This is dedicated to my cousin Delia from whose kitchen I got my first cooking lessons in the US. She prepared a wonderful dinner when Rhebs, Geri and Evan came for a visit.

(Delia and me)

     This is a tag from Rhebs for me, Geri, Mel and Sandy. 

     Almost everyone who knows me, know that I was helpless in the kitchen before I came to the US. Except for basic frying (which have sometimes ended in a disaster) I did not know how to cook.  My young nieces have far more better cooking skills than me. They laughed at my attempts to cook and they are still sceptical when ever  David tells them that I cooked a good meal (Did she burn the cake Uncle?). One time, I tried to cook some rice and it was un-eatable (and I come from a rice eating country!). That got me running to SM the following day and to buy a rice cooker .

     When I got here, one of the things I had to learn was to be handy around the kitchen. Delia was my life saver. She patiently taught me how to prepare simple recipes and walked me through the whole procedure. She would call me to ask what recipe I was preparing for the day. Her cooking tips saved me from what would have been embarrasing kitchen faux pas.  

     David's kitchen and eating habits were quite spartan. Even then, he was already health conscious but because he was living alone, it was more convenient for him to eat out than to cook. It took a few weeks before we were able to create a kitchen with all the basics for home cooking.   

     So, what's in our kitchen?

 Fresh and frozen fruits: We always have fruits on the table, usually bananas, oranges, apples grapes and grapefruit. The frozen fruits are David's because I still have not developed a taste for them. I like avocado but David doesn't, so I only get some when Kroger has a sale.

  Fresh and frozen vegetables sorry, too lazy to take them out from their protective plastic bags )  I use fresh vegetables for cooking and for salads. The frozen vegetables are usually steamed and served with spray butter and a dash of salt.

 Cheeses: Right now we have parmesan, mozarella, cheddar, American and Swiss (for Lanie's yummy Swiss Creamy Chicken recipe). We use Smart Balance butter (and butter spray is for our steamed vegetables). Below the cheeses and butter are lemon juices for cooking and to add a little flavor to our drinking water.

 Eggs, 2% milk and chocolate milk, yogourt and pudding. We use Brita filter for our water. I would add a few drops of lemon juice in water. David prefers sparkling water.

 We have different salad dressings (my favorite is poppy seed), different sauces, pickles (both slices and relish), different kinds of syrup for waffles (which we occassionally have for breakfast).

  Meat, fish and poultry: I always stock up on pork slices, chicken and fish (salmon, tilapia and perch) whenever I see a good sale. I put them in separate plastic bags so I do not need to thaw the whole package when I cook. Ever since Delia taught me how to make roasts, I also stocked up on "buy one get one free" pot roasts and pork roasts. Very seldom do I find "buy one get one free" ground beef and ground pork, but I always try to have these in the freezer as well.

 Other items that I always have in the freezer are frozen egg rolls (I always make 25 egg rolls because the wrappers come in a 25 pack). Caught on candid camera are popsicles (low calorie snack), frozen dumplings (left over from our Chinese New Year/David's birthday party), kishes and a few boxes of Healthy Choice meals.

   Spices, vinegars, cooking wines and oils: So far, I have only learned to use a few basic spices and red and white cooking wines. For vinegars, I would usually mix apple cider vinegar and Datu Puti white vinegar. Soy sauce is a another item that is always present when I cook any kind of meat usually as a marinade. The only oils I use are extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed) and canola oil when I need to deep fry.

 A food scale for ease in computing calories.

     Since October of last year, David has been recording his daily calorie intake and tried to stick to less than 2000 calories per day. He was able to get his weight down below 200 lbs. I don't measure my calorie intake (at least, I haven't found the need to do so yet). I simply watch my portions and listen to my body. So far, my weight has been under control (pwera buyag ).

     Lunch is our biggest meal of the day. Here is an example of David's lunch using  Rheb's tilapia recipe with a cup of garlic rice (I always have a glass of coke during lunch but on this day, he decided to have one himself which is very very rare for him).

     Here is an example of what we would usually have for dinner.  

 David would have a bowl of salad and a sandwich or a small portion of meat. Today, it was a small piece of pork chop with au graten potatoes (left over from lunch).

Here is my dinner, a small salad and a piece of cheese hotdog. See what I mean about portions?

    Eat healthy everyone !