Tag Archives: food shopping

PMS craving and CNY plans

Posted on by
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After visiting Quezon City Circle this afternoon to buy more flowers, I suddenly craved for spicy Korean chicken. But the parking area at Jjangkke was full so I had to go to the Korean mart near my apartment to satisfy my craving for something spicy without having to cook.

So instead I got myself spicy fish cakes and spicy egg rolls. Bought the girls gimbap and hopang. I then cooked tonkatsu ramen from my stash of Japanese groceries.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My PMS is fueling my cravings. I have to have that spicy chicken tomorrow. 🌶️

While we were at Yong Korean Mart, Twin I and I checked out new items in their shelves and saw this:

Peach oolong. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I’ll try this Peach oolong next month after I get clearance from my doctor that I can take caffeinated drinks. My sleep hours are still messy and I had a horrible headache this lunch that I had to sleep it off.

Next week will be slow so the following days would be devoted to making the front of my house pretty. I can probably go to Dapitan for some garden accessories.

I have no idea what we will do this year while still under Alert level 3 (and unvaccinated children are still not allowed anywhere). For Chinese new year in 2020, we went to Rizal to visit Angono, Morong, and Tanay. Last year, we went to Binangonan to watch a beautiful sunset.

For this year perhaps we’ll just drive somewhere in Rizal, like Daranak Falls? The girls went spelunking and kayaking to reach the caves in their dad’s province last Christmas so hiking to the falls will not be a big deal.

I need to get out!

Habit

Posted on by
Well, I was able to lie on my back on one of the benches before the guards came to shoo us away. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Something is really wrong with my sleeping pattern. So on weekdays it’s rare that I get to sleep before 12 am. But during the weekend my body compensates by making me sleep almost the entire day for two days. I wasn’t able to do anything. Sleep deficit really sabotages my plans for the weekend.

I really must instill good sleeping habits for myself or else I will crash. The problem is my mind is very active at night; it simply refuses to lie low.

Anyway, because I promised my girls we will be biking today, I pulled my butt out of my bed despite the protests staged by every cell of my body. We went out at 4:20 pm… Which was still hot.

I finally was able to convince Twin A to bike with us. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
It’s just us. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
We later proceeded to Enriquez vegetable shop. Those in my bags are veggies and fruits good for 3-4 days. After which I need to shop again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And as I promised Twin I, we would be grilling steak tonight. To celebrate what? I don’t know. Our family. The three of us and the cats. I just regret that I cannot provide them with a good male role model whom they can look up to.

I used the Korean portable stove because it was very late and we’re starving. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Well, not bad. There’s less smokiness though, compared to using charcoal. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I was forced to use the portable stove because we got home at past 6:30 pm and I no longer had the strength to start a fire and grill using charcoal. It turned out fine but the smokiness is less as expected but this is much faster.

I think I will add this to my Lazada cart by next week or so. I almost ruined the burner of the current one I’m using. Good thing after cleaning and much cajoling on my part, the Korean burner finally worked. But I won’t tempt fate again so I’ll use a proper gas-fired griller. I can also bring this when we go camping.

Another week. Another battle ahead.

Weekends are for chores

Posted on by

If you’re a solo parent, weekends are made for chores and the thousand and one things that you should have done during the week but you were too busy to even have lunch on time.

Hotpot. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So I finally got a few moments to cook and was able to do hotpot with beef strips, fish cake, fish tofu, and the last of the veggies in my fridge. It was so good; I missed having hotpot on weekends.

I went back to my old way of shopping for groceries. When we were in the old house, I used to do a fortnightly big shop at Hi-Top because it takes me at least an hour to finish shopping and it’s so tedious to keep doing this every weekend. Then I just top up in between by shopping for fresh produce at the wet market nearby so I just took the tricycle.

But since we moved to this apartment, I did my shopping weekly because two supermarkets are just walking distance from me. Plus I was feeding an army. Now that J is no longer here, I don’t need to shop for 10 boxes of milk, at least 2 dozens of eggs, etc every week. So now I just started doing one big shop every two weeks and just supplement it by buying fresh veggies from the vendors near UP every week. I want to have a chest freezer so I can stock up on a lot of meat and fish and cut down my trip to the supermarket or meat shop. The small size of my freezer is the reason why I always need to shop frequently. However, my apartment is small and I don’t know where I could fit a 4 cu ft of chest freezer or even a 3 cu ft one.

I realized that my grocery bill is cheaper at Puregold compared to Save More and Robinsons for the same amount of stuff I buy in all three supermarkets. They also carry more brands. The parking area, however, is very limited that I have to go shopping during odd hours.

After shopping tonight, I had the bike of one of my girls fixed because daughter A had her wheel punctured by a nail when they were biking at grandma’s.

At the vulcanizing shop. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Since it’s already GCQ, I think I can bring the girls (this time only one girl since the twin is still at grandma’s) to bike around. We need more exercise and time away from screens.

My other children are back to their obnoxious selves. Their square shaved parts (where they had their surgery) are still hairless, though.

My kittykats. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Shopping in the time of COVID-19

Posted on by
Because of social distancing, there is a long queue before you can even get inside the supermarket. Photo taken from outside Save More. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com

Grocery shopping for me is an undesirable chore. Moreso with this pandemic. It’s torture. As much as possible I try to minimize the time spent grocery shopping. Pre-COVID-19, I allot an hour for grocery shopping. But now…🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ll be lucky if I only stay in line to enter the supermarket for 30 mins, an hour to get what my household needs, and another 30 mins to queue up for the cashier.

The long line to the supermarket that I must endure every week. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com

I used to shop at Hi-Top Aurora Blvd in Project 4 because 1) there are so many choices there; 2) they have items on sale every week; 3) they have Monterey meat section; and 4) grocery items are cheaper compared to bigger chains. But because of the pandemic, the lines are now unbearably long there. I am forced to stick to the big chains like Save More which do not give me choices that much and grocery items are more expensive.

This is what my grocery cart looked like in Hi-Top:

This can last us for two weeks and I only had to do a top-up shop the following week for perishables like vegetables and eggs. This was taken before the lockdown at Hi-Top. This photo is owned by callmecreation.com

But because my grocery shopping has gotten more expensive as I now do shopping closer to home, my cart now looks like this:

Let’s not forget the uncomfortable masks. Good thing that the masks I made are breathable and snug but my other masks that were bought from tiangges and street vendors are so thick that I may end up with carbon dioxide poisoning.

Now that the Monterey Community Market is open in my village, I can do now my weekly shopping for food in the nearby mini mart, vegetables at the vegetable stand infront of it if I’m not able to go to UPD (the fruit and vegetable stand in the old tennis court) then meat at Monterey. This way I can avoid the long lines at the bigger supermarket chains.

Grocery shopping these days requires more strategizing. Tedious. I want my weekends back.