Rochelle Rivera

Spent the last two days in Bangkok, Thailand 🇹🇭 learning and trying out “superfoods” aka pulses (such as dry peas, lentils, red beans, and chickpeas). I’m really grateful to be a part of this event because it is in line with my goal this year to live healthy. 💪🏻 I will share my experience on the blog soon www.rochellerivera.com Also, thank you to everyone who joined my giveaway. 🎁I’ll announce the winners once I get back to the PH. 🇵🇭📸 @mjdeleonblogs 👉🏻 with @ruthilicious @iamacesome @aci_girl . @pulsesph .

A post shared by 👩🏻‍💻rochellerivera.com (@rochellemiko) on Jan 26, 2018 at 3:23am PST

WHAT ARE PULSES, THE SUPERFOOD?

When I first heard about pulses, I thought it has something to do with veins, blood and heartbeat- our lifeline, basically. In a sense, they are.

After attending the event in Bangkok, I learned that we actually eat pulses! They are part of the legume family and sometimes coined interchangeably with beans. Dried peas, edible beans, lentils, soybeans, peanuts and chickpeas are the most common pulses.

They are grain legumes that are very high in protein and fiber, and are low in fat, compared to most other plant foods. On top of that, they are environment-friendly because they consume less water, and they help fight obesity and certain diseases. I know that’s a mouthful of info coming to you like thunder. No wonder they are called “superfoods”!

I had an incredible and very informative experience about pulses last January 24-26, 2018 in Bangkok, Thailand. I, together with other media personalities and influencers, learned a lot about its health and environmental benefits through various activities in preparing and incorporating pulses in our meals.

Pulse consumption was first observed to be increasing in the USA in the last couple of years, but Southeast Asia is said to be following this upward trend, starting with Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia. Yes, this is nothing new to us Asians. Although, we lack awareness and perhaps the real appreciation of what good they bring.

We stayed in the amazing Conrad Bangkok for the duration of our 2-day series of exciting activities highlighting pulses. I never thought I could have it anytime of the day!

Lentil Soup Shooter

Sweet Potato and Chickepea Hummus with Salsa Verde Chicken

Black Eyed Bean Cucumber Mint Salad

Panseared Salmon with Green Pea Mash

Lamb Chili Con Carne with Kidney Beans

Nutella Stuffed Poached Pear

with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

As soon as we arrived, we were treated for an orientation dinner at Indulge Asian fusion restaurant, top-rated in Bangkok. It is known for its ever-evolving dishes, high-quality ingredients, truly thirst-quenching drinks, and very accommodating staff. Their dishes have been carefully created to cater to all tastes - from conventional, much-loved dishes, to new flavor combinations. It’s super satisfying to try their exquisite pulse-based specials. What a welcome!

To cap our day, we had our Happy Hour Refreshment Pairing bustle at CRAFT.

Our pulse snacks and drinks were interestingly perfect combination. It was a night full of chit chat, fun and pulses, of course!

As much as I wanted to stay up late to bond some more with the other guests and my blogger friends, I had to get some rest for our second day. I’ve been actually looking forward to our Pulses Cooking Class as soon as I saw our itinerary because I wanted to acquire techniques and expand my knowledge on how to prepare different dishes with pulses.

I’d love to share my key learnings from the one and only Chef Norbert Ehrbar who has been cooking since he was 16. His passion is highly commendable, and his years of experience in the food industry working in various restaurants are definitely an inspiration.

Team Philippines with Chef Norbert Ehrbar
rochellerivera.com, lifestylehub.net, ruthdelacruz.com, iamacesome.com, acigirl.com

With Dee Richmond, PhD, Senior Project Manager of Agrisource

Dee Richmond, PhD, Senior Project Manager of Agrisource

We spent most of our day at the UFM Cooking School in Phrom Phong. We were introduced to pulses and the different tips on preparing them.

Pulses can be incorporated to every meal - from soups to deserts, snacks to main courses, and even smoothies! Meat, veggies, and fruits surprisingly go very well with different kinds of pulses. Just imagine how nutritious every dish can be. 😊

Rice Noodle Bowl

Chickenpea and Mussel Asian Soup

Korean Style US Bean Stew

US Navy Bean Smoothie

Aside from the demos, we were immersed in hands-on cooking and some more engaging discussions.

Cooked Chinese Style U.S Pulses and Chicken Soup with different kinds of pulses

I really enjoyed cooking with bloggers from Thailand. The best part of this day was our super delicious and flavorful lunch! Haha! I must get some serious exercise after this trip.

Catered Lunch by Radisson

Bloggers from the Philippines with Aaron Henry and Robert Woodrich of Paper & Page

Our last night in Bangkok was bitter-sweet, I didn’t realize we’re about to go back home already. The program was absolutely packed with information, which is its main objective. Goal unlocked!

Four kinds of Hot and Cold Hor D'oeuvres

Barbecued Peking Duck

Stewed Fish Maw

black mushroom in oyster sauce

Sauteed Scallops

X.O. chili sauce and black beans

Duet of Vegetables

topped with conpoy sauce and pinto beans

Deep Fried Bamboo Fish

soy sauce

Fried Rice

seafood and lentils

Ginkgo Nuts

hot syrup and red beans

The 4-course dinner prepared by Liu at Conrad Bangkok was more relaxed and one of a kind. The Liu menu takes most of its influence from Cantonese cuisine, leveraging the great knowledge and influence Chef Jacky brings from different part of China as well as Thailand. There’s no better way to wrap up this whole experience.

Truly, what I have learned about pulses are eye-opening. Sometimes we think too much of our diet, and sacrifice taste over the nutrients we can get out of the food we eat. Delicious does not mean unhealthy, and we can stop being guilty with our intake of the best-tasting dishes. There are a lot of options to go green and be healthy at the same time. Pulses is one superfood you must add to your daily consumption.

Hope to share a recipe with you soon! Comment a pulse-meal we can all try.

You can find more information about PULSES at: https://www.facebook.com/ThailandPulses/ and
https://www.facebook.com/PulseAssociationPhilippines/

Nessotech - an IT firm and systems solutions provider engaged in software development with a decade of experience - has been serving companies such as banks and non-bank remittance firms applying for their technical accreditation with the Philippine Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Health Insurance System (Philhealth) and the Home Mutual Development Fund of the Philippines (Pag-ibig Fund), to enable collection of contribution and loan payments of OFWs, self-employed and voluntary members.

Managed by a seasoned team from the financial and IT sectors, and headed by its President and CEO Ma. Jessica Palmiano, Nessotech has diversified with the recent establishment of Togetech whose mandate is the creation of mobie applications that directly serve the customers, which includes retail and peer-to-peer client.

Togetech envisions itself to be a provider of applications geared towards connectivity, financial inclusion, and convenience of customers. Togetech initially launched the Moneygment -app, which is a payments solutions mobile app providing remittance for government contributions and loans, as well as computation, filing and tax payments.

Mr. Jonathan Valeros – Business Development Head, Cash Management Services Division of China Banking Corp., Ms. Denize Palmiano – Business Development Head, Togetech Inc., Ms. Ma. Jessica Palmiano – Business Development Head, Togetech Inc., Mr. Domingo Dayro Jr. – Vice President and Head, Cash Management Services Division of China Banking Corp.

The founders of Moneygment understand the importance of these contributions, especially to the OFWs and their families that they have been serving for the past few years. This inspired them to work continuously in improving their systems in order to provide the most up-to-date services and reports to their customers. They are aware of the difficulties regarding delays in processing and unposted transactions causing benefits to be delayed as well. That is why they developed the Moneygment app that the customers can easily access through their mobile devices, and hence, they can immediately generate reports and get updates about their transactions.

Moneygment caters as well to the growing number of self-employed individuals, freelancers, homemakers paying for the mandatory contributions of their kasambahays or household help, and micro and small enterprises to make paying and filing taxes and government contributions easy and convenient.

Mr. Amroussi Rasul – Consultant, Bank of Commerce, Ms. Ma. Jessica Palmiano – Business Development Head, Togetech Inc., Mr. Ruby Soyosa – Senior Manager/Remittance Business Development Officer, International Operations Division of Bank of Commerce, Mr. Allan Cuisia – Department Head, Remittance Processing Department, International Operations Division of Bank of Commerce

Moneygment does not only focus on providing convenience for spending, but spending on things that will help ‘future-proof’ our customers. Future-proofing means being responsible citizens through filing and paying taxes, ensuring savings and insurance coverage through utilizing government initiatives provided by SSS, Philhealth and Pag-ibig. We are all focused on the now, yet we may lose sight of what we need to prepare for the future so we give you Moneygment to help you secure that future. The future does not only refer to when you are 60 years old and above. This is as simple as ensuring you have medical funds when you get sick, claiming for calamity loans when calamities happen, applying to own your home or looking for a funding source for your desired trip to another country. Future-proofing is also helping you achieve financial confidence by being able to provide financial tax returns even if you are operating a micro-enterprise enabling you to secure financial assistance in growing your business. -says Ma. Jessica Palmiano, President and CEO of Togetech

The Moneygment app is available for download on Android via the Play Store and soon on IOS. Through this mobile application, customers can enjoy the convenience of paying for their government contributions anytime from wherever they are. The customers can transfer payments through Moneygment accredited partners without the need for owning a bank account.

Togetech will continuously integrate with partner institutions such as insurance companies, micro-finance and government institutions, in order to provide customers with the convenience in paying for these types of contributions, and achieve real-time posting of payments. Reports are also made available in every step of the process.

Further, it will strive to provide for financial inclusion through its rewards system and information campaigns, making it easy for customers to know current updates by our partner agencies.

Togetech will also be launching other applications catering to this segment so as to achieve its goals in providing a facility for easy payment solutions for basic life requirements and to help “future-proof” the consumers that will further improve the standard of living of every Filipino, driving the society forward.

Time is flying by so fast. Sometimes, I feel like I’m missing a lot of my kids’ milestones and achievements because I have been so busy. This year, I’m going to make sure I make the most of my time with my family more this year. We have a lot of plans and they can be summed up to these 9 Family Resolutions for 2018.

1. Start a weekly ritual.

It could be a weekend picnic or attending Sunday service. A movie night every Friday or simply having breakfast and dinner together would be great, too. Yes, we have already been doing this since I don’t know when - that’s one thing. Doing it with consistency would be another.

2. Practice hello’s and goodbye’s

Due to stress or busy times, there are instances when we forget to check on how everyone’s doing. Please, don’t let a day pass by, no matter how hectic your schedule is, without saying “hello” or “goodbye”. Smile a lot. Kiss and hug your children and spouse. Make it a habit, and you’ll have the best days. We will work on this moving forward.

3. Put down devices.

In the family, kids and adults alike need to learn to control the use of gadgets, especially when at home. Spending more time together means being there physically, mentally and emotionally. We plan to put our devices down and create more memories doing fruitful and enjoyable activities.

4. Go on vacation.

We had a few trips together last year – domestic and international, although I traveled alone more than with the entire Ohana. This year, we intend to plan early and save more for our vacation. In fact, we are already planning to go to Bohol and travel more as a family out of the country. I’m already excited!

5. Read together.

When my kids were still little, we always had time reading stories every night. I used to really find time to read to them, especially when they were just starting in school. Later on, I let them do the reading since they already know how to. The past years taught me not to let this kinds of moments go because, sooner, they’ll be demanding for privacy, and they will have activities of their own. Not that they will drift apart as they grow old, but reality teaches us that we only have limited time to spend with them while they’re young. So, this has to be part of my bucket list gain.

6. Do chores.

I want to be more hands-on in our home again and really be involved in household chores, and do it with the fambam. A lot of opportunities opened for me last year and there are quite some challenges, too. I’m soooo thankful. On top of that, I felt like I need to work on time management so as not to neglect my duties as mom and wife to my dearest family. So yeah, I’m planning to make more time in homemaking this 2018.

7. Learn how to save money.

Apart from saving for leisure (a.k.a. our trips this year) and spending on material things, I realized I have to learn to manage our finances more for the future. I have been checking on opportunities to engage in financial literacy programs. If you know someone or someplace, feel free to comment here or message me. We want to enrich my knowledge on how to better invest and save our money.

8. Celebrate milestones and achievements.

It means a lot to our kids that we’re always there for them, not only when they need help but also during times of triumph to celebrate with them. Aside from it boosts their confidence more, they will always treasure and use these moments as their strength as they grow up. I know because my family and friends have always been supportive of my milestones and achievements, too. This 2018, we will celebrate and savor every moment, high and low, as a family.

9. Exercise together.

To be physically fit is not just my goal, but the entire family’s aim this year and moving forward. We can play basketball, boxing, or simply conduct other forms of physical activity at home. We also plan to join in fun runs together.

Of course, I will continue to use Downy Antibac on our clothes to avoid bacteria build-up and malodor. Bacteria, which grow on clothes when we sweat, can cause a lot of diseases, so I want to make sure that we, especially my kids are protected. We wanted to make sure everyone is healthy and in shape to avoid getting sick and to not miss out important events.

How about you? Have you thought of your Family Resolutions for 2018 yet? So much is in store for us and nothing beats achieving your goals when you’re able to reach with your loved ones. Happy 2018! Cheers!

Saving the World by Eating Pulses

Your finances in an app, your future in a tap!

Family Resolutions for 2018

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