If Only I Had Time to Make Lunch Everyday

Tomorrow is the big first midterm day. Thursdays are quite long for me and now with the midterm, I'm not home until quite late. Normally when it comes to lunch I'll either skip it or buy something depending on how long my day is. However, I'm broke so buying lunch isn't really an option. That's why I decided to make myself a proper lunch.

Making my lunch was a lot of fun. I made some chicken wings that look really good. I also successfully made rolled eggs which hopefully taste good. Anytime I've tried to make them before they have turned into scrambled eggs so I'm quite happy I finally got it right. Along with my proteins, I also cut up some strawberries and pea pods. I presented everything in a lunch box and I was so proud of how good it looked. I'm not sure if making the lunchbox or eating it will be more enjoyable but I definitely enjoyed cooking. I wish I could make myself proper lunches all the time but sadly a lot of my days are too long and I have too much studying to do so there isn't enough time.

Lesson In Being Healthy

Since I'm trying to be a healthier person I've gotten into a habit of checking the nutritional information and ingredients for the things I eat. I've recently learnt an important lesson regarding that. It seems to be that sometimes companies try to trick you into thinking something is healthier than it really is by messing with the serving size. 

I have a weird love for instant ramen. I know it's horrible for me but it's really comforting to eat after getting home on a cold day. Because I'm trying to be healthy I tried to find the healthiest brand of instant ramen I could so I would feel less bad about eating it. I noticed that my favourite brand was quite high in fat and sodium so I switched to a different brand with a lower fat and sodium content. However after comparing the packages carefully, I noticed the trick. The new brand I was eating had a serving size of half a package whereas my favourite brand had a serving size of one whole package. So if I doubled the information for the new brand it was actually a lot worse for me than my favourite brand. I was both happy and upset by this. The new brand didn't taste as good so I was happy to be able to go back to my favourite brand but I was also upset by how the company had tricked me. I thought I was eating something that was better for me but it turned out to be worse for me. It's things like that which make me really upset because I hate it when people are manipulated for profit.

Either way I learnt the lesson that not everything is what it seems to be. If you want to read the nutritional information on packages, read it carefully or else you might make the same mistake I did.

Chef Skills

I'm super proud of myself tonight. My mom went out so I had to cook dinner for myself which I actually enjoy doing. I'm in the process of improving my cooking skills so I like to be able to mess around with meals. It also gives me a chance to make things my mom doesn't usually make. Tonight I went for spaghetti carbonara which I will admit isn't that advanced but it's above the usual quesadillas I make.

I'm in the process of eating it right now and oh my god, it's so good! I didn't know I could make something that actually tastes good. Most of my meals are kinda tasteless or neutral tasting but this one is delicious. It's by far it's the best thing I've ever made although it did cause me to make quite the mess in the kitchen but I'll clean that up later :P

My phone doesn't want to upload the picture so here's one I found on the internet...

All My Wishes Revolve Around Food

Since Christmas is coming up I have to start thinking about what kind of gifts I want. Since I'm not a kid anymore I'm passed the point of wanting a whole bunch of toys so now it's harder to think of what I want. Generally, there isn't anything I want but my family is always bugging me for a wishlist so I've been trying to come up with one.

Here's my trouble. All the things I can think of are food. Lately, I've really wanted to try this ramen shop downtown but there's no one who will go with me. On a similar note, I'm also craving macarons but my mom won't let me have them because she thinks they are too expensive. I could buy them myself but I'm too lazy. I also want chocolate covered strawberries but I'm too lazy to make them plus strawberries are out of season. Those are the only things I can think of that I want and none of them are suitable gifts.

I know I still have time to decide but it's tough. I have quite different tastes than the rest of my family so I can't just say buy me some clothes or jewelry because they'll get me weird things I don't like. After last year, I just really don't want Christmas to happen. My friends are all excited but I'm just dreading it. I don't want presents, I don't want to decorate the house, I don't want to set up a tree, I don't want to bake, and I don't want to hear any Christmas music. I don't want any of it. I just want to eat yummy food that doesn't involve a turkey and stuffing.

*creds to Natalie for these super cute macarons,

if they were sold near me I would eat them all!

I Like Trying New Foods

Growing up I was an extremely picky eater. I wouldn't drink milk unless it was chocolate, I would only eat the yolks of eggs, I refused to eat fatty parts of meat, and so on. However, I finally started to try more foods when I joined cooking class in grade ten. It was because of this class I became used to more seasoning on food and I actually started to like peppers.

This year I've tried to expand myself even more. Currently, since I'm slowly removing meat from my diet. I've also been wanting to try a lot more different food. Some of the foods I've come to love are dragon fruit, sweet potatoes, tofu, and spinach. I'm actually surprised at how good some of the things I used to hate are. As I'm writing this I'm eating my first ever sweet potato and it is absolutely incredible. Unlike yams which taste like mashed carrots, sweet potatoes are well... sweet potatoes. I love sweet things so it's a perfect match for me.

The overall point of this post is to try new things. You never know what you might end up liking. Even if you don't end up liking it at least you know you aren't missing out on something incredible.

Not a Cooking Fail

I've made two posts already related to cooking one was crepes, the other was quinoa, both failed miserably. However, today's post is a success!

In my family, good home cooked meals are a rarity. Today was just another no effort dinner (not that dinner always needs effort but it's nice once and a while). I had rice and flavored chicken sewers. This seemed kinda boring to me so I jazzed it up. I put the rice in a bowl, cut the chicken up into little pieces, got some veggies, added it all together and topped it off with a bit of soy sauce. The result was a really yummy rice bowl with a Chinese style taste to it. Not the most complex or interesting thing I could have done but whenever I try to make my own dish it always fails so I'm happy to have a success!

I already ate it but imagine something like this...

I Cooked Quinoa....

I was at the grocery store yesterday and decided to pick up some quinoa since I had heard how healthy and awesome it was. I was really excited about it and decided to make some for breakfast today. I found some good tips online and cooked it to their directions. Afterward, it came out looking pretty good. I put some strawberries in it which resulted in this....

(real picture this time)

I thought it looked pretty good so I started eating it. At first, it was pretty good but by my third spoonful, I decided that it tasted awful and I needed to go spit it out. I'm not sure what went wrong but I have a suspicion that I undercooked it since it wasn't very light or fluffy. It tasted a lot like weird seeds which I guess that's what it is but I didn't enjoy it.

Overall it was a big fail...like everything I try to cook.

Crepe Failure

I've been seeing dessert crepes around a lot lately and they always look amazing so I tried to make my own, probably not the best idea... I found a recipe online and was able to change it so instead of making eight crepes, it would make two. Making the batter went well so I started to cook it. I poured a bit too much batter in the pan and by a bit I mean instead of making two crepes I made one...

Despite how thick it was, it turned out okay and actually sort of looked like a crepe. While taking it out of the pan I accidentally split it in half. I decided to ignore this and without much thought, I covered one side in whipped cream and strawberries then placed the other side on top. It looked pretty good until I took it back to my room and tried to eat it. Since it was still hot the whipped cream was melting all over the place and since it was split in half, stuff was oozing out from all sides. In an attempt to save my crepe, I split the filling between the two halves and folded them up like I should have in the beginning. I ate it quickly while trying not to lose too many strawberries. Despite my kitchen failure, it by some miracle ended up tasting really good, it was just extremely messy.

This obviously isn't my crepe but it's what I wanted to make.

It looks so good! I want to make another! Sorry if this makes you hungry :P