Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...

Wednesday

Once every two months, as a treat, we take Yllac to either book or toy shopping. Just one book or toy. That's it. Believe me, we are trying to do this parenting thing to the best we can. Am pretty sure it's a tough call for a child just to pick one item. 

Thursday.

We also eat out once a week, mostly on a Thursday to celebrate the past hectic days. We also like to stay up late, watch movies to make up for those 7:30 pm  weekdays bedtime.  

And then after we fed ourselves, we go and feed the ducks. And that one turtle.

Friday...

Last Friday, we just stayed home. There's a Qatar Food Festival happening since last Wednesday, and Friday is a family day, so we were pretty sure that it's crazy out there if we go out. We'll end up miserable looking for parking space and of course the traffic....the traffic. 

Anyway, look at mah boy. Best 29 riyals I've ever spent on a toy!

Cleaning up is always a challenge.

The end.

Thank God It's Thursday...

Thursday! Thursday! It's the last day of the week here, so tonight after work we're going straight to Souq Waqif to catch these arabic sweets called awamat before it sold out. It was about three weeks ago when i first tried these. It was an accident really. If it wasn't for the Filipina lady who was offering me to taste test everything on their table, i would be deprived by this tastiest crunchy fried dough forever. For a moment there, I thought It changed my life. Weird and over dramatic but true. Every Thursday and Friday it was a fiesta in Souq Waqif. You'll see a lot of food stand pop-ups everywhere. But I especially go to these two Filipina ladies (who works for a Qatari family) who prepares and cooks all their goods. Maybe I am biased. But these Filipinas have the best arabic food at Souq Waqif. They only sell on the weekends so why not make a new family tradition to visit the Souq every weekend right? Makes sense. 

Happy weekend guys!   

Spinach and Eggs...plus Life Lately

Hi folks. I've been trying my best to sit down and write a post for several days now but life lately has been really busy. It's a good kind of busy. Some of you may know it's only been a month since we moved here. Moving is a lot of work. Especially to another country.  You start from scratch. Again. But one of the fun part is, you get to shop a lot. You know, life essentials...bed, cabinets, tables and chairs. Our bite-sized flat still needs a lot of work. A LOT! My point of attack is to not think about it, all those things we need but we still don't have...I've been trying to have a positive attitude about it. Yah know, play it cool. And when I'm starting to think again...ill think of food. And puff, .... 

....food makes you think better, calmer. Remember guys, never ever think on an empty stomach.

so, this spinach huh? This is the easiest "glam" breakfast i can make. Yah know what I mean.... We all know how to throw some eggs in a pan and call it a breakfast, and most of the time it's a pretty good breakfast too. But there are better days, Like, saute the spinach with garlic and onion in olive oil. Crack two eggs on top of it and sprinkle with salt and pepper. It's yum and way waaaay healthier.

Happy midweek folks!

Letters and Numbers Pancakes...

One of the greatest perks of having a toddler is that you get to play with your food once again. I mean, how fun are these pancakes???

...today I woke up in my best Mary Poppins mode and wanted a hearty pretty looking breakfast.

The secret to this magic is a squeeze bottle (you can find these in any grocery stores) and just get creative and let your kids "draw" their own pancakes. I cannot wait for Yllac to grow a little bigger so he can actually participate in this.

I think he likes it, I also think that this boy is faaareaking adorable. It's fun watching him choose what number to eat first. So cute. I mean, how fun are toddlers???

TGIF! Have a great weekend folks! 

ps,
rainbow pancakes

Pinoy Spaghetti with Aaaahrt...

freaky ei?

Yesterday's dinner was work of ahrt, or somebody has a got a lot of time on their hands. I mean, that's gotta be both right? This "edgy" spaghetti is cool especially if you have guests because my dear folks this is a good conversational topic - an ice breaker.  Prepare yourself for a lot of  wow! how did you do this?, this is soooo cooool, or something like that. But believe me, this spaghetti is the bomb! Trust me, you won't just feed your guests but you are gonna blow their minds. c",)

It's just simple really. All you need is a quick pair of hands.

I know! Easy right? Any kind of sausage will do. Hotdogs or franks is okay. And be quick on sticking those pasta into the sausage. And boil them right away. Otherwise the sausage will soggy the pasta and break them. Also use a large/wide boiling pot. Or you can break the spaghetti in half if you don't have a large pot. Sooo, basically that's it. 

yum! yum! yum! Yllac ate this without the spaghetti sauce. I guess the sauce will ruin the look of the pasta, at least for him.  

Happy Thursday my friends! 

Making Lunch With Yllac...

Not really a cooking challenge but it sure is challenging to work your way in the kitchen with a toddler whose very much intention is to help you out. Especially with the stirring. Oh the stirring...Mothers, Yah feel me? 

So this is lunch. The easiest and fastest lunch I can cook these days. There's serving of vegetable and meat from the can. I guess that's healthy enough for me and gourmet looking ei? C'mon, anything with garlic and olive oil is gourmet for me. Well that's just me.

Any Mamas out there reading this? How do you work your way in your kitchen with your kids tugging your leg all day?   

ps, 

The easiest Brussels sprout recipe you can make.

Easiest Brussels Sprout Recipe

This week our family was out most of the day. So our easiest go-to meal, you guessed it, is fast-food - cheap, greasy and probably 75% unhealthy. Seriously, if 75% of the food you take is unhealthy, it just kills the healthy 25%. So let's settle then, fast food = 100% unhealthy. But they taste sooooo good. We ate lots of burger + fries, all things fried, ice cream and tried different shakes. Lotsa sugar there baby! Best.Week. Ever. But fast food isn't your body's best friend. That, we all know. I know. And today, we're lucky to stay home. So I whip up the healthiest meal of our week. People of the internet, say hello to my Brussels Sprouts In Garlic Butter.

Spicy Paella Fried Rice

I am not much of a cook. But I love recipe books. So now I can cook and make a decent food for my family six days a week. But still that doesn't make me much of a cook. But you know what?.....I am slowly falling in love with cooking. Before - and when I say before, i meant a year ago - cooking gives me so much stress. And that's when i stopped thinking about what to cook for the next meal and then the next day and just rely solely on local cookbooks. I just close my eyes, flip the page randomly six times and BAM, they are gonna be our food for the next six days. I make a list of all the ingredients and run to the grocery store. Basically that's the story of our family meal. Simple and easy. Thanks to cookbooks. 

I love you cookbooks, because you make me look like a good wife and mama...

Happy Colorful Pancakes c",)

First of all, HAPPY TUESDAY guys!!!!

Second of all, what are you having for breakfast right now?

Us? today? We had boring eggs and boring bread and boring coffee. Yawn.

BUT! (there's a but)

Yesterday Monday we had these pretty and the happiest pancakes on all the lah lah land for breakfast.

Here's how to make them. Real easy am a tell yah!

The Best Cheap Iced Coffee You'll Ever Have...

Since my pregnancy I hardly ever drink coffee anymore. I am talking about the hot coffee here. Pregnancy altered my whole life and my taste buds. I know! It sucks! But at least I can still enjoy an occasional treat of iced latte once a  week. Oh, I'm sorry, but that was before summer. Since it is summer NOW (you know the heat makes you sleepy too right?) I treat myself to it once a day. But we can't always go out to get my fix. Two days ago I was getting antsy like a toddler with a poop on her diaper, so my dear-darling-brilliant-husband Jayson gave me a tall tumbler of iced coffee that he made from scratch. NOPE. Not really. But here's what he did. Of course we kind of reenact the whole thing so I can share it with you...

Lunch + Happy Weekend + Popeye...

We had a bowl of left over rice yesterday and you know by now that we are the meanest of rice people. Nothing goes to waste, everything must be eaten (my father used to farm).

 

So this is our lunch.  It's very easy. Just a teaspoon of olive oil + sausage + onion + lotsa lotsa garlic + red bell pepper + celery + lotsa lotsa diced tomatoes + spinach + about two cups of rice = lunch. 
 
-the end!
 
Tell me, what did you have for lunch? Happy weekend guys. 

ps, 

I love spinach and whenever I am having spinach I can't help but think of Popeye. My mom used to use Popeye on me as a good example to eat my vegetables. Know what? he is a vegetarian who uses his pipe to dope spinach and has a girlfriend with eating disorder. I don't care. I love Popeye.

 

Popeye you're my hero!

C' Italian Restaurant + Panizza + Baby Drama

Not too long ago, our friends who came to visit us just can't stop raving about this C' restaurant in Clark Pampanga which is famous for their panizza - a super thin and oh-so-soft-and-at-the-same-time-crisp strips of pizza you roll with arugula and that other leafy vegetable (sorry I forgot, but It was delish I can tell yah) So with an almost empty stomachs we went there on a Sunday afternoon really excited to try everything. Inside the restaurant, it was cozy, silent, a little too warm when you're carrying a toddler and dark. 

Coooozy. 

If you know what I mean. So unlike the uncoziness ala Jolibee. At this point at Yllac's age he can handle coziness so I am not entirely sure what made him burst out crying. I was thinking, was it the plates all over the wall or the dim lights, or the brick walls or the huge statue at the lobby of the restaurant, or the lack of a window, but he sure made known to ALL that he doesn't like the restaurant. By the way, they have high chairs too, so I guess it's a baby friendly restaurant. And as long as the babies are happy, other diners are happy too. Since we don't want them unhappy, the moment Yllac hit his highest note, we rushed him out at the back and just like that he was happy again. That top of the table was his happiest and safest place in all of the restaurant that Sunday afternoon. Jayson and I were such a team to take turns watching Yllac and pop rolls of panizza into our mouths. It was a great way to burn calories while eating. Great but not fun. 

We really wanna go back for the panizza, but I guess we'll just take it out and eat them at Jollibee. Times like these, oh how much I wish Yllac was a little bigger 

So any parents out there happens to read this? Do you have any tricks you can share with us on trying out new restaurants with your little ones without the baby drama? - No? Ah-What? You don't eat out until they're 18??????

Crave

Just making up for those lost appetite for the first 5 months of pregnancy. Am glad to be gulping down food again. I haven't been eating burgers for months now. So let me indulge.

Have a great Saturday everyone! Eat and be merry!