Chocolate Chip Banana Muffin Recipe

See that delicious muffin? YUUUUM!

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I was strolling at the nearby grocery looking for meryenda when I spotted this Banana Cake mix from a local brand. I quickly scanned the instructions and needed ingredients and decided to give it a try. I am not a good baker yet so I am still practicing with the available pre-mixed recipes. Here's a picture of what I bought...

I know, the mix is for a Banana Cake but I only realized that I don't have a loaf pan when I got home. So, I decided to use my muffin pan instead. Maybe, that is also the reason why my muffins doesn't have that big "puff" thingy but it still tastes delicious! I swear!

Here are the ingredients. BTW, this recipe makes around 12 muffins.

1 medium sized raw egg
1/4 cup water
3 Tbsp. Oil
1 1/2 Tbsp. Chocolate chips
2 mashed ripe bananas
230 g Maya Banana Cake mix
Cupcake holders

Are your mixing bowls ready? Gather your ingredients and let's do it!

STEP 1:
Pre-heat your oven at 177°C. You can now start with mashing your bananas using a fork. It is better to use a banana that is really ripe to have a rich flavor for your muffin.

STEP 2:
Mix all your ingredients including the mashed banana in a bowl. Mix it well.

STEP 3:
Place the cupcake holder onto your muffin pan and gently add the mixture into it. A good measurement that worked for me is to the put 3/4 of the mixture in to the cupcake holder.

STEP 4:
After filling every cup with the mixture, you may now put the pan in the oven at  177°C and bake it for 30 minutes or until cooked.

STEP 5:
Use a fork or a toothpick in checking if your muffins are ready. The color should be dark golden brown. If done, let it cool before serving. Oh! Don't forget to take a picture of that Instagram worthy moment!

I even arranged them like this for my IG post ♥

Pancake Muffin

Pancake Muffin

It's sem-break and I thought of doing something new because I got bored with my sleep-eat-internet cycle every vacation week. I found this post on twitter and it sounded easy so I decided to do it. I got this recipe from @DIYFoods on twitter.

I also tried searching for a more detailed procedure and I chose the one from www.familyfreshmeals.com

So without further a do, let's get started!

Here's what I used:

2 large eggs

450g pancake mix

1 cup chocolate chip

1/2 cup maple syrup

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180° C 

2. Beat your 2 large eggs 

3. Prepare you chocolate chip or other mix-ins that you would like to use. I used Cadbury Dairy Milk     and chopped into small pieces.

4. Mix your egg mixture, pancake mix, mix-ins and 1/2 cup maple syrup.

5. After putting the mixture in your muffin tins, place it in your oven for 13 minutes.

6. Gently insert a toothpick on your muffins and if your toothpick comes out clean, this means your         muffins are ready!

7. Serve it hot.To reheat, place in oven for 1-2 minutes.

   Enjoy! :)

Calinisan Beach Resort Review

The resort is located at Agoncillo Rd, Brgy. Buso – Buso, Laurel, Batangas. They have two pools. One adult pool and one kiddie pool with slide and man made falls. I observed that the pools doesn’t have labels on how deep they are.

As I’ve said on my other story, we were the only guests during that day and it felt like we rented the whole resort. There were several activities you can do at the resort and it includes:

• Swimming
• Fishing
• Lake Boat Riding
• Taal Volcano crater trekking
• Videoke sing along
• Table Tennis
• Basketball
• Volleyball

Entrance Fees: Day Php 100, Night 150

Cottages: Php 500 (we got ours for free) ;D

Parking spaces are available for free. You can drive your car inside the resort and stop in front of your chosen cottage for easy loading and unloading of your things.

There cottages are also spacious with 2 outlets good for charging and playing music.

 Calinisan Beach Resort had a lot of areas where you take pictures. One of which is there man man mini-falls at the end of the kiddie pool.

  

Then, there is the giant dinosaur beside the kiddie pool. Yep, that green one is my friend Steph. kidding!

and you can also meet mommy and baby elephant. Baby James really enjoyed riding the elephant statue :D

My favorite place in this resort in their multi-purpose hall. It has wooden tables. Those tables made from trees and turned into furniture. This is where we played beerpong and darts.

 (sorry for the poor lighting in this picture)

From the name itself, Calinisan Beach Resort maintained what their name is offering since the place is really clean including their shower rooms. Their were 2 shower rooms that I visited. One is near the pools that had 2 shower heads, a big mirror and a cubicle for the toilet and bidet. The other shower room i visited near our cottage is bigger with 2 sinks, 2 shower heads and 2 cubicles. I think the shower rooms will not be enough if a lot of guests will take their shower at the same time. Also, there is no place for you to change clothes other than the cubicles. We were 7 that time so we really had to wait for our turn to use the shower and cubicles.

If you’re wondering, where is the beach in this resort? Well, its behind the cottage area where you can fish for Tilapia. Prices for the Tilapia are:

Black tilapia: 300
Red tilapia: 350

They also have rooms for you to stay in during your stay at the resort. Here are their room rates posted on their facebook page:

ROOM RATES :

FAMILY SUITE ROOM -Php7000 [good for 8pax]
POOL VIEW STANDARD-Php2500 [good for 2pax]
POOL VIEW DELUXE -Php5000 [good for 4pax]
TAAL VIEW STANDARD -Php3500 [good for 2pax]
TAAL VIEW DELUXE -Php5500 [good for 4pax]
EXTRA PAX -Php300 per head

CHECK – IN TIME = 2PM
CHECK – OUT TIME = 12PM

They also have an ongoing promo of free 1 kilo tilapia each room and free breakfast good for 2 person each room.

Our overall stay in this resort was delightful. The staff are also friendly and very accommodating from our telephone inquiries down to our arrival and stay in their resort. It was definitely worth visiting! :D

For more information and other inquiries:

Website: www.calinisanbeachresort.com

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Calinisan-Beach-Resort/1458711377682051

   

Batangas Getaway 2014

This first semester of school year 2014-2015 was really a stressful one for me and my friends. So yeah we decided to go out and party and drink and get wasted. Well you got the idea :) So, my friend Jenny volunteered that we can stay at their rest house in Laurel, Batangas. There’s also a resort nearby called Calinisan Beach Resort. But wait there’s more!!! Jenny also offered that we can use their van and we just have to pay for gas. Can this trip get anymore exciting? But like other college students, we sort of uhhm you know, GOT SHORT. There was a point were we almost cancelled this trip due to lack of budget. Thankfully, Jenny’s mom volunteered to cook for us and do the budgeting and she even offered here Fundador for us ;D Thanks tita for saving us!

Tada! Batangas here we come!

But first lemme talk a selfie

and groupie. We stopped at this area on our way to Batangas since the view was really breathtaking.

After the two hour drive… TOUCHDOWN! CALINISAN BEACH RESORT LAUREL, BATANGAS. Yeah, the resort is really clean :)

The resort is located at Laurel – Agoncillo Rd, Laurel, Batangas. They have two pools. One adult pool and one kiddie pool with slide and man made falls.  For the entrance fee of Php 100, we really enjoyed our stay and also we were the only guest that day. I also made a separate review on this resort and you can read it here.

Here’s a picture of us eating the scrumptious food tita prepared for us. We already tasted her spaghetti while on our way to Batagas but the lunch she prepared for us were extremely delicious. We had inihaw na tilapia, ginisang hipon, steamed alimango and adobong pusit. Yum!

After eating, we decided to play drink and play games. What’s the best way to drink and play at the same time? Beerpong baby!

We also enjoyed Em’s underwater camera that day :)

The fun didn’t stop at the resort. We arrived at around 7pm at the farm of our friend. Tall trees of coconuts welcomed us together with cows around the place. After unloading our stuff, there we have it, the star of the night, the videoke machine! Non stop songs were sang from OPM to foreign, love songs to emo songs. But I am very proud that I got the highest score of 92. Well :) It was a fun singing, drinking, eating and playing cards moment for me and my friends.

Sleep eventually started calling us and yes it’s time to hit the pillows and snooze.

Next morning, Jenny and I were the first to wake up and the green view of trees were the first thing I saw. It was indeed very relaxing. I also had a cup of hot choco using this cute orange teacup.

It’s sad that we only had a night to stay in that serene place but we hope we could go back. Ehem Jenny :))

Before going back to Manila, we bought pasalubongs at Rowena’s located at 152 Barangay Francisco,, Tagaytay – Sta. Rosa Rd, Tagaytay, Cavite

(Espasol, Sylvanas, Buko Tart, Ube Tart)

Our last stop for this getaway was Nuvali. We wouldn’t miss the chance to feed those Koi at the man made pond.

For me, watching those fishes go wild when you throw in fish feeds is a very fun and relaxing activity.

(Baby James, Jenny, Em, Me, Steph, Devs, Ly and Yssa)

This sem ender was really a success and fun filled especiall with the company of my Pamilya B and our friends. I am really excited for our next getaway :D

  

   

Picazza Pizza House Review

So my weird cravings kicked in again and my taste buds are looking for some freshly cooked pizza. Besides Maginhawa Street in Quezon City, Marikina also has its own food haven, Lilac Street. With my mallow buddy, we visited Picazza Pizza House. The store is located at 56-C Lilac Street.

 Upon entering, you will be greeted by the orange, green and red colored chairs and the long black and white doodle mural on your left. The place has two floors with 6 tables on the first and 3 tables and the restroom on the second. The place is air conditioned and well lighted. We we're warmly greeted by the waitress who gave us the two-page menu immediately.

We decided to try their Make your own pizza (Php 210 includes 5 toppings; Php 10 per additional topping)

In creating your pizza, it requires 3 steps.

Step 1 : choose your dough (Plain, Pesto, Wheat)

Step 2: choose you sauce (Red, White, Barbecue)

Step 3: choose your toppings - this step has 3 categories namely meat, vegetables, fruits

So here's what we got

 Plain dough, Red sauce, Grilled chicken, Bacon, Crumbled Meatballs, Pineapples and Mushroom

Pesto dough, Red sauce, Grilled chicken,  Mushroom, Italian Sausage, Tomatoes, Pineapple and Caramelized Onion

Both of us ordered Jasmine Iced Tea (Php 55)  but they also serve water upon request.

It took us 15 - 20 minutes before our pizza arrived. The long wait is worth it because their pizza is really good. The pizza is 11 inches. The crust they used is thin crust and surprisingly soft and chewy. The toppings are evenly distributed and I wasn't expecting that they will be this generous with their toppings. I was really happy upon seeing that my pizza has a lot of cheese and bacon knowing that bacon as an ingredient is a bit pricey. I can taste the flavor of every topping I chose in every bite I made. The toppings and sauce I chose made a good taste together. The only problem I can point out is that the crust did not hold the toppings very well as they tend to fall when I try to take a bite, especially the crumbed meatballs. Nonetheless, it was a great pizza for me. I can still remember my friend scolding me because I kept on saying "ang sarap!" in my every bite.

The Jasmine Iced Tea tastes authentic and tasty. If you're looking for an Iced Tea that has that real tea taste, then this drink is for you. I just hope they have an option to upgrade it to bottomless so I can enjoy my drink longer.

During our stay in the restaurant, three groups of people arrived and I noticed that ate, the waitress was alone in serving the customers so she looked disoriented as the orders and inquiries kept coming.

It was a great experience and my cravings were really satisfied. I am proud to say that I can compare this resto to other DIY Pizza parlor and we plan to visit them again to try their pastas. I hope I can name the pizza I will make next time!

BTW, she's my mallow buddy for the day. One of my best buds, Ijah ♥