Bad Day

+Jimmy Ho  and I cooked dinner together on Friday night, and it was so much fun. We both really love food, and you might say we love each other so combining the two was great. Most of the time it is one or the other cooking. But spending time chopping, cooking, and talking while making a healthy meal was something special. We really enjoyed it, and since then we have cooked together twice since then. I think it is going to become at least a weekly thing.

The first thing we made together was a healthy version of General Tso's Chicken. We used this Rachael Ray recipe, and it was so easy to follow and turned out really well. Now most of you know that I'm not a big fan of Rachael Ray, but I'm going to blame that on the fact that Jimmy may have a celebrity crush on her, and nothing really to do with her. Who can blame him? What man wouldn't want a woman that can cook! And, if anything was ever going to happen between the two of them, it probably would have happened at her sxsw party. Not to mention that I am totally awesome, and I'm learning to cook. Watch out, Rachael Ray!

Monday mornings are always hard no matter where you work or what you do. I tried to help Monday stink a little less by getting breakfast ready on Sunday night. I found a recipe for slow cooker oatmeal that cooks overnight. You simply cut up 2 apples peeled, cored, and chopped, and coat them with 1/3 cup brown sugar and 2 tsp. Place the apples first in the slow cooker.

Next you add 2 cups of old fashioned oats, 4 cups of water and 1 tsp of salt (all mixed together) on top of the apples. Do not mix. Simply cook on low overnight for 8 - 9 hours.

The flavor was pretty good, but we both thought it could use more oatmeal. I blame that on myself. I put it in the crock-pot about 8:30 p.m., and we did not turn it on until 10:30. So the oatmeal had been sitting in water for 2 hours before heat was turned on. Then, it cooked from 10:30 p.m. - 8:00 a.m. which was longer than direct. I think the mushy oatmeal was totally my fault and will try to tweak this recipe.

Sunday night Jimmy and I also made dinner together. We made our ground turkey tacos since we both love tacos so much. This time we used corn tortillas, sprayed them with a little OVOO, and hung them over the rack in out toaster oven so that they baked into taco shapes! While the tacos were fun, I was more excited about the rice I made. I made Mexican rice! I used brown rice to make it healthier. I followed this recipe, and we really liked it! It was a tad salty FYI. So next time we will probably reduce the salt by half and maybe use real garlic instead of the garlic salt.

Last night was Meatless Monday, and Jimmy and I tried to recreate one of the entrees we had on Chinese New Year. It was a lemongrass tofu string bean stirfy. I think we did pretty well for our first attempt. We used onion, garlic, lemongrass, chili paste, onion, soy sauce, ginger, tofu, and string beans. This was our first time to buy and use lemongrass at home. It is very interesting because it seems like a cross between celery and a scallion. There is an outer husk you removed, and then slice it up like a scallion. You then have to beat it a little (with the back of your knife or a mallet) to release the flavor. Don't be surprised when you use it that it is tougher than you would expect to cut, even after removing the husk! Don't get intimidated. I'm learning to become less intimidated by food as I cook more and more. If you mess something up, chances are you have things on hand to make a sandwich, and you aren't going to starve. Here are pics of the process and the final product. The first pic has the lemongrass and string beans!

 
This weekend I spent my Saturday with one of my closest friends, +Chris Atkins. It was a special day because the Saturdays I get to spend with him are winding down. Chris is about to leave on a year round trip around the world. While I am very sad he is leaving, I'm very excited and happy for him to experience something so amazing. Chris is leaving on May 8th.. which just happens to be my birthday... bittersweet. We had a great time and spent practically the entire day outside just talking. Yay for fun days with great friends. Here is a picture of the pretty latte I got when we met for coffee.

Speaking of good friends, I wanted to thank all of my friends and family that are reading my blog. So many of you have reached out to me via text, email, or comments you leave here and said some really nice things. I appreciate everything each of you have said, and it gives me motivation to keep trying.

The reason this blog is called bad day is because I am having a bad day. I just haven't felt great all day. It may have something to do with eating some cookies yesterday that I shouldn't have, but I feel pretty terrible. That has snowballed into feeling guilty because I did not go to Camp Gladiator tonight. I should be there right now. Right this second, and I'm not. I feel guilty about it. But, I'm telling you all so that I'm held accountable. This is tough! Even though I am having a tough day today, I am not giving up. I have been sticking to my goal and walking a mile 4 times a week for the first 3 weeks of March plus going to Camp Gladiator. I am not giving up now. I did go walk yesterday. I have to walk 3 more times this week to have not only completed, but exceeded my original goal. Also, I will be back at Camp Gladiator on Thursday, and I may try to go this weekend to make up for tonight. I can do it!!!!