Ibyang
Ibyang

Food

Organic Choices For The Home

I’m not entirely buying everything organic for the home but there are a few items in the pantry that has turned organic. I figured that I may not be able to control what we eat outside all the time but at least, I can make healthy choices for our home.

Breakfast nowadays are Organic Cornflkes and Organic Milk. In making coffee and cooking, we use Organic Raw Sugar.

When we need to add flavor during meals, we now use Organic Tomato Ketchup. For cooking, I now use Organic Flour.

I still use non-organic pasta from time to time, but if I can, I try to find organic pasta like this Penne pasta I found.

And for my everyday tea at work, I’ve switched to organic two years ago.

Due to some health scare that happened to me when I was still single, I vowed that I will try my best to control the food we buy for the home when I get married. We still buy certain junk foods from time to time but we have a schedule on when we can eat junk foods. An example would be sharing a bag of chips only on Saturday nights, but for the rest of the week, we don’t. As I always say, as long as everything is in moderation and controlled, that is fine.

People are lucky nowadays to find several healthy options (one of which is organic) available to them in the market. It is a bit more expensive than the normal products but for me, it is worth it.

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Restaurant: Ribs and Rumps

2 March 2009 4 Comments Category: Food

After playing badminton, we went straight to Ribs and Rumps for lunch. The restaurant is located in the vicinity of Sydney Olympic Park, a few blocks away from where we played. Very convenient. Plus, our friend Rich and Rache highly recommended the ribs in this resto. So ribs it was! We were game to taste something new anyway, it’s been awhile since we’ve dined out.

We arrived at around 1:30pm, lunch was still in full swing. Parking on the side street was full but we managed to find a few spots not too far away from the resto. The resto was also full but we were lucky the waitress was able to give us a table in such short notice.

Ribs and Rumps has a welcoming ambience. Cozy interiors with accents of red and a fusion of wood and stone.

The first thing I noticed when we sat, was their logo imprinted on their every plate, serviettes (a.k.a. table napkins), and knives. It was fascinating and I love it!

We were given our drinks first. My husband and I both ordered orange juice.

While waiting for our orders, we were given this big R&R bibs. Cute!!!

Our order didn’t take long, took approximately 15 minutes. Tada!!!!

Husband and I ordered the Ribs and Rumps Original which consists of half a slab of pork ribs, 2 slabs of lamb ribs and a 250gram Rump Steak. It comes with a siding of fried chips (a.k.a. fries).

I always want my steak medium-cooked and top it with Mushroom Sauce. R&R’s rump steak is good. It is not the best steak I’ve tasted but it is satisfying for me.

Their ribs, however, is the best ribs I’ve ever tasted. I LOVE IT!!!! It is now my favorite ribs in the whole world (that’s how good it is!). Their ribs are very tasty and juicy, and there’s something about their sauce that wets the appetite.

And their chips is something else, i love it too! It’s crunchy outside but chewy inside.

I honestly didn’t finished my share of food as I am not used to eating lots of meat in just one sitting but I enjoyed my meal very much.

So what happens when you have a group of people eat lunch after a badminton game? This…..

For dessert, R&R’s waitresses goes from table to table showing a big plate full of delicious-looking cakes. I wasn’t able to take a photo as I was busy trying to figure out what to choose–there was a lot and they all looked yummy!!!

My friend Hilda ordered the Triple Chocolate Mousse…

while my Husband ordered the Blueberry Cheesecake. Ohhh la la!!!

The cakes were squeezed in-between a scoop of vanilla ice cream and whip cream and syrup. Both cakes were delicious, smooth and not too sweet. Their cakes had the right amount of sweetness that’ll make you finish your cake to the last bit.

Service was efficient and the waitresses were friendly and accommodating. Prices are very reasonable for the delicious food and generous servings.

Ribs and Rumps is located in Sydney Olympic Park (8 Dawn Fraser Avenue, Homebush Bay). They also have branches in Manly, Gordon, North Ryde and Campbelltown.

You can make online bookings (Australia only) via their website: http://www.ribsandrumps.com/

For those in the UAE, their newest branch is in Dubai Mall.

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Guest Room Up and Ready. Reunited with Tapsilog.

The Husband and I had a very busy and physically-taxing weekend. We were non-stop from Friday afternoon working on our guest room til Saturday night.
The Husband took a half-day off work on Friday so he can start assembling the bed. When I got off work, we met at the shops so we can stop by Big W to buy some stuff we need for the home and Woolworths for some weekly grocery shopping.
After dinner, we started painting the bed frame as we wanted it to have a more neutral look. We have no theme for the bedroom as it was a collection of old and new furnitures. The bed frame, mattress and a bedside table were the only ones we bought from Ikea. We have converted a stainless steel cabinet into a clothes cabinet. It came from the Husband’s office (they were giving away free furnitures because they moved to a new building) together with a small bookshelf/bedside table that we decided to use as a bookshelf.

The paint we used was water-based so it was easy to apply, had no smell and dries after six hours of application. The first coating was done on Friday night. A second coating was done on Saturday morning.

On Saturday night, there were a lot of activites at home. Lots of moving furnitures here and there, getting rid of boxes, lifting stuff and going up and down the building to get rid of stuff we don’t need.
There’s still a couple of work to be done but our breakthru was that we had setted up the bed and placed all the other furnitures in their proper places. At least now, the guest room looks like a guest room (it looked like a storage room before) and whoever wants to sleep over now has a place to sleep.

On some kitchen news, I have finally discovered a yummy Tapsilog recipe (thanks to Pinoy Food) . I’ve been craving for Tapislog for the longest time and been planning to cook it for sometime now. So when I found this recipe online, I marinated some beef strips on Saturday morning and cooked it today for our Sunday breakfast.

We love it!!!! It reminded me of gimiks that ended too late but too early for breakfast but you and your friends are already hungry from all that dancing so you stop by a Pares-Pares Restaurant for a hot Tapsilog before going home. Ahhh heaven!

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A Sinful Weekend

1 February 2009 9 Comments Category: Food, Memes

It’s so hot these days and during the week, I saw Magnolia Ice Cream at the Asian store. I told husband about it on Saturday morning so he indulged me by accompanying me to the store and buy a gallon of Magnolia’s Macapuno Ube Swirl.

I’m not a fan of late nights and late night eating. But last night, I ended up baking Potato Au Gratin at 12 midnight.

I was surfing the net last night, looking particularly for Potato Au Gratin’s recipe. When I found it, I realized I have the ingredients and so I did it. At 1am, Husband and I found ourselves enjoying my first try of Potato Au Gratin. The Husband loved it :).


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Great Find: Sandwich Container

Last month, some bloggers and I were sharing tips on how to effectively wrap sandwiches (click here.)

Since I lived here in Australia, I learned to like wrapping our sandwiches in aluminum foil, it’s easier to wrap sandwiches and it never makes it soggy. However, I also know that aluminum foil is not environment-friendly and can be costly.

During the Christmas Holidays, I finally found a solution to wrapping sandwiches…

…a Plastic Sandwich Container!!!!!!

I found this in the Chinese Store for only AUD$2.00. It’s microwave safe and re-usable. What joy to find a cheap alternative to wrapping sandwiches.

This sandwich container can hold two sandwiches. Not bad huh?

I started using it last week and I’m happy to say that leaving my sandwiches inside the sandwich container does not leave it soggy and it prevents my sandwich from being squeezed in-between stuff inside my bag. And best part is, it lessens the use of aluminum foil in our home, so less costs for the household.

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