The Journey of The Clueless Kusinera to Stress-Free Daily Meal Planning - Part 1

When I decided to stop working and focus on the domestic side of life, I tried to live up to the label housewife and be really good at it.  This may sound shocking to people who know me, for most of them think of me as a career woman and a completely outgoing person. Not the type to just stay at home and make a career out of being a housewife. Nuh-uh... Not the Elsbeth Lara Santos they knew. Some were even shocked to learn that I can cook, sew, crochet and do all kinds of homey and crafty stuff.  They just couldn't believe it. But I guess they just didn't know the domestic side of me, or suffice to say, they only knew one of my many other personalities. Hehe...

Anyway, what I mean with be really good at being a housewife is to be on top of everything in the household - the cooking, cleaning, decorating, gardening, and so on - and be organized about it so that I can also enjoying an ample amount of time for my other hobbies.  Still find time to read, write, draw and paint. I wanted my hiatus from the corporate world to be still productive in other ways. Like, perhaps, making my dream of getting published someday come true, eh?

 

The biggest chunk of my Time Pie Chart I thought would be the meal planning and kitchen preparation. I would surely be cooking everyday, not just for meals in the house but also for My Pet's everyday "baon", or lunch box to office.  I'm trying to feed him healthy foods so I'm keeping him away from fast food meals, which is what he usually eats when in the office. That is if he eats at all!  Sometimes he gets too busy that he forgets the time altogether and goes home way too ravenous.  And that's not healthy at all!

Going Healthy with Smoothies

My posts of smoothies on my Instagram account and Facebook page have been attracting questions from my friends lately.  Most are curious about the taste, how do I come up with the mix and how do I make it.  So I'll just sum it all up in this blog post.

Main reason for my smoothie craze is that "My Pet" is not fond of fruits and does not eat any veggie at all. And it's general knowledge that it is a must to have daily intakes of fruits and veggies. Considering that we are on a path (we are TTC) that requires us to be healthy, we really need to do something about his abhorrence to greens. Luckily for us, there's technology to help us. 

I first learned of this super power food processor that pulverize fruits, veggies and nuts on some TV shopping channel. There were two brands that I saw - NutriBullet and WonderMax. They seemed to have the same features and specifications. Both of them claim to be more powerful and much better than a regular blender or juicer as they leave no pulp or fiber that still contain vitamins and nutrients. Nothing is wasted since the whole fruit or vegetable is turned into liquid and as such, much easier absorbed by the body. Needless to say, I was convinced that we need this kitchen tool. 

However, it wasn't until we found this other brand - Nutriblitzer - at the mall when we ultimately decided to get one. 

We chose this brand over the first two brands we saw on TV mainly because we encountered it personally and it was right there for the taking. Also, the salesperson argued that it's better to buy from them because after sales service like repairs or part replacements would be much easier as it can be done in any of their branches. So at that, we were sold!

Japanese Cheesecake: Third Try and Still Not Right

First off, let me make it clear that I am no baker.  If I'm most of the time clueless in what I'm doing in the kitchen, more so in baking. But it doesn't keep me from trying again and again.

 

It has been a while since the last time I tried my hand on baking this house favorite - The Japanese Cheesecake. This is the third time. And I thought third is a charm but it isn't so in this case.

The first time I baked Japanese Cheesecake, it didn't rise at all. It was a flat cheesecake. Here it is...