The best thing about summer is the fabulous sunsets that the Australian skies produce. Such lovely colours, I can’t stop looking outside our balcony. Summer in Australia officially starts on the 1st of December but the country is already experiencing heatwaves and bushfires (not good) but otherwise, no matter how hot some days are, I’m glad that summer is here.
I just want to share how the sunset looked today. This was taken around 8:00PM.

Summer also means that the Husband and I have dinner while watching the sunset (between 6:45-8:00PM). Our dining table is adjacent to the balcony of our apartment so we have a great view infront of us while we eat and catch up on what happened to us during the day. Simply beautiful.

I love pizza. But I can’t eat pizza all the time because I know how fattening it is (I used to work for a pizza company in Manila and I’ve trained in the kitchen) and how there’s so many preservatives pizzas have in it. The Husband and I have always dreamed of eating take-away pizza for dinner on nights when we’re lazy to cook but it has never happened. No matter how lazy I feel sometimes, I can’t bear the thought that we will eat take-away food at home (we have exceptions sometimes but rarely does it happen), so whatever mood I’m in, I force myself to cook in order to avoid unhealthy food.

So what does a health-conscious Wifey like me do when take-away pizza is not really an option? I make my own pizza at home!

Please note that pizzas are not entirely healthy even when made at home. But at least I can make an alternative for the dough, use low-fat cheese, know where my ingredients come from and luckily find organic ingredients too.

Making this pizza is a spur of the moment thing. I made this on Saturday (14/11/09) when I realized that I could use my multi-grain wraps as pizza base (it was actually for making chicken wraps for our baon at work). Good thing I have a few ingredients at home to make a pizza.

What you need:
2 Organic Multigrain Wraps
2 Tablespoons Pizza Sauce
1 cup shredded low-fat Cheddar Cheese/Mozarella Cheese
3 pieces medium-sized Cabanossi Sausages, sliced thinly
1/2 cup Mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup Red Bell Pepper, sliced

What you need to do:

1. On your pizza base, spread pizza sauce evenly with the use of spoon.

2. Sprinkle cheese, then arrange sausages, bell peppers and mushrooms on top of your base.

3. Sprinkle another dash of cheese on top before placing inside the oven (this is optional, I love my pizza filled with lots of cheese that’s why I add an extra dash).

4. Bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

5. Cut into quarters.

Serves 2 people.

Notes:
(1) If you can’t find organic wraps, at least find multi-grain wraps as it is possibly one of the healthiest pizza base you can ever find. A multi-grain wrap is low in fat, low in GI and a good source of fibre. If it is organic, you can be sure that it is free of preservatives.

(2) Having the multi-grain wrap as pizza base made me achieved the thin-crust kind of pizza. It’s crunchy and light on the tummy as compared to eating the normal pizza made of dough.

(3) If you can’t find multi-grain wraps, the normal Tortilla Wraps can be an alternative pizza base.

(4) You need two to three wraps in making a pizza base as one wrap is too thin. It may not hold the your pizza toppings.

(5) If you don’t have mozzarella cheese at home, a good alternative is cheddar cheese. It would be better too if your cheese at home is low-fat.

(6) You can definitely be creative when it comes to pizzas, I guess that’s why it’s so easy to make them–there’s really no concrete rule when it comes to what you can put on top of your pizza base.

(7) Next time I plan to cook my own pizza sauce.

We pray and say thanks…

for a busy but productive week at work
for sunshines that gave warmth
for drops of rain that nourished
for sunsets that never cease to amaze me
for happy surprises in the family
for a chance to walk along the beach
for unexpected coffee dates with girlfriends
for being able to help organize two parties
for Thursday dinner at a Chinese resto with the gang
for Friday dinner with another group of friends

for phone calls from friends that asks, “How are you today?”
for positive messages that put a smile in my heart and comfort to my soul
for days that end when I come home to a cheerful home and a Husband who holds my hand til I fall asleep.

Thank you God, thank you universe.
Photo by Ibyang Sanchez 2009 – Sunset taken today.

Why the scarcity of blog entries? Life on my side of the earth has been busy. The Husband and I are juggling work and several personal matters at hand, plus the fact that Christmas is just around the corner. This week, I helped our two groups of friends prepare for our early Christmas parties (some of them are leaving for Manila on the first week of December). This weekend we’re rounding up our Christmas gifts and wrapping them so they’d be ready to be given away.
This week, we were also full-on when it came to gimiks with our barkadas: (1) Coffee date with girlfriends on Tuesday; (2) Dinner at a Chinese Resto on Thursday and (3) Dinner with FilOz Gang on Friday. Wow!!! We were in a roll this week aye? The late nights from these dinners were all worth it though as being with friends is always like a breath of fresh air for us, a good way to end a tiring day at work.
Work has settled down a bit but it is still hectic at times. I’m happy to say that our big project (a new training program for employees of our company) which we’ve worked on since the start of this year has been well-received by our trainess. There’s still a couple of things we’re straightening out (change is the only permament thing especially in Training) but the pressure has been taken off in terms of deadlines now that we had launched our new training program.
However, work is busy for me because I’m also preparing for a two-week leave from the office as I will undergo a medical procedure soon. My health is one challenging thing for me at this stage but I believe that I will be alright. I’m not worried as family and friends are praying for me and sending positive vibes my way and I know too that God will never fail me. He never did on the first time I had undergone a major surgical procedure so I know I he will never fail me now. God is always faithful.
On that note, health is a priority at the moment so at times when I need to rest I just rest and give up some of my time for blogging. In the principle of time management and prioritizing things, some things I have to let go of in order to give way to my goal of being healthy.
The forthcoming two weeks will be crazy and happy. Chris and I are looking forward to spending time with relatives and friends (we have three parties to attend to and I really hope we can attend all of them) and at the same time celebrate our 34th wedding monthsary (we’re excited because we’re watching a musicale). Life is good, really good, inspite of the challenges we are facing.
I wish you all a good night and a great week ahead. Smile and be happy!

I’d like to share with you a checklist I’ve created in order to help me organize my menu whenever we host a party at home.

I used to have a one-dimensional Menu Checklist but in the course of organizing parties and events in the past years, I have improved my Menu Checklist to a three-dimensional one. Here’s the menu checklist I used for my Husband’s birthday party this year:

This checklist is just a simple table format in a Word document. My checklist consists of three columns: (1) FOOD, (2) To buy and (3) To Do. You may also add a fourth column that says “Person Responsible” if you have a big family and you’d like to delegate a task to each member. In our case, there’s only my Husband and I for now and we always share the tasks between the two of us.

Under the Food category, I have subsets that lists our Appetizers, Mains, Desserts and Drinks. In my To Buy category, I list down the ingredients I need to buy at the grocery store. In my To Do category, I write down what needs to be done and when it should be done. If you noticed that some of the things listed here have been strikethroughed already, it means it has been bought or accomplished.

This checklist has proved to be very helpful for me and the Husband. We posted this on the fridge a week prior to the event and we refer to it to make sure that we’re right on track when it comes to the party preparations.

I hope this will help you in time for the Christmas parties ahead or in case you will be hosting a party in the future.

My Husband calls this my Michael Jackson Jacket…whenever he sees me wearing this, he teases me to sing “Beat It”.

He can tease me all he want but I don’t care. I love this jacket and if it ever somehow reminds him (or other people) of MJ’s wardrobe, then that makes me happier (I’m an MJ fan anyway).

Reasons why I love this H&M Gray Jacket:
(1) It’s from H&M and it’s one of the many things I bought when we were in Dubai last year. H&M has great stuff, some were created by famous designers (i.e. Comme des Garcons) and yet they sell their clothes at reasonable prices. I wait for the day when Sydney will have an H&M branch here.
(2) The jacket is light and has a flimsy look but can be worn during early Autumn and Spring season. Even with the seemingly thin fabric, it amazingly brings warmth during drizzly weather.
(3) It’s gray! It goes well with a lot of colors 🙂
First photo by Chris Sanchez. Second photo by Jon Dael. Shot at Darling Harbour (6/11/09).
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Extra news: I was able to try Nikon’s D700 last night…it was spanking hot!

No, I’m not making the switch, but it’s nice to get to know other cameras and learn about their technology too.