Home Hacks Design

Home Hacks Design for the bathroom such as Simple Hacks To A Prettier Bathroom. Similarly, this also feature Toilet Shopping Tips.

Another Home Hacks Design are for kitchen like Cleaning Tips For Your Dirty Kitchen and cleaning products that is perfect for cleaning.

Kitchen Hacks You Wish You Should Have Known Before like the other great use of paper towels.

Creating an effective cleaning schedule; divide it into categories; daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly.

Cleaning schedule that you also need to consider are those that is done every 4 months such as air conditioner cleaning, pest control, and deep cleaning of windows.

Cleaning of roof and rain gutter are done every year. Cleaning/draining of the septic tank should be done every 3 years or 5 years.

Cost of home make over and DIY for cheaper make over ideas.

Bedroom decorations ideas and where to buy the cheapest bed lines.

Kitchen make over ideas and DIYs for cheaper make over ideas.

Tropical living room themed and where to buy cheap tropical plants.

Home make over ideas in the Philippines. Home interior ideas in the Philippines

Mommy Blog with home hacks topic in the Philippines.

Where to buy cheap wood furniture in the Philippines.

Price of Aluminum Screen Door in the Philippines. Price of the brown aluminum and silver aluminum.

Furniture stores in the Philippines. Abad Santos furniture store address.

Uratex foam custom cut online. Uratex foam price online.

When Sore Throat Strikes..

Anything but sore throat.

And colds.. but really, sore throat is my least favorite illness. I can’t eat, I can’t speak and I can’t even drink! Paano ako gagaling when I’m having a hard time taking meds? It’s not easy, lalo pa siguro with people who uses their voice on their profession.

Well, I had the opportunity to know how people using their voice battles sore throat. I got the chance to interview someone who uses her voice in her chosen field. Meet teacher Rosalie Lazaro Evangelista:

Teacher Evangelista, as she is fondly called by her students, has been teaching for 12 years at a private school in Pasig City. She experienced teaching all grade levels, her first advisory class was Grade 1 and last school year, she was the adviser of Grade 3 class.

Her typical teaching days starts with a prayer. After praying, which she leads most of the time, comes the attendance. She would call the students one by one for the attendance. Homework checking comes next and then motivation activities for the kids. Usually, teacher Evangelista sings with the kids, sometimes, they play games. After motivating the kids, she starts with the lesson of the day. Every time they change subject, she would motivate the kids again then start with the new lesson.

Teacher Evangelista is inside the classroom from 7 AM to 3 PM with an hour break for lunch and meryenda. And she’s talking/ using her voice 80% of the time. She said she really loves teaching. She feels proud when her students show they understand the lesson for the day. Of course there is something that she does not like with being a teacher. Well, aside from students quarreling inside the classroom, getting a sore throat is what she hates the most.

The worst situation she had to deal with is getting a sore throat twice in a month! And though there are remedies for sore throat, it becomes a hindrance on her profession. Explaining a simple theory becomes more challenging when she have sore throat. It makes her feel uncomfortable too and she feels inadequate to teach because of it. Whenever Teacher Evangelista’s suffers from sore throat, she wants to brush and gargle salt and water more often to improve her throat. She can’t do that in front of the students. She has to take a break more often and she really doesn’t lie doing it as she feels she’s giving less to the students.

I asked her if she tried other remedies for sore throat or if she hear about Kamillosan. She said, she haven’t tried it but she knows about the product. Their pedia prescribed it to her kids when they were suffering from sore throat. She thought, the product was for kids only that’s why she never considered using it. Now that she knows Kamillosan is not just for kids, she’s more than willing to try it.

Teacher Evangelista knows that Kamillosan is safe because it was prescribed by their pedia. She knows that Kamillosan is effective because her kids have tried it already. She’s going to use Kamillosan because it’s the most convenient remedy for sore throat.

Kamillosan has clinically proven anti- inflammatory and antibacterial ingredients to effectively reduce symptoms caused by all stages of sore throat, pharyngitis, and tonsillitis. It alleviates irritation, supports wound healing and exerts an antiseptic as well as deodorizing effect.

Kamillosan main ingredients is chamomile, one of the medicinal herbs famous for its healing for many centuries in Europe. Chamomile has been declared as a medicinal plant of the year 1987 in Germany.

Why Do Filipinos Cook Ginisang Monggo Every Friday

It’s as if I was programmed to cook Ginisang Monggo every Friday. I just can’t think of any dish to prepare on the said day. Not only that, it needs to be paired with paksiw na isda or else..

Is it just me? I heard it’s a common thing. In fact, the carinderia where my husband eats also serves ginisang monggo every Friday. It’s a mystery! Why do Filipinos cook ginisang monggo every Friday?

Before I share with you my Ginisang Monggo recipe, let’s try to deduct the reason why..

–>Some readings suggest that the tradition of cooking ginisang monggo every Friday is due to the Lenten Season. You have to sacrifice something and eating meat is one, that’s why, instead of cooking meat on Friday, Filipinos prepare ginisang monggo.

BUT WHY MONGGO? There are so many vegetables out there!

–>Another reading suggest that the time of grocery may be the answer. Filipinos, back in the old days, do their market trips on weekends, specially Sunday. If you have noticed it, most palengke have their “Palengke Day” every Sunday. And since they do their shopping on Sundays, by Friday, the only produce that is not spoiled is dried monggo.

Putting them together makes sense! Pero paano naman ang hindi katoliko?!?

Maybe, another reason is, when Friday comes, there is little money left from the pay check. Monggo’s really cheap so that’s the best option when you’re running low in cash.

Here’s another theory from Pinoy Exchange:

–>Spanish priests taught the Filipinos to eat monggo every Friday so they wouldn’t buy meat. Meat can be pricey during that times (?) and if they don’t buy meat, they have more money to give to the church.

PERO BAKIT MONGGO?

Let’s settle with the answer: it’s really cheap. If you have 50 pesos, you can cook ginisang monggo and feed 10 people.

Moving on, here’s my simple Ginisang Monggo Recipe:

Ingredients:

15 PhP pack monggo
3-5 pcs shrimp
2 medium size tomatoes
Garlic 2-3 cloves, minced
1 medium size onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon patis
1 teaspoon salt
ampalaya leaves or malungay leaves

How to cook:

Precooked the monggo, 4 cups water, boil for about 20 minutes or until the monggo is soft
Saute garlic, onion and tomato.
Add patis and then shrimp.
Add monggo and mix and let it stand for about 5 minutes (just make sure the fire is set to low)
Add 2 cups of water and let it boils then add the leaves.
Cook for another 3 minutes and serve Paksiw na Isda and steaming rice.

Paksiw na Isda Sa Kamias Recipe

Some people call this pinangat, some paksiw. Some uses vinegar, some tomatoes, some green mangoes (my fave!) and some uses kamyas. That’s what I used in my paksiw earlier, hence the title of the recipe.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo fish (my fave is salay ginto but it’s too small, try alumahan or matangbaka)
8-10 pcs kamyas
1/4 cup sliced luya
1 big onion
2 siling green
1 teaspoon salt

How to cook paksiw na isda sa kamias:

Slightly crush the kamias.
Put half the kamias, onion, luya on a casserole
Insert half kamias and some luya on the fish then put it on the caserole.
Put the remaining ingredients on top of the fish
Put on high fire for about 5 minutes then add 1/2 cup of water.
Let it boil for 3 minutes and serve with Ginisang Monggo and rice!

You may noticed that my photo included fried pork. It’s supposed to be Crispy Liempo or Lechong Kawali but I left it on the stove for long..hence the dark color. Once I perfected my Lechon Kawali, I will share with you my recipe. For now, enjoy the monggo!

My Kidney Stones Passing Experience (Kidney Stones Tried and Tested Home Remedy)

I underwent Shockwave treatment for my kidney stones way back 2012 (read my shockwave experience here). Last December 2013, I felt the same pain on my lower abdomen and this time, it’s on the left. January 2014, I tried treating it using cogon water (it’s the juice you got from boiling cogon grass). I think I only got to drink half liter of the juice. By March, I can feel the stones went down on my ureter. It was the most uncomfortable situation I had to endure. I need to be over hydrated because if I’m dry, I can feel the stones scratching my ureter wall. But over hydration means frequent urination. I had to wear a diaper during our La Union trip (spell hassle!).

When the kids was hospitalized (May last year), I finally had the courage to consult a urologist. Nasa ospital na ako eh, ano pa bang ipag aarte ko? I was asked to undergo some tests (by some, I mean 5 tests), ironically or luckily, as soon as I am done with the check up my stones passed. It was painful but relieving. I saw crushed stones on the toilet bowl, about 5 pieces, all black. I took it and well, uh, it was hard as stones.

All along, I thought my kidney is back to normal. I never bothered consulting again to check if my kidney is cleared with stones.. I should have!

Last March, I suffered from UTI and a week after that, my left kidney is in pain.. it’s different this time. During my first 2 stones encounter, it was my lower abdomen but this time it was the kidney. The kind of pain is bothering, it feels like there’s some weight on my left kidney (if your’re experiencing the same, have your kidneys checked). I am ready for another round of waves this time, after Recognition, I said I’ll schedule a check up.

During that time, Erica mentioned I should drink Cranberry for my kidney.. coincidentally, I got an invite for Old Orchard Cranberry Juice Bloggers Lunch.. talk about right timing. Sabi ko sa inyo, my OCD is obsessed with alignment and right timing.

So I bought an Old Orchard Cranberry juice and also tried the lemon water remedy (for weight loss! haha). Here’s what I did:

Drink hot lemon water in the morning (before anything else). I usually squeeze half lemon to a cup of hot water.
The other half, squeeze in 2 Liters of water which will be your water for the whole day.
Drink 1 glass cranberry juice (usually I drink this during lunch)

And four days after, my kidney stones passed! OMG!!!! It was very shocking!

That’s me (obviously) sharing my shocking cranberry experience during the lunch.

Fly Ace Corporation, exclusive distributor of Old Orchard, pioneers the Love Your Kidney Campaign. It aims to build awareness to the importance and benefits of drinking cranberry juice. May I stress, once again, how cranberry juice helped in the passing of my kidney stones. If you’re still not convinced, here’s 10 Things You Need To Know About Cranberries:

Here’s the photo of my stones:

It is softer than the stones I had last year (though it’s bigger), it’s not even painful. For those asking, during my first passing, I took the stones straight from the bowl (eh ang linis naman ng bowl sa Medical City no.. promise hindi nakakadiri at saka nag safeguard naman ako after), for this one, I knew right away that it’s time. I peed on a container and not on the bowl.

For those of you wondering if they have kidney stones, better consult a urologist now. It pays to know the health status of your kidney. Also start on drinking cranberry juice as it can do wonders to your kidney. And don’t forget to drink at least 8 glasses of water!

More Old Orchard Bloggers Lunch Photos: