Container Gardening

I am very determined to grow my own vegetables. The thing is, our soil in the backyard is unsuitable for vegetable gardening. I have grown some veggies in my yard but they don't grow as healthy as I want them to. I have potted herbs at home and I’m glad they are thriving but I’m not satisfied. Some of my herbs don’t look healthy. This week, I bought a protector net to give my herbs a little shade since they are directly under the sun. I hope it’s going to help. Maybe what my herbs need is a little tender loving care.

I understand, good soil equals good vegetables. But constrained by our depressingly hard backyard soil, I decided to plant my veggies in containers and pots. Yep, the answer is Container Gardening So, to help materialize my plans (and to please me, I supposed *wink*), my dear hubby bought commercial garden soil, the ones sold by sack. They don't come cheap, so I hope they are good.

Anyway, going back to my determination to grow veggies, I bought vegetable seeds from, guess where? The hardware store! Yes, hardware stores sell packs of flower and vegetable seeds. Check out their lawn and garden section.   

The garden stuff I bought. Two sacks of garden soil, 6 rectangular pots, fine compost, protection net, 
a couple of garden tools and vegetable seeds. I bought all these from Ace Hardware (SM Store)

Here are the seeds I’ve bought so far:  Okra, regular and cherry tomatoes, black beauty eggplant, baby carrots, onion, mustard and pechay. I bought some really nice containers, too, and yes, additional garden tools. I am really excited. Oh, and I also bought fine compost to condition the soil I bought. I am going to check out some stores for organic fertilizers. Yes, I am also determined not just to grow vegetables but to grow organic vegetables.

I have spent about PhP1,700.00 for everything. I know, I could have bought lots of veggies with that amount but I don’t’ mind at all. The cost is not the point, it’s the joy I derive from working in the garden, seeing my veggies grow, harvesting them, and yes, enjoying them!

The Lowly Calamansi

I love calamansi! This unpretentious tiny citrus fruit is packed with nutrients and super rich in vitamin C. It is indigenous to the country, cultivated by farmers and housewives alike, and sold very cheap in the market. And yes, often regarded as common and unimportant. For me, calamansi is a special fruit. It has so many uses. It makes a great thirst-quenching drink when freshly squeezed in water, mixed with honey and lots of ice. It also adds zest to an otherwise ordinary dish. It goes well with soy sauce as dip for fried fish, it makes any vegetable or seaweed salad extra tangy and it is a perfect ingredient for beef or pork marinades. Not to forget, it gives some nice flavor to your ordinary iced tea and even to hot green tea. And yes, you can eat the fruit when ripe, just suck the fruit and enjoy its sweet and sour taste.

Almost ripe, the pulp is already turning into a beautiful orange

 

 A glass of water with one or two calamansi taken first thing in the morning is good for cleansing the body.  Its effect is alkalizing and it's not acidic at all. According to some literature, drinking calamansi water can also contribute to weight loss as it flushes out body toxins. I drink this concoction every morning not to lose weight but primarily to cleanse my system and I have been doing this for a long time now.

But, not only is the lowly calamansi good to eat or to drink, it is also very good for the skin when applied topically. It is a powerful skin lightening agent because of its acid content. It is also a cheap and effective way to treat pimples, lighten the face, neck, underarms, knees and groins. When bathing, a calamansi water makes your skin smooth and your hair shiny when used as your final rinse. And my favorite of all, it’s perfect to mix with brown sugar and honey as body scrub.

 

Yep, I have calamansi tree in my backyard and it is growing beautifully,
 bearing fruits enough for the family :)

 
I am very fond of using natural products, calamansi is as natural as you can get, and it's not only effective and comes with many health benefits, it's very cheap too, and it is available anywhere, anytime.

Decorative bottle for the kitchen

Okay, here's my first attempt at making a decorative bottle for the kitchen:

Now I have two options:

1. Forget about my project and simply buy ready for the kitchen vegies in a bottle; OR
2. Buy decorative bottles for this purpose and continue the project

Haha, of course, option 1 is easier but I think option 2 is more fulfilling, so yeah, am going to look for nice bottles and continue my project. Way to go!

Of Veggies and Herbs

This is one of the things I do during weekends...gardening.

My potted herbs

I love veggies (ok, not when I was younger, hehe) and I have always wanted to have a vegetable garden, more than a flower garden.  I am fortunate to have space at home for a veggie garden but not so fortunate as to the quality of soil I have. To satisfy my desire for a veggie garden I bought garden soil and put my plants on pots. I have veggies that grow on the ground but most of my plants are potted.

I have four greens in my garden. Pechay, Amaranths (Kulitis), Water spinach (Kangkong) and Malunggay. I used to have kale but they were not bearing good leaves anymore I had to pull them out.  

Anyway, in addition to my green leafy veggies, I also have herbs. Oh I love herbs! I mix them in my smoothies and also in my green salad. I have rosemary, tarragon, sweet basil, Thai basil, mints (choco mint, spearmint, apple mint, orange mint), stevia, onion chives, Italian oregano, parsley, fennel, dill, lemongrass (tanglad), yellow ginger (luyang dilaw) and green onion.

I also have green tea plant and gynura procumbens (for hypertension).

Some fruits and veggies in my backyard

In addition to my veggies and herbs, I also have fruits trees. There's mango, rambutan, calamansi and guyabano in our backyard.

Gardening makes me happy. It gives me healthy food, it brings me peace and it allows me to exercise at the same time. So yes, gardening is probably one of the most pleasurable things to do in the world ;-)

Green smoothie for glowing skin?

I already gushed over green smoothie in my previous blog entry and believe me, I have developed an addiction for it!

I said my new blender was on its way, I have it now! I am so in love with my new baby in the kitchen. I am able to make really delicious and nutritious vegetable and fruit smoothies. My smoothies do not only please me because I get to make my picky-eater kiddos eat veggies, I also noticed that drinking smoothies gives my skin a different glow. No more pimples since I started drinking smoothies. Okay, I am not really sure if it's because of the smoothies but I noticed that I don't break out anymore, not even during my period. I have not been doing anything special for my skin, so it must be the green smoothies, right? Hmmm....

Purple smoothie! Yeah, it looks yucky but it's so nutritious and so delicious.
It's red lettuce, water spinach, grapes, orange and banana put together.
That red, heavy-duty blender is my new baby in the kitchen, love it so much!
It processes food so fast and the smoothie is sooo smooth!

I have already tried several fruit-veggie combinations and I love all of them. Aside from the above, I have also tried:

1) Romaine lettuce, mango, banana smoothie
2) Romaine lettuce, celery stalk, pineapple and coconut smoothie
3)Water spinach (kangkong), banana, mango, orange smoothie
4) Romaine lettuce, water spinach, orange, banana and pear smoothie

I love carrot juice but I have not been making juice in the morning, instead, I prepare a smoothie for everyone at home, making all of us happy and healthy!

Drink a smoothie and stay healthy

I have always been health-conscious but my desire for a healthier body, not only for me but for my kids, intensified after my father had a stroke and after I suffered from hypertension. I am off  my hypertension meds for a month now and my blood pressure has never been better.

Last week I was in SM Lanang to visit a food expo exhibition. One exhibitor was selling a heavy-duty, multi-function blender. It can blend beans and rice, can crush ice in seconds and can be used hot or cold! The seller demonstrated the use of the blender and produced for the audience a very smoothly blended concoction of fruits and vegetables, so delicious and so healthy! I was so impressed that I almost bought the blender, almost! If it was not for the price, I would already have owned one, haha. Okay, it was sold for P12,000, hmmm, expensive. I know it's a good investment but I held off and searched for a similar blender online. Luckily, I found a cheaper blender that has the same functions for only P4,500. I am so excited! It will arrive this week.

Ok, going back to my effort for a healthier body, I realized that my good old Kyowa 10-speed blender can also process green smoothies. The smoothie is not as smooth as the one I tasted at the food expo but I guess both smoothies deliver the same benefits.

I got so addicted that I prepare a smoothie every morning. After my morning walk, instead of preparing my carrot juice, I now prepare a green smoothie. No, I am not going to stop drinking carrot juice, it's just that, a smoothie is more useful for the entire family than the juice. A kilo of carrots barely produces an 8-ounce juice, it's only good for one person. Secondly, my children hate carrot juice (except for Rae who drinks and eats whatever I give him). Good thing about the smoothie is that I get to make my kids drink it! They don't eat  vegetables and they hate carrot juice, with the green smoothie, veggies get into their body without them complaining. Alright, Roi and the girls complained at first but they're drinking it now. :)

The green smoothie is so tasty! I prepared this using my old 10-speed Kyowa blender

This is a mango-banana-romaine lettuce smoothie. No sugar added. The natural sweetness of mango and banana masks the taste of the lettuce. Except for the color, one can never tell it has greens on it. It is so tasty and so healthy. And oh by the way, green smoothies make you glow from inside out, it's very good for your skin :)

Here are inspirational websites with excellent green smoothie recipes:
Incredible Smoothies
Family Sponge

Have fun making your green smoothie and stay healthy!

Sunshine after the rain

So many things happened to me this year and I don't know where and how to begin my tale, but let me just say that my life turned upside down when my father had a stroke in March that paralyzed half of his body and when my dearest auntie had a stroke in April that led to her death. I was devastated.

It was a very difficult time for me. I tried very hard to be strong for my family but deep inside me my controls were slowly ebbing away from my grasp and I became very anxious, I got sick, my blood pressure rose, I palpitated, I went back and forth to the doctor. Hey, I am very slim and I eat healthy so even I could hardly believe I have blood pressure problem. My doctor in Davao calls it essential hypertension, and this treacherous illness runs in the family. He advised my to take a maintenance medicine (losartan 50mg). One doctor in Batangas, however, advised me to go easy on the hypertension med because he, too, doesn't think I have hypertension issues. He said the rise in my BP could have been triggered by an illness or a difficult situation. Hypertension became a dark shadow that loomed in my horizon, it consumed me, had it on my head all the time. Blood pressure monitoring became a daily exercise, I checked my BP everyday, morning and evening, and I took my BP pill religiously for fear of stroke.

Last month, I went through a company-required annual executive medical check up that included the following tests: Blood chemistry (CBC, FBS, Creatinine, Uric acid, Lipid profile,  SGPT/ALT), Urinalysis, Stool exam, Chest x-ray, Ultrasound of the bladder, kidneys, liver and pancreas, ECG, Stress echo-Cardiogram test. GUESS WHAT? My results were all normal as normal as can be! The doctor who attended to me, a cardiologist, prescribed me medicine for anxiety (Xanor 250mg) instead of hypertension. He told me to take the medicine for 5 days before bedtime and take only half a tablet when anxiety attacks or when I palpitate. He  told me to discontinue my hypertension maintenance medicine after two weeks. I had fears that if I stopped taking losartan my blood pressure would rise again but I took the doctor's advice and stopped taking losartan after 2 weeks.

I feel better now, I stopped palpitating, my blood pressure is normal but I still continue to monitor my BP. I also exercise daily. My morning ritual includes saying my morning thanksgiving prayer, taking my blood pressure, drinking a glass of water with kalamansi, walking/jogging/stretching for 20-30 minutes, and drinking fresh juice, most of the time carrot juice with a little milk and lots of ice.

So in a capsule, I could say that, yes, there's always sunshine after the rain. I have never felt better, my financial woes are being solved and I am happy, but that is another story :)

Periodic episode

On this side of the planet, this blogger is so relieved that she’s not having any episode of pain that normally occurs as her monthly period company of sort.  This is an improvement! It’s the third day of my period and I only feel very little discomfort. My period came on time, no hurting-eye-falling-out-of-the-socket feeling, no headache, no hot flashes, no irritation and no heavy flow.  Just a hint of pain on my right eye and right forehead, but that’s it and it comes and goes away fast. I feel normal, just like the old times.

You see, I get sick every time I have my period and it’s been happening in the past year or two. Lately, it kind of worsens. I get a terrible headache, I vomit, my eyes hurt, my GERD attacks, sometimes my lower right abdomen hurt (no, I don’t have PMS, never had it), I feel nauseated, and I have hot flashes now and then. I could not work, I have to go on leave from the office and stay home, curl up in bed and sleep the whole day. I feel useless and stressed.

I consulted my OB-Gyn in December of 2011. She gave me evening primrose oil and vitamin B complex. I was instructed to double the dosage one week prior to my period. It did not work. My symptoms got worst so I returned to her in November 2012. She had me go through some tests. A transvaginal ultrasound to check on my ovaries, uterus and cervix. I also went through a TFTs (thyroid function tests) like the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) and Free T4 tests. Excellent results. She surmised, I must be experiencing some pre-menopausal symptoms. I am only 42, heck! Anyway, this time, she prescribed vitamin B complex for me to maintain and vitamin B complex + paracetamol one week before my period. I felt some form of relief during my period in December so the vitamin B complex + paracetamol must be working. But then again, I noticed that every time I have my period, I also get a head cold and this makes me very sick, causing me headache. I used to treat my head cold with a decongestant but I was not consistent. I only take the decongestant when I feel the head cold is worsening and oftentimes the headache and hurting eyes are already in a stage where tons of decongestants are no longer effective.

This time around, I stuck to my plan to take decongestants even if I only have very slight head cold because I noticed in the past that the moment I stopped taking decongestants, my head cold returns and worsens. I religiously take my decongestant along with my vitamin b complex + paracetamol and it’s been three days of my period with no significant discomfort.

I am so glad. I hope I have already discovered the cure to my long-time week-long monthly suffering.

Carrot Cake

I have been busy lately baking cakes, uhmmm, experimenting actually.

Since my first banana-choco cake, I have baked two more banana cakes. One was a simple banana cake without chocolate, it was okay, tasted like banana cake, lol. In my second banana cake, I added more bananas to make it more bananalicious but the batter became so thick I had to add liquid. I decided to add milk (the recipe did not call for milk) and my banana cake turned out to be a banana pudding, hahaha.

This time around, I wanted to try something healthier for my twins, so I decided to go for a carrot cake. This recipe is from www.epicurious.com and it's very, very simple to do. The recipe calls for two sets of 9" round baking pans and since my oven can only accommodate one, I had to slash the ingredients by half. I also used a square pan instead of a round pan.

I decided to go further and added some frosting to my cake. I don't have cream cheese on hand so I went for a simple frosting which is made of confectioner's sugar, milk and vanilla extract. I mixed these three ingredients until it became a little pasty.

My carrot cake doesn't have salt. I also only used half of the required baking soda..

The recipe says preheat oven at 375 degrees F and bake the cake for 30 minutes. Exactly what I did! But look at my cake. I only baked it for 20 minutes, had I baked the cake for 30 minutes, I don't think it would still be edible, lol.

Here's the recipe from www.epicurious.com

For the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups grated carrots (appx. one pound)

Icing:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese (room temp.)
1 stick of butter (room temp.)
1 box 4x powdered sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Pecans, chopped (for garnish)

Baking

In the beginning of the year...no, I think it was towards the end of last year, I promised that I would try to get into baking... Ahhh, if I remember correctly, I said I was going to exercise regularly, do something nice for myself at least once or twice a month, and then learn how to bake.

I finally got myself into baking, yohoo! (Ok, I am not going to talk about regular exercise and doing something nice for myself, obviously, I have not been doing it or not really doing it as frequently as I want to, so let me just talk about baking, ok?)

It took me a while to finally start baking, hmmm, alright, I have only baked once, lol. But plans to bake are in the pipeline already. Had it not been for my hand mixer's misfortune of breaking down in the middle of my baking, I would have already baked more cakes and breads! It's true, but I am buying a new hand mixer, a simple one. I don't need a high-tech gadget as I won't be doing business with baking anyway, I will just be baking for the kids, for fun.

Here's the result of my first, and so far my only attempt at baking. It's a choco-banana cake that turned out so yummy coming from a first time baker like me!

See, that's my twin boys enjoying my cake, hehe. Baking my choco-banana cake was not a breeze though. First, my hand mixer gave up on me and second, the silicon baking pan that I bought was too big for my halogen oven I had to use a foil pan instead.

But generally, the result was worth the effort. I enjoyed the experience and as I said, I will be baking more cakes and breads in the coming days!

Happy baking!!!

Guyabano Ice-Sher

I did not intend to make a guyabano sherbet or ice-cream, I only wanted to make guyabano shake for my children. It’s their first time to taste a guyabano fruit and I want them to like it. Yes, I desperately want them to like it. I did a lot of reading about the fruit and its medicinal value is astounding. I don’t think my children will like the fruit as is, it has to be mixed with something my children love, and that is MILK!

I put the guyabano meat in the blender, pureed it, mixed it with 2 ripe bananas, added evaporated milk (big can), condensed milk (small can) to sweeten it and added cold water. We had no crushed ice so cold water it was then. After blending, I tasted my experiment, yummy! But no, the kids won’t like it, I am very sure of it. They are so picky! And the picky eaters were waiting, Oh no! I was debating whether (1) to serve it and run the risk of them not liking the fruit forever, or (2) to delay a little and turn it into ice candy (entails a lot of work, huh!) or (3) to simply put everything in a container and freeze it overnight. Okay, I chose the last option, much easier to do. I told my kids, the smoothie was not ready, eat banana instead, lol. They were disappointed of course. Anyway, I put the mixture in the fridge and froze it for 24 hours – ahhhh long wait!

But the wait was all worth it! My kids love the guyabano…. sherbet? Ice-cream? Ahhh, I don’t know what to call it, important thing is, they love it and are looking forward to another round of guyabano… sherbet or ice cream? Whatever!

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As an after-thought, I did a little research on the difference between an ice-cream and sherbet, this is what I got:

• Ice-cream contains almost 50 percent milk or cream, while sherbet contains a maximum of 2% cream or milk.
• Ice-cream is based on a dairy product, like milk, cream or butterfat, while sherbet is based on fruit puree.
• Ice-cream is categorized into five styles based on its butterfat content, while sherbet has only one style of categorization.

Hah, my guyabano is neither an ice-cream nor a sherbet, for one, it did not contain any cream. So, what shall I call it? Hmmmm, Ice-sher! A combination of ice-cream and sherbet, lol.

Was scared!

Thursday last week, I took my son to the doctor for his monthly check-up. My son’s health is fragile and his immune system is weak due to taking steroids for his kidney. He was coughing again and to rule out any serious ailment that could compromise his present condition, his doctor ordered a chest x-ray. I was also coughing so I decided to have a chest x-ray myself. Turned out my son’s result was negative, chest is clear of any obstructions or densities while mine was suspect. A questionable linear density was noted overlying my second anterior rib on the right. I was advised to go thru another x-ray for further evaluation, this time an antilordotic view. I was scared! I went to the hospital on Saturday, more depressed than I already was, and took the test. The whole of Sunday I was agonizing, I could not concentrate, I was so afraid of what the result would be. My x-ray in 2010 was fantastic. I could not believe I have questionable densities on my right lung this time.

Today, Monday, I got the result…..both upper lobes are clear! Praise God, now I can smile again :)

My Human Nature Loot

These are my latest purchases from Human Nature. I will be traveling to Manila next week and I normally travel light, that's what the small bottles are for. What's not in the photo is my Calming Massage Oil. I dropped by my favorite massage salon before going home. I was excited to use my massage oil, unfortunately,  my favorite masseuse accidentally dropped the bottle and broke it - fortunately, that happened after she transferred some oil to the bottle pump she uses at the salon. So yeah, I was still able to use it, rather, my masseuse was still able to use it for my favorite Swedish massage.

These are the stuff I got today:

1. Kids Natural Shampoo for my twin sons (it's pineapple scent)
2. Hair strengthening shampoo and Hair strengthening conditioner (200ml and 50ml)
3. Natural Berry Bliss Lotion (200ml and 50ml)
4. Natural spray sanitizer in citrus burst ( 50ml)
5. Hand and Foot Salve in strawberry scent (50ml)
6. Intensive Hair mask (gugo and avocado - 50g)
7. Camomile Feminine Wash (Natural 200ml, Cool 50ml)
8. Facial scrub (50ml)

I cried, I did

It feels good to be able to cry your heart out without concerns or fear of being seen, being criticized, being pitied, being heard. It’s just you and your hurts talking. And I did that last night in the car while driving home. It felt good. And I arrived home as if nothing happened. I thought my drama was over. But before going to sleep, there I was again, in my melancholic, despondent state, wanting to cry all over again. I was looking at my twin boys deeply asleep and I told myself, okay girl, you cry. They won’t see you, they won’t hear you. And so I cried, no, I howled -  deep, long howling -  in my bathroom until  I exhausted myself I had to drag my feet out of the bathroom onto my bed.

I have not cried for more than a year now. No, I did not cry at all when my ex-husband and I parted ways. I kept telling myself I should be strong. But now realizing the damage I did to myself, always keeping my emotions at bay, holding my tears from falling, showing people my strong stance, laughing at every opportunity, telling friends I am more than okay – all these self-esteem damage control measures are taking a toll on me. Now I am feeling the burden of my deep-seated pain, it wants to go out, it feels so heavy and my heart is complaining. I should have cried, I should have stopped pretending everything was fine, I should have let go. But I did not do that. I did not want people to pity me. As always, I was concerned about what people would say. I am an idiot!

No one sees my pain, not my children, not my friends, not my family and relatives. Not a single soul.  Only I see and feel my pain. Thanks to driving home alone. Now I know a place and a time to release my pent-up emotions when I need to.

I need some pick me up

My woes continue, spirit is sagging, mood spiraling down, mind is foggy, feeling lethargic, I AM in dire need of some serious "pick me up," help!

So hard to pretend that everything is perfect with me when deep inside my heart is bleeding and I am like a volcano on the verge of exploding. I feel like I am hanging on a thread and anytime now I am going to just fall flat on my face. This is a terrible feeling. I really don’t want to entertain this because I am fully aware this is not healthy. I don’t want to admit I am depressed, but this feeling is bothering me a lot. I don’t like it at all, yet I cannot seem to control it. A song, a note, an action, a movie, something, anything reminds me how alone and lonely I am. Literally, I am not alone. Of course I have my rugrats who kind of help balance my life. But figuratively, I am alone and lonely. I don’t even have someone to talk about how I really feel. I have pretended for so long that I am fine, why start talking about how I truly feel now? Arghhh!

I have to change my thought pattern and get out of the rot I am in, have to remain optimistic. I need to, for my own sake!

“Staying positive is not about living in denial; it's about choosing the quality of thoughts that you allow to take up residence in your mind.” – Great, great, great!