Food

Happy holidays from Max Brenner!

The Husband took me to the mall last night to do the last bit of our Christmas shopping (and just because I wanted to go out) and before we went home, he treated me to dessert at Max Brenner. He made me try their moan-enducing Chocolate Souffle.

Their Chocolate Souffle is to-die-for with its centre oozing with melted chocolate. It’s like mud cake on the outside but chocolate mousse on the inside. I love how this chocolate cake tasted, feathery-light with the right amount of richness, such a heavenly effect on the taste buds.

If you haven’t tried this yet, I highly recommend that you do so on your next visit.

Note: Only a Sony point & shoot camera was used to take these photos.

Got this biscuits from Singapore as pasalubong from my tito and tita (thank you!). It’s called Cashew Nut Sugee Cookies (Kampong Asia Delights).

Not a lot of people know but I’m actually a biscuits person. I’m especially fond of butter cookies and these biscuits from Singapore deliciously tastes like butter cookies only these were made from cashew nuts which all the more makes me love it (because cashew nuts are a favorite of mine). This is indeed a great pasalubong.

Next time I pass by Singapore, I’m definitely buying hoarding these.

Two weeks ago, the Husband came home with a very special box for me.

The French call them Macarons, but at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe they are Delice. Two delicate halves of almond meringue that melt in your mouth to reveal a deliciously rich chocolate cream filling. With an exotic array of flavours, Delice are perfect with Lindt’s teas, coffees or hot chocolates. {source}

The Husband bought me five variants of Lindt’s Delice Collection: Vanilla, Strawberry, Hazelnut, Milk Chocolate and 2 Rosellis.

I love it! It’s light, not too filling and the cream not too rich and has the right amount of sweetness. It’s perfect with a cup of coffee or tea. This is a good alternative to having cake at Lindt. This is also a good gift to loved ones at home.

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I’ve been known to spending “Me” times with a cup of coffee or hot chocolate and a cake to go with it. But there are “Me” times of mine, I spend it with Sushi.

The Husband is out with friends tonight and so I went to the mall to see an Optometrist. Before I went home, I dropped by the sushi place and bought myself dinner.

Last night, I teased the Husband: “Yay! You’re going out, I don’t have to cook dinner and I’ll have the house to myself!!!” Hehe. I don’t mind cooking for us, but I have to admit that preparing dinner after arriving from work takes a lot of effort sometimes especially when I had a long day at the office. The Husband doesn’t pressure me to cook all the time, he actually eats anything I lay on the table. But I can’t bear not cooking and just buy take-away food. Once in a while I make an exception, but I really prefer that meals at home are freshly cooked and I know where the ingredients come from.

Anyway, since it’s only me tonight, I decided to buy sushi for my dinner as I enjoyed watching “Glee” on TV. It was the episode where they sang “Defying Gravity”, my favorite song from one of my favorite musicals “Wicked”. I’m one happy camper.

I had a productive “Me” time at the mall after work today. Pag may gimik si Husband, natataranta ako dahil parang ang dami kong gustong gawin o puntahan—hindi ko malaman kung saang mall ako susuot hehe.
This afternoon, instead of window shopping (that sometimes results to buying stuff I don’t need), I decided to finally see an Optometrist. I was due for a check-up in September but I’ve been putting it off (I have my eyes check once a year).
The main reason why I needed to see him, other than have my eyes checked, was because I broke my eyeglasses yesterday. So I brought it there to get it fixed and at the same time buy a new 2nd pair of glasses so I’ll have one for the office and one for the home or at least if something happens to either one of them, I’ll have a back-up. The bad news is the glasses I broke had to be shipped to some woop woop place because they don’t have a certain part for the glasses in stock, so that will take a few days to be repaired. The good new is they have put my new glasses in the “rush” list so that I can pick it up in a few days. They asked me if I can survive without glasses and I said “I think I can”. I’m just going to take it easy and give my eyes lots of rest so it can function normally for the next couple of days.
On my way home, I realized that I will be watching a musical tomorrow night and I need glasses when I watch stuff like that. Ayayay! Tomorrow, I’ll just drop by the chemist and buy temporary prescription glasses (the cheap ones). Hope that helps.
Other than buy new glasses, I had my eyes checked and the verdict was it is generally healthy. I was a bit worried because two weeks ago, I had an eye infection that lasted for almost a week (didn’t go to work for two days). I told the Optometrist what happened and he gave me eyepad cleansers for cleaning my eyelids. He asked me what activities I do that involves the eyes. When I mentioned to him about photography, he gave me this optical lens cleaner that he said might help in cleaning the viewfinder of my camera. He said hopefully it disinfects my viewfinder so the germs won’t get transported to my eyes. That was very nice of him.
What about you? Have you had your eyes checked lately? According to the Optometrist, our eyes should be checked at least once a year.

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.