Siopao Sauce recipe (naks!)

We bought a pack of cheap siopao at the supermarket last week. By cheap, I meant that the siopao was more like a mantao - puro tinapay. It's like the bola-bola filling was just 1/8 of the whole thing. Parang binobola ka lang na bola-bola siya. (Achiche! Corny!)

Tha pack of 10 also comes with 2 sachets of siopao sauce. Now for somethng that is more bread than meat, ofcourse you need a lot of sauce diba? So I did a quick google and found a recipe for siopao sauce. The recipe called for onions and garlic and star anise. Being the tamad that I am, I decided to skip those and made my own.

Today's blog is about how it was made. Naks!

What you need:
- pork cubes
- water
- sugar
- soy sauce
- worcestershire sauce
- salt and pepper
- sugar
- cornstarch
- Tito Franco as the taster - o diba, we love him that much! :)

How we did it:
1. Dissolved 1 pork cube in 1 cup water.
2. Added 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce.
3. Added salt and pepper to taste.
4. Tito Franco tasted it and complained that it was too salty.
5. Added 1 tbsp sugar. Still salty? Added 1 more tbsp. Salty pa rin? We added 1 cup water and 1 tbsp sugar. At this point, I dunno how much sugar was added. We just keep adding until I felt it was no longer too salty.
6. Once an agreement was made on the taste, we dissolved 1 tsp cornstarch in water. Add to the mixture and stir until thick.
7. Oops! Didn't thicken enough. Dissolved one more tsp cornstarch in some water.

Taste taste taste! Eventually, you'll get the right mix of salty and sweet, as well as the thickness that you're aiming for.

Dad loved it! Ginawang dip instead of sauce! Hahaha.

Not a very helpful recipe no? Treat me to siopao and I'll show you how to do it. Love you 'nak! :)

The *star* is the siopao, ofcourse, and not my sauce. :)

Praying for you

I heard somewhere that as a mother, you find that there are a LOT of things that are beyond your control. This is why you turn to the power of prayer.

I definitely agree to this one. In fact, I think I become more prayerful the more kids I have. Without wanting so sound self-righteous ha, I find myself muttering quick prayers for you guys and daddy, as well as lolo and lola ofcourse. I pray for your safety, well-being, happiness and health.

Do you do that? I hope you make it a habit to throw prayers all the time. Mommy may not be perfect, especially during ny younger years. But you can be sure that even when I get old, I will still pray for you kids.

Love you!

Have I told you about Baby-led weaning?

Definition from wikipedia

Kuya and Ate were both traditionally weaned, meaning their food was mashed, and they were spoonfed to. 

We tried BLW on Miko and I was a bit hesitant at first because we leave you guys with lolo and lola while we are away at work. I worry about the choking risk and how lolo and lola will react in case of an emergency. 

So we tried just doing BLW during the weekends. A facebook support group on BLW that I joined has 2 schools of thought on this. One was that this causes more confusion daw kasi the kid, i.e. Miko, wouldn't know if he is to swallow first (as done in mashed food) or chew first (BLW). One the other hand, some would say better do it during the weekends alone than not do it at all. 

I must say it was so rewarding watching Miko eat! Now we have breakfast together everyday. I eat while he chomps on a piece of bread, or a small tomato, really just anything that you give him. 

I just wanted to share some pictures of Miko eating. Probably because he mostly eats while seated on my lap, he like is more than being on his chair. (We'll get there, Bunso, don't worry.)

Oreos. Okay, not healthy.

Pan de sal. Usually shared with Mama over breakfast.

Tomato tongue. No seeds.

Eggplant from sinigang. Asim!

What are your thought on baby-led weaning? If you let me take care of your kids, will you let me do this approach?

Mommy's Fears

This morning, Lolo was telling a story of how one of their church friends live near the Barangay Hall and yet they got robbed. He said SEVEN men were part of the modus, with 4 acting as lookouts and 3 who did the actual job of forcibly entering the house IN BROAD DAYLIGHT and getting whatever they could, scaring the shit out of the homeowners in the process. Another house was robbed within the same week, but it was said that the homeowner didn't want to open the gate for the robbers. And you know what? He was shot! This, too, happened midday.

Scary! Keep the gate locked okay?

I pray for your protection. That God envelopes all of you in his arms so that no evil can harm you. May God send his angels to always watch over you and protect you.

I love you!

Times when I would rather formula-feed Miko...

**This is a post in progress; meaning, I will update whenever I remember something to add.**

1. When the office AC is busted and it's freezing and I'm not wearing a nursing top so I need to pull up my blouse to expose my chest and express milk. Bonus feature: I need to get my breastmilk pump accessories from the fridge and put the cold flanges on my breasts. Brrrrr....

2. When lola forgot the instructions to feed Miko the milk thawed from the freezer first. It got spoilt tuloy. That was just sad and frustrating.

3. When nature calls but I cannot run to the bathroom because Miko is still feeding. Imagine what I have to go through if I need to #2!!


Times when I love breastfeeding:
1. When I see the cost of formula milk. So shallow! Eh pero totoo eh! I can no longer imagine spending more than Php1000 a week for infant formula. I'll just save that amount for Miko's first birthday no?

2. When I want short sanity breaks from work. The breastfeeding room in our office has become a quick escape from all the stress. (But then again, I sometimes bring my work to the Diana Room. There was one time I had to eat lunch and catch up on email - all while expressing milk!)

3. Whenever I wake up and realize that Miko is already awake and trying to stand by holding the window sill. I expose my breast and call out a short "psst". Miko turns and, upon seeing my boob, will flash this super cute smile and start running crawling towards me to feed. Ah the joys of motherhood. :)

My realizations and affirmations this week

1. My heart can exist outside of my body in the persona of my kids, and I worry a LOT for their safety. [Update: Read about my fears]

2. Tito Franco is already a teenager and I pray he grows up honest and emotionally secure.

3. Love is a verb. To feel love, I must act it first.


Let me tell you about these in detail when I have the time, okay? Love you kids.