Ideally, no food intake yet for a more accurate reading of your body.

I asked the trainers at the gym about properly monitoring one's weight. I learned about the importance of reducing fat mass and checking BMI. It's not only one's weight that should be managed by also those two I have mentioned.

3. Eat less more often. I veered away from junk food, sweets and too much rice. I only have 1/2 cup or 1 cup at the most in a day. On some days I don't have rice at all. I am on wheat bread, tuna with lite mayo, fruits, boiled bananas and boiled eggs.
I don't starve myself but I regulate my eating habits.

4. I do a lot of household chores to burn calories when I'm just home which is mostly during weekends. It helps a great deal.

5. I subscribed to some health and wellness online publications. I read about success stories about weight management. They inspire me a lot.

I signed up at www.wellnessdaily.com. It is like a one-stop shop for all the health and wellness readings you are interested to know more of if you are a health enthusiast. Going to this site will save you time rather than browsing and searching endlessly for health topics. It aggregates the latest news on wellness, recipes you can try for your diet, and a variety of other topics including working out and mental well being.

My favorite channel here is Eat Right as it gives me loads of ideas on healthy meals I
can prepare for my and my family.

Pasta with Shrimp and Broccoli

Yes, this is a favorite of the family. We love its creamy texture and the crisp broccoli. My daughter can't have enough of this. :)

Adarna Food and Culture Restaurant

I am always in search of a different restaurant where my family and I can visit. I searched the web last night for a good restaurant we can go to which is just near our place. Our original choice was a casual-dining pasta house just a few minutes drive from our house but it closed shop already.

I landed at spot.ph and Adarna Food and Culture captured my attention. Interesting.

The restaurant will let you travel back in time, circa 1960s. It is a visual feast for people like me and my husband who love to experience themed restaurants. I recounted on my other blog, Life Bliss, the interior of the restaurant.

My husband was supposed to order the pandan rice but I was intrigued with the Yellow Batanes Rice. It has turmeric, garlic and bits of pork. We ordered the family serving which is good for five persons. The serving is quite big as we had to take home the left-over still good for one person. (Hubby consumed it for dinner tonight, still good after reheating.)


Yellow Batanes Rice, P150 (Family), Rating: 5 stars out of 5 stars
We had to play it safe as my daughter is a bit choosy with her food. She ordered the Victory Joe Chicken Wings with Fresh Tomato Salsa. She loves it! We all do. It's a bit pricey at P300+ but it tastes good. Very crispy with a creamy, buttery taste. My husband and I love the salsa. It's around six to seven pieces if I remember it right.


Victory Joe Wings with Tomato Salsa, P392, Rating: 5 stars out of 5 stars
We want fish too so we opted for the tried and tested rellenong bangus, single serving. Achara goes with it. My husband wanted ketchup with it but we did not ask the server anymore. We just tried it as it is.

I was not happy with it because there's a bit of an aftertaste, malansa in the vernacular. We actually did not get to eat much of this.


Rellenong Bangus (Stuffed Milkfish), P175, Rating: 2 stars out of 5 stars

Atchara
My husband and I wanted to try this beef menu because we both love coconut cream. Piassok is a dish from Sulu - beef is buttered, cooked in coconut cream with spices. It's very tender. Husband love it, I like it. The only thing that keeps me from saying I love it is the burnt after taste. There are even burnt portions of the beef as it was served to us. We also had to take home our left over. It proved to be better tonight when we reheated it.


Piassok, P335, Rating: 3 stars over 5 stars
The customer service is great. The food servers are very warm and very neat. Serving time is a bit long most probably because food are cooked as they are ordered. That's fine as long as you are not that hungry going to the restaurant.

Overall, our experiene at Adarna Food and Culture is very good. We will be back again to try the other dishes.