where the moon shines

Summer’s here and it is super hot! You get off the shower, and as soon as you towel off, you feel the heat starting to settle on you starting from the top of your head. It is when it gets this hot that I wish I was in the mid-shift – like an 11am-8pm shift or something. If that’s the case I’d be in a big cold room when the sun is at its hottest, and I wouldn’t have to suffer sleeping while getting soaked in my sweat. 

But no matter how hot it’s getting, I don’t want to complain too much. After all, in other parts of the country, people are not just sweating profusely but are also losing their livelihood. The El Niño phenomenon has caused drought in farms all over the Philippines. Billions of pesos worth of crops have gone to waste. On the news now, they’re saying that some seas are contaminated by red tide  

So I guess I’ll just go drink up to keep myself cool and hydrated. Nothing like a tall glass of ice-cold water to keep me smiling in this hot weather. Found this article saying that, in a way, drinking ice-cold water helps burn calories. So although you can’t rely on just drinking ice-cold water to lose weight, it does help burn calories because your body has to work to raise the temperature of the ice-cold water you drank as it enters your body. I guess that’s what other fat burners do right? They introduce something into your body so it works overtime to burn calories. 

Pero, when it’s this hot, masarap kumain ng ice cream: 

@the creamery, MOA, Alfonso's bday

I bet Coca Cola sales is also on the rise these days: 

Sulputan din ang tindahan ng halo-halo: 

Ikaw, what do you do to cool off?

We had out Valentine’s Dinner at Chop House. It’s at the 4th floor of Trinoma, where the Al fresco restaurants are.  We weren’t planning on a V-Day date, so this isn’t really one. That day, we went to Trinoma specifically to buy barong and slacks for the boyfriend. He needs those for a friend’s wedding on Saturday (and I have nothing to wear for that!). It was a successful trip, but it was almost dinnertime when we finished up.

Our first choice for a meal was Cafe Breton, but we weren’t used to having crepes for dinner so we decided to just have milk shakes and then move on.

Can you guess which one’s mine and his?

So we walked around just enough for the boyfriend to finish a stick of cigarette and then settled on having steaks at Chop House. We hadn’t been there before so this was going to be interesting. But then again, aren’t all steaks just the same?

I have to admit though, I liked their steaks a little better because they were tasty even without the sauce. We both chose the Hickory Smoke sauce, but there were a few more choices being offered (gravy included), and this was served on the side instead of being poured over the steak already.  I had mashed potatoes with mine, while Alfred had garlic rice. The dishes already come with the buttered corn and carrots that one expects with this kind of meal.

First to be served though, were the drinks. Draft beer for him, house blend iced tea for me (the glass was huge!).

Next up is probably what I loved most in the entire meal, their house bread:

I loved their bread so much I had to have an extra order! They’ll give you three pieces on the house, with herbed butter, and you can order two more for only twelve pesos. These were really good, very soft inside. The herbed butter wasn’t that special but the bread’s really yummy.

Then there’s the main course (we didn’t have soup or salad anymore, no dessert either).

This is the US Prime Beef Bistro Steak that Alfred ordered, medium rare. I didn’t think it was enough for him, but having a tall glass of milkshake before dinner kept him full. I like my steaks well done, but this was so yummy I didn’t even mind that it wasn’t cooked the way I liked!

This is my plate of US Prime Beef Minute Steak. Thumbs up! Very tasty and cooked just right. I hardly even used the sauce because it was that tasty. The mashed potatoes were creamy too. Perfect combination. I told the boyfriend that next time we could just share a plate of this (one order of steak) and then just share another plate of either salad or pasta. That way we wouldn’t be eating too much. Haha.

The venture into this restaurant was a success, I don’t regret it. Would we go back? I would, but not so sure about the boyfriend. I guess if he was given a choice between Chop House or Steaktown, he’d still choose the latter. I would too, if we were talking about value for money. Still, Chop House isn’t so bad.

And because it was Valentine’s Day, Trinoma was giving away freebies for people eating in their Al fresco restaurants. So happy to have received mine:

Okay, so I know that maybe some of you are thinking: isn’t Vera supposed to be trying to lose weight? What business has she eating this much?! Haha. I know right? Don’t worry I don’t eat this much all the time. I am seriously going to have as much balanced meals as I could, and figure out how to add mobility to my day too. I really think that for me, the key isn’t cutting off too much of the food, but needing to move more (sayang, we can’t use the stairs in the office anymore). That’s probably the key not just to losing weight, but getting clearer skin too. As they say, eating right and regular exercise can be the best acne treatment right?

If you don’t hangout at The Loop at ABS-CBN, you probably haven’t heard of this burger shop. Griddle Box opened its first kiosk at The Loop sometime last year but I only got to taste their yummy burgers last week. You see, I’m back to eating lunch at work and then some meryenda or early lunch before going home, all because there are my SMEs as dining companions. I slipped in the bathroom last week and I was telling everyone that I think it was because my balance is off due to weight gain since the new year started. All because I’ve been hanging out with Carlo so much!

After logging off our work stations, we head down to The Loop to grab a bite. Twice last week, it was this yummy burger and his friend for the feast:

They feature stuffed burger patties. This one, if I remember correctly, is the bestselling Cordon Bleu. There are bits of ham and cheese inside the patty. My favorite so far? Double Cheese. The patty itself oozes with mozzarella and one other kind of cheese.

I’d told Alfred about Griddle Box and he had mentioned that he wanted to taste it too. He was a bit disappointed though when he finally had his share yesterday, it was apparently too small for him. It was yummy, he admits, but too small for his big appetite. You know what else he says? He’s not much into quality, but quantity. Haha. That was because he was very hungry coming from work. When we got home, he heated some leftovers and had a second lunch! At the rate we both are eating, we would probably need to take hgh releasers to aid in weight loss and improve physical performance. We all now how slovenly people become after eating too much…

If you find yourself in the area though, I still would highly recommend a Griddlebox burger.

Since the boyfriend left NCO I haven’t been eating at The Loop as often as I used to. Okay, it’s also a lot because of my work schedule.  Last week though, I had an old favorite – Traditional Chicken Sandwich from the New Bistro Deli of Country Style (you might remember the yummy photo/s I posted here back in May).

I had company, Carlo our VTL   As he was recently introduced to my blogging world, he knew that the photos I was taking then would end up posted on my blog. We had the exact same thing by the way, trad chicken sammies with their new Strawberry something drink. Lol. Here’s the nice staff preparing our sammiches:

Hmm, let’s take a closer look shall we?

I love that there’s a lot of chicken in there!

And what do you know, they’d changed the design of their paper cups (and I noticed only after looking at the old photo):

It was a nice and filling lunch. I can have chicken sandwiches like this for lunch everyday. Really.

Okay, I have a confession to make.

This post isn’t really about the sammies. Nah-uh.

I just wanted to say that these were photos I took using my new mobile – an LG Renoir. It has an 8mp camera with Schneider-Kreuznach optics, auto/manual focus, and xenon flash. That’s what sold it to me, over the Nokia E72 that I was originally going to purchase. It connects to Wifi too. I am loving it!

Buying it over the weekend is actually what prompted my thoughts on living simply.

Seeing The Pioneer Woman’s cookbook, and always hanging out at her blog, makes me think that maybe it’s about time I learned how to cook.

See, I don’t cook. But she really makes me want to.

If someone gets me her cookbook, I swear I will make all of the recipes in it at least once. Promise.

I’ve already done her cinnamon rolls more than once and that turned out awesome.

But first thing’s first, someone get me that cookbook!

Checkout this wonderful sorta review by Bakerella on the wonderful awesome cookbook.

Click on the photo below:

Also, visit thePioneerwoman.com, checkout all the sumptuous recipes she’s already shared there!