32 Lunches - Day 32, Dec. 31: Salmon salad + chicken pasta on Flight MU208

I remember us bringing some leftover stir-fried beef + rice to the airport to eat for lunch while waiting for our flight to the Philippines, but I don't have a photo of it. So, for this project, Day 32 lunch is the meal I had on the plane on the China Eastern Airlines flight from Toronto to Shanghai. I don't really remember what I had but this looks like chicken and pasta with red sauce + steamed vegetables on the side, salmon salad, and cut fresh fruit for dessert. I also had some warms rolls with butter (though the rolls aren't in the photo).

I'm finally done! 32 Lunches Project finally completed. I do hope I find (make?) time to blog more in the future. Have a good summer! :)

32 Lunches - Day 31, Dec. 30: Beef stir-fry + homemade siomai (dumplings) + fried pork chops

This was the last meal I cooked in Canada for 2017. We flew to the Philippines the next day (New Year's Eve) for a 3-week vacation.

L-R: Homemade pork & shrimp siomai from previous day's dinner, stir-fried beef (with bell peppers, onions, and spinach), and leftover fried porkchops

32 Lunches - Day 30, Dec. 29: Baked cod fillets + sauteed bokchoy

Some "clean" home-cooked food to "detox" from all the "unhealthy" & processed food we've been eating the days prior. :D

Oliva Bistro Cafe

This post has been sitting in my Drafts folder for months; it's about time I finished it so it could get published already.

A few months ago, Ronjie & I tried Oliva Bistro Cafe, which is owned by his friend Denden and her chef husband Kannan. It's located along Visayas Avenue in Quezon City. We had been hearing good reviews about Oliva from our friends and others, and thought to finally check it out, especially while Ronjie was in town.

Denden gave us a complimentary order of Roti Prata with Curry Sauce.

I love roti prata! It's not as widely available as I want it to be, so whenever I'm in a place which has it, I order some. I wouldn't have minded paying for this, it was good--soft, not tough to chew, and tasty. The curry sauce w as yummy, too. :9 I'd get an order of this again when I come back.

Chef's Wife's Salad

 

Baked Prawns with Pasta Oliva

Beef Shish Kebab with Butter Parsley Rice

Chicken Curry

Vanilla Panna Cotta

L-R: Denden, Chef Kannan, Ronjie, me
(photo taken last 8/14/12  -  8 months pregnant here)

I loved everything we ate, the vanilla panna cotta the most. :9 On the list to try on my next visit are their pappad, hainanese chicken, chicken masala, tandoori chicken tikka, and beef caldereta.

mmm... chocolate!

Chocolate treats this month:

black-bottom cupcakes baked by my sister & her friends, which I had with my evening milk

(the cupcakes tasted like cheesecake brownies)

cookies & cream Kit Kat

(from Japan, pasalubong from Ronjie)

chocolate suman from my sister's Leyte dive trip

tiramisu-flavored hot cocoa (pasalubong from my brother, from _____)

which I had with a bañada (pasalubong from Iloilo)

:D

Kit Kat from Keith

I like how the title sounds. :D

Kit Kat vanilla ice cream - pasalubong from my cousin Keith who's on vacation here from Japan

July baked goods

I missed baking. So this July, we've been baking at least once a week at home. :)

Started off with regular fudge brownies baked by my sister. Using White King instant brownie mix. Sarap! It was moist, soft & fudgy. :9 The week after, I tried making cheesecake brownies, but they ended up a failure. :( My fault actually, I didn't read the recipe beforehand. The brownie mix I got was only half the amount required in the recipe, and I still used the full amount of cheesecake topping mixture. They ended up too moist, with the brownie section not being cooked through. Taste-wise, masarap naman. :) I was luckier the following week when I made strawberry crumb bars (using a blueberry crumb bars recipe but substituting stuff). The strawberry crumb bars were good, though they probably would have tasted better if fresh strawberries were used. Lastly, I made Nutella cupcakes for my birthday. :) We didn't have enough Nutella though so half the batch just had half the amount of Nutella--and to augment this, I dropped in some peanut m&ms into the kulang-ng-Nutella cupcakes. I overbaked the cupcakes so they ended up dry. :( Lesson learned. Oh well. (Pero masarap pa rin naman sila ha. Can't go wrong with Nutella.)

I've been collecting recipes for next month's baking sessions. Excited to try them out already and post about them too. :)

anniversary

Fifth anniversary today! -- of our first official date. :) (Ronjie & I had lunch & dinner a couple of times before, but I didn't consider them dates.) And after 5 years, we've been married a year already, with baby on the way. It's been wonderful. Thank you, Lord. :)

Anyway, on our first wedding anniversary 7 months ago (delayed blog post again :D), we were blessed to both be in Manila, together, to celebrate. We went to mass in the same church where we first met and were married in and got a special blessing from the presiding priest after. :)

Our Lady of Pentecost Church, near Katipunan Ave., Q.C.

Then dinner date in a nearby Chinese restaurant. ♥
We had been looking for a Chinese restaurant in Japan which served Peking duck (Beijing duck?) but couldn't find any. So we told ourselves we'd have our Peking duck fix when we vacation in Manila for the holidays, and we did! Hah!

We ordered some dim sum and half a Peking duck, which we requested to be served 3 ways (a tip which I got from here). Before, I only knew of Peking duck served 2 ways.

the soup made with duck bones, etc. was really flavorful

Took home the leftover soup, and still enjoyed it for the next couple of days.

We were so full after dinner and couldn't think of anything else to do but head straight back home, where we quietly spent the rest of the night just lounging. :D Already looking forward to our second wedding anniversary in 5 months' time. This time we'll be celebrating with our son (who's coming in a few weeks). Yay!

strawberry crumb bars

Back in Japan, I came across this recipe for blueberry crumb bars while surfing the net. They looked so yummy, I told myself I'd make them someday. Bookmarked the site, blueberry crumb bars for baking once I get to Manila. (We didn't have an oven in our Japan apartment.)

I couldn't find fresh or frozen blueberries here so I settled for canned strawberry pie filling. (Hmm... next time I make this I'll use fresh strawberries naman.)

Followed the instructions step-by-step. :)

before

after

After an hour or so of baking + overnight chilling, I have yummy ready-to-eat strawberry crumb bars! :9 Found them a bit too sweet though, but it was fine. :)

nomnomnom

pasalubong from Australia :)

I love when my siblings go out-of-town or out-of-the-country... because they always come home with pasalubong! :D My brother got back from a business trip in Australia and brought these home for us. Sarap ng fresh cherries! :9

other May food

We introduced our silog + hash brown series with cornedbeefsilog last month. This month, we're starting off with longsilog! (using Pampanga's Best longganisa)

stir-fried beef and asparagus

 with carrots because Ronjie was able to buy carrots on sale :D

fill the bag with all the carrots and/or potatoes you can and everything is just ¥200!

grapefruit

Meiji chocolate-coated rice crispies snack?

on most days, breakfast is toast with assorted jams

top: mango jam
bottom: blueberry jam

tinolang manok with pechay and potatoes

(using Connie Veneracion's recipe)

Peanuts Choco

carbonara (with mushrooms)

I ♥ bacon

tapsilog

my plate on top, Ronjie's at the bottom
(I don't like my egg runny)

fish fillets braised in tartar sauce

this looks oily and unappetizing, but it tasted really good!

 peanut butter toast + apples

sweet & savory grilled chicken - we ate this with rice

(I also used some of this for grilled chicken wraps)

honeydew melon

beef caldereta

some corn snack

coconut biscuits

tortang talong (with ground pork)
(using a recipe from Connie Veneracion)

microwave carrot mugcakes

(this is the best of the mugcakes I've made!)

chicken fillets with hoisin sauce

fried sausages with hash browns

I think I over-fried the sausages. Their skins broke already. :/

microwaved sausages with nori-rice

Doritos - taco flavor

fried beef and potatoes with sour cream

honey-ginger chicken

pork asado (with spinach in oyster sauce)

(the pork asado I had left over, I added to my hawaiian fried rice)

sinigang na salmon sa miso

mixed fruits

pork siomai

Koka spicy black pepper instant noodles

(I first heard about them here.)

A&W gave us a whole stash of Koka instant noodles when they visited. :D

Cajun chicken fillets with ranch dressing + corn on the cob

lumpiang shanghai (using leftover siomai filling) + cucumber-onion-tomato salad

fried pork chops

pag tinatamad magluto

raspberry Kit Kat

didn't like this

beef pie which I had on Flight CX905 (HKG-MNL leg)

(forgot to take a photo of my food on the HND-HKG flight)

Manang L's patola with misua

Manang L's tinolang manok with sayote, potatoes & malunggay leaves

Parang namimiss ko na magluto.