Sautéed Rice Noodles Food Recipes

Ingredients:
Rice Noodles/ Bihon- 500grams
Pork Belly Liempo
Shrimps
Cooking Oil
Salt
Whole black peppercorns
Ground black pepper
Dried shiitake Mushrooms
Garlic
Onion
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
Cabbage
Small carrots
Green beans
Kamias
Calamansi

Quantity of the ingredients is not stated here because it is better if you are the one who decide the specified amount.
Preparations:
1. In a pot put water then add salt, whole black pepper, pork belly and let it boil until pork is tender. Remove cooked pork from the soup/ broth then cut the fat area of the pork. Set aside. Slice the fat and meat into strips separately. Set the pork broth aside.
2. Peel and remove/devein the shrimps. Make stock using head and shell’s shrimps.
3. Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms until soft. Cut the caps by half.
4. Peel and mince the garlic and onions.
5. Cut cabbage in a long narrow strips then peel and cut carrots in julienne strips.
6. Cut diagonally the strings beans in long strips.
7. Halve the calamansi and slice the Kamias crosswise.

Cooking directions:
1. In a wok add the portion of pork belly and render oil until crispy. Set aside then. Using the oil from fat sauté garlic and onion, shrimps, and sliced pork add the shrimp stock.
2. Season with salt pepper, soy, and fish sauces.
3. Add carrots and green beans. Stir-fry for 1 minute.
4. Add the cabbage and mushrooms and continue cooking.
5. Add the pork broth and let boil then add dry rice noodles and toss with rest of the cooked ingredients.
6. Cooked until all the liquid have been absorbed.


Tips:
Place the cooked rice noodles in a big platter or bowls. Garnish with thin Kamias and halve of Calamansi.
Rice noodles/ Bihon don’t need to be soaked.
The most important ingredient is shrimps.
Equal size of cutting the vegetables is an additional beautification in the top of the food.

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How to maintain body fitness with cooking and eating good food

Fruits, vegetables and meat are food that is essential for the good functions of our body. To eat fruits alone is not enough because our body has different needs, vegetable and meat is also important because;


1. Meat is more on protein and this is good for who are engaged in physical exertion yet in mental exertion it has limits. For instance, farming exerts lots of energy from the body in a form of sweats. If a farmer lacks protein he might not survive to work in long hours. Even they eat lots of protein fats will not stay in their body because once they exert physically it will melt through sweat. That is why also most of the farmers are slim. While those who work in the office as managers, supervisors and CEO are mostly fat because they buy Good food and it is fatty. In cooking butter, oil, cheese and other fatty foods are ingredients of good cooking. Also, their physical exercise is limited due to their condition in setting position and instead of walking or take a bus they have cars to drive. In Life there is always balance to keep on healthy; it’s either in lower or upper class. What is money if it has a fat body? There is big a problem if exercise is not included in a schedule.



2. Fruits are natural resources; it is easy to eat and is not expensive. Unlike, artificial liquid fruits in a bottle contain of substance yet, it can not harm to our body though. Always remember that, to cook and eat good food it is always from natural sources and that it is raw. Processed foods are less vitamins and minerals. Minimize purchasing fruit juice because it makes you fattier. If natural fruit is limited it is better substitute the juice to water because water it is healthier than juice.



3. In vegetables there are two types; root crops and green and leafy vegetables. Root crops like, sweet potato, cassava, taro and etc. These can be substituted food to cook and eat in snacks time instead of biscuits, chocolates, noodles. Root crops are very healthy substitute food. While in leafy vegetables like water spinach, spinach, malunggay, sweet potato leafs, cabbage, sayote, bottle gourd, bitter gourd, white and yellow squash, broccoli and etc. There are lots of ways on how to cook vegetables in delicious style. To cook it is good to fry vegetables with little meat.

Keep on active not only in mind but also in physical. Cooking is one kind of physical exertion. Good food comes from the combination of natural food resources.

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How to make Bangus Belly ala Pobre Recipes

Ingredients:
Bangus bellies- 2pieces
Chopped garlic- 1 tablespoon
Calamansi- 2 pieces
Chopped olives- 1 tablespoon
Worcestershire sauce- 1 tablespoon
Olive Oil- 3 tablespoon
Cooking Oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Marinate Bangus Bellies for about 10 minutes with the combination of calamansi juice, Worcestershire sauce or tamarind juice, salt and pepper.
2. Fry marinated bangus bellies in heat cooking oil. Apply medium heat wait until fish becomes color brown.
3. Place fried bangus bellies on plate with olive oil and spray with garlic chips.
4. Decorate with olive fruits and serve while it’s still hot.

This is very simple recipe to prepare for special occasions. And be reminded that, if you are not an expert to make belly bangus the vendor can do it. And don’t forget to remove the scale of the fish. Another, Worcestershire sauce is not familiar but you can have an option use a tamarind juice, or any sour than calamansi juice. Lastly, if you have excess ingredients, always put it in a refrigerator for the next day recipes.

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My Personal List of Best Tasting Ngohiong in Cebu, Philippines

If you are visiting or living in Cebu and do not know where you can eat the best tasting ngohiong, maybe you can refer to my list. This is based on my experience visiting a wide variety of food shops, eatery either in the downtown area of Cebu or in shopping malls. These are found to be the best in the city while keeping the price reasonably low. Let’s get started:

Chinese Ngohiong House in Junquera Street Cebu

Where you can locate this?. If you are already a bit familiar with Cebu streets, you can refer to the map below:



It is directly in front of Philippine Christian Gospel School (refer to the red X section in the map). It is located in the Junquera Street downtown area of Cebu City. There a lot of ways to go there:

1.) You can go to Ayala Center and then board a jeepney with number 14D. This jeepney will pass Junquera Street and tell the driver to stop at Philippine Christian Gospel School.
2.) You can also board any jeepney that will pass Osmena Boulevard and then walk until you will reach the Ngohiong house. Print the map above before attempting to walk.
3.) If you are still confused, you can board a taxi and tell the taxi driver to stop at the Philippine Christian Gospel School Junquera Street Entrance.You will then see the Chinese Ngohiong store. This is how the store would look like:



Photo Credits: chetfrancisco

How much is the price? The price is very low. You can buy one ngohiong for 5 pesos and it is so big. Even big eaters like me can only consume a maximum of 3 or 4 pieces of ngohiong. The puso (rice) cost around 3 pesos each and a big eater can consume 5 to 10 puso! All in all the cost is very low. Even 150 pesos is already very BIG for two persons including drinks and other meals (they also have fried chicken and siomai). Mostly my average spend is around 30 to 60 pesos.Why it is delicious? I’ve been frequently visiting this ngohiong house for almost 12 years now and the taste of their ngohiong is still the same. Well, it’s crunchy, spicy (with their very delicious sauce) and served very hot always. Best time to eat there? I recommend visiting ngohiong house within 2pm to 5pm Monday to Friday because this is the time where there are less people.

Ngohiong Express

This is my second favourite ngohiong. It is also cheap and tasty. Luckily you can easily find a lot of Ngohiong Express branches in Cebu and Mandaue. My most favourite branch is in Mabolo Cebu just in front of PLDT office. You can ride a taxi or jeepneys bound for Ayala Center Cebu and then stop at PLDT, you can easily locate the Ngohiong express branch. This is how the branch would look like:



Photo credits: Openrice.com

How much is the price? It’s a bit costly than the Chinese Ngohiong house overall. But the price is still reasonable. It cost around 6 pesos per Ngohiong. And the puso (rice) is around 3 pesos.
Why it is delicious? It is still crunchy and tight. Best time to eat there? Anytime in the day, this store opens 24 hours.

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Effective Foods and Exercises that can Prevent Common Colds

Philippines is a tropical climate with both hot and rainy seasons. Common colds is very common in this country, you can find it anywhere in schools, home, office and all around you particularly in public utility vehicles. I did some research on what foods and exercises that can be used to prevent common colds. It is surprising that you can easily buy these foods and also perform these exercises conveniently. I have tried all the tips illustrated here and do NOT get infected with common cold for 6 months already or taking a single cold medicine. Here we go:

What to Eat in your Daily Meal?

1.) Eat moderately any foods with rice everyday. It is because if your stomach is empty; your body will become weak which makes you susceptible to common colds. If you are asthmatic and allergic, avoid eating those foods that can trigger an allergy.

The best foods to eat in the Philippines which can help prevent colds are hot native chicken soup, oyster soup and fish soup. These foods are rich in zinc which are vital components in strengthening your immune system. It is recommended you eat one of those soups on your daily meal. Example this is an oyster soup:



2.) Drink a lot of water everyday even if you are not thirsty!

What to Eat in your Snacks?

1.) You should eat fruits rich in vitamin C. The most recommended is orange! It only cost 10 pesos per piece for a very large Sunkist orange. I usually buy a lot of these in a public market. At least everyday you have to eat one piece of this orange.



2.) If you have some extra money although this cost some more, you can buy Tropicana orange fruit drink. It cost around 18 to 20 pesos per bottle. It is a very refreshing orange drink.

3.) Eat at least one avocado per day. You can refer to my favorite raw avocado snack recipe. This fruit is rich in Zinc. Sadly avocado is not available throughout the year.

4.) You should eat some peanuts. Peanuts is also rich in zinc but not as abundant as avocado. You should eat raw peanuts because its unprocessed and the minerals are still not washed or cooked away.

5.) You should drink black or green tea. The most recommended brand is Lipton. You should drink one to two cups of tea everyday. Black tea contains theanine which is an essential chemical that can boost and develop your immune system. Do not drink any weight loss tea as they do not contain theanine. Avoid coffee by the time you start sneezing, instead bombard your body with tea and fruits rich in vitamin C and zinc. I find this to be very effective in preventing common colds right away.

What to Exercise?

Most health doctors recommend at least 180 minutes of aerobic exercise per week. Example of aerobic exercise includes running, swimming and cycling. Aerobic exercise improves your blood vessels and capillaries which in turn supplies the necessary nutrients and minerals to fight any invading cold virus throughout your body. Aerobic exercise thus improves your immune system. You can read more about how to do aerobic exercises here.

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The Best Filipino Tea: Banaba Tea preparation and Benefits

Banaba tea is one of our native tea drinks here in the Philippines. This tea drink can work wonders and has been proven as a medicine or treatment for the following problems:

a.) Diabetic patients having issues with uncontrolled sugar.
b.) Obesity and Weight issues.

Banaba tea came from the Banaba plant; this is how it looks like:


Weight Loss Benefits of Banaba

Like other tea drinks, the most important part is the banaba leaves which will be used in the tea making process. One of the most commonly asked questions is how Banaba tea can be a helpful weight loss drink? I did some detailed research on the health benefits of banaba tea. After you drink it, the chemicals in the leaves will help delay the storage of glycogen or sugars in your muscle. If you asked where this glycogen does came from? Simply it came from the food you eat. After you eat, your stomach and intestines would break down the food into pieces and extract nutrients. One of the most commonly extracted nutrients is carbohydrates. For example, sweet foods, rice and white bread are rich in carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates are one of the most important sources of energy for the body which will be used by your muscles to perform heavy-duty tasked. Sadly, not all persons do heavy-duty tasked especially if you simply sit all day long while eating a lot of carbohydrates and sugars. These are not used by your body at all. Every time there are carbohydrates, it will be converted to glycogen which will be stored in your muscle. However, your body can only store a certain amount of glycogen from the carbohydrates you eat and the rest will not be utilized. So where does this go? Guess what? This goes to your belly waist and stored as FAT. This is where you start to gain weight and in severe cases, you will become obese.

Banaba tea would be a great help to your weight loss efforts because it delays the storage and conversion of carbohydrates to glycogen thus it will not be stored in your body as fat. But what if you kept eating? At this first, several hours after drinking this tea, you won’t have a feeling of being hungry due to the delayed conversion of carbohydrates to glycogen. It is this feeling of hungriness that can gain you weight especially if you are not burning carbohydrates very hard (can be done using heavy activity like running. With banaba tea, this problem is solved. This works best if you combined drinking banaba tea and aerobic exercise for maximum weight loss benefits.

Where to buy and how to prepare banaba tea:

Native Filipinos in the province will simply pick up the leaves of this plant and use it as tea extract. However for most users, you won’t be able to see banaba tree in your neighbourhood. You should go to the shopping malls grocery section and look for banaba tea bags in there. Here in the Philippines, you can buy it in almost all big shopping malls. The most popular brand is this one:



The best preparation method:

1.) Pour one full cup with boiling water.
2) Put one banaba tea bags on it.
3.) Wait for 5 minutes to complete the brewing.
4.) Enjoy.

Unlike other tea, banaba tea bags can be re-used twice and still retain its flavour. It tastes good!

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Raw Avocado Snack- Filipino Style of Eating and preparation

Avocado is one of the most complete fruit snack in terms of vitamins and minerals. It is a good source of zinc which primarily boosts your immune system. If eaten along with Orange (which is rich in Vitamin C), these are the best prevention snack foods for common colds (try eating this fruit combination once you start feeling unwell due to some common cold). Avocado tree is tall which looks like below. It's fruit when harvested is big (bigger than apple, orange and mango) and the color is green.


Credits: sites.google.com/site/stansfreeebooks/Home/my-garden-universe/farm-photos

Preparation and Buying Avocados

The good season for harvesting avocados in the Philippines is from June to September. You can see a lot of avocados in the public market around these months. Most avocados are harvested when it’s already big but that does not mean it’s already ripe and ready/delicious to eat! This is one common mistake when buying avocados. The color after its harvest is green but you can see some noticeable changes in color days after the harvest. Take a look at the chart below:

Credits: theamazingavocado.com

Avocados will fully ripe (delicious and ready to eat) when its color is somewhat a mixture of violet and green. If its color is entirely green, most likely it’s not ripe. But if its color is full violet, it is very ripe. The texture of avocado is also very important and even more important indicator about its ripeness than the color. To check if the avocado is ready to eat:

a.) Press the avocado with your hand fingers – not too much pressure, only slight to moderate pressure on its skin.
b.) If the fruit is somewhat dented because of pressing with your hand fingers, its ready to eat as long as you can see some traces of violet color in its skin.
c.) If the fruit is hard to press with your fingers even with moderate pressure, it’s not ripe; especially if the color is mostly green.

Avocado does not taste good when it’s not ripe. It is always advisable to buy avocados when it’s ripe or near ripe. If you buy avocados which are fully ripe, it can be easily dented with any pressure because the skin is very soft. This needs special care when handling the fruit and do not throw it in your basket because it will break!

How to Prepare Avocado for Eating Raw

Avocado is a very delicious fruit only when it’s mixed with sweets like sugar. Below is my favorite preparation:

1 cup of brown sugar
1 ripe avocado

Procedure:

1.) Cut the avocado across its body, it should look like this:

Credits: http://valerietonnerhealthcoach.blogspot.com

2.) Take off the seeds from the avocado.
3.) Put half to one tablespoon of sugar into one side of avocado.
4.) Mix it with the avocado fruit.
5.) Do the same for other side of the slice, put half to one tablespoon of sugar and mix it.
6.) Eat and enjoy!

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Filipino Homemade Taho Recipe-Complete Guide for this Delicious Snack

Taho is one of my most favorite snacks here in Philippines. It is rich in proteins, amino acids and carbohydrates. It is also moderately sweet unlike other snacks available. In this recipe, you will learn how to create taho in your home. It can be fun to do and once you fully learn the concepts of making this snack, you can even start a business out of it.

What you need:

Soft Tofu- you can go to a supermarket or in malls and look for soft tofu. Tofu is made from soybeans already cooked and grinded. Make sure it is soft and before you will use it in Taho, warm it a bit by putting it in a microwave over. The color of this is white. This is how it looks like:


Credits: cdnlayer.com

However, if you cannot find a soft tofu; you can always buy a tofu which is not soft. So you will need to soften it using the following steps:

1.) Steam it. If you do not have steamer, you can stack the hard tofu over the boiling water. The steam from the boiling water will make the tofu soft. This is how it is configured:



2.) Make sure the tofu will not touch the boiling water.
3.) Constantly check the tofu for its texture. Once it's soft, stop the fire immediately and use it for taho while hot.

If you love a little adventure, you can try creating the tofu itself. Since buying tofu in malls or supermarket is not ideal for mass producing taho due to its cost. You can try cooking the soft tofu yourself. The raw ingredient is soya beans grinded until it will become powder like( using a blender). This is how soya beans would look like:



It is then cooked in hot water constantly stirring then the soy milk is sieve and separated from mixture. It is then applied with a coagulant which will form into a soft tofu. Refer to the link for details.

Sweet vanilla – taho will not be fully complete without its sweet vanilla. Basically the main ingredient of this is brown sugar.


Credits: dvo.com

Below are the details on how to prepare this:
a.) Heat just a little water in a saucepan.
b.) when its boil, pour in reasonable amount of brown sugar.
c.) Stir it to mix the sugar very well until the color turns darkish.

Sago pearls – this is very common in Philippine supermarket. This is the same sago pearls used in cooking binigkit which is popular during Lenten season. To prepare:
a.) Buy sago pearls, enough for what you need.


Credits: jamieoliver.com

b.) Boil some water and cooked sago pearls until it is softly warm. (Around 30 to 45 minutes)
c.) Put the sago pearls in another plate, ready to be mixed with the rest of the taho ingredients.

Finally create the taho:
1.) Take a glass.
2.) Put some soft tofu over it to around ¾ of the glass.
3.) Pour in sweet sugar vanilla over the glass.
4.) Pour sago pearls over it until the glass is full.
5.) Mix it thoroughly until the sago pearls, vanilla and tofu are well mixed.
6.) Enjoy your delicious and hot taho!

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How to Lose Weight Realistically within 3 months?

Overweight and Obesity is a growing problem also in Philippines. Although the problem is not as serious as in the Western countries; there are still a lot of overweight Filipinos particularly in the middle to upper class. The primary cause of this overweight is the emergence of new culture and adoption of foreign traditions. 60 years ago there are a lot of Filipino fishermen and farmers, and most of them wake up very early in the morning to work and cook food for their family. And then stop working at the late afternoon. They eat healthy foods like fish, corn, and other vegetables. Their nature work is physically demanding, my grandfather is a fishermen and I can imagine the weight of the fishing nets as well as the hours spent swimming in the water in a daily basis.

It explains why most Filipinos 60 years ago are healthy, slim and does not have overweight problems. Here comes today, most Filipinos commute and drive cars. They do not bother doing physical exercises anymore. And spend a long hours sitting in the office. Most Filipinos today are working in the call centre and other offices. To add to the problem, I observed that the popularity of eating fish and vegetables decreases. They now love eating g burgers, lots of pork, eating in fast foods frequently and indulge in unhealthy habits such as drinking and smoking. It explains why there is an increasing trend of overweight Filipinos.

This post will teach you how to lose weight within 3 months by combination of slight physical exercises and eating the right kinds of food. Remember that the most important component in losing weight is your commitment and discipline to follow the plan. Without this, your weight loss goal will fail miserably no matter what you do.

Step1.) Commit to at least 3 hours of aerobic exercises per week. The best form of aerobic exercise is slight jogging whether outside in your home or in your treadmill. You need to buy a heart rate monitor to avoid overexerting or under exerting yourself. Without this piece of equipment it is easy to go overboard or go under board. So to make sure that each exercise counts, you need a feedback device called heart rate monitor. You can buy heart rate monitor for only 2000 to 3500 pesos. You can exercise without heart rate monitor but the risk of injury increases with overexertion. If injury starts to conquer you, your weight loss program will put stress in your daily activity instead of contributing to your well-being. Also under exerting yourself means you are not burning fat calories enough and hence you cannot see physical results after 3 months of workout. This is why a heart rate monitor is important.

You can decide how you will spend your 3 hours per week of aerobic exercise. If you are working daily from Monday to Saturday; you can set at least 30 minutes of workout per day for 5 straight days (Monday to Friday). Or spend 1.5 hours on Saturday and 1.5 hours on Sunday. It depends as long as the total number of aerobic workout should be 3 hours per week. Also; for your workout to be effective, you should aim for a minimum of 30 minutes workout. So no workout should last less than 30 minutes. This is your minimum. The maximum is around 90 minutes or 1.5 hours, only do this if you are comfortable.

Step2.) Define your workout heart rate. Since it is aerobic, use the following formula:

Minimum workout heart rate =0.65 x (220-age)
Maximum workout hear rate = 0.75 x (220-age)

Supposing your age is 25 years old, the minimum heart rate that you should maintain in the workout to optimize the burning of fat calories is:

Minimum= 0.65 x (220-25) = 127 beats per minute
Maximum = 0.75 x (220-25) = 146 beats per minute

What does this imply? It means that every time you work out (running or jogging for example) using your heart rate monitor. If your heart rate falls below 127, it means you should exert more so that it’s above 127 beats per minute to burn substantial amount of fat calories. But if it exceeds 146 beats per minute, you should slow down so that it is within the maximum and minimum range. If you are doing workout consistently above your maximum aerobic heart rate (146 in the example), you increase the risk of injury.

Step3.) Drink a lot of cold water before, during and after the exercise. Cold water burns a lot of calories and prevents dehydration from sweating; you should have a bottle of water to bring anytime you exercise more than 30 minutes.

Step4.) You should eat the following foods as part of your snacks and main diet (it is best to take these foods 1 to 3 hours after any workout, you can choose below but not all of them at once):

a.) Milk or Chocolate milk. You can read my tutorial on how to prepare a delicious Anlene chocolate drink.
b.) Protein foods- chicken and beef are the best because of lower cholesterol levels.
c.) Fish and oysters – for iron supplements, boost red blood cell production.
c.) Rice- no limits here as long as you can be able to maintain 3 hours of aerobic exercise per week. These carbohydrates will be burned and will not be stored as fat during your exercise so rice is important.
d.) Dried fish and eggs – these are your extra sodium and protein supplement.
e.) Bananas/Avocados/Orange- fruits are very important part of the diet when losing weight. This will give you extra boost of vitamins and minerals without having to eat a large quantity of foods.
f.) Any vegetables 3 times a week.
Question: Do you really have to minimize your eating habits while following the weight loss programs? Not necessarily, as long as you do not increase your food intake with the increase in physical workouts you are on the way of losing weight. You should eat normally to avoid collapsing during any workout! You will easily lose a couple of kilos after 3 months (around 3 to 5 kilos). Of course you can continue your workout after 3 months if you are happy with the results. You should become fitter and sexier as ever!

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How to Make a Perfect Anlene Chocolate Milk Drink Snack?

Anlene chocolate milk is one of the best sources of protein and calcium. This is very ideal for both young and old looking to solve the deficiencies with these two important minerals.



As you might already know, calcium is used as the building block for your bones. This is very essential to make your bones strong. As you aged, your bones will become weaker and the risk for osteoporosis increases. Osteoporis is very common in old adults. Daily calcium can solve this problem and Anlene is one of the best milk sources for this mineral.

Even though you are not old, you still need to have an ample supplement of calcium. For example, if you are a running athlete, the risk of having a foot injury will increase due to stress fractures. By having a daily supplement of calcium from Anlene chocolate milk can solve this deficiency issue and you will have stronger bones.

This short recipe snack is my secret for making a perfect Anlene chocolate drink.

Serving size: 1 full glass of Anlene chocolate milk



What you need:

Anlene chocolate milk powder
Clean Ice cubes (from Distilled water)
Distilled Hot water (not boiling as long as its hot, its OK)
Cold distilled water.

Procedure:

1.) Put 3 to 4 tablespoons of anlene chocolate powder to the glass.
2.) Put hot water up to ¼ of the full glass.
3.) Stir the chocolate powder until it is entirely dissolved in the hot water.
4.) Put ice cubes to the glass until it fills up the glass to about ¾ full.
5.) Pour in cold water until its nearly full.
6.) Stir it and wait for 2 to 3 minutes until the ice starts to melt and the water changes from hot to cold.
7.) Stir again for the last time and you can now drink your delicious Anlene chocolate drink.

Note:

There is really no need to add sugar and its not recommended. At 3 to 4 tablespoons, the anlene taste reasonably sweet.

Also it is recommended to drink the Anlene immediately while its so cold and the ice is still melting because this is where it taste so good. If you drink it later on, most of the ice would melt and lots of water can dilute the taste.

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Making the Perfect Filipino Style Brewed Coffee

Coffee is one of the most popular refreshment drinks even to Filipinos. This recipe is the Filipino style of brewing coffee. I think the only difference with this procedure between those Western styles of brewing coffee are the type of coffee brands or granules used. Most western coffee products are cultivated and bought in their own country. In Philippines, there are also some coffee beans which are cultivated in the Philippines. Well you know that Philippines are a tropical country so I believe there are differences in how they actually taste. If you love coffee and you would like to get the most out of your brewer then this recipe is for you. This is how it is done:

Tools used:

Coffee brewer (preferably the small one which can brew one at a time) – actually this coffee maker is affordable. In Philippines, I bought it at 350 pesos last 2 years ago and it is still working well today.



This recipe is only good for one serving of coffee. Although if you are using a large capacity coffee maker you can as well as implement the steps in this tutorial by using ratio and proportion.

Ingredients:

Quality coffee granules – I recommend Great taste strong coffee because of its strong aroma smell and taste. You can as well use other great quality brands such as Nescafe and Blend 45 which are popular brands in Philippines.

Distilled water- it is highly important that you will use distilled water and not tap water. It is because based on my experience, tap water does not taste well when brewed. It’s high presence of other chemicals such as chlorine can corrode the parts of your coffee maker. In addition to some corrosion, it can introduce other problems like chemicals residue sticking to your coffee maker.

Procedure for Excellent Brewing:

Step1.) In most coffee makers there is a limit regarding the maximum water amount. Since this tutorial is for one cup only, I will put water up to that limit. If you are confused about that limit, all coffee makers have indicators up to what level you can put water into it. You should not exceed that limit because it affects the quality of your coffee and also it can shorten the life of your coffee maker in the long run.
In a single serving, the maximum limit is one cup of coffee. It should not exceed the limit as indicated in your coffee maker. If it exceeds that limit, then the cup you are using is too big. Some coffee makers will provide a cup that you will use.

Step2.)Put coffee in the canister. This is the trickiest step. Most coffee makers also have indicators up to what level you can put the coffee powder. In a coffee maker with single cup capacity, put ½ full tablespoon of coffee granule to it. Remember this is for one cup of coffee only. For large capacity coffee makers, you can actually use ratio and proportion.
½ full tablespoon: 1 cup

Step3.) Start brewing or turn on the coffee brewer. Some coffee brewers have time limit until it will complete. You can refer to the instructions provided by the coffee maker manual.
Step4.) It is recommended to drink the coffee fresh after brewing because this is where the taste is so good. If you have cream, you can add it immediately. Personally I do not add cream and sugar when making coffee because I love its natural taste.

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Recovery Nutrition for Athletes after Medium to Heavy Workout

If you are an athlete that do frequent medium to heavy workouts, it is very important that you replenish the lost energy after the workout. The purpose is faster recovery so that you can perform another workout in the coming days much easily. These tips will be applicable to either a runner, cylist, duathlete or triathlete.

There are different foods that you can eat but take note that you need to follow some guidelines to optimize your recovery nutrition. Before you will know what are these foods to eat, let's list down all the stresses that are applied to your body when you are doing the work out:

1.) An exercise of more than one hour or more consumes a lot of water in your body. Your body is dehydrated after long hours of exercise typically if these exercises will last an hour or more.

2.) In long exercise such as an hour or more, you sweat a lot that includes some precious minerals in your body to operate properly, these are called the electrolytes. The most important electrolyte minerals are sodium and potassium. These are secreted outside your body during intense workout via sweating.

It is reason why hours after any heavy exercises you will start to feel light-headed, dizzy and cramping in your muscles. The primary reason are the lack of these vital electrolytes which are sodium and potassium.

3.) In aerobic exercise (those exercising with heart rates at 60% to 80% maximum heart rate), you will burn around 40% carbohydrates and 60% fats. Fats are stored in your body naturally from the excess food storage. And it is also why aerobic exercise is the best way of removing excess fat in your body.

Meanwhile fat is undesirable, carbohydrates are not. These are precious fuel in your body that should be reserved for very intense activity (for example sprinting at the final stage in running or cycling event). If you are depleted with carbohydrates, your muscles can hardly move and if you are running you will start walking. And if you are pedaling very fast in your bike, you will start to pedal very slow. Your athletic performance will suffer.

4.) In anaerobic exercise (those exercising more than 80% of the maximum heart rate). Only a few percentage of fats are burned and your muscles will depend entirely on the carbohydrate as fuel.

5.) In some instances, your body will start to consume protein which are very important body building blocks.

6.) There will be a lot of stresses in the muscles during the workout. This stress damage your muscle fibers. Particularly in running activity, your leg and your feet will suffer a lot due to heavy exercise.

In summary, your body lacks the following components after any medium to heavy workout:

1.) Water
2.) Sodium and Potassium (electrolytes)
3.) Protein
4.) Carbohydrates

Therefore below are the recommended foods to speed up the recovery:

1.) Immediately 10 minutes to 30 minutes after any workout:

a.) Drink 500 ml of energy drink consisting of sodium, potassium and water.
b.) If you cannot find energy drink, you can eat salty foods with fruits. Below is the optimal combination:
b.1) Chippy snack or Piattos, Nova, Pretzels (rich in Sodium)
b.2) Banana. (rich in Potassium)
b.3) Cold water

2.) Around 1 hour after any workout

a.) Drink one to two glasses of chocolate milk. This is rich in protein and other minerals. If you cannot find some chocolate drink, simply drink one full glass of milk.
b.) Eat some bread as it is rich in carbohydrates.

3.) If you plan to lose weight and will not eat before to any workout. You should eat a full meal (with rice) within 2 to 3 hours after your workout.

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Dried Fish Recipe Breakfast Special

Dried fish is a very delicious food common in Philippines. The primary reason why its so abundant in my country because most people lived in islands where this is one of their main diet and living (e.g. selling dried fish). It is rich in sodium, omega-3 with a bit of calcium and iron. Combined with eggs, this food will now be rich in protein. I would like to share to you this recipe because its one of my most favorite breakfast meal and a healthy one.

The following are the main ingredients:

4 pieces of dried fish – medium sized

Image credits: hsaba

Note: Actually there are different kinds of dried fish, feel free to buy any type. But I suggest you will select the medium sized one as shown in the above screenshot.

2 pieces of eggs
4 tomatoes
1 spring onion
1 or 2 red onion
2 or 3 garlic

Below are the steps to cook this recipe:

1.) Wash the dried fish in tap water. The primary purpose of this is to remove excess salt covering the dried fish body during preservation. If you do not wash it, the dried fish taste too salty. The correct way of washing is to use the faucet and let the water fall directly to the body of the dried fish and wash it. It is not advisable to put the dried fish in a water pan because it can dilute too much of its salt thus depleting its precious mineral contents like salt, calcium and iron. Do not over wash it, as long as you feel the salt minerals covering the body will be removed.

2.) Put the washed dried fish somewhere to dry it a bit.

3.) While the dried fish is dried naturally, beat an egg.

4.) Prepare all spices and tomatoes by slicing it. Then mix it with the eggs. Mix it properly until all ingredients are in the egg mix.

5.) Prepare and heat the frying pan ,put a bit oil it (not too much).

6.) Now, fry the dried fish first. When the color starts to change to slighter deep brown, flip the dried fish on its other side so that it will also be cooked.

7.) Put the eggs to the frying pan evenly across the dried fish covering the entire pan area.

8.) Slow down the fire a bit. Wait until it is entirely cooked.

Image credits: phobucket

Tips for more delicious results:

1. Selection of the best quality dried fish is very essential for getting a delicous results. If you have selected a dried fish that is too salty then washing it can hardly remove the entire salt.

2.) Don't overcook the dried fish before putting the eggs because it will not taste good. By the time you put the eggs, the dried fish will be smashed into pieces in the frying pan because of heat.

3.) Do not cook in too much fire because it can stick the eggs and fried fish harder to the pan especially if you put too little oil on it.

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