Livin' La Vida Donya

Ditch the can. Control the sodium.  If you have the option to make fresh dishes, opt for that. That's not to say I don't love canned goods. I do! Especially Spam and corned beef (Go ahead! Judge me!). But when you get into the other canned goods like soup, chilli, mushrooms, beans, etc..... I'd rather the fresh counterpart. Oh! And, when the pandemic hit, we went on a shopping extraction of canned goods in the event of a zombie apocalypse. I've seen waaaaayyy to many movies for my imagination to go haywire. While everyone was panicking for toilet paper, we went straight for Spam (and chips and chocolate).  One of my husband's shopping items when I was on a soft-food diet (because of my surgery), was soup. And he bought a lot of soup! Broccoli and cheddar, clam chowder (I made a version of this too, you can find the recipe here -  Clam Chowder ), and cream of mushroom soup. Yeah, they were convenient at the time. But what concerned me the most was the amount of addit...

 At one point over a weekend, this was all I could think of. I personally thank the English for this. What a yummmmmmy treat. For some reason, I woke up one day instantly craving for this. Yes, specifically this. So the next grocery run, I went straight for the dates. The first time I tasted this was more than a decade ago. It was my birthday and my aunt (Tita Maritess) made me the most amazing sticky toffee pudding. I honestly wanted more than one slice but I was just too full having just had steak for dinner. It was sweet, velvety, nutty, and just sooo comforting to eat. I think I was able to take home half the cake and I devoured it in 2 days. Of course, the sugar crashing came with it.  In North America, "puddings" usually refer to a creamy and semi-liquid dessert enhanced by either dairy or gelatine. So safe to say, this did not originate from there. The English once again blessed us with this wonderful dessert. I seriously think I was supposed to be born European . It...

I made these as "lunchables" for the week. It never even reached the next day.  I remember when I used to study and work in the Philippines and I'd end up nursing a Starbucks drink  (while using up their wifi for free), I'd always order their sausage rolls. It was that or the lemon poppy seed loaf slice. Starbucks opened in the Philippines year 1997, I was a wee bit young then. And honestly, all I really knew about the brand was their "mocha frappucino" because everyone was ordering it. I didn't really order anything else because in reality, I was intimated with their menu and didn't want to sound like an idiot with all the pretentious "coffee aficionados" around me. Really now... did they really appreciate true coffee if they went to Starbucks? In any case, I was happy with that Frap. But even happier when they widened their menu and showcased it in their display cases. That's when I saw these sausage rolls. I was immediately d...