Love, Irene.

- LATE LUNCH/AFTERNOON SNACK, 3:15PM -

I made these before and I believe I have shown it in a previous Wednesday Noms episode, it’s Laura Vitale’s Homemade Hash Browns. They’re perfect as snacks, but also very filling. For the dipping sauce, I just mixed together some sweet chilli sauce and sriracha. 👍🏽

I rarely drink soda, but today, I decided to reward myself since I haven’t had any for quite a while. I also thought it was the perfect drink to have with my little snack.

- DINNER, 8:13PM -

I’m not really sure if this qualifies as dinner because it’s more like an evening snack, but I made some chicken spread earlier and I thought it turned out really yummy, so I just had to make something with it. It was quite late in the evening, so I decided to just use one slice of bread. I toasted my bread, laid a good amount of lettuce leaves on top of it, then put a generous layer of my chicken spread, then sprinkled it with cayenne pepper for added heat (and just because I really love it). I didn’t follow any recipe for the spread -- I just eyeballed everything, but in case you want to make some, all I did was mix shredded boiled chicken (I think it was about two heaping cups), mashed five pieces of boiled eggs, and about half a jar of mayonnaise, plus salt and pepper to taste as usual, and that’s about it!

- DESSERT -

I made my favourite brownies yesterday and I scored the last piece. They’re so good they never last very long in this household!

Today was a good day! What did you have?

- 1:45PM -

I made Laksa over the weekend because I’ve been craving for it big time and I couldn’t find any restaurants in my area that serves it, so I decided to take matters into my own hands. I used this recipe as a guide; I didn’t follow it to the letter -- didn’t even use the exact same ingredients -- I just followed my taste buds and modified it to my liking. It turned out great and was a big hit! I love that the coconut milk flavour is dominant, with just a little bit of heat from the curry paste, the shrimp also provided some added flavour. Let me know if you want me to provide a recipe or something. :)

- 4:15PM -

For another snack, I decided to make a little vegetable wrap. I took a piece of ancient grain tortilla, smeared a little garlic herb cream cheese on it, and stuffed it with lettuce, avocado, and tomatoes. I also had organic baby carrots on the side and the ranch dressing that I’ve been loving.

- 7:38PM -

I’m trying to eliminate rice from my diet and I’ve done a good job in doing so for the past few months, but I’ve decided to make an exception because I made sisig and you can’t eat sisig without rice lol. Sisig is a famous Filipino dish that is traditionally made from pig liver and parts of a pig’s head (but I just used pork loin). I added some tofu bits in the mix, a good amount of mayonnaise, and lots and lots of red onions. I also cooked up some snap peas with mushrooms as a ~side dish~ to get some more veggies in my system! :)

Avocado Toasts

I’ve never tried avocado toasts until last month. I’m not really a fan of incorporating fruits into something savoury: raisins in Filipino dishes (Embutido, Menudo, Pork Giniling), same thing with pineapples (Adobo, burgers, and yes, I’m not a fan of Hawaiian pizza). I liked pairing my avocados with milk and sugar so it was kind of weird spreading it on a piece of bread with some S&P but I was feeling a little adventurous one time and decided to try it out. It’s👏definitely👏worth👏the👏hype. I’ve always thought it was a little overrated because a lot of people were eating it and others were only doing so because it’s so “in” but it’s actually really good! It’s very simple and easy to make, very healthy too! If you want to know how I make my avocado toasts, I talked about that in my last Wednesday Noms post.

PILLOWTALK by Zayn

I honestly did not care about this but some time after it was released, it was all over social media so I decided to listen to it and *BOOM* I was addicted. I may or may have not put it on repeat for 48hours straight.

Stone Cold by Demi Lovato

This is my favourite song off of her latest album because it’s just so beautiful and powerful, and for me is very relatable. ALSO, can we talk about how intense this music video is? I LOVE IT!

Grease: Live!

Grease is probably one of my favourite movie musicals of all time, so I was very excited when FOX announced that they were doing a remake, and they did an amazing job! Although Aaron Tveit didn’t quite exude the charm Danny Zuko is known (and loved) for, everything else was great! Carly (Rae Jepsen) was perfect as Frenchy, Keke Palmer was fabulous, and Vanessa Hudgens -- O M G VANESSA -- I know some people doubted her in the beginning but I’m sure they’ve eaten their words after the show, she definitely gave justice to Rizzo and her performance here was so different from her previous ones. Bravo -- no, brava!

The 100

I call this ‘Baby Lost’ because of their similarities. I’ve watched four seasons of “Lost”* and this is just like it, but with teenagers -- from space -- as the main characters. Having said that, I think this is less weird and confusing compared to Lost, so if you’re planning to watch that, you should probably watch this first as a warm up haha. Even if the concept isn’t new to me, I still got hooked because it’s just so damn good -- I love me some mystery shows! This is so good at creating conflicts and throwing surprises at you (but again, not as nuts as Lost), you’ll never get bored. You can find all released episodes on Netflix (seasons 1 & 2 + 6 episodes of season 3, it returns to CW on March 10th).

*If you’re not familiar with Lost who even are you think “The Hunger Games”, since they also have the same vibe.

Aaand that’s all I have for now. See you again next month! :)

- BREAKFAST, at around 10:30AM -

I’ve been bugging my mom to make this and she finally did yesterday. We call it Ginataang Mais, which is basically sweet porridge made with coconut milk, glutinous rice, granulated sugar, and whole kernel corn.

- LUNCH (12:30PM) -

I made this Roasted Turkey Breast last night out of the leftover turkey meat that’s apparently been sitting in our freezer since Christmas. I didn’t follow any recipe for this because roasted stuff are pretty easy to make: you just shower your meat or veggies with spices and throw them in the oven to cook. That’s exactly what I did: I seasoned my turkey with salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and paprika. Turkey doesn’t have a lot of flavour to begin with, so you can definitely have fun with your spices, but be careful not to over-season it because these flavours can be overpowering. I laid a few slices of butter on the bottom of a baking pan and laid my turkey meat on top, then crumbled more butter on top of the turkey to help the skin crisp up. I baked it in the oven at 350°F, checking every 15 minutes to see if it’s cooked. You can play with the temperature and cooking time depending on your oven, just make sure to keep an eye on it. A meat thermometer would probably be very helpful, but I don’t have one, so. :) I found boxed stuffing in the pantry so I decided to cook that, then made gravy using the fat from my roasted turkey. I didn’t follow any recipe for the gravy as well, because it’s pretty basic. All you have to do is make a roux (always remember to use equal parts of fat and flour -- in my case, I used 2 tablespoons of each), then I poured increments of chicken stock until I reached the consistency I wanted (I probably used about 1 cup), then seasoned it with salt and pepper. I also ended up adding about 2 tablespoons of butter to make the gravy creamier -- perfetto!

- DINNER (7:15PM) -

I was too lazy to cook at this point, so I just decided to boil some Perogies. They’re simple, uncomplicated, and quick to make, and I think they’re pretty affordable as well, so if you’re a student or someone who’s in a tight budget, this will be your best friend haha! It’s very versatile too, so you can definitely add whatever you like! Or do what I did: I just topped it with sour cream and dried parsley to maintain its simplicity, but still make it look less boring.

- DESSERT -

Yes, frozen yogurt in winter. It’s -25°C outside, but so what? Haha! These taste nothing like yogurt by the way, like many other “froyos” I have tried in this country (so far). It doesn’t have the tanginess that I like when eating yogurt -- it’s actually not tangy AT ALL -- which pisses me off, so it’s basically mislabeled ice cream for me. Still, for an ice cream, it tastes pretty good. I’m always skeptical when it comes to buying strawberry-flavoured things (but I can’t help myself, so I risk it all for the love of strawberry) because sometimes they taste very fake, but that’s not the case with this one, so good job, Chapman’s!

- BRUNCH -

I woke up a little late today and couldn’t find anything to quickly whip up, so I decided to cook Pancit. If you’re a Filipino, or you’re at least familiar with our food, chances are you already know what this is and even have an idea on how to make it. It’s stir-fried noodles with meat and veggies -- much like Chow Mien (which makes sense, because noodles were introduced to the Philippines by the Chinese and have since been adopted into local cuisine). I didn’t make this recipe the “traditional way” though because I wanted to use up some ingredients in the fridge that looked like they’re about to go bad. There was half a pack of steamed noodles (which I think is what they use to make Chow Mien), so I used that instead of bihon or canton. I found two crowns of broccoli, and a bag of spinach that’s already starting to wilt, so I used all of that up. I also found a few pieces of frozen shrimp so I threw those in there, and for the meat part, I just crumbled a few pieces farmer’s sausage and sautéed it in some olive oil and onions. I flavoured both the noodles and toppings with sesame oil and soy sauce, and of course, salt and pepper to taste.

- DESSERT -

I made these cupcakes last night because I wanted to use the overripe (brown) bananas we had in the kitchen. When we have overripe bananas, my go-to recipe has always been the one that I got from the precious Laura Vitale of Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. It was love at first try and always a big hit when I make them, but I was feeling a little adventurous and decided to try out something different. The recipe I used is by Betty Crocker and things actually turned out better than I expected! These are Caramel-Filled Banana Cupcakes with Coffee Frosting and Whipped Cream on top. I’m planning to make a separate blog post on this recipe so I’m not going to talk much about it here but I’m tellin’ ya, THEY’RE SO GOOD!

- AFTERNOON SNACK -

I finally decided to try out Laura Vitale’s Hash Brown Recipe because we had a couple of red potatoes sitting in the dark corner of our kitchen. The recipe calls for russet potatoes (something to do with starch content, I think???) but I don’t think using the red ones was a huge problem. I also doubled the recipe because I had quite a lot of potatoes to use up. I’d say they’re pretty easy to make -- drying the potatoes just took a little bit of time especially because I didn’t have a potato ricer, but I think they turned out great!

- DINNER -

For dinner I just had the same thing I had for breakfast, but with more toppings. My mom brought home some cremini mushroom, a pack of sugar snap peas, and two more crowns of broccoli, so I decided to stir-fry them and added it as additional toppings to the noodles. Yum!

That’s all, y’all! I hope you share with me down on the comments below what you had for today as well because I’d really like to know! :)

Troye Sivan // Blue Neighbourhood

I mean... the album art alone is SO GOOD ALREADY! I have listened to some of Troye’s songs before (I especially love The Fault in Our Stars which he wrote based on John Green’s novel of the same title) but when he released this new album last December, I was OBSESSED. I actually just found out about it through my friends Claudia and Lexie, and once I started listening, I couldn’t stop. Every freaking song is bomb, but my personal favourites are Fools, Blue, Youth, Talk Me Down, Heaven and For Him.

Maybelline Falsies Push Up Drama Mascara

To be completely honest, I probably wouldn’t have bought this if it didn’t go on sale (there’s so many kinds of mascara in the market and that’s really how I try new ones out -- I buy it if it’s on sale lol). I have thin, short lashes and I really like how it lengthens and volumizes them. It does clump my lashes a bit, but nothing an extra mascara wand can't fix (between coats). I got the regular version and it stays on pretty much all day; it doesn't leave any residue on my under eye area like the Cover Girl Full Lash Bloom (the one I was using for everyday before I got this one) and it's very easy to take off too, so you could definitely get away without buying the waterproof version. It’s not “THE GREATEST MASCARA EVER (BECAUSE IT WORKS VERY WELL AND IT’S CHEAP)”, but it’s in this list because I have been using it a lot and I love it.

Lie To Me

I have ignored this on Netflix for a long time, but finally decided to give it a try after I finished watching Grey’s Anatomy season 11. It’s basically about a group of deception experts, or people who can tell if a person is lying by studying their faces (through micro-expressions) and body language. It’s a very cool concept, but the episodes aren’t always exciting -- though it does get intense sometimes. Nonetheless, it creeped its way into my list of favourite things for this month because it kept me entertained. Watch the trailer here.

Kendall and Kylie (app)

I love playing games like these! I actually downloaded Kim Kardashian: Hollywood before and was already an A-list celebrity but when I got a new phone, I didn’t want to start the game all over again, so I didn’t bother downloading it again. Then K & K announced that they were releasing a game similar to Kim’s but “way cooler”, so I downloaded it as soon as it came out. I gotta say, I do like this better than Kim’s.

That’s it for now. I have a feeling that I’m really going to love doing this! Click the banner below to learn more about how you can join! xx

Before we get on with it though, I just want to say that this isn’t going to be one of those What I Ate in a Day that’s all planned to look super healthy and amazing because that’s seriously not what happens in a day -- at least not in mine. If you’re someone who plans every single meal you’re going to have for the next week, cool, do your thing, but that’s just not me, so don’t expect the food or meals in these posts to always be perfectly balanced and nutritious (and pretty), but I’ll try, okay? I made a video for this episode of WN because I was in the mood to make one, so I thought, why not? Whether I’ll be making videos for the next episodes or not will just depend on my mood, I guess -- like everything in my life. So without further ado, here’s what I had for today!

- BREAKFAST -

For breakfast, I had a bowl of champorado, which is basically a chocolate porridge that’s popular in the Philippines. It’s made with cocoa (powder, or we usually use the ones in “tablet” form, which we call tabléa), glutinous rice, sugar, and milk. The one that I ate was actually made from a box; not very tasty, but it reminded me of the 5 pesos per cup champorado I used to buy from the cafeteria when I was in grade school haha! Good times.

- LUNCH -

Oh look at that, my second meal of the day was also made from a box! I swear I don’t always eat like this haha but I was home alone and I didn’t want to make a big batch of anything and wanted something that was quick to make, so I opted for this one. I used the No Name brand which I stole from my mom’s kitchen lol. It was okay, but Kraft Dinner still FTW! Also because we didn’t have Panko around, I decided to make a toast that I slathered with butter, then sprinkled with garlic powder and dried oregano.

- AFTERNOON SNACK -

We always have oranges here in the house, so I decided to eat one -- the first healthy (and fresh) thing I had for the day. It’s a navel orange, which got its name from its button-like end that apparently looks like a navel. Besides it being perfect for snacking, this is also the kind that I use for baking: when I need fresh orange juice and/or orange zest.

- DINNER -

My cousin made this one, and it’s something that I haven’t had in a while. We just call it “Pork Giniling (Ground Pork)” where I came from because that’s the star ingredient. We stew the ground pork in tomato sauce and water, then add vegetables like carrots, green & red bell pepper, and potatoes. Some people add raisins and green peas but I’m not a fan of those hahaha! We also add quail eggs which is my favourite bit. I guess it’s like the Filipino version of chili.

- DESSERT -

This is leftover Chia Pudding from the batch that I made last weekend. I saw the recipe in one of those “Buzzfeed Recipes Tested” videos on Youtube and decided to give it a try. It’s really simple to make:

You will need:

1 (400 ml) can of coconut milk

1/4 cup chia seeds

1 tablespoon of honey (if you like it a little bit sweeter, add another tablespoon like I did; I think it tasted better and for some reason enhanced the coconut milk flavour)

Procedure:

All you gotta do is combine all of the ingredients in a jar or whatever container you have available, and mix/shake it all together, then leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours to let the seeds absorb the milk and all the flavour.

That’s all, folks! I gotta say, I really enjoyed this and I am very excited to make more! I would really love to see what you guys come up with so share on the comments below what you ate today! (Don’t forget to include the link should you decide to make your own Wednesday Noms post!)