Chop, Chat and Chomp

 As I woke up this morning, I rush to the front door to see if there are messages on my cellphone, which I normally place near the door because this is the only place in our house where cellphone signal is strong.  And this is what I saw. It is as if the flower is saying HI to me bringing me the message from our Creator that I just have to put my hope in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. You will notice that the branch is swaying sideways because the flower is too heavy for the too slim branch. This is the plant in my previous post used as souring agent for sinigang. It grew so tall that I don't know what to do about it. I just left it at that. Then yesterday, i saw that there is a bud on the very tip and the plant itself still stood tall. And the bud bloomed into a beautiful deep pink flower.  Here are the close-up shots of that flower. And this is the front door where I run to first thing in the morning to, as I've said, check on my cellphone and...

On the 14th day, I left early again for the retreat and served this dish, which I cooked 2 days ago, for Tommy. I call this dish Chicken Adobo with Malunggay. My lunch in the retreat was breaded chicken strips with steamed carrots and green peas.  My plate Tommy's plate For dinner, I had fish paksiw with ashitaba leaves, sauteed upo with chopped ashitaba leaves and boiled saba. Tommy had fried tilapia with the sauteed upo.  The next day, Sunday, the 15th day, I gathered pansit-pansitan from my garden, washed them thoroughly and placed in bowls.  I prepared squash soup by boiling stock made from soup bones, added diced squash and mashed roughly when soft, poured on bowls with pansit-pansitan while boiling.  Then, I fried daing na bangus, and served this with... ... radish sliced thinly and soaked in vinegar. After the church service, we headed to S&R for the Rotisserie Chicken again and ordered Shrimp Salad. ...

Glad to be back! I was busy the past weekend after my last post but I tried to take photos of the meals we had. For four consecutive days I was occupied with attending to my spiritual duties. On the 11th day, I sauteed kangkong with garlic, onions and tomatoes, seasoned this with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and fried fish in coconut oil.  I cooked pork spareribs sinigang with kangkong (I bought a big bunch), okra, radish and finger chilis for dinner.    On the 12th day, we had scrambled egg with asparagus... ...chicken fried in coconut oil, simply seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper and paired this with...   ...Thai Papaya Salad, same recipe from my previous post, Thai Cucumber Salad . I used papaya instead of cucumber and I added a sprinkling of shrimp-garlic flakes which I bought in Vietnam. Yummier! In the afternoon, we attended our weekly Bible Study and in the evenin...

 pansit-pansitan sandakot na bigas from my garden combination of these for vinaigrette coconut oil - a switch from vegetable oil new finds from the freezer section of S&R

 6th day: chicken nilaga w/ broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, saba 7th day: bulalo w/ camote, saba, cabbage and  pechay dinner: fried daing na bangus, cabbage soup w/ egg, lettuce, tomatoes and onion salad w/ vinaigrette 8th day: stuffed bell pepper, eggplant soup  dinner: chicken caesar salad, bought from S&R (we removed the cheese) rotisserie chicken, also from S&R 9th day:  leftover chicken from last night's dinner, sandakot na bigas and pansit-pansitan (fr my garden),  baby carrots w/ vinaigrette dinner: white adobo chicken and broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, eggs  10th day: cubana ground beef w/ camote, fried saba, eggs fried over-easy for me and  sunny side up for Tommy, garden salad  my plate dinner: pork tinola with sayote and malunggay

 pansit-pansitan - this just grows anywhere. Twice a week, I make into salad, good for arthritis ashitaba plant - from my Bible group buddy, Girly. This is good for hypertension, munch on 2 leaves a day. pandan - bought by my daughter, Cham in Tagaytay alugbati,- I planted this oregano - I bought this tarragon  a plant used as souring agent for sinigang (forgot the name)  another kind of oregano  curry plant - this I bought saluyot gotu kola - from my Vgroup leader, Mommy Terry. This is good for memory, to prevent alzheimer's disease aloe vera - from my sister, Lolit and her husband, Lando sandakot na bigas - they grow on rocks, good for salad also okra ampalaya taheebo - from my Bible group buddy, Vita. for cleansing These are the plants in our garden. I started gardening a few months ago, something I have been dreaming of doing a long time ago. Looking at these plants every morning is a therapy f...