My Picky Eater’s Top Food Picks: Banana Waffle Sandwich

Ingredients

2 Whole Wheat Bread

1 Banana – Em shared some surprising banana facts here

1 Tablespoon Star Margarine Sweet Blend

Simply mash the banana. Mix with the margarine. Spread on the bread. Put another bread on top. Toast in the waffle maker for a minute or two. Cut into fun shapes. Yum-oh in less than 3 minutes.

I was supposed to put some cinammon but I could not find where Lotlot kept it.

Success!

After several bites around the edges, the sandwich looked like a dog. Or at least I was able to convince Aki that it had a head, a tail and legs. Aki made a house and a ladder with a door.

First Real Painting

The Sun

by Aki @ 27 months

Hooked on Hook

Aki: Mmmmameee! Look! Oook! Oook!

Translation: Mummy, look! I am Captain Hook!

Somebody likes Thomas the Train

Not seen in the picture are his Thomas boots.

Every night, the choo choo chens go to sleep too.  Annie and Clarabel need blankets, of course.  Note that Thomas doesn’t get a blanket because he sleeps in a secret hiding place that only mummy knows.

Long Hair!

Makes me want to have a baby girl NOW!

Our 2012 Family Goal: Wealth Management

That is my fancy term for save more, spend less and investly wisely. Doesn’t  ”wealth management” sound more motivating? Every time I pass by MiniStop and get tempted to buy another cheesecake ice cream, I silently say “wealth management” to myself and then walk away. Same case when were eating out last Saturday. Simply saying “wealth management” made that  all-meat pizza seem less appetizing.

Here are our specific steps to  get closer to our 2012 goal.

1.  Review our Finances. We made the following files
 - Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth
 - Summary of Constant and Variable Cash Flow 
 - Mutual Fund and UITF performance trackers

2. Organize our financial documents.  Should something happen to one of us (knock on wood!), this expandable folder will make it easier for the bereaved spouse to move on.

3. Go back to budgetting. I am proud to say that Franco and I are very good at staying on budget.

4. Learn more about financial planning
     – Read books – check! I highly recommend these two books. 

     – Subscribe to financial planning blogs. I did not just put them on my favorites. I subscribed to the blogs via email so I won’t miss a post.
    -  Attend a seminar. This is still a question mark. I think we know the basics already. What we need would be guidance on how to invest.  Enter specific step # 5.

Best Cakes in the South

Are in The Cake Planet!

If you are heading south this coming weekend, go go go go go! We are not dessert people and in case you haven’t notice, I don’t have posts on restos that we visited.  So recommending this secret bakeshop in Bicutan  means their cakes are really really good!

This is the Santa Cruz. Isn’t that the most interesting name for a cake?  John, the owner and baker, was there when we visited. I could not decide which of his cakes to try. I just told him to give me a slice of  the most interesting cake that they have. The Santa Cruz has layers of chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and lemon cream. My husband who does not like citrus-y desserts liked it! I was in love!

Franco, who grew up with lactose intolerance which resulted to avoidance of anything sweet except for longganiza, ordered the usual – chocolate cake. True to its name which I don’t remember but it sounded like Flourless Super Moist Chocolate-y Cake, it was super moist and chocolatey!  

Hi, I am Akira and I am Fish-a-holic

You know your are fish-a-holic when..

 
You have not one, not two but 8 fish pets!

You are favorite books are about fishes.

You walk two blocks every morning to say hello to the neighbor’s koi.

Mummy Wins! Aki Wins! Oral Hygiene Wins!

January 16, 2012.  Around 7.40 in the evening.

At.Long. Last. My first real win in a negotiation session with Aki. I have a lot of pending entries in the pipeline but since we are yaya-less ( Lotlot is on AWOL ), those blog entries will just have to wait.

My mom got Aki new toothpastes which he was excited to try. He pushed a chair to the kitchen sink, stood on the chair and asked for a toothbrush. I asked him to choose among three of this five toothbrushes. He chose his Firefly toothbrush. We have a pre-brushing ritual after putting toothpaste on the brush – sawsaw, halo-halo, taktak. We were on to a good start. After letting me brush his molars, he decided he is done and rushed to the living room. After wrestling with him in the sofa for a few minutes as I tried to brush his teeth, I had a light bulb moment.
I picked up his Thomas “Chuchu (short pause) Chen” which I took out of the box just last Sunday and announced, ” If you won’t let me brush your teeth, No Thomas for tonight. I will count one to ten, If you are not ready when I reach 10, I will put your train away. One, Two, ….”

My Picky Eater’s Top Food Picks: Peanut Butter!

 Because Aki has mood swings when it comes to eating, I have become more conscious of what I feed him. When I go to the grocery, I review the labels before putting an item on my basket.  Because of this new habit, I have learned that pancakes, Hanzel sandwiches and wafers, do not have anything significant to offer aside from calories.

I got the idea to introducing peanut butter from Faye‘s post. Not only is peanut butter yummy, it is good source of protein.

After reviewing the labels of different brands, I chose Tobi Creamy Peanut Butter Spread

because it has 0% sodium.

One serving or two tablespoons have 8 grams of proteins. That is half of the daily protein needs of toddlers 2-3 years old.