Tag: Food

La Vie Parisienne… A Little Slice of Paris in Cebu City 

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In case you’re already looking for a place to have your perfect Valentine’s Date with your significant other, I thought of sharing here with you this instagrammable food place we’ve already visited twice in the past few months. It’s one of the top restaurants in Cebu City which will give you that Parisian vibe. Aptly called La Vie Parisienne along 371 Gorordo Ave., we indeed felt transported back in time to the famous French city. And since we can’t yet go visit Paris right now, we figured, going somewhere that would make us feel we’re in my dream city is the next best thing to do. 

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mommy jen cooks

Mommy Jen Cooks Pasta: Beef Loaf-Mushroom-Veggie Pasta in Olive Oil

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It feels like ever since Friday, it has just been one looooong day of work with catnaps in between. If you’ve been reading me since I started blogging every day (again) or even if you’ve read me since way back 2016 when I started this MomTraNeur blog, or even way back in my numerous other blogger websites since 2010, being workaholic (and travelholic) is my middle name. Add motherhood to my journey, so I’m now a sleep-deprived workaholic mom! Lol!

Most of my clients are from the United States which means that before they head off to their summer break this month, they are handing me more tasks than usual which also means, work overload for me. And that’s okay. I appreciate all the work and the $$$ income it brings our family. I’m just at home anyway, I still am able to take care of Tuz and our tiny pad and one of my most favorite activity — I still get to cook my own dish inventions, especially when Mahal is not around to cook for us. #WAHM #WotkAtHomeMom #MommyCooksBest 

I’m not the typical mommy cook (if there is such a thing as “typical mommy cook”). I don’t follow any given recipes. I make my own based on the taste that I am looking for in a given day, and I get a little bit more creative than usual especially when our grocery supplies are about to run out.

And yes, our grocery supplies are about to run out as I write this. Because of the emergency farm run Mahal did last Friday, we weren’t able to do our groceries which usually happens every Saturday. But Tuz and I managed. We were able to stretch our food supplies at home and even as I write this, there are still some food in the fridge and the pantry. Mahal would be proud! I could even stretch them for a few days more… maybe even until Saturday. This makes me save a week’s worth of groceries. Yes! More money for our dream farm fund! #FarmGoals

Anyway, having said all that, let me share with you one pasta dish I like to cook every now and then. I’m such a pasta lover even when I know I should cut back on it because I am not getting any younger and losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight is getting harder and harder every day (especially with my kind of work where I just sit mostly all day in front of the computer when I’m at home). I’ve actually cut back on it. It’s been several months since I last cooked pasta. So now I’m really CRAAAAVING!!!

I posted this on my Facebook Page recently and I’d like to share it here with you. I think I’ll be sharing with you more of my dish inventions in the future. They will be the type of dishes I plan to incorporate in our cafe menu should our dream of setting up our own farm cafe becomes a reality in the future. They’re easy to do and usually with healthy ingredients from our farm and very yummy too!

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Jumpstart a Healthy Lifestyle

How to Jumpstart a Healthy Lifestyle – Here are 4 Tips

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HOW I’VE LOST TRACK OF MY HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

We’ve been eating out a lot more frequently than usual not just because of lack of time to visit the local market for organic stuff (we have to be there by 5am to get the freshest produce and catch, unfortunately, our body clock keeps on moving because of Baby Tuz‘s fussiness) but because I’ve been feeling like celebrating lately. I know a big part of our nation and the world is mourning right now because of certain events particularly having ex-dictator/president Marcos buried in Libingan ng mga Bayani plus Donald Trump’s startling  win in the recent U.S. Elections, but in spite of all of that, I want to focus on the positive and just celebrate life! Looking at our little family, we still have so many things to be thankful for, hence the eating out and mini celebrations as of late… Continue reading →

Sonya's Garden

Sonya’s Garden Tagaytay Restaurant Review

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Sonya’s Garden’s full name is Sonya Garcia’s Secret Cottage Restaurant Inc. At least that’s what it says on their menu which someone handed out to us as soon as we stepped out of our car after parking. And I’m just so happy that finally, I’d be able to eat here… and during our 2nd Anniversary at that!

Amidst the verdant and flower-laden garden, with nothing but thick hibiscus shrubs and romantic hydrangeas as witnesses, the young man knelt on one knee before the lady and asked her if she would be his sweetheart. She replied with a single-minded “Yes!”

And what better way to celebrate the overflowing of the heart than with the filling of the belly? Dinner had to be served! The table was draped with fine embroidered linen and laden with freshly picked lettuce and arugula, sweet-fleshed mangoes, pineapples, and other fruits in season, and an array of dips and sauces for drizzling over salads and pasta. It was an explosion of flavors and feelings. From this proposal began the public’s love affair with Sonya’s Garden. – SonyasGarden.com

I can’t believe it’s been two years since Mahal asked for my hand from my grandfather, parents and siblings in Cagayan de Oro. Two years? Wow! It seemed like only yesterday! I can still feel my surprise when for the first time my grandfather talked to a suitor of mine. He never did that to any of my exes!

Anyway, it’s actually our 26th monthsary yesterday, October 15, which we almost forgot because we were in Eastern time zone, we had so much going on with baby Tuz’s vaccine, checkup, errands and work around the house (that got a bit flooded recently during a sudden heavy downpour) and we were so busy with so many other things  (like soap making) that we didn’t have anything special planned. The weather is also not very cooperative with typhoon Karen making a landfall this dawn and another one on the way come Monday (stay safe, everyone!).

But last August, on our 2nd anniversary, when the weather was still so nice and cozy, we had a series of anniversary celebrations (in case you haven’t read about some of my posts about that yet) and we headed to Tagaytay once again.  It was just a simple lunch but we super loved it because we had it at Sonya’s Garden! Continue reading →

Bag of Beans Athena

Bag of Beans Athena Tagaytay Restaurant Review

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I used to travel all the time before the baby came. I am out of the house and exploring the country more often than I was at home. It didn’t even stop me when I got pregnant. As soon as my obstetrician gave me the go signal to travel, Mahal and I did so for almost two months straight during my last trimester hopping from one province to the next all over Mindanao and the Visayas and some parts of Southern Luzon before we finally got back home here in Manila. I’ll blog more about that soon.

But since I gave birth and had Tuz, travels were limited to once or twice a month. We’d just visit nearby places and mostly our goal is to eat. If before, we scrimped on food so we can travel some more and have more money for plane tickets and hotels, this time, since we can’t really travel much until baby Tuz completes his rounds of various vaccines, we splurge on food instead! And one of the food places nearby that we love to visit is Tagaytay, particularly Bag of Beans. Continue reading →

map Ayala Malls Serin

Ayala Malls Serin in Tagaytay – Not What We Expected It to Be

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So I have been hearing about Ayala Malls Serin that opened in Tagaytay 2 years ago (April 2, 2014) and the few times Mahal and I went to Tagaytay and passed by it, I kept getting intrigued by it. It looked so elegant and serene from the outside.

So that one particular day we were celebrating our second anniversary, after our little excursion to Marcia Adams and Puzzle Mansion Museum, we dropped by Ayala Malls Serin. We were waiting to get hungry (Marcia Adams’ dishes were so yummy and filling that even after several hours, we were still quite full!) so we thought of going around this prestigious lifestyle mall in Tagaytay. Continue reading →

Marcia Adams

Marcia Adams Tagaytay Restaurant Review

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This blog post will be part of a series of posts that I’ll be doing about Tagaytay Must-See Food Places and Tourist Spots. And since we’ve just celebrated our second anniversary this month, there’s no better way to spend it on a rainy afternoon with our baby Tuz than by heading there for some fancy late lunch.

~~~oOo~~~

I’ve been wanting to go back to Tagaytay for a long while now and I was really planning to do that on our anniversary month (We turned two last August 15). It just kept getting pushed back because of the monsoon season until one Sunday afternoon, when the weather wasn’t as bad as the last several days that we finally decided to go. Should the weather get worse once we’re there, then we can stay somewhere in Tagaytay City. But if not, at least we’re just almost an hour away from home (with light traffic).

Mahal listed a bunch of places that we can go visit in Tagaytay. Some of those places I’ve already been to so when he mentioned Marcia Adams, I immediately got intrigued and told him “I haven’t been there. Let’s try it!” Continue reading →