Do you want to start your year healthy & something different? If you're thinking of going VEGAN for health reasons, here's what you should know about vegan diets that is now trending to help people to lose weight. For starters, a vegan diet may help you maintain a healthy heart and also another thing this diet may offer some protection against type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.

And yes, choosing the right brand of food rich in certain nutrients is more important. Such as in meal preparation it will take a daunting task year on year. But have no fear, there's always a room for NEW FOOD DISCOVERIES and HACKS.

Foodies and homemakers alike are always on the lookout for something different, yet easy to prepare and definitely, palate and tummy pleasers. A great break from having delivered meals! Make part of your New Year’s resolution to try out these new, life-easing products in the market by San Miguel Foods. 

Go Veega. For vegans, try familiar comforts such as Veega’s meat-free Tapa and Tocino, which are fully cooked and completely free of animal meat and by-products. For flexitarians, there are Korean-inspired faves such as Meat-free and ready-to-eat Bulgogi and Spicy Soy Garlic Balls. You’ll never miss out on flavor with these meat-free wonders.  

Breakfast thy will be done.  Rethink about skipping breakfast with perfect breakfast mates, Purefoods Deli Breakfast Sausage and Purefoods Beef Bacon. They are so good, you”ll truly want more. And beyond breakfast, these delicious products can also be served in a lot of ways.

Create “chicken’’ na chicken meals. Make meal preparation a breeze in 2022 with freshly marinated and ready-to-cook Chicken Timplados. Prepping meals can be done in minutes with any of these easy chicken sarap variants- Magnolia Ready-to-Cook Fried Chicken, BBQ, Tocino, Teriyaki, Spicy Fried Chicken, Oriental Wings, Spicy Wings, Inasal and Roasters (marinated whole chicken) in Lemon Herb and Smoked Pepper. The menu will never be boring with the selection of variants cooked as is or leveled up with some twists.

Develop a Pasta-stic Habit. Have pasta anytime with Purefoods Spaghetti Sauce. Just reheat and toss in cooked noodles or level up with addition of some ingredients. Either way, you’ll get consistent, satisfying pasta sauce each time.

Make meal preparation and dining with the family an enjoyable food adventure, even allowing enough me time in-between with these new discoveries.

Also, check out www.homefoodie.com for recipe ideas with these products!

A yearly family gathering takes place every Christmas holidays. No matter how big or small your Christmas reunion is, no festive feast is complete without food that will take your holiday to the next level.

There are two traditional feasts that Filipino families often look forward to during Christmastime: the Christmas Eve Noche Buena and the one that follows on the 25th itself, which is often held as part of a festive family reunion. Either way, expect those in charge of preparing the dishes to pull out all the stops to serve the most delectable food on the table for everyone to enjoy. 

And if that happens to be you, chances are high that you already have some recipes in mind to make each of these feasts a gastronomic delight to remember. They might even be all-time family favorites, or even hand-me-downs from your great-great grandparents. Having said that, it certainly wouldn’t hurt to learn a few more recipes just to keep things fresh and put something different on the table for Christmas. Two that are guaranteed to make you look like Master Chef are Meatballs in Black Truffle Sauce and Three-Cheese Truffle Macaroni and Cheese.

Ingredients

• 2 slices white bread crusts removed, broken into pieces

• scant 2/3 cup whole milk

• 2 1/4 cups finely minced ground beef (or a mixture of meats, such as pork, chicken or turkey)

• 1/2 cup meat pâté

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Plain all-purpose flour, for dusting

• Olive oil for frying

FOR THE BLACK TRUFFLE SAUCE

• 1 tablespoon + 2 tsp butter

• A drizzle of olive oil

• 1 bunch spring onions scallions, finely chopped

• 1 carrot finely chopped

• 1 heaped cup button or oyster mushrooms finely chopped

• 3 1/2 tablespoon plain all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup white wine

• 2 cups beef chicken or vegetable stock

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary

• 1/2 cup double heavy cream

• 1/2 teaspoon Umbria Black Truffle Sauce

Instructions

1. Place the bread in a bowl and pour over the milk. Set aside to soak.

2. In a separate bowl, mix together the meat and the pâté. Add the soaked bread and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Mix until smooth and well combined. Form meatballs by rolling walnut-sized pieces of the mixture between your hands. They should be about 1oz each. Dust the meatballs in flour.

3. Heat some oil in a shallow pan over a medium-high heat and fry the meatballs just until they are golden. Do not overcook at this stage as we are going to finish them in the sauce. Set aside.

4. To make the sauce, heat the butter and olive oil in a pan over a medium-low heat and add the finely chopped spring onions, carrot and mushrooms. Cook for about 10 minutes, until the onion is transparent. Reduce the temperature to low and add the flour to the pan, stirring with a wooden spoon to make a roux. Cook for about 4 minutes and then add the wine, continuing to stir until you get a paste and the alcohol has evaporated, then add the stock with the salt and rosemary. Keep stirring and cooking until the sauce thickens, then add the cream, stirring so that the mixture doesn’t split or curdle. Add the meatballs to the sauce and cook for a further 5 minutes.

5. Put Umbria Black Truffle Sauce into the sauce, mix and fold and serve hot.

Three-Cheese Truffle Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter, divided

1 cup mushroom (75 g), sliced

1 pinch salt

1 pinch pepper

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk (240 mL)

1 cup shredded parmesan cheese (110 g)

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (100 g)

2 cups shell pasta (400 g), cooked

TOPPINGS

½ teaspoon Umbria truffle oil

1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped

Preparation

1. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the mushrooms, salt, and pepper and cook until the mushrooms are softened. Remove from the pot.

2. Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and the flour to the pot. Whisk until the flour is toasted, approximately 2 minutes.

3. Add the milk while whisking continuously to avoid lumps. Cook until the sauce is thickened.

4. Whisk in the Parmesan and cheddar cheeses and season with salt and pepper.

5. Add the cooked pasta and mushrooms. Mix until the sauce coats the pasta well.

6. Top with Umbria truffle oil, fold and add chives.

Of course, it’s understandable that you’d stop at nothing to make these year’s Christmas celebrations as grand as possible. After all, last year’s Holidays were mostly muted due to the pandemic. Now, the scourge that is COVID-19 is still here, but the country is showing signs of recovery and the quarantine restrictions are easing as a result.

However, that doesn’t mean you and your family should be letting your guard down. Rather, continue to be vigilant even as you think of ways to gather everyone this Christmastime—ideally, sharing some sumptuous Meatballs in Umbria Black Truffle Sauce and servings of mouthwatering Three-Cheese Umbria White Truffle Macaroni and Cheese.

Merry Christmas!

Wow, I can't believe it, we're less than a month away from Christmas 🎅. Holiday season here in the Philippines starts with BER months and as usual people are very busy by this month, but for the past year and this year is different because of the pandemic. Well, it doesn't mean we should celebrate these festive occasions without a proper feast.

Lately, I found myself taking a break from cooking. I don't know, I just got tired doing kitchen duties. My mother turns 79 years old, and she was my idol in cooking. She also got tired and I told here, why not we start ordering online for our food. There's no shame in ordering online, it's now the normal way of living, right? ☺️ So, we list different home owned local food store who render their service in a different food dishes for the holidays:

BILAO NI LOLA DAVAO 

This Bilao ni Lola is a medium size Bilao with pancit canton guisado and cordon bleu. They have many Bilao food options available, as well as Food Tray Package.

HOW TO ORDER: This Bilao Medium Size with Pancit Guisado and Cordon Bleu (P799) plus delivery fee will depend on your location.  Just send a message on their Facebook Page.

KAKANIN IN A BOX

Why Kakanin is so famous in the Philippines?  Because these delicacies remind us of simple life. It's comforting to eat, especially with coffee, softdrinks, etc. And its a constant presence during celebration and special occasions.

HOW TO ORDER: At KAKANIN IN A BOX, they added Lumpia and Empanadas aside from Puto Cheese and Palitaw (P499). For delivery fee, depends on your location. Visit KAKANIN IN A BOX Facebook Page or call the numbers posted in my video.

‼️WATCH VIDEO‼️

GINA'S GIFT - EMPANADAS & KAKANIN

Gina's Gift - Empanada & Kakanin is famous of their empanada. But I order their famous "Choosy Bilao", because I got to read the reviews that they serve delicious kakanin too!

Choose your own kakanin in 1 Bilao (you need to select 4 kakanin they offer):

1. Kutsinta
2. Puto Flan
3. Puto Cheese
4. Yema Palitaw (A must try!)
5. Plain Palitaw 
6. Cassava Cake (highly recommended)
7. Pichi Pichi
8. Biko
9. Sapin Sapin

That's it for now, maybe I have to make Part 2 of this post, to give you more ideas, or you can message me if you want help promoting your food store (for free), just share your dishes and who knows what the rest of the community will say about your food.

There are things that we can't control even if our city is on Level 3 GCQ category now. Though some restaurants are open and ready to serve dine-in, people are still hesitant to go out of their houses. So why not make your own restaurant at home with SUNPRIDE FOOD.

Yes, you've heard it right! Sunpride Food Inc., a fully integrated meat processor with operations covering slaughtering and preparation, all the way to the production of fresh frozen pork, frozen processed meats, canned products and mixes.

Last October 27, I've attended a zoom meeting called, COOK WITH PRIDE, HOME COOKING WITH SUNPRIDE with the renowned Celebrity Chef Myke "Tatung" Sarthou organized by Sunpride. The event began with Chef Tatung show stopper recipes,  #sunpridefood CORNER BEEF wrap in Turks, followed with #sunpridefood BACON and #sunpridefood LONGGANISA, HAM & BACON ala fiesta carbonara.

It's an online cooking demo, part of Sunpride's 50th year anniversary celebration.

Watch Online Cooking Demo HERE

Easy to cook plus it's healthy and budget-friendly recipe. I'm sure you will love this recipes prepared for us by Chef Tatung and Sunpride.

You can also prepare this for Noche Buena and New Year!

SUNPRIDE Corner Beef Turks

Shrimp, Chicken Breast, and Mushroom wrap in SUNPRIDE Bacon

SUNPRIDE Longganisa, Ham & Bacon la Fiesta Carbonara This simple, practical, and doable recipes touted as Sunpride's anniversary culinary creations in line with the company's vision and mission of giving Filipinos delectable yet affordable meal ideas for the whole family to love and appreciate. Let's create a restaurant dining experience in our own home using SUNPRIDE FOODS. Again, Happy 50th year anniversary and Daghang Salamat Sunpride Foods, Inc.

Do you know that there's a place where breads are baked in a different way? And I really appreciate how cute and artsy the area is. The Bread Shack located at the City Hall Drive, Davao City, a new place where you can feed your senses with lots of sweet vibe all year round.

Now that Christmas is fast approaching and thinking for "pasalubong" for your family and friends, this bread is a feast for the eyes indeed. The smell of fresh baked breads will surely make you crave for more, especially their delectable bread itself is a treat for the rumbling tummies! The place is also nice to hang out, but due to pandemic certain protocols are followed.

I just passed by on their new location, as I have an appointment at Sanggunian Panglungsod and decided to go inside to check what kind of bread they offer in the market that people keep on coming back. BTW,  I learned about the Bread Shack through social media in their old location at the Pryce Business Park, Bajada branch.

Now, a few minutes walk away from our home and I can reach my destination in no time. The Bread Shack itself is a pop-up bake house where they serve all kinds of fluffy bread, the like of Fluff Cheese and Fluff Ube-Cheese, these two are always on the top list of their bestsellers.

I order their P299 with 12 Fluff Classic Assorted Rolls plus added their famous Classic Kopi Bun for take out. And because I also love to eat their Fluff Mango Roll, so I ate it while I'm waiting for my take out.

Photo credit to BREAD SHACK

I was entertained by how consistent the interiors, from the color preference which is yellow and orange, it is very inviting from the outside to the inside, they also have a friendly staffs that answer your queries.

Just before I went out, looking around the whole place, I can sense that this bread cafe will last longer, because the location was great and very accessible. It has a great parking space also and very near to offices and residential spaces.

They also serve Kopi Bun and milk tea. I haven't tried their milk tea, but it was nice to have some refreshments after. I bought some bread for take out and it was so good. I'm not a fan of breads, because of my GERD, but I can't resist to taste it all, from the smell I know that this fluff bread taste very good, the density and tenderness, it was perfectly baked!

It's worth to visit, because like what I mention before, it is near to our house and it's in the heart of the city downtown. Overall, about their Fluff bread, it's super yummy for me. I super love their Fluff Mango Roll, it's like a mango float in a bread and also their Durian Roll.

That's it! I'm going to post my TikTok video here, to sum up my Bread Shack experience. Hope you enjoy this feature post I have for this month of September. Comment below if you have questions and I would love to read all your thoughts about BREAD SHACK.