Frannywanny

I never knew that the time could come that I'd actually find online shopping to not only be therapeutic but totally convenient too. Back then, people who online shop would just end up with clothes, shoes, accessories and baked goodies. Today, you can shop for anything and almost everything with just a few clicks here and there. Now I get why first time or new moms like me totally adore online shopping. With a little baby (or babies, in my case) in the house, it's pretty impossible to go out and do your errands but life at home goes on so we need to eat and restock our pantry no matter what. Luckily, I learned about Honestbee Philippines . I first heard about this when I was residing in the Lion City as I had colleagues who would buy their monthly snack stash using Honestbee's delivery service. As for me, our condo unit then was located just 2 blocks away from two major supermarkets and my office was sandwiched between 3 groceries so I never really found the need to do o...

Fitness talk on a Friday? I know it's not the most normal thing to do but change is always good and so today, we push aside our usual "Fried Food, Friday" to talk about something else. Aside from pushing myself to cook more at home, one of my resolutions when I first moved to the Lion City was to get into a fitness routine. It wasn't easy, I have to say. I started really slow and it was only when my sister got engaged and we were months away from her wedding that I found the real motivation to go to the gym regularly and to aim for my weight loss goals. After her wedding, the holiday feasting began and I tell you, the struggle to get back to my 3x a week gym routine was hard and real. Luckily, I will always have Paul and my friend D who will always motivate me to go and work out. Add to the fact that I discovered indoor cycling and I've been so in love with it for more than a year now. That's true love and commitment, you guys. :) Then early this year, I...

Living abroad and away from family has its perks and of course, its disadvantages too. One thing is that with no helper around, we basically have to fend for ourselves 24/7. This means that if Paul and I have to work late, we still have to worry about where to get dinner and this doesn't exempt us from the dish-washing and house-cleaning chores after. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving our independent life but of course, there are moments when I wish I can just have dinner on our table with just a snap of a finger. Take last Friday for instance, I was rushing to finish something for work and has resigned to the fact that I will be heading home late on a Friday night. Then I thought that perhaps Paul will be able to get home before me and he'll take care of dinner. Then I received an SMS from him saying that he will have to stay a bit later too. Oh dear! I'm pretty sure that once he gets home, he'll be so hungry and I don't have the time to cook our meal. B...

It's no secret how much we love to eat out most especially when our friends are there to join us. However, one thing that can really dampen our hungry spirits is having to queue up for a long, long, longggg time. Since patience is obviously not my strongest point, I make it a habit to do table reservations as often as I can. Back then, I would go through the trouble of calling the restaurants days before to do this. However, there are moments when we suddenly decided to eat out and knowing that I didn't had ample time to make the reservation, stress level would tend to rise. That was until Paul and I were invited to join a fun food trail one weeknight and this was hosted by the cool folks behind Quandoo Singapore . For those who haven't heard about this, it's actually a mobile app that will allow you to make a table reservation with just a few clicks and you can do it right on your mobile phone. Sounds awesome, right? One cool thing that I love about it is how i...

I was feeling a bit bummed out that I wasn't able to fly home for Mommy's birthday last week. It has been 2 straight years of me missing her special day and yes, I was feeling sad and guilty about it. I promise to make it up to her and Pan, most especially, in the coming years. Luckily, I haven't missed any of Papa's birthday and more so now as I really have to be in Manila yearly every end of August for family reasons. This is really one of those moments when reality bites that I am so far away from home and I'm missing out on special occasions like these. To make up for my absence, I decided to do something productive on Mommy's birthday and thanks to the Entertainer App , I spent my afternoon "productively" eating around Tanjong Pagar with my fellow foodies and friends Ting and Ning (...so call me Fing hehe) . I've created a 1 minute video to share with you how my gastronomical afternoon went. If you're curious about the three establ...

When Paul turned a year older a month ago, I decided to do away with the usual fancy dinner date and to just chill and enjoy some good food. After all, 'Mr Hardworking' decided to still go in and work on his birthday so knowing how he just likes to keep things simple and casual, I took him to Hombre Cantina  for an all-authentic Mexican fare to unwind. I've been wanting to check out Hombre Cantina after getting raves from friends saying they have really good Mexican food. Good thing though, it's part of The Entertainer App's line up making it even more enticing for us to try. So there we were an hour and a half before dinner time enjoying the view of the beautiful Singapore River.  Luckily, we also got there in time for Happy Hour which entitled us to get a bottle of beer for only S$8 and one round (basket) of Chicharrones. Don't expect much from the chicharrones though as the serving was really really really small...barely enough for two and when ...

Apologies for the corny title! It's midnight and I just had a nice wine pairing dinner so.. you now all know what alcohol can do to my sense of humor. Anyway, let me tell you about this nice food app that I came across with. It was during one of those dinners that I had with fellow bloggers a few months back that we started talking about the different food mobile apps available. As you know, we adore scoring great dining deals! After all, with our frequency of dining out, being able to save a little more here and there is indeed a big deal. Meet Sugar ! Sugar is an interesting mobile app that allows users to either buy coupons instantly, skim it to reduce the price or to share the deal with their friends to lower it further. The only catch is one user in the entire Sugar universe can purchase the coupon. Thus, what normally happens is that the popular ones easily get snapped up within minutes. Fastest finger reigns supreme here. For instance, my first Sugar purchase was...

On days when Paul had to work late, I would normally try to make it home earlier than usual to be able to prepare our dinner. So far, I've mastered the art of cooking rice and reheating a wide-array of viands too. When I'm feeling a bit more creative, I would cook a new dish and would surprise not only Paul but myself as well with the (thankfully) positive outcome. I have to admit though that we do most of the cooking during weekends where we have the luxury of time. Weeknights are normally meant for reheating our food as we basically have an hour to prepare everything to have dinner right away. One night, I went home late after paying a quick visit to the gym. Worried that we will end up eating really really late, I told Paul that I'll do something about it. As soon as he said "okay",  I quickly opened the ever reliable Food Panda app. The steps are really simple. First, I keyed in our postal code to be able to generate a list of restaurants that can ser...

I'm pretty sure all of you can relate to this. Eating out is always fun but let's face it, sometimes as the food fills our tummy, it can also cause a dent on our pockets. This is why Paul and I have purposely set aside a percentage of our monthly expenses to "Eating Out". This way, we know that we won't go beyond our allowable budget and still enjoy trying a new restaurant at least once a week. Fair enough, right? However, if there's a way to be able to eat out or to indulge in one of your favorites for half the price all the time, wouldn't that just be perfect? I got some good news for all my Singapore-based readers! Look what I came across with -- The Entertainer mobile app . You can download it for FREE  regardless of what gadget you're using (iPhone, Samsung, tablets, etc). When you avail either of the Mobile 2014 or the One Month Mobile package, you get more than 700 buy one get one offers which you can avail from their partner merchants. ...

- Sponsored Post - “So how does it feel living abroad?” If only I get a Thousand pesos every single time I get asked this question, I’d probably be a couple of thousand pesos richer now. It’s true, living abroad has its perks – independence, the chance to meet and be assimilated to more cultures and nationalities, discovering a new place…the list go on and on. However, I always say that no matter wherever one may be, you should always keep a solid connection back home. It’s one thing to set your wings and fly but it’s another to know that you have to still fly back home and stay grounded where you belong. We’re lucky that home for us is a quick 4-hour flight away. However, I’ve come to realized that keeping abreast to the latest news regardless if this concerns the nation or my family is not very easy. Well, at least there’s Facetime and Whatsapp for my Family and to be updated with our national and lifestyle news? I rely on The Philippine Star Pagesuite App which I’ve recently ...

*SPONSORED POST* Let me tell you why I love talking about food. Putting aside the fact that it nourishes people and it gives us the energy to keep us on the go, I always see eating as a very positive and happy activity. Like what I mentioned before, people eat to celebrate or whenever there’s an occasion. When we’re feeling down, more often than not, we rely on food to uplift our spirits. There’s no right or wrong answers when it comes to food. Food and taste is very subjective. You can’t say that someone is wrong before he or she doesn’t have the same judgement as you do on a certain dish. What may be ultimately delicious for you may not sit well with the person beside you. Nonetheless, there’s no reason to debate over it as our taste buds are all different from one another. Thus, when the conversation for the best pizza comes around, I stand by my long time favourite – Shakey’s Thin Crust Pizza . What are my favourite flavours? Definitely Hawaiian and Friday’s Special . My ...