I am still here in my family's house and won't be back in the unit I am renting until mid-July. I love having hot meals prepared and waiting for me while I work, but at the same time I also kinda miss cooking for myself. I found a couple of cream-based dishes that I might just try whipping up for my family this weekend and I am sharing the recipes here too.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp butter
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pc small onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup sliced chicken strips
• 1 cup water
• 1 pack Alaska Créma All-purpose Cream 135mL
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 250 grams cooked penne noodles

Procedure

1. In a skillet, heat butter and sauté onion and garlic. Add in chicken strips and​ lightly fry. Once brown, add the water and allow to simmer. Pour in Alaska​ Créma All-Purpose Cream and mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper as​ needed.
2. Add in the parmesan cheese then toss in the penne noodles and mix until​ noodles are coated with the sauce. Turn of the heat and transfer to a plate.​ Serve hot.

Ingredients

Graham Crust

• 1 cup crush grahams (set aside 1 tbsp for topping)
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 2 tsps sugar

Banana Cream Filling

• 1 pack Alaska Créma All-Purpose Cream 135ml
• 1 can Alaska Classic Sweetened Condensed Milk 180ml
• 2 pcs medium sized bananas, sliced in circles

Main

• 1/4 cup chocolate syrup
• 2 tsps chopped peanuts
• 1 tsp rainbow sprinkles -- Alaska Créma whipped cream (optional)
• 1 pc maraschino cherry

Procedure

1. In a bowl, combine crushed grahams, melted butter and sugar. Mix well until everything​ is combined. Scoop the mixture and form the crust on the bottom of your two 4in​ springform pans.
2. In a bowl, beat the chilled Alaska Créma until soft peaks form. Fold in Alaska Classic​ Sweetened Condensed Filled Milk. Place in chiller until ready to use.
3. To assemble, line the mold and the crust with sliced bananas. Pour cream mixture over​ bananas. Store in freezer until ready to serve. Before serving, unmold the pie and top with​ chocolate sauce, chopped peanuts, candy sprinkles and whipped cream. Finish off with a​ cherry on top. Enjoy!

You may also check out Alaska Red Kitchen for more cream-based dishes with sarap na yumayakap. I've been looking to try the other recipes there like the Ube Crema de Fruta and Créma Mangganache Float. Yum!

Alaska Créma All-Purpose Cream is available in two sizes: 250ml (P56.00) and 135ml (P32.00). You can find both in all leading groceries and supermarkets nationwide as well as in Alaska’s official Shopee and Lazada stores.  Enjoy! 

To say that June has been a harrowing month is an understatement. I quit my job late in the middle of May, and then got news that my Dad is sick, and then I lost my Dad in the beginning of the month. A couple of days after his funeral, members of my family exhibited symptoms of Covid-19, and 7/10 tested positive, including myself. I am actually typing this post while in an isolation facility. Today is our ninth day here, and we will be released tomorrow.

I am so ready to go home.

I am a bit fortunate that aside from body pains and feeling sleepy day in and day out, I didn't experience more severe symptoms. Instant coffee smells like curry to me now, but I am hoping the virus doesn't affect me further in the long run. My Dad wasn't as lucky.

What a barrage. It feels like a series of multiple terrible events, that I haven't even gotten the chance to grieve properly yet. I remember my Tatay in quiet moments at night, when everyone has gone to sleep, and remember I will never again hear his voice, or eat the food he lovingly prepares for us, or even have him walk me down the aisle. I am sad and sad and sad. 

Yet, these quiet moments bring comfort as well. Knowing that he loved us, and that he was so loved by many people, and that many friends reached out and gave assistance in numerous forms bring me comfort.

We had him cremated. I wish we could have done a big funeral to celebrate his life, like the funeral we had for my Uncle Karl. The pandemic has robbed us of so many things, especially the chance to be there with my Tatay during his final moments, or the ability to check if a procedure goes wrong. I'd like to think he passed away without pain, that he just chose to follow the light and Lola Binyang's, Lolo Popoy's, and my sister Kim's voices. 

We weren't able to check if his name appeared in notices and obituaries, but we got a lot of messages from his friends and relatives with stories remembering him with love and fondness. I'd like to thank them for their kindness and sympathy, and for praying with us for the eternal repose of his soul.

During the last day of our Novena at the 9th day since he passed, a beautiful butterfly visited our garden and stayed there all afternoon. It had intricate red heart-shaped patterns on its wings, and I know it's a silly superstition but in my heart I believe that was Tatay making his presence known to us. His name was Valentino because he was born on Valentine's Day, and what could be more Valentine-themed than red hearts?

I actually dreamt of him the other night. I wish I could dream of him again.

I am Valentino Cruz's daughter. I love him and I am forever proud he was my Tatay.

"I am not put in this earth to pay bills and die" is something I read somewhere a long time ago and it has always stuck with me. This is true, and so I made sure I am set for when I retire, in the event I live long enough to get to that age.

Now you might be reading this and wondering why you should put some thought into your retirement, considering that you’re probably in your middle ages still. The thing is, everyone ages, and there will come a time where people will reach retirement age.

Sure, retirement is a long way off, but it’s still a topic you should think about and take steps to prepare for it. After all: the last thing you want to do is worry about things like money or healthcare when you reach your senior years. With that in mind, here’s what you can do:

 
Healthcare

It’s no secret that most people experience medical conditions or injuries during their working lives. With that in mind, you should consider how you will provision your healthcare needs when you retire.

Private medical insurance is undoubtedly a wise move as it means you can get treatments for virtually any medical conditions and injuries without incurring lots of costs. Of course, another thing to keep in mind is some people have extensive healthcare needs as they age. You can get a quotation for this as early as now.

In those circumstances, if you sadly become very ill when you retire, you may need to move to a nursing home where there are trained medical professionals that can provide round-the-clock assistance if you need it.

If you need to move into a nursing home when you retire, be sure to ask your family to help you select a good one. Otherwise, you may not receive the best care, and you may need to hire an experienced team of nursing home abuse attorneys in very bad nursing homes.

Nursing home abuse is rare, but sadly, it does still happen in isolated cases. If you don’t want to live in a nursing home, you may find that adapting your home could mean you receive care in familiar surroundings.

Income

Arguably the most essential aspect of retirement to plan and prepare for is income. You will undoubtedly want to stop working once you reach retirement age and enjoy leading a more leisurely lifestyle. That’s because you’ll have spent many decades working hard.

When you reach retirement age, what will be your income source? One fact you should keep in mind is that you mustn’t rely on state benefits to provide you with a generous income. In fact, you’ll find any state income provided wouldn’t let you enjoy a comfortable retirement.

The most common way to build up a retirement income is by having a pension plan you pay into each month from your salary. Depending on where you live in the world, the state may contribute to your pension or give you generous tax rebates.

It’s worth arranging a pension sooner rather than later. Firstly, it means you’ll have more money to spend when you retire. And, secondly, you won’t have to make significant monthly contributions.

You could also combine your retirement pension with part-time work or even work you do from home if you’d rather continue working some of the time once you reach that stage.

Income and healthcare provision are undoubtedly the top two points to consider for retirement. Everything else, such as vacations or investing in new homes or vehicles, for example, is achievable once you’ve retired. As for me, I have two investment plans that I intend to use when I reach retirement age. :)

Vitality Smoothie Bowl by saranglayap I miss this :(

What is the secret to living a healthy life that's as free from illness as possible? Part of the secret revolves around being physically active. By working out, you are doing all sorts of things to your body that can help you strengthen your immune system. It's a well-known fact that physical exercise decreases the chances of you developing certain illnesses and diseases. It's a truth that bitterly made itself known to me especially this pandemic.

Moreover, there's a second part to the secret, and it revolves around your relationship with food. Having a healthy diet can keep you healthier, but you also need to think about the different choices you make relating to food. This can include the ways you cook or store food, the foods you decide to eat, and so on. 

I recently learned some food hacks that'll help us be a lot healthier and I'm sharing it here to guide us in making smarter decisions.

Bake, don't fry 

You will notice that plenty of foods have different cooking instructions for you to follow. Often, the big two are that you can fry something or bake it in the oven. Frying is usually down as the 'preferred' method, and it tends to be quicker as well. So, we blindly follow this, without realizing we've made a bad food choice.

Frying involves lots of oil and extreme heat, which can do two bad things to your food. The oil makes it highly calorific and fatty, which could increase your chances of heart disease if you keep eating fried foods. The extreme heat from frying may also burn your food easily and destroy many nutrients. Instead, baking in an oven is a much healthier alternative.

Use a separate drawer for raw meat

In your fridge, you can make one smart decision that will help to improve your health and reduce the risks of getting sick. The problem with raw meat is that it can contain lots of bacteria that might contaminate other food in your fridge and cause food poisoning. I learned this the hard way when I got food poisoning last year after using ice cubes from an ice tray that doesn't have cover. It's not good for your body to be put through this, so a lot of your food choices should also revolve around preventing cross-contamination. An easy way to do this is by having a draw in your fridge for raw meat. Nothing else goes in there, and your meat won't be stored anywhere else either. If you don't already have drawers, you can look up the model number for your fridge online and see if there are any replacement or additional parts to buy. Slide them into place, and you can separate the raw meat from everything else in your fridge. 

Get an oil spray

You will need to use oil when cooking certain things, but it's crazy how calorific the stuff can be. A lot of vegetable oils are good for you in moderation. The key phrase there is 'in moderation' which a lot of us seem to forget about. Certainly, it's very easy to overload your food with oil without even realizing it - especially when you're cooking with it.

Instead, invest in an oil spray for more control over how much oil you use. Sprays will squirt a set dose of oil at a time, meaning you can use far less but still get the benefits of the oil. As it's in spray form, it means a little goes a lot longer. It's a simple hack that makes your meals healthier by cutting down on oil.

Seal food in airtight packaging

Once food has been opened, it is going to be at the mercy of the air. There are all sorts of things in the air that react with food and can change it. More specifically, your food can start growing bacteria and going moldy. Mold isn't always bad - just ask the blue cheese fan club - but it doesn't tend to be healthy when it's grown of its own accord. The texture of your food can change as well, and it's just not healthy or good for you to eat something that's gone off or has turned bad.

Consequently, always put food in airtight packaging once it's been opened. This can mean bags or containers - anything that seals it off from the air. Now, your food will last for longer without turning bad, preventing you from eating something moldy.

There are so many different food hacks out there that can help us live a healthier life. The four above are all so simple to implement and won't mean you have to make drastic changes to our lives. We can start with these, and work our way up towards making better and healthier choices.

My teeth is one of the banes of my existence. I have had braces twice already, and after spending collectively almost half of my lifetime wearing them, my teeth are once again misaligned :(

Dental hygiene is such an important part of our health and beauty routine - however many of us don’t pay enough attention to it. The pandemic also made dental visits a lot more challenging. It is crucial to keep put teeth clean throughout the years of our life to stop them becoming clogged with tartar and getting damaged.

Here are some of the biggest mistakes we make every day when using our teeth as well as trying to keep them clean. It is important to learn the proper method of dental hygiene to keep those pearly whites strong for longer.

Using teeth to open things

One of the biggest sins you can make when maintaining healthy teeth is to use them to open things. Whether you use your tooth as a bottle opener, to bite off clothing labels, or open packets of chips - this can damage your teeth and cause you to one day need invisible braces to repair and straighten. Keep your teeth for their given purpose - to eat food!

Not brushing for long enough

While many of us may think that 30 seconds is plenty of time to brush our teeth; this is really not the case. Our teeth come into contact with a lot of food and drink during the day that can build up and stain our gnashers. It is important for you to brush your teeth for at least 2 minutes to ensure that you deeply clean them and get rid of any dirt. One handy way to do it is put a timer on and split your mouth into 4 sections - giving 30 seconds to each. This will ensure your teeth get a deep clean and they stay white and strong. 

Brushing too hard

Brushing your teeth too hard is another common thing we do, and this can have some serious long term effects on your pearly whites. If you brush your teeth too hard this can disturb the enamel on your teeth and rub it off. Enamel is the protective layer on the surface of the teeth that also gives them a white colour - so by rubbing this off you’ll be making your teeth more vulnerable to damage as well as less likely to be white.

Forgetting to floss

Flossing is important, and not enough of us take this step seriously when maintaining a healthy mouth. Flossing will get to those bits of plaque, tartar, and food that your toothbrush can’t reach and clean them out of your teeth. Doing this will prevent the build up of infections around the area and can prevent gum disease as well as ulcers.

Leaving the tongue behind

When you brush your teeth every day there is one step you shouldn’t forget about - your tongue. Your tongue is made up of thousands of tastebuds and if you don’t brush your tongue food will remain lodged between your buds and can lead to bad breath and ulcers. Make sure to brush your tongue for 5-10 seconds at the end of your brushing cycle and this will keep it healthy and maintain your sense of taste. 

Picture a wave. In the ocean. You can see it, measure it, its height, the way the sunlight refracts when it passes through. And it's there. And you can see it, you know what it is. It's a wave. 

And then it crashes in the shore and it's gone. But the water is still there. The wave was just a different way for the water to be, for a little while. You know it's one conception of death for Buddhists: the wave returns to the ocean, where it came from and where it's supposed to be.

- The Good Place

I had been trying to put it off because writing it here feels like I'm bringing a sense of finality to it, that it's real, and that I could no longer escape it. My Tatay Valentino Cruz passed away a week ago today, and we're still reeling from the fast turn of events.

This loss, this huge gap he left, I do not know what to do with it. There is a huge hole in my heart that nothing can fill. I no longer have a Father.

He was hotheaded and stubborn, and I got my temper from him. But he was kind, he was thoughtful, he taught us how to pray. And he loved us so, so much.

Life is for the living, so I know the most I can do right now is to continue honoring his memory. It's sad that I only got to fully appreciate him and everything he did when he is no longer here, but I hope he knows that I love him very much. We are extremely sad, but the thought that a lot of people will carry beautiful memories with and stories of him brings us comfort. I have been staying with my family at this time, cooking meals and supporting in any way I can, but I need to go back to work again tomorrow, although I will be here until the 40th day.

We love you, Tatay. We love you very much. Rest in peace and fly high with Lola Binyang, Lolo Popoy, Kim, and all the angels. 

December 31, 2020

Health is truly wealth, and once again I am asking for your prayers for my Father as he is battling Covid-19 and high levels of creatinine, needing immediate dialysis.

It is times like this when I get a wakeup call and come to a harsh realization that life really is short and human bodies are fragile bags of blood and bones. Tomorrow is not promised, so all we can do is make the most out of life.

There are so many things we have yet to experience as a family, so when my Father gets well and when the world opens up again post-pandemic, traveling is up there in our priority of things to do. To distract myself, I listed down some of the places I wish we can go to.

Singapore

My favorite country to visit, always. I've been there five times and each visit is more fun than the last. It would be great to let them experience snorkeling at the Rainbow Reef like what J and I did a couple of years ago. It was life-changing and I'd love for them to be able to do it, too.

Charleston
With historical sites and museums such as Fort Sumter (built in the Civil War era) and the McLeod Plantation Historic Site, Charleston has earned a place as one of America's most historic cities. The city is also known for its intriguing architecture, fantastic weather, and diverse culture. However, frequent visitors to this city usually blame food for their obsession with this city. The city offers residents and visitors alike mouth-watering cuisines that keep bringing them back! While in South Carolina, you should visit the vacation city of Myrtle Beach. From visiting an amusement park to hitting a few balls at beautiful golf courses, there are so many fun things to do in Myrtle Beach!

New York City

Popularly known as the Big Apple, the upbeat New York City is an absolute must-see city in the United States! This city's views are somewhat unique to other states as it offers scenes of the hustle and bustle of a vibrant city, tall skyscrapers, and an urban and diverse cultural set. Visit the city's museums, the iconic Wall Street, or the historic Statue of Liberty. Need a break from the city's lively atmosphere? Then you can take some time visiting an array of food joints and restaurants or take a stroll through the renowned Central Park.

Italy

No specific place in Italy, really, but I've always said I wanted to be an Italian in my next lifetime. You know Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert? Yeah I want the Eat part of that.

Honolulu

As the capital city of Hawaii, Honolulu offers a unique mixture of urbanization and relaxation. The city provides an array of shopping centers, vibrant markets, and of course, beaches. Although locations such as Waikiki Beach are popular, you can create an entirely new experience by visiting the city's other beaches, such as Waimanalo Bay Beach Park. The town holds historical value, with naval historical sites such as Pearl Harbor National Memorial and Battleship Missouri Memorial to educate visitors on the happenings of the World War and the city's significance. 

Please help me in praying for my Dad so we can start planning these. Thank you very much and I hope you are keeping safe.