Fancied de Lata: Sinigang na Corned Beef

Half of my working life I guess I bring packed lunch for me to save money and at the same time monitor what I eat.  Half of the time too, my officemates are curious about the dish or to them "experiment" I'm bringing like this Sinigang na Corned Beef which is a sour soup with corned beef and potatoes.  I thought that this is a common dish but it turns out it's unheard by many and is just starting to show in the menus of the restaurant (but they use real corned beef instead).

Sinigang is one of my favorite food be it with fish or pork or beef.  I just love how it makes me salivate by just sniffing at it.  The broth has lot of variation but the original I guess is the tamarind.  Aside from the meat, it also has lots of vegetables on it which makes me a little bit of a healthy eater.  There are times that I just crave for it but meat and vegetables are not always available in our fridge and I'm so glad that our family knows this instant dish.

Sinigang na Corned Beef

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 medium sized tomatoes, diced
1 big potato, diced
a can of 210grams corned beef, use those with long strands (I use purefoods')
half liter of water (or a little bit more, I'm just eyeballing it)
1 green chili (siling haba) for a nice bitterness and mild spicyness
sinigang or tamarind mix, optional
salt and pepper to taste

How to:
1.  Heat the oil and saute onion followed by garlic.
2.  Add in the tomatoes and saute until tender and almost mushy.  Add the potatoes and cooked until almost tender.
3.  Add the corned beef and cooked for around 5 minutes.
4. Add the water and let it simmer.
5. Add the green chili, it's up to you if you'll cut it for a spicy sinigang.
6.  If the tomatoes is not sour enough, add sinigang or tamarind mix then season with salt and pepper.
7.  Simmer again for around 3 to 5 minutes.
8.  Done, best served with rice!

Easy, right?

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Remove your Face

I'm just seeing pictures wherein people seem to have a different face when they remove their makeup.  Well, it's a matter of preference and it just so happen that I do not have the skill to transform my face and opted to have a simple almost naked face make-up but everyone (who uses make-up) should remove it and let the skin breathe and currently, these are the items that I'm using.

By the way for the month of July I guess I'll be doing a group product post to eliminate my backlogs.  I will mention the essentials but with less details like packaging, where I bought it, how much etc.  etc.

It's Skin Rice Firming Cleansing Milk got my attention because it's dermatologist tested  and well it's on sale when I bought it.  I was looking for a mild cleanser that I can use in the morning and when I'm halfway through it did I know that I'm using it wrong.  It's best to massage this cleansing milk on a dry face because it will turn into something oily and almost work like cleansing oil only this one can't remove tough makeup like the ones that are waterproof.  Then dampen your hands and massage again your skin to emulsify the cleansing milk then rinse.  I like how this makes my skin soft and doesn't leave it thirsty.

Before I'm amazed with cleansing oil, I was first awed with Bifesta Cleansing Lotion that I got two variants:  the Brightup and the Moist.  Pour some on a cotton pad then swipe it all over your face to remove makeup and dirt, amazing how you don't need water to use it.  BUT it has flaws:  one swipe is not enough to remove makeup even the simple ones...at least three to make sure everything is removed which is for me a waste of cotton pads, it stings the eyes and you need to use a lot to make it work.  I also use this before as a toner but they seem (especially the moist) to be a bit sticky so I stop.  These flaws makes me appreciate cleansing oil big time!  Bifesta Cleansing Lotion is handy though when you are practicing in your makeup skill (just a cotton pad and this can erase the minor errors) and when travelling and water is not available or if you are just afraid to use water for I don't know reason :P

And lastly, this little guy who looks like a mochi or rice cake (puto).  I got this Konjac Sponge in Landmark for like a $1 to replace my Olay cleansing brush in my everyday face cleansing routine.  It's mild and it lightly scrub my face to remove the dirt off my face, lessening the appearance of whiteheads and blackheads.  And if you use foam cleanser, this helps in making more foams so no need to use extra amount of cleanser to enjoy the divine happiness of thick small bubbles/foam on your skin.  Cheap and reliable tool!

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June 2014: Super Late, What is Happening?

Time have moved on, but it seems like I'm in a new world with the old confused me...so everything now is a blur especially last week.  How weird that I've been planning a month before June as to the direction of this blog (it's this blog's anniversary, 2nd to be exact) and now I don't know how to fit it in my life...hopefully I'll be regularly blogging soon though for the my sanity, it's a free space where I can express my thoughts on things that doesn't really matter but is still part of my everyday life.

So hello, treat this like an update???  Like for example the things that I've used up and thrown for a couple of months (there are still a lot more since I moved to a new place, but I didn't managed to capture our parting moment), as you can see below, it's a handful and while they are into a space in my old quarters I wonder why I collect/kept them and decided that this will be my last empties/throw post except when I used up products all at the same time.  If you follow this blog (thank you so much) then you might be familiar with most of the products so I'll just talk about the things that I haven't reviewed like the Happy Bath Facial Yogurt, Charlie White and Essence Brow something (sorry, forgot the name).

I got the Happy Bath Facial Yogurt as a freebie so I don't know much about it but it's like a very affordable drugstore basic facial wash (like ponds) that produce a decent amount of foam that luckily does remove basic makeup aside from the everyday dirt our face accumulated and the only complaint I have about it is the smell oh and the big opening of the packaging (that's two hehehe).  Next is a perfume that was given to me a decade ago (yes you read that right, 10 years ago) and it's only now that I emptied it, it's the Charlie White which is under Loreal (I hope I'm not mistaken) which was given to me when I was still in high school.  The smell is like "I just came out of the shower, I'm clean and fresh" with a hint of something flowery (I hope I nailed the smell explanation).  And the last one is the brow pallette (?) from Essence which I didn't use much because it just smudges right away and disappear or maybe I'm not just using it right and I'm just lucky to have a sister who has a slight obsession with eyebrows that she adopted it instead of me throwing it in the trash (and sing "It's not about the money, money, money").

It's also already been awhile since I shared the book/s that I'm reading...there's no other reason but me being lazy, feeling like a sloth just wanting to sleep or make friends with pillows.  But for the past months I'm just reading some classics/basic:  Sherlock Holmes and The Little Prince.  I already read the volume 1 of Sherlock Holmes last year and I'm amazed, on the second volume though I find myself being bored since some of the stories are just the same but if you like solving, crimes and the like then you should definitely read some Sherlock Holmes' stories/novels.

The Little Prince is something that I encountered when I was in grade 3 but didn't managed to finish it since I have to return the book to the school and unfortunately I do not have the means to buy myself a copy and up to now I do not have a copy of the book and just borrowed it from my sister.  Anyway, The Little Prince is something that have different meanings depending on what situation, age, scenario, feeling the reader has.  To others this might just be like a children's book, I thought it's a fascinating children story when I was still in grade school but reading it again now that I'm all grown-up gives a deeper meaning...it makes me think twice about my life...am I on the right track? or I'm just totally wasting my time on things that just burdens my life and makes me unhappy?...am I looking/searching for the right things? ---realization like that :)

"The men where you live," said the little price,"raise five thousand roses in the same garden-and they do not find in it what they are looking for."

And lastly my June 2014 playlist but aside from what is included below, I'm also loving Twilight Galaxy of Metric (I'm quoting some of the lyrics below because it hits me) and Macy Gray's rendition of Creep by Radiohead:

And that's it for June 2014!

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