Category: Home & Living

When typhoon Yolanda struck in the Philippines, the true Filipino bayanihan shone!  Everyone was so eager to help.  Well, it doesn’t stop now.  You get to help when you buy your very own Change Journal 2014!  A hundred percent (100%) of the proceeds go directly to Yolanda victims via Lifeline Foundation Support Team, Inc.

Lifeline Foundation

The Lifeline Foundation Support Team, Inc. is a non-profit organisation based in Manila that aims to provide relief to the oppressed and empowerment to the victim-minded.

Among Lifeline Foundation’s initiatives are helping scholars get excellent education, organising medical missions, and funding surgeries for different patients.

The unique thing about this group of individuals is that they produce funds via creating products.  Lifeline Foundation doesn’t ask for monetary donations from people.  Their most popular product to date is the Change Planner.  In fact, the 2014 version is already their 7th planner.

Last year, the proceeds (Php 75,000) went to a  girl named Angelika Rosacena.  She’s the oldest of 5 children whose father is a driver.  Her family couldn’t afford her schooling so Lifeline Foundation helped provide her private school education, including allowances, books, the works.  Hopefully, this will help her reach her ultimate dream of being a flight attendant 🙂

For 2014, Lifeline is going to concentrate its efforts to helping Yolanda survivors.  Particularly in rebuilding Iloilo.

Oh, and check out this beautiful song named Strong that was created for the benefit of the survivors of Typhoon Yolanda.  Music & lyrics by Andrew Lane, co-written by Daniel Curtis Lee.

This Journal Will Actually Change Someone’s Life 2014

The 2014 planner has 12 artists who volunteered to share their beautiful work.  Whenever we buy ‘This Journal Will Actually Change Someone’s Life 2014‘, we are actually using that money to help out typhoon Yolanda victims (100% of it!).

The journal is full of information.  It is a mix of serious & fun stuff.  I was enjoying browsing through the planner.  I decided to use this as my work planner and it’s already sitting there for me to use 🙂

Some cool stuff inside the 2014 Change Planner includes:

• Expense Chart

• Mood Chart

• Calendar (month-at-a-glance) with Local & International Holidays

• Wanna treat your loved one?  How about giving them Love Coupons?

• Fun Trivia

• Advice

• Quarterly checkups

The Change Planner is available in 2 colours.  My choice was the black one.  Oh, I’m so excited to use it already!  Go get one for yourself too!  You are changing someone else’s life with your purchase.  Isn’t that a fulfilling thing to do?

This Journal Will Actually Change Someone’s Life 2014 is available at Powerbooks and Fully Booked stores nationwide for Php 775.  You can also buy the journal online at Lazada for the same price.

Lock & Lock is a Korean company known for its containers with four sides interlocking system.  It has since expanded its product line to include water bottles, pitchers, lunch boxes, glass & ceramic wares and a lot more.  The company has gone a long way.  I, myself, am a big fan considering I use lock & lock containers for food storage.  I also have lock & lock lunch boxes and I also use a fry pan that I bought from their store.

Lock & Lock has store branches in Eastwood and Lucky Chinatown Malls, which I frequent to.  I love that all their products are in one store!  It was in those visits when I realize how big the company already is.

So when I got invited for a bloggers’ event last July (I know this was ages ago!), I immediately said yes!  It was a chance for me to get to know the company better, and get first-hand information about Lock & Lock’s new products.  The event was held at their Araneta avenue branch.  It’s funny that I pass by there everyday before, and I didn’t even notice that there was a Lock & Lock store there.  Apparently, it was already Lock & Lock’s seventh store.

The first thing that I noticed when I entered the store was the bird cage hanging by the entrance:

I wonder what the connection between a bird and Lock & Lock is.  Maybe, the owner liked birds so he/she decided to put it up there.  I was wrong — this was in direct connection with the company’s goal:

‎”Lock & Lock cares for the advancement of the kitchen through new means and ways to prepare food from kitchen to table, while keeping in mind in the care for the environment and the balance of health and wellness.”

With the lovely bird living with all the Lock & Lock products on display, Lock & Lock is trying to prove that their products will not be harmful and will not let birds die.

That day, Lock & Lock introduced two new line of products: Cookplus and MicrOven Glasswares.

New Cookplus Products

One main reason why we should use Cookplus products is this.  They are perflourooctanoic acid (PFOA)-free!

PFOA is a carcinogen, liver toxicant, developmental toxicant, immune system toxicant and exerts hormonal effects including alteration of thyroid hormone levels.  In short, PFOA is harmful to the environment and the human body.  Lock & Lock assures us that we don’t get exposed to that when we use Cookplus products.  Besides, who would want to risk their health with cooking utilities that contain harmful chemicals?

At home, I use the Cookplus Smart Frying Pan and I’m pretty happy with it.  It’s very easy to clean the pan, and I didn’t have any problems cooking food with it either.

Last July, Lock & Lock launched 3 more products under the Cookplus line.  Every product has a distinct feature that would fit every cook’s kitchen needs.  I have set my eyes on the Cookplus Ceramic! 🙂

• Cookplus Vitamin

Cookplus Vitamin is a beautiful line of colourful frying pans, casserole, wok and saucepans.

Lock & Lock’s products are built according to three concepts: eco-friendly, economical and easy cooking.  Thus, resulting to products that (1) have modern and elegant style, (2) Handle ventilation system prevents the handle from getting hot, (3) have a non stick pfoa-free coating offers excellent durability, is tough, and built to last a lifetime, (4) were built with high quality Aluminum offering great & fast thermal dispersion, and (5) have heat capturing bottom minimizing heat loss for energy efficient cooking.

• Cookplus Ceramic

Similar to the design of Cookplus Vitamin is the ceramic-coated plans called Cookplus Ceramic.  What you’ll love about the products is that they are coated in such a way that heat is evenly distributed throughout its thick bottom.  Bulges on the inside edges of the pan helps distribute oil and reduce use of oil when frying.  Of course, as with all Cookplus products, Cookplus Ceramic is PFOA-free!

• Cookplus Stainless

For professionals and culinary experts come the premium grade stainless steel cooking pans and pots called Cookplus Stainless.  The products are intended for longer life.  How?  The stainless cooking ware have triple-coating!  So if you are planning to be a professional chef/cook, then Cookplus Stainless is for you.

If you own any of the Lock & Lock Cookplus products or would want to purchase one, here are some care tips: Avoid overheating the pans/posts without any food in it, let the product cool before washing and lastly, do not use abrasive cleaning tools.

MicrOven Glasswares

Lock & Lock is very famous because of their plastic containers with interlocking system.  I even remember seeing demos wherein no food or water will come out from the container when it’s closed.  It was their selling point!

There are a lot of similar products in the market and that just proved how successful Lock & Lock was.  Now, the company stepped it up further with their new innovation, MicrOven Glasswares.

We’ve been using the plastic containers for years and we saw some problems with it.  For example, food stains that will need endless scrubbing and rinsing and most of all the odor that is so hard to remove!

Introducing Boroseal Glass, a microwave-friendly, kitchen-safe compatible for boiling water & sterilization, no risk of spontaneous breakage and heat resistant that can withstand sudden changes in temperature.  It is also used as a laboratory equipment considering it as chemically stable and no hazardous substance leak.

It’s a first in the Philippines and Lock & Lock is the one bringing Boroseal (borosilicate glass) here.  Actually, while they were presenting the product and its benefits, I made up my mind that I would be getting myself each and every size of the MicrOven Glasswares!  I knew that they will be for long-term use especially now that I plan to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.

Here are the benefits that were mentioned:

• Excellent airtightness with the 4-side locking system
• Cooking in oven, or use it as bakeware (without lid)
• Salt and oxidation resistant
• safe to use in a Microwave (without lid), microwave, dishwasher and in a conventional oven!
• From oven to table at once
• Freezer to microwave at once
• Stain and odor resistant
• Made of borosilicate glass which withstands high heat and sudden cooling.
• Heat-resistant glass can withstand sudden change in temperature.

One important thing to note is that Lock & Lock Boroseal uses heat-resistant glass for more safety.  It means that unlike normal glasses or tempered glasses, boroseal won’t be easily broken and won’t be scattered easily when there is a thermal or physical shock!

Right before our eyes, we saw a sample of both tempered glass (with blue case) & boroseal (with pink case) that are shattered into pieces.  I noticed that there were very tiny particles on the tempered glass.  So using tempered glass isn’t that safe at all!  Yaiks!

Net, Lock & Lock were pointing out that with MicrOven Glasswares (Boroseal glasswares) there will be no risk of spontaneous breakage, no risk of shattering and no risk of formation of harmful chemicals.

Oh yeah, I spent about Php 5,000 in the store buying all types of Boroseal glasswares in every shape and size!  The price of each container varies with size & shape (bigger being more expensive).  To give perspective, the ones that I got ranges from Php 200 to Php 700.

I will still use Lock & Lock’s plastic containers for my frozen meats and will use Boroseal for my other needs.

Whew!  With all those new products, we really have to save some money so we can own them!  I already have the complete set of the Lock & Lock MicrOven glasswares and my next target to buy is the Cookplus Ceramic!.

You can buy Lock & Lock products at the ff. stores:

• Shangri-la Mall
• Eastwood City
• Glorietta 4
• Lucky Chinatown Mall
• Alabang Town Center
• Banilad Town Center, Cebu City

Most of my salary goes to bills.  That’s why I always find ways to save money in order to lessen costs.

Meralco introduced Bright Ideas.  This is an impressive campaign!  With this campaign, Meralco suggests that we switch from using LPG stoves to using an Induction Cooker.

According to Meralco, an Induction Cooker is an energy-efficient appliance that cooks faster, safer and cheaper compared to gas-cooking stoves.  We got to know its benefits over an intimate special themed dinner prepared by Pinoy Eats World’s Chef JJ Yulo (more on that on a separate post).

There was even a game during the dinner when we were asked to guess how long it’ll take to boil water using an induction cooker.  The winner took home her very own American Standard Induction cooker.  I didn’t win because I guessed it wrong.  I thought that it’d be boiled in 2.5minutes but apparently, it took 4 minutes.

So how does the induction cooker work?

An induction cooker produces an electromagnetic field which penetrates the cooking vessel and produces heat.  The heat is then transferred to the vessel’s contents and cooks it.

What I learned and appreciated about the process of induction cooking is that nothing else apart from the cooking vessel gets affected by the electromagnetic field.  In short, no heat is lost to the surrounding.  Also, as soon as the induction cooker is turned off, heat generation stops automatically.

Here is a list of benefits of an induction cooker:
I’m just glad that I learned this and I’m sharing what I found out with you 🙂

• Safety – heat is generated only if a flat bottomed magnetic cookware is used.  With induction cookers, there is no open flame, exposed hot coils or possibility of gas leaks.  I’m totally sold on this.  As of the moment, I actually gave up my gas stove for an electric cooker.
• Energy efficiency – with gas stoves, 50% of generated heat is lost to the surroundings compared to only 10% with induction cookers.  This efficient heat transfer allows food to cook faster.  I like that there’s less wasted heat and since there’s not much heat in the surrounding, the kitchen would be a much more enjoyable place for cooking.
• Instant adjustment – allows users to adjust heat instantly.  An induction cooker is quick to heat up and cool down.  We can also set the cooker to automatically turn off at a certain time.
• Easy Maintenance – an induction cooker is easy to clean as we just need to wipe the ceramic-glass surface with a damp cloth.
• Portable & Easy to Install – I always have to ask for assistance before when I still had my gas stove.  I had to pay someone to help me install the hose, regulator and the tank.  I even have to ask help whenever I need to change gas tanks.  It was really inconvenient.  With induction cooker, we just need to plug it in and we are ready to go.  It’s so easy to use.
• Price – it’s pretty known that using an induction cooker is more expensive than using a gas stove.  I beg to disagree though as LPG tanks are expensive plus maintenance is a pain.  Based on lab tests conducted by Meralco, it showed that the cost doesn’t differ much between the two: Unit (induction cooker – Php 2,500, gas stove – Php 2,500 + gas tank + regulator + hose) & Consumption (70kWh = Php 745).

Discounts on Induction Cookers
To promote the Meralco Bright Idea: Switch to Induction Cooking further, Meralco is offering discounts to customers up to 50% on American Home & Imarflex branded Induction cookers from July 1 to September 30, 2012.  Isn’t that cool?

Meralco Bright Ideas are bright indeed.  I can’t wait to learn more with regards to home safety & tips for energy efficiency from Meralco.