11th Week of 2018

12 – 18th March 2018

Sorry for all the late updates! Been busy gardening. Our neighbor’s cat had been using our raised beds as litter box after I cleaned them up. Ugh!! I will just leave all my plants to overwinter in the raised beds and not clear them until the very last minute next year.

I have planted onions, carrots, potatoes and sweet pea flowers so far. Really need to get my lettuce, kale and cabbage seedlings out as soon as possible. I have been running late because my seedlings are still tiny. There’s not enough light for them to grow indoors, and I haven’t been hardening them off. They are super late to get in the dirt. Oh well, it’s my first time gardening in Spring.

Now onto my favorite meals of the week!

Brussels Sprouts
Pan fried brussels sprouts are so good! They taste so creamy when they are cooked right, and the outer layer stays crisp. Can you imagine that I’ve never had it until last year even though I like cabbage?

Avocado Toast
I like to mash up my avocado when I have my avocado toast. I tried spreading a bit of mayonaise to go with it. Hope it doesn’t sound gross to you. I don’t really like the taste of our butter, so I decided to try something new. I think it tastes alright. If you have any recommendations for butter, let me know!

Shrimp & Scallop Linguine Alla Vodka
We tried Carrabba’s Italian Grill for the first time, and it did not disappoint. I really enjoyed my shrimp and scallop linguine alla vodka. I really like the tomato vodka cream sauce because it’s the best of both tomato and cream sauce! I usually like seafood for my pasta when I’m eating out because we are less likely to cook that at home. Scallops are pretty tricky to cook.

Fajitas
We went crazy with fajitas at Lopez Grill in Wagoner, OK on Saturday. It was a drive away but we went over because my friend was giving me five of her peony plants that were not doing great in her shaded front yard. Peonies are my favorite flowers, so I can’t say no to that! I love hanging out with her and her significant anyway. Their Lopez Grill fajitas had everything – shrimp, chicken, beef, chorizo and a pork chop! It was quite a steal for costing less than $15 if I remember correctly.

Here’s a short video I took during our drive. Love the trees with white blooms!

 

We had guests on Sunday. Larry grilled pork ribs. Unfortunately we bought the wrong cut of spareribs! We usually get St Louis spareribs, and we didn’t know baby spareribs are different. Pretty sure one of our guests who rarely eats ribs was not pleased to see the chewy cartilage. I think we will just stick to burgers or chicken when we have guests over. They are just more friendly dishes that everyone can enjoy. Sorry if I sound salty, but I do not want to go through all the effort to cook and also clean up the house if they don’t enjoy the food. I also specifically asked if there’s anything they want to eat…

Meat is tricky and so are vegetables. Everyone needs to be less picky with their food! Haha, is that what all bad cooks say? I will just have to up my cooking game. Have a great day everyone!

9th week of 2018

26 Feb – 4 Mar 2018

Isn’t it crazy it’s March already? Time seems to fly by as you get older. I feel like I’m not doing much in my life because I’m just a homemaker. Should I only be defined by my occupation? Anyway, I thought I will share my meal prep last week.

These are the glorious vegetables I bought from the Asian supermarket on Tuesday.

• Red bell peppers (They were on sale. 3 for $1)
• Ginger
• Bean sprouts
• Spinach
• Yam leaves
• Leek
• Yu Choy
• Small Bok Choy

I’m on a mission to eat more vegetables especially after watching In Defense of Food on Netflix. We usually have stir-fry for most of our meals anyway, so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Stir-fries are easy to prepare and are pretty healthy.

The steps to cook stir-fries are pretty much the same. You heat up your cooking oil and fry some garlic/onion/shallots/ginger. Then you add whatever you are cooking according to how long they take to be cooked. The final step would be to add the herbs and seasoning to your dish.

Some of the dishes I made are:

• Pan fried catfish with fried ginger slices, stir-fried bean sprouts and carrot with steamed white rice
• Basil beef, and Stir-fried leeks with steamed white rice
• Slow-cooked pork shoulder, stir-fried yam leaves and fried eggs with scallions on top of steamed white rice
• Stir-fried flat white noodles with chicken and bok choy

Have you tried adding fried ginger slices to your fish? Ginger is such a great garnish.

Ingredients for Basil Beef
Minced garlic, ground beef, basil, cayenne pepper, black pepper and soy sauce (or salt). I added the red bell peppers this time since I had more.

Try adding scallions to your fried eggs! They add another dimension of taste.

You should check out this video from Chef Norman Musa if you want to cook your own flat noodles. For his recipe, I used chicken instead of seafood. I also took the easy route of using jarred peppers instead frying up my own like his recipe.

Other than cooking, I’m also starting up my seeds for gardening. I cannot wait to eat my own garden harvests later this year! I’m trying to grow a lot more vegetables and flowers this year, so wish me luck! Had to spend quite a fortune on soil and grow pots.

I’m going to end my post with these irises that are popping up in my front yard! Haha, a non-gardener would probably think it’s such an ugly photo, but it’s AMAZING for a gardener! New growth signifies the start of the gardening which is fun times for gardening.

6th Week of 2018

5 – 11 Feb 2018

Yet another week has flown by. Chinese New Year is on 16 February, so I have been putting up some decorations for it because it has been a tradition for me when I lived in Singapore. We didn’t drive out to Oklahoma City this year to shop for more festive decorations, so I just make do with what we have.

I found this set of Chinese New Year decorations that look so cute, but they have sold out already! Not too sure why I took so long to decide.. They weren’t too expensive either. I guess it is just hitting me how difficult it is to live in a different environment. That is growing up though, isn’t it? The older we get, the more we realize things and people are different from us. I will share my favorite Chinese New Year snack once I finish baking them. It is quite a tedious thing to bake, so I hope they turn out ok. (I’m not the best baker.)

Met up with my gardening friends at White River Fish Market last Friday. It is always a blast to chat with them because they are as enthusiastic about gardening and cooking as I’m. The broiled flounder that I ordered made me realize that I probably only like my fish fried with no breading or steamed. Haha, steamed fish is something I’m sure lots of you will not comprehend unless you are Asian or has lived in Asia.

Check out all the seeds my friend gave me! How generous of her.

Lastly, I will end with a cute photo of my dog because I’ve been lazing around with her when I really should be doing more spring cleaning. Base on Chinese superstition, you need to get the house in tip-top conditions, so that you have “room” to bring in all the good luck for the new year. I need every excuse reason I can find to tidy up the house which really isn’t that bad other than my desk.

Fifth week of February

How did everyone’s week go last week? To be very honest, I have been feeling like crap more often than not since Christmas. I don’t know why I have not recovered from all the year end hustle and bustle. I mean it is already February. Maybe the weather is affecting my mood, and I miss having my family around.

These two Instagram accounts have been reminding me that it is ok to not feel my best. There are just days where we don’t feel 100%. It’s also funny that someone in my local gardening community said this: “All any person can do is just do their best on any given day, and accept that there are going to be days when their best just isn’t good enough. That’s just part of being human.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BdvGdjllDTj/?taken-by=jengotch

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Just shy of a year ago I checked myself in to hospital for overnight suicide watch. I was going through a really rough time in my personal life and had stopped meditating for 5 days straight in some strange form of self pity. On the 6th day I encountered a situation that severely triggered my #PTSD like never before and it sent me into a state of total terror and panic – I just couldn’t escape my mind, I was trapped in a perpetual flashback and eventually reacted by running away and driving my car to a cliff. It was there that I sat for hours trying to regain my state of mind while fighting off a series of all too real past suicidal thoughts and plans that I had not revisited in years… Not wanting to ask for help or admit defeat to those I loved, I drove to the emergency ward of the local hospital and asked for help. I remember feeling like a fraud… I was ashamed that I could still feel like this after so many years – it was one of the realest nights of my life. After being checked in and put on surveillance a nurse came to me and told me that she’d lost someone close to her from her #mentalhealth battle and as she held my hand she said “thank you for coming here, you are exactly where you need to be.” It was in that moment that I let myself just be as I was, vulnerable, raw and unashamed… the unedited me. I never intended to recall or share that night with anyone, but today is day 5 of the @mindspo #Goloveyourself challenge, where I ask everyone to share something that they would normally hide, edit or never post on social media. I am one of the happiest people I know, but that happiness comes from a contrast of so much pain which I’ve felt in the past and a decision to work tirelessly to change my story and create a new reality. I came really close that night, but looking back now it’s self love that stopped me and an awareness that this too shall pass. Please trust me, it will pass. Now… that was hard to write and even harder to share, but that night is a part of me. I am a meditation teacher and I teach best what I most need to practice myself. ❤️ Thanks for reading – Love Fox 🦊 #Mindspo

A post shared by FOX-That Meditation Girl 🧘🏼‍♀️ (@rochelle_fox) on Feb 4, 2018 at 11:49pm PST

I hope I will eventually feel better, or figure out things that would make me feel better. Here are some things I hope to do in February:

1. Build up my strength and stamina by doing more yoga and barre at home, so that I can actually do a full hour of class at a studio. (My fitness has sadly gone down the drain in 2017.)
2. Cook and bake more new things because I enjoy it, and it’s more productive than relying on retail therapy. The holiday season is over. It is time to save up.
3. Start on seeds because gardening season is just around the corner.
4. Spend minimal time on video games because it isn’t making me happy.
5. Organize everything because it is oddly therapeutic for me.
6. Chill. It is ok to not do anything if that’s what I need to do to feel better.

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Happy Birthday to me. Bout to hit the club. Jk, I’m going to spend the day on the couch watching Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. 🎈

A post shared by Gemma Correll (@gemmacorrell) on Feb 3, 2018 at 11:04am PST

Have a great week everyone. ❤

What’s your New Year’s Resolution?

Is it weird that my new year’s resolution is very similar to Eva Chen’s? I was a little shocked when I saw it on my Instagram Stories feed. These are the things I really want to work on this year.

1) Start doing yoga again
Yes, yes, yes! I used to be so much fitter when I did yoga twice or thrice a week. I need to either try out the online subscription to Cody App, or find a good yoga studio near me. The sad thing is I’m not very confident driving on the highway or in crowded areas, so that rules out a lot of yoga studios for me. I have to figure something out though.

2) Reduce plastic waste (bottles, utensils, etc)
There is no excuse not to reduce, reuse and recycle. Why are there no more cartoons like Captain Planet and the Planeteers for kids these days? I always feel like I’m the only person that tries my best to recycle everything I can. Is it a hassle? Yes, it is but I feel obligated to do what I can. You won’t realize how much waste you contribute until you start sorting your waste. It is only the two of us and we accumulate a car trunk load of recyclables in a month. I recycle all mail, cardboard, milk jugs, aluminum cans and glass bottles. Do you know you can recycle your cooking oil from your deep fryer too? Anyway, back to plastic waste. There are so many things we can do. I wish restaurants would stop giving out plastic straws. I always try not to use them when I eat out, but am usually given one and I don’t think they would give it to someone else if I give it back to them. We also try our best not to order takeouts, so we won’t be using plastic food containers.

3) Try to be nicer to my parents
We should never take our loved ones for granted, and be as nice as we can to them because time is limited everyone! My dad passed away four years ago and I still miss him every day. Gosh, just saying this made me tear up. I always wonder if people around me can even comprehend how sad I was and still am since he passed away. (I was only 27). There is just this gaping hole that will never heal. I guess that’s the thing when you love so deeply.

5) for every ONE thing I bring home, purge three things to create minimalist apartment
I really want to be more minimalistic, and stop buying frivolous things. This will not be easy for me though since I love seasonal decorations. I will definitely buy more quality products, so they can last me a lifetime.

7) Start taking better care of my skin again
Our skin is so important; it’s the largest organ that we have. I need to start using sunscreen and moisturize every day, especially since I’m already 30 years old.

8) Floss
Our teeth are very important too. I need to floss more often and make sure my husband and I visit the dentist at least once a year.