Vegetable menus and recipes is where Filipino recipes, dishes and delicacy excels the most. The very common Filipino vegetable recipes I love the most are listed below in no particular order.

Pinakbet
Pinakbet or pakbet is a popular Ilocano dish of the Philippines. Pinakbet is the contracted form of the Ilocano word pinakebbet, meaning “shrunk” or “shriveled”. The basic vegetables used in this dish include native bitter melon, eggplant, tomato, ginger, okra, string beans, lima beans, chili peppers , parda and winged beans. A Tagalog version usually includes calabaza.

Chopsuey
Chopsuey is a very popular vegetable dish. Filipinos have come up with their own individual variation that suits individual taste and the availability of ingredients. There are no exact measurements of ingredients. You could always adjust the ingredients base on what ever available or base on your preference.

Laing (Taro Leaves In Coconut Milk)
Laing is another authentic recipe originated from Bicol region. Bicolanos are one of the greatest cooks or chefs ever, making this dish as one of the most sought after Filipino recipe. The main ingredient of this recipe is dried taro root (dahon ng gabi) cooked with coconut milk and red chili.

Ampalaya Guisado (Sauteed Bitter Gourd)
Ampalaya Guisado is an authentic Filipino vegetable dish made by sauteing bitter gourd in garlic, onion and tomatoes and finished off by topping with beaten egg. It is a healthy recipe or dish that most of the Filipino loves to eat. As we all know, Bitter Gourd or Ampalaya is known to lower sugar levels and thus, good for diabetics. Also effective in treating hypertension, constipation, and the juice is said to be a good blood purifier.

Live healthy and eat healthy! Cook and eat Filipino vegetable recipe. Thanks for reading!

Image Source
Pinakbet:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeysplanting/2092466615/
Chopsuey:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/shedotcomph/319555268/
Laing:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigberto/2509960766/
Ampalaya Guisado:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/noelcabacungan/4606151173/

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The hot chocolate drink I had at Baia Verde bar in Catania, Sicily

This hot chocolate was so creamy, I could just eat it, not drink. It’s so different from the hot choco drink I usually have in a café here, which is almost the same as what my Tassimo can make. But this thick choco drink is a real energy booster to me. I wonder how to make this – perhaps melt a block of chocolate in a pan and add some milk, or is it just cacao powder mixed in a hot milk. I’ll make an experiment.

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A man standing on....?

Really, what was that man doing? And what was that he was standing on? I can’t seem to figure out what it was but in one of my photos I saw a man getting on that thing. I did not see it in my own eyes then but only when I was browsing my pictures.

People admiring the place?

Some were posing for picture taking and some were just looking around. Even on a cold winter day they didn’t mind at all. They must be tourists, too. I was admiring the entire structure and I didn’t mind getting these people in my photos.

Some people outside the Louvre Museum

What's hubby looking at? The people or the museum?

I’m not sure if we can visit The Louvre again but if not, then I will say that was an awesome once in a lifetime experience.

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My five-year old Canon PowerShot G7

The last time I checked for the latest models of Canon PowerShot it was the G12. It looks a little bigger than G7 and I could imagine how it would be in my hands. I have taken good photos with my 10-megapixel Canon PowerShot G7 and the battery is still working great. I must say it’s the best digital camera I’ve ever owned. As you can see, it doesn’t look like the normal handy and compact digicam but it resembles more of the good old film camera. Even so with that look I don’t want to bargain it with the small ones.

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There is no such thing as blue snow but why do I make the snow blue in my pictures? In the world of failed photography I think I succeeded in this. I often get blue snow even if it’s clearly white in reality. I’ve read before that it’s not a good picture of a snow at all. When this failure repeats every now and then I decided to search for answers why it is happening. Fortunately, I found ephotozine‘s website that has an article about why snow appears blue.

Speaking of snow, we had our first real winter of the year past Saturday and the happiest were the children enjoying their ride on the sledges. Finally, this season shows what it’s supposed to show. Though I wish it would be over soon.

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aboard Stena Baltica from Karlskrona to Gdynia

I’ve been on a ship many times since I came here. Sometimes I cross the border with my friends by sea. But the truth is if anything happens, I mean really bad happens aboard a ship, I will be in real disaster of my life because I can’t swim. When I heard the news of that cruise ship gradually sinking I told hubby I wanted to learn to swim. He laughed at my statement and I knew he didn’t believe that I meant it. Swimming for most of us in the Philippines is just for fun while Sweden offers a lesson in swimming in all schools requiring the students to pass.

The other night he asked me if I was really serious about learning to swim. I said it wasn’t a joke. I told him I can swim in a shallow water but when the water gets over my head and my feet are not touching the ground I get panic. I even know how to make myself float (not bad, huh!) but the depth of the water really frightens me. I must say that I’m not a beach persona and so is hubby. We don’t go to the beach when we’re on vacation like normal people do. Hahaa! Instead, we go around the city and inside the malls. I think this is one thing why I am not interested about learning to swim at all.

Helsingör, Denmark is just a swim away from Helsingborg, Sweden

Just so you know, I can’t swim from where I was sitting to cross the neighboring land. Hubby has been looking for a suit and a place where he can teach me how to swim. This time he believes that I did mean it. Though I keep wondering if it’s too late or can I still move my aging body in the water.

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I found new bloggers’ communities lately but I have been skeptical about joining. Some sites seem to be convincing but I don’t particularly like the one that’s offering to query my latest posts for other members to read but my post links are prefixed with their site’s address. It will come out that the post is not from my site but from their own. Ridiculous. There were two sites I discovered having this kind of linking strategy. I’ve become a bit apprenhensive about joining blog communites since I learned about it.

Anyhow, I’m now back to getting active in more communities and recently I joined Fuel My Blog after learning how easy it is to visit other blogs from there. Perhaps you can fuel my blog by voting and giving it a thumbs up, too.

A blog is just out of place if it doesn’t belong to any communities. Through FuelMyBlog, I wish to discover more blogs and bloggers around the world-wide web.

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I suspected it was caused by a bad air passage in the classroom yesterday when it suddenly got sunny outside. I should have opened a window at least. In an hour or so, I could feel the headache but I tried to ignore it. Driving home was so uneasy but glad I made it.

One annoying consequence of a headache is destructing a plan or routine. I had plans for this day but those were left undone. I should have done already my weekend cleaning but even this was kept on hold. Anyhow, tomorrow might be a no-headache day, hopefully. I may not be able to do all my plans but I will be happy if the headache is gone.

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