homemaking Archives - Happy Pinay Mommy

How multitasking can help save energy and time in the kitchen

happypinaymommy — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 05:29:18 +0000

Easy to multitask in smaller kitchens

Hello everyone! Sharing with you one of my kitchen hacks to save time and electricity in the kitchen. Whenever I cook rice (which is always everyday), I utilize the steamer basket attachment of my rice cooker to reheat or steam some other food items.

For instance I reheat my frozen suman (rice cake). Since suman packs come in 10 usually, and we cannot finish it all in one day, I freeze the suman and reheat it as needed.

Cooking and reheating

I also steam eggs in silicone cups so that it will come out as boiled. We need boiled eggs in our house all the time — as snack, school baon, sandwich filling, or salad ingredient.

The next food item that I usually steam are potato chunks, which keeps for like three days in the ref and is perfect for several side dishes and viands. These includes omelet, potato salad, mashed potato, and miso butter potato chunks. The good news about all these? All food items can be steamed at the same time. Just make sure that they are in separate dishes or tightly wrapped in aluminum foil.

After the 30-minute cooking time of our rice, the suman, the eggs, and potatoes will be perfectly heated or cooked through!

Easy in the kitchen

If you are on the lookout for more kitchen tips and recipes, I hope you could check out our website specifically this section on recipes here. We also have weekly meal plans and budget ulam ideas.

Food for the soul

At this point I hope you can allow me to share with you another bible passage that continues to inspire me. This time it is from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians:

“Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; it is not arrogant.”
1 Corinthians 13:4

Thank you for stopping by and till next post!

A happy homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

Happy to be resuming Easter Family Traditions

The post How multitasking can help save energy and time in the kitchen appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

7 Ways to Make a Comfortable and Welcoming Guest Room

happypinaymommy — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 01:14:33 +0000

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

These days, social gatherings are more intimate, involving sleepovers or long travels. You often guests over to create better relationships with them, and having a guest room is the icing on your hospitality cake. However, it’s one thing to have a dedicated bedroom and another to make it the perfect escape from your visitor’s monotonous routine.

Why Guest Rooms Should be Welcoming and Comfortable

A warm and welcoming guest bedroom is the perfect way to showcase your creativity to your visitors, as they do on phixer.net. It’s the ideal opportunity to showcase your hospitality and interior design skills simultaneously. Having a pleasant experience could potentially open doors to more opportunities in the future.

Sprucing Up Your Guest Room

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need expensive items to assemble the perfect guest bedroom; you need creativity and imagination to bring your ideas to life. Prioritize the room’s cleanliness, sanitation, safety, privacy, and ambiance.

1. Nail the essentials

Every guest needs a few basic things to be comfortable, including sleep, privacy, and hygiene. A comfortable and welcoming bedroom should have the bare minimum requirements or basics. You should operate under the assumption that your guest may forget to pack toiletries in advance.

You can consider this your essentials checklist:

Mattress and sheets
Pillows
Toiletries such as soap, toothpaste, and shampoo
Disposable slippers and toothbrush
Proper heating or cooling system
Fixed doors and windows

If your house has a centralized bathroom, inform other housemates in advance to avoid uncomfortable run-ins.

2. Neutral tones for interior design

A comfortable and welcoming room should be able to accommodate guests from all walks of life. Some colors may be excessively glaring or hurt a person’s eyes, so you should choose neutral or cool tones. If you want warm tones, you can use them as accents or secondary colors.

3. Neatness, always

A clean room radiates a welcoming ambiance. Maintain your guest room’s cleanliness, so you’re ready to accommodate friends and relatives anytime. If you expect people over at your house, you can vacuum and mop your floor before then.

You should appropriately organize, clean, and sanitize the room to ensure that nothing could potentially trigger your guest’s allergies. You wouldn’t want your guest to spend half of his time cleaning the room or catching a cold.

4. Newly-washed sheets

Ensuring clean sheets is part of the comforting and welcoming guest bedroom experience. Unwashed sheets could be problematic for the guest’s safety and comfort since they develop odors or bacteria over time. You may leave an unwelcoming impression if your guest sleeps in smelly and soiled linen.

The best way to ensure you don’t accidentally let your guest sleep in unwashed blankets is to place fresh sheets before bedtime, and your guest will know that the bed sheets are untouched from the closet.

5. No light ambiance

It’s easy to rely on lighting to create the room’s ambiance, but a comfortable guest bedroom should have a great atmosphere from the start. Most of the time, your visitor will only be retreating to his room to sleep; how the room looks with the lights off would help the overall impression.

It may seem minute, but strange reflections or figures could trigger the guest’s imagination or be mistaken as ghosts or monsters. The visitor may have trouble sleeping.

6. New technology

If you have a few extra bucks to spare, you can wow your guest with a smart device. It doesn’t have to be big, fancy, or expensive, and you can start with a simple color-changing smart bulb or speaker. Technology like color-changing lights could help your guest feel more at ease.

7. Never forget to accessorize

Accessories are not part of the essentials but are important in improving the room’s general feel. You don’t have to decorate with expensive items, but you must personalize the experience enough to give a lasting impression.

Bottomline

If you are in the habit of inviting people over, every tiny detail will matter to them. From the sheets to the curtain, your guests will appreciate the work you put into ensuring their stay is worthwhile. Your rooms should be accommodating and cozy, so your guests will have a pleasant stay.

The post 7 Ways to Make a Comfortable and Welcoming Guest Room appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

Filipino Weekly Meal Plan Recipes 2017 June 05

happypinaymommy — Sun, 04 Jun 2017 08:14:12 +0000

Off topic: Just proud of my eldest who helped me with this image/graphics for our Filipino Weekly Meal Plan Recipes 2017 June 05

Hi Everyone, sharing with you our new, more comprehensive (and revitalized —hahaha) Filipino Weekly Meal Plan Recipes 2017 June 05 to June 11. Hopefully this could help those of you who may not have mapped out their Filipino Weekly Menu as of yet.

Starting this week I will be cascading a more comprehensive meal plan as I will be sharing with you as well, the meals I will be making for our baby, toddler, pre-schooler, as well as our grade-schooler.

Filipino Weekly Meal Plan Recipes 2017 June 05:

Sharing Our new and improved (hahahaha) Filipino Weekly Meal Plan Recipes 2017 June.

If you may notice, most of the packed lunch meal for grade schooler is the same thing that the family will be having for lunch. This is of course to save on prep time, as well as the electricity used for cooking the meals. This will also minimize left-overs and save on our food budget. Check out out baon recipe suggestions in this post.

The meal suggestions for the baby/toddler is meant for BLW babies hence most of the suggested meal items are just unseasoned versions of what the whole family is having. Of course just mind the portion slices depending on the age of your baby, and the weaning method of your baby. Make your own adjustments as well if you follow Tamang Kain principles – although most of the food in the weekly pinoy meal plan above adhere to that.

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I have also taken into consideration the suggested school baon recipes that I have included in our back-to-school bundle of blogposts which you may find here.

Some of the recipes, as always, are part of our under P100.00 ulam recipes, in our yearly series.

If you are overwhelmed with the meal plan and would think that it would just leave you slaving in your kitchen the whole day, then you may want to batch cook what you can and just freeze what can be frozen. Here is previous blog post on freezer meals and weekly meal preparation. For instance, pancakes can be frozen in zip lock bags for reheating when needed. This will be very helpful during hurried crazy mornings, or as baon for your little school kids.

Some lunch baons for your gradeschoolers may also need preparation the night befor (like the thawing and breading of porkchop and the tortang talong), but that advanced preparations will leave you worriless the next day because you will just have to fry the above-mentioned pinoy ulam.

I also tend to cook pinoy food that is good for 2-3 meals so that I could save and freeze some for later use, or eat the same ulam at night when everything is going crazy in the household.

Anyway, till next week!

If you have the time, hope you could drop by my Facebook page and hit the like button, or follow our Instagram account so you can receive regular updates from Happypinaymommy.com direct on your newsfeed.

Thank you so much!

A Happy Homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

Leaving you with more recipes for on-the-go breakfast recipes and ideas:

Breakfast Food Recipes Children Can Eat in the Car

The post Filipino Weekly Meal Plan Recipes 2017 June 05 appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

How to Make Homemade Kid-Friendly Hand Sanitizer

happypinaymommy — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 10:32:00 +0000

Here is How to Make Homemade Kid-Friendly Hand Sanitizer.

Looking for a great give-away for your kid’s party, or you just plainly want to make one that is safe for your school-aged child to use?

Here are some recipes of Homemade Kid-Friendly Hand Sanitizer:

Lambanog or Vodka Based Hand Sanitizer – This recipe for hand disinfectant as published by Growing Up Herbal makes use of 80-proof vodka which you can substitute with local and cheaper alternatives like the lambanog. If you do not have aloe vera plant at home you can even buy an aloe vera gel in any pharmacy. Citrus essential oils can meantime be brought here http://ho.lazada.com.ph/SHGlR2, or you may want to check out my previous post on where to buy essential oils.
Aloe-Vera Based Non-Toxic Hand Sanitizer – If you have an Aloe Vera at home then make use of it by extracting the gel and turning it into a non-toxic hand sanitizer for your kids! You can always propagate some if you want to have a steady supply of free homemade natural sanitizer. Here is a good recipe from Wellness Mama. Apart from Aloe Vera Gel, you will have to add Tea Tree Oil extract for the extra all-natural Anti-bacterial property. You may find Tea Tree Oil Extract here.

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Vinegar-Based Hand Sanitizer –— Could just be the easiest natural hand disinfectant to make, however one may be hesitant to use it considering the sour scent of vinegar. Well, as shared by Mom.Me here, adding some drops of Lavender essential oil can do the trick. After all, even on its own, the scent of vinegar will definitely dissipate. Buy Lavender Essential Oil here.
Tea-Tree Oil Based – Is a non-aloe vera-based chemical-free hand sanitizer that has great anti-bacterial properties. It mainly makes use of castile soap, and Tea Tree Oil and distilled water placed in a recycled spray bottle. Get the step-by-step instructions here.You can buy tea tree oil here and Castile soap here.

So there you have it, I hope you were able to choose a great kid friendly hand sanitizer for your child to use. I will be updating this post as soon as I discover more chemical-free hand disinfectant recipes.

Please drop by my facebook page for feedbacks, comments or suggestions

Looking forward to hearing from you.

A Happy Homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy!

Leaving you with a video on DIY Natural Hand Sanitizer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn-J8lrW_HU

https://happypinaymommy.com/2016/06/07/23-meal-ulam-ideas-filipino-babies-kids/

**This post may contain Affiliate Links AT ABSOLUTELY NO EXTRA COST TO YOU. Thank you for supporting happypinaymommy.com

The post How to Make Homemade Kid-Friendly Hand Sanitizer appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

Where to buy Castile Soap in the Philippines

happypinaymommy — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 12:51:51 +0000

Where to buy Castile Soap in the Philippines? Here are some local shops. (Photo Credits)

If you are looking for Castile Soap in the Philippines for your various homemade DIY cleansers and natural products, then this post is for you.

I have compiled a list of shops or places where you can purchase castile soap in the Philippines be it from online or in brick or mortar stores. So here’s –

Where to buy Castile Soap in the Philippines:

Lazada.Ph – If you used to ask your friends or family abroad to bring home Dr. Bronner’s Castile soap for you then you no longer have to do that because you can now order via Lazada.ph! You can order the liquid version – here, or the usual Castile Soap Bar here in various scents (they have unscented too.

Casa de Lorenzo – Sells and even delivers Castile Soaps anywhere in the Philippines! You may fill out an order form in their website here and you are well under way to receiving liquid Castile soap in 250 ml, 500 ml, one liter, to one gallon increments!

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Souq Organics – If you live in the Quezon City Area then head to Katipunan Extension in White Plains where you can find Souq Organics (yes just across the many plant stores there adjacent to Camp Aguinaldo) – this is the same shop famous for its Moroccan Argan Oil products. They sell castile soap too, and are open from Mondays too Sundays. Here’s a link to their website.
So True Naturals – If you are planning to use Castile Soap for your babies and kids hen this is the online shopping site for you. Their castile soap with mild baby-friendly scents are being sold at about P275.00 per bar. Check out their website here.
Cutie Verse – Carries scented and unscented Castile soaps which are mostly liquid-based and can be bought for 350.00 to 400.00. You will be blown away with the scents. Apart from their online shopping website, they are a mainstay of the Legazpi Sunday Market. Here’s a link to their webpage.

So there you have it, I am sure there are other shops and places that sell Castile Soap in the Philippines. I promise to update this post as soon as I discover more shops. If you have the time, hope you could drop by my Facebook page and hit the like button, so you can receive regular updates from Happypinaymommy.com direct on your newsfeed.

Thank you so much!

A Happy Homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy.

Leaving you with this video on how to make DIY Castile Soaps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ef-XS1KLI4c

Easy Tofu Tokwa Recipes Under P100.00

The post Where to buy Castile Soap in the Philippines appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

Where to buy Fabric for Curtains in the Philippines

happypinaymommy — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 06:58:18 +0000

Planning to buy fabric for curtains in the Philippines? Check out this list. (Photo Credits)

If you are looking into doing DIY curtains to save up on money, or purely to have an outlet for your creative homemaking prowess then this post is for you.

I have earlier written about where to buy curtains in the Philippines (both for physical shops, and online stores) but I understand that some of you might want to go the DIY route.

The usual fabrics used for curtains are Brocade, PolyCotton, Thai Silk, and the like. All these can be bought in both local and physical online stores.

So here is a list of —

Where to buy Fabric for curtains in the Philippines:

1. Divisoria — brave the streets of Ilaya and Juan Luna in Divisoria and you will see stalls after stalls of telahan where you can find cheap but good quality fabric for curtains in the Philippines. Tabora also has some stalls where you may find curtinahan and telahans so check it out too. You may also check out the stalls in the Tutuban Mall.

2. Taytay Market — you can buy fabric for curtains here by the kilo so prepare to be overwhelmed with the many choices and the low cost fabric for curtains! They also sell sewing machines there too, so if you want to take your DIY Prowess up another notch then withdraw some moolah and ride the shopping bug!

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3. Kamuning Market- QC-based mommies, you can choose, buy and even look for curtain seamstresses in this palengke that me and my mom frequent back in the 90s. Yes there are still stalls after stalls of fabric shops here, and if you don’t know any mananahi, the tinderas and shop owners for sure can reco a good one too!

4. Mall-based fabric stores — not exactly the cheapest places to find fabric for curtains in manila but is basically the most convenient especially if you are yaya-less, you have kids in tow, and you are somehow willing to pay for convenience. Greenhills has Fanbi and Fabric Warehouse. Glorietta 5 has a lot of fabric stores for you to choose from. Shangri-la Mall in Edsa has Expressions and another fabric store, Megamall also has some fabric stores, along with a branch of Carolinas. Libis (almost across Eastwood) has a Fabric Warehouse branch too!

5. Online –– if you can’t get out of the house, or you have allergic rhinitis and sadly can’t go to physical stores then online shopping is your best bet! Here are some online fabric stores that have telang pangkurtina. —- Curt N Master – They actually have a shop in Tabora, (click here for a map of their exact location) and the good news is they have an online store! You will love the many choices here of fabrics and ready made curtains, so go ahead and browse their online store here. Centro Texstyle Curtains Has brocades, linens, and polycottons! They also have curtain accessories. Check out their store here.

So, there you have it. I am sure there are other curtain fabric stores in the Philippines. I promise to update this post as soon as I get to discover more. Hope you could drop by my Facebook page and hit the like button, so you can receive regular updates from Happypinaymommy.com direct on your newsfeed.

Thank you so much!

A Happy Homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy.

Leaving you with this video on DIY Curtains:

Online Shops that sell Curtains in the Philippines

The post Where to buy Fabric for Curtains in the Philippines appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

Online Shops that sell Curtains in the Philippines

happypinaymommy — Thu, 04 Feb 2016 16:28:15 +0000

Looking for Online Shops that sell Curtains in the Philippines? (Photo Credits)

I have earlier written a post on places where you can buy cheap and cheerful curtains. But for those of you who may not be able to leave the house for longer periods of time to head to these shops (due to epic traffic, WAHM Business Commitments, Being Yaya-Less), then this post is for you.

I have collated a list of online stores that sell curtains. Amazingly, these are stores that carry a wide selection as if you went to DIVI yourself. They have a wide array of fabrics to choose from and since the photos are hi-res, it is easy to choose a design! So here is the list of —

Online shops that sell curtains in the Philippines:

Lazada PH — hate the epic traffic situation? Head on over at Lazada and choose from there. They post accurate dimensions and descriptions so you dont have to worry. Take a look at this curtain — which you can buy here for just P249.00.
Triple J’s Curtain Shop, which has a wide array of selections – some are even at P200.00 apiece. They also have curtain accessories. They have brocade, cotton fabric, Thai silk, Plain, and even those with Cartoon Characters. Here is a link to their FB Store.

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Van Doy’s Curtains – Is an FB Shop that has a wide inventory of curtains! They have brocade, Linen, Polycotton, Semi Black-out, Plain, See through, and Swag. They also accept Made to Orders. Check out their FB Store here.
Curt N Master – They actually have a shop in Tabora, (click here for a map of their exact location) and the good news is they have an online store! You will love the many choices here of ready-made curtains and fabrics (my blog entry on fabrics for curtains will be posted soon!), so go ahead and browse their online store here.
Lani’s House of Curtain – Is another physical store, this time in Baclaran, that has opened an FB Store so you would not have to brave the traffic going there. They have a lot of ready made curtains to choose from. Browse their albums here.
D’Shop Assahlee – Is an FB Store that sells Ready-made Character curtains for your kids’ rooms, playrooms, and nurseries. They also sell baby stuff among other baby-related items. Here is a link to their store.

So, there you have it. I am sure there are other online stores that sell curtains in the Philippines. I promise to update this post as soon as I get to discover more. Hope you could drop by my Facebook page and hit the like button, so you can receive regular updates from Happypinaymommy.com direct on your newsfeed.

Thank you so much!

A Happy Homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy.

Leaving you with this video on Curtains Trends for 2016:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ErXyW82Qc

**This post contains affiliate links at ABSOLUTELY no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting happypinaymommy.com

Where to buy Curtains in the Philippines

The post Online Shops that sell Curtains in the Philippines appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.

Where to buy Curtains in the Philippines

happypinaymommy — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 16:18:57 +0000

Where to buy curtains in the Philippines. (Photo Credits)

If you are looking for cheap curtains in the Philippines then this post is for you.

There are a lot of places to get cheap, but good quality curtains in Manila and i have listed here some of the places that you may check out. I am writing a separate post on ONLINE shops where you may order curtains from, so this particular post is for physical stores you can actually go to.

I will also soon come up with a post on where to buy fabric for curtains for those of you who may want to do a DIY or buy one to be sewn by your favorite seamstress.

Anyway, here is a list of places–

Where you can buy curtains in the Philippines:

1. Department stores — if you want to physically see the curtains and choose from a wide selection then head over to a mall near you and hit the home sections of your favorite department store. Worth checking out are the selections in SM home — especially the one in Makati, as well as that of Landmark.

2. Divisoria –– The Divi malls like 999 have a lot of stalls that sell curtains. Head on to Divi and choose! In fact even street-level sellers sell cheaper curtains, but if you want cheap but better quality and nicer prints/fabric type/designs then go inside the malls.

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3. Baclaran — has a lot of ready-to-hang curtains and if you just choose carefully, you may just be able to buy one that is cheap and cheerful! After stopping by the Redemptorist Church, go through the back parking, park your vehicle there and go through a tiny gate out into the back and you will see a palengke packed with stall after stall of dry goods. Just ask around for the curtain stalls and the friendly tinderas there will point you to the right direction.

4. Ilaya St., and Juan Luna in Divisoria — you will find a lot of curtains here, and these streets may just have the widest and cheapest curtain selections that you will see.

So, there you have it. I am sure there are other places that sell curtains in the Philippines. I promise to update this post as soon as I get to discover more. Hope you could drop by my Facebook page and hit the like button, so you can receive regular updates from Happypinaymommy.com direct on your newsfeed.

Thank you so much!

A Happy Homemaker is a Happy Pinay Mommy.

Leaving you with this video on This year’s trends on Curtains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbbBtzOCVfg

Where to Buy Bento Tools and Accessories in the Philippines

The post Where to buy Curtains in the Philippines appeared first on Happy Pinay Mommy.