Sunday, September 19, 2010

Sunday is UnFunday

Sunday afternoons are straight up boring. They're like the day before the end of the world: everything closes early, no one wants to do anything, it just blows. All I can think about is what needs to be done next week and how I'm going to accomplish all the nonsense I need to accomplish. One thing that can make Sundays better is the addition of a kick ass breakfast which is what Brian and I had this morning. It's sort of a lightened up version of a traditional English fry-up, minus the mushroom, grilled tomato and black pudding (no thanks). I had a frozen package of British bacon I bought from the English store just sitting in the freezer waiting to be eaten and we finally found the appropriate day to tuck into it. We also had some cheesy scrambled eggs, some turkey sausage patties and toast. Top it off with a cup of coffee and it was a fabulous spread.

Now, British bacon is a lot different from American bacon which they refer to as "streaky bacon" referring to the alternating streaks of fat and meat we're all so familiar with. Now with my biased opinion, I think British bacon is far superior to our American version because you get more bacon for your buck! It's also a lot leaner since it's basically a thinly-sliced pork lion. They're great for bacon sandwiches but if you prefer crunchy bacon it might not be the thing for you since it's better eaten soft.

Sundays also seem to signal the end of late night eating for the next few days. This really should be an all-the-time rule, but Sundays always seem to be a reminder that your eating schedule should return to normalcy; no beers at 12am and mo ice cream for dinner. Saturday night I decided to try out my new fancy Calphalon muffin pan and a vegan cupcake recipe I printed off while bored at work (tell anyone and I'll kill you). I only had whole wheat pastry flour and in my experience, whole wheat tends to suck up moisture like crazy! The cupcakes came out ok though even with the signature whole wheat graininess, it didn't ruin the cupcake experience though. I tried by hand at a vegan "butter cream" frost which turned out way too thin. After a few teaspoons of corn starch and a bit of xantham gum it thickened up enough to stay on top of the cupcake and not melt down the sides, which did happen to two unfortunate test-cakes. The frosting was a bit boring with just the vanilla flavoring so I added some shaved coconut and a bit of lime juice to make my "Lime in the Coconut Vegan Frosting". Brian liked it so much he ate 3, I ate one and a half and felt like I was going into diabetic shock.

Last week, I also made a quick batch of one of my favorite dishes in the whole wide world: pancit! For those of you unfamiliar with it, pancit is a Filipino noodle dish that combines various veggies and meats along with soy sauce. It sounds simple, but I've had such a hard time replicating what I get at my favorite Filipino bakery (Glory's) I thought I'd try something new. Rice noodles are usually soaked in warm water before being incorporated into a dish in order to softer them up. In this batch I just threw the raw noodles into the chicken broth and it really made a world of difference. Instead of soaking up plain water which has NO flavor, it soaked up all the brothy goodness and tasted so much better. It was the best batch I ha ever made and I'm so happy I tried this new method because there aren't any Filipino restaurants near me. The only one's I know of are closer to where I grew up.

My Sunday is about to come to a close and I still have a bunch of work to finish up with. The good news is I finally bought myself some new clothes. I have been very hesitant to buy myself new clothes since I've lost weight because my plan has always been to lose more and I would hate to get rid of things I've just bought. Seeing as how the scale has barely moved since April 2009, it's time for me to buy some stuff that actually fits me since I've still been wearing some of my old fat clothes in order to save up for some new stuff. I'm pretty excited, seeing as how I've worn the same 4-5 outfits for the past almost 2 years and they're really starting to wear out. That's all for now!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Let's Make A List

Something that I always tend to do when I'm so stressed out I want to run into the mountains and become a hermit or just feeling uninspired /totally disorganized is make lists. It sounds really dumb, but having a list of what needs to be done/what I would like to makes the tasks a bit less daunting. But this list I'm submitting to you today is not so much a "If I don't do this I fail at life" list, but more of a bucket list of stuff that I would like to do in the near future and some time before I die. Feel free to submit your ultimate dream list in the comment box, unless it's stupid (j/k).

THE LIST

1. Live in England again even if it's just for a few months.
2. Complete no fewer than TWO half-marathons in 2011
3. Stop liking chips again (thanks a lot Cape Cod chips)
4. Complete the Coast to Coast Walk made famous by A. Wainwright
5. Do as many of Wainwright's Walks as possible
6. Travel around Europe and blog about it.
7. Surf in Hawaii
8. Have a wall of cookbooks
9. Having a kitchen big enough to have a cookbook wall...
10. Having a cute, old house that isn't too big (but big enough for a cookbook wall!)
11. Grow my own veggies to the point where I don't have to buy produce for at least one season
12. Stay at the Scarlett Hotel in Cornwall, UK
13. Finally go to New York City (< late on the "everyone has done this already" train)
14. Go to a writers convention.
15. Finish my degree!
16. Complete a triathlon.
17. Go backpacking, A LOT.
18. See some fjords in Norway.
19. See some fjords in New Zealand.
20. Go to a major music festival.
21. Photobomb as much as possible
22. Learn to not hate children.
23. Have my own pet.
24. Spray someone with a hose to get off of my lawn.
25. Have a wardrobe I'm actually proud of.
26. Send my Dad to Antarctica (Not for punishment, he wants to go there).
27. Own a "mid-life crisis" car.
28. Go to a nerd convention (to feel cool of course...).
29. Eat real Chinese food.
30. Tour the Bulmers brewery.
31. Swim in water where I can see to the bottom.
32. Have a cool thatched farmhouse in England with a working farm.

That is my list so far and I'm positive that things will be added to this as time goes by. Go ahead and make your own because now that I've slapped it on the internet I feel obligated to check off some of these tasks. That's all for now!!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The State of Food (at my house)



School has started, that is my excuse for not updating (oops), but I have been taking pictures! Every time I start a new semester, my diet suffers from it greatly. Pizza starts to show up a lot more. So do random spoonfuls of straight peanut butter and pre-class candy bars. Brian and I both agreed last night over an unneeded Dairy Queen Blizzard that we have been eating like, well, college students minus the cheese curls and 4am ice cream sandwiches. It also seems to happen when I come home from being on vacation. Before going to England at Christmas 2008 I was on a roll with cleaning up my diet, but 4 bags of fish and chips and countless ciders later it really just got thrown out the window and since we've been back twice since then, it's taken a bit longer to recover than I'd like. I know I shouldn't spend my life worrying about everything I put in my mouth (that's what she said), but I really do need to get back to where I was before that Christmas trip. A day or two before school started I had a serious fat-attack and made something I haven't made since high school: crepes! I was watching Amelie and just got the urge to make something French. I made them with whole wheat flour and topped them with nutella and So Delicious Coconut Milk Green Tea Ice Cream. Needless to say they were amazing and Brian was pissed that he didn't get any.

Not all of our meals have been bad since school has started. Over Labor Day weekend Brian and I set out on our first backpacking trip at Fridley Gap in the Shenandoah mountains. The hike was 10.5 miles up and down three mountains. The weather was beautiful, but the hike was tough. We brought 4 litres of water each on top of a 40oz. bottle per person and food, clothes etc. Brian's pack weighed about 40 lbs and mine was a little over 30. There were some steep bits and for most of the time were surrounded by a cloud of bugs. My first attempt at cooking with limited, unrefrigerated food options turned out ok. We had prepackaged Uncle Ben's brown rice with a chana masala packet and some chicken chicken breast. Because we were far away from a water source everything came out kind of crunchy, but it was edible. Breakfast was just some instant oatmeal and we ate a lot of chocolate and beef jerky along the trail on the way back to the car. After running out of water on the last mile and a half seeing the car was the greatest thing ever. We rewarded ourselves with slurpees and a giant burger later that night.

I've been experimenting with warm salads since we've been back from the UK. I'm always trying to find ways to incorporate more vegetables in our meals and putting things on a "bed" of something usually helps a lot. I created this warm salad with kale sauteed in olive oil, lemon juice and red pepper flakes. I topped it off with some leftover salmon and declared it my super-food warm salad.
It was very tasty and stayed with me for a long time. I've also been making a lot of Larb (or Laab) since it's so easy and so delicious. It's a Thai chicken salad made with ground chicken and fresh herbs and shallots and it is a-m-a-z-i-n-g. I made it for my mfa back to school party and there was almost nothing left of it once it was time to go. I like that I can make a lot of it and keep it in the fridge for a quick meal that is really light, but still satisfying.

As for right now, I'm simply vegetating. It's nice to just not do anything of importance for a little while, though during the school year I feel guilty having "free time". I feel as though I'm not passionate enough about my program because I wish to have a life outside of school, but then I realize that letting it become your life isn't healthy and I don't feel so bad about watching Stargate SG-1 and taking a 2 hour nap (jealous?). That is all for this post and I hope to update this a bit more frequently...like always. Until next time, have good eats!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Back to Everything



Next week I'll officially be back to my old (boring) life. I start my second year of my graduate program and I get back to a better work schedule. I came to the conclusion that work really does slowly suck the life out of you if you're not doing something that is personally fulfilled and stimulating especially if you're not given time off to do the things that keep you sane. When I worked at an animal hospital there were three days that it wasn't open: Christmas, Thanksgiving and the 4th of July. Other than that you get 10 days out of the entire year to unwind and explore the things that really make you happy. After coming back from a 2 week vacation in England (where Brian had to use all of his vacation days) I realized how people back in the states have really lost the plot when it comes to holidays, whether it be and employers are legally obligated to provide workers with 4 weeks paid vacation; that's not even mentioning the time allotted for workers in mainland Europe. SIX WEEKS! Here in America that would just be called irresponsible or being a teacher, but I really don't think it's fair that we're given such a small amount of time to just chill after busting our asses all year to be the most productive nation on the planet. Even when I go on vacation I feel guilty when I just sit around and do nothing, like I'm wasting my time relaxing when I could be going nonstop to see as much as possible! I think everyone needs to take a chill pill and I know we'd all be better for it since stress just turns people into horrible monster people. Well that's my rant on vacation. What do you guys think of the state of relaxation we have here in the states? Do you think it's sufficient or should we be given a bit more time to have some fun outside of the workplace.

I'm a bad blogger, I took no pictures of the food I ate in England, but in my defense, I was VERY hungry whenever I ate and we sort of ate at places and times when I wouldn't have my camera. When on speaks of English food, you can almost hear the groans and "ewws" just at its mention. Having grown up with English food I'm not afraid to say that I like it...a lot. I grew up having Sunday roasts, fish and chips, cornish pasties, roasted chicken flavored potato chips and wine gums. There are some things about English food that are gross. Number 1: black pudding, which I tried for the first time ever this past holiday. Honestly, it just tasted like sausage, but I was just grossed out by the concept of congealed blood and fat. Number 2: boiling everything within an inch of its life which is a common practice over there, but to be fair we do it a lot here in the states. English people eat a lot of the same things that we do, just with more meat and brown sauce (kinda like steak sauce). And then there is the indian food, which is the best indian food I've ever had. And NO ONE can say that fish and chips is gross, unless you really have a hatred for fish. Brian makes comments about how disgusting fish is every time I make it at home but he will practically inhale a large portion of fish and chips. Why? BECAUSE IT'S EFFING DELICIOUS. The English love chocolate and tea and no trip to anywhere, whether it be 30 degrees or 100 degrees would be complete without an ice cream. How bad can that be?

Since coming home I've missed the little traditions and idiosyncrasies of the UK. At home there isn't tea time where everyone just takes a minute to enjoy a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit. There are no pubs where you can go for a drink, a meal or just to talk with friends. My other qualm is that there is no Bulmers cider, which should be illegal. Cider in the uk is more popular than beer in some place and for good reason, it's awesome! Brands like woodchuck and woodpecker sold here in the states are also good, but hands down the best cider in the world is Bulmers and I'll take that to my grave. Magners which is produced by the Irish arm of Bulmers is available in the US but it just tastes different which we found out after finding a 6 pack at our local british store. This is a pity but what can you do? I did find some mead at Bamburgh castle though and have yet to try it. It's so pretty and the bottle is so cool I'll probably keep it as a ghetto vase once we drink it.

I did miss the assortment of fruits in veggies I have in my "home diet" while in the UK. It would have been fine if I was doing the shopping and the cooking, but after a while you miss the foods you eat regularly at home. Since coming home Brian and I have been practically vegetarian with the except of a chicken curry or taco here and there. Curries are great because you can put in as many veggies as you want to and once you add the seasonings it's ALWAYS delicious, it's practically idiot proof. I made a pretty good one the other night and it turned out pretty sweet.

As for now, I don't have much on my plate since I start school. Brian and I are going to go backpacking labor day weekend so we'll see how that goes foodwise. I've always wanted to go backpacking as I love to be outside (unless its windy) and it's a good excuse to get some exercise that won't feel like a boring workout. We did some hiking in England and hiked Hadrian's Wall for 7 miles which was hard and amazing at the same time. I don't know where our travels will take us next summer, but I hope we do some more small trips while schools in so we can just get away from the stress for a little while. That is all for now, until next time have good eats!

Monday, July 19, 2010

Eff This Heat

I like how the weather forecast for my area is accurate that I can really plan my week: expect temperatures in the mid to high 90s with a chance of thunderstorms every day. Today we actually had a storm that lasted about 15 minutes and then went straight back to being sunny and muggy again. About three hours later we had another rain squall that lasted another 15 minutes and then disappeared. The combination of heat and the threat of thunderstorms has made it impossible to plan anything that involves being outside so I'm getting a little stir crazy. I don't want to waste my vacation inside and I hate the treadmill! Luckily, I'll be heading to the UK in two weeks to visit my family for a much-needed 2 week long English vacation complete with ice cream, cider, and lots and lots of fish and chips.

The food front here has been pretty typical. I'm really trying to get as much of our food eaten as I possibly can before we go out of town. I got rid of some cans in the pantry and some of the tomatoes my parents neighbors have been bestowing on them by the pound by making a nice homemade chili. It was really good and I put every vegetable in it that I figured would agree with it, but it's so hot out that chili isn't really the most appetizing meal on 90+ degree days. The cornbread didn't disappoint since I added my secret ingredient: creamed corn! It was sooooo good I nearly ate it all by myself.

I also experimented with a new recipe my friend and co-worker Kimmy discovered at Trader Joe's. They conveniently displayed mozzarella cheese sticks next to the pizza dough and proposed the idea of stuffed-crust pizza. Kimmy tried it and liked it, so I decided to give it a whirl. It was awesome. I tried to counteract the fat-assedness by making it an all veggie pizza but after eating......4 slices.....I felt like I was impregnated with a food baby that did not really go away until 10am the next day. WAAAAAYY too much cheese for me in one dish. I may have felt like I ate 6 pounds of cement mix, but the pizza was awesome. The veggies were crunchy as well as the crust and it really was a success.

Yesterday (which was Sunday), I was out of my mind bored. I had cleaned the whole apartment Thursday and Friday and had nothing to do. Brian was enjoying a new video game and it was way too hot to even take a short walk. Instead I went to the grocery store and picked out everything we needed for an awesome dinner which included and big juicy steak for Brian covered in mushrooms with garlic french beans, an herb salad and rosemary olive oil bread. I had the same thing except substitute the steak for a fillet of Alaskan Salmon. It had been sooo long since I'd had a really good piece of fish. I always seem to overcook it and Brian isn't much of a fish fan. I'd seen a recipe on PBS the day before where the guest chef pan seared the salmon fillet for a few minutes and then slow cooked it in the over at 300 degrees for a few minutes. Oh my god, I'll never make salmon another way again. It was easily the best fish I'd ever made and since I got a giant slab-o-salmon I made another fillet tonight on top of a bed of kale with an ear of corn. Another awesome food fact I learned was that cooking corn in the microwave with the husks on (1 1/2 minutes per side on high) makes the easiest and most tender corn EVAR! I didn't even butter it because it was sooo good!

Right now I'm just counting down the days until I'm off to the motherland. I've got a cute new carry-on that Brian lovingly got for me and I'm ready to see all of my family! I'm sure a lot of people think I'm really weird for wanting to be around my family so much, but being an only child with almost NO family living close to you it got really lonely sometimes. It was pretty much my parents and my cats...that's it, so I really enjoy seeing everyone when I go to England to visit. I'll definitely be updating while I'm there with all of my delicious findings. Until next time, have some good eats!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Oooooohhh Dear

I know I haven't update in a quarter part never, but if it helps at all I've really been making the most out of my summer vacation, as much as I can at least. I only work three full days out of the week (I made that super clear to everyone at work) so that I can get as much relaxing, working out, getting the apartment fixed up, reading and writing done as I possible can (in that order actually). I nearly had a crazy attack during my first year of grad school and this summer I really just wanted to do things on my time and get the things accomplished that I wanted to. I'll admit that the writing thing has been pushed aside by all of the other things I find popping up during my time off, but I've got some ideas brewing in my head about more than a few poems that will hopefully spew themselves out soon. I've also been hard at work at cooking! I've been diligently searching through cookbooks and magazines to find new recipes that are easy to eat and that are enjoyable for The Brian. Tomorrow night is homemade stuffed crust veggie pizza with a Field Roast Italian style veggie sausage. I'm pretty excited about folding the string cheeses into my pizza dough and seeing how it comes out. One thing I've really made a lot of this summer is cornbread. I freaking love cornbread and pretty much an bread on the face of the earth. I've discovered that cornbread is made even better when you half the listed ingredients (I used boxed kinds) and substitute in a whole can of creamed corn < EFFING AWESOME. You'll probably projectile vomit in delight only to make room for more delicious cornbread. I've actually been on a real bread kick making frequent trips to The Teet (Harris Teeter) for their rosemary olive oil bread and, Fresh Market for their ciabatta loaves and.....wait for it.....WHOLE FOODS! Yes my ass finally got to go to a Whole Foods 2 hours away in Richmond, Virginia. It was magical, a food bar lovers delight. Unfortunately my mom and I ate at the Cheesecake Factory before going and had NO idea we could get something cheaper at Whole Foods' awesome cold/hot/salad bars. I was blown away and violently angry that Hampton Roads doesn't have a Whole Foods. I basically flipped a truck and punted a child in a burst of passionate anger. Their bread was, as the kids call is "off the chain" and all I want is more MOAR!! I also enjoyed their vegan candy bar selection and their health and beauty sections and it really puts target to shame (I'm sorry Target).

I've also spent my fair share of time at the beach. I got EVERY Friday no matter what (except rain, der!) and I always frequent my favorite frozen yogurt establishment, The Skinny Dip. They're putting one at the end of my street sometime at the end of the summer and I'm so afraid I'll be featured on Discovery Health as "World's Fattest Bitch Ever: For Real". Luckily Skinny Dip's flavors are only like 120 calories for 4oz. so it'll take a lot of frozen yogurt. The beach and ice cream are pretty much my two favorite inanimate objects that can't speak so I really enjoy that the two are within close proximity of each other.

I've also invested in a new toaster oven! Brian and I had been toasting toast in our normal oven since we moved in last November so we decided to be green and actually get one. We've been making lots of waffles and Brian has a new favorite way of preparing food. His new most commonly used phrase is "can I cook this in here" (points to toaster oven hopefully). Frozen waffles are pretty much the shit because I can put all sorts of crap on them like all the delicious summer fruits we have available. I usually have blubes, raspberries and some almond butter with mine along with some Earth Balance or my fancy french butter.

On the exercise front, it's been sporadic and I haven't really settled on one form of exercise. I go from running outside, to elliptical at the gym, to p90x, to hot yoga, to yoga videos with a little Jillian Michaels thrown in. I'm kind of irritated with my workout ADD and I wish I could stick with just one program enough to see results. I have a tendency to half-ass everything and I know I'm doing the same thing with my workouts. I went for a run this morning but made the mistake of cutting my toenails the night before so now they all feel as if they've been jammed into my toe flesh and my ankles feel really tight. Ugh, I'm such an old person. Anywho, I'm glad I've gotten to throw in an update and now that I've done it I feel better about adding more. I'll let you all know how the pizza turns out! Have good eats!!

Monday, May 24, 2010

I'm On My Internetz, Updating My Blogz

Hello all, time for another update. The food front has been pretty boring to be completely honest with you. With the exception of the awesome tuna steak sandwich I had at AW Shucks last night I haven't been experimenting much as of late. I've tended to fall back on "convenience food" even though I still try and prepare it as healthily as I possible can. Like last week we had tacos and when I make them I ALWAYS use turkey instead of ground beef> Brian likes turkey tacos so that's always a plus. I decided to get adventurous and try the Smart Grounds vegetable crumbles in my tacos since Brian's not too keen on fake meat (or "feat" as he calls it). They were super good, the texture was a little like room temperature cookie dough which was a little different but I think everything tastes awesome when it's covered in taco seasoning, it's pretty much a fail safe. I threw on some avocado, salsa, romaine and Tapatio and ate it before the X-Files theme even came on. I had a turkey taco the next day for lunch and it was just as good the second time around. I also tried out a new recipe for homemade protein bars which turned out really good. My recipe was based on a similar recipe I found on another blog called Love Veggies and Yoga and this woman makes THE BEST vegan deserts. I've also tried her "cookie dough balls" and they are freaking incredible. This is what I used in my version of Averie's No Bake Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Coconut Oil Protein Bars:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 mashed banana
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup sliced almonds (I crushed mine into smaller pieces by hand while incorporating them into the mixture)
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
2 tbsp flax seeds
1/2 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)
2-4 scoops of protein powder (I used Sun Warrior Raw Vegan vanilla protein but you can use whatever)

*optional: if you want to add some more fiber throw in 2 tbsp of chia seeds. I didn't have any handy but if I dd they'd for sure be in there too.

Throw all this in a big bowl and mix until everything is well incorporated. Play around with the amounts because sometimes the mix can come out too dry or too moist. I usually ad more oats or more peanut butter if either of those things happen. Line a baking pan with plastic wrap and spread the mixture and flatten out to your desired thickness. Put the mixture in the freezer and let set for about an hour. I took mine out and waited 15 mins in order to cut them into bars more easily and wrapped them in plastic wrap. because of the banana I would keep these in the fridge. They're so effing delicious and I recommend you try them if you're fond of bars. They taste WAY better than a power bar or something store bought and have a crap-ton of protein from the protein powder, almonds, and peanut butter. YUM. I think I ate mine in like three bites. That recipes should yield about 10 decent sized bars. Well, I hope you try out this awesome recipe and visit Love Veggies and Yoga for more awesome vegan deserts. Tomorrow is an all-day work day so no workout for me, but Wednesday it's back to hot yoga after a week of a pretty pathetic practice. Until next times, have good eats!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

OMG Finally,

I FINALLY get to make a new post! Well since the last post I've: finished my first year in grad school, made almost straight A's (B+ Come on!), been to the beach for the first time this year, eaten a lot of Skinny Dip frozen yogurt and lost a few pounds. All-in-all it's been a pretty good few weeks. On the food front, I've been eating out a lot since we've been going out a lot my my friends Emily and Pete. I've kept it relatively tame with potato and fish tacos and salads and I'm pretty proud of myself, with the exception of a few pizzas and more than a few drinks :(. I've been in the mood for salads a lot more lately since it's warmed up a lot. I've had one every day this week with just about every meal except breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, I am totally sick of oatmeal. If I have to eat it again I'm going to choke myself on it so I never have to. I eat oatmeal almost exclusively throughout the winter months and then cut myself off during the summer because I'm usually sick of it. In order to awaken my breakfast tastebuds I decided to make a little custom cereal with [me] & goji. They're seriously awesome and the containers are great. I've used custom mix sites like mix my granola, but that was more like granola and not a proper cold cereal. My [me] & goji mixes are great with almond milk and I've been enjoying them almost every morning!
I've also been enjoying all of the great fruit that has recently come into season like mangoes, guavas and STRAWBERRIES! I freaking love strawberries and strawberry picking. I went one year while I was in England and the strawberry were grown in troughs that were raised in the air at hip height so you didn't have to bend over for hours to pick them. Why it hasn't migrated over here I do not know, we have the technology damnit!I have been buying 3 mangoes at a time and I've even tried my had at cutting them in fancy ways (key word here is "tried")
Other than that I've just been working a lot. I went from plentiful leisure time to what feels like every waking moment I have is spent at work and I DO NOT want to be there on my summer vacation. I'm trying to get back into running but it's proving to be a challenge. I just can't seem to get myself past 5.5 miles without feeling like I'm going to die. I don't think my short legs and poor lung capacity were made to run long distances, but I've been at it for at least 3 times a week so we'll see how well I improve over the summer. Tonight I'm back to hot yoga after a 2 week hiatus and I'm so excited since I'll be doing 90 minutes with my favorite teacher! Plus I get to wear my new obnoxiously bright orange Lululemon tank top and it's freaking awesome. Well, tomorrow is another beach day and then BEERFEST on Saturday. It's my first and I'm sure it will be very interesting. Until next time, have good eats!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

I Apologize!

I feel so crappy that I haven't been able to do a proper update, but it's finals time and I'm really pressed for time which is unfortunately reflected in my meals so hopefully by next week I'll have a lot more to talk about. If I don't drown myself before finals are over then I guess I'll be back soon!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Vegan Food Isn't Boring

It's not all salads people. I may have an omnivore day once and a while, but I've been eating meat less and less lately and finding new meat-free foods gets me all excited. Today I visited my local Organic Food Depot which is a great place to find, guess what, organic foods! They carry a lot of the same things as your Whole Foods would, but in a 500 sq. foot space. Today I was on a quest to find some vegan food items that I've had my eye on for a while. First, I picked up some Earth Balance buttery spread which, surprise, tastes just like butter though it is dairy free. I'm trying to find more dairy free products since cows milk is making my stomach increasingly unhappy so I also picked up some Daiya dairy free cheese in mozzarella flavor. This stuff claims to melt and stretch like real cheese and even looks like normal shredded mozzarella. They also have cheddar flavor which makes me want to try some vegan mac and cheese sometime soon. My favorite find was Field Roast slices. I purchased the lentil sage and wild mushroom flavor. They resemble slices from something like a pork tenderloin or deli meat, but they are completely vegan and can be eaten cold or heated up. I used these items to make myself the best sandwich I've made myself in a long time.

I spread some earth balance on my bread, fried up the field roast slices along with some cherry tomatoes, melted on some Daiya and plopped on some Nayonnaise eggless mayonnaise and it was awesome. The bun was perfectly buttery and the Field Roast slices were super savory and insanely good. I topped off my lunch with some spicy hummus from Trader Joes, some sliced carrot and my favorite Synergy Raw Kombucha: Divine Grape. In the past I've wondered how vegetarians can survive without something as filling and savory as a pile of deli-sliced lunch meat and a slab of cheese on bread. Now I know that vegan sandwiches aren't just vegetables on bread. This sandwich was, as the youths say "off the chain", and I'm not even a very good sandwich maker to begin with. I was very surprised at how good this sandwich was and I will definitely be making more of these. With the options available now, it's not too difficult to miss meat :)

FAT ATTACK!

The excess of birthday has caused me to have a major fat attack complete with naps, inability to get off the couch on the first try, and some sugar sensitivity on my molars, BOO! Oh well, We finally finished off the cake with much help from Brian and now I can sugar detox myself. This is my problem with birthday season, I get so used to stuffing my face that it really makes it tough to get back on track once it's over. The good thing is that my local farmers market is starting to see an influx of delicious foods. yesterday I picked up some portobello mushrooms, a GIANT bag of celery, tomatoes, yellow squash, lemons, oranges, and soooo much more!! There's a mini-store inside my farmers market called Green Alternatives which is just a plethora of eco-friendly home products and they had the COOLEST thing ever: reusable snack/sandwich bags!!

They are made by Snack Taxi which have a website where you can purchase these bad boys in every print you can imagine. Even skull prints for total badasses (are you a bad enough dude to carry your meat sandwich in a skull print snack taxi?!). I had to make a Bad Dudes reference because that game is hilarious. Anywho, these things are great because they're washable and keep you from having to buy snack bags, or in my case, put a handful of nuts into a litre freezer bag because you forgot to buy snack bags, fail!
On culinary creations, I made a delicious-as-hell batch of shrimp fried rice using roasted NOT fried shrimps. I added every vegetable I could find which included zucchini, broccoli, onion, carrot, and red pepper and mixed it in with short grain white rice (I know white=bad) but the only brown rice I had was basmati and that doesn't make for a good fried rice because it gets mushy. It was awesome, in fact it was soo good Brian ate the leftovers which is always a great feat for me.

Today, it's back to running after a three day hiatus. It's supposed to be nice today so why waste it inside?! My mood has improved so much since the weather has gotten better and with only one week of school left, summer couldn't come any faster. This summer will be filled with beach trips, an English vacation and my favorite frozen yogurt places is opening a store down the street from me. These factors translate into a great summer. Until next time, EAT!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

O-L-D

I have decided to officially start my quarter-life crisis early at 24 instead of 25. Maybe the fact that I will be almost a quarter century old will kick my butt into regulating my workouts. But that's beside the point, it's my birthday tomorrow and, as I stated before, celebrated all weekend long to make up for a Monday birthday! Friday night I went out with some of my friends to our local Mexican Restaurant and got silly on a jumbo strawberry margarita. I had some delicious bean soft-tacos and rice and then forced myself to have some birthday cake ice cream at Norfolk Ice Cream Company because who can say no to ice cream?! Saturday was a party at my parents house. I got some really good presents including some really pretty jewelry from Satya Jewelry. It came in a pretty package and I received two necklaces and a pair of earrings from my parents.

We always have dinner and since the weather was so nice we ate outside. We have vegetables kebabs, baked potatoes and Alaskan king crab legs. I usually only get crab legs once a year and this year they were perfect because the meat came out in huge pieces and required minimal picking. My favorite part of a birthday party with my parents is the cake. My mom has had the same woman make my birthday cake since I was 9. She used to work with my mom and bake cakes on the side. Now she has "retired" from cake making, but says she will always make my cakes. I love her because she knows I'm a frosting person and I let her go nuts an put whatever on my cake. This year she outdid herself and made cupcakes with leftover batter and went flower insane. Needless to say, I was very happy with these decisions.

Today was much more subdued. Brian and I slept in and had a pretty lazy day. I started to mop and vacuum the kitchen floor, but our old vacuum just wasn't having it. My mom had bought that vacuum probably 15 years ago and gave it to me when I moved out and they got a sweet Dyson. Brian and I made a trip to Target ad bought a new vacuum cleaner and I'm so excited because it's bagless. Brian sure knows what to get me for my birthday! We also enjoyed a lovely vegetable baked ziti with homemade yeast rolls for dinner.

In fact, it was so goddamn good I had seconds and so did Brian. I had never made rolls before and it had also never dawned on me that I could make the dough in the friggin' bread machine! It sits idle on my counter when it could be making me rolls ALL DAY LONG. They came out really good even though I had to use almond milk instead of regular milk.

Dishes like baked ziti are great because they produce great leftovers. I'm not one of those people who needs a different dish every day. I'll probably be eating this for lunch and dinner for the next two days. I felt guilty about neglecting the blog so much this week, but too much was happening at one time. Thankfully, I've had a quiet evening to share my eats with you! Until next time, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Recap

I'm breaking the last weeks goings-ons into two posts because I've just got entirely too much crap to go over. Last week was the buildup to my birthday, which is tomorrow. Celebrating your birthday on a Monday is lame, especially when you have work and then class until 10 o'clock at night so I started the party on Thursday after I got off of work by taking a well-needed nap. Naps are great things when you're really tired, but sometimes I find myself napping when I should be working out, so I'll have to find a happy balance somewhere. Last week, I also experimented with making my own granola! There was a recipe in the April issue of Body+Soul magazine that I played around with to fit what I had at home. I used oats, sliced almonds, honey, flax meal, dried cranberries and dried blueberries. Unfortunately, when I was baking the oat and nut base I left it in for a bit too long so it was a bit overdone. It still tasted great though! I've been enjoying it on top of yogurt with a few chocolate chips mixed in.

I've also been making a lot of breakfast smoothies. I usually have these a lot in the warmer months and not so much in the winter because cold stuff just isn't as appetizing when it's 40 degrees outside. It's also a lot faster now that I have a high-speed blender.

I read on a website somewhere that tea that comes in teabags is the lowest quality tea. It's literally the scraps leftover form processing loose tea. I decided to try some loose teas since I have a strainer. I purchased three flavors from the Etsy seller Blue Raven Tea and They are all really good! I ordered Rio, St Tropez and Mango Yogurt; they're all fruity black teas and I'm really enjoying the whole loose tea process. You get 2 oz. in each package and the seller was nice enough to send me two HUGE samples of some other fruity teas. Samples pretty much make my day.

That pretty much sums it up for last week. School is coming to a close and I couldn't be happier. I ordered a bajillion tank tops and bikini separates from Victoria's Secret this afternoon in every color you can think of. I'm ready for the beach :)

Sunday, April 11, 2010

A Grand Day Out.


Granted, I slept through half of the day, the rest of it was pretty good! I woke up around 10:30, but didn't leave the bed until 11. I had an awesome brunch even though it was pretty much the same breakfast I have every day. I had the usual Trader Joes Oats and Flax instant oatmeal along with 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 a tbsp of coconut oil and 1 tbsp of almond butter. What made all the difference was the addition of a passion fruit which made the checkout girl really pissy when she had to find the code to type in to ring it up, but it was worth it. I had also gotten three guavas which I left in my fruit bowl, but I went to have one this evening when I got home only to find out that they'd already gotten moldy. EW! What a damn disappointment and they were like $1.50 a piece.


This afternoon, I went to a local park with my friend Kelyn! It was fun catching up seeing as we haven't hung out since high school and it was nice being outside. It was sunny in the mid 70s and it should have been illegal to sit inside on a day like today. We sat and talked and planned some food-related activities so now I have things to look forward to! A new work week starts, but the end of the semester is getting closer and I'm ready for a nice break. That's all for now, bye everyone!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Ploughmans > Tempeh

Tempeh, I'm sorry, but I just don't like you. It's nothing personal and if I had to eat you I would, but since I have the choice I choose not too. I bought a block of tempeh a few years ago and didn't know how to prepare it so it went bad in the fridge. I decided to try it again on a whim when I saw it in the grocery store. I steamed it for about 10 minutes before adding it to a sort of stir fry I had made with some asparagus, kale and spring onions. I also threw a sauce on top made with soy sauce and maple syrup which sort of caramelized over the tempeh and the veggies. The texture of tempeh is just weird, soft soybeans with not much flavor. I'm not really a texture freak so I was surprised that I didn't enjoy it, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat the entire thing. The veggies and the sauce were *awesome* though and everything mixed with the quinoa was a really delicious and filling meal. Quinoa is becoming a new favorite. I have had it in the past and wasn't too blown away with it, but I've recently discovered that by rinsing the quinoa before cooking it removes the bitter seed casings that might still be attached tot he seeds. Even if it wasn't the biggest success it certainly looked nice.

I spent my Saturday like I normally do, at my parents house doing laundry (my building doesn't have laundry facilities) and when it's warm I love to hang out on their patio swinging on the porch swing. I usually end up getting sunburned while I do this so my legs are varying colors of pinks and reds. They look kind of like a paint color sample but on my FREAKING LEGS. Oh well, that's why God invented sunless tanner. For lunch my dad suggested a pseudo-ploughman's lunch which in British-people terms is a lunch of varied crap that would resemble something a farmer would bring for lunch while working out in the fields. Stuff like bits of leftover meat, some roasted or boiled (surprise!) vegetable, cheese and some bread. We had a buttload of fruit, some smoked salmon and a lot of other stuff. It was very satisfying.

My day ended with Brian and I going out to eat with our friends Emily and Pete to the new YNot Pizza that opened up about a block away from our apartment. I fattied it up by getting stuffed shells (oh hell yes) and pink grapefruit gelato which was effing amazing so all-in-all today was a good day!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Beauty Bites

Just a short post dedicated to my friend and coworker, Kimmy, who is suffering (along with her husband) from the result of a nice day outside with no sunscreen. Sunburn is NO FUN and being the almost-albino that I am, I get sunburned a lot. I used to use a lot of the store bought aloe gel, but I found that they either left me feeling sticky or really just made me peel even worse than if I didn't use it. I have found a few recipes online to relieve sunburn, but I have a few of my own that I use to soothe my skin after being fried. Recipe number one is a face/body mask that you can use pretty much anywhere on the body that contains cooling ingredients that feel really nice on crispy, dried-out skin.

1. Super-Soother
- 2 Tbsp greek or plain yogurt (flavored yogurts have sugar and can become sticky so stick to plain though greek is the best).
- 1/4 cup peeled, sliced cucumber, seeds removed.
- Aloe gel FROM an aloe plant (aloe plants can be purchased from places with garden centers like Lowes for $3-$10 and they are almost indestructible, just great to grow at home)*
- 2 tbsp plain rolled oats (flavored oatmeal has sugars which are sticky, use plain oats like the ones found in the big canisters at your grocery store)

Load up all of these ingredients in your trusty blender or food processor and blend until paste-like. Put this mixture on all of your sunburned areas and just relax. This mixture may drip so wear a shirt of a towel that you don't really mind getting drippy. I let this mixture sit for about 10-15 minutes and I usually rinse it off before it gets hard. All of the ingredients are very soothing to the skin and very moisturizing. Finish off with thick face cream to help with peeling and this mask will keep in the fridge for about a week and can be used daily to treat the burn.

Another mask that I like to use is great for inflammation which comes along with having a sunburn. The Asian spice, tumeric, which is mostly used in Middle Eastern and Indian cuisine is a natural anti-inflammatory and I use it to make a great healing mask for my many sunburns!

2. Tumeric De-Flamer
- 1 tbsp greek or plain yogurt
- 1/2 tsp tumeric powder (Bright yellow spice that can be found in the seasoning section of your grocery store)

Mix the two ingredients until your yogurt is bright yellow. Tumeric STAINS so wear something you don't mind staining and pull back your hair. Let this mixture sit for 10-15 minutes and then rinse with a washcloth that you don't mind staining. Warning: Your face may be yellow in some spots, but this will eventually fade so don't freak out!

Now that summer is getting closer I'll be using these remedies a lot more often. I hope that these help with your sun-related skin problems!!

*In order to extract the gel from the aloe plant, removed a leaf and slice sideways down the leaf. Upon opening, there will be a thick gel inside the leaf. This gel can be scooped out with a spoon to be used in the mask recipe).

Soggy

After about a week and a half of really warm, gorgeous weather, it has finally clouded up and started to rain. Of course it would happen on my day off, but we really need the rain. The trees on my street have dumped their pollen all over my car that was once dark gray and now neon yellow. I went for a run outside on Wednesday morning (mistake) and after a while it felt like the back of my throat was powdered and I have to cut my run short. If the weather clears up I might go for one this afternoon, but who knows! I know I got a little ranty in the last post, but I'm just really bothered by what people know (or don't know) about what they're eating. I mean the kids on that show not only didn't know that french fries came from potatoes, but they didn't even know what a potato was and that is SAD.

Onto what I ate in the past few days! Since it's been warm, I've started transitioning over to breakfast smoothies from my usual oatmeal again. I usually do this every spring and fall because I just find warm breakfasts less appetizing in the warmer months and cold things don't really get me going in the colder ones. I made something I liked to call my "Chocolate Covered Greens" smoothie yesterday morning.
I used some Jay Robb Chocolate whey protein along with a scoop of Chocolate Amazing Grass, A whole navel orange and a HUGE handful of baby spinach, hence the green color. Whenever I make any sort of green juice the people around think it's totally gross and ask things like "Why are you drinking trash water?" or "What is that shit, oh my god it's green what's wrong with you!". Ease up guys, it's just fruit and vegetables and 9 time out of 10 the richer flavors of the fruits overpower the veggies so most of them aren't even noticeable. I've also eaten very little meat this week. Wednesday night I couldn't be bothered to cook my own fresh chicken after my hot yoga class so I bought a rotisserie one from the store. This was the first meat I'd had all week. We also had a sweet potato and some asparagus I needed to use up. It was pretty delicious.




I felt kind of weird eating meat after not having it for so long. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm trying to make my diet a more plant-based one because veggies are just good for you. I also don't like how the meat industry runs things and I love animals. Yesterday I got a book that I ordered called The Kind Diet in the mail. The book is by Alicia Silverstone (as if!) and it's basically a "diet" plan that emphasizes a plant-based way of eating. I haven't read through the whole thing yet, but the recipes look awesome and I can't wait to try them out. I also received my order of all sorts of different skin care oils so that I can partake in my other passion, homemade skincare! Maybe, if my readers don't mind, I can share some of my tips and recipes for some of my favorite self-made skin products. Anywho, I'm off to the Fresh Market to get some veggies. The Fresh Market seems to be the only store other than the farmers markets that have really good produce. It's really sad that our area does not have a whole lot of places to go to get good produce. Maybe I'll share my purchases with you all later! Bye bye for now!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

ILF= I Love Food

Now that the weather is warming up it's becoming my favorite time of the year not only because I can spend more time outdoors, but because many of my favorite fruits and veggies are coming into season! My mom and I usually plant a vegetable garden with peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, yellow squash, zucchini and various herbs. I love being able to bring home fresh veggies because not only is it better for me because we don't use and chemical pesticides, but also because I think eating real, fresh vegetables is really important. I've been trying to make my diet more of a plant based way of eating since vegetables, fruits and legumes are just bursting with good stuff. On a sort-of related note, I like to people-watch pretty much wherever I go. Maybe that's what drew me to poetry is the observational aspect of poems. I really like watching people at the grocery store. There have been more than a few times where I have seen a mom with kids-in-tow walking past the produce section. One of the kids will point to something like an eggplant or a sweet potato and ask their mother "what's that?". Usually these kids are between the ages of 5-10 and the mother can't recognize the vegetable either. It usually leaves me wide-eyed with my jaw halfway to the floor. The sad thing is that, like I said before, these aren't isolated incidents, I see it A LOT more than is necessary. Luckily, I grew up with parents who really valued fresh vegetables, especially my dad who grew up with a mother who kept her victory garden looong after the war was over. Unfortunately, when I got into middle school, most of what my parents had tried to do with fresh, healthy food got flushed down the toilet because bringing your lunch was no longer "cool" anymore. I was talking to my friend Kimmy about the stuff we used to eat at lunch in high school and how terrible it was. When I was in 8th grade, I had a bag of Sun Chips and an ice cream sandwich EVERY DAY for lunch. I look back on that and I'm embarrassed by it, but because of my struggles with processed foods I have gained such an appreciation of the fresh foods I eat today.

There's a show on ABC that has implanted Jamie Oliver, the famous British TV chef, into a West Virginia town named the unhealthiest town in America. His mission is to change the way people in that town look at food and has so far been focusing on school lunches, which from my experience, are anything but good for you. I really like this idea, though I tend to find Oliver a bit cocky for my taste. I think it's important to show a real place with real people and the effect that poor nutritional guidance has made on people's lives and health. We hear the statistics on news programs and the only visuals we really get are clips of overweight people being followed on busy sidewalks or people having their blood pressure checked. I think having a show with characters people can relate to will help people realize that they're not alone and there needs to be a change. I think The Biggest Loser has made a big impact in the realm of weight loss, but normal people don't have the time and resources to lose huge amounts of weight like that in a short amount of time, it's just not realistic and it doesn't really address peoples problems with overeating.

I hate to ramble on, but food and nutrition is something I'm really passionate about. In fact, for my Post-modern literature class I wrote about the commercialization of processed foods in post modern literature and had NO trouble writing 25 pages about it. I have a few friends who ask me how I can afford to buy healthier foods and voice their complaints about how healthy food is expensive. I make under $10,000 per year and I have no trouble buying fresh foods. The farmers market is my best friend. I can get fresh and organic foods way cheaper than at the grocery store. I also make my diet my number one priority. I don't buy a lot of clothes, I don't go on a lot of trips, I don't buy things I don't need. Most of my money goes towards food that is high in quality and good for me. I'm spending money on food now so I won't have to pay for health problems in the future.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Gotta love a good tea towel.

I had to share this with everyone because they're so freaking awesome. Today I received my much anticipated ToDryFor order of two beautiful tea towels! My parents have always had fun tea towels, many traditional ones with points of interest from across England or different species of flowers. I found ToDryFor in a magazine and they have the most fun tea towels I've ever seen. I ordered one for my mom for Christmas and I got one for myself at the same time, but it was so pretty I wanted to have it framed so I could display it in my dining room. I was pretty excited when they came out with a few book-inspired ones so I ordered myself a Virginia Woolf tea towel! They also had beach huts which are little huts people buy that line the beaches in England and there are a ton in Felixstowe where my dad lived before moving to Ipswich. Most are decorated to the point where they look like little doll houses and some even have a stove or a tv, why you'd need one at the beach I don't know, but my tea towel is awesome! All I need now is a windbreak and an ice cream!


I Ate Lots of Bread and Chocolate This Weekend!

There! I admitted it. It was Easter and seeing how Easter is a major British chocolate holiday I celebrated by eating Cadbury eggs. I also made bread in my trusty bread machine where I miscalculated the capacity of the machine and the dough rose to the point where it nearly pushed the lid off. The rest of my weekend eats had a lot to do with nachos and I must admit, they were freaking delicious. Look at how effing beautiful they are!



Anywho, that was about it food-wise for this weekend. I did have sushi with my parents on Saturday and had awesome spicy rolls. I could really eat sushi every day if I wasn't afraid of mercury poisoning. On the yoga front, I focused a lot on knee, hip and hamstring openers. Since I've started running again these areas tend to give me a lot of trouble when it comes to tightness. I'm also slightly knock-kneed so things like reclining warrior pose and full lotus are almost impossible. It's really hard for me to even lift one foot into my hip crease, let alone two because of my funky joints. I'm hoping more practice will help remedy this and I'm keep up with it! Now it's back to work. Tonight I'm seeing Kay Ryan, the US Poet Laureate speak downtown which is pretty exciting! It's like seeing a poetry gold medal winner! A lot of my MFA friends are going to the AWP conference in Denver and I'm totally jealous because not only do they get to go to a lot of talks about stuff I probably need to learn about, but Denver has MULTIPLE Whole Foods Markets AND a Lululemon. Why is Hampton Roads the last to get everything?! There are 2.5 million people here, where is our Whole Foods?! Oh well, I'm done ranting for now. I'm about to go out for a run so bye-bye until the next update!

PS- I thought I'd be clever and make my oatmeal with Nutella instead of my usual almond butter thinking it would be delicious. The outcome: not as good as I thought. Too sugary :(

Friday, April 2, 2010

Crap!

I was so good remembering to take pictures of my foods today (well I got two things) but I forgot to post them! I'm such a dummy. Oh well. This morning I had the usual Trader Joe's Oats and Flax oatmeal with cinnamon, a bit of coconut oil and a spoon full of almond butter. For lunch I had a Gardein Tuscan "chicken" breast with whole wheat angel hair pasta. The sauce is the tomato basil sauce from Giada DeLaurentiis for Target collection. I like to call it "Giada Sauce" which makes it sound really disgusting and perverted, but it's not! I tore up some fresh basil and added that in too along with some Parmesan cheese and it was good.

Exhibit A!
Afterward, Brian and I enjoyed my new favorite grocery store find: Oikos fat-free chocolate greek yogurt. That stuff is freaking delicious!

Today Was a Good Day

Holy Charizard I have followers! I know one of them and her blog is super fun so go read it (Hi Kelyn!) and the other person is a stranger which makes me excited because it means that I'm not the only one reading this! Today in Southeastern Virginia it was sunny and in the mid 70s. Since I don't work on Fridays I tried to stay outside today as much as I could. I went for a run around noon which lasted about an hour. It was great, there were a lot of people walking around outside. I ran through a pretty wealthy area of Norfolk where all the landscapers were getting their work done and I must have inhaled a pound of cut grass which was a bit unpleasant, but I still had a nice time. I saw a lot of cute dogs that were happy to be out after a stupidly long and COLD winter. I didn't think winter was ever going to end. In Hampton Roads, winter is usually dotted with unusually warm days every once and a while, but the winter all we got was snow and nor'easters which sucks more than anything ever. I had some serious SAD where all I did was watch videos on YouTube of soothing tropical beaches. All that did was make me want summer to come even sooner. Now that the warm weather seems to be here to stay I'm in a MUCH better mood. I thought about going to a hot yoga class today and making it three days in a row, but it's so pretty I just don't want to be stuck in a dark room when it's so fabulous outside. I took lots of pictures so I'll end this and move on to the visuals. Have a good weekend/Easter!



Saturday, March 27, 2010

Update Fail

Lets face it, I'm pretty bad at updating this thing. In my defense, last semester was like being in Hell while still having to work and go to school. Everything that could have sucked sucked more and I just couldn't bring myself to exert effort onto anything other than what needed to be done right at that moment. Well that was long-winded, Ok I'm done now. The truth is I have stuff to say that Brian would really rather me type out instead of forcing him to sit and listen to my "problems".

Speaking of "problems" that's one thing I have issues with. I don't think I have problems. I've always had the idea that other people have bigger issues happening to them every day that I'll never have to experience, making my "issues" irrelevant and petty. I shouldn't complain because honestly my life is pretty good, directionless, but good. Is this healthy to feel as if I don't deserve to have problems? I guess it keeps me positive to an extent, but I do feel the occasional only-child rage with not being able to let them out without someone saying "You have a great life goddamnit, now stop whining".

Anywho, upon starting my foray into much higher education (grad students really are the worst people on earth) I've really tried to tie down what I want to do with my life and I've come up with a few things :
1. Travel- who doesn't? This probably won't make a fabulous career choice seeing as it's not really a career that exists for pretty much everyone (Damn you Samantha Brown/ Rick Steeves!)
2. Yoga teacher- In a perfect world where everything I did was awesome and ice cream was a health food, this is what I would want to do all day. I always said I didn't want to be a teacher, but in yoga classrooms no one else is allowed to talk, and that is greatness. My problems at the current moment with making this a reality are:
-My spare tire. I'm not afraid to say I have a muffin top and I'm also not kidding myself when I say it really effects my postures. If I could have it surgically vacuumed out of my midsection or wake up to it magically gone I think I would be much better at most things.
- Funds. I'm a broke as college student. My salary at work is int he 7th percentile for dental assistants with my experience level. That's WITHOUT counting my bachelor's degree. FML. Teacher training is not donation based, it's based on how much money they can get out of rich white girls like me.
- My parents may kill me or disown me. I'm one of those people whose parents have saved to put me through college and grad school. For some reason they see many opportunities for someone with an MFA in creative writing who has worked in a dentist office for 5 years to find something related to my field. I just want to do yoga mom and dad, and I wouldn't mind you funding it either..... :(

Where I'm going is kind of a white background with "NOWHERE FOR NOW, ENGLISH DEGREE. I MEAN REALLY? C'MON!" written in big rainbow letters (to soften the blow). I'm not saying it's "an open road full of lanes of possibility" because that's just fucking retarded (yes I do yoga and say 'retarded' without regret). I know I'm lost, my undergrad adviser said I could be whatever I wanted with an English degree because most people will take you just because you have a degree. I don't want to hate my life, but I also don't want to live in a trashcan that I'm too poor to insure. I guess what I'm trying to get at is, if you want to give me $40million it would make my life easier, but I'd still like to provide for myself.

Well that was a rant. Oh well, hopefully I'll actually update this with useful things seeing as how my semester is almost over and I have NO SUMMER CLASSES. Booyah.