Sliced green mango plus sliced tomatoes plus bagoong (shrimp paste) equals ensaladang mangga (green mango salad.  Most people add some chopped onions.  But as I may have mentioned a couple of times already, Hubby and I are not so fond of fresh onions.  Green mango salad is not salad as we know it.  It’s more of a sawsawan (dipping sauce) or a side dish that is usually paired with grilled meats and seafood.

I scored some green mangoes again yesterday when I went to the supermarket (not Asian).  I was a tad disappointed though because green as the mangoes were, they were almost ripe already!  Nevertheless, that didn’t stop me from making ensaladang mangga to go with our broiled tilapia.

By “green” I mean being conscious of the environment. It is never too early to start teaching our kids the importance of being green. I think it would be great if we can raise green kids, so they will grow taking good care of and protecting the environment.  We all want the young ones to have an environment that they can still enjoy when they are older and with kids of their own.

I’m thinking of getting Abby a reuseable bag of her own, like this one from Fresh and Green…

It’s pink but it’s green.  Hee hee.  What do you think?

As I mentioned in this entry, I am now on a mission to make Abby’s lunches more fun, creative and at the same time still be healthy and nutritious.  Inspired by the gorgeous bento lunches of KitchenCow and LunchInaBox, I would like to join the good number of people out there who has made making bento lunches their passion.  I would like for it to be my passion, too.  I’m crossing my fingers on that.

Abby, my 4-year old daughter, is the only one I’ll be packing lunches for.  She eats her lunch in school.  I’ve already mentioned a couple of times that she’s fond of having Asian treats for lunch, like siomai and dumplings.  Every single day, she tells me she wants siomai for lunch.  I do try to vary her lunches.  I honestly do.  She can easily devour 10pcs. of siomai, wiping her lunch containers clean.  If it’s anything else, I’ve learned not to expect to get back an empty lunch container.

This morning, I made Abby one of her earlier lunch favorites…cuapao.  For a Western twist, the filling I used are slices of honey ham.  I summoned my creative juices to give her lunch a touch of fun…

It wasn’t my intention to have a frowning Hello Kity.  I guess I pressed a little too hard on the bun with the tongs. :D  Abby had mixed vegetables for her side dish and for dessert, banana and peaches drained of the light syrup.

Later on, I decided to take out the two smaller containers because I had to fit another cuapao into the food container…

As you can see, I am very much still a work in progress.

As always, Abby has a 100% fruit juice for her beverage.

In the coming days, I hope to introduce Abby to lunches other than her beloved siomai.  Wish me luck!

It’s now September and feastings will now just pass us by one after the other.  At my age, I still look forward to holiday celebrations and other family occasions.  I’ll always be a kid in that respect. :)  I just love happy get-togethers!  My fondest memories of family reunions will always be those of Christmas, where there’s lots of food, not to mention stories, to go around.  It’s just too bad we won’t be coming home for Christmas as planned. :(  Hopefully, we will have our Philippine Christmas next year. Holiday Photo Cards won’t be enough to take our place at family reunions, but we’ll definitely be mailing lots of them. I’ve actually already started my search for the perfect holiday photo card at Doodlebugdezigns.com.

There’s so many designs to choose from!  But no worries, it’s not like I’m pressed for time to make a choice.

In parting, I say, feasts be with y’all!