Friday, August 07, 2020

Homemade: Lunch with U.S. blueberries as the common ingredient!


I've really been enjoying my new tiny fruit friend - blueberries! Ever since I found out you can buy fresh U.S. blueberries in Manila, I've been experimenting with how I can include it in more dishes. I made a blueberry breakfast bar that was nutty and delicious. And to my family's surprise (mine, too!), I made a really delicious lunch using blueberries as a sweet and tarty ingredient. Check out what I made!

Easy Leafy Blueberry Salad
Just toss salad greens, a handful of blueberries, and another handful of walnuts or cashews into a bowl with the salad dressing of your choice (this is Kewpie mayo). Done and delicious!


Blueberry Balsamic Pork Chops with Blueberry Sauce
Click this link for the recipes for the balsamic-marinated pork chops and blueberry sauce. But you can just grill some pork chops your usual way and serve with the sauce, which is also good with vanilla ice cream!

This blueberry sauce is so easy to make and so yummy!

For dessert, let's just keep it simple: a small bowl of fresh blueberries. Blueberries have a mellow sweet taste that you can pop and pop and pop them in your mouth. Your taste buds won't get overwhelmed, but you'll definitely want more. Blueberries are so snackable!

I've been feeling good about adding more fruit to my diet since I'm more of a vegetable girl than a fruit fan. Plus, I think my body's been benefiting from all the antioxidants, Vitamin C, and soluble fiber blueberries are packed with. Here are a few more reasons why I like adding blueberries to my diet:

Blueberries are so easy to add to anything!
It's small enough that just a handful adds fun to your yogurt, breakfast cereal, salad, sauces, smoothies, fizzy drinks, etc etc etc! The taste won't overwhelm your dish at all but when that little blue ball pops in your mouth, the delicate sweetness and light tartness is a lovely surprise!

Blueberries are packed with goodness.
Good things come in small packages, as they say, and this is so true with blueberries. It may be small but it sure is mighty when it comes to nutrition. Each berry is a great source of vitamin C, fiber, manganese, vitamin K, and a host of other essential nutrients.

Blueberries are good for middle-aged me!
Since they're so full of good stuff, blueberries may help me stay younger longer. It benefits my skin (builds collagen and speeds healing), my gut (increases good bacteria), my blood sugar (manages the levels), and my brain (helps improve memory).

Of course, I'm supposed to eat half a cup a day to really get all those benefits. So that's why I was looking for ways to add blueberries to every meal!

Fresh blueberries are now available at S&R Membership Shopping, Always Fresh PHFruit Loot PH, and Dizon Farms Delivers.

Get to know more about this mighty fruit from the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council here: www.blueberrycouncil.org and the U.S. Blueberries Philippines accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

*This post is brought to you by U.S. Blueberries.

Wednesday, August 05, 2020

I prepared a morbid to-do list, just in case COVID-19 takes me

Lockdown, Part 2! How are you coping? With the COVID-19 cases rising to a whopping 116,000+ (as of today) in the Philippines, we're under strict quarantine again. And because our government has no plans on dealing effectively with this pandemic - unlike other countries - it looks like "Matirang matibay!" is everyone's battleplan. We are on our own, guys, so please be extra careful.


Thing is, kahit na maging extra careful tayo, mukhang magkakahawaan din tayo eventually. Look at all those stories of people who didn't even go out of their house, who disinfected everything, and they still got it! What the what! Define malas, guys.

So after 5 months, I've finally confronted the fact that I might get COVID and die from it. Kayo, naisip niyo na rin ba yon??? I think kailangan na natin lahat isipin this very real possibility.

Me, I have had to finally confront it. I've had asthma since I was 5 years old. My lungs are very weak. For as long as they can remember, my kids always get nagged to wash their hands. I also spray their hands and their things with alcohol. They tolerate it. Hindi kasi sila sakitin so they think nothing of it. Of course I don't want them to get sick, but to be very very honest, I'm scared they'll bring home something that will make me sick kasi kung ako nagkakasakit, malala talaga. Simpleng ubo at sipon ng mga bata nagiging asthma attack, acute respiratory infection, or bronchopneumonia sa akin.

Imagine how I feel about this COVID-19! It scares me because it's so highly contagious that if I were to get sick of it and end up in hospital, I'd be isolated and, if I were really unlucky, I'd never see my husband and kids again.

Important reminders!

So even though I am even more obsessive with washing hands now, I decided it's time to do a few preparations. Just in case. Here is my Morbid To Do List:

1. Prepare important documents.

Collate documents like birth, marriage certificates, business documents, utilities, bank accounts, insurance policies, email and social media accounts and passwords, important phone numbers, copies of my IDs.

2. Ask my sister to swoop in.

Ideally, it should be my husband but he's never had anyone die on him yet thankfully. So we don't know how he'll function in the aftermath of my death. My sister, meanwhile, has buried our parents. I have, too, but I was pretty useless both times. My sister was efficient - from hospital bills and death certificates to coordinating wakes and burials. She even remembered to thank the hospital and funeral home staff - something I only did when I saw her do it. She thinks of everything.

3. Prepare an isolation room.

Okay, let's get lighter. We don't have to die! In case hindi naman serious masyado, I need to have a place ready for a COVID patient in my house, whether that's me, my husband, or my kids. My husband says our sick room should be the kids' room. I was thinking my bedroom sana kasi may en suite bathroom kami and it's best that the patient has his own bathroom, lalo na since the patient will not only be coughing out phlegm and blowing his nose into the sink, the virus is present in our poop, too.

My bedroom is also the farthest, most isolated, and quietest room in the house. But since my husband's home office is also in our bedroom, hindi pwede. Naisip ko rin to use our maid's room since may bed naman dun and again, malayo sa flow of activity in the house.

Thank goodness also for this to-do list I found. A nurse wrote down what we should do in case we get COVID. Basically, it just says stock up on tissue, paracetamol, mucolytic, and Vicks Vaporub since a mild case of COVID is a really bad case of the cough and flu. For asthmatics like me, I should make sure I have enough asthma medicines to last me a while (that'll be my maintenance meds, Ventolin nebules for the nebulizer, and my Ventolin inhaler).

So I also need to set aside pillows, bedsheets, and towels. Plate, utensils, drinking glass, and cup should be labeled or at least different from the ones the family uses. Actually, because my parents - yes, both of them! - got tuberculosis when I was a teenager, I know the drill. I just need to do the next step, which is...

4. Discuss with my family COVID-at-home procedures.

When the house is ready, I gotta sit the kids down and tell them when someone is sick with COVID, we have to stay away from the patient's room. No matter how much we miss that someone, we don't ever go in their room. For at least 14 days.

Now, with no one sick sa family ko, obviously relaxed kami sa bahay since we're safe. But in case someone does get sick, the virus is now in the house, so the kids must know it is imperative to practice handwashing even more.

The kids also need to know to avoid using the patient's utensils and towels. No aircons! Every window open! Ano pa ba? Yun pa lang maisip ko but definitely this is a conversation we must have with our families.

Something else that worries me is if ako ang magkasakit, paano kakakain pamilya ko? Ang tagal kasi ng COVID! My freezer and pantry are well stocked so may food naman but wala kaming maid and other family living with us so my husband will have to learn how to cook more dishes! Lord, sana hindi kami ever magkasakit please!

5. Talk about what happens in case of confinement.

This is the scariest and saddest of all. When someone is sick enough with COVID to need to be hospitalized, there's a very real chance that someone won't come home. The worst part is there's no chance to say good-bye.

I honestly don't know how to bring this up with my kids. I don't want to scare them. I don't want to take away their hope. Maybe the best thing to do is assure them every day I love them and that I know they love me so just in case the worst happens, they'll have that knowledge to see them through.

And that's my list!

Funnily enough, I was going to put "prepare a death outfit" on my list. Diba when my parents died, I always blogged everyone needs a death outfit to spare the bereaved the emotional toll of going through your closet? (Gosh, I should add that to my list - organize my closet so that my family won't have to confront the chaos in there!) Well, I remembered that people who died of COVID don't get to have a wake or even a proper funeral. For me, that's the most heartbreaking of all for everyone involved—to die alone and not be able to say good-bye.

An important thing I should really do is to tell my family and friends - the ones I don't see now - that I love them. Now that we're prevented from seeing each other and then not knowing if we'll ever see each other again makes it more urgent for me to not take them for granted. I need to just send a "thank you" note. That should be enough. No need to get overly dramatic. After all, hindi pa naman ako mamamatay haha So I gotta make a new list of people to send my love to!

And that's my list!


I know we're all scared. This pandemic truly is a formidable foe because of its insidious way of stealthily attacking us. It makes us put up our walls and suspect everyone. It isolates us from the people we love. But it doesn't have to stop us from building meaningful relationships while observing health and safety procedures, of course!

So stay home, stay safe. If you must go out, always wear a mask (and now a face shield), and keep 6 feet away from other people. Wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds minimum. Don't touch your face. Sanitize. Be prepared! That's the best way to cope with the fear. God bless us all!

*My Lockdown shirt is from LINK - it's from their Pandemic Collection. There are other nice shirts from their other collections. Really liking their dinosaurs and wild things shirts. You can shop at their stores in Lazada and Shopee. Lots of promos until August 31, 2020! Follow LINK on Facebook and Instagram for more promo updates.

*The stickers on my face shield are from the Alice in Wonderland collection of Moleskine. They say, "I'm mad" and "You're mad." Of course in the book, the Cheshire Cat meant mad as crazy, but in my case, I put them there to literally mean I'm angry! Hindi ko na ma-take ang nangyayari sa Pilipinas.


Monday, August 03, 2020

Reverse mortgages - can you walk the talk?

I was talking to some loved ones about mortgages. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, they lost their main source of income and are now looking for other income streams because they have to pay the mortgage on their beautiful new home. So when this guest post about reverse mortgages showed up in my inbox, I figured it may interest many people. Unfortunately for us living in the Philippines, I don't know if it applies but for my readers in the United States, read on!

* * * * * * *

GUEST POST - Although people look forward to retirement while they're working, nothing hits harder than getting to the point of retirement and still not having enough money. Many people turn to personal loans or remortgaging their homes to solve this problem, but neither of these is advisable because the last thing you want during retirement is a commitment to years of recurring debt. There are also grave consequences should you miss a payment, such as a foreclosure or eviction - something you don't want to face in your senior years.

A far better alternative is a reverse mortgage, as you are able to take advantage of the full amount of the loan without being under any pressure to repay it until the loan comes to an end. Sound too good to be true? Let me break it down for you.

What exactly is a reverse mortgage?

Where you would have paid a monthly predetermined amount towards the settlement of the total amount of your loan if you had taken out a regular loan, a reverse mortgage works differently. You can take advantage of this long-term loan and enjoy access to the money, as long as you stay in the house to which the loan is bonded.

HECM - where does that come in?

These four letters are quite simply an acronym for a home equity conversion mortgage. The difference between that and a reverse mortgage is that a HECM is issued by a state agency. This means that the state-issued loan comes with government-backed insurance. Apart from this point, there is no further remarkable difference between the two.

I've heard of a reverse mortgage calculator - what is it?

This is a very useful tool that any lender, no matter which kind you choose, will use to determine your financial standing at the time of your AAG reverse mortgage review. This calculator takes into account the age, condition, and physical location of your home, in order to create an overall picture of what you can and cannot afford and whether you would be eligible for a loan. Because federal laws prevent you from borrowing the full value of your home in the form of a loan, the calculator is also useful in determining what percentage of the total value you would be allowed to borrow.

Do bear in mind, however, that if you already have an existing home loan in place, you would have to settle that amount first, using the funds that have been made available to you in your reverse home loan, before you can access the balance of the funds.

How do I get my money?

You can choose to have the money made available to you in either a lump sum or in a line of credit. If neither of these is to your preference, you can also select to have a set monthly amount paid into your account for as long as there is money available in the loan. You are free to decide which option best suits your needs and lifestyle.

* This is a guest post, with my edits. To place a guest post, email frances@topazhorizon.com.