Champorado according to Wiki,

“is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Filipino cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky/sweet rice and cocoa powder giving it a distinctly brown color. However, dry champorado mixes, which may be found in some Asian food stores, are prepared by adding just boiling water. It can be served hot or cold and with milk and sugar to taste. It is served usually at breakfast and sometimes together with dried fish locally known as tuyo. The pudding becomes very thick and the lighter milk helps to “loosen” it. It’s almost like eating “chocolate oatmeal.”

Don’t you just love Wikipedia? *wink*

I would love to make champorado the old-fashioned way but for now, I’ll settle for the champorado mix.  (Oh please don’t crucify me for that!)

I can have it hot or cold, for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.

Back home, we use evaporated milk with the champorado.  But here, we’ve been using whole milk instead.

Rice and chocolate.  How’s that for comfort food?!  Hee hee!

We bought two different brands of steamed buns the last time we went to the Asian store: one was our usual brand and the other, a brand we were trying for the first time.

This is the new brand…

It is slightly bigger than the ones we always buy.   Four pieces of our usual brand easily fits in my bamboo steamer.  But not these ones…

Taste wise, I’d say I still like our old brand better, although this new one tasted pretty good, too.  Call it brand loyalty.  Hee hee.  A pack of four of this Chef Hon steamed buns costs about $1.99 a few cents more than our favorite.  We don’t really mind because, as I said, these are bigger.

This is our usual brand…

Too bad I can’t interpret the characters. Hee hee.  Our favorite, however, is the Hong Kong Style Barbecue-Flavored Steamed Buns.  The word Hong Kong makes a lot of difference.  This pack costs $1.66.

Come with me to the Dallas World Aquarium for my other WW entry.

Cheers!

It naturally follows that if we bought tocino (cured sliced pork shoulder) at the Asian supermarket two weeks ago, we’ll also by it’s next of kin of sorts, the longganisa (cured pork sausage).  And we did that exactly!  Sorry, Mommy!  Hee hee!

MT (the Asian supermarket) only had one kind, the skinless longganisa…

I would have preferred the little fat longganisa links from Lucban, but living thousands of miles away from the source, I can’t really afford to be choosey.

Typically, it would be LongSiLog - Longganisa, Sinangang at Itlog - but since I was too lazy to make fried rice, we settled for the next best thing  - kanin sprinkled with lots of crushed garlic chips.  Hee hee.

We liked the sweetness of the skinless longganisathat we bought.  Hubby had sliced tomatoes to go with his LongaKaLog.  I, on ther other hand, decided on vinegar dipping sauce.  Yum!

PS:  Take it easy on the preservatives, ok?  I just thought it was my responsibility to remind you.  Hee hee.  I’m not about to buy longganisa again anytime soon. ;)  Promise!

I love ToSiLog, that is, Tocino (sliced cured pork shoulder), Sinangag (fried rice) and Itlog (Egg).  What Filipino doesn’t?!  Since we moved to Texas, we haven’t had tocino.  Until finally, at the Asian supermarket about two weeks ago, Hubby and I agreed that we’ve missed it long enough and got a pack.  Never mind if it costs just about the same, if not more, than a pack of preferred cut of beef.  Never mind too that it is preservative-filled pork goodness.  Hee hee.

The very next day after we bought the tocino, I cooked it for lunch.  Hubby loved it.  I loved it.  Abby loved.  Heck, we all loved it!  Abby ate heartily without me having to constantly bug her to not forget to eat her rice.

It might be a while before we have tocino again.  I promised my Mom we’ll avoid preservative-rich food.  And it’s something we’ve actually been very diligent at…until food nostalgia got the better of us.

On our way home from Abby’s gym class (or from anywhere for that matter), we always pass by Tropical Smoothie Cafe, which is just a stone’s throw away from where we live.  Abby asked me to buy her a smoothie.  I proposed to just make her some at home.  Thankfully, she agreed.

I originally planned on making a banana smoothie.  I didn’t realize, however, that my bananas are no longer any good.  Fortunately,  I still have one lonely piece of mango.  Since mangoes here are huge, I was able to make enough smoothies for hubby, Abby and me.

I served Abby’s in one of her rocket ship cups (from Denny’s) and Hubby’s in a regular glass, not in a champagne glass.  Hee hee!

To  make, just throw in the mango slices, sugar (according to your desired sweetness), crushed ice and milk in a blender and blend for a few seconds.  Voila!  You just got yourself a serving of fruit and milk (and sugar, too!)!  Slurp!  Slurp!

During weekends, I am almost always under a lazy spell.  I often joke about our home kitchen being closed on weekends.  Hee hee.  *wink*  Often, we have dinner out on Saturdays and lunch out on Sundays.  But coming home from a full day spent outside the home on Sundays, it’s just extremely difficult for me to whip something up for dinner.  And so, instead of a CIY meal (i.e. Cook-It-Yourself) we opt for the next best thing, a BIY (But-It-Yourself) meal/dish.  Our favorite?  H-E-B’s Roasted Rotisserie Chicken.

H-E-B, I could safely say, is Texas’ state supermarket.  And while other supermarkets (Target, Walmart and Randall’s) also have their storebrand rotisserie chicken, H-E-B’s is tops on our list.  The chicken is always moist, well-seasoned and just plain delicious.

The rotisserie chicken is available as a pack of 4 leg quarters (about $5.00 per pack) or as a whole chicken (about $7.00).  It comes in Original, Honey Jalapeño, Lemon Pepper, Italian Herb or Honey Mesquite.  Our favorite is the Original.  We often eat it with rice or with tortillas.  Our dipping sauce of choice is every Filipino’s favorite bottled sauce for roasted meat…Mang Tomas!  Hee hee.

We just love chicken and roasted chicken is a better option to fried chicken.  Personally, I won’t really mind having this every week.  But of course, I have an ulterior motive, that is, to avoid cooking on weekends.

We were under house arrest yesterday because of the threat of Hurricane Ike, which, thankfully, didn’t make it’s presence felt in this side of Texas.  For lack of things to do, I gave in to Abby’s request that we make S’mores.  At 4 years old, she’s already had prior experience making this dessert in school.  This is a very simple, not to mention sinful, dessert or snack that kids can make on their own, with little assistance (mostly microwave operation) from mommy .  For the first S’mores, Abby and I simply followed the recipe found at the back of the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate 6-pack.  We altered the amounts/measurements in the recipe afterwards because it came out overly gooey.  The photos found here are of the altered measurements.

Chocolate Lover’s S’mores

2 graham crackers broken in half (Note:  4 rectangular pieces make up 1 whole piece of the Honey Maid brand of graham crackers.  This is the kind that you break in half.  Other brands are made up of only 2 rectangular pieces, making a square.  In this is the case, there’s no more need to break it in half.)

1 Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate bar broken in half (Note:  By all means, feel free to use your chocolate bar of choice!)

2 large marshmallows

Note:  We only used a quarter of the Hershey’s Bar and 1 large marshmallow.  But if you like a choco-mallow, sugar and calorie overload, follow the original recipe!

Procedure:

Place 1 graham cracker half on a microwave-safe plate.

Break chocolate bar into quarters (half in the original recipe) and place one section on cracker. Microwave at Medium (50%) for 10 seconds.

Top with marshmallow (2 in the original recipe).

Continue heating at MEDIUM in 10 second intervals until marshmallow puffs. (Total of 15 seconds should be good enough!)

Immediately top with remaining graham cracker half; gently press together.

Let stand 1 minute to soften chocolate.  Repeat for each serving.

Ooey gooey chocolatey and marshmallowy goodness!

Total calories: 295 if using original recipe; 217.5 if using only 1 marshmallow and 1/4 of the chocolate bar

Here are some more S’mores, my other WS entry.

Have a great new week ahead!