Archive for September, 2015

Mung Beans in Coconut Milk Recipe (Ginatang Monggo)

One of the best thing when you are living in the province is you can get things for free, it is either from your own garden or from neighbor’s backyard. The other day we decided to cook monggo beans or mung beans in coconut milk, we had two head of coconuts from a neighbor.  Mung beans is a high source of protein, fiber, antioxidants and phytonutrients and  have some huge health benefits to offer, including helping to lower high cholesterol levels and protect against heart disease.

Mung Beans in Coconut Milk

Ingredients:

Mung beans, garlic, onions, salt, moringa leaves, coconut milk

Cooking mung beans in coconut milk is very simple, all you have to do is boil the mung beans in second milk extract of grated coconut and once the mung beans are cooked, you can start adding the ingredients as well as the first milk extract from the coconut.

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Broke and Blogging

Do you know the feeling of having nothing? When I saw beggars in the street I surely gave something even it is small amount not because I have extra money but because I know the feeling of having nothing. I also believed that you will only touch someone’s life once, you’ll not going to see that person again especially if you meet him/her in the street you are not familiar with.

Blogging

It is end of the month and it is time to pay bills so we have empty pockets. Well, today I have to feel that nothing feeling again, it was been almost three weeks since my father lost his job, our rice container was already empty literally empty so we had to eat piece of bread and just drink a cup of coffee tonight. If you will ask my sister, it was great because it will mean she will not to eat rice and she will lose weight. Anyway, I have to get some coins from my wine bank so I can buy piece of bread, gladly there is small rice for my father to eat and to feed our pets. I am working online but my earning is not regular, there are times I can earn from my blog and there are times I can’t especially these days where blogging is slow. I had just cleaned the list of blogs I worked with and guess how many blogs or bloggers had stop blogging? I have found 454 dropped domains, those are the domains that has been abandoned and not renewed, which mean the blogs that were attached to that domain were gone because the owner stop writing/blogging that’s how poor blogging these days.  Yeah, I know I should find a regular job in our island, but the bad news I can’t find one and I guess people will not believed me even if I applied to a job because of this perception that if you are married to a power ranger you are rich. Seriously, I hate that way of thinking because it is not always true.

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Asking and Giving Directions to a Stranger

Today we went to pick-up some LBC items in our town and while waiting to claim it a foreigner came, asking for the status of his items, he handed his ID but the lady didn’t find anything on his name so he went out and after few minutes the foreigner return handling his phone with the tracking number in it saying the box is coming from Russia and he was told to claim it in where he is. Since I am curious and the lady doesn’t know what to say because she is not familiar with the tracking code, I looked at the stranger’s phone and I ended up informing him that he should claim his box in the postal office and telling him how to reach it, yeah right it turns out he has to collect EMS items from Russia. I know to differentiate EMS tracking code since I used the service when I am still living in Korea. Jezz, I am not good in giving direction so I don’t know if he found the postal office, probably yes since I heard he drove a 4-wheel car and he can easily spot the water station where he needs to turn left, I knew he is driving a car after I was informed when I blurted out when he left that my sister should just drive the guy in the postal office.

LBC Odiongan

As I am saying I am not that good in giving direction because I remember when I was in first year high school and my classmate tagged me along to his father’s workplace so she could get allowance, when we are returning to school a foreigner stopped her and she was scared so she called my attention when the foreigner started speaking, it turns out the stranger was asking for direction on how to reach the municipal station and since I am nervous too and my first time to talk to someone in English aside from our English teacher, I thought I blurted out “over there” while pointing the municipal station but my classmate says I only say “there” while pointing out.  LOL.

Going home after claiming the items my sister blurted out, she is “nosebleed” and she can’t understand anything because I speak faster and it sounds like with a slang but I think the foreigner understood what I am saying because it looks like he did and he didn’t asked me to repeat it. Well, I hope he did. Lol

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Afritada with a touch of Menudo

Meat is seldom to be found on our diet, we usually prepared vegetables and fish but this time is different.  From the meat keep in the fridge we had “Afritada with a touch of Menudo”.

Afritada

Ingredients:

Meat bones, afritada powder, green peas, potatoes, salt, pepper, garlic and onions, oil

Procedure:

  • Heat cooking oil in a pan or wok.
  • Saute garlic & onion.
  • Add the pork. Simmer until tender.
  • Add the Afritada mixed powder, simmer and let it boil
  • Add the potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are tender.
  • Add the grean peas, salt to taste,  black pepper and the hot dogs
  • Remove from heat & transfer to a serving bowl.
  • Serve with hot steamed white rice. Enjoy!
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Life in the Island: Disappointing Internet Connection

Living in the island is not always a paradise. Most of the time it feels like living hell, hot temperature, scarce supply of water on summer, insufficient supply of electricity that cause excessive blackouts,  far from the main city and especially poor signal for mobile and data network especially when typhoon passed by.

My life is in the internet; my source of living is in the internet but with the poor internet in our island, I am losing everything, my blogs and my earnings not to mention the life I thought to be a happy one.

The other day I received a notification that the free upgrade of Windows 10 is ready, so I bought load for the Smartbro stick so I can used it in town. Using the stick is better than using a pocket wifi because the latter is only limited for 800mb per day, but to my dismay it was just a waste of money.  I cannot even surf the internet, pages can’t be opened and can’t even check emails.  Tried it twice in town but I both ended up just losing my patience and my battery charge. So disappointing!

Island Living

We ended up going to neighbouring town the next day since we have noticed that internet is a bit faster in the said town compare to our town.  Since we have no place to hang-out with, we ended up in their park and it was ended a bit faster, but I still end up not able to finish my Windows upgrade because my internet load expired and my laptop battery was already drained.

Well, I have heard from other people it is possible for me to get a faster internet if I purchased a router and an antenna but the downside it cost a lot of money about $200 or more including the installation fee but excluded the wires and other installation materials. So we asked for details in town but we are told that we can try it but it is not guaranteed we will be able to connect or get a faster internet because we live outside the town. Very disappointing if you may ask me because if it didn’t work in our house my money will just be flushed in the drain, isn’t it? L

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Bolinao Fish: Cleaning and Cooking

Fishes and other sea foods are expensive in our town because I have heard most of the fishes caught are brought to Manila. It was only seldom that a kilo of fish cost less than a dollar, they mostly cost over $4.

Bolinao Fish

The other day, while we are in the wet market we found out that the small fishes only cost Php20.00 per kilo which is less than a dollar, it seldom happened so we bought 2 kilos right away, our cats will have a feast on these fishes.

When we reached home, I cleaned them one by one by removing the intestines and gills, they are pretty big than normal. Normally when they are a bit smaller, we have to take out the whole head because it has bitter taste. It took me a long time to finish cleaning them, it was quite tiring standing for a long time eh. We ended up frying small portion with frying mix and the rest were cooked in vinegar with water for our cats

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Starving and Craving for Pancit

I was feeling hungry last night and there is nothing else to eat at home so I ask for my mother and sister to go to town and order pancit from Aruba, before doing it we first went to the old market to get something and then headed to new market to buy fish for our viand and for our cats. Then we went to Aruba which is just around the new market, we ordered and left, instead of waiting we decided to get gas at the gas station, when we returned we waited a bit and it was ready. The moment we arrived I immediately eat because I am really starving and exhausted from thinking too much.

Pancit Bihon

The pancit we ordered cost Php80.00 or $1.77, it is only one serving but it was also good for 2-3 people if necessary. The pancit last night was good despite the noodles are over cooked compared to the pancit we ordered last time which is flavorless and blunt.

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