Spaghetti with Zesty Tinapa Pesto Sauce and Buttered Garlic Cream Dory

Out of the blue, I suddenly craved for seafood pesto pasta. I first thought of eating somewhere in a restaurant but my budget is a little slim (can't afford). I decided to put on my toque (feeling chef) and went to a grocery store near our place. I don't know how to make fresh pesto sauce. Good thing there are available ready to cook pesto sauces. I found this Zesty Tinapa Pesto Sauce -- Celebrations by Sharon. A new product which is way cheaper than other similar pesto sauces available. I'm not sure if Sharon Cuneta owns this (or maybe she's just the official endorser). Anyway, I was able to satisfy my craving by cooking my own version of seafood pasta. One thing about the sauce -- it is a little 'bland'. I can taste the tinapa and the pesto sauce but it is lacking in flavor. I believe the sauce would taste better if they use olive oil instead of regular corn oil. You can try it and let me know your feedback.

Ingredients:

1 Del Monte Spaghetti Merienda pack
1 Zesty Tinapa Pesto Sauce -- Celebrations by Sharon
Garlic
Butter

Potatoes
1 small Cream Dory meat
Parmesan cheese (or any cheese)
Pepper
Salt

Optional: You can add some squid and crab meat

For Spaghetti with Zesty Tinapa Pesto Sauce

Cook pasta in 5-8 minutes of brisk boiling water. I suggest you put a dash of salt and some oil in the water to prevent the noodles from sticking together. Set aside. Cut potatoes thinly (bite-size) and fry them until crispy brown (personal preference). Set aside. In a pan over low fire, heat Zesty Tinapa Pesto Sauce. Mix in spaghetti, dash of parmesan cheese and the fried potatoes. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a plate and sprinkle with Parmesan.

For Buttered Garlic Cream Dory

In a separate pan, saute garlic using butter then add Cream Dory. Add a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Fry until cooked. Add the fish as a side dish to Spaghetti with Zesty Tinapa Pesto Sauce.

Pardon my plating skills but believe me, this tastes fantastic!

21 Suggestions For Success

21 SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS by H. Jackson Brown Jr.

1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.

2. Work something you enjoy and that's worthy of your time and talent.

3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.

5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.

6. Be generous.

7. Have a grateful heart.

8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.

9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.

10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.

11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.

12. Commit yourself to quality.

13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.

14. Be loyal.

15. Be honest.

16. Be a self-starter.

17. Be decisive even if it means you'll sometimes be wrong.

18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.

19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the ones you did.

20. Take good care of those you love.

21. Don't do anything that wouldn't make your Mom proud.

How to Become Obese Level 2

I used to be thin and very active, but now, close to 30, signs of aging are already showing up. Sedentary living is really a bad habit to break. I'm trying to live healthy and active but conflict with my work schedule and Philippine weather is stopping me from doing so. It might be a lame excuse but most of the readers here would agree to that. I don't smoke, seriously I don't. I drink but not that much. I haven't been totally drunk, like in the movie -- Hangover.

When it comes to food, I'll be your perfect guy. I don't have any preferences and I'm not picky as well. As long as it is delicious I'm going to eat it. This is similar to Andrew Zimmern's tagline -- If It Looks Good, Eat It! Basically, I work, eat and sleep. The next morning I go through the same cycle. No wonder my waistline is getting bigger and bigger. When I am feeling stressed I fill up myself with comfort food. This is usually something fried and oily or if not, just cold and sweet. Just like chocolates, comfort food causes the brain to release endorphins, chemicals that make us feel good. Too much stress at work means uncontrollable binge eating. This is bad I know but you can't blame me I'm just human. I even tried slimming pills and different diet programs. I was losing 2-3 pounds a week but when I stopped taking those drugs I gained everything back plus more. Dieting makes me impatient and weak. I am a jolly person naturally, but when I'm on a diet I tend to be serious and irritable. You wouldn't like me when I'm hungry... I mean angry. I tried enrolling at Fitness First. I was really motivated during the first year but it slowly died as it felt like they just are extorting money from me every month. I had to cut my gym membership and end up saving more than 2,000 bucks a month. I'm back to square one and still clueless where to begin. Let me start by enumerating the reasons why I am overweight.

Top 5 reasons why I am overweight:

1. I eat too fast

Studies reveal that it takes at least 12 to 20 minutes for satiety (feeling of fullness) signals to reach the brain. We need to eat slowly so the "I'm full" messages have time to reach the brain. When we eat too fast it is harder for our digestive system to function properly, resulting in poor digestion, including indigestion and heartburn.

2. Lack of motivation to exercise.

I am thinking of waking up early and do some jogging. I do that if time permits and if the weather is good. I don't mind getting sun burns but my girlfriend does =). I love biking and swimming but I hate the scorching sun. Night ride is another option but my work schedule doesn't permit me so often. I do boxing but again, I need to check my work schedule and budget. Doing push-ups is boring. Sit-ups is just the same. Yoga is not my cup of tea. What else can I do? I believe I need motivation and discipline to make this work.

3. Lack of Sleep

According to the Internet: A large, new study, for example, provides the latest in a flurry of evidence suggesting that the nation's obesity epidemic is being driven, at least in part, by a corresponding decrease in the average number of hours that people are sleeping, possibly by disrupting hormones that regulate appetite.

4. Stress

stress is just a part of everyday life, right? Everybody, as in everybody even your pet get stressed. Depressing? Not always. Stress is the body's natural response to external events, both pleasant (a first kiss) and not-so-pleasant (traffic jams). In small doses, stress provides a beneficial prod when we need to step up productivity, and studies indicate that a lack of stress hormones can make us susceptible to autoimmune diseases (such as arthritis).

Our bodies are biologically programmed to put on weight when tension runs high. Here's what happens: a stressful event occurs and it signals an 'alarm' in the brain, which sends us into fight-or-flight mode. As a result, the body releases stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, which trigger carbohydrate cravings, increase blood sugar levels, and encourage the body to store fat as an energy reserve. "In the wild, we'd use those reserves to fight back or run away, but as we're usually stuck behind a desk, in a car, or a supermarket queue when stress appears, we don't utilize the energy and it accumulates — around our waist,"

Source: http://health.ninemsn.com.au/family/womenshealth/695056/how-stress-makes-you-fat

5. Great Appetite/ Craving / Binge Eating

Obviously this is the top most reason why I am overweight. I love to eat... a lot. I'm trying to control it by eating something more healthier yet delicious. Hopefully I can get back into shape as soon as possible. Being fat puts me to greater risk of acquiring diabetes and hypertension. This is not good. I need to change my habit and be health conscious. I don't want to rely on drugs and diet pills. Taking those alternatives can cause damage to our liver. 

If you are also suffering from being overweight, let's get busy and start sweating to health. No more excuses. Just do it. Let's get physical! Let's get it on!

Live life to the fullest by being healthy.

Welcome to Facebook

Welcome to Facebook. Where love stories are perfect, where shit talkers tell the truth, where everyone brags they have the perfect life and claim to be in love with their partners, where your enemies are the ones that visit your profile the most, where your ex-friends block you and where you post something and people interpret whatever the hell they want...

I thank you. Bow

Everything is Arranged

Just another day before going to work here in India. Done with breakfast and back at my hotel room trying to kill some time before going to the office. I have my daily supply of local newspaper -- good thing it is written in English. Browsing through the pages, I stumbled upon classified ads section not really looking for anything. Then this page caught my attention.

Looking for a groom, WTH! I thought this country has the second largest population next to China. Where are the men? asking myself. What happened to them? Homosexuality is beyond control? What's wrong? I was really stunned... I checked with Google and found out that this is normal here. It's tradition. I can't comprehend the atrocities and complexity of this unique tradition. Would there be intimacy and genuine love and affection? Is it like forcing the issue because you are compelled to do so? Well maybe I'm just "westernized" so to speak. Courtship, flowers, chocolates, romantic dinner, love letters and poems are the norms where I came from. You have to woo the girl (and even her family) to win her heart. Then you can talk about engagement and everything, followed shortly by marriage and... (you know). It's a looooong process but that's tradition.  I'm not trying to be a smart ass or perhaps a love guru. I'm just a guy expressing my thoughts (my humble opinion). It's like me looking from the outside in. I don't know much about India's tradition but I have nothing against it. I'm not traditional either. I believe love conquers all! I quote, all's fair in love and war. If arranged marriage works for you then why not, coconut. If you are an Indian guy I guess you better look for a high-paying job (~10 Lakhs per year at least) as it is the usual requirement. Oh by the way, when you say Lakhs, it means 100,000 here.

FYR:

Arranged marriage in India

Wrong Timing

I flew to India for a business trip. I don't know what to expect aside from what I've read in the airline magazine during my flight. I arrived past midnight and feeling dead tired already. My hotel cab was there already to pick me up. Rode the cab and traveled for almost an hour before reaching my hotel -- it was a long journey indeed. Once I got my room keys I went straight to my room and jumped to my bed. I fell asleep right away. I woke up at around 10 AM. Looking at my wrist watch I said, "my god I'm late". I got up fast, took a shower, dressed up and hurried downstairs.  The receptionist greeted me good morning and I smiled back. As I was about to approach her, I saw a big clock behind her showing 7:45AM. I asked her, "miss, is that clock working?". She smiled back and answered yes sir, that's the correct time here. I laughed and said, I thought I was late for my appointment. Maybe my watch is not working. She then said that I must set my watch to India's local time (which is GMT+5.5). I felt a little embarrassed. Still smiling, she offered me if I want some breakfast then pointed me to the hotel's breakfast buffet lounge. I am really hungry actually, said to her, then gestured O.K. I went to the lounge and got a really nice table overlooking poolside with hillside backdrop. I sat down, calmed myself and just enjoyed the view for a moment. I got myself some coffee, a couple pancakes topped with syrup and whipped cream -- just a perfect way to start my day.

Lesson learned: Always check your destination's Time Zone before going there.

20 things foreigners need to know about India

Taj Mahal

1. Be polite and don't be shy to smile
2. They don't have much pedestrian lanes so be agile when crossing streets
3. Everyone (well, mostly) knows how to speak English
4. They like eating with bear hands
5. People stares at you - don't worry that's normal because you are obviously not a local
6. Most of them are vegetarian
7. Spicy food is a common thing. Be sure to ask before you eat your curry!
8. Auto rickshaw is the common mode of transportation here.
9. Murder of crows are everywhere... as in everywhere
10. Cows here are regarded as holy
11. Men here likes wearing long-sleeves, khaki pants and sandals.
12. Don't imitate their accent when talking
13. India is a cricket crazy nation
14. Honking is annoyingly normal
15. Bring your own bottled (mineral or distilled) water --> watch "Slumdog Millionaire" and you'll know why
16. Respect their culture, religion and belief
17. Weather here is hot (in most parts)
18. Men seen holding hands are not "gay"

19. Head wobble means Yes -- This is a side-to-side combination of a nod and a head shake

20. They have a unique smell -- so train your nose and shut your mouth