Green Foodie!

Vegetables grown in our very own community garden where we live. It's chemical and pesticide-free too. Angel and I just feel so lucky!


Alugbate, Talbos ng Kamote (Camote Top), Malunggay, Saluyot and Lemongrass.

Cooked simply in "Laswa style"...


And onto my plate for lunch with Basmati rice! (Wish you were here my beloved.) :)



Many thanks to Bebeng for helping me pick those greens from the community's vegetable patch! :)

Happy green eating everyone! :)

Back In The Alps

I am again loving every minute of this charming place except for its cold, cold weather. My body aches for the sweat and the yoga practice that it is used to. Though I am still able to insert a practice here and there in our hotel room, it is the type of practice wherein it tests my own attachment of not completing the primary series. I held up well. My acceptance has made me detach from this thought. No matter how many Surya Namaskara A's and B's I do, it is still physically impossible for the muscles and joints to get "oiled" up in this freezing weather.


One consolation I look to is that I am aware that the the body burns more fat in very cold weather. With this in mind, I try my utmost best to control my food intake over here so I use up more of the fat in my body as opposed to adding to them. Food here is dairy, bread and pasta based. Carbohydrates overload to help keep warm. Though very yummy and are absolutely one of my favorite dishes, it is not very good at all for my "agni." I am desperately calling it my "controlled cheat week," eating at least a little bit of everything except meat. Thankfully, I still tread on the consciousness of what goes inside my body-- which is more warming foods and liquids.

Simply Ayurvedic

While searching for a place to eat dinner, we stumbled on this lovely Italian restaurant close to our home called Buona Vita. How awesome is this, I found a pasta dish in the menu that was not only sattvic but more or less fitted with my kapha consitution!-- Pasta Genovese. Pasta noodles cooked in basil leaves, pine nuts and olive oil. It was simply delicious!

Buona Vita- is a small but charming restaurant, where the atmosphere is homey and the service is good. They have an ample selection of food and is surprisingly inexpensive. My husband and I have found another restaurant where we are sure of going back! :)

Buona Vita Ristorante Italiano
Greenboro Bldg. Verdana Village Center
Daanghari Road, Bacoor, Cavite
+63 46 5174105

Also, another place we often eat at to satisfy our sattvic urges is a vegetarian restaurant called:
The Corner Tree Cafe
Located in Jupiter st., Bel-Air Village, Makati


I do love their vegan meatloaf with Idaho mashed potatoes, string beans and carrots! But don't just take my word for it. Give it a go! There a lot more yummy dishes to try from their vegan menu..:)

They really are worth going to! :)

Ayurvedic Food Choices

I try my best to make it a conscious effort in my life to eat sattvic or fresh, pure foods (such as: fresh vegetables, most fruits, freshly prepared grains, a good number of beans, milk, sweet cream, freshly made yogurt, mother's milk, ghee and butter in moderation). But I know that in this day and age, this doesn't come easy especially when rajasic foods (fermented foods, garlic, peppers of all kinds, eggs, cheeses, white sugar, most sweeteners, salt, radishes, peanut, citrus) and tamasic foods (most fast foods, fried foods, frozen foods, microwaved foods, processed foods, left over night foods, alcohol, drugs, chemicals, onions, lard, meat, fish and poultry) are much easier to obtain and suit our gastronomical palate more often.

Finding ingredients and cooking them or even just eating out gets trickier when you are trying your best to choose the kinds of food that fit whatever constitution you are, or what is called your "dosha." There are three: Vata, Pita and Kapha. With that said, I am a pure Kapha. :)

Since I can only do so much, and I have my dear husband to think about, we don't have the pleasure of eating with ayurveda all the time. And honestly, life is too short to be a little fussy. But because of my understanding and belief that this kind of holistic science which is 5,000 years old and is a time-tested system, assists the body, mind, and spirit by bringing harmony and balance starting with the food we eat... I have become aware at least of the kinds of food to choose and avoid (from time to time) for my particular dosha. If I allow myself some minor indulgences against them (which is very often), I still try to eat ayurvedically by choosing more pure, fresh and light foods.

With my changed eating habits aside, I also have to give my husband praises. I somehow have rubbed off a little of this consciousness on to him. He now knows his type of dosha (he is dual: kapha-pitta) but instead of being "dosha-conscious" about it, he chooses to eat instead in moderation of everything. And that too is ok! By being more aware of his food intake, he has now been adding a lot more pure foods in his diet. And once in a blue moon, he catches himself avoiding some foods that contradict his dosha. I am so proud that he is making the effort of being on the right track to healthier living.


Just to be clear that practicing ayurveda is not a cure, but is instead a preventive medicine. And just a little background on the 3 gunas, One of the benefits of eating more sattvic is that they keep you light, flexible, calm and helps clear the mind. It also is truth inspiring. When eating rajasic, it stimulates more fire, outward motion, creativity, aggression, passion. And lastly with tamasic foods, they increase inner darkness and confusion. They are good for numbing us out. It slows us down even depressing us at times. And it also enhances inertia.


So, ideally, when at home, (thanks to my Ayurvedic Cooking for Westerners book) I try my best to create sattvic. On good days, I am able to find some ingredients suitable for my type. Luckily, there is an Indian grocery store 3 minutes away from our home that more or less makes this possible.
When dining out, I try to make it a point that the bulk of my choices are mostly sattvic. If none are really available, then it's not the end of the world for me. I just pick the meal which is closest to being light and healthy. :)




Photo credit: healthjockey.com

Simple Cooking My Husband Loves.

My husband is a simple and easy man to please. The things I do like cooking at home makes him happy and excited to come home after a day at his "office," which is the golf course. We like eating out but he says, food cooked at home is always the best even if it is out of the can. So for lunch today I decided to make his favorite-- steak. While he was out playing a tournament, I kept myself busy. I went for a morning grocery run of steak and veggies. I opted for spinach for our greens, black rice, tuna meatloaf, spicy sardines and our left over corned tuna pasta for lunch. Since I have been avoiding red meat now, a meal of black rice, sauteed spinach and fish hits the spot for me. The steak was all for him. I got lucky that the meat I bought was tender. It was a hit! He loved everything I made for him. Nothing fancy and cooked in the most simple way, filled with lots of love as the main ingredient. Just looking at him enjoying his food and telling me he loves me so much is the best thanks I could ever get.