Christine Jacob Archives - The Philippine Beat

My Mom was a hands-on, stay-at-home Mom who knew how to cook and bake, sew, draw, play the piano, embroider, amd do oh so many things. Now that she has passed on, I remember her for all the things that she did for us as kids. And one of the things I truly remember (and miss a lot) is her home-cooked dishes.

When I went off to grad school in the States, the one thing she made sure I had with me was a box of her recipes so that I would not go hungry. That was typical Mom. Memories of Mom washed over me during the Knorr #LutongNanay event I attended recently because everything about the event reminded me of things she used to do for us as kids. I listened to celebrity Moms talk about how some of them only learned to cook when they got married but that they now draw pleasure from cooking for their families.

(L-R): Carmina Villaroel, Dimples Romano, Pia Guanio

(L-R): Danica Sotto, Delamar, Christine Jacob

World-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Stuart Firestein, PHD from Columbia University in New York confirmed that mom-cooked flavors actually activate memories because scents reach those parts of the brain that connect the familiar scents with past experiences with Mom. By leaving children with these wonderful flavor imprints in their brain, heart and soul, Moms leave wonderful memories up to their kids’ adulthood. Dr. Firestein says, “What continues to fascinate me is how the brain instinctively knows that certain flavors and foods have the power to mean more to us than just sustenance. This is called sensory recall and is a phenomenon which demonstrates how the brain is hard-wired to respond in certain ways to different tastes and smells. Even over time and distance, when we taste mom’s cooking, it transports us back to a special place and a unique memory”. So, so true…

Unfortunately, modern lifestyles have put pressure on young people. Compound that with the bane of Metro Manila traffic and you have single people, aged 23 to 27 roughly (and even older) who would rather go for fast food eating. As a result, many have admitted in a new research that they cannot cook.

Knorr’s #LutongNanay event was a way of showcasing so many ways to cook quick, uncomplicated dishes and we had a chance to experience just how quick it was! Here I am at Table No. 1 with Dimples Romano who shows us how to cook Tinola sa Gata.

Our cooking table with Dimples Romano

Tinola sa Gata ingredients. They are all readily available.

Here’s Dimples whipping up Tinola sa Gata on our side of the room. It only took her a few minutes to cook this.

Later, I went around the other 3 tables checking what the other celebrity Mom-bassadors were whipping up. Here are the other dishes:

Here’s how to make the Tinola sa Gata:

I’ve been using Knorr products for a long time so am so relieved they have a #LutongNanay section on their website where I can go and check out easy-to-whip-up recipes. You can do the same.

For more simple and delicious recipes from #LutongNanay, visit www.knorr.com.ph. It’s not only the celebrity Moms’ recipes that are there but they’ve also posted recipes shared by other Moms. What a wonderful community!

Moms, your influence on your daughters is greater than you think.

We’ve heard it said that more important than what we say to our kids is what we do because even as small kids they watch and imitate us. We may not know it but as mothers, we also communicate fears and impressions of ourselves onto our daughters. If we are not careful, they will grow up mirroring our thoughts and actions.

How many times have we said aloud “I don’t like my (fill in the body part)”? This self-deprecation rubs off on our daughters who grow up being self-critical or lose their sense of self-acceptance or self worth.

Dove, in its previous #IAmBeautiful campaign, found out that only 7% of Filipina women saw themselves as beautiful. That is a staggering 93% who don’t think they are. In another locally-commissioned study by Dove, the results showed that 2 out of 3 girls feel pressured to look beautiful and this external pressure comes from peers and friends. The redeeming factor? 81% of them still consider their mom as their role model, much higher than the global average of 55%.

That means that if Moms feel good and beautiful, they have the potential to be catalysts of change. They can change their daughters’ image of themselves and turn them into a future generation of empowered women.

Dove is at the forefront of pushing Real Beauty instead of the worldly notion that beauty has only to do with one’s weight, figure, shape of eyes/face/mouth, and so on. It enlisted the help of celebrity moms Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan, Christine Jacob, and TinTin Bersola-Babao who were with us at the launch of the #WeAreBeautiful movement to discuss their relationship growing up with their Mom and their current relationship with their own children. Dr. Honey Carandang, a leading psychologist, was also present to add her own professional insights to the discussion.

A video entitled Dove Legacy featured moms who were asked how they felt about their bodies. Surprisingly when their daughters were asked the same question, the answers were very similar. What the Moms did not like about their bodies, their insecurities, their daughters also manifested. But, where they were happy about their bodies, their daughters were too. So a Mom’s attitude can really be very important for her daughter. Watch this video to see how you, as a Mom, can be a life-changer for your own daughters.

Join the rest of us Moms and support the #WeAreBeautiful movement by starting within your own family — your daughters. From there, you can also bring in the other mothers in your sphere of influence (siblings, cousins, friends) who can work on their own daughters as well. Before we know it, we would have widened the circle of this movement to empower as many Filipina mothers and daughters as possible to feel good about themselves.

To learn more about the #WeAreBeautiful movement, visit Dove’s social media sites:

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/DovePH
Twitter: @DovePH
Instagram: @doveph