Come on! Come on! Camaron! :)

It has been just me, Mark, Chlo, and mommy Lizelle at home for the past few months. So a few days ago, we had a couple of veggie dishes for left overs. I looked in the fridge and I saw a bag of shrimp. I though of how I wanted to prepare those shrimp to pair with our left over veggies and the first thing that popped in my mind was camaron rebusado. Yum! :)

I am allergic to shrimp. But it was just so good that I still have to eat it and just endure the itching-all-over drama later on. Eventually over the years, the itching doesn't quite bother me as much as it used to so yay for me! :) And in those rare times that it does, I just eat something sweet or drink a glass of milk and they do wonders! 

I got this recipe from Panlasang Pinoy, which is one of my go-to sites in times my husband and I, have no clue on what we want for dinner. Or even in those times I'm craving for a certain Filipino dish that I can't find a decent version here in Daygo. I love how he explains everything in the procedure and how easy it is to follow his recipes. And every recipe has a video of the cooking procedure; perfect for those who are learning the ropes in the kitchen like me. :)

So here's the recipe of Camaron Rebusado from Panlasang Pinoy. Enjoy! 

Ingredients:

• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 piece lemon
• 8 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 pieces raw eggs 
• 1 tbsp fresh milk
• cooking oil for deep frying

Procedure: 

Marinate the shrimp in lemon juice for at least 30 minutes.

Combine flour, cornstarch and salt in a mixing bowl then mix them well. Add the eggs and milk with the dry ingredients and mix until well combined.

Heat the oil in a pan. In my case, I used my mom-in-law's fry daddy. Once the oil is hot enough, dip the shrimp in the batter, leaving the tail uncovered. 

Deep-fry shrimp until the color turns dark yellow and the texture becomes crispy. 

Wooooohoooo! Fry Daddy! Haha! 

Remove from the oil and place on a plate with a paper towel to remove excess oil. Serve them with sweet and sour sauce. I used sweet chili Thai sauce. Yum! :)

Yum!

- C ♥

Red ☆ White ☆ Blue

Been a little MIA here the past few days and I thought what a better way to blog again than to post photos of Chloe in her cutie 4th of July outfit! :)

It's her second 4th of July celebration and on that day she also turned 14 months. Oh how time flies! It's amazing how everyday she blows me away with the things she know and does. At the end of the day, as I watch her sleep and come to think of it, I still can't believe that I have a toddler. A toddler! A very beautiful and smart one! I am very thankful to God for being blessed with a daughter like Chloe. 

We celebrated the 4th at home as all the beaches and the parks are very crowded. Plus I just can't stand the heat and humidity; just a few minutes under the fiercest rays of the sun and I'm crippled with a terrible migraine! That day we had the usual grill-roasted steak and grilled corn that is so fresh and unbelievably delicious! I've always had steamed corn my whole life! So my very first bite of grilled corn was exquisitely delightful! It was sooooooo good! 

I took Chlo outside to take pictures with my mini USA flag that I got from the Oath Taking Ceremony. There, we met our new neighbors Gabby and her son, Eli, who just moved from L.A. Eli is such a darling! 

It's Saturday night, just a couple more hours before midnight and it's so hard to believe that it's 79°F high! So before I faint in this heat, here goes my Chlo's 4th of July photo diary. 

Happy 4th, folks! 

- C ♥

Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

Sometimes you just need a little Italian food in your life. Just like this spinach lasagna roll ups i found online. I am, no doubt, a pasta lover. And of all my Pinterest finds, so far this is my favorite! 

I love traditional lasagna. My most favorite lasagna recipe to date is my Ninang Tess' recipe. This recipe though, is quite different but undeniably just as good! The spinach filling, with all those cheesy goodness, also gives it a fresh and delicious change. 

I first gave this a try on Chloe's 8th month birthday dinner. Everyone loved it, even my husband who's not really a fan of pasta. And recently I made this for Marie Lou's pool party and thought of sharing this on my blog. :)

What I love most about this, aside from how cute they look, is the idea of rolling it up. It is simply genius!  Lasagna in a single-serving-form! No more messy square lasagna layers! :)

I found this recipe from budgetbites.com. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 pound lasagna noodles

1 package (15 oz.) ricotta

1 cup shredded mozzarella

1/4 cup grated parmesan

1 whole egg

10 ounce frozen spinach

2 1/2 cup marinara sauce

1 dash salt and pepper

1 drop non-stick cooking spray

Directions

Bring a large pot of water with a dash of salt to a full boil. Add the lasagna noodles and cook until al dente (soft but not soggy... about 12-15 minutes). When they are finished cooking, drain in a colander.

While the noodles are boiling, thaw the package of frozen spinach in the microwave and then squeeze out as much excess liquid as possible.

Combine the spinach in a bowl with the ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan, egg, freshly grated pepper and about 1/4 tsp of salt. Mix until well combined.

When the noodles and filling are ready to go, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the tray by spraying with non-stick spray.

On a clean surface, lay out a few noodles at a time. Place a few tablespoons of spinach filling on each pasta noodle and spread to cover from edge to edge. The filling does not need to be thick because once the noodle is rolled up, it will be compounded. 

Roll the noodles up and place in the prepared casserole dish. Repeat until all of your filling is gone (there may be some noodles left over, these are "back ups" in case any of the others rip during assembly).

Pour the marinara sauce over the rolled noodles and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. The sauce will keep the noodles hydrated and soft while baking.

Cover the dish in foil and bake for 30 minutes. Serve hot or divide into individual portions and refrigerate.

I made 17 lasagna roll ups from this recipe :)

Yum! 

- C ♥

Mongolian Beef Lo Mein

Most of the recipes I'll be posting here will be my very own "Julie and Julia" take on recipes I saw online, or my mom's/mom-in-law's recipes, recipes from friends, or just some random craving. 

So here's a recipe that I saw on Pinterest from momsdish.com. The way she illustrated the cooking procedure with her photos made it so easy for me to follow the instructions (and know that I'm doing it just right). 

Natalya, the blogger, called this recipe Beef Lo Mein. But I think it deserves a better name because as per Natalya, the taste is absolutely, ridiculously the bomb! This recipe had me at that.  Absolutely, ridiculously the bomb! Hahaha! :)

The sauce for the steak was basically the makings of a mongolian beef recipe, thus, I'm giving it that name. I followed the cooking procedure meticulously except that I had to replace the beef better than bullion with hoisin sauce because that's what I had at the time. It still tasted good. Bomb good! *wink!

I prepared this dish for Chlo's 11th month birthday with a tray of cheesy-bacon potato bites on the side. Yum! Mark's ship went underway that week so Chlo's Godmom, Marie Lou, came over to celebrate with us. 

And so, here goes...

Ingredients:

8 ounces Thin Spaghetti, broken in half

1 teaspoon Sesame Oil

1/4 cups Boiled Water

1 Hoisin Sauce (or Beef better than Bullion)

3 tablespoon Soy Sauce

2 tablespoon Brown Sugar

Oil for frying

1 pound Beef

2 cups Broccoli

1 large Onion

4 garlic cloves

Procedure:

Cook spaghetti per box instructions. Into cooked spaghetti add sesame oil and stir well to combine. 

Into hot, boiled water add hoisin sauce and brown sugar; stir to dissolve. Into the mixture, add soy sauce and set aside. 

 Using a hot skillet, brown both sides of the beef. Let beef cool and slice it into two inch pieces.

Add sliced beef into the same skillet, fry until completely cooked. Into the cooked beef, add sauce mixture, cook all together for about a minute, set aside.

Using the skillet, where you've cooked beef, sauté onions until golden brown. Remove from the heat. 

In a separate oiled skillet, sautee carrots until softened, add broccoli and cook for about three minutes. Press garlic into the same mixture and remove form the heat.

In a large dish, combine spaghetti, vegetables and beef, together. Toss to combine, serve hot.

Cheesy-bacon potato bites 

- C ♥

Chlo's First Birthday - A Bumble Bee Birthday Party

How the Party Came to Bee?

A few months before Chlo's big day, I have been on the look out for inspirations for a theme on her first birthday party. I remembered, one day when we went to a park, how she looked exceptionally pretty and cute and oh so cuddly, surrounded with the luscious green landscape and bright yellow flowers. Her birthday falls early Spring and she looks good in yellow. That's when it came to me. A Spring Bumble Bee Party is just perfect! I couldn't hide my excitement once the theme was decided that whenever I talk to someone at home, I'd just blab out all about the ideas that came up to my head! 

I was never a fan of extremely formal parties, especially for a baby's first birthday party, and with our Spring Bumble Bee theme, Mark and I decided on the venue to be in a park. My mom-in-law was on top of the food, and Gizelle (my sister-in-law) and I were in charge of the look and decors of the venue. :)

Most of my inspirations were from Pinterest and Etsy. For Chloe's invites, I fell in love with BluGrass Designs' Bumble Bee Custom invitation. :)

Custom Bumble Bee invitation by BluGrass Designs

My little bumble bee! <3

 Chloe just woke up from a five-minute nap on our way to the gazebo. But still a cutie in her personalized bumble bee tutu outfit!

Party Look, DIY Decorations & Favors

Yes. Most of the decorations and the favors for the party are DIY. Sometimes, I'm crafty like that. :) 

Gizelle was in Santa Barbara the whole time we were planning so the brainstorming was a little challenging but we  managed. :) But I also got help from Gizelle's friends, Maritza and Anh, and Chlo's god parents, Marie Lou and Bryan. 

We wanted to keep the look of the party light and bright, so for the colors we chose yellow, white, and green. 

For the table centerpieces, I found mason jars from the dollar store. I've always wanted to have a set of mason jars because they're very versatile (I got myself 15 that day). I tied a green ribbon around the neck and made tons of pinwheels to go in it. I also found free bumble bee printables in Pinterest so the birthday tags and labels are all set. Here's the link to the bumble bee label set

 

Mason jars, yellow tin pails, DIY pinwheels.

I've always love tulle pompoms and was surprised of how easy it is to make them. For the party, I made a tulle pompom garland to hang over the dessert table but for some reason, and maybe over the craziness of preparing on that day, I forgot to bring the box where I kept them =l  Thus, no photo of the garland in the venue. (No photo of the finished garland at all!) But here's the link to my post in IG when was in the middle of making them: Tulle pompom garland

For the favors, I didn't want to settle on the usual loot bags with candies and random little toys. In my search for the perfect party favor, I came across a photo in Pinterest with yellow tin pails as the party favors. So I looked and looked everywhere to find an inexpensive tin pail (instead of $3 a piece from Target/Party City) and guess where I found them?? The Dollar Store! Yay! The ones I got from there didn't have a handle so I just bought a couple of rolls of curling ribbons and voila! I got pretty yellow tin pails! :) I filled them with a toy magnifying glass, a bumblebee pencil, water paint, bubbles, a mini rubix cube, two or three little more toys that I forgot what they're called, chocolates, and a scented beeswax candle in a covered tin can for the adult guests. I also got yellow and green paper bags and filled them with matching notepads & pens, crayons, and mini coloring books for older children.

Yellow tin pail party favors

Dessert Table

Styling the dessert table was my favorite of all! I wanted to keep it simple with just a plain white table cloth and just the view of the park as the back drop. I had a little candy buffet in one corner with Lemon rock candy, black and yellow chocolate marbles, and spring oreos, all yellow, white, and a little black to stick with the theme. 

The cutie bumble bee cupcakes are from my favorite local vegan cupcake catering company Sweet Tooth Bake Shoppe. I asked Kelly to bake my husband's favorite Smore's cupcakes, and to try something new, Lemon drop cupcakes which are both so good! They're a hit at the party! 

 Smore's cupcake

Little candy buffet corner: lemon rock candy sticks,black & yellow chocolate marbles, and spring oreos.

I really wanted to stick with the bee theme so I looked for bumble bee cake designs. I found in Pinterest a four layer fondant bee hive cake with little bees all over it. I knew then that it'll be tough to find a baker that will deliver the cake design that I wanted. And of course, the taste is a huge factor too. I spent nights reading reviews of local bakers around town and found The Grove Pastry Shop. I was impressed with the cake designs gallery and upon reading the reviews,  was confident of how good the cake itself will be. And I wasn't disappointed. I ordered their signature Whip Cream Cake and send in a photo of the design I wanted, got a quote and it's a done deal. Went to pick up the cake and I was dumbfounded! It was so beautiful it's heartbreaking to slice it up! But the heartbreak was soooo worth it because it's really good! 

Bumble Bee Cake Topper 

Whip Cream Cake from The Grove Pastry Shop.

Dessert Table 

Lunch Spread

Our lunch spread is a typical Filipino feast all prepared by my mom-in-law except for the lechon. The food included fried calamari, garlic buttered shrimp, spring rolls, beef morcon, stir-fry veggies,  chicken pastel, spaghetti, & pancit. Yum! 

It's a feast! 

And instead of getting one of those heavy, bulky coolers, I opted for two green round tubs which my daughter loved! Haha! She can't get enough of playing with the cans and the ice! :)

Oh, Chlo! 

Photo Booth Frame 

This was one of Gizelle's brilliant ideas! She sent me a photo of a huge frame for the photo booth and thought it was perfect! I got a foam board from staples and cut it into a landscape frame. Gizelle's friend, Maritza, took care of the drawings. :) Everyone had fun posing with the frame plus, Gizelle had a bunch of props that went with it. Oh fun, fun, fun! 

Me with my girls! :)

Some of Chloe's guests enjoying the photo booth :)

Our turn! :)

Us three :)

My Birthday Girl! 

- C ♥