Day 24: Snow Days Are For Baking

Today was a high chance of snow, do my boss at Brickz for Kids let me know yesterday that there was a high chance of my preschool class being canceled.

So this morning I had to be productive to make up for yesterday's just nothingness. I had to clean my bathroom and do my laundry. The laundry was most important since I am leaving for Georgia in a day and I like to pack early to make sure I have everything. Lists are the best for packing, I honestly think they are my salvation. They super help me keep organized. 

By the time I was done with cleaning my bathroom and starting my laundry, it was around 12. This is when I would start debating on working out and getting ready for work. Young and I made plans to work out at 5:30-ish, so I didn't have to think about that. Luckily I got a text from my boss saying that classes were canceled since it started to know at 10-11 AM. 

Since there  was no work and it was snowing, this meant that I could bake the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie n' Fudge Brownie Bar. This I, of course, found on Pinterest, my pictures do not do it justice, but wow it is delicious. 

I actually didn't have enough Oreos since this week and last, Hyman and I have been eating them. So the original has so much more. 

I left this out to cool for about 3 hours before cutting it and it was still hot and fudgey in the middle. 

I had it as a dessert treat with vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge on top. I will say that I do not do it justice like the website does. I am just not that artistic. 

Currently as I am writing this, I am in absolute pain from the work out Young and I did, plus no recovery from my work out yesterday. We did a 30 minute dance work out from PopSugar Fitness on Youtube. My thigh are just fatigued to the point of pain. I know that it is worth it and it is healthy, but wow. I am beat. Tomorrow I am doing yoga without a doubt or I might continue the pain depending on how much packing I get done to night.

I wish the music matched the moves we learned today and towards the end I was really dizzy and worried about my vertigo; but all in all it was a lot of fun. 

Young and I was laughing a lot during this. It didn't feel like it was too crazy of a work out. I think the best part of having a work out buddy is that you don't feel like you are working out you are having fun together. You are achieving a goal with someone, I think it is more fun. But I don't want to be solely dependent on Young. I was last year and when she moved I just stopped working out which was bad. I want to continue no matter what. That is what I would like to achieve. 

Day 23: Water Infusing & Sexy Dance Fighting

Today was supposed to be a productive day, it was not. I was supposed to do laundry, clean my bathroom, and meal prep. I totally forgot. So I will be doing all of this tomorrow in the morning and working out with Young in the evening. This is what happens when I do not make a To-Do List for the day. Lesson learned today, I am more productive when I know what I am supposed to be doing within the day.

I was prepping my fruit and veggies this week; I got strawberries and cucumbers so I cut them and placed them into storage containers. I got an awesome water infused from my graduation orientation, so I wanted to try a infuser recipe. I have seen a lot of strawberry, mint, and lemon or cucumber, mint, and lemon.

So after looking at this on Pinterest, I thought I would make it with cucumber, strawberry, lemon and mint. It turned out pretty well, I only let it seep for about 30 minutes before drinking it during my work out.

It is actually really refreshing and just kept refilling it with water through out the day, but it was not as pink at it was the first time. I made it again tonight, since I prepped three days of infusing ingredients into a sandwich bag in the fridge. 

I did a "30 Minutes to a Brazilian Body" work out today. This is Capoeira, which is Brazilian martial arts. I was interested in trying it mainly because of Bob's Burger's Season 1 Episode 3, "Sexy Dance Fighting" 

This is the actual video I did. 

This is how I feel like I looked. Like Tina. 

It was a very intense and a lot of low to the ground movements. I honestly get why Brazilians have a nice butt because this was mostly squats. I felt like a breakdancer, but not as coordinated. The GIF of Tina is an actual move, which is amazingly hilarious. Proudest moment of my day: doing capoeira like Tina. 

Day 19: The Oven Hates Me

I honestly late being two days behind, but I think by Friday I will be caught up. Since today I am not doing anything special besides my graduate school orientation, which I am insanely worried about. I just want to make friends. I think my housemates are getting a little tired of me and I feel like I need to get out of the house more. I don't think I have left since Monday. That is three days of not seeing the outside world without a window. I am leading a sad, sad life.

Anyways, Tuesday was a a great start to the morning. I had oatmeal in the morning with meatballs and tomato sauce. After eating my breakfast. I started to prep my berries in the fridge to eat with my yogurt or whipped cream. I started to prep my green beans too, I chopped off the ends and cooked them in chicken broth. I saved the broth to cook pasta noodles as well.

I combined a box of pasta, chopped green beans, cherry tomatoes, spinach and 4 tablespoons of pesto sauce in a large mixing bowl. It has lasted until today and there should be another bowl too. I have also been sharing it with Young, which has been super helpful or I would have never finished it.

Each time I have been cooking something, I send a picture to my mom. She told me that one day I will be a great cook like my dad, that is honestly my dream. I would love to be able to cook like my dad. He can make anything and it tastes awesome. She is a little jealous that I don't cook for her, my mother is just too cute sometimes.

This week I have been super missing my parents and family. I am actually looking forward to going home this weekend to see them. I know they miss me too... even thought my dad hung up on me when I called him. But I know it was a hang up out of love... Haha... at least that is what I am telling myself.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to make World's Best Chicken Recipe which I found on Pinterest.

I would like to promise that I actually read the recipe the whole way, it was really simple. But of course as I was cooking the smoke alarm starts to go off again. Even though I had the fan on so  I opened a window. I think the sauce began to burn a little in the oven so... when Young came home she told me to open the balcony door since it stilled like burning. I swear this time... I did everything right. The fan was on... I guess I just don't have skills with the oven. I didn't take a picture of my chicken, but wow it looked nothing like that photo... It was like brown and black... and not a pretty sight. It was pretty delicious though.

I feel like the oven HATES me. Luckily it all cleared out by the time Hyman came home. I think I need to cool it with the oven and only use the toaster oven for the next... I don't know... MONTH! Young didn't want to eat until about 6:30, so I watched Commando as I waited and the area smell cleared out. Just... Kim is a fail. Life Lesson: The oven and Kim are not friends.

But that night we watched Pain & Gain, since Young and Hyman hadn't watched it. About 3/4 of thew ay Hyman went upstairs but we continued without him.

Day 18: Why do my groceries end up costing so much?

I woke up around 10 since we had a late night of watching the Raid 2 and I had to facetime with my brother at like 10AM. The movie didn't end until like 1AM, my housemates were super tired after we were done watching. They seemed to like it.

I woke up to no real food that was good for me. So I made Shin Ramen Black with an egg (yolky) and a cup of kale. I then added some kimchi for more veggies, Sriracha, and lemon juice. It was pretty delicious. It just came to bite me in the butt later, much later. It was not pretty. Young actually came home and found me in the bathroom. Ramen retaliation. I love spicy but spicy does not love stomach.

I started to wash my sheets and clean my bathroom. I tried cleaning it with a dryer sheet since on Pinterest I saw that it would cut the cleaning in half. It was like the same but my bathroom smelled awesome and I didn't have to scrub since the dryer sheets were scruffy.

After showering, I went to Safeway to go shopping, and from my previous post, my groceries ended up being $118. I got about 43 items. I got lemons, tater tots, green beans, sweet potatoes, spinach, italian seasoning, string cheese, parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese, greek yogurt, hummus, cucumbers, baby carrots, berries, sweet onion, chocolate chips, brownie mix, cupcake liners, cool whip, frozen broccoli, chocolate sauce, oreos, sausage, panko bread crumbs, ground turkey, red wine vinegar, parsley flakes, chicken, and steak.

I think I get too much, I need to work on how much I get since I feel like I am sharing my food, which I don't mind. But I need to work on getting food for just me. But I feel like that is a selfish thought. I just need to work on actually getting things I need for that week. I think I need so much but in the end I only use about half of it.

After I put the groceries away, I started to work on making turkey meatballs which was going to be by meat for a couple of days. I used a large mixing bowl to combine ground turkey, italian seasoning, egg, salt, pepper, panko bread crumbs, cheese, cayenne pepper, garlic, and onion powder. I used my hands to make balls and baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes.

I don't think the cheese was a good idea since it oozed out. But they came out great and can be added to any pasta sauce. I like using tomato sauce with it. I also made about a liter of pesto sauce as well to finish off what was left of my kale in the refrigerator. I put the extra sauce in the freezer to save for a later date.

Young invited me to go to Zumba at Gold's Gym with her coworker. It was a ton of fun, this was the first Zumba class I took where instructors were white. It was fun, there were little to no Asians like I am used to at other Zumba classes. We even talked about going to an Xpose class that is free for a trial since it is a pole class.

We came home and realized that we left our IDs at the gym so we had to go all the way back to gym and get it. So we didn't get home until about 9 and started to finish making our dinner. We decided to watch Big Hero 6 while we ate. Young was able to finish making her food first, so I let her eat first. Once my stuff was done which was pasta, red sauce, and meat balls, I sat with Young to watch the movie. I forgot to turn off the stove, luckily Hyman caught it and turned it off. I didn't know at all. He didn't say anything to me until I asked though, which I thought was weird. I would have told myself something a long the lines of: "Hey Dummy, learn to turn off the stove!" Yeah I apologized a lot for almost causing a fire. I am just not the smartest. Life Lesson of the day: Always turn off the stove. 

Day 13: Case of the Mondays

I will be doing two posts since I am really behind on my posts... I know you guys are waiting for them because my life is uber interesting... not. But I am glad that people are reading.

Monday... oh Monday. Everything was going great, I woke up with a plan to cook my allusive cabbage that I bought on New Year's Eve. I ended up searching Pinterest for different cabbage recipes. I knew that for one of my recipes would be cabbage cooked with bacon fat, which ended up pretty delicious. I found this on Pinterest:

So I went to this recipe, and read it and substituted some recipes because I didn't have any fennel seeds. As the cabbage was roasting in the oven, I was cooking the bacon. I think the heat from the oven and the smokeyness from the bacon caused a lot of heat... and the fire alarm went off. So I turned on the fan, fanned the smoke alarm, and opened a window. So, I tried to make sure that it would not go off. I started texting my housemate, Young, about the situation. She told me not to tell Hyman about it since that is something he would not be happy about. So I haven't, I just fail at roasting cabbage I guess. Lesson learned: Always turn on the fan when cooking!

Roasted Cabbage

Semi-steamed cabbage with bacon and onions

After making both sets of cabbage, I went upstair to work on some of my sorority things. Around 12-ish, Young came home for lunch and she had some of my cabbage. We talked during her lunch and I further explained what happened. She invited me to go to Zumba with her and her coworker at 7:30PM and that we would get back in time for our friend to come hang out and eat s'mores.

I declined since I didn't want to spend money on a Zumba class. After she left for work, I started working on more sorority things. At 2PM, I went to take a walk around the neighborhood for about an hour. I explored more of the neighborhood, which was nice but freezing, absolutely freezing. But it was a nice walk, I came back and showered in time to watch The Taste while FaceTime-ing with my brother. We like to watch it together to comment about the contestants and to predict who's going to be eliminated next.

At around 5:30PM, Young came home and I suggested that she start cooking her food before she goes to Zumba, so that she could have her food right away when she got home. She was cooking her dinner and I began cooking mine. I started to make pesto with kale since I had a lot of kale that I have not been eating. It ended up being really bitter with a weird after taste so I added lemon juice and it turned out pretty good.

Hyman came home in the middle around 6:30PM and he started doing his laundry. Young left around 6:50PM, and I started cooking my dinner. I finished cooking around 7:10PM and finished eating around 8PM when Hyman came down to eat his dinner. I sat with him and talked. He wanted to Plex to see The Interview, which I have now seen three times. We sat and watched as he ate dinner he was in and out of the movie to do his laundry. At about 8:30PM, Lacey came over to surprise Hyman, but also to hang out and eat s'mores. I offered her some dinner and cookies. She ate most of the cookies and once Young came home I offered to make everyone some s'mores. I made two each for everyone. Young ate hers after her dinner. Hyman only ended up eating one so the extra went to Young. After The Interview was over, Young wanted to show me The Man from Nowhere on Netflix. During the movie, I kept seeing people that we knew, which I think ruined Young's life since she was super into those characters and I related them to people we were friends with. I thought it was an interesting movie, it was like Man on Fire and The Equalizer but with consequences for the main character. After the movies, it ended up being around 12AM, so everyone went home and to their rooms. I folded my laundry that I did that morning.

Day 12: Sunday is for S'mores

I started off the day late, I was just exhausted for some reason. I knew that Young was going to go back home to see her mom and I didn't have anything planned to cook for breakfast. So I started on a Pinterest recipe: Lemon Garlic Dump Chicken. I actually read most of this recipe, but made it more of my own.

I put zest and juice of 2 lemons, 5 finely chopped garlic pieces, onion powder, poultry rub, cilantro flakes, cayenne, and salt and pepper into a gallon bag with 5 chicken breasts. You are supposed to freeze it, but I just wanted to marinate to cook either that evening or the next day. I actually had it on Monday night for dinner, it was delicious! 

Young came upstairs in the middle of my making dump chicken and we talked as she watched me making it. We ate Honey Nut Chex for Breakfast. After she went to get ready to go home and I worked on this blog. She left around 3PM, but returned around 3:30PM-4PM since her mom was feeling sick. We ended up going to Lima's Chicken for lunch/ dinner. I got 1/4 dark meat chicken with yucca fries, green beans, and lot and lots of green sauce. I always have to ask for more since they don't give me enough. I think the lack of carbs ignited my hunger. I wanted to eat more, so I just ended up having some more of my chocolate chip cookies. We watched Guardians of the Galaxy because... well.. Chris Pratt is gorgeous. As we were letting the movie buffer by pausing, I made oven S'mores for Young and myself, another recipe that I just glanced at on Pinterest. 

I put broke up 2 graham crackers into 4 pieces and placed 2 pieces of Hershey's chocolate and a marshmallow on top. I put it in the toaster oven for about 5 minutes (I set it on lightly toasted setting). I think it was too much chocolate since it was spilling over the sides when we smooshed the s'more together. There is that nostalgia about a campfire, this is just sooo much easier since the marshmallow and chocolate are melted. 

At around the same time, Hyman came home and my cousin, May who lives in Canada FaceTime-ed me. So I was talking to May and Young asked Hyman to reset the router. After it was reset everything was working swimmingly. Hyman brought back a shelving unit from PA, which increased pantry space. He started to eat dinner after building it and we ended up watching Edge of Tomorrow, I conned him into hanging out all night since the move pulled him in. He told us that he had things he needed to take care of... Oops! 

Monday everyone is going back to work, and I will be home during the day solo, back to the routine of life. 

Day 11: Rainy Saturday is a Lazy Saturday

I will say that when it rains, I do not want to leave the house or move. I am not sure if I am only one out there that is like this. But wow, rain makes me a lazy hobo. Waking up to rain hitting the tree next to my window lulled me into a sleep like state for most of the morning. I was feeling groggy in the morning as well. I finally got out of bed around 12PM and got ready to start the day.

I started to make grilled cheese sandwiches. I got the idea from looking on my Facebook 's New Feed and seeing the 26 Food You Should Learn To Cook in Your Twenties by BuzzFeed. The first item is grilled cheese:

 Honestly, doesn't that look amazing. I had to see the directions because my mouth was watering from looking at the picture. The directions are so simple, yet I never thought about it. My grilled cheese is usually semi melty in the center and almost burnt on the outside. I skipped the salt step when I made it, this is mostly because I completely forgot. It is a good thing too since Young does no like too much salt in her food. I clearly love all the salt, butter, sugar, cheese, and fat. They are alllll delicious.

So I used butter, whole wheat bread, and pepper jack cheese (2 slices per sandwich). They turned out delicious. I gave Young the sandwich with thinner slices of cheese since she does not love cheese as much as I do. I love it. I would put it on everything if I could. We ate that with green smoothie she made, it had pear, Granny Smith apple, kale, and frozen pineapples in it. It was really refreshing and delicious. I don't normally like green smoothies, but the kale was masked by the pineapples. Sweet, delicious pineapples.

We waited about an hour or so until we worked out. Young went to work on her blog, and I just went to my room to look at Pinterest. Our work out was Turbo Fire Low HIIT 20 and PiYo Legs. It was an intense work out. I am still feeling the effects and it has been two days. After showering, I changed into loungewear since I thought Young was going to go home after the work out. She came up and asked if I wanted to go to Target, so I got changed and we went.

I am not sure if it was an off night, but the Target we usually go to was completely bare. There was nothing in t the $1-3 bins. We got some things that we needed. I always forgot something I need, so I might just stop by Walmart this week to get gift bags.

After Target, we were starving so we heated up the left over NYE Tacos and pasta from our friend, Lacey and ate that. Young decided to stay the night at home, which was awesome. We each ended up staying in our rooms and working on separate things. I finally got to FaceTime my mom, which was really needed; I hadn't talked to her since I came back here on Tuesday. I also worked on my blog and things for my sorority. I called it a night around 11AM, I was exhausted... probably from the rain.

Day 9: New Year's Day!

Happy New Year! I am a little.. okay let's be real... a lot late. I have been busy hanging out with my housemate, Young. She has had the week off so we have been hanging out all week. It has been great and fun not to be alone in the house all day long.

On New Years, I got up around 11AM and started to change my sheets. I wanted new sheets and a clean room for the new year. I febreezed the mattress, pillows, and blanket. I put them in the washing machine, which was my first using the machine. I don't think it put the correct settings since the machine sounded like it was unbalanced and it was really really loud. I was really worried about walking up my roommate.

I started making french toast since it is Young's favorite breakfast food. So I tried making it based on what I saw on Pinterest.

This was all I saw from it so I thought, "Okay I just need some flour," so I added about a teaspoon to my batter for the french toast. the flour stayed on top and clumpy even after more mixing. When I dunked in the slices of bread, I would just spread the flour over the bread. I will say that this helped make the bread browner with a crispier crust. I also made scrambled eggs and turkey bacon with it. I semi-killed turkey bacon in the toaster oven so that they ended up like bacon chips. It was interesting since they were not greasy, the whole cooking process for the bacon was simple. I would rather cook bacon in the oven. It takes longer, but it is so much less greasy. 

After eating together, Young was nice enough to wash the dishes after. As she was washing, I started to bake the chocolate chip cookie batter I made and chilled the night before. Young watched as I did this. I wanted the cookies to be a little crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, but I think I made them way to big for that so they are soft all over. Young said that they were good. But I was still worried.

We watched part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the Chromecast using Plex, but our internet was being crappy so we ended up watching Ultimate Spiderman on Netflix. Then we worked out by doing a Daily HIIT workout. We did a animal based work out for two rounds and Young did an extra core workout and I sat there and watched her. We then showered and got ready to go to a New Year's Day Party at our sorority sister's boyfriend's house. We also saw Hyman before we left and offered from him to come but he declined. He wanted to get Pho for dinner with us, but I told him to eat the leftovers from the New Year's Eve part from the night before. He seemed okay with that. 

We went to the party, which was full of food and Filipinos. The host's friends seemed a little stand offish but I still had a good time talking to people. They watched the interview too. 

After the party, we went home to finish the rest of TMNT. Young seemed to really enjoy the movie. I think it reminds me of the 90's movies of TMNT, which I uber loved. It was just enough of the goofy-ness with all of the fighting scenes. I just hated how they changed the story line. 

This is the first picture I took of the New Year: Young and I.