In a Curry

This morning started on the wrong foot toe. Literally. Yesterday morning I accidently got pricked by a tooth pick that was on the floor, and from then on my big toe has been throbbing. It brought back memories of when I got stung by a sting ray, because that's exactly how it feels. The pain is radiating throughout my toe which made the 35 minutes of my morning cardio a bit unbearable. leee sigh.

I hope I don't have to visit the doctor soon. Then I drive 20 minutes out to my way to get a pass for my car for nothing, unfortunately THAT was denied. I realized in tense situations, I hardly breath. So on the car ride home I did some breathing exercises to help calm me down, but I was a bit stubborn because I wanted to be angry. Then later on while I was cooking, I hit in the head on the cabinet door. Doh!

But you know what helped make me feel at ease? hot curried stir-fry on a hot summer day. Because I am weird like that.


Yes, another one. After coming to my moms house, I thought I had left left-overs. Nada. Ya know what? That's okay because it was so easy to prepare. I just threw everything together in a pan and waaahhhh-la!

Instead of TJ's meatless sausage, I had fake "chicken". I'm not intentionally avoiding meat, cause believe me I would use it! but I've just been using what left in the fridge and saving some money.

Served with barley. I am obsessed. It's a nice change from brown rice, it hit the spot and fills me up ~4-5 hours. Hopefully I am still hungry in a couple hours because I have dinner plans.

Time to do some summer cleaning and de-clutter my life before school starts, before I go. I leave with this flashback from last week.

***************************

Last week Jasmine, Ashley, and I ventured to downtown to watch a screening of Eat, Pray, Love.

I was excited, although I've never read the book. I was anxious to know the story behind Elizabeth Gilbert's bestselling novel. I think I was looking forward to EAT out of the PRAY and LOVE.

Great movie, it definately had sad, happy, hilarious, and life learning moments. Quite inspirational actually, I'm looking forward to reading the book now. That's only if I am willing to pay $12 for the book, Amazon.com here I come.

After the movie, we decided to eat at Fred's Cafe located in Old Town.

Steak Rancheros. So good. I assumed that the steak would be sliced, cause you know, I'm a diva like that. I need my steak sliced! I was afraid how the texture would turn out, because I've been to places where the meat was tough, bland, and chewy.

Let me tell you, it was some really good steak. Medium rare, mostly on the rare side. Soft and chewable, also flavorful.

Taco trio.

Jasmine with her chicken enchilada. I had a bite and liked it, I think the cheese made it taste good. Monteray? sp?

Happppy!

What makes you happy? And when you get upset, what do you do about it?

Gotta jet!

Read more...

Hot n' Cold

It's so hot right now in my household! Holy cow, I am sweating bullets and it doesn't help that I am eating some hot curry on a hot summer day. I am on a tight budget...at least til payday! but I the only thing I had on hand was a meal replacement drink which is for emergencies. It wasn't an emergency just yet.

I had to get up at work at 5 in the morning with only five hours of sleep, after I came home to my moms house, I crashed hard! I took a 2 and a half hour power nap. The extra zzzz definately got my creative mind juice flowing.

I looked around the kitchen for something I can just pop in the mircowave. nada! ziltch...Then I saw that I left a bag of dried barley I bought a month ago and curry powder. Perhaps curry infused barley?

I scoured the freezer, I spotted one salmon patty that I left many many months ago. I wasn't feeling it, but it wasn't the time to be picky. I was huuuungggrrrrry! oh but then I remember I left some TJ's Meatless Italian Sausages, I had two links left. Cool, something I can work with.

And I also left a big ass bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables that I bought from Costco many months ago too.

I seem to always leave stuff at my moms house.


I just threw everything together and create a curried stir-fry dish, nothing technical...just easy. The barley went in the rice cooker, thank goodness for a rice cooker because I don't think I can moniter any grains on the stove top.

I was my first time trying barley just by itself. wow, I love the texture, it's so soft and fluffy.

"It's so FLUFFFY!"

What I had on hand:

Frozen Veggies included: Broccoli, water chestnuts, carrots, sugar snap peas, shitake mushroom, corn, green beans, green bell peppers, and yellow onion. Amazing! (3-4 cups)

- Olive oil (2 tbsn)

- Salt and Pepper

- Fish sauce (yeah I know, ~ 1/2 tbsn)

- Chili paste (1 tbsn)

- Fresh ginger chopped (~1 tspn)

- Two cloves of garlic

- Lime juice (~1 tbsn)

- Coconut milk (small can, 6 oz)

- Curry powder (3 tbsn, I know)

- TJ's Sausage links

- Sriracha (1 tbsn)

I simmered everything together, soooo good. My tongue was burning, thus, I was sweating. Now I am looking forward to chopped fruit that I prepared earlier that is currently in the freezer! The container is frosted :o)

I seem to always enjoy cold things served in cold platters, cups etc. Cold beer in a cold cup, yes.  Fruit in a chilled bowl, yes.

In my cold container: Red grapefruit, yellow peaches, black plums, and cactus flower. yuuum. Tastes like summer.

Read more...

booch and recipes

I just had a snack, and usually when one hears the word "snack", it's probably safe to assume that the majority would think it's something like special k bars or some carrot sticks, yaaa know what I meeean?

No, skip the special k. I am trying to get back in the habit of incorporating six small meals a day, combining both good carbs and protein. A cereal bar really doesn't justify itself as a small meal.

After work I was hungry. Snack #2 of this evening.

Almost burnt Bagel Thins with Eggs. I cracked four. FOUR eggs. Three egg whites and one egg with green onions, black pepper, and fish sauce. Yeah, I'm not insane.

I didn't want to do the scrambled thing, because my favorite part of an egg is the whole yolk. Untouched. Unbroken.

 I love the texture, it's sooo good. I saved that part for last. I also squirted Sriracha. I cried and drank a whole 16oz bottle of water, that didn't seem to help at all. My tongue was burning. I didn't learn my lesson after I finished my water. Doh!

At work I hopped on the StairMaster at interval, level 8, for 40 minutes. Cool down on the elliptical for 5 minutes and swam for 5 minutes. Ate lunch. Guarded. Then lifted weights. Today was tris and back.

For lunch, I packed a salad complete with fix-ins. Underneath it all: spinach, purple onions green onions, beets, radish, avocado, and danish feta. So good! With both feta and avocado, I don't really need dressing at all. I packed two containers of salad, so I am looking forward to dinner.

With my salad, I had a side of a vegan black bean burger. With the vbbb, it made the lunch complete :o) soooo goooood.

Note: I had one for lunch, not five! :oP

 I adapted the recipe from The Front Burner. Honestly, the only thing that took me so long to make these (after bookmarking it for a while) was because of grating carrots...and possibly because the recipe list looked intimidating. But in hindsight, they're just spices. Or maybe I'm just lazy. But after realizing that I can grate my carrots with the magic bullet and knowing that I can buy spices in bulk and not have to pay a $hitload of $$, then I was good.

I love how my cow dog loves to sit on my lap when she sees me. The only reason why I love it so much is because she's been neglecting me. B-word. Cow dog has been giving all the attention to my mom. Only because my mom feeds this cow dog everything. I remind my mom to not, I repeat, NOT give this cow dog chocolate. Only because my mom is really obtuse when it comes to things like this.

She scared me the other day because she poked a black widow. wth! I yelped and told her to stop before it bit her. She was like "what's a black widow?". Uhhm, well something that can KILL you! women! that night I left her house fearing the saftey of her and cow dog.

One time we went to Target, and a policy they have is that they don't allow pets. This is a conversation:

mom: They don't allow dogs inside, hide her in your bag or just tell them that she's a service dog.

me: (my dry sense of humor) Yeah, she's a chiuahua in a dress. She totally looks like a service dog.

mom: What's a service dog?

me: .....

mom: What's a service dog? Angela, what's a service dog. huh? oh! pretty purse.



Anywho. Here's my booch fermenting its magical goodness.

This morning, a baby scoby was forming and there were more bubbles. I heard bubbles are a good thing during the fermentation process.

Just getting the point across.

Listening to Taylor Swift- Mine, on repeat. Gotta learn the lyrics. Also the new Bruno Mars song- Just the way you are is sooo cute. awh :o)

Read more...