Welcome Baby Ynnah Louis Valencia Antoni

Hubby and I was married 2009, almost 3yrs already, and wishing God will give as a baby, but for now, while we’re still waiting my sister in law gave birth to a healthy baby girl yesterday May 22, 2012.The whole family was so excited that we all file for a leave just to go San Jose and welcome the new member of the Valencia family. She’s 6.2lbs with gorgeous hair already and cute nails, lol! Look she was swarmed with our love already. So tiny and fragile I was afraid to hold her.  Even her tatay (father) did not dare to hold her.  

With Mommy Jessa

Me and Baby Ynnah

Me, Hubby and Baby Ynnah

Cuteeeeeeeeeee!

Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar

When I learn about this vegan thing, I adopt, practice and research the whole thing about it. I did not take any synthetic medicine as I rely Mother Nature to all my pains and illness. I want my family to practice this (they’re not vegan anyway) somehow. My mom has this condition way back when I’m still at high school. Chronic Bronchitis, that’s the findings of her Doctor. Being a second hand smoker? No wonder.
Symptoms include:
• Worsening cough that produces yellow or green mucous
• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness or pain
• Increased tiredness or fatigue
• Swelling of legs, ankles or feet
She has all these symptoms, minus the swelling of legs. The fact that she also has asthma,it worsens the scenario.Her doctor prescribe so many medicines, for her phlegm, anti biotic etc.. But all these meds only gives a short effect. Until I read about Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar. I know it will not cure all the illnesses of my mom, but I know and I believe that somehow (in due time) it will ease all her pains and sufferings.
I went to Healthy Options (Festival Mall, Alabang) and got this bottle of ACV and instruct to my mom how to take it and when to take it. Here’s the link for the product info http://bragg.com/products/bragg-organic-apple-cider-vinegar.html

INTERNAL BENEFITS
• Rich in enzymes & potassium
• Support a healthy immune system
• Helps control weight
• Promotes digestion & ph Balance
• Helps soothe dry throats
• Helps remove body sludge toxins
EXTERNAL BENEFITS:
• Helps maintain healthy skin
• Helps promote youthful, healthy bodies
• Soothes irritated skin
• Relieves muscle pain from exercise
How to take it: 1 – 2 tsp. of ACV dilute to 1glass of water. 3 times daily, upon arising,mid morning and mid afternoon. You may add honey as sweetener.
For me, there’s no harm in trying, it is organic anyway so no need to worry for the side effects.
All I need is Prayer (a lot of it) and dedication in order to help my Moms condition.
HAPPY Vday! xoxoxo

vegan lunch

Looking for easy,ready to go lunch? Well consider this one. Lunch consist of sweet potatoes (my fave), pineapple and vegetable version of California maki.
I steamed the sweet potato a night before, peeled and put it in a ref. The pineapple which already peeled, I sliced it this morning and put in my lunch box.
For veg. maki, slice the vegetable (julienne cut), carrots, cabbage, cucumber and red bell pepper.
Just like your ordinary California maki roll the maki and slice with wet knife.
Happy V-day! (vegan) ^^

Sautéed sprout beans with chayote

Nothing fancy about this recipe. When laziness strikes, I opt for this recipe. All you have to do is to sauté sprout beans and chayote to onion and garlic put a little water, add a dash of pepper and soy sauce.

HAPPY VEGAN DAY!

natural quencher

Natural juices has a lot of benefits + it will quench your thirst naturally! Here's some of it.... 

1. Juicing helps you absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. This is important because most of us have impaired digestion as a result of making less-than-optimal food choices over many years. This limits your body's ability to absorb all the nutrients from the vegetables. Juicing will help to "pre-digest" them for you, so you will receive most of the nutrition, rather than having it go down the toilet.
2. Juicing allows you to consume an optimal amount of vegetables in an efficient manner. If you are a carb type, you should eat one pound of raw vegetables per 50 pounds of body weight per day. Some people may find eating that many vegetables difficult, but it can be easily accomplished with a quick glass of vegetable juice.
3. You can add a wider variety of vegetables in your diet. Many people eat the same vegetable salads every day. This violates the principle of regular food rotation and increases your chance of developing an allergy to a certain food. But with juicing, you can juice a wide variety of vegetables that you may not normally enjoy eating whole. 
4. And a loooooooot MORE!

      my taste-tested fruit/vegetable juice combination

      Apple - celery
      Carrots - Pineapple
      Carrots - any citrus
       Carrots - Singkamas - Cucumber
       Carrots - cucumber - celery
       Pineapple - cucumber - ampalaya
       Pineapple - malunggay
       Pineapple - sugarbeets
       Kalabasa - sayote - singkamas - sugarbeets
       Pechay - pineapple - onion
       any citrus - w/ crushed garlic

       And here's my mom enjoying her favorite glass of pineapple - malunggay juice!

      

Camote Tops Salad

As I promised, I'll share to you some recipes with easy to find ingredients! Easy as local (talipapa version ^^)
Here's my version of camote tops salad.

Ing. Shredded Camote Tops ( the one with violet leaves)
       fresh pineapple bits (of course you can try the can version!)
       GMO free soy sauce ( regular soy sauce is ok)
       Calamansi or lemon

Just combine the camote tops and pineapple. You can drizzle the calamansi and soy sauce over salad as dressings or you can serve it as sawsawan!

I always bring this for lunch in the office. You can eat this before your cooked food.
Hope you try this one.

HAPPY VEGAN DAY!

Simple reminders

As much as I want to post here, my time wouldn't allow me. But here's some simple tips I want to share you all for healthy you!
 * Observe proper fruit combination: sweet fruits should not be eaten together with sour fruit or vegetables at the same meal except sub-acid. Our stomach cannot be acid and alkaline at the same time.( see the list for sweet and acid fruits below)


* To wait atleast 30 minutes - 1 hour after eating before drinking water. Do not drink while eating also it will hinder digestion. Imagine your stomach with foods and water, it'll looks like aquarium (ewwwwww!)
*No to combine melon/watermelon with other fruits or vegetables. It should be eaten alone to prevent stomach upset.

* Eat raw food first before eating cooked foods.Food is processed differently in the body, fruits will digest quickly while cooked foods especially your ***MEAT*** may take a few days to process through your system. So if you eat fruit like banana after a meal, the banana must wait until the cooked food processed, this causing the food to be fermented and not digested properly.

Here's some shortlist of sweet and sour fruits:
Sweet Fruits:  Banana,Apple,Chico, Mango (ripe), papaya  

Acid (sour) fruits): Orange, Strawberry, Ponkan, Pomelo,Berries

Sub-acid(can be eaten with sweet or acid fruits) - Pineapple, pears, guava    

NEXXXXXXXXXT up? LIST  OF FRUIT JUICES I SAMPLED ALREADY...

HAPPY VEGAN DAY!
                

small calamansi, HUGE benefits!

Calamondin or Calamansi (scientific name: Citrus ×microcarpa) is a fruit tree in the family Rutaceae

Rutaceae

Rutaceae, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, is a family of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents...

 that was developed in and is very popular throughout Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia...

, especially the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, where it is most commonly used for cooking. In the west it is variously known as acid orange, calamondin orange, Chinese Orange or Panama orange. In the Philippines it is called calamansi/kalamansî in Tagalog or the Filipino

Filipino language

Filipino is a register of the Tagalog language used as the national language of the Philippines and, along with English, is one of two official languages designated in the 1987 Philippine Constitution. A large number of Spanish, Kapampangan, and English loanwords exist in the vocabulary...

 lingua franca, and limonsito in Cebuano.

It is a shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants can be either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 or small tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 growing to 3–6 m, and bears small citrus fruit used to flavor foods and drinks.


To us filipinos, it is staple in our kitchen.
I would like to give credit on this to my Doctor, Dr. Tam Mateo the Philippines first Naturapathic Doctor and a Cancer Specialist.(I'll give the address and contact number of Dr. Tam, for those who are interested to try and be healed through holistic medicine techniques).

As part of my daily protocol, he then advice me to drink 1 glass of lukewarm water with 10-15 calamansi every morning (6:30 am) then another 1 glass of lukewarm water. (  I hear you guys murmuring...^^)
A CALAMANSI IN THE MORING? BIG YES!
HOW ABOUT THE ACID? I'll explain it to you...Aside from many uses of calamansi, from food condiments,stain removal, for the skin, etc....this is the main reason I religiously drink it early in the morning...

- It helps, detoxify the liver

-Promotes weight loss! 

-Flush out the remaining residue from intestine(especially those from our unhealthy years!)

- Prevents diabetes

- Also helps better blood circulation

-Good for those who have IBM (makes you popo! ^^)

-Gives and leave to our body the alkaline effect (not acid) that's why its good for those who have cancer

-Why lukewarm water?( it's good to our blood circulation in the morning, from sleep the blood form "LATAK".)

There were endless benefits from our little friend calamansi, sorry I cant post it all..hehehe

TIP: If you want some extra flavor and some extra health benefits of your water(actually heard it from Donita Rose). Put one calamansi on your one glass of drinking water, voila! alkalized water already.

I must say, very dutiful but,  as they say " The road to a Healthy Body is not that easy"

HAPPY VEGAN DAY!

 As I promised, here's the address and contact No. of Dr. Tam:

Metrowalk Commercial Complex

Outlet 20 Bldg. A

Meralco Ave., Pasig City

Metro Manila, Philippines

Telephone

+63 2 470-5553

+63 2 470-1418

+63 2 401-1608

+63 2 401-1609

Mobile Nos.

+63 921 592-0908

+63 917 846-0546

+63 917 951-8529

E-mail.

drtam_mateo@yahoo.com

Main Office

Living Food Phils., Inc.

433 F. Legaspi St.,

Maybunga, Pasig City

Metro Manila, Philippines

Telephone

+63 2 900-0547 to 49

+63 2 643-3309 to 10

Mobile Nos.

+63 917 951-8529

+63 921 592-0908

Dr. Tam’s Health Products

(House of Cleansing)

Tiendesitas

Delicasies Village

J. Vargas Corner C-5

Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City

Metro Manila, Philippines

Telephone

+63 2 633-9877

Mobile Nos.

+63 921-592-0908

+63 917-846-0546

  

types of vegetarian

Why Vegan? and not vegetarian? hmmmmmmm... my friend asked....
One thing that people dont understand is that there are different types of vegetarians. Each has has its own reason for choosing their diet and the reasons exactly determine what foods they want to eliminate. Here's a brief definition of each type of vegetarian..Which type are you? ^^

• Total Vegetarians eat only plant food. They do not eat any animal foods, including fish, eggs, dairy products, and honey.
• Vegans not only omit all animal products from their diets, but they also eliminate them from the rest of their life. Vegans use nothing from animals, such as leather, wool, and silk. 
• Lacto-Vegetarians will include dairy products into their diet of plant food.
• Lacto-Ovo-Vegetarians eat both eggs and dairy products.  
• Pesco-Vegetarians include fish into their diets. 
• Pollo-Vegetarians eat poultry, such as chicken, turkey, and duck.  

So the next time you sit next to a self proclaimed vegetarian , you can identify which type are they base on what they eat.

HAPPY VEGAN DAY!

the kind life

So this is it! my first post on my first blog!
One reason why i created this blog, is to share my simple thoughts and some of my inspiration on being a vegan.
If you want to inspire a bit about cruelty -free lifestyle, better check out alicia silverstone www.thekindlife.com
she open my mind about what life and nature can offer to all of us. That you can be vegan in your own simple way.
I'm challenging you all to atleast give it a try, a week without a meat, hmmmmm....why not?

And please check out alicia's garden too.

Me myself wants to start a garden soon, so better check it out here.
Here's some of alicia's photo and her garden.

I'll post simple local finds ingredients (Manila) recipes, so that we beginners can share some great tasting recipes.
 I may share some tips and rules of healthy eating, juice recipes and raw recipes.
Thanks for dropping by! Happy vegan day to all!