Chop, Chat and Chomp

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,  neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation,  will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 3. Because He loves us. Our early years of marriage had been a difficult one. Everything was wrong. Wrong time, wrong place, wrong situation. It was like hell for me and the only thing that kept us going is our (or should I say my?) love for each other. So many times I wanted to quit and sometimes I just wanted to die. And we know that in all things God works  for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 I then realized that if life is like hell, where should I go? I searched for that place, a sanctuary, a refuge, where I can rest, where there is someone who would understand me, whose shoulder I could cr...

  2. Because He is our Heavenly Father. When my father died, a part of me died also. He was a famous dentist of his time, who made a mark in the history of Bataan. I have known him to be a jolly person and a very loving father who wanted the best for us, his family. I can say that he loved us unconditionally and was always proud of his children. He would always say good things about us and I had not heard him say even one bad thing about us.  I was given the opportunity to be with him the last years of his life (when I opened a business in Bataan). He gave me moral support and he became my number one customer.  He was a very supportive father till the end. How I miss him. I praise God for giving me such a wonderful father. I realized then, now that Daddy's gone, I have our Heavenly Father who is much, much greater than my earthly father. He provides everything I need, loves me unconditionally and eternally, always there for me, and will never leave me nor forsake me...

 We had this for lunch on the 28th day. Picadillo (sauteed ground beef with upo and talinum). Dinnertime, we had pechay baguio and carrot soup,...  ...pan-fried pork steak with toasted garlic toppings... ...and Kimchi which I prepared several days ago. The following day, the 29th day, I cooked chicken adobo (with coco aminos, tastes great!) for lunch...  ...and sauteed patola with okra. It was Sunday, we had dinner at our favorite place, S&R. As usual the same chicken rotisserie and caesar salad. Tommy loves this. On the 30th day, our last of the 30-day diet, I prepared Sweet and Sour Chicken with pansit-pansitan as garnishing. Tommy brought as pasalubong 2 pieces pineapple, we ate the whole piece, the other one was not as sweet so the half I added to this dish,... ... the rest I made into jam. I used coco sugar and cinnamon with a pinch of sea salt. It was good. Now I'm getting used to coco products :) We ate the same dish for di...

Tommy and I went back to our house on the 25th day, bringing home some of the organic vegetables I ordered.     This is Kilawing Labanos (sauteed radish with chicken heart, garlic, onions, tomatoes, vinegar, seasoned with sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper). Paired this with...  ...fried fish for lunch.  Dinner we had spinach sauteed in garlic and olive oil, sprinkled with shrimp-garlic flakes and... ...Chicken with Patola. I wonder why dishes taste more delicious with organic vegetables :) That's Salmon Belly Sinigang with eggplant, Chinese kangkong, finger chili, tomatoes and onions with juice of calamansi as souring agent. We had this for lunch on the 26th day. That afternoon, after Tommy and I attended our Bible study, I met up with Alvin of Kusina ni Lakapati for my coco aminos (to replace soy sauce) and coco sugar which I ordered on-line. Dinnertime in the foodcourt, we had Garlic Chicken and Chop Suey. On t...

Many of us experience God's great love for us in so many ways, but have we asked ourselves how much we love God? Can we honestly say that we love God? Before we can truly say we love a person, we have to know that person well and to be close to him/her. We have to be with him/her long enough to have a deep relationship. Same with our relationship with God. We have to know God more by reading His story through the Bible, by receiving Jesus as our personal Savior and by communicating with God through prayer. And one of the forms of prayer is worship and praise. The more we know of Him, the more we will love Him and want to worship Him. In the book, The Prayer that Changes Everything, the author, Stormie Omartian, gives us 15 reasons why we have to praise God. In the days ahead, I will write about these reasons and how they changed my perspective of God and how I came to know Him more to be able to say I love God with all my heart and soul and mind. 1. Because He is our Creat...

 We're still in the apartment of my kids and for breakfast, I cooked  hard-boiled eggs, boiled saba and camote, and the talbos ng camote and okra which our helper from muntinlupa harvested before we left yesterday. This is the 23rd day.  That's the turbo broiler my mom gave Tom, my eldest son. I decided to cook the pata I bought at S&R weeks ago. That cut was supposed to be for pata tim but Tommy wanted crispy pata, it's his birthday, remember?  I have overcooked the crispy pata, but for Tommy and Tom, it was not that bad, it was crispy and both of them enjoyed the meal. Next time, I will buy the whole pata, uncut, so it will be tender and juicy inside, crispy outside. I made cucumber relish and served this with the leftover talbos and okra.  I love these organic produce which I ordered from the supplier of my newly-found FB friend . I came to know about her when she guested at DZAS. She loves to share everything she knows about fo...

   On the 18th day, I fried salmon belly till crispy, and placed this on top of a bed of sauteed cabbage and carrots for lunch. For dinner, we had  pork spareribs marinated in bbq sauce and cooked slowly in a pan instead of on a grill. For salad, I mixed gotu kola and ashitaba leaves (harvested from my garden), onions, tomatoes and burong mangga (pickled green mango). The burong mangga I pickled myself last June, when mangoes were abundant. Here's the recipe for burong mangga: Sprinkle 1/3 cup of salt over 4 pcs. sliced green mangoes. Set aside overnight to wilt. Strain while pressing gently to remove juice from the slices. Pack in sterilized jars. Prepare syrup by boiling 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water till syrupy. Let this cool a bit and pour on the jars with the mangoes. Seal and store in refrigerator. There was no dressing for the salad, I just sprinkled shrimp-garlic granules on top, you can also use the syrup from the burong mangga as dressing. ...