Healthy Hacks: Natural Dark Choco-Peanut Granola Squares Recipe

Hi everyone!

If you followed my other blog, you would know by now that I'm in Manila (A Chuvaness.com gift to welcome me in Manila!). This is a crazy, hectic, fast-paced city--descriptions of which are the exact opposite of what I would describe my hometown, Davao City. 

Greencross and I have pooled our resources to start getting rooted in this city. We are renting this small and neat condo in Soho Residential Condominiums. He has just landed a job and I dearly hope that I follow suit, too. I have a job that I've set my sights on; I really, really like the job so I'm hoping for the best. I don't have friends here in Manila, yet (except folks from Davao who are also here, thank goodness for them!) but I'm hoping that in the next few months, that'll change, too. I'll take to blogging in the meantime.

This is one of the Late Bloomer blog projects I will start on: "Healthy Hacks", a series of posts dedicated to share with you some quick and healthy recipes that I personally make. This post has been sitting in my drafts for about a month now, as the ingredients were something I bought from Davao in an EcoFair (wah, I need to start sniffing out market fairs here in Mandaluyong)

One of the few things I've observed from my friends living in a condo is that they are resorting to all kinds of canned food or ready-to-eat prepackaged meals. I sincerely doubt that what they are eating is healthy; I hope that it's all not junk, but I'm sure that eating spam and canned sausages for their daily breakfast may possibly skew the health balance in their body. I know that there's a lot of factors involving their choice of food, but if time constraints are a problem, there are so many easy recipes with low prep/cooking time!

On today's Healthy Hacks, we have a healthy variation of granola bars! It's a pretty spiffy, natural snack when you want something that just sits in the refrigerator, waiting to be gobbled on. I love these prepackaged granola bars, which are better as snacks than the usual chips and candies. But the recipe I have is SO MUCH BETTER. (Love your own! Hahah!)

Natural Dark Choco-Peanut Granola Squares (Total Time: 10 mins ; No. of Ingredients: 6 items )

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats / granola mix (I used both Revive Granola Mix and Australian Rolled Oats)
• 1 cup natural honey (I used Bio Dynamis wild honey)
• 2 tbsp dark cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Dark Unsweetened cocoa powder) or;
• 1 piece 100% cacao/tableya (I used one from Aloha Organic Garden and its AMAZING)
• 1/2 cup natural peanut butter 
• [Optional garnish: cornflakes, cinnamon, sweetened cocoa powder, peanuts or dried fruits]

Above is the basic setup of your ingredients list. Here's the procedure:

1. On a pot, heat everything except the granola/rolled oats and garnish over medium heat. Do not boil, just ensure that the cocoa/tableya and the peanut butter mixes well with the honey.

2. Take out the pot from the heat and pour into a square mold, or any heat-resistant bowl you have (I used Pyrex glassware) and mix in your granola mix.

3. Mix the granola and honey mixture to ensure everything is coated well. Garnish with cornflakes, like I did. Or choose your own, really. Nuts are really great, and dried fruits as well. My sister likes her granola squares to have lots of cinnamon because peanut butter + chocolate + cinnamon is just her thing :)

Cover the container and refrigerate. This lasts for about a week and a half in the freezer. I usually bring a piece if I go out and not want to have to buy junk. This makes me very full, because of the rolled oats and granola mix. It's also perfect as a protein fix because of the grains, and because of the peanut butter, too! It is chewy but with a little crunch. It's also absolutely great paired with tea!

Just because we don't have a lot of time on our hands or that life is a little hectic shouldn't give us the license to take for granted the only thing keeping us alive and kicking: a healthy functioning body! I'll make sure that despite the many temptations to splurge on food in Manila, I will choose the one that's cheap and healthy! Making my own food is the best place to start.

Thank you for reading!~
Keep healthy!

The gift of beauty comes with a price (Of moisturizers and eye creams!)

Hi!

February is here!

Why so fast! Though it's only the first few weeks of the year, I am getting more and more stuff, which is great but surprising. I have several skin care items that were given to me as a trade-off with a friend that I bonded over skin care items. I received The Body Shop Cranberry Joy Shower Gel and the Vanilla Bliss Hand Lotion from her; she got this over the holidays  but turned them over to me because she learned that I loved Cranberry and have always wanted to try that scent.

I traded these for my bottle of Queen Helene Mint Julep Mask because she said she has always been itching to purchase it but never got the time to. Although I have to buy another mint julep, I think it's still worth giving up because my friend threw in a vanilla lotion for me-- because she didn't like the vanilla scent as well!

Crazy girl, eh? But all the better for me!

I have just very recently tried the TBS Cranberry Joy Shower Gel. I love, love, love the scent that's straight from the bottle. It is an amazing cranberry smell that is more fruity than sweet. It's not overwhelming and it is a welcome burst of scent! I bought a fluffy loofah for this so I can scrub the shower gel all over my body and found that when you use the gel, the scent goes from fruity cranberry to a solid, barky cranberry that is so awesome because it doesn't smell so cloying. 

This is pretty popular in our household because the person who showers after me always exclaims that the bathroom smells so wonderful! Right now, my niece also uses this because she loves the scent and it moisturizes well enough without having that slippery feel.

Another thing I got is the TBS Vanilla Bliss Hand Lotion. I usually use this at night after taking a bath. AI actually mistook this for a body lotion so at the first try I spread it all over my my hand and body and wondered why it was so creamy? I finally realized it was a hand lotion but whatever! I love it so so so much! The scent is a vanilla au lait kind of thing.  I still use it on my arms and shoulders because I just HAVE to smell the vanilla scent before I go to sleep; it's like aromatherapy for me now! I don't think I can have a well-rested sleep without smelling it on me hahaha!

What I'm worried about is running out of this lotion. Both the Cranberry Joy and Vanilla Bliss are Christmas exclusives / holiday specials :( If I run out of this lotion before this year's Christmas my sleep is doomed! XD With this lotion, I sleep better at night and I wake up with soft skin!

 Since all of those products were given to me as a gift, I thought it was also appropriate that I also give myself a gift. Because I am just that awesome in my eyes. Speaking of eyes, what I bought is actually for the eyes. I've been eyeing (ok, fine, enough puns! XD) this Avalon Organics Essential Lift Contouring Eye Creme since last year because...

Look at those Puffy Eye Puffs of Forever:

And for a more drastic zoom, please welcome the tired-eyes-of-the-decade:

My sleeping habits have been shot. Again.

I've been looking for the best eye cream that does not sting, does not cause irritation, does not contain too much harmful chemicals and finally I settled that going organic was best! The last eye cream I tried was the Quick FX Eyelift Eye Cream (ugh yuck!!!) and the Skinfood Salmon Brightening Eye Serum (no-follow through) and they all did nothing for me in the end.

It is a great privilege for me to buy this thing because it is pretty darn expensive for just a small bottle, costing PHP845.00 canyoubelieveit! The gift of beauty comes with a price, indeed! But I saved up for this splurge, so I hope it does its job of helping my tired eyes. I've always loved my double eyelid, but recently I wished I was a monolid!

I'll be monitoring the results of the Avalon organics eye cream so stay tuned for that post! And I will also be getting a lot of sleep.


Take it from me, you need your beauty sleep.
Thanks so much for reading!~~

My Silly Little Makeup/Skincare Stash 2013

What's in my Makeup Shelf?

TADAAA!

Quite a lot? Or are these not so much? All I know is that this lot is far prettier compared to My Silly Little Makeup/Skincare Stash 2009!

As you can see, I have a lot of powders. I have currently about three. It helps my oily face quite well. The two were given to me by family members as a gift, and the princessy rose container I put a random milled powder in (as I divulged in a previous post) so technically I bought only one powder for me.

I also have two face bases, the BB cream which I bought and the Majolica Majorca Skinlingerie my sister bought for me. Yes, I received MM eyeshadows and blushers from my family because if you have 4 sisters like I do, you know they know the deal XD

Above is my skincare stash that's quickly running out. Check out my deodorant too! XD

Well that's it! XD Nothing much to see here. But recent developments and more gifts have come my way from friends! Stay tuned for that~

Thanks for reading, see you again!

Happy New Things! Etude BB + Princessy Stuff

Happy new year, everyone!
I sincerely hope that everyone is having a really good 1st of the month of the new year, because I sure am :D

It's the time of the year when everything feels really fresh and new! A clean slate for the new year, as they all say. So today I'm going to post about what are the good, new things I have make-up and skincare wise.

First up, I've finally purchased an Etude Precious Mineral BB cream

Precious Mineral BB Cream from Etude which has SPF! Will my Kose Sunscreen become redundant? 

Priced at around PHP700-PHP800. I commonly use BB cream or foundation whenever there's a special event, or if there's anything that I'd like to correct i.e. pimple spots or scar spots, or a darkening undereye area :( Instead of a concealer, I'd rather really choose a liquid foundation/bb cream to cover the spots because it's easier to blend, and I felt like I don't look so weird if I use this because it's close to my skin color. :)

A couple of days ago I also bought a really really superbly cute powder container for only PHP149! It is my second purchase and was quite a steal, because it certainly looked realllllyyy good for its price. I have quite a bit of refill powders from random compacts so I strained the powder to make it finely milled enough to house in this princessy container.

So far, my 2013 is looking good, literally! :D

I'll update more on the BB cream and also I have a skincare/makeup stash update for all of you soon so do come back.

Thanks for reading!

LOVE! LOVE! Shiseido MA CHERIE (マシェリ) Haircare Set Review

Hello dear readers! Thank you for paitently waiting until I was sane again! Sorry for all the ramblings *sheepish* I was at a rather weird spot for quite some time, a bad mental state in which I actually thought my stupid randomess was brilliant to share.

Well, let me give you an apology in the form of a haircare review for a shampoo-conditioner-treatment set which I've been using for a few weeks now. And it's one of the prettiest sets from Shiseido yet!

 Ma Chérie Airfeel

Shiseido

As mentioned earlier, I've been using this set *MOSTLY the shampoo* for a bit of a time, about 2 weeks now. I know I've been harping about going organic in both hair and bath products as well as skincare and body products but I'm just a girl! Look at that royal details and all that pink-ness. I can't possible pass up Shiseido Ma Cherie!? Because you know why...

The Shiseido Macherie Set is responsible for the

  softest hair I could have ever imagined:

My hair, right after showering. Towel-dried. Look ma, no comb!

Yes, it is that outrageous and holy-moly amazing! It has given me so much:

• shiny-ness, 
• soft-ness, and 
• light-ness 

All in one go! Even if I said a year ago that I Stopped Using Shisedo Tsubaki, I think that I would pledge my allegiance with Ma Cherie Airfeel. It is different from Tsubaki, mainly because of the Camellia oil content that tsubaki has, a lot of concentrated oil in that one which even with my thin hair, Tusbaki can heavily pack on the hair (product build-up is real, you guys!).

So let's get to know these little Ma Cherie bottles more!

Shiseido Ma Chérie Airfeel Shampoo 

Hee hee! I am almost halfway done. Isn't this the cutest little translucent pink bottle you've ever seen? I love the details too! Very Majolica Majorca / Jill Stuart though not as golden and sparkly but almost there! My Airfeel Shampoo is a 200 ML bottle, which is not the full-sized version yet.

The shampoo is a translucent pink, runny liquid that smells like roses and melons. If used solo, the fragrance doesn't last as long. But together with the conditioner or the treatment, the fragrance lasts FOREVER. Haha! It lasts quite long!

This shampoo is pretty. I find that it is suitable for everyday use!

Shiseido Ma Chérie Air feel Conditioner

The conditioner bottle is more opaque pink and it still has the promo sticker on it because I don't really use it a lot (2x a week max!) and there's still a lot of product left in my bottle. This is also 200 ML same as the shampoo, and has the same gold embellishments that I love!

The conditioner is a bit heavy and creamy, with a very light pink color. It spreads fairly easily, and it is not as oily as a Tsubaki conditioner.

This is one of the very few conditioners that doesn't trigger my migraine! I usually don't apply conditioners because of the overwhelming, heavy texture they leave. My hair is already oily so I don't need much of it, just for maintenance purposes.

Shiseido Ma Chérie Moisture Treatment

Oh my glob! I have yet to use this! XDD
I haven't the chance to use this tube yet, because the shampoo + conditioner combo is enough for me. I think this will be useful once a month, twice at most.

But it looks so pretty as is! I am in love with the packaging, could you tell? XD


The Ma Cherie Airfeel is a hair care killer! Using it, I feel so much lighter, no heaviness even if I did use the conditioner. The shampoo itself feels clarifying, and the conditioner is very mild but does the job so well, its nothing short of amazing.

And for that, I give it 5 STARS:

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked the review!

Take care and stay healthy

Tag: Why do you wear makeup?

Hello! Finally, a skincare and makeup related post eh?
Got this Blog Tag from kmmyp on Google Reader :)

Recently, I've been attending Christmas parties left and right. And what usually happens with these kind of parties is more often than not you are obliged to dress up. Company parties, business party get-togethers, that kind of stuff. It did get me thinking that I still suck at putting makeup on.

(1) When did you begin loving make-up?
I started being interested in makeup mid 2009, when I was having a rough patch about myself and how I looked. I realized that I was the only one holding back on improving myself in the looks department. I used to think that only the inside counts. I still believe that now, but there's also no harm in making myself go the extra mile! I don't really love make-up per se, but it is an impressive tool in making me look decent for parties and formal events! Because on a daily basis, I put my sunscreen on and that's it.

Bare face, everyday, all day

Apparently, eating choco bars and drinking almond milk are but a few of my hobbies that take up my time

 The first was on 2011. This was heavy makeup for me. Consisting of a face base, loose powder, blush, eyeliner, and eyeshadow! The second picture was just recently taken (last week's company Christmas party) and I realized that this was pretty light, compared to the makeup jobs some of my coworker had XDD But I like it enough because it changes my face without having to go to a dramatic transformation.

(2) How do you feel without make-up?
I feel absolutely fine. I wear no makeup on a daily basis except for a very pigmented lip balm.

(3) What do you like about make-up?
I'm not huge into it but I would like to be. It's nice to learn useful stuff like this, as event makeup artistry is a lucrative freelance job for some people! On a personal note, I like it when eyeliners define my eyes. I like it when the skin on my face looks really smooth and fine with a face base. I like it when my cheeks have a peachy color. You know, the whole shebang.

(4) What are your three of your holy grail make-up items?

 Majolica Majorca Eyliner, The Face Shop Liptint, Majolica Majorca Face base

If you're feeling like jumping on this nifty bandwagon, feel free to do so! If you have time, comment on this post with your responses or leave a link to your blog below so I can read yours, too :D

Christmas is a time for Devastation, Donuts, Drunk faces and Christmas Trees

I've been putting off recognizing December like an old friend I don't want to particularly acknowledge right now. It's one of my favorite months, yet for some reason this year's take on December kinda sucks. 

Pablo's Path of Destuction

Particularly this typhoon that hit Northern Davao pretty hard. It really sucks you guys, and there's not enough rice and packed viands I could donate for people whose homes, family members and livelihood have been taken away. Aside from food, our household is now pulling out various items that typhoon survivors can use: used but still sturdy and clean foam beddings, extra jackets, shoes, towels, toiletries, container bags, and more food. And lots and lots of water.

To think that our city is just a couple hours drive away, we only experienced rainshowers (though heavy), and quite a bit of urban flooding. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do if it gets worse. I think I am  ill-prepared.

This just in:
Devastation II a.k.a the Paquiao-Marquez Fight. :Oh, Did a tree just fall down--OHMYGODTHATWASPAQUIAOWTF!". But that's all said and done. Good fight. GG. But suddenly everybody's all up on their high horses about the fight. And don't you just get that feeling of bile rising up your stomach everytime someone forcefully chimes in with yet another two cents on a boxing match. Kesyo he lost because of his religion, or lack thereof, his political career, next album, his other distractions and I'm all like, "Dude, shut up! Your comments are irrelevant! Are you a sports analyst? No? Then talk to a fucking punching bag! Shit!"

Christmas Decors

At home, it is our tradition to always have a Christmas tree setup. Doesn't really mean anything but we love it because it is so pretty and festive and reminds us to always be cheery and bright!

And for the first time ever......... I was the one who bought our family tree! A huge first for me. I feel so matuuuuuure. I like being able to buy it myself so I get the chance to pick sprightly decors according to what I feel like having! And boy was it colorful! I also bought a very sprightly faux pine!

Donuts

Birthdays are celebrated with a lot of sweets, right? I mean, it's pretty obvious, nobody gets a sour bag of limes to celebrate happy occasions. But instead of cakes, we opted for a crowd-pleaser: Krispy Kreme's Holiday Assortments. I love that little custard filled white donut.

Family meals are so wonderful, don't you think? A lot of us are suckers for desserts; That's why they were invented, because we need an excuse to eat sweets despite us being full from the main course XD
More celebrations underway with one of my co-workers s and I am on the my tipsy way to ...

Drunktown

This is my face when drunk and relaxed. I tend to feel sleepy when I'm already tipsy. In the past I wasn't like this. When I was tipsy, I resorted to laughing and goofing around. But I'd prefer feeling sleepy; this prevents me from doing weird things that drunk people regret in the morning!

Well that's that folks! I'm sorry I've been rambling so much these past few days!

Another day, another selca

*selca - shortened term for self-capture

because when i said i wanted to try getting used to posting my face up, i was serious!

currenty at a housewarming / birthday party on a friday night and just discovered the i could push publish on an ipod touch using a blog app!

being vain is such hardwork.
hope this gets published correctly!!!

Canon 15 Years - What's Your Canon Story?

It is wonderful to capture a smile, but all the more when you witness that single smile bloom to a wide, happy grin! This is the very reason why I delved into videography together with my friends: to frame special memories as they happen 30 or 60 times per second ;)

History:
Two of my (many) hobbies are photography and videography. Surprise, surprise. I have special memories that surface when I look back at my introduction to photography when I was 14 years old. What I proudly thought were artistic photos taken using my sister's Vivitar film camera--the prehistoric camera that you need to rewind counterclockwise before the shutter button can activate anything--were anything but.

My photos were absolute crap, as you may have expected, but I was very happy whenever I got the chance to take it out and I always carefully saved my negatives (wow, I haven't used this term for so long) in an airtight ziploc bag, as well as my to-be-developed (!) rolls of film.

Covering a tearjerker prenup at the beach! The bride is relaxing

Now:
Now, I am a part of a new videography team. Solid Black Videos is composed mainly of four very close friends who love photography, videography and visual arts; In the picture above, that is Magsy, Mike, yours truly (Canon is obviously my best friend!) and Dan, at the right. We've known each other for pretty much a decade and together we embarked on a profound experience of capturing on video happy brides and grooms, local artists, and a lot of special events. We do all this and more using our Canon DSLR and digital cameras.

Videography is always more than just a profit-oriented business. It is a hobby, honed each time a camera is held. We're now even venturing into filmmaking. Hey, we're pushing the team's envelope here! Hahaha!

Goofing around while adjusting camera settings in a wedding shoot

Our team, Solid Black Videos, has but a good few videos under our belt and we have a lot of learning to do, and there's a lot of fun in store for us! Using Canon cameras have enabled us to be as creative as we can and to make people happy through presenting high-definition videos. There is no other camera we trust most. No other than Canon.

MTV Shoot with Davao's best local artist for the month of November - Photo grabbed from www.facebook.com/annemendozamusic

Canon has long been my constant companion and trustworthy friend to all my creative endeavors. I have one picture that I've held dearly. It was even used as my first profile in this BLOG! This is me back in 2009 at a cosplay event:

Grim face. Because adjusting f-Stops are srs bzns.

My journey with Canon just doesn't end there! In fact, I have an IXUS 220 HS Canon digital camera inside my bag all the time, my just in case camera. And it is so battlescarred like you wouldn't believe. :D

Do you have a Canon story you'd like to share? Any special experiences that you can tell with words and pictures? Join the "What's Your Canon Story?" online contest and win a Canon IXUS 125 HS by sharing your 500-word narrative with 1 to 3 photos to let Canon know how it has has affected your life in a positive way.

http://15years.canon.com.ph

"Those days when you just feel shitty"

It's been 2 months too late in updating this blog.
And this update is not even a beauty post. Wait, no, why am I feeling apologetic? This is a personal blog after all. Continuous typing begins now.

It's DECEMBER. The month where suicidal tendencies rise as high as obnoxiously ostentatious department store Christmas trees. The year is ending, and it's time to reflect on things that has been bothering me for quite sometime.

I've failed myself a couple of times in the span of my blog absence. You'd think that it takes a long time to make one stupid mistake up after another but noooo! I actually have the capacity to disappoint my family, my friends and myself in one go. I am grand slamming it up in the Not Impressed department.

I told myself midway this year: STOP BEING ANAL!!! Shit, I even penciled in my activities from June to December. What?! Who plans like that? ANAL RETENTIVE SHITHEADS LIKE ME THATS WHO. When I plan my life like that I get so irritated at life when there are curveballs---wow I can't even adapt like a normal human being! And I feel like I'm about to shit flames when plans get cancelled lol insane lang?

So I made a promise to myself to get rid of my organizer, get rid of any notion that life happens according to my scheduler. Because it doesn't. Get better at curveballs, Aicha. Love it. Live it. Shit happens. But don't say no to someone gifting you cute planner though!

On a non-related topic: I am so scared of showing skin. I have no clue why but, maaaan, everyday I dress like a cross between a manly girl and a young boy. It gets especially worse because in the recent years I developed an aversion to tops that hug my body. You know wai?

I am a fatso! Heya! The owner of this body is repulsed at herself, what more other people? I think I should just spare them from looking at my developing fats!

I want my skinny ass back. ;u;

But I am really beautiful though. Evidence: (quite a "determined to be disappointed" face there, eh.)

Am actually proud of myself for posting up a camwhore photo of myself. Don't remember taking one since June of this year. My resolution is to do more camwhores whether I like it or not.

I detest camwhoring quite a lot. Ironic as fuck. I especially hate solo camwhore ones! Whenever someone takes my picture I always NEED to have someone with me, too. I hate camwhore photos because I feel uselessly vain. There are a lot of vain people I know. I'm beautiful yes, I have good things; but I am human still! I still retain my weird insecurities about my caterpillar eyebrows and flat hair and thick lips to even venture into creating an entire Facebook album dedicated to my face.

I see it everyday; I don't need an album to validate over and over that yes indeed ladies and gents this is my face. But I need to do it so I will have a lot of practice with how to present myself in photos. But I think I need to put on gunk like make-up so the next time I see myself in the mirror and in pictures I'd be all: "Hayyy girl dang u so interestin' lookin'..."

To Myself: Next year, I want you to do the things you won't be able to do anymore. Dye your hair chocolate. Ombre it up with blue. Get piercings. But you won't because you're too safe and too square.

Next post won't be as crazy as this one I promise.
I will review a great deal about this chinese sweet tea I'm drinking. It's supposed to CLEAR YOUR SKIN by detoxifying those stuff inside your body and promote better digestion. Pretty cheap, too!
Stay tuned for that!

Until my next emotional breakdown.
Thanks for reading!