Muni Market Day x Katha Upcycled Craft Workshop

So last last Sunday June 1st, Jen Horn and the rest of the Muni team organized an awesome event called Muni Market Day. It's a community event for conscious consumption and mindful living.

Muni asked us to have an upcycling craft workshop at The Grove Rockwell. Geli and I taught the participants how to make bags and bracelets out of old shirts (posted the tutorial here on my blog). I am sharing with you photos of our workshop!

Photos by Geli Balcruz of Katha Magazine :)

The girls of Katha Magazine :)

Our craft kits are ready!

There's Rea, Mae-Ann and Patrick. He loved the batman shirt.

Van and April - two awesome ladies who came all the way from Cavite!

 The end product. Good job guys!

 Here are our lovely bracelets.

Outside were tents where you can shop, dine, and listen to live music.

And there's Jusa, KKK Coffee, Edgy Veggy, Lotus Pod and many more. 

Too bad I wasn't able to see all the pop-up shops because I had to leave early. I really wanted to buy healthy food! Anyway, that is all for now. I am looking forward to having another craft workshop with Muni next time!! :)

At the Lettuce Farm

I will continue my story on what we did during our vacation in Tagaytay. There's a lettuce farm right across the flower farm and we were welcomed inside as Toti knew the owner. All I saw was green. Green everywhere. It smelled fresh and everything looked nutritious!

The farm grows nine types of lettuce. Nine types? I only know Iceberg and Romaine. Anyway, here's a photo of cute baby lettuce leaves. 

I know kale is not widely available in the Philippines. I've been reading about it in the internet but I just couldn't find it at the supermarket, not even at the palengke. But lo and behold! They have fresh kale in this farm. My sister picked a lot. As in a lot. As if we were on a shopping spree.

It's not only lettuce that they grow. They also have herbs like rosemary, and other vegetables like cherry tomatoes. The owner gave us a pot of rosemary, how generous of him! And oh, I really love the smell of fresh rosemary leaves. 

If there's a cat at the flower farm, there's a dog at the lettuce farm. Don't worry, he doesn't bite.

We were so blessed to have been able to bring home fresh herbs and vegetables. It was like a sign that I should eat healthy this 2014! So from that day up until now, the lettuce in our salad is from this farm. It's been what, 10 days? And we're not yet short of supply. Haha. Of course we shared some to our family friends. 

And so that ends our trip to Tagaytay. Yay! I'm looking forward to more adventures this year.

Baked Stuffed Tomatoes

I am posting another healthy stuffed recipe that I prepared last night for my next day's lunch. It's so much easier to prepare my office lunch the night before. Saves me a lot of time in the morning. Last weekend I found these big tomatoes in the supermarket and thought of making vegetable stuffed tomatoes. Here is how:

(I modified the recipe from tasteofhome)

Ingredients:

- 2 medium tomatoes

- 1/2 small carrot

- 1/2 celery stalk

- 1/2 small onion

- 1 small garlic clove

- 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano (I may have added more)

- 2 teaspoons olive oil

- 1 tablespoon vegetable stock

- 1/3 cup bread crumbs

- 2 tablespoons (or more?) feta cheese cubes. I used Apetina.

- I included and pitted the olives that were part of the feta cheese pack

- 1 teaspoons dried basil

Preheat the oven at 350F. Slice off the top of the tomatoes, scoop out the pulp and set aside. You will use that for the stuffing. Place the tomatoes upside down on paper towels to drain.

Dice the onions, carrots, celery, tomato pulp, and garlic. Or if you have a food processor, you may use that to save time.

Saute the vegetable mixture and oregano in olive oil. Add wine or broth and simmer for a couple of minutes. Remove it from the heat, add the breadcrumbs and the feta cheese cubes. Mix mix mix.

Stuff the tomatoes with the mixture and top them with another batch of feta cheese. Sprinkle dried basil leaves. Place the tomatoes on a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.

Tada! It's 182 calories a tomato. Maybe you can drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I haven't tried it though. One tomato is enough to fill me for a whole meal. 

Please try them and let me know what you think. Maybe you can modify the recipe as well.

Healthy Stuffed Peppers

It has been a whole month of me eating healthy and heading to the gym and I have been doing great! I will be sharing a dish that has been my recent favorite: Stuffed Peppers. 

Again, I'm not a chef and I don't cook for the family. It's just that recently I enjoyed preparing healthy food for myself because I know and I am sure of what the ingredients are and how the food is done.

Here are the ingredients that I used for my stuffed peppers:

- 3 bell peppers (as you can see in the photo I only have two big peppers and one small pepper)

- 1 cup of ground turkey or beef. (for a healthier option, I used tuna)

- 2 cups of cooked rice

- 2 small tomatoes, diced

- 2 celery stalk and leaves included, chopped

- 2 cloves of garlic

- 1 onion, diced

- Grated cheese

- Salsa

- Dried herbs, salt, pepper

But you may also add these ingredients:

- Corn kernels

- Chilli powder

- Mexican beans

- Roasted pine nuts

First you need to slice the top portion of the pepper. Remove the seeds and the insides of the pepper. Instead of discarding, you may mince the top portion of the pepper and use it for the stuffing.

Next you need to cook the garlic and onions with the meat. In a large bowl, mix the rice, the cooked meat and the rest of the chopped vegetables. The stuffing that you place inside the emptied bell peppers looks like this. To me it looks like you can already eat this without the pepper.

After stuffing them in the peppers, top with a spoonful of salsa and sprinkle grated cheese on top. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes. I didn't want my peppers too soft. I prefer them to be a little bit raw and crunchy. When it's done, you can sprinkle more grated cheese if you want to. Let the peppers cool a bit, take photos of your food, and eat.

They're so bright and colorful and super healthy!

You see, when I was making these stuffed peppers I wasn't following any recipe. I just thought of the ingredients that would go well together and I didn't even think if the proportions I used were correct. These peppers that I made were not perfect, but they were good enough that my sisters ate them and finished them and they were full after the meal.

So to save you from any cooking disaster, you can follow the recipes from the links below:
http://womansday.ninemsn.com.au/food/everydayrecipes/1033833/mexican-rice-stuffed-capsicums
http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Mexican-Style-Stuffed-Peppers