Health

Why I love tea

Why I love tea

Green tea, herbal tea, white tea… I must admit, drinking tea was never my “cup of tea” as I used to think that the taste didn’t go well with my sweet tooth. I was more of a coffee addict and sometimes I drank 4 cups of coffee a day just because I enjoyed it. Now that I’m more health-conscious, tea has caught my attention — and now I prefer it.

Slip, slop, slap and wrap

SLIP, SLOP, SLAP AND WRAP

Summer’s here and I’m busy as a bee! With family outings to attend, beach trips to plan, kids’ summer activities to sign up and months of slatternly housekeeping to atone for, it’s easy to forget the skin care routine – which is the worse thing one can do with all this heat and sunshine!



If you’re pretty laissez faire with the sunscreen, now’s the time to step it up. UV rays (most potent between 9:00am – 3:00pm, according to www.epa.gov) can cause actinic keratoses (aka skin growths), premature skin aging, sunburn and, at worst, skin cancer. The American Cancer Society recommends a “Slip! Slap! Slop! Wrap!” approach to sun protection: slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat, and wrap on sunglasses to protect the eyes and the sensitive skin around them. We’ve tackled fashionable ways to slip on and cover up; here are some suggestions for those three other steps.

Fresh, Dried, Canned or Frozen

freshdriedcannedfrozen.feat

Everyone knows that with food, fresh is almost always better. That’s in an ideal world, though, where every woman has Nigella’s or Giada’s time and Ina’s resources, or every guy has Emeril’s boundless energy and Bobby’s unseen assistants. In the real world, where everyone (well, almost everyone) works for a living and/or takes care of other people, some shortcuts may be taken. Which ones won’t compromise your food too much?

Falafel on Friday

falafelonfriday.feat

With the onset of Lent, many Catholics continue the tradition of meatless fridays. Fish is the usual standby on these days. But there are many other good sources of protein. Apart from dairy, there are beans, peas and lentils, as well as whole grains, nuts and seeds.

While mung beans may remain the go-to legume in many Pinoy households (and yes, ginisang munggo is one of my comfort foods!), there is a wide variety of other beans worth trying. Take for example the chickpea, or garbanzo bean. As a child, I first got to know these little beige, wrinkly, vaguely rounded beans in callos, that Castillan dish of tripe and tomatoes. Later I rediscovered them in hummus, a tangy dip of garbanzos ground to a fine cream and blended with lemon, sesame paste, and lots of garlic. From there it was just a matter of time before I found falafel, another chickpea concoction originating in the middle east. These fried garbanzo fritters are delicious stuffed into pita bread, along with tomatoes, onions, lettuce and maybe roasted sweet peppers, cucumber slices and perhaps an olive or two.

My previous attempts at home made falafel had only middling success. The tricky part is getting the patty mixture just the right consistency that they would hold together when put into the frying fat. Then I discovered this recipe from Mark Bittman’s now defunct column in the New York Times: instant success and delicious results!

Medical tests every woman should take before 30 (part 1)

MyHealth Clinics

At this age, people might be telling you that you should settle down and invest in something. We recommend that you start off with investing in your health. Your twenties is the best time to start making sure that your body is ready for your future.

Uses wordpress plugins developed by www.wpdevelop.com