Recipe 101: Sweet-and-Sour Gluten

Today I will post the recipe for the Sweet-and-Sour Gluten.

Gluten is a special type of protein. It is found in rye, wheat and barley.

*Not good for people with celiac disease.

Here are the ingredients for the Sweet-and-Sour Gluten

• 3/4 kilo gluten, sliced, fried

SAUCE:

• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 medium-size carrot, cut into flowerettes
• 1/2 cup pineapple tidbits
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 pieces medium-size calamansi
• Salt to taste

Mix cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, calamansi juice and water in a saucepan until smooth. Cook over medium fire. Add salt to taste. Stir until boiling. Add carrots and pineapple and cook until half done. Add gluten and cook for 5 minutes more. Serve hot.

Recipe 101: Fried Vegetarian Tocino

Tocino is made healthy with this simple recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 kilo vegetarian tocino, sliced
• 2 pieces medium-sized cucumbers, sliced
• 2 pieces medium-sized tomatoes, sliced

Here's what you need to do. Slightly fry vegetarian tocino. Arrange on a platter. Garnish with cucumber and tomato slices. Serve hot!

Recipe 101: Sauteed Mongo Beans

Mongo Beans or Mung Beans are small ovoid shaped green beans. To sautee means to fry in a small amount of fat.

Sauteed Mongo Beans have the following ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked mongo beans
• 1 cup tokwa, cut in medium-size strips, fried
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic, crushed
• 1 piece medium-size onion, sliced
• 1/2 cup tomatoes, chopped finely
• 2 cups hugas bigas
• salt to taste

Saute garlic, onion, and tomatoes. Add noiled mongo beans, and hugas bigas. Season with salt. Simmer for 3 minutes and stirring while cooking. Add tokwa. Cook for another 3 minutes. Serve hot.

Recipe 101: Tokwa Adobo

Here's the recipe for Tokwa Adobo.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 kilo tokwa, sliced or diced
• 1 cup vegetable oil for deep frying
• 1/4 cup calamansi juice
• 1 head garlic, minced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cream of mushroom powder(optional)
• Salt to taste

Marinate tokwa in calamansi juice, garlic, bay leaf, soy sauce, salt, and cream of mushroom powder overnight. Drain. Fry tokwa to desired browning. Serve hot.

*Good for 6 persons. 1 slice or 1/2 cup diced per serving.

Recipe 101: Potato-Egg Omelet

Here's one of the recipes from the previous article.
Potato-egg omelet seems to be an easy food to cook and is better served with these tips:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 kilo medium-size potatoes, peeled, diced
• 1 cup oil for deep frying
• 1/2 piece medium-size red pepper, chopped
• 1/2 piece medium-size onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 eggs, well beaten
• Salt to taste

Boil potatoes until almost cooked. Drain. Mix all ingredients well, except oil. Fry in small individual servings unless you want to make the continent of Asia in your omelet and cut them later. Place on an absorbent material such as table napkin or cheese cloth or what we Filipinos commonly call as katsa to reduce fat. Serve hot with sauce or ketchup.

*Good for 6 persons unless you're as big as the biggest losers on TV.

Balanced Diet: 3-day Meal Plan

Day 1
Breakfast
6:00 am - 7:00 am

• Banana
• Potato-egg omelet
• Whole wheat bread with margarine
• Unpolished rice
• Soy coffee with milk

Lunch

11:45 am - 12:15 pm

• Tokwa adobo
• Sauteed squash and string beans
• Unpolished rice
• Baked, boiled or fried nuts

Supper

6:00 pm - 6:30 pm

• Ginataang vegemeat
• Unpolished rice
• Fresh Pineapple

Day 2

Breakfast

6:00 am - 7:00 am

• Papaya
• Fried vegetarian tocino
• Boiled camote with butter
• Unpolished rice
• Warm milk, no sugar

Lunch

11:45 am - 12:15 pm

• Sweet-and-sour gluten
• Boiled camote tops
• Unpolished rice
• Baked, boiled or fried nuts

Supper

6:00 pm - 6:30 pm

• Sauteed mongo beans 
• Unpolished rice
• Fruit gulaman delight

Day 3

Breakfast

6:00 am - 7:00 am

• Apple
• Tempura chunks
• Pandesal with cheese
• Champorado
• Salabat

Lunch

11:45 am - 12:15 pm

• Vegetarian apritada
• Boiled malunggay
• Unpolished rice
• Soymilk

Supper

6:00 pm - 6:30 pm

• Chili beans
• Unpolished rice
• Fresh buko

*This is the 3-day meal plan for the balanced diet. I will post the ingredients for each mentioned recipe above on my next blog. Happy eating!

Diet 101: Balanced Diet

Balanced Diet aka General Diet aka Regular diet aka Full Diet aka Complete diet. 

What is a balanced diet? A balanced diet is a food preparation which provides complete nutrients as well as supplies carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and fiber in their normal proportions. It is the basis for all diet modifications.

Tips:

• Eat 3 meals a day instead of frequent ones or eating between meals.
• Establish a regular eating habit. When you eat breakfast at 6 am, do so regularly.
• Eat a heavy breakfast, a moderate lunch, and a light supper. 
• Eat food of the right kind, at the right time and interval, in the right amount, and in the right condition of mind, so eating in a relaxed atmosphere is ideal.
• Have at least a 5-hour interval between meals for digestion to be efficient. Last meal of the day should be taken at least 3 hours before sleeping unless you want to commit suicide by eating a heavy meal before sleeping to increase your chance of pancreatitis.
• Eat more fresh fruits instead of rich desserts but can you really resist a mango float, it has fruits. :-?
• Eat at least one serving of dark green leafy vegetables a day.
• Eat more unrefined, unprocessed foods.
• Avoid tea, coffee, alcoholic and carbonated beverages. For those who can't be satisfied with plain water after eating, try drinking soft drinks instead of water and maybe you'll tell yourself you've had enough. P.S. not for diabetics.
• Drink at least 6 glasses of water a day between meals.
• Include a variety of foods each meal. 
• Take time to enjoy your food. Do not hurry.

I'll have a 3-day meal plan written on my next article. :-?

Yahoo Messenger vs Skype

From what I've seen so far in internet cafes and people I know, they use Yahoo Messenger as their primary internet messenger to chat with other people. Yahoo Messenger is also the first internet messenger i used since it was the one I saw in internet cafes. So before we get on with Skype let me show you the list of features of Yahoo Messenger and they are as follows:

• Send text messages in real time
• Join a chat room
• Share photos
• PC-to-PC calls
• PC-to-Phone calls
• SMS text messaging to cellphones for free
• Webcam
• IM conferencing
• File Transfer and many more plug-ins

As you can see from these features, they are useful and easy to use. Yahoo Messenger is also used by many people in their homes. Especially here in the Philippines where the use of Yahoo Messenger is very rampant. So it is very applicable if you have a lot of chat mates here in the Philippines. It's user-friendly but you could get lost if you're a newbie. You can download Yahoo Messenger for free here: http://messenger.yahoo.com/download/.

Just click on the button. You can even download a local version since it is available in certain countries and here in the Philippines. If you have friends in other countries, you might want to try Skype since it is more commonly used there especially in the US.

Skype

A lot of people, including me, have the notion that to use Skype you need to pay a certain amount to avail of it's services that's why most people don't bother to explore Skype even further. This notion made me regret and tell myself, "Why did I just know about this now?". Skype is for FREE! It gave me better experience than Yahoo Messenger the first time I used it. It may not be the fanciest of all designs but it is worth it because of the services it can offer you. Skype is for free download at their website at: http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/.

Again just click on thebutton and you're set to download.

So why do I think that Skype is better than Yahoo Messenger? Here are the features:

• Has all the features of Yahoo Messenger mentioned above
• The Plug-ins are endless and cool although some of them are useless and full of errors
• Has a more professional look than Yahoo Messenger
• Easier to understand and more user-friendly
• The best part I like about it is that you can share your screen to the person you are chatting to. By sharing your screen I mean you can let the one who is chatting with you see what you are currently seeing on your screen. So if the other person is watching a movie, you can watch that movie with him or her. This is most important if you want to troubleshoot for somebody. They can show you their screen and there you can give them instructions on what to do next. It saves time and effort on the part of both persons. You can even select a part of your screen that you want to share, that's how much freedom you can have with Skype.
• Skype is used best when you want to exclusively chat with another person like a business meeting or a personal conversation.

It will always be up to the user on what he or she really wants to do. So try both out now, who knows, you could enjoy one more than the other.

The Sims 3

Whoah! I really got hooked with The Sims 3. I just had twins with my family in The Sims 3. So now I have 5 children. There are a lot of new things in The Sims 3. It just gets better and better every title of The Sims. I have been playing the series since The Sims and I've been loving this simulation game ever since.

In The Sims 3 the new things include having new skills such as gardening and fishing. You also get to have traits which are very interesting stuff. You can also ride a bicycle now. The best upgrade yet is to be able to go about town or any house without the long wait. The Sims 3 five times the loading speed of The Sims 2 and lesser loading times. So to EA, thanks for the great games out there!

Please support the game so we can have more titles out there from EA. :-?

Saint Gabriel Hospital

I just found out that the hospital where I'm working in has a new website/social network at ning. I haven't explored it yet but it looks promising. Hope you could visit it and give your insights about the hospital. It's at sgh-aklan.ning.com.

*Saint Gabriel Hospital is located in the heart of Kalibo, Aklan, Philippines.