Pamilyang Pinoy

Your meal is my mid-morning snack: the appetite of a pregnant breastfeeding mom

I’m in the kitchen, defrosting some laing that my husband froze last month for later consumption. My toddler is napping in the living room. About a month ago, the moment my toddler napped, I…

How to grill vegetables on a contact grill

Take a look at this diagram:

50 little things to thank your spouse for

How often do you thank your spouse? You might be missing out on a lot of opportunities to strengthen your relationship. Expressing gratitude will help your spouse feel appreciated, and it’ll help you see how blessed you are. It’ll also be easy to overlook…

My manual washing machine: a Scrubba wash bag [review]

Recently, my young family has had to “camp” inside relatives’ houses for various reasons. That entailed lugging a lot of clothes around. It made me look into ultralight backpacking (the travel sort, not the backcountry sort) for…

Healthy and quick cooking with an electric contact grill

I learned how to cook only two years ago, after I got married. Joem taught me the basics and then I Googled my way through the rest. But since I worked from home and hadn’t given birth yet at that point, I’d take my sweet time…

Lull your baby to sleep with the sound of rain

Don’t you just feel particularly sleepy on a rainy day? Rain produces sound, but it’s a random and constant one, which makes it mask other sounds that may distract or jar you awake. It’s nature’s lullaby. It’s also a strong temptation for us who…

Pinoy Pesto Sauce [recipe]

I super love basil! I have a bottle of McCormick dried basil in my pantry and I use it on fried eggs, marinades, fried rice, yogurt dressings, etc. But it was only recently that I tried cooking with fresh basil: my baby showed a great liking for Family Mart’s grilled chicken pesto…

Yummy polar bear bento

Mommy Yuri Gahon-Maratas, a Filipina who now lives in Japan, made this polar bear bento for her son, Jayden. Her entire family had sweet curry with tender beef bits, carrots, potatoes, and broccoli one cold winter evening, but Jayden’s plate had special presentation. And oh do we moms…

Why we rarely buy toys for our baby

In How to Teach your Baby to Read, Glenn Doman wrote:

We parents have devised several methods of coping with the curiosity of the very young child and, unfortunately, almost all of them are at the expense of the child’s learning. The first…

Minestrone na hindi [recipe]

We were out most of the time during the Papal Visit, so my menu plan got all messed up. I had to ditch some dishes in the plan and salvage a few ingredients. Thinking quickly, I figured I could just make a halo-halo Minestrone, since I had tomatoes in the fridge. And you can…

Brown rice salad and grilled chicken breast fillet [recipe]

Here’s an easy recipe for those who want yummy, healthy food: brown rice salad and grilled chicken breast fillet.

Brown rice salad

How I became a work-at-home mom (WAHM)

Many moms ask how they can become a work-at-home mom (WAHM). The truth is, there’s no set path; WAHMs from all over the world got into WAHMming in different ways. So, instead of giving prescriptions, I’d simply like to narrate how I became a WAHM myself. Maybe…

First year, first baby… already?

As I type this post, my lovely daughter of almost five months of age sleeps like, errr, a baby! (Just had to say that :P ) I’ve always loved playing with children. And talking to them. And cuddling them. Now, I have my own daughter, and I must say it feels wonderful. Not…

Preggy Health Tips

One of the insights I got from a mini research about moms is that their care for their bodies lessen every pregnancy. Admittedly, I’m a little guilty of that and I think I’m already suffering the consequences — my third pregnancy is my hardest pregnancy ever. Lately, I had a series of bad…

Gift-giving thrift tips

Christmas is my favorite holiday! Aside from the food, I look forward to buying and wrapping gifts for friends the…

5 family activities for the Christmas season

We asked the Pamilyang Pinoy community and our friends about what they do during…

Spend less on baby expenses

I’m more than 23 weeks pregnant with my third child so I’m starting to calculate possible expenses. While doing so, I realized that having two kids at 24 taught me a lot of things, including wa-is moves when it comes to saving bucks from baby expenses. Let me share with you my…

Baking cookies: The most basic tools you need

Baking is one of the most wonderful arts ever invented. Unlike cooking, the measurements are strict and there’s always a challenge to be exact — from the flour which should always be flattened light-handedly by a spatula into a cup, to the…