All-Around Pinay Mama

Chinese Cooking Made Simple with Easy Chinese Recipes by Bee Yinn Low

March 13, 2017

Quick and Easy Sugar Blend Graham Polvoron

October 01, 2016

It is such an honor to be contacted and have a collaboration with Carbon Digital, one of the trusted PR agencies in the country, and Merisant Company, a global leader for table-top sweeteners on the launch of its newest product, Sugar Blend.

Merisant Company manufactures some of the world’s most-loved sweetener brands such as Equal, Canderel, and Pure Via. With Sugar Blend, it is indeed geared towards becoming the leading provider of “Sweetness that is Healthy for consumers.”

Do you know that sugar ranks number five in the top 20 most commonly consumed food products in Filipino households? It is based the 2013 Food Consumption Survey by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of Department of Science and Technology (FNRI-DOST). With this information in mind along with the conscious effort to serve and give more value to consumers, Merisant has come up with a versatile and affordable sweetener product that can bring healthy sweetness to our daily food and drinks, and that is Sugar Blend.

The new Sugar Blend can be used for baking, cooking, and sweetening, but what makes it special is it uses only half the amount and even has half the calories based on serving comparison with the regular sugar. It’s made with sugar and a high-intensity sweetener called sucralose. For one teaspoon only, it can provide sweetness that is equivalent to two teaspoons of sugar. How wonderful!

Sugar Blend can be added in all types of desserts as well as other everyday dishes where sweetness is needed. It also works well with beverages such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate, juices, and other refreshments.

My husband and I only want the best for our family most especially when it comes to preparing delicious and nutritious home-cooked meals. Our kids also prefer sauces and food that are a little sweet. Sometimes we give them treats because we only live once and we don’t want them to be deprived. Afterall, too much of everything is bad. Giving them just the right amount of everything especially sweets and desserts is okay. So know I am going to share a very quick and easy to make Graham Polvoron recipe that my sister-in-law shared to us which family enjoys so much and I hope yours too.

Ingredients

2 cups crushed Graham Crackers

1 cup flour

½ cup Sugar Blend

1 cup melted butter

Add-ons (optional)- dried fruits, nuts, mini marshmallows, mini chocolate candies

Procedure

1. Toast the flour in a pan with continuous stirring until slightly brown.

2. Mix the toasted flour and crushed Graham crackers together. Sift them to make them finer and separate the lumpy portions to crush them further.

3. Add in Sugar Blend and hot melted butter so that sugar can melt easily. Mix the ingredients thoroughly. Let it cool at room temperature.

4. Once the mixture is cold, you may add dried fruits, nuts, mini marshmallows, mini chocolate candies as you wish. Mix thoroughly.

5. Form into candies using Polvoron molder and wrap in cut cellophane or Japanese paper.

In the original recipe, 1 cup of sugar is required to sweeten the Polvoron mix. With Sugar Blend, I only need to put 1/2 cup which means I only use 1/2 the amount of sugar which is also 50% less calories. Great! Now we can enjoy a healthier Graham Polvoron! Awesome!

In the weeks to come, I will share more recipes using Sugar Blend! If you try this, I hope you can give me your feedback by commenting below! Enjoy!

Our Favorite Magnolia Pancake Plus Just Add Water

September 24, 2016

AAPM's Ten Keys to Happiness

September 01, 2016

Our One of a Kind Bento Workshop by Frabelle Foods Corporation

July 21, 2016

Kuya liked our The Maya Kitchen Baking Workshop experience so much that he was looking forward to another mom and kid workshop to be organized by Mommy Bloggers Philippines. A few weeks after, we learned that there would be another, a Bento Workshop by Frabelle Foods Corporation, which Kuya would like to attend because it would be all about food preparation.

I discovered that Kuya would prefer cooking activities so I immediately signed up. An opportunity like this should never be ignored. It was also timely because Kuya was requesting me for the longest time to prepare BENTO (noun: a lacquered or decorated wooden Japanese lunchbox; a Japanese-style packed lunch, consisting of such items as rice, vegetables, and sashimi or raw fish with condiments- Source: Google) lunch and snacks as baon for school. I was already gifted with bento tools by my good blogger friend, Krisna Mesa of Stuffify PH. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I failed to put my heart into creating bento because I had no first hand training to do it. I knew for a fact that there were so many video tutorials in YouTube about bento but due to mom duties, I couldn’t find time watching some to get more ideas.

I am a combination of kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learner. I learn effectively through hands-on activities. Frabelle Bento Workshop was the perfect venue for me to do it.

It turned out to be fun and exciting because Kuya and I learned once more with our mommy blogger friends and their kids.

My sincerest thanks to Frabelle Foods Corporation Marketing Team, including Chef Donne, for the well-prepared and organized workshop. There was never a dull moment.

The bento design ideas that we learned looked so difficult to do but they weren’t. They were quick and easy to do and #SadyangPinasarap. Let me share the ingredients and steps so that you could do them too in the comforts of your home. Take note that all the veggies except lettuce were boiled/blanched/steamed while the Frabelle products were either fried or steamed. We used uncooked spaghetti noodles to bind ham flowers.

Captain’s Catch Cheezy Tuna Nuggets Seascape Bento Box

Ingredients

Captain’s Catch Cheezy Tuna Nuggets

Frabelle Foods Sweet Ham

apple

lettuce

carrots

broccoli

cheese

fried egg

fried rice

Procedure

1. Using a butterfly cutter, cut out butterfly-shaped cheese and Frabelle Foods Sweet Ham.

2. Stick the cheese and ham on the Captain’s Catch Cheezy Tuna Nuggets.

3. Arrange the apple, lettuce, rice, egg, and Frabelle Foods Sweet Ham in the lunch box.

4. Using a fish-shaped cutter, cut out fish-shaped carrots. Lay the “fish carrots” on top of the egg.

5. Finish the bento by laying the Captain’s Catch Cheexy Tuna Nuggets on top of the lettuce.

Frabelle Bossing Burger Lady Bug in Paradise Bento Box

Ingredients

Frabelle Foods Bossing Burger

Frabelle Foods Bossing Sweet Ham

pandesal

cheese

grapes

orange

carrots

broccoli

fried egg

lettuce

nori paper or black sesame seeds

Procedure

1. Using a knife, slice the pandesal at the center but leave an inch uncut.

2. Add lettuce and Bossing Burger patty.

3. Add cheese for the arms and carrots for the head of the lady bug before putting the sliced pandesal on top.

4. For the eyes, cut out cheese using a straw and add sesame seeds or cut nori wrapper.

5. Cut out Bossing Sweet Ham using the round end of an icing tip and put on top of the pandesal.

6. In the bento box, place the nori wrapper, lettuce, grapes, and burger.

7. For the final touch, try to add rolled Bossing Sweet ham, egg, and orange.

Frabelle Yummy! Jumbo Hotdogs Piggy in a Bun Bento Box

Ingredients

Frabelle Foods Yummy! Jumbo Hotdogs

Frabelle Foods Bossing Sweet Ham

buns

scrambled eggs

black sesame seeds

slices of orange

broccoli

nori wrapper

watermelon

slice of cheese

mixed vegetables

Procedure

1. Cut the end of the hotdog to about 1 inch.

2. Cut the sliced hotdog diagonally to about the size of the bun.

3. Form the cheese using the raindrop food cutter.

4. Position the cut cheese to resemble ears and paste it using mayonnaise on the first cut hotdog. For the eyes, cut the nori wrapper into small circles. Make an oblong shape from the cheese and add two black sesame seeds or nori wrapper to resemble a pig’s nose.

5. Use uncooked spaghetti noodle to position the head to the diagonally sliced body. Put inside a bun with lettuce.

6. Use Bossing Sweet Ham, scrambled egg, fruits and mixed veggies to liven up your bento.

Frabelle Foods Seaglow Baymax Bento Box

Ingredients

Frabelle Seaglow Squid Ball

Frabelle Seaglow Orlian

Frabelle Bossing Sweet Ham

lettuce

omelet

nori wrapper

apple slices

orange slices

steamed rice

Procedure

1. Start with Baymax’s head. Using Frabelle Squid Ball, place two small nori wrapper circles and connect them with a thin line cut from nori. Brush the squid ball with mayonnaise or oil to make nori cut-outs stick, if necessary.

2. To make Baymax’s body, put steamed rice in a plastic wrapper and form it into a ball.

3. Place the shaped Steamed Rice below Baymax’s head.

4. Place the scrambles egg on the steamed rice. Of course, don’t forget Baymax’s shoulders and arms! Shape another set of Steamed Rice for these.

5. Place punched small stars from nori wrapper on the omelet blanket. You may decorate Baymax’s Sleeping Bento with orange and apple slices and Frabelle Seaglow Orlian.

Not just the fruitful learning experience that made an impact on the kids but the thoughtfulness of Richprime Global, exclusive distributor of Barbie, Hot Wheels, and Qixels in the Philippines. Miss Paula Apostol of Richprime Global Marketing Department, surprised our kids with toys! Kuya was fortunate to be given an opportunity to choose after answering Miss Paula's question correctly.

Frabelle also made sure that we would bring home a bagful of delicious goodies that we could use in our bento preparation at home.

Our brains were filled with bento knowledge and happy memories while our tummies were filled with scrumptious lunch prepared by Frabelle using its own products.

We were treated like VIPs. We were fetched and dropped off to a designated area by Frabelle and this was the opportunity for mommies to chat while kids play.

After posting some photos of this workshop on Instagram, some of you were asking me when would be the next bento workshop? I will keep you posted, promise!

Some photos that I used above were taken and owned by my super favorite food blogger, Joy Gurtiza of Joybites. More photos of our Frabelle Bento Workshop experience were posted on this LINK.