Saturday, August 28, 2010

Parmesan Herbed Flounder with Bread Crumbs.

When we first arrived in Idaho, settled down in our house and started shopping for our groceries, it was difficult to find Asian food. Its a necessity to cook everyday, as the guys had to bring lunchboxes to work. There's hardly time to drive around to buy food, plus, the only food available to purchase was Burger King. Well, I'm a loving wife, who cares about her husband's diet, and I wouldn't want him chewing on that everyday.

We've come a long way, it started out that he was the one experimenting in the kitchen and doing all the cooking on his own. Then I started having slight interest, and tookover some of the dishes. As I studied more and more recipes and foodie blogs online, I started doing more and more of the cooking, trying out new dishes. It has now come to a point that I've completely taken over the cooking, with joy, and him, taking over the laptop and tv, with greater joy. His tummy is happy too. With new flavours and new dishes to try all the time.

I prefer dishes with lesser ingredients, easy to prepare, but a burst of flavours. It isn't easy to find reasonably priced fish where we live. In Singapore, we can easily buy fish in the market. But here, there's only supermarket. No wet markets. They upsell the fishes in the "fresh" section, but the colour didn't look fresh, and its probably frozen before. Its expensive! We didn't eat fish in the first few months that we were here, and it came to a point, when we wanted to eat fish, we'd go for Fillet O Fish. How pathetic is that!

On one of my afternoon walks, I decided to walk to the commissary and check out the food available. When the husband isn't around, I can take a good long walk around and study each ingredient available to me, so I can take a mental note to what I can find within my reach, and look out for new  recipes to try. I headed to the frozen seafood section. What surprised me was, there were lotsa fish available there, and while at first look, the prices were $10 and above, at closer look, there's many fillets inside. We've been paying $1 per small fillet before that, its almost and indulgence to have fish in USA. So when I saw that buying fish that was frozen before, the price was more affordable and can be a good addition to our meals.. I bought a packet of flounder to try first. It was the cheapest of the lot. And I'm sure, I'll be hitting on Tilapia and salmon next.

Here's the recipe for my Parmesan Herbed Flounder with Bread Crumbs. We originally wanted to fry it, but I decided on a healthier baked version.


6 flounder fillets
4/5 tbsp McCormick Parmesan Herb
2 tablespoon dried parsley
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup panko bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Season the first with salt and pepper.
3. Coat the fish with a light coat of olive oil.4. In a dry bowl, mix the panko bread crumbs with parmesan herb and parsley.
5. Press the bread crumb mix into fillets.
6. Lay the fish in baking tray lined with aluminium foil.
7. Bake for about 10 mins and turn the fish over.
8. Bake for another 8 - 10 mins until fish is cooked through.

Although baking it was a healthier route, I would probably try to fry it the next time around. It was flaking too easily and the fish kept breaking up as we tried to pick it up with a fork. It was quite dry and not really juicy. But it might be due to our fillets being too thin and small. Might be good to bake when cooked with a thicker cut. The seasoning was tasty and just right. Hubby thought his had a little too much cheese. But I liked mine the way it was. Cheesy and tasty. ;)

Let me know how yours turned out! ;)

Friday, August 27, 2010

Recipe: Roasted Brussel Sprouts

This isn't a very positive month for me, and I hate blogging about negative stuff. Celebrate and share the good times, and forget the bad ones. I've been trying to focus my time on cooking, and hoping this will pass my time quickly. It seems I've been getting in giddy and the low blood pressure is back again. This week especially I've had a few giddy spells and feeling weaker than usual. I want to get back up to my exercise routine, but I don't want to push myself too hard.

Please bring on the positive stuff and let this month come to a good end.

As mentioned in the earlier posts, I wanted to try some new foods. I'm tired of sticking to purely asian dishes, and wanted a wider variety in my cooking, with different foods. Yesterday I experimented with brussel sprouts. I feel that vegetables are meant to be healthy and cooked with minimal ingredients. I usually do a stir fry, with oyster sauce and garlic for my leafy veggies.

This is my first time cooking with brussel sprouts and I wanted to cook it simple to taste the flavours of the leaves, so I can think of what to pair it up with next time... I googled for brussel sprouts recipes, and came across this one. Its really simple and easy, and the ingredients are staples in every kitchen. It turned out really good! Here goes:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts 

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts
  • 3 tablespoons good olive oil
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 35 to 40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Sprinkle with more kosher salt ( I like these salty like French fries), and serve immediately.


I thought these tasted like potato chips. Especially those leaves that fell off the sprouts, and after I removed them from the oven, they were so crunchy. I could eat these like chips all day. When you roast it the leaves get alittle crispy and when you bite it, it becomes like a chip. I'm thinking of cutting the sprouts into halves next time so hopefully it will turn out even more crunchy, and we can munch on it while watching movies. Talk about healthy living! ;)

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Recipe; Five Spice Beef & Pepper Stir Fry.

Yikes! Been lazing for a long while. Its been awhile since I gave my body a good workout. I need to workout a sweat. But at the same time, my body has been aching, I've been getting headaches, and I'm feeling tired all the time. Its a bad sign of a over-lazing body. Either that, or maybe I've been feeding my body too much recently, now that I'm always excited to try new recipes.

Last few days, I have been trying some old repeated recipes, Hubs says its always good to retry and retry until we get the perfect mix that we like. So I've done Sweet & sour pork on Monday. The taste is getting alittle better. We added more corn flour this time, to give it a better crisp.

Over the weekend, we headed out to Boise for Grand China Buffet ( a review will be coming up soon), and headed to Ross for some last minute shopping. I wanted to try to get some stuff for my Dad. We've bought stuff for most of the family except my Dad. I just didn't know what to get for him. He's birthday is coming up soon, and I still have no idea what is good for him. Hopefully something will catch my eye soon.

Here's the recipe for the Five Spiced Beef & Pepper stir fry which I cooked today for the guy's lunchbox.


Ingredients

  • Jasmine rice or short grain white rice, 1 to 1 1/2 cups, prepared to package directions
  • 2 cups beef broth or stock, paper container or canned
  • 2 tablespoons wok or clear oil, 1 turn of the pan
  • 1 1/2 pounds beef sirloin or beef tenderloin tips, trimmed, placed in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes then thinly sliced
  • 2 green bell peppers, seeded and diced into 1-inch pieces
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1/2 cup dry cooking sherry
  • 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, eyeball the amount
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder, found on Asian foods aisle of market
  • Cracked black pepper
  • 3 scallions, thinly sliced on an angle, for garnish
  • 1/2 cup smoked whole almonds, available on snack aisle, for garnish

Directions

Boil water for rice and prepare to package directions.

Place beef broth in a small pot over low heat to warm the liquid.

Heat a wok shaped skillet or pan over high heat. Add oil (it will smoke) and meat bits. Stir-fry meat 3 minutes and remove from pan or move off to the side of the wok. Return pan to heat and add peppers and onions. Stir-fry veggies 2 minutes. Add meat back to the pan. Add sherry and stir fry until liquid almost evaporates about 1 minute. Add soy sauce to the pan. Dissolve cornstarch with a ladle of warm beef broth. Add beef broth to the pan, then add cornstarch combined with broth, the five-spice powder and black pepper. Stir sauce until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Adjust seasonings. Add more soy or salt if necessary. Remove stir-fry from heat. Fill dinner bowls with beef stir-fry and top with a scoop of rice. Scoop rice with ice cream scoop to get a rounded ball. By placing rice on top of stir-fry, rice will stay firm and not soak up too much sauce. Garnish with chopped scallions and smoked almonds.


Recipe taken from Food Network, Rachel Ray.

Taste test:
The sauce was a little thick and creamy for my liking, probably shouldn't have added too much corn starch. Didn't add enough black pepper, and needed more colour! I hate bell peppers, so I left them out. I might try this recipe again, with a light dose of sesame oil, and more five spiced powder. Oh, and be careful not to over cook the beef, and really cut them into thin slices. I hate problems chewing into my beef. =(

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Yikes! Winter is coming??

The weather is super cold today. The aircon in the house is set to 77F, but when we woke up, its at 71F only. The floor was freaking freezing. No carpeting in our house. Lucky for me, I had my bedroom slippers on.

The locals here always tell us the weather in Idaho is always unpredictable. Winter came early last year. I read the news the first snowfall was in October. And being the first, its always heavier. I saw how the snow covered up houses, to the extent, some houses couldn't open their doors, due to the snow piling up on their front doors. Thankfully, we came in January, where snowfall was much lesser, to a certain extent, being the first experience of snow falling from the sky, we were sort of excited, and kind of enjoyed it.

This year, we'll be going through the entire winter. After experiencing the first time, can sort of expect what's to come. When we first landed, it was in freezing temps. We're talking below 0 degrees celsius. That lasted till March. And it was chilly till end of May. Our last snowfall of the last winter, was in May. The difference in the weather compared to Singapore, was huge. SG is being covered by islands and countries around it. We've been lucky. There's practically no wind in Singapore, just a slight breeze maybe, if you're near the beach.

When we say windy in Idaho, we're talking 40 miles per hour winds. That's 10 times the wind speed in SG. And that's not the max we have experienced. The husband, working on ground, outdoors, told me there's been 40 knots wind speeds before. Equivalent to 20 miles per second.

When we first arrived, and started shopping for our furniture and stuff, piling stuffs on our supermarket trolleys, I remembered how our boxes flew off in the wind. The entire plastic box practically flew out of our trolleys, over the cars in the carpark, and almost hit a woman. We were chasing after it. And it was very cold then. I wonder how this winter is going to be, I can feel it coming already. The summer heat has gone, and the wintry breeze is back.

I hope I have the strength to go through this winter, which I can feel its gonna be much worst than what I have went through earlier this year. Especially this time, with the husband going to be away for 3 weeks this time. Sigh. I will be strong.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Recipe: Easy Peasy Dijon Mustard Chicken that even 5 year olds can do!

This must be the easiest marinade I've ever mixed up for chicken! I bought a bottle of Dijon Mustard after watching Gordon Ramsay's Hell's Kitchen.  There was one episode where he questioned the Chef's what were the 5 mother sauces. In my head, I was thinking, Oyster sauce? That's like one of the sauces I use every meal! And maybe soy sauce? What about Hoisin Sauce? I was horribly wrong. They were naming things like tomato sauce, mayonnaise, dijon mustard, and so on. I've heard of mustard, but I can't comprehend how is it a mother sauce, so the next day, when we went out grocery shopping, I bought one home to taste and try cooking with it.

I searched for recipes but I realise I kept lacking some ingredients, like herbs and spices and stuff. I like to cook simple and easy and fast. Minimal effort, maximum taste. Of course cooking can never be "little" effort. I like flavours in my dishes, without having tons of things to complicate the palate. I swapped out the ingredients of recipes I found on online, and I think this one is a keeper! The husband loves it. =)

Recipe: Easy Peasy Dijon Mustard Chicken
Ingredients:
3 chicken drumstick
1 egg white
3 tablespoons of Dijon Mustard
a drizzle of honey


1. Mix the Dijon mustard with the egg white until smooth. Marinate chicken with mustard egg mix. Make sure marinate goes under the chicken skin as well, if you're leaving the skin on. Leave 2 hours to overnight.

2. Preheat oven to 395F. Place chicken on a tray. Reserving the marinate. I like to line my trays with aluminum foil, so its easy to clear up. Set timer to 10 mins.

3. Drizzle honey over the remaining marinate, whisk until smooth and set aside. Once timer is up, take chicken out of oven, and flip it over, and brush with honeyed marinate, put back into over. Set timer for 10 mins. Repeat this for 4 times, or until chicken is well cooked.

Your kitchen is gonna smell good, and you're gonna love biting into it. This will change your view of yucky mustards, if you hated the taste like I did before! As for now, I'm gonna keep finding new recipes for my new bottle of Dijon!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Sweet punishment.

So my body has been lucky to get away from being worked out for the entire roadtrip, and i've been lazing since I came back. Feeling the need to build some muscles and start sweating abit, i decided to go to my favourite blog for some inspiration. I needed an easier workout. My body has been resting since the 5th of this month. After browsing thru her archives, I thought the Sweet Punishment workout would be an easier one, using body weights only, and they seem enough for me to do.

Well, WHAT DO I KNOW? I breezed through the first part pretty easy. 4 minutes interval training, backward jump lunge? No problem! I did 11, 9, 10, 10, 10, 8 on the 6 intervals of 30 seconds with 10 seconds in between.

The 2nd part LOOKED easy. I haven't worked up to doing full push ups yet, so I did the push ups on my knees. I tried bringing my knees to my elbows but it just won't work. So I did 10 push ups. Next, was 30 reps of One jump forward, and 2 jump back. The first 20 reps were easy. But when u reach the 25th to 28th, you can feel your sweat dripping and your breath running out. I did manage to complete it though. When it came to the side crunch, I could do it alright on my ride side, but I had a hard time getting up on my left side, and I have no idea why. After about 7 side crunch on the left its almost like jabbing my side with a knife. I did push on to the end to finish 20 on each side.

Well, that was for the 1st round of 3 rounds. 2nd round, knowing the exercises already was easy. I did the normal on the knees push ups, followed by 30 jump forward and 2 jump back. Did 20 crunch on my right, but by the time I came to my left side, I'm exhausted. I did like 7 times, and gave up. I'm still very weak.
I still need time to work my body up to tougher routines, shouldn't have let my muscles rested for so long. But then again, I didn't want to be obsessive with exercising. I wanted to enjoy it, while building up my health. I believe that's the right way to do.

My timing for the 2 rounds was 12 minutes and 13 seconds. Weak!!! But at least I attempted it! I will work on it though. And hopefully come back to a better score in the future.

I finished off my workout today, with some free weights exercise. Working on giving my arms alittle more tone, and strength, so I can enjoy my housework, without feel the aches. LOL. You'll be surprised how alittle exercise can help you breeze through the day to day much easily.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Recipe: Sweet corn with Pork soup

I have no idea what's the correct name for this soup, but I do know that this soup is what his mum always cooks when we were back in SG. The husband has been missing home quite a bit, and he's been slightly under stress, so I want to replicate something that he might be missing from home, to make him feel slightly better. It sure did turn out great, and he loved it. Drinking this soup made me think of family too. I miss mum & dad alot.

Recipe: Sweet corn with Pork soup (serves 3)


Pork ribs / loin, cut into bite size pieces ( i used 3 pieces of pork steaks here, we're huge carnivores)

1 corn cut into 3 pieces

2 dates

2 carrots peeled and sliced thickly.

1. Boil enough water to cover all the pork. Pour the pork in when its boiling, leave for 15 mins. There should be alot of scum and oil on the surface. Remove from heat and rinse with water.
2. Refill the water to desired soup amount, ard 2 litres, at medium heat, and let it go to a boil.
3. Add in corn and dates, and put to low heat. Set timer for2 hours.
4. Add in carrots and set timer for another 1 hour.Season with salt to taste.
5. Soup is now ready to be enjoyed.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Recipe: Easy & Yummy Teriyaki Chicken

There's only a couple of Chinese restaurants in this little small town that we live in. And even so, the food never ever tastes like what we eat back home. As what they always say, home cooked food is always still the best. When we used to live in Aaron's parents place, they had a maid who would cook the meals everyday, and we were lucky enough to enjoy his mum's yummy recipes everyday.

I never knew how to cook, or how dishes were created. When I started working and preparing towards our wedding, my hours and location at work, forced me to pack my own food to work. It was costly to eat in town, and the food were prepared pretty unhygenically. There were rats and insects all over.

Being here now in USA, we really miss the convenience of the hawker foods. I have to cook our meals, as it takes a 20 minute drive out to get proper food. Every week day, I cook to pack food for my husband's lunch/dinner box, for him to bring to work. I know how hard he's been working, and how tired he is everyday, and I prepare every meal with love hoping it will make him feel better with the yummy food that he puts in his mouth.

Today's lunch box consists of Teriyaki Chicken and Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce.

The Teriyaki Chicken recipe is adapted from:
I have tried several recipes from here and they're all great and easy to cook.. Will update with pictures as I go along.

Recipe: Teriyaki Chicken

1 chicken thigh (you can choose to debone it, but I left the bones on.)
2 tablespoon mirin
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
drizzle of cooking oil

1. Marinate the chicken in mirin, soy sauce, and sugar for 30 mins.
2. Drain, reserve the marinate.
3. Cook the chicken in cooking oil skin side down. When browned, turn and cook the other side.
4. Add 3 tablespoon of water to the reserved marinate, and pour over chicken. Cover and simmer until cooked through. ( about 15 mins)
5. Remove cover, raise the heat until sauce is reduced to a glaze.

You may choose to slice it now, or if you're rough like me, serve it as the whole thigh, and bite into it like a carnivore. ;)

This recipe is only for 1 chicken thigh. I usually cook 1 thigh for each person, so just multiply all ingredients with the number of people eating. The guys pretty liked the chicken I cooked the last time, and I'm sure they'll enjoy it again today.

I apologise for the lousy food presentation, but I only remembered to take a photo of it after packing it into his pyrex containers. I'll try to improve on the presentation part. But its still yummy! ;)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Great shopping haul for the kitchen!

I had an amazing kitchen shopping haul this time. The friends were commenting on how funny it is that I traveled hundreds of miles to buy kitchenware to cook. They were loading up on branded clothes at the factory outlets.


Here's what I got:
- Japanese egg cooking pan
- Food scale ( I couldn't get one in the entire Mountain Home, and boy am I glad to get it on this trip, finally I can start baking!)
- steamer pan
- egg molds
- donburi pan
- knife/ scissors sharperner

These may seem like minute items, but they add up to big scale differences in my kitchen... Will try to take some pics to show you how they look like. I'm actually pretty psyched and crazy about using them already! ;)

Saturday, August 7, 2010

San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, & Vegas! I'm coming!

Yes, my prayers have been answered, and we're heading out on another roadtrip tomorrow to the city of hills, city of angels, and the booze city!!! ;)

I mentioned in my earlier post I loved Vegas so so much, and that I can't wait to go back there. This time, we're only staying for 2 nights, its a stopover from our long road trip through California. Finally get to explore another state.. I'm really quite excited about it..

I've packed all my cameras, my tripods, my extra batteries and chargers, and my netbook to backup all my photos. Definitely will be updating here with loadsa beautiful pics and sharing with u my itinerary for the trip. I will try to share a few of the other itineraries we have tried before, and show you some places we have visited in the USA, so you might want to take note and drop by those areas when you come over.

As for now, my heart is racing, I've seen so many pictures of San Francisco and I love the architecture and I'm excited about visiting the Chinatowns in all the cities we are going. The state where I am from, has no Chinatown, only a few Asian stores that sells Vietnamese stuff. Its hard to cook with these ingredients as they don't really give you the Singaporean taste that we miss so much.

Also, I read there's Japan Town in SF, and there's a Daiso there! Like, I'm crazy about Daiso in SG, why would I not be crazy about the Daiso in SF! Especially when I've been cooking for awhile and realise I should have bought "that" item when I was still in SG that time! I sure hope the guys give me some time to walk through Daiso so I don't make that 12 hour drive there wasted. After all, having good cooking utensils, means I can cook good food for them. Heh. ;)

Will be back with pics and fun updates! Meanwhile, keep exercising! I haven't worked out these 2 days, but did plenty of walking to the bank and groceries. ;)

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Exercise updates.

Did Shaun T's Insanity - Cardio Resistance today. & Some weight training with my newer 5 lbs weights. Its still a little tough on my muscles adjusting to my new weights, but I'm loving that my arms are looking a little tigher now. ;)

Have u been working out?

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

What to expect from this blog?

I've been reflecting on myself, since we came to the US, I've made alot of changes to myself, my lifestyle, my interests, my character.

What I never used to do, never used to take note of, never spared a thought on, has currently taken over me, and I've been working on all of them constantly.

I'm currently a housewife, moved to USA with my husband, and will be here for 2 more years. We have no kids yet, and with so much time currently in my hands, I was able to explore different interests and learn new stuff.

Currently I'm into:
-Trading -  Thanks to Dad.

I've been into it for sometime now.  Its the most challenging and difficult to learn, yet, its also the most rewarding. I own alot of books on trading, and as I read and improve on my own skills, I hope to be able to share them on this blog too.

-Cooking & Baking - Thanks to hubby.

As a housewife, having my hubby to be out working hard all day, in a place with 4 seasons. Seeing my husband going to work everyday and taking a beating from the weather, while freezing in winter, and sunburnt in summer, has made me want to reward him every single day that I'm able to. I guess food is the #1 way to reward a tired man. I wanted to be able to cook with love, and fill his stomach with food that we miss from back home. Of cuz, food is also the key to a man's heart. ;) As Asians living in the USA, we're not able to get Singapore food as easily as back home, and I have been studying recipes and trial-ing and erroring both our mummy's recipes, & if u're keen on learning how those hawker food were cooked, or if u're like me, living abroad, and want to learn how to please your tastebuds, the recipes with photos will be coming up soon!

-Traveling - Thanks to my parents & my husband

Since young, my parents always used my grades as a gauge to where I would go on my holiday. The more 'A's I got, the higher the budget for my holiday. It got me excited about scoring well, to get out to have fun. Traveling was always exciting, you get to see different culture, different living standards, you actually experience alot and grow from there. While hubs and me were dating, we travelled a little bit to nearby countries and each experience was different. We enjoyed exploring different places together, and till now, we're still doing that. Its evident in our road trips to our nearby states. And we've only been here for half a year. I can only imagine more travelling to come our way.

-Photography. This is really thanks to Glen.

I used to be crazy about photos and I always believed photos are the best memories of special moments in life. I've kept most of our dating photos since 8 years ago till now, and we're still adding on to our collection. Since young, I've always loved what Mother Nature has to offer us, and I love beautiful scenery and animals, and insects and all the living things in this world. I would take photos of them with my cheapo compact cameras and never thought of going for higher end cameras for fear of not having the knowledge to use them. Thanks to Glen, his passion, and him sharing his knowledge with me, pushed me to get myself a Lumix FZ-35, a super zoom, that hopefully will allow me to take great pics of landscape and nature, for me to share with u guys.

Fitness - Thanks to USA, for having such high elevations compared to Singapore, and causing my chest pains.

I first started exercising in winter, to keep myself warm, cuz I needed to sweat. 2ndly, when we first drove down to Utah. where the elevation was higher, and it was winter, I had trouble walking to our car in the car park. I had terrible chest pains and I was breathless from just walking. I had to hold on to hubs to stable myself. Since then, I've pushed myself, telling myself I don't want to go back there, and I want to enjoy this journey with hubs as far as we can.

-Marriage, Love, & relationships - Thanks to hubs and people around me.

You can still call me a newly-wed (at least that's how I feel!), even though I'm almost approaching my 1 year anniversary. I enjoy reading self improvement books, and I believe in making changes to improve oneself. Therefore, you can expect alot of self reflection, and alot of thoughts on life. Jotting out my thoughts and thinking through them allows me to reflect on myself, and thus, improve myself to become a better person to my hubby, my family, buddies, and the people around me.  You'll get tips on being a loving wife, housework short cuts, and much more!

I love sharing, and I love jotting the little bits of info every now and then, so that I can come back to them in the future and go thru them again.

Would you enjoy these topics? Or am I too boring for u? What would u like to see posted here?

3 weeks without alcohol...

We've been here for quite awhile now. 7 months passed, and I must say, this place is still as boring as it is, the only difference is, the company you have with you.

Its true that being in the USA, where alcohol is cheap and no "kopitiams" around, the tendency to end the day with a bottle in hand on the sofa is often very tempting.

By cheap alcohol, I'm talking about maybe 50 cents a can of beer here? Its about the same price with coca cola back home in SG. Here being mostly surrounded by hubby's friends, all beer loving guys, its inevitable that myself, would start frequently drinking too.

I started drinking alot when we just came back on our last trip from Vegas. I drank alot at Vegas, there was hardly a moment after 1pm I was sober. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. And since that trip, I was drinking and buying alcohol every few days. I would drink everyday, some light cocktails which I bought for $3 for 4 bottles. They tasted great, made me feel happy. I called them my happy juice.

The furthest I ever gone was 2 days without it, and I would make up those 2 days with drinking extra bottles of BJ. That's the brand of my favorite alcohol drink here. I sometimes would go up to 4 bottles a day. get quite high and happy, thinking that it was helping me to get to bed.

However, drinking that amount, also made me wake up in the middle of the night, needing to pee. While it never gave me hangovers, it made me wake up the next day with slight aches in the body. I know alcohol isn't good for me, but I thought that it was good to help me doze in bed faster, and it kept me feeling happy!

With my recent craze in health and exercise, I've been reading up alot, and trying to get active in my lifestyle. It started when 3 weeks ago, I started doing my exercises more frequently, about 4 days a week, and I read that drinking alcohol would hinder muscle development. That would make all my exercising put to waste. And if I drank, it would make the next day terrible for me to exercise, since I would be aching. So I put aside the drinks and tried to go as far as I could without it.

So here I am, at week 3 and I know I'll be breaking the rules shortly, like this weekend, where I will be on my road trip cum vacation, which I will not be exercising, and will be stuffing my face with delicious food. And will end up at Vegas on the last day of the trip, where the casinos serve Cosmo on the rocks for $1. Something I can't avoid.

I'm not a strict diet person, I'm thinking of going for more nutrition in my food choices and all, but I'm someone who enjoys her food and choclates, and I will never go on a diet to starve myself. I eat about 5 meals a day, get a bloated tummy, but i still love myself & my body.

Hopefully this vacation I will still manage to get some "active" in. I know i will be taking alot of great photos and those "lunges" and "squats" to get those great shots, should help my bum somehow. ;)

Update: Did not exercise since Sunday, which I've been feeling guilty about. But I will definately push myself to workout tomorrow to clock some for this week before I leave for the trip.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Exercise updates.

Sunday:

10 mins warm up on stationary bicycle.
20 mins on elliptical level 3 whole body workout
25 mins on treadmill. with 2 mins jogging interval (4.5 mph) and 1 minute walking(3.5 mph).

Felt great and wonderful. Finally managed to start jogging on the treadmill... Sweat buckets and felt amazing. Love the energizing feeling.

Exercise updates.

Thurs morning: Yoga Meltdown (30 mins)

Friday morning: Yoga Meltdown (30 mins)
Afternoon: No More Trouble Zones
Followed by: 11/24 rounds of Fat Ass Burn off Workout by Bodyrock.tv.

Evening: 20 mins stationary bike.
10 mins treadmill 4.5 difficulty.
20 mins total body on elliptical.

Sat:
Morning: Yoga Meltdown. (30 mins)