Join me for Merienda: V,GF- Simple Smoothie of Deliciousness: Chocolate, Banana and Blueberry with some added benefits =)

Well, it's almost the end of February and I wanted to make sure to post this month, instead of letting it slip by once again. It's still bitterly cold out and I've been making a lot of stews and soups, but I felt like going contrary to this trend and post a recipe for a smoothie today. 

Honestly, smoothie recipes are simple. You just put all of the ingredients into a blender and let it run, until well blended. So, I'm sure that you've got a few standards in your pocket already, but if you feel like giving this one a go; then by all means, have at it! 

One of the simplest versions of this smoothie involves 5 ingredients:

Frozen Organic Bananas

Tumaco Cocoa Powder

Coconut Milk/Almond Milk or any Vegan milk of your choice

Organic Flax Meal

Organic Agave Nectar or a few Organic Dates (to sweeten)

This photo just looks weird, but here are some of the ingredients waiting in the Nutribullet container to go swimming with Coconut Milk.

However this version includes frozen blueberries because it's winter and we need a bit more boost of those antioxdiants and anthocyanins to bolster our immune system. You could also add in a bit of ginger into this and that would really add some punch to it.

So here is the 'official,' recipe for this version:

V, GF- Chocolate, Banana and Blueberry Smoothie

1 Frozen Organic Banana

A Handful of Frozen Blueberries

*3 Heaping Teaspoons of Tumaco Cocoa Powder (any good quality Cocoa powder will do)

1 Cup of Coconut Milk or any Vegan Milk of your choice (water will do, but it won't be the same!)

1 Tablespoon of Organic Flax meal

1 Tablespoon of Organic Agave Nectar or 2-3 Organic Dates

*You can substitute Carob powder, but you may want to add less than 3 heaping teaspoons, as Carob tends to have a sweeter taste.

I use a Nutribullet; so I just make sure that the liquid doesn't surpass the 'Max,' line. Make sure that your lid is on tightly before you blend; or else you'll have a mess to clean up ;p

I pulse it a few times before letting it run continuously for about 20-30 seconds. 

It's a very satisfying smoothie in my opinion; so it's a nice treat to both your tastebuds and your body, as it supplies healthy nutrients, good fiber amongst many other benefits.

You can even take this smoothie and freeze it into popsicles, for a frostier treat.

All blended up and ready to be savored.

I think that I may still post a recipe for a Ginger Tea, that I make, but we'll see. It's getting down to -8F over here; so it depends on how thawed out, I'll be tomorrow.

Thanks to my brother for this awesome magnet. It's what we do!

Mabuhay!  To your Health!  Cheers!

Love,

Jessica

Jess Tells Tales: What was that song about? Teachers lie about things.

Hi again!

I know, aren't you surprised to be having another post soon after the last?

Maybe it's the cold temperatures that encourage my fingers to type incessantly or recant tales in order to keep my brain from freezing.

In this installment I have a short anecdote from my choir days. I had a good time in choir when we were singing, but not so much when dealing with the cliques and politics of favortism etc. There were definitely a lot of people who thought they were 'Divas, all that an a bag of chips, yes folks,' but yeah...

I love languages; so it was always fun to sing in Spanish, Japanese, Kisawahili and of course a lot of songs in Latin. I always loved singing Vivaldi, Brahms, John Rutter, well you get the idea. We had to sing  'O Fortuna,' from the Carmina Burana by Carl Orff, for one of our yearly shows.

Here is a video from youtube; if you don't immediately recognize the name of this piece. It gets used in so many things, adverts, movie trailers. You name it, they've probably used it for whatever or whichever purpose.

O Fortuna

Carmina Burana Wheel

Okay, so now that you've said 'Oh yeahhhhh, I know that one!,' we'll continue with the story now.

It's a very dramatic and ominous sounding piece; so you can imagine how many epic and horror movies have employed this piece of music. During one of our rehearsals, one of my classmates asked what the piece was about and my choir director proceeded to say 'It's about this woman named Fortuna, who is being condemned to death by stoning.' I heard her say that and was thinking to myself 'Uhhhh, no it's not.'

I never studied Latin, but I've studied plenty of Romance languages to understand the Latin lyrics.

Here are the lyrics courtesy of  the Wikipedia article:

Original Latin:

O Fortuna

velut luna

statu variabilis,

semper crescis

aut decrescis;

vita detestabilis

nunc obdurat

et tunc curat

ludo mentis aciem,

egestatem,

potestatem

dissolvit ut glaciem.

Sors immanis

et inanis,

rota tu volubilis,

status malus,

vana salus

semper dissolubilis,

obumbrata

et velata

michi quoque niteris;

nunc per ludum

dorsum nudum

fero tui sceleris.

Sors salutis

et virtutis

michi nunc contraria,

est affectus

et defectus

semper in angaria.

Hac in hora

sine mora

corde pulsum tangite;

quod per sortem

sternit fortem,

mecum omnes plangite!

This is a beautiful blue moon!

Now the English translation:

O Fortune,

like the moon

you are changeable,

ever waxing

and waning;

hateful life

first oppresses

and then soothes

as the sharp mind takes it;

poverty

and power

it melts them like ice.

Fate – monstrous

and empty,

you whirling wheel,

you are malevolent,

well-being is vain

and always fades to nothing,

shadowed

and veiled

you plague me too;

now through the game

I bring my bare back

to your villainy.

Fate is against me

in health

and virtue,

driven on

and weighted down,

always enslaved.

So at this hour

without delay

pluck the vibrating strings;

since Fate

strikes down the strong man,

everyone weep with me!

Yeah, my choir director was pretty far off from the subject, although there is a slim chance that they were just trying to shut up the students to speed along the rehearsal, but you can decide the truth for yourselves.

Short and sweet one, for today. I hope that you enjoyed it!

Love and Well Being,

Jessica

Jess Learn Something!: More Cool Pasalubong from the Philippines

Oh, it's the first post of the new year. I hope that you new year is treating you well so far.  I've been busy being a Jessicle, but there are more posts in the queue as usual. Today it'll be more 'show and tell,' and the next post will probably be a recipe or another tale.

This blog doesn't have a set schedule, but I think that I would like to try and post at least 2 times a week.

I'm thinking of making the 'essay,' type posts shorter; so that I can post more, but who knows. I'm going to experiment and we'll see what I end up making.

So, here are some more photos of cool Pasalubong from the Philippines.

This is a bag from the 'Cream of the Scrap,' line from the store Artwork. A really cool chain of stores that is based out of the Philippines and features local artists/contributors. This bag is made out of the scraps and fabric samples that are leftover; so each one is unique. 

This is the other side of the 'Cream of the scrap,' bag. I like the crazy strawberry suit man.

I don't usually wear hats, but I really liked these type of hats. The designs were really cool as well. My favorite is the one with faces.

The hats are reversible. This is what the design is on the interior.

Canvas/Jute bags, this one features the Salakot.

Kiss kiss!

I love the graphic print and text of this one.

2 types of batik bags

Another view of the batik bags

These are fairly common and I think these two are from the Baguio region.

Cebu's Tay Seng Bakery's special hopia.

Did you see the price of this wonderful snack?

Tay Seng, Sesame cake- Ingredients: Sesame, Flour, Sugar, Glucose, Mongo (mung bean) and vegetable oil.

I was so happy to find this unique treat that is a Cebu specialty. It's also one of the few types of Hopia that I could actually eat. 

Artisan Chocolate Bars from Manila based Theo Philo- Dark Chocolate with Calamansi, Dark Chocolate with Green Mango and Sea Salt and Dark Chocolate with Siling Labuyo (Labuyo Chile). 

While I was in Manila I saw a piece about Ralfe Gourmet and their Tablea/chocolate empire based out of Cebu; so I had to pick up some of their Tablea. This one is the quick cooking version. the tablets are like thin wafers of chocolate.

This is chocolate tablea from Argao, Cebu by the Tablea chain. They have a wide selection of chocolate from all the different regions of the Philippines. 

Chocolate Tablea from Argao, Cebu.

I will have to put a review of the different types of chocolate and I'm sure that'll be soon enough; since I'm a Jessicle right now and could stand to drink a few cups of good and true Philippine Cacao.

All of these things hold different memories of my visit and of course help me to keep my well wishing thoughts for the Philippines and all of my family and friends over there. Recover, rebuild and thrive! I love you all <3


I will possibly come back and elaborate on a few of the items, but for now; I'm going to make some tea and try to thaw myself out!


Love and good health to you all,

Jessica

Jess learn something! : Cool Pasalubong from the Philippines

Happy New Year to those of you who've already crossed over into 2014 and Happy coming New Year to those of you, who still have a few hours to go, like me.

So, in case you don't know what Pasalubong is; here is a link to the wiki article on pasalubong, but generally they are gifts that you bring/give to people who haven't seen in a while or like souvenirs when you come back from your trip, usually for other people, but you can get them for yourself as well.

So, I said I'd try to get at least 2 entries posted before the end of the year; so here is a little show and tell of some things that I got from the Philippines from the last 2 trips. This is not everything, just a smattering, but it's something interesting to share for those of you curious as to what 'cool' souvenirs from the Philippines, can be ;)

There may be future plans to expand on this, but for now, please enjoy this mini show and tell of Pasalubong from the Philippines.

Carved wood items: tiny spoons and caribao (Philippine water buffalo) sitting atop a native fabric purse. I bought these in Intramuros and all of the money goes to a craft cooperative/collective.

Various wooden bracelets, some made from coconut shells. My favorites is the one on the far left of the photo. I got these in Subic, from a vendor on the beach.

Little souvenirs from Bohol. I bought these after visiting the real Tarsiers of Bohol. 

Serving ladles/spoons made from coconut shell and tiny trinkets made of various layered wood. The shell necklaces were given to me free as a welcoming gift at their studio in Cebu.

The 2 beaded bracelets in the back were purchased from the Kultura collection in Cebu and the one in the front was bought at the Cebu airport.

Tablea! Chocolate tablets made from Filipino cacao beans. This roll of tablea was purchased in Tagaytay.

The jar of chocolate was purchased at the Sabel Cafe at the Ben Cab museum in Baguio.

Close up of the 2 kinds of chocolate. You use them to brew an indulgent hot chocolate or can use them to make  Champorado or any other baked good requiring chocolate.

I  bought this jar of  Peter Pinder's Dalandan (a type of Philippine citrus fruit, close to an orange) at the Sabel Cafe at the Ben Cab museum in Baguio.

Peter Pinder is originally from Scotland, but moved to Baguio and started making marmalade with native fruits.

Both of these I bought from the Bagasakan in Villasis, Pangasinan

This is a little cake of  coconut sugar. My Dad tells me that they just eat these like a candy. It has a sweet, but complex taste to it. It may be compared with a cross between a light maple candy and a molassesy brown sugar. It's good. There is a name for this, but I don't want to type it here because it sound too similar to something else ;)

This is one of many different kinds of Bocayo. It's a coconut candy/cluster. This version they scrape the coconut into strings and then cook it down with coconut milk and coconut sugar until it's all caramelized together. This version had sesame seeds on top. This is my favorite kind of Bocayo.

Also purchased from the Bagsakan (fresh fruit and vegetable market) in Villasis, Pangasinan, these are banana chips. They are cut lengthwise and lightly coated with sugar. 

They are very crisp and crunchy. Not too sweet, either. Wonderful for a little merienda or on a road trip.

There is so much to share with you all! I hope that you've enjoyed this installment and I will look forward to posting more about pasalubong in the coming new year.

Wishing you all good health, love and happiness!

Love,
Jessica <3 <3 <3

Jess a Few Reviews: Little Aussie's Bakery Sampler Bread and Cookies Gift Box

New Year is almost here!

I'm back for another post before the brand new year comes. This one is a review of a sampler box of bread and cookies from the Little Aussie's Bakery in San Antonio, Texas. Their specialty is gluten free bakery products (added bonus is that most of their stock is also Vegan as well!) My brother Jonathan was the one who let me know of their promo for this free sampler box (just had to pay the shipping and that was hardly anything). He had told me about this place before, particularly about how scarily close the flavor of their breads were to the genuine full gluten filled and non-vegan products; so when I saw the offer, I jumped on it.

Everything is baked to order; so the goods are usually shipped out the day that they were made and send via Priority ( I choose 2 day priority with USPS). I placed my order on 12/18 and received mine on 12/21, They recommend that you consume, refrigerate or freeze the products on receipt. I had to put mine in the fridge for at least one day; so I'm going off the review of these products based on those conditions.

The sampler box contained: 1 white roll, 1 whole flax roll, 1 cranberry roll, an 8 inch pizza crust, Hungerbuster bars and 1 Anzac cookie. All of these items are gluten free, 100% vegan and without soy, corn or nuts.

Rolls Rice, twice!

White Roll- halved and toasted

White Roll- halved and toasted

White Roll- crunched into

Cranberry Roll- Revived in Oven

Cranberry Roll- letting off some steam

I started off with the white roll, as it is plain and unencumbered with any other flavors to distract on the true flavor of this plain dough. The initial look of the roll is pretty much like most plain rolls, very white and with the faint smell of fermented rice ( a bit like sake or maybe even Pak Tong Koh (a Chinese fermented and steamed rice cake). I used a toaster oven on mark 3, let them toast in 2 pieces for 5 minutes and then checked them out.

Wow. My brother was not wrong. It was amazing. It reminded me of eating a baguette that I had once had in France, many years ago. The texture and chew of it was just awesome and the saltiness and bit of tang came through so nicely. I was impressed, for sure. I would definitely get this bread again.

 I revived this cranberry roll in the oven as a whole at 375F for 5 minutes.The cranberry roll was not my favorite. It was okay, but I didn't get much flavor from the added component of dried cranberries. They even had a touch of stevia and cinnamon in the mix, but I couldn't really taste either of those things. Maybe it would be better if eaten from a full loaf; so I would give this another shot, but only if I could try the whole loaf of it.

The flax roll, is actually still in my freezer right now. I got busy with the holidays and kept at least one treat for 'afters.' (Ohhh, I'm so English, right now ;p I will add that information in later. If I liked the white roll; I'm likely to enjoy the whole flax roll because it's a pure flavor. I imagine that it just tastes a bit nuttier with the addition of the flax.

The upper crust is the bottom crust!

8 inch pizza crust topped with homemade brown lentil hummus, garlicky spinach and carmelized red onions

Showing the thickness

Showing the crumb

The next thing that I tried was the 8 inch crust and since it was the same composition as the white roll; I went ahead and made my own toppings and baked it in a 375F for about 15-20 minutes. The crust was nicely browned, crisp and golden. It had the same wonderful substance as the white roll and went well with the toppings of my homemade lentil hummus, sauteed garlic spinach, caramelized red onions and finished with freshly ground black pepper. I ate it fresh from the oven ( letting it cool for 5 minutes before cutting into it) Lovely and crisp and with a moist center. I even saved a wedge for the next day to see how it stood up. I had planned to reheat it in the toaster oven, but had to use the microwave at the last minute and it amazingly came out just as crisp as from the oven (but ovens are always so much better, right?).


This bar is here to bust your hunger! Anzac, is its backup!

L to R: Hungerbuster bar and Anzac Cookie

Hungerbuster bar, power!

Crunch into a Hungerbuster bar and an Anzac cookie

Anzac treats you well

The Hungerbuster bar has the color of a biscoff cookie, but is much thinner and crisper. It doesn't taste of any spices, but has a milkiness to it from the coconut milk in the batter. It reminds me of a few things, puto seco, uraro cookies. lengua de gato cookies (dry milk cookies). They are very good and they do fill you up. It must be the combination of the coconut milk and whole red flax in them. I would definitely get this bars again.

The Anzac cookie is lovingly hand pressed and reminds me of those Chinese restaurant 'almond cookies,' with their rich flavor and butteriness of the coconute in them. There is a nice sweet savory balance to them that reminds of of the joy of eating dark chocolate with flecks of sea salt. These are winners for sure and if you love Anzac cookies; then I need not say anything more.


I will more than likely be back here to add in a few more details, but for now I hope you've enjoyed this review =)

If after reading this review; you're compelled to try them for yourself and don't live anywhere near San Antonio or an hours vicinity of Little Aussie's Bakery; you can simply click on this link for the sampler. You just need to pay for the shipping.

Little Aussie's Bakery bread and cookie sampler box

Tell them Jessica Ligaya from Oh the Humanitea sent you! They may not know who that is, but it'd just be fun; if you did that ;p

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

Love,

<3 <3 <3 Jessica