Being part Filipina, it's in my culture to feed people.  If you are ever invited into a Filipino home, the first thing you'll notice is the hospitality.  You will always be offered food and drink. Lots of it.

I'm always concerned with making sure I have things to serve guests.  With food allergies being a big concern, I need to make sure I have something for everyone.

One of our nieces is Celiac, which means she is allergic to gluten. We've got friends with gluten intolerance and others who are giving it up by choice.  I try to make sure I have food options for everyone, so as to not let anyone feel left out.

When I was vegetarian for most of my young adult life, I often felt like the odd man out at parties when people would be eating mainly meat-based dishes and no veg.

Wow, how times have changed.

There are so many amazing alternatives. One I am most excited about is CheeCha Puffs!

I was first introduced to CheeCha Puffs on Twitter.  We started Tweeting with each other, and I really liked the brand without even having tried their products yet.  Shortly after, at the ShesConnected Conference in Toronto, we were given samples of CheeCha Puffs. My roomie, SoberJulie and I inhaled ours! They were SO good!
 CheeCha Puffs sent me a case of all of their flavours to share with my niece. Included were multiple bags of:

5 Great Gluten Free Flavours

• Original
• Sea Salt and Spiced Pepper
• Sea Salt and Vinegar
• Luscious Lime
• Fiesta Salsa

Excited, I brought over the case of CheeCha Puffs to my teenaged niece.  She and her classmate were working on a school project, so snacks were the perfect touch! The girls had fun sampling and taste testing, and deciding on which they loved the best.

All CheeCha Puffs begin with wholesome potato flour and potato starch. They are then air puffed using to release the natural potato flavour, lightly misted with sunflower oil and sprinkled with the finest seasonings.

Gluten Free* • Nut Free • Cholesterol Free • Trans Fat Free • MSG Free • Non GMO • Dairy Free

My niece's favourites were the Sea Salt and Spiced Pepper, and the Sea Salt and Vinegar.  My favourites are the Original and Sea Salt and Vinegar!

These snacks are great to have on the go, at parties, as something to munch on when you're doing a school project with friends, or just to snack on anytime and anywhere.

I'm really glad I've been able to share these with my niece and with friends who are gluten-intolerant. They've told me that they buy them at the health food store and they actively search them out now! Love it!

CheeCha Puffs also come in Low Calorie Flavours and Snack Size as well. For more product information, click here.

Connect with them on Twitter and Facebook too!

P.S. This post is long overdue!  I had been wanting to write about this since last Fall! 

Disclosure - We received the above mentioned products for review purposes.  All the thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.

Okay, just typing that totally freaked me out. Now I've got the goosebumps and can't get that kid's face out of my head. You know. That kid. The one from the movie Sixth Sense.


I don't want to creep you out, but I here's a random fact about me.

I do believe that some people have a sixth sense. I used to think that this was just me being superstitious, as Filipinos often are. Seriously, have you never heard a Filipina grandmother tell stories about ghosts? It's a very large part of our culture.

I shouldn't really say that I see ghosts. There's a lot more to it than that.

The earliest memory I have of this kind of strange occurrence was when I was just a little girl.  My grandfather on my paternal side died when I was maybe three years old or so.  My parents never said anything to my brother or me, because we were so young and they didn't think we'd understand.  Dad went to the funeral in Trinidad without us. Nothing was explained.

One evening, my Mom was getting us dressed after our bath and I pointed to the corner of the room and said, "Look, Mama! It's Grandpa, and he's smiling at me!"

Mom was so freaked out. She told me years later (when I was a teenager) that I scared her.

The extra-sensory powers, if you will, were heightened when I turned 13. I was able to do "odd" things like hold someone's hand and accurately tell them what they were thinking or "guess" which number, shape, colour they were thinking of. I was able to accurately depict things that would happen or retell things that happened in the past that no one had ever told me about. These things happened too frequently for them to be pure chance.

When I was in elementary school, my middle brother and I used to go home together after school (back when latch-key kids weren't so much frowned upon). Our baby brother went to my grandparents' house while my parents were at work and they'd pick him up on their way home every evening. My grandparents lived maybe fifteen minutes away by car and you had to cross a bridge to get to their place.

One afternoon, I distinctly heard my baby brother crying. It was more like screaming in pain. How could it be possible that I could hear my brother crying if he was fifteen minutes away by car? The cry sounded as though it were coming from right next to me!

Within minutes, I received a call from my grandmother. My little brother was running and had hit his head on concrete and split his head open.

How uncanny was that?

Then there were other times like when my friend from college called me out of the blue and I told her, "Hey! It's so weird that you called me! I just had a dream about you and [insert name of friend's boyfriend] were getting married!"

I went on to describe to her the wedding. It was so vivid in my dream. I was able to describe to her the wedding dress, flowers, decor, the wedding, the guests...and, all with accuracy. She was quiet and finally said, "Oh, my gosh. I'm calling to tell you that [boyfriend] and I are getting married, and you just described what I want the wedding to be like!"

Sure enough, when I attended the wedding, it was just as I had envisioned it to be.

Once, when I was living and working in Japan in my early-twenties, I was riding my bike back to my apartment at night.  For some reason, something made me look beside me, and I saw an old man riding his bike beside me. He smelled just like my grandfather's cologne. He smiled at me. It was my grandfather.  I blinked, looked again, and the old man was gone.  The thing is, my grandfather had died three months before that incident.

I wasn't really creeped out, because I knew it was my grandfather. I didn't have a bad feeling at all.

I did get scared during my trip to the Philippines last May. My grandmother was dying and I went there to spend her last few weeks with her and to bring my daughter so she could see one of her great-grandchildren one last time.

I had fallen asleep on the couch one afternoon and everyone was at the hospital. I woke up because I felt someone staring at me. It was my aunt who had died a few years prior. She was standing outside, looking in through the iron-clad door. I pinched myself several times to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

Things like this happen to me every now and then.  It used to really scare me when I was younger because I didn't understand it.  I still don't really understand it, but I know that it's something passed down from female to female on my mother's side. My grandmother's relatives had this and so did my grandmother and my mom.

Do you believe in a sixth sense? Has anything "out of the ordinary" happened to you before?

I've got all sorts of stories to share if you want to hear! They might scare the socks off of you though!

This post was inspired by a Twitter conversation I had with my friend, Carol. She shares similar experiences here.

With Little One now in Junior Kindergarten, the Scholastic book order forms are something we get really excited about in this house.  Little One loves books. Loves them.

My friend Manitoulin Key Lime Pie started Little One's obsession with Laura J. Numeroff's adorable collection of books when she gave her If You Give A Moose A Muffin, If You Give A Pig A Pancake, If You Give A Cat A Cupcake for her 2nd birthday. At 4 years old, Little One is determined to own the entire series.  Uh huh. Guess what books we'll be ordering from Scholastic?

Okay, you're probably wondering what a book about giving a moose a muffin has to do with Singapore Noodles, right?

If you've read any of the books in Numeroff's collection, you'll notice a pattern.

If a big hungry moose comes to visit, you might give him a muffin to make him feel at home. If you give him a muffin, he'll want some jam to go with it. When he's eaten all your muffins, he'll want to go to the store to get some more muffin mix. 

The moose initially asks for jam to go with his muffin, and after stream of consciousnes-like events in between, the story ends up with something reminding the moose of a muffin and him asking for jam to go with it.

The stories in Laura Numeroff's collection are entertaining, fun, and follow a similar sequence so that children can have fun predicting what will happen. My four year old has all of her books committed to memory. I don't know why she bothers asking me to read them to her every night...multiple times.

Singapore Noodles. Right.

The other day, I posted my Curried Egg Sandwich recipe. Immediately after posting. the idea of curry made me crave Singapore Noodles. I had to laugh, because this totally reminded me of my daughter's books! These books also remind me of how Mommies can oftentimes start off at one point, get distracted by everything that goes on in the day (with work, with home, with kids, with activities, etc), only to end up right where they began. With curry. You know. Curried Egg Sandwich? Singapore Noodles? If You Give A Moose A Muffin? I can't believe you missed that connection.

Without further ado, here is my Singapore Noodles recipe.

Ingredients
5.5 ounces dried rice vermicelli
4 oz chicken, cut into thin strips
2 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine
2 Tbsp curry powder
2 Tbps fish sauce (optional - I often forget to use it and I only use it if I'm using shrimp instead of chicken or pork)
1 Tbps oyster sauce
3/4 cup chicken stock
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbps ginger, minced
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
4 ounces bean sprouts (if you have them)
3 green onions, sliced thin
oil for stir-frying

Instructions
Soak the dried rice noodles in very hot water for 3 minutes. Do not over-soak them or they will stick together and get mushy when you cook them.

Pull noodles apart as soon as they start softening. Rinse in cold water several times to prevent the noodles from absorbing too much water. This also gets rid of any extra starch.

Chicken to a bowl and season with the soy sauce and rice wine.

Add curry powder into a small bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the fish sauce, oyster sauce and chicken stock.

Make sure to have all your prep done ahead of time, because everything will cook very quickly.

Heat a wok over high until very hot then add a Tbps of oil, swirl to coat inside of wok, then add the egg, swirling then scrambling. Put the egg on a plate and set aside.

Add 2 Tbsp of oil, then add the garlic and ginger, and then fry until the fragrances come alive. Oh,  you'll know it when it happens! Add chicken, holding aside the marinade and fry until the chicken just loses its pink color. At this point, it doesn’t have to be all the way cooked.

Add the onion, red and green bell peppers, and bean sprouts. Fry while stirring vigorously. Until the vegetables are a bright color. Add the curry powder and stir-fry until fragrant, then pour in the chicken stock and fish sauce mixture. Stir, to combine, then add the noodles and return the egg to the pan.

 If the noodles start sticking, add some water.

Top with scallions, then serve your Singapore Noodles immediately.You can switch things  up by substituting pork or shrimp for chicken. I've even done this recipe with tofu for a vegetarian option. Add some spicy chili pepper for kick if you wish!

The funny thing is that I wanted to begin this post with something like:

• "Singapore Noodles: Memories of Lunch Dates with My Dad at Le Faubourg Ste-Catherine in Montreal during my university days"
• "Yes, I traveled to Singapore just to sample some real Singapore Noodles and a real Singapore Sling!"

Yes, both of those headers are indeed true.

 Merlion - Most likely the most photographed subject in Singapore! Photo from here via Google Images.

P.S. I know many will think I am crazy, but I wish I loved Singapore more than I do! All I remember was that Singapore was super hot (like please don't let me go outside because I'm going to melt & I NEED A/C kind of hot!), expensive, insanely clean (I was scared something might fall out of my pocket and I'd get caned to death for littering), and the cockroaches were the size of small cats. Maybe not that big, but they were huge! Being so close to the equator, I guess the climate is conducive to roaches? Anyway, Singapore is a beautiful place and there was a lot to see. Love the culture and chatting up with all the ex-pats from all over the world! Fun! Wow. I totally miss my carefree jet-setting days sometimes.

**One more thing. I used this for my Singapore Noodles recipe this time. Hubby and Little One did the groceries and this is what they picked up.

Disclosure - This is not a sponsored post. Janes Family Food gets a mention today because Hubby and Little One love their Janes Chicken. All the thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.

My four year old is convinced that Mom's bonkers and my husband thinks I'm just a little delirious after fighting off a horrible infection for the past 14 days.

Why?

Well, hearing me sing the following has them raising their eyebrows:

I saw the PTPA sign and it opened up my eyes
I saw the PTPA sign
Life is demanding without understanding
I saw the PTPA sign and it opened up my eyes
I saw the PTPA sign
No one's gonna drag you up to get into the light where you belong...
But where do you belong?

All craziness aside (and yes, it's the seal and not sign), have you seen the PTPA Seal of Approval at your local Sears Canada store? If so, snap a photo or two and submit it to PTPA and you can win some pretty amazing prizes!
{ GRAND PRIZE: WIN A NURSERY VALUED AT $929 }

You may already know that Sears Canada's The Baby's Room has received the PTPA Award (Parent Tested & Parent Approved).

A selection of PTPA award-winning merchandise – a Stork Craft Carrara nursery (Stages 4-in-1 crib and 2-Drawer Change Table), T-fal Steamer & Blender, Angel Care Movement & Sound Monitor and a Crane Animal Shaped Cool Mist Humidifier! Total value: $929.95 CDN!

 Grand Prize winner to be drawn February 1st, 2013.
WEEKLY PRIZES:
Three (3) weekly prizes of $100 Sears Gift Card so you can buy whatever you want or need at The Baby Room! Winner’s name to be drawn for 1 gift card each week on the following dates: January 17th, 24th and 31st, 2013.



Enter here: PTPA Facebook Entry Form


Tweet @ptpa, FB, use the #SpotTheSeal hashtag...and have fun!

For complete details, visit the PTPA blog here.

One of my favourite sandwiches is the Curried Egg Sandwich.  Surprisingly enough, the first time I had ever eaten a curried egg sandwich was when I was in Japan!

There was this delightful little cafe my friends and I used to ride our bicycles to on our days off. Usually on a Sunday morning, we'd have brunch at this quaint little place. They specialized in an assortment of "different" bagels and sandwiches. The place also doubled as a shop that sold really cool items like the funkiest lighters and even Swiss Army knives. The menu, the ambiance, and the venue itself were all really unique and not what I would expect to find in the outskirts of Hiroshima.

How I wish I could remember the name of that place! *Edited to add: Thanks to Facebook, I was able to ask my former co-workers from Japan what the name of that place was! It's Darren Almond! Wonder if it's named after this Darren Almond? Must be!

Whenever I have a curried egg sandwich, I am transported to that special time in my life. Hard to believe my days teaching and living in Japan are so far away. Like fifteen years ago! Wow!

The original Curried Egg sandwich I had was served on a toasted whole wheat bagel and it had capers. Here's my version of the sandwich:

Ingredients

• 4 extra large hard boiled eggs
• 2 Tbsp of mayonnaise
• 1 tsp of curry powder
• 1/2 tsp of sea salt
• 2 Tbsp of chopped fresh chives (if you want to switch things up, you can use 2 Tbsp chopped parsley)
•  alfalfa sprouts or chopped baby spinach or watercress
• a few slices of cucumber (just because my 4 year old's favourite vegetable is cucumber)
• Slices of Dempster's wholegrain bread or Dempster's bagel of your choice. This time we used Dempster's Villaggio, because that's Hubby's new fave.

Instructions
Enjoy!

Disclosure - This is not a sponsored post. We just really like Dempster's bread! All the thoughts and opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.

•  making me chicken noodle soup when I'm sick
• taking our four year old to her first ballet lesson tonight because Mommy's too sick to take her
• being such a GOOD person

Feel free to link up your Wordless Wednesday posts here!

When I first found out I was pregnant with Little One, I was determined that I'd be a cloth diapering Mama. I wanted to tread as lightly on the earth as possible and do what I deemed best for my child.

Then she arrived early.

Twelve weeks early.

In the NICU, Pampers was the diaper of choice. Pampers offered not only newborn sized diapers, but preemie sized diapers! They were the tiniest diapers I had ever seen! Even so, they were still too big for our 980 gram preemie! That's almost 2 lbs, 3 oz.!

Little One's primary nurse raved about Pampers, and though I was heartbroken at the fact that Little One wasn't a cloth diapered baby, I knew that while still in the hospital it wasn't feasible.

I will add that when we finally brought her home at 3 months chronological (now that she's 4 years old, we don't use her corrected age), I did try cloth diapering.  It lasted an entire month.  I'm secretly jealous of all the moms who can do it. I just couldn't keep up.

As a mom, I know that finding the right diaper for your child is important. I have to say that I'm glad that Pampers were a part of Little One's early days. If you're going to be spending that much time changing diapers (and babies can go through a lot of diapers!), you might as well make sure they're diapers that a) are gentle against baby's soft skin, b) do their job, c) fit perfectly, d) don't leak.

I also know that when Little One was still a baby, I recall telling my husband, "Wouldn't it be nice to win diapers for a year?"

The truth is, diapers add up.

Well, how would you like to WIN Pampers for a year with Shoppers Drug Mart and P&G?! How would you like a chance to remove diapers from your shopping list and household budget for 2013? Pretty amazing, isn't it?  Use your Shoppers Optimum card between December 29, 2012 and January 25, 2013 and you’ll be automatically entered for a chance to win one year’s worth of Pampers diapers! See in store for more details.

Wait! There's still more exciting news! One lucky Life on Manitoulin reader will win a Pampers Prize Pack valued at over $65.

 The Pampers Prize Pack includes:

• Pampers Swaddlers size 1  
• Pampers Cruisers size 3  
• Pampers Splashers size 3-4 
• Pampers Easy-ups size 3-4  
• Pampers Natural Care Wipes 
•  HBC Canada onesie (size 0-3 mos or 3-6 mos)

 Simply enter the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win! Canada Only/ Ends Jan 31st 2013
a Rafflecopter giveaway

By entering the following contest you are accepting that if you win your contact information will be shared with a P&G PR agency for the purpose of mailing your prize.

Disclosure: I am a P&Gmom. As part of my affiliation with this group I receive products and special access to P&G events and opportunities. All the opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.

We try to make Sunday more of a family day in our house.  Every day is a busy day on the farm, so Sundays are great for spending a few hours of quality time together.  This means having a leisurely dinner together. I guess I should say "supper", because if you're a farmer, most likely "dinner" is normally your earlier meal and the main meal of the day. Even after eight years of living on the Island, I am constantly being corrected on this. Coming from the city, I've always used "dinner" and "supper" interchangeably. My question to my husband and my mother-in-law is always, "So, you mean dinner is lunch?"

Okay, we don't always have pot roasts on Sundays. There are so many other things we can make with beef. Here are but a few:



All of these recipes can be found here on the blog under recipes. For more beef recipes, visit the Canadian Beef website and peruse their many delicious beef recipes.

{Here's a question for you}
I remember doing a quiz from a magazine when I was a teen in the 90s. One of the questions was "What's your favourite food and three reasons why?"

You're supposed to describe the way the food makes you feel. Leave me your favourite food and three reasons, and come back tomorrow. I'll tell you what it's "supposed" to mean. It's actually quite funny!

* Edited to include: Your favourite food is supposed to symbolize what kind of person you are attracted to! I had to laugh when my friend said his favourite food was poutine because it's cheap, easy, cheesy, and greasy!

 Quick. Easy. No Bake. Fun.

Ingredients:
3 tbps butter or margarine
1 pkg reg marshmallows (40)
6 c Rice Krispies cereal

Instructions:
Melt butter on low heat in a large saucepan.
Add marshmallows and melt completely.
Remove from heat.
Add Rice Krispies until evenly coated in melted marshmallow.

Lightly butter hands so they don't get too sticky with marshmallow. Form Rice Krispies treats into whatever shapes you desire.

Decorate.

Voila!


Ahhh...Life with boys! I only have a daughter, so seeing this Rice Krispie treat above made me laugh. My friend's son made a snowman that got shot in the chest with a candy cane. Of course, Optimus Prime in the background was the pièce de résistance!

I let the kids each have one Rice Krispies treat to eat while we watched The Lorax. When their parents came to pick them up, I sent them home with all their Rice Krispies creations.

For more fun recipes to try, visit the Rice Krispies page.

Disclosure - As a member of the Kelloggers Network, I received the above package to create Rice Krispies treats of my own. All the thoughts and opinions on this blog are honest and my own.

Our Kinder Canada box arrived, and to my surprise, it contained forty-eight Kinder Surprise eggs! FORTY-EIGHT! 24 KINDER® Barbie and 24 KINDER® Hot Wheels eggs! How eggciting!

Before I begin, I have to say that we tried to raise Little One in a non-girlie fashion. When I found out I was pregnant, I opted for all gender-neutral items and wanted nothing pink or blue. When Little One was born, everyone kept giving us pink items! PINK!

As much as I resisted and boycotted, and didn't want Little One to grow up a total girlie girl, things sort of turned out that way. Even though Hubby and I never encouraged or thrust upon her all things girlie, she has developed a love for frilly, frou-frou, blingy, sparkly, PINK things. Though in our house, we never introduced her to Dora, Barbie, or Hello Kitty, princess, fairies, Little One is obsessed with all of the above.

To say Little One is a girlie girl is indeed a huge understatement. Take a look for yourselves:
A friend gave Little One her first Barbie last year for her 3rd Birthday, and all of a sudden, they multiplied! She now has six Barbies and two Kens! Ken has changed since I was a little girl. He sort of looks like Justin Bieber now, don't you think?

Anyway, when we found out about KINDER® Canada's Barbie and Hot Wheels eggs, the excitement could not be contained. Curious about Kinder for Girls? Click here for more details.

Little One instantly gravitated towards the Barbie box, but she was also interested in the Hot Wheels, saying that she can't wait to share them with her friends. She does like cars, and plays racing games with her friends.

Though we love the classic Kinder Surprise eggs, Little One is pretty excited about the Barbie and Hot Wheels ones! I did let her have one Kinder Surprise after school the other day as a treat for doing a great job practicing getting in and out of her snow pants and coat --something she is having difficulty doing on her own at school. She says her zipper sticks. She did well when we practiced, so I let her have an egg. When she got the little Barbie inside, she was elated! I can see how these Kinder toys will add to her playtime fun. She is using her little Kinder Barbie as one of her other Barbies' babies! She said "Barbie and Ken had a baby. This is Baby Barbie!"

Have I mentioned how much she loves playing house and cooking? She was cooking for her Barbie and Ken dolls, saying they were her children and that Arthur is her husband. Ummm...Apparently, Little One thinks she's going to marry Arthur. Arthur the aardvark from the cartoon series! Oy!

To kick off this amazing launch of these new Kinder Surprise Barbie and Hot Wheels eggs, Kinder Canada is giving away 40 Kinder Barbie and Kinder Hot Wheels Prize Packs!

As of January 10th, for 4 weeks, you can participate in the Kinder Canada Barbie and Hot Wheels contest simply by becoming a fan of Kinder Canada on Facebook and following the contest rules!


Disclosure: I’m part of the KINDER® Mom program and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. The opinions on this blog are my own.