Refreshing Mint Lemon Chia Cold Drink

Day 74, can you believe that?! Thinking about how time flies and how many hours we spent time inside the house, that is 1,776 hours to be exact (that is for me) since day one of the community lockdowns. 

Since we have all the time and all the things happening around us, and added immune system booster and taking care of our health is our primary goal. 

I am trying to add more on our greens and fresh produce from the home delivery I am availing since the start of the lockdown and I made up some refreshing drink with all the ingredients available. 

This is very easy to do and nothing special ingredients needed. 

Here is the drink I made earlier and I still have some chilled in the fridge anytime anyone gets thirsty. 

A healthy drink that is full of vitamins. 

Chia seeds, lemon slices, and lemon juice, mint leaves, honey, and ice. 

Add chia seeds in water in a container and let it sit overnight. Slice up a lemon and squeeze some juice depending on your taste preference. Add honey and ice in a pitcher of water and stir until the honey is dissolved, depending on the sweetness taste you can adjust the amount of honey. Served it chilled and enjoy a refreshing mint lemon chia cold drink. 

CHIA BLACKBERRY FRUIT SPREAD BY WORLD OF CHIA

Here is another good find from the grocery, Chia Blackberry Fruit Spread by World of Chia! 

From the grocery shopping, I was brought home this jar of goodness, my first time trying this brand and product. I have been using chia seeds for years now, but most are the plain chia seeds that I incorporate to my smoothies, juice drinks, mint and lemon drink, and most of the time in plain cold water.  

And to add chia with fruit for a spread is just a big score! 

With all the beautiful and yummy food photos from their site, it is making me want to make all of them out of the jar I have, haha! I would love to try the rest of their chia spread variants and create yummylicious treats and meals with it, need to save up to buy them. 

A jar cost $6.70/ Php380.00

There are a lot of health benefits when taking chia on a daily dietary habit. 

ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS

Omega-3 fatty acids

(ALA, Alpha-Linolenic Acid)

Fiber

Protein

MINERALS

Potassium

Calcium

Magnesium

Phosphorus

TRACE MINERALS

Manganese

Selenium

Iron

Copper

Zinc

Molybdenum

Sodium

The nutrients in a sample of 3.5 ounces (100 grams) of chia seeds are:

Calories: 486

Water: 6%

Protein: 16.5 g

Carbs: 42.1 g

Sugar: 0 g

Fiber: 34.4 g

Fat: 30.7 g

– Saturated: 3.33 g

– Monounsaturated: 2.31 g

– Polyunsaturated: 23.67 g

— Omega-3: 17.83 g

— Omega-6: 5.84 g

— Trans: 0.14 g

Since I opened the jar, it has been the partner of my breakfast meal, A teaspoon of this chia blackberry is so good and the sweetness is just perfect. 

CHIA BLACKBERRY FRUIT SPREAD by WORLD OF CHIA 

Made with Chia Seeds instead of Pectin

Hot pandesal bread with chia blackberry spread

Pancakes with unsalted butter + chia blackberry spread (replacement for maple syrup)

paired with fresh brewed black coffee. 

How perfect breakfast can be with this jar of chia on the side! 

CREAMY PRAWNS PESTO PASTA USING McCORMICK PESTO SAUCE MIX

CREAMY PRAWNS PESTO PASTA

Today is Day 67 of the community quarantine, it has been 67 days since the lockdown, and as usual things are still going crazy not just here in my place but around the world. So, to divert all the negativity around me I occupied myself on things I can do in the house especially in the kitchen. It's TGIF and the usual Fridays before the lockdown was trying to find time after work to go out with friends or family over dinner or drinks. 

It's Pasta Friday in the house for lunch and I made this Creamy Prawns Pesto Pasta using McCormick Pesto Sauce Mix, with the limited resources for the pesto sauce I resulted in using this sauce mix and it ended up quite good! 

Ingredients:

1. 300 grams prawns (shelled and deveined)

2. 300 grams spaghetti pasta (boiled until Al dente)

3. 1 pouch pack McCORMICK PESTO SAUCE MIX

4. 8 cloves minced garlic 

5. 1 whole white onion chopped

6. Extra Virgin olive oil (amount depends on your preference)

7. 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

8. 1 cup all-purpose cream

9. fresh basil leaves for garnishing

10. salt and pepper to taste

-Boil pasta until Al dente around 6-8 minutes, drain and set aside half a cup of the pasta water that will be used for dissolving the pasta sauce mix instead of plain water. 

-Sautee garlic and onion in olive oil and butter until caramelized.

-Add prawns and stir fry it in oil, garlic, and onions, for 3minutes, add the basil leaves immediately remove from heat, and set aside.

-Pour the dissolved pasta sauce mix into the pan, using the whisk to stir, add salt and pepper. Adjust to your preference. 

-Add the all-purpose cream and bring it to a boil then simmer until the sauce thickens. 

-Add the pasta noodles, do not over stir.

Plate the pasta topped it with prawns and basil leaves. You can add any available cheese you have, But I prefer plain as it is. I also drizzled more olive oil upon serving. 

Cooking time + preparation time: 40-45 minutes

Expenses: $30/Php600 

Serves: 6 

Paired with unsweetened pineapple juice with chia seeds with lots of ice! 

With the limited resources available we can rely on using instant sauce mixes for our dishes, and this McCormick pasta sauce mix impressed me!

Did you cook any pasta dish lately? 

Our FurBaby Named Billy!

Billy 

#WithMe is our furbaby named Billy! He is a 7-week old Japanese Spitz, he came in yesterday and he was a delight from the first moment he stepped foot inside the house. Yesterday, Day 60 of #stayathome #quarantine, was his first 24-hours and we were all a bit anxious and nervous, it was our first time to have a pet! Having a pet in the house on lockdown in this time of the Covid19 pandemic, you might ask? I did ask myself too, but, I said why not!? We are giving it a try and so far so good. As of this writing, Billy is with us for almost 60hours now, with lots of pee and twice poop, haha! Sharing you all a bit of what is happening with our fam, and a bit of our Billy! I hope you all are safe and healthy! Thanks for watching!

 My daughter's mini stuffed toys and some toys she kept for years and now it's Billy's! :)

 First selfie smile of our baby boy. 

Billy's first nap, him not noticing he was inside the cage for the meantime while we arrange his bed and stuff. 

How To Make Honey Ginger Lemon Hot Tea Drink with Lemongrass - Ottogi Brand Featured

Grocery shopping at this time of lockdown can be difficult, quick buys of certain items from the grocery with lots of precautions are the new normal. Window shopping is not allowed at this time. With the limited stores that are open and essential items can be quickly emptied on the shelves, you will be lucky to score some items...like the ones we got from the Korean store inside the base. 

The essential item that we badly need was some bottles of plain honey which we are using for our morning lemon hot tea. Since there was none, we opted and tried this Ottogi Honey Ginger tea. But, before that, let me show you some snacks and other food items we hauled from this Korean store.

Assorted Korean Ice Cream 

(Samanco red bean and Matcha, Cledor, and Cookie-O)

A can of Dong Won Korean Luncheon Meat

One small bag of Kimchi

A box of Korean Pancake Hotteok Mix 400g

A jar of Ottogi Honey Ginger Tea

Ottogi Honey Ginger Tea

This is the first time we will be using this brand, this has honey in it and can be a replacement for natural honey in tea. 

1. Boil water or you can have your base tea with some steeped lemongrass boiled in water like the ones I used here that is why tea is somehow yellow already. 

2. Slice some lemon, you can add more according to your preference. 

3. Add a teaspoonful of Ottogi Honey Ginger Tea. As you can see, the consistency of the Ottogi Honey Ginger is somehow gelatinous. When I popped open the jar, the smell of the ginger was very evident. You can also see slices of ginger root. 

You can add more depending on your sweetness preference, but for me, one teaspoonful was enough. 

4. Mix well until the jelly melts. 

5. Squeeze some lemon to add more sour taste and making this drink infused with Vitamin C. 
Well, everyone knows the health benefits of lemon juice as one of the main sources of Vitamin C (59 grams lemon contains 31mg of Vit.C) which we badly needed to boost our immune system while on lockdown. Btw, we are now on Day 61 of the Covid19 pandemic lockdown. 

We had this almost every morning as a drink starter on an empty stomach. The whole jar lasted for two weeks. 

Will I buy another jar? For US$5.50 (Php278) per bottle, I would although I still prefer using the natural honey syrup as a sweetener and it's health benefits Ottogi brand can be used as an added tea ingredient. And, it has a delightful taste which I like. 

Have you tried this brand before, how was your experience? 

How to DIY Clean Tarnished Silver Accessories the Natural Way

We are now on Day 59 of the lockdown, and can you believe that we stayed indoors for this long and still counting. This morning as I was getting myself ready for the day I gazed outside the window and thought of how time passed by so quickly. I was trying to recall the first day when the government ordered the lockdown. 

We were at work and the memo from our head office stated that we need to go home to comply with the government's directives. March 17, 2020, was the last time I was out of the house. Since then I never left nor stepped out...with that I had a lot of time in the house and was able to check on things, from my things down to the things I wasn't able to check because we were busy at work and time then were so limited. 

One of which was my jewelry box containing my sterling silver accessories, I kept all of them in a separate box from the gold accessories, and when I checked some of them were already tarnished! 

Now is the perfect time to do some DIY cleaning with these pair of earrings. 

I have not worn these for many years and kept it, as you can see the tarnished color. 

You will be needing the following:

1. Ample amount of baking soda.

2. An old toothbrush with a soft bristle. 

3. Tap water to soften the baking soda.

4. A flat container dish. 

Rub the baking soda to the silver earrings with water. 

Gently brush the baking soda to the earrings and you will notice the changes. 

I left it soaked in the baking soda with water for less than an hour, repeating the process of brushing it gently. 

Rinse with water and pat dry it with a clean cloth. 

           Before                                                    After

      

You can see the big difference between the two. 

I was able to wear it again and this time at home not at a party, haha! 

And the best part of it was I didn't spend much money to have it clean, I did not buy any chemicals for cleaning, or have it professionally done! 

Random Lockdown Post from my Kitchen

A few days back I did a short challenge on my social media accounts about kitchen tools. Since we have a lot of time in the kitchen preparing meals for the family since the lockdown started there are kitchen tools that are very helpful to us making our kitchen life easy. 

I took a photo of my three best kitchen tool helpers, the rubber spatulas, paring knives, and my peeler. I have them for years now! 

They are very handy in slicing, peeling, and making sure those baking batter and food in the containers are being transferred clean and easy.

The best part of owning these kitchen tools are the price when I bought them. As frugal as can be, I am not into expensive brands as I know they do the same techniques as the cheap ones. 

I got the two paring knives for only a dollar, the spatulas are for $1.50, and the peeler for $0.60. 

How about your favorite kitchen tools you have? 

How Did You Spend Mother's Day In This Time of Covid19

Mother's day came a little earlier this year compared to last year's celebration. And, added a couple of days earlier too because the weekend of Saturday and Sunday was on total lockdown in my city.

So, people celebrated Mother's day at home last May 9, Friday and May 11, Monday.

This is the first time that we celebrated Mother's day at home and can't go out and have dinner with the family. I am thankful though that still we can communicate with the people we love and people that matter to us and through social media.

For us, I was surprised again by my children, my son sent me greetings through Facebook and a story of a photo of me from our last lunch in Manila, where we met up with him. My daughter made me a personalized Mother's day card, as always. She always finds time to make me handmade cards to whatever occasion. She also baked brownie chips for dessert.

For dinner, we had baked chicken in butter and olive oil, with garlic, potatoes, and onion. I had a glass of red wine to paired with.

Before the evening ended, I had several video calls with my Mommy friends along with our available booze at home, haha!


It was a fun quarantined Mother's Day celebration.

I hope you had fun too!

How did you celebrate Mother's Day?

PS. we still have some leftover chicken from last night and it will be served for lunch, gottta save up food and no time to waste. 

SEOUL WHITE KOREA WHIP IT! K-BRIGHT & EVEN WHITENING WHIP SOAP

I would like to introduce to you guys this Korean soap brand that I finally got the chance to use. I got this soap for free from Sampleroom.ph months back.

Seoul White Korea K-Bright & Even Whitening Whip Soap is a brightening and moisturizing whip soap. The bar soap includes a white fine net, this will help create the whipped foam when applied to the skin. It also serves as an exfoliating tool, which can remove excess dirt and remove dead and dry skin. It is dedicated to face use, I tried it all over the body, I loved the fragrance and the relaxing after shower feel! 

It is infused with white strawberry and whitening Kojic berry to lighten skin, dark spots, and acne marks while leaving the skin glowing and touchable soft. Directions: Wet the soap bar with water and rub until whipped foam forms. Massage onto skin then rinse with water. Use daily on the face.

FULL SIZE: 120g PRICE: Php 199 / $4US My verdict:

Scent- To those who like to use non-scented soap for their face or body, you might not like this one, the scent is a little over-powering. The minute I opened the packaging, the scent burst up until I used it for the body.  

Form/texture- the bar easily melts when applied with water. Hang the net bag using the string to prevent the soap from melting. I am not expecting for the soap to last long as it really melts easily. But, I love the whipped foam effect when being used. 

Moisturizing effect- it did provide nourishing feel after-shower but it did not last long.

Price- I might but not considering to buy the soonest. A little pricey for me compared to my usual body and face foam cleanser. 


#SeoulWhiteKoreaWhipIt #Sampleroom #WhipItSoap

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seoulwhitekoreaph/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seoulwhitekorea/

What to Order in Postmates Plus Free Offer!

*This is a sponsored post written by me for Postmates. All opinions are mine alone.

Faced by the current health situation we need to protect ourselves and our family to be exposed to the virus. Social distancing and staying in shelter/staying at home is the key to be free from getting infected. 

The normal things we do before like grocery shopping, buying our stuff we need for the house, etc. are being limited right now. 

Good thing that we can rely on delivery services from Postmates or pick-up items you need!

Postmates is a company that provides merchandise and food delivery which allows consumers to order anything they want, including grocery stores, restaurant meals, and even personal items. The objective is to deliver certain items to the customer's door in under an hour.

You can order anything like gadget chargers, food, your favorite wine, home essentials, and more! 

Sign-up with your email address and add your phone number to track your orders.

Check out this great offer from Postmates, get $100 OFF Postmates delivery fees when you sign-up (valid for new users only). Use the promo code: FOODMATES

You can download their app on iOs and Google Play Store or just by going to their website. 

As of February 2019, Postmates operates in 2,940 U.S. cities, check one nearest you!