From Dawn Till Dusk

Cooking for my loved ones over the last few weeks has never been this challenging. When Nico turned six months almost two years ago, I thought that preparing healthy meals for a baby who can readily be fed with solid foods were one of the toughest responsibilities a working Mom like me could ever have.

Not until last month when Jun’s cardiologist confirmed (after going through various lab tests i.e. Panel 10, Treadmill/Stress Test, ECG) that indeed, the increased chest pains, headaches, and chilling he frequently feels when stressed or pressured, is brought about by his hypertension, the high-cholesterol level he has, and apparently (sadly) his current weight. Aside from taking maintenance medicines (Vidastat) and regular cardio-vascular exercises, the doctor recommends a strict watch of his diet—more of fish and vegetables and less on pork, beef, salty, spicy and fatty foods—otherwise, his condition would worsen into a serious cardiac illnesses. Thus, the need for me to prepare healthier dishes and take a tough challenge of cooking for two loved ones with varying dietary requirements.

Planning carefully what to cook involves a great deal of energy for me, not to mention the time and money that we have spend on this basic necessity. And the adjustment was never smooth. It’s really tiring. Maybe its because during the first three years of our married life (when my husband Jun and I were still a couple, Nico isn’t born yet), preparing meals were never a problem. In fact, we seldom cook at home. We only do if we feel like cooking to satisfy our hunger. During weekdays, we eat breakfast and lunch at our respective workplaces. At dinner time, (if luckily we’re both home early and there are no late meetings in the office) that would be the only time I would prepare a meal for us. Or if tired, lazy to cook, we would just buy viand and rice at a carinderia on our way home, or worst, we would just katay a can of cornbeef or tuna stocked at our kitchen shelves.

Nevertheless, even in a very slow pace, I thankfully got used to this still-to-be-enhanced task of cooking and preparing healthy meals. From somewhat awful and disgusting meals (that both Nico and Jun can’t take eating) and those unnecessary trips to the market and grocery due to my being forgetful, or shall I say my amnesia, in completing all the ingredients, I eventually learned to prepare different dishes and family pots that suit, and of course loved by both a Little Picky Eater and an Aging Adult (hehehe, sorry Dada).

My many thanks to cookbooks (No Pork Cookery by Perla del Mundo is my fave), the limitless resources in the Internet, and of course, watching my favorite programs at Lifestyle/Food Network (my favorites—Nigella Bites, Hot Off the Grill (Bobby Flay), Iron Chef America, 30-Minute Meals (Rachelle Ray), Good Eats (Alton Brown), Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Live, Everyday Italian, Tyler’s Ultimate, and Molto Mario), I am now more confident at preparing simple and (sometimes) complex dishes.

A technique that worked for me is to have a menu plan for the entire week so I can identify ahead what ingredients need to be bought at the grocery store or at the palengke on weekends. Planning a week-long menu also helped us reduce leftover foods in the house.

When doing the marketing/shopping, it helps me to be meticulous and wise to prevent from buying “adulterated” food products proliferating in both the wet and dry markets. For meals that require a little flavor of meat, especially the vegetable ginisas, I prefer to go for the lean ground meat as they have lesser fat. In choosing fishes, I like better those fishes that are smaller rather than the big ones. Small-sized fishes have thinner tinik that are edible to eat, thus, more calcium are consumed by the body. As much as possible, I try not to buy ahead (then store) vegetables in the chiller if I know it will not be consumed right away. It is best to buy vegetables a day before or on the day it will be cooked so that it is still fresh.

Reviewing what was learned way back in school (remember the food pyramid—body-building, energy-giving, and regulating food?), it works that I plan and select the right kind of food for my family. This pyramid as guide really helps so much as it suggests the amounts of the different food groups that we need to maintain healthy. A rule of thumb of the food pyramid principle is that “food within a group have similar nutritive values and may be substituted for one another”. When cooking, I try to at least use at minimal levels, artificial flavorings and food additives such as seanonings, even salt and pepper. If a meal calls for frying or sautéing, it is best to use oil that is cholesterol-free, an example of which is the vegetable oil.

So, what in the Brum’s Menu Plan?

I thought that the meals for breakfast should be those that are easy to cook but are heavy as we exert more energy in the morning, right? It saves us time, effort and money. A mug of oatmeal partnered with any fruits in season (usually banana and ripe mango) for Jun and the very versatile lugaw that can be mixed with most vegetables and meat for Nico are perfect for breakfast. Aside from lugaw (which Lola Mommy often say my Little Babe is a product of), Nico also loves champorado with a round of condensed milk on top and sopas swimming with bits of carrots, sayote and chicken for breakfast. As for me, I often have a mug of Milo Fuze at home and just take heavy breakfast at our office canteen. Tocinos and longganisas (though they taste really delicious, but ewww, they have too much food additives like salitre) are definitely out of our breakfast menu plan.

For lunch, since its just Nico and Ate Ness who will be eating in the house, it’s fine to cook meaty meals. I often cook one-dish meals that are soupy or saucy so that meat and vegetables can be flaked and mashed and that Nico will find the meal easy to chew. Siningang na baboy (or any sinigang i.e. bangus sa miso or bayabas), nilagang baka, tinolang manok, batchoy, and menudillio/giniling were the most common that I cook as they are Nico’s favorites. Often, I also share a portion of the lunch meal that I cook for Nico and Ate Ness and bring them to the office as my baon. It sure saves me much of my allowance as food for lunch in our office canteen are quite expensive. Jun however, who often had lunch meetings with his clients, had no other choice but to eat out. Thankfully, there are many restaurants within his vicinity that offers healthy meals for lunch. In between meals, especially when Jun is on field work, I make sure he has plentyful of crackers with him so his stomach won’t feel empty hours before lunch or dinner (Jun has this tendency to eat aggressively and too much at meal times if he feels like he’s got an empty stomach.

At dinner time (the only time that we all eat together), I make it a point to prepare two viands—usually vegetable and fish meals, so they are just light and right before retiring at night. Some of the family’s favorites are ginisang ampalaya, ginisang kalabasa with bihon, pinakbet, chopsuey, adobong sitaw partnered with either fried tilapia or galungong, or if Jun made special requests, I cook escabecheng maya-maya, paksiw na bisugo, sarsiadong dalagang bukid, or boneless bangus steak. A favorite of mine (but is quite foreign to Jun as he doesn’t like the smell) is balao-balao sauted in garlic and onion. Balao-balao (not known to many, but folks from my hometown Rizal are familiar with it), is a pinkish-colored condiment made out of fermented rice and small shrimps. Balao-balao is best partnered with fried fish. Cooking vegetable and fish meals with gata also tastes good. I however decided not to cook yet meals with gata until such time that Nico’s tummy is ready for it (hmmm, maybe when he turns 4).

Seeing my loved ones enjoy and savor what was prepared for them gives me a sense of happiness and fulfillment as wife and Mom, or better, as a homemaker. It encourages me further to enhance my cooking so that I can see more smiles of satisfaction in my loved ones’ faces.