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!!

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!!

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!