Tuesday, August 09, 2016

My love - hate relationship with Swimming

I have been urging Ron to exercise, not only to get fit but to avoid another hit of a heart attack or stroke. Because we are not working, we have the luxury of time, most of it wasted in front of a computer or the TV. We are almost 3 years into our marriage and we have gained more than 10 pounds each.

Of the many sports (swimming, basketball, tennis) he is good at, he was allowed by his doctors to do swimming for fitness. It has been 3 weeks now that be has gone to the pool regularly (3-5× a week the most).  As for me, I have decided to tag along.



Swimming is not my sport. I don't enjoy it. When I was little, my mom enrolled me and my brother in a swimming class during summer break. I learned how to kick and flutter but never to float. The only stroke I learned was Freestyle. While I enjoy it at first, I easily get tired with my arm and leg muscle being sore and weighs like a 100 kgs after.  And during class, my teacher urged me to finish a lap. I was midway when I decided to stop because I was tired and out of breath, my teacher was shouting for me to continue. I didnt, and because I didn't know how to float, I panicked and almost drowned. I never came back to that class.

In UP, PE subjects have no unit weight thus no monetary weight in our tuition. So we enjoy as much PE classes as we want.  So I enrolled myself in a swimming class hoping to earn a life skill.  First meeting in that class, the teacher had us jump into the deepest part of the pool (10ft) to check who knows how to swim or at least float among her students.  I was scared to death but I know I had to. I did. I jumped and water filled my lungs. And just like the other sinkers in her class, the teacher gave us a rod to grab and pulled us out of water. I never finished that class. It was the earliest class and was often late or absent even though the pool is just 5 minutes from my dormitory.

When I got into a relationship with a swimmer (Ron), and later married one, the pool or the beach is always a destination. So I gave swimming a try one more time. And Ron is urging me to learn. He gives me tips in improving my Freestyle and just last year, he taught me the Breaststroke.

It is a struggle. Swimming and exercise are struggles.. But I decided to learn and reach milestones every now and then. I am still far from the goal... but I will get there. And yeah, I want to learn how to float and tread, for dear life.

Pokemon Go Craze

Have you got yourself go crazy over Pokemon Go? Are you one of those who was dying for it to hit the country after it was banned earlier because of a hack?

Well, it has hit the Philippines, 3 days ago and a whole lot of people were hooked. I included, we are all transformed to hunters, looking for those pokemons everywhere.

For 2 nights now, me and Ron rode his scooter to every pokestop in Bacolod for some pokeballs, eggs and other whatnot. Last night was the worse of the addiction, we stopped at the Bacolod Lagoon  which is a pokestop because someone put a Lure. So for 30 minutes we waited for pokemons hoping to catch the rare ones. The worst of it all, we have done this with non-permitting weather conditions. But a lot has gathered last night. It is as if, not only pokemons were lured at Lagoon but Hunters as well. Hahaha!




I don't know how long I will get addicted with this game but for now, Gotta Catch them all!

Thursday, August 04, 2016

Chilli Shrimp Scampi

I have been in a pasta frenzy for the past 2 days and with the leftover linguine still in the ref, I checked into google of other pasta recipes. Thank you Jamie Oliver and Laura Vitale, I stumbled upon their videos on shrimp scampi. Because hubs wants it a little bit hot and spicy, I whipped Chilli Shrimp Scampi and here goes:



Ingredients
1/2 kg medium sized shrimps
2 tbsp EVOO
1/3 cup butter
1/4 cup white wine
1 tsp chilli flakes
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
bunch of parsely, finely chopped
250 g pasta

Instuctions
1. Cook pasta using package instruction. Drain and then coat with 1 tbsp EVOO for the pasta not to clump. 
2. In a separate pan, heat remaining EVOO. 
3. Add in butter and cook until all butter is melted.
4. Cook shrimp until slightly pink, about 1 minute in each side.
5.  Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. 
6. Put in chilli flakes, salt and pepper. Add parsely.
7. Add white wine. Let it simmer for about 2 minutes.
8. Add in the cooked pasta. Mix. Make sure to coat pasta with mixture.

Serve with additional parsely on top.


*I was not able to find parsely in the supermarket so I omited it.

I also devein the shrimps so that I could share the dish with hubs. He is usually allergic to shrimps when it is cooked without deveining it.

How to Devein Shrimps
1. Hold the body firmly, then pull the head downward.
2. Take the remaining shell off until the tail.
3. Take a knife and cut through the middle of the to reveal the vein.
4. Pull the vein.



Tuesday, August 02, 2016

Pasta Aglio Olio con Sausage e Longaniza

It is the 2nd day of the month. Nothing really special but we are celebrating our 71-month long relationship as boyfriend/girlfriend. Yes we are 1 month away from our 6th year of being together.

We used to celebrate these relationship milestones over Ron's Spicy Tuna Carbonara and so I was craving for it. I requested him to cook a batch but he has a lot of excuses that I thought of whipping one for myself. But since We dont have the complete ingredients, I hought of going for the simplest pasta dish, the Aglio Olio which is only Olive oil, garlic and herbs.

While cooking the pasta, I thought of putting out the Hungarian Sausage (Ron's favorite) and the Chicken Longanisa. Why not mixing it in? Oh yeah! Kitchen chaos, here I go! And this is how I came up with Pasta Aglio Olio con Sausage and Longanisa.


Ingredients:

250g Pasta ( we have linguine available)
3 tbsp olive oil
8 cloves garlic (more the better) chopped
1 tbsp italian seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
2 pcs hungarian sausage cubed 
4 pcs chicken longganisa cubed
parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions
1. Cook pasta using package instruction. Drain and then coat with 1 tbsp EVOO for the pasta not to clump. 
2. In a separate pan, heat remaining EVOO. 
3. Brown hungarian sausage and longaniza.
4.  Add garlic and saute for 1 minute. 
5. Put in italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
6. Add in the cooked pasta. Mix. Make sure to coat pasta.

Serve with parmesan cheese on top!

* I did not put the pasta all at once.... I put it in portion by portion because I want my pasta to be well coated to get the full flavor in every bite. It turned out, I only used 2/3 of the pasta.