GreenBucks

The children are vacationing with my parents and today, they are beach bound with their cousins. I’m envious, hehe.

Am spending the Holy Week (it’s now Maundy Thursday) with the hubby here at home, in the city that feels empty and quiet, (yey! no noisy neighborhood children playing outside since this morning).

I wish I could go with them. I just spoke to them a while ago and my mom said she’s been peeling green mangoes for them to bring as part of their food stash. Older cousins will be bringing fish to grill. I’d rather man the outdoor fire pit than spend time holed in the house.

Holy Week is really different these days. Back in the day, we just stay at home or stay with my relatives and help prepare for the Catholic rituals that need prepping up like the procession and listening to the old folks sing the Pasyon.

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I bought food supplies today because the next two days are Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and stores, except maybe the convenient stores, will be closed.

I didn’t go to the usual supermarket I like because I know the lines going to the barcode scanner-wielding cashiers would be loooong. Customers in that supermarket tend to be OA before holidays, hoarding food as if there’s no tomorrow. I’m not kidding.

I went to the smaller supermarket which has higher prices for the grocery items. I don’t have to buy a lot so I guess it’s ok to pay for a little more than get stuck in a long line.

I hope our stash (of chips!) will last till Saturday since it’s just me and the hubby at home because the children are not with us.

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Pixie’s Bangus is one dish we get if we are running a bit late in going home from somewhere and there’s no time to cook. That or we always have it during family dinners with the in-laws.

The smell of Pixie’s Bangus is good enough to whet the appetite. The kids love it too.

Lately though it seems that I might need a table lamp to see the veggies inside the fish OR see the fish underneath a pile of tomatoes. Nah, I’m kidding but I have to admit,  something’s different with this food: less of these tomatoes and onions now compared to 3 years ago and the bangus are smaller and the prices are a bit higher.

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I heard strange noises, like something going round and round.

I peeped through the windows to see where the sound was coming from but I don’t see anything. Unsatisfied, I went out the front door squinting in the dark since the front door light was busted.

Hmmm… nothing still.

I turned on the living room light and saw the source of the sound. The hamster my son brought home from school. He was in school for the dramatics club rehearsal and he brought home this hamster because it was left in school by a classmate. He thought it would go hungry if the little pet is left in school without food till Monday.

Awww… I know, right?

Kindness in children more often than not is something we really directly teach them. Kindness even when discussed and role played in the best schools, whether a religious school or an online university, is still a value children learned first at home.

For now, the nocturnal hamster is resting. We didn’t find any hamster food at the supermarket earlier but we gave him an apple slice to nomnom while he stays with us till Monday.

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We opted to use soaps from the (DOH) Department of Health‘s Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care (PITAHC) that have natural ingredients in it.

With a teenage daughter, we have to be careful what we use for acne remedy because facial skin is sensitive.

At first, using the soaps on my face gave me a bit of discomfort because my skin felt itchy. I asked my SIL about it because she was the one who gave me the soaps. She said I have to read the ingredients and sure enough, ingredients just listed the fruit or vegetable extract and vegetable oil. None of those 20+ lettered hard-to-pronounce words. So, yey! Must be those extracts doing what they are supposed to do on the skin.

So far I’ve used papaya, cucumber and carrot soaps for skin moisturizing. I forgot to take photos of these.

My daughter is using calamansi soap for whitening (rolls eyes) while we still have bayabas [guava] (skin protection against bacteria), akapulko (skin defense against fungus) and labanos [radish] (skin whitening and astringent).

We are almost out of soap so we need to order more soon.

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Cream dory fillet is one of the most versatile fish fillet there is, in terms cooking. Fried cream dory fish fillet, almond crusted cream dory pasta and cream dory fish fillet and mushrooms in oriental sauce in these entries.

Here is a crispy deep fried cream dory fish fillet. For me, this is best dipped in mayo-garlic dip. For my kids, tomato ketchup is good enough. Continue Reading »

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