Review - Relish Menu Planning

Planning a meal for my family is such a feat for me because I am not so keen at cooking simply because, I don't cook. However, I should be thankful for sites like relishrelish.com for giving me inspiration on what to prepare and buy for my family's weekly meals for 5 days.

Relishrelish.com is a great resource and planning site for mommies like myself. It makes planning meals a breeze because of its functions like:

Build a menu
This is a feature of the site where you can choose from a number of meal selections and drag your selections and even favorite them on the other side of the dashboard.

Shopping List
Your chosen meals have a built in ingredients feature so that when you click on the shopping list, all the ingredients in the meals you have selected for the week will be shown to you. All you have to do is check on the items you have to buy. You can also select the number of people to be served so the number of ingredients adjusts accordingly so you don't have to make wild guesses on how much ingredients you have to buy for the number of people you will serve. The number of people to serve can be adjusted to 2, 4, 6 and 8. You can print this list as well that you can take in the grocery.

Legend Key
This shows the legends used in the recipes. I find this very helpful because I am not kitchen-savvy nor cooking-savvy so anything that involves cooking terminologies will be clarified with this legend. The legend also seves as your guide if you want to prepare vegetarian meals, good for morning preparations, budget meals, desserts, etc. It is a good way to check the categories of your meal plan.

Favorites tab
This tab will hold the list of your favorite dishes. Just click this tab to view them in one go.

Weekly Recipes tab
This tab features all the recipes in relishrelish.com where you can choose the ones you want to prepare for the whole 5 days.

Editor's Pick tab
This is a great tab to see what is smokin' in the editor's choices. You may want to favorite the choice or add to your meal plan too!

Search tab
This tab makes filtering and searching of recipes very easy. No more cluttered recipes everywhere and no need to recall where you saved a favorite recipe because it is all here in relishrelish.com.

Benefits:
This site really saves you time, effort and money in the long run because the meal planning makes it easy for you to get the stuff you want and print it. It auto adjusts the amount of ingredients you require based on the number of people you will serve form the shopping list function. So, you don't spend much on unnecessary number of ingredients and put them to waste because you bought too much.

Subscription:
For $7.00 per month, I think that is a good deal to be able to have everything you need with meal planning. You can start with a the $7.00 per month or save 15% if you subscribe for 6 months and a 30% discount if you choose the yearly subscription which is a total of $58.80.


Relishrelish.com is a great site to subscribe to because I get to save a lot. I do recommend this to those who are in-charge of preparing meals for the family so you cut back on cost, time and even hassle.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

I Don't Like Cooking

It is a public knowledge that I am not fond of cooking or anything in the kitchen. I just don't have the passion to engage in cooking. I realized this early in life when my mother used to cook savory dishes for us and my siblings would gather in the kitchen to watch her cook. I would stay in my room  and read books instead. The kitchen and cooking didn't appeal me.

As I got older, I thought my perception and feelings about cooking would change when we had Home Economics subject in high school. My classmates would get so excited and I would shrug my shoulders and roll my eyes. I remembered the "siopao" (steamed buns with filling) I made. It didn't even rise even after I steamed it. It looked like one gooey, over-sized dumpling! I dread every minute I had in Home Ec!!!

I met my boyfriend (who is now my husband) and thought it was time to cut the slack and start "impressing" the future in-laws. I managed to cook some dishes for my in-laws then with the help of a cook book but it fizzled so fast. I must have cook 2 dishes during the whole time my hubby and I were dating. I couldn't force myself to like cooking. I don't know why.

Then the time came where we got married. I remember telling my in-laws to "accept me for who I am" because I will never learn how to cook. I guess they didn't have a choice because I set those words in stone.

Fast forward now, I am happy (not so proud but not ashamed) to proclaim that I still don't like cooking. Don't get me wrong. I am not starting a new feminist movement here but I believe that to like something, you have to have a passion for it. I did try but it always ended catastrophic! I almost burned the whole kitchen when I was just trying to cook a scrambled egg. I have done a lot of bloopers in my life in the kitchen. So for the love of life, don't leave me in the kitchen because everything will be chaotic!

I tried to cook for sometime for my family but it just doesn't seem sincere providing cooked meals for them when I know in my heart I am forced to do it because of an obligation. I make up for this by doing the other heavy household chores like washing the dishes, cleaning the house, caring after them and our pet Millie, doing the laundry and pressing the clothes. I fulfill my wife and motherly duties by doing other things at home. So, it is still fair because what I do is more strenuous than cooking.

There are moment when I take a lot of guts to conquer my dislike of cooking by researching on easy-to-cook recipes in the net. I managed to pull off some "edible" meals but the bursts of will-power to cook comes far in between.

You must be wondering who does the cooking at home. Well, who else - my darling husband. Mind you, he is an excellent cook.  Good thing though, my daughter picked her dad's cooking skill. I think we'll stick to the status quo.

Favorite Cooking Techniques for Healthy Food

Cooking healthy food can sometimes be challenging to others when in fact, it will only require you some minor changes, which you have to deal with in exchange of healthier food. By using items or ingredients instead of the ones that you are used to, with the combination of various techniques, you’ll definitely end up having your tummy full of healthy and nutritious food.

So what are the cooking techniques to consider for you to produce healthy recipes? Are there special ingredients or substance to use or are there proper or alternative ways to cook meals?

One of the healthiest techniques is to add herbs to your food. Herbs are rich in vitamins and minerals with fewer calories. By adding these to your food, you are increasing the flavor of your dish, thus making it more exotic. You don’t have to become a professional chef to do this because just by experimenting, you’ll be able to cook different meals that will surely tickle your palate.

Next thing to consider is to lessen salt intake. Increasing the amount of herbs will not be enough if you won’t be able to lessen your salt consumption.  Remember that herbs have natural flavors, which make salt less necessary. By doing so, you will be able to reduce the risk of high blood pressure and other heart diseases.

Another is to steam the vegetables that you eat. Letting the vegetables boil in the water will drain the nutrients out into the water, making it somehow useless or less nutritious. So instead of boiling, try steaming. Just put a little amount of water in the pan, insert the basket filled with veggies, cover and heat. You can add the spices at the last minute and you will surely enjoy the better taste of steamed vegetables.

Opt for monounsaturated fats. Avoid fats such as fatty acids, trans and saturated fats because these are all unhealthy especially to your heart. Start using peanut oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, sesame seed oil or olive oil in cooking, as this is one of the best cooking techniques that will help you provide healthier meals.

Never forget to eat plenty of vegetables and fruits every time you take a meal. This will definitely add more nutrients in your body, thus making you healthier and it will help strengthen your immune system.

In addition, reducing the amount of red meat in your healthy recipes is also a big factor. It would be hard for some not to eat steak or the like but what you can do is to slowly reduce the size of the meat you eat from time to time. After a while, you won’t be able to notice that there is no meat present in your food.

Furthermore, nuts can substitute your craving for chips. Nuts are rich in protein and you can combine it with fruits and vegetables like apple, celery, cucumber, and tomatoes then add some mayonnaise or salad dressing and you can have an appetizing salad.

Talking about salad, you can also have it on a burrito and just make sure that it’s a whole grain burrito. Finely chop the veggies and chicken, put it on a burrito wrap then put your favorite dressing. This can be perfect if you are also on a diet or trying to lose weight.

Remember that these various techniques will make your cooking hobby a lot more challenging, fun and as well as interesting. Cooking healthy recipes will provide you a lot of benefits such as reduce fat contents, improve digestion and destroy harmful bacteria and toxins, which are usually the main causes of infection. Surely, this will allow you to have a healthy lifestyle that is free from harmful diseases.

Movies and Me

Oh, I don't know what title to give this post. It's just that for the past week while I was having my much awaited vacation leave, I was also sick and in bed. During that time, I must have watched a dozen of movies I never dare to watch on the big screen.

Imagine being sick for almost a week? Boring right and utmost back-wrenching! So, I did the unimaginable. I watched and watched until I fall asleep or the medicine kicked in, which ever came first to knock me off.

I never thought I would enjoy the time spent at home watching movie and just lying in bed doing that. So what if the laundry piled up; the dirty dishes reached the ceiling and my back almost form part of the bed cushion? I was having a fun time while blowing my nose and coughing like a mad dog!

Tuh-tah for now. I am going to watch Julie and Julia and that's going to be very nice because it's about blogging and cooking! What a treat, though I don't like cooking but I like Meryl Streep and Amy Adams!

Happy Halloween 2009!

I hope everyone is having a great time trick or treating. I just wish we have Halloween Trick or Treating event here so I can go out too and have some fun! I'll probably dress up our cute dog Millie as a Princess. LOL!

For our Halloween project this year, apart from the mini Jack-O-Lanterns made of oranges, my daughter made some Ghosts lollies. She used white cooking chocolate, choco chips for the eyes and barbecue sticks as lolly handle. Spookilicious!!!

Enjoy Free Cooking Games

I am not so good cooking in real life but I fare too well cooking up gourmet meals and sumptuous desserts in cooking games. My daughter and I love cooking games a lot. As a matter of fact, we love games about cooking so much that I bought her PC and Wii games about that activity. Little did I know that I can get free cooking games in the net.

My daughter is the expert when it comes to these games. She managed to learn techniques and styles on cutting, folding, basting, slicing, tossing, cake decorating, and many more. Not only that, she also learned a lot of recipes as she played various cooking and food games.

A great site we always frequent is the Ecookinggames.com. It has wide array of cooking and food games to offer to kids and the child at heart. There are also other games to be played like dress-up games, make-over games, fashion games, doll games and even Barbie games. There is also a choice between 1 or 2 players. We normally play the 2 player games so my daughter and I enjoy the quality play time we spend with each other.

Packed with fun, entertainment and educational stuff, these cooking and food games are really great for kids and even adults who wish to learn more about cooking. I think my daughter will become a connoisseur on food and a great cook as well. Thanks to Ecookinggames.com for the free cooking and food tips!

What a Dismay!

Uh-oh! I knew I have been very bad with my eating habits the past few weeks because of the holidays. How can someone resist mom's home-cooked meals since the nearest decent meal I can prepare is popping an instant meal in the microwave and that's it! I know, I am bad. Like I earlier conveyed, I never liked cooking so if someone cooks the kind of meals I love very well, who am I to resist???

With all the gorging happened during the holidays, I was so dismayed to see how my measurements shoot up like a NASA rocket ship going to space exploration. I am not kidding but I can call myself "Little Miss Piggy" now...hahahaha. I cannot believe the figures right before my eyes as my daughter laughs her bum off on how big the numbers are on my body measurements. As in B-I-G! Coming from an ex-super-skinny person like me, yup, the numbers are way too big for me to fathom. Wow! How can I ever, and not just ever, successfully at that, lose weight for good? I have lost and regained and lost again and when I lose it, I just want it to stay that way. Any tips??? I am desperate now and this calls for serious measures. Not gastric-bypass. I think I am still skinny for that but I need healthy habits to kick-in again. I need proper food to eat at proper times. I know that when you speed-eat, you tend to gorge more. I think I have to stop that.

Oh my, and I have a wedding to attend to and I need to look fab in a long, formal gown. Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, like the Beatles sang, "Help!!!!!"