4 years of blogging!

Today is my 4 year anniversary of blogging! I started 'Tunay Na Mahal' back on March 17th, 2008! It's been a space for me to share my long distance relationship, our immigration process, life in Philadelphia, travels to the Philippines; my pets & things I love!

P.S. Please check out these items I'm selling on Ebay!

Yay! More Phil-Am Goodies!

We ordered some more Philippine goodies from Phil-Am Food the other day. They are always super quick with shipping... (but then again New Jersey is pretty close to Philadelphia). ;-) I put in our order on Sunday and our items arrived this morning. I always loved shopping in the supermarkets in the Philippines, and I'm always excited to try foreign foods. Hubby & I ordered lot's of goodies! It was like Christmas today!

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All our goodies!

THE BEST coffee EVER!

I ♥ quail eggs, they are like mini hard boiled eggs, we usually have them in Corn & Crab soup. I'm also going to put them in pansit when I make it. (Pansit is similar to American/Chinese Lo Mein).

These are so yummy! Creamy milk coconut (buko) candy. But... I dunno what screw pine is though?! Whatever the Pandan is. :-)

Salted eggs are soooo good!

The salted eggs I've eaten in the Philippines, had shells that were dyed red. These taste exactly the same though. Mmmm. My husband's family always slices them in half & then you scoop out the inside. It's very salty & the egg has a creamy texture. It's very good! :-)

Similar Blog Posts:

More Foreign Snack Foods (Philippines)

Phil-Am Foods

Philippine Snack Foods

Foreign Food Cravings

Taste Testing (Asian Aisle)

1 year in the USA!

March 6th was F.B.'s 1 year anniversary since he came to the USA. We celebrated by getting Chinese Takeout for dinner. :-)

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We still have a ways to go with immigration though... around September I have to contact our immigration lawyer again. We will need to rehire him. It's going to cost around $1,500 to finish everything- (That's including our lawyer's fees). We have to file to remove the conditional status from F.B.'s green card which expires March 2013, but he needs to file for the I-751 90 days before his 2nd anniversary in the USA.

Evidence that will need to be submitted when we file our Form I-751 to remove the conditional status off F.B.'s permanent resident card:

1. A copy of the Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Card (both sides);

2. A copy of the Permanent Resident Card or Alien Registration Card of CR children included in the petition (if applicable);
 
3. Documents establishing joint ownership of property and/or joint tenancy at a communal residence;
 
4. Financial records showing the commingling of financial resources and liabilities, e.g., joint bank accounts, joint federal and state tax returns, insurance, utility bills, joint installments and/or loans;
 
5. Birth certificate(s) of child(ren) born to the marriage (if applicable);
 
6. Affidavits of persons having knowledge of the good faith of the marriage; and
 
7. Photographs of the couple taken during the marriage.

NOTE: Our lawyers Peter J. Gonzales & Shanna Stanton have changed firms. They are no longer with Kahiga Tiagha. They are now with Green and Spiegel LLC, but still located in Philadelphia.

This is what happens....

When you leave your pet rats home alone for the weekend. ;-)  Hehe! 

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(Just wine residue!)

And... a close up of Violet! :-p

My new exercise toy! :)

My treadmill has been collecting dust lately... I still use it occasionally, but it's gotten a bit repetitive. I really haven't been working out regularly for over a year now, which is bad. I wake up at 4:45am and with my 1 hour train commute both ways to work, I don't get home until about 5pm at which point I'm always so tired. I really need to get back into working out every day, but I needed something to motivate me.

I started researching exercise bikes online at first, but then I saw it really only strengthens muscles in your legs & not all over. I saw the Gazelle Edge Trainer had 1,012 good reviews on Walmart.com and it supposedly strengthens muscles all over your body. Plus the price was right, $99.00 which was cheaper than some of the exercise bikes I was looking at. I've also read online it's good for people with bad knees (which I definitely have). It also doesn't use electricity, which is a plus!

So using some of my tax refund, I went ahead & ordered it from Walmart.com with free site to store shipping. (Being in an apartment now, I really love that I can order my item and just go pick it up at my local Walmart, instead of waiting for a delivery I might miss).

My husband & I set it up last night, it probably took about 30 minutes to put it together. This morning was the first time I tried it out. It definitely takes some getting used to, I don't think I've mastered it yet, since you need some balance to make it work. But I used it for 20 minutes, while listening to music on my iPod.

You definitely work up a sweat and the muscles in my calves & biceps & gluts feel a bit sore now. (I'm sure other muscles I don't even know about will be hurting when I wake up tomorrow, lol!). The timer on it doesn't let you cheat either, when you stop moving, it stops moving. So I definitely got in a full 20 minutes.

I'm not going to add my review to Walmart.com until I've used it for a full month, but it's definitely something new to get me motivated about working out again. Plus I love that you can fold it up when you're done to store it in a closet or against the wall. It weighs just under 50 pounds.

You can get the Gazelle Edge Trainer on Walmart.com for $99.00 and Amazon.com is also selling it for the same price!



And no... I did not get compensated in any way for writing this post! I'm just excited about my new toy, so I thought I would share my thoughts with everyone! I do use Amazon associates, but I have not collected any money from it. I mostly use it to links to products I'm talking about!

Cheeseburger Lasagna: Crock Pot Recipe

We had this for dinner the other night and it turned out great. Thought I would share my recipe with everyone! It's pretty easy to throw together!

Cheeseburger Lasagna: Crock Pot Recipe

• 1-2 pounds of ground beef
• 1 large onion chopped into small pieces
• 2 jars of Ragu Double Cheddar Sauce.
• 1-1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese. (I only had enough cheddar to coat the very top, so I used mozzarella in the middle layers).
• 2 cans of diced tomatoes. 
• Oven ready lasagna noodles *(make sure the box says 'Oven Ready' noodles, these are noodles that are already slightly pre-cooked so you don't have to boil them).
• 1 Teaspoon of Goya Adobe all purpose seasoning (red lid)
• Bottle of ketchup.

(You could also add bacon to this recipe by cooking up 6 slices of bacon and crumbling them into the ground beef while it's browning). 

Ingredients- (ground beef & shredded cheese not pictured).

Step one: 

Brown your ground beef & onions in a frying pan. Toss in 1 teaspoon of Goya Adobe all purpose seasoning.

Step Two: 

Coat the bottom of your crock pot with a thin layer of the Ragu double cheddar sauce. Next a layer of your ready cook lasagna noodles. (You may need to snap some in half to fit; make sure you completely cover the bottom with noodles).

Layer of cheese sauce & lasagna noodles broken to fit.

Your layers should go like this:  

• Lasagna noodles
• Diced tomatoes
• Ground beef & onions
• Double Cheddar Sauce
• Shredded cheese
• Criss cross of ketchup.
• Lasagna Noodles

1 finished layer, waiting for more noodles

Repeat process until you get to the top of the crock pot. Top with more cheese sauce & shredded cheese & a criss cross of ketchup. Let cook on low for 5-6 hours. Enjoy!

Sorry for the lousy after photo, but it tasted really good! :-)

Wordless Wednesday: Food!

It took 29 years, but I've finally conquered making an omelette! All it takes is a small nonstick frying pan, rubber spatula & this video helped! ;-)

 No yeast involved easy cinnamon buns! Recipe found on Pinterest.

Retro Camera App used for pictures.

Clover: 2010 - Feb 2012.

This has been the most difficult week... I've had four losses... Hazelnut due to old age & a tumor on 2/12. Rosie who passed during a spay for a prolapsed uterus on 2/13. And now Fern (2/22) and Clover both to pneumonia... this sucks...

Clover was adopted from Star's Rat Rescue in South Dakota in August 2010. She always loved running around on the floor and exploring. She never liked to sit still, she was always too curious.

I really hoped Clover would get better... she drank some water on her own earlier today, but she had stopped eating. I tried giving her antibiotics in baby food, ensure, etc in an oral syringe, but she did just not want it. When I came from work today, she was doing very poorly, she did not even want to move much. I wrapped her in a baby blanket, and cuddled her and pet her head until she passed away...