Give and Take

After I hit publish on my trip post, Hubby K and I went out straight to grocery store and Trader Joe’s to replenish our fridge. After coming back home and put the grocery away, I did my workout that I missed yesterday.

After that, I chugged down 1/2 baked sweet potato as my post workout snack and worked in the kitchen preparing the upcoming week meal. Technically speaking, I didn’t actually cook much stuff. Instead I just marinated a bunch of meat so I could cook them over the week. I did, however, cooked the rotisserie chicken which I marinated 2 days ago so at least I got some decent protein as part of my dinner, plus my failed attempt to make fritata with the remaining cooked ground beef (it ended up became scrambled egg with ground beef instead).

I’ll be honest here, don’t be fooled by the look of the chicken in this picture. I strategically took the picture from its best angle. The fact is, the other side of the chicken was totally burned, probably due to the marinate that I used or the temperature setting was a bit high in the beginning. Not to mention the chicken was still a bit red in the middle. But no worries, a 5 minute microwave zap fixed it.

So here’s my dinner (and also will be my lunch tomorrow)

But wait, where was the lunch????
I’m telling you, I didn’t have any proper meal since last night. Pretty much after my late “breakfast”, I only munched on banana chips, some macadamia nuts and my “hacked Larabar” as my meal for the entire day. That explained my crankiness before dinner. My body seriously craved proper meal (meat and veggies!). Don’t ask me how I survived my intense workout today. Truth to be told, I almost collapsed after I was done.

I feel like I couldn’t get anything done because I “lost” one of my weekend. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed our time a lot yesterday: going out, travel and just relaxing. But at the same time, our usual weekend chores got neglected. Is it worth it? I’d say so, although I felt a bit cranky earlier.

I even told Hubby K that I just want to cook Primal meal enough for myself. He didn’t mind and actually he encouraged me to not worrying about him and Brother A (my little brother). He even offered to cook some food for him and Brother A so I don’t have to work too hard. Aaarggh, how nice of him! Sometimes I feel sorry for him having a whiny wife like me. C’mon, I only need to cook to feed 3 adults (me including) and I’m already feeling stressed out. To top it off both Hubby K and Brother A are not picky eaters either. Whatever I make, either good or not too good, they never utter a single complain about it. Should I say I’m lucky?
I’m so amazed with those who have kids for putting up with their needs. Seriously, how do you guys do it? Maybe that’s why I am not a parent or that child will hate me so much for neglecting him/her.

Anyway, enough rambling here! Have a great night!

 

Lack of Energy

Hi all, how’s your Saturday going so far?

I’ve been feeling SUPER LAZY today, though this morning I managed to squeeze in my workout that supposedly for yesterday.

Fueled myself with leftover Costco chicken

Consequences for not eating proper post workout meal (starchy carbs like yams & sweet potatoes): I felt SUPER SLUGGISH, lack of energy, fatigue later on! It wasn’t fun feeling.

So after got home from grocery and other errands, I popped all yams that I got at the store in the oven and nuked one to be consumed right away!
Now I don’t have to worry about tomorrow’s post workout meal anymore.

Got mandarin oranges for $2.99 for 3lbs bag – SCORE! I LOVE THESE THINGS!

I decided not to go with K to his parent’s house for dinner today. Instead I drove myself to check out Sprouts Market Henry’s Farmers Market.

My goodies

Strawberries for 97 cents/box -got 4 so total $4 for 4 lbs -SCORE! Taste wise: kinda bland -unlike the one I got from Farmer’s Market last week (super sweet but it was a whole big box for $11 – I guess it was equivalent of 4 lbs?) Oh well I got what I paid for, right? At least Fage Full fat greek yogurt was $3.79 – MUCH cheaper than Albertsons or Whole Paycheck ($4.99)

More goodies: found pastured raised 100% natural grass fed beef, Applegate bacon and Henry’s brand no preservative sausages! -(gotta keep these for my quick to serve protein!)

Since I already used up our joint account grocery budget this morning for getting grain-fed beef from regular market, I opted to get small pieces of grass fed beef. Now I know I can get grass fed beef from around where I live!

I found my kryptonites

100% dried mango -no added sugar

unsweetened banana chips! I munched LOTS of these in the store

I ate a bit too much banana chips that now I’m feeling kinda sick of it. The dried mangoes were a bit too sweet for me so I couldn’t eat it too much, which was good.

Anyway, I LOVE Henry’s Farmers Market. It’s very very similar to Sprouts Market (very homey, with bulk bins of nuts, dried fruits etc) and the best thing is? It’s much closer to where I live compared to Sprouts. Now I know where to shop for grass fed beef and other organic stuff. Woot!

Something I want to talk about:
I was browsing through my old posts and read what I wrote in the past and seems like I’ve never really had a consistent topic. Some posts I might write about food of the day, some about recipes, some just random stuff like my life etc. Sometimes I wonder, if by having a non-defined blog topic actually a turn off for new readers. Some big bloggers that I’ve seen usually always have one consistent topic in their posts – either being vegetarian/vegans/primal/paleo, informative/education, restaurant reviews, recipes etc. Even this morning, K mentioned that I’m not being consistent. One day I’d be doing certain stuff and the next day my thought would change to something else. – scattered brain?

I’m sorry if I’m not making any sense, but it starts to bugging me a bit and how would I want to continue with this blog.

Have a great night!

 

Friday I’m in Love!!

“I don’t care if Monday’s blue”
“Tuesday’s gray and Wednesday’s doom”
“Thursday I don’t care about you”
“It’s Friday I’m in love”

How’s your week been going so far? Mine is okay and for sure this week I am exercising almost ( I took Monday as my rest day) daily with today as my rest day. It makes me feel good even though it’s only a short exercise, as long I push to my maximum effort, I still get the endorphin I am not a big fan of long exercise per say so that’s why I’ve been following this gorgeous girl’s workout video.

“Monday you could fall apart”
“Tuesday Wednesday break my heart”
“Oh Thursday doesn’t even start”
“It’s Friday I’m in love”

Another good news is my brother is getting much better day to day. His temperature has been pretty stable for the past 3 weeks. The only thing that was still bugging my parents were his high heart rate. It’s true it’s been slowly going down but recently he redid heart echo reading and there was something different there (too much complicated medical term and I won’t bother trying to post it here). So long story short after we got referred by one of my cousin’s friend recommendation, we drove all the way down to UCLA Medical Center to see a Cardiologist.

The commute took us about an hour one way (yay to the traffic on 405, 10 and 105)
And as I drove down to this area, I was thinking of these ladies. (maybe next time I come up here we could do a little blogger meet up? )

Boy! This doesn’t look like a hospital/health center at all! The bright and modern interior reminds me a lot of an ad agency!

Cardiologist said we don’t have to worry about the heart condition at all. My brother is totally fine. That put my parents into an ease. For sure they finally can go back home in December without much worries anymore.

 

“Saturdaaaay, wait”
“Sunday always comes too late”
“But Friday never hesitates”

Next day I had to replenish my car’s gas tank in the freezing morning temperature on my way to work

That morning I made steamed sweet potatoes for my b-fast. Left them too long and got mushy! Ugh!!!

I took one, and I think my family finished the other one. It was meant for K to bring, but by the time he was about to leave, they weren’t done yet! FAIL. It took me a whole morning to finish those. They were filling!

And I made Chicken with Portabello Mushrooms. Was okay, family didn’t enjoy it as much (tasteless – haha I have a very light taste buds so didn’t put much salt and seasonings – maybe next time)

First time cooking using Portabello mushrooms..they are good!

 

Something to talk about:
1. I am still pretty new in blogging world and I realize the way I interact in blogging community doesn’t differ much from how I interact in real life. For example, no matter what I still need to reach out to other people’s blog if I want to have more readerships. Same thing in real life too, right? I have to start go out and meet more people if I want to increase my community circle. Unfortunately, I am not that type of person. I interact better in smaller community. When I first started this blog, I felt like I had to keep searching for new blog and put comments on every single blog so I’ll get more readers come to my blog. After a while, it just wore me up. I can’t do it. But I don’t care anymore how many readers I have here. This is my blog and who cares if there’re anyone reading, commenting or not. I will comment and read other blogs ONLY IF I have the time to do it. I don’t have to make it as my daily duties. I’m sure every bloggers have this kind of issue someway in their blogging path. But I won’t lie that I DO ENVY those popular bloggers who always have LOTS of comments on his/her blog. So I’d LOOOOVE to hear your thoughts on this matter.

2. I know there were some posts that I was venting off so much and full of negative thoughts and would like to thank those who’ve been encouraging and understanding my situation. I don’t do this enough but I thank EVERYONE for sticking around with me going thru the tough time. Now the situation keeps getting better

3. What’s everyone’s plan this coming weekend? I have a dentist appointment tomorrow and meet up with one of my friend afterward since she lives around that area.

“Monday you could hold your hands”
“Tuesday Wednesday stay in bed”
“Thursday watch the walls instead”
“It’s Friday I’m in love”

Have a good weekend, everyone!

 

Various thoughts

Sorry for not posting regularly lately as my schedule is getting a bit hectic as I mentioned on the previous post. Anyway, here are some pics of  foods (not in particular order)

steamed chicken meatballs - I haven't made these for a while..lately I've been making more meat dishes so he can have more appetite to eat.

can you believe I had some of these as breakfast - just plain or a bit of pb

Bunch of various oats for bfast

fruity oats

oats with bananas, low fat yogurt and some of my failed homemade almond butter

I’ve been cooking lots of Chinese herb medicine for my brother. Those stuff is super bitter and has a very strong smell. The whole house just smelled like herbs after cooking this. This is just one of those. I didn’t have time and energy to take pics of every single time I cooked the medicine. Basically you boiled the herbs with 3 cups (8 oz size) of water until it becomes 1 cup.

chinese herbs medicine ready to be boiled

took about 20 minutes until the water reduced to 1 cup - I think on this one it was a bit too much

wait for it to cool down a bit..then DRINK it. Super bitter, I'd tell ya.

Honestly, I’ve been having negative thoughts lately that I even had to rewrite this entire post. Prior to this one, I had another draft that I was so ready to publish and be done. Instead of writing down all of my negativity, let me just write down my most inner thoughts.

I do not quite like it when my parents want me to let my brother live with me, even after I got married.

I despise my relatives who keeps pointing finger and sort of “blaming me” for not taking care of my brother.

I do not like the “females have to do more housework than men” mentality in my family circles (my hubby is a total exception).

I like my hubby more compared to my family.

I wish I was born as a boy in my family so they won’t try to “mold” me into their #3 mentality.

My hubby is the only closest person to me, whom I can pretty much share all my thoughts. I can’t even do this to my parents.

Even though I have friends that I’ve known since college and high school, I still feel there’s a “wall or distance” between us.

I don’t see my work colleagues as friends. I only talk to them at work and that’s about it. I never hang out nor call each other unless it’s work related. Usually work and romance don’t mix well or depends on individuals, but for me both romantic relationship and friendship don’t mix well with work either. I met my hubby at his old workplace where I was interning and we dated while working together. It wasn’t a smooth ride either. Emotions got in a way, luckily it didn’t affect others around us. But from that point, I decided not to ever work together with someone whom I have relationship with. As for friendship at work place, it’s just way too much politics to deal with. Though my current workplace politic might not be as bad as other places, I prefer to draw a line. I don’t share too much of my personal stuff. For example, I bought a place. I know some of other colleagues actually didn’t mind that they shared that info. But you know what others saying behind them? They are jealous. They start to comparing themselves, how A makes more $$ so he/she can afford a house and the mortgage. That’s just one example.

I wrote this post at the most inappropriate time.

I don’t like it when my routine got disrupted.

Lately I’ve been feeling my exercise routine start to wear me down. Though I like the progress I’ve seen (not much visually but more strength and stamina), I start to burn out. I used to be leading sedentary lifestyle and exercise wasn’t really activities that I enjoy. I am far away from being athletic. Why all sudden I want to be active? Let me tell you something. My family doesn’t exactly have the best gene and stamina. My mom was ill couple years ago, because of digestion issue and now my brother is having something similar as well. I also have some hereditary illness which I am not going to discuss here. But fear not, it’s not life threatening but it can affect me if my body is weak. With all these facts, I presume you can understand my reason starting to be more active. As we’re on this topic, this will lead to another part of my thought.

I plan to be childless for the rest of my life. K also agrees with me on this matter. Part of it because of my family history, which I am not interested to pass another defective gene. Part of it because I realize I am not the most compassionate person. I even complain and whine baby sitting the full grown young man and having a child with his/her constant needs, I know I’m going crazy. People always say “it’ll be different if it’s your own child, you’re going to be lonely when you’re old, you’re going to change your mind someday, you’re going to regret it, blah..blah blah..
Enough with those! Just the of me carrying a living person inside my belly for 9 months and going through an unimaginable painful child birth labor just freak me out. I know I’ll be judged, flamed, and despised by women readers out there, especially the mothers. I apologize for that. Let me make myself clear. I do respect those who want to have children and I don’t judge them. So I’d prefer the same as well. Not everyone is meant to be parent and I know I’m not.

Sorry for such a long post, but I’ve been wanting to write these down for a long time.