Season's Greetings

Merry Christmas Everyone!

HO!HO!HO! Merry Christmas Everyone! I'm finally done wrapping all the presents. It took me awhile to wrapped everything but It was fun! Are you guys excited? Aside from wrapping gifts Christmas is also time to spent quality time with family and friends. When we talk about Christmas its gonna be gifts and food. So, to give you some ideas on what to make for Christmas. I'm gonna list some of my favorite recipes below. Check them out!

Lechon Manok

Lumpia Shanghai

Mango Float

Macaroni Salad

Beef Kaldereta

Those are my MUST HAVE on Christmas dinner..wink:) What is your favorite holiday dishes? Please share your thoughts. I would love to know.:)

 

To my family, friends and especially to all the lovely readers of The Sweet Cuisinera. I personally sending you a very Sweet Merry Christmas Greetings! Hope you have fun spending time with your family and friends this holiday season...Lets enjoy together the spirit of sharing love and blessing this holiday season. See you in few days! Merry Christmas Everybody:)

xoxoxox Melgie

Holiday gift Ideas#3- Gift Wrapping

Gift Wrapping Ideas

Happy Wednesday Everyone! Ho!ho!ho!Ho!ho! Yup! a week from now its gonna be Christmas! yippee!! I'm excited seeing my kids getting excited, you have no idea how many times my kiddies ask me everyday when the Christmas gonna be. So, Are you done wrapping all your presents? If not, I know at some point this week you probably gonna start wrapping. I'll do mine at the very last minute or probably 2 days before depends on the mood. I'm not even done with my shopping yet! Yup!! Kinda slow this year but I'm getting there! For meantime,  Let me share my personal gift wrapping ideas and some money saving tips along the way as well. I love wrapping presents, it makes me feel like Mrs.Claus, do you feel same way? (wink:) Let the excitement come begin! C'mon lets start wrapping those Christmas presents... and be ready for Christmas.,,:)

GIFT BOX -

 The most popular gift wrapping of all time for the reason that it is the simplest way to wrap present. Be creative with your wrapping and add some bows and ribbons! Whoala!!   

TIPS:-When your shopping for clothes, shoes, books or even toys. Don't forget to ask the cashier for gift box. Some store give free gift boxes especially this holiday season. By doing this, you can save money buying gift boxes. This makes your gift wrapping so much easier and it look so nice as well.

Money Saving Tips:

- Recycled- If you have wrapping paper from last year use those!

-  BUY it when its on SALE- Especially now that Christmas is getting close they usually go on sale. Take advantage of those:)

-  Ribbons/Bows-Put a little perfection to your gift by adding cute bows or ribbons.

 GIFT BAGS

This is the easiest wrapping gift ever, WHY? simply because you just carefully put everything in a gift bag put a tissue paper and whola! best wrapping ideas ever!!!:) This is perfect for toys, clothes, anything you can think off as long as it fits on the gift bags. They varied on sizes so also perfect for jewelry and gift cards.. 

Money Saving Tips: 

- Buy Gift bag in bundle- this way you can save money instead of buying by each. Also, look closely how much the individual gift bags are, maybe they are much cheaper compare to the bundle ones.

- Gift bags doesn't require tapes, bows or ribbons. ( pretty cool)

Giant Bag/ Giant Bows-

This is perfect for BIG STUFF. My in-laws gave us TV ( 2 years ago) and this is what they used to wrapped the TV (Giant Christmas Bag)- Just ask the store if they sale this kind of bag, I've seen few at some stores. Also if you can't find any Giant Bag  big ribbons will do! 

Some gifts are already in the box itself and no need to put them on gift boxes or gift bags like books, perfume and some toys. Just simply wrap the gifts and Whola! Merry Christmas!

I hope you learn something new and If you have some cute gift wrapping ideas please do share! I love to know what you come up with. See you guys on Saturday for some sweet inspired treat for meantime keep browsing for your favorite recipes.:)

Holiday Gift Ideas # 2

Inexpensive Holiday Gift Ideas

Hi! Its Wednesday once again and as I promise I'm back with another Holiday Gift Ideas. This week I wanna talk about the inexpensive gift that we could make or we could buy at the store. Holiday season is the busiest day of the year and also the most expensive one. Have notice that when you go to the store, Christmas songs are play it because when you hear Christmas it means giving gifts and you ended up buying stuff not suppose to be on your list, but this week we gonna make something cute and amazing without spending much. This gift ideas are so perfect for our friends, neighbors, teachers and even my kids love this idea. Just be creative on this holiday season and let's transform the boring flour and sugar from our pantry into a delicious treat that everyone will love, the regular apple and orange into cute little basket that can touch someones heart and sending some love and warm this Christmas with personalized coffee mug.  Lets be merry this coming holidays, check out my holiday ideas below....:)

SWEET BAKE GOODS

Tell me who doesn't love bake goods? I made this cassava cake last year for my friends and surely they LOVED it. Also along with this scrumptious cassava cake are coffee mug with hot chocolate on them. You can also make something different like fruit cake, cakes, brownies and cookies. Another one is little fruit pies or just pies..:)

- The IDEA wrap their favorite bake goods in a clear plastic so that they can see clearly whats inside, put ribbons and whola..!!! Happy Holidays! I know! not all of us knows how to bake but Hey! lot of bakery have delicious sweet treat this holiday complete with beautiful box and ready to go. Just simple grab some and bring it to your friends or neighbor house...:)

FRUIT BASKET

 How about a fruit basket complete with your favorite FRUITS? I'm sure your friends and neighbor will gonna love and appreciate what you do. This is so simple you can just put 3 kind of fruits in a basket depend on how fancy you want it to be.. Or you could use a nice bowl or basket whatever you feel like.. 

The IDEA- Buy 3 kinds of fruits, different color and shape and little basket that you think the fruits could fit, wrap it with clear plastic put big red ribbon on top.. WHOLA! 

HOT CHOCOLATE MUG / JAR

I think hot chocolate mug, so far this is the most easy and super inexpensive one, but this is also the most cute and heart warming gift idea. So, if you have friends who love hot chocolate? LIKE ME!!! Oh yeah! this is so perfect or if your friend like Coffee you can totally change it into COFFEE MUG instead.

If you know his/her favorite drink, BUY IT couldn't be that expensive I think. Also on your list is Little Marshmallow,  Chocolate Chips. I'm getting excited right hahahah! and of course the coffee mug of your choice ( green, red and white is perfect holiday color theme) but feel free to get whatever you think she like you can also use JAR

 BRIGHT IDEA- if your using a reusable jar pour the hot chocolate mix, add some chocolate chips and on the top is the marshmallow. Put the lid and seal it tight. Put a nice ribbons and RECIPE TAG

 If your using a MUG put her favorite hot chocolate drink , chocolate chips and marshmallow. Cover the whole thing with clear plastic wrapper. Tie it on the top with ribbons and attached the RECIPE TAG ( below is a recipe tag I made )

CHOCOLATE BARS

This is perfect for everyone! Just simply buy a big chocolate bar. All you have to do is tie the chocolate with your choice of ribbon and attached  with gift tag.

Hope everyone is having fun this week. I'll see you next Wednesday for more holiday gift ideas and I'll be posting also some recipes in few days. See you around!

Holiday Gift Ideas-#1

Holiday Gift Ideas for Love Ones

Happy Wednesday Everyone! I'm pretty sure that every single one of you already put the Christmas Tree up, well ME we just did it last night. Yay! I'm excited seeing my kiddos getting excited and also looking forward for Christmas. I made some Beef Caldereta for dinner and Chocolate Crinkles for our dessert for our perfect dinner last night! Thinking about Christmas is just around the corner, some of you maybe already have the gift wrap up and ready to go, or still in the process of shopping, and maybe some of you, like ME still scratching my head of what to get for my love-ones this Christmas.

Thinking about gifts for special someone or even for our husband/wife is sometimes harder than we thought. There's a lot of things to consider What to get? Where to buy or get the good deal? How much money you plan on spending? If it is a surprise gift consider the size of the product. Remember! It's hard to hide big stuff  and eventually you ended up confessing about your gift before Christmas. To help you! and ME,( hahah) I've come up with this Wednesday Gift Ideas, Yup! I'll be posting some gift Ideas only for the month of December every Wednesday. So, I'll be happy if you visit my blog and see what I come up with... wink:) Remember the important of Christmas is not the amount we spent, Its always the thoughts that we put into. Let the spirit of Christmas be with us..! Let start by asking questions?:)

Does  he/she like to SHOP ? 

- I would say that GIFT card, GIFT Certificate or CASH is perfect for this category. Unless you know his/her size, favorite store, color and such.

CLOTHING-

SHOES/ SANDALS-  I think GIFT CARD to his/her favorite store is just perfect for this one.

BAGS-  Designer bag is always a hint!

JEWELRY-  Nothing fail to impress someone this holiday.

Does he/she like WINE? 

Personalized wine basket - Fill the basket with his/her favorite wine, cheese,crackers and wine glass. Or you could treat him/her to a wine tasting adventure.

Does he/she like to COOK?

-Kitchen Gadgets- AWESOME! I love to cook and experiment in the kitchen this is just GREAT!

-Baking Basket- compose with Apron and baking equipment, OR it could be personalized according to his/her liking. Get all the ingredients of your favorite cake, brownie or cookie recipe put all together in one basket and attach the recipe.

-Cookbook- Find the his/her favorite cookbook and you can simply just put it along with your Baking basket.

Does he/she like CRAFTS?

-Personalized gift basket idea is perfect, filled with his/her favorite crafty materials and also gift card  to his/her favorite craft store is always a big hint.  

-DIY Christmas Card- :)

Does he/she like Coffee?

-Coffee Maker- There's a lot of varieties nowadays in the market for all the coffee lover out-there. The best one is the Keurig and its affordable!..:)
-Coffee Basket- Can't go wrong of a coffee basket for coffee lover. Just simply put his/her favorite coffee flavor, coffee mug, few crackers to with the coffee and Gift Card to his/her favorite coffee shop like Starbucks:)

Does he/she like Sport Fanatic Movie Lover
-Personalized basket- His/her favorite t-shorts or sweatshirts with his favorite team, hat, pop corns,chips and candies if you have budget for GAME TICKET then go for it.:)

Does he/she like to TRAVEL and OUTDOORS ADVENTURE?
Plane Ticket is sound so GOOD! but lets face it, Its expensive. So, let make something cute and fun!
- Little Travel Basket- compose with magazine about travel and places, travel size lotion, toothpaste, toothbrush all health and care you could think of you that he/she might need for travel.
- I'm not a very adventurous person but I think good brand SHOES is perfect for this, Anything else you could think of? Please share!

This is only few gift Ideas I could think right now, If there's anything that I missed, anything at all. don't hesitate to leave me a comment. After all its Christmas time to share and give.!
I'll see in few days for more recipes and next Wednesday for another gift ideas.:)
xoxoxo-sweetcuisinera