Are you De-hydrated?

I first found this really helpful information in the mall's restroom. And since then, I kept it in mind. I've shared this with several friends and now I want to share it to you.

Here is a simple way for you to know if you need to drink more water than you usually do.


There are times when I can really forget to drink water or even pee. Those are the times that I am really into something either at work or at home. Now this chart gives me a sort of reminder that I've been ignoring my glass of water a little too long and it's time to hydrate.

Drinking enough water is really beneficial. It has so many pros, a healthy skin is among others. So make it a habit!

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The Lay Bare Experience

How many of you ladies pluck or shave those unwanted hair? To tell you honestly, I used to do both, alternately, until I discovered the joy of waxing and threading.

I've always wanted to switch to waxing even earlier than 4 months ago. However, my reservations and apprehensions kept on stopping me. Until one time, out of the blue, I finally decided to visit the waxing salon near our place. I was a complete noob at that time. I don't have a single idea of the process, of the nitty-gritty, but the coziness of the place and warmth of the people made me feel so at ease.

Yes, that is how it is at Lay Bare Waxing Salon. They almost rejected me when I first visited because the length of the UA hair is not the prescribed yet. That means it would be harder to remove it by waxing. Why you may ask. That is because their waxing process is different from those cosmetic based. The waxing process that I knew using cosmetics includes: application of a cream on the area, wait, and then remove the cream using a spatula. When you remove the cream, the hair are also removed. While at Lay Bare, an attendant uses an organic wax (they said it is made of sugar and something else) to remove the hair. Since not all the hair are removed through waxing (read: not all hair have the same length as they grow), they do supplemental plucking as needed.

They said in their FAQ that any form of hair removal may cause ingrown hair but now I think, using cosmetic wax is as prone as shaving as it does not remove the hair from the root. Correct me if I'm wrong. Also, I think that even if they do supplemental plucking, that's still better than doing the plucking yourself as there is less chances of you plucking your skin than the hair.

So that is how they do it at Lay Bare. When I'm there for a session, I only stay for 15 minutes, 30 minutes max if I also available eyebrow threading. The process is really fast compared to a whole hour I spend on removing my UA hair by myself through plucking. I don't also get a sore thumb and stiff neck because at Lay Bare, they have beds where you lay down for the process. The comfort does not end there are their fees are very reasonable.

Curious? Here is their current pricing.


I'm so glad I ditched plucking and shaving. How about you, do you want to say goodbye to your shaver and tweezers as well?

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How do you like you Sinigang?

I've become really picky with the taste of every food I eat, all probably due to the first-trimester-bug. Now, I have come to accept it as reality when I've read somewhere that every pregnancy is a unique experience. It is very true and I'm a perfect example.

When I was preggy with Ayex, who is turning 3 on January, I only ate what was available. That means I never asked or requested for something that has to be bought from the market or cooked specially for me. I never experienced the first-trimester-bug more popularly known as morning sickness. I like to use the first rather than the latter because in my case, morning sickness happens spontaneously throughout the day. It can last long or short (when I'm lucky). Yes, at times I feel insane. Thanks to youtube, I can watch MELASONn moments that I missed, for a good laugh.

Ok, sorry that I digress. Let me go back to my topic. Being the picky eater that I have become, I like my food to be sour, salty and spicy most of the time. I have not craved for sweets so far. Even the candies I eat, I like them sour.

During the first weeks of my pregnancy, I had every chance to eat the food I'm craving for. Thanks to Kantineta for the (spicy) caldereta, diniguan, and pork binagoongan. And for my (spicy) and sour sinigang, thanks for the people at home. Wondering why (spicy)? That means I has to put something else to make it spicy because the dish is not as it is. :)

So what is the perfect sinigang for me? The soup should be plenty, sour and a little spicy. I don't want gabi or Taro in my soup. I like it to be full of vegetables, even if it's just kangkong, sitaw and some labanos. And the meat, I want it to be really soft and easy to chew. I specified meat because I'm not really a fan of fish in sour soup.

If I go home with sinigang cooked exactly the same as above, I would probably eat it over and over again for days until I get tired of its taste or until I craved for something else. How about you, what will make you eat sinigang for days?

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Malunggay Pesto Sauce

I know I haven't been posting anything new this week. I'm really sorry about that. It's just that I'm not in a blogging mood even though there are a lot of things in my desktop waiting to be shared to all of you, specially recipes.

Lately, I did a lot of cooking and experimenting and here is one of them.

We all know how nutritious and beneficial Malunggay is specially to lactating moms. Did I mention it is easy to find too? This is the main ingredient of my latest experiment.

I first heard of the Malunggay Pesto sauce in a TV show where they boiled the leaves first and used the broth as tea; and the boiled leaves were used to make the Pesto sauce. How healthy and cheap could that be?! This is a super saver specially when you have a Malunggay tree planted in your backyard or near your place like us.

Without further ado, let me share with you how I made this fantastic sauce, which you can use in a lot of ways. I used it in different ways already.

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh Malunggay leaves
  
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
  
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  
• 3/4 cup extra virgin Olive oil
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

To create this flavorful sauce, you can use a blender osterizer or food processor. In this case I used MIL's osterizer since we don't have a food processor. Put the fresh Malunggay leaves in the osterizer and then grate it. When I was doing this, I had a hard time crushing the leaves into pieces because it was all dry. After a few tries and mixing, the leaves were already small. This time I included the garlic inside and do some more grinding and grating.

After a few minutes, while the osterizer is still running, I slowly pour the olive oil into the mixture through the opening in the cap. And instead of grinding, I press puree. This time it was so much easier because of the liquid. I stopped the processor to get everything mixed together and pureed some more.

When I was happy with the consistency, I added the Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper into the mixture, pureed a little more then I was done.

I transferred my Pesto sauce into a microwaveable container, tasted it and then placed it inside the fridge.

I am very happy. That's the reason why I brought some here at the office and let my friends taste my latest experiment thus the photo above. I don't know where to buy crostini here so we settled with Rebisco crackers. It was like a tornado passed in my cube. We were able to finish 3 packs of crackers in a matter of five minutes with 4 people eating.

Some of the remaining sauce, I already used for spaghetti yesterday but I forgot to take a picture of my lunch as I was super excited to eat it. I'll post it here hopefully next week.

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Nutella

I was able to have a first taste of this Hazelnut spread courtesy of my sister's sponsors from Italy. Ok, let me clarify that. Back then, our parish take care of some of their parishioners' kids through sponsorship. They find families in Italy, the home of their congregation, who are willing to sponsor kids in their studies and in general. My sister and brother were on of the fortunate kids who were sponsored by the parish but only my sister has a Family sponsor. There.

A package would arrive for her twice every year and its contents varies. As soon as we get home from the parish where we pick up her package, we would gather around and open her box altogether. That's how excited we are for her. Then in one of the packages come this Nutella. That's the first time we heard of it as we're used to peanut butter and other local spreads. After that first taste, the more we looked forward to every package my sister receives from her family in Italy.

There was one time when she was sent this really huge jar of Nutella. The jar is a glass one. Somebody mistakenly placed the newly opened jar at the top of our ref. I think it was my mom who opened the ref and the Nutella fell. The jar broke into pieces and the spread is all over our floor. We were so sad and regretful because we just opened it. But we didn't want to gamble so we just threw everything to the bin. Sad.

Then sister graduated and no longer needs support from her Italian family. This is also when we stopped eating Nutella. Little did we know that it is actually being sold in the local supermarket. And since we receive this yummy goody for free, we didn't know how much it costs until we saw it in the grocery. My eyes got big when I saw the tag price of the smallest jar! PhP250+ or $5 for a 375g jar, I think. What the biggest jar?

But my friend Therese taught me something. If you go to duty free in Subic, you'll be able to get the large jar for a price of the small jar. And that's what exactly I did, thus the picture above. When she went to Subic, I asked her to buy me one. A few hours ago, while eating merienda, I told her that I should have asked her to buy 2 so I could have given the other jar to my sisters. I'm sure they'll appreciate it even if I ask them to pay me PhP380 or $7.6 because they'll not be able to buy this large jar at that amount if they go to the nearest grocery.

Hay, Nutella is addicting! I can eat it with or without bread. I still have to try it with banana though, which I read is a fantastic combination.

How about you, what spreads do you swear by?

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Sister's Tag

I've been so lazy lately. Kulang sa sustansiya. Needs iodized salt. Seriously speaking, something is really wrong with me. Apart from revamping this blog, there is nothing else I'm inspired to do. Is this still the first-trimester-bug?

Thus this late post. Thanks Liz of Bloguardian Hellsite: OVERCASHED for this tag.

Be the kind of women that when your feet hit the floor each morning,
The devil says "Oh Crap, She's Up."
Sister, life is too short to wake up with regrets.
So love the people who treat you right.
Love the ones who don't just because you can.
Believe in everything happens for a reason.
If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.
If it changes your life, let it.
Kiss slowly. Forgive quickly.
God never said life would be easy.
He just promise it would be worth it.
Today is sister's day.

There's nothing else I want to say. I wish everyone would life the words above. If we all do, this world will surely be a better place.

Like all other tags, this one has some rules too and that would be: Tag all your sisters, mothers, daughters, aunts, girlfriends.

If you get tag back seven times, you are loved. Happy sister's day! LOVE YA SISTA!!! Let's celebrate "Girlfriend and Sisters WEEK"!

This tag goes to all my girlfriends (although most do not blog) and to all my online sisters. Feel free to grab this tag and share the love to others.

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